Time was I wouldn’t be caught dead at work on my birthday. The crushing reality that I am not the center of the universe – not even on my birthday – was usually too much to bear. I found it safer to stay at home. I could avoid emotional peril and just dig the moment among people who could dote on me as prescribed (by me).
But now that I’m 31 (since yesterday), I think I reached a point where
birthdays aren’t as wrought with sheer terror at the thought that
someone will be mean to me. After all, you make your own positive attitude. Others can try to destroy it, but you have to keep your spirits up in spite of your and others’ insecurities.
All this is to say that I had a fantastic birthday. There was a gift waiting for me when I awoke (a copy of Augusten Burrough’s latest book, Possible Side Effects). When I got to work I had several emails, a card on my desk, and then more and more emails came throughout the day.
I skipped lunch because I was going to dinner at Green Street Cafe in Northampton. The reputation of Green Street is such that one is likely to be very disappointed if things aren’t completely perfect. Like if the busboy looks at you funny, the place is overrun with snooty Smith professors or the waitress ignores you. Thank goodness none of these things were true.
The whole place is understated, right down to the laissez faire approach of the waitstaff. You could probably take off your shoes or loosen your pants after the main course and they probably wouldn’t care. The decor is pure New England antique. Rustic. Dark. The walls in the backroom are painted dark blue, while the front room is a deep aubergine. The furniture looks like it came from a very expensive flea market. Think Haymarket without the stinky smell of potstickers.
We were quickly served our water and bread while we perused the handwritten menu.
I will finish this later. Lunch hour is over. Stay tuned.
i wanted to go to this event, but I decided against it on account of not wanting to overspend this weekend. I know I could have gone without actually bowling, but who goes to a bowling alley just to watch other people bowl? And did anyone know that bowling is very expensive now? So, I’m not going. I apologize to the person who invited me.
I would like to report, however, that we had two very delicee-o-so meals this weekend already. The first was the Munich Haus in Chicopee. What’s that, you say? You never thought I would go to Chicopee on purpose? Well, I did. The Munich Haus, despite its frightful yellow awning, is a lovely place to eat German food, if you like that sort of thing. Which I do. I splurged with the combo platter. It included the Jaeger Schnitzel, Rahm Schnitzel and Paprika Schnitzel and there is plenty for leftovers tonight.
Our second delicious meal was our late lunch today at Baku’s African Restaurant in Amherst. Cheap and tasty. I had the chicken curry with rice, plaintains and collard greens. All for $6.
For the past three years that I have lived in the falls, I always wanted to go around and take pictures of the sights. Yesterday was a nice day, so I took the opportunity. I can’t say I’ll miss it, but the neighborhood has a lot going for it, if you are into churches, firehouses and breakfast places and that sort of thing. Pretty much the only place I’ll miss is the laundromat. The glare from sun pretty much obliterates it from the sign, but it’s called Suds Your Duds.
More after the jump
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I keep telling you how awesome moshi moshi is. maybe one day you will start to believe it. On Saturday night, four of us headed there for some sushi and had to wait for a table! The apologies were profuse, but I was ecstatic. I don’t mind waiting if it means that moshi can bring in lots of money and stay in business forever. On top of that, Brittnie’s outfit even matched the walls on the second floor. that’s the icing on the cake right there.
I´ve been tagged by Ms. Xanth:
Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
Short-order cook (although not at the Colebrook location but the Palmyra one)
Bindery operator at a printing company
Student organizer
Selling credit cards for MBNA (for exactly two weeks)
Four movies I could watch over and over:
Wings of Desire
Terms of Endearment
Die Hard (the first one)
Magnolia
Four places I have lived:
Not too many… Palmyra, PA
State College, PA
Boston for a month – does that even count?
Western Mass
Four TV shows I love to watch: The Office
Project Runway
The Daily Show
pretty much any crap on MTV. I’m not discerning.
Four places I have been on vacation:
Iceland (yay!)
Northern California
Denver and Aspen, Colorado
The Jersey Shore, baby
Four websites I visit daily:
MassLive.com (seriously)
TIRH
largeheartedboy
CNN.com
Four of my favorite foods
sushi
ice cream
I am currently in love with oatmeal made with milk, honey and cinnamon on the stovetop–huzzah
i had the most incredible meal ever at a czech restaurant in astoria–chicken paprikash
Four places I would rather be right now:
Iceland
grandma’s house
on the couch with my kitties
I think that’s it
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Kelsey Frost who probably has no time, but oh well.
Knitgirl, the coolest mail carrier ever
Gwyn, who kidnapped Pat for a few days
Kath-leen and her new pair of boobies
I´ve been tagged by Ms. Xanth:
Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
Short-order cook (although not at the Colebrook location but the Palmyra one)
Bindery operator at a printing company
Student organizer
Selling credit cards for MBNA (for exactly two weeks)
Four movies I could watch over and over:
Wings of Desire
Terms of Endearment
Die Hard (the first one)
Magnolia
Four places I have lived:
Not too many… Palmyra, PA
State College, PA
Boston for a month – does that even count?
Western Mass
Four TV shows I love to watch: The Office
Project Runway
The Daily Show
pretty much any crap on MTV. I’m not discerning.
Four places I have been on vacation:
Iceland (yay!)
Northern California
Denver and Aspen, Colorado
The Jersey Shore, baby
Four websites I visit daily:
MassLive.com (seriously)
TIRH
largeheartedboy
CNN.com
Four of my favorite foods
sushi
ice cream
I am currently in love with oatmeal made with milk, honey and cinnamon on the stovetop–huzzah
i had the most incredible meal ever at a czech restaurant in astoria–chicken paprikash
Four places I would rather be right now:
Iceland
grandma’s house
on the couch with my kitties
I think that’s it
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Kelsey Frost who probably has no time, but oh well.
Knitgirl, the coolest mail carrier ever
Gwyn, who kidnapped Pat for a few days
Kath-leen and her new pair of boobies
This weekend made me tired, albeit a fun tired.
Saturday morning I baked the almond cookies (nee almond crescent cookies) for my party that afternoon. I think they turned out well, although I haven’t really eaten any of them, except for the batter (irresistible, and goes great with coffee). When I got to the Great Cookie Swap of 2005 there was other yummy savory food. For instance flaky baked brie with chutney. And the tea. Very delicious and sophisticated.
It wasn’t until Sunday when my otherwise sweets-denying defenses were down. At a superb brunch prepared in honor of a friend’s birthday I did have some of the cookies, which were making the rounds. In addition, our brunch hostess had just baked fresh blueberry scones and an Irish friend o’ mine brought Clotted Cream, which is best served on top of fresh scones. Upon smelling it in the jar I could be heard proclaiming, “it smells like fat!” which is to say it smelled incredibly delicious (and it was, as were the scones).
We also dined on a lovely quiche and drank mimosas with fresh squeezed oranges (thank you, Northampton schools fundraiser). I also provided the salmon, cream cheese, capers, onions and bagels, a somewhat out-of-place, but otherwise yummy snack.
Back to the Great Cookie Swap of 2005. I have proclaimed my favorite cookie to be Jennifer Myszkowski’s chocolate (with white stuff on top) cookies, with Boyle’s gingerbread cookies a close second. Jennifer Adams’ Norwegian Flower Cookies were also delicious, and in actual fact all of the ladies did such a great job that it’s unfair to even proclaim a winner, since it wasn’t about a contest or anything. Plus, I don’t like coconut, so I couldn’t even try duffy’s cookies. I’m just telling you what I liked, I guess. That’s me. Telling it like it is.
As for Saturday night. If you saw me at Bar 19 and I acted a fool, please see my third glass of wine for an explanation.
Photo courtesy Adams.
Yesterday afternoon I tested out a cookie recipe. I am invited to a cookie swap on Saturday, so I want to make sure they will turn out perfectly.
Here are my Almond crescent (more or less) cookies.
The problem is that I am not good at making the crescent shape. They ended up looking like, well, something that is not a crescent. But boy are they delicious. My mom used to make pecan crescents, but I think the almond is a much tastier choice. I am not really partaking of the sugar these days, but I did try two (one without the confectioners’ sugar on top and one with) and they were spectacular*. If you see me coming with a batch of these, you should try them. *DISCLAIMER: I do not bake, so anything that turns out tasty is spectacular to me. I am not trying to oversell these things.
I went through a very cool video production training over the weekend, which has now turned me into a techie in the worst way possible. It’s so bad that when I picked up a new coffee maker at the mall last night (my other one pooped out on Saturday morning) I walked through Best Buy and proceeded to make the employee attending to the video cameras seem really dumb by asking questions he couldn’t answer. If he has any brains in him, he’ll read up on the product he’s supposed to be selling. So it’s possible that in the long run I have helped him perform his job better.
Part of me does this kind of stuff because I am a woman and I think it catches electronics salespeople, especially men, off guard who may look at me and think I wouldn’t know what I was talking about. I admit to a big chip on my shoulder about that, with this sport being the way to satisfy it.
And it’s not like I know tons of stuff, which is all the more reason to berate these people for not knowing the basics of their products. See? I am helping.
Oh and look at my coffeemaker! It’s so cute (and I got it way cheaper at Target).
This Friday, February 13, anybody who is anybody will be at Bishop’s Lounge, celebrating TIRH M. turning the illustrious age of 40. You should come, too. 9pm. Woot Woot!
Special instructions: go to the back room. Snag it for us. Help us take it over. That place can get pretty crowded.
Thanks.
daily life, food and drink, western mass | sighclub June 29, 2006 | 
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