The babes – that would be Hannah and myself (major babes, you must admit) , the tubes- big black rubber tubes zipping down icy slopes at record speed at the Nashoba Valley Ski Area (http://www.skinashoba.com/photo_uploads/14/new_lanes.jpg ) – tremendous fun!! I had been a little hesitant at first to go – at first sight the pictures on the web site did not look too exciting, the lanes a little too flat, but boy was I wrong. Up close and personal the lanes looked much steeper, and with the chilly winds swirling about, there was some good speed going on. I was a little miffed initially, since I prefer to use the tubes on my stomach, grab the two handles for steering and then use the feet for brakes. Alas, the Nashoba folks do not allow belly surfing, so one has to sit in the tube upright – which means that the first two runs you are pretty much swirled about and go down the hill backwards and at any given moment are in danger to become airborne. By about 3 PM Hannah and I had perfected the art of going down the slope facing forward and using our innovative leaning technique to give quite a graceful performance. Nashoba Valley, if you must know, is the ski area closest to Boston, just about a 30 minute drive, and just a wee bit outside of Concord.
I am enjoying this long weekend (Monday is President’s Day and we are off work) - so nice to be able to sleep in on Monday. It has been a busy week, with many culinary excursions, due to birthdays, V-Day and much-needed quality time with friends. This week of food commenced on Tuesday with a birthday lunch for both Darrell and Susan (my lab colleagues) at Artu, an Italian eatery in Boston’s Beacon Hill. One of Charles Streets’ cozy downstairs establishments, it provides Italian cuisine at a reasonable price. Next time though, I should not order a dish with an Italian name I don’t recognize and where I have no idea of what I just ordered. Inadvertently I had ordered in a wine sauce mussels (shellfish is a no-no these days), but the wait staff was nice enough to bring a replacement dish.
Tuesday night was the culinary highlight of the week, I must say – dinner at Eastern Standard - http://www.easternstandardboston.com/ - quite a classy establishment located at Kenmore Square immediately adjacent to the very posh Hotel Commonwealth. It certainly is a wonderful experience to dine there. Accompanied by a little bubbly named Cristalino Brut Cava from Penedes, Spain, I chose the Tuesday night special “Veal Schnitzel with Spaetzle, Artichockes and Spinach” (the Spaetzle may have swayed my decision a bit there….) and ended the evening with a “Washington Style Toddy”. Apparently this particular style toddy was cherished by none other than our friend George Washington and I have to give the man credit! Very tasty stuff!! For my EU friends, here is how a toddy is made: a hot beverage, such as tea, coffee, or cocoa (in this case hot apple cider) is mixed with alcohol (brandy, rum or whiskey) plus some sugar, honey or syrup. Some people go as far as to add cinnamon, cloves, lemon, butter, or as Wikipedia states, pain killers. The web site also says that “hot toddies are traditionally drunk before going to bed, or in wet and cold weather. They were believed to help cure the cold and flu, but the American Lung Association now recommends avoiding treating the common cold with alcoholic beverages as they have no curative effect and cause dehydration.” Darn!
Well Thursday was V-Day, and my friend Andrew and I decided to do something very un-sappy and go see a horror movie. I had gotten free passes to an advance screening of a flick called “The Signal” – easy plot – secret signals are coming through the TV, radio and God knows what, and all of a sudden people start killing each other. Anyway, as tempting as that sounded, we did not get to see the free movie, since the snow storm the day before delayed the shipment of the print. We decided to watch a movie anyway and opted for the critically praised “In Bruges”. This movie is outrageous – completely surreal, absolutely politically incorrect (everybody gets it), a bit violent on occasion, but hysterically funny. If you liked Pulp Fiction, you are going to love this one. And in plays in Belgium!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Bruges) Dinner that night was consumed at the Cambridge Brewing Company (http://www.cambrew.com/) which was very delicious and mercifully un-valentine-y.
The weekend started off with a visit to the New England Aquarium at Boston Harbor yesterday, which I thought may have not been the best idea on a holiday weekend preceding a school-free week, and to be honest, it was a tad crowded, but I think I picked a decent time to attend and actually enjoyed myself quite nicely there despite six million kids. I was absolutely mesmerized by the penguins and would have been quite happy just hanging out there for a couple of hours. (http://www.neaq.org/)
The afternoon was spent at home cooking up a storm with the ingredients of my veggie box, and in the evening I joined the German language group at the Irish pub Asgard on Mass Ave (http://www.classicirish.com/asgard_about.html), always a nice outing.
All that tubing today made me pleasantly tired, and so I will now head over to my couch, attempting to make a dent in the pile of 20 movies I have not yet watched. The Third Season of MI-5 awaits!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooks ) .
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Pet
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