Pleasant Monday evening, and an annoying Tuesday

Carrie Root (WINOLJ) is in town for a few days, combining a business trip with visiting her son (who, it turns out, lives only a few blocks from us). She had yesterday free, and arranged to meet Lise for lunch and the Museum of Natural History, and then me and roadnotes for dinner. When we were sorting out dinner plans Sunday evening, she mentioned the museum, and cattitude, unsurprisingly, was interested. So I handed him the phone, they sorted out a place and time to meet, and told Lise.

I found out, when we rendezvous'd yesterday early evening, that Lise hadn't made it, but that Andy and Carrie (who had not previously met) had had a wonderful time together. They, Roadnotes, and I then had a pleasant dinner at Trattoria Spaghetto--good pasta and good conversation, after which Roadnotes headed back to Brooklyn, and Andy, Carrie, and I went to La Lanterna, for pastry and conversation. I dithered at some length about what to get, before Carrie reminded me that the menu includes cheesecake, and I remembered how much I'd liked the pumpkin-and-cognac cheesecake on my previous visit. It remained delightful, as was the conversation. Carrie seemed glad not only to see us, but to have people to help her find her way around the less obvious parts of Manhattan (Inwood qualifies). We walked her to Harlan's door, then went down Park Terrace West. On 218th Street, I failed to smell lilacs (a daytime flower), but managed to stick my nose into someone's garden and get deep drafts of lily of the valley. Ahhh!

The annoyances today were a string of little things, rather than something major being wrong: I woke up too early; was almost at the subway when I saw that the comfortable shirt I'd pulled out of the closet has a stain front and center (and with the current commute, going back wouldn't just mean being ten minutes late, more like an hour and extra expense); realized shortly after arriving at work that I'd forgotten to take my pills before leaving the house (fortunately, I have a handy little traveling pillbox, so that was mostly a matter of calling cattitude to double-check; and some irritating miscommunication with my supervisor. So I decided to take a walk at lunchtime, even though I'd brought a sandwich; as a result, I can report that kappa maki goes quite well with whitefish salad on rye bread.

On the positive side of the day, I saw a dragonfly hovering over the lawn (in Port Jefferson) when I stepped outside to call Cattitude, and some goslings on the edge of Manhasset Bay on the way to the train after work.

Pleasant Monday evening, and an annoying Tuesday

Carrie Root (WINOLJ) is in town for a few days, combining a business trip with visiting her son (who, it turns out, lives only a few blocks from us). She had yesterday free, and arranged to meet Lise for lunch and the Museum of Natural History, and then me and roadnotes for dinner. When we were sorting out dinner plans Sunday evening, she mentioned the museum, and cattitude, unsurprisingly, was interested. So I handed him the phone, they sorted out a place and time to meet, and told Lise.

I found out, when we rendezvous'd yesterday early evening, that Lise hadn't made it, but that Andy and Carrie (who had not previously met) had had a wonderful time together. They, Roadnotes, and I then had a pleasant dinner at Trattoria Spaghetto--good pasta and good conversation, after which Roadnotes headed back to Brooklyn, and Andy, Carrie, and I went to La Lanterna, for pastry and conversation. I dithered at some length about what to get, before Carrie reminded me that the menu includes cheesecake, and I remembered how much I'd liked the pumpkin-and-cognac cheesecake on my previous visit. It remained delightful, as was the conversation. Carrie seemed glad not only to see us, but to have people to help her find her way around the less obvious parts of Manhattan (Inwood qualifies). We walked her to Harlan's door, then went down Park Terrace West. On 218th Street, I failed to smell lilacs (a daytime flower), but managed to stick my nose into someone's garden and get deep drafts of lily of the valley. Ahhh!

The annoyances today were a string of little things, rather than something major being wrong: I woke up too early; was almost at the subway when I saw that the comfortable shirt I'd pulled out of the closet has a stain front and center (and with the current commute, going back wouldn't just mean being ten minutes late, more like an hour and extra expense); realized shortly after arriving at work that I'd forgotten to take my pills before leaving the house (fortunately, I have a handy little traveling pillbox, so that was mostly a matter of calling cattitude to double-check; and some irritating miscommunication with my supervisor. So I decided to take a walk at lunchtime, even though I'd brought a sandwich; as a result, I can report that kappa maki goes quite well with whitefish salad on rye bread.

On the positive side of the day, I saw a dragonfly hovering over the lawn (in Port Jefferson) when I stepped outside to call Cattitude, and some goslings on the edge of Manhasset Bay on the way to the train after work.