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It's 1 January, so I'm in Montreal.
We had an excellent New Year's Eve dinner:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
papersky roasted a goose that came out particularly well this time. Also nut roast, cabbage, Danish vegetables, roast mushrooms: what by now feels like the traditional meal to me as well as to her, zorinth, and rysmiel. For a starter she gave us three different kinds of roast pork and some raisins. For afterward, a cheese course, then Christmas pudding and raspberry clafouti.
After dinner, we read to each other, and found room for chocolates as the evening went on. The readings included a trio of twilight-themed stories by Papersky, a variety of beginnings and excerpts from longer things, an odd story on bilingualism [I had to ask Rene to slow down, because I can't follow French at his normal speaking speed], and I did Le Guin's "Schrödinger's Cat" and Kipling's "Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo."
"We" this year also includedhobbitbabe and Rene who I don't think is on LJ.
I talked tocattitude and to adrian_turtle's voice mail shortly after midnight, and have caught up with her by email.
The Biodome was excellent on the 30th, with new monkeys (both a baby of one species and a new-to-there species), extremely bouncy golden lion tamarins, and a visible penguin chick.
Addendum: Papersky pointed out guinea hen (which I had some of in pate a day or two ago) as a new food I'd mentioned, and I am now trying to remember whether I'd had caribou before (another pate, this one with cranberry, which I like but my hosts don't, so I may have to finish it before I leave).
I didn't try as many new foods in 2006 as in 2005: what I'm sure of is celeriac root, fromlinetoinfinity's farmshare box, and birch juice, courtesy of jonsinger, though he wasn't here when we opened it. The celeriac didn't appeal particularly; the birch juice was nice, but I agree with papersky that it's oversweetened, or at least "CMAK" (that's Cyrillic, pronounced "Smack") brand is. Jon, are you aware of other brands, or do I need to poke around Eastern European import shops on my own? (I'd been going to say Russian, but the company is actually Ukrainian, on the evidence of their postal address and URL.)
Rysmiel and I tried going out for ice cream yesterday afternoon, but Maple Delight had closed by the time we arrived; it's a change from turning up on 2 January, because we now know they're closed then. Fortunately, Suite 88 was still open when we got there, though the woman warned us they'd be closing in 20 minutes. They had no gelati out, but the intense hot chocolate was fine, as was Rysmiel's gateau.
It continues unseasonably mild, but snow had fallen by the time I arrived, so it looked like winter in a way New York hadn't by the time I'd left. (Nor, I gather, had Montreal until a day or two earlier.) I've mostly been wearing my sneakers, because they're better for me to walk distances in, rather than my boots (there's only a few centimeters of snow, and not enough slush that I can't step around the puddles).
We had an excellent New Year's Eve dinner:
papersky roasted a goose that came out particularly well this time. Also nut roast, cabbage, Danish vegetables, roast mushrooms: what by now feels like the traditional meal to me as well as to her, zorinth, and rysmiel. For a starter she gave us three different kinds of roast pork and some raisins. For afterward, a cheese course, then Christmas pudding and raspberry clafouti.After dinner, we read to each other, and found room for chocolates as the evening went on. The readings included a trio of twilight-themed stories by Papersky, a variety of beginnings and excerpts from longer things, an odd story on bilingualism [I had to ask Rene to slow down, because I can't follow French at his normal speaking speed], and I did Le Guin's "Schrödinger's Cat" and Kipling's "Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo."
"We" this year also included
hobbitbabe and Rene who I don't think is on LJ.I talked to
cattitude and to adrian_turtle's voice mail shortly after midnight, and have caught up with her by email.The Biodome was excellent on the 30th, with new monkeys (both a baby of one species and a new-to-there species), extremely bouncy golden lion tamarins, and a visible penguin chick.
Addendum: Papersky pointed out guinea hen (which I had some of in pate a day or two ago) as a new food I'd mentioned, and I am now trying to remember whether I'd had caribou before (another pate, this one with cranberry, which I like but my hosts don't, so I may have to finish it before I leave).
I didn't try as many new foods in 2006 as in 2005: what I'm sure of is celeriac root, from
linetoinfinity's farmshare box, and birch juice, courtesy of jonsinger, though he wasn't here when we opened it. The celeriac didn't appeal particularly; the birch juice was nice, but I agree with papersky that it's oversweetened, or at least "CMAK" (that's Cyrillic, pronounced "Smack") brand is. Jon, are you aware of other brands, or do I need to poke around Eastern European import shops on my own? (I'd been going to say Russian, but the company is actually Ukrainian, on the evidence of their postal address and URL.)Rysmiel and I tried going out for ice cream yesterday afternoon, but Maple Delight had closed by the time we arrived; it's a change from turning up on 2 January, because we now know they're closed then. Fortunately, Suite 88 was still open when we got there, though the woman warned us they'd be closing in 20 minutes. They had no gelati out, but the intense hot chocolate was fine, as was Rysmiel's gateau.
It continues unseasonably mild, but snow had fallen by the time I arrived, so it looked like winter in a way New York hadn't by the time I'd left. (Nor, I gather, had Montreal until a day or two earlier.) I've mostly been wearing my sneakers, because they're better for me to walk distances in, rather than my boots (there's only a few centimeters of snow, and not enough slush that I can't step around the puddles).