msmemory. We were in a piscene mood, so headed over to Legal Seafood (picking up a wedding giftie for snarkyman and cosmicgarden on the way). For no apparent reason, the sidewalk outside the Burlington Mall proved to be a Carolingian hotspot. First we ran into Tibor and Anna, and made arrangements to get together with them the following evening. Then, once we got into Legal's and were sitting at the window, Susan wandered past at exactly the same spot, so we banged on the windows for her to come say hi. Chatted a bit about the Life, the Universe and Carolingia. I had the "Louisiana Catfish Matrimony" for dinner, a fine melange of fish, sausage, crawfish and a bunch of other yummies.Last Saturday: First wedding of the season. It was held at Wellesley Chapel (
cosmicgarden graduated from there), same place our wedding was. The pews divided into Bride's Family, Groom's Family, and SCA, pretty much as usual. High point of the wedding was the music, IMO: they had the carillon going outside, excellent organ music inside, and a fine soprano doing solos. I wound up spending several minutes before the ceremony began Googling around on my PDA, looking up the street address of Wellesley College so that the JP could fill it in on her forms.The reception was at the Wellesley Club -- quite posh, with excellent food.
siderea did what I think of as a classic Best Man's Toast, full of sweeping poetry and metaphors that the entire crowd took in the lewdest possible manner. Afterwards, we adjourned upstairs for random dancing. The bride and groom started off with Gracca Amorosa, first by themselves and then asking the SCAdians to join them on the suddenly-crowded dance floor. Then lots of mundane wiggle dance, and finally ending with a few SCA dances led by bess. (I think I wound up dancing Gathering Peascods with the mother of either the bride or groom, but I'm not certain.)After the wedding, we got together with Tibor and Anna, and Arval and his family for dinner, mostly because Arval was in town and we haven't seen him in an age. Went out to Naked Fish, which was a little dangerous -- they got there and just barely managed to get a table. Dinner was reasonably good, but not spectacular: the food was neither as homey and comfortable as Legal's, nor as just-plain-wonderful as McCormick and Schmick's. We'll probably go again, but it's not looking high on the priority list, especially given the crowds. (I had a Brazilian Fried Calamari, which I actually found a bit less interesting than Legal's Rhode Island Calamari.) The drinks were great, but that isn't what motivates me to go to a restaurant.
Last Monday: Beginning of a quiet week of doing Not Very Much. Which is okay -- I'm a smidgeon tired and burned-out right now, as I often am at this time of year.
Wednesday: Dance practice.
alienor was in town, and came over to dance with us. As I half-expected, she got a bit lost trying to get there from Providence: driving around Boston is an advanced art, and folks from the rest of the country always get a bit surprised at how messy it is. Fortunately, I'd given her my cellphone number, so I directed her in the last couple of miles.Good dance practice, but I think Mara has cut the teaching back a bit too aggressively -- she's in a serious mode of "Anyone need this taught? Okay, then I'm just going to play it." It looked like this left
alienor and umbran occasionally a bit at sea, and even when she was reviewing the dances (as with Lo Spagnoletto) she was doing so Way Too Fast. Need to tell her to slow down a bit.Friday: Weekly date was down at The Brewpub (which is how
msmemory and I tend to refer to Watch City Brewery these days). I had the Hoisin and Sesame Flank Steak Sandwich, which is really quite excellent (if messy) -- probably my favorite dish on their regular menu. She had some Spanish preparation of highly-spiced fish with a salsa verde on top, which was also great. Their Specials menu has done remarkably well by us. I had a beer sampler, and concluded that, to my surprise, the ".38 Schilling Scottish Ale" was the best of the lot -- I don't normally like Scots Ale much, but this was a solid, smooth ale with a strong nutty finish. Good stuff.Saturday: Quiet, tired day. Thought about going to Guindormr's party (a wake for his ex-car), but we just didn't have the energy -- we needed an evening in. So I made dinner (Pan-Seared Trout with Bacon Vinaigrette, a house favorite that is much easier than it sounds), we got a bit of ice cream from Ranc's (I am very amused that they don't even *try* to call themselves Rancatore's any more), and vegged.
Sunday: Spent the core of the day filing videotapes. Those who do not own 1300 videotapes cannot understand how time-consuming this is. I boxed up a couple hundred of the oldest to go to storage, and separated out the ones that we're going to discard. (Now that we're starting to buy some of our favorite series on DVD, there's no point in having them take up space on VHS. So we'll be giving a bunch of recordings away.) Eventually managed to get that bookcase completely beaten into shape, for the first time in a year or two.
In the late afternoon (5-7pm) we went over to Wellesley for a last-minute Felding Tea. This is an annual tradition, and the Feldings decided that it would make a good study break. Due to the slight notice and fairly modest publicity, we were the only non-Feldings to show up (aside from Connor at the end, but he's kind of attached to the Borough right now), but it was a pleasant time, with lots of general schmoozing about Wellesley and classes and what people were going to do with themselves over the summer. I was glad to see that Felding is still in fairly good shape internally (about a dozen people came to the tea); now, we just need to get more of them off-campus a bit more often, and talking to the rest of the Barony.
Today: Took Comet to the vet to get poked at again. He's apparently in good shape, but still losing weight slowly. (A few ounces more over the past month.) We need to figure out how to stabilize that.
Upcoming:
Tuesday: Accademia.
Wednesday: I'm running Dance Practice. I need to remind myself of this about six times a day, so that I remember to bring my equipment.
Thursday: Probably have our weekly date a day early, since she's not available on Friday.
Weekend:
msmemory is "away" -- in Lowell, at the OES Grand Chapter, which I'm scrupulously avoiding because every time the ladies see me, they try to drag me in as an officer again. We're coming up with some chores for me to do in the meantime. (Like shred about ten years of no-longer-relevant bills.)