a week in review

Since I’ve been terrible about finding time to blog lately, but still am committed to using this format as a journal, albeit a very public one, I am going to jot some notes about my very good week.

Sunday, Feb 3
Watched the Super Bowl at the Harrison’s house. I secretly rooted for the Patriots, although, ultimately, I didn’t really give a fig who won the game. I contributed a seven-layer dip with homemade guacamole made from out-of-season, not-quite-ripe avocados. Ah well, we do the best we can in the dark days of winter.

Monday, Feb 4
Hauled Simon to Eagan for a 7:40 a.m. orthodontist appointment. This time, he had a full set of photos taken and a few more x-rays to complete his “before” records. He was a real trooper, even as the (very nice and pretty) tech had him hold his mouth open with some strange device while she took pics. We'll now visit every six months until such time as Simon is ready for a space maintainer.

Tuesday, Feb 5
John and I began our Super Tuesday by attending Simon’s second grade author tea, where he read aloud to us his personal narrative. Simon chose to write about himself through one of his favorite activities—visiting Uncle Sven’s Comic Shoppe and eating dinner at the Groveland Tap. We also had an opportunity to see what some of Si’s classmates had written. Their abilities ranged from a few simple sentences with no narrative structure whatsoever to complex stories with chapters and dialogue. I’m glad to see that Simon is somewhere in between, which is to say, he's exactly where he's supposed to be. We also heard wonderful reports from Mrs. Cochran and Liz, the class helper, that Simon worked very diligently on his project, putting a lot of personal pride in his work. Yay!!

After work, we went to the Groveland Tap to eat Juicy Lucys and kill time waiting to caucus. John and I had decided to do the quick ballot, thereby choosing a delegate to vote for our candidate at the national convention rather than caucusing for delegates, senatorial candidates, and platform issues. Our caucus site was Highland Junior/Senior High, and it was an absolute fucking zoo. Tons of people, most of whom were waiting in lines for some reason. It was difficult to tell who was an election official. When you could find an election official, they sent you a wild goose chase to find the room where your precinct was meeting. But, finally, we found our way and cast our “votes” on post-it notes, which were then thrust into the meaty hand of an official.

At work the next morning, I compared notes with coworkers who had attended caucuses in various parts of the city (Maplewood, New Brighton, and NE Minneapolis) to hear identical stories. The DFL does not have their shit together, running out of ballots, not having enough volunteers. For goodness sake, Minnesota has the highest voter turn-out of any state in the nation. Don’t you overestimate your expectations for something like this? Needless to say, John’s vote and my vote cancelled each other’s, but I am very proud to say that I joined an historical moment by voting for a woman presidential candidate, and it was a pretty amazing feeling.

Wednesday, Feb 6
In all the caucus excitement, it was easy to put out of my mind that I ran into Alison V., slumming at the Tap. I reported to Alison at MHSP. My time there was miserable, largely because of her and her incompetance and power-hunger. Although I’ve never committed my tale to paper or internets, I do replay the tapes a lot. Too much, in fact, for my own well-being. I'm surprised that I haven't run into more former coworkers from the blight on the hill, since many of them live in St. Paul.

Thursday, Feb 7
Finished reading Service Included, Phoebe Damrosch’s account of working as a captain in Thomas Keller’s Per Se, which is the East Coast version of The French Laundry. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read, a perfect antidote to the heavier fare of What Is the What.

Friday, Feb 8
Knocked off work early to run errands. First stop, Solo Vino to buy wine for Saturday night’s dinner and stock up on my favorite inexpensive Spanish red, Pago del Vostal, only to discover the store had sold through its limited inventory of the latter. I could weep. This stuff—the crianza—was amazing. Lots of body and fruit and balance, which is rare for an $8 bottle. Next, Kowalski’s for a baguette and a few pieces of cheese—tangy drunken goat and nutty Fol Epi. Then, Coastal Seafoods for mussels (dinner) and shrimp (wild brown Mexican, for later). Finally, I picked up some prints that were being framed at Wet Paint, where everyone at the cashwrap marveled at the awesome job that had been done. I agreed.

Saturday, Feb 9
John has a new hobby brewing. He wants to restore an old VW Beetle and has a line on one about an hour outside of the Cities. So he and a friend drove through drifting snow to check it out. I hope to write more on this later because it's really exciting and may just be the motivation John needs to clear out the garage. 1967. Tan. While John was doing his thing, I took the boys to Target where I indulged them. Simon got a new DS cartridge, and both boys picked out Legos so they would have a good activity for another bleeping cold day. -15, thank you very much. Whoever controls the weather, I'd like you to know we've had enough of this nonsense. Later, we went to the Hamilton's house for dinner. C served halibut with a tomato sauce (olives, spinach, white beans) on Israeli couscous, which was very delicious and warming on a cold night. We also had disturbing amounts of red wine (four or five bottles for six adults, not our personal record, but not bad), including a '99 Medoc. Some of the adults were a little crabby, but overall a nice time.

Sunday, Feb 10
At the request of the Shepard junior set, we celebrated Chinese New Year with dim sum at Yummy (or whatever it's called now—Relax?—how 1983). We met the Fares and the Cohen-Murphys and gorged outselves silly on shumei and countless other shrimp and pork stuffed dumplings, Chinese broccoli (ridiculously good), turnip cake, manila clams in xo sauce (clams were pretty metallic, I didn't love), stuffed baby bell peppers, sticky rice in lotus leaf (my favorite), and basil chicken, among loads others. At one point this afternoon, all four of us (John, Simon, Winston, and I) were on the sofa, some of us gaming, others watching TV, and another reading her mystery. I love these moments—they have a very Sunday feeling, with no urgency to do anything other enjoy each other's nearness. I don't imagine we'll all fit on the sofa like this for long, as both boys are growing like weeds so I'll take what I can get.

In the week ahead: working lightly, getting a haircut, starting my New Year's goals, and a possible parental visit.