Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

I’m here in the Lone Star State for a librarians’ conference – actually just the tail end of a librarians’ conference. I signed up for a half-day post-conference workshop, and went to one session + the closing keynote – and then the workshop.

I got in about 2:30 on Tuesday, and decided to take the $1 bus to the conference center where I’m staying on the UT campus. I had to wait 20 minutes, but seemed worth it for the price. Then I had to walk about half a mile with luggage, wearing tights and a long-sleeved shirt, warm shoes, and a long skirt, that had been not even been warm enough in Madison where it was 10 degrees – in Austin, where it was 80 degrees. As soon as I got into my room at the hotel, I had to peel off the tights and shave my legs so I could go bare-legged in the heat.

I went to a reception put on by one of the vendors at the conference, and had a few hot appetizers and a glass of [free] champagne. I decided to walk and get some tacos, and in hindsight, realize I took the long way around. I didn’t notice that the taco place I found on yelp, Taco Joint, closes at 3:00 on weekdays. I went and ordered to-go from the bar next door. Talked to a kind of whacked-out guy while waiting for my food – he’d bought a bunch of lottery tix, said he made a bunch of money at SXSW last week, and needed to spend it on something – and he wanted help scratching off the numbers. I think I won him $6. I found the easy way back – going past a guy on a cello and a guy on an electric guitar playing kind of pensive indie rock in front of a university building, to a fair-size crowd. When I finally opened up the tacos, I had one bite and the meat was so greasy I couldn’t eat it – so I dumped out the meat and filed the shells with the pico de gallo and lettuce – that was OK. And watched part of a Parade’s End and the end of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

And oh, yea, I have a huge room:

View out the window

Entry

Bedroom

Entry way, huge bathroom, bedroom.

Today,  the session I wanted to see was at 9:20, keynote at 11:00, and the workshop at 1:00. I tried to go for coffee, at a local place, before, but again yelp failed – the place is closed for remodeling until the 25th – I’d say at least the 25th – it was down to the bare walls & cement inside. So I got a Starbucks latte at the Student Union. There was fruit and coffee at the conference – they use some kind of healthy conference caterer, and I got the last banana and there was peanut butter to go with. After (and during) the session and the keynote, I was having trouble with my websites, so came back to the room to call my hosting service tech support. They blamed it all on AT&T – sometime in the afternoon it all came back – although I did discover I could get in if I VPN’d to UW hosts. So I missed lunch, and I wasn’t really hungry, but I was worried about making it through the 4 hour workshop with no food, so I bought a kebap from Verts on the way in. I ended up not eating it until after the workshop – it was still pretty good. They gave us several kinds of munch mix – one that had crispy fava beans in it – and fruit and coffee for workshop snacks. I got an orange to go with my kebap, and I had all that for kind of an early dinner at 5:30 in the courtyard between the hotel room part of the conference center, and the meeting room part. And did a little work on the SLIS website, and answered a few emails – and left more for tomorrow. As the librarians are moving out, prospective students are moving in.

I decided to walk to the food co-op, and get ice cream for the rest of dinner. And watched [the fairly creepy] Martha Marcy May Marlene – it was just starting when I got back.

Ice cream for dinner

My plane’s not till almost 3:00 tomorrow – I can use the wifi here to work, and I already have my breakfast place picked out. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Today’s the no-fun time change, when we lose an hour, and, even though it may be staying lighter later in the evening, it’s darker in the morning. To make it even better, it’s a dreary, rainy, wet day – all the snow is melting and the basement is leaking in three places.

I should feel good – I did a bunch of work in both online classes, and then discovered that I don’t have a meeting tomorrow morning that I thought I did – I had it in my calendar wrong – so more time in the A.M. John got a really nice offer for grad school – so even though he’s stuck in the hard recovery from his broken ankle, he might be set for the next couple of years – going to grad school can be his job. Al’s OK, too – he’s got a real job here in Madison, real meaning that he doesn’t love it, but it’s a step in the right direction.

But I don’t. I think I am feeling the effects of nine months of being too busy. I need to get my tax stuff together. Stuff at School Woods keeps cancelling ‘cuz no one signs up. I’m looking for my joie de vivre, I think.

These guys will help:

Peeps!

And, this:

Hell’s Kitchen style rosti – fried grated potatoes with bacon, garlic, onion, scallions, parsley

Cranberry crumb cakes – look it how that pear got damaged in my grocery bag on the way back from the co-op yesterday, tho – grrr

Another view of the cranberry crumb cakes

And, yet another view of the cranberry crumb cakes

I think I feel better already. And we’re having tall chocolate cake – chocolate angel food cake – with butterscotch pudding & smashed berries on top for dessert. Maybe I’ll get a good pic of that – if it’s lighter later.

So we’re in the recovery room after John’s surgery to fix the break in his ankle.

Even laid up in bed, his photo of the photo of the pins in his leg is better than mine.

John’s new ankle – my glare-y shot

John’s new ankle – his better shot

Can’t wait to take him home.

Coarse-sugar-topped-chocolate-almond-scones

Trying to remember my week. Monday I worked at home, and spent a lot of time going back & forth between my desktop computer – for personal stuff – and my laptop – for work stuff – and being hopelessly intermingled most of the time. I took a break and did a little grocery shopping, since we hadn’t gotten back from Minneapolis until about 10 the night before. I think Monday was the night I made tofu-topped sesame peanut noodles, and mustard greens with bacon – mixing up southern US and Chinese traditions – or maybe that was Tuesday. Either Monday or Tuesday, I made a black bean and tomato and cheese and corn tortilla casserole from the new Martha Everyday Food insert that came with Martha Stewart Living – it was pretty bland. We ate half of it and I chucked the rest on trash day. I also ordered a new shower head for the downstairs bathroom, and both the $69.99 OXO mandoline from Amazon AND the $99.95 one from Crate & Barrel, so I could decide which one to keep, and return the other.

The white cat had been acting a little weird, not eating right – instead of gobbling up her food as fast as she could, she’d take a few bites then go sit on a box and let the black one eat it all. By Wednesday, it’d been going on for long enough that I felt like I had to call the vet. Turned out that my regular, house call vet was at a conference all week – so I called the close by vet, where Mark’s new kitty just happened to be already, getting spayed & de-clawed. They said I could bring the white cat in at 4:00. That afternoon, while I was driving to to the vet, my phone rang and it was John, sounding really shocky, saying, “Mom, I fell running and I think I really fucked up my foot”. $255 and multiple texts to John later, the vet determined that the cat needed a kitty dental, and she should come back on Friday for that. John had some kind of fibia fracture, but the urgent care he went to in Milwaukee treated him like crap and it took until almost noon on Thursday to get it all figured out. He comes to Madison next week to see an orthopedist here, and [we fervently hope] get a walking cast.

I paid up and went home and had time to make ribs and oven french fries and corn – Mark brought home some of the Alsum frozen corn from the Saturday indoor farmers market.

On Thursday I waited at home till 8:00 a.m. to meet with the landscapers, to set up some kind of reasonable contract for this summer, so I don’t get any shocking bills like last year. And texted with John and called the health insurance. Headed in to work, and got back home in time to have a nice breakfast at 3:00 – eggs and leftover oven fries and a bagel with muenster cheese – and then online class at 7:30.

Friday morning shoveled out the snow, took the cat to the vet, and went to work. This time it was a mere $439 for the cat – in addition to the dental, she has an ear infection, and she came home with four different medications I have been abusing her with – syringes of some kind of numbing stuff for the gum pain after the dental; 2 syringes of a good-tasting additional medication for pain (Mark’s cat got it too, it smells like honey and knocks them out); and an antibiotic, and a topical for the ear infection – drops I have to put in her ears. Jeez.

I made spinach cheese pie and took it to Susan & Carl’s and we ate and then walked to the Barrymore to see Hot Tuna.

On Saturday I made pulled pork and little buns and cole slaw for dinner. I also opened up both mandolines, and decided to keep the cheap one. I need some new rugs for School Woods, so I ordered those from Crate and Barrel, and should get a few dollars back on my card after I return the mandoline.

Today I got to walk with Rach for the first time in a while – it’s been freezing rain and icy sidewalks and she’s been out of town. Then we brunched on the above chocolate chip scones and and a cheese and scallion omelette and bacon. I had to work for a few hours, then later I made chili and some peanut butter cookies. I canceled the dinner at School Woods – only one person had signed up. Kanari and Mark went to Tegan and Sarah – not my thing, so even though there’s not dinner, I didn’t go along. Al & I watched Shameless and I’m about to go watch Girls. Enjoying my quiet night at home, although there are still a lot of dishes in the sink. And I didn’t get my March & April calendar together. Oh well, I guess there’s always tomorrow.

Instead of a romantic dinner for 2, we had a family dinner – another couple, old friends, also empty nesters with grown children, and our Japanese exchange student. We ate Costco salmon with the maple syrup, soy sauce, and butter glaze that I first made by scrounging through the cabinets at our airbnb lodgings for TIFF, and leftover hoppin’ John and greens gratin from New Year’s Day.

For dessert I made pomegranate juice gels, cut into hearts, and chocolate pie. Heike said the best thing about the pie was that it’s the type of pie that you can get in a completely ersatz version – cool whip and instant chocolate pudding – or much more homemade, like this one.

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