We took off Friday and went to Newport News to the Trader Joe’s and then to La Tienda in Williamsburg. We went with two friends who also like to food shop. We ate at The Trellis and I believe the Potato, Leek and Ham soup cured me of whatever funky intestinal thing I had going on. So, not only is it a recommended tasty food item it has restorative properties. I’m sure The Trellis will be happy to know that.
After our travels, our friends came over to swim, hang out and eat Beef with Cabrales (we found the cabrales at Fresh Market), Frijoles A La Charra from the Diana Kennedy book, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, and caesar salad. Our friends wanted to try the better-half’s rendition of caesar dressing which is really pretty awesome, if I may brag. I made a blueberry pie and it was gooey and delicious and full of blueberry flavor.
They left pretty late and just as we were finishing our clean up, the phone rang and it was my brother-in-law from Florida. His sleeping arrangements for the night fell through and he was looking for a place to sleep. He apologized for calling late (11:45) and thanked us for being cool about letting him show up unexpectedly and crashing. We stayed up until about 2 listening to punk rock (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes-Have a Ball) and his travel story.
Yesterday morning I helped my sister put down some rugs in her classroom and when we walked into the school I had to marvel at how much has changed since I went to school there (well, duh). When we walked into her classroom I asked if it was Mrs. Hathaway’s old room. It is and then I joked about showing a filmstrip. Mrs. Hathaway was an older woman who taught science and liked to show filmstrips and slides. She frequently dozed off and would awaken when the beep indicated she needed to advance the picture. She’d fall back to sleep until the next beep. My sister says sometimes when she’s sleepy she thinks about Mrs. Hathaway. It’s funny how much smaller that classroom seems now that I’m not so small.
Last night we went to a party hosted by the professor who runs the adult learner program at my university. Lovely. I was glad to have the better-half finally get to see some of the people I talk about. On the way home, the better-half wanted some tacos so we stopped by Mexico in Mechanicsville. He got his taco fix and I tried the nachos con chorizo and my faith in nachos has been restored. I’ve been seriously disappointed in most of the nachos I’ve had over the past year or so but these were a normal portion with chorizo, no beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, and jalapeños.
Class starts for me on Wednesday. I’ve finally organized all past course handouts and I’ve fished out my school bag and will start carrying that instead of my regular briefcase. I don’t have any new pencils or anything but I’m ready for school to start.