Well, it's been a busy week since we returned from Costa Rica. Lots of catching up, some visiting with friends and generally just getting back into the routine of it all. We had a lovely dinner with my old roommate from when I lived just below Columbia University on 110th Street & Broadway. He's a nudist and, when I was his roommate, he knocked 200 bucks off my rent in exchange for full clothes-free rights anywhere in the apartment. It was a great living situation and he was a great roommate. He arrived clothed to dinner last Friday with a fellow friend of his from Seattle that he met on a nudist canoe trip with the now imprisoned Richard Hatch (original season of Survivor) several years back. It was a good evening overall.
Matthew cooked up a seven-course Chinese meal that included this cold cucumber dish spiked with Szechuan peppercorns...
-- which, by the way ...
I'm using in a Szechuan Spice Cookie I've been working on for my new baking business. And on that subject, I HAVE MY DOMAIN NAME IN HAND! Finally. After some drama in obtaining it, I have it safely in my mitts and details will be announced as soon as my logo is finished. On other baking fronts, I had my baking date with the fabulous Patti, who came with a special copy of Hard Candy and a special somethin'-somethin' to aide in the enjoyment of it. We baked maple shortbread cookies and had a lovely afternoon in the kitchen dishing about dis 'n' dat. And that reminds me: I have to get the scoop on Ms. M's Roseland romp last night in NYC that she was pining to attend.
I made these Maple Shortbread Cookies with Patti.
Random other notes:
What does everyone think of the new Madonna album? On first listen, nothing really grabbed me and so far I like the last album a bit more, but I'll see how I feel after spending more time with it in the coming days. Hmmmm.
I'm a bit mad at myself for not bringing my video camera with me everywhere I go. I have this idea to have a random freak I encounter on the streets of New York featured in a short video clip weekly and call it Weirdo of the Week or Freak of the Week or something along those lines. Just yesterday, for instance, I stumbled upon a guy with a cat on his head walking down the street. The cat was calm as day and sitting, with one leg hanging over the side, right on top of the guy's head as he walked all normal-like down the street. Everyone was staring, pointing and giggling, and I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA. Damn, damn, damn. This happened a few weeks back as well, when I encountered a woman walking a bouncing standard sized poodle down University Place toward Washington Square Park. The dog literally bounced, higher than the woman was tall, as she walked with it down the street, and again everyone was staring, pointing and giggling, and I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA. So sad. Lesson learned, though, and my weekly showcase of urban freaks and curiosities is soon to be born.
