I had a lovely time at Babette's Cafe tonight with Lee and Sandy.

Then I came home to my stinky condo. I'm angry with myself tonight for not calling the zoning board on my downstairs neighbor yet. The lack of sleep I've gotten at night because of his kitchen has taken a serious toll on my wellbeing. I'm tired more often than not. I don't enjoy being at home. This is starting to happen every night now. David came by and did what he could to seal off every nook in my bedroom and closet and it does seem to work if I close that room off now from the rest of my place while I sleep. I open all the windows and turn on the fan and pull the sheets over my head. I use earplugs to cut down on the noise coming from the open windows. I sleep in all my clothes (sans shoes and bra) because it's cold a night with the windows open and the fan on.

Can I crash at your place tonight?

Roman Lily

We decided to revive the Buford Highway restaurant crawl a couple of weeks ago, with yesterday intended to be the first night back on the pan American-Asian journey. We decided that, instead of going over mostly old routes, we would all agree to try new restaurants together neighborhood by neighborhood. I suggested the stretch of Highland Avenue from Ponce down into the Highland Bakery and on to the East side with L5P and beyond. The group decision was made to go to Roman Lily, a wonderful little place near the Highland Bakery building. A couple of us had eaten there but most of the group had never been to that restaurant. Eight of us converged on Roman Lily and were quickly seated in the back room in what seemed like our own private, impromptu party.

I had the polenta and scallops, which I'd had before quite some time ago. The scallops were perfectly cooked, tender and mild. They had changed the polenta since I'd had it last - instead of a soft, baked sheet of it cut into small triangles, its now two big wedges that are fried crisp on the outside, making it taste and feel too much like cornbread.

J&M ordered three bottles of the "Peace" red wine for the table and gave it thumbs up. Everyone loved both types of gravy that Roman Lily serves - the herb-laced house gravy with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, and the tequila gravy.

The group ordered samples of most of the appetisers and deserts.

The favorite appetiser was the crab dip, served with triangles of crisp pita, which was very creamy. The least favorite appetiser were the fried green tomatos, which some in the group described as being too firm - maybe not cooked long enough.

The Apple streudle pie was the overwhelming favorite among the deserts. The least favorite desert was the Coconut Almond cake, which was dried out.

The steak-eater DOES pick the pocket of the salad-man

The only real problem was, with the size and variety of people and wallets at the table, the bill - to be split evenly - was much more than I'd budgeted for going out. I gutted my wallet and put all that I had on the table.

"we splitting the cheque the steak-eater picks the pocket of the salad-man"
- Blue Raja, Mystery Men

Let's do dinner

I'm spending most of my weekends visiting my mother and talking with my sister-in-law about keeping wolves away. Mom looks like she's lost a bit of weight. Probably the depression but she also says she doesn't see how I cook for one. Two great resources for me: bags of salad already washed and cut, just waiting for me to eat it, and cereal. Also, maybe now she'll understand why I eat out as much as I do.

Actually, I know I eat out too much. And this week I'm making it out more than usual to get together with friends after work. Maybe going for a new record. Saturday we went to Dave & Busters to celebrate Lisamin's birthday. Sunday I ate out wit mom at PapaDeaux. Yesterday we celebrated more birthdays at R. Thomas. Tonight I met David at Doc Chey's and caught up with him and his life at the moment - a little bit anyway. Tomorrow I'll be getting together with Jae after work during a brief opening in her schedule.

And during all this week, I have enchilada ingredients on my countertop waiting to be assembled before the sweet potatoes I bought just for that recipe go bad.

Oh yeah... it snowed this morning too. In Atlanta. In March. Just a light clumpy powdering that was actually very beautiful to see coming down and melted instantly.

End of a very long day at work - didn't get out of the office until nearly 8PM. Followed by hot sake at home and a very long conversation with an old friend. Thank you for being there for me during this very strange year.

Finally back home from a long sad week with my family in Smyrna. Still trying to re-aclimate myself to my life after just a few days taking care of my mother and my parents' house. My little place felt strangely warm and cozy after the time away. I still have a four-day-long headache hanging out deep inside, threatening to make my head feel like exploding but other than that I'm fine. This was my mother's first day alone in the house and to try to get some rest. She slept in this morning and was planning to go back to the cemetary by herself this afternoon and take photos of the flowers at my father's gravesite.

My father has passed away yesterday.

The call came in the morning while I was at work. Got home and threw a few things in a bag, changed out of my work duds, and wnet to my parent' house where people were already gathering. Went to the funeral home with my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and neice to make final preparations. Picked out the least cheesy guest book and cards, casket, flowers, etc. Ordered what will probably be far too few copies of the death certificate for legal and financial purposes.

Sometimes I miss the days of childhood and adolescence when you could have crushes on people that you never had to consider even having the possibility of going anywhere other than where it is at the moment. There was never any plans ahead or what if's - just that delicious, painful moment of longing for things you did not know or expect.

Got a phone call from mother on my way home from work today telling me to come for a visit this weekend. I'm there every weekend but missed last week's visit because of the ice. I told her I'd try to make it up Sunday. If he's awake for anything, I would think he'd want to be awake for the SuperBowl and I am so behind on everything I need Sunday to catch up. Maybe I can come with Monster and the two of us can allow her to take a break from taking care of my father and get out of the house for a while. She says his health is deteriorating rapidly this week. The pain medication he has is recommended for four to six hour intervals and she's giving it to him every three hours. I suppose he's building a tolerance for the meds now and they don't do the job he'd like them to.

melodrama does not become me.

Am allowed to accept bad news, even though I know I'm supposed to fall to pieces?
I'm tired of having to give dramatic displays of uncontrollable emotion just to prove I care.
Truth is, I do care a lot but I can only go up or down so far and I think I like myself just as I am.
Maybe if I was an artist or six years old I would gleefully pursue bi-polar disorder or rages followed by severe depression.

Cake or Death


Which Eddie Izzard Quote Are You?
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New Suit

Monster pushed me to go clothes shopping last weekend and I now have a new basic black suit and the lowest black pumps I could find. Unfortunately for my mother it is a two piece, jacket and trousers, with no skirt. If I can locate a long black skirt in the same style by the manufacturer I'll buy it. But the suit is a good one, in a simple streamlined style that won't go out of fashion too quickly. It's at the neighborhood alterations shop now being hemmed in the legs and sleeves. And I am promising myself that I'll lose 5 pounds of holiday weight.

I wish I lived in Paris. I'd be in much better shape physically if I did from walking much more and eating better.

All American fast food is evil and hard to avoid because it's so cheap... and fast.

You Are a Liberal for Life

You've got a bleeding heart - and you're proud of it. For you, liberal means being compassionate, pro-government, and anti-business. You believe in equality for every person, and you consider yourself universally empathetic. Helping others is not just political for you ... it's very personal too.

What political persuasion are you?

Happy 2005

New Years Eve was spent at the home of Joy and Cam in Grant Park eating, sitting by the fire, and taking part in a white elephant re-gifting exchange. Some people call these exchanges "dirty Santa". Everyone puts a re-wrapped package under the tree and draws numbers for their turn to pick one of the mystery packages out from under the tree. Those who have already picked a gift can swop/swipe the gift of the latest person to open a package. I came out of the exchange very well with a box of fine chocolates, which I was sure would be swiped before the gift exchange's end. I kept trying to make it seem less attractive to others saying things like "oh, these look really waxy" until the actual anonymous treat-giver felt compelled to tell me that I had a box of fine Belgium chocolates. I didn't know I was that convincing.

New Years Day was mostly spent in Smyrna again with my family eating the required meal of greens and blackeyed peas.

How I spent my Christmas vacation

Thursday, Christmas Eve eve, was bone-chilling cold and I felt like hot sake. Went with Aud and Nik to Ru San's and had huge amounts of fish and spiritous beverages. For the first time I tried the Japanese pickle plate/sampler and a new menu item, "white tuna". Then we went to Apre Diem for deserts and "nightcaps" where Nik showed off his belly to all who could not avert their eyes quickly enough. I have to admit he's lost a lot of that "Buddah Belly" and should be quite proud of that. But maybe it's not so polite to show it off in public.

Christmas Eve was spent at my parents house. Dad was able to be home for the holidays and sleep in his own house in the hospital bed my parents still had from his mother. He gets a lot of pleasure from company and loves to have people visit but he and my mother are constantly tearful these days. I hope that the hyper-emotionalism doesn't keep people away. My uncle Ron and wife Joyce came to the house and stayed most of the day. Dinner was smoked turkey on croissant sandwiches.

Christmas Day was spent at my parents house. I arrived noon-ish. My brother and his family came. So did my uncle Robert and his wife and youngest daughter. We exchanged and opened gifts, ate leftovers from yesterday as well as a roast that Mom got with a HoneyBaked Ham gift certificate from friends.

Boxing Day evening was a gathering at J's house in Conyers. Huge group of people of all tribes and ages were there. Lots of food. The Women were all there at some point, with the exception of Pam who is now expecting her own blessed event and is a bit delicate these days. Nik has no memory (or so he says) of showing his belly at Diem.

Monday was my last day off work and I ended up seeing "The Aviator" at Phipps Plaza cinema and doing some shopping at GAP to spend the gift card I had.