ok, the recaps are a bit late, considering that the next weekend is here. i still have to post something about our last trip to morimotos and that was a long time ago…
saturday: i basically worked all day. fascinating, i know. lainie called me up to tell me that i would be going out to dinner with her and erika; apparently, all that had been decided on thursday when they were over before amanda left, and they had neglected to tell me. until saturday, that is. later erika called up and made reservations at toro for us at 830pm as it was the only place she and lainie could agree upon. i went over to erika’s place at around 8 and idly helped her make her bed and do random assorted other things until lainie showed up. one interesting thing that happened was that i had been stuck waiting for the elevator for a while, and when it came maybe 12 adults and 3 kids paraded out. i would not have thought that possible in that teeny elevator.
we headed out to toro, which is really very close to both lainie and erika’s residences. on the very brief drive, all hell broke loose and sheets and sheets of rain came pouring down. i dropped erika and lainie off in front of the restaurant and looked for a place to park. i ended up hanging out in the car for 15+ minutes until there was a slight break in the downpour. i ran back to the restaurant, but still got quite soaked.
lainie felt bad and was going to buy me a martini, but we went ahead and ordered lots of tapas and wine soon after i arrived. the food was quite good, especially the tuna package (raw tuna with a crisp breading on a sweet habenero salsa). the tuna package was probably the best it ever had been in the times i had been there; its quality varies quite a bit. we spent a relaxing evening talking about random stuff like erika and lainie hitting the town and picking jup some guys, or whether toro was a good place to pick up someone at the bar, yadda yadda yadda. erika had a hot date the earlier in the week but was too embarassed to tell me about it.
on our way back to the car, we saw the s.m.a.r.t. truck that lainie had driven about 24/7 for weeks. it was currently being driven by one of her fellow residents who was going to toro as well. it was his last day on the s.m.a.r.t. truck rotation, tho.
we ended up showing our age and lack of stamina by packing it in for the night instead of running about and living large on the town.
sunday: i tried to do more work (and did manage to get some done), but probably spent most of the time surfing the net. amanda called me up at the houston airport and said that she would just drive her parent’s car from cleveland to buffalo; i did not have to come and pick her up. i guess her parents would make a roundabout trip to visit susan in philadelphia and then us, so they could pick up the car then.
carlos and karen were having another cookout to celebrate karen’s birthday which is actually 25 may (tuesday). the weather did not really cooperate, and, of course, it started raining right when carlos first fired up the grill (which he got for his birthday earlier). however, the rain did not last, and we had an enjoyable late lunch/early dlinner. amanda arrived during the cooking and proceeded to pass out rather immediately, but i woke her up so she could partake in the festivities and not screw up her sleeping schedule too much. just like carlos’s birthday cookout, carlos made a duckie birthday cake. he also tried to make a 3d standing duckie cake, but back half did not rise enough, so he cut it off and made a more 2d profile duckie cake instead.
later, lainie came over for an exercise walk with amanda while i tried to do some lifting. the weather was pretty threatening again by this time, so they ended up calling me to rescue them from the pouring rain. it ended up clearing a bit, so they tried again to start their walk, but again they called for rescue later. i drove them to hannah’s frozen treats for a snack, and then we all headed back home.
amanda made lainie an egg beater fritatta for dinner, and according to lainie it was good for a while, but got pretty disgusting as it cooled down. i verified the disgusting nature. apparently, making a frittata solely with eggbeaters is a very very bad idea, so some experimentation with the righ combination egg whites/egg yolks is needed. i had never made a fritatta with anything other than actual unseparated eggs, myself.
monday: work for me, and amanda headed off to start inpatient internal medicine. she came back immediately, tho, as she could not handle doing inpatient with her grandmother so sick. she spent the day talking with people and trying to decide what to do (take a month off, not take a month off, how to rearrange her schedule, etc.), and ended up taking an elective now, which would give her a bit more flexibility in scheduling hopefully, and moving inpatient internal medicine four weeks from now. she ended up getting into a radiology elective, which apparently is the bomb as it basically is from 830am-12pm with self directed study later… pretty relaxing compared to any of her other rotations.
amanda and lainie went to a weight watchers meeting that evening. lainie is still looking for a diet/fitness program that will fit into her crazy resident schedule, which is pretty hard. she is currently in a pediatric intensive care rotation and is overnight every three days… all of which is not conducive to eating healthy or exercising (med school and residency isn’t really in general). she and amanda will still be lifting in the body-for-life way when possible tho. later, we went out to applebees of all places afterwards and was not very impressed with their food, but they do have a weight watchers menu there. after dinner we dropped by kmart to look at plants and random stuff before heading back home.