Happy Halloween!!

I do hope everyone is celebrating the day and having some fun with it. I, for one, am sitting here at work in a set of sequined and sparkley devil horns and a matching tail. My colleagues keep doing double takes. I keep telling people I'm not actually wearing a costume...they are there all the time and just happen to be visible today because it's Halloween. (Joking!...sort of...)

I do love this day. It's so much fun. I love seeing how creative people can get with their costumes and pumpkin carving. The "barfing" pumpkins crack me up. And some are such incredible works of art! My dad was always the best carver on the block, even giving our pumpkins hair. We also always tried to pick out the pumpkins from the patch that had the most "character" so we could get even more creative. He could carve just about any design or face we drew. And we'd roast the pumpkin seeds after separating them from the guts...so yummy. Mom would seriously deck the house out with fake cobwebs (yes, fake), complete with plastic spiders, candelabras with white candles that dripped red wax when lit, and all varieties of spooky things. She had some friends over for a visit one year, and one of them reached back to get her drink from the side table, encountering one of the cobwebs in the process, and screamed bloody murder! And had a good laugh about it afterwards. It was fabulous!

Even Aussie gets into the Halloween spirit! She's got two costumes: a pumpkin hat and devil horns. She doesn't like the pumpkin. When I put it on her she mopes. But the horns, now those she prances around in showing off. My little devil dog...takes after her mama (yes, me).

Aussie in her horns last Halloween
(all tuckered out at the end of the night)

So tonight Aussie and I will be wearing matching horns again this year and waiting for any trick-or-treaters. I'm not sure if I'll get any, as there are lots of block parties that people go to and events at community centers and churches instead. I'm putting the big ceramic electric jack-o-lantern my grandmother painted decades ago in my window in an attempt to entice a few kids in costumes to come knock on the door. If not, well, my colleagues will be treated to a variety of leftover candy tomorrow, as it must leave the house lest I eat it all.

Ironically, I went to the dentist yesterday afternoon for my six-month cleaning and check up. And today (and probably tomorrow) I'll be eating lots of candy corn and chocolate. Fortunately, my dentist gave my teeth a clean bill of health, so as long as I brush well I'll be fine despite all the sugar I'll be consuming.

Happy Halloween!!

Leak update, er, update

The leak is (hopefully) fixed. My landlord's business partner showed up with the handyman shortly after 5:30pm. By 7pm, they were done and out the door. The roof has been liberally coated with what amounts to a rubber roof cement material, that dried within an hour and will cure in a couple of days. Basically, if it rains tonight, it'll hold and keep the water out. On the inside, they put up a protective material to repair the damage to the ceiling under the dropped ceiling. That should keep the drafts out. And they put in a new ceiling panel so it all looks pretty (well, as pretty as a drop ceiling gets). They even helped me clean up the large debris pieces and the dead ceiling panel. [I was waiting on cleaning until the repairs were done in case they dislodged any additional debris.]

So that's that. Yay! I'll just make sure to watch carefully the next time it rains for any sign that the leak is back. God willing, it won't be and all will be well.

I love a quick resolution to a problem. All that's left is for me to vacuum and wash the floor before moving the dog's kennel back into position.

Leak update

I still have that hole in my dining room ceiling. Pictures on Flickr.

My landlord came by yesterday with the handyman-from-hell to check out the damage and determine what needed to be done. They found the crack in the roof, and you could see some of the buckling in the roofing due to previous water exposure. This has been building for quite some time now, and the heavy rain we got last week just pushed the damage over the edge and brought down the ceiling (literally). I now think it's a combination of an inefficient drain (just doesn't drain fast enough) and the roof in that area not having a steep enough slope for the water to drain off quickly so it sits for a few days after a heavy rain. The roof area in question was cleaned up, assessed (extent of damage, what supplies are needed, etc.), and prepared for repair.

They're supposed to actually fix the roof after work today, starting promptly at 5:30pm, and bring a new ceiling tile to replace the damaged one currently still on my floor. My landlord's business partner will be there to supervise the handyman so I don't have to interact with him (my landlord respected my refusal to work with said handyman alone ever again due to previous experiences).

Hopefully everything will go smoothly, the handyman will actually show up, and I'll have my dining room back and cleaned up by Wednesday.

Bountiful produce...

I bought a head of cabbage last week. See, it got all damp and rainy and fall-like and I started to crave this stew my mom used to make. Stretchum Stew. All sorts of good fall flavors in it...onions, garlic, tomatoes, spices, etc. And cabbage. It calls for 3 cups of chopped cabbage. Normally, when you buy a head of cabbage at the grocery store, it's not all that big, and once you've cored it and chopped it, your yield is just about 3 cups give or take a little. But since I didn't want to have to ride my bike home, then turn right around around and leave again, get in the car (losing my parking space in the process), and go to the grocery store during rush hour, I decided to just buy a head of cabbage from the Wednesday farmers' market on campus. So last Wednesday, I walked over (fortunately there was a break in the rain), to buy cabbage, a head of fresh garlic (so good when it's that fresh!), an onion or two, and a whoopie pie (dessert).

OMG the heads of cabbage were huge. Seriously huge. Like over eight inches in diameter. These were massive heads of cabbage. So I picked the smallest one. And worried about getting it home on my bike because it was heavy. This was a very dense head of cabbage. And very fresh. And cheap. It cost me 2 dollars. That's it. Two dollars for a massive head of cabbage that was over 5 pounds.

But I did get it home. When I went to make my stew for dinner that night, I had to use my bread knife to chop the cabbage in half as it was the only knife long enough to reach all the way across it. My 8 inch chef's knife didn't quite make it. I used half the head of cabbage for my stew, and it yielded over 3 cups once cored and chopped. Fortunately with stews, measuring does not have to be exact, so my batch this time was just a bit heavy on the cabbage. But the stew was delicious, extra cabbage included. But now I had a problem...half the head of cabbage remained. Another 3+ cups that I needed to find something to do with. And soon, before it went bad (nothing smells worse than cabbage that's gone bad, except maybe broccoli that's gone bad).

I thought about cabbage rolls, but since I had cut the head in half, I didn't have full leaves to work with. So I thought maybe "un-stuffed" cabbage rolls, but that still involved making meatballs and steaming and lots of work. A colleague suggested coleslaw. But I didn't want a salad, I wanted a one-pot meal. And coleslaw to me means summer, and it's definitely no longer summer. Another colleague suggested making kimchee (alternately spelled kimchi), and as much as I enjoy the spicy pickled dish, the idea of something fermenting on my counter for days on end is not appealing to me. So I turned to some of my favorite recipe websites and started searching for cabbage recipes that weren't salad.

Who knew people got so creative with cabbage? In addition to the plethora of recipes for cabbage rolls and dishes involving corned beef, there were hashes, cabbage and sausage dishes (lots of types of sausages), various ethnic recipes (Japanese, Korean, German, Czech, Indian, etc.), colcannon (classic Irish potato and cabbage dish...delicious!!), and every manner of creative use of cabbage, including a slow-cooker meal that involved squirrel! (I can NOT make sh*t like that up.) Seems I'm not the only one wondering what to do with leftover cabbage.

I settled on trying a "cabbage casserole" that got great reviews and billed itself as having all the flavor of a cabbage roll without all the work. Sounds like a plan. The results? Nothing stellar, but still tasty. I probably needed to add a bit more salt (I tend to under-salt things, but some salt is necessary to bring out flavor). It was a little on the bland side, I wanted some kick to it, but it was filling and hardy. But it was really easy to make and good enough that I decided to keep the recipe for the next time I had leftover cabbage and try some of the suggestions mentioned by the reviewers to give it that extra kick I was looking for. And of course, there were leftovers. The problem with most recipes is that they serve 4 to 6 people, and there's only one of me. So I better like what I make because I'm going to be eating it for awhile. [Thus my fondness for and collection of cookbooks of meals "for one or two" is illustrated.]

So I've now been eating cabbage in some form for a week. It's time for another vegetable. I'll be heading back to the campus farmers' market tomorrow to get something new. Maybe some green string beans...or squash...or beets...anything but cabbage. And as much as I love Brussels Sprouts, they're too closely related to cabbage, so none of them this time either.

Too much rain, or, I'm glad I'm renting

So yesterday (Saturday) morning I woke up and proceeded downstairs to make coffee and take the dog out. I had a plan for my day. Little did I know my plan was about to be derailed.

As I walked into the dining room, I noticed there were chunks of dirt or something on the floor. That's weird...I was planning on cleaning, but when I went to bed last night all that was there was dog fur. Then I looked in the corner by the window (there's only one window in the dining room). There's a ceiling tile. On top of the dog kennel. It should be in the drop ceiling. But it's sitting on the dog kennel. And there's dirt and water on the radiator and window in the corner. WTF? So I investigate.

It appears that all the rain we got during the previous four days made the leak in the ceiling appear. The leak has probably been there for quite some time given the condition of the ceiling underneath the drop ceiling tiles and the condition of the tile that fell down. And it's still raining (remember, this is Saturday morning).

So much for a trip to the farmers' market.

I proceed to call and leave a message for my landlord, who I know is out of town, but I couldn't find another number to call (remember, this is all before coffee). I tell her that there's a leak, and one of the ceiling tiles has fallen down, and water is still dripping down the window on the inside and onto the floor in the corner. I then proceed to clean up, moving everything of mine away from the corner, and everything near it at least 3 feet further away. There was a blanket (clean) sitting on top of the dog kennel that's now covered in debris and is all damp, so it's now waiting to be washed. And the kennel is now on the opposite side of the dining room. Aussie keeps lying in it as if she's "reclaiming" it. The look on her face was "I don't care if it's moved it's still mine and I'm going to prove it by lying in it, see!?" and she spent all almost all afternoon in it. I swept all the scattered debris into the corner with the ceiling tile and other dirt, debris, pieces of wood, etc. I'm not cleaning that up until my landlord or her business partner sees it (they also may need to document it for insurance purposes). Fortunately, the rain has stopped.

So for now one-fourth of my dining room is not usable. Not that I ever really have used it, but still. And I'm very lucky that the only personal property issue is a dirty blanket. No damage to my stuff. And it's not my problem. All I have to do is notify someone else and they have to fix it. This is an argument for NOT buying a home in my mind.

I think the leak is the result of a not-so-efficient drain. I brought it up before, and the so-called handyman (remember the carpet debacle?) said it was fine, no issues, and the water I had seen on the inside of the window must have been condensation. Um, no, it wasn't condensation. Proving yet again that I was right in my decision to refuse to work with said handyman every again. Sigh.

I am SO glad I'm a renter right now. But now the question is how long until this is fixed? The waiting on someone else to fix things is the bad part of being a renter. But I don't have to fix it, which is good and I think outweighs the waiting issue. Because it's a mess. I'm just praying we don't get any more rain before it's fixed.

Grumble

Are some people just oblivious to the fact that they share the planet with other people? Seriously. How can you not realize that what you do has an impact?

Case in point. Last night I had trouble falling asleep. This is not unusual. Especially when I have lots of stuff on my mind. I tossed and turned, listening to my dog snore and cursing her ability to sleep at the drop of a hat, for a good hour after I crawled into bed. I finally fell asleep.

Less than an hour later, I was woken up by the sound of a car horn. My first thought was damn car alarms. Shortly, however, I realized that this car horn was not coupled with an alarm. This was someone intentionally honking their horn repeatedly at 1:00 AM. No sh*t. 1:00 AM. Honking their horn, then hanging their head out the window and screaming for someone, then back to honking the horn. This went on for 20 minutes. I had just gotten up to find my shoes (I was past the point of rationality and was about to take my dog for a walk and sic her on the jacka**) when I heard one of my neighbors yelling at the idiot. Informing him that this was a neighborhood, with KIDS, and it was a school night, so stop laying on the horn like an idiot and get your lazy a** out of the car and go knock on the door.

A brief moment went by, then I heard the car drive away. I don't know if the person they were honking for ever came out or not. And frankly, I don't care. I was just glad they left.

Of course, it took me another hour to fall asleep again. I think today is going to be a two cup of coffee day...

Rugby World Cup Finals!

This is my last post about the Rugby World Cup 2007. I now have to wait another four years for the next one. Sucky.

Anyway, Argentina ended on a high note in the Bronze Final! They defeated France 34 - 10 to take THIRD place! W00T!! Go Pumas! They have now proven themselves to be a force in the world of rugby, defeating France not once, but twice during the tournament. Unprecedented. This was Argentina's first trip to the Finals and they performed beautifully. France only managed to score one try late in the game to Argentina's five tries. Argentina maintained control during the match, taking advantage of every mistake France made. France just could not match them technically. Argentina played a magnificent tournament, and they were rewarded with a first ever trip to the Finals and a history making World Cup overall. YAY! [visualize me doing a happy dance around my living room]

In the Final, England took on South Africa. But, much to my joy, they just couldn't pull off the win. South Africa took the Webb Ellis Cup with a low scoring 15-6 defeat over England. Not a single try was scored, all points came from kicks. England missed both of their attempted dropped goals, but scored twice on penalty kicks. But it was the penalties that did England in...all of South Africa's points came from penalty kicks. Wow.

Thus ends the 2007 Rugby World Cup. South Africa won, England took second, and Argentina took third! Overall, it was certainly a tournament filled with surprises.

Interference

Once a week, I sit down and indulge in an hour of television. OK, so maybe it's more than just one hour a week, but this particular hour, on a Friday night, is one that I do my best to not miss. I hate recording it to watch later. Really hate it. I don't want to risk accidentally finding out what happens, I actually want to see it. [I'm about to admit just what a geek I am, so be kind] This weekly television compulsion is Stargate Atlantis. I've been a Stargate fan for years. I watched Stargate SG-1 (the original Stargate series). All ten seasons. I even watched the (some would call it bad) Stargate movie that started it all, and in a weird way, really enjoyed it. It's a cult classic really. As I've said before, my scifi roots run deep into my childhood (thanks Dad). Fortunately, this weekly activity didn't negatively impact my social life. My friends and I had a standing Friday night activity of getting together at each others homes (rotating week to week), making dinner, and watching Stargate. Yes, I'm a geek. And I'm OK with that, because obviously many of my friends are just as geeky as I am. And we always have fun.

Anyway, back to the point of this post, interference.

So, about 47 minutes into this week's episode, just when it's getting to the good part and all the suspense they've been building is reaching a peak and we're rapidly moving forward into resolution, there's a big clap of thunder. Shortly after that, my image and sounds starts cutting in and out. Then I lose it entirely, and I get the lovely message that my satellite dish is searching for a signal. Dammit all to hell. And while I know the character is going to survive, I want to know HOW they save him. Auugghhh!! Normally I love thunderstorms, just not when they interfere with my leisure activities.

Not funny universe. So. Not. Funny. I am not amused.

What I get...

It's a gray day today. Gray and humid and a bit on the warm side and the sky keeps spitting but never really raining. It's yucky. The beautiful fall weather has taken a vacation. And it's Friday afternoon of a long week.

So, I decided to "treat" myself. I don't do this often. Yes, I'll have a piece of (dark) chocolate with some regularity, but like a good little girl, I do eat my vegetables first. But this afternoon I decided I wanted a "decadent" coffee. A flavored latte. Starbucks has their fall "pumpkin spice" flavoring back and it's one of my favorites. Since it unfortunately doesn't feel like fall today in the slightest, I decided that I could drink the fall instead. And since the afternoon was dragging, I caved and went and got one. A nice tall (the small size) pumpkin spice latte. It's yummy.

Naturally, my decision to treat myself did not go unpunished. As I was drinking my decadent coffee drink, I felt some of the coffee drip onto my hand. Crap. They put the lid on in such a way that the mouth of the lid was in line with the seam on the cup, causing leakage when I tip the cup to drink. And not just on my hand.

I now have a nice series of coffee colored spots dribbled down my white linen shirt. Sh*t.

Blog Action Day 2007

Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers everywhere blog about one topic. This year's topic: the environment. I kind of addressed this in a previous post in August, but heck, it's something I'm rather passionate about.

Environment factoid: did you know that Starbucks gives their customers a 10 cent discount if you bring your own cup? And that their cups are not recyclable (they have a "plastic" liner) even though they are made from some recycled fiber? So next time you go for coffee, bring your own cup. It's better for the environment, and that 10 cents may not sound like much, but it does add up. Many coffee shops give discounts when you bring your own cup. Just ask.

And you all can stop making fun of me for bringing a cloth napkin in my lunch now. Seriously. You don't make fun of my (admittedly somewhat extensive) use of tupperware-type containers or for bringing my own non-plastic spoon to eat my yogurt with, so lay off on the napkin grief. Geez.

Rugby World Cup Semi Finals!

This weekend was the Semis for the Rugby World Cup. The losers from the two rounds play in the Bronze final for 3rd place and the winners compete for the Webb Ellis Cup in the Final next weekend.

Saturday was the France vs. England match. I'll be honest, I wanted France to win, purely out of revenge. Yes, I know that Australia screwed up (they just couldn't hold it together in the scrums and their forward pack was a mess), but that didn't stop me from wanting England to lose out of pure spite. At halftime, it looked promising. France was ahead 6 to 5. Like so many other of the matches this World Cup, this game was a kicking game. And neither team's kicker was doing all that well. And while England scored a try, their kicker missed a penalty and several drop goals. Ultimately, though, it was the missed kicks that did France in. France missed all four of their attempted drop goals, and while they did hit their penalty kicks, it wasn't enough. They lost 9 to 14. A low scoring game decided by the kickers. So England gets a chance to win the Cup for the second time. Bummer. Needless to say, I will be cheering against England no matter who they play in the Final. I just want them to lose. Pure revenge and all that.

Which brings me to their opponents in the Final. Argentina put up a good fight, but they were no match for South Africa. The Springboks are one of the best. They played a solid game, scoring multiple tries and getting the conversion points on all of them. Argentina just doesn't have the same breadth of skill and experience. This is the first time ever that Argentina has made it to the Semi Finals in the World Cup. South Africa, on the other hand, consistently reaches the top four. And while Argentina did score a try and several penalty goals, it wasn't enough to beat South Africa and they lost 13 to 37. But kudos to Argentina for doing as well as they have, and no matter what, they are one of the top four teams in the world.

So the Bronze Final (for third place) will be between France and Argentina. This, if you remember, is a repeat of the opening World Cup match the beginning of September. Argentina beat France in a surprising upset then. Needless to say, France is going to do everything they can to prevent that from happening again. Should be an interesting game. And of course, I want Argentina to repeat their victory over France. Go Pumas!

And the big Final championship match is South Africa versus England. Traditionally, South Africa is one of the main rivals of Australia, being one part of the Tri-Nations (the other being New Zealand). So I should be cheering against South Africa. But my desire to see England lose is winning out over the long standing rivalry. I just want England to lose. Period. Petty? Maybe. But I don't particularly care if it's petty. I'll still be sitting on my couch cheering for South Africa to win the Cup next weekend.

Misc. observations and an update

Ever notice how delegating something to someone else to get things off your plate so you can do other things doesn't actually work?

That said, also ever notice how people can surprise you if you're patient enough to figure out a way to explain things so they'll understand? I really need to focus on being more patient and creative in my explanations. It goes a looonngg way.

On to the update. I was out sick on Thursday and Friday. Fever, headache, the whole shebang. Now that the weekend has arrived, it's developed into a miserable head cold. Good thing I bought the BIG box of tissues last time.

It's been awhile since I've been really sick. I've had the occasional migraine, a mild sinus infection, a wicked cold (aka the "conference crud"), a bout of food poisoning, but it had been quite some time since I'd missed more than a day of work because of a fever. I'm not a good sick person. Some people are good sick people. They let people take care of them, they behave, they get lots of rest and they get better.

I am not one of those people.

I hate, really hate being babied when I'm sick. I've been that way my whole life...even as an infant I didn't like being coddled and cuddled when I wasn't well or had fallen down. Frankly, all I want is for the whole world to go away so I can be miserable all by myself. And if you try to take care of me I'll tell you to go away. And if you don't go away, I'll get mean. Seriously. Just leave me alone to be miserable and when I feel human again I'll rejoin the world. And I'm not very good at the resting thing. I get impatient and tend to push myself to get back to things before I'm fully better...which means that either it takes me longer to get better or I relapse. For someone with asthma that has a tendency to develop severe respiratory infections, this is not good.

So I'm quite proud of myself this time that I did rest. I slept. A lot. And I made sure I ate good food and drank lots of water and tea. I didn't push myself, instead, I let myself be sick and what do you know, I actually felt better sooner (there's a lesson in there somewhere...I'm sure of it). OK, so I have a nasty cold now, but it's not in my chest and I'm going to continue to take it easy this weekend. I have rugby to watch (the Semi Finals! England v France today and South Africa v Argentina on Sunday! GO ARGENTINA!) and ice hockey to watch. I'm going to be good and drink lots of tea and rest and not feel bad about taking an extra nap this afternoon. And hopefully I'll be fully human again by Monday when I have to go back to work.

In happy news, fall has finally arrived. I finally feel confident enough that it's not going to get so unbearably warm again that I took the window A/C unit out of my bedroom window this morning (my one chore for the weekend, I promise). I have windows open all over my house and it feels wonderful to let in all that fresh cool air. I love fall. It is, perhaps, my favorite season. The beautiful sunny days that you can walk around outside in a t-shirt but the evenings/nights are cool enough to need a jacket. That cool and crisp feel to the world. The kind of weather that you want to be outside because it's so perfect, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. It's invigorating. I even put the quilt back on my bed, and it felt so good to snuggle up under it the past few nights.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my tea and my TV are waiting for me downstairs with my dog.

GO Argentinian Pumas!!

As you all know, I had to placed all my hopes in Argentina to do well in their game today versus Scotland after my Australian Wallabies crashed and burned against England.

I was not let down. My hopes have been restored. Argentina beat Scotland 19 to 13. It was a tight game, but the Pumas held on. They survived the knock-out round. Yes!!

So next weekend Argentina is playing in the Semi-finals against South Africa. The SEMI-FINALS, people. It's amazing. So whether they win or lose, they are one of the top 4 teams in the world. If they win, they'll go on to play in the championship final. If they lose, they'll play for 3rd place in the Bronze final against the other Semi-final losing team. This is historic and incredible. This has definitely been an interesting Rugby World Cup. And it's not even over yet.

England plays France on Saturday. And then Argentina plays South Africa on Sunday. You all know where I will be. Parked in front of either my TV (if they games are aired live) or my computer watching the action minute by minute.

This week is going to feel very very long. I can already tell.

Rugby shocker

OMG.

England just defeated Australia, knocking them out of the World Cup tournament. Australia was up 10 to 6 at half time, but apparently England's fly-half is an excellent kicker (kicking 4 goals (3 pts. each) during the match) and Australia ultimately lost 10 to 12.

What happened to my Wallabies?!?!! My team has been eliminated. How could this happen? Why, Australia? Why? You let England defeat you...you were supposed to win to pay England back for beating you in the 2003 Final.

I now place all my hopes on Argentina. Tomorrow they play Scotland.

Wow. Just wow. This was not expected.

UPDATE: And France has ousted New Zealand. This is historic, people. Historic. New Zealand was one of the favorites in the tournament. So now England and France will meet in the Semi-finals next weekend.

Again, wow. Really really not expected. This Rugby World Cup has taken some very interesting turns.

Rugby World Cup Quarter-finals!

We are now through the pool phase of the tournament. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina all came out on top. The second place teams were England, Fiji, Scotland and France.

The competition for first and second place in Pool D was tight. France, Argentina and Ireland all had a shot at first and second place. Ultimately, France beat Georgia, securing second place. It came down to the match between Argentina and Ireland. I was torn. Who do I cheer for? My family background is very strongly Scotch-Irish, so there's a certain amount of loyalty I feel for both Scotland and Ireland. But I have an affinity for South America, specifically Argentina, after years of study and living in Buenos Aires for a bit. Ultimately I cheered for Argentina. The desire to see an underdog team do well beat out the family heritage loyalty. They've never made it this far in a Rugby World Cup, and it's very very exciting.

The Quarter-final matches are this weekend. This is a knock-out round. If you lose, that's it, your quest for the Cup is over. The slate for the weekend is as follows:
Australia v. England
New Zealand v. France
South Africa v. Fiji
Argentina v. Scotland

Well, I feel fairly safe predicting that the Tri-Nations teams (Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) will win and be moving on to the Semis. And my predictions are based on history. Of the last 5 cups, one of those three teams has won four of them. And unfortunately I don't think Fiji has a chance against South Africa. But France and England should give their opponents a run for their money which will make for some exciting rugby. The Australia-England game could be described as a grudge match. England beat Australia to win the cup in 2003. So Australia is out for blood (well, at least to redeem themselves).

And once again, my family heritage loyalty is being pitted against the underdog. Crap. But again, I think my desire to see the underdog do well is going to beat out that loyalty again. Regardless, the game will probably be close. Argentina has won all their matches, but the point spreads have not been large, creating some serious nail-biting moments.

So you all know what I will be doing this weekend. I'll be watching rugby, and probably doing my fair share of yelling at my TV. And hockey started up again this week (go Detroit Red Wings!) so I have a fantasy team to manage. In between matches, I'll be working on refining my roster. I already have one player out on injured reserve...not a good sign. I need to fix that this weekend.

Weekend in NYC, part 3

First, a note about Aussie versus the balcony/porch. If you remember from our last trip, it took Aussie all weekend to work up the courage to go out onto CH's balcony, even if one or both of us was out there. Well, she's still afraid of the edge, but she did voluntarily go out onto balcony, and at least once all by herself. She still won't get close to the edge, always staying about a foot (at least) from the edge and stretching her neck out as far as possible to peer over at the street below. But she made herself right at home, spending much of the weekend lounging on the couch. Not that that's any different than what she does at home on the weekends, mind you.

Sunday we got up after sleeping in a bit and grabbed coffee from Think, but once again couldn't go anywhere until certain key Rugby World Cup games were completed. Sunday morning were the pivotal pool D games (the only pool completely undecided going into the weekend) so I had to find out what happened. Again, there was much cursing, luckily ultimately much cheering (YAY for Argentina!!) and again, CH dished out a fair amount of grief. Fortunately, I had the chance to dish it back this time, as he was setting up his fantasy football team which also involved cursing and madly checking scores and statistics. We did snack on leftovers from the India Bread Company during all of this. All I have to say is their stuff is just as good reheated or cold. Anyplace that has food that's just as good as leftovers as it is fresh deserves a medal of honor in my book.

Once all sports related events were settled, we headed to Borders to take advantage of the Educators Appreciation weekend. They offer 25% off all regularly priced books, CDs and DVDs for educators (including librarians!) as long as you have your valid id with you. This is an excellent deal, especially for things like children's books, which tend to be expensive. And I needed a baby gift for a friend that's due in November. Given that CH has the same book addiction I do, it wasn't hard to convince him to go wander around Borders for a couple of hours so I could pick up a picture book or two.

Our next stop was a bigger meal. I think this would have been called what my family referred to as "lunner" growing up, between lunch and dinner, but too big for a snack. We had both heard about a place called A Salt & Battery via the Food Network. Bobby Flay did a Throwdown episode where he challenged these guys to a "who makes better" fish 'n' chips competition, and these guys beat Bobby Flay. This place does truly authentic fish 'n' chips, complete with British beverages (beer or soda). Inside there's the order counter, a counter around the edge of the front of the shop with 7 stools, and a bench outside reserved for customers. No tables. They offer a delicious dill dip, malt vinegar, ketchup and salt to have with your fish 'n' chips, as well as a variety of British sides including mushy peas and homemade (savory) pies (I must try the steak and mushroom next time). And OMG this is fish 'n' chips to die for! Truly authentically British, crispy, greasy, hot, and delicious. Perfectly cooked fish and chips. They even had Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic "real" ginger flavor) which made my day. And, get this, for dessert they have DEEP FRIED Mars bars!! Of course...we were too full to eat a Mars bar this time after all the deep fried fish and potato goodness. CH got the large cod bites, and I got a piece of cod (the small, which is still 4 oz. of fish!), and we split a large order of chips. Topped it all with salt and malt vinegar, and it was what I'd describe as just about the perfect meal.

Right next door they have a shop with all British products called Tea & Sympathy. Now I know where to go to get my British groceries (like Christmas pud and good chocolate including a selection real Cadbury sweets) and they even have a tea shop that does high tea and traditional British food. Brilliant! I do believe I'll be making trips back there.

Our bellies stuffed full with fish 'n' chips and plans for a return visit (must try that deep fried Mars bar), we headed back to the apartment so I could get on the road at a decent hour. One last trip through the park with the dog, and Aussie and I were off on our way back to Philly. The trip home ironically had more traffic than the trip there, purely because they're doing some construction on the NJ Turnpike.

Sigh...every time I go to New York City, I feel like I've only scratched the surface of all the good food and things to do there. And I always end up adding more to my existing list than I cross off. There's just so much to see and do. And again, thanks to CH for hosting me and my dog and being excellent company on the various food and activity adventures.