A) I haven't been a thrift shop shopper for a long time, but I grew tired of my guests drinking red wine out of champagne flutes (because I have lots of flutes and martinis, but no goblets). So I stopped off at both ye Gyddwyll and ye Bymmeryngs and ended up with seven balloon goblets in two patterns for less than $10.00.
1) To shake things up a bit, early Saturday afternoon I went to the local paper's travel expo. I don't know what, if anything, I expected besides travel literature, but the place was crawling with retirees, not all of them light on their feet. And it reminded me that a) Lord willin' and the crick don't rise I'll be retired in just over ten years, and b) I really do want to get my serious travel out of the way before I'm 70. So I have 15.5 years to go . . .
That building under the crane was where Anthony's Pier 4 used to be.
2) Walking through the Seaport District en route to the Athenaeum . . . so much new construction since I was last there. I don't recognize all this glass and steel as Bostonian. It could be anywhere in the world!
3) I'd intended to stay in town through dinner, but finally had to recognize that I needed a NAP. So back on the Ligne d'Orange I went to snatch 40 winks in 45 minutes before heading right back into town. #oldfart #agingactressyesterdaysglamorqueen
4) Then it was time to dine at Jacob Wirth with my friend David. Those of us who care about Old Boston have a renewed interest in Jake Wirth's after the news story of it being up for sale. Established in 1868, it's still a German beer hall, but y'know . . . people just don't eat sausage and pig's feet like they used to. Anyway, we had a good dinner of "pork tenerlion" ["I'm not making this up, you know!"]. David consumed an enormous liter of dark beer, schooling me on the difference between a stein and a tankard, while I managed two manhattans in reasonable succession.
Of course there were references to The Student Prince.
4a) David ran into a couple of his many musical friends - they're everywhere.
5) Home before 8:30ish, I got my second wind and committed Acts of Domesticity for a couple hours listening to "You Must Remember This" podcast episodes. Listening to the story of Liz Taylor pulling Monty Clift's teeth out of his throat after the car accident . . . *shudder*.
6) Managed to get today's column published before 11:15 AM, so the day wasn't a total waste. (I need to feel like I've accomplished something by 11 AM to feel I haven't wasted the day.) This also means I haven't missed a twice-weekly publish date this year. :-)
7) In the early afternoon the new second-floor neighbors came to call, a nice young heterosexual married couple with a young woman who will be taking their second bedroom. Genuinely nice, outdoorsy folks who play soccer, don't smoke, and who don't have children. I think it's going to work.
8) I fully intended to film an Etiquetteer video this afternoon, but was disturbed to find I had no white vermouth, a necessary ingredient.
9) In the early evening, once all the laundry had been put away, I turned my attention to making a pot of chikhirtma for the first time since I lived in the North End. My kitchen being what it is, that called for a few substitutions, like celery and garlic for a large onion, cheesecloth for a fine strainer, and nothing for cinnamon. The final product was not too bad.
9a) Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was discovering that I did have coriander on my spice rack.
9b) "Have silver that shines or none at all!" declared Emily Post. During the initial stage of the soup cooking, I was able to polish my dinner forks to a palpable difference. Some of them had decidedly gotten beyond the "Perhaps it's just a shadow" stage.
10) Speaking of The Student Prince, someone has put it on Yewtybbe:
10a) And . . . it's a musical of sexual harrassment!
10b) Daddy always liked The Student Prince (not because the Prince harasses Kathy, of course, but because of the music. I sang "Golden Days" at the 50th anniversary dinner because he liked it . . . la, the memories of a Sunday night, "looking back through memory's haze."