A flying visit

We were very pleased to see Miranda this last week on a flying visit.  In practice, what with her trip to New York to attend her third wedding of the month (see photo, left) and our bridge tournament, I hardly got to see her at all.  But she'll be back soon :)

By all accounts, the wedding was a very fancy affair, with the reception at Cipriani, 42nd Street.  The Amelia Earhart gang is now almost all married (in some cases to each other). 

Now, she's off to Nicaragua to do more rural veterinary service (a.k.a. spaying and neutering).  I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time.  Her Spanish is reportedly pretty darn good now, though I dare say the Limeño dialect is quite different from that of Managua.

For those of you with a healthy skepticism of the things that we do here on Earth, and especially in the United States, you might enjoy my new blog: Letter to Europa.  It's where I rant about the zany things we do on earth.  But heed the warning: politics, religion and other such subjects may be treated with all due disrespect.  By contrast, this blog will continue to be family-friendly and, going forward, rant free.  So far the new blog has received one thumbs up and one thumbs down.  Be the first to follow and/or comment.  There should be a new entry every Monday morning if all goes according to plan.

Un buon pranzo

Or, as my former colleague Paul Tissandier would say in his inimitable French accent, A good dinner where dinner rhymes with thin air.

Kim and I continued our punctuated wedding anniversary celebrations with a fancy Italian dinner at Il Casale in Belmont,  highly recommended by the Boston Globe and, more importantly, by our gourmand friend Gloria.

My one deviation from a pure Italian experience was a draft Blue Hills IPA which was the best beer I've had in more than a year.  While, I've not been drinking much beer lately (since the fateful Reno trip), I haven't yet taken beer off the list of topics this blog supposedly covers.  The insalata semplice was really good, though not exactly simple.

From i primi I chose gnocchi, something I nearly always choose if it's available.  They were very tasty, if somewhat tired looking.  But I know how hard it is to get gnocchi both to look alert and also to taste good.  From among i secondi I decided on the trout, a big hit with the reviewers.  It was really excellent.

Fortunately, we had left a smidgeon of room for i dolci.  I ordered something called bűnet which I admit I've never heard of before.  It was a thick kind of custard (or a very thick blancmange), known over here as flan, with a robust chocolate flavor with caramel sauce.

Their menu is a strange mix of Italian and English, I must say.  I detect a certain degree of Harvard MBA influence here.  It must be a tough choice: use all English words and lose the sense of authenticity; use all Italian words and have the waiters playing translator all evening.  But occasionally there are odd combinations such as tomato sugo instead of sugo di pomodoro or simply tomato juice.

But the evening was very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend Il Casale to anyone who doesn't mind spending well north of $50 per head (or should that be pro capite?).

And while I'm on a culinary theme, I should also note that there was one restaurant in Saratoga Springs that I especially liked: Tiznow.  The fairly large dining room was entirely empty while the four of us were there, so we get pretty good service.  The food was very good too.

World Cup and Bridge Ups and Downs

Here we are playing Germany in the round of 16.  It's tense.  The problem is that it isn't the final, nor the semis, nor even the quarter final.  One of these teams will be going home after today.

Yet, I think the World Cup is better for all that.  The Europeans no longer dominate as they once did.  All five South American teams made it through to the round of 16 and one each from Central America (Mexico) and North America (USA).  There are two teams from Asia (South Korea and Japan)!  Only one team from Africa (they probably deserve better) and six from Europe.

It's half time and already it's the usual heartbreak for England.  An erroneous offside call in the first few minutes robbed Rooney of a chance to score and then there was the equalizing goal that was disallowed even though it was obvious from all angles that the ball went into the goalmouth.

Meanwhile, we had a great time at the bridge tournament in Sturbridge.  Some of the highlights were culinary.  A great dinner at Bocado in Worcester on Friday and then a terrific picnic at a lake cottage (no mosquitoes!).  Pixie was in her element.  Who knew that she was a party dog?  She loved it.  With 30 people, you'd think she'd have plenty opportunity to bark.  But she never did.  She let everyone pet her.

There were also some highlights (Kim/Donna won a side game simultaneously with my and my teammates winning a single-session Swiss).  On Thursday, I was part of a team that placed in an open Swiss.  But yesterday's bridge was unfortunately one of the low-lights.  I had a good time playing with my partner Peter but the bridge gods were definitely not on our side (see my bridge blog: Sometimes You're the Windshield...).

A day at the beach

What a wonderful day we had!  We went to Rexhame beach in Marshfield, one of only two Massachusetts that allow dogs during the summer days.  The dogs must be leashed, although they don't specify that the leash has to be tied to anything at the other end!  Several beachgoers, including ourselves, took advantage of this slovenly wording (as W.S. Gilbert put it) to allow our dogs a little more freedom of movement than they otherwise might get.  All five of us enjoyed the day very much.  The photo (play "spot the dogs") shows the other four under our new parasol, which worked brilliantly.

Puga had great fun chasing a gull (greater black backed?), including a (leash-less) swim of about 10 yards seaward.  Here (left) she is plucking up courage for the chase.  As you can see, this part of the beach was not at all crowded.  Here, we are looking towards Scituate.

And here (right) are Kim and Pixie (the latter in her favorite place).  Last evening, we watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua (well, we skipped a bit).  But we realized that Pixie is a dead ringer for Chloe.

We will celebrate "Fathers' Day" on Wednesday when Miranda returns and, with Will, we watch England's last gasp effort to get into the World Cup knockout rounds.  They will be playing Slovenia, having tied the U.S. and Algeria, the best French team in the event (17 of the 23 were born in France).  It should be an easy win, but it won't be.  So far, the team has been pathetic.  They couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding!  What with ineptitude in the goal and middle-aged torpor among the strikers (yes, Mr. Rooney, that's you), England is embarrassing us all.

But we now have some good bridge to look forward to (K & I will be on the same team but at different tables).  And we're planning a little belated celebration of June 12th at a much recommended authentic Italian trattoria in Belmont (or should that be Belmonte?).

We went up to Saratoga but our team didn't win

I just returned from a very enjoyable week of bridge with my friend and relatively new bridge partner, Steve.  We stayed in his cottage in Stockbridge (near Tanglewood) and thence commuted to Saratoga Springs (about 75 minutes).  I enjoyed hearing Steve practicing his viola while working on my computer.  Steve was a very generous and welcoming host.

Although we enjoyed playing together, we didn't have much bridge success.  So it goes.  We had a very tough time finding teammates.  Why is it so difficult?  Well, I think I know but it's a long story and I won't go into it here.  We started on Monday evening with a non-stellar pairs game, then peaked Wednesday and Thursday in team games that eventually were unsuccessful.  Finally, we played quite dreadfully on Friday after which, as planned, we went home. 

Good performance at the bridge table depends on a number of factors: Bridge knowledge/experience, (technical) Sharpness, emotional/mental Readiness, Teammates (actual or, in a pairs game, virtual), and plain old Luck.  When all of the variable factors (SETL) come together, any really competent pair (i.e. with a decent amount of factor B) can win or place in an event.  But when they're all wrong it can be awful.  Our first two sessions were low on L; T was a problem for some of the sessions in between.  On the final day, we a little worn out I think and suffered from both E and S. 

But, here's the good news.  We never really got fed up with each other.  We both made some bad decisions at the table, and we weren't always exactly on the same page.  Overall, we had remarkably few partnership misunderstandings.

The big disappointment of the week was that the Celtics lost the NBA finals.  I'm not much of a basketball fan, but I do like to see Boston teams win.  What I saw of the game (most of the final half) was shocking.  The refereeing was really bad (for us, that is).  Basically, our opinion (backed up by most of the totally independent fans in the bar where we watched) was that the officials won the game for the Lakers, not the players.

Speaking of officials, did you see the pathetic job they did in the US/Slovenia game?  Now, you know that I'm not a die hard fan of the US soccer team, although I do like to see them win (as long as they don't beat England of course).  And I like to see smaller, less powerful nations such as Slovenia (a place I've actually been to) do well.  But the officials made two blunders, each of which made a one goal difference in the game.  Instead of winning 3-1, the US drew 2-2.  The second Slovenian goal was off-side but not called.  On the third US goal (what a second half they had!), the whistle was blown and the goal disallowed for no apparent reason.  We still don't know what the infraction was!

Finally, my title refers to that wonderful song by Carly Simon, You're so vain (incidentally, the identity of the vain one is still not really known). Saratoga Springs is a really nice small city with a very wealthy and comfortable feel to it.  Lots of good restaurants in the center of town, including Tiznow, at which we had a very enjoyable meal (we were the only diners).  I may write up my specific thoughts somewhere else like TripAdvisor. 

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won
Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and...

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't You? Don't you?

Short and sweet

Our shortest foster dog project was completed in slightly over a week.  Kim collected Osito (little bear) from Great Dog Rescue after his two day quarantine at noon on Friday, May 28th and his new family picked him up from us on Friday June 4th.  I didn't get much in the way of photos of him, but this is perhaps the best one (right).  His face is a bit of a mess, and still healing, after some problems before we got him.

He's a very exuberant, cheerful dog.  Loves to go out (destination immaterial), especially if it involves a ride in the car with the back windows half-way down.  Nobody knows for sure how old he is but he behaves like a puppy so is probably around two years old, or something like that.  He's gone to a very nice family in Stoneham, first time dog owners, but they seem to have done their homework and know what they're getting into.

Meanwhile, after six and a half weeks, oil is still gushing, though possibly at a slower rate, from the hole in the bottom of the gulf of Mexico.  Are you as surprised as I am that these deep-water oil projects were authorized with no credible plan for how to fix it if things went awry?  Is that because the laws in international waters are lax?  Or, as I suspect, the oil companies have paid off the key decision makers along the way?  After all, the only casualties are a few seabirds and some fisherman from states that don't have a lot of political significance.  There's an excellent interactive map that shows the extent of the oil at the NY Times web site.

In the world-wide bridge game on Friday (anyone can enter), the good news was that we managed to beat 2783 other pairs.  The bad news was that 1954 pairs beat us.   In other words, we didn't distinguish ourselves.

Pixie (Madison) is still with us.  She is really beginning to fit into the family ways: for example she's more interested in walking in the woods.  She still barks at strangers but she quickly gets used to them.  When Miranda was here for the weekend (she was an attendee at one wedding and a bridesmaid at another), Pixie became very friendly with her.  I've tried to publicize her plight on the Carlisle internet bulletin board, but so far, nothing.