Tis Done and Done

After a frantic morning of putting stuff in boxes without regard to value, finally a bare desk was staring up at me, calanderless stark walls, just as I found it some years ago. A working life was neatly packaged into 12 boxes, and with the help of some folks, it was stowed in the MOMSTER for transport yet again to the digs.

A string of good byes to those around and then a visit to the nice security department where i was "de-briefed" (no snappy comments please) and turned in my badges. There was little remorse at handing over the CAC card - good bye access to the NMCI chamber of horrors, so long Activeclient, adios plain text, arrivederici "are you sure this is from a trusted source? That wasn't so bad. Then it was out to the MOMSTER for one final act of separation. The closer i got to the gate in the stickerless MOMSTER, the lighter i felt! Hey, this ain't so bad!

So here i sit upon my bed, laptop on lap, looking out the window to a gray sky and water, a glass of Sauvignon Blanc at my side, and you know what? I don't regret not having stickers on my car. face forward..

A quick thank you to all the people who took time to respond to this morning's feeder with very nice things to say.

Probably enough about the transition, early reports are that it is going well..and we'll try to veer out of the life lane back to some good old stuff about food..

CD Lunch

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had an opportunity to have lunch at CD cafe. As I've commented before, lunch is a nice time to get a feel for a place you might want to consider for dinner. Of course, CD has established itself in the firmament of Solomons and Southern Maryland dining spots, so they're doing something right. Despite that, I will never forgive them for not having a possibility for making reservations, instead willing to consign serious diners to sit in an outside hallway, awaiting their turn, looking at venetian blinds of closed dentist offices and stock prints on the wall. It's a model that apparently keeps them in business, but i still don't like it. Not uniformly embraced in fine dining establishments.

Reservations don't seem to be a problem at lunch, although on one visit we fought for a table at 11:50, while a second visit was greeted with a "sit wherever you want". As most will know, there are several closely packed tables(don't discuss that tryst here) all affording a nice view of the traffic onto and from the Solomons. The focus should be within, not without.

Besides the standard luncheon selections of salads, sandwiches, pastas, and plated entrees, there are always two or three specials, and on both occasions these were recited from crib notes, with fairly extensive descriptions,so by the last you forgot the first. None the less, on each visit, the food has been satisfying and well prepared. On the latest visit I opted for a crab cake sandwich with a side salad. The cake arrived, of generous proportions, on a Kaiser roll. As an aside, has anybody ever eaten a crab cake sandwich as a sandwich? with the cake and roll, it's probably around 3 or 4 inches thick and pretty well unable to be eaten by the human mouth. Mostly you park the top bun, and eat the cake with a fork off the bottom bun. Why don't the just offer a single cake and forget the "sandwich" gimmick? Nobody eats it that way. Today, the lower half of the bun served to absorb the over abundance of the dressing on the side salad. The salad was good, with almonds, mandarin orange wedges, cored cucumber wedges over some greens that were just past crisp. As for the cake, it was voluminous with plenty of crab. There was some other seasoning i couldn't identify, but it wasn't old bay. A little cup of green goddess (?) was supplied that was okay.

Would go back for lunch, but without a reservation, dinner is out for the feeder. Respect me,I'll respect you.

With Apolgies to Mr. Huxley

Welcome to a Brave New World. Thank you for visiting. I hope you will enjoy the experience. I suppose there are many, many, visitors that are more cyber savvy than I, but this is a start. If you would like to have any new post dumped in your inbox as usual, do the "subscribe via e-mail" thingy on the right. Comments are available at the bottom of any post which i can edit.. If you do that, be sure to use a call sign not your real name..we'll all learn together..suggestions are welcome

With Apologies to Mr. Dickens

(Thursday 19 February) was the best of days, it was the worst of days, it was a day of wisdom, it was a day of foolishness, and then a day to remember. It started out with a trip to the donut vendor at O'dark thirty, perhaps my last visit at least to supply a hungry test team with the dose of sugar to start their day. I have become quite friendly with the owner of the shop, and have learned much about Indian culture and food from him. So it was with some sorrow on both our parts that we realized things would change. He is a very warm and caring person. I hope to be able to visit him in retirement. Anyway, armed with the usual 4 dozen sinkers, I headed for the base with pounding head (the "worst of days" part - we had "dinner out" the previous evening). Opened the door of "the trailers", turned on the lights, got the hallowed tray, and arranged the sugary disks in their usual attractive display (presentation is everything, even with a lowly donut). One chore accomplished and was looking forward to start the "best" part.


Morning meetings were endured, and then I headed north to keep a lucky appointment with an eye-doc to update the specs before, well, um, okay, company benefits ceased. Arrived in Waldorf, located said optometrist's office only to find "closed until 2pm for lunch" on the door. After a ten minute wait in the chill was admitted and checked in and had a seat. Was interested to note that the usual "doctor's office" magazines of 5 years ago were mostly in large print editions. Nice touch. Anyway, was finally taken back to the office where the astounding machine that produces the "is two better than one?" dance occurs till you finally settle on "okay, i guess that works". Then some drops were produced with "This will dilate your pupils for your exam". Hey! hold it lady! I have a function this evening (best of days) for which I need to be able to see. Aaaah, no problem, couple of hours, you'll be normal. Okay fine, so settled onto the group (nothing) bench (not Arlo's) and watched some very nice prints dissolve into blurriness. Finally the doc saw me, informed me I had fledgling cataracts (see you in a year, buddy). and out I go.

Upon exiting the office, I immediately knew I was in trouble (you'll be able to drive, just can't read a damn thing) when the sunlight almost brought me to my knees. I will spare you the details of the drive back to "the park", but it took quite the concentration (day of foolishness). I have never, never, experimented with LSD, but I think I came close. Gee! Look at those halos! (worst of days again).

After a quick change of duds to Dress For Dinner, MFO and I attended a retirement dinner in my honor (imagine that), hosted by the local test team. I must have attended (a lot) of these, but when it's actually for you, it somehow transcends skepticism and curmudgeonly comments. I was very touched by the fact that people would actually come out for me. The proper amount of roasting (who needs a Chia Homer?) was coupled with some very meaningful gifts for me. It was nice to share the evening with people who i have lived with almost more than MFO. It will be hard to leave them, they are almost family. It was the day to remember. I cannot thank you enough.

The Red and The White

As some might remember, I am working my way though the New Yorker book "Secret Ingredients" which contains a selection of articles culled from the New Yorker magazine relating to foodie things. After slogging through an article giving me more information on Tofu than i would want to know. I have gotten to the section called 'The Pour" which deals with drinks and wines. There is a nice piece by Roger Angell on Martinis, but what caught my attention was an article of the same title as above by Calvin Trillin. who is becoming one of my favorite food writers. The lead sentence reads : Before we get into the queston of whether experienced wine drinkers can actually tell the difference between red wine and white wine, ..." which certainly grabs your attention. While a seemingly frivolous statement, the article goes on to relate an alleged test from UC Davis where red and white wines are put in black glasses, and so called experts are called upon to decide whether the contents are red or white. upon further investigation, it turns out that "the test" may be urban legend. but the subject gets some serious treatment.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that so-called expterts get 3 or 4 out of seven correct. A repetition of the test with representative varietals resulted in a better average. An interesting concept. Maybe a test you could do at home.