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Dec. 16th, 2006 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupI took the day off yesterday so that we could drive around looking for a bagel place. As often happens here, "that place that you kind of remembered from who knows when" has disappeared from Atwells Avenue in the time since you drove around looking for that sort of thing. And as so often happens, this discovery is made two hours into an empty morning stomach... I must always then explain to the Mrs. that hunger makes me grumpy and it is not yet another example of the chip I carry around on my shoulder against the world. And this is best demonstrated over the good coffee and decent bagel that we finally procured. Really, all I need to feel better about the world is some food in my stomach. It's true.
In a lot of ways we are still spoiled from exposure to Baltimore. The great Mexican place. The great Indian place. The great, cheap Greek place. The Bel-Loc diner... I could go on and on. It somehow is hard to believe that these places don't exist everywhere, but they really don't. R.I. has many things going for it -- most notably, in my opinion, the best Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the Eastern Time Zone -- but among the things it lacks are good bagel, Mexican, and Greek places (we need to drive up to Greek Corner in Somerville soon), and the Indian places are few, expensive, and packed. So we spend a lot of time trying to decide on unimpressive dinner options. Not that there's anything so bad about them, but we really had it good in Baltimore, salad day nostalgia aside.
Tonight we just bagged it all in favor of lime chips and refried and giving Jo a heavy dose of hanukkah... which is the other reason I took yesterday off: we did the kid's program at "the other shul" and then they had a big dinner and program at our shul last night, so we have been enjoying the season in a low-key way. Deferred gratification is easier than at this time last year, but still not easy. On the other hand, she spent about a half an hour amusing herself with a few walnuts (squirrel in wintertime/hen with a nest, or both, since they're both entwined in this "Lost Chick" seven-minute 1935 MGM cartoon that she watches three times a day). Or, literally, a piece of string. This kid is not hard to entertain.
We find ourselves wondering again about children's multimedia. The "Cartoon Alley" series on TMC is still running neck and neck with Oswald, and I'm concerned at times by the fact that the former has absolutely no educational value. But then the talk of the playgroup is this Miracle Pets! show that the Mrs. and I previewed yesterday... apparently now all kids shows must have kids voices and feature singing about "teamwork" every other minute... truly Chairman Mao would be proud. So we blanch at this sort of thing. Remind me sometime to post about Schoolhouse Rock, which has been dethroned after a couple of weeks -- not without its problems, but are we just biased in thinking that kids media from when we were growing up was much easier to take and healthier on every level?
Anyway, things are going along pretty well, all told. I'm not traveling for a few weeks, Henry has four teeth but has not yet figured out how to crawl (we're in for it when he does), and Jo is near her peak of happiness. We still need a new roof, but nothing's perfect.
Tomorrow we go to this -- and as anyone who knows me knows, this is for me, and not for the kids (or, more precisely, how great it is to have kids as the excuse to see something like this)...
In a lot of ways we are still spoiled from exposure to Baltimore. The great Mexican place. The great Indian place. The great, cheap Greek place. The Bel-Loc diner... I could go on and on. It somehow is hard to believe that these places don't exist everywhere, but they really don't. R.I. has many things going for it -- most notably, in my opinion, the best Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the Eastern Time Zone -- but among the things it lacks are good bagel, Mexican, and Greek places (we need to drive up to Greek Corner in Somerville soon), and the Indian places are few, expensive, and packed. So we spend a lot of time trying to decide on unimpressive dinner options. Not that there's anything so bad about them, but we really had it good in Baltimore, salad day nostalgia aside.
Tonight we just bagged it all in favor of lime chips and refried and giving Jo a heavy dose of hanukkah... which is the other reason I took yesterday off: we did the kid's program at "the other shul" and then they had a big dinner and program at our shul last night, so we have been enjoying the season in a low-key way. Deferred gratification is easier than at this time last year, but still not easy. On the other hand, she spent about a half an hour amusing herself with a few walnuts (squirrel in wintertime/hen with a nest, or both, since they're both entwined in this "Lost Chick" seven-minute 1935 MGM cartoon that she watches three times a day). Or, literally, a piece of string. This kid is not hard to entertain.
We find ourselves wondering again about children's multimedia. The "Cartoon Alley" series on TMC is still running neck and neck with Oswald, and I'm concerned at times by the fact that the former has absolutely no educational value. But then the talk of the playgroup is this Miracle Pets! show that the Mrs. and I previewed yesterday... apparently now all kids shows must have kids voices and feature singing about "teamwork" every other minute... truly Chairman Mao would be proud. So we blanch at this sort of thing. Remind me sometime to post about Schoolhouse Rock, which has been dethroned after a couple of weeks -- not without its problems, but are we just biased in thinking that kids media from when we were growing up was much easier to take and healthier on every level?
Anyway, things are going along pretty well, all told. I'm not traveling for a few weeks, Henry has four teeth but has not yet figured out how to crawl (we're in for it when he does), and Jo is near her peak of happiness. We still need a new roof, but nothing's perfect.
Tomorrow we go to this -- and as anyone who knows me knows, this is for me, and not for the kids (or, more precisely, how great it is to have kids as the excuse to see something like this)...
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snobbo!
Date: 2006-12-18 03:55 pm (UTC)Srsly, try to get "Vegan" food in Mexico where real Mexicans eat real Mexican food out of cauldrons where a goat has been boiling for twenty four hours intestines and all... that's aunthentico May-heeko.
Re: snobbo!
Date: 2006-12-18 07:11 pm (UTC)I know some who say Mexican food is way, way better with lard, but I was never aware of the difference. Of course, I was never aware that I was eating lard either.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-18 03:33 am (UTC)Indian = The Ambassador (insert drooling Homer Simpson noise here)
Greek = Samos
Mexican = Holy Frijoles
The Bel-Loc = The Bel-Loc
And I didn't even mention Paul Chen's or the Helmand... also Funk's on Eastern Ave, which I think was gone the last time we were there... and on and on..