arse poetica

Taqueria + Bistro = Happiness

What a great night filled w/ the baaaad jokes and easy company of our pals JM and Pablo. We started the evening w/ amazing soups and tasty tacos from Taqueria Lopez, one of the many highly regarded taquerias 'round these parts. TaqLopez was the first stop on what will become our culinary tour of the local taquerias, regarded highly enough to be lauded in Gourmet magazine, no less (no link, hmmph). Can't wait to sample the fares.

Our Spanish is so miserable that in attempts to order two draft cervezas we ended up w/ two of the biggest beers I'd ever seen. A liter each! We have got to get it together for Round 2 of the Taqueria Tour. Jeez.

We followed our delicious meal w/ Nightcap #1 at Vin Rouge, followed by Nightcap #2 (and world famous homemade cookies from Pablo's mom -- well, they should be world famous) at Pablo's. Fat-n-happy, yessirree.

Some fuzzy pix from Vin Rouge, which is probably our favorite spot in Durham. Tasty morsels, great service, great vibe -- lively w/o being loud, and the exact right amount of light. Cozy.

At my pal JM's suggestion, I had a French 75. Yummy!

Better Red Than Dead

My fave pic from db's marathon TailgatePalooza w/ his college pals this past weekend. Not pictured: unholy amounts of fried chicken, 70,000 rednecks.

I ask you, really, what is an RV without a satellite dish on top?

[This one goes out to Dougie!]

Peter Bjorn and John Blog Post

They even rock harder in my fantasy homeland! My pal Pablo and I ran out to catch Peter Bjorn and John's *sold out* show at the Cradle last night. And we don't care about the young folks talkin' 'bout the young style....

I thought Pablo and I would have a cool, relaxing evening and be carried away on a cloud of bright, cheery pop. Delightful pop it was, but more of the post-punk power trio variety. PB&J came.to.rock. Yeeooow!

They teased us w/ an electronica instrumental of "Young Folks" and just as we were lulled into thinking that some sweet melodic and slightly more sitar-ish version of the song would be their opener, they came on stage and launched into the rockingest intro I have had the pleasure to see in a long while ("Let's Call It Off"). God.Damn. John's military-precision drumming... Whoooo!

And as if I weren't already incredibly biased toward Sweden, they thanked us early in the set, saying it was great to be back in a "real rock club" because they'd just come from the VMAs in Las Vegas and it was "very weird." Yeah, the Cradle rocks! Even when I lived in NY and LA, I missed the Cradle. You can't beat the authentic rock club experience.

Highlights for me were "Paris 2004," "Amsterdam" (introduced as being about "friendship, love, dogs, and...stuff"), "Young Folks" (dueted w/ Meg from opening act The Clientele), the third song (I think), which they introduced as being from an EP that we'd never heard and which is one of those Reason To Live songs (must find this song), and the show closer, "Objects of My Affection," which rocked so hard and so right that I'll be able to ride the fumes of that for at least a week and a half.

Friends, if PB&J are coming anywhere near your town, go see them. Don't question it; just grab a friend and go! I have a crush on all of them, not least because they have serious Rock! Moves! They're precision musicians, funny, clever, have a great rapport w/ the audience, obviously love what they're doing. They put everything into it. Peter (on the right in the pix) lost at least 10 lbs last night, I'm sure.

[Post title is a riff on PB&J's habit of very helpfully labeling things what they are, as with the bass drum in the first pic. Sadly, they sold out of the t-shirt I wanted, which read (again, helpfully): Peter Bjorn and John T-shirt. Ha. V. nice use of Helvetica, btw.]

Human Doings

Odd sign I saw this afternoon in the bar where db and I met our pals JM and PM for a quick drink to celebrate JM's happy news. Odder still: the rednecks who gave db grief for taking a picture of the sign. Whatevs, dudes. How do they know we're not going to spread the word and help DR out? Pfft.

What a day. Maybe this will be a public service announcement after all. Ready? Do yoga! My pal PM and I did yoga this afternoon, and everything about it was wonderful. Walking out of work at 11:45 a.m. and across campus under the gorgeous trees and the warm sun (nice and warm for the first few minutes because my office is cold), being in a beautiful space, stretching and breathing and moving in the middle of the day, walking back with senses alive, staying in my yoga clothes for the rest of the afternoon, because I just didn't feel like changing into my jeans, doing my work on the porch (though more chatting than working). Then capping the day off w/ drinks and dinner w/ pals after work. I don't want summer to end.

Post title comes from our yoga teacher's reminder to just let ourselves be, that we are human beings not human doings. How easy it is to forget that. Before yoga -- true story -- I thought to myself: I'll just bring this work w/ me and read over it on my walk and before class starts. How damn unyoga-ish is that?? Best thing about yoga for yours truly: brain OFF.

It's Come to This

A bomb threat here in bucolic Chapel Hill. I can't believe it.

My colleague and I saw police officers outside of our window, walking the perimeter between our house and the (more important) one next door, which houses the president of the university system. Y'all might know him as Erskine Bowles.

Another colleague has just come in to say that the bomb threat was made against a TTA bus; of course they don't know which one so all of them have been evacuated, effectively shutting down service in Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh. This is no small thing, of course. The cops were walking the perimeter because there is a bus sitting empty just outside of the president's house. Thanks for the heads up, fellas. Hmmph.

Disconcertingly, the first thing I think is not that there is a bomb threat (!), but that whomever called this in is planning something worse and this fake out is only their initial foray. My friend tells me she's becoming a misanthrope. Who isn't?

UPDATE: A short report in the News and Observer.

Dedicated

That sound you hear? It's either yr humble correspondent falling in a heap on the floor or, alternately, dancing a jig on the ceiling. It's over! Done! Yippee-yi-ay! Woohoo! The dedication of our new building, and it went off w/o a hitch on one of the prettiest days we've had here all year. This thing sucked ALL of the oxygen out of the room for far too long, and I look forward to life returning to normal, albeit it much nicer and more civilized environs.

P.S. That grass you see, it didn't exist before 11 a.m. on Thursday. I wish I had a "before" pic. Dirt, sweet gum balls, roots everywhere, all uneven. My queendom for a grounds crew. They created a yard, plants and all, for us in three days. Three!Days!

[photo credit: db.]

'Tis the Season

I still feel like poo, but now I've been warmed over by the glow of not one but two office holiday parties tonight! If I were a smart person, I would have stayed bundled in bed on couch, but I never made claims to being a smart person. Plus, duty called. Plus, there was spiked eggnog to be had and Secret Santa games to be played (party #1, db's work peeps) and rubbernecking party maneuvering to be enjoyed w/ snarky pals (party #2, my work peeps). That is more sociability than this introvert can usually handle in one day week month, but these are uniquely manageable scenes generally. db and I like our (and each other's) work peeps. Let's see how many times I can cram 'work peeps' into this dull as dirt recap. Jeez.

I can't even blame this boringness on the heavy drinking that usually goes on at these things to get folks through them, because the heavily spiked eggnog -- described to me as "very tame" (!!!) -- has worn off, all 5 sips of it, and I'm not sure if the Sud@fed my pal MH scored for me about 3 seconds after I walked into my work party ever kicked in. Like I said, warmed over poo. It was nice of MH to share. He's battling the same sort of bleahs. {{{{Thanks, MH!}}}}

Things I learned tonight:

• sometimes wives lie to their husbands, but they feel they have to confess it (to girlfriends, that is)
• sometimes wives are much happier attending parties w/o their husbands
• I should have invested in that Herman Miller desk I had my eye on years ago
• there's a B&B in Key West where the bathrooms are decorated w/ Kama Sutra figurines, described as "kinda creepy" by a former honeymooner
• 90% of db's work peeps are into improv comedy--performing, that is
• the other 10% like books about giraffes
• there was a "Friends" episode featuring the Hanukkah Aardvark
• the Planned Parenthood of Central NC has only three local health centers serving 23 counties
• at the first party, when someone asked when the strippers were going to arrive, no one really thought it was funny (I really love it when public reaction to sexist/racist/homophobic crap comports w/ my own, which is:  Zero Tolerance)
• and last but not least, I'm here to remind everyone who makes artichoke and goat cheese dip that it is not necessary to put mayonnaise in it at any ratio but certainly not at a ratio of 5:1 (mayonnaise...brrr)

Ugh + Heh + Rah

Classes begin today and, oh, are we workerbees feeling the pain. So many people! And it used to be so quiet! And they're all so young (and adorable)! Sigh.

A sign on the chalkboard of Pepper's Pizza reads:

Spoiled Rich Kids
Chapel Hill Welcomes You

In other news, UNC is one of the "New Ivys." Well, I could've told 'em that. Who needs Harvard? There are a lot of "hidden gems" in NC. Dig it, people! This ain't your grandmama's South!

Sunday, That's My Fun Day

Sweet fancy Moses, it was hotter than Hades today! Gaaah. Summer in NC is a little like childbirth in that the body's natural defenses kick in and you forget how painful and physically grueling it is until faced with it again. I feel like I just had triplets.

And so, since it was hotter 'n Hades, db and I spent the majority of the day outside. Obviously. Because that is how we roll. [Melting and wilting.] The front yard is benefitting from our ministrations. The back is what we could call in polite company "a project." In impolite company (mine), we'd call it a *&%$#! mess. And one day, as Bank of America is my witness loan agent, we'll figure out how to approximate Babylonian-level lushness in a shady, oddly shaped, pine tree-filled backyard.

[L to R] 1. db plants the Lantanas. 2 The Adorables romp in the grass. (Yes! There's actual grass! That would be because it's the front yard. Hmmph.) 3. Say hello to my leetle friend. 4. Some purty orange fleurs that we bought today. They did not have a tag and since I'm not going to spend 6 hrs googling them, I'm probably not going to know what they are. Unless, that is, some kind soul wants to ID them for us. Not long after this photo was taken, when the sun shone directly on the plants, some of the blooms opened. V. pretty.

Overheard in Durham

On our nightly walk w/ the beasties, we have learned that at dinner time there is a fair amount of commotion on the deck of one house in particular on our route. Multiple generations sitting under a deck umbrella squabbling away, and today was no exception. Today, following a series of loud, static-y nooo, nooo, nooo, nooo, nooos as we were cresting the hill, we saw a woman bending over awkwardly to reach a toddler behind a chair in which a man was sitting. We glanced over long enough to note that she got no help from him or anyone else and as she lifted up the child, we overheard her ask the deathless question: Did you just pour beer on that baby?

Alrighty then. Just another night in some person's cartoon vision of North Carolina.