raincation

it's dreary, but beautiful. the house is a little run down but it's huge and the location is perfect. i'm sitting on the front porch right now, looking out at the ocean at falmouth heights beach. best spot in the house. everyone is still sleeping but nino woke early, so here i am enjoying the quiet and my little boy.

we're at almost full capacity. derek and heather arrive next, tonight, and susan will be here thursday morning.

problem is, the weather sucks but we did get to the beach on saturday and it was lovely. i love cape cod.

capeward bound

vacay starts in two hours. husband and kids will arrive at the chronicle with all of the luggage i painstakingly packed over the past three days. adopted twenty-something daughter will drive us to the airport.

and the adventure begins!

ativan and a cocktail for mommy. cough syrup with codeine for the children. really hope i don't have to use it, but it's there just in case. it's nice to have a kid-friendly sedative in the arsenal. could end up being the smartest thing i packed.

we got picture books, coloring books, chapter books, invisible ink books, a mr. potato head magnetic storyboard thing, crayons, and bunches of miniature trucks and toys from the bins at jeffrey's toys on market. then there are snacks. we've got nectarines, rice cakes, trail mix (i made it myself, yeah, i know, big culinary achievement), animal crackers, peanut butter crackers, wheat thins, all manner of dried fruit.

i went through my hand-me-down bins and located some summery clothes from friends who live in places that have actual summers. i then supplemented that with new bathing suits, sandals, hats and a pretty frock or two for ms. parker.

but here's the kicker -- the extended forecast for the first five days we'll be in falmouth is for rain, rain, rain & wind, rain with thunder & lighting, then back to just plain rain.

straight into the bosom of my family for 12 days in a six-bedroom house on the beach in cape cod.

in the rain...

i haven't been anywhere in so long, i'll gladly travel across the country with an almost two-year-old and his four-year-old sister to dip my feet in a different ocean, eat lobster and fried clams, catch up on my reading, and sail out to martha's vineyard in the rain.

can't wait.

unfriendly

i've been un-friended! on facebook! ha!!!

by someone i've known for 23 years. someone i've taken into my home — not once over the years — but twice. by a delusional narcissist that i've endured and supported through countless relationships, drug addictions, roommates, job/unemployment situations, bizarre self-delusions, and emotional traumas.

by the same person who i recently broke up with because she betrayed, slandered me, and criticized my parenting decisions (she, who has no children). oh, and did i mention, she pirated my entire address book while living with me to use for her promotional purposes? (she thinks i don't know that). can you say frenemy?

i'm back in seventh grade. but with better technology!

it's not exactly unfathomable. she's still friends with everyone she "collected" from me. i think reading my happy-go-lucky fb updates and banter with the other mutual friend she deleted infuriated her.

i'll get over it. it won't be the first time.

anybody else break up with a long-term friend and live to tell about it?

panisse envy*

finally did it.

i've lived in no. cal for 19 years this month. i'm a food and travel writer. berkeley is only 15 minutes away. but prior to last tuesday, i'd never dined at chez panisse.

i've long had an issue with alice waters. perhaps that's what's kept me at bay. she gets far too much credit for eating the way europeans have eaten for, like, ever. it annoys me. she annoys me.

when i lived in france, jeanette, the woman i lived with, took her little canvas bags to the outdoor market daily, bought was was good/fresh/in season and a crusty baguette or two, and that's what made it a table. not revolutionary, my friends. pretty basic. logical, even. so, why does this broad alice continue to get heaped with praise, awards, accolades and worship for laying claim to what's been going on forever in places outside mid-century american suburia? she hung out with the obamas at the white house, fer crissakes!

now that i got that little rant off my chest, i can say without hesitation, that chez panisse rocks! totes.

i've read so much about the importance alice puts on the correct way to wash and dress greens that i had to start with a simple "garden lettuce salad." while it was in no way mindblowing, it was perfectly simple and simply perfect. there was a respect awarded those greens. they didn't need goat cheese or figs or even a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato. they were just themselves, doing their thing with a perfectly restrained amount of oil and a hint of lemon. they were fresh, textural, alive. no dressing pooled beneath them. they had dignity.

on to the main course -- the "nortern halibut with chevril, spring vegetables and meyer lemon butter sauce" was otherwordly. why can't i make a piece of fish taste like that? i'd eat it every f'n day. once again, restraint was key -- as in not a heap of vegetables or a pile of pureed potatoes beneath -- just tender little sprigs of asparagus and peas bathed in Meyer lemon butter. perfectly cooked, perfectly executed.

dessert -- bittersweet chocolate pave with Earl Grey cream and a Brooks cherry tart with vanilla ice cream -- was shared among the table of six, so i only had a few ethereal bites.

ok alice waters, i know you haven't been losing sleep trying to win me over, but regardless, you did. chez panisse is everything i've heard it would be. but the hero worship and revolutionary status, i'm still not buying it.

i'll reserve that for antoine et jeanette my french "parents," who were eating and living that way before AW could say "organic, sustainable, home-schooled carrots."

*thanks marlowe, too good not to steal...