Restaurant Week Has Begun!

Back to work, following a very busy weekend, although, also, far more relaxing a weekend than those of recent memory. Made it home, and dressed Friday, made it out to Nick's parents' in plenty of time. Actually got out there at 5:45 and I was supposed to be there at 6. Met all of his aunts and uncles, later on his mom said that I made a good impression on them as being confident and polite. Definately get that there is that attitude that Nick is the "eccentric brother," which I, of course, find endearing and quite fitting. We drove down to Arcos, the meal was delicious. The salsa was a lot better this time, much more flavourful than last time. I enjoyed it all immensely, although they were out of fried ice cream, which is probably for the best. All in all, left feeling absolutely stuffed. Ended up falling asleep on the couch when we got home. Watching Cheap Seats, I woke up and we decided to check out The Wind-up Club on North Avenue near Joe Squared. It is very spacious and definatley has a new-house kind of feel to it, very crisp and clean, sparse sort of, but I really like it. The owner, a guy called Russell, was really nice, and we got to talking about silent movies, since he was running The Gold Rush on a projector, along with some old Felix The Cat and Betty Boop cartoons, before putting on Mary Pickford's Poor Little Rich Girl. Needless to say, I was in my glories. Nick thought it was really cool, too, and we were also pretty thrilled that we know of a place that none of our other friends have been to yet. Also, I know Mr. Farley would be like, "What, something new and hip, and I wasn't the first one there?" So that will definately be a good new place to add to the reportoire.

Saturday was a lazy day, just sat around watching Kitchen Nightmares, enjoyed eachother's company, shall we say, then went to Arundel Mills for Nick to get a new pair of jeans from the Calvin Klein Outlet. I have to admit, they do look really good on him. Restaurant Week started, so we tried to make reservations for Bicycle, but they weren't open yet, so we were lucky enough to get for Abacrombie, then Bicylce called back and we made reservations for there on Sunday. Abacrombie is in the basement of a huge brownstone bed and breakfast on Biddle at Cathedral, VERY fancy. I swear, sometimes, I feel more than a little out of place in these fancy restaurants, a bit like Eliza Doolittle. Anyways, the meal was pretty good, some elements I enjoyed more than others--- the best of which was their signature macaroni and cheese, which was cavatappi pasta with parmesan, gruyere, and bechamel. I want to order a VAT of this macaroni and cheese!! So good!! The entree, a piece of pork, which was my second favourite part, just fell apart when you touched it with the fork, never had to even pick up a knife. Tender and juicy, good flavour. It was on top of risotto, which initially tasted alright, if kind of bland. Poured over top of everything was what they called peach butter, like apple butter, a perserves kind of, but with peaches, which I really did not care for. Apple butter may have worked better, but this was too sweet and tangy for my liking and once in with the risotto, made me not care for that really, either. But it was alright. The pork and macaroni more than made up for it. Oh, and there were these onion rings, just the right amount of batter, on top of the pork. Nick enjoyed his in its entirety. He got a chilled tomato soup, which was good, and I don't normally like tomato soup, but this wasn't too sweet, although it felt weird eating it cold, like when I eat tomato sauce out of the fridge. We both ordered the chocolate panna cotta for dessert, which was on a brownie with stewed plums. He didn't care for the plums, but I did (although they were a little tart). Turns out the head chef there is that girl Nick knew from Club Charles, and she recognised him, came out of the kitchen and chatted. So that's pretty cool to say you know the head chef at one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city. Full of expensive food, we went back to Nick's for him to change and get his car, and we drove to The Ottobar. Met up with Rob and Angel and Chrissy for a show (The Motorettes, really cool Motown covers, The Expotentials, only two guys, local, but what a rukus they made. Pretty good, White Stripes, blues kind of, and The Dirtbombs, which boasted two drummers, they were really good, as well.).

Yesterday, we planned on going to the park, but it rained early on, then we were just being lazy, watching I Love The 70's , intermittently wrestling aorund, terrorising eachother, then Nick decided that picking me up over his head was a form of exercise, in lieu of going to the park, so after I saw my life flash befor my eyes, and luckily only getting dropped on the sofa, he was satisfied that he'd gotten his work-out in. We went to Bicycle, very, very good. I got the panzanella salad to start, which consisted of field greens, grape tomatoes, goat's cheese, brioche croutons, a hard boiled quail's egg, and charred tomato vinagrette. It was really quite good. The dressing was very tangy, but not too sweet, the quail's egg tasted strikingly like a regular hard boiled egg, which was fine, the bioche crouton especially was delicious. For entree I got the pork chop which was so incredibly juicy (would have been better without all the fat and bone, but such is the state of pork chops in general), mashed potatoes (yeah, baby!), and a mix of silver queen corn, scarlett beans, and mushrooms, which I even ate, and I don't like mushrooms. Nick got beef tenderloin medalions, rare, oh, my God, so bloody! Never in a million years for me, but he likes that sort of thing. He said it was fabulous, I would totally get it, but medium-well. It was on top of those great mashed potatoes (even Nick liked them, and for whatever strange reason, he doesn't like mashed potatoes. Something about the texture.), with some vegetables. For dessert, I got the peanutbutter cup, with the toasted cream on top, almost like mashmellow, but it was all about the peanutbutter! Nick got a lemongrass creme bruele, with figs. Definatley better than that orange and basil creme bruele at B haha! We are planning on going there one day next weekend--- have to make the reservations some time this week. Their prix fixe menu sounds really good, lots of intriguing options. All in all, two fine meals, three, really, including Arcos on Friday.

After dinner, I headed home, Nick was going to the movies with Rob Soma and Chrissy to see Dark Knight again. I actually saw Carmin and Allen, tried to make a joke of it when I came home by introducing myself to Carmin and going to shake her hand, but she said not to be a smart ass so I let it go. Even then, it was mainly Allen and I that did the talking, then they went to get snowballs and I started dozing off at television while they were gone, so I went up to bed before they got back. She closes tonight, so here will be yet another day where we don't see eachother. I swear, I don't know how she can just go without speaking to me, without missing me, without making any effort to bridge the gap, and moreso, how she can rebuff my attempts at doing so.

Hoping to get a haircut today after work. In desperate need of one. Also in desperate need of fasting. Plan on all liquids today, even with hopefully going to Club Charles later, not eating. Will nurse my drinks but I need to slim down, and quick. No more gluttony, only enjoying oneself in the proper situations.