A Lunch With A View

This was our view from our table in one direction, at the Matunuck Oyster Bar yesterday.
Mr. F and I have a tradition of going out to lunch together the first Tuesday of his vacation(he's a teacher, which means...yes, lucky him, he gets the entire summer off!). And well, lucky me, I get Tuesdays off from my job, all year long.
We usually like to choose a place with outdoor seating and near the water. Since it's fairly new, but very popular(meaning long waits for dinner), we thought going to lunch in the middle of the week would be a great time to try the Matunuck Oyster Bar. They offer fresh seafood(including oysters harvested from their own oyster beds), fresh ingredients from local farmers(I could tell, because the baby greens in the salads were delicious) and a raw bar. Situated by a marsh near the beach, there was a nice cooling breeze and we were able to sit outside for our lunch, with a fair number of other diners.

Of course, we *had* to try their version of a Rhode Island menu staple--stuffed quahogs, or "stuffies". These were delicious, with a slightly spicy taste because of the added chourico and cherry peppers.
And the wine!
For some reason, I never drink Riesling wine, thinking back to when I was younger and my first experience with Riesling was that Blue Nun stuff(yikes!). But, the menu suggested a Newport Vineyard Riesling(many of the wines offered were local) with fried oysters, so I decided to go out on a limb and order a glass. It was dreamy! There were soft fruit flavors--very delicate, yet refreshing. I ended up going to the wine store later in the day, to buy a whole bottle for home(will try to save opening it until Friday after work).

A stuffed clam (or “stuffie”) is bread stuffing (bread crumbs, onions, spices) mixed with chopped clams and baked in a clam shell.

In another direction from our table, we had an entertaining view of some boys jumping off the bridge into the channel. Even with the beach right down the road, these boys preferred to spend their summer afternoon doing this over and over. It did look like fun!

A (Not So) Quick One

There's a been a change of plan..just a little...for this Saturday.

I have to open up at work and be there until around noon today. Waaa...

This week has been so stressful at work with all kinds of aggravations. One being a scary, woman-hating yelling customer(who is affiliated with a university women's basketball team, which is pretty chilling). Co-workers, with their little quirks are annoying me more than usual(as am am sure I am annoying them with my own little quirks). We have had nothing but huge framing jobs, either in quantity(it is so monotonous to put together the same thing x 10) or size(and dealing with giant heavy plates of picture glass is not my cup of tea). I want this week to be over, but I can't celebrate that until I get out of there and go to the hair salon.

In fact, I want a vacation. But that isn't going to happen any time soon.

So, I'll have to think of my pampering high-lighting session as my own mini-vacation.

My breakfast this morning?

Blueberries in my oatmeal.

Also, a bowl of Indian Pudding(I made another batch to bring in to work this week) with ice cream! Hey, it's Saturday, and I have to work, so I think I deserve it.

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about breaking the coffee machine's carafe? Well, yesterday, we discovered that now the whole coffee maker doesn't work anymore. It was a "cheapie Proctor Silex made-in-China" one, so I guess all we could have expected was five good years out of it?

So, before I went over to my friend's house for the book club wine gulping sessi----er, "meeting", I popped in to Benny's to buy a new coffeemaker, so we wouldn't have to start off the weekend with no coffee. The woman who rang me up remembered me and my story of the broken carafe when I bought the replacement one!! We both had to laugh about that. And...she told me that two days after I came in with my story about breaking the coffee carafe, she went and bumped her's and it broke! I didn't mean to jinx her.

Book night was lovely, with EVERYONE showing up for once. We got to sit in front of a lit fireplace(while the snowflakes swirled outside), we toasted each other with ice cold aquavit(and it was a Danish bottle, incidentally, Zuzana, if you are reading this), we all liked the book we read(Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo") and all agreed upon a Saul Bellow book for next month's selection(I know--some heavy reading, this time). We are also planning a "Julia Child Cook-Off Weekend" at a member's beach cottage this June, where we'll all make a dish from "The Art Of French Cooking" there and sit down to eat it all.

Then, when I got home, I had a slight headache(thankfully I don't have one this morning) and stomach ache(I think the combination of sushi, salmon and dill and stuffed mushrooms and wine...and schnapps churning in my belly might have had something to do with that), so took two aspirin and three Tums and fell into bed.

I have decided that I am sick of the Olympics(doesn't it end this weekend?)--I heard the sound of those damn cowbells that get rung at events from the TV on in the other room last night and they were driving me nuts. Enough!

And crap! That is horrible news about the huge earthquake in Chile. That was the first thing I saw when I logged onto the Internet this morning. Damn. There are way too many bad things happening and people suffering. It puts having to work on a weekend into perspective and makes me remember that my life(at this moment)is pretty darn good.

******

This didn't turn out to be as short a post as I thought it would be. But, I called this a "quick" one because this is all random, off the top of my head stuff, fueled by caffeine.

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Race Partner

After I showed this article from The Heart Of New England newsletter to J, he told me I must share this on my blog. It's something I don't know I would ever do, but wouldn't mind being a spectator.
I am talking about those "wife carrying" races(usually in Finland) which I have been hearing/reading about in the news in the last few years. This couples "event" began in Finland and there is a whole Wikipedia page devoted to the sport. (Yes, I had to look it up.)
Apparently it all started as a joke, but has it's roots in the past when men actually did take off with women from neighboring villages to be their wives. Er, a charming tradition. Not!

Anyway, the modern "wife carrying" sport has some good rules listed at the Wikipedia page, including:
*The wife to be carried may be your own, the neighbor's, or you may have found her further afield; she must, however, be over 17 years of age
*The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kilograms. If she is less than 49 kg, the wife will be burdened with a rucksack containing additional weight such that the total load to be carried is no less than 49 kg.
*All participants must have fun

And, now it seems this unusual athletic event has shown up here in various places in North America, including in Maine, at the Sunday River Resort in Newry. I don't know if they use the same rules and guidelines as put forth by the Finns, though. ;-)

(from The Heart Of New England, September 2009) "Don't miss the 10th Annual North American "Wife Carrying Championships at Sunday River resort in Newry, Maine on Saturday, October 10 at 11 a.m.
Couples navigate a 278-yard obstacle course while the man literally "carries" the woman. Women are allowed to carry men, which occurred for the first time in 2005. The carrying style is the competitors’ choice, though most use the “Estonian carry” where the wife holds her husband around the waist and tightens her legs around his neck, thereby freeing the husband’s hands.
The winners of the of the Wife Carrying Championship will receive five times the wife’s weight in cash and the traditional prize of the wife’s weight in beer. Prizes are also awarded to second and third place finishers, as well as for special weight and age categories."

I was laughing when I read about the prizes--"five times the wife's weight in cash(!) and also her weight in beer"(!!!).

There is a video of the event on the the Sunday River website. It all looks very intense and serious, actually, with the couples in athletic clothing and looking all fit. They must train all summer for this! Of course, the video is even better when you can Benny Hillifier it!

I just have to add this, too-- at the end of the Wiki page I noticed more links to other "sporting" events, including wok racing, bog snorkelling and ....cheese rolling! Bet you don't even need to be married to enter those competitions.