this week

Our week has been pretty darn busy- we think we had reached agreement on two real estate deals (hopefully including our house) and we between us - started three new classes at USF-SM and got together with friends Al & Carol for dinner, tried a new lunch place, had a "farewell" dinner with our favorite sommelier in town, James at Michael's on East (he's headed off to Portland with wife and child to start a new life) and we ended our week with the symphony.

and next week things get really busy-  classes, theater, lecture, baseball (spring training game in Lakeland with CBGB) and then we are off to visit Angela & Lee for the weekend (Durham NC)

never a dull moment- oh and yeah, I forgot - the tickets for the Sarasota Film Festival go on sale on Thursday!!!! which means a lot of picking and planning on Thursday before we head out of town....

so here are a few photos/scans from the week-

dinner venue with Al & Carol-

I did a whole post about lunch but here is the reminder of the place- go back a post or two and you can read the whole thing-

text book for my 1890's history class- which seems like it will be extremely interesting - Phil's class is on the civil war and my other class is on the middle ages-

food from terrific dinner at Michael's on East- shrimp tempura and wedge salad appetizers

one bite- amuse of halibut (overcooked but one bite so who cares? LOL)

tuna- with the forbidden rice- for me and sea bass for Phil-

this is the perfect dessert- one layer of coffee (espresso) ice cream for me and the other layer vanilla with heath bar crunch for Phil- he also gets the fudgy topping LOL - Oh and the chocolate stick- he is the chocoholic in this household...

and tonight- the orchestra - playing a nice selection of classical and more contemporary works - Copland, Brahms, and Dvorak. (below the conductor Anu Tali, and soloist from tonight's concert)

our time is drawing near for the end of the winter- and we have only two plays and one more orchestra concert scheduled- but who knows how long we will be here if the house sells per the agreed upon closing date of 4/14.... we will see how that goes...

almost like NYC

almost--- well - the food at least... the new Sol's NYC deli in downtown SRQ is located in a former Applebee's - so that is not NYC like- far too much room between tables and the wait staff were polite and attentive - so that's not NYC like- LOL

but yes- we have looked for years for good deli in SRQ and found it extremely disappointing - up until now. we have solved this problem by online ordering from Zabar's - lots of corned beef and pastrami and rye bread saves the day and just yesterday our friend MAK sent a care package of lox, two kinds of salmon, two kinds of bagels, and two kinds of cream cheese from Zabar's so we aren't going without LOL... but it is nice to know you can find a good meat knish locally and some really decent kreplach... OK so the latkes weren't stellar - but hey...

Everyone starts with half sour pickles and coleslaw-

the walls have photos of lots of places we haunt in NYC when doing deli or appetizing food- like Katz's and Russ & Daughters- famous LES places that are truly institutions-

so we ordered a ton of things to try and then took home the bulk of it for dinner LOL just like all the old people LOL- ooops that's right we are (almost) old too LOL

the kreplach won hands down over the pierogis-

the latkes were not as good as Resi's on Irving Park but they were passable-

then I had the corned beef and Phil had a specialty - two meats-

the corned beef and pastrami

then we carried out two tubs of chopped liver and a meat knish- and dropped off one of the chopped liver packages with some rye bread at Barb and John's house - a substitute for a cup cake for her birthday tomorrow. Barb and Barbara were happy - John not so much- LOL they love liver and he hates it... but it being her birthday and the start of her birthday season she gets her choice!

overall a positive experience which is good news for us for a bite when desperate before or after a film as it is just across the driveway from the venue for the Sarasota Film Festival!

Tomorrow my first class of the second course of the spring term... this one on America in the 1890s- so stay tuned... also the Orchestra on Friday and more coming up!