Pleasures of the flesh

No, not THOSE kind of pleasures! :P

Last night D. and I went out to a local Italian restaurant. Not our usual haunt, which offers tasty food in great abundance, but a place across the street that's been there for years that we didn't go to simply because the location suggested that it was probably a sub and pizza joint :P D. discovered it was actually a modest but very highly regarded county restaurant while reading reviews and it's he I must credit that we finally went.

Oh. My.

There's food for fuel, food that is abundant and tasty but nothing exceptional or unexpected (think Cheesecake Factory or Outback Steakhouse) and then there's surprisingly savory food that you want to eat slowly so as to catch every nuance. This place is definitely the latter :)

( inadequate food description )

Portions were reasonable and I left feeling full but not stuffed. We will definitely be going back - it's practically in our backyard so it will be hard to resist!

Engaged in other sensual pleasures today by making my first trip to G Street Fabrics since.. I don't know when. Last fall sometime, whenever the designer fabric section had the ultrasuede out.

I went with the hopes of finding reasonably priced linen, and though that fell through I did pet a lot of other things - silk chiffons, Tasmanian wool (soft and velvety, not scratchy at all), Aleskine (silk/wool blend), leather (in perfect oxblood red, but not enough for the vest, alas), satin-woven cotton shirting... ahh!!

I admit I'm still nervous about working with or even looking at certain luxury fabrics. I constantly doubt that I have the patience or knowhow to choose a project that would be workable in, say, silk chiffon, and almost feel like my ignorance shows on my face and the salespeople would shoot me before they'd sell me any but - yeah, I know that's stupid. I need to just bite the bullet and realize that after all these years with a sewing machine, I might actually know what I'm doing :P

Loch Ness monster seen again

I'm late learning about this but given my near-obsessive interest in the LNM as a kid, I have to link to the May 28 video. Frankly, I don't think it's clear enough to be sure of anything, but at least the news readers have nifty Scottish and northern English accents :)

Full disclosure: Most 6th grade girls want ponies. I wanted my own Loch Ness Monster, especially if it was a plesiosaur :P More specifically, I wanted to live by the loch and just watch until something happened and then take pictures and write about it, Jane Goodall-style. Trust me, such a lifestyle sounded absolutely reasonable to my extra-geeky 11 year old self :P

Speaking of reasonable, Skepticality examines pro and con new-skool scientific style.

Also worth noting is that wherever there is weird, there is $ to be made - check out the "mascot" for Rock Ness. I imagine the locals have a lot invested in keeping the mystery going.

I'd like to read the book they discusson the podcast linked above - most of what I've read on the subject over the years was by "believers" and it would be interesting to get another perspective.