March 18, 2004
all work and no play
i don't want my last post to give you the idea i've been slaving away. actually, after grading some papers my wife and i had a very nice day. we had lunch at johnny mango - where march is vegetarian month. one of their specialties is happy beans - a kind of legume de lour. they were good, but my fave was a tie between the gigantic bowl of miso soup and the veggie of the day (chinese eggplant, etc w/hoisin) - kinda forgot it was st. patrick's day - my only concession to it was i had a guinness...
after there, we went to city buddha, a real cool shop where i got this:
then we went to the west side market, a cleveland landmark. i had never been there before. it's a good thing i am not a particularly squeamish vegetarian, cause you see dead animal flesh in all sorts of sizes, shapes, configuration and of various stages of procesing - like say, half a lamb, or a whole suckling pig, split down the middle. these even made my non-vegetarian wife a bit squeamish. the top gross out of the day went to the organ trio (heart, kidneys and liver).
we DID manage to find a few things good - favorite booth was a middle eastern one ran by a very nice lady. got some kick-butt garlic stuffed spicy olives, some zatar, some bread w/cheese and spices, some baklava (mine was so-so, but my wife's baklava that had chocolate on it - yum) - also had a tasty middle eastern soft drink that kinda tasted like mr. pibb, or a fruity creme soda. at another booth i got some cheese pierogies that made a nice lunch. we also found a booth that sold quorn - and i got the pseudo-turkey roast - so i didn't feel out of place when the rest of my family had turkey for dinner. i am not real big on "fake meat" - but once in a while, it hits the spot - fills craving for texture, and gives you something to put the vegan gravy on....
the produce vendors were very entertaining. i tried to avoid eye contact "try the strawbeiiries", "best mangoes around"....
so, today, i took a break from grading midterms and kind of slugged out. took a nap - half watched the movie underworld a few times. it's very good. sure it's derivative of the matrix, but so were, um, the other matrix movies. this director got it right (at least for me). he realized the cool thing about the matrix wasn't the quasi-philosophical drivel (i liked that someone said that hugo weaving was the only actor in the matrix who realized he was in a b-movie), but the action and effects. so imagine, the matrix with vampires and werewolves... very, very entertaining - in contrast to the luke warm reviews i read....i did manage to plan some of my next week's classes - so i'm in good shape there...
tomorrow - haircut, maybe a borders trip or some other fun and wrap up midterms - would be nice to have 2 days free and clear of any work to finish out the break...
edited to correct spelling - LOOK warm?!
Posted by Mike at March 18, 2004 04:02 PM