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On Thursday I did nothing much: went with Mom to take Dottie on a walk in the early afternoon, and goofed around in the lake for a while. I am in pretty good shape as far as walking goes, but that's only one kind of exercise and I discovered that as far as swimming goes... I am VERY out of shape. I should work on that, or at least incorporate some other activities into my "pretend I am a vaguely active person" regime.
At 5:30pm, we went to the Shaws' cabin for what was billed as conversation and snacks, but ended up including enough food that it counted as a filling dinner. Mmmm. I chatted with an island resident who was interested in my job search (she is a former HR person, so it's kind of her field) so perhaps something will come of that. Or perhaps not. Who knows!
Today we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast (yesterday was English muffins and soft-boiled eggs, FYI), after which Dad and I carted two old and slightly worn/rotted dock boards to the muddy, swampy parts of the Lake Windigo path and dropped them to bridge the worst of the muck. There are three remaining boards, which I will attempt to position over the weekend while Mom and Dad are in the Twin Cities for Dad's 50th high school reunion. I figure I can just walk Dottie on a set loop and carry one board each time.
Tonight we took the boat over to the mainland and drove to Bemidji to mail some letters, do a little shopping, and eat out for dinner. We went to Tutto Bene, which has changed owners and revamped its menu and general presentation over the last couple years. It's a touch expensive, perhaps, but the food is VERY good. The chefs are confident enough that there is no salt or pepper provided on the tables... and you don't need any, either, because the food is good enough to stand as-is. :-) I got the pizza of the day -- which was pepperoni, pesto, gorgonzola, asparagus, red onion, and arugula, on a thin, hard crust -- and then had the calamari appetizer as my entree. It's not a typical American calamari. There was no breading, and the squid pieces are served on top of polenta with olive tapenade and some scallions. It is also delicious, and just the right size to produce no leftovers. (I did bring half the pizza home, and will probably eat it for lunch tomorrow.) Mom got a salad with cucumber, avocado, and greens, and then a hangar steak with king oyster mushrooms, cooked greens, and interesting mashed potatoes. Dad had the soup of the day -- Tuscan-style vegetable, with a tomato base and contents that included local yellow squash -- and then the fish of the day, which was white Alaskan salmon served with grilled cherry tomatoes and... some other stuff I can't remember.
(I am not sure why I report restaurant meals in such detail. I suspect it may be because they are the kind of thing Mom tends to remember and use as reference points, the same way she remembers details of hotels and motels we have stayed at. So I am creating a cheat sheet to help me say, "Yes, I know what you are talking about" when she brings up a past meal, instead of giving her a blank stare and saying, "We ate food?")
Anyway, topic change! I tend to use my vacations to read Notable Books that are part of the general Western literary canon. This has seen me through Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and The Possessed; Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; and a couple other projects. This summer, I have, for the third year in a row, set myself the goal of finishing Anna Karenina. (Last year I got distracted by Wolf Hall, so I have no regrets.) I am in part 7 of 8 parts, and probably in the final eighth of the book by page count, so the end is in sight!
Maybe next year I will take another stab at War and Peace, which defeated me handily several years back and which I have yet to work up the mental oomph to tackle a second time. :-)
At 5:30pm, we went to the Shaws' cabin for what was billed as conversation and snacks, but ended up including enough food that it counted as a filling dinner. Mmmm. I chatted with an island resident who was interested in my job search (she is a former HR person, so it's kind of her field) so perhaps something will come of that. Or perhaps not. Who knows!
Today we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast (yesterday was English muffins and soft-boiled eggs, FYI), after which Dad and I carted two old and slightly worn/rotted dock boards to the muddy, swampy parts of the Lake Windigo path and dropped them to bridge the worst of the muck. There are three remaining boards, which I will attempt to position over the weekend while Mom and Dad are in the Twin Cities for Dad's 50th high school reunion. I figure I can just walk Dottie on a set loop and carry one board each time.
Tonight we took the boat over to the mainland and drove to Bemidji to mail some letters, do a little shopping, and eat out for dinner. We went to Tutto Bene, which has changed owners and revamped its menu and general presentation over the last couple years. It's a touch expensive, perhaps, but the food is VERY good. The chefs are confident enough that there is no salt or pepper provided on the tables... and you don't need any, either, because the food is good enough to stand as-is. :-) I got the pizza of the day -- which was pepperoni, pesto, gorgonzola, asparagus, red onion, and arugula, on a thin, hard crust -- and then had the calamari appetizer as my entree. It's not a typical American calamari. There was no breading, and the squid pieces are served on top of polenta with olive tapenade and some scallions. It is also delicious, and just the right size to produce no leftovers. (I did bring half the pizza home, and will probably eat it for lunch tomorrow.) Mom got a salad with cucumber, avocado, and greens, and then a hangar steak with king oyster mushrooms, cooked greens, and interesting mashed potatoes. Dad had the soup of the day -- Tuscan-style vegetable, with a tomato base and contents that included local yellow squash -- and then the fish of the day, which was white Alaskan salmon served with grilled cherry tomatoes and... some other stuff I can't remember.
(I am not sure why I report restaurant meals in such detail. I suspect it may be because they are the kind of thing Mom tends to remember and use as reference points, the same way she remembers details of hotels and motels we have stayed at. So I am creating a cheat sheet to help me say, "Yes, I know what you are talking about" when she brings up a past meal, instead of giving her a blank stare and saying, "We ate food?")
Anyway, topic change! I tend to use my vacations to read Notable Books that are part of the general Western literary canon. This has seen me through Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and The Possessed; Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; and a couple other projects. This summer, I have, for the third year in a row, set myself the goal of finishing Anna Karenina. (Last year I got distracted by Wolf Hall, so I have no regrets.) I am in part 7 of 8 parts, and probably in the final eighth of the book by page count, so the end is in sight!
Maybe next year I will take another stab at War and Peace, which defeated me handily several years back and which I have yet to work up the mental oomph to tackle a second time. :-)
