October 24

Yesterday I practiced doing nothing for 8 hours in preparation for the first leg of our journey to NZ. Well, not exactly nothing...I was supervising the refreshment table at our local Halloween Window Painting Contest for 4th-8th graders. I was set up outdoors in a little park with a 6' table, hot water urn, hot chocolate packets, assorted cookies and donut holes, temporary tattoos and coupons for free ice cream cones for all the participants (thanks to our local Friendly's). The temperature hovered around 60 degrees and it was mostly sunny. We had a fair turnout of kids, but this is the first time we've done this event in close to 30 years. I think next year we'll have to turn kids away. I had some assistance at my table from two of my Shoreline Community Women members and my mentee came and helped out for the morning. The storefront windows turned out fabulous. I don't envy the judges who have to come up with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners from each grade. I solicited prizes from area merchants for the winners which will be given out after the windows are returned to their original pristine condition after Halloween. By 4:00 I was really tired and hungry. For the past two hours I had been dreaming of luxuriating in a bubble bath with a good book and a slice of pizza. Instead, John and I headed for Tolli's to eat a pizza minus the bubble bath. When we got there we discovered that La Pergola had finally opened next door so we decided to forego the pizza (I ordered one to take home) and had a fantastic dinner all by ourselves. The food was fantastic and since we were the only diners the staff was falling all over themselves to cater to us. We met the maitre d', Luigi, the owner, Anthony and even had a visit from our favorite waitress from Tolli's, Josephine. When we told Anthony that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary we were treated to a glass of Luigi's homemade limoncello. It will not be the last time we eat there.
Here's what we had: John had a glass of cabernet sauvignon and I had a pinot grigio. We shared a bowl of lobster bisque and a plate of spidini (mozzarella in a crust served over a light tomato sauce). John's entre was mushroom risotto which was served in a "bowl" made of grana padana cheese. I had hanger steak in a peppercorn cognac sauce served with mashed potatos and steamed vegetables. The steak and sauce were scrumptious. We saved room for dessert, a shared portion of creme brule and coffee for John and a cappuccino for me (mine was served with a tiny biscotti. We took a look at their menus for Thanksgiving and Sunday brunch. I think we will definitely have to take my mother here when she comes up for Thanksgiving.

I'll post pictures of the storefronts at http://www.nerisews.smugmug.com/.