Winds Café & Women's Voices

Friday night, we went to dinner at The Winds. I ordered Spanish beef tenderloin...served on a piece of grilled garlic toast with a dry sherry-bleu cheese sauce & accompanied by bay leaf roasted potato slices & slim green beans. J had (really incredible) butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter. The pasta was so delicate that you could see the filling through it. That came with sautéed spinach & root veggies. We also drank a lot of tea...Roots tea for J & 2 teas for me. One was a very strong green tea that tasted of fish oil or maybe vitamin E oil (Hojicha, I think it was called)& the other was chamomile with lavender.

Saturday morning, we stopped by Current Cuisine for a bite to eat (an empanada for me & a sausage, egg & cheese croissant for her), then headed down to visit her mom in Cincinnati. We grabbed a couple of caramel macchiatos on the way.

We played cards with J's mom...gin rummy. Her aunts came just as we were leaving, so we stayed a half hour longer to chat with them. Then, we stopped by Jungle Jim's to get a fruit & cheese feast to share with my mom. We stayed longer than we meant to, so had to hurry home.

Once changed into dressier clothes, we headed to my hometown for the Women's Voices Out Loud event. My mom met us there...she had spent Friday night & Saturday visiting with my grandparents. The show was wonderful, with lots of poetry & dance, a great visual arts show, and some prose readings. There was one lovely musical piece, as well. J read wonderfully & got a lot of applause, as always. I got to see a few old friends. I met one old friend's wife & son for the first time. Another friend was a good friend in high school, but moved away shortly afterward, so I hadn't seen her in about 17 years!

After the show was over, we went home (my mom was spending the night) & had a late supper. We had French bread, good olives, Medjool dates, quince paste, d'Anjou pears, Pink Lady apples, green grapes, kiwis, strawberries, Italian salami, Parmigiano, Taleggio, Maytag blue cheese, a good French brie, Haloumi, and dill havarti.

In the morning, we got over to the church early to help our Sunday school class set up for coffee hour. We took a loaf of apple cinnamon bread, a loaf of lemon poppyseed bread, blueberry spread, cinnamon walnut spread, & raspberry spread. After a busy coffee hour (finishing up usher duties & going to both a Program & Worship meeting AND a Sunday school teachers' meeting), we ducked out for brunch.

We took my mom to The Winds. She had a raspberry scone & fresh fruit, J had an order of migas, & I had corned beef hash unlike any I've had before. Afterward, we went poking around the shops...got some books & a stained glass lamp that was on sale for a quarter of the usual price! It will go in our bedroom.

My mom & I hung out in the church office to answer phones before the afternoon concert, then J joined us for the concert. It was a duo called Mazaika. They played violin & accordion. They did everything from Vivaldi's "Spring" to "O Sole Mio" to tango to traditional Gypsy tunes. It was WONDERFUL!!! At the reception, we got to chat with them & see their beautiful baby.

Post-reception, we headed home to greet the boys. They had KFC for dinner while the grown folks had more fruit & cheese. J fell asleep pretty early, while my mom & I stayed up & watched "Bowling for Columbine" before heading to bed. We had a delightful visit!