What's Happening...
For this year's events from January to now, see this year's archive page
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05/02/09: The Great 2009 Cinco de Mayo Backgammon Tournament And Arroz Con Pollo Victory Meal
To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I held a dinner party and backgammon tournament. I fixed a Mexican chicken casserole dish,
Arroz con Pollo, had a case of Corona cerveza, and got a few boards going.
The weather held up so good that we were all able to sit out on the deck for awhile before starting play, though it was a little chilly.
Unfortunately, Marissa and Gary and Courtney had to pass at the last minute as did Colin, so they missed a good time.
Movie of the night was provided by Steve, Quantum of Solace which is the latest Bond movie. We had watched Casino Royale a few weeks ago, so this was a nice continuation.
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05/09/09: Saturday Yoga Seminar and Impromptu Party
One of my advanced karate students, Brian Serven, is a certified instructor in the Classical Yoga system and held a seminar for us Saturday afternoon.
It was a great two hour mix of history, philosophy, physical posturing, and meditation.
After the seminar, several of the group came back to my condo for an impromptu get together. I stopped off at the store and got an armful of stuff for a stir fry, bearing in mind that Brian is a Vegan.
Backgammon started right away as I got a long grain brown rice in a sage, oregano, and bay leaf broth going.
I ended up with three separate components. The first was an A1 steak sauce, cumin, sage, and water based broth with sweet peas, mushrooms, leaks, garlic, and a red chili seasoned with garlic powder, oregano.
That ended up going over the rice after I steamed several hand fulls of red lettuce mixed in with it. Nice...
Next was a mix of red and yellow sweet peppers, water chestnuts, and snow pea pods with a dash of A1 and a little sage.
And finally, I stir fried little chunks of cauliflower with curry powder, garlic, and paprika.
I had started cooking about 6:00pm or so, and the day had been fairly bright and sunny. It was supposed to have rained, but so far so good. The intensity of the backgammon games had increased and between that and my yelling about how great the cooking was going, we were all pretty content with the evening.
I was cooking away and sipping on my beer and not really paying attention, so I was really surprised when I glanced outside. There was a really thick fog rolling across the area.
I turned to tell everyone, and the next thing we knew, we could hear the rain just pounding down. It was a wind driven torrent; spectacular. I made the mistake of opening the front storm door and got a face full. Back to cooking...
Movie of the night was 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is to prepare us all for the new release of Star Trek 2009 which we're considering a Road Trip for at some point after the crowds go down. We may have to do a couple of other movies as well just to be sure we're ready...
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05/10/09: Old Picture of my Dad
My brother Alan sent this old picture of our dad as a young newspaper reporter for the Chicago Sun
(he later became a City Editor for the paper which ultimately became The Chicago Sun Times).
Amazingly in this picture, he is interviewing none other than Al Capone, shown on the right.
One of the other events in his reporting career was that he was the first reporter on the scene of the famous Chicago Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. He went on to become the Director of Welfare for the city of Chicago, and then Executive Director of the Chicago Housing Authority before retiring in 1967 to Oceanside, CA.
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05/11/09: Sunday Catching Up On Some Reading
I've been so busy writing for the past six months that I have fallen behind somewhat in my reading. It was a bright and sunny day out, but windy and chilly, so I spent it sitting in the living room having an enjoyable time catching up.
Peter's Sunday Dinner Party For One was a real experiment. A few weeks ago I had heard on NH Public Broadcasting Chef Jose Andres talk about a dish his mother used to make. He had been chosen by NHPR as a celebrity chef in their Family Budget Recipes series. He presented Moorish Garbanzo and Spinach Stew that grabbed my attention.
Of course I didn't have all of his specific ingredients so had to improvise a little, but I was amazed at how good it came out. Just garlic, paprika, and some cumin as major spices with some dry sherry (my take on it as I didn't have any Spanish Sherry Vinegar). The extent of my Spanish influence was a Spanish Cabernet that I bought that, unfortunately for my taste was a little sharp and thin.
Regardless of that, I bore up under the pressure with a little Sinatra during prep work, and then Steve Tyrell playing some Burt Bacharach hits for dinner. Smooth...
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05/13/09: Trip To Newport, RI
I took Marissa and her fiance Gary down to Newport, RI Wed 05/13/09 through Sat to relax and tour the mansions. Great time with nice cool weather,
though it was really foggy with some early morning drizzle Friday.
Unfortunately, Colin had to work and so couldn't come along this time. I had taken them both down back in Sept of 2004, and he was bummed out that he couldn't come with us. At least Marissa took a zillion pictures.
We stayed at the Howard Johnson's in Middletown again. They have a great indoor pool and hot tub - both of which I took advantage of after trooping around town all day. We visited 8 mansions and spent half a day walking along the waterfront in Newport so it was a busy time during the day. We had two left we were going to see on Saturday before heading back, but after finishing the first one, Marissa said she was "mansioned out" so we just headed home. [Waiting for pictures; check back if interested in seeing those...]
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05/22/09: Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day weekend was a great time for me to decompress with all the activity of the past couple of weeks. Although Friday traffic home from work was really congested, I enjoyed a quite night just catching up on some paper work and then watching a movie - which unfortunately was a bust. But a no brainer...
I really slept in Saturday morning. But up and refreshed, I was on the computer working on my Forex currency price analysis programming project, sipping coffee, and loving life. I've been doing a lot of simulation analysis and rules based coding on this project lately. I'm currently running my trading rules against both historical and current data sets for comparative analysis, and am seeing some interesting results.
Several of us got together Saturday evening for a great Chinese meal at the Dover Asia and then off to The Strand theater for the new movie Terminator Salvation. I thought it was good, but it seemed to be more for the sake of the special effects than keeping with a good storyline. Not that there's anything wrong with special effects because that's what I enjoy about these types of action movies. But just special effects alone doesn't make it...
After the movie, we came back here to the condo and watched the old Star Trek movie Wrath of Khan in preparation for a Road Trip (soon) to see the new Star Trek movie, which is an Event of High Order in itself! It's so nice to live in these times where the entertainment is so dynamic and fun. How dull life would be if all you did was come home, cut the grass, and eat your steak or chicken and then hit it the next week for a repeat...
Sunday I was up early and on the computer working. Coffee was great, but the day was looking overcast and much
cooler than the previous two days had been - it had even thundered and lightening during the night. It just barely sprinkled during the day, and then the sun poked its head out.
That was enough for my neighbor's grand children who trooped over to the pool and jumped right in!
Anyway, because it was just a little cool out, I decided for Peter's Sunday Dinner Party For One to fix oven roasted chicken legs, Yukon potatoes, and kale. For a side, I steamed up some Brussels sprouts in a rosemary and sage broth. Nice...
As I cooked, I listed to a bunch of Vonda Shepherd songs that she did for the Ally McBeal TV series (I sat two rows back from the stage at one of her concerts and love her interpretations of the old R&B classics she does) and then put the sound track from the movie Hope Floats on - hadn't listened to that in a long time and was nice dinner music with the fabulous bottle of 2004 Wente Bros Cabernet I had. I finished the evening with the lovely independent film, Sabah.
Monday, Memorial Day, I swept off the deck and cleaned things up out there and then worked through the morning programming.
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05/30/09: Star Trek Movie Road Trip
How infantile - but how can you pass up a space adventure with guys shootin' aliens with lasers and all that? Well, you just can't! And if you don't like this movie, then you are just not having fun in your life. Special effects were awesome and well worth the price to see it on the big screen.
We decided to go down to Salisbury, MA to the Cinemagic because due to circumstances we just we weren't able to get it together over the last few weeks to catch it up here. No problem. We had dinner at Sylvan Stree Grille. Played some backgammon and primed up with a few beers - and yes, I'm 4 point loser. I had one more game to play to complete the second set but the movie was starting in 5 minutes so we had to scoot - we had prebought tickets so no problem. I shoulda never flipped the cube that last game...
Before starting on this grand Road Trip, I had spent the day on the final edit sweep of my novel Too Late For Later with great progress. Just minor stuff; this is more of a final reading than any significant editing.
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05/31/09: Novel Too Late For Later Finished
Well, I finished the final edit sweep of my novel Too Late For Later early Sunday afternoon so was able to sit out on the deck and catch up on some reading. I've got 3 books going so need to hit it on this and clear the decks!
Decided to fix up tarragon and thyme sea scallops with summer squash, which turned out just mah-vo-louse. Or was that the excellent Sutter Home Cabernet? No matter. Some good music, wine, a great meal, and a smile is all it takes! Oh, and the lovely indy film, Enchanted April.
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06/06/09: Road Trip To Movie Angels and Demons
So this week we decided to do a Road Trip to see the movie Angels and Demons. Well, nothing far off - just to Newington, NH. I got my tickets ahead and then met the others at the nearby T.G.I. Fridays where we had a great dinner. But no time to play backgammon.
By the time we got to the movie, Steve was just barely able to get his tickets but they were sold out by the time Rick hit the window. As it was, we all had to sit in the front row. I haven't sat in the front row at a movie since I think I went to the opening of Star Wars in 1977.
Just Linda and I were brave enough to hang out after the movie - I threw the dvd Wing Commander in and enjoyed another run at that.
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06/07/09: Working Karate Dinner
I had to pay close attention to my cooking this week as my long time student Tim House came by for discussion work and analysis on some of the advanced reading material that he has been working on over the past few years. I had tarragon pork chops with a green bean, sweet red pepper, and onion stir fry all mixed in with mushrooms in a thyme base with other stuff, some rosemary and sage steamed Brussels sprouts, and some long grain brown rice fixed in a broth of parsley, thyme, red wine, and a pinch of cumin.
Tim had brought a bottle of merlot, so we started the evening out on the deck sipping that before I started cooking while I had some Phil Collins playing. Once the cooking started, I switched to the 3 CD's of Rod Stewart's American Songbook.
After dinner, I couldn't pass up the chance to share a short shot of Dr. Jack Daniels with Tim. Nice. Not often I do that.
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06/09/09: Happy 20th Birthday Marissa!
Though I had sent Marissa a card,
I put this spread out for her for her 20th birthday. Happy Birthday, Marissa! It's been a great 20 years.
I'm looking forward to the next 20, where maybe you'll pick up the tab?
So, Tuesday night after she went out to dinner with her mom and grandparents, Marissa, Gary, and Colin swung by to say hello and chat for awhile.
And... we now have plans a-foot for A Great Shopping Adventure on Saturday, and then
I'm taking them all out to dinner next Wednesday. Dinner is looking like Chinese, and then there are rumors of coming back here to watch an as yet to be determined movie. Nice... Stay tuned for all that...
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06/13/09: Saturday Shopping Bust Saved By Good Dinner
I had told Marissa that as part of her birthday I'd take her shopping for a couple of things that she wanted. Before that, I called my brother Alan to wish him a happy birtday, and we had a nice chat. But nowhere could we find the sports jacket that she wanted or the protective skin for her cell phone. What a bust! I was able to order the cell phone skin online for her, but we're going to have to hunt around more for the jacket.
After shopping, we stopped off and picked up Gary and then I took them to Castaway's for a great dinner. Then since they were off doing their thing, I watched Part 2 of Pride and Prejudice - the 1995 two disk, Colin Firth version; just spectacular stuff.
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06/14/09: Rainy Sunday and a Washer Overflow
It was just pouring when I got up, and it poured all day. As I was working on a programming project, sipping coffee, and running the laundry, I heard a strange noise and went flying down to the washer. The water exit pipe had somehow gotten plugged up and there was water all over the floor. Great. Shop-vac time...
For dinner, I threw on some Mozart while I fixed a marvelous rosemary lamp chop meal with a side of thyme and a pinch of cumin long grain brown rice with mushrooms, scallions, and other good stuff. I decided that this would be my birthday dinner so why not open one of the bottles of wine I had set aside from 30 years ago and see...
Unfortunately, both the 1978 Charles Martini Cabernet and the 1977 Ridge Zinfindel had gone bad. I don't have a real wine celler, nor the bottles to put in there if I had one. These were left-overs from my dad, but just too much time had gone by. They had both turned to a bitter almost port state. Too bad because if the Martini had been good, that's a $200 bottle of wine at wholesale; probably around $400 to $500 in a restaurant, if you could find one! The drain liked it...
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06/17/09: Novel Too Late For Later Shipped
Okay, like Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) said in the movie Wall Street just as he was about to meet Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) for the first time, "Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them." Well, this is one of those moments: my 400 page novel, a financial thriller, Too Late For Later was mailed off to an agent. It's one thing to talk about writing a book, another thing to actually write one, quite another to have written three (fiction plus all the other stuff I've done), and yet another to actually send it out. Done. Done. Done. And Done. But, like everything else in life: nothing counts until someone writes you a check. Everything else is just conversation and for your own self fulfillment. But like the guy who was crossing the street in the opening and closing scenes of the movie Pretty Woman said, "Everybody's gotta have a dream!"
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06/20/09: The Great 2009 Five Years At The Garrison Backgammon Tournament And Spaghetti Bolognese Celebration
Not only did this event mark 5 years of living
here at The Garrison, but this was my 50th backgammon dinner party since being here! Now, that's an accomplishment!
Having Spaghetti Bolognese has become a tradition for this party, as is the showing of the movie Top Gun, which for this event I bought the Blu-ray version of and it was spectacular.
I had decided to start cooking around 3:30 so that I could finish in time to get into some games, something that I have not been able to do the last few parties. Hey, the chef has to do his thing! But for my 5 year anniversary, my 50th party, and turning 60 on the 16th I'm gonna get into the mix on this one!
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06/21/09: Father's Day
Though it was a hazy and drizzly day, Marissa and Colin lit up my Father's Day by coming over in the morning and sharing most of the day with me.
Marissa bought me a terrific deck set that we got to sit in for a few minutes between crummy weather.
They then took me on a drive down through Portsmouth and out around Newcastle. Very relaxing and just what I needed for what for me is the most important day of the year.
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06/23/09: My excellent trip to the emergency room
A tale of woe from someone who should know better.
After dinner Tuesday I went in and stretched out on the sofa to watch tv. At about 9pm, I had such pain hit me in my stomach that I thought I was going down; worst I'd ever experienced. So, when you get older and stuff like this happens you wonder if you shouldn't act. I called Nurse Cindy House and she says, "Go-to-the-ER. Now." So I did. After 4 hours of tests of all kinds, nothing came back suspicious, though I had at that point recovered.
And now the story unfolds. Saturday I had the backgammon party and fixed Spaghetti Bolonase. I made so much of it that I ate it Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Also ate half box of cherry tomatoes, and there was a lot of tomato paste and cans and cans of tomatoes in the sauce as well as drank a lot of wine. Friend of mine said he had pains like that and he was diagnosed with GED - gastroesophageal disease so I looked it up and sure as shit all that stuff I ate and drank seems to have really just backed up on me - and to top it off, I laid down on the couch after dinner to watch tv which they say really pisses your body off. Yup, sure did. Bad Peter...
An excellent adventure that could have been prevented by just.... thinking about what I was doing.
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06/26/09: Dinner with Yondan Russ Jones
My long time (20+ year) disciple Yondan Russ Jones came down from Laconia tonight for another in a continuing series of meetings I am having with him to prepare him to take his 5th Degree Black Belt Master ranking exams. We have been working toward this for about a year now, and the discussions have been stimulating for both of us.
We went out for a nice dinner to Christopher's Third Street Grille here in Dover expecting to come out to predicted thunderstorms. But the weather held with the sun still out when we got back to my condo around 8:00pm. I guess we had a lot to talk about because he didn't make it out the door until around 11:30...
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06/27/09: Road Trip to see new Transformers movie
Several of us decided that we just weren't going to wait for the lines to calm down from the opening of the new Transformers movie. Off we went on a Road Trip to Salisbury, MA for dinner at the Sylvan Street Grille and then to the Cinama 95 for the 7:30 show. I have to agree with some of the reviews that at way over two hours is a little much, but it had terrific action and the special effects were more than spectacular. Who cares if there's no plot? Gad, some folks just need to get a grip on what 'entertainment' means...
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06/28/09: Dinner Party
Brian Serven has been a hard working karate student of mine for over two years now. He received his promotion to 3rd degree brown belt a few months ago and has been working very hard. Many times after going through that exam - probably one of the most grueling experiences a person will go through in their life with the real possibility of injury - a student will just fade away, having achieved something few could ever hope to accomplish.
Those who remain and continue to work - and the work is intense and I am unwavering in my demands for perfection of the art - are the best of the best. For this reason, I try to bring that person closer into my life in the art. They need to experience first hand that this thing we call 'our art' is, in fact, our life: it is our way; it is the way we live our lives.
So I had Brian and his friend Steph over for a Moroccan Chicken with Apricot and Olive Relish Sunday dinner - no Peter's Sunday Party For One this week! Because Brian is a vegan, I nixed the chicken and replaced that with a mix of cauliflower and tofu. Who would have thought...
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07/01/09: Office Group Dinner
We had been talking at work about going out to dinner as a group to the Indian restaurant, Tulsi, in downtown Kittery, ME for weeks. Rajan got it all organized and so after work Wed. July 1st six of us drove over and had one of the best Indian feasts I can imagine. Rajan knows the chef, Raj, and so Raj came out to greet us and to see what we would all like to have and what everyone enjoyed. He fixed up a series of appetizer bowls of different things, and then sent out a huge array of different featured dishes so we could all sample a large variety of Indian cuisine. Everything was terrific and well worth the visit. I'll be going back for certain!
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