Covington Sucks

Well, as if my last post didn't already convey a certain level of frustration with Covington, today we awakened to find C's passenger car window smashed in, his car ransacked, and, of course, his radio stolen.

Mind you, we live on one of the most busy streets in this suckville town. Mind you, there is a street light and a bus stop right at the corner where he was parked. Never mind, they still robbed him.

The neighbors have been sympathetic and actually seem surprised. The really truly sad part is I'm not surprised at all. I am actually more surprised that in the week or so both of us have been parking on the street that it's taken this long for one of our cars to be broken into.

Yeah, "it's happening" in Covington alright. I'm ready to start a countdown to move out of this shit town.

Love Thy Neighbor - So I'm Going to Hell, Right?

Some of you have heard about my recent neighbor troubles. Long story short - my next door neighbor kept partially blocking my garage door. After having a "conversation" about this, my house was pelted with some dirty diapers and lots of miscellaneous trash began appearing in my backyard. Also, and perhaps coincidentally, my garage door opens and closes on occasion. One might wonder about karma in this situation, I suppose. So while I am one of the few residents in Covington with a garage, I am finding myself parking on the street more and more these days to avoid having my car stuck in my garage.

I've given this whole situation inordinate amounts of thought, and I've tried lately to push it out of mind. After all, in an equal act of karma for those who believe, my neighbor's car (with which he was blocking my garage) 'exploded' according to another neighbor and is no longer blocking anything, anywhere, including my garage. But something my neighbor yelled at me during our "conversation" has stuck in my mind. He said, "Just because you're a homeowner, you think you're better than me, don't you?".

I found myself reminded of this issue this week, while in lovely Springfield, OH, where I was watching "Good Morning America" in the Hampton Inn. Apparently in Lake Forest, IL, neighbors are upset because a woman has 3 potbelly pigs as pets in this affluent neighborhood. The neighbors who have complained say they can smell the pigs and they've (horror of horrors!) seen the pigs eat which means at some point those pigs will actually excrete too! Never mind the pig owner does not walk them around the neighborhood and doesn't chase after them with pig-doo bags around with her the way the dog owners in that neighborhood surely do. So it seemed to me the whole issue could be reduced down to snobbery or some sort of classism on the part of the pig-hater neighbors.

And it again made me wonder, as I have many times in my issues with my neighbor, how many neighbor conflicts are based on some sort of inherent snobbery or distaste for the 'type' of person who lives near you? Could I really be as upset with and angered by this guy because of who he is? If he had been the sort of guy who didn't wander around with no shirt, who played AC/DC at all hours and at all decibels, and who spoke English like his schooling hadn't surpassed the 4th grade, would I be less upset?

For all my democratic, open-minded claims, am I a hypocrite when it comes to my neighbor?

Me? Food? Who'da Thunk It?

As I mentioned previously, I have wanted to write a separate blog about food in the Greater Cincinnati area. Finally, I have actually set up that separate blog and have begun posting to it.

Hopefully, the commentaries I write will get more interesting (and less wordy!) the more I write, and I'll even try to incorporate pictures as I can (will it be weird to be taking pictures of my food at restaurants? probably so...).

So feel free to peruse the new blog and add comments or make suggestions for places to try:

http://notjustchili.blogspot.com/

Happy Reading/Eating!
SBB

The New Roe v Wade: Or, Is Forcing Fatherhood a Good Thing?

I'm enjoying a few days off this week courtesy of my company's new harsher 'use it or lose it' vacation policy for those of us who've spent years hoarding vacation days.

So while having some time off with nothing more to do with my time than repair bricks on my front porch, hang new mail boxes, and plant ground cover in my mini-backyard (really!), I found myself watching a rerun of "Dr. Phil" this morning while waiting for my appointment with my trainer. The show was about parents who have different ideas about how parenting should be done...and it seemed like a basic snooze-fest discussion of how to make kids go to bed on time or whether or not to let babies sleep in the bed with you.

But the first segment actually proved fairly interesting as it chronicled the story of a young man in Michigan (Matthew Dubay) who says his girlfriend claimed infertility and claimed to be on birth control for other medical reason but still turned up pregnant. Because Dubay claimed to have been duped and unready for parenthood, he has refused her claims for child support. It's important to note that Dubay says he was quite clear with his girlfriend about his lack of interest in and readiness for parenthood. The resulting unplanned pregnancy led to the current legal case. See here for the Michigan Attorney General's page about the case (interesting, if for no other reason than his over-the-top political rhetoric): http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164--146339--,00.html

The issue is an interesting one, to be sure, and even the basic premise of a 'right to choice' seems fairly apt. The lawyer appearing with Dubay on "Dr. Phil" was pushing the right to privacy aspect of Roe v. Wade moreso than the choice aspect, and in either of those two respects, I can certainly see Dubay's point. But it does seem a bit of a slippery slope. Having grown up being supported (financially and emotionally) by a man who was not my biological father has shown me that biology can mean very little in the whole scheme of fatherhood. So should biological fathers be compelled to be a part of their child's life - even if that part is strictly financial?

Maybe the whole argument eludes me to some extent because I've always been someone who did not believe in alimony and has some Gloria Gaynor-ish notion that if a relationship fails, it is the woman's duty to carry on on her own, as an autonomous, independent, self-supporting woman. And to take money from a person with whom you could not sustain a relationship strikes me as a bit on the needy, desparate side. But I am not so naive as to believe supporting yourself is the same as supporting a child (or children), so I suppose while I might not believe in alimony, it would be foolish (and possibly harmful to the child(ren)) not to believe in child support.

And as a staunch believer in a woman's right to choose, I can't help but wonder, does the right to having the right to choose also mean you must bear the results of that choice alone? Another slippery slope of this issue, it seems to me, is that a woman ultimately has the right to choose whether or not she carries a fetus to term; even if her husband/boyfriend/one night stand steadfastly insisted he wanted to father the child, a woman could still choose to terminate the pregnancy, and most pro-choicers argue that that is precisely her right with her body. So does choosing to have the baby mean that that woman really, ultimately, bears the responsibility for that child alone?

I brought this issue up with a friend of mine today; I should mention this friend has two children and goes to great lengths to provide for them, even though he is not the custodial parent. He seemed utterly disgusted that a man would ever not provide for his child, whether he wanted the child or not. His reaction made me think that perhaps the issue here, for me at least, is even more squiggly than I first thought.

Having said all that (and saying very little in the process), I'm curious as to what others think of this issue/issues.

Ok, back to my vacay.

Back in Blog

Well, here I am. Back in the Shoe Pile.

I'm not sure that anyone will notice my return or that anyone noticed my absence, for that matter. But given that life has gotten significantly busier this year and seems likely to stay that way for the rest of the year, I felt like I should return to blogging as a means of keeping in touch with far-flung folks and friends.

At the moment, I'm just outside of Columbus, OH for the week for work. I'm actually in Sunbury, OH but the school is in Marion, OH; this just happens to be the closest Hampton Inn and so here I am basking in the glory of my ever-accumulating Hilton Honors points.

I won't write much now but will be diligent about writing and keeping in touch going forward. I have lots of work travel, some fun vacations, and my normal stream of musing and moanings about the goings on in the world, so I'll document all of that here and will hope to hear back from any of you out there reading this. I'm also going to finally start that food/Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky restaurant review blog/site shortly as well. I'll be sure to plug that shamelessly here on the Shoepile when I get that going.

Until next post.
sbb

march 21 - houghton, new york - some dive

i am not usually so vehemently unhappy about being in a small town, even for one night, but this place is a bit odd. there is nothing in this town except for a subway. and a sort of mini-mart attached to a citgo gas station. linda and i drove for almost a half an hour before finding a total dive with mediocre food. but we had nachos, gin and tonics, wine, and two hamburgers for $22. so all is not lost. except for our desire to live. because this place sucks it right out of you. i simply cannot fathom why people choose to live in places like this. and i cannot fathom how one can say the word 'unfathomable' while wearing braces - because i tried about 5 times tonight and could never say it.

march 18 – acme oyster house

i am in either a routine or a rut. i went to the acme oyster house at the aiport again. i had the red beans and rice again. delicious as ever.

i had a praline from the praline connection. not good. threw half of it away. stick to aunt sally’s. i am growing more and more convinced this is the only truly good praline in new orleans.

march 17 – sweet ginger

since it was st paddy’s day and we figured the entire french quarter would be teeming with more drunk people than normal, marco and i went our separate ways for dinner.

i cruised down gravier st towards my favorite hotel in all of new orleans – the internation house on camp street – in search of what i thought was the thai restaurant affiliated with the hotel.

i went into sweet ginger, even though i realized there was another thai restaurant on camp that was the restaurant that was part of the hotel. no matter – i was already seated in sweet ginger, with a great window seat on the camp side of the restaurant.

i started with a spicy shrimp soup which was delicious if extremely sour. it was spicy, to be sure, and it was served with a nice presentation of about four large shrimp in the center of the dish.

my entrée was a spicy fried oyster dish served on a bed of assorted vegetables with a large scoop of white rice. get this dish. it was amazingly good, and i will happily order this dish again when i return to sweet ginger on my next trip to new orleans (which will be next week!).

march 16 – gumbo shop

while i waited in line, my two coworkers walked down the street to pat o’brien’s to get hurricanes. the line, though it was long and extended out onto the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, moved quickly, and we were seated within about twenty minutes of our arrival.

all three of us settled on the combination dinner, which included an appetizer (i had a side salad because i am a very big fan of their vinaigrette dressing, though i am utterly stumped as to what it’s made of), an entrée (we all three chose the combination plate of shrimp creole, beans and rice, and jambayala, a vegetable (the server said her favorite was the turnip greens, and i agree – these were among the best i’d ever had in a restaurant), and a dessert (i had the bread pudding).

the salad was as good as my previous memories, and the entrée was quite good though disappointingly not very hot either spice-wise or heat-wise. and as i mentioned, the turnip greens were quite delicious.

i went back to the gumbo shop with the explicit desire to get their bread pudding, which from my previous visit was among the best i’d ever had. my memory was that it was so piping hot that it took a long time to get through the dish. and my memory of the bourbon sauce was what brought me back to this restaurant.

sadly, the bread pudding was not hot, and the sauce was almost congealed. it was still tasty, but it was nowhere near as good as it should have been.

i’ll grant the staff at the gumbo show that they were busy and still had a steady stream of people waiting on line to get in when we left, but they should still focus on maintaining the high quality service and food that keeps those crowds coming in.

march 15 – nola

very long story involved in how marco and i found ourselves at nola. i’ll spare everyone the long, uninteresting story and just say we stumbled in there from a very rainy, cold night in new orleans.

it looked as if there were plenty of open tables, but when we made our way in, there was clearly a wait. so again without reservations, we were told we could do a ‘first come, first served’ at the bar, or if we were willing to wait a minute or two, they’d check on ‘another option.’ intrigued, we waited. our wait, though, was nice and short. Promptly, the hostess took us back to a chef’s bar, where we were seated right on the edge of the kitchen and right in front of the sous chef who handled many of the appetizers and side dishes. while we were seated right in front of his prep station, we were also located right in front of an enormous brick oven where many of the seafood dishes were prepared. almost immediately, servers were at our sides getting drinks and just providing some very amiable chit chat. charming – without a doubt.

it took me longer than it should have to decide on a dish, and once i’d decided to order the seafood stew, marco mentioned he was ordering that, so i felt like i had to get something else.

in the meantime, the chef in front of us – lo – placed a mozzarella, basil, and tomato appetizer in front of us, compliments of the house. it was delicious even if it seemed somewhat incongruous with the restaurant or the menu.

i finally settled on the special salad of the day, which was a mixed green salad topped with some sesame fried oysters. the dressing was a sweet, tangy sauce that was an amazing compliment to the oysters. there were also some very thinly sliced red onions along with some crumbled gorgonzola cheese. all in all, this was an amazing dish, and i would have been more than happy to have a dinner of nothing but this salad.

i ordered the cedar plank fish after seeing several of them prepared in front of us. the dish looked like an enormous amount of fish covered with a citrus-based horseradish sauce. while i normally avoid any fruit-based sauces, gravies, or toppings of any kind, i decided to bust out of my shell and order this fish.

plus lo told us that this had been on the menu for over 12 years, and it was clearly a house favorite. how could i go wrong?

but wrong i went. this was definitely not a dish i enjoyed. and in fact, the fish was so citrusy and there was so many strands of citrus peel in the sauce that the texture was one i simply could not eat. fortunately, marco is a generous dining companion, and so we swapped meals midway through.

the fish did come with a nice cucumber and tomato salad, which was quite tasty.

marco’s seafood stew had a very delicious assortment of very fresh seafood – including enormous shrimp and spicy sausage.

while we reviewed the dessert menu (which also included a very impressive list of after dinner drinks, which both marco and i thought seemed quite expensive across the board), we both declined and got coffee instead. while several of the desserts sounded good, none sounded especially good or at least good enough to get.

all in all, i’d have to say i was very happy to have tried nola, but it’s not a restaurant i would return to for anything other than the fantastic, attentive and friendly without being insincere service we received from everyone we encountered.

march 14 – tommy’s

we went back to tommy’s given that there were approximately 35,000 in new orleans for a telecommunications conference, and we somehow thought because this restaurant was not right in the FQ, it would not be crowded. surprisingly, we were somewhat right and were seated without reservations.

i could not resist having the maison tomatoes with blue cheese again, and it was as good as i remembered.

as my entrée, i did venture out into new territory though and tried the seafood casserole, which included shrimp, crab, and crawfish baked in a crockery dish with large pieces of eggplant and cheese. the top was also coated with some breadcrumbs and even a bit more cheese – parmesan i believe. this was a good dish with a lot of dense, rich flavor, but the eggplant seemed far more plentiful than the seafood, and there was so much cream and cheese that almost nothing held its own distinct flavor and instead just tasted overwhelmingly cheesy. while this is sometimes a good thing – when you’ve got the opportunity to have such fresh seafood in a dish, you want that to be the predominant taste of the dish.

so while it would be inaccurate to say this dish was not still quite enjoyable, it’s not one i would readily order on another trip to tommy’s.

my co-worker greg tried the praline pecan bread pudding. this was also served with a bit of bananas foster on the side and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. talk about gilding the lily. I tried a bite of the pudding, but i was not so overwhelming impressed that i rushed to order any more for myself. the coffee was a good chicory coffee and served as a nice (lighter) alternative to dessert.

march 13 - covington - home!

who knew it possible? i actually ate dinner at home tonight. made my typical salad with my delish homemade dressing (loosely defined combination of honey, garlic, evoo, balsamic, and whole-seed dijon mustard). also made my fav sockeye salmon with ginger/honey/garlic/lemon.

made me really, really miss being at home so that i could cook. alas, i had to head back on the road on monday, but at least it's back to food city, usa - new orleans!

march 12 - covington - subway

back home for one very brief weekend before heading back to new orleans for the work week.

today we celebrated eli's first birthday - amazing! and we had those ginormous subs from subway. they were actually much better than i ever expected them to be, so all in all, not bad.

march 11 - honolulu - spa! and plane-ride home

i spent the day at the mandara spa getting a lomi lomi massage and lounging by the spa's pool. so so so nice. and such a perfect way to spend my last day in hawaii.

food-wise, though, the day was uninteresting.

i had a 'spa juice' which was actually quite a nice blend of fresh pineapple and papaya.

on the hideous plane-ride home, they actually served us salads - as the main dinner entree. i've never had a salad on a plane before. i was actually relieved bc i wasnt in the mood for their usual crap food, and this was fine and light for the long haul.

and wonder of wonder, i actually slept most of the ride home. hallelujah! maybe i can now sleep on planes.

march 10 - honolulu - hatsuhana, the dole plantation, and the trailer at the north shore

brad and i trekked up to the north shore on our first day off after the conference ended. he was planning to go diving with the sharks, and i was planning to sit on the beach and work on my tan while avoiding being mugged, beaten or robbed (we'd been warned several times about the high theft rates against tourists at the north shore).

anyhoo, after getting slightly off course and ending up on the west shore and not the north shore, brad and i finally got our bearings, and we made it up to the north shore to see the massive waves that purportedly were between 30-35' high.

i like brad. he and i have about the same level of enthusiasm for seeing such awe-inspiring forces of nature at work.

we drove past the waves, which looked like any other waves i'd ever seen, agreed they were waves, and kept driving.

we did stop for lunch at a trailer on the side of the main road that was referenced in brad's lonely planet guide. we both had some yummy chicken teriyaki, though it was slightly surreal and slightly ghoulish that while we were eating the chicken, real, live chickens were hovering around our table. though we both commented on the irony, we both also chowed down on the teriyaki. all that wave-watching from the car made us hungry, you know.

on the way back to honolulu, i twisted poor brad's arm to stop at the dole plantation. i am quite the fan of the pineapple. so we stopped. and while we spent almost as much time looking at how pineapples grow (i was genuinely interested; brad was genuinely interested in taking a cool snappy snap of the varieties of pineapples they grow at the plantation) as we did looking at the north shore waves, we did both partake of the 'dole whip' - which was pineapple soft serve. yeah, it sounds better than it tastes. well, it was good. not something i feel any desperate need to eat again, but i scarfed that down.

we also tried to eat some real sugar cane. i'd always wanted to try it, and brad had previously had a delicious experience with it in africa. this was not delicious. not worth the effort. not in any way, shape, or form something i'd try again with braces on. no good. dont do it.

brad and i also had more sushi at hatsunama at the hilton before he headed back for the mainland. aloha, brad!

march 9 - honolulu - sidestreet inn

this was a local hawaiian restaurant that my masseuse from the mandara spa pointed me to for some real authentic hawaiian food.

brad and i ventured over after getting an animated approval from the attendant at my hotel who got us a taxi. i am guessing it's not often the hilton guests head over to this dive.

and dive it pretty much was. it was a 'sports bar' according to our server, but it was much less sportsy-bary that what i'm used to seeing. aside from a few tvs tuned to sporting events, it basically just seemed like a divey bar.

but the drinks and food were amazing. we started with lychee flavored vodka, or the eyeball drink as i called it when i spotted it on the bar. delicious, though i am somehow becoming less tolerant of hard alcohol (straight) as i become more and more of a wine drinker.

we split a large salad of local greens with blue cheese and a delicious vinagrette that neither brad nor i could figure out the ingredients for. yummy all the same. we also split a smoked roasted pork dish which was amazingly good. i could have eaten a plate of just that and been quite satisfied. we also shared a plate of clams cooked in a nice garlic butter broth with loads of cilantro (so you know i loved it) and peppers. a nice alternate to the pork but just no where near as good.

a good place to visit - get the pork.

march 8 – honolulu – cheesecake factory

had my cheesecake factory standard: sante fe salad. yummy as always. also had coffee heath bar cheesecake, which proved once again to be too rich to eat. so i ate all of the whipped cream instead.

had probably the best time i’ve ever had going out with my co-workers though. tyra and i crafted a list of the top ten things men do to screw up relationships, and the guys were able to craft a list of 4 things women do.

march 7 – honolulu – keo’s

easily the best thai food i’ve ever had.

again, dave chose to pass on the thai food. but brad and i went to town. we ordered fresh spring rolls to start which were very tasty but did not have enough seafood for my taste. a very nice peanut dipping sauce accompanied them.

i had my thai standard – thai basil, but per my server’s recommendation, i ordered it with seafood (not on the menu, but still available). it was fantastic. it contained a mixture of thai vegetables along with an assortment of shrimp, squid, and scallops. very spicy (though i did order it hot) and delicious. we ordered the thai sticky rice which, while interesting and tasted very good, proved almost too sticky to eat easily with chopsticks.

brad had the shrimp evil jungle prince. though he got chicken evil jungle prince. it was good and a nicely flavored coconut-based sauce, but we both agreed it would have been better with seafood.

march 6 – honolulu – hatsuhana (hilton hawaiian village's japanese restaurant)

by far, the best sushi i’ve ever had. my pal brad and i tried several kinds:

unagi (apparently my new favorite sushi)
squid (delicious if ever so slightly tougher than i expected)
spicy tuna (fantastic, probably the best of our selections)
fresh fish roe (i actually did not try this as i had some at todai’s the night before and did not like it at all)
volcano (creamy spicy scallops)

exceptionally fresh, nicely presented, and very reasonably priced.

service was quite good too as dave, unable or unwilling to try sushi, ordered chicken teriyaki, which he also did not like. the server was so upset that he hadn’t eaten enough that she gave all of us free ice cream. we should all eat with dave more often.

march 5 – honolulu, hawaii – todai

ok, so hawaii is nothing if not heavily influenced by japanese culture. Accordingly, japanese food is plentiful throughout honolulu. todai’s is a chain seafood buffet that someone from my work group thought was the apex of japanese food.

my impression was less favorable. i should start by saying that i am generally not a big fan of buffets unless it’s chock full of breakfast food goodness. that being said, i was skeptical going into the place.

the food was overflowing – and came in all sorts – hot seafood dishes included various assortments of cooked fishes, chinese-style fish and vegetable dishes, and crab legs (i only ate some of the spicy calamari (good, not great) and the garlic eggplant among the hot foods, so i cannot speak to much of the food quality here. the cold seafood included a large assortment of japanese salads and sushi. the sushi was good but not great and given the restaurant’s location in honolulu, the fish seemed less fresh than it should have been.

one major milestone: i tried unagi for the first time and actually found it quite tasty.

the desserts at todai’s are cuter than they are tasty. they are served in teeny-tiny little portions, which is probably good – given that they seemed relatively flavorless, the tiny cheesecakes and tiramisu were not worth any amount of calories to expend on them. the bananas in caramel, though, were quite yummy.

march 4 – acme oyster house (airport), kate latter’s praline

after realizing at the acme oyster house last night that i’d actually already eaten in the restaurant since i had eaten at the airport location of the restaurant on my last trip to NO, i figured i’d find somewhere else to eat while i waited for my flight. no luck. the louis armstrong international airport is a sad place for food, given this city’s rich culinary tradition.

so i went back to the acme at the airport as my only other food choices were beignets or ice cream.

tonight i ordered red beans and rice and a side of hush puppies (one of my favorite childhood foods). the red beans and rice were, by far, the best i’d ever had. and they would have been more than sufficient alone but were served with a very large piece of sausage. together, the combination was perfect. the beans were thickish but certainly not unlike a chili consistency. they were cooked with a nice smoked ham, many pieces of which were still in the beans. the white rice was average and really didn’t do much in the way of adding any flavor to the beans. the sausage, though – oh the sausage. spicy but not hot; smoky but not smoked. very very good.

and while i was waiting for my plane, i decided to give another praline a try. i’ve always been an aunt sally’s praline kind of gal. but tonight i tried kate latter’s maple praline. and i’ve concluded that I am still an aunt sally’s praline kind of gal. the kate latter’s praline was much more like the consistency of fudge than of a traditional praline. the maple flavoring was a nice change from the traditional praline flavor, but it just seemed too far afield from what I would normally consider a praline to be, and while i’m always up for something new, this something new was not something i think i’d try again.

march 3 – acme oyster house, café du monde

After my earlier failed attempt this week to make it to the acme oyster house, i decided this week i’d make an earlier visit hoping to secure a spot in the seemingly always overcrowded restaurant off of bourbon st, even if it was just at the bar.

so an early trip is certainly the key to getting in. but i did end up sitting at the bar. after chatting with my bartender about what raw oysters tasted like, she offered to give me one to try for free. though i’ve always kind of had the squicks about the idea of eating raw oysters, this was actually quite good. i could easily see how, if they weren’t fresh, they could be quite bad quite quickly. not the case here – fresh as could be and, as my bartender told me, pretty much just take on the taste of anything you put on them. i tried cocktail sauce, tabasco sauce and just plain lemon juice. all were quite good.

for my entrée, i hurriedly made the choice to get the peacemaker po boy. bad call. the bread was poor, very chewy, and hard to bite into without the sandwich just falling apart. after about two failed attempts to bite into the sandwich, i ditched the bread and just ate the fried oysters and shrimp after squeezing some lemon juice over them. very good. especially the oysters.

had another evening of a large café au lait at café du monde before heading over to preservation hall and maison bourbon for some fantastic live music. preservation hall is clearly the main place to really experience old-style live jazz music in the FQ. and it is well worth the inevitable line you will have to wait in. don’t be annoyed or dissuaded by the clueless tourists around you who will whine and groan about the wait. it’s worth it; stick it out.

NB: the price of tickets for one set at preservation hall has increased from $5 to $7.50. you’re scooted out after one set is over, so be prepared to wait on line longer than you will be able to listen to music.