Memorial Day Weekend in Vermont

We were up in Vermont for the long weekend, which was very pleasant weatherwise -- cool and sunny most of the time. We fired up the grill and made steaks, ribs, and burgers over the various nights. It was sunny enough to use the Corvette the whole time we were up there so after getting an inspection sticker we went up to Springfield to do some errands and found an old time soft serve ice cream place. One day we went into Grafton and picked up some local common crackers, and stopped at the lonely real estate agent's office to get their views on the market. There are a lot of houses on the market up there, with very few sales. Not much different from the national perspective, although prices in Grafton (and Vermont in general) never got as wild as they did in the sunnier states. On the night we arrived, we went down into the village where one place is doing BYOB and serving crepes. The crepes were kind of weak, but it was still fun enough to try.

Heading up to Vermont now

Been a long week in NYC and we are heading out of town now.

Spring has sprung

I've left out a couple of weeks of activity, but we had a busy weekend up in Vermont. On Saturday we switched our warm/cold clothes out, as well as culled the closets and gave the excess to PlanetAid. Then we switched the storm windows for the screens and cleaned/charged up the Corvette. After doing a half dozen loads of laundry we barbecued a brisket, made a fresh endive & orange salad, and warmed up some cornbread for dinner. We had an 01 Clarendon Hills grenache that had the licoricey flavors to complement the brisket which J. had rubbed in fresh ground star anise, cumin, and chili powder. It was good, and quite different than it was in its grapey tannic youth. However we've stopped buying that kind of overripe wines. After that we relaxed and watched a movie.

Today we harvested the daffodils to take back to the apartment/office and then went for a ride in the Corvette. Happily the car was behaving properly and started up well after a few hours of charging at 10 amps. It was too cold to take the top down, so we pulled on sweaters and took it out. We drove down into town and stopped at the farm stand where we got some fresh fiddleheads to saute with dinner -- grilled tomatoes and porterhouses -- along with some mature 96 Clerc Milon. We gave the pestering cats some turkey and started packing for home. (To the left is a picture of Pablo, which I took when I visited home for a few days. He muzzle has turned from brown fur to a silvery shade as he has become a senior citizen. He still has the same spit and vinegar of his youth, and raided my satchel within 20 minutes of my arrival, gobbling the gourmet macaroons that J. had packed for me and running off with an apple in his mouth).