Weather Pain

As many of my co-workers warned me upon moving to the Northeast, winter here lasts at least all the way through February without respite. And they are correct. We have been the victims of another Noreaster the past few days, and will continue to be through the weekend. It's not actively snowing right now, but it should pick up again. The strangest part is that the temperature has been hovering right around the freezing point the entire time, often going a few degrees above and making the snow extremely wet (and heavy to shovel). Here are a few pics of it:

Hartford's skyline, obscured by fog

Our next door neighbors. The giant tree is more impressive in person.

Our back door neighbors, through the screen of our door. Sorry I was too lazy to go outside to shoot it.

Our front porch

Sushi sushi!

Today is the last day of my nice four-day weekend (CRT gets both Lincoln's B-Day and President's Day off). Sarah and I enjoyed a nice trip to Vermont on Friday, and have pretty much taken it easy for the rest of the time off. For a travelogue of our adventures at Ben and Jerry's and the rest of our Vermont trip, visit Sarah's blog. Here she is at work on the post. I don't know how she manages with that tiny monitor.



But today, we did decide to take advantage of the weekday lunch price of an Asian buffet a few blocks from our place. It's called Sakura Buffet, and it bills itself as "The Ultimate Sushi Buffet." It was pretty good. The buffet featured some traditional American-Chinese buffet staples--General Tso's chicken, Mongolian beef, Sweet and Sour chicken, hard boiled eggs--as well as a fairly impressive sushi buffet. Varieties included lobster, shrimp, tofu, some impressive-looking cornucopia-type wrapped offerings as well as standard salmon, tuna and California rolls. Jeff will be particularly interested to know that there was also an item called a Philadelphia roll. I did not try that one. Here are a few of the items I did try:

Tuna, octopus, and black dragon rolls

The house special, Sakura Roll, tofu roll, and amazing Volcano Roll. The Sakura roll is delicious, with tuna, roe, daikon and possibly some other vegetables, topped with a spicy Sriracha/mayonnaise type dressing. The Volcano roll is a revelation, though not really traditional sushi. It appeared to be a nori roll, tempura fried, filled with avocado and roe, topped with a variety of fish and vegetables, and finished with spicy and sweet dressings. I am not sure whether the name refers to the spicy topping, represents the veritable explosion of ingredients, or subtly warns that you likely will violently erupt a few hours after eating it.

As we moved toward dessert, Sarah enjoyed a fig-filled peach bun.

Dessert proper included the ubiquitous cream-filled pastries as well as a variety of mini cheesecakes. These were chocolate-chip and lemon.

As we left, I snagged a few of these candies. I have not tried them yet, but the fruit pictured on the wrapper appears to be that of the cashew tree. I doubt the letters will be decipherable on this picture.

Now, I nap.

Odds and the End

Odds are, you watched the Super Bowl last night. I did as well, in the comfort of our friend Jordan's apartment, which she shares with an engaged couple (I don't know who would ever want to do that). She is a Tulane alum and big Saints fan, and since neither Sarah nor I have much connection to Indianapolis, we cheered for the underdogs along with her. It was a good game, but since I had no money riding on the outcome and found the commercials subpar, I was much more attached to Jordan's barbecue shrimp than I was to the game.

On more important TV matters, the premiere of the final season of LOST has come and gone, with much ado from me and my fellow LOSTies. I won't get into the details here, because most of you don't care, and those of you who do can check out Pops' take on it at his blog. Suffice it to say that many hours were spent by my coworkers and I Wednesday morning around the water cooler combating out LOST hangovers.

Finally, I thought I'd point out what was both a fiduciary boon and culinary nightmare for me a few weeks ago. Sarah and I were at Target picking up a few items when I noticed a sign that Lean Pockets were on sale for $2. I often buy Lean Pockets at this price--2 pockets per box, or $1 per pocket is a decent deal. They are a reasonably not-unhealthy lunch in a pinch, portable and microwavable. However, I had grown quite sick of them, having indulged in them far too often in my Office at JMU (to the horror of both my palate and my coworkers' noses).

My heart rose, then sank when I examined the sign and saw that the $2 price was not for 2-packs, but rather for the family size 12-pack boxes of Pepperoni and Sausage Pockets! We had to buy them. I've been taking them in my lunch ever since. After three weeks, still about a third of our freezer is apportioned for the little pastry packets of lukewarm pizza goo. My coworkers ask me every day if I like Lean Pockets. Every day, I tell them no.

The banes of my existence.