Sunday in five parts
Mar. 7th, 2010 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bex77Today was a busy day!
1) We checked out of the hotel in Maryland,
2) had an elegant brunch with friends,
3) stopped in to see another family, then
4) partied with a group of Doctor Who fans, and finally
5) drove up the NJ to watch the Oscars. Whew!
We got out of the hotel right on time, picked up one donut from Krispie Kreme, then headed up to Columbia to meet friends for brunch. They picked the incredible Waterside Restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel at the Lakeside.
http://www.sheratoncolumbia.com/Restaurant-Brunch-Columbia-Howard-County-maryland-md.php
It was an incredible room, with a stunning view of the lake. And the food...WOW! I ate my first-ever oysters on the half shell. They are a great vehicle for cocktail sauce. Not sure why I hadn't tried them before, but yum. I started with little tastes of the breakfast items - eggs benedict, bacon, sausage, and cinnamon bread french toast. They had a custom omelette and waffle station, but I never got there. N. loved the lox and smoked salmon. I tried the entrees but they were not as exciting - tortellini in vodka cream sauce, haddock rolls in a caper sauce, steamed shrimp. They also had mussels in a tomato sauce, baked chicken, sliced turkey, pork chops, green beans almondine, and yellow rice, but I never got there either. The desserts were lovely looking, but all I picked up was a quarter square of a nutty brownie to satisfy my chocolate fix. Now this was the decadence I was hoping for!
We had a great talk with Barb and Dave. She is an online figure skating fan buddy. They had just been to see the terra cotta warriors exhibit at the National Geographic museum. She was looking great despite a wicked car accident a few months ago that broke her sternum. She is up on politics and has a unique, first-hand view of health care and an amazing understanding of what health care reform could mean but probably won't.
We headed 10 minutes down the road to see Heather and her family. She used to be the minister at First Church. She had gotten a AKAI wind synth for her birthday and we had fun playing it. It looks like an electronic flute, but you can make it a tuba or a glockenspiel and play it by blowing in one end. It was great fun! The twins are young men now, headed to high school in the Fall...and their little girl is growing into a fine young person.
We went another 10 minutes across town to another Doctor Who gathering. N. showed off "Red Shift" from First night and we saw the "Time Rift" blooper reel reunited with some of the cast that hadn't seen each other in 15 years.
We left there at 6 pm and headed North to NJ. We checked in to the hotel, dashed up to the room, turned on the TV and the Oscars came on in about 10 seconds! Whee!
We watched the opening with the inimitable NPH, and the first award to best supporting actor, then headed out to grab Chinese food and sushi from the glorious Royal Mandarin. It is a little spot tucked into a strip mall with an incredible variety of Chinese and Japanese food. We tried bits of each cuisine - eggs rolls, pork gyoza, chicken corn soup, and I got two sushi rolls. N. tried their sweet and sour pork but was not that thrilled.
http://www.themandaringroup.com/main/index.php?page=royal_mandarin&address=4
So the Oscars are rolling along...great to see the two films of the few I saw last year in the theater (Star Trek and Young Victoria) get something.
1) We checked out of the hotel in Maryland,
2) had an elegant brunch with friends,
3) stopped in to see another family, then
4) partied with a group of Doctor Who fans, and finally
5) drove up the NJ to watch the Oscars. Whew!
We got out of the hotel right on time, picked up one donut from Krispie Kreme, then headed up to Columbia to meet friends for brunch. They picked the incredible Waterside Restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel at the Lakeside.
http://www.sheratoncolumbia.com/Restaurant-Brunch-Columbia-Howard-County-maryland-md.php
It was an incredible room, with a stunning view of the lake. And the food...WOW! I ate my first-ever oysters on the half shell. They are a great vehicle for cocktail sauce. Not sure why I hadn't tried them before, but yum. I started with little tastes of the breakfast items - eggs benedict, bacon, sausage, and cinnamon bread french toast. They had a custom omelette and waffle station, but I never got there. N. loved the lox and smoked salmon. I tried the entrees but they were not as exciting - tortellini in vodka cream sauce, haddock rolls in a caper sauce, steamed shrimp. They also had mussels in a tomato sauce, baked chicken, sliced turkey, pork chops, green beans almondine, and yellow rice, but I never got there either. The desserts were lovely looking, but all I picked up was a quarter square of a nutty brownie to satisfy my chocolate fix. Now this was the decadence I was hoping for!
We had a great talk with Barb and Dave. She is an online figure skating fan buddy. They had just been to see the terra cotta warriors exhibit at the National Geographic museum. She was looking great despite a wicked car accident a few months ago that broke her sternum. She is up on politics and has a unique, first-hand view of health care and an amazing understanding of what health care reform could mean but probably won't.
We headed 10 minutes down the road to see Heather and her family. She used to be the minister at First Church. She had gotten a AKAI wind synth for her birthday and we had fun playing it. It looks like an electronic flute, but you can make it a tuba or a glockenspiel and play it by blowing in one end. It was great fun! The twins are young men now, headed to high school in the Fall...and their little girl is growing into a fine young person.
We went another 10 minutes across town to another Doctor Who gathering. N. showed off "Red Shift" from First night and we saw the "Time Rift" blooper reel reunited with some of the cast that hadn't seen each other in 15 years.
We left there at 6 pm and headed North to NJ. We checked in to the hotel, dashed up to the room, turned on the TV and the Oscars came on in about 10 seconds! Whee!
We watched the opening with the inimitable NPH, and the first award to best supporting actor, then headed out to grab Chinese food and sushi from the glorious Royal Mandarin. It is a little spot tucked into a strip mall with an incredible variety of Chinese and Japanese food. We tried bits of each cuisine - eggs rolls, pork gyoza, chicken corn soup, and I got two sushi rolls. N. tried their sweet and sour pork but was not that thrilled.
http://www.themandaringroup.com/main/index.php?page=royal_mandarin&address=4
So the Oscars are rolling along...great to see the two films of the few I saw last year in the theater (Star Trek and Young Victoria) get something.
