Friday, January 1, 2010
Long weekend
posted at 10:29 PM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
Nice way to welcome the new year, this year, with a three-day weekend only a week after a four-day weekend. It's very relaxed. Since they schedule most holidays on Monday, these days, maybe they could just pre-determine that Christmas and New Year's will always be on Fridays or Mondays from now on. I suppose the calendar would get really messed up if we had to tie the holidays to dates but some clever legislator should be able to figure it out.

And I love the marathons that some television stations run on holidays. The Thin Man and Sherlock Holmes are this year's pleasures for me. They're not brilliant in terms of dialog or plot, I suppose, but they do hold up and they're lots of fun.

Kudos, too, to Panera restaurant which was open all day, has free wifi and fireplaces, and is always so welcoming to people relaxing in their pleasant cafe-like places.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Japanese restaurant
posted at 9:19 AM | Permalink | 0 comment(s)
I gave in at last and went to the restaurant voted best Japanese restaurant in the area for the last several years. (My instinct is still influenced by my father's unfortunate aversion to popular things but I overcame . . . and what a good thing I did.) It's no big secret that my geographical region is the so-called Mid-Hudson Valley north of New York City, so it's not revealing much to identify the restaurant. It's called Neko and has two branches, one in New Paltz and one in Wappingers Falls. The atmosphere is very pleasant. Not rushed, not hoity-toity (which some Japanese restaurants are), not too hot and not too cold. (Goldilocks would be happy, I guess.) The waitresses were friendly and helpful. There was a big party in a back room and despite the occasional startling bursts of flames and outbursts of laughter, it was never difficult to concentrate on my own friends and food. Most important, the food was delicious. I find miso soup and salad always scrumptious but they were particularly light and flavorful. I finished with ginger ice cream instead of more sushi (which is really what I wanted!) because I was trying to test the whole spectrum, and the ice cream was perfect. I highly recommend Neko and can't wait to return.

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