May The Stars Light Your Way
I had my GARDE MANGER class this evening, so I went directly to Cincinnati State from work. We worked on a few items tonight since the food order was yet again messed up. As a result, we didn’t have the ingredients we needed for the…
This evening, Wendy & I went to Joann Fabrics to pick out fleece for our upcoming participation in a Project Linus event that Holly organized and Tracy is hosting. Project Linus is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization with a two-fold mission: First, it is our…
This article was written by Wendy.Â
At this time Buster is making great strides, literally. As last week drew to a close he started to push himself around the floor more enthusiastically. As anticipated, his rear end is stronger than the front (which we expected due to the location of the injury, which is right where the nerves controlling the front legs attach to the spinal cord). By Saturday he was righting his rear end by himself and shoving forward on his down front end in sort of a ‘commando crawl’. He has progressed to being able to support his weight on all 4 feet and taking a few halting steps before the front end gives out and he tumbles over.
He has plenty of strength in all 4 legs, but the problem remains in the proprioception, which is knowing where one’s body parts are without looking at them. This is always the first thing to go and the last thing to return in this sort of injury due to the way the associated nerve tracts are positioned in the spinal cord, so we are encouraged that it is beginning to come back to him at all. In humans, we lose proprioception not only when we have traumatic injuries like Buster’s, but also when we drink too much; hence the “drunk test” of touching your nose with your eyes closed. It’s why we stumble around after too many beers… we just don’t know where our feet are without seeing them anymore. So at this point it is honest to say that Buster’s movement is like a VERY drunk person’s… he is strong but terribly uncoordinated.
Buster rolls over the tops of his feet and can’t bother to place them correctly on the floor (pad side down), so he tumbles over. Fortunately, he’s rather low to the ground to begin with, so a tumble is not a major trauma. After a few good steps (usually to escape his own waste or to get to food) he falls over and gives up and lays there until someone comes to fetch him.
He is eating well but still has some loose stools, which I attribute to the high doses of Vitamin E he has been taking to help his nervous function. We have stopped this tonight as he is progressing so well and we are hopeful his bowels will firm back up soon. Overall his spirits seem to be pretty good. You can tell he gets frustrated when he wants to do something he can’t, but mostly what he seems to want to do is eat and sit next to us on the couch, and those things are currently within his reach.
We slept in this morning, a lovely thing. The fan in the bedroom kept us cool, and Buster was reasonably quiet until he messed his playpen at 7:00am, but we were able to get him cleaned up, settled in, and everyone back to sleep without…
We did a bunch of yardwork today, building on some initial work that Wendy had done earlier in the week. We replaced the old-n-busted pavers along our sidewalk with lovely new ones. This involved a trip to Home Depot for the new pavers, all 22…
In the morning/early afternoon, Jay & Angel and I went up to Xenia to read the script (“Gratuitous”) written by Dan, a filmmaker friend of mine. Dan likes to workshop his scripts to see what works and what could be tightened. This is the second time I have read “Gratuitous” for him, and this latest draft is working pretty well. It’s my pleasure to read for him, and Angel & Jay seemed to have a good time too.
Jay & Angel got to meet Buster when we got back to the house. Buster was having a pretty good day physically (though he’s got diarrhea from one of his meds) — he’s “commando crawling” all over the place and can flop himself out of his cuddle cup (the plastic box with the doggie bed in it where he sits when we’re around (when we’re not around, Buster stays in a playpen)).
Wendy & I found ourselves with an unexpected free Saturday evening, so we took a couple hours to go to Daveed’s restaurant in Mt. Adams for a very nice dinner. Daveed’s opened in September of 1999. It is a small restaurant (seating about 60) with an even smaller kitchen — everyone in the galley kitchen stands shoulder-to-shoulder. There’s no room for a fat guy back there! The restaurant’s decor is funky but understated, evoking a warm comfortable feeling in the dining room. I know most of the kitchen staff (David, Megan, Matt, Ms. Brown, and Nathan) from classes and having worked with them elsewhere. Our server, Todd, took very good care of us; he was very knowledgable and personable. The menu we ate was:
Amuse: Smoked Salmon Salad with Egg Mimosa and Truffle Foam. This was a very pretty and flavorful way to begin the meal. The salmon was nicely smoked and the truffle foam lent an amazing flavor to the couple-two-three bites of this amuse.
Enticements: Foie Gras on Brioche with Pears and Red Wine Gastrique; Wild Mushroom Soup with Flan and Truffle Oil; Lobster & Crab Salad with Citrus; and a Tuna Tartar with Kimchee sent out by the kitchen. The foie gras and the mushroom soup were superior dishes. A thick slab of foie gras set atop the toasted brioche (to soak up the juices) and a scattering of pears went around. I’m not embarassed to report that we used the excellent breads in the bread service to sop up the sauce at the bottom of the dish when everything else was consumed! Wendy’s Mushroom Soup was thick, hearty, and rich. The truffle oil garnish was almost too delicious. The Tuna Tartar was good, though the flavor of the tuna was overpowered by the kimchee. Still, it was a bold and not altogether-unsuccessful dish. One of the interesting components of the Tuna dish was little frozen dots of pureed avocado that contributed a cooling temperature and smooth texture.
Main dishes: Kobe Beef Tri-Tip with Warm Potato Salad; Duck Breast with wild mushrooms, Vermont white cheddar & garganelli pasta. Both of these dishes were excellent. Well-prepared with good attention to detail in the presentation. My tri-tip was nearly tender enough to cut with a fork, and cooked to a perfect just-barely-past-rare. I am not usually a fan of potato salad, but the Warm Potato Salad alongside the dish was very good. Wendy’s duck breast, in addition to being a large portion, was exceptional both in preparation and presentation. The white cheddar that topped the dish looked like it had been frozen, shaved, and sprinkled. It slowly melted during consumption of the dish. The garganelli was delicious.
Desserts: Deconstructed Banana Split; White & Dark Chocolate Mousse with fresh berries. My mousse was fairly standard but tasty. A generous dollop of both white & dark chocolate mousse was alongside some fresh berries. The Muscat that Todd served with it was perfect. Wendy’s banana split was interesting — a paper boat of fried banana, a quenelle of vanilla cream on top of a raspberry puree, a little pot of bittersweet chocolate sauce, and a small glass with lemon curd and more vanilla cream — all in seperate quadrants of the plate. Wendy had fun combining the elements in different ways to personalize the tastes.
It was a very good meal. Thanks to David and the gang in the kitchen!
On the way home, we stopped by our new Wal-Mart to get some supplies for Buster — another (smaller) playpen in which he can sleep upstairs with us, and some more pee pads to line them. We bumped into Gean, who certified us as scuba divers, and his family while we were there. It sure was nice to see Gene and meet his wife and family!
Dave & Robin came by the house to pick me up to see LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Ross High School, where Robin works. Robin was the vocal director for the show. Wendy would come to the school directly from work. Before the show, Robin,…