This last weekend... was tasty

Hrm... spring weekends in Ann Arbor. Quite nice, if I say so myself. Saturday was a brilliant day -- cleaning the house for the bed and dressers that would be coming on Sunday... This -- and some ADD outings to do some weeding outside -- made for a lazy Saturday. Follow this with a quick turn of the forest to ensure that people aren't doing anything untoward, and then I was off to a friend's house to walk over to watch the Billy King Band at LIVE@PJ's. (I texted my friend when I was about 3 miles away, and ended up showing up just as she and her friends and housemates were leaving for the show.) It was a very different sort of venue for both the band and the venue (who normally hosts DJs and rock and jazz bands). Knowing the members of the band, I enjoy watching the BKB perhaps more than when I watch some of the other local acts that I've been to see.

They played two solid sets, but they did (in my opinion) need to work a little on their transitions between songs: too much of a pause between songs will allow the dance-tension to slowly deflate... (sorry guys, but there were times when I really wanted to continue dancing, but then stopped...) Still, I love listening to Angie's vocal licks of (Ain't No Sunshine) When She's Gone and Jolene. Amazing, and soul-moving. That, and the song-writing skills of Billy make for a great evening out when watching this group: solid singing as well as solid original music. Love it.

Returning to Fort Hiscock (named after Hiscock Street, Ann Arbor), we ate popcorn with some Tony's Spice and nutritional yeast (an amazing combo) and then the BKB came by and we all jawed and played some games of Bananagrams, and ended up playing a game of meta-bananagrams, where we built words that sound like real words, but aren't. I originally came up with MUFTO, and then this was built on to create the super-hero (villain?) MUFTOR. This was on-upped with the addition of the penultimate letter to create MUFTORY: a fake word that sounds kind of like a portmanteau of "muff" and "rectory". Hilarity! (It was eye-wateringly hilarious to me, possibly because it was after midnight!) The members of the BKB eventually took of back to the farm, and I crashed at the Fort.

Next morning, I woke up and helped make some gluten-free banana bread. This involved two different kinds of flour, as well as some ingredients that I had never heard before or used. Although the bread did smell good when it came out of the oven, it was for a birthday party, and so it was mitts off! (The bread -- placed as it was on a circular dinner plate -- somewhat expectedly -- due to its lack of gluey gluten -- clove itself in twain, falling to the indefatigable and inimitable force of gravity.) Leaving the Fort with Cat, I headed up to Kerry Town, where the trees were blooming. (It is so much like springtime, and evokes memories of when I was growing up in Tokyo, where cherry blossoms abounded every springtime; so much so that the canal waters would turn white with their petals.) The brisk morning air made me hunger for a little bit more /AUT/ bar brunch cuisine. (On this point, I must say that the /AUT/bar has -- in my opinion -- perhaps the best diner-style brunch in the city, served at a reasonable (i.e., non-Zingerman) price.) While I normally love to dive into their yummy, yummy hollandaise-covered benedict concoction of the weekend. However, this day, I was feeling a little bit fragile, and as I rode up to the /AUT/bar, decided that I don't need to test my stomach, and to go for something more light.

I was greeted by an empty (and cool) courtyard bedecked with strips of flagging-like cloth and a (non-bedecked) crowded main bar area. However, seating at the bar was completely open, and since I was alone, this was my first choice. Taking a seat next to their supply of liquid gold, I eventually decided to go with my favorite (though very rarely used) stand-by: the Boulder Scramble. However, remembering that the cooks like to put in a nice serving of very tasty cheese (something that I felt a little too fragile for that morning), I ordered it with half the cheese, and it came out all nice and tasty; the flavor of the tempeh mixing well with the flavor of the vegetables. (And tying it together with the rye bread? Fantastic.)

Tangent: I really like the jars of jam that /AUT/ uses. I like it even more when I sit next to a jar of apricot jam. For some reason apricot jam reminds me of growing up and my father, who loved apricot jam. I bet he still does love it, but since it is so much easier to get in the US than in Japan, I don't know how often he eats it these days. Still, the flavor brings back memories of breakfast around the table, growing up in Tokyo.

While at the bar, I got a call from my friend, D.R., from whom I was buying my bed and dressers ('coz he and his wife are moving to Ecosse and don't need them in their furnished apartment). He was a little out of sorts, because his friend (who was going to give him a lift to Home Depot, where he would rent a Ford F350 to move the furniture) wasn't going to be able to pick him up for another couple of hours, thus throwing off his schedule for the day. Eventually, after some back-and-forth, I remembered that I had a ZipCar membership (I learned later that D.R. had e-mailed me asking if I had one, but I hadn't seen the e-mail yet), and we ended up getting a rental SUV for two hours and making the move in two perfectly-packed trips (one with dressers and the other with bed).

Although it was a chore to shove the bed frame pieces, box spring, and mattress up the hole to the loft, it all fit (just) and now I have a room up here that looks like something more than a person camping out. (Although there is also a lot less space, too.) Sunday ended with me filling the dresser with clothing that was piled on my low tables and on my [book]shelves, making the bed, and then standing around to admire my handiwork before eventually going to bed (after a long Skype conversation with the g/f).

I would talk about what I did today, but that was quite boring and banal. (And mind-meltingly fatiguing.)