Running Away Has Never Been Better April 28, 2008

There are days when you just can’t take it any more, and my husband and I had one of those last Saturday. We still had work to do over the weekend, but we decided that if we were going to have to spend the weekend working, we ought to at least have an incredible view. We decided to run away for the night to Phippsburg, ME, a tiny town on the “fingers” of the Maine coast, about an hour north of Portland. We tried the Popham Beach Bed & Breakfast first, but they were full. The recommended the Stonehouse Manor, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

 

Jane and Tim were the most magnificent hosts. We sipped hot tea while we worked on the sun porch overlooking the lake, and when our computers wouldn’t work with the Manor’s wireless, Jane even went so far as to loan us her own laptop to e-mail our assignments in before deadline. The only way it could have been better is if we could have skipped the working part and spent the afternoon walking on the beach, which is a five-minute, lovely walk away.

 

Our room, the Lake View Suite, couldn’t have been cozier. The bed was the perfect cushiness without being too soft. If it wouldn’t have made me what I imagine would be a very creepy guest, I would have stayed in the velvety robe and slippers all day. And the love seat and chair in front the huge windows made the perfect place to sip my morning’s first cup of coffee.

 

Jane recommended a fantastic restaurant – Solo Bistro in Bath- for dinner. Recommendations are even more important when your husband is vegetarian; it’s pretty easy to stumble around the countryside and find almost no restaurants with a few good vegetarian options, if you’re working blind. But Solo Bistro had several options, and even better was the customer service. First, Kevin ordered the Parmesan risotto. Unfortunately, he didn’t like it. I saw several other people happily eating it – and I tasted it myself – and I can assure you it was a matter of personal taste, not bad food. It was just heavy on what I think was oregano, and it wasn’t to Kevin’s taste. He asked if he could order the cavatappi pasta instead, and he insisted that they charge us for the risotto. 

 

They quite graciously refused and returned with his pasta in a matter of minutes. The pasta, by the way was a splendid and rich grown-up mac and cheese, with fresh basil, pine nuts and swimming in cream and Gorgonzola. In the meantime, I had what was at least in the top five of my favorite burgers of all time. Perfectly cooked (medium-rare, in my opinion), topped with tangy city of ships cheese, a mound of tiny fried onions and a balsamic reduction, that burger will be on my mind for a while. Fortunately, Bath is a pretty short drive from Portland.

 

Back to Stonehouse Manor. The next morning, Jane greeted us with one of the most glorious breakfasts I’ve ever had at a B&B, and that includes the chef-rich B&Bs of Hyde Park, NY, home to the CIA. I had to use extraordinary restraint not to absolutely stuff myself on her omelets stuffed with ripe cherry tomatoes, spinach and herbed cheese; blueberry pancakes with maple syrup; homemade toasted bread with butter; and a plateful of delectable fruits. Jane is not a chef, by her own admission, but that does not get in her way. Her food is delightful. Oh, and the coffee was also fantastic, which, if you think about it, is a B&B must. If you’re a coffee person, that is. 

 

After only one afternoon, a night and a morning, we begrudgingly left to go back to even more work, but not before taking a sadly abbreviated, but perfectly serene in a very chilly way, walk on Popham Beach. We would have loved to stay the entire week. I’m not sure I would ever tire of a life in Phippsburg at Stonehouse Manor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding wireless April 5, 2008

When you’re from off, epsecially when you’re a freelancer, or really any kind of working person these days, you may find yourself in this situation: your plane lands and immediately you need to be on the Internet. If it’s just for e-mail, and you have a Blackberry, Treo, etc., you’re okay. But sometimes you need to edit a document and send it right back or find the answer to a client’s urgent question, or maybe even bang out an entirely new document that has to be researched, written, edited, and approved in a matter of hours. And that’s when the Blackberry does you no good.

This happened to me at DFW once – Dallas Fortworth International Airport – and, being the panicked new freelancer I was, I sat right down in the airport, paid the $7.99 to access their wireless hotspot, and did my work. But I didn’t like it. And I still don’t. So I was wondering, wouldn’t it be great if there was a Web site that allowed you to put in the area code of your current location, and it would spit out a list of all the wireless access points – particularly free ones – nearby, along with a map and directions for finding it?

Of course, as soon as the idea occurred to me, I knew it must have occurred to about seven hundred thousand quicker thinkers who came before me, so I just googled “wireless by zip code” and here’s what I got.

The first hit I got was Wifi411, which did what I wanted, but yielded unimpressive results. All of the locations were pay-wifi, and not even all of the pay locations I know Portland has. None of the free hot spots showed up.

The second hit – JiWire – was more like it. JiWire produced a lengthy list of both pay and free spots, and it also indicated which providers the pay spots used, in case you happen to be a T-Mobile user, for example, and those spots are free for you. It’s an advertising site, so you’ll get a lot of Starbucks and hotel listings first as the “featured sponsor listings,” but they do calim to list non-sponsors as well. The site had some problems, and I wasn’t able to view the complete list, but from what I saw, they didn’t list my  so-far favorite wireless spot in Portland, which, for those of you who are also from off, is the North Star Music Cafe.

So the lesson is, this may not be a way to locate a new city’s cool places to work, but it’s definitely a good way to save your tuchus should you find it in a bind.

When Will My Backyard Emerge: A Poll March 26, 2008

So this is our backyard:

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I know, it’s kind of pitiful looking right now. But that’s not the point. The point is that when we rented the place, all we could see was a big space that looked something like our own personal Arctic corner. Over the past week, though, the snow has begun to recede, and we’re delighted to see this lovely brick patio appearing. The place has potential! But, as you can see from the photo, there’s a problem. The house shadow. It’s keeping the final third of our backyard under deep ice cover, and what I want to know is WHEN? When, friendly Mainers, will I see the whole backyard?

I’ve checked the weather, and it promised be 47 degrees tomorrow but also to return to freezing nearly immediately. This tundra seems like it will require more than just one day of warm temps, so I’m guessing tomorrow won’t be the day my idyllic courtyard fully appears. I’m guessing I might get a glimpse of my future summer by April, though. Whad’ya think?

Also, on a little side note, does anyone know what that little dome structure is? Something to grow some sort of vegetation on, maybe? Kevin suggested that it’s a miniature playground. I’m thinking no.

Delivery For Sure March 24, 2008

As promised, but a bit late, I finally tried 2DineIn, and forget my doubts and worries – it was excellent. The driver called to tell me when h’d just picked up my food from the restaurant (we ordered Bangkok Thai), and he was at our house less than five minutes later. The food was so hot I had to blow on it before putting the fork in my mouth! The food itself wa pretty good – we both got Noodle Delight – mine with chicken and shrimp, Kevin’s vegetarian. It needed a little tamari, but other than that, it was very satisfying, if not mindblowing. I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t expect mindblowing takeout. I’m just looking for a pleasant eating experience that doesn’t require me to go out in the cold or change out of my pajama pants.

But seriously, the delivery experience was excellent. And the $4.58 was a tip for the driver, not a delivery fee … meaning, there weren’t two separate charges for tip and fee. So it really wasn’t any more expensive than any takeout I’ve ever had. So hurrah for Portland! You’re my kind of town.

Hawk or Falcon? March 21, 2008

Thanks to the eye of Eric, I’m now down to two choices for the identity of my flying friend: Peregrine Falcon or Broad Winged Hawk. I did a Google Image search, as he suggested, and I’m just not sure which it is! I know, it’s a terrible photo, so it’s hard to tell. I did, however, find some super cute pictures of baby hawks, so I’d be very excited if this particular bird comes back and sets up a home in my backyard.

I think I’m going to print out photos of each and keep them by the window in case the bird comes back!

Portland Wildlife March 20, 2008

We had a brush with the animal kingdom today, and here’s where I need your help. A bird sort of large, not huge though – landed on the tree in our backyard this morning. I was watching it, cupping my mug of hot coffee. I was excited. You know, interesting bird to watch, and all, until … it started tearing flesh from the bundle of what I now realize was tiny dead animal in its claws. It stayed there for quite a while, and of course, I was sickly mesmerized pretty much the whole time. And when it finally flew away – it left a gross little pile on the limb as a reminder of its visit! I can only hope it rains soon.

 Anyway, I snapped a shot of the bird, albeit a terrible one. Does anyone know what it is? A hawk? That would be so cool …

Delivery Maybe March 16, 2008

An update: I was wrong about delivery in Portland! Thank you to the ever-helpful and tantalizing Portland Food Map for setting me straight. It appears Portland does have a delivery service of sorts – 2DineIn – the kind that picks up at various restaurants around town and delivers their cookery to your door.

Despite this exciting revelation, I have to say, I’m cautiously optimistic. I’m wary of this because I’ve lived in places that have these before (Cumming, GA, where I grew up, had one for about three months, as did Minneapolis, MN) and they seem to be less than reliable, often going out of business quickly, and, of course, there’s the downside that they charge a delivery fee. But – BUT – I haven’t tried this one yet, and it may be worth the $5 charge to bring my food to my door. I’ll let you know.

A Tale of Two Beds

What does it mean to live a semi-nomadic existence, what I like to call (perhaps because I am a ridiculous idealist/romantic) the “travel life”? Well, for the most part, it means discovering afresh how to accomplish all the ordinary life things that you need to do. For us, this weekend, that means buying a bed. Which is more of a challenge than you might think here in Maine’s largest city.

Until now, we’ve had only a bed frame, and we’ve been quite happy not to lug a huge head- and foot-board around the country, so there. But now we live in this superb apartment – truly, that’s not sarcasm, we love it – and here in this superb apartment the furniture arranging is complicated by the presence of 8 foot arched doors spaced about 10 feet apart along one entire side of every room. And that means, friends, that our bed has to but up against (or really head up against) one of these doors. It makes a nice frame for the bed, but not a nice backing. Even with the bed flush against the wall, there’s a yawning chasm along much of the bed’s center, just waiting to suck us in should we stray from our respective corners.

We spent the first three weeks each perched on a far edge of the bed, hollering across, when our eyes had done all the night reading they’d allow, “Good night, honey!” Finally, Kevin had had it, and I was right there with him. We have to have a headboard, something to lean against, anything. Kevin toyed in desperation with the idea of using a big piece of plywood, but we decided that we’d just adult-up and buy a real bed. Little did we know the plywood idea wasn’t as desperate as we’d soon become.

I can tell you after an entire day of bed shopping, Portland has a dearth of furniture stores. We went to all of them. Most of them, I’m sorry to tell you, were sad little places specializing in the sale of waterbeds. I’m not kidding. They do still exist. We found one nice bed at Asia West (we loved many things here, but they only had one bed), but it was a platform, and we – of course – bought the only mattress in the universe with super special boxsprings that must be used with the mattress, or you forfeit your 20-year warranty.

So one day later, we’re thinking of ordering a bed off the Internet, as ridiculous as that seems. We’d love to buy local, or at least see what we’re going to buy before we pay to ship it a thousand miles, but we’ve simply exhausted all of our Maine-based bed buying possibilities. We think. It’s hard to know for certain when you’re so new and so desperate not to fall in your bed canyon.

Delivery, No March 14, 2008

All my Brooklyn friends, who thankfully are probably not reading this, would be aghast. They might disown me. They’d certainly lecture me, berate me, and squench their faces up in disgust at me. I ordered Domino’s Pizza last night.

Let me explain. Portland may be many things – environmentally progressive, exceptionally beautiful in the summer and fall – but it is not a delivery town. I mean that. No one delivers.

I’ve heard a number of New Yorkers ask in dismay how the rest of America could have supported the rise of a place such as Domino’s and, friends, I have your answer. In places where no one else will bring you food on those evenings when it’s too cold or you’re too exhausted or lazy or waiting for a phone call, Domino’s will bring you dinner. And you can understand that, because no one gets more delivery than New Yorkers.

Seriously, though, I have yet to find any delivery options in Portland other than Domino’s, and so I had it, and I’m not sorry. Or rather, I wasn’t sorry at first because I don’t mind Domino’s. I’m not such a pizza connoisseur as some, I admit. But then I did mind it afterward, and that’s the reason I almost never ever order Domino’s. I ate way too much. Not because it’s the most amazing thing ever. Just because I can’t seem to stop. I sometimes wonder if Domino’s sneaks in some sort of stomach-expanding chemical that allows you to feel still-hungry until you finally go, There’s no way my stomach holds this much food, and then you stop and feel sick.

RiRa Pub Quiz March 5, 2008

I don’t have the most experience with Portland pubs as of yet, but I have been to RiRa twice. The first time was at the recommendation of our hotel concierge. See, RiRa has this upstairs dining room that is right on the water – lots of windows, fireplace in the corner, lovely.

 I had fish and chips ($12) – of course – which were good, but the dish that was extraordinary was the Irish potato cakes with balsamic and sour cream. They were so good that I considered giving Kevin a pitiful look and asking if I could have them all to myself. And that would have been fine because Kevin was delighted with the vegetarian meal he ordered. 

Now, RiRa doesn’t offer the world’s great selection for vegetarians, but Kevin doesn’t mind that as long as the vegetarian food they do offer is good, which is rare. But not at RiRa. Kevin ordered and loved the Edenmore Plate ($14): herb polenta, grilled portabella, baby spinach, goat cheese, and roasted peppers. 

But I’m actually here to talk about the Pub quiz, which is why we went back to RiRa a second time, rather than another of Portland‘s many, many pubs. It’s a work thing for Kevin, this weekly trip to the RiRa pub quiz, and we’re trying to be social and make friends, so it seemed like the thing to do.  

The first thing you need to know is that RiRa’s pub (downstairs from the lovely dining room, but also lovely and quite cozy) gets crowded on pub quiz night. Hindsight advice #1: go very early. You will have trouble parking and you will have trouble finding a seat. Our smarter quiz team members had arrived earlier than us, but had only been able to secure a tiny corner, wedged in between two somewhat disgruntled tables. When one of those tables saw me and Kevin headed toward the corner, they pinched their faces and said, More people?

But they had no need to worry. The waitress had already waylayed us and explained that it would not be possible or acceptable for us to squeeze into that spot. Now, she wasn’t exactly rude, although I did feel a bit like a second grader who had stolen someone’s lunch money. And even though we are writers, not physicists, it was pretty clear that no one’s tush – let alone two of them – was going to fit onto that tiny corner of bench. Our friends had already gotten up to join us – standing – before the waitress’s lecture was over.  

We persevered, though, have no fear. We even performed respectably, coming in something like tied for fourth … I think. We lost the tied-for-third tiebreaker so I’m not where that puts us. Kevin and I also ordered burgers – veggie and regular respectively – and he liked his and I wasn’t such a fan of mine. But maybe that had something to do with the standing and no place to eat and lack of ketchup. I’m an embarrasingly, unsophisticatedly big ketchup fan. So, I’d definitely be willing to give RiRa’s burger another try.  

In fact, maybe I’ll do that on St. Patrick’s Day, now that I know that RiRa hosts a dive into the freezing Casco Bay for those patrons crazy or drunk enough to participate. Not that I’m planning to dive … I think I’ll get a Guinness and watch from a fireplace-side table upstairs.