New Year, New Writing Practice

I’ve been wanting to write a humble online journal for a while now and since it is my birthday and since I have this website with very little user traffic there really is no better time than the present to start up the practice. So what do I have in mind? Something very much like a public diary for anyone who would like to get to know me better. I’ll discuss what I’m reading and watching, and I’ll comment on all the little things that make up my days and weeks. I’m not sure who you are, reader. Maybe you are only me. I’m not going to announce this blog exists to anyone so if you are here you are likely an accidental audience or someone related to me. Either way, my goal is to be as candid as possible. I intend to write messily and often. There maybe typos or awkward sentences. A polished, perfect, front facing presentation of my thoughts is not the goal here. No, here is where I just want to let it all hang out and hopefully record thoughts of some worth.

So as this is a first post I will tell you one thing about my weekend. Saturday night I went out to dinner here in Oviedo (Spain, not Florida) for my birthday. The kids are young but they can more or less handle themselves when we go out, even though this country really pushes the boundaries of bedtime. An early dinner here, meaning you are the only one in an empty restaurant that is still more or less setting up for service, starts at 8:30pm. Most diners will come in for a first seating around 9:30 and sometimes there is a second seating at 11. This has probably been the most challenging adjustment we’ve had to deal with living here. Spanish kids just stay up so much later and I still haven’t figured out when they actually sleep. It’s possible they just don’t.

The restaurant was a new one for us; it came from a recommendation. At first I imagined it would be a stuffy place with a very traditional Asturian menu - fabada stew, cachopo, arroz con leche, that sort of thing - but I was wrong. The menu was fantastic, creative, and had much more to offer than the standard fare. Lots of fresh, in season mushrooms in nearly every dish. We ordered grilled vieiras (scallops) with a walnut pil-pil (a Basque sauce using olive oil, garlic, a chili as a base), truffled risotto with mushrooms and Iberico ham (of course), tuna tartare, and steak tartare. With that we had a bottle of Ribera del Duero but I don’t remember the name or the year, just that it was the perfect complement.

The kids ate none of that. Instead they had bites of the risotto, delicious fried calamari and small flank steaks with fries. My daughter fell asleep in her chair after eating and my son got into a lively conversation about his classmates with my wife. She is trying to memorize all of their names.

So there is one thing that happened this weekend.