an early morning post...

On Wednesday night Team Tomis had a huge game and a HUGE win in a European Cup (European League) game against Innsbruck. After losing the first two sets (and really looooosing - it wasn't pretty) I thought they were done for BUT they staged an amazing comeback despite a fourth set match point for the other team (Steve had a huge block in the middle to save their skins) and being down four points in the fifth, and gave the crowd more than their money's worth with a 21-19 win in OT. It was a great match - well, the last three sets anyways... and some dudes came in off of the bench and did a great job, so hurray. There was a team dinner afterwards (first course: cheese, fried cheese, fried thick bacon and half a tomato; second: breaded fried chicken, flat steak-hunk and lukewarm potato wedges; third: pastry plate and dessert-y sugar buns) that could have been a lot more morose and uncomfortable if they'd lost in three; not that anyone seemed that happy though - the smoke was gross and despite a few handshakes the president in his stripey sweater stayed in the smoke box in the front and cavorted with other management cronies over bottles of wine. But anyways, the game was great and the fourth and fifth sets were total thrillers... PLUS the fans were great, so it was good. Good good good.

OOh! I finally took a picture of the beloved bakery down the street; the Laborator! I willingly subject myself to any testing or experiments as long as there is no Hansel and Gretel take-a-closer-look-at-the-oven business; pastry cakes breads rolls baguettes yup I can eat 'em and tell you how fantastic they are. AND! Across the street there's a smaller grocery store that ALSO has a small cabinet of fantastic looking delicacies... it's temptation central! I told myself that I have all year to sample the yummy goodies and that I should take my time. The good thing is that these laborators in all of their goodness are on my way to and from the gym - SO! After a good workout I can feel only a small pinch (or bulge) of guilt by buying and eating. Or bringing home to share. I must say that these bakeries are second to only to France - Romania! Who knew!?

the bakery!

Yesterday afternoon we went to one of Europe's smaller Costco type stores, Metro, where they sell everything from tires to kitchen appliances to exotic fruit to fresh fish. Their cheese selection was amazing - we spent a good 10 minutes oggling over the selection; the yogurt aisle was also fantastic and we stocked up on that too - yogurt, for some reason, is way better in Europe; we think that it has something to do with the cream? Overall there's a higher fat content - people aren't as concerned about it I guess, but you don't see many 0% fat slim your trim low fat products which is fine by me! But maybe not fine by my pants. Anyways, we made Halibut Florentine last night which is a SUPER delicious fish-dish (it's THE BEST!), liked by even those "if it's from the sea it's not for me"-crazy people. I also made the chocolate brownie pudding dessert... which is absolutely amazing, especially with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. They were both super delicious and the three of us (Steve, Tammy and I) polished off ALL of the goods... all of 'em. Super super super yummy.


Happy Birthday Tams!

Last thing: I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a few days ago (Junot Diaz) and loved the first half but was so-so on the second. It was good, but not great great - good story (a sort of modern, Dominican-American One Hundred Years of Solitude without the class and minus a few hundred pages) but blah ending and too much unnecessary swearing. But this is just my opinion... Next up is Edward P. Jones' The Known World which - so far so good! Time to get ready for practice!