Steak* (WTF?)

Ruby Tuesday's happens to be one of my mother's favorite restaurants.
It's troubling, however, that they feel it necessary to place an
asterisk next to their steak menu items...

Just what are they trying to warn us about?

Found quite the gem in Dover over the weekend. After a thoroughly mediocre Max Payne (despite laudable efforts by Mark Walburg and an established cast), the former last bastion of independently owned movie theaters (the Strand, now owned by Spinelli) left us to a lonely street on our hungry walk back to the car. That is, of course, until we saw the Silver Moon Creperie.

"Crepes," we thought - "How sophisticated. How cultured. How tasty."

We forwent our plans for banal-wiches (yes, sandwiches) and dove into the European world of fine early afternoon dining. I must say, I was quite impressed not only with the quality of crepes served (which, coming from me, is quite something - I'm quite the picky eater I'm told, and this was shown true with my order requiring significant customization), but also with the staff's jovial and accommodating manner, and the clean, stylish decor. One of us mentioned that it was as a cleaner, smaller, upscale and notably more friendly version of Portsmouth's Friendly Toast. I had to agree. 

They've a website: http://www.silvermooncreperie.com which includes their offerings and hours (which are, be warned, a bit peculiar, in keeping with their European-ish-ness.

Silver Moon Creperie: Highly recommended.

Max Payne: Rental.

The Green's Aphitheatre Bon Fire

Reaching 12 to 15 feet, this ferocious, self perpetuating oxidation
reaction threw off too much heat to use the normal rock seats.
Pallets, it turns out, need very little coaxing to release the Sun's
trapped energy.

Yeah. That shit burned hot.

The Portsmouth Ant has been replaced by some relatively creepy Jack O Lantern scare crow type statues. Honestly, I was a bit bummed to see the Ant go - maybe it'll be back once Halloween is over with, as that little guy was really starting to grow on me, especially considering the way the community got together to repair it. 

Trivia - when What's Not Important Becomes Vital

Erich, Matt and I popped on over to that lovingly British pub we like
to frequent, called the Coat for it's first ever night of trivia with
Phil.

And wouldn't you know it? We placed third and got the pictured gift
certificate for our know-nothing-of-import troubles. Good times.

When I was young, my friend's mother would use her aged wisdom to make what would normally be an intensely boring grocery store trip for a 10 year-old, into an exciting adventure. She would accomplish this by replacing the banal "Ok kids, time to go to the grocery store," with "Alright, who wants to go on an adventure?!?" Suddenly the car became our spaceship; the road, our starway; every passing tree, a strange alien life form; and Hannafords (then Shop N Save), the first habitable planet in the Alpha-Centauri Solar system.

Such an outlook on life, shared by an aptly placed euphemism, is a very wonderful thing. In keeping with this mentality, my friend and his mother recently drove from Florida to New England on a road trip; their objective? Their expectations? Thier reasoning for driving instead of simply taking a less expensive and less time-consuming flight? To go on an Adventure. To appreciate the time spent together all the more so, each wrote what their expectations and goals for the trip were on one side of the back of the rental, and neither looked at the other's goals for the trip until the trip drew to a close. You can see what they wrote below:

I can't stress enough how much I agree with the notion that life is about experiences, not accomplishments. It's during our accomplishing that life *is.* Being able to reflect upon it is just a additional benefit.

Perhaps one of the most valuable defining charactoristics of humanity is being able to determine your own reason for being. Experiencing the richest, most rewarding experiences life has to offer.