Flowers in the Kitchen

We were waiting for a show to start at Elizabethtown College, so we ventured into "downtown" Elizabethtown to find a place to have dinner. Later, we found that we could have snuck into the catered dinner for free. Although the food didn't look very good, I can't say it would have been much better than my entree.
I use "downtown" loosely. It's pretty much 2 blocks long. Apparently, the corner of Market and High make up the square, but it looked like any other intersection. There were a few banks, restaurants, and other random stores over those two blocks, but not even a souvenir shop! It made me feel lucky to have gone to college in Lancaster.
We received recommendations for Flowers in the Kitchen and Flavers. We looked at the menu of both before deciding. Even though Flavers offered more options, Flowers in the Kitchen looked like a really great place to spend a couple of hours. Flavers had no atmosphere whatsoever.
Flowers is a restaurant and trinket store all in one. There are fabulous tables and chairs that look like a cross between a table someone would have in their own kitchen and something you might find in a school. It worked, though. The walls were covered in bookshelves filled with trinkets, odds-and-ends, art supplies, etc. They were fore sale, although I don't think they make more than one sale per week. The restaurant was big, but we were the only people eating until 15 minutes before we left. This may have been because we arrived at 4:45. The menu offered a soup, several salads that pretty much consisted of greens, a type of nut, and a type of fruit. There were appetizers, but they were more like bar snacks (crackers, cheese, pretzels). The main courses are changed every week, it seemed. It was mostly chicken dishes, a couple of fish, a steak, and a pasta. I was disappointed because the only options I had were the steak or the pasta, because chicken always tastes bad at a restaurant. So I went for the pasta.
The disk was called "linguine with four cheese and tomato sauce." It was basically marinara sauce. I asked, and the waiter told me there was cheese in the sauce. I didn't want to go through the trouble of returning it, especially because the only other option I had was steak. So I went with it. The sauce was reasonably good and it came with a soup and desert. Overall, the meal was disappointing in its quality, especially once we realized we could have had a free catered dinner. The desert was excellent, though. Their theme was maple sugar, because this is the maple tree tapping season. There was maple syrup in Jeremy's couscous and bacon. My desert was a maple brownie sundae with maple syrup. Jeremy's pear tart also had maple in it.

Would I go back? Not unless I'm hungry and in Elizabethtown. But I would go here over any other place mostly because of the atmosphere.

Flowers in the Kitchen
8 S Market St
Elizabethtown, PA 17022

bao noodles

Dinner at Bao Noodles on Valentine's Day was good overall, but I have some concerns. The menu was pretty full of traditional and nuveau Vietnamese dishes, all at reasonable prices - something that seems hard to come by below 14th street. We had the pre-fix $30 four-course dinner. The first two were light and vaguely thai-esque. The third tasted more like really good Chinese food (not saying much, in my book). The desserts were typical of a modern restaurant and featured Vientamese touches. Everything tasted good and there was a lot of food, but I wonder why they couldn't include any traditional Vietnamese dishes, which made up a large portion of their meny, on the pre-fix. Vietnamese food is faily filling, at least compared to sushi, and would have made good second and third courses. The only dish that could have been mistaken for traditional Vietnamese, a spring roll, was gone by the time we ordered. Although, I don't know how Vietnamese, or how authentically Asian, spring rolls really are.

The refreshing part of the evening was the simple decor and the crazy music. All in all, I would go back - just order from the actual menu next time.

Bao Noodles is located at 391 2nd Ave. between 22nd and 23rd Streets. Here is the website: http://www.baonoodles.com/

planet money

Why can't I work for them? I would love to have a job like that - post news to a blog all day and write small bits of commentary. It makes for a wide audience, which only grows your writing. Commenters can infludence what you blog next and you get awesome feedback. The process is democratic and reaches everyone.
This blog in particular isn't only a bunch of bloggers. It includes NPR coresspondents and producers from other shows. It's not even just a blog! It's a podcast, a website, a team. I want to be part of a team like that.

economy

Seems like everything and everyone is concerned with the economy. I'm glad that I have a job, even though I would like a different one. I'm also glad that I have a family that can support my living expenses.
But it's getting sadder and sadder. Everything I read is about the banks and how things will get even worse. This makes it hard to even think about other things; let alone expect the media to cover other things.
The bailout is a good idea for the long term. We may have to pay higher taxes now, but eventually, the economy will get better and we will be getting a higher salary. Luckily, this is a good time for me not to be making a lot of money. I don't have a family or a husband. I just want to live on my own, but I can't do that yet. What else can I do at this point to get a more interesting job that pays more? It would be horrible if I left where I am now and got laid off at a new place after 6 months.

New music memory cards

So ScanDisk is working with several major record companies to manufacture albums on memory cards as well as CDs. This adds to the slow-down of CD sales, but also shows that record companies still want people to buy music physically.
I think it's a pretty good idea. The cards will be small, have a USB cord to connect to computers, and be easier to share. It's a smart way of keeping people interested in the music industry. I probably won't buy any, as I haven't bought an album in 6 years, but other people will I'm sure. Some might think that this is too much change and that the demise of CDs is like the demise of culture. But it's refreshing to know that the executives are trying to catch up with us. People will share music no matter what, so it's better to be a part of that than against it. I'm excited to see how this will turn out.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/ap_on_hi_te/tec_music_on_memory_cards

Sarah Palin

She just gets worse and worse. Her lack of vetting and expertise on anything other than herself is becoming more apparent. When the media asks her to clarify a view or questions her views on abortion, the campaign claims we are being sexist. But the public deserves to know! Just like we asked Clinton, Obama, and McCain before her, we deserve to know all about her past, present, and future. Since when did asking equal information from equal candidates become sexist? Since when did Republicans become feminists?
Palin also has an obvious sense of entitlement to her candidacy and her role as VP. But she doesn't have any right to it – from the public, from the media, from the Republican Party. She owes everything to McCain, not her intelligence or wit. Not even her "maverick" status, which itself is proving to be a lie every day. She's not entitled to be on the ticket any more than I am, but she walks around as if she's a gift to the campaign. It's sad that Clinton worked so hard and even claimed that she was not entitled to anything – to fair media scrutiny, to the opportunity to break a glass ceiling, to even her mother's vote. And the public took it all away from her. Now Palin says that she's entitled to being the VP, and even President, even though she has no authority.

Cotsa Rica

Got back from Costa Rica last week. I was so scared about the trip before we went, that I didn't even think to get excited. But when we first got there, I could feel that there was so much stuff to take in.
The public bus was hard at first, but then I felt sorry for the people standing there. When my mom asked why no one would give up their seat to an old person, I couldn't think of a good reason, except that maybe they didn't want to stand for so long. But my overall impression is that people are generally happy to help. Monteverde basically lives on tourism and the hostel owner gave us good advice. Seeing his kids play on the concrete made me feel bad and happy to see them playing at the same time.
I wish we could have interacted with more actual people, but I guess we just went to all the touristy places. I want to get a good feeling for what people think about there: what they go to work for and what their goals are. I should have asked the guides about that.
Seeing the American living in CR shows that they are more relaxed and there is a large ex-patriot population.