a change in blogging tactic

ok. So while the original design was to keep this a strictly Richmond restaurant focused blog, I am morphing the concept. I have been majorly neglecting it because we have been holed-up during the snowmageddon and I have been cooking or we have been eating close to home or hubs picks up dinner on his way home. Same routine and not much restaurant-wise to blog about. I cooked my way through this or at least all the recipes I found interesting. My take is that the recipes usually call for too much liquid. We alternate between the Vietnamese sandwich shop by Vietnam 1, Kitchen 64 and Northside Grille. The last two are predictable but consistently good. The sandwich shop is hit or miss depending on if we eat in or take out. It is best to eat in or the sandwiches get soggy. Cooking or reheating them at home never is as good as the restaurant. On a good day, the baguette is amazingly good. Crisp and yeasty. Since I don't eat pork, I usually get the house-made tofu (decent) or all vegetable. The veggies (carrot and daikon) are pickled (likely rice wine vinegar) a bit of cilantro is thrown in and they will add sliced jalapenos if you request spicy. You can also get bubble tea. I love those little carbohydrate-laded bubbles! So that is the food news.

In other news, we made an emergency after-work run to the vet last night because Paisley would not put any weight on her back leg (her only back leg as she is a tripod). I was fairly freaked out and called the vet to let them know we were on the way. Then I scooped her up (all 65 lbs) and then really started to freak out when I could not make it across the ice on our front steps and driveway to my car safely.  I called hubs who rushed home and transported us to Brook Run Animal Clinic. We got there right as they were closing but they put us in a room and Dr. Yeatman (who totally rocks my world) came in and checked her out. She thought Pais had a sprain/strain (what's the difference, anyway?) and gave her an anti-inflammatory injection and some pills to take home.  We are supposed to "restrict" her activity, so that means no running in the snow, which likely caused the injury. She goes out on the porch (which is covered in who knows how many feet of snow) on a leash with us for potty breaks. She is so good about going there but she looks so sad when the other dogs run past her to the yard. I am thankful and still hopeful that this was a minor thing. I know one day way before I am ready we will have to make a decision about what to do when her poor joints are worn out. But, she is feeling much better today and is her happy self. Here's a vid pre-injury:



In other, other news, I am addicted to Secret Diary of a Call Girl! I love that show. I have downloaded the book that inspired the show to my nook (which I also love) and it is in the queue to read. It is so easy to get on the stair stepper from hell when I watch that show because it is that engrossing. It totally distracts me from the pain of physical activity. That is a high compliment!

That's about it. Valentine's dinner plans at Bouchon (that's a shocker to y'all, I'm sure) and trying to get a ton of work done when the roads are drivable and I can make it in. They (the powers that be in these things) say not to drive summer performance tires on snow and ice for a reason.