A carnivore’s dream

Flower update: We had a big rainstorm a week or so ago, and I feared for the well being of my Tori Amos flowers. I thought maybe they would get washed out of the little pot. But they’re doing spectacularly well, popping up all over the place in the clay pot. I have no idea what any of them are yet, or what they will look like when they flower, but so far so good — I haven’t killed them yet!

Our first Easter lily bloomed last week, too. A little late, but it was very pretty. We have about six of them in the wooded box in front of our house–I had no idea they were perennials. The others are in a more shaded environment, so they haven’t flowered yet.

We went out to a Brazilian restaurant called Fogo de Chão (fire from the earth) last night to celebrate a friend’s graduation from college. It’s the first time I’d been there–and it was an experience. It’s an all-you-can-eat place. Two courses — a salad bar that has some interesting South American items along with the usual salad fare, and then the main course. Here’s where it gets good:

A troop of wandering gauchos wanders the restaurant with a variety of meats on skewers. Beef of every cut imaginable, chicken wrapped in bacon, ribs, pork, lamb. Each person has a little coaster, red on one side, green on the other. So long as you are showing green, they will approach you and ask if you want whatever they’re carrying. If you need a breather — and trust me, you will! — you flip it over to red.

The meat adds up FAST. You just get a little morsel or slice or rib or whatever, but soon your plate will be heaped with succulent, tender, delicious meat. There are side dishes on the table, too. Mashed potatoes, polenta, fried bananas, etc, but the focus is on meat.

We were there for over two hours (like I said, it’s a flat rate — as much meat as you can handle) and by the end I wasn’t worried about my blood alcohol content, but I’m sure my blood cholesterol content was elevated! The servers were mostly Portuguese-speaking, and they were very enthusiastic about presenting their respective delicacies. Not something I’d want to do every week, probably not every month, but it was a fun place to have a celebration.

I signed 250 copies of The Road to the Dark Tower for Cemetery Dance this weekend. These are the ones that were offered free to people who pre-ordered the S/L edition. Seven big boxes showed up on my doorstep late last week, and now I have to schlep them all to UPS. About 20% of them had to be personalized, which took a while, but I finished resealing the last box yesterday afternoon and now I’m bracing myself to haul 200 lbs of books to UPS. Glad I had all that meat yesterday to beef up.