Food, Movies, Snow-Gauge Clif

A Weekend of Drinks, Food, and Movies, and the Return of Snow-Gauge Clif

92 Comments

For some reason, last weekend turned out to be a flurry of having friends over and eating out.

Our merriment started on Friday afternoon when we invited our friends Dawna and Jim over for wine and appetizers.

We tried to solve the problems of the world as we sat around the dining room table, sipped wine, and nibbled on appetizers, but of course we didn’t have much luck.

As we talked, our jade plant glowed in the sun. Clearly, Jade was on our side. She, too, wonders what the heck is going on in this country.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Waterville to the Maine Film Center for the Nigerian movie Mami Wata, the final movie in the wintertime film series Cinema Explorations.

This wonderful movie is set in a remote African village where the water deity Mami Wata is revered even though she is mostly absent. When a stranger is washed up on the shores, the power balance shifts, leading to conflict and death. This fable of a movie was filmed in an impressionistic way, which adds to the power of the story. What a fine way to end the film series!

To celebrate the successful film series, our friend Joel, who coordinates Cinema Explorations, joined us for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Front and Main.

I had some delicious ployes, Acadian buckwheat pancakes popular in northern Maine. Front and Main makes ployes a little thicker than is traditional. but my, my, they were tasty.

Then, on Sunday, to kick off the Academy Awards ceremony, we went to Tj’s Place in Winthrop for drinks, snacks, and pizza.

I had a pomegranate martini, and it was excellent.

Clif ordered onion rings, which he said were properly cooked and delicious. (Dee and I aren’t fans of onion rings.)

We also had pizza.

Afterwards, full of food and drink, we headed home to await the start of the Academy Awards ceremony. Two of our favorite movies—Flow (go Latvia!) and I‘m Still Here (go, Brazil!)—garnered awards. Best picture of the year went to Anora, a film about an exotic dancer. It was not our favorite movie of the year. We all felt that it lacked nuance and focused too much on the explicit sex. Granted, the subject lends itself to this treatment, but didn’t Anora have any other qualities or interests that didn’t involve sex? Say, model trains or mahjong? It seems not. Ah, well…we were apparently in a minority about this movie.

Still, all in all, it was a good night for independent films, small movies with relatively small budgets, and we are always in for those kind of movies.

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And Now the Moment You’ve All Been Waiting for…the Return of Snow-Gauge Clif

Longtime readers of this blog always look forward to the first Monday in March, which brings the return of Snow-Gauge Clif (aka my husband, Clif). Each Monday, Snow-Gauge Clif will grab his trusty red yardstick to head outside and measure the depth of the snow. He’ll continue to do so until all the snow is melted, usually sometime in April.

Here he is, on March 3, this first Monday in March, in the front yard.

Snow measurement: 18 inches

And here he is in the backyard, which gets more sun than the front yard.

Measurement: 12 inches

Will the snow be gone by the beginning of April, or will it be gone by the end? We never know the answer to this nail-biting question. Each year is different. So stay tuned for the Monday adventures of Snow-Gauge Clif.

92 thoughts on “A Weekend of Drinks, Food, and Movies, and the Return of Snow-Gauge Clif”

  1. Clif is looking dapper and well! At least it’s been snowier than last year, so we’ll see how it goes. Remember when we’d have 3 feet in the yard in March? I am predicting March 25 for melt out here, but that may be optimistic, wishful thinking. 😉

    1. I, too, thought he looked dapper. I expect it’s the white hair and the black coat. 😉 I do remember that 3 feet of snow. Keep me posted about your melt out.

  2. It’s a treat to read a post about normal activities, Laurie (or at least as normal as possible in the circumstances). And your pictures are terrific.

  3. Lady, you had some good eats this past weekend. Impressive. We are going to hit mid 50’s in the middle of the week so that will melt some of our snow. Glad you had such a good fun filled weekend, and here’s to no new additional snow to be measured.

    1. Not planned. Somehow it just came together. Yes, fingers crossed that there’s no new snow. But this is, after all, March in northern New England. 😉

  5. Nice to see Clif out and about. But to hear t5hat you don’t like onion rings, I’m not sure what to say.
    As for character development in exotic dancers, I’m not sure what to suggest. We don’t seem to have any in the shop so I deduce that coin collecting and stamps hold no attraction. I do remember seeing some films in the late 1970s, mostly from Germany, where washing machine repair men were treated in a similar one-dimensional manner. I soon went off them and returned to films that involved shooting and spaceships.

    1. Alas, onions do not agree with me at all. I can only eat them if they are simmered for a long time. My suggestions for exotic dancers was tongue-in-cheek, but surely they must have interests that go beyond work. Who knows? Maybe coins? 😉

      2. Maybe we should start sending him tracks, train pieces, and various little buildings to get him going. Who knows? It could be the turning of the tide. 😉

  9. You packed in a lot of fun this weekend, Laurie. I’m glad you got to spend time with friends and enjoy yummy food and drink along the way. We didn’t watch the awards this year. I’m glad to hear a few of your favorite films took prizes.

  10. Hi Laurie, It sounds like you’ve had a great week! 18 inches of snow. That’s a lot of water when it melts.

    The pomegranate martini looks delicious. I usually have a pornstar martini. It comes with a shot glass of prosecco.

    the appetizers look healthy and delicious 🙂

    Best picture of the year went to Anora, a film about an exotic dancer. It was not our favorite movie of the year. We all felt that it lacked nuance and focused too much on the explicit sex. Granted, the subject lends itself to this treatment, but didn’t Anora have any other qualities or interests that didn’t involve sex? Say, model trains or mahjong? It seems not. Ah, well…we were apparently in a minority about this movie.

    We watched Anora and I agree with everything you have said here. We were surprised it scooped up so many awards. I think she also scooped up best actress. Well all I can say is that the panel must be skewed. All she did was have sex, scream and swear.

    We also watched ‘CONCLAVE’ which we agreed had far more depth and the thought provoking ending an unexpected twist. In our opinion that should have won far more

    The Substance with Debbie Moore was also thought-provoking and the acting far FAR better.

    1. That about sums up Anora. My suggestions were were definitely tongue-in-cheek, but surely exotic dancers have other interests. We also liked Conclave and The Substance.

  12. My first look at ‘Snow Gauge Clif’ – what fun 🙂 ! Put work aside yesterday and spent all day at the Oscars (10.30am – 2pm here!) enjoying it immensely – yes, we needed something normal! Hoped for ‘Conclave’ . . . had not seen ‘Anora’ . . . but loved that ‘Flow’ got a statue . . . well, it coming from Latvia with my birthplace being Estonia next door may have had something to do with it, but 🙂 🙂 🙂 !

    1. I am glad you like Snow-Gauge Clif. He is quite the favorite with readers. Yay, Latvia and yay Estonia! Who knows what will come next with independent cinema. Love it.

  14. I think I remember some slight anxiety earlier this year that Snow Gauge Clif wouldn’t have any snow to measure! Those eighteen inches are quite nice; it will be fun to see how soon it leaves you.

    I’ll happily take your share of the onion rings — I do love them.

  16. Hi Laurie, it was lovely to see Snow Gauge Clif again, and his snow gauge always reminds me of just how much snow can fall in your part of the world.

    I liked your lovely food, (especially the buckwheat pancakes) AND movies ..now that is a good way of enjoying the winter!

  17. I love onion rings, although seldom get to eat them. I enjoy the defiance in this post: what the heck, we will enjoy ourselves, no matter what. That’s the spirit, Laurie. If we allowed our local politics to seep into our bones we would be eternally deflated and miserable.

    1. Yes! As I have mentioned in other comments, having fun seems like an act of defiance, especially when it involves independent cinema, locally owned restaurants, and friends.

  18. So much happening in your part of the world.. Happy for you. We are dealing with an atmospheric river these days hence no sign of snow what so ever.

  19. Dear Laurie
    Your food looks great. We got hungry seeing it.
    And we’ll try out the pomegranate martini.
    Enjoy the winter
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

  20. That sounds a great weekend! Friends to to have good conversation with, interesting films, tasty food (and drink!) – Perfect! And welcome back Cliff – good to see you again.

  21. Reports on joyful events, good food, an intriguing Nigerian movie, and the return of Snow-Gauge Clif. An excellent post. I doubt that anyone suggested a few assassinations to solve the world’s problems.

    1. Thanks, Derrick! How true, and as I have mentioned in other comments, since tyrants never want anyone to have fun, doing so seems like a form of resistance. 😉

  25. I’m stunned over your Jade plant, Laurie. It’s HUGE!!! Mine probably isn’t as old as yours because it’s way smaller. Still, I do like its poofy leaves and the ease of caring for it. Wow, that’s a lot of snow! I’m eager to see how long it sticks around for you.

    1. Jade is indeed huge. She is 15 years old and came to me as a tiny sprig in a yogurt container. She has certainly grown. Yes, it will be interesting to see how long the snow sticks around.

  26. Surely, you’d think Anora would like to spend her downtime away from work…I’m with you: small budgets, big stories but that doesn’t seem to sell. Hooray for the return of Snow-Gauge Clif and that martini looks goooooood!

    1. Yes, surely Anora was more than the sum of her work, but viewers got very little sense of this. That martini was delicious, and it’s great to have Snow-Gauge Clif back with his trusty yardstick.

  29. Yes, what WERE Anora’s hobbies? Her political views?How flat of a presentation. I would be shocked if I was described only by my career as a social worker. For a variety of reasons…

    1. The more I thought about it, the more I think model railroads would have been a fun, quirky hobby for Anora. She and the kid could have gone to a model railroad show, where he picks up her enthusiasm for model trains. In between having sex. they could have started setting up their own railway village. The possibilities are many. 😉

  30. Looks like you got a lot of snow ! We had a few snow showers but the snow melted very soon. But we did have lots of rain. At the moment it really felt like Spring, we had 16 C° and there are a few more warm days to come. But next Tuesday the rain will be back.

      1. And we had more than average rainfall for almost a year and a half !!!!

  31. Cliff looks very dapper. I love the mystery of snow (when will it arrive? when will it leave?). It looks like you’ve been having a lot of fun in life. 🙂

  32. haha – snow gauge Clif! Funny. To me, the snow always looks beautiful but I don’t have to live in it.

    The food you had looked delicious!

    The Latvian movie sounds interesting. I recently read a book about Latvian Mums who had immigrated to Australia post WWII and what they went through.

    1. A lot of my blogging friends get a kick out of Snow-Gauge Clif. His measurements indicate that spring is just around the corner.

      Flow is a beautiful movie that movingly illustrates we are all in the same boat.

  33. Ah! So happy to have met Snow Gauge Clif! Now I know 🙂

    Looks and sounds like you all enjoyed a phenomenal weekend filled with all the good things. I hope the week ahead is equally wonderful!

  34. You did have a whirlwind weekend. Your photos of food always look so appetizing. And thanks for sharing your thoughts about Mami Wata. I wonder if I can find it on the internet. Hmm. And thanks for the Snow-gage Cliff photos. Lol. Is it gone?

  35. What a wonderful weekend and the food, appetizers and drinks look amazing!! I missed out on watching the Oscars and most of the movies this year, but hopefully I’ll have a chance to catch up. I’m so far behind on my reading, tv shows and movies. We only have a few snowbanks left in the yard and I’m looking forward to seeing when your winter ends and patio season begins.🙂

    1. With streaming, you will have plenty of opportunity ro catch up on movies.our snow is much higher than yours, but it, too, is going down. Hard to believe patio season is around the corner.

  36. It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend of good food and movies! No real snow here yet this year, but there is still March and early April for a surprise. Daffodils are blooming. The trees are a little behind this year. They may know something we don’t.

  37. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #430 – Thistles and Kiwis

  38. I missed this post earlier Laurie, welcome back Snow-Gauge Clif! It’s lovely to see the sunlight higher above the trees and your jade plant looks very happy! 🌞🍃

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