Two extremes

I just had the most gluttonous birthday weekend (#31!) in two very different settings. On Friday we had dinner at Savona in Gulph Mills (a suburb of Philly). The food was great, the service was perfect, etc. But it was way overpriced (especially the wine), and we were the youngest couple there by probably 30 years. Kinda stuffy. Afterwards R. and I agreed that "atmosphere" and "french-speaking staff" were factored into the bill. We had a great time, but there are so many other reasonably priced places nearby serving wonderful food minus the attitude! Two of my favorites: Citrus and Django.
Last night we cooked in... fresh fetuccine with mushrooms and tomato cream sauce (note: if you decide to make this one, you can cut way down on the cream and it's still quite good) and an herb salad with toasted walnuts, apples and goat cheese.

My original plan was to make sticky toffee pudding for dessert, but R. talked me out of it since we were both stuffed, it was pretty late already and we had Memoirs of a Geisha to watch (verdict: 3/5 stars).
At one point my brother and sister-in-law stopped by with my gift:

It's a stunned red blood cell and a malaria parasite! Best.gift.ever. I'm not sure I've mentioned it here before but my dissertation research is on malaria. I can't resist pointing out that this is a gametocyte (extracellular sexual stage parasite); the asexual stages are the ones that infect RBCs and are associated with disease. Anyway, these are from Giant Microbes. I think T. brucei is also really realistic looking.

I made another bag in between chopping and stirring last night. This one has a tab instead of a fold, because I forgot to cut out the fold part and was too lazy to do so once I started sewing. I think I like it... what do you guys think?

My friend Karissa has a big exam coming up this week, I think I'll give this to her as a good luck gift.

OK, time to work... hope everyone had a great weekend!