Anthony Bourdain, I'm disappointed in you

Or should I say, I'm disappointed in your fixer.

One of Tony's latest episodes of No Reservations found him in Baltimore, Detroit, and Buffalo. Kind of a "let's see if these messed up, depressed towns can offer anything to me." To be fair, he had a bad experience his last time in Baltimore, but I was pretty disappointed in how he depicted it.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I have kind of a love affair with Baltimore. Sure, when I moved there, they had one of the highest murder rates in the nation. And there's a huge drug problem. And there are some parts of town that almost defy description in terms of how bad they are. I remember hearing about the open-air heroin "market" blocks from my first job there. And you wonder why my mom thought a gun was a good idea.

But Baltimore is such a fun, quirky town, as I discovered in my almost 10 years of living there. There's something for everyone. I lived (and worked) in some pretty crappy neighborhoods, areas on the rise, and everything in between, or so it seems. And there was always something new to explore.

As the first person Tony interviewed (Jay Landsman from The Wire) stated, Baltimore is a collection of little neighborhoods in a giant patchwork, and you can go from the worst neighborhood to the best in less than 10 minutes. Yet Tony didn't even begin to explore those neighborhoods, their history, or what they have to offer. He seemed to just want to declare his adoration of The Wire, show a lot of abandoned rowhomes, and eat at 3 places with seemingly no thread to connect them, much less anything showing how they related to Baltimore as a city. For goodness sake, the man didn't even eat blue crabs!

So if I were giving Tony the tour of Baltimore, here's where we'd go:

Attman's Deli. I had my first matzo ball soup from here. It would be a great way to talk about the evolving history of different ethnic and religious groups in Baltimore.

Samos Restaurant. Located in, appropriately enough, Greektown. Great little family restaurant, BYOB, food to spend an evening over. Best thing Spiro Morekas ever did for me.

India Rasoi. As I like to say, the best Indian food in all of Little Italy. The hostess makes a point of finding out how comfortable you are with Indian food, and gently guiding you through the menu, describing what's in each dish. My mom still talks about this place, and it's been over 5 years since she's been there.

Speaking of Little Italy, Vaccaro's. Tony doesn't seem to be much of a pastry guy, but I'm sure he'd be down with some pignoli, cannoli, and the gigantic portions this place puts out. Maybe I'd even take him to an outdoor movie first. Or we'd watch a bocce tournament. He might put up with that.

Dudas Tavern. He has to spend a little time in Fells Point. Dudas was my go-to place for a cheap steak night. For $13, you get a steak, baked potato, and salad, all made in the tiny kitchen in the back. And good beer. And a nice chat with the folks behind the bar. What more could you ask for? Heck, we might head over to Bertha's or Max's afterward. Heck, we might use Fells Point as a jumping off point to talk about the Latin influx, and hit one of the many restaurants up and down Broadway.

I could go on and on. That greasy spoon on the edge of Canton, that fun little diner near Hopkins Homewood, Cafe Hon, microbrews at an Orioles game, some of the fancier joints in Federal Hill (and oh by the way, we could talk about Federal Hill and its place in American history while we're at it), and some of the fancier restaurants, period. Not to mention Lexington Market, which if I remember correctly is the oldest indoor market in the US. Tony's been to indoor markets in every other country, but he missed Lexington Market???

Maybe someday, if Tony does another contest to have someone escort him to an undiscovered locale, I'll sign up to take him to Baltimore. And if I ever win, I'll blog about it ;)

Adoption Awareness Month: Day 4

Commit to sponsor a less fortunate child for an entire year.

Hmm, something to look into. I know my parents have done this in recent years, so perhaps I'll call Mom and ask what charity they work with.

8 months!

Today is S's 8 month birthday!


We took pictures with her blocks in the high chair today...


...or in the car seat...



...because our other option wasn't cutting it.

S "celebrated" her birthday by waking up at 5am and not fallling back asleep until she was in the big bed. Which means a very tired Mommy, who didn't want to fall asleep with an increasingly mobile child in bed. But we both managed to doze off and on.

We also had S's flu booster. She was SUCH a good girl. The receptionist held her, and said all she did was make a little "eh" sound. She was more clingy today, and a lot of little things set her off. Hence the picture below, with a tiny little tear under her eye. I think she fell over, and you would have thought the world ended.




She perked up this evening, but is fighting sleep as we speak. Good times.

Adoption Awareness Month: Day 3

Ask local libraries or bookstores to feature adoption-related books this month. Encourage them to place these books near the entrance to garner the most attention.

At the very least, we're going to check out the library and our local Borders soon. From past experience, our library has featured adoption-related books near their entrance, and on the floor where other adoption books are, in prior years. I found them quite easily when adoption was just a topic to explore.

Borders should be interesting. When I first looked for adoption books at our local store, despite a section labeled Adoption, there wasn't a single book. When I e-mailed them to ask why, they said they only carried what people asked for. (Odd that you'd have a section labeled Adoption, but only carry said books if requested). I returned a few weeks later and found they had simply been filed in the wrong section--2 sections over from where it was labeled. I will be interested to see if they've fixed that little snafu.

I'll keep you posted.

We voted!

S and I just got back from the polls. I tell ya, being a stay-at-home-mom means very short lines on election day. S charmed all of the poll workers until she and Mommy disappeared behind the curtain to vote.

Happy election day!

Adoption Awareness Month: Day 2

Celebrate your child's heritage through a new recipe, a cultural dance, or traditional fairytales. If your child's heritage isn't different from your own, let your child select any heritage for your family to learn more about and to celebrate.

S's cultural heritage is 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Irish. We've got the Irish nailed down in this family, so J suggested I pop in one of the multitude of Celtic CDs today and listen to them. I immediately thought of making capellini pomodoro for dinner ;) Maybe we'll do both! S is too little to suggest an alternate heritage, so we'll hold off on that until she's older.

Adoption Awareness Month!

November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and we're so excited to be able to celebrate it with S this year. In honor of this month, there's a calendar with adoption-related activities to do with your family each day. We're going to try and do as many as we can, and I'm going to post a little bit about each activity every day.

Today, November 1, is "Read an adoption-specific book". We have quite the variety of books for S. Some are about adoption, some are not. We have the standard collection of Winnie the Pooh, Sandra Boynton, nursery rhymes, shapes and colors, and of course our favorite, Knuffle Bunny. But my favorite adoption book is "I Wished for You: an Adoption Story". It's kind of long, so we usually don't get through the whole thing with S, but it tells our story pretty closely.

So tonight, "I Wished for You" is on her bedtime reading list. And of course, during her bedtime prayers, we will pray for her birthmom and her family, who gave us this wonderful gift.