The dinner last night at Aquitaine was everything I expected it to be. I felt so at home. It feels so good to be back in a job where everything that happens is the very best it could be and everyone involved has a true passion for what they do. Pride and ownership is what it’s all about. Good service, knowledge of wine and being able to turn a 9 top in 90 mins with 3 courses can only serve to further your advancement - not to mention your nightly winnings.

Mom and I had dinner at the bar, the best seat in the house for socializing. The front desk is within whispering distance and the employees Mom and I have grown so fond of are able to pass through on and off during courses or after delivering plates. We started with a glass of Bordeaux, Moulis En Medoc and a glass of Marsannay. They had a feature appetizer of seared scallops over truffled carrot puree and braised escarole. SOLD! We went all shellfish for our first course and ordered one of the house specialities, Mussels with a liason, fresh thyme and Sancerre. After that we had Don, the GM and my mentor, order our wine, it was a great bottle of Rhone that had one of those French names that will take me a good couple attempts to pronounce and remember. We then finished with the Duck Ravioli with chanterelles and a truffled au jus. Hot!

Today was the day Milo got his 30k mile tune up, he had gone over in Albany by 2k and I began to worry that he was starting to become irritated with me. So after I got lost all through Dorchester, and was bailed out of a navigational horror by Johnny I arrived at the Toyota delearship where I dropped him off. Johnny took me back to his pad where I conducted my interview with The Juan Maclean. This service Boy Wonder set up for me was sooooooooooo great, I cannot imagine how else I would have done it. I make a 3 way call and Juan and I and the server are all on the line. I recorded it and then downloaded it to my desktop and played it through Windows Media Player where I was able to rewind, fast forward and pause at will. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! It went so well, and being able to have the entire interview in second long fragments at my whim was priceless. Again my man Boy Wonder has come to my rescue waiving his technical wand and making my life easy breezy.

Shortly after 4 the tech guy called to say Milo was finished. I am 5hrs older and 500$ poorer trying to remember how the hell I get out of Dorchester. Boston was not built for the amount of vehicles or the people driving them. It was meant for horses and buggies - not Tacomas and Navigators. It has this terribly stressfull frightening way of dumping 4 lanes of traffic into one, allowing only 3 ft of room for the merging lanes of motorists to make thier way into the mainstream of vehicular aggravation. Did I mention that there were 3 traffic lights to make your way through? This is not typical Beantown, it is actually an exit off the pike, a major artery through the highly complex system of roadways that make up Boston. The rest of the city is pretty much narrow streets that seem to go one way here and another way there. With the Big Dig upon us, some of those streets seem to change not only thier direction on a daily basis but their location as well. I pride myself on remembering such tight spots and the little cut throughs that exist in hidden corners. I pitied the obvious first timers as they are honked at yelled at those familiar with the chaos.

Mom and I had a stroll through Harvard Square and enjoyed a couple of aperitifs before some thin crust gourmet pizza and a baby arugula salad with shaved Peccorino. We then decided to cook dinner for Sarah who was having an extremely late day. Mom did what she did best. She lead me through Whole Foods reciting a list of ingredients that would serve as the feature item for the menu tonight. I went from aisle to aisle searching for zucchini, garlic, roma tomatos, whole wheat pasta and Garbanzo beans. I know this market very well, it’s one of my favorite places to visit here in Cambridge. After returning to Sarah’s we turned on the iPod, I opened up a bottle of Jean Luc Columbo Cote de Rhone and I let the woman do her stuff. You can take the Italian Mom out of the kitchen, but you cannot take the kitchen out of the Italian Mom.

We spent Tuesday night at the cabin of some dear friends of mine from back east. They have a perfect spot along a river. The entire cabin is surrounded by trees and secluded from the highway. It was so nice to go to sleep by the sounds of running water than the sounds of a running AC. They thought we were spending some time there and had plans of sightseeing and serious ATVing in the hills. It will all have to wait till next time; things to see and people to do.

We started out Wednesday at around 11 and began the hunt for Starbucks. Being in CO, it wasn’t hard to find. Our goal was to venture north towards the Wyoming border and continue east to Nebraska. I feel as if I have been weaving in and out of Colorado and Wyoming for days. Oh wait, I have been. It has been most beautiful with some absolutely immense homes running along the interstate up around Vail. I could not believe the size of these homes and wondered what these people did and why, with all that cash, do they choose to position their home facing a highway! ?????????????

The constant traveling up and down altitudes leaves my ears kind of “stuffed” so I was all too happy to be getting to some flat land today. However, as soon as we approached the Nebraska state line my ears popped so badly and became so painful that we had to pull over and Sarah had to drive. It was completely bizarre that this all started now. It was so painful that I contemplated throwing my head against the window, anything to alleviate the pressure in my head. It was as if somebody had stuck to Q-tips in my ears and like tampons they expanded filling the entire space in my head. It got better, and now I can hear clearly in my right ear, but it still sounds as if there is an ear muff covering my left.

There is no real definitive space in Nebraska and it proves to be very monotonous and boring. It is FLAT FLAT FLAT. This is where the iPod and that joint I’ve been saving will come in handy.

Des Moines, IA is the destination tonight. We will be staying with somebody I met at White Party. Mike Beers is his name and he has been kind enough to let some wayward travelers cop a squat with him.

On Monday morning we declined the waffle breakfast at Super 8 and opted for the sprouted wheat bagels I had purchased in San Francisco. I also carted a small blender from Palm Springs so we could have protein shakes. I know how to travel. Breakfast is the most important meal as far as I’m concerned and during times such as this, stocking up on complex carbs first thing is vital.

I made some coffee in my French Press, toasted some bagels, blended some Frappes and off we went. Our first order of business was a hunt for coolers to stock up on some venti, percent, lite ice lattes for Sarah. We found a small grocery store and picked up some coolers. Sarah had been less than hopeful about finding a Starbucks there at the edge of oblivion. Then I saw some Starbucks gift cards beside the Star magazines in the checkout line and knew there had to be one close. It was one exit up on the interstate. The promised land was inside a casino. Yuck! I absolutely detest casinos, but in order for my traveling partner to be happy, it had to be done. We approached the Baristo with coolers in hand and put in the order lifting the plastic cylinders onto the counter. Success!

Monday’s destination was Rock Springs, but turned out to be Green River Wyoming, home of the Flaming Gorge. Sarah had requested some exercise, so we decided to stop a little shy of Rock Springs so we could go for a walk. She hoped it would be a riverside stroll through the gorge under the canopy of a forest. In these parts of Wyoming the only thing the river is leading through is dry, dusty earth. After she had surrendered her fantasy of the forest stroll we drove until we found a dirt road that led due east. We walked and talked along the Wyoming flatland until the sun set behind us. We had a good day. We traveled about 500 miles, had an ample supply of Starbucks and now Pizza Hut. It was a good day.