un weekend plein de bons repas et amis

It's noon on Sunday, and my weekend has been fabulous, despite the substantial apartment cleaning that awaits me today. (I have an in-home interview/inspection for Big Brothers/Big Sisters tomorrow night. It was rescheduled twice because of illness and a massive ice storm.)
Friday afternoon, I sat at my desk, anxiously awaiting news about that night's date with the international banker. Ever the diligent editrice, I left my phone on silent and forgot to check it. At 5, I noticed I had a message... oops. So plans had changed, and he invited me to the Ladysmith Black Mambazo concert at the Aronoff, then drinks.
The concert was great: The group's singing is mesmerizing, and their voices are so smooth that it makes their singing seem deceptively effortless. And... we had box seats! I felt so important!)
It didn't let out until 10, so by then the sushi place he'd chosen for drinks/nibbles (Miyoshi in Florence) was closed. So we went to the Celestial Steakhouse in Mount Adams. We were in the Incline Lounge, with its fantastic view of Cincinnati and NKy. We had a few rich bites and a bottle of wine and danced to an old-school jazz quartet. He kept raving about the lobster bisque, but I wasn't very impressed. But the rest of the night was great.
The next day I woke up early to retrieve my car from a downtown garage (I couldn't drive after half a bottle of wine!) and spent the day being productive. I tried to go to the new coffee shop in Covington, but it didn't open until 10, so I settled on the next-newest coffee house there. The Bean Haus' coffee is pretty good, and the employees were perky and kind. After a morning and afternoon full of errands, I returned to Pike Street for lunch. In the mood for a sandwich and having had nothing in my belly for more than 12 hours, I got the Washington Post panini with turkey, bacon, tomatoes, avocado and asiago mayo. It came with kettle chips for $6.50. Next time, I'd hold the mayo and perhaps the bacon. I secretly love bacon, despite its lack of nutritional value, but this was chewy not crispy. The sandwich was excellent, and the "artisan ciabatta bread" is fresh and crispy. The atmosphere is good, the location is convenient for me, and the food/drinks were good. They have fancy to-go lids that open and close. I still managed to dump tea on the floor of my car when I left. Typical Stepf.
Last night for dinner, I went to Honey in Northside with my old friend Bethany. After MapQuest betrayed me and sent me on a wild goose chase around the West Side, we finally arrived, despite freezing rain and numerous detours. The wait for a table was more than 30 minutes (9 p.m. on Saturday), but we were seated quickly at the bar. We intended to get appetizers and wine, then move to a table, but we soon filled up on our starters. We went with honey fries because I'd heard that they were good, along with some polenta. I wasn't too impressed with either, but the atmosphere was nice and I'd be willing to try again. The polenta was good but not outstanding, with a smokey, caramelized onion flavor, topped with smoked mozzerella and dried tomatoes. It just needed something else, but it was good. We should have gotten the salmon, our first choice. Not sure why we chose the polenta. The fries, a mix of sweet and Yukon gold, were cut too thinly and were pretty limp. The chili-lime-honey dipping sauce was great, but the fries were just too wimpy.
After those rich meals, I am back to my healthful eating. I've got a pot of brown rice on the stove and a tofu-spinach-roasted pepper lasagna in the oven.
I cook on Sundays so I have meals for lunch at the beginning of the week. I separate them immediately into single-serve containers so I'm not as tempted to overeat.