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La Cantina de Oso
Sunday, May 9 2021
This afternoon I drove out to Lowes hoping to get a chest pull similar to the ones on the other drawers on the laboratory deck steps. But they didn't have anything like the one I needed. I wanted it to be large and for the handle to hang out of the way when not being pulled so I wouldn't catch my toes in it while climbing the steps. So then I went over to Home Depot, where I'd bought pulls similar to the one I wanted but that were too small. This time, they had the full-sized version. While there, I bought stick-on felt sliders and other bits in pieces in hopes of making the topmost drawer in the steps a little easier to open and close (at nine inches, it's too short for a conventional drawer slide, which is the best way to mechanically support a drawer). While I was out, I also re-upped my laboratory liquor cabinet. This was the first time I'd bought booze from a liquor store since January. Back at the house, I started my Sunday drinking with a cocktail made of apple cider and Tequila Gran Agave.
Today was the 18th anniversary of my marriage to Gretchen, so at the end of her workday, I met her at the bookstore, which she proceeded to close while the dogs sniffed around on the sidewalk out in front. For dinner, we decided to try out the Bear Café in Bearsville, the traditionally fancy restaurant near the Little Bear Chinese restaurant. The Bear Café is under new management and has a new name: the Bear Cantina. Its cuisine is now decidedly Mexican, and there are now good vegan options. There haven't been enough Mexican restaurants in the area, so all of this was a welcome change. We were seated in a corner table by ourselves in a room that had nobody else in it, which would've made us feel covid-safe even if we hadn't been vaccinated. But, as Gretchen quickly told our skinny young waitress, "we've been vaccinated." One of the things I always forget about liking about Mexican restaurants is the chips and salsa they bring immediately to your table. Yes, the Bear Cantina is that kind of restaurant. (Wait, why didn't they call it "La Cantina de Oso"?) Gretchen got the tacos and I got the vegan fajitas, and we both got alcoholic drinks. I had a mango margarita, which didn't really have the flavor profile I was in a mood for, and Gretchen's hard cider triggered whatever in her system senses alcohol as poison. The food was actually pretty good, and I'd definitely come back again, even though the refried beans taste like joint compound.
Our dining area was full of other diners by the time we left, but our table was far enough away from the others that conditions seemed safe, at least by the standards of indoor dining during a global respiratory pandemic.
Gretchen and I didn't have much of a special evening after that; back at the house we watched Jeopardy! and played the New York Times Spelling Bee from a shared laptop. I was in the mood for anniversary romance, but that damn hard cider Gretchen had drunk at La Cantina de Oso dashed my hopes.
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