" we're almost there "

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three things unrelated:

1) got my flash back today form the repair facility. it took a total of 17 days from mailing it out for it to return to me. it works fine, but cost me more than half the cost of it to repair.


2) finally got a taste of a banh mi vietnamese sandwich from the new Hanco's, that a few sources have talked much about. my mini review goes like this:

- the cost is $6.50 for most of the sandwiches, which is almost 2X the cost of my banh mi anchor in chinatown. that sort of made me sigh.

- it took about 10 minutes to get the sandwich, but since this location is in park slope, in the old tea lounge spot, it still remained cozy and cushy, although the music was 'musak' and the lighting scheme was like it was closing down for the day.

- the size of it was comparable to other banh mi i've had; it was about 6 inches. coulda been bigger, or would be a little whet-your-appetite expensive (comparatively) treat.

- the pickled daikon & carrots, as well as the cilantro and peppers were fresh. the pickled veggies were thinner and sort of sweet.

- the baguette was warm and had good spongy give to it, which was nice, but wasn't as the french say "croustillant." so yeah...there was that.

- the pork was savory and had a good mouthfeel, but felt more like ground beef or a juicy less sloppy sloppy-joe.

my friend lauren dug it, but they managed to bewilder both of us by serving her thai ice tea that was brown, then said that it was thai ice tea. we were both confused. in the end, as patrick put it, "oh well...it'll do in a park slope pinch i guess." indeed.


3) it was an average of 43° today. now, at the very end of the day, it's a shivery 34° and i'm wearing a 700-fill north face jacket in my room. i can't feel my fingers or toes, and the winds are causing the windows to quiver and flex.

the daughter of the family that lives on the first level came up to tell me that tonight, there will be no heat due to a broken hot water boiler. "it'll be fixed by tomorrow," she said, but i'm not sure that it actually makes a difference, as i usually never feel the benefits of the radiators' heat, unless i'm up at 5am in a sweaty mess.

i'm just sort of indifferent i suppose, because it's not really the cold that bothered me, but the fact that there never is a 'happy-medium' temperature that exists in my room. either too hot or too cold is so normal, that just look to the oncoming spring to smooth out and reconcile these extremes.

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