Boo boop de boop. Yay for Friday! Oh, the anticipation of the weekend! It’s almost too much!

Aaaand I’m over it.

We had a lovely dinner last night with the Canadians at Sage. I’ve been wanting to try Sage for a couple of years, but Dice always dragged his feet because he has a couple colleagues who went there and gave bad reviews. But I always like to judge for myself. So we went last night and had a pretty good time. Now here’s the thing: I am a sucker for pasta. I will almost always order pasta if it’s on the menu, and I will eat almost any kind of mediocre pasta and think it’s great. I’m not picky about pasta although I do love well-made pasta dishes. It’s like a siren call to me. However, a lot of restaurants (around here, at least) put a token pasta dish on the menu, but really their specialties lie elsewhere. I can spot this a mile away, know better, and yet still order the pasta. I have to get out of this mind-set, because not only have I been having some really awful pasta dishes, but I’m also missing out on what could be delightful and creative meals.

All that said, I ordered the fettucine alla vodka last night, and may I be the first to warn you against this dish. It was so lousy I didn’t even finish half of it, and that’s really bad! On the other hand, my other dinner companions ordered meaty dishes that they seemed pleased with. The female half of the Canadians ordered the meatloaf which she said was tasty, and both the guys ordered some kind of steak on special. The salad I started off with, which was a field greens salad with feta, walnuts and dried cranberries, was fantastic. Also their beer list was limited at best, but their wine list was not only adequate but varied and obviously well-thought-out, a satisfying list; they also had ports and sherries, which you don’t see on every menu (yet).

Anywho. We’re going to beer club tonight at the James Joyce.  Link-clickers, do not be fooled by that inviting website.  Yeah, it’s not so much inspired by the great author whom I did an extensive research paper on in undergrad, nor is it an American spawn of your stereotypical Irish pub. It’s more inspired by heavy drinking and tater tots. Owned by the same people who own Brewhouse in L5P, which means good beer, lousy wine, extensive bar food menu that comes out tasty and timely. With many items that are vegetarian. It’s a good menu. Their patio is really where they stand out, though, and since it’s too cold and rainy to sit on the patio it might not make for a super fun time.  But we’ll see.  Tomorrow we are going to the Thinking Man for our Formula 1 group pre-season get-together. Alert readers will remember how I feel about their grilled cheese sandwich.  Also Bubba and Miss Bonnie are supposed to come this weekend, not last weekend as I surmised last Friday.  So lots of stuff happening in TEOTH-land this weekend!