04.10.08
Guilt is always the culprit.
Last night Dice and I met up with the Canadians and T&R at Twain’s in an effort to cheer up the Canadians after their loss. Although it was obvious that the Canadians were experiencing extreme sorrow we managed to get a couple laughs out of them. We had a couple drinks and some food, and basically enjoyed the 70 degree weather out on their patio. How nice was it to sit out on a patio with drinks in a t-shirt and sandals in the first week of April? Reallllllly nice.
I’ve been doing some research on our trip to LA this summer. Having never been to LA before I’m kind of at a disadvantage regarding hotels. Where to stay? What’s cheap? What’s too ghetto? Fortunately Dice has been there on more than one occasion and should be able to take that particular aspect off my hands. Flights, though? Depressingly high.
Have such an urge to go back to Cafe Circa sometime soon. Some readers may recall that the glass of wine I had was the big star of the evening, but the more I think about it, the more I remember the salad I had with nostalgia. It was a wonderful salad, and I’d like it again for dinner. Tonight, if possible. Thing is, it’s always possible, I mean, what holds us back? Guilt. Hmph.
04.09.08
In search of something cheesier than TEOTH. Close!
In my life, there’s been heartache and pain. I don’t know if I can face it again. Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far, to change this lonely liiiiiiiife. I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE ISSSSSSSS. I WANT you to show me! I WANNA FEEL WHAT LOVE ISSSSSSSS. I KNOW you can show meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
And thus we have the second most cheesiest song on the planet, courtesy of Foreigner. You’re welcome.
So, the big news is that the Red Sox are sucking major ass. As of now they are at .391. Ouch! The Braves are at an even .500, which is fairly decent assuming they keep that up. It would be really nice if the Sox could, you know, WIN a game. I know they can do it. I KNOW they can show meeeeeeeee!
So, that was mostly for effect, considering they won yesterday. I’m just sayin’, “keep it up!” Thanks.
It’s Wednesday. I went home last night, watched Jeopardy! and went to bed early like the party animal I am. In TV news we’ve been enjoying the first season of Dexter that’s playing on one of the networks, artfully sanitized. I can’t imagine there’s all that much to take out, except the occasional swear and maybe some extra bloody violence scenes, which I don’t want to see anyway. It’s an interesting show, and I like Michael C. Hall. Totally weird watching him as a straight man, but I’ll get over it. I just wish he would shave more often. His facial hair is just the right color so that it looks like dirt.
04.08.08
An ordinary life.
Hot damn, it’s busy at work today. It should have been busy at work yesterday too, but I slacked off, thus making today even busier. I don’t mind. I like being busy and I especially like being productive.
Running group was good last night, although there were only five of us. The weather was spectacular, upper 60s and sunny. I did a five-mile loop, and although I thought about doing another two just for the heck of it, instead I decided to have a beer with my running companions. They all decided to stop into the Graveyard for beers and food, so I sat with them and had one beer before running home again. It was nice, albeit not super strenuous.
Lately I’ve come back to Laughing Cow cheese. It’s a French cheese that’s very soft and spreadable, and it can be a substitute for cream cheese. It comes in a cute round box with adorable individually-wrapped wedges for perfect portion control. The American manufacturers make a light version that’s very tasty. This week I’m enjoying the light garlic and herb flavor on my vegetable wraps.
Sad news from the Canadians. Their sweet doggie Riley passed away today. This makes me sad because he was such a great doggie. I’m sure they are devastated. So please, readers, send happy thoughts their way.
04.07.08
Spring = Ant Season
I’ve mentioned before how much I adore spring in the south. Spring in the north lasts about 30 seconds and usually takes place while you’re stuck at work. Spring in the south (or in ATL at any rate) lasts 4 months and is the best time of the year. But there are some trade-offs, the worst of which are the ubiquitous bug issues. We get bugs all year ’round, but we get our glorious influx o’ worker ants right around this time of year. This morning I went to pour myself a delicious bowl of Kashi Golean Crunch! with Honey and Flax Seed Oil (heh) when I noticed that the nuts and twigs were moving. Because it was infested with ants. Sigh. Fortunately through three years of trial and error I’ve discovered the best ways to deal with ants. Mostly it involves heavy artillery and napalm. Fortunately again, they sell heavy artillery and napalm at Target now.
Friday evening we went to beer club at the Universal Joint. It was pouring rain outside, in fact the weather dudes were warning about another tornado and telling everyone to head for the basement. In my mind, “basement” means “glass of wine and some tater tots” so that fit right in with going to the UJoint. We had a pretty good time, mostly because we got to hang out with the Canadians. Saturday morning I was up bright and early although I did very little. The weather was again rainy and gloomy so it wasn’t a day when you wanted to be outside. We decided that spending the afternoon at cheese dip would be a better alternative to sitting on our couch, so we did. We had a very relaxing afternoon at cheese dip, just crunching on chips, sipping margaritas and chatting. We were home in the late afternoon and spent the next few hours watching the last remnants of TV left on our DVR. I went to bed early so as to be up for our Formula 1 meetup in the morning which started at 7:00 am way up at the north perimeter. It was a very successful meetup, it being so early. As usual, the breakfast was good and the race exciting. We grocery shopped at Publix on the way home and were easily home by 10:00 am at which point Dice immediately layed down for a nap. Since I don’t nap I chose to watch Masterpiece Theatre instead which was a wise choice.
On our way to cheese dip on Saturday we had an interesting adventure. As we passed the Glenwood I saw the most adorable little girl, about two years old and head full of blond ringlets, in the window with her mother looking on. I smiled at the girl, and the mother beckoned me inside energetically. My first thought was that I must know her from my neighborhood online forum but it quickly became clear that she was just, um, outgoing. And by “outgoing” I mean “taking a bath in her enormous martini.” She and her husband were sitting there, totally plastered. And happy. They had just moved to the neighborhood and were trying to meet new people. I guess the silver lining of the whole episode is that Dice and I look like nice people whom you might want to get to know. And the stormy cloud part of that metaphor is that we got sucked into conversation with a couple of plastered strangers. We managed to extricate ourselves politely and went on our way.
This week will involve a lot fewer adventures. Last week was too much, and I’m ready to detox. I have no plans for lunches or dinners at all. Tonight I will go running with my neighborhood running group again. I’m very fat and very well-rested after this weekend, which means I’ll either be high energy or slow and out of shape. After last week, probably the latter.
04.04.08
It’s not a party if it happens every night.
I would just like to report that I am wearing a turtleneck today. It’s that cold. Technically, it’s that cold in my office, but I’m sure it’s also that cold outside. I really wish they would warm it up a little in here, though.
I am struggling with discipline this week. Last night I lost. Dice has been attending a nerd conference at SCAD most of this week so I was on my own for dinner. I decided to walk into the village with my book and scare up dinner from one of the fine dining establishments. I wanted to go to the Glenwood but it was packed, so I ended up at the Graveyard. Which turned out to be a much better idea because the ventilation system there is so many eons better than it is at Glenwood. There were people smoking all around me and it went up instead of up my nose. So I sat at the bar and read my book and had a glass of wine for an hour until Dice showed up, at which point we took advantage of their 40 cent wings special and had a basket of wings. Yum!
Tonight we are planning to go to beer club at the Universal Joint. I lurve the UJoint, they have spectacular sandwiches. However, it’s gloomy and grey out there, and what the UJoint doesn’t have is a lot of space inside. But another thing it does have is a large crowd of people on Friday nights. So I am wavering on actually going because it’ll either be outside in the foggy gloominess or inside smooshed together like sardines (which Ratbasket enjoys so much; eating, not being). What I should do is stay home and eat salad to make up for last night. But let’s face it, that just ain’t happening. Perhaps if I pack on a couple pounds that’ll scare me back to discipline.
This weekend is the annual Dogwood Festival which we aren’t going to. They moved it away from Piedmont Park because the park cannot recover from 80 million people during the drought. So they moved it to . . . the mall parking lot. A place that I avoid at all costs normally. Yes, folks, the Dogwood Festival is now located in a sea of pavement and exhaust fumes. No, thanks.
Sunday morning we have our first early morning Formula 1 race watching meetup of the season. I actually prefer them to be early morning, for two reasons besides the fact that I’m an early riser anyway: 1. the breakfast is really that good; and 2. we get the place to ourselves. Oh, and a third: we do our grocery shopping on the way home and all the shelves are stocked and we’re done by 10:00 am. At which point we start drinking. HA! Not really. We wait until 10:30.
04.03.08
Would you like a little bit of cheese with your whine, ma’am?
Just in case anyone didn’t know already, the Red Sox won last night, but more importantly, they made history. Kevin Youkilis, first baseman extraordinaire, completed his 194th consecutive game without an error. That’s the longest consecutive first base error-free streak in baseball history. For the baseball-ignorants, first base is a particularly difficult base because it’s a forced out. Batters have no choice but to run for first base, whereas at other bases runners can choose to stay or go. A first baseman needs one foot firmly on the bag and one arm reaching for wild throws from his teammates. It’s hard, y’all! Go Youkilis!
So last night Ray and I went to the Wednesday wine and cheese tasting at Vino Libro at Glenwood Park. Vino Libro is very trendy and pretty, and more importantly all the staff are very nice, accommodating, and [ahem] easy on the eyes. The wine and cheese tasting was held in their Libro side which, truthfully, had about 8 books in the whole thing, but it also had a wall of delightful-looking bottles of wine. The cheese offering was minuscule, especially when others loaded up their plates, although the cheeses themselves were very good including a goat cheese brie that I really liked. I despise goat cheese so this is an accomplishment. The first wine up was a chardonnay which I was worried would be your regular oakfest, but it was surprisingly tart and very refreshing. There was another white and then they moved to reds, which I only have a very uneducated palate for because I don’t drink reds. In between the wee tasting pours Ray and I stood around chatting with each other and some of the other people there forever. I mean, it took an hour just to get through three wines, and there was no where to sit at ALL. By the time we had tasted three wines I was ready to go, considering there were supposed to be three more. We stayed to taste the fourth because it was apparently special and “broke the bank” as the sommelier informed us. Yeah, it was good, but again, it was red and that’s not my, uhh, cup of tea. Heh. So we chugged that back and went over to the Vino side which is where the bar, tables and couches are. There we enjoyed a couple real beverages and an interesting hummus and guacamole appetizer that wasn’t bad, but not remarkable either. But the girl talk was plentiful and we had a delightful time as we always do. Then we walked home where I put on my pjs and watched Jeopardy with Dice.
The best aspect of yesterday was the fact that it was beautiful out. It was about 75 degrees and mostly sunny, and yet it didn’t even occur to me to go running at home! Dice is at a nerd conference yesterday and today so I had Fancy and was footloose and fancy-full, so to speak. But I went to the gym as usual. My only guess is that I didn’t think about it, just mechanically went to the gym because that’s what I always do. It’s too bad, because it would have been perfect running weather and today is much chillier and grey.
04.02.08
My favorite foods, in list form.
Inspired by a post on another blog that I have been reading daily for years, I present to you Foods I Cannot Resist When Within 10 Feet of Them. Naturally, I try to steer clear of most of these.
Foods I Cannot Resist When Within 10 Feet of Them:
1. Obviously, cheese dip. Or, more specifically, tres quesos dip at your choice of fine Tex-Mex dining establishment. It borders on embarrassing.
2. Pizza. Always a favorite. I enjoy it most white, but will eat it in any flavor.
3. Rotating snack foods: at one time, it was Cheetos. I had them for breakfast. I had them for dinner. I weighed 25 pounds more than I do now. Then, it was Combos. Then Fritos. Then Chees-its. At this moment it’s Cape Cod cheesy potato chips. Are you sensing a theme?
4. Microwave popcorn. Oh, goodness. It is like crack.
5. Bacon. ‘Nuff said.
And a secondary list of Things Which I am Never, Ever Allowed to Eat Because They Are So Incredibly Bad For You and Fattening and I Would Eat Them All Day, And Have.
Things Which I am Never, Ever Allowed to Eat Because They Are So Incredibly Bad For You and Fattening and I Would Eat Them All Day, And Have:
1. Milkshakes.
2. Bagels.
3. Chicken Pot Pie, or British meat pies, or really any pie of the savory variety.
4. Movie theatre popcorn.
5. Pastries.
I should provide the caveat that I generally allow myself to have one of these in the last list once per year. The foods on this list have absolutely no nutritional value and should be stricken from the food chain, but they are pretty damn good, so I indulge once every 12 months or so. It should be noted that those occasions are almost always traveling in Europe, where they are at. Every. Damn. Meal. The foods on the first list, well, I simply don’t have the stamina to stay completely away from them. So I indulge on a regular basis, albeit with an attempt at moderation. I will say that I rarely have bacon more than a couple times a year, and I no longer eat microwave popcorn very often because Dice hates the smell.
You’ll notice there are no sweets on either of these lists. Except the pastries could be sweet, although I was thinking specifically about croissants when I added that to the list. I’m not a big sweet eater, although in this past year or so I have enjoyed many a chocolate thanks to the trove we receive at DCRH every year. And there was a period during the winter of 2006-2007 during which we regularly bought a cake and ate a delicious slice almost every evening. But sweets don’t really scratch that itch, if you catch my drift. Which I think you do.
04.01.08
Disappointing Braves home opener, with food and booze.
We went to the Glenwood last night to watch the Braves game. I had heard they would be doing a baseball-inspired menu but alas that was not the case. After some random channel surfing the bartender dude eventually managed to find the correct channel and we watched several innings of the Braves-Pirates game. I met several people from my neighborhood online forum, which was a treat for me because I don’t meet many of them since I don’t go out very much. As I’ve stated many times in previous posts, I’m not impressed by the food at the Glenwood, so many times I make up my own meal. Last night I had the green salad, a side of macaroni and cheese and an order of fries. Their mac ‘n’ cheese and their fries are both really tasty, so my meal was the most satisfying one I’ve had there in ages. If I could have gotten the jalapeno hush puppies it would’ve been perfect, but I figured that was too much fried stuff for one meal. The Braves played like total crapola and lost to the Pirates in extra innings. We didn’t stay that long because it got too late, so we went home and I stayed up until the 9th inning and then went to bed. It’s a skool night, don’tcha know?
Here I am at the finish of the ING Georgia half marathon:
Yes, I got a medal. Everyone did. But I’m still SPECIAL.
It turns out that the race course was actually 13.3 miles instead of 13.1. This makes my half marathon time even lower! I’m feeling even better about my performance. I did not take a rest day yesterday, because I took the two days off prior to the race. Instead I went to the gym and ran 2.5 easy miles on the treadmill at zero incline. My legs were a little sore because I really pushed myself during the race, so an easy run was just perfect to lose that soreness. I plan to take it easy all week with the running, just because I can. Now that the half marathon is over I’ll need some other sort of challenge to keep me going. What to do?
