04.30.09
A promise of reviews to come.
No time to write now, but I wanted to let you all know that we went to The Shed last night for their $3 slider night. It happens every Wednesday from now on. There will be news about it tomorrow!
04.29.09
Tuesdays suck, too! Let’s go out!
Has anyone seen my discipline? ‘Cause it was right here, and now it’s gone. I’m pretty sure it’s off partying somewhere with my self-control. I bet they ordered a bottle of Cristal and maybe some salty, nibbly treats. How could they abandon me like this? It’s CRUEL, I tell you. Unfeeling. Inhumane!
Then again, there are some times when you just need to give in to your desires. I’m not talking about sleeping around or stealing a car, I’m just talking about those everyday things that adults, who know they’re only supposed to be enjoyed in moderation, usually don’t allow themselves. For me, as you well know, it’s going out to eat. While in general I try to rein it in, this week I’ve been enjoying the freedom to go out. Every night. I try to make up for it with two solid hours at the gym every day. And Dice? Oh, he’s in hog heaven. And I mean that literally, the other day he had a pork belly torta at Holy Taco. Heh.
So anyway, enough rationalization. Last night we decided to check out the trivia at Midway. They do trivia at Midway on Tuesday nights but we’ve never gone because our team plays at the Thinking Man. We only got cleaned up from the gym in time to make it there about halfway through, but we heard and saw enough to get the general gist. I had a really very well-composed salad, a creative grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with tomatoes, bell peppers and a balsamic reduction, and a handful of tater tots. The salad clearly wasn’t ordered very often but they seriously showed their salad-making chops. You just don’t see bell peppers in salads anymore, I think they’re considered gauche. I don’t care, I like a salad with bell peppers, and onion and cucumber and tomato. Perfect! The sandwich was very creative and the balsamic reduction inside really married all the flavors together. (You should know that I hate the term “married the flavors together” but it fits in this instance.) And the tater tots were crispy and salty and everything a tater tot should be. The only drawback to the whole evening, for me, was that it was super smoky, even on the patio. People just smoked constantly, walked around smoking, into and out of the building smoking, and often even holding their cigarettes away from their own tables, which just happened to be towards our table. It’s the reason why we don’t go there in the winter, but I figured the patio would be okay. Now, yesterday happened to be their one-year anniversary celebration, so I’m going to cut them some slack. But if it’s always like that, I don’t know that I’ll be frequenting trivia there every week. WHY can’t Atlanta pass a no smoking law like EVERY OTHER city in the US? Grumble.
04.28.09
Mondays suck! Let’s go out!
This weekend was the Inman Park Festival. I went with Dice, Robin and the female half of the Canadians. The parade was quirky and fun as usual, but it was abnormally hot that day and a lot of the parade participants looked pretty run down with the heat. Poor things! LOTS of people came out to partake of the festival, though, so many that I’d had my fill of annoying crowds before half an hour was over. Especially since we’d seen all the arts and crafts at the Dogwood Festival two weeks ago, it didn’t seem necessary to stay very long. We got out of there and played Trivial Pursuit on the Canadians’ deck instead. Much better!
Sunday morning we had the first early morning race of the season. We didn’t have a huge crowd but it as a solid group and, the best part, is that Hudson Grille has a new manager who understands that food should be, you know, GOOD, so the breakfast was tasty! I had French toast, which was fine. Dice got eggs and bacon, and I noticed that the eggs were not only real, but they looked well-prepared. Next time, I’m totally going to order an omelette. BRAVERY.
You know how Mondays suck? Like, a lot? In my partying days (read: my 20s) I used to hold what I called “office hours” at the Chapter House on Monday evenings. The Chapter House is a fantastic bar which just happened to be on the way home from work. So I’d go there immediately after work and usually end up staying until midnight. Some days, the first thing I would think about upon waking up Monday morning was, “just get through the day, then you can go to office hours!” I’m sure even people who really love their jobs, like Dice, know what I’m talking about. So yesterday on the way home from the gym I asked Dice, “How bad would it be if we went out to dinner tonight?” and he, of course, said, “Mondays suck! Let’s go out!” So we ended up going to P’Cheen. To be fair, we wanted to go to The Shed but they’re closed on Mondays (guess Mondays don’t suck for them) and P’Cheen has a similar vibe, albeit much louder and less expensive. We had tandoori wings to start, and I was surprised to find that they weren’t a dry rub, but in fact had a wet tandoori-flavored sauce on them, with just enough spice to make my lips tingle but not enough to send Dice running for the hills. Then I had the hangar steak sandwich, which was cut up pieces of steak, covered in blue cheese and caramelized onions on an onion roll. Now, I understand that it’s not cool, but I like my meat well-done to the point of dryness, and I have to say my meat was perfect. Seriously, it was perfectly well-done and yet, not dry at all. I’m sure if I’d ordered it less well-done the sandwich would have been better (for other people, heh), but I got exactly what I wanted and I couldn’t be happier. Dice got the fish and chips, and I questioned him closely about it. He says he enjoys the dish very much, but that it’s different from the fish and chips at home thusly: the chips are different and the batter is lighter. He says he likes it just as much that way, and I’m inclined to agree with him. This past December I had an order of fish and chips in Scotland on which the batter was SO HEAVY that it pretty much took over the entire dish. So it’s definitely recommended at P’Cheen. Most things are, in fact.
04.24.09
Dear Ira: will you marry me? Kthxbai.
The This American Life live broadcast was fantastic! It was different from the show they did last year, in that it was more like a live radio show than a stage show. Last year Ira interviewed various people involved in the show, sitting on leather chairs, and then interspersed that with clips from the TV show. This one really was more like a radio show: Ira Glass sitting in front of his turntables (like he does during his talks, of which I’ve been to about three), doing his thing along with regular radio sound effects. The contributors (regular contributors to the show) read their pieces in front of a podium and mic on the stage. And there were some visual effects that really made a difference. The theme was Return to the Scene of the Crime and all the stories were excellent! And thus my serious and long-lasting crush on Ira Glass deepens. Sigh.
It’s a beautiful day outside today, folks! 85 degrees, sunny and Friday! It’s a set up for a good weekend. Tonight I’m going to hear Alice Walker do a reading (for those of you non-lit people, she wrote The Color Purple, among other things). Tomorrow is the Inman Park Festival, always a good time, which the Commune will be visiting in force. Sunday morning will be the first early morning race of the season. Here’s hoping the food doesn’t suck!
04.23.09
I’m such a liar.
All right, so I am (literally) eating my words. Remember all that hoity toity stuff I said the other day about knowing that you have to pay for things, and doing penance this whole week? Color me impostor. Hey, at least I admit when I’m an idiot, right? Last night I was fighting a valiant but losing battle against the desire to go out for dinner when the female half of the Canadians texted about going to Holy Taco. Which totally put me over the edge. And not only did I go to Holy Taco, but I ate SO much food. Bad girl! I’m truly ashamed..
Anywho, I’m over it. Tonight I’m going to see the This American Life live broadcast at the movie theatre. Longtime readers may remember that I went to see it last year, too, and enjoyed it so much that I’m really looking forward to another one. Well, with the exception of the woman guffawing so loudly right next to us that we could barely hear what was going on! Dice has a work event, and plus he’s not all that crazy about This American Life, which I attribute to his being a foreigner and not to the fact that I have a serious and long-standing crush on Ira Glass. So he won’t get to enjoy the all-out entertainment-fest that is the live TAL show, but Sandra and T&R will be joining me instead. It’s gonna be AWESOMEEEEE!!!1!
04.22.09
Discipline delivered right to your door.
I spend a lot of time reading food blogs, which is really detrimental to my discipline. Today is Dining out for Life, and even though I’m not planning to partake today, I still spent a lot of time going through the entire list of 150 participating restaurants, looking at each menu and deciding what I would get if I were to go out tonight. So in at least one way I definitely sabotage myself. On the one hand I could look at it as experiencing the pleasure vicariously, but in reality it’s really more of a torture than anything else. Until I give in and go out to eat, in which case it’s just a failure. Which I would rationalize in some way, I’m sure.
While perusing the DIning out for Life website I noticed they are sponsored by Good Measure Meals, which is a meal delivery service which gives 100% of it’s profits to charity (or so they claim, and I have no reason to doubt). An added benefit is that their meals are specifically designed to be healthy and low-calorie. For people who don’t like to cook but are wary of going out to eat all the time since it’s so bad for you, it’s actually a pretty good option. Naturally, it’s insanely expensive, but they do provide a well-rounded service including daily delivery to your home or office in refrigerated vans (not good for the environment) and two menu options at the 1200 calorie or 1700 calorie level (per day). I actually looked at the dinner-only service and would consider it if it weren’t so expensive. Five days of dinner at the 400-calorie per meal level plus delivery is about $85. Yeah, if I’m eating those meals instead of going out to eat, and instead of grocery shopping, it might work out. But I still have to grocery shop for the other four meals I eat in a day! Plus what about Dice? Do I order two, which comes to $170 per week? I wonder if there’d be enough in each meal to just share it? The bottom line is if Dice and I never wanted to eat out it might be worth it, and come out to the same amount of money we spend on both grocery shopping and eating out. But we’re not that disciplined.
All that said, I’m thinking about ordering it just for one week to try it out. If I do, I’ll be sure to report back.
04.21.09
Health burner up!
So this week I’m all about doing penance for last week’s excesses. One good thing about me is that I understand that you can’t get something for nothing. You always have to pay for what you get, in one way or another. So if I want to go out to eat five days in a row, the next week I’ve got to lay low. In some ways that’s easier than spacing out the good times. I have a harder time going out one evening and then staying in the next evening, whereas when I get into a routine of staying in several days in a row it’s easier. Until I freak out and HAVE to leave the house or I’ll die. I do have some things coming up later this week, but I can do my penance until Thursday.
Went running with my neighborhood group last night for the first time in weeks. It was nice to run with the group again! Except they’re all fresh off the ING marathon and I haven’t run more than 11 miles in one outing in about four months. It doesn’t really help my self esteem when I’m the slowest person in the group, and I know they all have to run slower so that I can keep up. I’d much rather be the fastest person in a middle group. If only more people would come who are medium fast. Alas.
04.20.09
Catching up!
Holy crap. I had one of the busiest weeks ever last week. It was an unlucky coincidence that I had two completely separate deadlines today, which meant that I had to work twice as hard last week to get everything done. Finished one on Friday, finishing up the other today. As you can imagine, though, I was not a happy camper last week.
I went to see David Sedaris last week, too, which was fabulous. He mentioned a woman he’d met in Australia who said that life is like a 4-burner stove. One burner is your family, the second burner is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work. To be successful in life, you have to turn off at least one burner. To be really successful, you have to turn off two. Well last week I turned off my health burner in favor of my work burner. I didn’t really have time to work out all that much, and on Thursday I never even made it to the gym at all. On top of that, I went out to dinner every single night except for Monday. Tuesday we went to the Glenwood, Wednesday I went to McCray’s in Smyrna with the girls before David Sedaris, Thursday we went to East Atlanta Thai and Sushi, Friday we went to beer club at Holy Taco, Saturday I went to Stella with the Canadians and Sunday we went to the Hudson Grille to watch F1. Why yes, I am obese, thanks for asking!
Saturday we went to the Dogwood Festival with the Commune. We had a great time, although Dice and I both got pretty severely sunburnt. We went to the Friends of the Dogwood all-you-can-eat buffet featuring foods from several different notable Atlanta restaurants. The food offerings were fairly pedestrian, but that’s all you can expect from wee prep stations and small styrofoam plates. (Note to Dogwood organizers: STYROFOAM plates? How DARE you! I’m so annoyed. Please get a frickin’ CLUE for next year.) Maura had an artist’s stall as she does every year and it served as our base of operations and was a godsend when we were hot and thirsty since they had a gigantic cooler full of tasty beverages.
Sunday I was supposed to run the Sprint for Cancer 10K, but I blew it off. I could blame it on the sunburn, but in reality I just wasn’t feeling it. Truthfully, I don’t mind blowing off a 5K or a 10K. I feel slightly guilty because it would have been my third year running this particular race in a row, but, eh. At least they still got my money, right? Yay for CANCER!
04.15.09
Calm after the storm.
A wise man (with a girl’s name) once said that the weather is never as good as it is the day after a terrible storm. Ever since this was brought to my attention I’ve noticed the truth of that statement. Whenever there’s a bad storm, it’s always beautiful the day after! Craziness. Like the atmosphere is scrubbed clean or something. So, as you can imagine, it’s 70 degrees and sunny today. Storm? What storm?
The weekend was good. Friday night Dice and I went to Brick Store where I enjoyed a delightful pierogie dish. Folks, I’ve been eating the pierogies at Brick Store for almost 4 years now, and I’ve recently noticed that the number of pierogies in the dish has decreased while the amount of veggies has increased. This trend gets full approbation from me. It’s still got the delicate cream sauce and the veggies and pierogies are cooked to perfection. The heavens opened and dumped massive amounts of rain, so we ended up staying for a drink after dinner was over to wait out the rain. The rain miraculously stopped just as we were paying the bill, then suddenly started pouring again just as we got into the car. Then miraculously stopped again as we got out of the car and went into the house. Then suddenly started pouring again when we got safely inside!
Saturday Dice went to work and I stayed home all day. After he got home we went to Holy Taco for dinner. I personally love the greasy chips there, although others don’t. Then I had the veggie quesadilla and it was very good. Not much else to say about it other than it was a good, cheap meal. Sunday I got up and went running, then got myself ready for high tea with the girls. We went to high tea at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The event itself was fine except for the fact that the service was TERRIBLE. Really bad service. We waited way too long for everything, and the waitstaff didn’t even seem as though they were trained at all. They forgot many things, and we repeatedly had to ask for more hot water for our tea. There were 7 people at our table, you’d think they’d be bringing pots of hot water at various intervals without being asked. Alas. After tea we walked through the botanical gardens. It’s very pretty there, and although I’m not a plant or nature person I enjoyed it. In the late afternoon we all reconvened at the Canadians’ for a cook out, which was very pleasant. I was tired so we didn’t stay late.
Monday we went to work as usual but then the storm hit and a co-worker took me home. Dice’s office building was untouched so he worked his full day. Trees were down everywhere! It was like an obstacle course just to get across town. I haven’t seen anything like it since the tornado last year.
Tonight I’m going on another girls excursion, to see David Sedaris. I’m looking forward to it because he’s thoughtful, ironic and hilarious. I prefer listening to him read his books on tape rather than just reading them myself, so it should be entertaining. Since the event is way out at the dreaded Cobb Energy Centre we’re taking this opportunity to visit McCray’s Tavern in Vinings. McCray’s used to be on 6th Street and Peachtree in midtown and was one of our favorite haunts. Then they moved OTP and that was it for us. They have the best rigatoni alla vodka in Atlanta! Although to be fair, Stella’s baci comes very close, and in many ways I like it better.
Yeah, that’s right. I said it.
04.14.09
The weather ate my homework!
We had some INSANE weather in the ATL yesterday, folks. First, monsoon, then monsoon along with hurricane-force winds. Trees down everywhere, power out, etc. The power went out at my office, so I went home and the cable/internet went out there. This is all an explanation of why I didn’t update the blog yesterday. And today, too busy catching up on everything I missed yesterday. Expect something more substantial tomorrow.
