When is it too late to blog about somethign recent and it still be relevant? if I blog about something that happened two Thursday ago, can i pass that off as recent?
Well, I am because it's really just a few pictures. I was in Norfolk on the 29th. There was a bar crawl. We had a large number of people for it. So many that we had to stick some in the back of the mini-van we drove down to Granby Street [ahhh, how I miss living right there]:
I did my best to make sure everyone was out of bars before we headed to the next one - all these people ahead of me were involved. it's not a great picture but there are like 15-20 people there.
In the end my buddy Joe got pretty drunk.
Then a couple of days latter he got married. I'm sure the two had nothing to do with each another.
I'm going out of town for a few days and will be without the internets. I'm packing. I always forget something. I've got:
• shoes
• shirts
• undies
• pants
• socks
•iPod
• a list of things to memorize [food, wine, touch, words, desire, walls, whispers, possession]
• toast
• coffee filters
• toothbrush toothpaste deodorant shampoo
• camera and charger
• phone charger
• shorts to sleep in
• more shirts
• rain jacket
• beanie
• sweater [just in case]
• sunglasses
• tie [just in case]
Now. What am I forgetting?
I seem to have lost my iPod. It really makes me sad. I liked it. Sure it was a clunky second generation iPod - with its clinking buttons and mono-colored screen and needed to be updated with a big ole firewire cable. But it was still my iPod.
I bought it years ago on the eBay for $180. Sure it was used but it was a deal at the time. I'm not sure what happened to it but I just cannot find it.
So, today I went over to the local apple store to grab an iPod. I had thought of getting a refurbished on from apple.com. But there is something to be said for instant gratification.
I had looked at the prices and while I saw some appeal in the 4G Nano. I really liked the look and feel of it. I was really thinking aout getting it. But it cost $199 and a iPod 30G is $249. For $50 more I get a large amount of memory and video capability.
I went right in and went to the counter and asked for this iPod and started to pull out my wallet to dump down the $249+tax. The clerk turned around and grabbed a box that had a big ole "DEMO" label on it and asked, "Wanna buy a demo?" Nice, the demo model was $199. So for the price of a new nano I could get a 30GB iPod.
Good deal right? I pay and the clerk mentions that I am already in their system and would I like to have my receipt emailed or printed. Well, emailed of course! And I headed out the place and went back home.
I got home and ... well, the iPod wasn't really that scratched up for a demo model but it was missing the cable. *sigh* I don't have the receipt email yet. I worry that if I go back right away, my simple quick excursion is going to turn into a long drawn out ordeal to get a cable.
But I go into the store and explain what happened and with out looking at my account or anything, they give me the missing cable and i am on my way. What a great experience.
Have I told you that I like to people watch? i do. I've had conversation with people and they think that i am not listening because I'm watching someone behind them.
Today [the second day of spring] was just a gorgeous day. So I grabbed my leftover food and put it in something disposable and went to the federal building steps and watched people walk by.
I saw all kinds of people. Some in a hurry and some taking their time. Office workers and college students. People on lunch break and those who were done for the day.
I wish I could do that everyday.
I cook at home a lot.
Once in a while I order in food.
Tonight I had Chinese food delivered.
It was great.
I played in a Star Trek CCG tournament today.
It was fun. I played a fun deck and had some laughs and got to talk with a bunch of people who really liked and enjoyed the game.
I played with cards just from the latest expansion and while I thought I would do pretty poorly, I didn't do that bad at all. I won three of my games and lost one.
It was well run any everyone there seemed to have a good time.
For the last 20 minutes, i have been walking around my place with a coffee pot in my hand. I've been looking for a coffee mug. Sure I have plenty in my cupboards.
But i was looking for a special one. But don't worry. i found it.
If I wake up on time, I have a bit of a routine. Nothing much. Check my email, put on a pot of coffee [comes from a place that's far away] and put some potatoes and soy sausage on the stove and jump in the shower. When I get out the coffee is done [and I feel like talking] and the food in the pan is almost done. I flip the sausage and get a tortilla shell ready and move the pieces of potato around.
But this morning when i got out of the shower, something was wrong ... I had forgotten to turn on the stove. Cold soy sausage and sliced potato just sat in the non-stick pan staring at me like I am some sort of fool.
I don't often make plans. I tend to do things a bit as they come. But this past weekend I made some plans.
Thursday night was Poker.
Friday night I was going to listen to a DJ at a new bar in Norfolk.
Saturday night I was going to going to meet up with some people at karaoke bar.
Thursday night went well. Saw some faces I had not seen in a while and I walked in with $50 and walked out with $148. Good times but a late night.
Friday night after work I meet up with a buddy I hadn't chatted with in a while for a quick couple of drinks. It was nice. I had invited a few people to go listen to this DJ with me that night but most have something going on. While my buddy Justin says he's up for it, my friend Baybreeze says she is not drinking at all on Friday and won't go. I'm not sure what drinking has to do with listening to a DJ but whatever, right?
I'm feeling a bit run down so I decided to take a nap before I catch up with Justin and go to the DJ. I wake up a bit too late [almost 1am] with the sound of my phone beeping a text message to me. It's my buddy Justin letting me know that he had taken a nap as well. So, it looks like going to the DJ is off.
I lay back down and just minutes later my phone beeps with another text massage. but this one is from Baybreeze. It reads, "Come get me velvet" and that is all. Velvet is bar down the street. now, remember she said she wasn't going to be drinking. So, this means that she is trouble [hopefully with someone extra boring] or she lied to me and went out for some drinks. i get to velvet to see some young guy with his arms around her whispering in her ear.
She is clearly drunk. I get her attention and she pulls herself out of this guys arms and he moves on to the next girl and starts whispering into her ear. I cannot get a word out of her when I ask if she is alright. She just has this goofy smile on her face. Then she kinda lits her arms like she wants a hug. So, i reach over to give her a hug and she slaps my hand and tell me to keep my hands to myself. I finally show her the text message she sent me and ask, "Do you want to leave?" She says no and tells me to call tomorrow for breakfast.
Like I'm going to do that. Now, what if I wasn't in bed? But was off somewhere doing something. If a friend tells me to come get them, I'm a loyal guy and I'm going to go get them. Needless to say, we didn't get breakfast the net day. I'm still a bit upset.
Saturday night is a bit more exciting. I'm told we are meeting at a place called Cruizers [or as my friend Mel called it, "A place brad hasn't drank in yet"] for a bit of karaoke. I hear that the place serves Asian food. So, I show up early with the intention of getting a bite to eat first.
As I drive up, i notice that the neighborhood isn't the best. Then i notice that the bar doesn't have any windows. It is the perfect definition of a dive bar. I come in and there is a guy shooting pool, a hard working drunk at the bar and a guy eating some food. The bartender asks me if she can help me.
But not in the "what can I get you to drink?" kind of way but in the "Are you lost?" kind of way. I order up a water, a beer and ask for menu. She hands me a bottled water, the beer [in a bottle], and one of those plastic stand ups you see on a dinner counter with the specials stuck in it that is passing for a menu.
it takes a while to order up something vegan. I gotta ask for a veggie dish that isn't on the "menu" and then make sure and I'm glad I did. I pretty much get a plate of rice with some veggies on it. I think it is a bit funny that right before she brings it our she asks me if it if for here or to go. When it does come out, it comes with a plastic fork. It's like I'm at a picnic.
now, I don't have anything against the dive bar. I've been to quot a few of them in my day. I just hadn't been to a one in a while and some of the things about this place almost seem humorous.
This place only served beer and wine [and the wine was described as "red, white, or blush"] and some of the people I am there with are a bit put off by that. One in fact refuses to drink beer. And at one point in th evening, we leave the place and go over to his place that is a few blocks away and do some shots of Jack that he has and then go back to Cruizers.
But really, I had a fun time. There were those who took the karaoke a but too serious. But it was good to see some faces I hadn't seen in a while and meet some new people too.
It was a interesting weekend.
The best thing said to me tonight:
"Don't grab her boobs, she is married. Grab my boobs instead, they are fabulous."
Always fun and always an adventure when getting a drink with my buddy Juz.
I'm starting to think that I spend half my days in elevators. I take an elevator at my apartment and to get to work I have to take an elevator or I
walk through a construction zone filled with restaurant garbage and climb a stairwell out of some sort of blade runner type movie. I choose the elevator.
Both of these elevators are incredibly slo-o-ow.
So, when I ride in an elevator, there seems to be only two sources of conversation: 1. "How 'bout that weather?" and "This has to be the slowest elevator in Virginia." I need new material. Something witty.
Because every-so-often I get in a slo-o-ow elevator with a pretty girl. It happened yesterday on my way to lunch. She got in [leaving the gym that is in the same building as work] and some other suits got in as well. Now, one of the suits just stares at her. He is just fixated on her. She is pretty but not turn-around-and-stare pretty.
We leave the elevator and she and I turn right and head down the street and the suits turn left go where ever suits go when they turn left going out the front of the building. As we walk i think of the many things I could say to this total stranger. Or could of said in the elevator. I say nothing.
Then today I got on the elevator at work with a co-worker as we were heading on a drink run. Once a gain a pretty girl from the gym gets in the elevator. But I know this one. She works at one of the local bars and I am a bit smitten with her. Of course she knows this because I have told her - multiple times - while tipsy of course. Stunning brown eye - just stunning. Of course the conversation is about how slo-o-ow the elevator is.
So, I gots to be quicker on my feet in the elevator because there seems to be some pretty girls to ride with once in a while ... and that is just my work elevator. I won't even get into the many good looking women I have tried to talk to - or not talked to because I was trying to think of something witty to say - on elevator rides in my apartment building.
Or maybe i should just start taking the stairs …
Today for lunch I planed to go get some mongolian nodles. But something funny happened. I got distracted by something and went home instead - OK, Grunt, Yes, I got distracted by a woman but I wasn't the only one.
I got home and started making burritos for lunch when I suddenly remembered my plans for noodles. *sigh* oh, well, maybe I'll get them for dinner tonight.
12:33am Go to sleep. I stayed up late trying to catch up on work. I didn't catch up as much as i would of liked.
3:23am Get waken by my phone beeping. I have a text message waiting. It reads, "I've only had 3 beers. But i wanted to tell you have the sweetest kindest eyes." Darn strait. I want to think of a witty reply but i lay down and go back to sleep.
8:48am Get waken to my phone ringing. it is too late for my alarm to be going off - wait it's Saturday. My alarm doesn't go off on Saturdays. Oh, it's a phone call - it's my buddy Joe calling but it's two hours earlier for Joe in Colorado. Wait! He's in town this weekend that is right. I answer and he tells me he is on his way to my place and should be there in half an hour.
Wow, when he said he would be here in the morning he wasn't kidding. I tell him that is great and that I'll see him soon. I get out of bed and take a quick shower. I think about coffee but realize that if he's coming this early, we are going to be going to D'Egg and they have coffee.
9:09am Decided to blog about this day. Start writing. I hope it is a fun entry. Ug, my place is a mess! no, seriously it is just awful. Poor Joe will think that I'm some sort barbarian or that I'm letting myself go or something. It's just that I have been all work and sleep lately.
9:17am Try to clean up my place a bit.
9:18am Check lotto tickets. I didn't win nor did i even get a single number right. Put ticket in trash by computer. note how that trash can is over-flowing with lotto tickets. Sad sight. Go back to cleaning.
9:21am Joe calls and he has just arrived downtown. I put on my shoes and meet him downstairs. I have some work in my hand. I need to mail something out for work and ask him if he minds swinging by the post office along the way. he laughs and tells me that the local post office is closed on Saturdays. I give him the crook-eye. We get there and it is closed. BAH!
We continue on to D'Egg. It has been a really long time since I have eaten there. I know this because i don't recognize half the waitresses and those I do act like we are ghosts from the distant past walking in.
We order we chat. I drink a couple of cups of coffee with my breakfast he has three diet cokes with his. catch up on a few things and talk about about odds and ends.
10:49am We leave. Say good byes to the waitresses and start walking over to my place.
At my place there are comments about what a mess my place is. *sigh* We chat about the Superbowls and how the press is handling the NFL and Wrecks Grossman. Some comments about Sports Illustrated's Dr Z.
~11:10am Joe's girl calls and he heads out. Tells me he will catch up with me later tonight at a buddy's birthday gathering that is going to happen at one of the local watering holes. I tell him if they gets there before 9:30 to call me and I'll join them.
11:19am Send a couple of text messages in regards to the 3am text. And surf the net reading blogs and other web sites of interest.
11:36am Consider cleaning my place a bit or working. Decide to see what else the tubes of the internets has to offer me.
11:53am Decide to do work. Start my iTunes in the background. Open up my work laptop and load up some game design files and start typing.
11:56am Garth Brook's Friends in Low Places starting to play. I am obliged to sing along. I am a bad singer. Hmmm, I suddenly have an erge to drink a beer. Oh, extended live version ... i don't get the beer because I don't drink while working but I'm tempted.
12:11pm I'm on a roll! Ideas are flowing! I should do more of my work in the middle of the day at home listening to iTunes! Make some coffee. I don't NEED it but suddenly have an erge to drink some coffee. Hmmm, I need to go grocery shopping as well. We'll see if I get around to hat.
2:02pm Enough work for now. I grab my recyclables and head out the door to drop them off and then head to the grocery store for food.
4:12pm Get back from the grocery store. i'm so horrible at grocery shopping. i shop at multiple stores and I truly wander around. Going back and forth from one part of the store to another. The recycling area was a bit of hassle for the first time in a while. There were other people there and it seemed like they were going out of their way to get into my way. *sigh*
4:20pm I get by groceries put away and i check the internets again. Email and the like.
4:29pm Hungry I start cooking some vegan sausage and sliced potatoes that I will stuff into a tortilia shell and eat burrito style.
4:49pm Eat. Yum. Added soy cheese. Tasty. Turn on the TV - ug. Nothing on. Zone out and stare at TV. Surf internets in the back ground.
5:11pm Bah! TV is horrible. I'm gonna take a nap.
6:15pm Wake up and lounge on the sofa and listen to my iTunes. Txt a bit. Try and figure out what is for dinner. i should eat soon as i know I'll do some drinking tonight and i don't want to see my dinner a second time.
7:13pm Make hot cocoa. With a dash of chili powder. I was told it was good that way and have never had it like that. Start stir frying veggies for dinner.
8:00pm Cocoa with a kick! Who woulda thought? The veggies were OK - just some stir fry with instant rice *shrug* I'm gonna jump in the shower again. I usually don't shower twice in a day [some days I don't shower at all] but I'm gonna meet some friends out tonight at Havana Norfolk and for some reason I feel grimy - must be the scruff on my face.
8:25 make an "Emo" playlist on my iTunes. I am seriously considering the start of my drinking night by "pre-gaming" right now. But I'm not as much of a drinker and some people think I am.
8:52pm I have way too many songs that go in that playlist. no wonder i get down sometimes 
I should get ready to out drinking.
9:10pm OK, time to get ready to go. And head to the bar. I need to decide if I want a jacket or not. It's cold out. 33º but it's a two block walk and there won't really be place to hang my jacket. My light jacket that I could wear in the place is dirty and has skid marks on it from a "walk" home one night. I'm tempted to brave the cold for two blocks just so that I don't have to be carrying around a jacket.
I have a sore throat and i can feel a cold comin on. Great. Just what I need.
So, i'll take some echinacea and hope that it doesn't take hold. But something in the back on my head is saying that maybe taking a sick day off of work would be good for me.
maybe I should burn some vacation days.
Tonight I went and watched the Dominion Derby Girls take on the Wilmington City Ruff Roller's Diamond Demolitia. I had a friend skating and a friend doing the announcing the match tonight.
it was a lot of fun. There was a big crowd.
I was a bit worried about seeing some thing gruesome. I had seen some aftermath images and these ladies can really hurt one another out there. But outside of some twisted fingers and ring rash, it was really fun to watch.
Now, these teams are part of the WFTDA [that is the Women's Flat Track Derby Association] and they have teams all around the USA. So, I would suggest that if you have a league around your area, you go out and catch some roller derby.
I had a productive day today.
I got my recycling done - well, most of it and my recycling bin is messy. I am surprised because I try to clean everything that goes into it but still the big was a bit icky on the bottom of bin.
I went shopping today as well and got everything I needed. Stuff for pizza, cookies, chili, breakfast, noodles, stir fry, burritos, and all sort of other things that i plan on cooking for the week.
But while I was shopping i noticed that my textured vegetable protein was on clearance at the grocery store. Which means that they are probably going to stop carrying it. Makes Brad sad. So, i bought a few extra cans of it just in case.
But still my grocery store doesn't have everything that I want. Especially soy cheese. So, i went to the local Organic Food Depot - they have all sorts of yummy stuff there and I impulse purchased a few things like Alternate Baking Company's cookies and Tofutti's Cuties [ice cream sandwiches]. Yum.
I also picked up some slim putty knives to crack open my mac mini to put in the memory i had bought for it. It felt like major surgery and while I got through it all, I don't think I see any improvement in my computer's speed. Which makes Brad sad.
Then I made a big pot of chili and right now I am baking some chocolate chip/chunk cookies. Big thanks to Patty for sending me the chocolate. I got the vegan recipe off the internets and the first batch came out pretty good. I'm sure I'll mess with the size of the cookies as i cook them.
All of this and it looks like I'll have time to make some guacamole for tomorrow and still have time to catch up with some friends and get a drink before the day is over. A good day.
OK, I have decided to go for it and start a review of the drinking holes on Granby Street [and just off of Granby Street] and put them on a web page. I'm not so worried about the work that will go into reviewing the 23 [as of right now] places as much as I am worried about the work of writing up each place. I'll eventually get to each place but will I take the time to write up a review about each place?
I also worry that this work will not help anyone. I need to get it out there and do so at a minimal cost to me. So, I've been thinking that I need a good URL for this review web site. While brad-does-granby.com sounds excellent, I don't know if it's gonna grab the web traffic it needs to. And I don't know if I want my name associated with because I can see me giving a good review for the steaks at Hell's Kitchen and someone saying, "Hey, what gives? You don't eat cow carcass! How do you know how the steak is??" and then having to explain that *I* didn't review the non-vegan side of places - i had an accomplice do that.
Which means it turns into brad-and-accomplice-does-granby.com and that doesn't have a good ring to it. So, I'd love to hear some suggestions of what I should call this web site.
I played some 1/2 poker tonight at a friend's place. He had a nice new felt top for his table and a full house to sit around it. I had the $50 for the buy in as well.
Now anyone who has played with me probably knows that I play a pretty tight game. I'm known for leaving the table even or pretty close to even most times. But lately at this game I've been able to walk away with a bit more in my pocket. I'm not talking heaps of money but walking out with an extra $10 or $20 feels pretty good.
Tonight though I lost two big hand early to - one I had the second best hand and the other i bailed out before I gave more money to a losing endeavor. But being a tight player it looked like a rough night ahead of me. Looking at my chips, I thought I would have a slow bleed to blinds and finish with a losing night.
it was a bit of a crazy night as we saw a good number of straits and flushes. I think we only saw one hand the whole night won by a top card.
But I kept myself some what alive with picket aces that held up and a pair of queens. Then, i had int he course of 4-5 hands, pocket queens, pocket kings, and pocket jacks that all paid out big. One of those hands paid out around $50. And i walked away $57 up. A good night.
I wish I could remember my hands better and tell you what happened each betting round but I'm going to try to tell you about the hand I got dealt pocket kings. i was the big blind and I had four callers and I just checked.
The flop comes down Ace, Ace, Ace. I flop I full house. Only one hand can beat me right now and when everyone but me jokes about having the other ace, i feel like I have the best hand. When some joke that they have the King high, I hope someone does because they will pay me off.
The turn comes and it is a deuce. The river comes and it is another deuce! A full house on the board! but I've got a bigger full house. There is some raising and re-raising and I'm happy that some want to scare some out while I have the best hand. When it is done there is a bit of laughing at the apparent split pot. Then I flip over the pocket kings to show the bigger full house!
So, I do not know where I found this - probably off of Fark or Attuworld - but I came across this mp3 that was supposed to wake a person up and give them a bit of pep like coffee does. The mp3 was even called Coffee Replacement.
Let me tell you that from my last two days of experimenting with this mp3 that this is total BS. I really thought it could work for some reason.
But as I started yawning at work and getting ready to doze off, it became clear to me - perfectly clear to me - that some goofy mp3 that I listen to with headphones on for 20 minutes each morning could never replace that strong, gripping cup of dark heaven. mmmm, the coffee I am sipping right now is soo good. I make a good cup- even if my dad does think that I make it too strong.
But my words may not be enough to express my love. Here is a poem by Maureen O'Connor:
I want it hot,
a powerful boiling gift
to lick my tongue
bitter black or
sweet smooth with milk,
essential like water
or life’s blood.
I need it to
percolate my endorphins,
stimulate my senses,
caffeinate my sensibilities
and wake me,
like a good lover.
Then it leaves me
wanting more,
hot.
Yes, yes, wanting more ... of course, *I* would never percolate my coffee - that is gross.
Ug, I have been feeling sick and under the weather all weekend. Big sinus headaches and a general groggy-ness going on.
I made my own pizza crust today for a pizza - turned out horrible.
I made a pie today as well - crust looks horrible.
I made chili today as well - great stuff.
Cleaned up a bit around my apartment - but my place is still a mess.
I think I'm going to have to call in sick tomorrow.
