Fun and Games Dept
The Dublin Thing.
So I’m busying myself around the house working on various projects: editing video for Earl’s workplace, editing music for Greg and the Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus, tweaking computers, playing with wires.
As I busy myself around the basement I have a streaming radio station on courtesy of LiveIreland.com. I’m listening to Channel 2, which is contemporary music from Irish artists. LiveIreland.com broadcasts live from Dublin City along the River Liffey.
Listening to the music, the talk of Dublin and the delicious accent easily transports me to our all-too brief (but overwhelmingly enjoyable) trip there last October. I can almost feel the energy of the city. The key word is “almost”.
During my rant the other day I mentioned that few understand my desire to move to Dublin, as I’ve only spent 48 hours in the city (out of seven days in the Republic of Ireland) and have only seen the city through the eyes of a tourist. Since that trip in October, I’ve done a huge amount of reading on Ireland and nothing that I’ve read has deterred my feelings on the subject. Practicality tells me it’s a dream.
It’s a good thing that I believe in dreams. In the meantime, technology allows me to experience the city from afar.
After Hours.
Being back in the swing of weekly DJ gigs again, after a successful night last night Earl and I decided to head to our local Denny’s after the bar closed last night for a quick bite to eat. Most areas of the northeast have a wide selection of all-night diners, here we only have Denny’s as the locally owned diners are only open until 8 p.m. at the very latest. Even our IHOP closes at 11.
This area is a disappointment to diner fans worldwide.
Earl reminded me that I had been to the local Denny’s once before for after hours, as I had insisted on eating breakfast after hanging out with friends at the bar. Quite frankly I don’t remember much of the experience as I was under the influence of alcohol at the time. No worries, he was driving during that excursion. My mandatory breakfast consisted of a chicken sandwich and french fries. Because of my minimal memories of that experience, I was not aware of what our Denny’s is like after hours.
It’s a mess.
They have bouncers/fake security guards at the entrances and at the restroom doors. These thugabes (tough guy wannabes, I just made that up) are there to help keep the drunks under control and the food fights contained. They’re also there to assure that everyone pays for their meal before leaving.
They’re failing miserably on that last point. Two liquored up parties left the diner without paying during the 45 minutes that Earl and I were there. The resulted in shouting from the hostess who was also cooking and the waitress who apparently had to pay for their food even though the thugabes weren’t doing their job and the hostess, who also collects the money, was cooking. One of the ladies from the liquored up party fell into my lap on her way out. I set her upright and pushed her in the right direction.
Our service was pretty good. Earl and I sat for no more than five minutes before we had our drinks and our orders submitted to the harried server. Since we try to fit as many calories as possible into the wee-hours of dining, our appetizer of chicken strips was out within five minutes of our request. This prompted one of the lesbians from a nearby table (I know she was a lesbian because she was making out with her girlfriend earlier in the evening) to come over to our table and glare at us for eating. She stood at the table and looked like she was ready to pounce. I didn’t offer her any food. Apparently they had been waiting quite a while for their food. This prompted more shouting behind the counter. The customers were yelling at the servers who were yelling at the hostess that was cooking while the thugabes talked on their cell phones while another customer escaped with an unpaid check.
All in all, the harried server was doing her best, the food was mediocre and the experience was frightful.
Next time I’ll be sure to be drunk.
Good Audience.
Earl and I went to see “National Treasure 2” this evening. We both enjoyed the movie very much and will probably rent it on iTunes when it becomes available later this year.
There were a couple elements of this cinematic experience that I found pleasantly surprising. First of all, when the theatre showed the “please turn off your cell phones” message, several people surrounding us did just that. Let’s score one for technological common sense!
Secondly, the feature presentation was preceded by a good ol’ traditional Disney cartoon clip starring Goofy: “How To Hook Up Your Home Entertainment System”. What a delightfully modern take on the old Disney films that were common place when I was kid! I was not aware that this was included with the “National Treasure 2” experience. I hope that Disney follows suit with more of their movies.
A pleasant distraction from Nicolas Cage’s hairpiece is sidekick Riley, played by Justin Bartha. Here he is in a geeky hunky glory. He’s not my usual type but he has cub possibilities.
Bachelor In Public.
Earl is out of town on business and I got bored around the house, so I opted to head to the local internet café, the dreaded Panera. It’s not that I don’t like Panera in general (I clarified their internet policy after the incident where anything “gay” was blocked), it’s this Panera that makes me a little crazy. As my current Twitter says:
This is the only Panera in the world where the customers are disappointed there’s no clown’s mouth to yell into.
I think this may be the only Panera that also discontinued the popular Crispani Pizza. What’s up with that?
I am catching up on reading and doing such things as making videos while sitting at the table here in the restaurant. After watching a podcast this afternoon on how to make better videos, I decided to give it a go. Hopefully the experience will look better, though they didn’t really give any tips on content.
It is somewhat weird having little to do this week. School doesn’t start until next Tuesday and the job ended last Thursday. I’m surprised that I’ve actually showered, shaved and brushed my teeth, though I didn’t brush my teeth until around 6:30 p.m. today, after the cat looked at me and made litter box burying motions with his paw.
Truth be known though, with Earl out of town I’m quite comfortable with celebrating my loner side. I think it’s good to exist in my own little world once in a while. I might live my life out loud here on the blog, but there are a few nooks and crannies in my psyche that I don’t share with anyone aside from with a select few. Once in a while it’s fun to amuse myself.
I’ll let you form your own image on that last statement.
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I made a video just for the fun of it. I’m trying something new (a true geek always evolves) so to watch the video you’ll need Quicktime. I like the quality better.
The Ride After Guinness.
It is very dangerous for me to carry the Flip video camera with me at all times, especially after a few beers. But, I’ve promised myself that I would present life unedited on this blog, so here’s a video.
Mansfield, Mass.
Earl and I are spending the New Year holiday with our friends Scott and Mark outside of Boston. Scott and I are friends from our childhood and have started our friendship back up after bumping into each other at the “True Colors” concert in Boston earlier this year. Sometimes it’s amazing how the Universe works.
Scott and Mark are both gamers so last night we played “Scene It!” on the Xbox 360 and then a whole smattering of games on the Wii. It was our first Wii experience and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Earl and I are also reconsidering our plan to sell the Xbox 360; we just need to get the right games for it. The Wii gives you quite a workout and I really like that. I’m terrible at bowling in real life and I’m only marginally better on the Wii.
Sigh, so many gadgets to buy.
Tonight we are going to the Randolph Country Club for the New Year’s Eve celebration. We’re having a clothing quandry with “creative semi-formal”, but I know it’ll all work out for the best. Clothing optional settings are so much easier to dress for.
Chores.
Today has been all about doing chores around the house. I really haven’t broken down and cleaned anything mind you, I’m saving the frivolity for 2008, but I’ve been busying myself in our cellar doing geeky things with geeky toys.
Earl and I are off to a family fest in a few moments, but I decided to catch up on blog reading before we left and couldn’t resist the typing test that Séan had taken. It’s a good thing that back when I was in elementary school my mother taught me touchtyping at the age of eight. “If you’re going to bang on the typewriter, at least you’ll use the right fingers.”
Here’s my results:
Christmas Eve Dinner.
In years past Christmas Eve has been an exercise in stamina. Earl and I would drive down to his father’s house on December 23rd, spend the night and the spend the day before Christmas helping with the preparations for the family Christmas Eve celebration. Said celebration started promptly at 5 p.m. Presents were never opened until after dinner, so the party wouldn’t start winding down until 9:00 or so. It was at this time that Earl and I would jump into the car and we would make the trek up through Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, to arrive at home around 2:30 where we’d go to sleep as soon as possible, all for the experience of waking in our own bed on Christmas morning. We love visiting his family, but that’s a lot of driving in a short amount of time.
We’d then tear around Central New York visiting various family members on my side of the family before arriving home and falling back into our beds exhausted.
We decided to mix it up a little bit this year and do our own thing for Christmas Eve. So tonight, for the first time since we’ve started this partnership, we had our first Christmas Eve dinner together. Just the two of us.
Earl made a delicious Prime Rib Dinner. It was quite nice.
Native Food.
Every area has their own native food. In Cincinnati there’s Cincinnati Chili. Down South there’s grits and sweet tea (I don’t think they’re consumed together though). Nearby Syracuse has “salt potatoes”. Here in the Mohawk Valley we have our own native foods as well. Aside from Chicken and Vodka Riggies (we’ll save that for another entry), at most holiday parties in the area you’ll find Tomato Pie.
I had never heard or had tomato pie before moving to the area back in 1992. I’m not a huge pizza fan (it’s o.k. in moderation) and while tomato pie does resemble pizza, I really love me some tomato pie.
Tomato pie is put together like this: a traditional pizza crust, larger than a regular pizza, is covered with thick tomato or pizza sauce and then topped with grated romano cheese. It’s baked like traditional pizza however, most folks new to the tomato pie experience are surprised to find that it’s allowed to cool and served at room temperature. I find the sauce on tomato pie to be a little sweeter than traditional pizza sauce.
Having lived in this area for over 15 years, I’ve come to expect tomato pie at parties. I might even try making it for our next get together, even though there’s not a lick of Italian in me. (Though I have licked a few Italians in my day.)
