Of Christmas Brunches and Other Surprises

To finish up the "Ida weekend," where we essentially spent some good time with the Muffin since she's moving back to Norway, a bunch of us met up at Garage Restaurant for Brunch and mimosas.

I didn't think the breakfast was that good, to be honest. I wouldn't return there for the food. The mimosas were great, though, and I had a great many of them.

After we went to Stonewall Inn for some pool and more drinks. We got a little carried away, and ended up spending most of the afternoon there instead of at the movies as we had originally planned. A good time was had by all, though. The crowd at the Stonewall (at least on a Sunday afternoon) is friendly and mellow, which sometimes is all one wants.

I stumbled my way into the subway and eventually to Mi Cariños', where I proceeded to fall asleep for an hour or two before we went to have some crepes with Pam and Laura. I have tried savory crepes before, but nothing had prepared me for the awesomeness that is Crepes with Nutella. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures for you.

What I do have pictures of, is of my early Christmas present. Nervous because I've been talking about buying one for myself, Mi Cariño decided to give me my gift early. I won't keep you in suspense: It's a Kindle!

It couldn't be awesomer. It's a touch kindle, wifi with ads - which means that when I put it to sleep, I get an ad from Amazon. I don't mind the ads at all, since they only appear when I'm not reading and at the bottom of the main page when I'm searching for the book I'm going to read next.

Best present ever. I've named her Santana. I'm already in love.

It's Nawlin's Dawlin!

Once work was finished in Mobile, we immediately drove to New Orleans, LA. The ride wasn't so bad, and Lauren is a pretty good and confident driver, so it was easy street in that department. Quickly I got in touch with Mary Lee, who took me to Mandinas - a really old New Orleans style restaurant that's been around for more than a 100 years. It had a great atmosphere, essentially the first level of a house gutted out to make space for the restaurant.

We started with some fried eggplant, which y'all know is my favorite vegetable.

Since it was Monday, Red Beans and Rice had to be had, and I figured I'd share Mary Lee's Gumbo. I topped off the beans and rice with Italian Sausage.

After dinner we drove around, picked up Mary Lee's girl, then headed to Columns Hotel to just chill out. It's a hotel, a huge ass house/mansion essentially, with yet another first floor gutted out to make space for a restaurant/bar. I had me some Abita Amber.

And because, apparently, one can't go to New Orleans without having some Beignets, sometime around 11pm we made our way to Café du Monde.

The whole town had a very New York feel - in the sense that it seemed like everyone was out and about at almost midnight on a Monday night - but the low houses, the verandas, the colorful storefronts, not to mention the narrow streets reminded me I was not home. I really enjoyed it though - although I'm not much for going out that late at night, what I like the best, is the possibility. 

A day with the Muffin

Home and finally able to hang out, Ida and I planned our Saturday together. We began by meeting at the AMC on 42nd to watch Limitless.

It was quite an interesting movie. What if we could access the parts of our brain that sit there asleep and we know nothing about? Would it really push you to clean your apartment because you'll logic out that it's ridiculous to be living in filth? In any case, Bradley Cooper and his blue, blue eyes go through all the motions; super intelligent guy will of course decide to run for president. In order to do so he needs money. In order to do so, he starts with the stock market. After he writes a brilliant novel of course; but the novel won't be published until the next year and that's too far away... At first it seemed that the protagonist's demise was going to be what he himself mentioned during the movie. Mankind's biggest problem is greed. To explain himself he talked about Britain and Pompeii and Germany - all of these countries that were doing great and ruling it all or something - until they decided to invade someone else. I simmered that down  to why not just be happy with what you get? And I wondered about that when our protagonist HAS to get involved with the biggest names in stocks and HAS to manage the biggest merger ever - even though he already has over 2.5 million from just a couple of days of work.

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, although there was no real payout - you didn't see it, I was told about it - but it was cute. And made me wonder about that dreaded word we all live with: potential. Yuck.

After the movies, we walked around the West Side, and had coffee at this little spot I found years ago, when I used to walk around Hell's Kitchen, just looking at buildings, Ruby et Violette. I enjoyed some tea while Ida enjoyed coffee. It's in the middle of the block, and not a lot of people walk by, much less walk in. They're not helped by the fact that they don't serve drip coffee, but hey, they know what they do, I assume.

An hour or longer later we made our way to the East Side, but first stopping by New World Stages and purchasing two student tickets to Naked Boys Singing. From there, we walked to the Sony Wonder Lab Museum, which is a cool interesting place. It's a lot more interesting when there are less children, so I suggest you visit during the weekday.

The rest of the day was smooth and went this way. Searched for dinner, settled for Brazilian at Viva Brasil.
Enter a Caipirinha

and the national Brazilian meat dish

which comes with fries

and white rice

and black beans

Afterwards, it was too early for the show so we stopped by the Hibernia Bar to have a Smithwick

Until it was finally time for 

Let me begin by saying, that they really are naked! The "show" if you want to call it that, has no plot nor tying idea, except for the fact that all performers are naked, naked, naked. They sang some fun songs, most having to do with the male genitalia, and about the fact that they were naked, and even one about masturbation and tom peeping. Plus the ever enjoyable one about scoping other gays at the gym. There were a lot of "helicopter" motions with the penises, which were funny. I have to say I've never seen so much meat before, and it was quite hard to look at the performers faces when they sang. BUT it was fun, specially considering we only paid the student tickets price, so it's all good. 

We finished the night by having yet another beer before realizing that we were pooped and taking our trains home. Ah yes, a day in New York City with one of my favorite girls. I'm happy. 

Still Sleepless

In our second and last day in Seattle, after work we hit sightseeing mode pretty quickly. The day however, began with some spiced apple cider from B&O espresso bar. I kid you not when I say there are a lot of coffee places in Seattle. Most of them are called espresso this or the other though.

After work I wanted a "light" lunch, but something fun nonetheless, and so we stopped by Roxy's Diner (the East Coast at the West Coast!) and had a grilled cheese sandwich with fries.

Roxy's was also great because they offer quickie same sex marriages

Then, we went off to search for the troll under the bridge in Fremont. We walked in circles around the neighborhood since google maps only pointed to a random area we couldn't figure out because apparently neither one of us can read a map. Eventually we found a sign, and that led to another sign and then another and then, there it was! It was not what I expected. This thing was huge!

Apparently the community got together and came up with the idea as to what to have in that space under the bridge, so it wouldn't become your run of the mill under the bridge space. Pretty cool idea.

After we escaped with our lives, we rushed to make it to Pike Place market, and I tell you that was tough. You miss one turn, you end up 5 miles from where you want to be before you can turn back! But it was a good overview of Seattle.

At Pike Place, we got to see many goodies. We unfortunately did not get to see the fish being thrown around. But there were beautiful sights, including the very first Starbucks.

And Left Bank Books.

After all of that, my co-worker went to meet up with a friend, and I detoured into Wildrose.

The place was in a sense your run of the mill pub, but with performance space, plenty of space for people to interact, tables, and the bar where I sat.

I made some friends for a bit, which was nice, before they recommended I have the baked Mac and Cheese. Even though all the dairy was going to kill me, I caved in. It was spiral pasta in a creamy cheese sauce, topped with bread crumbs and fresh tomatoes.

It was freaking perfect, served with delicious big chunks of toasted bread. I suffered gladly. I also had me some rose prick pale beer, which is Alaskan.

All in all, Seattle was a very chill place to visit: the people were very nice and smiled at us frequently as we walked, there was tons of coffee to bring your mood up for when it's down when it rains, and the food was quite tasty. If not for the rain, I would include Seattle in my "list of places I'd like to move to," and I'm sure mi Cariño is glad about that because I don't think it would make her list at all.

Quick, quick, slow

So, here we are, back in Texas! This time in Austin, and we're off to an auspicious beginning. I was a bit nervous since I had to pick up the rental car and drive from the airport, but thanks to God, to Steph's refresher lesson last Saturday, and to the light traffic, I managed to NOT crash. I drove slower than I should've, I'm sure, and I kept missing my turns, but I kept my cool and made it to the hotel in one piece and a bit less shaken than I expected to be.

Right away I stopped by Matt's room to see what the plans were. Matt, his friend Ben and I head first to this frozen yogurt shop, Yummy Yo Frozen Yogurt, in Downtown Austin, and after tasting all the awesome flavors I made an unholy mixture of Watermelon, peanut butter and cupcake, and topped it with blackberries, oreo bits, nuts, pineapple, and Lord knows what else. I was too busy enjoying that to take a picture but trust me when I say that although it sounds gross it made me rethink my stance on frozen yogurt.

After some grocery shopping we head out to dinner - tonight's choice? Polvos.

Polvos is pretty festive with Christmas lights everywhere. When you walk inside, there's a "Salsa Bar."

I went for the Puntas de Filetes, which was beef tips sauteed with mushrooms, monterey jack cheese and awesome spices, served with rice and beans and a smidgen of salad.

Polvos was great. its only downside was that it's very popular and thus very busy.

Afterwards we drove to The Continental Club where Dale Watson was having a show. He was amazing, with an old classic country singer/christian singer voice, charismatic and interesting, with a pompadour the size of my house. The Continental had walls painted deep red and there was a dance area right in front of the stage. At first I thought there was no wrong way to dance country, seeing as how everyone in the dance floor danced differently. Some people could twirl! Ben asked me to dance and we did the two step a bit awkwardly at first but eventually I caught on to the quick, quick, slow rhythm. Unfortunately the song finished rather quickly and then it was time to go home. It's hot as hell here. A good first day.

Seven C's

Sunday! Not  a bad day considering it was working in a weekend. I began the day by treating me to some breakfast: two eggs sunnyside up, hash browns, toast.

Our last day of recording went by really smoothly and quickly. The weather was great. We got lunch to go from Kavarna. I forgot to take a picture of the actual food. I had the rabbit, which is a sandwich of lettuce, tomato, onions, cucumbers in a light vinaigrette. This came with some kettle chips, and we shared a white macademia cookie.

We celebrated the end of the trip by going for frozen custard, which apparently is pretty big in Wisconsin. In case you don’t know, frozen custard is ice cream… richer and creamier. We drove out to Zesty’s, listening to the Glee soundtrack (I’m sure to Matt’s concern).

Zesty’s has an old soda shop type of feel, with great colorful decoration on the walls. They also sold your regular French fries and burgers fare.

We both chose to have the Seven C’s, which I learned consists of chocolate custard, cashews, caramel, cookies, chocolate chips, and chocolate fudge nuts. I ordered one scoop and Matt ordered two, but we received two and three scoops respectively. Score!

Sinfully delicious doesn’t begin to cover it. The hardest part of it all was having to stop myself from eating the full two scoops.

For “dinner” and since we had taken care of desert already, we headed to Titletown – a brewery a couple of blocks from our hotel. (Don’t drink and drive, kids!) Great crowd was there. Can I say that Green Bay probably has more bars/pubs/breweries per capita that New York City does? One in every block friends, one in EVERY block! Almost. In any case, the locals were friendly and they didn’t mind that we asked to have the tv’s showing the Mets-Yankees game. We tried several of their beers, with my favorite one being the “Irish Blood” something or other. Great after finish.

After several drinks, cursing out Jeter and drunkenly making the lame joke that Feliciano Rodriguez is probably Alex Rodriguez’ cousin some food was ordered. We had the fried cheese curds as appetizers

and the bison burger as my main entrée. The burger was a bit rare for my taste, but I was just tipsy enough to not care.

And then the Mets win! 6 to 4. Closer than I’d have liked, but a win is a win.