Hump Day

Thursday, but I kept thinking it was Wednesday. Probably because I have to work Friday and Saturday this week. In any case, although we were again at the same awesome bookstore and with the same awesome people, I needed a pick-me-up type of activity and so Naomi and I decided that after work we'd go bowling at Corner Alley in Downtown Cleveland.

Good choice too, since there were specials going on and we were able to rent shoes, and pay for 2 games for only 6 dollars each. What a steal!

We of course had to eat, and since it was still their happy hour and they had food specials, we went all out. We each had some beers and we shared:

a cheeseburger and fries

Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese

And bruschetta on toasted pizza crust.

Can't say that this cured me of all that ailed me, but it was a good dose of laughter and of junk food. Also, I bowled a 156. Considering that I haven't bowled since 2005, I think it's not that bad of a deal!

Visible Voices

First day of recording. We started late in the day, which always throws me off my game, but luckily we're working with a great bunch of people who support Adult Literacy and held the recordings at Visible Voices bookstore, in the Historic Tremont District, which I encourage you to visit. They host wine and beer tastings at night, because really nothing goes better with a good book than a good glass of wine. I love NYC, but I can't think of that being pulled off there succesfully. For one, they'd go bankrupt because we'd all go just to drink the wine and trash the place or something. Okay, so I'm being uber-negative, but the vibe felt very "outside of NY" and they have that working for them.

Anycase, after work Naomi and I were in the mood for noodles and so we walked from the bookstore through a very nice park to bac, an asian-american bistro. We sat outside, and enjoyed the different kind of people that walked by with their dogs.

I chose the Tofu Vietnamese Noodle Salad, with thin rice noodles, lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, basil and cilantro. They topped that with dill carrot and crushed peanuts, chopped vegetarian spring roll and a sweet garlic vinaigrette.

It was to die for. And I'm very proud of me, for not ordering the Pad Thai. Check-me-out.  But now that I think about it, I may have had noodle salad in El Paso. D'oh!

Cleveland Rocks

Landed on Akron early afternoon on Tuesday. We drove from there to Cleveland, stopping first by Cuyahoga Falls National Park, in hopes to see, what else? the Cuyahoga Falls.

Unfortunately, we had no map, and no desire to traipse around forever, and so we just drove around the edges of the park, finally venturing in when we saw a Farmer's Market. The market of course was outside of the park, but I'll count it as going in.

The market was very nice and airy, and the scent of fruits was intoxicatingly delicious. Unfortunately I was not able to partake of the locally made slushies.

because they were chillin'. Oh, yeah.

There was also a nice area for us to chill after buyin our fruits. I left with some clementines and nectarines. Naomi got herself some peaches.

About 30 minutes later we made it to our hotel, in downtown Cleveland. I loved my room - huge and spacious, with wooden floors, which you don't get often. I lucked out by having a whirlpool tub in my bathroom, but also this

Yes, that's a window inside the room. A window into the bathroom. So I can look at whomever's in the tub, I suppose. Or something. Wild. I love it.

For dinner, and still in a pub mood from the Saturday before, we went to Flannery's Pub, where I had a lamb and beef Irish stew with garlic bread

Not quite as savory and awesome as the lamb stews I ate in Dublin and that I've been craving for days, but it hit the spot.