My Fozzie's Hot Dog

I don't know how this happened, but I managed to post about my trip to Fozzie's some time ago without including a picture of my overloaded hot dog. The horror!

Well, problem solved. Here it is:

Now, go forth, and find your own delicious hot dog.  I know you're hungry! 

Kids These Days -- Take 2

Kids These Days did not end up being quite the beach read that I had hoped - mostly because it took me until about February to finish it.  It was, as K had indicated, light and fluffy.  It was also sort of a comedy of errors.

About the book: it tells the tale of a floundering, early-middle-aged man whose wife is pregnant with their first child.  He's in a panic - not sure he wants the baby, not sure what to do with a baby, not sure what to do with his brother-in-law, not sure what to do about getting back into the work force after being laid off.  The bit about it that frustrated me is that he is basically the same hapless character at the end of the book as he is at the beginning.

This is sort of the comedic version of (spoiler alert!) Gone Girl.  The lead is really the same despicable person all the way through.  If you're hoping for some kind of breakthrough or change or improvement, don't hold your breath, because you're not going to get it.

Having said that, this book is goofy and there were several times that I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it all.  So now that we're starting another summer, you might want to try it out as a beach read!

What I Watched -- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

While this year's Oscar buzz was going on, I decided to revisit last year's Oscar babies while no one was looking.

I started with Birdman, which got rave reviews and won pretty much all the Academy Awards - picture, director, screenplay, cinematography. As with so much Oscar-related stuff, I can't figure out what this movie was besides lots of Hollywood navel-gazing.  I think they all liked it so much because it's about them (as if there isn't enough of "them" in the news and tabloids).

The one thing I can appreciate are the parallels with real-life Michael Keaton.  The movie is about a washed-up movie star who made his name playing a superhero.  He's making a last-ditch effort to save his career by staging a Raymond Carver short story, which is a way-out-of-left-field creative project for him.  Sound like the story of the former Batman now making a movie called Birdman?

Bottom line: skip it.

Blood & Sand

A group of my friends had planned a dinner for last Friday night. We intended to go to Small Batch, but arrived at 6:30 to find there would be an hour-long wait.  (This is especially frustrating because, when we called to ask about reservations, they said they didn't take them. When we arrived, there was a table just our size - seven people - that was all set up with no one to eat at it. Upon further inquiry, we were informed that it was reserved for a party later that evening.)

One of our group is a member at Blood & Sand, so called over there to see if we could get in. We could, so down the street we went.

The cocktails are as delicious as you've heard, but there are so many places to get wonderful craft cocktails these days that I'm not sure it's worth paying a membership fee - unless you need to get a group of 7 seated at 6:45 on a Friday with 5 minutes' notice.

[Aside: Other places where you can get killer cocktails without the added fee: Water Street, Reed's American Table, Taste, Juniper, The Crossing, Grapeseed, The Block....]

As for food, there was one thing we tried that might make it worth the membership fee, and that was the Truffled Tater Tots. Delicious!  As my friend B commented, "these are nothing like the ones I remember out of my freezer from when I was a kid!"  S and I shared Truffle Gnocchi as a second appetizer, and I got the Berkshire Pork Loin sandwich as a main course.  Gnocchi was good; sandwich was just okay.  Dessert was a scoop of hazelnut gelato for me and lemon-lime sorbet for S.  The sorbet was a bit tart for S, so we traded.

It was an enjoyable evening, especially since it was all so last-minute.  Great that they could get us in, but on the whole, probably not worth the price of admission.

What I Watched -- Man Up

Man Up was a random Netflix find.  We were looking for something light and funny, but not too dumb.  Nailed it!

It's a goofy British rom-com starring a bunch of people you've never heard of, but in the usual British way, it's dry and actually funny!  Our female lead is jaded and dissatisfied with her love life.  Our male lead is jaded and dissatisfied with his ex-wife.  Male lead was set up on a blind date with a girl, and mistakes female lead for that girl.  The date goes on, but not quite as he had planned.

Bottom line: a cute, funny, and totally predictable story - as any good rom-com is.

What I Watched - Chasing Amy

I had seen Chasing Amy once before, when I first got into the whole Mallrats craze, but it was so long ago that I really didn't remember it any more.  When it showed up on Netflix a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was worth checking out again.

That may have been a mistake.

I remember Chasing Amy as I did when I first saw it - as an eye-opening trip through a new relationship, sponsored by Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams (who I was sure for years was Renee Zellweger).  Now, honestly, it just seems like a dated '90s flick.

Or maybe not.

Let's give it credit for the following:
1) My boyfriend has a role; and
2) Jay and Silent Bob have roles.

Bottom line: it's definitely a throwback. If you have no nostalgia for (or memory of) the 90's, probably skip it.

Goals - Progress Update

Garden: S built me a raised bed for my garden!  We leveled out a nice spot for it in the yard, close to the hose spigot for watering purposes, and someplace that will get mid-day and afternoon sun.

I also started my compost pile, although it's not big enough yet to generate the heat necessary to successfully compost.  But I'm eating all the veggies I can, in order to keep adding scraps.  S filled the leaf blower bag with lots of little chopped up leaves for me, so I have a good stash of that stuff to mix in as well.

Gym: the TV with Netflix access has been hooked up.

Craft table: nothing yet, other than the design ideas I previously mentioned.  Maybe a more concrete blueprint will be this weekend's project, since it's supposed to rain cats and dogs.

Recipes: just for the sake of being old-fashioned, I think I'm going to type up the recipes that I really love on index cards.  With a typewriter.  And keep them in a box.

Yes, that old-fashioned.

To that end, I took my typewriter to the repair shop to have the levers straightened out so I can use it.  I'm waiting for the call saying it's ready.

Pictures: nothing yet.

What I Watched -- Deadpool

I really hadn't even heard of Deadpool until S asked if I wanted to go see it one night.  I like the latest spate of superheroes on the big screen, and I like Ryan Reynolds, so why the hell not?

It was hilarious.  It is not the best remake-of-a-comic-book that I've seen lately, but (perhaps especially since I had no expectations) I just laughed out loud at all the crude jokes - and don't kid yourself, this movie is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.  I really enjoyed it.

Bottom line: if you're feeling completely irreverent and game for a laugh, Deadpool has got your back.

Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium

Last week, I was out of the office around mid-day, so I decided to stop at Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium for lunch.  I was at the Richmond Heights location, though I hear tell there is at least one other.

I ordered the Ed's Slaw Dog (no onions), on someone's recommendation; it was so long ago now that I can't even remember who made it.  The dog was quite tasty, but a complete mess to eat.  It was still cold outside on the day I was there, which meant that none of their outdoor tables were set up.  They have two or three indoor tables, but they're all taken up by people who are ordering and/or waiting for their food.  As a consequence, since I was just out running some errands, I ended up eating in my car.  It was a bit messy, but I got to rock out to my own music, so that was nice.

I also had the Fozz-a-licious shake, which had apples and goat cheese in it.  It was a bit difficult to drink, since the goat cheese chunks were too big to fit through the straw, but the flavor was good - sweet and tart.  The shake, as the hot dog, was literally overflowing, so it was a good thing they gave me half a dozen good quality napkins to sop up the mess! I'm not talking about those little jobs that disintegrate as soon as you try to use them, but real napkins - and it's a good thing too.

This is the kind of place that I will go back to if I'm in the neighborhood at lunchtime, but probably not the kind of place that I'll make a destination. Even though it's a chain, I prefer Potbelly, where the shake is both larger and less expensive!

Random Links

If you're into maps, here's a do-it-yourself version.

I didn't know they were called hydroperoxides, but I have heard this before.

A funny song.

Global population graphics.

I had no idea you could do this on a road bike.  Or at all.

An old video from just after last fall's Paris attacks, but it is an amusing summary of the nice things (and there are some!) we can say about France.  Skip to 1:00.