Good Afternoon!
Currently in the CD player as I type and post away:
Barely Man-Enough's Barry Manilow's "Ultimate Manilow". Ah, the memories! I do truly miss real "pop radio" from the 70s and early 80s!
I did make it out of the house earlier. I decided to go ahead and treat myself to lunch at the nearby SweetWater Tavern. Such a great place to eat, and it was all decorated up for tonight's festivities. -I also like eating there since they don't make solo diners feel like outcats. I even got a nice booth all to myself.
Lunch consisted of their very good House Salad with their House Vinaigrette. I've always like their House Salad - they put toasted pine nuts and bits of chopped dates in it. Very nice touches, and I even splurged on a generous crumble of Maytag Bleu Cheese on top! *Oh, and their bread are faboo too, especially the hot-out-of-the-fryer "donuts" - fried dough, what's not too like? -And with their honey-poppyseed butter... Hmm...
Then it was on to today's special of Grilled Mahi-Mahi over a Tri-Pepper Polenta with a Poblano Pepper Cream Sauce, and a side of Corn-Apple Sauce. Soooo Good. I truly cleaned my plate off. And only $12 too boot!
Normally, I would have saved room for their Flourless Chocolate Waffle, but I had to save something to look forward to in 2005!
And in the spirit of the season, I left my server(s) a very generous tip in cash - he was even giving me a strange look as he walked by the table and spied what I had left with the check. *Sweetwater Tavern is part of a local restaurant conglomerate:
Great American Restaurants. Every restaurant in the "chain' serves great food and with wonderful, efficient and friendly service. They have the whole "team service" concept down to a science.
Then it was to the computer store to pick up some supplies I meant to pick up weeks ago. -And, boy, were their computers running slow today! It was taking about a full minute for the credit card charges to go through the whole approval process. The cashiers were audibly groaning each time the Wait-Processing message appeared on their screens.
Then it was too the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for my ham glaze. -I'll be bringing a ham to Arena tonight for the after-party, even though I may not end up staying for the party.
Then I tried to make a quick run to the big Korean Supermarket for some other goodies, but as soon as I stepped into the store I just started laughing. The lines at the registers were a minimum of 20 people deep! They were literally going straight down the aisles. There were lots of looks of false hope on some shopper's faces as they pulled into a short line, and then realized they were cutting in line - rather, the people behing them "reminded" them. At least the shoppers were keeping a pathway clear for the other shoppers to get through. So, after walking around for about a minute or two, I just walked back to my car...
Now I'm home... The ham is in the oven, and I'll get the glaze started in about a hour or so. Then it's off to the theatre...
Hmm... I'm actually sort of getting excited about tonight now.. Hmm...