Jay About to Get Too Old

So it was my birthday this past weekend and I turned 36.  While I don't feel in firmed I certainly am not spry.  We played a soccer game in 80 degree humid heat a man down last night and today I can barely move.  Plus 2 Michelob Ultras (not my purchase) gave me a decent buzz.  So over the weekend we spent some time chilling at the Charlotte beach which was surprisingly quite nice or at least very relaxing.  Easy lake access but hard to find shade and a little rocky/zebra mussel-y.  That night we met up w/ friends, one of whom (KB) was also celebrating a birthday on good old Bastille Day.  We rolled over for a couple of solid cocktails at the Prohibition Pig in Waterbury and then on to one of my local favorites, Hen of the Wood.  It was very good.  We had delicious fried oysters, sliced cucumber and fennel, and something I am now forgetting w/ Ricotta even though it was very tasty... wait fresh green peas, yeah that is it?  See, I am losing my memory with this old age.  Either that or the 2 bottles of wine we shared (a very solid Pinot from the Willamette Valley... Le Elle or something, it is not on the online menu.  So given that I am 0 for 2 I am giving this blog 1 thumb down!  Ok, the one misstep they made was the mushroom toast which was straight up burnt.  We alerted the host and without hesitation he took it back and came back a short while with a well cooked and very good tasting buttery mushroom toast. I am pretty sure they did not spit in it.  For the main course i went w/ Skate wing sauteed in brown butter that was excellent, firm but flaky, plenty of depth, not at all fishy.  My special lady went w/ a goat's milk dumpling that sounded better than it was.  By that I mean it sounded amazing but was merely good.  It was a pretty solid lunch left over though.  1 3/4 thumbs up overall and that is not the capper scotch talking either... or maybe it is.

2 quick reviews.  I watched In Time with Justin Timberlake on Sunday.  I am actually a Timberlake fan as an actor but that movie sucked.  He is a better part time player. Too stiff to carry a movie.  Everybody in it seemed to think they were going straight to the SyFy channel because they were not believable at all.  It was just pretty cheesy.  If time is truly currency then I was almost murdered by that movie! 1 thumb down.  The Amazing Spiderman.  Not so amazing as luck would have it.  I won't mention when I snuck out to watch this one but I was solo knowing my wife had the good sense to take a pass.  It was fine I suppose and worth seeing on the big screen for the action.  But while I like that Garfield kid as Eduardo in the Facebook movie he was a little off in this one.  It just didn't have the same freshness as the first Spiderman w/ Tobey Maguire.  As my buddy said, that is to be expected when you remake a movie only 10 yrs after it originally came out?  Well, it gets half a thumb up.  See it on the big screen but go for a matinee or one of those second run theaters.  Don't go for 3-D, nobody needs to see crap flying right at them. 

I am going to go.  I need to take my pants off and run through the sprinkler, it is f*ing hot.