Something in the Air

Funny, I was talking to a friend the other day and they mentioned that in times of stress there is necessarily the increased sense that one has to look out for themselves. This manifests into scheming, and backdoor meetings and quiet arrangements. It tends to make everyone really uneasy and bread a bit of distrust. You can't help it, fear has crept in. I suppose what makes it funny is that when the chips are there really is very little moral high ground. We tend to loosen our standards. I had thought that one of the things about Obama that was a huge positive was that he had an air of confidence. He seemed like a leader, and someone who could inspire confidence even in difficult times. Hard to find that kind of person. Well, it turns out he is not that guy. His administration is not inspiring confidence. In fact people seem to be getting more nervous. The media feeds this fire. So does Congress and the Chicken Little Fed. There is a very uncomfortable breeze blowing. More like stagnant air. I would like to think a few strong words, and gestures will help us, we all want to believe and be hopeful.

Right now though, Cimber has presented the petition and the angry mob is circling.

One bit of light reading... my wife and I made a pizza on the grill last night which was outstanding. It gets really crispy. She came up with the great idea of rolling the dough w/ a rolling pin rather than stretching it out by hand. Great consistency. Big fan, 2 thumbs up!!

Jay About a Hangover

So the bar/lobby of the Burlington Holiday Inn? 2 resounding thumbs down! We had a business dinner last night and that was our last stop. Very possible that was a bad call? Dinner was at the Green Room and that was also a stinker. They required a deposit and made us utilize a fixed menu. That turned out to be ridiculous as the place was only half full. Of course that was a half too many... we sat at 7 and did no see a beer for about 30 minutes. We did not eat until after 9pm and did not get out of there until after 11! The food was also a disappointment. I liked the spicy humus alot and the quesadila was ok but the duck tacos were a dud and the lobster risotto just didn't really go anywhere. To make matters worse there were more than one stomach issues this morning that were no doubt the result of the duck. This time I was not alone!!! So all in all 1 thumb down, it really was a bit of a bust.

What is it about golf that is so frustrating? Every other activity in the world works on a progression... you repeat the motions and and learn the steps and soon you are getting more comfortable with the activity and eventually you get better. Golf on the other hand, you play and play and you sort of get better but just as you get your irons down your putter goes to shit. Then you fix your putting and the driver sprays balls all over the course. You get that fixed and just when you are keeping the drive in bounds... f*ing can't hit it out of the sand. I really like to play and it is fun to be outside hitting balls and all but sheesh, I am just not good!

Hey, did you see Tiger got divorced? That means there is now a single super rich Swedish model out there! Sure you inherit an insta-family but think of the cool golf gear that must be laying around the mega yacht!!!

Jay About Kids stuff

So we had our good friends the Pumas up and they brought their wonderful little girl J_. It was alot of fun as usual. Somewhat removed from our "usual" tricks though we were a bit more restrained and went to bed kind of early, woke up kind of early and did some kids stuff. We had a very nice Sunday brunch at the Shelburne Farms Inn and then went down to the barn. It was pretty cool, they have a bunch of chickens, pigs, sheep, cows. There are learning tools and cheese making. It was raining a little but we still had a fun time and the baby seemed to have a ball. Brunch was solid. I had an eggs benedict w/ lamb bacon, and a cider Bearnaise. It was good.

On Saturday we wandered around Burlington and had a quick drink and a couple of "breads" over at American Flatbread. The "bread" was good but the real star was the bloody mary. It came w/ a salad. Seriously, besides the standard stalk of celery there was a regular olive, a blue cheese stuffed olive, a pickled brussel sprout, a pickled fiddlehead, and a just plain pickle! Plus it comes w/ a 12oz beer back. Very solid. The baby liked the gravel, she have it two handfuls way up.

Last little tidbit. We wrapped up the weekend w/ a viewing of Inception... I do not want to give anything away but I thought it was good. A very enjoyable rainy day Sunday film. Best seen on the big screen I think. Ol' Leo Decaprio is really coming into his own. 1.5 thumbs up!

Jay About the Joys of Home Ownership

So we currently have a mudroom with no floor and no siding, an entryway with a rickety walkway and only half landscaped, a basement from the Blair Witch Project, a 1st floor bathroom that doubles as a bidet when the toilet on the second floor is flushed... and last night I come home and my special lady points out some discoloration on the floor by the bathroom. In fact, the wood floor is damp. In point of further fact... the wood is now rotten!!! F***!!!! Yup, after a pain in the ass week and a pain in the ass month (and w/ guests coming for the weekend), we have what appears to be a pipe leaking somewhere in a wall that will now have to be torn apart. None of this work is anything we are capable of doing ourselves. Why or why would anyone be dumb enough to buy a house?!?!

Jay About the Bobcat

When you don't have weekend plans here in the summer it is really very pleasant. You can wake up at a reasonable hour, do some work around the house, hike, golf, the world is your oyster. So what did the Birds do this weekend w/ a little time on their hands? Well, a few things. Friday I bailed out of the office at 5pm and rolled over to Bistro 156 to wait for my special lady to get in town. It was nice outside on Church Street but I always feel weird sitting out there by myself like some crazy gawker. At least over at 156 I could watch Sportscenter. The bartender was cute and efficient... giving me a very nice pour on my bourbon. The place was pretty empty but it was early. The one thing that made me nervous was that everyone seemed new and had no idea about the menu, the food, the wine. Not a good sign. But I didn't eat there so no issue for me. Next stop was Finnegan's. Not much to say about that, cheap beer, cheap clientele. I like dive bars so it was cool.

Last stop was dinner at the Daily Planet. Service was ok but boy the food is just not good. I made a critical error in ordering frog's legs. My wife immediately gave me a disapproving head shake and she was right. The meat was bland and a little slimy and the breading was gross. I had a burger w/ blue cheese and mushrooms for my entree. It was overcooked, dry and not very good either. Plus I got terrible heartburn during the night. Too bad, it is a nice setting.

Saturday was pretty solid. We woke up and ran some errands and then went for a leisurely hike up Mt Abraham which was packed. Afterwards we cruised of to the Bobcat Cafe in Bristol for a beer and bite. I had 2 beers, a smoky peaty Scotch Ale which was a little heavy handed and a brown ale which was one of the best brown ales I have had. It was not too malty or nutty and had a little bite that I like. For food we had deviled eggs which were good but could have used a little seasoning, easily remedied w/ a little salt and pepper. We also had a fish cake that was off the hook. Excellent flavor, great crispy crust, and a very nice peanut sauce. We then rocked a corn chowder which was a little thin but had really good flavor. They should skip the fried oysters though... just one component too much and they got soggy. We also had a small basket of wings. The chicken was really good and the flavor and heat were nice. The sauce was a bit grainy but I chowed down and enjoyed them. I like the Bobcat, pretty solid place, 1 1/5 thumbs up.

Sunday I went to Home Depot. BBBOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Quick note to the Fed, Congress, and the Prez

SHUT THE F*** UP!!!!!!

Seriously, every time you open your mouths to try and "fix" something, you make it much worse. Our economy has been starting to come around, but could you leave it alone and allow it to flourish? Nope. Through a series of politically driven nonsensical moves and blind fear you have driven us to the abyss. The one thing you learn about in any beginning econ. class is that good news, bad news... either can be digested by the market. What kills a market is uncertainty. That is exactly what we have right now. There will be winners and losers but you should be a guide, confident and quiet. Not the asshole yelling fire in the theater. Please, please, please... stop talking!!!!!! Don't you have a vacation coming up or something?

Jay About the VT Fresh Network Forum

So my special lady has recently joined the VFN and had the opportunity to work on the most recent event this weekend at Shelburne Farms. I grabbed a ticket and perused the event w/ our pals the K-Dogs. We rolled in around 5:45 and had some time to wander the courtyard and sample some of the local cheese, smoked meats, and other smaller apps while knocking down an Otter Creek. As a bit of background, the Vermont Fresh Network has gotten in the local foods mix and attempts to bring together local restaurants and local farmers to present fresh locally harvested options to the drooling masses... or something like that! http://www.vermontfresh.net/about_us/

We are lucky here in VT as there are quite a few interesting local chefs willing to really feature local ingredients and with our rich farming culture, there is no real shortage of these (in the summer at least)!

Anyway, back to the food. We wandered around and had some bread and cheese from the Red Hen, Dancing Cow and Doe's Leap. Lot's of blues, and a surprising amount of aged Goudas. All pretty solid. There was a brief period of rest while the keynote speaker and a secondary speaker did their thing. I like to eat, I do not like to sit in a hot room for lectures. We loitered outside in the courtyard. The one real criticism I have of the event was that they closed the bar during the speech. Not for nothing but that is the ONLY time you really need the bar open!! Anyway, we spent the time chatting and scoping out our first dinner options.

The grounds are essentially a big Victorian farm. There were food booths set up around the perimeter of the inner courtyard and inside what used to be the farm. There was one bar inside, and one out. We had a great vantage point. All of the table/booths were local chefs partnered w/ local farms. We positioned ourselves to hit up a few favorites before lines formed; Bluebird Tavern, Hen of the Wood, and Bistro Sauce among them. Our bad boy loitering paid off for us early. The chefs were not supposed to serve food until the speakers were finished but the Bluebird folks were a little ahead of the curve. Lucky for us! We circled like vultures and then... BAM! we scored the best food of the night, a delicious pits w/ tender beef, a wonderful sauce and just great flavor. That was the big winner and we did not have to wait at all! There were a ton of chefs but some of the highlights were the veggie lasagna from Sauce if you are a weirdo and don't like meat! The little beef balls and beet salad at Hen of the Wood was good. I liked the rabbit balls at Verde, but hey... I like rabbit balls!!! Over at the Pitcher Inn they were serving up a pork something or rather on oiled and toasted baguette, that was good. There was pulled pork at a couple places that were solid. The blueberry meringue cookie at I think bearded frog(?) was light, melt in your mouth delicious! The misses? Well, Leunigs had a mini beef wellington was not great. The pastry was super dense and kind of chewy. Uh, I also was a seller of the elk, a little too gamey.

Overall, I thought the food was great and I am an idiot for not taking notes so that this would be a worthwhile post! The takeaway is that the Fresh Network is doing some interesting things and we should all support our local food sources. That and Bluebird Tavern continues to hit it out of the park! 1 7/8ths thumbs up for the event.

One last little tidbit. We had a beer and a "bread" over at American Flatbread last night. The special meat pizza must have had smoked mozz and leftover sausage, heartburn city! I liked the Deadhorse IPA. My lady ordered 3 beers and they were out of all of them. One beer I had was their own Zero Gravity... "The One". If you see this beer, DO NOT ORDER IT. It sucks, bad. A rare total whiff for Flatbread.

Anyway, I am sure my lady will give me a disappointing headshake and correct my many omissions and mistakes, alright!

Hey... It's Sports Time!!!

Hey A-Rod... you just hit your 600th home run, what are you going to do now?

I'm going to go have Clemens shoot some roids into my ass and then bang Madona's mummy!

Hey Bret Favfdfarskakrae... time for preseason camp? Will you be there for the Vikings?

Oh heck no, I am going to retire, no wait play, no retire, no play, no... how much money will you pay me? Definitely retire, play, come late, ask for a trade, rehab, retire, text a picture of my junk to a 26 year old sideline reporter!

Hey Albert Haynesworth... we need you to show us you are worth your $100MM contract by running 3 football fields ok?

Dude, I don't even "run" to the crapper when I get diarrhea!

Hey Shaq... you sure you are comfortable coming off the bench for the Celtics, ala '86 Bill Walton?

Uh... f*** no!

Well, I have to go Albert Haynesworth my way to the men's room!!!

Jay About... Pain

This weekend my special lady and I had to take advantage of a rare free afternoon and went to look at a new car for her. We had leased a Subaru which was up for re-o in late August. I like cars, I like looking at cars, I like test driving cars... but the minute you pull out the paper work. F*&%!!!!! It was like we were being waterboarded in Pakistan. First off, the sales guy was nice but he was just straight makin' shit up. At one point I am pretty sure he claimed the Outback got 92 miles per gallon and shot $20 bills from the AC vents. We took our test drive and then were interested in price talk. Of course because it was July 30th there was no way he could get a real price because they would magically change dramatically in 2 days. Next terrible step? Well, these guys cannot add or use a computer so they have to go back and forth to a mysterious "manager" 18 times to get a crappy quote. The guy would not even give us comparison prices. It was a giant pain in the balls to figure out if we wanted to upgrade or not?! Even after deciding on a car and price... you are then in for a marathon session of putting together paperwork that a one eyed monkey could do in 2 minutes on Word. We were there for 5 hours and we didn't even bust balls over the lease rates? So I like everything about cars but the dealership. 2 giant thumbs down. On the flip side, the new Outback is really nice. So far 1 3/4 thumbs up for that action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-SK1-iILlY

Ok, I am calming down... one more little gem. I rented Clash of the Titans this weekend. I loved the old one w/ Harry Hamlin and the now obsolete clay stop motion animation. The new one has that guy from Avatar and a bunch of wacky computer animation. I am not going to mention the go to line, I am just not going to do it. The movie was ok. It was loud, fast, and generally entertaining. It was not as good as the old one. 1 thumb up. Hey, have you ever noticed that Liam Neeson looks just like Ralph Feins (totally spelled wrong). Wow, maybe that is why they were cast as brothers... genius!