Jay About Tired Town

I just flew back from a conference in DC and boy my arms are tired! Take my wife... please! My hotel room was so small when I put the key in the door it almost broke the window! OK, enough Henny Youngman one liners. I am pretty spent though. I was able to get in a ton of meetings and had time to see a couple friends in down time. Good trip. We did have a couple decent meals. One place was Tosca on F street. It was an Italian joint and the food was solid. I had veal ravioli in a red wine reduction that was really quite nice. The best part was the waiter, he looked like the bad guy from a James Bond movie. He wore a slightly worn white suit and spoke w/ an affected voice but the dude had a huge head with giant neck rolls one of which had a tattoo. He also had a scary face and meathooks that could rip my arms off. He was quite pleasant and professional though! We also ate at a Mediterranean tapas joint Zaytina on 9th that was fun. The lamb was really good and it was a cool place to get kind of rowdy. Good times.

One last tidbit... we saw The King's Speech the other day and it was really good. I was a little reluctant wanting a little more action, comedy, sex, etc... but this was a well acted, well shot, well written movie. 2 thumbs up. OK, I am spent... remember, you have a nice personality... just not for a human being. Ba Dum Dum!!!!!!

So uh yeah... about yesterday

Apparently it is "Chef's Corner" rather than Cook's but frankly between us girls... I am not sure anyone making food there is in the chef vs cook category. Um, I also waked as opposed to walked into the ladies room which is just ridiculous. Waked is not the proper tense and I have not awoken in a ladies room in at least a year!!!

F*ing Pats

I like football but do not have a designated team I love. That said, I have spent my life in New England and several years in the Boston area so I find myself following the Patriots. I hate the Jets... and Rex Ryan, and Antonio 22 kid limit Cromartie, and Matt Dirty Sanchez. Hate them. So I was pretty displeased to be sitting in a bar in Stowe w/ a bunch of assholes from Jersey wearing the same Sanchez jersey they probably skied in watching that disaster on Sunday. Plus the wings at RimRockers Tavern were gross. Otherwise it was a good place to watch a game with a bunch of TVs, pretty cold beer and a hot waitress. The game? 2 thumbs way down.

What else... I had the day off on Monday and met my special lady for lunch at Cook's Corner in Williston. Not many options for a decent meal in Williston (other than the Ponderosa of course). Cook's is quite an operation. It looks like a nice place until they put you in a large assembly line and then you sit down w/ a number tag in a cheesy cafeteria dining room. The counter guy really pushed the "weekend brunch" on my wife which messed up her ordering strategy and then the whole breakfast. Thanks alot counter guy. She got eggs and bacon and homefries. It was all pretty ok, not great. I got eggs benedict florentine. The creamed spinach was pretty good but the holandaise sauce was suspect. Overall it was ok, better than Applebee's. 1 thumb sideways.

Oh yeah, we also went w/ some friends to the Gregg Allman show at the Flynn on Friday. Nice venue for a relaxed concert. Props to LB squared who got us seats right up in the fourth or fifth row right in front of Greg. I'll give him credit, he does pretty well for an 80yr old dude w/ someone else's liver! He was good though, the concert was really enjoyable. We then rolled over to Nectar's and caught a really solid band covering Hendrix. We also had a pre-concert dinner at the Asiana Noodle House. It was surprisingly very good. The sushi was not bad, pretty fresh and the noodle soup was excellent. I had rice noodles and beef in a beef broth that was very nice. The saki was flowing and even though I almost waked into the ladies room it was good. 1 1/2 thumbs up. 1 7/8ths for the whole evening!

Fancy Talkin' Time!

My special lady and I took another run at the new Clash of the Titans movie... I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it. It is ok, not as good as the original. I thought it would be pretty funny if we still went old school when chatting it up these days. For instance...

Jay: Good Morning to you Madam, I am Jay son of Sterl... of the White River Junctionons! I desire to sup at your table, what have you?!

McDonald's Wench: Well son of Sterl... you can sitest yourself at any table. We have the finest fowl parts from the Mexico territory, and beef from Mongolia!

Jay: Forsooth! We shall dance!

Jay About Blah Blah Blah

Took my special lady to Church and Main for lunch on Saturday and let me tell you... huge douches. There were 5 people working and only 3 tables full and yet we waited forever to get any service. They had 1 waitress and 4 other people standing around chatting. The food is fine but heavy and expensive but that service is just so bad it borders on unconscionable. I want the place to make it because I like the location but I don't know...

Went to Stowe for my first run of the season and that place is something else. The new lifts, new hotels, new everything... it is really something. The snow itself was so so but I was boarding w/ some friends so it was fun. We grabbed a beer and app at Pie-casso or whatever it is called apres. It was solid. The garlic knots are really something.

One last little tidbit, I was just reading an article about how celebs are sponsored on Twitter by companies and those companies tweet for them. How f**d up is that? It would be pretty funny if I got this blog sponsored by say... Kraft! I could have posts like "Jay About Fig Newtons". Or Jay's 5 favorite types of fake cheese... Velveeta, velveeta, velveeta... Ridiculous!

As I am typing this my co-worker just saw me typing and started cracking up uncontrollably. Apparently does think I can be creative outside of work... thinks I am just all finance... maybe I just male model in my free time! Messed up!!!

New Year... same sh*t

Woke up Saturday w/ a pretty solid hangover, then my first 2 days of work were marred by technical difficulties and random silliness that pretty much started 2011 the way 2010 ended. On the plus side my special lady and I are shooting for a week on the wagon to clean up and start the year right. We have had 2 meat free dinners and not a drop of booze so far. I feel slightly agitated though it is hard to drawn any causal relationships as people have been pissing me off this week.

One bright spot from the weekend was a little trip over to Winooski for some Vietnamese. We stopped into a new place Pho Pasteur for a little chow. It was a little touch and go at first as the place was empty but we decided to press on. Good move. We started w/ a spring roll and although it was a little light on the basil and cilantro, the shrimp which is often very rubbery was quite fresh. We then each had a pho. My lady went w/ the vegetarian w/ tofu which was pretty good and I had the rare beef which had a ton of flavor. They presented both w/ a plate of fresh basil, cilantro, and pea shoots which was nice. We also had a so so cup of jasmine tea. The decor was nothing to call home about but it never is in one of these places. The service was very friendly, the bill cheap, and the food was good. It was a nice way to spend a cold damp Sunday. 1 2/3rds thumbs up.

If I pull my hammy playing b-ball tonight I might have to write off 2011 early!