String Beans and Tofu c/o New Place

For lunch the day after dart night I rallied the office troops and we tried out a new Chinese place in the neighborhood. I ordered the sauteed string beans in garlic sauce and added fried tofu to that mix. LW and I also split steamed pork dumplings. All was better than some places but worse than others. Hunan Szehuan still wins as far as green beans and tofu are concerned.

Darts c/o Dark Horse

Last Tuesday I made my way southerly to Dark Horse Pub to participate in that week's dart match with the pub's team. Unlike most other bars in the league, Dark Horse brought out the food pretty early on in the evening. I appreciated this, as often the food comes out just as 1001 starts...in other words, just as I am actually throwing darts. They offered us mini quiches, fried pierogies, spring rolls, spankakopita and an unappealing tray of rice with turkey.
Can't go wrong with fried things. Can go wrong with lots of rice. Well, I wouldn't actually know since I didn't try the turkey rice. Maybe it was awesome and my thoughts just confirm the fact that I am a jerk.
Another great thing about the Dark Horse set up is that the dart game had its own room, so there was plenty of space for us all to sit and whatnot without getting in the way of other patrons or the pub's employees. A nice set up indeed.
We were down a few players, but LW worked with what she had.
I drank lager.
J. shooting left handed.
P. and T. having some sort of tete a tete.
It was a rainy night. Rainy, rainy, rainy.
I think J. might have hit his photograph threshold in this photograph, or K. said something particularly awful.

No idea what this is about, but enjoy it.



And there you have it, another night of dart league. I played more because of the low numbers, but didn't have any big a-ha moment. Or maybe I did and it's been a week and I forgot.

Pizza and Rockstars

The Sunday before last I drove over to She-J.'s to hang out with her and the boy-os. After some discussion, it was decided we would order one plain pizza and one with half green peppers and half black olives. Definitely saucier pizzas than cheesy, and I think She-J. and I were both a bit surprised by just how minced the green peppers were, but pizza is pizza, and that's almost never a bad thing.
It's been a while since I saw N. and S. They are so totally growing up.
S. did a few numbers with his new microphone and blow up guitar. N. sang back up.
S. is rocking a mini mohawk.
Taking a look at the footage of the live show.
It was nice to hang out with these folks. I'll have to track down the pizza place's name to give it proper credit.

Omelet c/o Cafe Estelle

Last Sunday I met up with BC and L. for breakfast at Cafe Estelle. This time around I chose to go with their fontina, broccoli and bacon omelet. I liked the thick little bits of bacon and the extra flavor of the fontina. It was nice, too, to chat with L. and BC. Good stuff.

Darts and Quesadilla c/o Buffalo Billiards

After a pretty non-eventful Saturday afternoon, I gussied myself up to resemble a secretary and bussed it down to Old City to meet up with BC and L. for some fun and stuffs. BC recently moved to Philly, so this was a bit of a 'I live in Philly' celebration, for which L. came down from New York. At some point BC suggested that we play two of her friends in darts. I'm convinced that the distance between where we were throwing and the boards were not regulation length, and the bar darts that we rented out were very awful after having gotten accustomed to LW's way more classy set.
I hit a few good shots, but we were playing Cricket and I didn't suddenly become amazing just because all the other people I was playing with weren't as well versed in the rules as I was ... it also became apparent that I don't really know all the rules; I had to text LW at least once for some of the rules regarding play.
I was pretty worn out from my Brooklyn adventure and needed sustenance, which I found in the form of the veggie quesadillas. Nothing revolutionary or special about them, but I did feel better after consuming them. Way too many pieces for one person.
A little later on Mr. Ass showed up and I took some photographs to memorialize the occasion. This they were doing on purpose.
This time I caught them completely off guard.
BC looking pumped for life, L. and I making an effort not to have double chins.
Winkaroooooo.
It was a fake glasses night in order to complete the secretary look.

Fried Chicken Sandwich c/o Smith Canteen

On Saturday we all slept in. Eventually L., J. and I went to Smith Canteen for breakfast-like foodstuffs. In fact, we were particularly motivated to get ourselves egg sandwiches of some kind. Unfortunately the canteen stops with the breakfast at 11, and it was noon. So we all had to recaliber our hunger to meet the place's menu. I ordered a latte.
And a fried chicken sandwich. We sat at a nearby park while enjoying the sun and warmer weather. The sandwich was pretty good, though I kept thinking that it was just a fancy version of a McChicken sandwich. Like, really, it tasted really good but in that same Mcway. Mmmmmm.
After breakfast/lunch (not brunch really), J. went her own way and I gathered my stuff before getting on the road. A whirlwind New York trip that took less than 24 hours to complete. Crazy. Happy birthday to L!

Big 30 for L. c/o Southpaw and Union Hall

Last week L. turned the big 3-0. At the last moment she and Fat T. decided to have a party to celebrate that fact. So I made some rearrangements to my ever-so-overbrimming social calendar in order to drive up there Friday night and join in. The plan was to go to Southpaw and enjoy the musical stylings of PitchBlak Brass Band. I arrived in Brooklyn just in time to hoof it over to the venue with L., Fat T., N. and J. Soon after our arrival, C.S. joined us. Don't believe me? Look, there she is.
The music was good. So many people playing brass instruments. There was a female sax soloist, certainly channeling Rob Lowe's character in St. Elmo's Fire as far as putting a little sexy into it. I kept trying to figure out how this group found one another. I imagined they had all been kids in band during their youth, but that most of them had real lives and jobs, keeping their love of brass in a nearby closet or something. And then lo, one day, they found each other and a super brass band was formed. Or who knows. Brass shining and reflecting.
I tried their beer and a shot deal, as did CS. Little Kings is a weird beer that I did not particularly care for.
L. at one point foisted a Red Bull in my hand, which was no better than the Little Kings. My face tells the story of how I felt about both.
J., L. and C.
A triple high five moment outside.
Dunno what this is about, but it's happening.
Squeeeze.
This photograph astounds me. It looks like C. is having an awful time and half of L.'s face went and had a stroke. I don't believe it's accurate to either lady, but the result is interesting.
Fat T. looking more chipper than I believe he was. Curmudge-a-grump.

I didn't even really try to take good photos of the band. My track record of getting worthwhile shots of live music is just awful and I chose not to get frustrated.
C. left, but not before she lost her phone. Once the music was over we then went on to Union Hall, where I would lose my wallet then find it ... minus $40.
A fun, if truly debaucherous night. L. has a few more photos that I felt were stellar, but I don't have them. So there's that. A great big thank you goes to J. for taking on the task of keeping an eye on L. and me at the end of the night.

Easily Amused

Two tiny snippets from a convo I recently had online.

Talking about the shoes I'm thinking about wearing to her birthday party:
L,:ah those ones!

you will not be able to walk or dance for very long

but they are hot

me: yeah the walk from work to the office is treacherous

but i stand tall

and they accentuate my calves

or something

L.: thats what heels are for

me: i could also stab someone in the eyes with them if necessary

L.: elongating and sculpting

and self defense

me: heh the trifecta all shoes should aspire to

And then when L. expresses some frustration with her day at the office:

me: i have listened to the latest britney spears album on repeat all day

you should try it

l.: what the hell is your problem are you losing it?

Darts c/o Druid's Keep

This past Tuesday the team had an 'away' game. LW and I took the 43 bus down Spring Garden and realized that Northern Liberties really doesn't necessitate a cab. I put that in the GTK column (good to know). So the Druid's Keep team is in first place within our division, and we lost rather handily to them the first time we encountered them, winning only 2 out of 13 games. We were missing a few players on this particular night, but the spirits of those of us in the place were inexplicably high nonetheless. AJ came in with swagger, J. seemed to be feeling pretty good about his game, and LW was moving like Jagger. In fact, at some mid-point in the game, we were all busting moves in our area of the dart board playing space. Here you can see teammates in motion.
Here you can see LW and Jack doing a little lean and shimmy. Even I broke it down, ironically of course ... but no photographs will ever prove that. Because they don't exist. But it did make me wonder why LW and I weren't going to dance clubs all the time. Kind of. Except for all the reasons why I know I don't do that, such as the fact that I cannot really dance.
So Druid's Keep doesn't have a kitchen, but part of the league's covenant (not really an existing thing) is that the hosts of the games must provide some sort of snack for players. To help cover the cost, the barkeep and 'landlord' (see what I did there, I used a British term for bar owner), organized a '50/50' competition, which had to be explained to me very slowly because I had no idea what they were talking about the first time through. Basically, you pay $5 or $10 and get either a whole wingspan's worth of raffle tickets or half a span's, depending on whether you put in $5 or $10. I put in $5, but right before I did, AJ did. Here he is with his bounty.
Later in the evening all the tickets were put into a pitcher and a third party (re: another patron) pulled out the winning ticket. And wouldn't you know it? It was AJ.
They wanted to make sure the dog got into the photo. I liked Druid's Keep. I thought I would be scared or something. New bars in new places give me anxiety. But they had friendly dogs, a friendly bar tender and plenty of space. And a nice back patio kind of thing.
Darts continued.
I played three games (1001, 501 and 301) due to missing folks. I didn't exactly have the same kind of big moment that have marked my last few games, but I did hit three 20s in a row for a total of 60 in one turn, which suggests deliberate aiming ... and that is accurate; I was actually aiming. But don't tell anybody. K. and I played 301. I hit an in-shot, but too late to really matter.
T. rolled in late and finished up the match with cricket.
AJ was kind of forced into sharing some of his winnings with the team an buying us drinks. T. and LW. opted for whiskey, and after smelling it as it wafted past, I wanted it too. I shake my head at that desire, but it was met. Here is LW. holding three shots, one for me, and two for her? Ha. No, just one for her.
Holding the shots from a distance and with a kick.
I have no idea what is going on with the faces of these two, but I kind of love it.
It was fun to play more. It was fun to dance and shimmy a little. And while I shouldn't have then gone with T. and LW to meet up with their division 1 buddies in Old City ('shouldn't' as far as, I could have been home by 12:30 but was instead home closer to 2), the evening was good hearted, tipsy and fun. We ended up losing six games to seven, but this was such a better showing that no one was really in a foul mood about it. LW was especially pleased with breaking the other captain's 100% record in a particular game.