Monday, Feb 13
Breakfast: Au Bon Pain, $5.48
Dinner: Firebirds, $42.79

Tuesday, Feb 14
Lunch: Jason’s Deli, $11.73
Dinner: Buffalo Wild Wings, $21.60

Wednesday, Feb 15
Lunch: Baker’s Crust, $17.92
Dinner: Peter Chang, $25.20

Thursday, Feb 16
Lunch: California Pizza Kitchen, $19.16
Dinner: Bar Louie, $20.21

Friday, Feb 17
Lunch: Baker’s Crust, $20.92
Dinner: Red Robin, $10.79

Saturday, Feb 18
Lunch: Plaza Azteca, $18.64
Dinner: Bar Louie, $15.75

Sunday, Feb 19
Dinner: Maggiano’s, $30.92

Monday, Feb 20
Lunch: Chick-fil-A, $11.28
Dinner: Buz and Ned’s, $33.46

Tuesday, Feb 21
Lunch: Nordstrom Cafe, $14.60
Dinner: The Cheesecake Factory, $42.84

Wednesday, Feb 22
Lunch: Baker’s Crust, $14.26
Dinner: Lehja, $39.90

Thursday, Feb 23
Lunch: Jason’s Deli, $10.48
Dinner: Firebirds, $53.81

Friday, Feb 24
Lunch: Chick-fil-A, $10.61

I’ve missed a couple of days of blog posting in my 2012 Initiative. I work. I’m tired. Sometimes I sit on the couch for a few hours when I get home. I can’t be in front of this computer all the time.

Here is a list of some tweets that, for some reason, didn’t get sent:

Why does my neighborhood look and feel abandoned?
010212

Sweetie it’s fucking McDonald’s. Stop doing special orders for your five children. #holdinguptheline
122211

Loawd give me 2x patience today!
122211

I’ve dribbled on myself. #vietnamesefood
122111

Looks like I should start hanging out at this bus stop more often. #mayor http://moby.to/d5d1kq
121811

Next up in the shuffle: Grace Jones, Erasure, Housemartins, Lightning Seeds, MJ, Beloved, Kylie, Matt Alber, Interpol, ABC, Fischerspooner.
120711

Picked up my new iMac!
121611

Street preachers are funny. #andscary
111111

Every song on this playlist at Noodles & Co is a prime example of what is wrong with pop music today.
110911

Technically I’m no longer in New York, but this is more of a wrap-up than anything. So I think I left off with Sunday morning?

Sunday I started a little late, but that’s a little indicative of nightlife in New York: one doesn’t wake up to early. So I went out. I had decided that I wasn’t going to take any public transpo’ anywhere, no cabs, but then realizing that I wanted to go up to the AS UWS that it would be a hike. So I trained it up there, did a great BOH tour and then ventured to 5AV and did a most excellent tour there, led by an Expert. #geekawesomeness!

From there I took Franklin’s advice and headed to ViG 27 which is an awesome lounge bar on the east side. There I had delicious cilantro gimlets and black raspberry cosmos.

Heading back to Chelsea Inn it was time to do some reassessment and from there I decided to watch a little tv and then pass out. Maybe I missed out on some unique NYC stuff but at least I got a full nights sleep out of it.

So what did I get up to last night?

Getting into town a little later than I anticipated put a damper on things; by the time I was settled it was time to go out and I didn’t have much assimilation time. No worries.

I decided to start my night by going to the AS at W14 and they showed me BOH! They didn’t even ask for credentials which I thought was a little odd but chalk one up for honesty.

I stopped at a street truck vendor and got a $2 beef taco it was so good I had to go back and get another to stash in the room for later (one beef, one pork). Then I ventured out for some nightlife: Gym Bar, G Lounge and Ty’s. I had thought about recreating the blargcrawl from a couple of years ago and then decided to go visit the local joints. After these couple of spots it was about 1:00 or 2:00 and I know that’s early for a NYC Saturday night but I had been up for 20 hours and going on six hours of sleep, twas lullaby time.

So what to do today? Definitely a stop at Record Runner since they’re closed tomorrow. High line? The Met? AS UWS?

So on my “Sunday” today, I didn’t really do too much. Actually nothing. I updated my MobileMe calendar to the new version. Big whoop. My operating system (because it’s so old) doesn’t support all the functions of the new calendar and so it wasn’t an automatic upgrade as it would have been. I had to do a little backend work, but it was all laid out here and everything went according to plan.

I found ‘Scotchie’s favorite sleeping place while I was home today. It’s on the radiator in the living room. But also while I’m here all day (a rarity) she also likes to cuddle up with me which is cute. I feel bad working so many hours at my 2.5 jobs so it’s good to give her some snuggle time.

I went to dinner with Melba tonight, to our usually place La Lomita.

Tomorrow is my Monday while it’s everybody else’s Friday. Oh well. And tomorrow is the first of my three 12-hour days. What a way to start the week, right? I’m anxious to get back into work though. Fun!

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As shown in the previous post, my iPhone didn’t come back from Rehoboth the same way that it left. Luckily, it still works. Even the touchscreen aspects are still functioning properly although there is a little bit of “scratch” on some parts of the screen. It’s not enough to scratch my finger but it’s still friction.

This is how it happened:

We all woke up on Saturday and did the normal routine: coffee and computers on the back deck. It’s such a great time, those mornings, usually nursing a slight hangover, bedhead, clacking away on keyboards, talking & laughing about the previous evening’s activities.

We decide to head out for breffus and we go to Sunshine in Dewey Beach. There I have a gyro omelette, which sounds crazy but was delicious. Afterwards, we split for errands. Christopher is going to do some shopping so I decide to hang out with him, driving around in the top-off Jeep. Well, I’m texting, checking status, etc while we’re stuck in traffic and instead of putting the phone into my pocket which I normally do I put it on the seat, between my legs, figuring that I’m only going to be breaking out to do something else soon. Of course I forget about it there when we stop in the parking. I open the door, slide out of the slide and crash goes the phone on the pavement. Crakt.

After much cursing I decided to not let this incident destroy my beach weekend. It works, deal with the mess later.

Now, dealing with the mess later, I’m exploring options on what to do about this. I first go the Bethesda’s Apple Store because I could secure a quick appointment the afternoon of “The Crash”. I hadn’t been to that one before so it would be an adventure. I even saw cutie John King from CNN there at the Genius Bar. But the Genius told me it was $200 for a glass screen/sensitivity chamber replacement which is the cost for a new 3G/S. Next.

Then a friend sent me notice of takeitapart.com which is a great little site that demonstrates how to, um, take things apart. In true Web 2.0 fashion there is a YouTube clip with each instruction so you can watch along. Really nice. But unfortunately the first generation iPhone is as easily accessible as the newer ones and the voiceover on the instructional video was “yeah, this is kind tender here… don’t do this unless you’re really sure… ” something like that. I check the price of the parts and they’re practically $140, which is comparable to the cost of a new model.

Now what to do?

I’m at the beach. I came down with Eddy (and full-grown yet little dog Buddy) yesterday; Chris & Jeff came down the day before.

Last night was making the usual rounds at Aqua for cocktails and then Nicola’s for pizza w/ extra sauce and extra cheese. Then back home for True Blood and standup comedy. It may sound rather bland and routine but that’s the way time is spent at the beach and it’s relaxing and carefree.

For instance, our mornings are spent drinking coffee and Facebooking/surfing on the back deck. Sometimes we have to piece together the previous evening but since there are only four of us here I don’t think things are going to get too out of hand. But you never know. It’s exactly noon now and half of us are still on the back porch: Chris is watching True Blood on Hulu and I’m writing this. Our afternoon hasn’t been planned out yet and that’s the pace at which things go. It’s nice.

Just now, a notice from Eddy to get showered, our day is starting to move forward.

I was trying to pick a CD to take with me for driving to Charlene’s services yesterday, and I stumbled upon Journey’s Escape, purchased with my first year roommate at UofH, when we both joined one of those music clubs to get 11 CDs for a penny. I thought Journey would be a good pick for the era that Char and I were good friends; we graduated in 1982.

I was surprised (and only a little embarrassed) to discover I knew practically all the words to every song, even the ones that weren’t radio hits. The biggest mistake was when I pulled into the funeral home’s parking lot Open Arms was playing and I was a big blubbering mess.

After the service (and decompressing at home) I went to dinner with Goldy and since she had missed her bus I told her I would take her out to Herndon where she can pick up her car from the commuter lot. Driving back into town around 11:30, with Thomas Dolby and Depeche Mode’s Speak and Spell blaring from the speakers I had an odd sense of déja vu. Twenty or twenty-five years ago I was taking the exact same route, probably at the exact same time on a Friday night, to go downtown and party. Destinations at the time would have been Winston’s or Poseurs in Georgetown, Lost & Found or maybe Badlands in Dupont. A-ha, Hall & Oates or Arcadia would most definitely have been blaring from the “tapedeck” at that time. Or maybe Styx or Journey.

After passing through the toll plaza I see the cars exit that are heading north and south on the Beltway but I and several other cars keep going, taking the most direct route into town. I wonder if they’re coming into town to do what I was doing years ago. Possibly.

Today I’ll head back out to Annapolis for Charlene’s former funeral service. I’ll bring the Escape CD with me again but I’m really wishing I had Paradise Theater or something by Heart or Pat Benatar. Wait, I’ve got it: Go-Go’s Beauty and the Beat!

Right now I am on am Amtrak train (79 Carolinian) headed south to have supper at a Golden Corral. Yes, apparently some of the steakhouses from the 70s still exist. I’m going to Fredericksburg for the day to celebrate my paternal grandmother’s 90th birthday, which was actually on Thursday.

After a restless night of sleep, it was a bolt to make it to the train station (eight minutes to spare). Since I’m going to need caffeine jolts to keep me going, I decided to stop by Jacob’s on the way for some coffee. The people in line in front of me, I swear they were ordering milkshakes for breakfast. I could have sworn one of them said “scoop of vanilla ice cream”. Their total for three milkshakes coffees and a couple of muffins was $18.72. My large French Roast was $2.08.

I make it to the train with eight minutes to spare. Yikes, that one was close. The only double-seat available is on the sun-side of the car (I know these things). But luckily there’s no window, a structural element is there so hopefully I won’t be in the sun and won’t bake on the ride down.

//Message over train’s PA system: Do not stuff diapers into the toilets. This will render the restroom inoperable.//

A note about Golden Corral, for those of you who don’t remember or were brought in the time of casual dining (Bennigan’s). GC was where you’d take the family “out” for a dinner in the 70s. It’s a steak & baked potato for $3.99 kind of place. When vegetarianism spread outside of California, circa 1977, they added a salad bar. But back then everybody ate meat and they liked it. There was also a similar competitor, Ponderosa. Notice how both have cattle ranch-inspired cowboy themes? The waitress uniforms in the 70s undoubtedly consisted of embrodered denim skirts and red gingham shirts, complete with scarf and cowboy hat. And possibly a toy pistol.

Today’s GC is totally different. I was still expecting to order a t-bone or fillet steak, but it was one big buffet cafeteria with all different kinds of  foods. It was definitely grab-a-plate and go. Plate #1 was definitely head to the salad bar section to fill up on that first. Plate #2 was a small steak with traditional sides: mashed taters, carrots and mac & cheese. At least I stayed away from the onion rings and the fried shrimp.

There was a lot of family there, of all different ages and generations which was nice. After everyone ate we had cake & ice cream and took the requisite each generation with Mama Della pictures. One thing about Mama Della: she has always had the kids call her this, even the kids from the neighborhood. So even people who aren’t related to her know her and address her using this moniker. I’ve always thought that was kinda cool.

People are doing the simplest things for me, and it is so greatly appreciated. For example, last night after a grueling cardio class, I mentioned to Bernice that she could drop me at the Safeway on the way home (she had given me a ride to the gym) and then I’d walk home from there. I’m used to that walk three times a week, right? She pshawd that and she she’d wait in the parking lot or go fill up her gas tank while I was shopping. She also gave me a Hamilton to pick her up a 6-pack of Sam.

I do my shopping, come outside and load everything into her car. I give her the change (a dollar + coins) and she said to just keep it, then she gives me a Jackson and tells me to keep that. While getting a direct cash gift makes me a little uncomfortable, I tell her I will put the money towards establishing a margarita/quesadilla fund for the next time we make it to Banana Cafe after class, which we would do sometimes in the banner year of, say, 2008.

Then, as I’m running the groceries into my apartment I discover that Bernice has slyly snuck two of her beers into one of my bags. How nice is all of that?

Purchase: $25.97
EBT Card Balance: $63.84
Club Card Savings: $11.07 (30% of purchase)
M/Q Fund: $21.29