G: Friday
night there was a little impromptu gathering at TGIFridays. Renee had
some gift certificates that she was willing to share, so Rich and
Izolda picked me up and we met Renee, Alex, and Petra there. Thanks,
RnA!
I thought before I went, "Hmmm, I wonder if they make mojitos there?" I
guess mojitos really are all the rage (I keep seeing them mentioned)
and the third page of their menu was entirely for "Top Shelf Mojitos"
and "Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea." So I thought, "Hmmm, they take
their mojitos seriously here." And I ordered one with a lot of silly
accentuation on the word mojito.
It came with just a few sprigs of uncrushed mint in it, and that should
have been a warning. I tasted it and thought, "Hmmmm, this is awfully
sweet." And then, I said, "Hmmm, this mojito kind of sucks." Izolda
probed me and I told her - it tasted like they made if from "mojito
mix", was way too sweet, and had a weird taste to it. I wasn't going to
bother anyone about it - I just figure when I go to a restaurant and I
don't like the way they make something I will simply not get it again.
Izolda grabbed the waitress and said, "Can you get her another one of
these, because she hates this one." The waitress said no problem, and
Izolda described how it should be a lot less sweet, with lots of
crushed mint, etc.
And the next one they brought was not bad. Thanks, Iz!
I also got a decent meal that I enjoyed. I had them put the grilled
portabella and veggies over a salad instead of pasta, and it was a
nicer salad (with corn and tomatoes) that they usually put under dead
animal chunks instead of their iceberg lettuce house salad. 'Cause that
I made them do.
Anyway, we had a fun time hanging out. Then everyone but Petra came
back to our place where some guys were playing games. It was John of
course, and Dave, Josh (who was in town), and TVTom. They broke up
their game and we all played Taboo and had a blast.
The next day we took Katy with us to Cooperdad's St. Patty's day party.
Everyone loved meeting her and unkling May took care of her a lot while
we were there. Taking care of her entailed holding on to her leash
while she dashed around sniffing everything. There was food on the
coffee table so it was a continuous challenge to keep her away from
that. I did give her some of the food later for dinner. When the
struggle became tiresome we took her home, gave her a walk, then went
back to the party for a while. It was nice to see the (local) Cooper
family.
On Sunday we went to yoga, and then I came home, made and drank my
smoothie, and eventually went back to my studio to work on pottery for
a while. I was there until evening. When I came home Josh was over
playing games with John.
On Monday I didn't have to teach classes at UM (spring break) so I
planned to work in my studio some more. John had people over again for
more gaming— playtesting mostly. I made a couple of pots of soup,
Fuhrmanized, for everyone. An offer of salt or Bragg's liquid aminos
(the soup had little added sodium) spawned a week long debate over
email on the links between salt intake and health. I went to the studio
and stayed late. I've been making lots of neat mugs - perhaps to sell
at the upcoming Greenbelt Greenman Festival.