Remarked by me this morning as I was dealing with a “crisis” around the office:

I am having a ‘fat day’. And you do not want to mess with a single gay man in his mid-30s having a ‘fat day’, ok?

From swissmiss comes this great flowchart to help some people understand what it’s like to tell people you work in web-related design. Replace that last box with, “Oh! Can you help me build a website?” and it’s much closer to my personal experience.

On a lovely side note… Anthony Logistics products are wonderful for keeping my skin feeling great and cleaning out my pores. I just have to remember that eating chili with jalapeños in it is going to make me sweat like a pig even more than I usually do with hot & spicy stuff. I’m glad I have an hour or so before my next meeting. Right now I look like I’m either having a heart attack or that I’m nervous about something.

I am still waiting for it to be a good day. Not that I have much faith in a Monday morning at work, but ya gotta try. I felt exhausted all day yesterday and nothing seemed able to give me a boost towards getting into the day, not even pure laziness and sloth.

I went to Tonic for breakfast and I think my usual/favorite server must have gotten a new job or be on vacation. My last two times there, I was served by very “cute” girl servers that were kinda… bad. Yesterday was the worse of my two experiences though as I was seated, order taken, cups filled once and from them on, I didn’t see my server again. No refills on coffee or water, no “how is everything?”, nada. I sat for a good 20 minutes after I was finished with the meal before she came over and said “can I get you anything else?” I admit that I did not tip well, and considering the amount of attention she paid to me, she probably thinks I’m an asshole for doing so. But this is one reason that I hate eating alone: you often get horrible service. Tables of 4 and 6 that were seated after me were getting more service and attention–and actual coffee refills. I wasn’t hungover or anything, but still you don’t nurse 8 ounces of coffee for an entire meal, sheesh.

After breakfast I headed home to find out that our building is now completely elevator-less. We normally have 2 working, if slightly glitchy, elevators so when one goes down it’s not the end of the world. But one had been down for at least a week with no acknowledgment from the condo board and the remaining working elevator was the more glitchy of the two. The doors hold open longer than normal, sometimes refusing to close at all on some floors. If you didn’t have experience with the car, you’d have thought it was broken. Well… now it is. When I tried to leave for breakfast, the car was just traveling to the called floor and then returning to the lobby without opening the doors. When I got back from breakfast, it wasn’t moving at all, and as I walked up the 7 flights of stairs to my apartment, I noticed that every single floor’s elevator call buttons were lit up. This morning, they were still lit up and the one on my floor was fairly hot to the touch. And still we’ve had no e-mails or posted notice from the condo board. I won’t go so far as to say they suck but… right now their level of response does.

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I don’t want to rock the boat too much because I’d love for this type of weather in August to become the norm. It was too nice to stay indoors today so Kyle and I headed out and about. Our main goals were museums, but the way it felt outside, anywhere and everywhere was fair game. Got quite a bit of walking in, and made appropriate stops for food and iced drinks.

I have been way too guilty of staying in on the weekends citing “it’s too hot” as the reason for staying in, but it was nice to get out and see stuff. Especially in areas of the city I haven’t been to in a while. The building at 1110 Vermont Avenue is friggin’ amazing with singing poles. And walking past nclud’s building makes me think I need a new job. They had board games and a Wii in there!

There’s going to be drinking later on, but for now I’m happy to have a little break from all the walking and perhaps a little nap before beginning the evening.

Thank you to Gilahi for suggesting 15 ria. Kyle and I partook of their Restaurant Week menu last night and it was delicious, though I admit that we really went there to partake of their bourbon flight. Some of my friends know that I am usually not much for bourbon at all, but last night’s sampling after dinner was a nice experience.

We each started with the Chicken Dumplings and each got the Stuffed Shrimp for our entree. And this was stuffed shrimp done right: huge shrimp, not butterflied or anything weird, just curled around sizable lumps of crab meat and served with asparagus over mashed potatoes. He got a Grand Marnier creme brulee and I had Lemon Ginger cheesecake for dessert. Delicious!

After dinner I asked our server if they still had the bourbon flight available and he looked a little confused and then said, “Oh, you mean the spanker?” I responded, “Excuse me?!” And he confirmed that it was the bourbon sampler. When it came out, it was on a specially designed paddle and I understood the name. And to be quite honest, after getting through 4 nice-sized servings of bourbon, I could really understand the name, oy.

From there we stopped in at Halo, then headed over to Windows. Well actually, I tried to go home after Halo, but Kyle insisted on going for more drinks. Very easy for him to say since he isn’t working today. Only a true friend will make sure that you have a hangover to go to work with in the morning… especially when they know they can sleep in. Payback will be swift and thorough.

TGIF!

I’m not sure how, but I’ve managed to find more than a few mixology-related publications lately. I’m also not sure what that says about me (that I don’t already know, no need for comments from the peanut gallery, thank you) but I’m enjoying some of the anecdotes I’ve been reading. I tend to find a lot of the drinking mags are mainly Maxim without the babes, still very heterosexual/manly man oriented, which I find silly since drinking is completely universal!

This article at 7×7 is a nice read about the perspective from behind the bar.

I’m on a roll—until, that is, a young woman finally catches my eye and sweetly places her order: a blackberry Cabernet caipirinha, an El Capitan, a Tuscan sangria and a pitcher of Pisco punch. My heart sinks. To fill her order involves fetching the vin santo, red wine, mezcal, Tuaca and Punt e Mes; muddling blackberries, limes and pineapples; squeezing dozens of fruits; stirring and shaking; and setting an orange peel on fire. As I hack my way through the jungle of an order, I wish people would just order the drinks that I personally loathe drinking—a Jack and Diet, a vodka soda or, for god’s sake, just a simple beer.

This is why I hate being stuck behind that guy at Halo that just has to order a round of mojitos for all of his friends. My thirst gets worse while I wait for the bartender to muddle the entire produce section for his bunch of cocktails.

It includes some helpful tips about how to get the most out of your bartender, some of them backed up by a similar article in this month’s Mutineer Magazine, they’re mostly common sense. Closing out the article is a very cute list which is almost a bit like an internet meme without having to take an actual quiz:

What Your Drink Says About You

(From left to right)

1. Shot of Patrón. You think you know, but you have no idea.
2. Pacifico and a shot of anything. Fine-dining restaurant employee.
3. Sommelier Sidecar. Your knowledge of wine is not as good as you think it is.
4. Vodka Soda. Marina chick (even if you’re a guy).
5. Jack and Diet. Ex–frat boy who spends too much time at the gym.
6. Dark and Stormy. Seasoned drinker who’s “on the wagon.”
7. Milk of Millennia. You’re likely from L.A.
8. Mojito. European tourist who will later ask whether we know of a good disco in the area.
9. Vodka Red Bull. Show us your ID.
10. Pisco Sour. Young woman from a South American country, or a dyed-in-the-wool cocktail geek.

I admit that I’ve never had/ordered a Pisco Sour… but I’ve always wanted to try one. And while not trying to be terribly difficult, I do order my gin & tonic with lemon, not lime. It often comes with lime anyway, but I still ask.