Mostly Semantics

Thank you for being a friend. Really, everyone - I assume we have no lurkers and I know you all personally. If not… hey man, we’re friendly. What’re you waiting for? Start commenting.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who showed up at the Castle for the party this weekend, with special thanks to the travelers from Cincinnati and NYC. Everything really came together for probably the best birthday I can remember. Let’s recap, for posterity’s sake (and to shame those who decided not to join), in chronological order:

1- Dinner at Siam House (delish, but not Thai X-ing delish), followed by a solid night of Rock Band.

2- Sleep late. Assemble crew. Prepare selves *cough* and go to the Uptown for Cloverfield. Now, obviously this was not a great movie. (There Will Be Blood - great movie. Sorry I didn’t write a review.) In fact, most in the party seemed very much to hate it - I am very forgiving though. Shakycam does not bother me, and just as with Blair Witch, I think the action-being-filmed-by-a-camera-explicitly-operated-by-a-character conceit works. Perhaps it’s just me, as most people seem to write that shit off as hackish - it helps me with my suspension of disbelief. What does not, though, are the totally unscary effects and monsters in Cloverfield. Plus thinking that every character was, in the end, kind of a d-bag. I just didn’t love any of them, you know? And I understand why they couldn’t put any backstory into the movie, the aforementioned first person shakycam storytelling conceit, but it IS a little unsatisfying, not knowing any of the how or why.

3- Pick up keg. Pick up Polla Sabrosa. Fuck that’s tasty chicken.

4- Watch KU narrowly defeat Mizzou to remain undefeated. Solid.

5- Party! Again, thanks to all who attended. Special thanks to: Bobby McObvious for the greatest dorm meal ever, rats!; Capitulate for bringing her favorite soup + topping (carrot/tomato - tried tonight, v delish, especially with some crumbled garlic bagel chips on top - yumz); Ags for the superior chocolate and wine; Lou, for bringing me 4 chili half-smokes from Ben’s Chili Bowl (in a brown paper package tied up with string! (oh it was a ‘favorite things’ themed party) (oh and you better believe we ate all the half-smokes by the end of the night. oh yes, we did); and to Tweaks for letting us borrow her tap and generally being fabulous. Extra-special top prize honors (and honestly, thanks to all of you who brought me anything at all, the card(s?), the wine, the beer, anything) to one special li’l unnamed guy who decided to pick my birthday party as his first time ever indulging in my most favorite of herbal refreshments. UPDATE: Also MUCHAS GRACIAS to Vermonstrous for making not one but TWO delectable icebox cakes! As usual, she went above and beyond, making one minty, with Andes mints on top, and the other with Baileys and toffee bits on top. Good god, that was amazing. Cheers to all!

6- Wake up what seems like unreasonably early for brunch (11). Once I’m ready, realize that the game I was getting up to get brunch before isn’t until 3 (I had thought one). Curse my lack of foresight, but already up so I trudge off anyway. Now, Tweaks has already covered this in considerable detail, so I will only add what she has not. The bacon bloody mary is a fucking kick in the mouth in the morning. Jesus. It’s a bacon-based beverage people. Tread lightly. The mimosas, though, are a steal - I bet I could knock down a dozen of them if I went again and was awake enough to remember to order them at the outset. Pumpkin pancakes with cranberry butter were indeed amazing, our two plates for the table (8 total, both people and pancakes) went down like nothing at all. As for the food - The Maestro, Caseus and I, we’re geniuses (genii?). We all wanted to try many things so we just ordered what we wanted and rotated after having consumed a third of the plate. So, the bronze of our entree roundtable was the savory croissant bread pudding. It was certainly delicious, healthily spicy, nice custardy texture to it, but on the smallish side and, in the end, just not like extravagant enough to really blow our minds. Silver goes to the Brioche French Toast. This was probably the best french toast I’ve ever had. Go read that description people, tell me it doesn’t get you hard: ganache, orange caramel syrup, bruleed bananas and apple-smoked bacon. Fuck I want one now. How could this be the silver, you ask? Gold goes to the skillet. I’m sorry, but that shit is dynamite. It truly is a skillet that kills it - if by it you mean hunger, or your appetite for any other breakfast ever. Ok, truffled mac and cheese alone would be pretty fucking oustanding, but add to it not one but TWO delicious meats (bacon and chorizo) and some ultra-crispy frites for texture, topped with a sunny side? FUCKING HELL. That is heaven on a plate, my friends. Er, skillet.

7- Watch football all day. Sleep for much of it. Annoy other people watching with me (snoring). Fuck ‘em, it’s my birthday. That Packers/Giants game seemed alright, from what I saw.

8- Actually manage to rouse self to go to the Derby Sunday night. This was practically a miracle. The Derby was extra-chill because it was like 11:30 on a Sunday night and it was freezing-ass cold out. Oh well, pretty fun time. Out-of-towners were impressed.

9- Stay up til 5 playing Rock Band and watching incredible Sigur Ros footage.

10- Get Five Guys for lunch to see off the out-of towners.

And there you have it. 10 easy-ish steps to a pretty fantastic birthday. I can only think of a few ways to improve it, and rest assured I’ll be working on them for next year.

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