08 May 2006

the books love bocce too!

it's been quite a number of years since i actively celebrated cinco de mayo. growing up in atlanta it was a pretty big deal. frankie's at the prado would have a huge party in the parking lot that was notoriously lenient on underage drinkers, although this never held much appeal to me. the point is, in atlanta, everyone does mexican food on cinco de mayo and that's just that.

this year i reinstituted this tradition by meeting up with xx and the teacher contingency at paquitos in the east village. it was crowded and the bar was so backed up some people waited upwards of 45 minutes for margaritas (somehow my own, a delicious mango margarita, arrived within 15, joyful!). we heard the table behind us bitching about waiting 1.5 hours for their food, which probably sucked for them. xx and i both got some sort of diet taco (it was the cheapest thing on the menu) but as far as i could tell the only thing diet about it was the lack of cheese. guacamole, for instance, OK for diet taco. sour cream? check. rice? sure! but cheese? you get out of here cheese. it came on a whole wheat tortilla, so i guess that makes it diet, too.

we went over and met the jensenator and meyers at 122 and we l-trained to wburg.

here's where i tell you i'm not very smart. i've been to galapagos about seven times. i've walked all around williamsburg three or four times. never did i realize that northsix is like right next to galapagos.

anyway, i like northsix ok, but i won't be running back. it's hot and it's in williamsburg. and pbrs are $4.

the opener was a violinist with some electro-backup. not bad, but nothing i'd ever think of listening to again. he did have some really cool footage of the subway crossing the brooklyn bridge back in the day. i had no idea it even used to do that...


anyway, the books were, yet again, very enjoyable. there was a very long involved story about someone spilling salsa on his brand new jeans and someone else getting cassette tapes thrown at his "hairdo". i was also pleased to see shots of bocce and shots of ducks from under the water (again affirming my reincarnation plans) as part of the visuals.

speaking of bocce, i spent this entire weekend at floyd. ok, not really. but saturday xx and i watched the ky derby there with coach d'ball and bonnaroo. they were selling $5 bets where you pick a piece of paper out of a cup and that tells you who you've bet on. i like this better than actually betting. i still lost. (damn you, keyed entry.)

after 1 ben & jerry's 'mango & more' smoothie (which, btw, tasted suspiciously like strawberry and banana), which i'd had the bartender doctor with a shot of rum; and three buckets of some of the nastiest beer ever (piels? schmitz? we were fighting over the pbr and miller hi life), bonnaroo took one sip and said "tastes like college", i took one sip and said "tastes like yesterday"; xx and i took on bonnaroo and coach dodgeball in a friendly bocce match. we lost, but barely.

i had nothing left and we bussed it home at about 930.

which means floyd and i spent a full 14 hours apart. the maj, xx and i returned sunday morning for the first round of bocce finals. the schwartz, coach dball and bonnaroo were there for a rousing victory. as coach dball said, "it was as if the other team didn't show up at all". but a win is a win. and we live to bocce another day.

the rest of the day was spent wandering around smith/court street. despite my saying to xx "let's remember to not go to the Yacht club after bocce", bonnaroo, coach dball, xx and i swung by at 1 only to find it wasn't open yet. luckily, we stumbled upon a street fair which easily killed 50 minutes, at which point we returned to the gyc and hung out there for the bulk of the afternoon.

jensenator got the dodgeball -- now that i think more about it, the d'ball's sort of like that giant batman light that says "I'm drinking, come join me!" xx and i remet up with the maj at his place for a bbq.

xx and i had managed to convince a caterer to sell us one of his decorative bottles of mae ploy, and we decided to try it with everything. verdict: mae ploy can be put on hot dogs, veggie dogs, potato salad, upstairs lady curry and meat rolls.

jensenator set to work grilling up some steaks, but i held off since they had been partially open for over a week and were looking a little gray... i hope he survived.

finally: awesome west wing, crappy grey's anatomy.

tell me, why can't every day be sunday?

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