Nothing Ever Happens on My Street

What I Learned This Week: #237

Monday, April 25 – Sunday, May 1, 2022

The Week in Shiftwork: I worked two Reds games this week, the last two of the season that I can work after my full time job. My full-time boss does not want me to leave work as early as my part time work wants me to come in. When work gets in the way of work, the work that pays the most wins.

On Tuesday I worked with a married couple. This is fairly common for this type of work. Couples can spend time together and make extra money. The couple I worked with, Don and Joan, work concessions all over the city and they were a delight to work with. First off, they worked and didn’t complain like the young kids I’d previously been paired with. Second, they came prepared. Not only did they bring their own containers of water, but they also brought mats to stand on to make their standing at the stand somewhat more comfortable. I was impressed!

The Week in Books This week, as my book club was getting ready to schedule next month’s meeting, I broke into the Zoom conversation announcing that the meeting was my last one. I can’t speak for how they felt, though I know it was a surprise to them. For myself, I had mixed feelings.

I joined this book club 18 years ago because I wanted to read more books that I didn’t choose myself. Throughout the years, I read a lot of books for book club that I would have never read without book club. So, mission accomplished. And even if I didn’t like the book, and that was often, I loved to hear the women during the discussion. Their insights were always interesting. However, as I’ve moved through the pandemic, my reading habits have changed. I read a little less, and want every one of those books to “count.” In other words, if I don’t like a book, I don’t want to be obligated to finish it if it’s not going well. I will miss discussing books, but I won’t miss my reading feeling like homework.

The Week in Spice: While the book club thing involved my brain, my guts got a starring role on Thursday morning as my belly decided it had some things to say about me powering through the too-spice dinner the night before. Yikes!

I love spicy food but my relationship with it has changed slightly as I age. I still love the flavor of the heat; I just absolutely need to know where I’m going to be first thing the next morning. To that end (so to speak), I often slightly dial down my spice levels at Indian and Thai restaurants where they ask how spicy you want your food to be. I was very confident ordering spice level 8 instead of the highest level, 10 on my Teak stir fry. One bite in, though, and I knew there could be trouble on the horizon.

And so that came to pass (again, so to speak). I had to get my belly in order before heading to work. I texted my boss while simultaneously downing a handful of oyster crackers. I made it though, which means I can probably order a level 7 next time!

The Week in Sisters: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a group of predominantly gay men who dress like a mad mix of drag queens and Catholic nuns, as they do very serious charitable work around the city. They support many gay and trans programs that, among other causes, aim to prevent suicide, or assist with HIV testing and treatment. They do that work with a positive, campy attitude.

This week the Cincinnati branch held a ceremony elevating some of their members to higher ranks in the group. I was a “plus one” for my friend who runs one of the charities the Cincinnati Sisters support and I was very glad to be part of their celebration. These men and women are themselves marginalized and discriminated against, yet they stand up for kindness and goodness. They are awesome.

The Week in Tiny Hairs: Finally, the weather warmed up enough that I wore shorts outside. This is a big deal as I go full on hippie during the winter and stop bowing to the patriarchy…ie, I stop shaving my legs and pits. This week, me and the Venus reunited. As is typical, on my first short-wearing foray of the year, the bright sunshine spotlights weird patches I’ve missed with the razor, and the wind rustles the tiny fine hairs on my kneecaps that I can’t even see. It tickles, and I kind of like it, but once I start shaving for the spring/summer, everything must go. #Smooth

What I Learned This Week(s): #236

Monday, April 4 – Sunday, April 24, 2022

Time Marches On

The Week in Time: I did not mean to miss two weeks of “weekly” blog posts. A friend’s cancer diagnosis and a new side hustle have consumed not just my actual time, but my perception of time. So, I’m hopefully back on track. Here are some of the highlights of the highlights…

Music: I saw locally-based Heartless Bastards open for Flaming Lips, the Symphony (Beethoven, Debussy, and a world premiere of Paper Leaves on Fields of Clay by Julia Adolphes), and a recital by Itzhak Perlman.

Every bit of the music was wonderful. Heartless Bastards are solid and the Flaming Lips are trippy. The world premiere was pretty good. I wish I could go home and have a second listen, but it’s not recorded yet. And Perlman! Wow! He is thrilling to listen to.

Food Highlights: Oysters at Pearlstar! Fresh pork rinds and pimento at Lucius Q. Chicken neckbones and gravy at Sacred Beast. Irish Coffee at 1215. Breakfast burrito and chicken salad sandwich (two visits) at Coffee Emporium. I might have a Coffee Emporium addiction, actually. Their quick grab-n-go food really works for me.

Finally, on the food front, I work close enough to my place to walk home for lunch everyday. This week, even though I had plenty of cooked foods to warm up, I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of course, this is a meal from me child hood. At that time, Wonder Bread with a schmear of Jif and Smucker’s Grape was all I knew…and I loved it….and I still do. But, times have changed. I don’t keep any of those things in my house. My peanut butter is fresh ground at the market. I eat it on artisan sourdough, with a small batch, artisanal jam. For Christ’s sake! What have I done to myself? LOL!!!

Little Things: On my evening walk on Main Street I came up to a notorious street person as she was trying to push her grocery cart down the street. First up, Kroger has fixed all their carts so the wheels lock just outside the lobby. Seeing someone with a grocery cart is unusual. But her trouble rolling forward wasn’t the security device, it was a bedsheet (one of her possessions) wrapped in the wheel. I could see that was the problem from 10 feet away and I held up my hand to her to tell her to stop and I bent down to try to untangle the wheel. One of the two guys drinking beer on the patio of the bar asked if I needed help. I did. He came around and muscled the sheet out of wheel. I don’t know if he would have come around if I wasn’t there (I’d like to think he would’ve), but whatever. Between him and me, we did a simple thing, that made a difference.

Non-Traditional Seder/Easter: A co-worker invited my to her family’s Passover Seder. Though I don’t follow any religion, I like the food of all religions, and was very excited to have Seder and a Jewish Brisket dinner, a feeling that last 1/10th of second…My co-worker is a vegetarian so brisket was not to be. Oh well, I went. I ate the quiche, and giggled, when, instead of the traditional lamb shank, they held up a parsnip. Great improv!

On Easter Sunday, a couple of my downtown neighbors had no traditional celebratory obligations, so we gathered and made tacos. I’m sure Jesus would approve!

Reds!: In the months leading up to the Pandemic (before I knew I was living in the months leading up to the Pandemic) I had planned to spend the summer of 2020 goofing off and working a bunch of side-hustle hospitality jobs. Well, I quit my job, started working on getting hospitality jobs, and then the world stopped, as did my plan. No biggie. I found a single good job, and moved on.

This summer, though, I thought it would be fun to work concessions at the Reds stadium, a concession, if you will, to my previous plans. Opening Day was a week or so ago and for the first time ever, I was in the stadium as a worker on Opening Day. Now I understand why Opening Day as a fan is so chaotic. The concession training is mostly learn as you go. It’s easy enough, but it takes a minute. The stadium is full. The concessions people are mostly on day one. And, well, none of that matters. Everything works out just fine every year!

Though I thought I’d be pouring beer or working a food booth, they put me down in one of the fancier sections helping out at a self-checkout. The Reds are probably not going to move me all season. No worries. I think its a good spot.

The stadium is cashless, and occasionally, a kid will show up alone with their parent’s charge card. I’m particular about letting them hit the buttons so they get a learning experience. (I’m old school and not in a hurry. I think it’s my job as a human to assist and teach others.) Anyhoo, when we get to the tip screen, I reach in in hit 0% and tell them to talk to their parents about tipping. I did that move a half a dozen times this week. I led one kid through it and at the end he took the card out and looked up at me and shyly said, “I wish I could’ve given you a tip.” Awww. Highlight of the week, for sure!

What I Learned This Week: #235

Monday, March 28 – Sunday, April 3, 2022

The Week in Hello Neighbor Part 1: My work week began Monday at 6:30 am with the alarm blaring. I mean, blaring. I do not usually wake up to blaring. I like something softer. Sometime in the last couple of years, I decided that I don’t want to be roused of bed. I want a soft alarm that quietly introduces me to the new day. I switched away from waking up to a loud AM radio station where, as a good liberal, I felt the need to whack the alarm clock. This is not a positive way to start the day. Now I wake to a very melodic, soothing iPhone ring tone. It’s been lovely.

But, unbeknownst to me on Monday morning, my phone sound was set to levels not experienced by my AM self. No one was more surprised than me when my phone rang out at approximately 1 million decibels. Well, the other surprised person in this story would be my wall neighbor. I heard him jump as I was jumping. Ugh! Not very neighborly of me. I would have said, “sorry neighbor,” but that would have been creepy. Anyhoo, I don’t know how is morning went, but I was up and at it!

The Week in Hello Neighbor Part 1: Grabbing tacos at on Taco Tuesday, one of my building neighbors walked up to me to say hi. I hadn’t seen him much since the start of the pandemic and he wanted to tell me he got a new job in the neighborhood and he was having a drinks to celebrate. Then he showed me a picture from his phone that he apologized for it’s nerdiness. It was a shot of the neighborhood taken from his bedroom and it looked like a painting. He said he loved the picture so much, he had some prints made. And yes, I did want one, cause I’m a nerd for my neighborhood, and I loved the picture, too. When I stepped out the next morning, the print was there on my door mat. Now it’s on my wall at work.

The Week in Wine: My after dinner walks are usually just that, a walk. But this week I grabbed my tiny back back, loaded up a book, and incorporated 1215 Wine and a glass of red wine into my evening walk. I’ve talked about 1215 a lot on the blog. It’s one of my faves and I’m just starting to get back into the habit of going there a couple times a month. Last time I was served by my most familiar long time bartender, and this time I was served by a rarely seen long time bartender. I asked if I hadn’t seen her because she worked days but it turns out she’d bought the place and that’s why she’s rarely behind the counter. That was a neat, surprising, story.

The Week in Righteously Aging: On of my pals had a health scare with her aging parent this week and we met to discuss that in other of life’s issues at the Righteous Room. I always forget how much I like the vibe there during the week. It was conducive for exchanging notes on helping our aging folks without treating them like kids, and coming to grips with how little we know about aging. Neither of us, for example, knew that toenail clipping was going to be a thing. Well, it is a thing. At some point, you age into not being able to reach your toes. Who knew? Well, my Mom knew and now she goes to a podiatrist 4 times a year. Now my friend’s parent knows, too. At least that surprise was easy to cope with. Who knows what’s next? It’s an adventure.

The Week in Work vs. Work: As I’m planning my summer to add a stint of working concessions at Reds games, I was hoping to gain a concession from my full-time employer to flex some work hours to get to the ballpark for workday evening games. Full-time work said, “no” and that put the kabosh on weeknight games. The Reds are cool with me working Saturday/Sunday only, so my quest to pour beer for the people is still on!

The Week in No Waste: If the week began with a bang, it ended with a clean fridge. I made a batch of what I lovingly call Garbage Soup but a restaurant would call “soup of the day.” Basically, I opened my vegetable bins and dumped anything usable in a soup pot with a pound of some fresh ground beef I bought for the occasion. I used up the end of cabbage, and the rest of the bags of carrots and potatoes, all of which were on sale a week or so ago to wrap up St. Patrick’s Day. I’m looking for the saint of Frugality!

What I Learned This Week: #234

Monday, March 21 – Sunday, March 27, 2022

The Week in Bagels: I’m as much of a bagel snob as a Midwesterner can be. I like a chewy crust, covering a dense, doughy inside. Much of what passes for bagels around here are just big ole buns, often over-flavored, with a hole in the middle (I’m talking to you, Panera). I don’t mind flavored bagels, but I don’t want them to taste fake. I’ve eaten some blueberry bagels that taste like they’d been dipped into a test tube of blueberry flavor. That being said, my go-to Cincinnati bagel place is Marx Bagels in Blue Ash. They are a traditional, kosher New York Style bagel shop that has been in business for years. True to snob form, I rarely eat bagels other than Marx unless they are forced upon me.

By “forced upon me” I mean I’m at a work function or some official event where there is a full spread of donuts and over in the corner, a couple of crappy bagels and cream cheese for the “healthy eaters.” Often the bagels are cinnamon or blueberry (inescapable) and not one bit healthy. Still, I tend to choose the bagel. It’s the breakfast of regret.

But, I digress. Last week I made recipe that called for 1/2 a brick of cream cheese. Now, what the heck was I supposed to do with 1/2 a brick of cream cheese? Bagels, of course. But Blue Ash is a 20 minute car ride away. And, that’s when I remembered the Bagelry in OTR. I’d had, and enjoyed their bagel sandwiches, but hadn’t eaten a “naked” bagel. This week I bought three rosemary bagels (I wanted “everything” bagels, but those are tough to eat at a work desk). The bagels were most pleasant. The flavoring tasted real, and did not overpower the bagel. And, I have a new bagel spot.

The Week in Pacing: On one of my walks home from work I fell into walking pace with a random dude and, it seemed to me, he was eager to have a conversation. Side note: I tend to think almost everyone I meet is at least *interested* in having a conversation. LOL! Anyway, he had walked downtown from Clifton after his engineering class at UC, a walk he takes regularly. It’s a long walk, and he was just about to hit the hard part, the uphill climb back home, when we met up for two blocks of chatting. He was kind of complaining about carrying his umbrella because though rain was predicted, it was sunny. We parted ways, and just a few minutes later, the skies opened up. I didn’t even get a chance to tell him how smart he was.

The Week (Again) in Pozole: My Pozole jag continued this week on an enthusiastic note when I prepared a bag of Rancho Gordo pozole with the intention of cooking half and freezing half. I cooked 1/2 in a recipe I found on Milk Street, that was fine, not great, but I ate it couple times and froze some. I’m not linking because the recipe is behind the pay wall. My enthusiasm was riding high when I ordered Pozole from Mazunte Centro for lunch. Their green chicken pozole is ridiculous. Chock full of chicken and hominy in a rich broth I was psyched to pull my hominy from the freezer.

Except…I forgot to put the hominy in the freezer and by the time I realized it, the batch had gone sour. I believe the pozole gods are telling me to cool it!

The Week in Books: This week I finished re-reading the 1989 novel Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, a novel I originally read near the time of its release when I was in my twenties. I liked the love story then, as I like it now, and I liked the main character Tita quite a bit both times through, too. The biggest difference is that now that I cook and have decades of cooking experience, the symbolism of food and the rituals of creating favorite recipes struck me much more deeply. I’ve kept this novel with my cookbooks always thinking I’d move it over into the “reading” books part of the shelves. After spending time with it again, it’s going right back to the cookbook section. It reminds me that the best “ingredient” is to cook with love.

The Week in Baseball, Behind the Scenes: For years, I’ve wanted to work concessions at the Reds stadium. The job looks fun. I like fun! Plus, I’m in a bit of a rut with how I schedule my time and working 50 or so home games will shake that up. This Saturday morning I had my first “shift,” a check-in/paperwork session. Most of the training takes place online, but we did get to walk around the stadium a bit, which is neat! While we were doing administrative stuff, they told us what the dress code was, gave us a brief look at a register, and promised that one we started we would “pick it up pretty quickly.” LOL! Now I know why Opening Day is so chaotic…no one knows what they’re doing!

The Week in Baseball, Symbolism: In a town that’s had major league baseball for over 100 years, newer traditions are tough to find. But recently the local breweries have done their best. Each spring, two of the biggest local breweries release very limited, very delicious, baseball themed beers. I know it’s spring and baseball is just around the corner when I see either Rhinegeist’s Hustle or Madtree’s Rounding Third at a bar. When I left my concessions training, I walked to the newly opened Madtree Alcove, and, as if the baseball gods knew I was coming (and had consorted with the posole gods to give me a break), Rounding Third was on tap. And delicious. So ready for the first pitch.

What I Learned This Week: #233

Monday, March 7 – Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Week in Words: Covering two weeks in this post, and I’m still having a bit of trouble just putting week one into perspective. There was a LOT of minutiae that nevertheless made me quite happy. Silly stuff, really, made up most of the week, like eating Avril Bleh hotdogs all week with my eggs for breakfast, eating lunch with a college friend who was in town for a work event, and walking home through one of the last snow showers of winter. The highlight was a Yola concert (see below) and the juiciest part was a couple fighting at the bar (obviously, see below).

The Week in Music: Newish, genre-defying artist Yola played Cincinnati last week. I’ve been a fan since her first 2020, Grammy nominated album. In fact, I had planned to see her on her 2020 tour with friends in North Carolina. The pandemic upended that, and I thought is was poetic that one of my first shows “post” pandemic was Yola. I like her music because she’s a story teller and I can hear Dolly Parton’s influence. She put on a lovely show.

The Week in Margarita Drama: Friday of week one, that snow shower was blowing in and I decided on a whim, to grab a margarita at my home away from home kitchen, the Taqueria. Well. What a choice. At the bar and clearly way ahead of me on the tequila initiative, were a couple of my acquaintances, friends of friends. We’re all neighborhood folks, and soon enough, the friends we had in common had joined us. And then…the woman decided it was time to launch into a story of something her boyfriend had done to her on vacation that she found rude. She wanted to “tell the truth” to all of us. I should note, none of us asked for the truth.

It became clear very quickly that her story was striking a nerve with the boyfriend. He stormed off and for another 20 minutes we got to hear more of “the truth” from her. Finally, she headed back to her apartment. (She was offered safe haven at our mutual friends apartment if things went south.) Taking a deep breath after her departure, we had a great chat about how fascinating it is to watch couples fight in public. I want to seem like I don’t want to listen, but I really want to pull up a bowl of popcorn and watch and listen intently.

The Day in Pi/Pie: Yes! Though I work in a decidedly not math based office (lawyers!), we went with the Pie pun on March 14 (π, approximately equal to 3.14159) Pie Day. People brought in, and we ate, pie, a lot of pie. We had two quiches (which we called egg pie), but the rest of the pies were sweet tooth heaven! While there were some generic store bought pies, some folks made the effort to stop at real bakeries, and some folks made the effort to make their own pie. I was hyped up on sugar all day, crashed at my desk at 4, and made damn sure to eat a salad for dinner.

The Week in Musical Theater: This week the Temptations Jukebox musical, Ain’t Too Proud, rolled into town. The show got great reviews on Broadway and apparently only shut down due to pandemic related casting issues. Filled with great Temptation hits, plus an appearance from Motown’s other big group, The Supremes, the music and the story intertwine in such an uplifting way, the crowd was on it’s feet before the final song even started, clapping and cheering. A super fun show.

The Week in Soccer/Real Football: The home club FC Cincinnati came into town on the heels of a road win. The smallish crowd on a chilly, damp day, cheered the team onto a 3-1 victory, just their second win at home. The team played well the entire match, not flagging in the second half as has been their sad, sad tendency. It was a thrilling victory.

Also, I was a few minutes late meeting my friend to head to the match. I told her I was going to tell her why I was late without actually telling her why I was late. I said, “I’ll give you a dollar if you can find the FC scarf I bought last year.” LOL! It’s in my apartment somewhere even though my time-consuming search didn’t find it.

What I Learned This Week: #232

Monday, February 28 – Sunday, March 6, 2022

The Week in Renewal: My birthday was this week, and more than New Year’s, my birthday is my reset day. If I’m going to make a change, say, trying to shed some pandemic pounds, that starts after my birthday week. Yes, I celebrate the whole week. Why not? I can’t possibly squeeze the thrill of completing another year into a single day! And, though I don’t always take off from work on my birthday, I have done so during both of my pandemic birthdays, and I’ve actually found it to be therapeutic. Maybe I’ll take my birthday off every year.

The Week in Dining: I ate out all week like I didn’t even own a kitchen. Highlights –

Monday: Bolognese Night at Nicola’s, a Monday night neighborhood tradition for years. I went by myself because no one I know wants to go out on Monday night. Not that asked anyone. Sometimes, actually, a lot of the time, I prefer to sit by myself with my book. It was a great kickoff to the week.

Tuesday: Seafood Posole at Mita’s. I’ve been obsessed with posole over the last several weeks. Mita’s is always excellent…chef Jose Salazar is nominated for a James Beard Award this year, and the posole was no exception. I’ll have to redouble my efforts.

Wednesday: Octopus, Squash Gnocchi, Fatoush Salad and Beef Short Ribs at Abigail Street where the menu is made up of Mediterranean small plates. Abigail Street has the tenderest octopus I’ve ever eaten. My dining pal had never eaten it before so it was great to be there when she tried it for the first time and set her expectations so high! She doesn’t even know.

Thursday: A killer Charcuterie Board (the “Mother Board”) and Smoked Duck at Bouquet, a farm to table restaurant just across the river. Sharing a board of food is something I’ve missed. It’s so handsy and not pandemic friendly. In other words, awesome. The smoked duck and barley was also outstanding.

Friday: A random brat, at a random Bock Fest party. It was perfect. Not every meal has to worthy of a magazine spread!

The Week in Bock: Speaking of Bock Fest, back in 2020, Bock Fest was the very last event I (and many of my neighbors) attended before the COVID shutdown. I remember how clever I was drinking Corona beer…a joke That. Did. Not. Age. Well.

In 2022, Bock Fest essentially marked the return to life (mostly) as we knew it. There were a couple changes. The traditional main venue closed during the height of COVID with no plans of reopening. But Bock Fest cannot be held down. The main venue was moved to tents, the parade and the 5K went on, and a new Sausage Queen was crowned. The entire event was both fun and reassuring!

The Week in Art: Speaking of reassuring, one of my birthday gifts to myself was to return to the Art Museum. They’ve been re-opened for months, but I didn’t want to go until I could visit without wearing a mask. That restriction was lifted this week, and off I went.

It took me a little bit to regain my ability to navigate the exhibits (I still missed a couple of my favorites), but every time I came around the corner and saw something familiar it was like running into an old friend. I’ve always been especially enamored by the very large paintings on the second floor, especially Ophelia by Benjamin West, a painting as big as one of the walls in my apartment. When I got to it, I might have actually said out loud, “There you are.” LOL! While I was looking at it, some teenaged kids came into the room and one of them hesitated for just a second before exclaiming, “Whoa!” Yep. I’m glad the Art Museum is back in my life!

The Week in Looking Forward: On Saturday it was 75 degrees and sunny. Buds and spring’s first flowers are poking out and spring is in the air. For the summer, I’m hired to work concessions at the Reds stadium when (optimistically) the owners and players come to an agreement and they actually play ball. That should be a fun part time gig with new skills and new people. Also, yes, I’m going to try to shed 5 pounds (God, being an adult is so disheartening sometimes!). But I also bought season tickets to the opera and laid out a series of others shows I plan to see. I’m not planned all the way out until my next birthday, but I’m off to a running start!

What I Learned This Week: #231

Monday, February 21 – Sunday, February 27, 2021

The Week in Beef: I made a stir fry beef recipe that called for 12 oz. of sirloin. Since I’d planned to stay in all week (the theme of the week, it turns out) I decided to splurge for the expensive cut. Well, the butcher was having none of it. He asked me what I was making with it and suggested I try a cut called Teres Major. I don’t cook a lot of beef at home, I have been cooking for a long, long time, and have never heard of this cut, but as soon as he said it out loud, the lady next to me practically swooned in her love for teres major. I bought, cooked it, and had to admit, it is a really great cut of meat. And, to the joy of my frugal heart, clocks in at about $14 per pound, as opposed to $21/pound for sirloin. Suddenly, I’m weirdly looking forward to the next time I crave Beef and Broccoli!

The Week in Sophistication: I stayed in every night this week (M-F) but, since I’m not used to that kind of nesting, I got a little stir crazy. On Thursday, a cold and rainy night, I craved a glass of deep, dark red wine. I just wanted to leave my place for a little bit, so I headed to the new wine shop on my block to see what they could do.

Hart & Cru has just been open for a couple of months, and all their marketing suggests that the place is too expensive for me to make regular trips. Their wine shop seems to cater to bottle $50 and up and I’m a $20-$24 a bottle of wine girl. I especially love to find an under $15 bargain and this is not the place to make such a discovery. But, for one glass, and to get out of the house, I was willing to pony up. I found a red wine, a modest pour for $14, and not exactly what I was looking for, but close enough. The staff was friendly. The sound system, while too loud for the number of people, sounded great as the staff played actual albums. They have a small selection of food and I can see myself being the old lady who comes in and asks for the cheapest glass of wine and a bowl of soup!

The Week in Community: A buddy of mine runs a community organization, Spring in Our Steps, dedicated to preserving the history and reclaiming alleys, sidewalks, and steps of the downtown corridor. Yes, that is a niche interest, but he does great work that I support. This week he had a fundraiser at a local brewery, Listermann, across from Xavier University. Unbeknownst to my friend, Xavier basketball had a home game that overlapped the fundraiser. The place was packed. A bunch of basketball fans who bought the special dark beer contributed 10% of the sale to the cause. I love that!

The Week in Cheap: The charity drinking in the afternoon led to a marathon of drinking at various spots, a friendly bar crawl and something I haven’t done in quite a while. I faired pretty well, in my opinion. Our last stop was at the Drinkery, one of the bars twenty-somethings fill up every weekend. Me and my friend are WAY to old to be in the Drinkery on a Saturday night, and we were not there long. Two things struck me. First, the place was dead at 9:45 but there was a line at the door shortly after 10. And second, we order the 16 oz. Miller and a shot special…$9 for three of those. Holy Cow! That’s a deal! I had one and went home! LOL!