#87 - man things.

after a long but lovely friday, i woke up on saturday morning with a lighter hangover than expected & the first relatively obligation-free schedule in some time. to start off my day, i sat down with a glass of iced coffee & a bagel and finally got around to watching the first episode of the first season of fx network's rescue me. i'm still on the fence about denis leary in general, but from what i got from the first episode, i've got some good, manly TV watching ahead of me.  it's also set fairly soon after 9/11, so there's that whole aspect.  i know it screwed things up for a lot of people here in the city, especially the ground zero & rescue workers (a group that now includes a number of people who have developed respiratory problems or mental issues because of what they went through on that day), so seeing how they handle that intrigues me.

eventually, i had to leave my house & head into manhattan for a 3pm meeting with a co-worker whose blog i'm helping him set up (go squarespace blogger platform!). we met up at a bar in murray hill appropriately called "the hill," which is not to be confused with that stupid mtv show. we chose the place for its combo of wifi & flat screen tvs, necessary for nfl draft watching. to be clear, re: flatscreens, i was not the one interested in which offensive tackle would go first, but i'm now aware that the OT who fit that description was a guy named jason smith & the rams took him with the #2 pick. while we were about a beer into our power meeting, a group of ny cares people, fresh from the annual "hands on ny day," converged on the bar & i was reminded how last year, that was me. this year, i'm a heartless non-philanthropist.

as we wrapped up our power meeting, it dawned on me that i was around the corner from my newly-reunited via facebook college friend's midtown apartment. since it was a beautiful weekend day, i assumed that he'd be holding court in the outdoor seating at the bar at the base of his apartment...& i was correct, so when the power meeting was done, i went & hung with him & a few of his friends for an hour or so. as a result, i discovered that he & his three friends agree that it's always sunny & philadelphia (another fx show) is basically a gift from god.  mission accomplished.

while there, another friend had sent me a message letting me know that he & his girlfriend were in prospect park with a third dude.  he suggested that i come by. after the previous 24 hours, i was feeling all social for once & we still had a few hours of sunlight left & i enjoy looking at the lovely ladies in the park, so when i was done with my outdoor patio drinking, i headed back to brooklyn & prospect park to join my park-going pals. we hung out & admired the scenery for a little bit before the aforementioned girlfriend headed back home to rest up for a sunday morn bridal shower & the rest of us headed back to my apartment to chill out with a few beers & what have you.

my roommate was hanging out at the apartment for the evening & as that made four of us dudes hanging out & drinking beers, eventually the inevitable happened--a late night, drunken game of risk.  usually, my approach is to control australia early & sweep out across the globe from the southwest hemisphere.  this time, i got cocky & decided to switch it up by coming out of japan & slowly controlling asia.  i got up to kamchatka easily enough & even made my way across the bering strait into alaska before being repelled back into asia by sarah palin & her helicopter wolf hunting skills.  after that, my strategy, much like her 08' ticket, went down the tubes super quickly.  eventually, i was the first one eliminated.

#87 - man things.
snack: good health natural foods chilean lime avocado potato chips
drink: troegs sunshine pils


as i accepted my fate as a risk spectator & saturday became sunday, i ran to the store & grabbed a snack & another beer to ease the pain.  when i returned to the apartment, i broke open the bag of good health natural foods chilean lime avocado potato chips & watched as the remaining three battled it out for control of the globe.  as a rule, potato chips are a pretty manly snack, but when they're cooked in avocado oil & sprinkled with chilean lime, i think that skews toward metrosexual manly.  let me check...according to my manual, those two ingredients put it in the 95th percentile of metrosexuality...so there you have it.

the chips are pretty darn good.  as the back of the bag explains, avocado oil does some sort of junk with cholesterol that's good for you when you cook chips in it.  as it is, avocados are the bomb-diggity tastewise & there's a very subtle bit of that in the chips. as for the lime, it's mixed in with a bunch of other stuff but gives the chips a hint of additional flavor.  by the time the risk game wrapped up, i had made a serious dent in the bag...& finally finished them off tonight.

i cracked open the troegs sunshine pils (from a company out of central pa) to accompany the chips.  at this point, it had already been a joyful, solid weekend & although i'm not much of a pill person myself, i figured that a little bit of the "sunshine pills" could only be helpful.  it's nothing all that mind-blowing, especially after a couple of earlier beers, but it lives up to its name with a sunny, light, pilsner taste...no increased sense of euphoria though...although by the time 2am rolled around & i headed to bed with the windows wide open & the air flowing through, i did have a peaceful sleep & some crazy-ass dreams.  thanks for capping off the night, mr. sunshine.