Posted 8:53 PM by RedSox
The Experiment continues…

Not much to talk about tonight. But I found a spare moment and thought I’d try to write something. Spare moments are rare in my world.

So what is going on in my life that I can talk about? Hmm. Well, the big project I have been working has managed to grind itself to an almost complete halt. We had our weekly status meeting and he IT guys didn’t even show up. According to their boss, they were “knee deep in coding”. According to them, they had nothing to report. So they skip the meeting. When I get back to my desk after the meeting I have an email from one completely wrongly interpreting something we went over in a meting two weeks ago. I am beginning to wonder if the promotion I am going for is really worth it.

On the bowling front, I bowled a 191 this week. For those of you keeping track, all none of you, that is 4 weeks in a row with at least one game over 190. By far a personal best. Of course, Joop promptly trumped me with a 193 in his last game but still, I’ll put my series against his any day. I fully realize that nobody reading this cares about my bowling prowess. But again, I promised a self-indulgent look at things. So there you go.

Speaking of Joop, Boogieshoes, Joop, and I went out to “R” Place on Friday night. We had a great time. “R” Place is a generally quiet bar that usually clears out around 10:30 or so even on a Saturday. They always close well before 2:00. But we like it because the food is good, and because it is quiet, you can go with friends and actually have a conversation. And the booze will get you just as drunk. Boogieshoes and I go there quite a bit. It has become our default eating out joint. Whenever we don’t know what we want we end up at “R” Place. We’ve gotten to know the bartenders, the owners, and most of the waitresses. It is not unusual for a waitress to punch out and pull up a stool and have a drink or two with us.

So we went over and the owner in charge of parties was there. We had been trying to track him down for weeks or finalize our plans for our Special Olympics coaches Christmas Debacle. They have a back room that can accommodate about 25 people which works out perfect for us. So we have our annual party there. We’ve done three. The first and the third were wild affairs. The second was somewhat subdued. I attribute that to Lord Baltimore having to miss the second one. He is something of a party ring leader. He and Joop together are dangerous indeed. But we do take the place over when we are there. We are a tight and rowdy bunch. We love being together and it shows. We also forget that not everyone loves to be with us too. So it continues to amaze me that they let us come back year after year. I suppose it has a lot to do with the ungodly amount of dollars we drink in alcohol.

So we now have our food set. They treat us well. We get three hot items and two (or three – I forget) cold items for around $12 a head. So we picked Buffalo wings – a necessary standard especially with Lord Baltimore and Guinness around, Stuffed mushrooms – not a personal favorite but a lot of people like them, and Penne Ricardo – which is a very good pasta dish they have on the menu that has spinach and sausage in a tomato cream sauce. For cold stuff we got cheese and crackers and devilled eggs – a personal favorite.

We ended up hanging out in the bar until midnight with one of the waitresses and the bartender - Bar Queen. They even let me smoke a cigar in the bar. Yes!!!! I was loving that. Every other person there besides me smoked cigarettes. So after years of getting smoked out in every bar I ever went into, it was sweet revenge to hear all the smokers tell me how my cigar smelled like ass. Ah, but it tasted so good. It actually did too. It was Jack Daniels flavored. I savored that sucker until I couldn’t smoke it anymore because it was burning my fingers.

Let me tell you though. I only smoke maybe one or two cigars a month. So this baby gave me a better buzz than the beer I was drinking all night. I had one mother-f&@*er of a hangover the next morning though.

The only reason we ended up leaving was that Bar Queen found a ton of water on the kitchen floor and thought there was a leak. He (yes he) had to call the owner in and he was supposed to be closed already so we booked before the owner got there. As it turn out, there was no leak, the cook poured water all over the floor so the cleaning people would clean the floor right.

So I just found out that our Local Program is going to be highlighted in the Special Olympics CT Annual Report this year. Both Boogie and I almost fell on the floor. Ours is an all-volunteer program. Not one of the coaches or special partners or coordinators gets a dime. We are also one of the largest – if not the largest – such programs in the state. Hell it wouldn’t particularly surprise me to find out we are one of the largest programs in the state period. Especially since we cover the City of New Haven. But his is first time we have gotten any recognition for our effort. I’ve never done it for recognition but let me tell you – it feels good.

Until next time…