No Chester

Went to Bub & Pop's today.  Had the Eggplant sandwich.  Five stars.  No Shesta, though.  Will C. pinch-hit.  Tonight is the U.S. Veep Debate.  Gonna be a fun one!

What a weekend

A triumphant return to the lake, creemies as far as the eye could see, plus pizza and cocktails chez B-Mar & K. What's not to love? Forget the puppy, I'm moving in.

kudos all around

Well, kudos mostly to B-Mar. Glad you landed a job buddy. Wish I could take you out for a celebratory sandwich.

the loneliest lunch

It happened again.

Yesterday, for the second time in 3 years, I lost a lunch buddy.

While I wish Adam the best—and I do—lunch in Flatiron just isn't going to be the same without him.

Today I schlepped to Rickshaw in a daze and brought a bento with Szechuan chicken dumples back to the office.

The whole thing seems particularly unfair because this time there wasn't even the consolation brush with rock history.

To further add insult to injury, the Black Rock Cafe apparently now serves soft pretzel sandwiches.

Should have stayed at CBS.

Today is the greatest lunch ever

Man oh man. I am happy we started this blog. I like the direction we've taken it in.

Today's lunch: portobello mushroom, 1/2 a glass of long trail direct from the keg. It's late spring in Vermont, which means cookouts and (for me) final exams.

Gchatted with Chester today. He revealed his future to me. To paraphrase James Taylor, Ben "is goin' to [California] in [his] mind."

baseball's back

How sweet it is. I watched the game in the company of friends and a falafel sandwich from Bedouin Tent. I can only imagine what B-Mar was noshing on while luxuriating in the dulcet tones of Suzyn Waldman.

westville (east)

Great to catch up with B-Mar a couple of weeks ago. Hope his back is feeling better. I think we both had salads (what gives?) and Magic Hat.

great trip

B-Mar knows BBQ. Grilled up some tremendous burgers, chicken, and veggies.

i'm coming up

I've been promised a Ben & Jerry's factory tour and at least one Lake Monsters weenie.

That doesn't sound right.

decent dinner at 190th last month

BMar, can you remember what was on the menu?

waiting

anticipating

Middle School

I can't remember the last time I prayed for a snow day. Probably Thanksgiving break in seventh grade. But as I sit in the library, sucking down coffee and rewriting my midterm assignments, man oh man do I want a snow day.
But let's turn our minds (and hearts) to baseball. I'd like to make a couple predictions.
1. Yankees WILL win the AL East, and Tampa will win the wild card (yep, Bosawx get shut out.
2. A-Rod has a big season (.320-32-140) batting behind Damon-Cap'n Wunnerful-Teix. An ongoing saga erupts over whether he deserves the MVP (he'd be the first admitted steroid user in contention for a major season-end award). The AL MVP Award ends up going to Joe Mauer, who hits .320-8-85 and plays Gold Glove catcher for a slightly-above-average Twins team. America, exhausted by all this steroid garbage and embarrassed by the hypocrisy of having to overlook a superior "dirty" season and favor a "clean, calls a mulligan on the whole era. McGwire's vote tallies soar for the HoF and he reaches the 75% threshold in 2012. Pete Rose and Joe Jackson (shoeless) catch a tailwind and get elected together in 2015.
3. Joba balloons. The tabloids finally figure out who to compare him to: David Wells. He deals with gout for all of May, yet still goes 13-3 with a 3.25 ERA.

57 Degrees

Did you bring your glove? See you in the park at 1?

Apparently Jared from Subway was leaving as I arrived

BMar, what did you think of BLT Burger? I enjoyed it. Bacon was crispy, burger was big but not too greasy. Don't see it winning any "Best Burger in NYC" awards but definitely a solid choice.

admit it, b-mar

You love Fenway Park.

We met up in Mass. this past August to take in a Sox game. It was a lot of fun - Jason Bay smacked an HR in the first (his first with the club, no less) en route to a Sox rout of the Oakland Athletics. The bro hooked us up with a tour of the offices and the press box, and B-Mar couldn't stop raving about the atmosphere - an absolutely gorgeous, historic ballpark with open concourses around the stadium, sweet views that keep you close to the action, not to mention intelligent, passionate fans who know how to enjoy a ballgame without being prompted to "MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!!!!!11"

As Derek Jeter heads to Florida, I think we all know who the B-Mar will be rooting for come October.

eating peanut butter from a jar

law school. c'est la vie.

Vermont, near Quebec

That's where I am this summer. Its pretty cool. I can swim into Canada from the dock in front of my house.
Lunches here are not much to write home about. But this was a solid lunchtime read. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/business/media/14askthetimes.html?pagewanted=all

I have my glove

How old is your glove? Do you remember buying it? I remember I bought mine, and a cool pair of metal baseball spikes, just before the 7th grade baseball season started (coinicidentally, my final year of hardball). Its a great glove, except I think its still a little stiff, despite years of Twilight League, Head-Senior games, frat league, and Orrick's summer league.

Wild Burrito, in Portland, was pretty good. I thought. Quick, well-lit, and the dude working the counter nhad a vintage Dartmouth t-shirt on. My quesadilia was large and delicious. But the evening at the Lopster Pound was the pinnacle of culinary feats (aside from a stray breakfast-in-the-barn pancake).

and that's not all

What are the chances that the day after (unbeknownst to me) the B-Mar posts to d@1, I end up getting lunch at Blue Radish Group subsidiary (and Digby's cousin) City Chow Cafe? My coworker convinced me to schlep down to this place on 19th St. & Broadway, which is attached to her gym. Everything there is in the classic Digbys' style: same clamshell salad containers, same basic stickers on everything, though you can get some overpriced fresh entrees (turkey burger!) and sides (I'll be damned - beets!) to satisfy your "I can afford to join a gym and buy overpriced food at said gym" cravings. I felt the recurring pangs of loss, and hunger, and picked up a Nicoise salad that was actually fairly decent (potatoes, hard-bolied egg, salmon, and some obviously thawed frozen green beans), and the bread was definitely solid, though only a medium-sized wedge was proffered. I'd go back if it weren't so far away and so goddamned hot out.

As advertised, I did bask in the glory of the B-Mar over the 4th weekend in Maine. Granny's had inexplicably moved and was even more inexplicably closed ("we don't open till 5 because yesterday was the 4th" -- touche, Maine), so we ended up at this newfangled place called Wild Burrito. I got a pretty pathetic one with spinach that was sopping wet and had obviously just been defrosted (I sense a theme here) and we also went to the Lobster Pound, at which B-Mar reveled in crustacean juice and I sat listlessly. We will be meeting in a couple of weeks in Boston over a glorious round of Fenway Franks. Someone get B-Mar to bring his glove.

Together again

The team joined up last week for the 4rth of July in Raymond Maine. Heckuva Weekend, SHesta. Bonfires, Smaller fires, Firelanes, no bowling lanes, Port-lan(e/d), etc. We swam to Crow's Rock.