The magic word and the winning chip.
The forecast called for rain. It never came. So with the nice weather, The Summer of Dave's opening weekend started with some baseball. Some friends and I were going to have a pickup game of softball, but with bad weather on the horizon and well, general lameness, we had enough people back out to not be able to field two teams. But that didn't stop us. By the way, Lucky Shoals Park should be called Speed Bump Park, it seems there's a huge speed bump every five feet in the parking lot. Anyways, we held a glorified batting practice session instead, and it was fun. We had started tossing around softballs but then realized that everyone in attendance would rather hit baseballs, so we switched. Try throwing a softball around for 10 minutes then changing to a baseball... it feels like a golf ball. I have to admit, part of me was hoping it would rain. The backup plan was to go bowling at night, and not playing softball would have allowed me to watch the US/Turkey friendly in the afternoon, there by setting up the whole day. Looking back, I'm glad it turned out the way it did though, there were good times all around. The highlight of the day was Colt, who is a switch hitter, at bat right handed and showing off some tremendous hand/eye coordination and reaction time. A pitch went behind him, and rather than just get out of the way, he turned around and hit it left handed. Amazing. I had a couple of doubles to the gap, which was pretty impressive for me considering I stink. Later in the afternoon, as I found myself at SS, I heard Mouth Beard, at 2B say the magic word. He said "margaritas." He also said "tacos" and "burritos" but those aren't as magical. That was all I needed to hear, the night was set.
Quote of the day: while snacking on a granola bar during a break from baseball, Mouth Beard noticed the wrapper said "See ingredients below flap." He commented that "if I wasn't circumcised I'd use that as a pickup line."
So Mouth Beard, The Canadian and I hit up El Taco in Virginia Highlands. It's a good Mexican joint (DBA BBQ across the parking lot is good too), and the discovery of a salsa bar was music to my compadres' ears. I like that they indicate the level of hotness of the salsas with a flaming fist, but unfortunately the 4 flaming fist salsa, which looked like and had the consistency of BBQ sauce, wasn't that hot. It had some kick to it, but it didn't last. And of course we got margaritas. We all got salt on ours and then realized halfway through we were drinking them with straws, defeating the purpose of getting them with salt. Oh well. Mouth Beard and The Canadian split a vegetarian pizza and some veggie tacos, which apparently have cactus, very cool. I had cheese enchiladas, which was kind of like a Mexican lasagna. Mmm, lasagna. It was a good alcohol absorbing meal. There's a huge mural on a sidewall with various people, including this guy carrying a huge taco:
Is this the most efficient way to carry such a taco? Isn't it incredibly easy to steal some taco ingredients out the back of it without him noticing? Wouldn't the ingredients slide out the back? The things we chose to think about.
At El Taco when you come in they give each person a wooden chip with a number on it. At the top of the hour they spin a pinwheel and if it lands on your number, you win a prize. We finished up right before the top of the hour, but decided to wait a few minutes so we could be disappointed in not winning something. Lo and behold, I won! And what a win, I was expecting a t-shirt or something like that. No, I won much better: a tequila shot. Sure, a t-shirt or gift card is worth more money, but we're talking tequila here, I've got enough shirts. Not wanting to be left out, Mouth Beard and The Canadian also did a shot with me. Of 4 flaming fists salsa. I've seen people do worse. Tequila at 7 pm, that's the way to get your night started. I was offered two choices of flavor, one of them was pineapple something and that sounded good enough to me. I got an orange wedge instead of a lime wedge, it complimented it well.
Then we headed down Virginia Highlands a bit to a reliable watering hole, Moe's and Joe's. Their logo is the PBR logo, so you know you can get some cheap beer if you're on a budget. Earlier in the day they were part of an organized bar crawl that went from 1-6. What the hell kind of time is that for a bar crawl? It should be the other way around. What do you do after drinking all afternoon? That either kills your night, or you're an alcoholic and it doesn't matter to you. At Moe's and Joe's we watched Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I should have taken a rain check on that tequila shot and had it after that game, it was brutal. I'm a huge Flyers fan, and they lost a close but sloppy game. Just got to enjoy the ride though.
I returned home to the destruction of the Man Cave. We have a 4 bedroom house and there's only 3 of us, so shortly after I moved in I turned the spare bedroom into a man cave. But on Sunday we gained another roommate (hello cheaper bills!) so we've moved the man cave downstairs to a bigger location. It's for the better.
Sunday was pretty uneventful, because I had to work, so it's a good thing it was uneventful. I work in football, for me it's pretty awesome. Sunday's quote of the day was a spectacle to behold. Randy Cross said, after Matthew Stafford's game winning TD to Brandon Pettigrew against Cleveland: "he sticks it right into his young tight end." Top that.
Monday was of course Memorial Day. There's no better way to honor our dead soldiers than to buy discounted carpet or appliances. My grandfather's WWII buddies didn't die from Japanese aircraft fire in Okinawa for nothing. It was an uneventful Memorial Day though, all my roommates had to work, so I grilled solo after taking care of a lot of little things for the upcoming weekend. Of course, the Flyers once again lost by a goal. Just have to enjoy the ride.
So that was it. Like I said, fairly uneventful. Thursday starts a huge weekend for me, one of my best friends is getting married and it's going to be a great weekend with great friends. There will be lots to share.
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