Blue Bunny v. Breyer's Ice Cream Throwdown

It was Blue Bunny's chocolate ice cream versus Breyer's Extra Creamy Chocolate. Usually ice cream is made extra creamy by whipping air into it (the industry term is "overrun"). This is why I preferred Blue Bunny and its fudgier consistency (like a nice fudgcicle). You pretty easily identify overrun ice cream by grabbing the carton in your hand, if it doesn't feel heavy for its size they've probably added air to it. I know some prefer the smooth mouth feel of this stuff, but I don't.

As far as the chocolate tastes, they were different, but I didn't necessarily prefer one over the other. Breyer's seemed to have more of a roasted chocolate flavor, but that could be because it was burned from being in the freezer longer.

Three Movies, Four Flavours.

Today was three movies: Ponyo, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9.

Ponyo, from the same director as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away was not good. The animation wasn't as revolutionary as it might have been ten years ago. You see one group of fish swimming you've seen them all.

Inglourious Basterds didn't feel as long as it was because Tarantino is good at breaking his film into chapters, with literal chapter cards. Pitt's performance was great given the material. It seems Tarantino is most effective with two or three actors in a scene. As I think back on the film there are great vignettes. And aside from some scalping and carving into foreheads with a Bowie knife, this wasn't as violent as many Tarantino flicks I've seen. (I keep on typing Tarantion.)

This is a good time for me to point out that Pitt has worked with a lot of great and renowned directors. David Fincher (thrice), Tarantino, The Coen Brothers, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu (Thank you, Michael.), Soderbergh, Tony Scott, and like passing a torch: Robert Redford. My chicken/egg deal is whether these directors are more effective because they are working with Pitt, or if he is a better actor because of their direction.

District 9 is much beloved by my friends who like playing 1st person shooter video games like Halo, Call to Duty, and the like. I thought it was the best of the three films, for its story telling, if any reason. It is a fine example of the sci-fi genre and if the rest of Neill Blomkamp's films are this good, Peter Jackson might be a better talent scout than he is a director.

And now for the four flavours.

Wednesday, Ivanna Cone, through Facebook, said they would have their Salted Caramel for the first time, and that ol' standby Chambord (I remember Ellen loving this flavour, and it was my first half gallon from them.) I was also interested in their Hot Cocoa, so I brought a contingency of friends with me. I had those three aforementioned flavours, but the star of the show was the surprise Sweet Basil. It was great, sweet, basily, and all within the great ice cream of Ivanna Cone. I am curious about the Wild Plum they have in the works, and when I know about it, you will.

Christmas in July or Over the Moon

Tonight I went to Moon at The Ross. It was really good, and I'm starting to come around on Sam Rockwell. It is an uncomplicated "science-fiction" film that executes with its simplicity. Kevin Spacey is a wonderful voice for the computer, GERTY. The actress who plays Tess, is Dominique McElligott, which I think is a great name.

After, I went to Ivanna Cone and had a dish of White Chocolate Lemongrass, Caramel Oreo, and . . . Waaaiit for it . . . EGGNOG! And a really good eggnog at that.

Dappled and Drowsy and Ready for Sleep

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Robert McNamara, Steve McNair, Karl Malden, Oscar Mayer, and I almost forgot Billy Mays.

I'm sure part of it is a heightened attention to celebrity deaths, but this seems like a lot in a fairly brief period of time. Usta be these sorts of deaths came in threes, but maybe there will be another before the end of the week which makes nine, or three sets of three.

I had Cardamom Rose Pistachio ice cream from Ivanna Cone tonight. If it were only pistachio, it would have been amazing because of the high ratio of whole pistachios, but there were also some bursts of cardamom flavor. I was also pleased that I couldn't detect any rose; I always find rose stuff to taste like a perfume.

Last weekend I watched Away We Go and Public Enemies. I enjoyed each of them. Maya Rudolph, John Krasinski, and the rest of ensemble cast performed wonderfully. It is also well written, my favorite line coming from the child in the resort hotel lobby. The writers take three or four family scenarios as a foil to the central characters of Burt and Verona. The success is that they make the fairly cliche family types interesting while furthering the development of our couple. The music by Alexi Murdoch was also nicely done.

For interesting crossover, Sam Mendes also directed Road to Perdition, another 1930s crime film with Al Capone and Frank Nitti. I love Road to Perdition. Directing, acting, score, cinematography, set design, costumes, writing, I can't think of a thing I don't really appreciate about it. But we're talking about Public Enemies (I prefer both to The Untouchables, which I found to be weak except for Sean Connery's lines.), and it was what I expected from Michael Mann, an incredibly accurate, taut film. Johnny Depp was probably not in the greatest role for his "charisma," but it works. The actor who really struck me was Stephen Lang, in the role of Agent Winstead (a fed from the Southwest requested by Melvin Purvis, who has actually been in gun fights before). There was something about him that I recognized, then I looked him up on IMDb and it came rushing back to me. He played Ike Clanton in Tombstone.

Jules Cazedessus did something for the film too. Another thing I loved was the hood ornaments on the cars. Not necessarily in the film, but appreciated by me are the Packard swan/pelican, the Nash flying man, and the 1931 Buick.

Now for something completely different. You can order a milk shake as a chocolate malted. Can you order a root beer floated? Or is it classier to order a float as root beer ala mode.

If You'll Have Me

So I started using Google Reader to follow all my favorite blogs (don't worry, you're in there.), and because I wasn't coming here to dance the sidebar samba, I kinda forgot about producing my own content for others to follow.

Don't worry though, I've been doing plenty in the last three weeks. I went to Mobridge, SD for the weekend of the 4th. It was a good time; the highlight of which was a 16 team no holds barred (not really) bean bag tournament. It was a double elimination format, so after my team lost in the third round, we fought back through the consolation bracket to try and avenge our loss. We had to beat the team that beat us twice to win the championship, and won the first game, but lost the second one. It was great fun though, and the fans even did the Wave at one point during our finals match.

The weekend before that, I went to Nebraska City and picked four pounds of Montmorency cherries, which I turned into two pies (one with the almond extract in the filling and the other with the extract in the crust [very aromatic while working with it, needs a bit more to get the flavor to come through). Then I went up to Omaha for Shakespeare on the Green's performance of King Lear. I got there early enough to pick about 3 cups of mulberries, which I also turned into a pie (really tasty. I like the subtle flavor of mulberries.)

Forward to last weekend, I went to the Sunfest sponsored by Beer Corner USA in Omaha, which coincided nicely with the free Feist concert only 15 blocks away. At the beer fest, I tried to narrow my focus by sampling a few styles and comparing. I ranked the helles lagers, Kolsch, vienna lagers, and imperial porters and stouts. My pleasant surprise of the fest was the Eisenbahn Dourada from Brasil, which was in the Kolsch style, but had really great spice with an almost scotch ale finish.

As for the Feist concert, it was good. The Good Life, an Omaha group, and Juana Molina, an Argentine singer (who if looping yourself is a kid holding a stick, and Imogene Heap is a little leaguer, she is [insert favorite MLB star here]) opened for Leslie. Backing Ms. Feist for the concert was Clea Minaker, who does really great stuff with shadows/projection things. The performance was very good, and I appreciated that she didn't hold out her "popular" songs for an encore, she just made it all part of the show.

More to come about yestereen's Beer Advocate soiree. Suffice it now to say that I like beer people, and there are great beers and beer people near you.

Oh, after I went to the beer gathering last night I had a cake cone of peanut butter caramel and vanilla bean pear from Ivanna Cone.

In Brief

Tonight I went to the Maine v. Nebraska wrestling dual. For 24 years Maine and Nebraska have taken turns traveling to the other's state with a select group of wrestlers. Tonight they wrestled Lincoln area wrestlers and this weekend they'll go to Kearney and wrestle another group. There were a bunch of matches and the final score was 34-31 Maine.

After, I went to Ivanna Cone, hoping to time my trip there so I could see the Friday night fireworks after the Saltdogs' game at Haymarket Park. Leashed to the railing on the platform outside The Creamery Building was a beautiful brindle bulldog type dog, but no owner was around so I couldn't ask its name. I began standing in the line for ice cream on the stairs outside in the hall. Fortunately there was a very tattooed couple standing in line ahead of me to bide the time by gazing upon.

I got a small cake cone of hot cocoa, right as they put coffee 'n' donuts on the board. Last weekend I got a chocolate soft serve cake cone from Zesto's. I kinda forgot how great a cake cone that has been marinating in ice cream for the duration tastes. It has it all, texture, taste, and interactivity.

Good news, however, as I left the building, the fireworks were going off, and the aforementioned tattooed couple were feeding a dish of ice cream to Devo, their brindle English Bulldog/Boxer mix.

Spear Ritual

It is the artist, not the audience, who should be doing the suffering.

Ivanna Cone's peanut buttered ice creams are great because they use crunchy peanut butter.

Nyx and Niles are a black and grey cat respectively. Nyx is the goddess of night, but Nyx the cat is actually a boy.

Katie, Jesse, Kayla, Tamara, Cassie, Spenser, Amanda, Jemaine, Bret

There was a recent study released by Penn State University that concluded that satisfactory sex can be achieved between 3 and 13 minutes. I first heard this on a sports talk radio show The Herd with Colin Cowherd. Colin said he was happy to hear this because he's already half way there.

The following night Conan O'Brien relayed the same study in his monologue, and his funniest moment of his entire monologue that night was when he said that the 13 minutes for him even includes the apology.

Craig Ferguson was answering viewer email and a rabbit or bunny was mentioned. Craig said he always thought Warren would be a good name for a rabbit. I thought this was brilliant.

I've been sold on Herman as a name for my next pet for a while now, but Norman made some headway today. I don't know if Amy would mind if I used Fred too.

What does Sophonia mean? Can it mean "knowing sound," with double duty from the "ph" or is it one or the other?

Stennett Brooks

Two More Recommendations and a Request

Haagen-Daas held a competition for a new flavor sponsored by Gourmet magazine. Apparently there were 5000 entries. The winner is Carmelized Pear and Toasted Pecan. I really like it, and if you see it in your grocer's freezer section, have a pint (or two).

My second recommendation is also fruit based. This summer I read a book about how the New World and Old World meeting affected what we eat. In one of the later sections of the book, the author profiled different foods that are from around the world and are now being grown in the US. He had no end to his praise for cherimoya. "As you can tell, I think they're the nuts." That is a close paraphrase. He did say he thinks they're the nuts.

I don't think they are the nuts, but I likey, enough to consider it worth it to pay 6 bucks each to ship from CA. But you might be able to find them in your local Asian market, though they are from Chile.

And the request. My sister was reading one of those Sunday paper insert rags, maybe USA Today, and saw an article that mentioned Blik wall decals. One of the customizations they have available is to submit text to them and then be able to put it on your wall. So what text do you think we should put on our wall? I'm guessing anything more than a paragraph would be too much.

Jagshemash!

A maybe better title would be "Salvation a la Mode and a Cup of Tea," but I really wanted to use this post's title on my previous untitled post, so I'm gonna use it now.

I had a full day today. I got out of bed at a quarter to 8 and went to the Farmer's Market, where I purchased not only a couple pounds of rhubarb but also a rhubarb plant. Yes you read that correctly, I'm going to be responsible for a life other than my own. Amy is inspirational. I'd like to maybe not put it in the ground and increase its growth before I let it go dormant. It will take some research and time, but I've made the plunge; can't back out now.

On the way back from the market there was a nice woman with a Basset hound sitting in front of The Mill. I walked past, and then I realized I wanted to know its name.

So I went back, "Excuse me ma'am, what is your dog's name?"

"Oliver."

"Wonderful, thank you."

I've decided that in addition to "collecting" names like Pornsook Tantrarungroj. I'm going to accumulate dogs and their names. If you would like to assist me, please feel free to submit the breed of dog and its name whenever; a quick comment on this or my other blog will be all that is necessary. The other dog that planted this seed of interest was a blue weimaraner named Dexter, who is owned by my sister's 4-H dog training instructor's daughter. I met him the first weekend in July at West Bend. I also met a Visla/Laborador mix named Reba.

Quickly a few other dogs I know right now:

Walker Treeing Coon Hound, Slade
Blue Tick Coon Hound, Hank
French Mastiff, Captain Jack
fat German Short-hair Pointer, Mustafa "Mus"
St Bernard, Colbert "Bear"
mostly Golden Lab, Molly
German Shepherd, Molly
German Shepherd, Smokey
black Lab, Remington
chocolate Lab, Dakota
Lab/Retriever mix, Max
puff ball, Ernie
Husky, Kodi
Pomeranian, Foxy

Now near the bus stop, I sat at a bench to read the Saturday paper I snagged from atop the newspaper vending machine (This is better than the law firm I stole one from last week. Apparently the delivery persons are fined if they get too many complaints. Thanks Ashley.). I was reading the paper when I noticed a butterfly on the ground next to my foot. It slowly crawled onto my shoe and since its right wing was torn a bit near the bottom; I waited for it to die. It was a yellow Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). I decided I was going to wait an hour, and if it wasn't dead by then, I was going to take it home with me. Instead Jose and Joshua, two Catholics from Miami and Dallas respectively, wanted to share with me the happiness and peace they have found in following Jesus. At some point during our discussion, the butterfly flew. :(


Their main reason for me to follow Jesus was to bring myself happiness and fill the emptiness in my heart. I respect their desire to share what they have found to work for them and their ability to not be belligerent in their efforts. Jose identified Original Sin as Selfishness, or Egoism, manifested by wanting to be our own god. I asked how the self love that drives us to want a good life from following Jesus is different from the selfishness of Original Sin. After they left, I thought this was still a good question: What is the line between Self Love and Self ish?

Since I had no butterfly to wait for, I went home, showered, called Wendy, and toured (links on left progress you through the tour) the State Capitol Building. Then we went to a Chinese restaurant and finally Ivanna Cone.

At Ivanna Cone, I had the Meadowlark Sherbert (lavender, honey, lemon, and herbal tea) I had spurned last Tuesday when I went there with Michael, Buffy, and Deidra. I enjoyed it.

Once home alone, I was looking through the classifieds and saw this ad:

BLUE brindle & blue fawn, 7 wks. old, MUST SEE!

I concurred, so I called the number and went over to the owner's apartment directly. They were pit bull pups, and according to the owner, since their eyes are still blue, they will stay that way. There was a stocky boy and a girl pup that were blue with the brindle markings. The girl came up to me of her own accord, but if I were to get one, I would prefer the boy. I think I might be able to talk the guy down to $100, but I'm still reluctant to bring a puppy, or any dog for that matter, into my current apartment. And in case you were wondering, his "blue fawns" didn't seem very blue to to me.

Last night I had a Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale. I liked it. According to the Rogue website, soba, or buckwheat, is a member of the rhubarb family. I can't tell you how much this news excites me.

Has Been and Jerry Rigged

Tonight, as I'm wont, I had a pint of ice cream on my way back from SuperSaver. The bill of fare for tonight was Chocolate Almond Nougat by Ben and Jerry. It is a chocolate ice cream with fudge covered almonds and a swirl of nougat. It wasn't that great. The chocolate ice cream was above par in golf terms; the nougat was more of a burnt marshmallow swirl. The only redeeming bite I had was when there were a bunch of the fudge covered almonds. To give them some benefit of faith, I noticed some crystals on the top of the ice cream that belied some thawing and refreezing; plus it was on sale, so maybe SuperSaver didn't preserve the iced cream integrity as B&J had hoped. Still, I didn't notice any more crystals in the rest of the pint, so that excuse is superficial at best. I've used this space before to rail against B&J, and I probably will again.

While I'm dogging them, I suppose I'll commend them for the fine work they've done with Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream, a vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. This is a much better celebrity ice cream than Willy Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler, a peach ice cream with cinnamon shortbread pieces. That Colbert's eponymous pints are better is demonstrated by the fact that the stores I frequent are often out of his flavor, while Willy is still hanging around.

A Pirate's Life for Me

So the first Thursday night Beanbags and Rhubarb was a smashing failure. I grew impatient after playing two games against myself (I won both.) and followed the true desire of my heart at 7:15: At World's End. The 8:00 and 8:01 showings at The Grand were sold out when I got there, so alone and flexible, I got a ticket for the 9:00 showing. This gave me an hour and forty minutes to occupy before the trailers started.

First I went to Ivanna Cone for a large dish of two scoops of Ginger-Lemongrass, Rootbeer, and E.D.G.A.R. (created by children at an elementary school, it is milk chocolate ice cream with pieces of fudge brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough.) As I was crossing 8th street for IC, I saw Ben Yancer turning north onto the selfsame street. At Ivanna Cone I read the dictionary as I'm wont and got the note from Angela, Katie, and Ben wishing me enjoyment while I ate ice cream and read the book in which the note was. I'll talk about the stuff I learned from my reading in my Word Hoard web log.

After a good twenty minutes at Ivanna Cone I went to see if they'd started seating for the movie. They had not. So I perused Homer's for a while (the downtown Homer's will be closing May 26th.) then went to Bennett Martin to get something to read for my wait for the film to start. My eyes landed upon The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp. After reading the preface, it looks to be a good book and nice companion to the other book about food I'm reading now.

This brings me back to the theatre with about thirty minutes to spare. My recent acquistion at the library started a conversation ("What's that you're reading?") with a former Hastings High Math teacher that instructed Dr. Ryan Wells' daughters. Our conversation also allowed me to mention my new interest in quinoa and my blubarb pie.

The movie was excellent. I really liked it. I'm very glad I went to it. And I'll go again if the situation is right. I recommend it, even if you haven't seen either of the first two.

Let It Linger

Today I stayed when I planned to go. It was good.

I started the day attending first service at College View Church because Mark Robison was giving the sermon for first service and the Baccalaureate address for second service, and I didn't want to fight for a seat then. So I enjoyed his message and chatted with Terri Krovoza after the service before Sabbath School. I stayed for SS for some reason. Then after Sabbath School I had a good seat with plenty of room. I was curious about the page Mark cut out of his first service message because of time constraints and there was going to be more music for second service. So when I went to get a drink after SS I saw Klaralyn and invited her to join me in my prime real estate. So I stayed from 9:15 to 1:30 when I planned to stay only til 10:30. This helped me to synthesize more of Mark's message and spend some time with Klara.

Then after some Sabbath afternoon "lay activities" (napping), I joined the others at Ivanna Cone. I had Maple Grapenut, Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie, and the much anticipated Honey Sesame. They also had a Lychee Mandarin that was popular with others but not myself as much. After enjoying ice cream, I was invited to Bashley's for games and said yes.

I got there at 9:45. We played Catchphrase for a good while. After the sensible folk called it a night Ben and Ben and Tyler and I played a Cheapass Game called U.S. Patent Number 1. It was a fun game that took 90 minutes to play both times we partook. Then we convinced Tyler to stay a while longer and play Kill Dr. Lucky, another Cheapass Game. Tyler left at 3 AM and we called Justin to join us (He lied and said he'd be over). We played some more Dr. Lucky to varying rules and at 4:45 I left. So I probably planned to leave around midnight and stayed almost another five hours. Good times, good water, and good cookies from Ashley.

I'm now going to sleep for like five hours and then go to Jeremy's Open House after Graduation, hopefully to play some bean bags.

Road sNot Taken

Or: Your Ice Cream Is Better Than Love

Tonight I had two options for my after My Name Is Earl and The Office tv watching. Option One: Pay five dollars and go to No One Conquered, Wyoming and Sons of Norway at Knickerbockers
Option Two: Pay three dollars and seventy five cents to enjoy a small dish of ice cream at Ivanna Cone while reading their dictionary

I realize I consistently use my discretionary income on ice cream. I don't feel bad about this. I don't know if I'm substituting the company of humans with food or not. Fortunately, I'll have both later this weekend.

Tonight I had Chili Chocolate and Espresso. Combined they made a nice replica of my favorite drink from The Mill, moto mocha. Also on the board was Honey Cornbread (which I've had before and the honey is good, but I'm not one for cake type substances in my ice cream) and Raspberry Sarsaparilla (which they spelt "sasaparila"; they aren't very good spellers, but they make a mean ice cream). I tasted the RS on the way out and it was very good. They also have some Honey Sesame in the freezer for the weekend. It is there because Angela requested it for Klaralyn's arrival this weekend for Kayla's graduation.

Labels

So I've taken the time to label all of my beta-blogger posts. So now if you click on any of the labels you'll be able to see all of the posts that included that topic. Most frequent labels are beer, ice cream, movie (don't ask why I didn't go with "movies."), Spirituality, and names. Feel free to take advantage of the work I've done to archive my life.

Some names:

John Butarbutar

Georges Razafindrabe

Christo Bezuidenhout

Georges is from France, Christo works at SDA Language Institute in So. Korea.

A Party for No Reason

After a disappointing week discipline-wise, I had a wonderful Friday. I went running after work for seven miles. Then Angela and I went to Ivanna Cone for the much anticipated Ginger Lemongrass ice cream. She sent an email to request Honey Sesame for when Klaralyn comes to Lincoln. In the return email, Amy, the proprietor of that wonderful establishment, mentioned she had made a batch of Ginger Lemongrass. So I called on Wednesday to see if it was out front yet; it wasn't going to make it out that night because the other flavors weren't moving too fast. I called again yesterday and it finally made it to the board and "wasn't some secret flavor." After enjoying our dish and cone of ice cream, Angela and I each got some to take home. It really was a very impressive board of flavors that Ivanna Cone had going: Sweet Cream Vanilla, Dutch Chocolate, Mint Oreo, Coffee, Chambord (a favorite of Ellen's), Cinnamon, Ginger Lemongrass, Coconut Pecan (Angela go some of this for home with the GL), Kentucky Chocolate (a hint of bourbon), and Basalmic Strawberry Pear Sorbet. There are some flavors I'm missing, another sorbet for example, but still very very strong.

Then we played bean bags. Michael Barrett, a man about town in the downtown Lincoln area, was walking by and joined us for a few games. Our last game was the most hotly contested. She jumped out to an 8-0 lead, but I jumped back into it with a 6 point round. Then I got ahead 9-8. After some quality rounds by each of us we were tied at 13 for like three or four rounds. At this point Angela made a comment about how "this might get a bit tedious." Well, she ended the tedium with eight points the next round to win the match.

That was our party and it was grand.

Lazy Sunday

ACT ONE

Today I had a nice leisurely time. I got up and played some Civilization II, then I walked to the library and exchanged a poor book for, hopefully, a better one. Because I didn't make it to Ivanna Cone last night, I went today and had Banana Oreo (great) and Chai (solid). Then I took my sister to work, on account of her vehicle is on the fritz.

ACT TWO

After dropping my sister off, I went to Open Harvest for some quinoa. Fortunately, I ran into Angela, who volunteers every Sunday there. For supper, I went to Parkway Lanes on recommendation of our UPS driver, Al. [Hans, my boss, after hearing a radio ad for Tam O'Shanter, said that the JournalStar rated Tam O'Shanter's burger as the best in Lincoln. Friday afternoon, Al and I were discussing our plans for the weekend, and I mentioned I might investigate the JournalStar's claim. This is when he recommended Parkway.] Al was right. It was the most delicious $3 burger I've ever had, better than burgers three times that much. And that is the glorious miracle of it. If I gave you a list of every restaurant in Lincoln that served hamburgers, what are the odds that maybe the best came from a bowling alley.

After supper, I went to the Ella Crandall Memorial Library to see what I could see. What I saw was the Oxford English Dictionary and its entries for anatopism, anachorism, anchor, and anchorite/anachoret. This brought me closure to a difference Michael and I had in word choice and half an hour away from Vil Arreola's Senior Piano Recital in Engel Hall. I spent that half hour reading in Steinway's Summer 2006 magazine. There was a nice article about "Steinway Artist" Christoper O'Riley host of From the Top for NPR. A nice moment in the article was when O'Riley mentioned the emails asking more about "this Mister Head" after he had transcribed some Radiohead songs to piano for the show. The recital was well attended and well performed. One interesting moment for me was the encore in which Vil played variations on Jesus Loves the Little Children. After his initial flourish, he would elaborate after each of the different colors that "are precious in His sight." A Native American rhythmic dance after "Red," high paired quarter notes after "Yellow," scratching on the piano wires while clapping down the coverboard for the keys and then a hip-hop rhythm and some gospel after "Black," and finally a patriot sample and some Mormon Tabernacle arrangement for "White." I was surprisingly a touch miffed at the use of stereotypes to entertain musically.

ACT THREE

When I got home, I popped A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints into the dvd player. It isn't the first movie where a man comes back to his childhood stomping grounds after leaving everyone behind (see House of D, which I preferred to AGRYS), and it won't be the last. I wanted to see it for Shia LaBeouf and Robert Downey Jr., but Chazz Palmentieri was a very pleasant surprise. After the movie, I cooked up a cup of my quinoa. And then picked Marcy up from work.

POSTLUDE

Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious

Rock Chalk Shamrock

That was the slogan on many green t-shirts today on the streets of Lawrence, Kansas. You see Lawrence has a St. Patrick's Day Parade, which was a pleasant surprise for my sister and me.


We drove down the three and a half hours for a concert, and I thought it would be good to get there early and eat at Free State Brewing Company. Our visit there was most enjoyable. I got to sample four of their beers: Ad Astra Ale, George O'Malley's Irish Ale, Black Jack Porter, and Oatmeal Stout and eat tasty Irish fare with Colcannon cakes and Irish lamb stew with Free State's Black and Tan bread. Another pleasing change was a male server. He was quite the Chatty Cathy, but I didn't mind because he was interesting enough and shared fun info about the proprietor of Free State's two year struggle to get state laws changed so that he could open a microbrewery. According to our server, Kansas had Prohibition from the 1880s until the mid-1940s, so it was a difficult legal climate for zymurgists, to say the least. Our server on this day of St. Pat was named Shannon, like the river only in man form. A pipe and drum corps stopped in to regale us with a few tunes as well.


The concert occupied our time from 4pm to 10:40pm, with four hours and forty minutes of that six hours and forty minutes spent waiting. The doors didn't open til 5:30, but the line started forming around 4, then the music didn't start til K-OS came on at 6:20. I really enjoyed him. After twenty minutes of setup and soundcheck came a rappist named P.O.S. I didn't care for him as much; it wasn't his music as much as his poor choices with crowd relations. He lacked philosophical consistency. He started by reprimanding the audience for cheering for senseless things, but ended reprimanding those in the audience that weren't singing along to one of his songs because "(He) noticed that those that weren't singing had really stylish haircuts, so they (were) too cool to sing along." Ironically enough, he wanted us all to sing "There will never be anyone else like me." I felt rapped after he was done.

Then another 20-25 minutes of setup and soundcheck yielded RX Bandits, a talented and entertaining ska type group, I guess if you have a trombone, you get to be ska. They probably had the third largest following behind the headliners, Gym Class Heroes, and first place GCH's lead singer Travis. GCH took the longest setup time, but it was worth it. I particularly enjoyed the four "remixed" Hall and Oates songs played on the sound system during setup.

While my sister and I were waiting in line I went to Sylva and Maddy's ice cream shop just up the block to get a couple waffle cones for us (Rock Chocolate Jayhawk and Peanut Butter Freak). Sylva and Maddy's had more options than Ivanna Cone and cost less too. But their options were not too creative or "gourmet." Across the street was a store called Supersonic Music. My sister made the observation that you can't hear supersonic things. I said that maybe you have to play a cd you get from there three times before you can hear it.

Our journey back was pleasantly uneventful, and the fine day finished with a shamrock shake from McDonald's at 2:25 AM.

Ginja, I Must Have Ginja!

That was the climax of an anecdote Scott tells about a time when he was at the market in Kolobrej (I'm probably spelling that wrong--it was pronounced ko-Wob-jeg). He was there with the one Chinese gentleman in town, who was getting the Polish translation of various produce he was trying to purchase from the person on the other end of his cellular phone (I know there is a dangling phrase, purchase produce from the market, receive translation from phone-mate). When he came to ginger, he was told by the produce man that they didn't have ginger. Then the hilarity ensues when he turns livid at his need for and their absence of that precious root spice.

It took me 65 minutes to walk from my apartment to Bennett Martin Public Library, where I returned three overdue books and checked out Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, then to Ivanna Cone, which is always busy and understaffed on Monday nights, and home again.This jaunt was great for three reasons: I left at 8:44 and arrived before the 9 pm library closing time, I arrived home in time for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, and It was a very pleasant evening due to warmer temperatures.

At Ivanna Cone I had a dish of Ginger Lemongrass ice cream. It was delicious, so delicious in fact, that I spurned all other flavors from its presence. This was notable, as they had the always good Dutch chocolate, cinnamon, and pistachio. This is also notable because, normally, I try very hard to sample as much as I can at each point of consumption.

Scottbane

That is one of the flavors of Ivanna Cone I tried for the first time this evening. Alright, it isn't actually called Scottbane, but it should be. It was Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean. A chocolate ice cream with ground beans in it. Really great. My kind friends were able to do what I could not and secure some of Haagen-Dazs new flavor, Mayan Chocolate, for me. I'll keep you updated. So far my favorite flavor from the Dazs is their Chocolate Peanut Butter.

Black and Tan is my favorite Ben & Jerry's variety. I like their ice cream quality, it is smooth and very edible, but they try to do to much with their flavors. It seems they have at least four things going on in each pint. First an ice cream flavor, then two things going on with the mix-ins (either a coated or filled thing or two different entities), and finally a ripple of fudge or caramel or berry. Just chill. Of course it can work to have multiple elements in an ice cream flavor, but the more variables the more opportunity to disappoint. One of my favorite chocolate ice creams, which is how I judge a brand, is Godiva's milk chocolate.

I've now tried the Mayan Chocolate. It is a "rich chocolate ice cream with a fudge swirl and a hint of cinnamon." It was very smooth ice cream. The fudge swirl was a pleasant accent. The "hint" of cinnamon was not as subtle, which is okay, but distracts from the chocolate. Chocolate Peanut Butter still reigns.

They Scream

against ice cream!? I mentioned the Black and Tan rhubarb in my previous post. I thought I would provide some more evidence that the world aches to defame ice cream because it is so joy inducing. Meet the innocent Nogger Black. And the defenseless treat's detractors. That blasted "diasporic African culture;" always getting in the way.