Chipotle

Chipotle.

I do enjoy a burrito or a "bowl" from Chipotle. Scott's not a big fan, but I like it. It's tasty and I think the ingredients are good quality. There are 2 things that slay me about Chipotle though.

#1 It drives me ape shit when people reach over the protective glass to point at what they want. Really? That flippin' glass is there for a reason.  "I'll take black beans"- and then the hand goes over the glass to point at the black beans.  "I'll take corn salsa"- and then the hand goes over the glass to point at the corn salsa.  Why don't these people just sneeze on the food too while they're at it?  I realize sometimes there is a language barrier when ordering at Chipotle.  But still.  I feel like saying, "Get your little pissy hand back behind the glass and quit reaching over to point at the food."  I'm a bit of a germ-o-phobe. I cringe just thinking about the hands going over the glass.  Ugh.

#2 When you order at Chipotle, it doesn't matter if you ask for "a little" or "extra" of any of the ingredients. You get what you get. Seriously, it makes absolutely no difference. Extra cheese? No. You just get cheese. Extra sour cream? No. You just get sour cream. You get whatever the person assembling your food wants you to have. Your request for "extra" or "a little" bears no weight.

My problem in this regard has to do with hot sauce. I like hot sauce, but for me there is such a thing as too much. On one recent trip to Chipotle, I told the person making my burrito "a little hot sauce". "A little hot sauce" translated into a full ladle dumped on my burrito. A full f*cking ladle. It was ridiculous. It made eating the burrito non-enjoyable, even painful, because it was just way too hot. And, sorry to be graphic, but what goes in must come out. It burned going in and it burned coming out. I would characterize my experience with that particular burrito as suffering. Of course, it didn't stop me from eating it. But I did suffer for it. Does that make me a masochist of some kind? A Chipotle masochist.  Troubling. 

Anyhow, I mentioned my Chipotle problem to my dear friend Renee. Have you ever had one of those moments when someone makes a suggestion to you and the light goes on, the bells ring, the angels sing? I had that moment when Renee suggested I ask for the hot sauce on the side so I can control the amount put on my burrito.

Hot sauce on the side. My friend Renee is brilliant.

Joss Stone

Did you see Joss Stone and Jeff Beck perform this past week on Idol Gives Back? Joss Stone tore it up. For real. Girl tore it up.


To watch: Joss Stone

More Pictures from Scott's Visit

As I mentioned in the previous post, Scott and I had a great time during his most recent visit to Madison. The Tuesday he was here, we went to happy hour at a place called the Tuscany Grill, which is actually a bar in a hotel. I had been to the Tuscany Grill before with some people from work. They have "'Tini Tuesday", which is a play on words. It's essentially miniature (or teeny) Martini's ('tini's). Hence, Tini Tuesday. The menu of martini's at the Tuscany Grill is extensive. I think it's about 8 pages long and there are some very creative drink names, to say the least. When I had gone to the Tuscany Grill before, Kori (highlighted in a previous post) ordered the following martini off the menu.



Leave it to Kori to order a martini called Pussy Galore. I think she actually had 3 martini's that night. If I remember correctly, in addition to the Pussy Galore, she had a Dirty Girl Scout and a Double Fudge. Again, leave it to Kori. She's a funny one.

Scott and I didn't drink anything quite so....risque, but we did enjoy the Tuscany Grill. It's a cozy place, tucked right there in a hotel off of Fish Hatchery Road. Yes, Virginia, the road is named Fish Hatchery. I believe that's another, "Only in Wisconsin...."



Another fun spot Scott and I went to while he was in town is a Mexican restaurant on State Street called Frida's. If you follow this blog, you may remember that I have previous posts from places on State Street. It's a hip, cool area of town (there are many hip, cool areas of town in Madison). It's right downtown off of the Capital square. Frida's was a neat place inside; an older building with rustic charm. It's a 2-story restaurant. The picture below is taken from the second floor looking down onto the main area of the restaurant. As you can see, there is seating on the second floor all along the balcony with views downstairs.



My theme of posts about restaurants and bars is painfully obvious, isn't it? Oh, well. Why stop now? The next pictures are from a new spot Scott and I hit the Friday he was in town. I wish I had gotten a picture of the outside of this place. It was cute. A little cottage-house looking place. But, the only picture I took on the outside was of the sign.



Inside the Village Bar, it was quaint and no frills. Something we liked a lot about this place is that there are windows behind the bar with a view to the outside. Think about it. When you sit at most bars, you are facing part of the bar itself with bottles of liquor, sometimes mirrors and/or TV's. At the Village Bar, when you sit at the bar, you have a lovely view right out onto a golf course (with TV's and a big "Bud Light" sign above the windows; it is a still bar after all.) Isn't it a lovely view though?



We were told by the bartender at the Village Bar that they are known for having good burgers and fries. Sure enough, the cook has a small flat top grill and deep fryer set up right there behind the bar, cooking some shit up. Scott did order a burger and fries. I had a few bites and, indeed, it was good. Good as far as bar food goes. Actually, I'm not even sure it was good. It was more that the burger had a distinct grill taste. Apparently the Village Bar is a popular joint. It got packed while we were there. We were acutely aware of the volume of people ordering burgers because they had to come to the bar, where we were sitting, to place their orders. No one waiting on tables at this place. You want a beer? You want a burger? You get your ass up and walk to the bar and get it.

At one point, the food line was right next to where I was sitting so I did notice a lot of people ordering burgers. What I didn't notice so much was people ordering the liver sausage.



What? No liver sausage? But it's only $2.75.....

I also noticed that this picture captures the "Please Order at Bar" sign. See, I told you. You want a beer? You want a burger? You get your ass up and walk to the bar and get it.

Scott's Visit

Somewhat on the spur of the moment, I decided to go home for Easter weekend. I traveled to Columbus on Thursday, April 1 and stayed until Sunday, April 4. Scott came back to Madison with me and stayed for a week. He just left this past Sunday afternoon, so all in all (between Columbus and Madison) we spent 10 glorious days together. It was so great to have him here in Madison. I like Madison. I like Madison better when Scott is here. We always have fun when we're together, which makes parting all that much more difficult. I told a friend of mine, "I'm tired of saying good-bye to my husband at the airport." True dat.

One of the things we did while Scott was here was catch a baseball game. Scott is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, so I have become a Cardinals fan through him. He admires Albert Pujols. Albert is a great player. I admire (wink, wink) Yadier Molina. I think he is about as cute as a button.

Anyhow, we considered ourselves super lucky that the Cardinals were playing the Milwaukee Brewers while Scott was here in Wisconsin. Sweet! We love going to baseball games together. It's definitely our idea of a good time.

Miller Park, where the Brewers play, is an impressive facility. Here is a photo of the entry from the parking lot area over to the stadium. The walkway actually crosses over the freeway, which is the next picture.





I had heard before we went over to Milwaukee to watch the game that the Brewers' fans like to tailgate. No shit! It was so cool. There were hundreds of people in the parking lots by the stadium. Beer of all kinds was flowing. Grills were set up cooking out brats and dogs. People were playing corn-hole and beer pong. It was a spectacular day weather wise. Sunny. Mild temps. It felt so good to be outside, doing a little partying, getting ready to take in a baseball game. Perfect weather for tailgating. Perfect weather for baseball. Now that's livin'.

The pictures don't really do justice to how extensive the tailgating was, but here is what we caught on camera.



I wrote above that beer was flowing at the tailgate party. Here is proof positive. Some guy doing a beer bong.



When we first walked up to the stadium, we went to the closest doors to try to enter. No dice. The entrance we approached was for HOG's only.


I might be a hog, but I'm not a HOG, so we had to find another entrance. Which we did.


Going to a baseball game used to be all about peanuts, hot dogs and beer. Times have changed and things are much fancier now. If you don't like beer at a ball game, how about a Bloody Mary?


Damn. From the looks of her, that lady in the picture above needs to drink herself a Bloody Mary and lighten the f*ck up.

Or, if you don't like Bloody Mary's, how about a margarita? Yes, this picture of the thatched roof hut was taken inside the ballpark.


It's even getting rare for people to eat good-old-fashioned-break-open-the-shell-and-throw-it-on-the-ground peanuts anymore. Now at baseball games, in fancy baseball stadiums, with Bloody Mary's and margaritas, you can get nuts like cashews baked in some kind of sweet and delectable sugar coating.


Here is Scott's favorite player, Albert Pujols, at bat.


Scott didn't take a picture of my favorite player, Yadier Molina. I think Scott's just jealous.

Miller Park has a massive iron dome roof that opens and closes, kind of like a fan. When we arrived, the roof was open.


Shortly before the game started, they closed the dome roof because of a minor threat of rain, which didn't happen. While the engineering and structure of the dome roof is beyond amazing, I kind of missed basking in the hot sun while drinking a beer and watching the game. The photo below is of the dome roof closed. The picture is taken from a similar angle as the photo above where the dome roof is open, if that helps give a frame of reference.


As many of you probably know, Scott is a die-hard union man. While we were at the stadium, he told me about 3 union iron workers who were killed building the dome roof when a crane tipped over in windy conditions. There is a memorial outside the park to commemorate the workers who died.

The upper middle section in the plaque below is of the iron workers. It was touching to me to view the memorial. These were three people- people just like you and me- who went to work one day and never came home. That gives me pause.

This is a photo of the outside of Miller Park taken from behind the iron workers memorial.


On to a lighter note. Those of you who know me and/or follow my blog know that I have a whole bunch of "Only in Wisconsin...." phrases. Here's another. Only in Wisconsin do they have tobogins for baseball teams. Football and tobogins? I get it. Baseball and tobogins? You've lost me.

I don't know who the guy is wearing the Brewer's tobogin in the photo above, but I know I like him and we share a similar life philosophy. Save water. Drink Corona.

One final picture of the outside of Miller Park. A magnificent structure.


I guess I will wrap up this post. But, before I do, a couple more pictures. Before Scott and I headed over to Milwaukee for the game, we went to the IHOP here in Madison for breakfast. IHOP is kind of a novelty for us because we didn't have them in Columbus. Let me tell you this. I NEVER want to go to IHOP again. EVER. I think the food I ordered sat under a heat lamp for about 4 days before they served it to me. The atmosphere sucks and the decor leaves a lot to be desired. Case in point, the photo below. I guess maybe I should appreciate that, when they tried to fix the seat with duct tape, they at least tried to match the colors.

The duct tape patched vinyl seat was bad. So were the hanging flower arrangements. There is something I like about this picture, though. For the first time in more than a decade, I had someone other than my hairdresser in Columbus wax my eyebrows. I broke down, took a leap of faith, and got my brows waxed at a salon here in Madison. They appear in the picture below and look pretty darn good if I don't say so myself. I can't say the same about the fake plant.