Dropkick Murphys at HoB

Last night we went to Elephant Walk which is a Cambodian / French restaurant right near the House of Blues.. Dinner was great but it took WAY to long, we got there at before 6:30 and left after 8:30! I just went to paste what I ate but my entree is not listed online..

My starter was:

Rouleaux (available Vegan)

Two Cambodian spring rolls filled with ground pork, crushed peanut, beanthread noodles, carrot and onion; served with fresh greens and herbs for wrapping and tuk trey on the side for dipping

My second course was:

Leah Chah

Prince Edward Island mussels sautéed with garlic, Asian basil, red bell pepper, jalapeño, and scallion (gluten-free)

My entree was:

Duck in an orange sauce with really good crispy potatoes and asparagus.

My dessert was:

Mousse aux Fruits de Passion

Refreshingly tart and sweet passion fruit mousse served in an almond lace cup; garnished with fresh pineapple macerated in dark rum, sugar and lemon juice

It's a tough call to say which was better between the duck and the mussels, everything was great except the dessert which was just ok. I had an amber ale from Cape Ann Brewing in Gloucester MA, it was no James Squire but I would certainly drink it again.

One more thing about that restaurant, they had an entire page on their menu dedicated to gluten free.. :)

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The concert was amazing.. We got there after the 2nd band which is kinda lame because we wanted to see the 2nd band. The House of Blues does not normally have Irish beer but they had a special stand setup with Guiness and another special stand with Celtic Ale. Dropkick Murphys is set to release a new live CD/DVD today and they had it at the concert last night cheaper than the in-store/online prices! Got the CD/DVD, a shirt and a sticker for my car..

Last night made me really glad for my Achilles Tendon surgery, I was jumping around and dancing for most of the show and have no knee/leg pain! There really is something special about having multiple bagpipes playing at the same time, and I don't mean multiple bagpipes playing as one. They let TONS of girls on stage during "Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced" and a ton of guys during one of the last songs! It was really neat seeing the entire stage filled with people.. The last song they played was Shipping Up to Boston and luckily I had plenty of room to dance around!

Something I realized last night was how welcoming Irish people are, I've been all over the world now and nobody is as welcoming as the Irish. You can live in Japan your entire life and no matter what you're still "gaijin", you go to Ireland and walk into any pub and you're family, just don't order the wrong beer.. ;)

Early on a guy bumped into me before the show started, we just looked at each other and raised our glasses in a toast. Everyone was bumping into each other while dancing and there were no fights or crazy crap you would expect at a crazy type concert like that.. I was very tempted to crowd surf, it was the first time I felt that was a good idea, I didn't however because they were kicking people out for doing it, I felt bad for the guy who crowd surfed during the 2nd song and had to miss the rest of the concert..

I was talking to a guy while waiting for in the coat check line and he handed his iPhone to some random dude before he jumped on stage and that person not only gave the phone back when he got off but also took some awesome pictures of him on stage with the band!

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Speaking of Irish, Badger is making a big st pattys feast tonight for Tuesday Dinner.. Should be great..

---Diversion of the Day

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

2-8 weeks...

/sigh... Jose Reyes was told he has to rest for 2-8 weeks while he takes medication for his thyroid.. That leaves Reyes and Beltran out for the season opener.. ugh... Who ever heard of a smegging baseball player having to sit because of a thyroid problem...

I finished Sea of Monsters this morning, it was very good and I'm looking forward to the 3rd book, but before I do that one I am doing Good Omens which was finally released on audio. So far it's good, I like how any tape left in a car for more than a fortnight becomes Queen's greatest hits.. :)

Speaking of music, Jessie just sent me a Folk Opera, the music is very good and it's coming to MA in April, I may have to go see it if I am free.. Check it out here..

Last night I went to Lov'n it Live which is a raw vegan restaurant in southern Atlanta, I went there the first time I was in the area and it was just as good if not better. I got a seaweed soup which was good and a nutloaf with broccoli & cheese which was amazing. The broccoli that is, the nutloaf was just ok. I asked for the recipe for the broccoli but they wouldn't give it to me. I took the train there instead of driving and it only took like 40 mins total to get there, the food took forever to get, I was getting upset as I sat waiting for them to serve me. It took almost an hour to get the soup and about 20 mins more to get the main course. They are just lucky they are that good.

After class today I went to Old Norcross and wandered around, it has the feel of Putnam with cute little nick nack stores and antique shops. They have a neat coffee house that offers beer and wine tasting as well as coffee. They also have a real expensive steak house and the british pub I went to the other night. I walked around for a bit and took some pictures of the really cool kids park. Not the one I was in the other night, this main street area has two really cool parks (one on each side). Hopefully the pictures will do it justice, I will post them either later tonight or tomorrow from work. After hanging out there for a bit I came back to the hotel and then to Barnacles for dinner. Brandon was there tonight! I hung out with him for a bit before he went home and I came back to the hotel.

Now I'm just listening to the songs from the Folk Opera while waiting to play my OOTP games against Lee. Meeting him online at 9.

Crappy things with people are not so crappy...

Last night after dinner and after Barnacles I went back to the worst hot tub ever.. This time however it was not so bad, there was three people who work for Dominos as area managers in the hot tub who were in the hotel for training. One guy had a really nice celtic knot cross on his arm and his girlfriend had a rose on her back.

Speaking of not so good.. Last night I went to JR's Loghouse which is a rib joint in Norcross. They have all you can eat ribs for $12.99 so that should tell you about the quality, the first batch of ribs was pretty poor but the broccoli and rice side was good. The second batch however was great, if they 1st batch was that good it would have been a good place, but inconstancy always ruins it..

After dinner I went over to Barnacles and watched some bad karaoke before heading back to the hotel and hitting the hot tub and bed..

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Tonight is a balance night, I am going to go to the raw place south of Atlanta.. I say that now but we shall see when I get out, it's raining here and has been all day and I'm a bit beat because we had lots of lab equipment problems today..

Kings of Metal...

I just got back from the worst hot tub ever... It was certainly HOT but it only had one working jet... I'm in Duluth Georgia again, you know last time I was here I was also healing from getting my tattoo done, this time it's all the way healed at least but I'm still hesitant about being submerged in water but that's ok since the main pool is closed for repairs and the hot tub sucks..

Last time I was here I spent most nights at Barnacles and met some really cool people. I went there last night and I was the only white person in the whole bar. I went by there again tonight after dinner and once again nobody I knew was there.. :(

A guy in my class found a bbq place he heard was good so I think I'm going to go there tomorrow, tonight I went to a British Pub that's about 9 miles from the hotel. I was told about it by a girl from OKCupid who I have not seen online since.. Speaking of OKCupid, work blocked that as of this afternoon, I guess it was just a matter of time.. Anyway, so this place ended up being pretty cool, they had Fat Tire on tap and sold fish in chips in a single or double portion, I got the single portion which was plenty of food. Left plenty of room for my Fat Tires.. :)

Another guy in my class was talking about how great the hotel next door was, I wish it were a Marriott because this place is pretty lame (hot tub & pool suck and TV/channels are weak) but it's all about the points..

It's been a long time since I blogged but I'm going to pretend that nothing of interest happened during that time because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with trying to recap the ever missing blogs.. One thing I will say.. I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief, it was bad like one of those made for TV fantasy movies, the sets however were great. Speaking of Percy Jackson, I read the first book recently and it was VERY good and I just started the 2nd (Sea of Monsters) and it's just as good so far. Whoah, this blog is truly a tangent in a tangent... Speaking of books, I just finished And Another Thing which is the 6th book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. It was written by Eoin Colfer with permission from the estate of Douglas Adams.. It was very good and really captured the feel of the old books. If you're a fan of the books I recommend it. And another thing regarding books (see that clever use of the previous title), they finally released Good Omens on audio! I have that on my iPod and it will be the next book I listen to right after Sea of Monsters.

I've decided I like blogs that are a stream of thought so.. I didn't get a chance to watch/listen to today's Mets game but John Maine started today, he left after facing only 8 batters and striking out 4 of them! Apparently he moved weird towards first base and they decided to pull him before he hurt himself again. Can't say I blame them.. Speaking of the Mets, Perez pitched the other day and got shelled, ugh! We are paying that smeghead 13mil for another 2 years.. I am however excited for the upcoming season, I think with the addition of Jason Bay our team will do much better than last year (especially if we can stay healthy)..

Right, so back to present day.. I was at the airport in Hartford waiting for my flight then none other than Don King comes and sits down across from me! He is looking old but he is an awesome guy, took a few peoples pictures with him and talked with him for a bit.. During that excitement I met a really cool girl who lives in Springfield, she works as an interpretor and was flying to Las Vegas to meet her boss. She had not flown in a VERY long time and I helped her get a seat assignment and I helped her get to her connecting flight in Atlanta, we are going to get together when we both get back. :D I also met a really cool guy from Middletown CT who travels almost 90% of the time for work. I ended up sitting next to him on the flight which made the flight go pretty quickly.

Umm.. So, back to tonight.. Yay, tangety (is that a word) blogs... I went to the British Pub as I mentioned, it is on a street that ends in a really cool park, I wandered around the park a bit before dinner and took some nice pictures which I will hopefully post tomorrow at work when I'm not on a really slow internet connection.

My car this week is a tiny little car called a Cevy Aveo.. I took some pics and will post them tomorrow as well. It's not a bad little car actually, the steering wheel is very thin but otherwise it's nice to drive.

Ok, I guess I'm done for tonight.. See ya all later..

Oh, one more thing.. I found out that there is a Marta station about 10 mins from work, the Marta runs every 8-10 minutes into Atlanta so one of these nights I will be heading into Atlanta to eat at that raw place (Loving it Live) without having to deal with traffic.. :)

---Diversion of the Day

Jessie found this band last night while staying up too late, hope you like it (I know I did)..