random thoughts – Day 1,647 – (Friday) – mexican friday

Friday sometimes means dinner and drinks after work with a work friend. Sometimes we plan it, sometimes schedules change and it's spontaneous. This was one of those spontaneous Fridays. Hooray! 

The morning started out weird when I looked in the mirror and saw that one eye was red and puffy and looked like I had punched myself in my sleep. Later in the day, the same eye got itchy and felt like sand had been thrown into it. The self image start to the day was scratchy, but the work part of the day was refreshingly productive.

Mexican food!

We chose a new dining destination for the "shake off the week" adventure. Tijuana Grill on Market Street opened some number of months ago that neither of us was sure of. The place was nice and still shiny and new. The menu was long, but not overwhelming.

Despite the presence of an online PDF menu that my friend viewed earlier in the day and which showed a list of drinks including sangria, wine, and margaritas, we were informed the establishment doesn’t have their liquor license yet. The server said it was ok if we wanted to leave, but we still wanted to try the food, which we had heard was good.

I ordered the Burritos Vegetarianos, described as “two grilled flour tortillas filled with beans, cheese, and vegetables” and came with rice and a salad. It was pretty. It was very tasty. And very filling. My friend's dish was colorful and artfully arranged but I forgot what it was called.

After the filling food, we waddled our stuffed selves down the block and around the corner to Tremonte Pizzeria, which has “ice bar” noted on the outside of the building. The “ice” part of the bar is a strip on the edge closest to the bartender side of the real estate. It’s several inches wide and filled with what looks like salt. It’s weird ice in grains smaller than rock salt and maybe kind of slushy. We played in it a little bit, analyzing its composition and wondering why it is even a thing. 

Unfortunately, the stretch of the ice bar closest to us wasn’t level, so when my Mast Landing stout draft was set on the ice bar by the bartender, some of it spilled out and stained the ice brown which looked kind of yucky. I’m not super impressed by the ice bar concept, but maybe if it was a frozen drink I might feel differently.

We chatted about the usual after work topics, like how busy/rough/weird the work week was and thank goodness it’s over, then onto fun stuff like vacation plans and past travels and how hard it is to understand people who say that they have no interest in leaving their home towns to visit other places. How is that possible? Seriously, we can’t figure that out.

Ignored water dispenser.

Back at home, Kiki is being more cuddly. And neurotic. I bought her a water dispenser and set it up Wednesday night, which she hasn’t touched yet. I marked the water level with a sticky note after it seemed the level hadn’t changed. 

Tonight, the level was still at the yellow sticky note. She isn’t dehydrating. She is now drinking from the bowl next to her food bowl, which was ignored until this week when the water dispenser was set up. Maybe with time. She isn’t one to jump on trends. Or normal cat things like boxes, packing paper, balls, plush toys, or catnip. Yet. There is still hope.