Out and about

Spent the morning doing house stuff, then had a brisk fight with the wife, then we went up to Norwalk. South Norwalk, to be exact, an old New England mill town that's become one of those places. What is 'one of those places? I'll give you a hint: they call it "SoNo."

Anyway, since I'm my mother's son, I'm rather partial to those places, so Yesenia and I had a rather nice time at the aquarium, then a leisurely lunch and stroll along the renewed historic district - including a stop at a bohemian upscale chocolate café, where we tried the upscale bohemian chocolates with the cutesy names. I had the "Queenie" (chocolate ganache with a sprinkling of green Earl Grey) and the inexplicably named "Patricia," which was a little dark chocolate in the shape of a lingam filled with a tangerine/chili creme. Rather good, actually. Yesenia informs me that she had the "Francesca" and the "Elizabeth," respectively a port wine truffle and a passion fruit/ginger creme. Actually, she ordered the "Francesca," but the brought her an orange creme by mistake, so we don't know what it was called. Perhaps it was the "Julius."

For lunch we were going to go to a tapas place recommended by Bubba and Fin, (who pointed us to SoNo in the first place), but it wasn't opened and we instead went to a burger bar (coincidentally called "The Burger Bar") and played a never-ending round of "War" with the deck of blue Bicycle playing cards in our table's condiment bucket. Again, SoNo is one of those places.

The burgers were good, washed down with some expensive imported beer (O.O.T.P.) and shepherded by an altogether too enthusiastic waiter. Imagine a skinny, younger Henry Rollins; one who has replaced his anger at social and political injustice with a sparkling, rainbow-bright passion for burgers and a yuppified old mill town in Connecticut, and you might have a clear picture.

Anyway, the day was nice but I was still - and am still - under the weather, with either an allergy or some weird cold that's acting a lot like an allergy. Tired, aching, sneezing, stuffy head, puffy eyes, etc. I'm like the 'before' picture in the NyQuil ad. And since we don't have NyQuil in the house, I guess I'll just go with TheraFlu.

Just as well, since the big "Q" would put me in a coma until mid-August (unable to find the great old Chris Farley NyQuil parody that's a reference to. Curse you, copyright law!)

Have a good Ny, yourselves.

D.