Last night was Happy Hour #1 for August with Laney—something that normally would have occurred on Saturday as the second Saturday of the month, but we rescheduled it back to Tuesday this week, for two reasons: 1) her full-time RVer, retired sister and brother-in-law, Lorrie and Richard, are in the area, hosted Laney as well as her daughter Jessica and Jessica's boyfriend Mike for camping over the weekend, and would be in Seattle yesterday so we could all do Happy Hour together. Well, "we all" meant Laney, Lorrie, Richard, Shobhit and me; Jessica and Mike could not make it last night. And besides: 2) Shobhit and I made plans to take the fast and foot ferries across the Sound to Port Orchard (via Bremerton) on Saturday to visit Claudia, finally a chance for both Shobhit and me to visit together as she actually has Saturday off of work, so that would have pre-empted the "second Saturday" Happy Hour scheduling anyway.
Laney's suggestion of location was the same place we had gone when Beth joined us while she was here, on Monday just last week: Saint John's Bar & Eatery, which is on Pike between Harvard and Boylston, all of two blocks from Laney's apartment building, and thus eight blocks from Shobhit's and my condo building. I had ridden my bike to work and did not want to ride straight there and leave it locked but unattended on the sidewalk where I could not see it, and so I left work 15 minutes early and dropped the bike off at home first, before walking to Saint John's. Shobhit needed to run some errands and so he was already out as well, so we met up there separately. Saint John's open for both business and Happy Hour at 4:00 and that was when Laney, Lorrie and Richard headed over; I arrived right before 5:00 and Shobhit arrived maybe ten minutes later.
We all hung out for a good two hours. This means Laney, Lorrie and Richard were there for three. Lorrie and Richard ordered from the regular menu, while Laney and I both ordered the fantstic "Yukon Gold Fries" with garlic aioli sauce from the Happy Hour menu. Laney had about one beer per hour, thus three total, and learned later that even though their beers were super cheap those were not from the Happy Hour menu. I, on the other hand, had two of the $8 "Lemonade Kit" cocktails from the Happy Hour menu. That drink is delicious. When Shobhit arrived, he ordered the "Orange is the New Yum" Happy Hour cocktail and it was nowhere near as tasty as mine; he scarfed a good half of the fries that I had ordered; and then he also ordered the Happy Hour "Famous Brussels" that smelled so bad to me that I could not stomach the idea of even trying them. Laney and Lorrie both tried one and they all liked them. Blech!
Anyway. Lots of lovely, friendly chatting all around. There was a fair amount of discussion about Shobhit's longtime dream of attending Burning Man and the many challenges to him actually doing so (not least of which is his not knowing what to contribute in the event's "share culture"). Laney is going to talk to some friends of hers who have been many times and see what kinds of pointers they can offer.
— पांच हजार छह सौ तिरपन —
— पांच हजार छह सौ तिरपन —
We went our separate ways around 7:00, Laney and Lorrie and Richard headed back toward Laney's place, and Shobhit deciding he wanted to look inside the nearby Doghouse Leathers store. He had considered going over to Salt and Straw for ice cream, but after the rest of them all said they were too stuffed, he changed his mind. It was just as well: we don't need ice cream on top of cocktails and fries.
Shobhit and I walked home, and although I would have been happy to watch more episodes of the british series
This Is Going to Hurt staring the gorgeous and talented Ben Wishaw, Shobhit decided that could wait, and spent basically the rest of the evening watching news program clips, largely of people discussing Kamala Harris's running mate pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—who most of the country had never heard of before this week; most of the country has heard of now; and who seems like a genuinely awesome guy.
It's saddening and cynical to think Harris choosing anyone who was not an older White guy would hurt her chances in the election, but it's probably true. And if she had to choose one, she could have done a hell of a lot worse than this particular White guy. Gabriel sent a
Pod Save America interview with him to the group chat yesterday, and it was possibly the most entertaining interview with a politician I have ever heard.
In the meantime, I caught up on processing the few photos I've taken the past couple of days: the ecard Gabby had sent to me yesterday morning; the couple of shots I took at Happy Hour last night. I'll be taking a lot more this afternoon, as our Team Celebration for my 22nd work anniversary (which was actually Monday) will be a Happy Hour at the top of the Smith Tower later this afternoon. This is going to further cut into my work load and how behind I'm getting on certain things, but oh well! I'm plugging away on what I can and that will do.
— पांच हजार छह सौ तिरपन —
[posted 12:36 pm]
