For the Blogger Who Has Everything

This would be a nice Christmas gift for your favorite blogger.

Eating Dallas: Sangria

When the lovely Lidia suggested we go to a topless bar the other night I was fully on board. Unfortunately my hearing isn't as good as it once was and we instead ended up at Sangria -- a tapas bar.

We started out with something from each of their columns. Cold tapas -- tuna tartar with crushed hazelnuts, anchovy, olive dressing and crunchy pears. Sound good? It was very tasty. From the sea -- scallops with creamy potato puree. They were scallops, so they were good, but not great. From the land -- grilled kobe beef. Again, good, but not the flavor orgasm (that's probably not the best choice of words) that I was expecting from my previous Kobe experience at York St. From the garden -- tortilla espanola. This was much better than I had gotten at Cafe Madrid. And the accompanying aoli was fantastic. From their specials menu -- clams with stuff. Well, it's not on their online menu so I forget what was in them. But they were good.

We were still hungry and could not decide between the duck confit and the shrimp and crabmeat croquettes. So we got both. The confit was great. I declared it the best (following the tuna tartar) of all the dishes we had. The croquettes were just ok.

Add on top of all of this a generous pitcher of sangria, and this was a very pleasant evening.

B+
4524 Cole Avenue Dallas, Texas 75205

Diving Dallas: The Dallasite

I've been trying to figure out what to say about The Dallasite Club. On the one hand it is an old school bar serving average American beer and average American greasy bar food. But the place was way too bright and too loud. But this is just not someplace I would want to go in my twilight years (watch it!!) to drown away my last few memories Alzheimers has left me with.

On the plus side, at least on the night I went, it had quite a few attractive women (probably nurses from nearby Baylor). So, if you're into that sort of thing, you might like it. But, seriously, there should be no attractive women in a dive bar. I don't make the rules.


C

3239 Ross Ave. Dallas, Texas 75204

Diving Dallas: Pasttime Tavern

Now this is a dive -- dark, dank, smelling of 50 year old spilled beer.

The Pasttime Tavern was opened in 1937, and by the looks of it they have the original pooltable. And sitting at the bar appeared to be some of the original customers as well. I dare anyone to find any signage in this place that was put up after the birth of The Jester.

To seal the deal as a genuine dive, The Pasttime has both Schlitz and Pabst Blue Ribbon (in cans) on the beer menu.

So, when the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone -- think Pasttime.

A
1503 S Ervay St Dallas, TX 75215

Winter League 2008: Week 2

I don't want to brag or anything, but I single handily brought my team back from a 13-8 deficit to defeat the evil team that Peach (We're From France) is on 15-14. (BTW. Whose idea was it to make games to 15 this year??? That's way to much. I only want to play a handful of points a game not a handful of points a half.) How did I do this, you ask. Well I left and headed over to start getting ready for Bad Santa. Missing my ill-advised hucks and even iller-advised short passes, my team was able to overcome my atrocious offense and even more atrocious defense (although I did have a lay-out D in the endzone -- even thought it was technically an strip not called. A younger Steve would have made the call himself. But this is me being a savvy Dallas Veteran ie an asshole) to win. Good work guys. But can you do it with me next time.

But my main focus on Saturday was to reprise my role of Bad Santa and raise much needed funds to the North Texas Food Bank. As you can see, it's a tought gig. And yes I do like my gig even if that's not the question.

However exhausted


I was able to rally

to corrupt another generation.

The New Phonebook is Here! The New Phonebook is Here!

In the 21st Century, the equivalent of Navin Johnson's exclamation about how he is finally someone since he's in the new phonebook is "Hey, you can see my house on Google!". Dallas has finally been added to Google's StreetView. So not only am I finally somebody, but so is Dallas.

More Acorns for the Rest of Them

I'm sitting on my couch, finishing up a technical quiz from a prospective employer, when I hear -- BOOM!!! And just as quickly all the lights, radio, WiFi network, heat, everything went out. On this dreary, cold day, my house went dark and silent. Clearly a transformer in my alley and exploded rendering my block as powerless as my ability to come up with a fitting metaphor.
Well, this was as good a time as any to head up to Bally's and work out. So I showered in the dark and headed out. And there, lying in my alley, was the very 3 dimensional squirrel that caused all this. I did the electroshock math, figuring that most of the dead squirrels in my alleyway are very 2-D.
When I got back, not only had the lights come back on, but the sad remains of the perpetrator were taken away. That TXU Energy is a full service power company.
BTW. This is not a picture of the squirrel. Since he was taken away before I got back I was unable to take a picture. This was just one of many picutres of dead squirrels I found on the internet. Good Times.

I Read this in Poof!

Bonus points for mentioning the Cornballer.

I Know More About Wine Than You

One of the singularly great moments during my walkabout was sitting on the deck of the Three Rivers Grill, enjoying the cool dry clear beautiful Oregon day, looking out at the Columbia River Gorge and sipping one of Oregon's fine Pinot Noirs -- O'Reilly's. So nice was this wine that when I got home I got online and ordered several bottles. I only got them just before Thanksgiving since they would not ship unless it was less than 80° here in Dallas.

Today I'm thumbing through the October issue of Food and Wine (it had gotten lost in the pile of mail from said walkabout and I'm just now getting to it) there is a small blurb about quality cheap reds from Oregon. And guess what they mention. Go ahead, guess. That's right O'Reilly's Pinot Noir.

Bad Santa

We're doing Bad Santa again this Saturday. I mention this merely for the opportunity to show me with actual women. Plus JT is asking for more pix of women. Sorry, JT, that the Jester is in the pic. I didn't have time to photoshop him out.

And in related news, this story is not about my Bad Santa since he only mentions oral.

What the Hell Is Wrong With Me??

Every time I hear my phone ring and I don't recognize the number, my lifeforce gets drained. Why? I decided this week I need to really really really start looking for a job. I've updated my resume on Monster, CareerBuilder and DICE. So that's a recruiter calling. And I'm still not 100% convinced I need a job. Well, I need one. I just don't want to have to go to it and work. I know I've written about this before. But if you people (not that anyone is reading this since my long November drought) would do your part and click on my adds and buy something. Or better yet, if you enjoy this, how about a couple hundred bucks a month from each of you. No? Yeah, then this would be like a job and I would never write anything.

Ok. Gotta go. I've got some calls to return.