Calamari without the curls

I took my friend out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. We went to one of our local favorite Italian haunts. She's a New York gal, and has had food disasters since moving to Marin, but this restaurant always seemed to be ok by her. We started off by ordering a plate of grilled veggies that we could smother in olive oil and salt. With the fresh plate of tomato, fresh mozzarella, zucchini, squash, eggplant, et al, the food was off to a good start. I decided to go with a steak stuffed with fontina and cabbage, and she ordered herself a plate of piping hot fried calamari.

When the calamari arrived, I felt an immediate aversion to it. I don't eat seafood, but I do know calamari is a roundish, curly like food, and this seafood non-delight was straight. She looked at the dish. I looked at the dish. I started digging into my steak (which was just ok), as she tried a bite of her food. She hated it upon first bite. The owner came out to explain that this was a more expensive calamari, and went into a long speech about how the other calamari was shipped from god knows where. We just want regular, cheap, fried calamari, Capeesh?

My food adventures with said friend is always an interesting experience. She says she has been starving since she moved here from NY, and she has yet to find a restaurant that truly pleases her palette. Our misadventures with food are so common, that we thought maybe we should write a guide for east coasters attempting to eat food out west. I always go out to eat with her very prepared for her food to be horribly disgusting and with the ultimate outcome of her not completing a dish. In 6 years, I have yet to see her with a clean plate at a restaurant.

Well, CA, I must say, your idea of bad weather is quite wussy. Growing up with some badass thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning, this bad weather just doesn't compare. It's rare out here to have thunder, and I'm sure it will make the local news. There was a moment where I thought we were going to get some real action. It was very still outside, and then all of a sudden the wind started whipping the trees around, and I thought it started hailing. After about 5 minutes of craziness, the air became still again, and it's been calm since.

I got my fix of The Bachelor last night. The bachelor, Jake, is so cute and awesome, and this season is filled with drama trauma with the ladies. What's a guy dating 12 at once and trying to find his wife to do? Michelle went home last night, and I must say, the girl is out of her flipping mind. I would be horrified if I watched myself acting like that on national tv. Maybe it's just some leet editing to make her look supremely crazy, but I saw the crazy in her eyes. I think it will wind up being Ella in the end. The show is much too addictive.

Work was a bit intense today. Boss is still super sick and not in the best of spirits. We got some pretty bad news today that dropped us to our ass, and we will just have to figure out what to do next. Huge, huge bummer and still trying to get it off my mind. Maybe a good late night trip to the gym will do it, but with a belly full of steak, it may be a hard thing to accomplish tonight.

Over and out.