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My bride and I had an agreement that when I went back to work in my field, I’d take her out and buy her a nice dinner. It had to be somewhere nice.

At a recommendation from Lori Kozey, my bride and I went to Beach Club Bistro in Euclid, which happens to be a very short drive from our home.

We both started with the Spring Side Salad, a mix baby spinach, red leaf lettuce, radicchio, crumbled gorgonzola, and red grapes. The salad was about the best I ever had.

For the main course, I had the Seared Fresh Casko-Bay Monkfish Tail, which was a special this weekend; my bride ordered a 12-inch Gilchrist Club Pizza, laden with white sauce, spinach, fresh tomato, calamata olive, asiago, and provolone.

While the fish was delectable, it was monkfish, which tends to be a bit rubbery if not dissected properly. The potato side, roasted and garnished with pineapple, jicama, red onion, olive oil, cilantro (or parsley, I couldn’t tell), was outstanding.

We ate about half of the pizza; the remainder sits in our refrigerator awaiting a hungry hubby. It’ll be gone tomorrow for sure, as I will not let that bad boy sit for very long, let me tell you: it was fabulous. Lori told me at the last blogger meetup that the pizza at the Bistro was fantastic, the best she ever had, and I can see where she gets it: it’s far, far better than Players in Lakewood.

My only beef was with the service: we went without reservations, which I was unaware that we needed. We were seated right away in the lounge area, but I should have known that something was up. The acoustics in that room are terrible; I had a hard time hearing my wife speak from just a scant 30 inches away.

Beyond that, our waitress was horrible: she couldn’t recite the specials menu, confusing what sides went with what. She dumped the ashtray on the floor (it only held a straw wrapper, but what the heck?). She served from the wrong side to my bride. She failed to bring a dinner plate for the pizza. When she brought the check, she brought it to me (the male), price side up. Totally inappropriate.

I normally tip well, but tonight I just couldn’t: this gal never even came by during the meal to see how everything was; she waited until we were finished when she could offer dessert (add to the bill).

The food alone made it worth the $65 price tag; next time, however, I’ll make reservations, and I’ll try not to get this gal as our server again.

After dinner, my bride and I walked across the street to our car, and passed several closed stores on the way. If Beach Club Bistro made such great headway in that location as an upscale restaurant, and the nearby Coppertop is also doing well, why hasn’t the city of Euclid investigated creating a “Restaurant Row” on the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard between E. 218th and E. 222nd Streets? Seems to me that the idea would fly.

Plenty of available storefront there, too, like in the rest of the city.

But, then again, we’re talking about Euclid here, not the totally practical city of Perfect.

~~~~~~~

When I mentioned above about the waitress bring the check to the male at the table, I also have to relate this side story:

About two weeks ago, I went to lunch with the three female account managers from my new job. Since I have no agency experience, they wanted to go over office flow and other issues so that I would know what to expect. We had a great lunch, and I received a lot of excellent information.

Picture this: three women, all in their early or mid-30’s, and one male in his mid-40’s, sitting in a booth in a smaller restaurant located in a renovated century building in the Warehouse District. The food? Three cheeseburgers with fries and one salad with grilled chicken.

Who had the salad? Me, the guy.

To whom did our waitress bring the check? To me. To the guy, of course.

We all noted the departure from gender stereotypes at our meal; we also all noted the stereotyping played out by our server. One has to wonder…

My Infinite Improbability Drive just left me off at my doorstep in the form of a bottle of beer. It’s taken me a second to recover and establish full normality, so please pardon me if I’m not quite right in this post.

No, I will not expose you to Vogon poetry.

Just came home from seeing “The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy,” based on the book written by Douglas Adams. I enjoyed the movie; it was also nice to get away from the pressure of my house renovations for once.

If you have read the book, then you know what happens in the movie, but I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t taken the time to read the book.

For those of you that have read the book (but maybe haven’t read it for a long time — it’s been 30 years between the two points in time for me) and are planning to see the movie, you might understand this: I had a strange sense of déja vu while watching this movie, as if I knew what gag was coming next — and the gag would work and have me rolling in my seat.

Normally for me, this is a bad feeling; I hate knowing what’s about to happen. It’s why I rarely go to see a movie more than once. For Hitchhiker, however, I didn’t fully remember what was going to happen. As the flick went on, I knew implicitly what was going to happen, more than déja vu — and I was still rolling, although in the aisle.

It is a funny movie, and one that is definitely not for everyone (my wife would hate it). If you liked the book, see this movie — you won’t be let down.

That’s all for tonight. So long — and thanks for all the fish!

You know, if you look at it long enough, it sort of looks like Southeast Asia, doesn’t it?

Radar image taken at 11:00 p.m. this evening, some 12 hours after the original post. I edited this to a single image because the link would not retain its state for more than a day or so…

OK, OK… it was yesterday…

I received an interesting piece of email today. SPAM, actually. It read:

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I have not edited this in any way, save for outside references; straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Well, lemme see here… no opt-out… nice English… I work for Optiem, and we do SEO: what do these guys do that we don’t? I’m waiting for a good time to upgrade to WordPress 1.5, and I’ll add my SEO stuff then (for free — from memory and experience)… hmmm… should I take them up on their offer? Riiiight!

Family emails have been better: gas prices in Detroit and Phoenix (Pa-HO-nicks, hehe). Here’s Cleveland, guys; the lowness of the prices are strictly West Side, by the way. It’s $2.24/gal over on the East Side…

I’ll bet this one’s a fake…

Lots of placeholder text on the web lately, and I’m not the first to point this out of late, but in case you missed, here’s a few goodies:

This one just doesn’t compute.
Not enough room for this, I guess…
Power shortage?
Send it where?
I still have absolutely no idea what this company does…
Must’ve been stuck in traffic…

And that’s about all the news that isn’t.

Tomorrow, April 21, 2005, is this blog’s first anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it’s come this far.

Tomorrow night I will add a few more links to the linkage roll in the navigation rail, as I have met some new folks with blogs and other personal web sites of interest. Time escapes me at the moment, so please be patient.

Tonight was our monthly NEO Blogger meetup, held at the Rock Bottom Brewery at the Powerhouse. Interesting discussions all around, and a lot centered on the papacy (oddly enough) and the new pay-for-meetup.com-response by the group. Details will follow in future posts as we prepare for the feast, as it were…

I must, at the moment, thank Steve FitzGerald for the Anniversary Beer: it was delicious! Thanks you!

My bride has now arrived from a long, difficult day at work, and now I must be attentive. More tomorrow, on my anniversary.

Well, it’s been a couple of tense days since I announced my candidacy for Pope. Needless to say, I didn’t win.

For the last two days, I’ve done nothing but sit around and watch the smoke pour out of the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, waiting for the news of our new pope.

Man, I haven’t sat around watching clouds of smoke like that since my days in the dorms at Ohio State.

Seriously, though…

I have said, at times, that I don’t necessarily share Cardinal Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict XVI) views. I think the best way to share my feelings with you on this would be to echo the words of Jurandir Arauj, of the National Conference of Bishops Afro-Brazilian Section, who told Reuters: “It seems that he is too conservative. Hopefully the Holy Spirit can help him change. We expected a person like John Paul. Somebody who could give the Church alternatives… open the Church to the world, look more at reality.”

He certainly will have a lot to look at, especially in America.

My absence for the last few weeks has been, for me, unnerving at times. Between changing jobs, reflooring my kitchen (which is almost done, thank you!), studying at school, and spending time with my wife, I haven’t had much time to blog lately.

Most of my free time has been taken up by the floor, however. It’s a major job, one that I have all the tools to do properly and correctly, and one that I will have to live with for the remainder of our time living in Euclid, however long that may be. The one big thing I have had while tiling, fortunately, has been time to think and pontificate over important matters.

Wait a minute — did I just say, “pontificate”? As in to express opinions or judgments in a dogmatic way, or to administer the office of a pontiff?

Indeed I did.

For good reason, too: after watching the blistering media over-coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, I have quite rationally made an executive decision: I’ve decided to run for Pope.

Yup, you heard it here first: I’m running for Pope.

The way I figure it, I can do the job better than just about anyone else the cardinals in the Vatican can choose: I have a command of technology, I have an active spiritual life (yes, I’m Catholic, but that’s really not a requirement for the job, believe it or not), I am mature and can make mature decisions, and I have some common sense. (Don’t tell my wife I said this!)

“But Will, you’re married,” you say. Hmmm… being celibate/unmarried is not written in the official job description. Plenty of popes have been married and sired children, and some of these offspring have been notorious for their wicked ways, although my children will be saints. (Or else!)

“But Will, you’re not an ordained priest,” you stammer. Hmmm… Last I heard, you didn’t have to be ordained to be elected Pope. In fact, you don’t have to be a priest, although they will ordain you if elected. (I think I’d look good in a robe — what do you think?)

“Well, good luck,” you say as you turn to leave. Luck is what I would need, and in abundance: the biggest thing going against me, actually, is that I’m from the United States. For some odd reason, the Vatican has something against Americans.

But I think I would be a good Pope. At least, I know I would make good decisions about what’s on US Catholics’ minds: married priests, ordination of women, those disgusting pedophiles in the church, and more. I might have to alter my professional situation, but I think that with a gig this big, they’d be able to handle it. Besides, it’d give them some great press.

My first executive decision: move the Vatican to Cleveland so I won’t have to commute so far; I hate jet lag!

I’m a little frustrated.

Well, more than a little frustrated, truth be told.

Burning Tree Media has co-opted the Cleveland Web Design Meetup in hopes of having an open house in their corporate offices. “Bring your résumés,” their invitation said.

So far, for next week’s meetup, only 2 designers have registered to attend; the rest have either declined or ignored the meeting altogether. Last month, Burning Tree pulled the same stunt and had to cancel the meetup with only 3 RSVP’s — at the last minute. As a result, no one is going to the Web Design Meetup in Cleveland this month, either. It’ll be cancelled, just like last month’s, due to lack of interest.

It looks like the same raw deal this month, which means no Meetup for me. I’ve been attending the local Meetups since November of 2003, and I have only missed one or two so far. I have come to enjoy meeting with many of the local designers, and I consider it one of several communities to which I belong. I consider many in the group to be friends, which is the whole point of the process in the first place.

The original intent of Meetup was to provide networking and friendship opportunities for people in like fields in a neutral environment, so as to prevent improprieties and personal conflict-of-interest situations from arising among the group. Having the meetup at a corporate house compromises the integrity of the group.

Now I’m beginning to miss my friends in the field, for I can’t attend: I now work for someone else, and it would appear as if I’m sleeping with the enemy. Talk about an awkward situation.

I’m not writing this to trash Burning Tree, either. Talking trash about one’s competitors is inappropriate, regardless of the situation; it’s plain, old, bad business. We’re all floating on the same river: raise the water for one, and you raise it for all, creating more draft for your keel — and with this latest economic downturn and where it left me, I’m all for more water.

At the same time, however, it’s wrong for these people to commandeer a Meetup for their own — and only their own — gain.

We almost had this happen to the local Weblogger Meetup with cleveland.com last month, but George over at Brewed Fresh Daily foresaw the potential for a similar conflict of interest situation with many of us, and he suggested a neutral location.

Thanks to George, we had one of the largest and most productive Meetups in the system last month.

This Tuesday, the Plain Dealer announced that one of its own, Connie Schultz, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Both my bride and I wish to congratulate Connie on her fine work: we both enjoy her column, and we agree that she definitely earned the award. Blessed she truly is. We wish her continued success.

Here’s a great crock pot recipe I came across lately, one that I presently have slowly cooking away in our crock pot, ready for tomorrow’s lunch:

Brisket in Ale

• 1 3 - 4 lb. beef brisket
• 1 12-ounce bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale (Flash site!)
• 1/2 cup Heinz Chili Sauce
• 2 tsp. McCormack’s Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 2 onions

1) Slice the onions and place in the bottom of the crock pot. Trim the fat from the brisket (cut to fit crock pot if necessary) and place on top of the onions. In a medium bowl, place the chili sauce, steak seasoning and beer; mix thoroughly.

2) Pour sauce over brisket in crock pot, cover and cook on Low setting for 10 hours (or 5 hours on High).

3) Slice brisket thinly and against the grain. Serve on kaiser rolls and top with cooking sauce and onions, if desired.

I did this with a pork roast about two months back, and it was a little strong. Admittedly, I used the spicy version of the steak seasoning, so that might have had something to do with it. The roast was tasty, although the method overdid things a little; the original recipe called for a brisket, which I think will produce a better meal.