I was about to get all excited and say that we'll be halfway to Pittsburgh the day after Xmas anyway so Selah can visit some relatives, but it turns out they'll be in a different city after all. Please please please photos of rfts with a french fry salad, though!
1947 Tavern is a 10 minute walk from my house. 23rd doesn't work for me*, but the 26th should.
*we're actually hosting a thing at our house, but it's neighbors only
I'm traveling for Christmas and won't be back on the day after, but can meet on 12/23. Where ever is fine. There are a very large number of places in the general vicinity of 1947 Tavern.
23rd probably, 26th probably not. But either/both could change.
I could make both dates, and 1947 Tavern is conveniently close to my house. The one caveat is that my cat is sick (had to go to the emergency vet last weekend), and so I might end up having to cancel at the last minute.
I don't think I've been there in ages. Was that what used to be the Elbow Room and then they moved the Elbow Room to the fancy part of Shadyside before closing it?
9: Yes. Despite its proximity, it's been about a year since I went to 1947, but back then I thought the food was OK+ and they had a more-kinds-of-bourbon-than-you-know-what-to-do-with schtick.
I used to like their steak sandwich. But that was years ago.
1947 opened with a great menu largely centered on sandwiches made with house-roasted/carved meats, but that chef left and the subsequent menu is much more paint-by-the-numbers fancy bar food.
The bourbons are still there.
Louis Alphonse like the Cobb salad.
We could go to Cappy's and maybe see the mayor.
I keep reading 1947 as a year and thinking you're all time travelers or something.
15: The last time I was there, actually, there was some confusion because some people thought "1947 on Ellsworth" was the street number, and there is no such address.
Sounds like the 23rd has a bare majority of people available and 1947 Tavern is good for everyone. When would be good for folks? 8:30/9-ish? Should I get one of these for identification purposes?
We still have not heard from dalriata or the vast, vast lurker contingent.
I don't know what a 1947 themed bar would be like in the US, except that the jukebox would be awesome; In Britain it would otherwise be profoundly depressing.
The staff is dressed like either Truman or sexy Dewey.
Sounds like the 23rd has a bare majority of people available
Rats.
I'll miss this by passing through Pittsburgh about seven hours too early tomorrow. I considered altering our travel plans, but couldn't quite convince the boyfriend that meeting imaginary friends for drinks was worth driving until the wee hours of the morning. Have fun!
So tomorrow, 12/23, at 1947 Tavern around 8:30? My Mutombo Fathead did not arrive in time, so if anyone wants to email me at the obvious username at gmail.com, I'll give my cell phone number and we can coordinate accordingly. If our car bursts into flame or something similarly untoward, I'll post here so people can bail out (or all convene to congratulate each other on a successful car bombing).
As white people in Pittsburgh, we all live in fear.
Trigger warning: Fucking stupid
Sound warning: Video with sound on opening.
Up to about 90% chance of attending for at least a short bit.
I'm going drinking tonight regardless of pretty much anything short of a several murders and a fast acting diarrhea epidemic.
I'm going to be in Portland for a conference in February, should there be any meetup interest. But I'm not sure of my schedule yet.
Remember the Portland in Maine.
Leving for the bar now. Despite this heavy action at home.
It happened! We are all great successes in life.
Success in life, but not in liveblogging.
I got home, in case anybody wondered. I learned stuff, but I forgot it.
We all failed in liveblogging, but succeeded in metabolizing cocktails.
I learned stuff, but I forgot it.
Stormcrow and I reached the important consensus that Indianapolis is America's most boring large city.
"Indiana-no-place" is what my dad (and presumably other Chicagoans) call it.
43: say the coastal elites who have never been to Oklahoma City.
I also thought of Oklahoma City today, especially given that the Chicago of Oklahoma City is Dallas. However, by the hypertechnical definition of "boring" under which snark and I were conducting our discussion Indianapolis wins due to Oklahoma City having some distinguishing, if negative, characteristics. So Wafer is wrong.
OT, but better to vent here than to stomp on poor alameida's Xmas hell:
Of my MIL's many small foibles that add up to ANNOYING, perhaps the worst is that she perpetually sings along to swing music in non-swing time. Like, there's Louis on the hi-fi swinging out on "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", and here's my MIL singing in perfect 4/4 time. Singing along in the presence of others is I think usually poor behavior, but doing it in the wrong time?
Merry merry, all.
Lee is making me furious and threw away the first child's toy (that she'd made me buy, obvs) within 4 hours of unwrapping. She made a huge deal about how she had no Christmas traditions to recreate, but the whole day has been a list of what I'm obviously doing wrong since I don't understand Christmas. She just berated me about how I'm babying my brother by cooking vegetarian food for him when he doesn't respect us/her enough to show up on time. And now she's sending the girls to bed two hours early for being grouchy and unappreciative. Ugh.
Still getting ready to host here. Friends, no family, so probably nothing offensive.
48 is quite a feat. I don't think I could manage it if I tried. One Song To The Tune Of Another is good fun, but one song in the time of another?
I shouldn't complain. Lee was nicer to my immexistence family than she's been in years. Now she's talking to her ex's mom on the phone and seems happy. I guess part of her bad mood is losing the people she loves via breakup etc. I did get her a book on black history in her hometown, including a photo of her grandfather as a child, so that should also make her feel better. (This is also the ex who insisted Lee could never come out publicly, so Lee just said she adopted Nia, since I don't exist in the story they share. That really makes me unhappy, but ex's requirements probably trump my preference that we never pressure our kids to lie about who their parents are. But this is a whole other issue.)
My in-laws just fed me crab cakes and beef tenderloin and ham and shrimp.
Also, it was great to meet the Shrub-Outs on Tuesday.
51 reminds me that it is difficult to sing the Meow Mix commercial in a minor key. I don't remember why I tried other than I'm me.
Went to a friend's whose husband died a couple of years ago with 3 other of his Sunday lunch crew.
Good beef, Christmas pudding and plenty of wine. One of the best Christmases I've had in years.
I don't mean to boast, Thorn et al q/ grumpy days, but mine have been pretty crummy. I'm sure that my Dad will land in the hospital in a couple of weeks to get me for being happy.
(Ok, I've heard some bad news from my parents, so, ugh.)
54: I have a groupon for a musical rearrangement for $15.99, but I don't know if switching keys is covered.
I overcooked the roast. I can't believe I relied on my parents' new meat thermometer when I suspected it was taking too long. The pudding came out well, though. Just like I remembered.
My mother is full of confabulated gems. She now thinks I'm an old friend, which is nicer than when she knew who I was, to be honest. She thinks she might move to Paris next year. She's also blonde (she is a brunette and thinks poorly of blondes). She speaks at least four languages and is learning several more. She likes "our" house (her house, for almost forty years). My favorite might be that she (bookish and indoorsy) was a mountain-climber in her youth. Best experience of her life getting up and down that mountain. (What mountain? No idea.) It's not awful, just kind of odd what she comes up with.
She did love going to church, though, and tomorrow the boyfriend and I go hand out cool gifts to friends' kids. His niece loved the marble ramp set we sent, and the video of her playing with it made my day.
I'm sorry. Other people have worse (though in ydnew's case more amusing at a remove!) problems. I mean, traumatized people with inadequate contact with their families are liable to have a tough time at Christmas and I'm a mess about Rowan but can't mention it to Lee; none of this is news. Merry Christmas to all celebrating.
Thorn-- Christmas is hard for me too, and yesterday was super rough, so having a good day today was a minor miracle.
Thorn, I'm sorry you're still worrying about Rowan (with good reason), and even sorrier you can't talk about it with Lee. It sounds unpleasant being picked at all day; holidays are stressful enough with the idea of getting everything just right. Have you heard any more about how he's doing?
By the way, the craziness of the confabulations IS funny. It's a mash-up of other people's lives and fantasy. She was a bookish, pudgy child with mild ashma and allergies. Her sister was quite the opposite, thin, tall, blond, and outdoorsy. Mom was incredibly jealous of her for I guess her entire life. Her confabulated stories are full of exotic travel, popularity, friends, athletic feats and all sorts of fun. (She has swum the Bay - twice!) My absolute favorite was a vignette about Frank Lloyd Wright. I was mentioning that a friend liked his work, and she told me that they'd been friends (?! nope), and that after his wife died, he sank into a deep depression, but he went into therapy, and Mom helped him to cheer up and resume his work. Mom was so glad when he recovered, poor man. (Mom was about ten when he died.)
BG, sorry about the bad news.
It's actually sort of reassuring that I can perhaps eventually imagine a totally different life for myself, which is unfair when I love so much of what I have now. I'm not in contact with Rowan right now, my choice but one I'm conflicted about, and I don't like that his lawyer seems unable to return calls, but it is what it is or something.
Everyone's gone home so it's dishwashing time. Nice folks, everyone has their struggles, but no one brought them.
Good lord that was stressful. Nothing that really works as a story, but I certainly can't say nobody brought their issues. I have to remember to collect some people who don't have another place to go for next Christmas, because my actual family and friends work much better when they're on their company manners around strangers -- small, intimate holiday celebrations get nervewracking fast.
Still, no one got bitten, work's not until Monday, and I don'lt have any particular reason not to spend the next few days reading the complete works of H. Rider Haggard on my new Kindle.
Good lord that was stressful. Nothing that really works as a story, but I certainly can't say nobody brought their issues. I have to remember to collect some people who don't have another place to go for next Christmas, because my actual family and friends work much better when they're on their company manners around strangers -- small, intimate holiday celebrations get nervewracking fast.
Still, no one got bitten, work's not until Monday, and I don'lt have any particular reason not to spend the next few days reading the complete works of H. Rider Haggard on my new Kindle.
I'm off work until the Monday after Monday. But I don't even have any Haggard on my Kindle.
I have finished two books that I started in July.
A Nero Wolfe book and one by the guy who excavated Meadowcroft rock shelter.
It's I think two bucks for the complete works. If you don't mind incredible amounts of racism, implausibility, and dead elephants, it's not a bad way to spend some time off.
It sounds like the solution to LB's Christmas guest problem is either international students or crusty punks.
I haven't seen many crusties in Pittsburgh since the G20, but New York probably has some.