Tuesday, March 28, 2006

some recent things

I went to Bin 22 in Carytown and really liked it. It's Betsy's Coffee by day, but a cute wine bar by night. I tried three different wines (a sampler, not three full glasses!) and liked them all, but I'm not a wine person so I can't remember what they were to tell you. And with it I had some toast with warm cheese and apple and pear slices. You should check it out if you like wine, or cute places. Because it's good for both.

I saw the most awesome Jewish man ever. He had a cowboy hat with a Star of David on it and a novelty tie with more Judaic symbols. And he was old. This was in an actual temple.

My Grandpa didn't die of a heart attack yesterday. Turns out he didn't even have a heart attack. But when we thought he did, and when he woke up for the first time and had blue fingers, he made sure to list the songs he does not want sung at his funeral. "Don't sing 'Shall We Gather at the River' [in a sing-song heavily drugged might not live but in good humor voice]," he said.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

20 Questions

On a just-for-the-heck-of-it trip to Short Pump Mall last night Justin and I found the most amazing game ever. It's a small handheld electronic version of the game we all know from road trips as Twenty Questions. You think of anything in the whole world, and then after you answer a series of twenty questions the game tells you what you were thinking. IT READS YOUR MIND.

Justin tried it first, while I was preoccupied playing Tetris. He thought of spaghetti. Twenty questions later ("Is it bigger than a duck?" "Can you put it in an envelope?") it told Justin exactly what he'd been thinking: "I can't believe you were thinking of... SPAGHETTI." How did it do that?

We tried a few more times, but we were stupid and picked easy things like suitcase, coffee mug (it guessed tea cup), and bed. Then we pulled out the big guns. Ninja. "Is it an animal?" Yes. "Does it have short fur?" No. "Is it dangerous?" Duh. Seventeen questions later: "Is it a NINJA?" Arghh!

At this point we decided the game must be cheating by listening to us say our thing out loud. We thought we could trick it. Covertly we decided our thing would be Bed (a stupid choice we quickly realized, way too easy), but we always said "telescope" out loud. "Is it soft?" "A telescope isn't soft!" we replied as I pressed Yes. But we had no luck. "You tried to trick me...but are you thinking of a BED?"

Seriously guys, this game is amazing. It turns out it comes from a web site, where you can play the exact same game without shelling out the twenty bucks. I just tried it using Cricket Bat, a thing Justin kept wishing we'd tried last night. At question 17 it guessed cork, at 20 it guessed pool cue, at 22 baseball bat, and finally after "Is it originally from Europe?" it said "I am guessing that it is a cricket bat?" So apparently the internet version goes beyond twenty questions when it's LOSING, but it still guessed cricket bat by question 25. Amazing.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Goodbyes

Tomorrow is my last day of work at the coffee shop. Here are some people I will miss:

Chris, the guy who works at UofR, always gets two bagels, a super coffee, and a newspaper, and who has been excited and supportive about my grad school plans while others seem to say "why do you want to do that?"

Gloria, the older black woman who comes in every day for a few hours before she goes to work, always gets a muffin (warmed up, please) and a small coffee, reads the paper without buying it, and loves to tell me when Hechts is having a sale.

Bob, the crazy artist who talks a lot and is honest about how he doesn't really like his wife.

Gary, who always gets a large Coke and enjoys telling me about the upcoming basket/football game he's going to attend.

Willem, the writer from New York who has never actually published anything.

Mary, the older woman who used to get a large iced cappuccino every morning until her doctor told her to cut back, so now she gets this made up drink we do just for her and that she thinks us girls make better than Jerry.

The nice lady who owns the shop next door (I don't know her name, though she's one of the only customers who actually knows mine) and always gets a small coffee but in a medium coffee cup.

And finally, Jerry. Though he could be a pain at times, maybe even most of the time, we had fun.