Stogie Nights

It was a good weekend, which made my case of The Mondays even worse than usual. We kicked things off at The Exec’s house Friday night with cigars, drinks and a little girl talk. #1, TCG, The Exec and I had the place to ourselves. His kids were out and he apparently had a tacit agreement with his wife that she would spend the evening in the garage.

I decided to abstain from the stogies because I wasn’t in the mood to barf, but I did enjoy a little second hand smoke. Usually this type of event calls for cognac, but The Exec was having an authentic O’Douls Ersatz Amber Ale and #1 was enjoying a diet Dr. Pepper. Can you imagine some late 19th century pols and fat cats sitting around sipping Dr. Pepper with their cigars? At least TCG was quaffing a martini.

The conversation ran the gamut from Kona coffee to world history. TCG had just come back from Kona, where he had visited many coffee farms and had sampled some of their finest. That got us onto the topic of #1’s morning routine, which starts with him making a single cup of coffee with special pods. He then uses the spent pods to exfoliate, showers, puts his hair in a Sanjaya Ponyhawk and drives his Oscar Mayer Weinermobile to work. I then gave the boys a lecture on the Josep Broz Tito regime in post war Yugoslavia, which I completely fabricated. They bought it. There were no squabbles to taint the evening and we all went home gruntled.

During our evening, #1 had asked why I had not blogged recently on Gonzo Gate and the other goings on in Washington. I guess every time that I think about the barrel of monkeys – apologies to primates everywhere - that is the George W. Bush administration, it puts me in a sour mood. I’m going to have to agree with the bumper sticker I saw in SF recently, which plainly stated that “Nixon is no longer the worst president ever”. Even one of W’s top campaign strategists, Matthew Dowd, has now jumped off the bandwagon and “expressed his disappointment in Bush’s leadership”. Disappointment? Leadership? So what made you finally wake up and smell the toast pal!

On Saturday we had outstanding meal at Azure in San Carlos. It’s been open for only three months but is already a top spot on my list of the mid-Peninsula’s best. Check it out.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/21/FDGK8ONHOK1.DTL&hw=azure&sn=001&sc=1000

We were joined by TCG and Mrs. TCG. We started off with cocktails. They did not carry TCG’s favorite vodka, Ciroc, not to be confused with Cirroc, SNL’s Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. TCG took it with aplomb, as opposed to getting his undies in a bunch, as I would have. However, I did alert the management to the “Designer Vodka Watchlist”, which sends out a weekly mailer to all subscribers.

Things were going quite well for most of the evening. Everyone had an excellent starter and entrée but then there was the faux pas. Mrs. TCG denigrated the choice of tequila, Sauza, used on the most recent episode of my reality show, “Tequila Navel Shots on My Kitchen Table”. I don’t want to say it cast a pall on the evening but I think a little more decorum was called for. She tried to make up for it by saying she’ll be bringing a top of the line tequila to my birthday party. I’ll believe it when I see it.

I also got an email from The Upgrade King this weekend. The UK is like a coach or mentor, always pushing you to excel, seeing potential even when you can’t. His latest idea is for me to embed videos into my blog. The only problem is he doesn’t realize that I’m already in over my head. I did, though, get the latest digital camera because of his inspiration. Here’s the first photo taken with it, which is TCG and me at dinner Saturday night.