Adventures in cooking

Since I haven't had much of a key story to lead up to lately, the motivation to write a post has been somewhat lost. As a result, I've decided to write this one about the more interesting aspects of the last 11 days, some of which involve me trying very hard to cook, but don't expect one key moment or anything.

One of the more interesting stories that I forgot to mention in one of my older posts involves the first time I tried to stove/grill combo a burger. I had put the burger in the oven and was ready to take it out, so I pushed the little tab that opens the door...and it snaps off. Right at this moment, my smoke alarm goes off. Of course I panic and just start throwing things at the smoke alarm while trying to jimmy my oven open. Since then I've just been using a knife where the tab was...it works. I burnt my burger.

This past Friday involved a repeat trip to the Sixth Barrel, but first to a place called Wirströms Pub. The picture amuses me because that particular picture actually makes the place look nice, it isn't. When we got there it was pretty packed, so we grabbed a beer and headed downstairs where a VERY terrible band was playing. We decided to sit as far away from the band as possible, which wound up putting us at a giant table that could've easily fit ten, but fit us pretty nicely. The best part about this bar is that the downstairs has a very low natural ceiling that people had carved things into. Most of it was your normal I <3 U garbage, but someone decided to carve "SURPRISE COCKFACE" on it and there was a big penis drawn next to it. Made my night.

So, back to the Sixth Barrel, which was surprisingly just as awesome as the first time. We were there for maybe ten minutes before we were randomly approached and engaged in conversation with another pretty large group (we only really get chatty, friendly people at this place for whatever reason). I headed to the bathroom after a few drinks, and one of the guys from the other group was there on my way back. He stopped me right before the bar to ask me a question, which I figured had to be about Amy since he made us stop walking. He pauses for a second and goes, "...What's your favorite band? Mine is Dream Theater!" I was caught off-guard a bit, responded I don't know but Dream Theater is great I guess, and walked off to the bar. A friendly guy by the name of Marcus started talking to us about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (pretty interesting they know it here). He tried to quote parts of the show, but he was either really drunk or really Swedish, but it hardly made sense.

Saturday involved nothing, which is probably why I didn't write a post. I did however manage to cook a steak, a one pound salmon steak, and some chorizo sausages throughout the last week, all of which turned out great! Go me!

St. Patrick's day doesn't seem as much of a holiday here as it does back home, but we decided to get a pint anyway (we being Amy and me, just assume that's who I mean always). I ran a little late and by the time I got to the bar there was a huge line, so I went next door to an Irish...maybe Irish restaurant to wait for Amy and get some food. The place was decorated really strangely. They made a sad attempt at decorating by putting up one balloon for each color on the Irish flag and some streamers. The ceiling also had what appeared to be little lights to look like stars...it really just looked terrible. The bench against the wall to sit on the far side of the table was decorated with random throw pillows. The waiter hated me I think because he barely bothered to serve us, but the food was pretty good (some sort of sausage with cheese in it and fries, yum). Urban met up with us which honestly blew my mind because I didn't really expect him to come out, but I was happy that he did. We tried to hit some Irish bars, but eventually the whole night was a bust when we realized all of the bars had gigantic, possibly 30-60 minute long lines. Not very eventful.

I feel like I've waited so long to make this post that I must've missed some things, so I think some time in April I'll make a post to hit all the stories I forgot to write about. Anyway, sorry if this post sucked.

-Brandon