Memorial Day in the WH

This is the first Memorial Day I can recall spending in town in a few years. We usually bug out for points north of here for the first long weekend and unofficial start of summer, but this year, we decided to hang around and take it slow.

I didn’t actually go to the parade – I hate parades. I do, however, appreciate the old-timey Norman Rockwell feel of a town holiday parade. In past years when I got roped into going, WH’s parade had that feeling by the bucketful. Hopefully Blue Back’s presence hasn’t altered that too much.

I was down there around lunch, eating at Au Bon Pain and doing some BBS people watching. The most entertaining thing I saw was a life-imitates-Ras Trent moment, as some douchey white dude with dreads crossed to the other side of the road apparently to avoid crossing paths with what looked like a family of actual Jamaicans.

When, by the way, did the new Au Bon Pain turn so dirty? Tables in there today were strictly a “wash your own” affair, and the bathroom was right out of Trainspotting.

Kids’ baseball was a go. Another thing I appreciate about West Hartford is our parks. They’re generally pleasant and clean, and on days like yesterday there are always families out there appreciating them.

And that’s it, really. Kind of a starting-nowhere, going-nowhere blog entry. But if I can’t be a self-indulgent here, then where?

Worst Dunkin Donuts franchise, greater West Hartford division

(cue drumroll)

And the winner, of The Worst Dunkin Donuts Franchise in the Greater West Hartford Area…(dramatic pause) is: The Bishop’s Corner Dunkin’ Donuts (next to mcdonald’s).

It takes a lot of hard work, commitment, and perseverance to win an award such as this. You have to really Try (with a capital ‘T’) to stand out in a sea of mediocre fast food and crappy service, but our winner takes the cake (waits until it’s stale, and then sells it to me).

For never having a single donut anyone would actually want to eat on hand after 8 a.m….

For taking 10 minutes to heat up a sandwich in a 30 second oven, and still not getting it right…

For employing only the Most Dramatically Apathetic people available in the state of CT…

For having a cold drinks cooler without any diet soda on one day, and without any regular soda on the next, that is perfectly piss-warm on both…

For selling iced coffee that tastes like it might have been brewed in the recycled motor oil drum at the gas station across the parking lot…

FOR ALL THESE SENTENCE FRAGMENTS AND MORE…I commend you. You have managed to make me wonder aloud, fascinated, on multiple occasions, as I ask myself, “Why the hell do I keep coming here?”

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I actually decided to nominate this particular DD, campaign, and push the vote through the academy a couple of months ago. The realization struck me like a blinding light from on high as I waited in line watching all three of the floor employees attempt to fix the oven that one of them broke, while the line of customers stacked up to the door and their manager-type sat in a chair in the dining area, apparently disinterested.

Cocoa

Finally got around to eating at Cocoa tonight. Short version: nice place. I’d have no problems visiting again in the future. I found it just a little pricy, though portions were ample and the food was well-executed.

I had popcorn shrimp with ‘dynamite’ sauce, which was nice and spicy if a little on the salty side. My wife started with a tempura California roll that was not only delicious, but entrée sized.

Speaking of entrées, I had a tortellini special, with a cream sauce, veal, and tomatoes. It was decadent. My wife got a really nice piece of salmon from the regular menu; it was also excellent.

We were stuffed and had to bring most of our entrées home, so no word on the dessert situation.

Overall, Cocoa is a quality addition to the West Hartford center scene. They’ve got outdoor seating in both the front and back of the building, if that’s your sort of thing. Given the awesome appetizers we had, Cocoa is also a worthy choice for just getting drinks and apps, too.

Random WH

Getting some last minute mom’s day shopping in at REI. Hope you’re feeling outdoorsy, mom!

Baseball season

Last night was the sort of evening that was clearly designed with kids playing baseball in mind. When it isn’t too cold, too hot, or raining, May has perfect weather

The Courant doesn’t get it

Update, 5/13/09: They stopped with the obnoxious advertising (at least for now) – this morning’s Courant.com doesn’t have a mouseover action anywhere in evidence. I don’t know whether to celebrate that I can read the Courant online again or be disappointed that my self-righteous rant is no longer pertinent .

As someone who checks the Courant’s site most days to see what’s up in CT, I’ve been meaning to make note of this.

Above we find the Courant’s home page, an actual unretouched screenshot in all of its mouseover-happy flash-based glory. Seriously, all it’s lacking is Bonzi Buddy and I’d be right back in the web circa 1999/2000. I know, I know…ad revenue needed to keep the site afloat, blah blah blah. I don’t care though. I’m certainly not going back there as long as “Il Douchebags” are going to pop out of the top corner of my screen at me.

n.b. to the Courant, here’s how you pull off a news webpage that people might actually consider visiting more than once:

Even though my screenshot was flippant, you’re welcome to try and calculate the content-to-ads ratio on the above the fold home page of both of those sites and compare them. Only to make the contest fair, when you’re doing your calculations for the Courant’s site, you have to have a video of a Clown selling mail-order herbal viagra surreptitiously start on your screen. Otherwise you haven’t gotten the full effect of reading Courant.com.

Rainbow over Bishops Corner

Not sure if you can see it (iPhone camera…crappy), but a rainbow, over our own Bishop’s Corner branch library. So where’s LeVar Burton?

Missing Mailboxes

Did anyone else notice that about 1/2 of our roadside mailboxes have surreptitiously vanished?  I went for my nightly walk last night, Netflix returns in hand, and the mailbox I usually drop them in was gone.  Up the street…also gone.  Down to the next block…ditto.  I did finally find one, farther along my evening walk’s route.

Weird, huh?

I assume they weren’t getting enough use to justify their continued existence.  Oh well.  It’s not like I can’t put my outgoing mail on my home mailbox for pickup.  I think I’ll miss that reassuring metalic swish-clunk! that a traditional mailbox makes when you drop something inside and let the lid slam shut.

The smell of silicone in the morning

Have you ever found yourself re-caulking your shower at 9 a.m.?  How about with a 12 p.m. deadline for a report at work?

It occurs to me that I have whittled procrastination down to its most vital core.  I am freebasing procrastination.  Procrackstination, I call it.

Today is one of those days…

As snow days go, today is sort of a head-scratcher.  Yeah, it was messy; but it was far from the worst any of us has seen. Do West Hartford’s already shortened Wednesdays mean that they have to cancel rather than just delay?  Anyone know?

Better safe than sorry, I guess, but I wouldn’t trade a week of early-January days off for a single glorious late-June beach day.   Oh well, hope the kids are enjoying an extra post-holiday veg-out day.

 

Happy New Year, by the way.  I’m still out here.  Just not much to say lately.