That Was a Fun Day

Since we got the tickets way back in November, I have been pretty excited about the Mark Knopfler concert for a much longer time than is probably safe. Finally, the big day arrived, roughly 6 months after Kathryn got the tickets and we got our free copy of Get Lucky.

The concert was over at the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods, so we decided that it would be even more fun if we met up with Scott & Amy and Alex & Erica beforehand. This turned into a barbecue that I was unaware of ahead of time, and that turned into surprise burgers!

Scott came up with some kind of crazy concoction for the meat that started with a bunch of diced up vegetables (mushrooms, green peppers and onions), the huge hunks of burger, and then "Burger Seasoning." I believe this may be the same seasoning that was previously documented at a different cookout hosted by Scott and Amy. Those beasts looked something like this:

I am not sure if you can pick up on the enormity of them from the pictures, but they were massive. Maybe this one will give you a better idea of what was going on.

And yes, I ate 2 of them.

After that, it was time to lock up the pups in pug jail and head over to Foxwoods. Side note - I am not a fan of the new road system around Foxwoods, which causes me to freak out unnecessarily and frequently end up going in the wrong direction. Stupid Foxwoods.

Did you know that the MGM Grand and the normal Foxwoods are not connected to each other by any kind of walkway and are actually quite far apart? I know that now. It is a good thing that we arrived with ample time before the show and are excellent Foxwoods navigators, because we got the shuttle and arrived at the MGM way before concert time. In fact, there was plenty of time for us to wander the slot machines and find out that the one Kathryn likes is apparently very popular.

The show was awesome. Not so much the girl who opened, because she kept using the word beautiful over and over and played music that was a little too country for me. I may be imagining the second part though, as the guy who accompanied her had a cowboy hat on, which means I was going to hear country music no matter what he played. However, the Mark Knopfler part was fantastic. The only negative was that he did not wear a headband or wrist bands or a sports coat with weird pants, but his voice was exactly the same as I remember it from those old CDs. It was kind of weird, but it really crushed my memories of 1980s Dire Straits. I hope that Tom Petty doesn't do the same thing in August.

-Jon

Yes, I Know They Feed You at Weddings. . .

But that still didn't stop me from eating "dinner" a few hours beforehand. I met up with Amy and Scott at the hotel around 3 or so. Luckily for us, we found out that the wedding we were there for was at 5:30, which was good since none of us had any idea about the time as of the morning of the event. As a side note, this story doubles as a strong motivator for paying more attention to where I put wedding invitations in the future.

Since the wedding was at 5:30, we figured dinner wouldn't be until somewhere around 9, and that is far too late. We went over to T.G.I. Friday's because it was the closest restaurant that we could see from the hotel.

The winning menu choice: the Jack Daniels burger. Burgers with alcohol or beer-based sauces seem to be the new big thing these days. I would say that this is because they are fantastic. Especially if you order them rare and they actually come that way. Know who could learn something about rare burgers? Uno's. Sometimes there, rare is interpreted as well done, and that is just a terrible thing to do to a burger. This story is kind of rambling.

As for the wedding, it was a good time. Congrats to Scott and Courtney (a different Scott from the previously mentioned one).

-Jon

PS - I wrote this whole post while watching the TV, so anything spelled wrong or anything that makes no sense at all is because of that.

More Fast Food

Now, the first burger after a trip to RF's is always going to suffer from high expectations, so it was not going to bode well for the burger we grabbed on the way home that we stopped at Wendy's. Since I'm not a huge fast food fan in the first place (exception made for In-N-Out Burger of course), there is not much chance that I was going to be wowed by this thing.

After we left Boston, we traveled about 13 minutes before I fell asleep. Then I woke up and found that we had only gone like 3 exits and then hit some ridiculous traffic. It was completely stop-and-go, with most of the emphasis being on the stop part. Finally we decided that route 20 might be a better choice, and weaseled our way off the highway at exit 10A. And that decision brought us to Wendy's.

A long time ago I was told that it's always better at a fast food place to make a special order so that there is no way they can give you a burger that has been sitting a while. Wendy's makes this easy to do because they commit burger Sin #1 and have mayo on their Big Bacon Classic. Side note - the Big Bacon Classic has been demoted from the list of numbered meals. What is that about? Amy and I both opted for the BBC, while Scott chose some sort of chicken looking thing. That burger was exactly what you would expect from Wendy's, with the added bonus of being put together really sloppily.

Three hours after departing, we finally arrived back at Ludlow. This is far too long of a time for that trip. At least the rest of the weekend was super wacky.

-Jon

It's Been Too Long

I don't even remember when the last time I had an R.F. O'Sullivan burger was. I mean, obviously I could look back and figure it out, but that is not going to happen after the number of "sodas" I have consumed at the present. Basically, it's been far too long.

It's pretty much a mini-RPI reunion here at Alex's apartment, which is much smaller than it should be for this number of people. Also, there is currently a dog on my bed. Well, air-mattress.

But I digress.

We went to R.F. O'Sullivan (and Son) for dinner, because that just has to happen. It's literally around the corner. Not going would be a crime against. . . burgers? I am not sure. A crime against someone anyway. Scott and Amy were my ride, so we arrived, drank some #9s, and headed over to meet Erica at the Church of Burgers. After a long wait (like 26 minutes), we got our table and menus, which were completely unnecessary. All 5 of us got various versions of the Blackjack Burger, which, if you recall, is currently the reigning burger champion. Also, we got more beer (I mean soda), which was probably not needed. At least some of it was Summer Ale.

The burger was as delicious as I remember, which is great since a lot of the time things end up being crappy when you try them again later. Like the movie Mighty Ducks? Remember that movie? Watch it again, and you will be incredibly disappointed.

Alright, I should probably end at this point. If the post doesn't make sense, we will just blame it on the fact that I am in quite a bit of pain after dropping a 60-lb weight on my foot this morning. That or the booze. Take your pick.

Editor's note - It is now the next night, and that dog ended up ruining a good night of sleep for at least 3 people. And I still have very little idea what I was trying to convey when I typed this up the first time. Apologies for that. I will (not) try harder in the future.

-Jon

A New Record

After a wild night with the Funbags, I had to make my way down to CT for Amy and Scott's engagement cookout/yard sport extravaganza. And since my car had to spend the night across town, that meant I got a late start on my trip down after walking across town to pick it up. This actually worked out pretty well, because it meant that the food was already ready by the time I arrived.

I am not exactly sure what the seasoning on the burgers was (because the name of the seasoning was Burger Shakers, a somewhat vague title), but it was great. I think the order of events was something along the line of: open a Magic Hat, eat a burger, finish Hank's game of croquet, eat another burger, sit on a hammock, eat another burger (this one only had a bottom bun for some reason, which caused much amusement for everyone else present), sit around making jokes about college, sit around making jokes about pretty much everyone we went to college with, and eat another burger. Yes, I ate 4 burgers. That is a personal best. And, possibly more impressive, there were no repercussions like meat poisoning. I think that record will probably stand for a while, if not forever.

-Jon

This was actually yesterday. . .

Skiing weekend is here!  Technically this is not true since I am actually (attempting) snowboarding, but close enough.  In yet another example of how my life always works itself out, I went from having to drive myself to having a ride with Scott and Amy (and their friend Krystoff) so my life became 100% easier.

Since we were going to Sunday River (in Maine), and Maine is really far away, we decided that we should probably get some food first.  Also, we were taking a really crazy Maine route, which meant that not only were we going to Maine, the land that Massachusetts gave up, we were going to get there by going through Vermont and New Hampshire, 2 places that barely qualify as states.  Clearly food was necessary.

Krystoff was a big fan of Northampton, so upon his word we went over to The Dirty Truth.  They had a lot of beer.  They did not have many burgers on their menu.  This is an unfortunate combination, because I really like the first fact, but the second makes me a little sad.  Fortunately, they did have the option of eating a cheeseburger, so that was enough for me.

That burger was a mystery.  It seemed like it was going to be really good, despite the lack of tomatoes (Melissa and Jen would have enjoyed it).  The thing was cooked to the correct level, there were some crazy chive-like things inside it, and it was at least a full inch thick.  This still wasn't enough, because even all that wasn't enough to make the burger memorable.  Even worse, Paradise City is almost literally across the street, so I would choose that place instead 10 times out of 10.

On the other hand, the ridiculously large selection of beers nearly made up for the burger non-quality.  Weyerbacher Smoked Charlie and Victory Harvest Pilsner are both beers I would definitely have again.  Too bad I'll have to get them at another restaurant.

-Jon