Let the Nerdiness Begin

This was an unexpected burger, which is often the best kind. Actually, I am not sure why I said that, because it's not true. I would estimate that unexpected burgers have exactly the same percentage chance of being delicious as a planned burger. So really, this entire opening paragraph is kind of pointless. Time to get down to business.

Alex and I embraced our inner nerd (which I openly do on a daily or bi-daily basis since I teach math and have to be a nerd by default) and hit up PAX East 2010 to see what all the fuss is about.* In my opinion, we had actually set our nerd bars far too high. While we did see many silly things (we had joked about making BINGO cards with things like "a person carrying a plastic sword" or "an article of clothing containing a Triforce"), there appeared to be many people that are normal. Well, as normal as it gets when you are at a convention put on by people dedicated to video games and attended by similar people.

We stayed there for a few hours, checking out some upcoming games, playing some demos, and rocking some old school Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. Remember that game? It was pretty much the (2nd) greatest thing about owning an SNES, behind Chrono Trigger. I am probably going to go home and buy that from the Wii Shop.

I am very easily distracted lately.

After we had gotten our fill of nerdy activities for the day, we walked around the corner to a little place called Bukowski's Tavern. It was really little. As in about 15 feet wide. It was also packed. We got the last 2 spots at the bar, which was good because we were both starving. I chose the BBQ Bacon Burger, because I can't resist a bacon topped burger.

It was delicious! Almost as good as the burger from the night before. The only thing that I would have liked a little more would have been if the BBQ sauce hadn't been so sweet. It was like a weird combination of meat and sweetness. It also was nice that the burger was pretty close to rare, just into medium-rare territory. That is definitely a key factor in burger enjoyment.

Their fries are also good, and they don't give you like 3 lbs of them which makes you feel like a failure at the end when you can't eat them all. Way to ruin my self-esteem, other restaurants!

-Jon

* - There is a very good chance that this link will be dead at some point in the very near future. In that case, I don't know what to tell you.

This Is Not a Surprising Revelation

I did a lot of things today. I went to PD. I drew 4 more panels for the Cupcake Saga (which means people need to get off my back for a couple days). I made 3 ridiculous mini-books, one of which would probably get me fired. I officiated a volleyball game. I went candlepin bowling. And all of that means nothing because this is a blog completely dedicated to cheeseburgers, which means all of these stories are not related to our main focus.

All of that was just some distraction stuff because I ate a Blackjack Burger tonight, and it's widely known (by all 4 of my readers) that the Blackjack Burger is the ultimate burger at this point in time. Basically that means that I don't really have anything to say about it, unless you want me to start a new blog exclusively about Blackjack Burgers. Is the world really ready for Mmmm, Blackjack Burgers? You know what, don't even answer. It's not happening. That's just as ridiculous of a suggestion as Mmmm, Burritos. Which I have also already considered today. I am going to pimp the shit out of this Mmmm, [Plural Noun] idea. Maybe one of them will pay off and end my working career.

The short version of this post is that today's Blackjack Burger was excellent, but not as excellent as previous Blackjack Burgers. There was also the opportunity to meet RF himself (he's called Sully by the employees). Except apparently he's a creeper, so maybe it's a good thing that we didn't meet him and end up as lampshades in some guy's creepy apartment.

This is what the Greatest Burger So Far looks like. Notice the sauce, which is made of 95% deliciousness and 5% spiciness. Also, those aren't fries. They are like gigantic potato wedges masquerading as fries. You can see them behind the onion rings that I didn't order but got anyways.

I also drank way more beer than I am currently capable of drinking at the present, so that may explain the rambling in this post. That, or I am trying to keep the post length up. I am not even sure.

-Jon

A Poor Business Plan

After an extended burger break, I get 2 burgers in 2 days! When it rains, it pours, or whatever that silly expression is.

The original plan for today was to go out to lunch with Mom, Chuck and Chris somewhere in Northampton. Admittedly, that's not much of a plan, but that's how we roll here. Things got more detailed with the real plan becoming to go to lunch at Paradise City Tavern. And then I got super psyched because I was going to eat that giant burger with the pulled pork.

As we were on our way to meet them, I got a call that Paradise City was closed. I thought that 1:00pm was kind of a strange time to be closed if you want to sell food to people, but I guess not. The really strange part is that according to the website, the place should have been open. However, according to the fact that all the tables had the chairs on top of them, it seems like Paradise City is operating on a new business plan where you don't let customers eat.

I have a sinking feeling that maybe things are not going great for them.

We ended up going to Fitzwilly's instead, because it's pretty much across the street. I pretty much decided not to get the Jack and Meunster Burger, because that would have been super embarrassing to write a third post about it. I ended up choosing the Mushroom Cheddar Burger, because it sounded like a winning plan. And then I had it with the red onion, lettuce and tomato, because those seem like normal toppings for a burger. It was really big.

I still can't figure out why this place can't seem to cook a burger right. When it's not pink anymore, you have cooked it too long. So stop cooking it while it's still pink. Problem solved.

It's still pretty huge, right? I think I dislocated my jaw eating it.

-Jon