Robot Journal : The Doggie Days of August: Burgers, Rainstorms, and Free Grapes

8/21/2011

Pirates
Years ago Mrs. John Ball would review books for her various jobs (this was before she became a famous professional book writer-er) and from time to time would gift us with books that she thought we might like. One book that was given specifically to be was The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab: A novel by Gideon Defoe. I friggin loved this book. I would by in bed reading it and laughing and reading portions of it outloud to the very patient Mrs. Robot who was invariably reading something quite serious.
“Someone should make this into a movie”, I exclaimed.
Finally, someone is.

From Gideon Defoe's website: Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures are making a film based on The Pirates! In Adventure With Scientists.

Watch the trailer. Looks fun, yes? The pirates are trying to win a “Pirate of the Year” contest. This will be great.

GoPro!
I bought a GoPro camera. Holy moly, it's pretty sweet. 1080p HD and pretty indestructible.
Videos to come!

I will buy

As a teen, I was a fan of the Renault-Elf-Gitane cycling team. Who wouldn’t be - they had lots of cool guys on their team. I just came across some guy’s FLICKR set of his Renault-Elf-Gitane team bike. OMIGOD. The teen boy inside of me (ewwww) is about to freak out. I will my buy my own. One day.

LGA Vomit
There was a guy throwing up in the stall. At the airport. In the bathroom.
Holy moly, I was so glad that I wasn't that guy. The worst.

Speaking of the Worst
Sunday morning I’m having my early morning bike ride and going through midtown and hit two street fairs setting up (one on 3rd and the other on Madison). What crap those street fairs are. Who are these vendors? Where do they come from?

Summer Streets
Speaking of midtown, this past Saturday was the last Summer Streets. Did you go? We rode it twice. Saturday I used it as a shortcut (not much of one) on my way back from Washington Heights and spent most of the time guffawing at guys on their cell phones trying to ride and not run into barriers.

Bottom
There’s a guy cleaning his dog’s bottom on the sidewalk. I just passed him.
Glad I’m not that guy also.

Monsoon rolls in. The A train saves the day.

A-Train Save
Friday night I’m getting on my bike to ride up to Washington Heights where Mrs. Robot is staying while taking care of a friend’s pup. Kind of a mini-staycation. Were you in NYC this past Friday? If you were, you are now thinking, “Mr. Robot Journal, there was quite a big storm that night. I hope you didn’t get yourself rained upon!”
I knew things were looking bad when the sky turned that creepy green color. And the trees started really getting blown. And shit was flying everywhere.

I was in a bit of a bind because I wanted to ride up there and have my bike the next morning so I could go on some sort of crazy ride, but I also didn’t want to get swept up in some sort of artisan/localvore Brooklyn tornado craziness.
So I took the train. The subway station is about a block and a half from RobotHQ and it was a crazy minute ride. Wind. Big ol’ cranky raindrops. Moms with strollers running for cover. Yoga mats everywhere.
But, serious. It was a crazy storm.

The whole point: While on the train with my bike, a nice gentlemen offered me some grapes. He was eating them. Saw me looking at them and politely offered me some.
I was also polite and said I was fine but neglected to mention why I was looking at him (which was because he was throwing the seeds on the floor and on my wheel).

Burgers
Are you in the Cobble Gardens/Carroll Hill area and jonesing for a burger? Well, you’ll do fine as there are many good burger places.
Prime Meats. Henry Public. Strong Place. Heck, even Bar Tabac does a pretty good burger. We’ve added Two 8 Two to our burger list. They make slightly smallish burgers (which is fine with my slightly smallish stomach) and (most importantly) their meat comes from the yummy (as the Yelpers say) Paisanos butcher shop down the street.
We went there Saturday. Beer. Burgers with poblano chiles, sweet potato fries, and a greek salad. Good times.

Last thing...
Brooklyn has bike parking spaces!
We are so Portland-y.

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