Saturday, February 28, 2009

A Perfect Day

Wednesday was my birthday. I’m…well, I’m quite young compared to the seventy-three year-old college basketball player in Tennessee. I burned a personal day. Sleeping in until six, I started things off with a cup of coffee and a little ESPN on the TV. Then it was off to the gym for a nice work out. My wife and I relaxed with coffee and muffins at the local bakery. I’m telling you, this is the life. Slightly jacked up on the coffee, I headed over to the nearest book store to pick up a couple of writing magazines.

The main event was opening day of Spring Training with my seventeen year-old, Macaulay. The Angels played the White Sox at Tempe Diablo Stadium. We basked in the Arizona sunshine, eating hot dogs and Italian Ices. As a father of five girls, my sports IQ has diminished over the last couple of decades. The only person I recognized was Angels coach, Jim Abbot, and this is due to the fact he only has one arm. You don’t need to know the names of the players to enjoy a baseball game, not when the sun is shining and the company is right. The Angels won thirteen to four. Or was it thirteen to three? Either way, it worked out good for those of us in attendance. You see, when the Angels score ten or more runs, everyone in attendance gets free chicken wings from The Claim Jumper Restaurant. So Macaulay and I stopped at the Claim Jumper where the hostess handed us each a bag of hot wings. I know chicken wings are bad for you but man they were good.

Back at the house, my wife showed up with Pei Wei take out. I had the Asian coconut curry chicken. Among my gifts were a t-shirt that reads IRISH I Had Another Beer, a sign for the garage that reads Free Beer Tomorrow, and a couple of six packs of Zwiec Polish beer. I think my family is trying to tell me to drink more beer? Zweic is my favorite beer – very expensive so I only drink it on special occasions. You have to buy Polish beer at the Chinese market. I guess this is because we don’t have a Polish market. I'm sure there are Polish markets. I wonder if they sell Chinese beer. I enjoyed a couple of Zweics and tried to follow what was going on with Lost before hitting the sack at eight-thirty. How can you beat a day like this?

5 comments:

Rick Rivers said...

Happy Birthday, Dude. Tsingsao(?) is a good Chinese beer. I've been drinking Mickey's Big Mouth for years (got them on sale the other day for $10.99 a 12-pak!). I like the little puzzles on the inside of the cap. Good Mexican beers are Bohemia and Negra Modelo, a dark beer.

Blues said...

Then a late happy birthday from behalf of unknown me.

One of my best mates is Polish, so I might ask her if they sell Chinese beer here on the Polish market... another mate of mine lives in China - I wonder if they sell Polish beer??
(Now you got me pondering!!!)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!

anders oglethorpe said...

Happy birthday (old) Buzzard. Good thing you've still got a good woman to keep you looking good for such an old man. SKOL!

Are you of Polish ancestry or do you just like Polish beer? One night at a small dinner party at my Polish dentist's house we had chilled Belvidere vodka w/ caviar on crackers. Now I'm not a huge fan of caviar, but throw in a few shots of the Belvidere and things went down quite nicely.

I know there's a Polish birthday song that starts out "SKOLA, SKOLA" but then I can never catch up to the rest of the song. So much for making my half Polish grandmother proud of my Polish language skills.

#167 Dad said...

Rick,
Thanks. I'm a Coors Light or Mic Ultra guy. Pacifico is my favorite Mexican beer.

Bluesfrau,
Thank you.I'm a little mixed up too but those Poles do know how to brew the barley pop. And everybody respects the German beer.

Clif,
Thanks. I'm off next week so we'll have to grab breakfast at Wildflower.

Ogelthorpe,
Thanks, man. No, I'm not Polish. My wife works with a girl from Poland. We attended her wedding last year. I've bbe in love with Polish beer ever since. The food wasn't bad either.