Hiatus Over

Last night, I ate my own ice cream, said good-bye to some friends, and saw White Rabbits play to a huge crowd at Mojo's.

We've actually been making ice cream for several weeks now. R's made concoctions of lavender, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla with real vanilla bean. They've all been good, but I had to get in on the action.

Using a recipe from Perfect Scoop for a Guinness Stout ice cream, I made a batch. Guinness is a little on the light side for me these days, so I upped the ante. I used a Bell's Expedition Stout. The Expedition is a Russian Imperial, meaning there's more alcohol (10.5% ABV as compared to 4.2% for your typical draught), notes of chocolate and coffee, and more alcohol. Said alcohol caused the ice cream to be softer than usual, but it was oh-so-good. The creamy alcohol in this treat reminded me of the vanilla gelato I once had in Italy that was potent enough to knock me on my ass.

So, the ice cream was good.

After the baby was asleep, I slipped out to the 'Tag to see some friends off. I taught with K for a couple of years and became pretty good buds with her partner TJ. He recently landed a gig with a university in Colorado, so they were packing their newborn twins for a move to the "Centennial State."

While we talked, I made the mistake of telling them how hard it is to leave your home and set up shop in a new town that's not quite as cool as your previous town. (Have you read this before?) I quickly backtracked and cited all the reasons my friends will be fine. And they will.

Listening to them talk about leaving made me dream of greener pastures. The fact that two of the cooler people I know are leaving COMO makes me a little sad to be stuck here. I sometimes dream of the day I'll close down this blog as I pack boxes for an exotic locale like Louisville, Pittsburgh, or Milwaukee.

Meh. Moving on...

The winning streak is on. Earlier this week, I won two tickets to see White Rabbits at Mojo's. A message on Twitter popped up, encouraging followers to enter the drawing. My call came Monday.

The strange part is that I went through three or four people before somebody finally joined me for the free admission. They missed out.

I don't know I've ever seen Mojo's as packed as it was last night. It seems COMO-ians have finally realized that we have a buzz-worthy band who happens to make great music. They even live in Brooklyn and tout Britt Daniel-produced records. Of course it was packed. (See photo below.)

The Rabbits were good, too. Aside from an unwelcome Walkmen snark I heard, the crowd seemed to enjoy it as well. The band was tight. They whipped through a blistering set of favorites old and new. There was even an appropriately timed encore.

The best part for this daddy of a nine-month-old was that I was home by midnight. You can't beat ice cream, good friends, and rock 'n roll squeezed between 7:30 and 12:00. You can't.

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BTW-Last night marked maybe the second or third time I've been spotted as "that comoprozac guy" or something. Bob (I hope I'm not butchering or misremembering that.) was gracious enough to introduce himself and compliment the blog. Hence the end of the hiatus.

Still, there are changes to come. Just look along the right-hand side of this blog and you'll start to notice some changes.