The Thai House

Holy moly, I love Thai food. The Thai House in Winfield, WV serves some of the best Thai cuisine in the Charleston region. Sure, Winfield is in the middle of BFE, but it's worth every second of the twenty minute drive from our house. I recently stopped there on my way back from a business trip to Huntington.

The picture shows my lunch serving of Pad Thai with beef. It's hot and sweet. It includes noodles, carrots, peanuts, beef and a bunch of other Asian goodness (that means I'm clueless as to what all's in it). It doesn't really matter, though. It tastes like a million frickin' bucks.

I'd blog a little more about the Thai House, but I hear my lovely wife rattling the dice for a game of Yahtzee. Yep, it's getting crazy on this Saturday night.

Peace. ;)

Subway is taking over the world.

45 minutes ago...

Friend: What's for lunch?

Me (mindlessly): Subway, I guess.

What the hell is it about Subway? I mean, really... is it that good? I pose this question to you as I sit here in my office inhaling a toasted veggie on wheat.

Why was Subway the first thing that popped in my head? Is it their nonstop advertising (seriously, when will those construction workers ever figure out the "Five Dollar Footlong" song)? Is it because there's a Subway in every Walmart, outdoor mall, gas station and on every street corner? The frickin' things are everywhere. Is it because "it's healthy?" One slice of cheese and a little mayo and that's out the door. So what is it?

I can tell you what it isn't... their food. When's the last time you had something at Subway and said to yourself, "Wow... that was great?" And don't tell me you never go to Subway so you wouldn't know. Half of the city of Charleston was at the East End Subway during my lunch break getting their microwaved chicken on toasted cardboard. So yeah, I know you eat there. The place even had a drive-thru! Cars were blocking traffic in the street so they could get in line at the Subway drive-thru. Quite honestly, that's dumb.

Quizno's, Blimpie, Hero Hut, Sheetz, Jersey's, Steak Escape, Penn Station, my refrigerator and any other place that serves subs are all better. So why the hell did myself and half the Charleston metro area end up at the East End Subway for lunch today? Quite simply, I believe if you tell the American public anything over and over again, have a catchy jingle and can supply an absurd amount of access to your product, people will eat it up.

I just did.

(burp)

Happy First Anniversary to My Wife!

I love my wife.

:)

The Streak

September 7, 1996... that's when it started. I was a freshman at WVU and little did I know that a 34-9 Mountaineer win against Western Michigan would mark the beginning of something that would end eleven years later. That's right, I attended every single home game at Mountaineer Field from September 7, 1996 to November 25, 2006. That's 68 WVU home games in a row. Nearly eleven complete seasons. Slightly disgusting, right?

There were highs and lows. Some of the highs were really high like WVU's 2003 28-7 victory over the #3 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies. That party lasted all day and night. Then there were the lows... like the Mountaineers' 10-7 loss to the Miami Hurricanes in 1996. Miami blocked a WVU punt and ran it in for a touchdown with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. It took me a month to recover from that one.

Rain (2003 Cincinnati), snow (1996 Syracuse), cold (2005 Pitt) or heat (1998 Ohio State), it didn't matter. If they played the game, I was there. I changed work schedules. I bribed bosses. I missed classes (darn those Thursday night games). I missed birthday parties and anniversaries. I even missed Thanksgivings. That's a pretty big deal because I really like food. WVU football came first, though. I was ruthless..

I'm not even counting away games and bowl games. There were 3 trips to Maryland, 2 trips to Cincinnati, one trip to Pitt, one trip to East Carolina, one trip to Virginia Tech. There was one Music City Bowl, 2 Gator Bowls and one Sugar Bowl. That makes 80 games in eleven years. God, what a whack job.

So that brings me to the point of this post. I've missed 5 games over the last three seasons. The first two were due to VERY close friend's weddings. The last three have all come this year. I could have gone to all three if I really wanted. That's right. I chose not to attend these three games. I wasn't sick. I wasn't busy... nothin'. I just didn't care if I went or not.

Why don't I care this year? I can't put my finger on it. I've been through bad seasons before. Two hour drives are nothing. I've had low expectations in the past. I've gotten pumped up for Kent State, Tulsa, Idaho and Miami of Ohio... USF, UCONN and Louisville are better than them. What the heck is my deal? The following equation helped me figure it out:

Me = Old

What can I say? Sometimes I enjoy being at home with my wife and two cats more than attending football games.

I hear jaws dropping at 653 Gifford, the Gladesville Road and in Marysville, Ohio. I know... it surprised me, too.

Rogue's Double Dead Guy Ale

I absolutely love Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. It's a domestic amber beer brewed in Oregon. It has its caramel. It has its hops. There's just the right amount of fizz (some beer enthusiasts probably cringe when I use that term, but I don't care). Basically, I thought it was about as good as a beer could get. Until....

Until I tried Rogue's Double Dead Guy Ale. Holy moly! Talk about Christmas for my mouth. You see, since West Virginia recently passed the "craft beer law" we can now buy beer with more than 6% alcohol by volume. This opens the door to beers like the Double Dead Guy Ale (9% ABV). As I've come to find, the more alcohol in beer, the greater and more vibrant the taste. So, yeah... more caramel, more fruit and more hops! It's a taste explosion.

Check it out sometime.

Happy Halloween Wednesday!

H-A-Double-L-O-Double-You-Double-E-And-N Spells Halloween!

PurpAnd/WVU Football/Pittsburgh

Here's PurpAnd (my wife's cousin from Sacramento) drinking a Fishbowl at Mario's Fishbowl in Morgantown. He was extremely amused by the Fishbowl patron's cheers and "eat sh!t Pitt" chants directed towards people who walked through the front door. I guess it's a long-standing Fishbowl tradition on game weekends.

Here's our mini-tailgate. I was a little sick during the middle of the week and we didn't want to make our regular tailgate friends uncomfortable by showing up. We tailgated on our own and had a swell time!

Here's my wife and PurpAnd at the game. WVU won 28-24. Almost exactly one week to the day, UCONN's starting cornerback Jasper Howard was murdered in front of his student union in Hartford. WVU honored him with a memorable moment of silence before the game. By the way, PurpAnd, you're allowed to come back since WVU won.
After WVU handled UCONN, PurpAnd, my wife and I all headed to Pittsburgh. Our first stop was Primanti Bros.
PurpAnd and I both had a Pittsburgher. It was a cheesesteak topped with slaw, fries and provolone cheese then thrown between two slices of Italian bread. Adam Richman from Man vs. Food stopped in for one of these sandwiches during a recent episode.

The next morning we headed to breakfast with my wife's parents at the Grand Concourse at Station Square in downtown Pittsburgh.


And we finished it off with a trip to the top of Mount Washington for a few snapshots of the city. Swell time, PurpAnd. Come back next year and we'll do it again.