That Was The Weekend That Was

And it was a busy one, even though I never got to the gun show.

The Saturday BlogMeet was a good one, with Brigid, Midwest Chick, Mr. B, Joanna, Og, Og's pal, Old Grouch, Tam and Shootin' Buddy gathering at Claddagh on 96th St.

...Now, that Irish bar's part of a chain; as such, my expectations were on the low side. I was wrong! The food is very good and the decor is neither excessively twee nor overly faux. (I had Irish stew and bread pudding, a dessert of which I am excessively fond, and tried Tam's corned beef and cabbage egg rolls, tasty).

Conversation was unusually wide-ranging (I blame Og -- see the links to Brigid, Mr. B and Midwest Chick's accounts, above) and included Old Grouch handing around an e-reader (Barnes & Noble's "Nook," which has a nice form factor and an excellent display; it tempts me more than any other I've seen, though even it still flips pages a bit slowly for me). The book I am currently digging through, David Alan Grier's When Computers Were Human was handed around, too. (I'm about 2/3 through and recommend it for anyone interested in the other side of the rise of modern computing, the "computing labs" filled with busy pencil-pushers that preceded ENIAC; it sheds a lot of light on the gap between punched-card tabulators and early electronic computers, too. My copy is from Half-Price books; follow Tam's Amazon link to find it, used, for under $20) . Og also shared one of The Wonderful Things his pet beasts were making, untouched by human hands, at a recent exhibit. (I'm being deliberately vague -- you wanna know more, you gotta get to an Indy BlogMeet!).

Sunday, I'd hoped to scooter down to the gun show. Instead, I got my motorscooter running, made a short expedition to the supermarket and found rising wind and threatening clouds made any longer expedition highly questionable. A spattering of rain and peals of thunder ended the question; I found other things to do 'til BlogMeet time.

I left the house just in time for pouring rain, almost too heavy to drive in for a short while, and dashed through raindrops to join Shermlock and Mrs. Shomes and Old Grouch at the Broad Ripple Brewpub. Tam showed up shortly after and tried their latest seasonal offering, "Big Boy Ale," a "strong ale...with dry hopping (says so on the menu)." It is very tasty; they say it drinks like an Imperial IPA and current menus list the ABV at 8.4%! I only had a sip; my dinner was calling: "Oktoberfest," apples, red cabbage and onions all cooked up, topped with mashed potatoes and grilled slices of sausage. Yum! Tam pronounced her Rubenburger delicious and Mrs. Shomes enjoyed the fine sirloin & mushroom rotini. Lots of good conversation, on a gray and drizzly afternoon.

And there you have it, a split BlogMeet.

Let's start talking about a time and place for November, now.