The One Hundred and Tenth...

Number One Hundred and Ten:

Chick-fil-A, Lunch, Office, Chicken Sandwich

Lunch was in the office today. Note the obnoxiously large printer that we really only use for basic printer, yet it MUST do a vast amount of tasks; the pile of books just behind that, some in need of repair, others for who knows what I forget the reason why they are there now; the empty book cart to prove we are actually working while Carolyn is off vacationing; and the Clifford poster created by one of our daycare classes to say thank you for being a Bookmobile. Yup, I'd wager that most Bookmobile offices have this look.

Officestache!

The One Hundred and Ninth...

Number One Hundred and Nine:

Garnett's Cafe, Lunch, Roast beef and swiss

We were running errands and happened to be in the neighborhood, so Garnett's was a perfect choice. It was just 11:30 and we were the first people there. I love sitting at the bar here. It's a small joint, eloquently quaint, and while the tables for two are nice, this bar has just the right feel. It really does give you the whole 40s or 50s lunch vibe, especially when you are moseyed up to the bar. Plus I have never had a bad conversation with the staff that serves us from there. Delightfully casual. We were initially planning on one of those great pies or cakes for dessert but Lisa made the decision to bake at home later, plus that roast beef and swiss (with horseradish) will beat you nearly every time. So good! Anyway, this is a kind of seek and findstache...hidden --well, ish.

The One Hundred and Eighth...

Number One Hundred and Eight:

Avalon Restaurant, Dinner, Grilled Beef Teres Major

Lisa's best friend since childhood, Mitch, was in town for a visit. They went to Williamsburg for part of the day and were originally planning on dinner there. It turned out that dinner at 4:30 probably was a bit too early and they decided to come back to Richmond, plus Mitch really wanted to participate in the Napstache! We were planning on Comfort, but it was absurdly crowded at the sidewalk, then Tarrant's thwarted us with an hour and fifteen minute wait. It was a good thing after all because we wound up at one of our favorite locations with one of our favorite waiters in town. Avalon provided the immediate table and Stephen wound up being our awesome friendly waiter. He rules! We were all smitten with the Beef dish followed by the flourless chocolate cake and a wonderful time.

Mitchstache!

The One Hundred and Seventh...

Number One Hundred and Seven:

Dots Back Inn, Lunch, Tuna Melt

Noah Scalin is writing another book, a sort of follow up to the 365 Make Something Every Day and he wanted me to be in it! As a sidebar, which I am not sure what that will entail, but I am still honored! We met at Dots so he could do a picture for it, and he brought his pal Shelia Gray. We chatted a bit about projects and writing and stuff; good times! Noah had the black bean nachos, a deliciously generous plate with about half a pint of sour cream on it! Shelia and I ordered tuna melts, one of the best in town I'd wager. I blabbed a little too much I fear, blame it on the lack of sleep, but I think they enjoyed the company. I did! Anyway, we were all cracking each other up and Noah took some great pictures of me, then I did my 'stache here, Shelia was inspired as well and wanted to do one.


I had chatted earlier about opening up the blog for submissions as it continues, thinking it would be a great way to get people to join in. That will be coming soon, so get your napkins ready people!

The One Hundred and Sixth...

Number One Hundred and Six:

Da Lat, Lunch, Tofu Curry

My first trip here. I am so used to Mekong, plus this place is a little further, but I have heard nothing but good about this place. And it was. I kind of envisioned a mini-Mekong in a really small place with a limited menu, but when Gina and I went into the place, wow! Quite spacious! Lots of space = lots of good people watching. There were many pairs of ladies of various age and fashion, the two that stuck out the most were the ones near us that weren't getting their waiters attention soon enough. Oh, and the ones directly beside us, the blonde particularly, that kept catching Gina and I doing goofy things while eating. See those dudes to the right in the picture? Funny moment from them; at one point I looked around and the two on either side were HEAVY into texting WHOEVER, while the poor guy in the middle had none. Reminded me of a Dr. Seuss story. The menu was equal to any Vietnamese place around, very similar to 'Kong, I believe it is a cousin that runs the joint. Anyway, nice place!

Latstache!

The One Hundred and Fifth...

Number One Hundred and Five:

Riverbound Cafe, Lunch, Cuban Pork Sandwich

After a pretty quick and painless training session on paperback cataloging at work, Emily and I had the chance to head up to Riverbound for lunch. First though, I had to get a couple of flyers made of this FUNK BRUNCH that I am doing at Sprout in March. Luckily, a UPS Store was next door to the restaurant so we went in. Unluckily, most of the people working there were a little dim. Nice enough, but the bulbs weren't too well lit. Of course, you can't really expect a lot from a shipping store that wants to have a little of everything for your ship/packaging/copy needs so...

The first employee seemed like a teen that had just finished high school and was trying to make her way; spoke not a bit and did nothing but observe. A trainee perhaps. The second, a slightly older young man who was most helpful, but didn't quite have the experience to finish the job and had to get the manager, an older woman in her 50s probably on her way out to lunch, to help open the file and print. His customer service was good though and gave me free copies of their accidental misprinting of my stuff. The manager herself needed to take a couple of whacks at it as well so, like I said, their expertise was probably in shipping.

After that episode, and I won't even go into the odd old redneck dude that ordered an ENORMOUS bag of pink packing peanuts, we got to witness some competence in our waitress. She was quick, friendly and on the ball. Most of the wait staff at Riverbound are doofuses, she however, had her head on straight. At least I like to think so. Older twenties, probably a grad student, could interact socially without appearing creepy or odd. She would do quite well in a fan eatery! Anyway, the sandwich I had was some chalkboard special, some kind of white boy attempt at a Pork Cuban sandwich; which meant pork tenderloin, apparently DILL pickles, swiss cheese and a slice of ham. Lacked flavor, so ketchup had to help.

The One Hundred and Fourth...

Number One Hundred and Four:

El Nopal, Lunch, Taquitos

Lunch with Justin usually equals here or Mexico when we're both in the office. That is fine by us. El Nopal is a decent enough east end restaurant. A small place with nice service, and the food is just a little bit different than your average Mexican restaurants. Their decor is also different than the standard mural format; a real hat motif rolling in this joint. Plus they used to sell the Coca-Cola with sugar instead of corn syrup as sweetener. Heck yeah!

One Hundred and Third...

Number One Hundred and Three:








Home, Dinner, Spaghetti

After some terrific yoga, it was time for some spaghetti & red wine and Antiques Roadshow! Yoga is great because it focuses you, balances you and works you out. Spaghetti and red wine is great because it is nourishment and a great way to finish your hard work from the yoga. And Antiques Roadshow? Well, come ON! You know it's great to see dubious people getting shocked at the estimated value of a piss pot for 20 thousand dollars! So awesome!

Anyway, this is my debonair look with some Nouveau and Tulips.

Tulipstache!

The One Hundred and Second...

Number One Hundred Two:






Mekong, Lunch, Claypot Tofu







We met Mark and Janet for some nice lunch fun. Mekong on a Sunday afternoon is completely different than Mekong on a Friday night. It was serene with families, many of the children playing various percussion with chopsticks and silverware. Perhaps that is what inspired Mark to come up with a new musical instrument; the fortune in the fortune cookie! When rapidly pulled in and out, it makes a clever popping sound. It was vastly amusing! Here is vid of Mark and Janet rocking out to some fortune.


A Fortune Tune perhaps? Hilarious nonetheless!

The One Hundred and First...

Number One Hundred and One:




Home, Dinner, Fajitas

So to celebrate the hundreds, I made a doofy video of a napstache. Timmy Thomas doing "Funky Me" actually makes it tolerable! HA! Still kind of neat, despite using Microsoft Moviemaker, which sucks! :-)

The One-Hundredth...

Number One-Hundred:



Riverbound Cafe, Lunch, Club wrap

ONE HUNDRED!!!!!


I know! Hard to believe that a foolish thing like a Napkin on the face would last this long! Well, I guess this one didn't turn out as special as I would have hoped, but planning one for tomorrow, stay tuned.

But what was really unique about today? Well, for starters, I woke up at 3:33am this morning and could NOT go back to sleep. Then coming into the radio station at 5:50am, there was a large puddle of vomit at the WRIR Station door. Something I had to carefully traverse with a case full of cds, a cup of coffee, and my keycard to get in. Then I had the pleasure of cleaning it off by throwing coffeepots of water on it to get it to go out on the sidewalk. It looked like the person didn't agree with whatever chicken dish they may have had at The Camel and thought that the best place to part ways was an independent radio station entryway. Lame ass and I hope it hurt their stomach BAD! Coincidentally for me, because just the night before I was at the WRIR Board meeting making a case for my altruistic nature and request to get on the Board! I think that went well, and well, the vomit cleaning may have been my first official act as a Board member! Ha! (Actually, I don't think they have voted me in quite yet.) Plus, if you are the last person to see it, and the NEXT person notices it, then they know you didn't have the courage, or maybe just stomach to take care of it. Well, I was kind of in that spot, plus a new volunteer was supposed to come in for DJ Training. While it would have been great to make that a new volunteers FIRST assignment, you have to also impress the new recruits or they may never come back again! The irony here is that the potential volunteer never showed up, he'd overslept!

Anyway, work slid by like ice cream on a carhood in summer and before I knew it, lunch at Riverbound, it was Gina and I again. Gina had asked just the day before if any waitstaff said anything about me doing these pictures. And as it so happened, today the oddly awkward scrawny dude totally caught me doing this one and said, "That's a great picture." Maybe he was eerily psychic to pick up that it was a landmark Napstache! Who cares, the kid art in the background of this one makes it a SUPER SPECIAL LANDMARK NAPSTACHE!

One hundred!

The Ninety-Ninth...

Number Ninety-Nine:








Chicken Fiesta, Lunch, Chicken Nachos




On the road again, yes, me and G! Chicken Nachos, maybe the best in town. Good place, but maybe starting to turn for the "Oh. Nah." We arrived fairly early for lunch and I went to wash my hands. Mens bathroom was locked. I went and ordered then came back; still locked. It was locked for a while. We all know what that kind of means... Anyway, my food came and we started eating and then the dude in the bathroom finally came out, he worked there. He went back through the "Employees Only" door and came out to the food prep and register area, giving co-workers the fist bump high five. Like to say, "I just dropped a deuce...high five!" I know this subject is a little, "Oh. Nah." but you know it goes through your mind when you're eating out and you witness a situation like that. You hope the conspicuous sign was adhered to in the restroom about EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS. Crossing fingers that you don't get "that guy" to make your meal, relieved that you already had your food by the time he came out.
I know I know, the guy who actually made my food could have been picking his nose WITH the plastic gloves, but I just didn't see that. Selective grossing out, I suppose.

I digress. This is number 99! I thought I wouldn't be giddy about the upcoming triple didjit, but I kind of am! YAY! This Napstache is from the same table I did the previous Fiesta 'stache!

The Ninety-Eighth...

Number Ninety-Eight:






Famous Dave's BBQ, Lunch, Rib tips




Gina and I on the road today. We sat on the bar side of the restaurant, which meant the kind of cranky bartender was eventually going to get to us. She was all right, but we found it kind of weirdly amusing that above the bar they were showing the SPIKE channel. It was chock full of testosterone, save your baldness commercials and CSI television. Nothing like seeing a stabwound victim autopsy for lunch at a BBQ restaurant! Pass the beans!

The Ninety-Seventh...

Number Ninety-Seven:



Office, Lunch, Chick-fil-A sandwich

I couldn't roll with the Bookmobile crew out to eat today, which was fine by me because they went to Olive Garden. I was waiting for my co-conspirator Beth Brown to come by the office to drop off some flyers for a book we are putting together. Richmond Macabre: Nightmares from the River City Horror Anthology. This is an idea I think we both had separately, then kind of got connected and talked about it, and are now kicking Anthology ass! I am very excited about this. We hope to not only get some seasoned, known authors, but also some new talent on the scene. Either way, it is going to be something that I feel will be a literary landmark for Richmond. It is kind of the next step after the Richmond Noir book that was released last year. Years from now, if someone wants scary local fiction to read, I hope they will turn to this book and be thrilled and chilled. So we are getting the word out and calling for submissions and flyers are another way to throw the net out, so to speak. Anyway, after Beth swung by and we chatted a bit, I went up to the fried chicken on a bun with pickles shack and picked up my usual; a sandwich on wheat bun with side salad instead of fries. Good stuff. And so is this flyer!

Macabrestache!

The Ninety-Sixth...

Number Ninety-Six:


Home, Dinner, Pizza

That's right! MORE pizza! We LOVE pizza! We LOVE LOVING pizza! Arianna's Grill is Northside now and we LOVE their pizza! Oh, and what goes well with the 'za? Rockbridge Tuscarora Red wine, of course! This is me sneaking a Valentine's Day smooch from Lisa while we watch some computer program Watson play humans on Jeopardy!

The Ninety-Fifth...

Number Ninety-Five:








Lakeside, Lunch, Pizza & Cake









Birthday celebration at Lisa's brother Brian and sis-in-law Ellen's house in Northside. Lisa's folks there as well. We biked there and a great day for it! Hope joined us a little later after she got off work too. The birthdays were Nora (Lisa's Mom), Brian (her brother) and Zellie (her niece). Pizza delivered from the new place on Lakeside by the Mary Angela's family. Good place and great location, we needed one on this side of town. Anyway, B & E have four kids, three boys and the youngest a girl, and Lisa's Dad, Brian and I had a good old time goofing with the boys in the yard a bit. This picture was taking at the table after a few slices. They have a great map of the world, a great way to eat and learn, so what better a location to take a napstache?

Mapstache!

The Ninety-Fourth...

Number Ninety-Four:






Athens Tavern, Dinner, Athens Chicken







Lisa and I had dinner at Athens after Ceci and I's version of Regis and Kelly on WRIR doing the local show River City Limits. We had a guest band on, a ska punk outfit called Murphy's Kids. They did a swell acoustic set and are just a great hardworking band that has been around RVA for years and head up the annual Skalidays.

Athens was full of interesting people this evening; the fifty-something loud guy with the Hail Caesar haircut that ALWAYS asked the waitress for doofy stuff extra when she brought something to him; the twenty-something loud guy who sat right behind me and moved the shared booth seat-back every time he articulated his conversation about ice fishing with his body; and the hep old dude that told the waitresses to "Peace out." on the way out the door. You can see Cecilia's disdain about being involved in the napstache, but we love her anyway! HA!

The Ninety-Third...

Number Ninety-Three:


Masonic Home of Virginia, Lunch, Hawaiian Gardenburger

One of the things I jokingly tell people when I describe my job is that it is great because "I get to drive around all day, read stories to kids and help old ladies up the stairs." The old ladies up the stairs bit is the zinger of the joke, but it really is a wonderful thing to get to know your elders, especially ones that are in their 80s and up. The stories they tell are definitely of a different world, but also with a different wisdom. World War I, II, letters were written to people, people belonged to this club and that, went out to balls and parties --just a world that memories were made with brains that weren't flashed every minute with advertisement, or a text message or a need to check your facebook. I mean sure, things were no walk in the park back then either, but I think more brain power was used and people didn't have as much of a sense of entitlement. There was more awareness than just the personal "bubble" we all live in now. Not waxing a romanticism for the old days at all, I am just saying that they have better memories and are wonderful storytellers.

What will our children tell their offspring? "Oh, this one time when Cindy took Bobby's cellphone by accident and then meant to text Bobby during the movie and oh wow, it looked like Bobby texted himself when it was really Cindy trying to text Bobby! Then we all went to Starbucks!" --barf.

Anyway, the Bookmobile crew had lunch with some of our patrons at one of our retirement home stops; the Masonic Home. We had gone a few years ago and it took a while to get this one together. But wow, we were given the grand treatment by them; the private dining table, all the food we wanted and just good company, hearing stories of how they came to be here. One used to own a restaurant on Forest Hill Avenue for 25 years, another lived near there and used to eat there with her husband, another was from Germany but married a GI and moved here, her name is Teddy. Teddy was more than happy to do a Napstache with me, no explanation was needed either, it just looked like a fun, silly thing to do. She even did another one on her own for me!




Fun-loving gal. After we were finished and left the cafeteria, Teddy took us to her room and we sat and chatted and heard stories about her town in Germany and how she came to meet her husband, who had passed in 1986. She had a teddy bear on her small bed, a gift from her husband during a romantic young time in her life. It had a real fur around it's neck and she told us he named it Lord Fluffybottom. !!! HA! Storytelling gold! Chatting with people like this is such a nice insight to people who have come before us that we often ignore and we damn well shouldn't. They are the best storytellers and boy, have such great stories to tell.
Anyway, great stache!

Teddystache!

The Ninety-Second...

Number Ninety-Two:






Home, Dinner, Spaghetti & Turkey Meatballs



A meal between Hope and I that went down a LOT like an episode of The Simpsons. This is me watching the kid getting ready to fly by to put the dishes in the dishwasher.

The Ninety-First...

Number Ninety-One:






Home, Breakfast, Cereal




Quick one with a few cool things in the background. Team Fear from the Jon Stewart / Steven Colbert Rally, Framed Splork! Flyer from our last show, a gift from Michael, and the window! Whoot!

The Ninetieth...

Number Ninety:







The Tavern, Dinner, Hummus






A quick bite after an appointment, Hope had a salad, me the hummus plate, which is not bad. The thing about getting a hummus platter is that when you first see it, you are all like, "Man, that is NOT going to be enough hummus, I can't believe I paid 8 bucks for it." But by the time you are halfway through it, you are FULL. Ahh, chickpeas and tahini, good stuff that sticks with you. This photo kind of has that guy on the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza vibe to it. Yes, I hit the Corks & Kegs store afterwards to stock up!

The Eighty-Ninth...

Number Eighty-Nine:






The Grapevine Greek & Italian Cuisine, Lunch, Gyro Sandwich





Carolyn and I first tried to go to this other Greek restaurant on Broad, former owners of the Greek Circus (which closed) now back in the restaurant game. The place was closed Mondays. Whoops. Okay then, how about we see if Zorba's has opened back up since that kitchen fire a month ago? Nope, not back in business for a few months according to their voice mail. Okay, The Grapevine is always a good place, parking the Bookmobile can get a little tight, but we manage. We get seated and who do we see but Henrico County Manager Virgil Hazelett eating lunch with some other well dressed dude. A few more shirts and ties come in, giving The Virge a nod and a wink and a hello. Wow, he's like Norm from Cheers here! We tend to see him when we are here on certain Mondays, so it wasn't really new. Me trying to get him in the Napstache photo, however, that would have been. I just couldn't manage without coming across like an insane employee, and hey, I gotta keep a good rep here people! The waitress approaching me in this shot, well, I am pretty sure she already wrote me off as a little nuts when I asked her complicated questions about getting a salad instead of fries and could I Greek it up.

Anyway, I tried so...
Hazelettstache!

The Eighty-Eighth...

Number Eighty-Eight:






Perly's Delicatessen Restaurant, Lunch, Brunswick Stew Platter




We spent the morning in Hollywood Cemetery, mainly doing some research for a story, but enjoying the fresh air and history. The great thing about Hollywood is that you always can find something you never noticed before. Lots of interesting graves as well as some sort of construction around the Monroe and Tyler sites. I also recalled when I got arrested for trespassing there, by the Oregon Hill side near the railroad tracks. Well, written a summons to appear in court.

Years ago, hanging out at a friend's house on Harrison after Sociology Class at VCU, we came up with the idea. Who doesn't think about creeping around there when you are young and adventurous like that. We partied till the wee hours, then headed over to where the hole in the fence was supposed to be. Unfortunately, the hole had been boarded up when we got there, so we decided to bail on the idea and walk the railroad tracks instead. We enjoyed the river sounds a while, then headed back up the direction we came where there was a cop at the top of the hill shining his light, looking for us and calling out. We took off, of course, heading back down the tracks toward Virginia War Memorial. Well, the cops were obviously keen to this mode of escape because his partner was there catching us in his light, waiting. Busted. Anyway, they claimed they saw us in Hollywood Cemetery, which wasn't true, and he wrote us all up for it. Damn.

So as the court date neared one of my friends was not worried at all about it since we didn't technically trespass, which is what was written on our summons, but I was dubious and saved my money in case we had to pay our fine. His confidence allowed him to spend money on the Living Color show at the Boathouse in Norfolk where I saved my money and worried instead.

Turns out at our hearing, we just had to ask the cop the question, "Did you actually SEE us in Hollywood Cemetery?" He replied "No." Now, had the cop written the trespass for the Railroad, that might have been a different story... The Judge dismissed the case and we got off. Damn. I could have gone to the show!

Lisa and I had a great walk; the fresh air, a swell view of the city, the gravestones and crypts -beautiful, odd and interesting, sometimes even creepy. We also talked about how our sensibilities about death, dying and graveyards are much different than our history. People were much closer to death in their lives in older eras, keeping death photo books, picnics in cemeteries, etcetera. In our time, death is often taken out of the equation of life; homogenized, which is perhaps weirder than say, keeping grandma in a casket in your living room for viewings.

Anyway, Perly's was the natural choice afterward.


Trespasstache!

The Eighty-Seventh...

Number Eighty-Seven:



Thai Diner Too, Lunch, Red Curry Tofu

H. and I got some haircuts, then her stubbornness won again, so Thai it was, and that ain't bad! There were a lot of toddlers around, one group had their girl walking around being social, another couple had a crybaby that wouldn't eat and kept pointing out another kid at a table who ate all of her food and she is like 1 years old, you're three. Whines abound. It hardly bothered us at all because we were stylin' some new hairdos and napstaches!

The Eighty-Sixth...

Number Eighty-Six:








Dots Back Inn, Lunch, Famous Amos








Took the day off after my radio show to rest up for the WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Indie Radio 6th Anniversary (or Birthday) party. I will be MCing the event again; always a blast with a lots of great acts and people, the party of the weekend and the radio event of the year! Since we go to Dots so much, it seemed fitting that we include her in one of the photos. That is her in the photo on the wall, barefoot on a stool next to the playpen and the ashtray. Ahh, the 50s...

Dotstache!

The Eighty-Fifth...

Number Eighty-Five:



Lewis Ginter Garden Cafe, Lunch, Chicken Salad & Roasted Red Pepper crab soup

Again with the chicken and soup. I am very much a creature that finds three things on a menu at restaurants and sticks with them most of the time. Not that I am one not to branch out, then it would be four things on the menu. Carolyn and I had the opportunity to sit by the window this time, less red hats in meeting / shopping mode, so I managed this shot. Reflecting, introspective, full of chicken salad and crab soup!

The Eighty-Fourth...

Number Eighty-Four:







Casa Grande, Lunch, Chicken Fajitas





Gina REALLY wanted Mexican for lunch so we went. The conversation among big butt ladies behind us was totally slagging on one of their office workers. It was a bit hilarious and kind of scary -- ever wonder what people say about YOU when you are not having lunch with them!?! Anyway, they really had a problem with this gal, who was supposed to work from 7 - 4 but never came in on time, and you could tell when she was in a good mood because she wore low cut shirts for her boobs to show, and when she was in a bad mood the neckline went up, and if she was in a turtle neck --LOOKOUT! Anyway, they seemed like typical mid-older-something hens perched in a coop until lunchtime, when they could get out in the yard to eat corn and cluck around.

The Eighty-Third...

Number Eighty-Three:



Riverbound Cafe, Lunch, Yard Bird

Another venture to Riverbound, Yard Bird is their version of the bbq chicken sandwich, decent onion rings too. I also managed to get the entire Bookmobile crew to do a Napstache! (l-r: me, Carolyn, Gina, Justin) I think my dream, maybe for the last 365th Napstache, would be to have a whole restaurant do it! Anyway, baby steps....

Bookmostache!