Sunday at the cafe, with EEK

[pbray]

Another Sunday afternoon spent hanging out at the Cybercafe, with EEK (netbook) and current WiP. Just being here makes me feel as if I were in college again, except, of course, when I was in college, there were no laptops, no WiFis, no iPods.

Lunch at the cafe is like dropping by a friend's house-- the kitchen is single-threaded (one dish at a time), and when they run out of an ingredient, they don't bother to tell you, they just improvise. You can always spot the newcomers, who aren't quite sure where to sit, and don't know that they need to watch out for laptop power cord cables stretching across the narrow aisles, or that you have to bus your own tables.

At the table to my left, students are putting together a presentation on the history of marriage, with an aggressively liberal slant. Directly ahead of me, a guy and a girl are flirting geek style, sipping frothy coffee drinks and exchanging laptops to share favorite vids. Most of the rest of us have our iPod headphones in, as we write or surf the internet.

In other words, it's darn near perfect. If only fireun were here, I think I could talk her into splitting one of the giant chocolate chip cookies.

ETA: Fell off wagon and ate an entire giant cookie BY MY SELF! I blame fireun, since she wasn't here to save me.

Comments

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Dear me...

I know the type, though. Big, soft, tempting, full of chocolatey goodness. If I could bite (or chew) I would have gladly helped...

Sounds like a cool place.
Random substitution of ingredients can be problematic, though. Allergies and all that.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

If only we could invent a way to twitter or email calories, I would have gladly sent you half of the cookie!

As someone with food allergies, I agree the random substitution can be problematic, though if you explained it to them, they'd cheerfully remake anything or offer you your pick of alternate meals. In this case, a sourdough roll was replaced by a multi-grain flatbread that tasted heavily of rye and caraway(sp?) seeds--not a favorite of mine by any stretch, but I ate it, the same way I would have eaten it if I'd been at a friend or relative's house.

Not quite sure what it is that inspires their customers to simply go with the flow-- perhaps it's the 60s throwback atmosphere, or the staff, all of whom would have been perfectly at home at a Grateful Dead concert.

Or maybe it's the two dozen beers on draft... and that this is the only local place where I can order an Arrogant Bastard or Rogue Dead Guy, and know that I'm getting a pint instead of an instadate.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

So kind :-).


Of course, sometimes you don't know until too late... I went to a friend's wedding a year or so ago, and there were Stealth Nuts all over. One of my tablemates was also a friend and aware... he said, "Don't eat the stuffing! Walnuts!"

Sourdough for multigrain not so much of a problem... though I agree with you on it not being a favorite. Always has a texture that suggests they didn't finish grinding the grain into flour.