You know, there is a lot to like about the current Miller Lite commercials involving hot bartenders asking guys if they want more taste or less taste. They generally involve hot bartenders and... well thats pretty much it. But that makes them still better than most commercials.

But I've never liked commercials that don't make sense. By that I mean there is something about the commercial, even in the world of the commercial, that doesn't jive with reality. I'm not talking about whether a horse can actually talk or kick an extra point or something like that. Rather something that was not intended to be wrong, but is. And the Miller Lite commercials, or at least two of them, run into that problem.

First - the skinny jeans commercial. The hot bartender tells the guy that skinny jeans are not in. The guy returns to the table. He asks if the score is still 21-32. His friends reply with the witty "Yeah just like your jeans size!" Hilarious! But... I can't remember the last time I've heard anyone say a score with the lower score first. I think in tennis its normal, but thats to indicate who is serving. In normal sports thats just not how its done. So yeah, that irks me for some reason.

Second - the golf commercial. The beer cart girl asks if he wants more taste or less taste, he says whatever and it is revealed he's hitting from the ladies tees. His friends then laugh a lot (they're standing behind him at the whites or the tips or whatever). But why are they still standing back there? In a foursome, the people who are hitting from the furthest away hit first, and then you would all drive up to the ladies tees and then let that person hit. You wouldn't still be standing behind him where you teed off. You'd be next to him. Or in the cart drinking beer.

Miller Lite must be punished for these commercials! No Miller Lite for me for awhile.

We've eaten twice at this new place called Social Eatz. It is the new restaurant of Angelo Sosa (a chef from Top Chef), and is conveniently located only a couple blocks away from our apartment. The theme of the food is "American comfort foods with an Asian kick." It is AWESOME.

The best things we've had there in our two trips:

*Chop-chop salad with tangerine vinaigrette: Bite-size cut romaine, mixed with avocado and tomato, sugar snap peas and a six-minute egg. Drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and the tangy juice of a tangerine.

I thought this was a refreshing and tasty salad, and the egg on top is perfect.

*Hot wings: Crispy wings glazed in a sauce of tamarind, garlic, shallots, palm sugar and togarashi, a Japanese spice blend of red chili, roasted orange peel and black sesame.

Yeah they're as awesome as they sound. But get two orders if you're in a group. You only get five wings for I think seven bucks, so its not the best value.

*Hanoi burger: Ground beef with mint, lemongrass, cilantro and red onion topped with lettuce and served with a chili mayo and a sweet onion jam.

I ordered this the first time we were there, and I liked it so much I ordered it again. One of the best burgers I've had. And it doesn't even have cheese on it!

*Bimbimbap burger: Korean for "mixed meal", it's ground beef with a slow cooked egg, covered in lettuce and served with pickled carrot and cucumber.

This wasn't my cup of tea because of the pickled cucumber and carrot, but Kim swears it was amazing.

*Even the fries are great because they come with this airy cheese sauce.

A lot of great (and unusual) tastes and its very affordable. Nothing on the menu is more than $15. Also, if you're into that sort of thing, the chef is "usually" around (we saw him the second time but not the first), so you can meet and chat with him. He seemed pretty friendly and willing to talk about whatever.

I usually wake up a few minutes before my alarm goes off. Its kind of weird to think that my internal clock is so on point while I'm out of it. But today took it to a whole new level. I was having a dream and for some reason a big "5:52" appeared. It took up my entire view. I woke up. I checked my phone.

5:50.

Close enough. Very weird.

I remember a few years ago we were at Kate Kearneys (our favorite bar at the time, now closed down). We were just having a few beers when this guy shouted to the whole bar - "I have Knicks tickets here. They are FREE. Someone please take them!" And he put them down on the pool table.

Nobody moved. The Knicks were terrible at the time. Not even worth the effort to go see them at MSG.

Well apparently the Mets are reaching that level, after only 20 games of the season. I saw this above the mailboxes in my building last night:

Thoughts on Hawaii:

The Flights

*11 hours on the way over is a LONG time. I had my DS with me (and an awesome game / interactive novel called "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors"), and when my DS battery died I pretty much went crazy. I only got an hour sleep. When we landed, instead of taking a cab to Waikiki ($35) I took the shuttle ($9). HUGE mistake. I was the last of eight stops and it took forever for us to even leave the airport in the first place.

*The flight back wasn't so bad. A little less than 9 hours and I was able to sleep for most of it. We got back at around 10 AM and only needed a 1.5 hour nap during the day.

Waikiki, Honolulu

*Wow, there are a TON of homeless people around here. They are on the beach, on the sidewalks, on benches, etc.

I wonder if they are all locals? I can imagine myself being on the verge of homelessness, with maybe 1k left to my name, and thinking - I'm going to buy a ticket to Hawaii and never worry about it being cold ever again. Also - free showers near the beach!

*Waikiki was kind of boring. I only had around 1.5 days there, but it was just a touristy area with a lot of shopping. The one decent bar on the beach was jam packed so we couldn't even get a table or a realistic sitting spot. I didn't take a surfing lesson or anything, so I suppose it could have been more interesting, but Kim and I both agreed it wasn't amazing.

*The breakfast special at McDonalds, consisting of spam, portugese sausage, rice, and scrambled eggs, was awesome. Especially the spam. Mmmm. The rest of the food was kind of meh. We went to a supposedly nice sushi / seafood place and I gave my dynamite shrimp app and lobster tail main a "meh" rating. I think Kim liked her sushi though. The BBQ place next door was much better.



Lahaina, Maui

*Now this place was awesome. When you land at the relatively small West Maui airport you immediately have an amazing view of the ocean. We then rented a car and were on our way to Lahaina, which is a touristy area.

*The hotel was awesome. It was open air pretty much throughout, had a lot of wildlife in the lobby (including penguins, flamingos, and swans), and a great pool area right in front of the ocean. They also let us check in real early and leave pretty late.



*No homeless people, even in the town area!

*Excellent food at relatively reasonable prices. We had lunch twice at a pool area restaurant at our hotel and came away smiling both times. A $33 prix fix at an ocean front place at the Westin was outstanding, with an amazing bowl of lobster bacon chowder (you read that right) that I won't forget anytime soon. And we attended a luau that had an all you can eat buffet with a couple quality pork dishes. The luau was a bit pricey but you're paying for the show and 3 hour open bar.



*We also did a snorkeling excursion. We actually got to see and swim with a couple sea turtles at Turtle Town, and there were tons of friendly fish at Molokini Crater. It actually was not that far off from this pic from the website. And this one. Open bar for the last hour of the trip too. A bit too much "upselling" by the crew, though. I get it, you want me to rent a wetsuit. Or a digital camera. Or do the SNUBA thing. Or buy a tee shirt. I don't want to. Leave me alone.



Overall, Hawaii was a fun time. If I had to do it again I would just skip Waikiki and tranfer straight into Maui, which is only a 35 minute flight from Honolulu. We'd maybe try the Drive to Hana or other things that we didn't have time for. I'm not sure we'd pick to go back there over say, the Atlantis at the Bahamas, but overall I'm pleased with how it went.

2nd Anniversary Dinner at Daniel! Pretty darn tasty (bit of an understatement).

Sheesh, I go away on vacation for 4 measley days and suddenly I can't play online poker at Pokerstars anymore? You've screwed me again DOJ!!!!

Man, I really liked the burgers from this truck too.

Best line from the article:

Battery Park City resident Jacqui Brown, 41, was on her way to the new Pier 25 playground with her 5-year-old son, when she saw nannies hurredly pushing strollers and children away from the smoke.

She said her son recognized the burned-out truck, which he liked to order from, and said, "Oh no, my French fries!"

Well well government. You've won yet again.

Stupid alternative minimum tax!!!!

Ben and I played in a beer pong tournament this past weekend. Apparently we're not too old for this sort of stuff. The setup was that each team played four preliminary round games, with approximately the top half of the teams then competing in a single elimination bracket. First prize is an entry and hotel stay at some big beer pong tournament in Atlantic City.

During preliminary round play we did not fare well. Specifically, I did not hold up my end of the team. Ben made more cups than me in every game, which is not a common occurrence. We went 1-3, but only had a -1 cup differential. Still, we figured we were done. We hung around to play a little cash game tournament and were about to be on our way. Then they started announcing the 16 teams that would be in the tournament.

And the sixteenth team he named - was us. The 16 seed!

We faced off against the number one seed. They looked like seasoned professionals who had just 4-0ed the group stage. They seemed thoroughly unconcerned with us. They even let us shoot first (home team, i.e. higher seed, chooses either balls or side. Obviously you choose balls). This cocky / dick behavior continued throughout the match.

It was a pretty close fight. We held a one cup lead for most of the game. But then when it was 3-2 our lead, they doubled down. At this point you could tell they thought the match was over given their body language. We had a tough "2-across" setup remaining because Ben had knocked out the front cup of the 3 cup triangle. Things were grim.

But then I hit one of those two cups. They were unfazed. Rim. Rim. Our chance? Rim. Rim. Their shots? Rim. Rim. And then KABLAMMO! I nailed the last cup. I was so pumped up I turned around and slapped a staircase banister as hard as I could. I thought I broke my finger. I didn't care. They missed their redemption. We took down the 1 seed! They were NOT HAPPY.

We then began calling ourselves EVCUTI (Eastern Virginia Commonwealth University Technical Institute). Unfortunately, our run ended in the next round against a father son team that was very strong. But hey, a 16 seed took down a 1. Take that Kansas!

I've become a bit obsessed with indian buffet brunches on the weekend. I now even start thinking about it the night before. Which place are we going to go to tomorrow? Right now, as I see Kim still asleep (its 11:37 AM), my concern is whether she will be up and about at 12:30 when I'll be needing my fix. I may have to make some unintentional noise in a little bit to wake her up.

We've recently tried a few new places in the area:

Chola

Chola was rated the best indian buffet in NYC by Zagat. At $14.95, its not on the cheaper side (and it is a bit of a hike to get to 58th St.), but you get a whole lot of stuff. First, we had four different things brought to our table, aside from the buffet items. One was a potato crepe sort of thing, one was aloo tiki chaat, and then the usual naan and tandoori chicken. It is pretty awesome when this many things are brought out to you. The naan I would rate only as "ehh" though.

The highlight of the buffet was the lamb biryani. I've never actually seen this at a buffet before, and it was amazing. We now order that during the week as part of our usual takeout orders. The chicken makhani was also very flavorful. I can see how this place is the top rated buffet in the city. One of the main downsides though - It was amazingly crowded in there, so it was tough to flag down a waiter to get more naan or any of the other things they bring out.

Yuva

Just next door to Chola is Yuva. We gave this place a try as well. At the same price point and location as Chola, the comparisons are unavoidable. They bring out naan fairly quickly, and as it is less crowded, the service is a bit better. On the day we went they brought out two different plates to us - the potato crepe thing along with naan (both of which were awesome). There were also three types of non-curry chicken out in the buffet area, as well as a solid "butter chicken". I'd rate this place as almost equivalent to Chola, based on the naan.

Its tough to compare these places to our usual spots, aside from Bukkhara Grill, which we never go to anymore. There is Indigo, which is basically right across the street, and for only $7.95 you get a minimalist buffet with the best naan of any place I've been to. The curries are too watery though. There is also this other place that was a couple blocks over (52nd I think between 3rd and Lex), but for some irritating reason they don't do the buffet on weekends anymore. On two separate occasions we walked in and they were like "no buffet, only a la carte." Both times, we promptly walked out.

I don't know where we're going to go today. And today is important, because we won't be able to go next weekend (we'll be on vacation). So I need to fill up for two weeks worth.

This post is making me too hungry. I'm going to wake Kim up now.

How did our bowling match go on Tuesday? Let's just say that:

1) Kim rolled a turkey in game 1 to get a 158;
2) I bowled terribly, but did do an obnoxious dance to Usher's OMG after picking up a crucial-at-the-time 3/10 baby split;
3) I think we won by DQ, but am not quite sure;
4) The Zogsports referee said she has never seen anything quite like it before;
5) IBS and Spare Me do NOT have a good relationship.

Bowling has been an up and down affair this season. Overall, I think our team average is the highest its ever been. In fact, we have the second highest team average in our division, which is actually the highest level division in all of NYC Zogsports bowling. And come on, we start TWO girls! So we can take pride in that.

But we're currently tied for 4th in our league, which means that we're in real danger of missing the playoffs. If we win our last two matches 3-0, we'll probably make it. The last match will likely be that, as the team we're facing that week isn't a strong one. But tonight we face Spare Me, a team that has consistently stuck it to us. Our team looks different now, but the memories of past defeats still remain in our heads.

We're giving up 13 pins to them in each game. We need to get points. Our season probably rests on tonight's match.

Hero? Or goat?

Most times on the craps table there is some sort of theme. Usually the theme is "noone could hit more than one point and I therefore lost hundreds of dollars." But every now and then one shooter will save an entire table. Or one particular number will seem to come up a lot.

This trip was more about one specific way a number kept coming up. It was the hard eight.

The hard way bets in the middle of the craps table are "sucker bets." If you bet the hard eight, you are betting on 4 / 4 to come up before either (1) an easy eight comes up, i.e. 5 / 3 or 6 / 2; or (2) any 7 comes up. For this bet, other rolls mean nothing. The bet pays 9 to 1. The house edge on the hard eight bet is slightly more than 9 percent. For comparison, that is worse than almost any other bet on the craps table. It is also worse than any bet in roulette.

Still, its a fun bet to make. Throw a five dollar chip in the middle and maybe you get lucky and get 45 back. Who cares? Its only five bucks. That's how the casino gets you, but it seems like five dollars worth of enjoyment.

Anyway, since 4 is my number, I like betting the hard eight. On the first night of Vegas, Ben was rolling pretty well, hitting a couple points already. He then established an eight point. We were up a fair amount of money and getting kind of drunk. I threw out a few dollars on the hard eight. Ben put out more than I did.

I declared that there was no way I would let him win more on a hard eight than me. We kept adding on to the bet. Eventually, I had $25 on the hard eight. Ben had $20 or so. The rest of the table joined in.

Ben rolled. BOOM. HARD EIGHT.

The table went crazy. I was pretty loud. This was the biggest hard eight bet I had ever won. $225 coming back. And of course the point was hit too. It was probably the most profitable single roll I've ever had on the craps table.

Everyone got paid, and then everyone took their hard eight bets down. But we were going pretty well, so I told the stick man to just leave mine on there. I mean, it might happen again right?

Sure enough, after Ben established some other point, HARD EIGHT. I went berserk again (the table was not as thrilled, everyone took their bets down). But I got paid again, and it was awesome. After Ben sevened out, we left the table up a large amount of money, which I would eventually lose back over the course of the next 24 hours.

But this was only the beginning of the prevalence of the hard eight bet.

Part 2

On Saturday, we all ate at a random restaurant for lunch at TI. Due to some general buffoonery (and 18 dollar drinks that some people ordered), we had some money after everyone threw in, around 40 dollars. I suggested we go to the craps table and put it on hard eight. Miller had taken charge of the tab, so we had to wait for him to get to the table. In the meantime, I bought in and got wailed on for a few rollers. But Miller eventually showed up, and James walked over to get the money.

I wanted to get the bet down for the new shooter. But there was some confusion and it was taking too long. The first roll? 4 / 4. OF COURSE. James handed the money to Fishman, and I expected the bet to be put down. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, Fishman decided to fumble around with chips, and then hand them to James. James was confused. No bet was made. WHY?

I screamed across the table for him to hurry up and get the bet down. He didn't.

HARD EIGHT!!!!

At this point I was livid. The rest of the table knew what was going on and started cracking up. Fishman then decided to put the bet down. Next roll? 6 / 2. Easy eight. LOSER.

The next half hour consisted of (1) us winning money; and (2) yelling at Fishman.

Part 3

The last hard eight issue came up later that day. Because Miller's friend ended up crashing in the hotel rooms (and he threw in some money), Goozh had too much money for the rooms. So instead of refunding $10 per person, we decided to put it all on one bet. I suggested the hard eight. Everyone else agreed.

I immediately identified our table. There was a guy wearing a random USA basketball jersey. The name on it?

Hardaway. (the number below it was 6, but close enough). And he was the next shooter!

Goozh got the $100 in, unlike Fishman's previous screw up. A guy next to us noted how much he likes the way we roll, and he would join in. Hardaway rolled a few times to no effect. But then . . .

HARD EIGHT!!!!

Pandemonium ensued. It was essentially the steakhouse bet reaction. Only more unlikely, because each of us only had $10 bucks on it. But we would each get $100 back! Free money!

This will only encourage my hard eight bets in the future. Trouble it is.

I was investigating whether to purchase mlb.tv for the upcoming baseball season. 100 dollars gives you the ability to watch any game on your computer. I think it is a pretty good deal, as long as you don't mind watching games on a computer screen. But then I had a thought - I own an iPad. Can't I watch games on my $600 Angry Birds gaming station?

So I went into the App Store. There apparently is an app for watching MLB games! And it only costs $14.95!

Wait a minute... why is it only $14.95 for me to watch MLB games live on my iPad?

A quick look at the comments below the app revealed the issue. You have to pay the normal MLB.tv subscription fee ($100 or more if you want the premium version), and then you pay AN EXTRA 15 DOLLARS for the privilege of watching those games on your iPad! And there are ad banners in it too! No thank you.