But no, the prescription is not more cowbell--this time. I don't know why, but lately I've been craving a hot dog. And not one of those awful, overcooked mystery-meat dogs they serve on the stale bread in the dining room at work that's been marinating in hot swampy meat-water all day. I wanted one that would be good enough to eat at a ballgame or a cookout. But I haven't had a good one in a couple of months, and I felt it was time.
Normally I prefer the Oscar Mayer deli dogs or the Hebrew Nationals, so those cheapie Bar-S combo dogs with three kinds of 'meat' aren't for me. I only buy the 100% beef dogs, so I'll gladly pay extra for a high-quality tube-steak, and leave the lips-and-asshole varieties to the bargain shoppers.
So once I got up and got to moving around today, I headed out to the grocery store. Actually, would've preferred to take myself out to lunch and get a hot dog, restaurant-style, but I don't know of a good place near my neighborhood that serves them. (We have no Ted's here in Vegas)
The best hot-dog I've had here in Vegas was at one of the food stands out by the Carnaval Court at Harrah's, about five or six years ago. They used a Chicago-style poppy-seed bun and sprinkled it with celery salt, and it was quite tasty. But I certainly didn't want to go down to the Strip just to get a hot dog, so I had to find other options. A close second would be the snack bar at Costco, but I haven't had a Costco membership since I've lived here in Vegas. And getting a new membership, while useful, would've been an expensive way to eat lunch.
So it looked like I'd be cooking my own lunch and it would be coming from the grocery store.
But--the grocery store was a two-fold mission. I also found some Mrs. T's potato-cheese pierogies while I was there, so I grabbed a box. I couldn't very well eat them all by themselves, so I picked up a kielbasa and sweet onion to grill with 'em. But that'll be dinner on Wednesday. The mission at hand was to satisfy my hot dog craving.
I found some Hebrew Nationals, picked up a couple of cans of Hormel no-bean chili, and some fresh buns. I grabbed a few other odds and ends, and called it quits.
As soon as I got home, I made my lunch (boiling instead of grilling this time) and sat down to enjoy the afternoon of ESPN programming. I'm thinking that the best way to do hot dogs is with spicy mustard, chili, and topped with shredded cheese. I skipped the onions--I don't normally eat onions on chili-dogs unless they're already chopped up and available. I didn't feel like making the effort to dice them up. It seems that I kinda prefer them a little more 'minimalist' than the Chicago-style of 'dragging it through the garden'. Although--there's always a time and place for that--it just wasn't today. The weather is starting to cool off at night, so chili seemed appropriate.
Anyhow, it was a very good lunch, and it totally satisfied my hot-dog jones. And it gave me something to write about tonight, because, believe it or not, I just haven't had much to say for the past two days. I've been extremely lazy (I didn't manage to pick up another shift at work), and there has been nothing of interest happening around here today. I was almost 100% certain that I'd get called in, because one of our full-time dealers calls out every Tuesday, but apparently it was kinda slow today and they didn't need me. So all that time waiting by the phone was for naught.
My evening was spent drinking a little spiked Coca Cola and watching the World Series of Poker again (glad to see that rat bastard Hellmuth finally busted out!), and doing a bit of reading. It's almost to the point where it's cool enough at night to go out walking around the neighborhood (there's a park closeby), but we're not quite there just yet.
Once the WSOP ended, I found myself watching another cool show that was right up in my kitchen, Crusoe on the USA network. I guess it's on NBC on Friday nights and they re-air it or something, but I found it on USA tonight and really enjoyed it. It's got everything--pirates, tropical islands, treasure, swashbuckling, adventure, McGuyver-like boobie traps, double crosses, escapes, etc etc etc. So it's now on the auto-record list, along with the WSOP coverage, all episodes of Deadliest Catch, and The Unit.
More later, or as soon as I can think of anything interesting to write about.
Mikey
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