Busy Weekend, with a Side of Bacon

The 1842 espresso machine is broken, and blowing steam all over the place, like an early morning sewer grate. So, I’m drinking a small Columbian coffee. Well, just staring at it, really. My taste for coffee’s come back, but my appetite’s still on hiatus. Small things are turning me off food, and spoiling my appetite — things like presentation, the way the food’s arranged, the presence of meat, etc.
Yeah, it’s weird, but twice this weekend, some bacon has ended up in my food, and for inexplicable reasons. R’s beginning to think I’m regressing into militant vegetarian status, the way I’ve been acting. But can you blame me? Imagine if you (I dunno) hated caviar, and it kept on showing up in your food? You’d probably get pretty pissed, no?
Incident #1 was understandable, if inexplicable: I was at Under the Volcano in London, and ordered the veggie caesar salad (comes with grilled vegetables). I ask to make sure there’s no anchovies, but forget to say “no bacon bits”. The server assures me it’s vegetarian, and it comes with bacon bits. “Fake bacon bits,” she tells me, “The owners are vegetarians, so they understand.” But even R suspects it’s bacon, so we ask for the bottle, since, if these are fake, we’d like to know where to get more.
Turns out, there’s *both* real and fake bacon bits on this salad. UtV is very apologetic, doesn’t bill me for the salad, and even throws in a free Mexican fried ice cream. Nice people, and a very professional attitude. All is forgiven.
Yesterday, we go to William’s Coffee Pub, down by Costco, and I order a seemingly innocuous Cheese Omelet Breakfast Bagel. Does it sound like it comes with bacon? Does it sound like it comes with pickles, or tomatoes, or bicycle tires? Nope. What shows up on it? I asked the wait staff politely about it (although R suggests I acted like a child). They said all the Breakfast Bagels come like that, and pointed to the menu to prove a point — except the point was not proven, since there was no reference to the bacon anywhere on the menu. They seemed surprised by this and agreed that there should be some mention of it. I suggested renaming it to a “Cheese Omelet with Bacon” or something similar.
R suggested I should not be so surprised to find the world doesn’t cater to vegetarians. She did agree that they should tell you about what’s going on the food, though — she complained about the wilted lettuce that showed up on her Breakfast Bagel.
So, there’s some kind of bacon conspiracy out there. I think my mom’s secretly behind it. She wants me to start eating meat again.
In other news … got some work done on the garage. I finished framing the back wall and started moving stuff from the third wall so I can get it framed as well. Once that’s done, I get to wait until I can afford to insulate. I also got the electric cords from the pond and lights shortened and buried. The place looks a lot nicer without rolls of orange extension cord cluttering up the place.
Went to see a belly dancing recital (if that’s what they’re called) last night. R’s got a couple of friends taking classes with her, and they were dancing last night, along with about two dozen others from around the area. Me, I’m a big fan of atmospheric or background belly dancing — that is, with a meal, or something. I equate it to the wandering mariachi band, or the lone guy with a violin at an Italian joint. True to form, this recital had tables, coffee, and a dessert buffet. Nice touch — much nicer than just standing in the hall. I could get used to this way of presenting belly dancing.