Pizza and Twitter

Typically, I am always surprised if anyone besides my mother reads what I write in this space. Twitter is a different beast. It is much more of an instant gratification medium. If you follow a local circle of people, you see their tweets to each other and you have the opportunity to chime in. And to make it even better, I have never met many of the people I talk to Twitter making it incredibly easy to essentially type your foot into your mouth.

Last Thursday, Daniel B. over at FUSSYlittleBLOG sent me a invitation to go out to dinner Saturday night. I was able to make it to the Northeast Dumpling House and had a very nice meal - Albany Jane wrote it up here.

Daniel was first to arrive and I was second. In our conversation, he mentioned that he was going to try to get to Pizza Town, USA on his way back to Princeton. He also mentioned that earlier in the day he had stopped by DC's Pizza to try a slice of their sausage pizza which was a runner up in the most recent Tournament of Pizza over at All Over Albany. Anyhow, on Monday morning, I was able to eavesdrop on this tweet:
 

24hrs later and I can still feel cheese and gravy coursing through my veins but so worth meeting up with @FUSSYlittleBLOG and @AlbanyEats!
— Chopsticks Optional (@chopsticksopt) January 27, 2014

 

@chopsticksopt I followed up lunch w/meatballs & donuts, then bread pudding today @FUSSYlittleBLOG ever make it to fried calzone land?
— Albany Jane (@AlbanyEats) January 27, 2014

 

@AlbanyEats Totally. I washed down my disco fries with a slice of pizza, a deep fried calzone and zeppole. Love Jersey. @chopsticksopt
— Daniel Berman (@FUSSYlittleBLOG) January 27, 2014

 Well, now I had to chime in. After all, Daniel had just visited a place I recommended. So I wrote:

@JonInAlbany The slice was great. Just as you described. And I lucked into hot-fresh-now zeppole - incredible. @AlbanyEats @chopsticksopt
— Daniel Berman (@FUSSYlittleBLOG) January 27, 2014

The conversation made me want to try DCs sausage pizza and it was lunchtime so I headed over to DC's on Western Ave and reported my experience to Daniel.

@FUSSYlittleBLOG No doubt that you ate the better slice at Pizza Town. The sausage at DCs was good, but I the pizza was pretty weak.
— Jon In Albany (@JonInAlbany) January 27, 2014

Alright, no doubt I'm being a pizza snob, but an honest snob. Here's the pizza a got at DC's slice of cheese and a slice of sausage.

Maybe I got some off slices at DCs. The sausage was good and well seasoned, but I didn't like the crust. Well, more than didn't like the crust. I've never understood why places use pizza screens (see the grid pattern). These slices of pizza made me wonder what made the judges in the tournament of pizza give the sausage pie a 78 - probably among the 10 highest scores given out in several years of tournament judging. Although in an earlier 2013 tournament round the same pizza got a 66. Daniel and I went back and forth about the crust a few times and then...

@RidiculousFood @FUSSYlittleBLOG @JonInAlbany as far as the dough made every day sorry if you didn't like it but 25 years can't be wrong
— DC's Pizza (@DCsPizza) January 28, 2014

I got caught being a snob by the people I was criticizing. It was after midnight when I saw this tweet from DCs and I was tired and grumpy so I fired this off bit of snark.

@DCsPizza I hope you do well but your pizza isn't for me. And 25+ years doesn't equal right. #Dominos @RidiculousFood @FUSSYlittleBLOG
— Jon In Albany (@JonInAlbany) January 28, 2014

I regretted it when I woke up in the morning. DC's pizza is better than Domino's and the comment wasn't intended as a comparison. I just meant that just because something has been around for a long time, doesn't make it good. But whoever runs DCs Twitter account is all class.

@JonInAlbany @RidiculousFood @FUSSYlittleBLOG Hahahhah excellent point, you can't make everyone happy, but I won't stop trying !!!
— DC's Pizza (@DCsPizza) January 28, 2014

We went back and forth a few more times and it ended with me offering to have DC pizza over sometime after I learn how to use the wood fired oven I'm planning for the back yard. Now I've got to get some pizza making skills to back up my trash talk. And Albany Jane is invited over too.

@AlbanyEats Never fear. You are always on the guest list.
— Jon In Albany (@JonInAlbany) January 28, 2014

@JonInAlbany w00t!
— Albany Jane (@AlbanyEats) January 28, 2014

Pam XYZ

I have no idea who Pam XYZ really is. I "met" her completely by accident.

Last April, I triumphantly made the leap from flip phone to smartphone and I have an unhealthy love for this new phone. My sister-in-law had already had a smartphone for a couple of years. In showing me around Google Play, she pointed me to Draw With Friends. The game is basically Pictionary, but it is on your phone, you draw with your finger and you take turns guessing with other people on other phones. So I began playing Draw With Friends with both of my sisters-in-law.
 

Once the kids saw the game, they wanted to draw for their aunts. Fun for the whole family. While my older daughter had control of the phone, she pressed the "Start a random game" button and drew an extra picture. A few hours later, I have a drawing from Pam XYZ on the phone. Who? What? Huh? Feeling very guilty for initiating a game, I couldn't blow Pam XYZ off. So, I drew back.

Pam XYZ's first drawing to me was "venom." She drew a pretty impressive snake and I'm guessing she has the full version because of all the colors. I drew a crappy unicycle back. You can watch the other player guess your drawing to see how quickly they get it. She figured out my weak unicycle quickly and sent me a ridiculously well drawn peacock. Wow. Colored in feathers. The works. Now it's my turn again.

My choices are cupcake, seagull or demi....I'm not an artist. I go with cupcake.

I make my little cupcake, put on some sprinkles, make some lines for the crinkle folds in the wrapper. Not my best artwork, but certainly not my worst. And I press send.

Oops. Turns out I fat fingered seagull. I drew a cupcake and the word was seagull. So I am watching this poor woman try and guess seagull as my crappy cupcake starts to come onto the screen. She uses a bomb to get rid of some letters. Then about six letter shuffles, a few letters go up and come down and then she finally unscrambles seagull. I felt horrible (although it was pretty funny to watch). I cleared up the error in the chat section and Pam XYZ thought it was funny too. The same thing happened to her a few months later.

Since I "met" Pam XYZ we have exchanged over 1000 drawings. The game stops keeping count at 999. Yesterday, I typed her name into Words with Friends. I was going to see if she was on there too and invite her to a game. Well, I must have hit the same button my daughter hit because I accidentally started a game with her. She accepted my challenge and off we went. I think we are going to start playing a Yahtzee type game too.

Ahh, the internet...

Whole Foods Rap

Saw this and thought it was funny. Didn't see a way to embed it here.


Whole Foods Parking Lot Rap

My favorite verse:

Now I'm on this inside, looking at my list
Organic chicken, Kale Salad and a Lemon Twist.
Some girl in yoga pants is lookin at me funny
I'm just trying to find a decent Pinot Noir for under twenty!

The Internet

I was browsing Craigslist looking for my dream-cheap-10inch-fantastic-wet-saw and I stumbled onto the Craigslsit TV channel. It's like watching a posting unfold on your screen. Anyhow, I'd buy this guy a drink. And I'd hire her to decorate my place.