Friday Dogs

My Boss Leaving a Worcester Treasure

Yesterday was about as mundane a day as I’ve had recently with things really slow at work.  We didn’t have anything special planned for the weekend other than a night of dancing tonight that my wife surreptitiously planned and then sprung on me yesterday.  I’m secretly looking forward to it but can’t reveal that to her for reasons that must remain shrouded in secrecy.  I’ve said about a thousand times what a great boss I have and he was at it again yesterday.  He came into the office and declared we were headed to the center of Worcester for lunch on the common.  Every summer afternoon a number of vendors set up shop on the common and you can get some pretty good sidewalk fare.  It was a glorious New England summer day which made getting out of the office even more pleasant and the walk around the common really nice.  We were in search of legendary Italian sausages but were denied.  Apparently there is a huge Latin American festival today on the common and they were setting up yesterday which restricted the number of vendors which included the Italian sausage guy.  Not to be denied we stole over to another of our favorite places, Coney Island Hot Dogs.  This place could not have changed in the last forty years and is a Worcester landmark/treasure.  You always run into people you know there and yesterday someone from the Worcester city government was in there that we had a meeting with earlier in the week.  He shouted across the place and asked if we had solved his problem for him.  My boss told me it would not be prudent to point out that solving the problem would involve firing the guy who worked for the shouter, that’s why he’s the boss.  Coney Island Hot Dog is a great throwback kind of place with old fashioned wooden booths that people have been carving their names into for the same forty years – lots of atmosphere.  The only problem is that after you leave you smell like hot dogs for the rest of the day due to the cooking fumes.  Later in the afternoon my boss and I left the office for an abbreviated First Friday celebration at Brew City, same red headed waitress so we were well taken care of.  My wife and I headed over to Zorba’s for the mystical Friday pizza which was up to their highest standard.  Thunderstorms came in later in the evening so Buddy experienced another one of his melt downs and was actually bleeding from his mouth in trying to bite his way out of the cage.  I stayed up with him for a while and we watched the premiere of the second season of Strikeback which is a great cable show that my son and I discovered last year.  It’s shot in South Africa using British actors portraying an English counter-terrorism outfit.  Great action and this year they added Rhona Mitra who brings some edge and looks; should be interesting.  The first show was every bit as good as last year which means it was awesome.

They're Back!!!!

The Common Yesterday

The Cathedral Just Off the Common -
Abandoned but Still Impressive