Friday night, down 95, among those out of state plates running late... We had planned on a Saturday morning drive down (why not? All the good cartoons evaporated from Saturday morning some time ago), but like I said before, our plans were invertebrate in the first place. So when Matt called me Friday and told me to pack quick, we were leaving that night, I didn't mind. Of course, I was in the middle of cooking dinner... but fuck that, we got to eat on the road! Richmond, it seems, is surrounded by a protective ring of diners, but we didn't make it that far, coffee/food called out to us in Falmouth, We stopped by a Waffle House (nice chain, wish they were up here so I could lump them in with IHOPs and decry them pretentiously) and got a bite. Sitting at the counter, looking at those all picture menus, saw some high school girls dressed to the nines, where could they have been coming from in Falmouth? But that's the big city view, American towns are never as small as they seem from the highway. I was fascinated by the incredible machinery surrounding the griddle, griddles rather, a grease-obscured laminar flow hood, bacon in semi-refrigerated drawers, here was diner industry... not a bad plate of breakfast, though. Didn't take any pictures though, too bad. We pushed on, getting caught up here seemed way too possible.

Got in just after 2:AM... Matt's brother Mike, graciously hosting us, has this cool winding wedding cake of a house in the Carytown. He was without fiancé for the evening, so could entertain us with his new obsession over "Out of This World"... Matt didn't remember the game, but Mike and I had memories of guiding Lester Knight Chaykin through swarms of fanged slugs and grey Ookla the Mok types. Good looking game for something you could fit on a 3.5"... we all faded into couches and futons before this went on too long.

Saturday was a long wasting joy, a beautiful drag... we weren't out and about until 3:00, where, with Adam in tow, we ate at Kuba Kuba...

3:00 Kuba Kuba (1601 Park Avenue 804.355.8817). This is a Cuban cafe' just North of the city proper. Very good food from their ham and cheese Cuban melts to their coffee' flavored chocolate mousse (especially the latter). It has long been a favorite of Mike's and mine due to the fact it is very good, very happy and I haven't found a place quite like it here in DC. This would also be the first of many places we would forget to bring the camera today.

Mike, Jazmine and I took off to go rock climbing at Peak Experience. Stupidly, I forgot to steal Brian's camera as this would have been a perfect opportunity to use it. Climbing in a gym is fun and this is the best of the climbing gyms I've been to. I also get a kick when Jazmine (all 100 lbs of her) belays all 185 lbs. [LIE] of me. I keep feeling when I come off the wall I'll take her up with me and through the pulley at the top. Of course, since life in not a cartoon, this almost never happens.

I had no desire to go rock climbing (that's the first form of Deep Hurting!), so I went back to Adam's house, spend a little time there... Adam's on our staff page, did the last Crawl with us, he's up here all the time, so it was cool to see him in his own environment. He lives in what would a natural outgrowth of those cool houses we lived in during college...but we're past that now, one of Adam's roommates owns the place, and he can add on, make carpentry additions... it's the coolest! We were sitting around waiting for Matt and Mike to call, but soon realized they'd be a while, and we had to start drinking quick! Or we'd fall behind! One 7-11 later, I was polishing off a six pack and Adam's roommates were expressing surprise in his mere consumption; I had no idea he was so dry! Well, we'll fix that...

So, after forming up again, we decided to go out.

Us boys were in rare form and had been spoiling for a drink for some time. Mike is a talented bartender (licensed and bonded) and fixed us drinks designed to match our mood and tastes. He just brought back an assortment of liquors from the Caribbean, so this was a liquid feast indeed!

When it came time to go out, Jazmine (although she still had a hangover from her wild night before) offered to be DD. What a saint! I think this is the only time I've seen Adam go out and drink (he is permanent sober wheelman). Still, as you can see from her picture, she wasn't that excited to be hanging out with a bunch of drunk boys - which makes her sacrifice all the more poignant.

10:15: Our first stop was Matt's Pub - a comedy club. I think we had wanted to start earlier, but sitting around drinking Mike's liquor was a nice compromise... did I mention this was a lazy relaxing weekend? So we went out to see the late show; it wasn't too shabby. Matt's Pub looks to be a nice pedestrian bar, but we descended below it immediately into this brick cellar area. My notation seems to indicate that the headliner was one Stuart House, but that really could have been another place we went in the evening... no, it's probably somebody's name. There was a great bit about giant cheese wheels that stands out, probably because it made me think of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite novels; no, Matt remembers it too, so it was legitimately interesting. This was a good evening out, it gave the five of us a chance to gel, to take in someone else's performance for a change.

I was tipsy and excited and my kung-fu was strong. I was psyched that there was a bar named after me (not the most uncommon of names, but still). Now if we could just find a Brian's bar, we'd be set.

These Christmas lights were everywhere, but isn't that always the way? The date was the 25th of January, so these could have conceivably been tardy Christmas decorations, or they could be up all year round, we'll never know! Anyway, they set up an eclectic decor in conjunction with the painting, some seaside beach bingo cartoon surfer scene (the wave, at least, is visible). Now see here, Matt's Comedy Club, you've got the perfect brick wall, why go with anything else? I'm not so sick of stand-up comedy that I feel like messing with it's traditional accoutrements. I dug looking at the mirror and brick and brick, all of us, performer and performee, waiting in the columns for that dance war upstairs to subside, and until then we had canned peaches and beer.

The first comedian was definitely the better one - talking about giant cheese wheels and such. I remember the other one was at one point a writer for Seinfeld, which is a show I hate, so I didn't like him as much.

1:10: The 3rd Street Diner (on 3rd and Main) is my favorite diner in Richmond. Way way back in the day, it used to be a Civil War hospital. Try as I might, I have yet to find an old severed arm or head. As you can see, this is one of those Nuevo Diners where hip trendy people hang out, not a 50's diner as we are used to in NoVa. Still, I liked it anyway from the yummy biscuits and sausage gravy to the corned beef hash.

I felt sorry for Adam that night - being Jewish he can't enjoy the savory breakfast foods us goy can. Poor bastard.

Hey, check out the above picture. Enhance...enhance...enhance... this picture dates to about 1:50 or so in the evening... if your memories aren't spotty at that point you haven't been living right. I do remember digging that waitress behind Mike though... red glasses, you say. But as I tell all my pupils, waitresses are not here to be your dating pool! They're the bringers of food... a sacred office in and of itself.

Brian says that, but then rains scorn on the hip employees of Caffeine. He certainly is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a clue (Wrapped in a hypocrisy).

Matt is, at this point, fighting the urge to rain death from on high into us... luckily he just took the picture. Wotta great diner, they have an upper level! My super cool custom diner, designed by crayon tools mostly, has three complete levels, but also rotates, to the speed of helicopter locomotion if necessary.

The diner has this crazy all-wood old style phone booth that, since I was drinking, I really dug.

This is a vending machine I saw that was totally weird. Not only did it contain candy and cigarettes, it had Advil, condoms and tampons too! Talk about one stop shopping!

We got home and still felt like we had some steam, so we put in the Donnie Darko DVD I thought that Mike would enjoy... Matt fell asleep right away, I lasted to the halfway point thereabouts, but Mike dug it. So I can ask Mike why he wears that stupid human suit, but Matt won't get it. In the morning we ran a Welsh Rabbit experiment (good! A recipe worthy of our page, but we used up a shitload of cheese) and puttered about... but then it was time to go. Matt and I drove back from beautiful Richmond spring into evil NoVA winter, full of plans for revisitation. But there are so many other adventures on the long distance slate, who can say?