Stoney patio

So, after all that hand-wringing and the marathon city council meetings, the council has now decided to not push for putting the arena issue on a special March election ballot. They're just going to sit back and wait for Lou Blanas to come to the rescue. That will give the Mayor plenty of time to start pushing again for Cinearts, so don't forget to email her and your city council person and tell them that you're still opposed to corporate welfare for Century Theaters.

I went to Southside park to feed the ducks the other day and they were gone! I guess during that big rainstorm, sewage flooded the pond and killed all the fish, so the ducks must have left, too. I had to try to feed my bread to squirrels, which is really not very fun. The Bee reported that some people were picking up the dying fish on the banks and taking them home, presumably to eat them. There is yellow police tape around the pond but no posted warnings about why it was there. Maybe I am just class-obsessed (cuz after all, America is a classless society), but I can't help but think that if this had happened at McKinley Park that there might have been some posted warnings so that little Lord Fauntleroy won't dip his precious fingers in the icky water. So if you see some scraggly, tough looking ducks at McKinley, they may have just moved from the wrong side of the tracks.

I ate at the Riverside Grill (which used to be the Hereford House) last night, and it isn't even worth writing a full review about. I had had breakfast there before, which was not good, but I went back for more punishment and had dinner. I will say the house chardonnay was good (and by good I mean they gave me a lot of it), and they were quick with the bread, but my spinach salad was overdressed and not very exciting. Paul and Grace both got this ahi tuna noodle thing and while Grace felt that the tuna was good, Paul didn't, and both said that they wouldn't order it again. I think it's lame when I go to a restaurant and the appetizer list is so boring that it is mostly comprised of fried stuff (like calimari) and artichoke dip. Snore. What, did they just copy the T.G.I. Friday's menu? Where's the Bloomin' Onion (TM)? Thankfully, they sat us in the weird semi-patio area (which they took pains to decorate as if you are still inside, rather than outside. Why? I don't know), because inside they have at least 58 flat screen TVs. I hate that because it takes superhuman will to not look at a TV that is on, even if it showing something really boring. The patio is in a word, trippy. Besides the am I inside or outside thing there is a wall of water, and three stacked fake fireplaces. So if you are going to go to the Riverside Grill, I recommend that you take a fat bong rip, order all the fried appetizers that you can handle and trip out to your heart's content. And then you can watch TV when you get bored thinking about "Am I inside or outside? And what does that really mean, anyway? Even when I'm outside, I'm always inside my skin, right?"