Jesse, when you get home, get on IM. k?

My boss (who took a personal day today) just called in to see if the high corporate mucky-mucks have finally sent an email saying the company can close early today. They haven't. So she gave me dispensation to close the phone lines an hour early today. Yay!

I don't generally go to bars, except when the cable is out and I want to watch a game. They're too loud, the food tends to suck, and I live in a college area.

I like my food less salty than restaurants are going to prepare.

I don't go to a lot of restaurants, but my experience is usually that foods are under-seasoned, for the express purpose of letting the customer season it to taste. Except for that one place that puts cayenne in their cole slaw...

I'm a pretty picky eater myself, although my pickiness is usually manifested in a dismay at the lard/mayonnaise/deep-fried additions to what would otherwise be a nice, light meal. French fries with a burger, okay, but mayo on the burger and butter on the bun? I need a little contrast and a lot of lettuce/tomato.

We just got the message that we can take off two hours early. Since I got in three hours late this is looking like a really short day.

Now I can spend the rest of the afternoon figuring out what to bring to the New Year's party. Hmmmmm. I brought the hostess prosecco for her Christmas party already. Maybe chocolate?

my experience is usually that foods are under-seasoned, for the express purpose of letting the customer season it to taste

I've been told (by people complaining about my cooking, mostly) that adding salt after the fact is markedly not a substitute for decent salting during preparation, and I do believe that. Also, at the table one basically gets salt and pepper, which is just barely a start in the seasoning game.

If your observation is true, it still doesn't stop much restaurant food from being on the top end of my tolerable scale. I find Italian to be the most common transgressor of my boundaries.

What do you guys think about replacing candied fruit with crystallized ginger in fruitcake?

If that winds up too gingery, we replace the candied fruit with dried fruit that's been soaked in brandy. You could replace the candied fruit with a mix of dried fruits and ginger no problem.

I'm a picky eater but I think I've only sent food back once in my life.

I don't look to meet folks in bars. I don't think I ever have. I go to bars only when I have a purpose for being there. I went to one weekly back when I was playing open mikes. I'll be going to one on the 12th when I'm opening a gig. If there's a friend's party or something, I'll go. Generally, I prefer bars that have a point besides drinking. There's a piano bar in Oakland i used to frequent. There are bars where I'll go to play board games with friends. But, in general, bars are too noisy and expensive for me.

I think the only thing people are doing here is filling out their flexible spending medical reimbursement forms. I won't be losing any money this year, but I know this is not all of my receipts. I must do better at filing them away next year.

It's generally considered acceptable to send back food you don't like -- why should wine be treated differently?

I'm with this in (sorry) spirit, maybe it's a phrasing thing? I don't think I'd say you can send back food you dislike, the way you could if it was burned/raw. In my head the process goes

1. When the waiter comes back, you apologetically say, "I'm sorry, this sounded wonderful but I guess I misjudged..." or whatever.

2. Waiter sympathetically takes your new order (maybe suggesting something that the kitchen can have ready quickly) and hustles plate away.

3. Assuming you didn't originally order a lobster and replace it with a grilled cheese sandwich... I would tend to think they'll waive the price of the first dish. If they don't, I certainly wouldn't say you had a right to demand such a thing, though.

So I'd have the same expectation with wine. In any business deal, I can hope that my potential as a customer is worth more than a single purchase. But that decision is up to the merchant, not the buyer.

Sigh. The rumor was that at 2pm we would be sent home. 2pm passed. Nothing. Now the word in the hallways is 3pm. It's 2:35 and nobody has said anyhting to us about going home.