March 16, 2006

Snowy exile.

It's pouring snow here in Madison, Wisconsin, and I'm exiled from my house again. I'm very happy for the snow, because the house looks far prettier at this time of year with the dull yard and bare branches coated with snow. Does Nature want me to sell my house today?

I drove downtown to set up in a State Street café, but there is a sports event -- basketball? -- at the Kohl Center and the area was badly parked up, so I turned west and, feeling hungry, stopped at The Atlantic Bread Company. They have sandwiches and WiFi, so why not give them a chance? I got the turkey club panini, which turned out to be inedible. I think the parts were assembled some time ago and something -- tomato-oids? -- liquefied, sogging the bread into a slimy dough. The coffee is okay, and the music is classical. At the next table, a man and two women, Bibles open, quietly share interpretations.

11 comments:

Dan from Madison said...

State high school basketball championship at the Kohl. Tough luck on the sandwich.

Ann Althouse said...

Let me have some compensatory luck on the house.

Gaius Arbo said...

Good luck.

I detest soggy sandwiches....

Frank from Delavan said...

Once any restaurant becomes a "chain" forget it. And I'm going back to when Pizzaria UNO was part of Uno's and Due 's in Chicago. Great then, blah now.

My own personal opinion is rate the looks, name (trendy,) decor, and number of offererings on a scale of 1 to 10, then multiply them out. Triple for wifi. The higher the number the worse the food.

SippicanCottage said...

It's pouring snow

to set up in a ...café

the area was badly parked up

tomato-oids?

sogging the bread


Does anyone here speak Wiscahnsin? Can someone translate this into Engrish for me? I want to know what Ann said, and I've lost my decoder ring...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
MadisonMan said...

I still can't believe they took out the Ovens for Atlanta Bread Company. What a bad bad bad choice.

I hope you took your sandwich back and asked for a refund.

I wonder if the Cuba Club woulda gone wireless if it was still on University Ave?

Ann Althouse said...

Sippican: Nothing Wisconsin about it. Just personal to me. (And I don't have a Wisconsin accent.)

Madison Man: I didn't ask for my money bad. I just punished them through a blog post. Passive aggressive, I admit.

Ovens was actually not very good, but I remember when it was the best restaurant in town.

Ann Althouse said...

Money back, that is.

Smilin' Jack said...

quxxo said...
This post has been removed by a blog administrator


Aww, Ann...when you summarily delete quxxo like that you leave the rest of us wondering how the soggy sandwich was all Bushitler's fault.

We think of quxxo as the crazy aunt in the Althouse attic...annoying at times, but we'd miss her if she went away.

reader_iam said...

Snow could be the ticket!

Our house in Delaware sold, in the dead of winter, to a guy who had watched me painstakingly hack at 3 feet of collected snow on the driveway. (I had just gotten back from a trip to Key West, during which there had been two storms that dumped 30-ish inches of snow, and then it drifted.) His Realtor was late because her car got stuck.

Whether it was because he took pity on me or that the situation led to a chat about neighborhoods, I'll never know. (I took it as a reward for diligently keeping the house up while DH was in Italy.) Or maybe all the white stuff either covered up the back porch/backyard defects or blinded the buyer?

They did say they were impressed that I had cleared, to the bare ground, a path to get into the house and that the kitchen floor was so sparkling white despite the winter weather and the presence of three dogs.

(Heh! Faked 'im out--they probably thought it was a sign of superior housekeeping skills. I'm not sure how long I could have kept that up, truthfully.)

I hope your snow-pour is a sign!