Junque...and Stuph

(So, I was going to write a little blog nugget, but I made the mistake of reading everyone else's blogs first. Why do I do this to myself?)

J10X & I have spent the last two weekends Hardcore Thrifting (TM*) - I think I can safely say we now have more Hawaiian action figures than any Coco Joe's outlet in the 1950s. The modus operandi: J10X wakes up & proclaims "We need to go Hardcore Thrifting!" We prepare, hop in the car & start driving. We then stop at an interesting-looking place that is obviously emitting some sort of signal to J10X. J10X sprints into the shop, and before I can even take down that interesting objet from the shelf I just saw, he bounds over with armfuls of stuff he's managed to spot behind 70 shelving units, on the bottom shelf, obscured by broken salt & pepper sets, all concealed under a tarp. Srsly. He has the friggin' eyes of Superman and an eagle combined. He managed to nab a really gorgeous tiki mug pretty much from under the nose of a guy who was looking for one - sweet, sweet victory. One of our more interesting finds is a tin for some sort of sweet or cookie called 'Nukii' - the tin has Bahamian-style dancers on a beach with bamboo-style letters. So, after rearranging the entire AA**, I now have to get more shelving. We're almost a maximum capacity, but then I still see some yellow walls peeking out from behind all the crap, I mean tiki goodness, and that just will not do.

While on the subject of junque, I will be making a rare flea market appearance with my friend Joe Reed in the role of vendor. I will be attempting to cash in on some things I can't give to my friends and they're a little too nice to just give away to Goodwill. I didn't realize how cheap it is to rent space & a table, so hopefully I'll be able to get rid of everything I bring. I seriously weeded my books, some went to the Book Barn so I could get....credit to buy more books.....and hopefully the rest will sell on Sunday.

And on to stuph: while Hardcore Thrifting (TM) on Sunday, we ended up in Mystic, Land of Too Many Tourists in the Summer. I spotted a restaurant that was highly recommended by a coworker called 'Rice, Spice & Noodles.' So, famished, we headed in & were the only people there - the last table of people had just left. I was delighted to see it was Thai food, and some funky takes on Thai food. They also have excellent beers. An extremely young lad came over to take our order, then we experienced the other waiter coming over about 4 times in a row, asking us to repeat our beer order (Maudite for me, natch, & the lovely Innis & Guinn for J10x.) Apparently, the other waiter was too young to serve us. So, we get our bottles of beer & glasses, and the waiter didn't realize they weren't twist off beers, so we had to call him back over again. We placed our order (which I cannot remember), and our delightful appetizer came out, hot 'n' fresh. Our meals were very tasty, too.
However, two things occurred that will ensure we never, ever go back: our silverware was not overly sanitary looking (we used the hygienic chopsticks) and the table being bussed behind us had its water carafe refilled by the very young waiter from a partially consumed glass of water left by the last patrons. Lovely.



*Trademark, 2008, the joey Zone
** As we all know, the best DAMN tiki bar in CT