Quick hits

I meant to have a post ready for this morning, but once again, I'm behind schedule and it's only Tuesday. I'm working on a piece on Asian penises (not entirely inspired by the assimilated one) for [dc] and a Brokeback piece which may or may not be for [dc]. I'll get to those as soon as I'm done trying to bilk thousands of dollars from a multi-national corporation for the privilege of having my bony ass warm one of their chairs.

Quick notes about weekend in DC:

Another more-or-less uneventful trip on the Chinatown bus (you know, unlike the last time I took Apex Bus). The driver on the ride back kinda freaked me out by talking, no, shouting into his cell for the first 3 hours, but the bus actually made it to NY on schedule, which was a first.

The Baltimore stop on Apex/Today's Bus, basically a grassy patch at a rest stop off I-95, always amuses me, especially when the bus is already full coming out of DC and it stops long enough to inform the would-be riders that they're shit out of luck if the next bus is full too.

Oh, am I glad I took my trip this weekend and not the weekend before:
"Passengers were left completely befuddled as officers removed them from one bus and stopped the boarding of another. At least four buses were seized. The driver of a fifth bus ran away before police could inspect it, leaving his bus behind." [Downtown Express via NewYorkology]

Speaking of Chinatown, the one in DC is awful. The food is neither as good nor as cheap as the Chinatown restaurants in New York, or most Chinatowns that I have been to.

I hate leaving shitty tip and almost always leave around 20% as long as the service is okay, but I left 10% for the waiter who served us Sunday.

We waited at least 15 minutes before he brought out water and tea, and he tried to leave without asking if we were ready to order, even though our menus were closed and stacked at the edge of the table. He brought one of two dishes, disappeared again without any indication of when the other dish was coming, and we had to flag him down to get him to bring it.

It wasn't like the restaurant was mobbed or anything - the table across from us appeared to be getting competent, timely service. And I've worked in restaurants enough to know that not everything that goes wrong is the waiter's fault and I understand mistakes happen. But that was just shitty ass service. I'm thinking 10% was too generous.

Cupcakes at CakeLove - worth killing for. Fortunately, they're $3 each and worth every penny.