Dubsgiving 2, Dubs harder

Last week saw the return of Dubsgiving, one of our floating holidays, where Dubs comes into town and we use it as an excuse to drink like we are back in college.

We are not in college anymore.

This Dubsgiving was a much quieter affair than the previous one, with a 70% increase in video games and food quality, and 100% decrease in cab vomiting, cockblocking, and ear-directed assault. Fun was still had in spite of statistics.

Dubs arrived early afternoon on Sunday. I was unprepared to entertain (i.e. put on pants) so Dubs went off with Snorlax and Brownsox to get lunch. I bummed around the house (my apartment still needs a name) for a couple of hours, until Hubris talked me into Sushi Kin.

A word on Sushi Kin. As many of you (if there are still multiple readers) know, Hubris works at one of the best sushi restaurants in NYC. One of their chefs, a bloke by the name Tanaka, decided to start his own place. So he takes up shop in a small restaurant on Ditmar’s Blvd. not far from where we live. The place is BYOB, and rarely busy. The food, however, is amazing, some of the best sushi I ever had. I go there often with Hubris, and Hubris just asks Tanaka to put some stuff together, we eat like kings, and the bill is usually pretty decent. The BYOB helps keep the price down, as we just grab a sixer or two from the supermarket across the street. I worry that the place will close soon for lack of business, but damn is it good.

After some sushi lunch, we meet up with the guys over at the Irish Rover, half to show Dubs the local watering hole, half because I did not want to hang out in my filthy home. After a pint or two, it is decided we should go back to Brownsox’s place and play some Xbox. This would prove to be the turning point for the week.

Dubs is really good at video games. Naturally good. So when we get back to Brownsox’s place and decide the game of the day (soon to be week) is Fifa Euro ’08, he picks it up very quickly. By the end of the day, he is just as good as me (although by the end of the week, I am much better than I was in the beginning of the summer). We play the first on many games, and then head out to go see a play.

As fate would have it, GuruTeve is in town directing a show in the fringe. The show is in the Lower East Side, at CSV, which is a cool venue. We shlep down, grab a beer at the venue, and check out the show. After the show, we take GuruTeve out for a drink at The Magician, which is a cool spot around the corner. It was cool catching up with GuruTeve, meeting his girlfriend, and listening to the random horn players who were jamming in the bar. Also on site was Moth, who I had not seen in a while, and it was cool getting to talk to her as well. A bit of a surreal grouping of old college friend in a LES bar on a Sunday night.

Monday night was much tamer. The lot of us had dinner at Bistro 33, which is an amazing Japanese/French fusion restaurant around the corner from my old apartment near Astoria Park. Again, a diamond in the rough along Ditmars Blvd. After a crazy good meal, we grabbed a couple of sixers and camped out at Brownsox’s place for some more Euro ’08. Often when I am at Brownsox’s place, I will pour 2 Coors Lite tall boys into the glass boot I bought Brownsox in Munich, and get myself nice and tight. I continued this trend, arriving back at my place good and lit before going to bed.

Tuesday Dubs went out with a high school friend, so I rested both my thumbs and liver. Wednesday night was the last night of Dubsgiving, and I had plans of showing the boy the town. However, when I got off work I found the team too entranced in heated games of Euro to fathom going out. I came over to Brownsox’s and had some beers while the boys played (I was too stressed from work to jump into the game. Euro ’08 is a fun game but can drive a man to violence). Eventually, we headed over to McCann’s for some shots and beers. I got to that lovely point of drunk where I stop caring about the little things (i.e. sleep) but still remember the big things (i.e. violence is not condoned in public eateries) and Dubs, Hubris, Brownsox and I drank into the night and had a good laugh.

Not quite the bender we expected, but we are getting older, and there is always next year.