B.J.'s

music: listening to ingrid michaelson

Last night, we went to the pre-opening of the new B.J.'s Brewhouse in the fast-expanding citadel known as The Loop in Kissimmee, FL. They're training all the servers, cooks and bartenders to prepare for next week's grand opening, so they decided to use the nearby residents as guinea pigs. Fortunately, the guinea pigs get an entirely complimentary meal out of the deal, so you really can't go wrong with that!

I had my heart set on fish tacos for some reason. I've only ever had fish tacos once before at the B.J.'s by the Millennia Mall because that combination of seafood and Mexican had always seemed weird to me, but I gave them a chance and they turned out to be phenom. So I really wanted fish tacos last night.

Alas, when we arrived at B.J.'s, I was informed that each table had only select menu items available. I suppose they're still managing the logistics and timing of everything in the kitchen, so each table and section only had a certain amount of entrees to order from. So unfortunately for me, fish tacos were a no go.

Instead, I chose the spinach and artichoke pizza and also the Maibock, the seasonal German speciality, typically available in the month of May. The Maibock turned out to a bit too hoppy and bitter in my opinion when combined with the pizza. The pizza was incredible (it had cream cheese mixed in with the spinach and artichoke!) and also probably incredibly bad for me.

We were also given the choice of either a surprise appetizer or a Pizookie dessert. We decided to go with the Pizookie, because that's always a safe bet. The avocado spring rolls are incredible but there was no guarantee we'd even get them. And if you've never had a Pizookie before, it's not heavy artillery as the name might suggest. It's basically heaven in dish-sized form: cookie dough baked in a pizza tin (Pizza + Cookie, get it?) and generously topped with vanilla bean ice cream.

And the best part? The meal was entirely FREE. boo yah.

On another note, how crazy was LOST last night? I always like to read the recaps on www.ew.com. They come up with all the symbolism, crazy theories and hidden trivia during each episode. A few thoughts...

• I think this week confirmed to me that Claire is dead... or at least she's unalive. Or would that be undead? No, that would be zombies. Anyway, either way, she probably has a purpose now on the island and even though she's technically separated from Aaron, she's actually helping him by staying on the island. I don't think the island would bring her there under the pretense that her child must "not be raised by another" and then just take her child away from her for no good reason. Anyway, I don't think we've seen the last of her even though I'm pretty sure she's dead/undead/unalive.
• Until this episode, I completely forgot that when the plane crashed on the island, Jack found his father's coffin (remember, the one that he was flying back to the States?) was EMPTY. So here's what I think... The island somehow made Jack's dad either come alive or at least somehow in semi-corporeal form. People that are seriously ill or incapacitated (enter John Locke and Rose) are healed by the island. Stands to reason that the island could make dead people come alive. However, the continual reappearance of Jack's father could be due to Jack's own imagination or unresolved psychological issues projecting in the image of his dad or whatever. It's probably a combination of both. Either way, the point is... the Island makes you see things that you need to deal with.