Day #31: The one with floating tortilla chip

First off, I (Jake) want to take this opportunity to greet the blog readership. I've been a little MIA over the last couple of weeks, and my beautiful & talented wife has really kept this blog afloat. So please join me in thanking her for keeping you all in the loop, and also celebrating what a truly great writer she is. (She didn't want me to write that, but I think it's necessary). OK without further ado, onto our joint day 31 post.

We've made it a month people! Yep, no matter what calendar you are using, we've been here a full lunar cycle. Well actually we have no idea about any other calendars but we've been here a month, just take our word for it. To celebrate this magical anniversary, Jake decided to work from home. No, this had nothing to do with the extended happy hour that was thrown for Jason the night before! No, there were not copious amounts of alcohol consumed in his honor! The working from home was strictly in celebration of the one month anniversary of our arrival. How dare you think otherwise!

It was a lovely day to say the least. We woke up, Jake got to work (on the couch!) and Shayne went on her run (still going!!!). The phone rang nice and early and it was Venice calling with an Easter miracle. The plumbers had not taken off for their Easter bank holidays as of yet, and we would be graced with their presence at 1:30 (13:30). The day went by without event, until we got a knock on the door in the early afternoon. Sure enough, Trevor and the middle eastern man #1 & #2 were back to fix our sink. Luckily the issue was just a matter of properly routing the piping to the proper drain. Who would have thought. Good thing we brought in professionals to solve this mind bender. The tortilla chip was obviously the smoking gun in this situation. After approximately 11 minutes of work, low and behold our sink/washing machine issue was fixed, and the money pit revival crew was on their way.

Jake finished up his work for the rest of the afternoon, and Shayne got ready to head out with Margaret for high tea. The tea was set at The Wolseley for 4:00 (because, let's be honest...what else would Ladies of Leisure do at 16:00 on a Thursday?). Whatever you are envisioning as a British tea party, this would qualify: Porcelain teapots, sweet little cups, all of the tea tools (we totally acted like we knew what these were), and a delicious serving of scones that would blow your mind. Frilly: yes. Girly: yes. Lace: everywhere. Madhatter and Tea Mouse worthy: no question. UK - the L.O.L.'s have arrived.

* Photos of Margaret and Shayne at the Wolseley having tea for two. Technically, photos were not not allowed, but a few were snuck in. We almost got kicked out, but totally worth it!

Jake and Ben joined the ladies down in the Piccadilly Circus area (on the wedding route!) and headed out for a little happy hour! Amidst the tourist hell, we managed to find a pub that served 2 pound pints. Tourists or not, that's a great deal, so we stopped for a couple rounds. We caught up on the latest happenings with the Levine's and decided that dinner was probably in order. We strolled through the streets and stumbled upon a great little Mexican place. We usually don't throw around the term 'mexican place' very much here, as usually it's just a plate of soggy imitation tortilla chips covered in some tomato like paste that they try to pass off as salsa. Why is there sugar in the salsa? Why? Well luckily El Camion is fairly legit. So they get to keep the 'mexican place' title for now. We had some Dos XX, some Negra Modelo, and even a Tommy's Margarita (which almost brought a tear to Margaret's eye - given her fond memories of the San Francisco establishment). Moment of silence for the owner of Tommy's (who we can only guess was named...Tommy) who just passed away last week. A marg was had in his honor.

* Two dollar pints on the street - awesome!

After a decent passing for mexican food, we headed further down the streets of Soho. Wouldn't you know it, we first passed through the Hillcrest of London (note: Hillcrest is the notoriously gay friendly area of San Diego in which we happened to live & love). We were both right at home, and it was all we could do to keep Shayne and Margaret from diving into the first rainbow filled bar to bust a move on the dance floor. We then turned the corner and were greeted by the London China Town. Turns out Saki bombing is not quite as common here. Maybe that's a Japanese thing. Either way, we found a local pub, and proceeded to share common interest stories. Most of these started as funny stories about Chase Thompson (as he is the common thread between The Singleton's and The Levine's), but what we quickly realized was that the stories were veering off track, and then completely derailed into a tail spin of bathroom humor. We can't tell you why, but for some reason we told over an hour's worth of stories on the subject, each funnier than the last. We won't mention any specifics here (taco bell, liter boxes, purses...oops - we weren't supposed to mention specifics!) because some of our readership have stronger gag reflexes than others, but either way, it was hilarious. As the clocked ticked closer to Friday (we love you bank holidays!), we said goodbye to the culture of Soho and boarded the tube back to the Angel area.

* Out in China Town - Ben, Shayne, Jake, and Marge

Lesson's Learned: 1) When routing drainage pipes from kitchen sink, go around the dishwasher - not through it, 2) When installing a dishwasher, place it in the laundry room, not right next to your kitchen sink, 3) Poop is funny.