Goin' straight to HELL.

It's that time, isn't it? The whole Lent give up something you like so you suffer time.

How 'bout I give up work? ~snicker~

Since I AM a Heathen, I spent the latter half of my Ash Wednesday riding bitch on the back of HogStraddlers Triumph Thunderbird. A little impromptu Sinners Pub Crawl, you could say. Visited the new Londoner in Uptown, which rocks. One of those new but feels really old places because the owners put a lot of effort into finding some cool old wood doors, columns and furniture to put in it. Dark corners and nooks everywhere, fat comfy chairs and a formal dining table upstairs that seats 10 and totally didn't look out of place. Cool patio and upstairs porch and some good beers on tap, including a local Franconia that's not half bad. It's no Trinity Soul, but for Texas brew it was pretty tasty.

On to the Gingerman, where Hogs previous employers just happened to be having a craft brew class. I wonder if he planned that? More good beers. I had Abita's new Jockamo IPA. Pretty good, especially if you're a hop head. Tasted the New Belgium Mighty Arrow that just hit taps down here.

On down to Amsterdam, where we once again see some ex-coworkers for Hog. This is one of my favorite bars. And not just because its one of the few bars in Dallas where you can find PBR on tap. It usually has a really good selection of craft brew on tap and a good bottle selection. One of the few, again, that has Lindemann's Kreik on tap. Sweetart on acid, man. Yum. And a full bar that includes some really good Bourbons and some top-notch Irish as well. Kick ass patio and every Monday night about 10:30, when he's not touring, Shelley Caroll, Duke Ellington's sax man, leads a jazz jam on it. If the weather is crappy they come inside. Some kick ass musicians rotate in and out. If you show up with an instrument, they'll let you step up. Awesome to watch.

One more stop at a new place on Lower Greenville, Zymology. It's billing itself as a Gastro Pub. The first time I was in a "Gastro Pub" about a year ago, I hated it. Crawling with pretentious, snot-headed yuppies. I think my adverse reaction was location-related as well. I hate that part of town - West Village area- because it's filled with that same people that were all crammed into that bar. Puh-leeeze. Makes me want to park my truck on somebody's stoopid little Mini-Cooper. I'm a serious dive bar girl, which goes to war on occasion with my foodie tendencies. I think Zymology will provide a happy medium though. Good craft beers on tap, and the food was awesome - we had some appetizers that the owner comp'd because he knew Hog and their chef kicks some ass! I think I may take the girlz back down there this Wed night and invade the place.

Time to go home - Hog has a softball game and I have dinner plans with an old friend.

It's good to be a Sinner. ;)