Pumcakes and Records

I took a trip to Williamsburg this weekend. (More about that to come on my blog.) Mostly just for the hell of it, but I also wanted to go to a performance of Messiah at Bruton Parish. But that's here nor there. Because on the way down I stopped at Plan 9 Richmond. On the way in I stopped at Plan 9 Williamsburg. And on the way to go to sleep I stopped at IHOP. Glory. Predominantly P&R Friday.

Plan 9 Richmond was the greatest as always. I was actually mostly going there to see if I could find this CD that my brother has been bitching about never being able to find for well over a year now. I could've ordered it from Amazon a while ago, but I kind of wanted to put Plan 9 up to the challenge. And have an excuse to go there. Well, they delivered on that end, so that was awesome. Of course then it was downstairs. The dollar section has gotten even bigger, which is excellent. The three dollar section has gotten bigger. The regular "these are albums people look for and we price them accordingly" section was actually miniscule. Personally, I like that. I never buy anything from that section anyway unless it's an absolute must-have, shit's just too expensive. Mostly what I wanted was Yes. I've been listening to Yes a LOT lately, and yet all I have on record is Fragile from way way back. One of the first records I found in my basement. So I managed to find Close To The Edge, The Yes Album, and of course 90125. But no Yessongs, Relayer, Going For The One, or Tales From The Topographic Oceans unfortunately. I had kind of counted on Yessongs being there, but oh well, I can deal with what I got fer shur. Also picked up first albums from Booker T. & the MGs and The Mar-keys, which I was very excited about. Ultimately pretty successful, especially considering how much I put back. I rarely ever put anything back in the dollar bin. I convince myself, "It's just a dollar. How can I leave it?" But I was able to tell myself this time, "I came for Yes. I'm sticking with Yes this time. Settle down. Put it back."

This was the first time I'd been to Plan 9 Williamsburg since they moved to the Big Lots shopping center. I guess the space is about the same size? Maybe? I have a hard time remembering. But it seemed like they had a lot less stuff than they used to. The racks just seemed to have pitifully few albums in them, and that goes for CDs too. I was looking through the records and thought I had wandered into a bust. "Oh, S.O.S. Band, that's okay. Sade Stronger Than Pride, I can deal with that. Best of Minnie Riperton, I kind of want that." I get into a weird mood when I stumble into a place like that. Even though there may be stuff there I'm willing to spend a dollar or three on, I get into this mood where unless I feel like you're trying to give me some real reason to get excited, I refuse to go to the cash register with anything. So, almost a complete bust when I get to the 5 dollar section and find a pretty good copy of Sign 'O' The Times. Then I got excited. And of course, when I got excited, I went back and picked up the other three I was sort of interested in. I'll call it a success.

Then pancakes. This concert I was going to started at 8, and somewhere I got the idea in my head that it was going to be 2 and a half hours long. So pretty much from the time I decided to go, I had also decided that my stop afterward was going to be the old familiar IHOP right near the old townhouse. (More on my blog about the old neighborhood. Jesus christ!) And, by golly, the time had come, I was going to get some of those Holiday Pancakes! But how to choose?!? As has been noted, I was keen on all four choices. I had pretty much ruled out Egg Nog, just wasn't interested enough in those. When I got there and looked at the special menu, I immediately got a little stomachache just looking at the pecan pie pancakes. Those look a lot better in the commercials than they do on the menu. So it was between gingerbread and pumpkin. Gingerbread looked to have a lot more going on in terms of ingredients, and I kind of consider pumpkin the underdog of the bunch. It's the only one that gets no mention whatsoever in the commercials, and it's sort of no frills. They just look like regular pancakes. No confectioners sugar, no goop. There is some whipped cream but that's as far out as it gets. And being that pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors of anything, it was pretty much the favorite going in. Well, they didn't blow me away. When the plate came out, the smell was overwhelming. I mean it really smelled of pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger. Biting into them, the taste was not quite as powerful. It tasted like something to me. Wasn't quite pumpkin pie. I realized later that it was this pumpkin cake I had made in my microwave using pumpkin, egg beaters, and powdered peanut butter. For real. Tried them with and without syrup. Without syrup, the pumpkin flavor was evident but not mind-blowing. With syrup, it was hard to tell this from a regular pancake. Ate 'em all up fast though. After all, they were pancakes. End of story.