Feist is playing the free Memorial Park show in Omaha July 12th.

Starbucks is offering their new Pike Place Roast tomorrow for free for 30 minutes, starting at 9 am on the West Coast and noon on the East Coast, so I think that it would be starting at 11 am in Omaha. I’ll be at work, but just wanted to let you all have a heads-up for some free coffee. They’ll be offering the new blend, which may be “the best coffee that we have created, maybe, in our history” according to Chief Executive Howard Schultz, every day starting tomorrow.

I finished reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz today. The book was a quick and interesting read. The characters are rich and unique and it has this conversational writing style that I really got into. I would highly recommend it.

Now I’m faced with the tough choice of what to read next. Maybe I’ll go back to What is the What by Dave Eggers. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson just looks too intimidating for right now. I might have to do some free weight lifting before I start that book. Or maybe I should go to one of the classics that I have yet to read, which include To The Lighthouse, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Jane Eyre, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and works by Flannery O’ Connor, among many others.

Guess what I ate today? Something I have not had in probably about 15 years: Chicken McNuggets. I missed lunch because I was interviewing someone for an article I am writing and I was starving by the time I left around 4. I needed gas and food before I got back on the highway and guess what was right next to the gas station and could offer something (pseudo) edible in 5 minutes? The golden arches loomed over my head, and I knew I was going to succumb.

The current drive-through menu is so visually crowded and busy that I couldn’t even find them on there right away, so I asked for the one with least amount of Chicken McNuggets. The response I got was a long pause and then a “What?” So I asked again, “Can I just have the smallest amount of Chicken McNuggets you have?” Still, confusion. How else could I communicate this? I scanned the menu again and luckily found the 6-piece option. “Can I have the 6-piece chicken McNuggets?” ” You want a number 11?” was the response. “Um, no thanks, I just want the smallest one. A 6-piece.” “So you want two number elevens?”

I looked around for a hidden camera crew. Nothing in sight. I scanned the menu again to see if I was missing my end of the “Who’s on First” bit we had going. The number eleven meal on the menu is 10-piece chicken McNugget combo. I most definitely did not want 20 pieces of chicken McNuggets, a double order of fries and a drink. “Um, actually, I just want 6 chicken McNuggets,” I stated in the clearest, evenly toned, leaning halfway out of my car window for added volume speaking voice that I could muster. “Oh, I’m sorry. Anything else?” I didn’t want to complicate things.

The verdict: the sweet and sour sauce is as good as I remember it (just seeing the cover’s shade of green brought back memories). I started to feel nauseous after about the third, but I ate the rest anyway. They were pretty good, quite greasy, but not noticeably gross. All in all pretty tasty despite the nausea, and I didn’t actually throw them up, so I would call it a success.