I believe in the greatness of days like Thursday because I believe in shared experience and 75-degree days and ordering pizzas for pick up.
Along with hitting golf balls at the driving range and playing basketball outside in fantastic weather, yesterday included a large-group WacoFork meet up lunch at Captain Billy Whizzbang's and another medium-sized group that came over to my house to watch Steve Carell's final episode on "The Office" (while the NFL Draft played on the television in the other room, obviously). And in order to be the good host and provide delicious sustenance for my guests, I did what I always do in such situations — I picked up pizza.
I happen to think picking up pizza as opposed to ordering pizza results in getting at least 10 percent better pizza. This is not a scientifically tested theory, it's just my own perception from repeated albeit biased experiment. I added a variable factor on Thursday by ordering pizzas from two locations, Poppa Rollo's and Rosati's, for the purpose of this blog. I would view this as a mistake because the pizzas weren't as fresh as I would have liked by the time I got them home and served them, except for the fact that my guests devoured the pizza. So it must have tasted good.
In fact, at the end of the night, there was a division of satisfaction that became clear to me.
1) Pizza — I ordered a straight tomato pizza from Poppa Rollo's and a large thin-crust pizza with Canadian bacon, mushrooms, onions and Crybabies jalapenos from Rosati's. Both of these are pizza choices that fly under the radar for some consumers of pizza in Waco inasmuch as ordering pizza from Poppa Rollo's usually involves copious amounts of meat topping, while ordering pizza from Rosati's often means going for their Chicago-style pizza. However, the straight tomato from Poppa Rollo's is every bit as tasty as Poppa Rollo's meat pizzas and it doesn't send the eater directly to food-coma land because it's way less greasy. The same goes for thin crust pizzas versus Chicago-style at Rosati's. But the kickers on last night's Rosati's pizza were the Crybabies. Maybe the most distinctive pizza topping round here, Crybabies are sweet but deceptively potent. They were the hit of the party.
2) The Office — I'm not sure what I was expecting here, but I have to say it left me a little bit flat on the first take. Upon further review at the end of the night, my television expert friend Cameron Weed and I determined that it was probably the right way for the Michael Scott character to leave the show. In the end, the ultra-narcissistic character Michael Scott wanted to focus outwardly and thank his office friends before ducking out a day early ahead of his goodbye-party hoopla. So in the end, he was ultimately good. Still, too few belly laughs for such a heavily anticipated event. "Parks and Recreation" and "30 Rock" were both funnier, but that has been the trend for a while.
3) The NFL Draft — I liked it better when it was on Saturday. Congratulations to Baylor players Phil Taylor and Danny Watkins, the 21st and 23rd picks of the first round by the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles respectively. My friend Tye Barrett gleefully reminded me that the count was 2 Baylor players drafted in the first round to zero for my alma mater Texas Tech. To that I respond that Texas Tech players don't need to be drafted to become Wes Welker-level superstars.
As stated, the pizza was the biggest hit. We began eating about half past 7 and by the time our friends Caleb Roberts and Caley Carmichael arrived just before 8, the pizza was long gone. Undeterred, Roberts called in Papa John's — banana peppers, onions and extra cheese. It looked and smelled delicious, but I was already full.
One more bite: I just now learned that Crybabies are the invention of Wacoans Virginia Ellis and Tracy Sage. They came up with the idea for the sweet and sassy jalapenos and debuted them in 2005. Well done!
