So a web programmer, a bank jockey, a lab rat, and a security guard walk into a Chinese restaurant ...

Not sure how the joke works inbetween the setup and the punchline, but it ends up with a rather well-reviewed restaurant getting a very slow turnaround on a prime table on a rather busy Sunday.

The day started off poorly. I'd injured myself the day before, thereby missing out on adding to my CD collection at an earlier gig. Adding insult to injury (quite literally), the restaurant was not where I'd imagined it. Seems that Southwest Freeway has some oddities with the odd/even numbering system of it's addresses. Odd is supposed to be on the south and east of streets. So what the hell is 8319 Southwest Freeway doing on the northwest side of the freakin' highway? Oddly enough, it was right where Google Earth had it pinned.

I'd departed the bus of my choice and somehow managed to get lost ... on foot. Save for an equally lost Ulysses picking me up alongside the freeway in tears, I'd probably be dining at Long John Silver's instead. Needless to say, the place I thought I recognized the name of the restaurant from was not the place we were to convene. Instead of a well-publicized storefront, this place was tucked safely into a cozy little L-shaped strip center easily missed by ... well, at least half the clown crew.

Be that as it may, our 11:30 party convened at noon and I was hungry for me some duck! Never had the stuff before, and I generally stay away from eating cute animals or animals I've played with in my younger years. Still, something spoke to me about Peking Duck. I draw the line at rabbit, but duck just somehow slipped through my decision set.

Peking Cuisine is noted for their authenticity among the Beijing expats. Not that I've got an extensive set of comparison points with regard to Peking Duck, but I can't complain when the food was pretty darned good. The gameplan seemed to work out just perfectly, with two additional plates (General Tso's Chicken and some beef dish that I didn't get around to) balancing us all out to just about full with a bunch of empty plates to show for it.

Still, we clocked in at a bit over 3 hours, which is easy for this weary band of clowns. Too much to talk about, too much to catch up on, and too much to entertain one another with. It was duly noted that this must be tried on a monthly basis. Since the Peking Duck idea was hatched by Uber and the Clown Caucus concept taken by your's truly, I hereby leave it in the hands of the other half of the cast to determine January's "Feast of the Clowns." I like the idea of the restaurant being a somewhat-to-very adventurous pick (Chinese food not being adventurous, but Peking Duck at least being somewhat of a treat), although the brainstorm of us raiding a Chucky Cheese's has it's allure. Oh, and can we just make a pact right here and now? None of this vegetarian nonsense, ok? I like to know that something other than in addition to the people sitting next to us suffered for our meal.