So Kim (rubytrax.com) and I thought it'd be nice to head on down to celebrate my brother's (hammered.com) birthday in person with him and his lovely wife (pffft.net). So we prepared for a massive drive (mapquest.com) to his place, packed up and left Thursday around 2130. We ended up stopping at the truck plaza near Coalinga at the junction of I-5 and 198 (geocities.com) where we were shocked to learn that the Taco Bell closed at 11...we got some sodas and went to the NEXT big truck plaza near Kettleman City only to find THAT Taco Bell closed as well, so we settled on the In-N-Out (foodservice.com). We continued on, making use of one of the many fine rest stops (digthatcrazyfarout.com) on I-5, and also stopping for some gas (cityspectrum.com) at the top of the Grapevine in Newhall when I figured out this was a more than one tank trip (it was closed, but still took my credit card...sneaky me). I think there was one more rest stop in there before we finally made it into San Diego (sandiego.org), where Kim's cel decided to stop working...so somehow I found my way to the correct condo and woke up Aaron around 0445, despite his thoughtfully leaving the door open for me to break in.
When we all woke up later, we first went to McDonald's for $1 Filet-O-Fish (because with deals like these we can ALL be Catholic during Lent!) and then stocked up on provisions from the VONS. We presented Aaron with presents, mostly acquired during KB (kbtoys.com) Bankruptcy Sales - a $.60 Wizards of the Coast "WCW Nitro" starter pack (rpweld3.com) featuring Jeff Jarrett and Buff Bagwell, a BATISTA FLEXEM (amazon.com) and the REAL gift (besides our presence, ha ha), a long-desired copy of Luigi's Mansion (target.com).
After some haggling, we finally convinced Aaron that we wanted to go to the GOOD, EXPENSIVE sushi place (onosushi.com) instead of the cheap, crowded sushi place. Somehow we came in JUST as they decided to bump someone off their reservations list and we got a table right away. Lots of fish, a tiny bit of alcohol, and $190 later we were stuffed.
I'm not supposed to mention any cigars, so let me instead say that there were absolutely no cigars smoked on this night. However, there *was* a whole lot of BEER. Keeping in mind that the Winterhook was pretty good, we went seasonal again and picked up some Red Hook Nut Brown Ale (mylifeisbeer.com), which was apparently the beer for THIS season. It wasn't bad! There were also some attempts at black and tan making, using both Murphy's (murphys.com) AND Guinness (guinness.com) with Harp (briansbelly.com). Also, we were turned onto the local side with some Red Trolley Ale (karlstrauss.com).
Let me now turn my attention to the all-important TELEVISION. First, I am *insanely* jealous of the offerings of Time Warner Cable (timewarnercable.com). I got a demonstration of the DVR and now I can't live without one - of course, Comcast doesn't QUITE have one to offer me yet. I also spent a bit of time checking out the "on demand" stuff - first were the music videos (havoctv.com) - Kim suggested the Goldfrapp (havoctv.com), which turned out to be very cool, and I made everyone sit through the kung fu Chemical Brothers (havoctv.com) one. We also checked out Food Network On Demand (foodnetworkondemand.com) and experienced Alton Brown meeting cheese (foodnetwork.com). And then there was the local news (kusi.com) - John Coleman, who this article (sdcitybeat.com) says was the original "Good Morning America" weatherman and may have invented the Weather Channel, is the "wacky" weatherman and has the type of behaviour that causes others to draw comix about him (conmicro.cx). (That is actually a pretty good snapshot of his Friday weathercast, too)
Saturday, we had lunch at the Carl's Jr./Green Burrito (carlsjr.com), enjoyed some snacks, enjoyed each other's company and also enjoyed WrestleMania XX (wrestlemania.com). Aaron & Lise had generously delayed their St. Patrick's Day corned beef & cabbage (kitchenproject.com) until this night, so after smelling it cooking in the crock pot all day, it was a great meal that night. It allegedly started out weighing five pounds, but I hope it cooked down or else we each had over a pound of meat. (Not that I'd mind that, but...)
Sunday, after a breakfast of home-cooked waffles, we headed to the world famous San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park (wildanimalpark.org) where we spent the day looking at cooool animals - their website has some cameras trained on some of the recently born, check it out! Did I mention the weather (nbcsandiego.com) was UNBELIEVABLY FABULOUS? Because it was. Very cool and great for taking the monorail ride around the acres of NATURE!
We sidestepped the emu jerky for another meal from Aaron & Lise too good for their visitors - apparently, when the Albertson's strike was resolved, there was a great deal on king crab (pacseafood.com), so they bought a box of legs and this was the occasion to break it open. Lise mixed up some kinda melted butter/garlic thing that was out of this world.
Monday, Aaron had to work and Lise had school, so we killed some time the old-fashioned way - we watched the stories (nbc.com). When they came back, we headed to local favourite Oggi's (oggis.com) for pizza, wings and a sampling of their own special brews (oggis.com). And, of course, we shared a very special episode of RAW, featuring a DRAFT LOTTERY - even inebriated, we managed to point out more plot holes you could drive a semi through.
Tuesday it was time for Kim and I to head back up - I wanted to detour through Los Angeles for a few stops, and for some reason MapQuest (mapquest.com) suggested the San Joaquin Hills toll road (thetollroads.com), so I figured hey, why not, I'm made of money, right? Actually it was only $3 but *shockingly* beautiful AND uncrowded, for a SoCal freeway. Made it to Record Surplus (recordsurplusla.com) where I loaded up on mostly $2 12" singles (watch for an archive update sometime in the next year) while Kim found something very rare but reasonably priced, and our tab topped out at $131 (thanks to a 10% discount, which was rather nice of them).
Moving on, we ended up going through the infamous four-level interchange (dot.ca.gov) and I got to drive the fun AND historical Arroyo Seco Parkway (dot.ca.gov) aka "part of the Pasadena Freeway." I said "LOOK! THE LOS ANGELES RIVER!" a lot until long after it got annoying and also got to go through four tunnels near Figueroa, which was a blast. The reason we DID all this was I was trying to get us to the Soda Pop Stop (galcos.com), since ever since I'd seen it on Food Network, I really wanted to check it out. It had probably hundreds of types of soda in bottles (mostly glass) and was a bit like a museum, except it purported to also be a grocery store...albeit one with only soda, beer, a deli, and a lot of candy. Kim opted for two different flavours of the Riggs & Forsythe (riggsforsythe.com) along with a bottle of RC, while I got a bottle of Moxie, a glass bottle of Dr Pepper, and - yes! - a 6-pack of original formula Dr Pepper (dublindrpepper.com) in 8oz non-returnables.
When we drove past the Staples Center (staplescenter.com), I happened to notice the Kings would be there the NEXT day. I offered to try to get us tickets and a hotel for the night, but thank God, she didn't take me up on that. Not because the Kings got a drubbing, although that didn't help, but because I was kinda looking forward to our OWN bed.
One more stop at Jims Chevron (gasuphere.org) - and oh boy isn't it sad when you think "wow, $2.379 a gallon is a real BARGAIN for premium?" - and we got back on the 2 to get to the 5 to head back up North (dot.ca.gov). There was a rest stop in there because I needed to do a little more stretching out this time (I blame the LA driving adding some hours to my car time). Also, a slight detour to Santa Nella to hit Pea Soup Andersen's (peasoupandersens.net) where I ate - yes - FOUR bowls of soup. But then back to the 152 and back home (mapquest.com).
After a lot of sleep, I waded through 90 or so threads in the Wrestling forum and told myself I've really gotta do something about the idiots that keep flapping their gums in there. After finally catching up, I spent three hours looking up hyperlinks for THIS thing. Why? I DON'T KNOW. Even now, I see a lot of details (and hyperlinks!) that I missed out on, but this'll do.
If I were DEAN, here's where I'd say THERE YOU HAVE IT.
The links make it read like a mad-lib. I think that would be a fun concept, until you had three pages full of the same story.
Please ban everybody from the wrestling forum. In fact, I think the world would be better off if it were deleted entirely. Please please please consider it.
This will get added at the end of each post you make, below an horizontal line. This should preferably be kept to a small enough size.
Good lord. That must have taken almost as long to type that as the trip took!
A couple of comments:
Why is Marlena killing all these people? Is there some plausible explanation for this behavior?
The bottle of Moxie! Invented right here in Maine. Our kids love this so much (as do we). I checked out a site Click Here (mainegoodies.com) that is just across the town line and it's ridiculous! $10.50 for a six-pack plus $5.95 shipping! It's $2.49 at the corner store! They must be making a fortune on this venture.
Last comment - maybe we should have some sort of intelligence test before new users can post. Maybe we can some test for the current users, too.
Wow. Quite a trip there. I just wanted to say thanks for the info on the Soda Pop Stop. I had never heard of it before, yet I only live 15 minutes away from it. I shall have to make a stop there one time.
THE THRILL ACW-NWA Wisconsin Home Video Technical Director...& A2NWO 4 Life! (Click the big G or here to hear the Packers Fight Song in RealAudio...or try .AU, .WAV or .MIDI!)
Originally posted by EastCoastJoeIt's been awhile since there's been a good Wienerboard story. I take it you took your Volkswagon? That's got to get uncomfortable on such a drive.
that reminds me of a movie quote...
"He likes to have sex in uncomfortable places." "(PAUSE TO THINK)...where, the backseat of a volkswagen?"
Cerebus: RIP 1977-2004.
"What do you think it's like being created by a manic-depressive, paranoid schizophrenic, hypochondriac, misogynist with delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex?"
Originally posted by EastCoastJoeIt's been awhile since there's been a good Wienerboard story. I take it you took your Volkswagon? That's got to get uncomfortable on such a drive.
Have you been in one lately? They're surprisingly roomy. I didn't mind stretching out at the rest stops, mind you, but it was more from sitting in general than any kind of crampdness type feeling.
Originally posted by drjayphdTrying to remember which one that was... "Mallrats", right? It goes without saying that it's a Kevin Smith movie...
Good try, but no. It's from the neo-classic BOONDOCK SAINTS.
Cerebus: RIP 1977-2004.
"What do you think it's like being created by a manic-depressive, paranoid schizophrenic, hypochondriac, misogynist with delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex?"
Originally posted by drjayphdTrying to remember which one that was... "Mallrats", right? It goes without saying that it's a Kevin Smith movie...
Good try, but no. It's from the neo-classic BOONDOCK SAINTS.
It was also repeated six or seven times in "Mallrats."
In the context of baseball, the use of drugs hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, the use of alcohol hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, womanizing hurts whom? Maybe the wife of the player? In the context of baseball, felonies are crimes against society, not against baseball. In the context of baseball, gambling is the only crime against baseball.
Gambling, in the context of baseball, is a capital offense and Rose has richly earned-- hell, he agreed to-- his death sentence. Let him hang.
Bob Kohm, co-owner of Rotojunkies.com (rotojunkies.com) , and a large market kind of guy.
Oh, I never saw Mallrats, nor Clerks or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Chasing Amy was good though.
Cerebus: RIP 1977-2004.
"What do you think it's like being created by a manic-depressive, paranoid schizophrenic, hypochondriac, misogynist with delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex?"
Originally posted by CRZ John Coleman, who this article (sdcitybeat.com) says was the original "Good Morning America" weatherman and may have invented the Weather Channel, is the "wacky" weatherman and has the type of behaviour that causes others to draw comix about him (conmicro.cx). (That is actually a pretty good snapshot of his Friday weathercast, too)
Coleman worked in Champaign, IL at WCIA television, and (I believe) hosted a show called "At The Hop" for awhile....
I haven't checked in a while, but this one caught my attention, from Tuesday: "wwe obama ears racist raw" which led to the RAW thread (The W) That one's my fault. Sorry! Since I WAS looking, I also caught one from just this morning: