First Random of 2009!!!

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!! I'm gonna random a bit, we'll see how this goes...



My parents took the boys and two of their cousins up to the snow on Mount Baldy last week. There was a good amount of snow up there, and it looks like they had fun!!!



As I mentioned in my last post, I worked Saturday and had Friday off. I liked the idea of having Thursday and Friday off in a row better than just Thursday in the middle of the week. I chose wisely. That Friday I took the family to Magic Mountain again. This visit worked out much better in many ways!!! First, we didn't get soaked and freeze. Second, I remembered to put on extra layers, and that worked out well. The day wasn't nearly as cold, anyway, but it did cool off in the evening.


Not sure if I'd made mention, but one of the things I got for the older boy was a pair of work gloves, fabric with rubberized palms. I'll hit him across the face with them, and give him the line from "Waiting for Guffman": "It's like in the olden days, in the... days of France, when men would slap each other with their gloves... say, y'know... ”D'Artagnan!"... y'know, "how dare you talk to me like that, you!," and... smack 'em!" I was looking around for somewhere that had a WAV file of that, but couldn't find any.



Of course, if you've been following my Twitter feed, you know there were no pretzels to be had. I had been planning on a mid-day snack of pretzels (dollar to ounce, the best value in the park, I'm convinced, these pretzels are HUGE!!! Honestly, I've seen steering wheels smaller across than these pretzels!!!) and hitting the Wendy's between the park and the freeway on the way home. Instead, we snacked on fries from the fresh cut fry shack across from where we ate last time. $30.90 for three fries (garlic, nacho, and plain) and three sodas. What a rip!!! At Wendy's, we bought three combos, plus an extra shake and fries for $30.92.


Does anyone really think we can tax away an economic downturn??? Besides the Democratic lawmakers and greedy union heads, that is???



I saw an article that they've made a new Oscar Mayer Wiener mobile out of one of those fake Minis. I thought that was very apropos, those things are already wiener mobiles.



Mixed in here are a few screen shots from Runescape. I liked this better shot I got of my character in my gold trimmed armor. The other two are of my character, and when I had to change it's gender for a quest. Unfortunately, when I changed back I lost my facial hair and dreadlocks. Maybe the barber in Falador can fix that up for me.





The evening was the best part of the day at Magic Mountain. The weather cooled off to a point where it would have been nice to get the heavy jackets from the trunk of the car, but that likely would have taken half an hour or more. The crowds there were less than last time, and even less as the night fell. The older boy and I went to ride Colossus while mom and the younger played some games in the arcade. Colossus was practically a walk-on, so we rode twice. We went back to switch, and ended up all going back. Mom and the older went on it, and didn't come off. Finally, we walked up the exit ramp just as mom was walking off. Boy wasn't with her. Turns out they let them stay on the coaster for three rides, four for the boy.


I've said for years that unions were at one time a good thing, but have outlived their time. I have been referring to them as dinosaurs wandering the country looking for a tar pit big enough to hold them. Perhaps the current economy will be just that tar pit!!!



Over in the same area is a coaster I'd never been and didn't know much about, Scream. We went to check that out, and it's pretty cool. Near no line for that one, either. It has several inversions and nicely banked curves. When it gets ready to go, an air horn sounds and the floor drops away. We rode that one twice, too.


On the Saturday after Christmas family gathering at my parents house, we all went down to Naples island to view the Christmas lights down there. Some of my favorites were the palm trees with lights on them.



After work yesterday I went to Big Lots for some of the Ace energy drink they have there. I think it may be my new favorite, and it's a great deal there. Along with everything else I decided on there, it came to $12.74. Next stop, I bought gas for Baby (31.57 MPG for this tank, w00t!!!) and of the $20.00 I'd put on the pump, I ended up spending $12.79. I marveled that, of my last four transactions, each pair came out within a few pennies of each other!!!



Last picture here is from where I was uploading pictures to here. I thought it was pretty interesting how it came out looking like a bar graph.


X2 is my favorite coaster at Six Flags now. It has great effects (FIRE!!!), and cool drops and loops, and the chairs rotate!!! Waiting in the line, they have video screens showing all kinds of funny crashing videos. Nicely done!!! Now, if the wait wasn't so long...