Up North

As promised, here's more of a rundown of the extended weekend we took to Northern California for the Garlic Festival.

We left out fairly early (Well, quite early) on Thursday morning. While we could have driven up, I'd just as soon spend a bit more on airfare and rental than blowing a day each way driving. We flew into San Jose and had our luggage all stowed in the back of our rental car (a sweet little PT Cruiser, AWESOME for the "economy, sub compact" I'd reserved!!! Lots of cargo area and plenty of room and power, while delivering decent fuel economy. The counter guy tried to sell me on a class upgrade to a Challenger for only four dollars a day more. I was greatly tempted, but am glad I didn't) before we likely would have been dressed and ready for the day on a regular weekend. From there, we headed south and towards the coast to Santa Cruz, a great tourist spot and where I had our first night's lodging reserved. Still before noon, our room wasn't quite ready, but the innkeeper gave us our parking pass so we wouldn't have to pay to park elsewhere. No problem anyway, we were going to the boardwalk!!!

I told my wife the name of the place, the Paradise Inn by the Sea, and she replied that it sounded like a pink, shabby place. It turned out to be just that. See their sign??? It says "The Fireside Motel", but it's been changed on the parking lot sign. No matter, the room was fine, and we didn't spend that much time in it anyway. The nice part is that it is indeed very close to the sea, as well as the boardwalk and the wharf. Oh yea, they had Mr. Pibb in the soda machine. We parked, and didn't move the car again until we left.




The boardwalk. It is pretty bitchen. The last of the coastal amusement parks on the West coast. It has been expanded since my previous visits there. Strangely enough, its all concrete, not even done up to look like boards. Got to go on several rides, some lady gave my wife some sugar coated greasy fritter thingys that she didn't like while she and the younger waited for the older and I to exit the Giant Dipper roller coaster.






After a while, wifey wanted to go get into our room and have a little rest. We got her set up, then the boys and I changed into our swim suits and went to play on the beach some. We dug holes and made castles, played in the surf, then made our way to the very end (probably more than a mile down) of the beach, where there is an inlet, and an archway that we needed to explore. It was full of water, and led to the next beach over. We explored back a ways, and there was what looked like a giant mouse hole in the cliff face. Turned out to contain a drainage pipe. To come back, we waded across a lake connected to the inlet (it was sizable) and, back on the boardwalk, rode the chair lift back to the other end. Time to get some food, so for dinner we went to the patio of the bowling alley next to the inn. The younger fell asleep waiting for his pizza to come. It was a long day!!! And not done yet, the older boy and I went back to the boardwalk and rode some more rides. We closed the place down, we did, and ended up with one last ride on the Giant Dipper.






The next morning, after a rather crappy continental breakfast in the inn's lobby (nothing but packaged pastries and coffee), we went for a walk on the wharf. Of the four times I've been to Santa Cruz, this was the first time for that, and for actually going on the beach. The wharf was pretty cool, longer than it looks!!! Sea lions (who we'd heard from the beach the day before) climb up on the underside of the end, and they have openings cut through so they can be observed.




From there, we went to a nearby place called Roaring Camp, a railroad attraction. Much like last year's vacation to Florida, where the timing was perfect for a shuttle launch, this coincided with a three day event going on at Roaring Camp, a "Day Out with Thomas". Thomas the Tank Engine, that would be, one of the younger's favorite things. Normally they have a narrow gauge railroad that does a trip through the giant redwoods, that I probably would have gotten us tickets to ride, but that day we got to ride on a train pulled by Thomas.









One more stop before we left that general area, the Mystery Spot. Cut and pasted from their web site, "Within the Mystery Spot you will be stunned as your perceptions of the laws of physics and gravity are questioned. Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for alien spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself burried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia." In fact, it is a shack built on a 27° slant. Nonetheless, it is well presented and a lot of fun, as well as being one of the better deals on touristy places of the whole trip.





From there, we had a bit of a drive out to our next room, near Gilroy. Considerably nicer lodgings, but strangely almost exactly the same room arrangement. The next morning we had another innkeeper provided continental breakfast, MUCH nicer than our previous place. From there, a short drive to the focal point of our trip, the Garlic Festival!!! First, Gilroy: The place smells of garlic!!! Awesome!!! The exit ramp was jammed, and the roads leading up to the parking area was jammed, and there were big lines to the shuttle buses to the grounds, and big lines for the passes and to get in. It was a zoo, tons of garlic lovers there. The first thing we got was some of the fabled garlic ice cream. Con Agra was giving it away for free, and shockingly there was a huge line for that, too. It tasted OK, and interestingly was about the heaviest garlic flavored thing we had there. Garlic egg rolls, almonds, fries, and kebabs were among the other goodies we sampled. Garlic makes 'em good. Watched a bit of a cooking presentation, and let the younger go on one of the overpriced rides. They had a playground area that was inaccessible for the event, and some playground equipment that you could let your kids crawl through for the modest sum of $2.85!!! That wasn't going to happen. We had our fill after a few hours, and headed back.




Still having some day left, I checked to see if there was a theatre in the area, and we ended up going to see Wall-E instead of the X-Files movie (momma's pick), at the kids constant nagging. (Side note: we ditched the boys and I took her to that this weekend. The most first run movies I've seen in a LONG time. I'm glad I didn't take the boys to that, it really wasn't that good. Could stand up as a TV episode, but mostly it was a vehicle to get Fox and Scully together again, it seemed like. I wanted it not to suck. I narrowly avoided outright suckness, and if that's the best I can say... not good)









Our final day once again began with a continental breakfast, then we headed out. The first real unscheduled day, and we didn't know exactly what we were going to do. Montery bay and possibly the aquarium there were considered, but that was the wrong way for getting to the airport and a bit of a drive at any rate. I considered swinging up past San Jose to the Frisco area, but once again, the drive. Ended up just going back to San Jose. Thought we might go bowling, or see another movie before heading to the airport, but it turned out there were neither theatres nor bowling alleys in San Jose!!! I was stunned!!! Adjacent to the HP Pavilion, there was a park with a nice play apparatus and a carousel. We stopped and let the boys play and we all rode the carousel. That got old for my wife and I in a hurry, and we walked around the park a bit. At a visitor's center there, we found out there's a children's discovery museum not far from there. Made our way there, and it turned out to be quite awesome!!! Fire truck and ambulance to play on, a few electrical generation displays, a very cool water area with all kinds of neat things, bubble displays and devices, a special exhibition based on Alice in Wonderland, and so much more that I can't even remember. Of all the things we did, this was one of the better, and also pretty good in the value department, too.









A great vacation, every day we managed to get some fun adventure in!!! I may do another post or two of photos...

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Like my vacations and events and such that attend, I also feel compelled to rate the recent earthquake. I'm pretty sure I did this a couple years back for a smaller one, too. This quake ROCKED!!! Hard!!! Didn't seem to go on very long, but what it lacked in duration, it more than made up for in intensity. Whittier narrows and Northridge were both longer and shakier, but the shaking was more gentle, the kind where people describe it as a rolling motion. This one it felt like a huge sideways and down jolt or drop or some such, followed by a little bit of the classic rolling motion. Strike-slip faulting is what they say, and that name seems quite apt.

I was working, and was on the first floor of the bin structure. I wasn't up a row, and if I were I probably would have made my way out of it quickly. Everyone from all the different levels described it about the same, felt like something ran into the bins, hard. Moments afterwards, the evacuation alarm started going, and I started heading out. I noticed that I seemed like the only one going, several other fillers were bracing themselves in the entrances to the rows. Didn't take them long to get going, though. I noticed that the upper level fillers didn't seem to hesitate to get going. It struck while first shift was at lunch, and something that hadn't occurred to me before, the cafeteria has huge glass walls. Around half an hour later we headed back in, just about the time second shift should be going to lunch. We met at the first floor cross aisle while they figured out the course of action. Someone asked about second shifts lunch, and they decided to let everyone go to lunch and meet back at one. Something that worked out good for me, they asked the second and third shift workers to come in an hour early. First shift scored all around, they got two lunch breaks and didn't have to work an extra hour.

No actual damage to the premises, but in the rack area, I heard there was quite a bit of merchandise that fell off, and these racks are about as tall as the bin structure, so that's quite a fall. The quake led to some speculation about what would happen if there was one big enough to cause the bins to fall. One girl was wondering if they'd pancake. The consensus was probably not, but it could collapse to the side, or aisles could domino. I actually think that with the exception on the merchandise falling off the shelves (99% is in boxes anyway), the bins are probably one of the safest areas in the plant. It is constructed of heavy wall box steel, braced this way and that. Like being in a roll cage. I hope.

By the way, the image is stolen from the Washington Post. You'd think I'd find a decent earthquake graphic more locally.

More detail about the Northern Cali trip next post, I promise!!!

Back in Town

Back from four days in Northern California, primarily for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Great vacation!!! It's already too late, I'm beat and have to go to work tomorrow, but here's some vital statistics about the trip:

$334 cash spent
42 bills to enter on WheresGeorge when I got home
284 pictures taken
87 video clips
238 miles on the rental car
19 E mails when I got home
13 E Mails deleted without even looking at them
4 quite satisfied travellers

We had a lot of great times and adventures on this trip. There is a possibility that we'll be back next year. The younger boy said his favorite part was the airplane trip.

SWOON!!!

On both Thursday and Friday, the paper had pictures and a little bit of story about this production. Australia's Strange Fruit performing "Swoon", the most notable thing about it being that it is performed atop 4 meter tall fiberglass poles!!!



It was being shown at no charge in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Saturday. One of those things that, after hearing of, I just had to see!!!



It was quite a spectacle, well performed, along the lines of a mime show, but much more acrobatic!!!



In addition, I got to explore some previously uncharted areas of my city and take a great deal of photos!!! Seriously, I ended up with over 200 shots in my camera by the time I made it home. I also videoed the performance, and may upload that at some point.

How I Spent My Weekend

Oh, what a weekend!!! I had to take Friday off to go to court. Shockingly, one of the two defendants actually showed up!!! The judge was not too amused that the other didn't, and couldn't be bothered to inform the court in advance. I could have proceeded with my case, but it could have been vacated. I figured I'd just go with continuing the case while I could attempt to schedule it away from my vacation times, rather than the inevitable vacating and rescheduling while I'm out of town.

I was home fairly early, and had plans!!! Since we're into summer, Universal has the weekends blacked out on the annual pass. Fridays are good to go, though, so that's where we were heading. On the way home, at the top of my street, there was a spill of sand where my street comes down from the street above it. I hit it, locked up the front end (not having the wherewithal to ease off the brakes and steer out) and before I knew it smacked the front wheel broadside on the curb. Damit, I just had it aligned after doing the brakes!!! Thing was pushed in a couple of inches on the bottom edge.

Got the idea on the way home to haul the recycling to the recycle yard on the way to the train station. It's right on the way, about a block from the station. Got home, and had the boy load up the trunk. Ended up with $26.00 from it, not bad!!!


We had great luck with the trains going there!!! Being a weekday, the lot was near full when we got there, and I dropped the family near the platform, gave my wife the money to get the passes, and parked in the back of the lot. Just as I was getting to the platform, the train was there!!! Actually vaulted the rail to make it. Same thing on the next train, just as we got to the bottom of the escalator it was getting ready to pull out. At Universal, the tram up the hill got there within a minute of our arrival at the stop.

First ride was the Simpsons ride again. The youngest didn't want to go, so we did the kid switch thing. I don't know what his problem with it is, it's not that intense. That ride is one of the best simulators I've ever been on!!!

Finally got to take the family on the "Backdraft" effects show they have. The older boy was impressed. The younger boy was scared.

The Mummy coaster again. That ride... Isn't the greatest coaster, but it has some very cool points to it. At the last part of the ride, it stalled out or got jammed or something on the boy and I in the dark.


We got to see the place where the fire was. The tour goes right by it. Don't think I made mention, but the King Kong burned, and apparently the earthquake part of the tour is off for now, too. Clock tower square from Back to the Future is also the town square in Ghost Whisperer, too, so I'd be interested to see what they do next season. Interesting to see where everything used to be, it's just charred ground mostly, with a few piles of rubble still being cleaned up. The fascinating thing, though, is how there's blocks and streets, but there are no utility lines where the buildings used to be.

One thing they added (I guess to make up for the King Kong and Earthquake part of the tour being out) was an actor done up like Norman Bates coming out of the Bates Motel with a bloody wrapped up body. He sees the tram, goes back in, and comes back in with his knife and advances on the tram as it pulls away. The youngest does a pretty amusing imitation of him now.

Saturday I got up a bit early and took the Maverick back to the tire shop. They said they couldn't do it, they have one car in already getting the whole front end done, and it'll take all day. They sent me to the Burbank store. I didn't want to drive it on the freeway, it felt unstable at speeds over 30 MPH or so. Ended up driving through Griffith Park, the same route that they do the Christmas Festival of Lights. That was interesting. I got there, and the guy comes out to look at the car. He bounces the front, and it stops after about a bounce and a half. "You need new shocks." Wrong thing to say, dude!!! I got rather loud: "Oh really?!?!?! These shocks need replaced?!?!?! These shocks that I put on two weeks ago are already worn out!?!?!?" He stammered a little, "These are new??? Oh, maybe they sold you the wrong ones..." Yea, or maybe you're trying to pad your repair bill!!! Anyway, there was a car ahead of me there, too, and it took them a couple of hours before they got to mine, plus the time to do the repair. That ended up taking most of the day, and I was pretty tired by the time I got home. Washed the cars, and that was about it for the day.

Sunday we had lunch with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Home Town Buffet!!! Nice seeing them, it's amazing how much the kids grow. Visited my parents after that, and went swimming. A very full weekend!!!

SPOONS!!!

This one tickled my funny bone!!! Know how comic strips will do a week or so long series??? This week, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! has been doing a series on an advanced race of aliens... a whole 20 minutes advanced!!!

I think I may have to start calling people that!!!

cUpDate & The Cruise

Thought I'd try this: I did some artwork on my cup today, and not wanting to hassle with taking a picture or three, downloading the pictures, picking the best, editing it, and posting it here, decided to try using my webcam to get a shot of it. The pic came out to be quite good, I thought, with a shot of my piercing and my guitar shirt in the background!!! I didn't have enough time, but I was going to add red stripes and white stars on a blue field to the sails, but oh well. Also never got a chance to see if any of my co-workers got the significance. In case you can't make it out, the boat (actually a sloop) is named the John B. The meaning is related to the the Beach Boys song, "Sloop John B", where a recurring line throughout is "Let me go home, I wanna go home..." It was a good day at work, and I was on the middle shift today, so I did get to head home an hour and fifteen minutes earlier that usual. Whoo hoo, three days off!!! I get to do an hour of overtime on Monday, too. I haven't done much OT this year, so far only two hours.

It is late, but since I have began a post with a nautical theme to it, I will relate the story of the company outing, the Booze Cruise (aptly renamed by the guests). I started the day by heading to the bank. I had gotten the IRS stimulus check deposited, and was intending to take the boy's portion and add it into his portfolio. I got to the teller, and asked her if I could do a deposit into my son's money market account. Sure, no problem... Duh, I can't find that account.... Screw around for a really long ass time, asking other tellers, etc. Finally I was directed to see the manager, who, once I told him I was attempting to deposit into his money market account, tells me that no, investment banking isn't linked to your normal banking and tellers can't do that. Hey, stupid ass teller, I told you SPECIFICALLY money market account to begin with, so you'd know exactly what I was talking about!!! Of course, I didn't have his account number with me, and I don't have his SSN# memorized. He tried to find the account, but I was rapidly running out of time. COMPLETE waste of time!!!

I had decided to take public transportation down to the port. Cheaper to do that than to even park, much less burn the gas. Of course, the trade off is the length of travel time. I had wanted to stop by home again and pick up my camera and a bit of breakfast, as well as pick up the newspaper to read on the ride, but that would have put me in a situation where I might be late, and once the ship has shoved off, it would be a wasted trip. The ride was an adventure. I had never been on the blue line branch before, and had to take the gold to the red to get to the blue. From the red, I dashed up to the blue that was waiting in the station. It stayed waiting for another 10 to 15 minutes. The train was pretty full, and within the next few stops it was to standing room only. One of the first stops a very large, very smelly homeless woman got on and sat down a few rows up and across from me. It was bad. Very shortly the seat next to mine opened up, and the guy who had been directly behind her moved to the one next to me. "I had to get away from that stink!!!", he tells me. "I don't think it's much better here", I reply, to which he says that it's a marked improvement. She stayed on for most of my ride.

Made it to my stop in Long Beach with half an hour to spare. Nice, it's only a couple of blocks to the intersection the directions had. I hoof it over there, and there's NOTHING THERE!!! It's an intersection, no signs directing "TO BOATS", or anything with "COMPANY OUTING" or anything!!! There are parking structures on two corners, a bridge going to who knows were, and empty space. Naturally, the other thing I'd wanted to get from home was the paper about the outing. My spidey senses told me it was probably towards the ocean, so I passed through one structure and found myself near the entrance to the aquarium. I thought, "No, that can't be right", so I headed back to the intersection and headed up the bridge... No, that didn't look right either, but from midway on it I could see some moorings for boats past the aquarium. Back again (covering quite a bit of ground) and around the area. I don't see the specified boat, any signs, or anyone I work with. Naturally. I stop into a bait shop and ask them if they know where this ship sails from. The guy made a call, and five minutes later tells me he has no idea. I keep heading around, and finally happen on an information booth, and the lady there had just the information I needed!!! The other way, and keep going around. I make it there at almost the exact moment they were to cast off. Of course, they were probably about half an hour late shoving off, but that was fine with me.

See that??? I was actually able to find a photo of the actual ship on the web!!! Impressive rig, two enclosed decks, as well as an open deck on the top level and on the bow. As I boarded, I was given a glass of champagne and tickets to be exchanged for poker chips. After my breakfast of champagne and cheeses and crackers, I started on beer. Several friends and I made our way to the upper deck and drank several beers as we departed. Perfect weather, and a fuzzy warmth that only alcohol and friends can bring. They served a tasty buffet on the first level after we'd been asea for a bit, then had casino games and dancing on the second deck. We passed by a buoy with several sea lions on it at one point. Near the end of the cruise I made my way to the bow. I was past pleasantly buzzed at this point and heading towards fairly sloshed. Among the other passengers out there was one of my area's former supervisors, a pleasant chunky girl who I'd always had a good rapport with. She has been moved to a position in human resources, where I believe she is one of the main people in charge of putting together the code of conduct and anti harassment meetings. We talked, and caught up some. I have a vague recollection of playfully grabbing her by her pony tail (possibly twice) as the cruise was wrapping up. Probably not the best thing to do, and defiantly not the best choice of person to do it to, but I still had my job the next week, so I guess she took it in the spirit in which it was intended!!!

As we were heading off, one of my friends who lives in the area invited me to come over to her place to jump in the pool. Sounded like a good idea, a nice capper for the day (and a chance to sober up a bit). Instead, she and a bunch other of us headed off to a local watering hole and continued. On the walk over there, one of the group asked to see my piercing, so I obliged. I don't recall if I ever got my shirt buttoned back up or not. When we got there, I just drank water. I had my water bottle with me, and had it filled before we disembarked. Twice while I was there, I was told I couldn't drink from that bottle in their establishment!!! The second time they confiscated it, told me I could have it back on the way out. I showed them, though, I stiffed 'em on the tip!!! And I made them fill it before I left. Probably an hour and a half or two I was there, and amazingly I didn't seem to sober up much at all. I staggered my way back towards the train station. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten we'd headed a few blocks farther down to drink. Took a little bit before I found my way back. Once I got on the train, I snoozed for the better part of the ride. Every so often I'd awake and see where we were at. By the time I got to the final stop, I was able to maintain.

Good times!!!

Three Kegs, One Bottle of Chardonnay

Arrrrrrrrrrggg!!! It's been FOREVER since I've posted!!! At least I'm in good company.



Anyway, I had noticed over the weekend that the Maverick was getting ready to roll the odometer over to 200,000. Today it did, and I thought it a momentous occasion, and was rather amazed that it's that far along!!! However, after I took a picture of it to commemorate it here, I realized that this is an old school odometer, that only goes up to 99,999.9 miles, so it's actually up to 120,000.

Last weekend I adapted it to disc brakes. I'd bought the components some time ago, but finally made the time to get them installed. That very weekend, the Storm developed some kind of hinkiness to its front end, and it feels a bit unstable and unpredictable at high speeds. The front tires are shot, might be all it is, but the struts are gone, too. Screw it, I'm gonna junk it out. Ain't worth the hassle. A shame, as it pulls down a solid 25-30 MPG. Saw a Metro convertible with a raggedy top advertised today, got me thinking that way.

In other auto news, I FINALLY got the part for the Benz, hopefully that'll run fine after Friday. When I went to move the Falcon to do the brakes on the Maverick, found out the ignition switch has come apart. I managed to get it back together, but it only held long enough to get it moved. I hot wired it the next time I moved it, that was far easier. Ignition switches are purely to keep honest people honest on early Fords.



What else??? Besides the work outing and my nephew's wedding, a couple of weekends ago was the company picnic and my wife's birthday. I told her we were having a picnic in honor of her birthday. Here's some of the new construction in the bin structure. See how there's a third level to the red bins now??? Previous to this, there was only blue bins there. They have yet to be populated.



They had the open house tour again. There's one of my co-workers, they were working on the day of the picnic. Actually, in the background you can see the printer I was on today.



Here's the "quad" area I've referred to in past posts. The yellow plants in the foreground are Australian kangaroo paw plants.



And there's the birthday girl!!! Isn't she lovely??? This picture is actually when she'd opened a bottle of bubbles the youngest had won, and it sprayed her down. Turned out to be the best picture of her that day!!! She drank half a dozen glasses of wine there, which she waited until we got home to hork up. Three kegs, one bottle of chardonnay, that's what the server told me. The last time I went to get her a glass of wine, they had run out of the little 8 ounce cups and were using the 12 ounce beer cups. She stopped at a little more than half, and I made the "keep it coming" gesture. She complied, and told me that about the kegs versus the bottles.



Last Friday was the boy's sixth grade graduation. Good times.

More to follow... Hopefully...

Quick Random

Just a few quick, random thoughts. Several television related.

Have you seen any of the new show "Swing Town"??? My first thought on hearing of it was it was tailor made for people who felt ripped off after tuning in for "Wife Swap".

I bought a tube of regular flavor Pringles chips, and they had The Incredible Hulk on the outside. I opened it up, and the chips are all pretty broken up. I wondered if that was on purpose.

I rather enjoy "Rules of Engagement". Probably mostly because of Patrick Warburton. He's like the garlic of television and movies, most anything is markedly improved with him in it.



While I like the Lakers and pull for the home team, at this point I have to say that they don't deserve to be the champions.

One of the guys at work says he's ready to embrace the swinger lifestyle. He just needs to get himself a trade in.

It's a good thing Patrick Warburton is on "Rules of Engagement", he offsets David Spade's weasalyness. One actor who I don't understand how he's still getting work.

A few days ago, I was wondering whatever has become of She Wants Revenge. I haven't heard anything from them in a while. Yesterday I was thinking about "The Nightmare Before Christmas", how it is a beloved classic, yet there has never been any kind of sequel to it. I checked YouTube to see if any fans had created any unique content or further story lines to it, and found a video for a remake of "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" done by none other than She Wants Revenge!!!

"The Big Bang Theory" - "Revenge of the Nerds-The T.V. Series"!!!

Some time ago I took the boys to see "Underdog". I had no idea that it featured Patrick Warburton. The movie was better for having him, but he had light hair in it, and that made it a little difficult to watch. Reminded me a bit of when Letterman came back after the writers strike with facial hair. Did not look right.

I remember reading the preface to the Stephen King-Richard Bachman duo of Desperation and The Regulators. He wrote that one story was about God, and the other was about Television, so in a way, they are both about higher powers.

How come I can never remember all my random???

cUpDate Part Two

Haven't made mention of my cup or shared any from it recently. As before, I'm still not having a lot of spare time to doodle on it, but last Friday I had a chance to do a little bit. It was a bit of a snoozy day, so after doing the classic 512 logo, I did a series of Z's in alternating colors. Later on, I did the flag of Stephen King's Crimson King.



I was using the same cup the next day, and we went to the bank in the morning. There was a bit of a wait, and as I was sitting there I added in several other things. First was a shadow to the flag pole, then at the younger's suggestion I added in the porcupine. One of my previous cups had the porcupine saying, "I AM THAT TIME TRAVELLER!!!", and he wanted that again, but I had other ideas. In this one, he is holding a magnifying glass, and saying, "Elementary, my dear Watson. It is a sigul!!!"



Next, I added the killer satellite from Asteroids Deluxe, and then a flying saucer complete with space alien. The alien says, "The truth is out here", in a nod to X Files. The last thing I added was a video camera coming out of the bottom of the 512 logo. It bears the letters N.C.P., standing for North Central Positronics, in another nod to Stephen King. Next to it is the inscription, "The camera eye does not blink". My older son did an Aperture Science logo, with the words, "I'm doing science and I'm still live" on it, which I believe to be from the Portal video game.

Out of Left Field

Now this was cool. Last Thursday one of my supervisors came up to me just a bit before lunch time. "Hey, would you be interested in going to the Dodgers vs. Cubs game tonight???" My mind raced. The first game of the Laker's finals was on that night, and while I wasn't planning on watching all of it (I'd be at work and driving home for the first part, anyway), I had been thinking of catching some of it. Oh well, guess I'd get over that.



Next decision I'd have to make is who to take. My good friend Sammy is a huge Cubs fan, wonder if he's got tickets already. If not, I'd have to give the first shot to my wife. When I called her, her first response was, "You've gotta take Sammy!!!" Turns out that Sammy, while he would have liked to go, is having car and money difficulties, so he couldn't come. Wifey wasn't really into it (and we'd have to find a last minute sitter for the boys) so it was going to be one of the boys. Ended up taking the older boy, I think he has more patience for sitting a few hours for a sporting event. He also loves ball park food. I think that is actually his favorite part of going to ball games.

The game was well underway by the time we arrived and picked up some dinner. There was a Carl's Jr. franchise there, which the boy decided was the fare for the evening. I'd been thinking a Dodger Dog, and happily they also had those at the same stand. Fourth inning by the time we got to our seats. I also was able to grab my camera on the way out of the house.

Here's something else pretty cool, too. After a couple of innings, I noticed a few rows behind up there was a girl with a glorious display of cleavage going on. I glanced around at it a few times, trying to keep it subtle, and trying to think of a way to snap a picture for posterity. They left around the seventh inning, taking my chance at getting a shot with them. After taking the pictures out of the camera a couple days later, I realised that I'd gotten her in the corner of the self portrait (first photo) I'd taken!!! Nice!!!

It was Takashi Saito bobble head night. When he was called up to the mound, one of the classy Cubs fans threw the box containing his said bobble head onto the field. Another fan, a couple rows back, fashioned a noose from a plastic bag and hung him in effigy.



And what a game!!! If I recall, the Cubs had four runs when we sat down, and the Dodgers hadn't even put any wood on the ball yet. Just a bit later, they got their first hit, and a bit later their first run. By the time the eight inning had rolled around, the game was tied up. In the top on the ninth, the Cubs scored again, for a 5-4 lead. The Dodgers managed to load the bases by the time the last guy was up, but alas, he struck out. I think it was the most exciting game I've seen there in years!!!

For the last part of the game, the boy was looking for a cotton candy vendor. I think all but the ice cream vendors had left early. No cotton candy for the boy. I would have gotten off much cheaper taking the younger boy. Fun times, though, and the Dodgers went on to win the next two.



Yesterday I took the family back to Universal Studios. I had to do some other stuff earlier in the day, so it was kind of a late afternoon trip. Next time we'll head over earlier. Two reasons I had wanted to go, one is that last weekend there was a fire there, destroyed the King Kong attraction, New York Street, and the clock tower from Back to the Future. I was hoping to take the tour to view the charred remains, but that didn't end up happening. The other reason I'd wanted to go is because the new Simpsons ride is now open. None of the commercials have really shown what kind of ride it really is, but I had been suspecting it is a motion simulator, being as they'd taken out the Back to the Future ride, and it is located very near to Doc Brown's Chicken. I was right, it has been nicely re-worked, and its an EXCELLENT ride!!! Got some cotton candy for both boys, as well as pretzels. Would have got off fairly cheaply, too, if the oldest boy hadn't wanted to stop off in Chinatown for some Chinese food on the train ride back. Bad idea, the food was excellent, but rather spendy.

More back logged blog posts to come, I've got at least a couple more posts, and probably more than that by the time I get to 'em. Company picnic again next weekend!!!

The Blog Backlog

I've been wanting to update the happenings before any more of 'em get to happening for a while now!!! Here's a little update from Mother's Day, near to a month later.

Since I'd found a Texas Loosey's restaurant that was still in business, I took my wife there for Mother's day!!! They were having a "Moms Eat Free" promo that day. Caveat was, there was a two drink minimum. Of course, she was fine with that!!! She really liked the food and atmosphere of the place.


This was cool, they had the outline of Texas made of license plates. I took a picture, and the flash made 'em all reflect!!!

From there we went to my parents' place to visit for a while, but didn't get to stay long because we had tickets to Phil Lesh & Friends. That was at the Greek Theatre, which was a new venue for me. Our seats were within around 10 rows, but it looked like just about anywhere in the place wouldn't be too far from the stage. The place was filled with old hippies and dead heads, which was pretty cool to see. Security kept getting on this one lady for doing her gypsy dance in the middle of the aisle, and there was plenty of smoke around. Bunch of bogarts all those old hippies are!!! I don't know how many songs they did that I didn't know, but there was only one that I knew, "Friend of the Devil", which I swear they added a few lines to. Even not knowing the music, it was pretty enjoyable. As I mentioned, the volume at the concert was nice, too, not loud to where you can't hear yourself think. My wife found the guitarist to be quite sexy. They did an intermission halfway through their set, and we left at that point. My wife hadn't dressed warmly enough, and we had to get the boys before it got too late, and it was a work day the next day. I would have liked to stay to see what other songs they did that I knew, but it didn't happen.

Teamwork Building Exercise

Yesterday at work a couple of co workers and I decided to do a collaborative drawing. I thought I'd share it here!!! Not bad considering the limited colors and time we had!!!

The Bachelor Bus

OK, this post isn't going to be all about the ride, but it has a nice rhythm to it, don't you think??? It was nice, thought. A great way to party and not have to worry about driving home. I was the last guy they picked up.


I did tell my wife that we were in a "party bus" instead of telling her it was a nice stretch limo with open bar. I'm pretty sure she would have had more of a problem with not having gotten to ride in a limo than with me going to a strip club with the guys, but more on that part later.

Our first stop was for dinner at Texas Loosey's, a restaurant I used to love YEARS ago, but thought they had all gone out of business. If memory serves, they used to serve traditional steaks and many varieties of burger, along with some great Texas red chili. The menu hasn't changed much, still great food. The other attraction is the waitresses. Know how a lot of times girls will dress up for Halloween, but whatever the costume choice is, you can usually put the modifier "slutty" in front of it??? Picture slutty cow girl costumes, that's pretty much it. Seems to me that they used to have suede push up vests with tons of cleavage, but these days its more like a halter top with an open leather vest over it. Short shorts with leather chaps round out the costume. My nephew was duly impressed, especially with the barkeeper gal. The waitresses tried their best to talk him out of marriage, and when unsuccessful, posed with him for a Polaroid. We finished up by telling the barkeeper to give us some kind of shot, her best choice. I don't remember what it was called, but it was a variant of the red headed slut.

Back in the party bus, we took one guy (father of the bride, ha!!!) home, it was already getting late for him. A quick stop at the liquor store to replenish the bar, where one of the guys picked up a copy of Club magazine that came with a DVD for my nephew. The bus had a DVD player, but in our state none of us could get it to work.

The final stop of the evening was Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. Nice place. If you're not familiar with the local regulations on such establishments, I shall enlighten you, an it is pertinent to later happenings. If you serve alcohol, the poonanny must remain hidden. Ergo, if you want to see a full nude show, you will be drinking apple juice or Perrier. Nope, we were drinking beer and seeing nothing but boobies. Life is good. Something I found interesting, at both this club and the concert the following evening, the music was loud, but not deafening to a point where normal conversation is difficult.

The girl doing her stage routine when we came in was a tall, tattooed blond, looked like a rocker type. After she finished her set and put her top back on, she came right to me. Guess she caught me lookin'!!! "Would you like to have a dance???" "No, not for me, but you know what??? It's my nephew's bachelor party, why don't you do a little number for him???" Money changed hands, and I bought him his first lap dance of the evening.

It has been quite some time since I've been to such an establishment. On my last visit, it seemed to be dominated my massive synthetic breasts. Not so much this time, there were a few, but the fakes that were there were mostly subtle, and several of the girls looked completely natural. Around the other side, though, I was seeing a LOT of cottage cheese!!! Hard times for such clubs, or just low standards??? Who knows???

One of the girls comes out, a light redhead with pale skin that makes you think the red is natural. Flexible!!! Amazingly flexible!!! And athletic and talented!!! After making a show of wrapping her legs around her head, she proceeded to climb to the top of the pole (must be at least 15 feet up), I swear she didn't use her hands at all!!! I was in awe. The arrangement of the stage has one main stage, then a side stage that the girls would do a second song on after their appearance on the main stage. I followed her to that stage to watch up close, and threw her a few ones. After she finished she came up to me and thanked me. I asked if that was her natural hair color (yes, I knew it!!!) and complimented her on her flexibility and pole prowess. She thanked me again, then asked, "So, do you wanna hang out???" I reply, "You know, I'm all outta cash..." "Bye." And she was gone like that. Nice thing about strippers, you always know where you stand with 'em!!!

But I keep getting out of sequence here. Prior to that, and a good part of the reason I was down on money: As I was sitting there enjoying the show and my beer, a brunette with a kinda long face and noticeably more clothing on than all the other girls comes up to me. She starts running her hands over my shoulders and neck, and whispers in my ear, "I've got the best deal going in this place, baby, all these other girls charge $20 a song for a dance, I'm only $6 a dance to do this" and she proceeds to start giving a deep neck rub. Duh, OK boss!!! Lets go!!! She applies some lotion to her hands and goes at it, unbuttoning a couple buttons on my shirt, running down my back, working my neck. OH YES!!! She stands in front of me and tells me, "Look down". I do so, and for a moment am looking straight down her scant cleavage before realizing she's having me do this to better rub my lower back. She stayed with me for several songs. It was the next day before it occurred to me what else she could be rubbing down with her lotion!!!

Another girl comes up to me and crouches down next to my chair. She's wearing skimpy boy shorts, and she tells me, "This is so embarrassing. I forgot to put on any panties under these shorts an' when I dance or move around they slip to the side an' my pussy shows." In my head, I'm laughing my ass off!!! She's embarrassed about this, so she calls attention to it??? Or was she worried that her lady bits would be seen in the presence of alcohol??? The only thing I could think to say, "O'rlly???"
She didn't miss a beat, "Yea, its so embarrassing, wanna go for a dance???" Thanks but no thanks.

Near the end of our time there, another girl comes up to me. Petite, black and with what I think was a Haitian or Caribbean accent. Nice enough, but not the kind I would go looking for personally. "Wanna dance, me sucky-sucky you long time???" I stare in disbelief, you can't do that kind of thing in a place like this, perhaps I misheard because of the accent??? She pantomimes the act so there could be no question. I'm starting to like her style. "I'm sorry, I'm low on cash." She replies, "There's the ATM, right over there." Then she reaches into my shirt pocket and pulls out my money clip, which looks fairly fat but is really just a few ones left over from the back rub girl. Hindsight, I should have told her she could have it all for a dance, I think it was only about $8. She goes on to one of the other guys in our party, and they go off for a private dance. She comes back some time later and tells me, "See that one girl??? The one with the long tank top on???" I say, just as she's saying, "Yea, covering her kinda big gut" She laughs. "She was staring at me while I was giving your friend a lotta dance. She jealous." I know there was more, but that's all I remember. I wasn't into her at all at first, but there was something engaging about her that made her my favorite of all. Perhaps it was that she didn't take a single dollar from me but still kept coming around and amusing me.

After last call, we all piled back into the bus for the ride home. Chauffeur Fred had gotten the DVD working for us, and it distracted us on the ride back. First time in a long time for any such hijinks, and it was a good time!!!

No Time for Blogging

I wanted to put some kind of picture to go with this post, and found something random I shot quite a while back. It's EL DOCTOR RESTAURANT, where after you eat, it might be a good idea to see EL DOCTOR!!!



I still have yet to post in depth about the bachelor party, mother's day, and the Phil Lesh concert, and now I've got another weekend full of events to post about!!! It never ends, I tells ya!!! Anyway, thought I'd put something here to remind me to post about these other things if I ever get a chance!!!





A few highlights, though, the company cruise and the wedding were both amazingly awesome. My bank gave me a hard way to go, yet again, and I ended up a little stressed about the trip down to the cruise. Ended up not taking my camera for that reason. I took public transit down and back, and that was an adventure in itself. Far better on the money that way, though. It would have been $6 just to park, not counting gas, and it was only $5 for the day pass on the trains. Three different trains each way, the most I've ever taken.





OK, next time (barring further complications or procrastinations), a restaurant I used to love that I thought had gone extinct, the bachelor bus, the absent minded stripper, the acrobatic stripper, the stripper who I thought to be totally not my type who won me over in short order, and the best deal in the club (that I would go back again for alone!!!)...

Birthday Bash

The boy's birthday celebration, as promised. Here's the cake, per the boy's specifications. Camouflage. What cake???



A few things he had in mind, and the foremost was to have a big water fight. Unfortunately, the weather in the week leading up to it was typical "June gloom" conditions, where it was cool most of the day. This day, however, it was sunny and bright!!! Nice!!! It never got terribly warm that day, but it was good enough for a water war. The Monday following this, it actually was raining.



He had the idea of choosing up teams for the water war, but it turned into a free-for-all. I heard no complaints!!!



He had wanted pizza and wings. Momma bought a zillion hot dogs and chips the day before, but we did get the requested wings that day.



As I stated before, he got a lot of cash!!! I think he's got more paper money now than his mom and dad together. He was also thrilled to get Halo (which he's been playing the demo of for weeks) and a game called Portal. Good times!!!

512 Day Random Recap

Hope everyone had a great 512!!! I think this post most likely won't be wrapped up until after it has past. I felt a need to do a bit of a weekend recap. Most events could do with a post devoted entirely to them.

The boy's birthday was a major success. Even the weather was cooperative. He netted quite a bit of cash!!!

At some point in the weekend, I started lagging on getting to things on time. Fortunately, the birthday party was at our house. I was finishing off the cake decoration after guests had arrived.



The bachelor party was also a great success. Much to say about that, but at this point I will say that sometimes it is not only the journey but the destinations. And, that you meet some very interesting and amusing people at certain gentleman's clubs.



Mother's day was pretty good. Echos of the bachelor party for lunch!!!

The Phil Lesh concert was a lot of fun. At this point, I was glad that I was lagging on getting to things on time. Next year's vacation is in the works as an indirect result!!! Old hippies and deadheads are pretty awesome!!!

cUpDate

Since I was asked, Here's a little update on my cup. I haven't had any trouble with 'em at all since I began inscribing them with "512". They've changed procedure in the last week, and I haven't had much chance to do artwork on the cups this week. Last Friday I was able to do quite a bit of artwork. The flaming eyeball is loosely based on my tattoo. On the reverse is a picture of Neil Fox, our company's compliance manager. I have NO idea what Neil really looks like, having never met or been introduced to him. Quite often, though, the orders I'm filling have Neil Fox's statement that the products sent are compliant to the drawings and descriptions in the catalogue, along with the image of his signature. I was inspired to draw him doing his job, giving it the thumbs up!!!



Another perk, our company has a set of seats at the Greek Theatre, and when new shows are announced, they'll often have drawings for tickets. There were three recently announced, and I put my name in the drawing for Phil Lesh and Friends. Mind you, the name didn't ring a bell, but he was the bassist from the Grateful Dead. Well, I won 'em!!! That's this Sunday night. I wonder if my mom wants to go for Mother's Day. BUSY BUSY BUSY month of May!!! Saturday we're having my oldests Birthday observed, that night (I just found out) is my nephew's bachelor party, Sunday is Mother's Day, Sunday night is the Phil Lesh and Friends concert. Monday is 5-12 day (which I'm considering taking off), next weekend is the company outing cruise, and my nephew's wedding. I think there's more than that, but I can't remember it all!!!

Change of Scene

This was pretty fun, an amusing way to break up the monotony of work. I don't know if I've made mention, but I usually wear some... interesting shirts to work. One of my favorites, as well as many of my co-workers', is a black bowling shirt with "Mix Master A.C.E." in white letters on the back. I've often thought that I should see about getting the "C" changed to a "Y". I also have several "Aloha" shirts, as well as my Guitar shirt. Around a month ago I found a couple new ones. One that is an iridescent purple that sometimes color-shifts to blue, depending on the angle. It features two breast pockets, and two more near the bottom, with dragons embroidered on them. The other one is rather indescribable, so I've included the picture seen above. While we were having lunch before going to see Mask, one of the ladies I work with told me that all the ladies had voted me the filler with the best shirts. Of course, that day at a nice restaurant I was wearing a plain blue dress shirt.

The pictured shirt is the one I wore today. One of my co-workers and my former mentor always wears T-shirts and cargo shorts. He's working in the same area as me, and says, "We should trade shirts sometime." Haha, great idea!!! I wonder if anyone will notice??? Today he's wearing one of his shirts that I always enjoy, it has the words, "You killed the part of me that cares" above an inverted bird (which I FINALLY managed to find an image of, after much searching). A few minutes later, we duck back in a row and quickly switch. My shirt looked good on him, and every one's reactions were very amusing. A couple of people were like, "hey, isn't that the same shirt he was wearing???", and word of the switch spread to the first and third floor in minutes. One guy didn't see me for a while, maybe two hours later, and then he said, "Is that the same shirt he had on???"



Another amusing note, when we were changing back, another of our co-workers, an older lady, 50-ish, happened by the end of the row. She stops off and is making cat calls and calling the other female fillers over. Good times!!!