The Ketchup Random Post

It's been a while, I have several things I've been wanting to post some about, so the time has come to catch up!!!

Speaking of ketchup, found this last time I was at the dollar store. Spicy, it's interesting but not great. Last time I found a ketchup there, it was a grilled onion flavored, and that was pretty great. Of course, none of that there anymore. But I digress.

Had a week off in July. Back when my work had the Spring ticket drawing, my name was pretty low on the list, so there weren't a lot of good ones left. Then I realized that I had that week off, and thus far nothing planned, so I took a Monday evening game, for a change an Angels game!!! They were playing the Houston Astros, so there was a Texas connection. It was pretty good, the area we were in had food service to your seat, so that was nice, and getting in and out is better. Had some pastrami fries!!! There's the moon rising over the lights.

It's a bit of a haul to the area, and rather than heading back and forth, I booked us a couple nights at an Orange County hotel. Had the thought that we could get in touch with my niece and drop into the Great Wolf Lodge again to get wet for an afternoon, but instead we dropped in to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Turns out the Chick-Fil-A will set you up with a chicken sandwich if you had been to an Angels game the next day!!! Afterwards, we headed to a very picturesque beach in Crystal Cove State Park. The next day we stopped in at Boomers down there, and that was our little vacation.

The younger boy graduated from high school. He's planning on going to trade school for electrician training. He never expressed much interest in it before, but I'm sure he'll be able to pick it up pretty well, and it's a good paying profession.

He'd found an aloha shirt at the St. Vincent thrift store a while back. He wanted to get some louver glasses to go with it, and not long ago, on a 20% off day at Big Lots, we went to one that happened to be by a Party City. Went in to take a look, and they have 'em there, so we set him up with them.

Apparently, the impetus for both of those was another Homestuck adjacent troll, Murrit Turkin!!!

Finished off the week by sanding down and spray painting the rest of the right side of Scruffy. Got a couple of runs, sanded them out, sprayed it some more... Always looks far too shiny when it's fresh sprayed. I was getting antsy to get the other side done. All that remains is the rear hatch and bumper, but I've been working on the front bumper, too, eliminating the holes for the front plate mount. Not a great picture, but I did a bit of a long shot to get 2 of my 3 classics in the shot.

While I was doing so, I had the lower rocker off (it's a molded black plastic part, easier to remove than to mask) and it nicely revealed the upper part of my new exhaust tip!!! Also, the only way besides removing it that you'll see the 512 Labs inscription on the top side. I've only driven it a couple days in the last few weeks, as we've been having a heat wave, and I still haven't fixed the air conditioning on it. My birthday is coming up, maybe I'll buy the parts for myself.

I participated in The Oinkster's Burger Week again this year. The shirt is a take off on the Chili Peppers, and I don't think that anyone has picked up on that it isn't just that every time I've worn it. If anyone has, they haven't said anything.

Back before the end of the school year, they were taking the senior class to Speed Zone in City of Industry. I had been working in the area when they built the place, back in the late 90's, and have driven by it several times. It sounded like a good time, but I'd never made it over there!!! Anyway, it was on my day off, so I was able to get in on it.

There's a go-kart track, a slick track, and dragsters!!! There's an arcade and mini golf, too. The day pass was $56, but a season pass was $51!!! What would you do??? Yeah, that's what we did. We've been back twice.

They've been giving me the middle shift at work more these days. Don't know if I'd mentioned, but they eliminated the late late shift, and moved the late to 10:25 AM. Middle shift is two hours earlier. I like the way it works out, I never have to get up early on Mondays. Of course, the drive is worse. ANyway, that's the prelude to the next part of my updates!!!

I had been hearing for a while that Alt 98.7 and The Woody Show were doing a night at Medieval Times. Ravey and Menace were going to be there, and they had a promo code to get a good discount. It's been years since I've been there, but it starts 15 minutes before I get out of work. The day before, they ask if I can work middle shift the next day. Hey, I could make it!!! And, so I did!!! Made it there and visited the Alt 98.7 tent. They had one Woody Show pin left, which they gave me, so cool. They put us in Ravey's section, and our knight gave the first rose to her. We were able to meet up with them after the show. I've met Ravey before, but this is my first time meeting Menace. He's taller than I thought.

And I got one shot of Menace in his natural state, playing on his phone!!!

Pretty OK Wolf

Most years we go on some sort of epic vacation. This year, with my wife having mobility issues, not so much. We did go to family camp, and that actually somewhat spawned this little trip.

I always need to get my vacation picks in at the end of the year, and always try to get the week for that off. Well, at the end of last year I was told what week it would be, and I requested and got that week. A few months in, I was told it was actually going to be the week after that. Grrr.... I looked, and the only days that week that were still available were Tuesday through Thursday, so I requested those days. Friday is my normal swap day, so that was OK, and Saturdays are a special circumstance, and I was able to get that moved over a week, too. That left Monday, and I had a personal day I could use on that, so I did. Still had the week before off (except the Saturday in between the two) as well as around ten days in a row at the end of last month where I'd been thinking of going on a vacation. I was considering making up another post of a month plus of not working very much. Mostly it consisted of family camp, getting my wife wrenched on, and a fair bit of the recent work I've done on Scruffy.

But that week before family camp!!! It was right in the midst of a heat wave. I had the thought of getting a room near the beach and just enjoying the sea breezes, but we ended up going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove!!! It's not cheap, and the rooms aren't anything much special, but they do have an indoor water park!!! See all our wolf ears??? The pricey lodgings come with a set of those, so, worth it, I guess.

There's my wife and the raccoon character, and me looking like a third wheel. Couldn't get the boy in on it. Except for the first shot, I didn't get any of the water park, so all the shots of it are stolen. They've got all the water park staples in there!!! Wave pool, lazy river (which I'd thought would be an inside and outside deal, but no), kiddy climbing fort with slides and a giant bucket that dumps every several minutes, racing slide, and various other slides.

Even if you're not able to check in early when you get there, they give you access to the water park starting early on. We got there, and headed in. Of course, my wife was in her wheelchair, and after we were there a few minutes, a crew member came by and offered to get her a water wheelchair!!! Rolled her into the wave pool, she got in the lazy river, and we rolled by the splashy fort.

One unique slide they have there is the Wolf Tail, where they put you in what looks like a teleportation chamber. Stand up, leaning against the back. They close the chamber. It has an amplified heartbeat going on. Then the bottom drops out, sending you straight down!!! Into a twist, then a splash down trough. The place seems to be geared to younger kids, so there was usually almost no wait to go on it. I did, several times!!!

All the slides are in the far corner, and there's an extended portion of the roof there to accommodate them. The tube slides and the raft slides actually go outside the building, then splash down back inside. All the tubes are enclosed, though.

The side by side racing slides also do something unique I've never seen before, they all start out in tubes that make a loop before going into the side by side.

One of my son's favorite things to do at water parks is the lazy river. Hard to mess up a lazy river, right??? Well, he wasn't such a fan of this one, it moves pretty swiftly, so I guess not lazy enough for him!!!

So what was the consensus on the place??? Well, you save money on sunscreen!!! First water park I've ever been to where I didn't feel broiled afterwards!!! It was much more comfortable than an outdoor one, being climate controlled, and not cold to where you'd be freezing after getting out of the water. Down side, you have to have a lot of chlorine in all that water, and being contained in there, after a while it feels like it's burning your airways, especially if you're climbing to the top of a slide.

Oh, and just found out that my niece is working there now. Good for her, they should have plenty of money for her!!!

After we stayed our two nights there, we went to the Orange County Fair. That was a lot of fun, too. Wouldn't have stayed as late as we did, but it turned out there was a monster truck competition that evening that we had to stay for!!!