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!!!

13 Shots from Petersen

I've lived my whole life in the Los Angeles area, and I'm a car guy, but here's something I've never done. A visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum!!!

My dad's car club managed to get a group trip there, including a tour of the vault. It was pretty awesome, but they don't allow photography in the vault. The three things that I remember from that part are one of the three gold DeLorians ever produced, a Pantera owned by Elvis that he put three bullets into when it wouldn't start for him, and a 62-63 Comet that was under construction. The Comet got my attention because one of the cars I'm always looking around for the similar but much cooler 60-61 model.

All the pictures are from the levels above the vault. I considered attempting a sneak vault photo on my phone, but never did.

Right out in the lobby they had this auto show superbike with a Dodge V-10 engine.

This Mercer was pretty cool. Whoever heard of a monocle windshield??? I was a bit mystified by the gear drive to the front wheel. The most likely thing I could think of was a speedometer cable take off.

Motorized bikes were well represented.

I liked the green car with the white hard top. Don't remember what it was named, but it is a trike, has a removable top, and seats four across the bench seat!!!

There was a design school that had done wood mock ups for the next generation Minis. I like that they used a 5 gallon bucket for the center gauge cluster.

A lot of auto show cars that never saw production.

The huge black Rolls Royce in the lobby has a perfectly round door, although it's not so easy to see in the picture.

Finally, on the way out, in the parking lot was a cool dune buggy!!!

Red Flag Day

Another busy weekend!!! Saturday I took the family to Magic Mountain again. Last time I went was just the older boy and I. We rode Colossus several times that day, wait time versus good drops, it's probably the best coaster there. We also rode Scream several times, another short wait to maximum inversions coaster. X2 and Tatsu are better coasters, but the wait is always fairly long. Also rode the new Terminator Salvation coaster that time. It has some of the best queue theming in the whole park, but I was less than impressed with the ride itself. But I digress, when the older and I had been there that time, I told him how they used to have one of the tracks on Colossus running backwards. Well, they've brought that back for their Halloween festivities!!! We rode it. Meh. I had the funny thought that I should have brought my camera, taken a picture of the back of the headrest ahead of me, and passed it off as my on-ride photo. Anyway, that was a fun time. Bought my older boy his Johnny Rocket's milkshake in collector cup, and when night was falling and they fired up the fog machines, he was filling up the cup with the fog. Looked like a Wizard's Mind Bomb!!!



Sunday I had tickets through my work for the Pepsi 500!!! I had invited Sammy, and he was excited about it, but he's been having back problems and being there all day he was worried about it bothering it. Hard to take just one of the boys, the other would want to come too. However, one of my other friends from work had won the other pair, and he has two boys, too. Since that was how I got my boys both there last year, I thought it a good payback to pass my other ticket off to him so he could take both of his sons.



Last time I was there, they were announcing after the race the shuttle to the Metro Link station. The exiting of the parking lots there is hellish, and I thought that sounded like it might be a better way to go. I'd never had experience with the Metro Link system before, so I researched it a bit beforehand. Turns out they have a station right around the back side of the track, which they only operate on race days. Sounds good to me!!! Trying to get a schedule for the local Metro Rail to Union Station to Metro Link Fontana proved to be near impossible. Metro has some of the worst planning software on their site!!! I decided that since the race starts at noon, I'd head out at ten and hopefully be there close to on time.



Made it to Union Station in short order, and got my pass for the Metro Link train. However, it would be 11:35 before it departs. Oh well, guess I'd miss some of the beginning of the race, no big deal. Boarded the train, and it is very nice. Rode there in comfort, and had a chance to read more of the Sunday paper than I usually do. The train nears Fontana, and at the race track, it slows down... then proceeds right on past!!! No explanation. The next station is about four miles later, and I exit there. It's a bus depot center there. I look at the route maps, and decide on one that heads near. The driver of that bus explains to me and a few other race fans that the track station is "locked down", but didn't say how or why. He also told us how to get to the track from the closest stop, as well as the stop to return. Close to a mile is all we'd have to walk. Each way. I was not amused. I do not believe that I will take the train out there again. I did, however, stop at Jack in the Box for lunch and payed probably about 1/3 of what I'd have paid at the track.



Got to the track not quite halfway through the race. They were under yellow flag when I got there, and re started not long after. Fairly uneventful for several laps after that, which is fairly typical of California Speedway. This is a wide, long track, and thus the races tend to be a real snore a lot of the time. Jimmy Johnson was leading the race for most of this time, almost a whole 1/3 track away from the #2 car. Then, another yellow is called for debris on the track. After that, I don't think they came out of yellow without an event!!!



Coming out of that yellow, a couple of cars got together just after the green, sending Hamlin's #11 down the grass on the front stretch. Would have been fine, except he caught the concrete pit barrier right at the end, messing up his front sheet metal. He came back several laps later with the whole front stripped off, but it wasn't working for him.



I got a lot of pictures of the incidents, and some video of a couple of the crashes. I tried to upload the shorter clip, but Blogger is being stupid about that tonight. Six laps from the finish, once again coming off a yellow, there was a sizable crash taking out four cars and calling the only red flag I've ever seen at this track. 22 minutes they spent cleaning up from that.



Jimmy Johnson managed to take the checkered flag. I was fortunate to have made it for the better half of the race!!! Worth walking almost two miles for??? Almost...

Race Day

Busy BUSY weekend,
but good. Much more that I could blog about, but I'm going to limit it to just this at this point.





Sunday was the Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Raceway in Fontana. This was the view from our seats, pretty much even with the end of pit row.



Yea, it was loud, but not nearly as loud as I had anticipated. I had bought two pairs of ear plugs, but the youngest was the only one who used them, and only for the first third of the race or so.



The National Guard did a fly by at the end of the National Anthem. Here's about the coolest thing about our trip. My work only got one parking pass for every four seats, so it was every other set of tickets that got one. I wasn't one, so I checked with one of the other guys in my department. He had gotten one, and my house was on his way, so he agreed to drive. On Saturday he called me up to double check and set the time, and he asks if I know anyone else who would like to go. Awesome!!! I had been thinking I would end up flipping a coin to pick which of my boys I would take, and this solved that quandary!!! Both of the boys really enjoyed it.



The first caution, only a few laps into the race, and almost everyone pitted. Looks like the #07 Jack Daniels car is pushing the car ahead of him out. Jack'll make ya do that kind of thing!!!



Jimmy Johnson, who went on to win rather decisively, in the pits. The race was actually rather uneventful, a few yellows for debris on the track (early on, one of the caution lights had fallen onto the track, that was pretty amusing), Busch and Edwards played nice, and didn't see any real wrecks at all to speak of. I actually caught the replay of it when I got home, and found out why there was one of the late cautions, one of the guys rubbed up against the wall. Good times!!!


An amazing sunset as the race was nearing the end!!!


Tonight, after taking the family to a movie, we stopped to look at a used car. Have I made mention here that I had been looking for a used car again??? Well, I'm not looking anymore. I'll post more about that later...

Work Perks Revisited

Just a little update on some of the cool goings-on at work. I had my annual review this week. It has several categories that are ranked 1 to 5, with 1 being the best and 3 being meets their already high expectations. I scored two 1's and a 2, with the rest being threes. I asked about a few of the other categories, how I could possibly do better, and was given the answer that several of them were either go or no go type categories. Either you get it, or you don't. Not so easy to score better in those categories. Anyhow, this should translate into an even better raise than last time... in six months!!!

Something I didn't have in the last perks post was the annual outings. They may not have been posted at that point, but this year they have the choice of the golf outing, a gambling cruise (not real gambling, but for prizes), or lunch and showing of the play "Mask". I don't golf, so that was out. One of the guys said the restaurant for the play outing is excellent, and he usually ends up spending more than $100 when he visits. Also, it is local to me. However, unlike last year's outing to "Wicked", I hadn't heard rave reviews about the play, and didn't have a whole lot of interest. Of the three, the cruise sounded the best to me, so that is what I signed up for.

Earlier this week, there was a notice posted: We still have extra play tickets, drop your name in the bowl and we'll draw names to see who gets to go to this in addition to their selected event. I put my name in and was selected. Apparently, there were so many extra tickets that if you put your name in, you won. I think they were recalling the response that they received to the "Wicked" outing last year and ended up over buying. That happens this afternoon, perhaps there will be a review on it later.

The ticket drawing that was mentioned on the last perks post, I scored!!! I'm going to the NASCAR race!!! Whoo hoo!!!

The picture on this post is my cup from Friday. It's about as busy as I've ever done. I rolled it across my scanner as it scanned, and it came out pretty decent. The part about the sexually transmitted diseases was per Pank's suggestion. I used to always bring my own cup to my previous job, but they don't have good lids, a must. Good times, good times.