Wednesday, August 23, 2006
| Me: | "What's German for 'loser'?" |
| Coworker: | "France" |
Only 3 more days until the weekend...
flickr
Only 3 more days until the weekend...
To continue our adventure backwards in time, we now continue with "Parentesque II: better than Parentesque I". I can assure you now that, while I thought my parents' visit was awesome, this tale will not be as exciting or hilarious as Strong Bad's "Dangeresque" series. But on with the story!
It was a beautiful summer day in Southern California when the wheels of the airplane carrying my parents squealed on the tarmac of the LAX runway. The clear skies and sunshine made sure it was warm, but the briny Pacific breeze ensured it wasn't too hot. You might even say the temperature was just right. But then you would be Goldilocks, and I would punch you in the face. Needless to say, after 2 straight weeks of near 100 degree temperatures and high humidity, the parents were thoroughly pleased.
And now, for the sake of saving time so I can go to bed sooner, I'm going to abandon the storybook format of this post. Onward!
Parents arrived on that Wednesday night, but unfortunately I had to work through the week. Each night, though, we met up and had some sort of delicious dinner at the various dining establishments in downtown El Segundo. Thursday night I treated them both to a show at the Hollywood Bowl, where we heard a wonderful performance of Gustav Holst's The Planets, which just so happens to be one of my favorite symphonies. Friday night was more low key; merely a chill visit to the local bookstore where Mom looked for a new knitting book and dad looked at photography books. Why not travel 2000 miles to do something you can do at home? Because your doing that something with your son, that's why. Shut yer big yapper.
Saturday we made up for the lack-lust performance the night before by driving down to Whale's Vagina. I mean, San Diego. Three and a half hours later, we arrived. Let me tell you, LA drivers have nothing on San Diego drivers. They suck. Anyhow, we made our way to Point Loma to check out the lighthouse that protects the harbor. We used to always check out lighthouses while on vacations on the east coast, so it was definitely very cool. If my dad ever uploads the pictures from his camera, I'll post them. Next, we made our way over to Coronado, which requires driving over a very large bridge. My mom gets freaked out by big bridges. Good times. Walked around the town, saw a wedding on the beach, got some dinner on the harbor, drove home. Good day.
Sunday I had a concert with my community band and I even had a solo! Parents came and got to see me perform, just like old times. Then we went to NDCLA Young Alum dorm mass where we constituted 20% of the attendees. Add Pangle to the mix and we push up to 25%. Way to show up for God, Irish alums!
Monday was BBQ and game night, with tasty steaks and corn on the cob followed by an intense game of Scrabble. Booter trailed up until the last second when he pulled out a double "FA" on a bouble-word score square. Wanker. Tuesday night we grilled out again; this time it's delicious pork chops. Follow it up with some hanging out and you have a pretty good end to the visit.
And so ends this tail. Now it is time for your humble narrator to go to sleep.
The Key to a 2,000-mile Relationship
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
or "Investing in produce"Two weekends ago my super-awesome girlfriend came out to the City of Angels for some good ol' quality time. Which was a good thing, seeing as how it had been 7 weeks since our last weekend together. Granted, she was planning on coming out here sooner, but that's a story for another post. So get off my back, already!
We decided to start the weekend off right as soon as she landed, so we headed straight to the bar for 2-for-1 pints. Awesome! And I bet you thought I was going to say something naughty. Sicko. This is a child-friendly blog.
I finally got fed up with my old laptop that weekend, so I decided to go looking for a new one with Ginger. Sure, it might not sound like something a long distance girlfriend would want to do on her first visit ini 7 weeks, but Ginger's not your average girlfriend and I didn't tell you all the details. I've been interested in Macs for a while and Ginger's a huge fan of Macs, so who better to take with me? Long story short, I bought a MacBook and left Microsoft out in the gutter to rot. Take that, Bill Gates! Well, technically, I still have to use it at work and everywhere else, but at home I'm free! FREE!! (Okay, so sometimes I still miss XP, but I'm sure it'll pass, right? Time heals all?) Afterwards, Ginger finds a pair of earrings that look uber-hot with her new dress she brought along. She didn't want to buy them because they cost as much as a steak dinner, so I told her I would buy her a steak dinner if she wanted to get them. She couldn't resist the lure of a free steak.
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Ginger's sufficiently excited now, so we jump in the car and drive up to the Ventura County Fair to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in concert! Plus, we're at the fair so there's delicious food EVERYWHERE! Oh man, I love fair food. Italian & Polish sausages, funnel cakes, roasted corn on the cob, the list never ends! Ginger and I get a funnel cake and devour it before the show. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy takes the stage and rocks the joint. Ginger and I get up and do a little swing dancing -- which was more like spinning around in circles there for a bit, but we got better with a little practice. Needless to say, I need to take some lessons. Oh, the pictures above are Gingersnaps (left) and Ginger snaps (right). Her idea, not mine (surprisingly).
Sunday we head down to the beach where Ginger catches some rays while I catch some waves. The waves were pretty big and I actually got wrecked -- one wave pushed me face-first into the ocean floor giving me a nice bloody lip. Now, I've never heard of any shark attacks in the South Bay, but I wasn't going to risk bleeding in the Pacific. Later I cooked up a nice juicy steak for my girl like I promised. Good times, all around.
Next installment: "Teach your parents well"
Monday, August 14, 2006
So when I get an IM from Jism asking for a post, I know it's been way too long since I've written in this blog. Tonight's IM: "is nothing fun going on in your life?" Well, it's funny you ask. Fact is, life's been so busy and full of fun stuff that I haven't had any time to blog (or if I have, I found better ways to fill that time). To make up for lost time, I will attempt to post every day this week about events of the past month, Memento style. Let's stick this thing in reverse!Steve and Christey came in town last week for a week in nice weather before returning to the tundra of Northern Indiana for another year at Purdue. We celebrated by getting some delicious Mexican food at Gilbert's El Indio Restaurant in Santa Monica, and then hit up Brennan's for some turtle racing. Nothing better than a bunch of drunk people circled around a mat with turtles on it, trying not to point at them (you get fined if you do). Good times.
Former PLACErs and fellow Domers Mac & Eliz flew in from Chicago this weekend for some quality time with Booter and other PLACE Corps peeps. End result: quality times. Went to Booter's sketch comedy show ("Diving for Chickens") where we got to see him play a man avoiding a hooker, shout "PENIS! PENIS! PENIS!", and play a transvestite -- not all at once, mind you. Follow that up with some Beirut (beer pong) and Cups and you have a hell of a Friday night. I would just like to say that Booter still has mad one-flip skills, while I'm averaging a modest filp and a quarter average. Not bad for a several year hiatus.
After a year of saving up, I decided Saturday to start test-driving cars. Anyone who knows me knows that I've been mad about the Mustang for two years now, but I decided to check out some other cars first. Gilbert tagged along and we hit up a couple Pontiac dealerships. I've had my eye on the Solstice, a little two-seater convertible with a sleak body design. It took a while to find a dealer that had one we could take out for a spin, but it was wortht he wait. Fun little car with a zippy little 4-banger -- nothing that will throw you back into your seat, though. My biggest complaint was that it was too small. Two seats is all you get, and when the top is down you lose all trunk space, too. After this weekend, I've pretty much ruled out all two-seaters.
Next we tried out the G6 convertible. Check this, it's a hardtop convertible and the roof folds in half and goes into the trunk. Nice car, good umph-factor from the V6 engine, lots of room in the back seat for your bros or hos, and the coolness factor of a convertible. However, it doesn't come in a manual transmission and you lose the trunk space with the top down. Still an option, but at the bottom of the list.
The real surprise of the night was the GTO. I hadn't even given this car a thought, but the salesman showed me the only one they had in the showroom. This thing has got a 6.0L V8 engine (same as the Corvette) pumping 400 horses! I wasn't allowed to test drive it because GM apparently just discontinued production and it's become a rare item among dealers, so they want to keep the mileage down. Gilbert said he drove one at a driving event and highly recommended it. Costs about the same as a Mustang GT and packs more punch. Might have to take a serious look at this one.
Saturday night was poker night at the Sheldon Chateau. We started with 10 and I made it to the final four before getting bored and betting erracticly on hands that had no business being bet on. Who goes all in on ace-nine suited? Honestly. (Actually, I won that hand, but pissed some people off). Needless to say, my chips disappeared quickly and I got to go to bed sooner. Oose!
Other fun events that happened this weekend: started online traffic school to counter my speeding ticket, got my God on at mass, broke in my new running shoes (which didn't help my knee like they were supposed to), and went surfing.
That's about it for this past weekend. If you enjoyed today's post, stay tuned for tomorrow's: "The Key to a 2,000-Mile Relationship"!
ps - This post's title means nothing. NOTHING!