Half day

Monday night I met up with some friends to have a few drinks. I know they claim I didn't drink enough, but I can assure you it was enough to feel it the next day (if the Froot Loop & Llama Girl are reading this, remember I told you I don't have nearly the alcohol tolerance you two have built up!). Anyhow, that and the staying up until around 4:00 am made for taking a half day of vacationing on Tuesday. So Gatorland it was.


Feedin' da gators 

Gatorland is a relatively small attraction that focuses on (you guessed it) llamas. Oh wait, I mean gators. But they did have a llama in the petting zoo. They give gator wrestling demonstrations, feeding shows and plenty of info about the reptillian critters. Kind of a cheezy place, really, but fun nonetheless. For folks who live in Florida (or Louisiana and the likes) I imagine it's a non-attraction, as gators are pretty much all over the place (saw several at Kennedy as well). But for a punk from Cali, it was interesting.

3-2-1 Launch!

After travelling the entire width of the country to see the Daytona 500, I of course had to go see the sights of Florida. First stop was the Kennedy Space Center.


Saturn V & Apolla Command/Service Module 

Tons of cool stuff, including seeing various rockets, lunar lander, terrific information, the launch pads and component modules of the (planned) space station. It is, quite literally, awe inspiring. If you have any interest at all in the space program (and why wouldn't you?), then it's definitely worth the visit if you're ever out in Florida. The only bummer was that there wasn't a launch going on while I was there--now that would have been epic!

Vrooooom

Well, as mentioned previously, I attended the Daytona 500 last Sunday. The seats were junk, but I knew that ahead of time. Here's a pic from the pace lap.


Pace Lap, turn 4 

It was a cool experience . . . much different from races I have previously attended. The first several laps were rather cool. The cars would rumble by, this solid stream of 43 roaring V8s at full throttle for 2-3 seconds, then silence for 40-45 seconds, then r-u-u-u-u-m-m-m-m-ble again. But, honestly, the novelty wore off pretty quick.

I got stuck in a section full of a-holes, too. Now I know what you're thinking: This is NASCAR, the redneck sport . . . obviously there were a-holes there. This was worse than usual, though. The guy to my right was constantly trying to grab more room than he was entitled to in the bleacher seats, and doing so in a very obvious, rude and annoying manner. After I had slowly given up an entire seat's width (bleacher seating, mine was #33, and I had moved completely over to #34 by the time this happened) the guy actually had the audacity to say that I was crowding him and should move over. Fortunately, not long after this, Harvick was effectively taken out of the race, so they left (not surprisingly, this guy and his pal were Harvick fans, and as is typical of Harvick fans, they bail on the race the moment it's obvious he's not going to finish well).

Anywho, there was also a group of guys a couple rows behind me that were screaming throughout the race for someone to put Jeff Gordon into the wall. Now, I'm not a Gordon fan. I really hated to see him win on Sunday. I rather enjoy seeing him finish poorly. But despite the stereotype, most NASCAR fans do not want to see anyone get hurt. Wishing to see someone put into the wall, especially at a track where hitting the wall cost us fans the life of Dale Earnhardt just a few short years ago is, well, angering.

Well, despite the crappy seats, and the even crappier crowd, and the lameness of restrictor plate "racing", I had a grand old time. Don't think I'll ever pay for another Daytona race as I definitely prefer the 1-mile and under tracks, but it was still a worth-while experience. Actually, come to think of it, considering all the BS changes NASCAR has been making to things lately, it's probably the last Cup event I'll attend live ever again. But who knows--maybe they'll come to their senses some day and I'll go to more races again.

I'm baaaaaack!

Yeppers. I have returned home only slightly worse for wear (more on that later). All in all, it was a good trip (again, more on that later). But I had a "WTF!?!" moment upon my arrival at home this morning. I landed in San Jose about 10:00 am--yes, AM . . . from Florida . . . you want to know what time my plane left, you do the math . . . I'm too friggin' tired right now. Anyway, by the time I got out to my folks' house to pick up my dog and got home, it was about noon. And boy, was I ready for some sack time. So, I let my dog (a Golden Retriever, which is an important detail, as you'll soon discover) into the house, then went back outside to move my truck so I could put my car in the garage. And through the side fence, I see a Golden Retriever staring at me.

Obviously, the first thing that went through my mind was "How the hell did Duncan (my dog) get into the back?!? Oh crap! If the back door's open, I must've gotten robbed!" So, charge back into the house. Where I find Duncan in the kitchen, and the back door closed. Turns out, there's another Golden Retriever in my back yard. Complete with green collar, just like Duncan's, only no ID tag. I've guessing that at some point during the week, one of my neighbors spotted this stray Golden and assumed it was mine, so (somehow) got him into my back yard.

So yeah, instead of getting to rack out and catch up on the ZZZZ's, I was dealing with two hyperactive Golden's who wanted nothing more than to playplayplayplayplay. I did a quick wander in the neighborhood, then called the local animal shelter to see if anyone had reported a missing Golden. Fortunately, they put me and the dog's rightfull owner in contact pretty quick, and the poor little stranger is currently back home with his family. Hopefully he's all okay . . . he seemed to be happy and healthy, but was definitely thirstier than can be imagined. He went missing last Tuesday according to the owner, so he may have been cooped up in my back yard with no food or water for a few days.

But, yeah, it's a strange thing to come home from a vacation to find that you're suddenly confronted with a virtual clone of your rambuctious, hyperactive, goofy, spastic dog, with no idea where it came from. And of course, I'm still trying to figure out how they got a 70-pound dog over the 6' fence in the first place . . .

Little break

So, as I've been bragging about, I'll be attending the Daytona 500 this weekend. And, since that will entail travelling to the opposite side of the country, time will be taken to see the area sites, visit with friends and generally enjoy myself. And, while out and about, I don't really plan on going out of my way to gain Net access . . . maybe once or twice during the week just to check e-mail, assuming I come accross a convenient Internet Cafe at a convenient time. So, it's kinda doubtfull I'll be blogging. See y'all in about a week.

Oh, this is not good

I leave for Florida the day after tomorrow, and I'm coming down with a cold. Colds themselves don't bug me too much--sure, they're annoying, but it's usually tolerable for me. The problem is flying when my sinuses are acting up or plugged. During the landings, instead of my ears giving a simple "pop", I suffer excruciating pain in my ears. And I do mean excruciating. Heck, coming back from Pennsylvania once, my brother had to help guide me off the plane and through the terminal, I was so disoriented. And I've practically blacked out from the pain at least once. So yeah, flying with a cold isn't a good thing for me. Hopefully a constant stream of NyQuil plus some Benadril before the flight will stave things off. If not, anyone in Denver (layover) and Orlando should be able to know exactly when my plane lands, from the scream of pain coming from the skies.

Here's to . . .

. . . old friends, good friends, lost friends, new friends, and rekindled friendships.

Cuteness

I didn't really watch the Grammys the other night. Not really interested, to be honest. But I did happen upon one bit with Lynyrd Skinner, Tim McGraw & Gretchen Wilson. On my trip to Colorado, I was subjected to a fair amount of country music, since my uncle was driving and he tends to like it. Now, I'm not really into country music, but have been known to tolerate it. Anywho, I recall this one song coming on the radio that really caught my attention . . . "Redneck Woman". While I don't really relate to being a redneck woman, I thought it was just a straight-forward fun song. Actually, that's the only kind of country music I actually enjoy . . . them country singer folk can surely put together some fun songs when they just kick back and enjoy themselves.

So, anyhow, there she was, the singer of "Redneck Woman", singing away during the Grammys. And what immediately popped into my mind? "Damn, she's cute!" That's another thing about country music . . . they sure do seem to have a lot of good looking female singers. I mean, good examples would be gals like Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Sara Evans and bunches of others. But there's just something about Gretchen Wilson that really, really caught my eye. I think it was the fact that she was looking so damn good without looking like she was trying to look so damn good. Y'know, she didn't look all dolled up . . . just dressed like a regular gal, and still looking terrific. So, I did a little Web-spelunkering to find out more about this little lovely. And how she can get away with singing a song like "Here for the Party" where she claims "I may not be a 10 but the boy say I clean up good" is amazing. Well, I certainly hope this post doesn't make me sound too much like a male pig, drooling over a pretty girl.

Love is in the air

At least, that's what "they" claim. Personally, I've grown to hate V-Day. Not because I think it's a manufactured holiday created by the candy & greeting card industries. That's fine by me. The reason I have come to despise this day is that, in all my years, I have never had a girlfriend on this day. And that's rather depressing. There've been a few times I've "used" the day to try and start a relationship with someone I like. But it's never been a success (and even once was connected to a total disaster). Now I know what some of you are thinking . . . I should just go out, have fun, and maybe even meet someone, cuz "love is in the air". But you see, I'm not really into the bar scene, and live in an area almost completely devoid of social activities, it's easier said than done.

Sorry for the string of gripe/peeve posts lately. Maybe it's the time of year. But no worries . . . I'll be back to my fun-loving self in no time, since I'll be leaving for Florida (for the Daytona 500 and visit w/friends) on Saturday.

What are they thinking?

Anyone who's read my blog for for any length of time knows my stance on President Bush. And anyone who knows me in person knows my disappointment with the Democrats is just as strong. To be honest, I don't see much difference between the two parties . . . neither one truly cares about the American people. They both put their own interests above everything else. But I do believe that the Democratic Party took an even bigger turn for the worse today when they announced that Howard Dean has been elected to lead them. During the Primaries, the thought of Dean making it to the Oval Office scared the bejeezes out of me. Granted, Bush scares the crap out of me too. But at least with Bush, we know what we're getting. Dean's objectives were always shrouded in mystery. I recall one debate (the 1st Democratic one, I believe) where Dean & Kerry got into an exchange . . . Kerry kept hounding him with a question that Dean flat out refused to answer. He'd give a typical political response that pretended to be an answer but wasn't. And Kerry kept pointing out that he wasn't answering the question, so would ask it again. Dean would just get that stupid looking, guilt-ridden smirk (it reminded me of a little kid who just messed his underpants and wasn't quite sure if it was funny or if he'd be in trouble) and refuse to answer the question again. He did this several times during the debates. Anyway, the point is, Dean is the stereotypical, two-faced, wouldn't-know-honesty-if-it-bit-him-in-the-arse, huckster politician, who'll do and say anything to get what he wants. I see bad things for the Democrats coming . . .

Pet Peeve #2

Or maybe it's #3, if you include the SUV rant. Or maybe #4, if you count lack of honesty & courtesy in certain individuals. Or maybe #378, if you count all the peeves with politics. Wow, I guess I'm just in a peeving mood lately. Of course, now I've forgotten what the peeve was.

Oh, yeah! It's the blogs on BlogAzoo and BlogExplosion. Not the content of the blogs. Well, yeah in a way. You see, when I first started surfing those two, I thought it was really cool. It introduced me to a plethora of new blogs and people. But after using them for a while, I've become frustrated with the repetition and lack of updates. It seems that I am continually directed to the same blogs over and over and over and over. I've gotten kinda tired of seeing the same blog 4-5 times in a 20 minute span. But what's most aggrivating is that it seems that the majority of these repeaters apparently spend so much time building up credits that they neglect their blogs. Now, I'm not so anal as to expect daily updates . . . I mean, some folks actually have a life outside of blogdom, and that's fine. But if you're not going to post anything new for weeks, or even months, then take your frickin' blog out of the rotation!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled non-ranting programming.

Repetition

Just got off the phone activating my new (renewed) credit card. The first thing I found utterly amazing was the fact that a real live person answered. I've never activated a credit card through anything other than an automated system before. Now if they could just get their Customer Service department to answer the phone on the first ring like that . . .

Anywho, after activation, the girl went into the normal sales pitch. Did I want to get another card for someone else? Did I want their payment protection insurance? Did I need a PIN number? And that's when my pet peeve alarms went off. Fortunately, it's not enough of a peeve to where I commented to her, but now I'm going to vent here. I find it incredibly annoying when people use acronyms incorrectly. Or, specifically, repetitively. You see, PIN stands for Personal Identification Number. So when someone says "PIN number" what they're effectively saying is "Personal Identification Number number". Same thing with ATMs, when people refer to them as ATM machines (Automated Transaction Machine machine). But the most annoying thing about it is that I hear these misuses so often, that I find myself bungling it on occassion. I'm considering writing my Congresspeople and lobbying for a new law that says anyone who is caught misusing accronyms in a repetitious manner should get fined $5 by the person who catches them. Who'll sign the petition?

Ziff! Pow! Boff!

So I went out and rented Daredevil and The Hulk last night. Kinda pathetic really . . . the only reason I watched them was so that I could say (with honesty) that to the best of my knowledge I have seen every comic book movie made. And that not only includes the recent ones like X-Men, Spiderman, Elektra and their various sequels, but also slightly older comic book classics (like the entire Superman and Batman series'), plus the old campy made-for-TV comic movies of the '60's and '70's (Batman, Spiderman, Captain America, The Hulk). Actually, when one stops to think about it, there have been quite a few!

Anywho, I was actually somewhat pleasantly surprised with The Hulk. Really didn't seem all that interesting when it was in theaters. But it was actually quite good . . . at least, good enough to overlook the fact that the main character was entirely computer generated. Not to mention the fact that I was completely blown away with the gorgeousness of Jennifer Connelly. Don't get me wrong--I've known she was a hottie for ages. But I haven't seen her in a while and in this movie she was just plain and simple . . . WOW! Not sure what it was, but, yeah--WOW!

But I digress. I'm trying to verify that I have, indeed, seen all the comic book movies to date . . . if anyone knows of one not on the below list (in the random order I remember them), I'd appreciate you letting me know (note: I'm talking about movies based on an existing comic book, not just movies with a comic book feel/theme or based on superheroes created solely for the movie):

Superman (1 - 4); Batman (1 - 4, plus the TV movie w/Adam West, plus Mask of the Phantasm); Spiderman (1 & 2, plus the 2-3 TV ones in the '70's); Captain America (2 TV movies); X-Men (1 & 2); Catwoman; Elektra; Daredevil; The Hulk (plus the 6-7 TV ones); The Punisher; Spawn; The Crow; Blade (1 - 3); Hellboy; Supergirl; Wonderwoman (the TV stuff); Howard the Duck . . . am I missing anything that's been released yet?

Update: Forgot about The Shadow, The Phantom, the Dolph Lundgren Punisher, Flash Gordon, Barbarella, Conan the Barbarian (and Destroyer), Dick Tracy, Doc Savage, Josie and the Pussycats, Men in Black (1 & 2), Swamp Thing, Sheena, and TMNT (1 - 3), all of which I've seen. However, I also forgot about Mystery Men and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, neither of which I've seen. Dammit. Now I guess I have to go rent them.

When it rains, it pours

Oh yeah, I'm having a good day. Did you know that raviolis can explode? Really, they can. This was discovered just a short while ago. Fortunately, no one was injured, as the microwave contained most of the explosive force. Now I'm wondering if putting the microwave outside to let the rain wash it out would be the easiest solution. Unless anyone wants a microwave with a cool red interior . . .

Even better than washing the car

Hmph. Seems to never fail. We get a few days of nice, sunny weather here, so I turn the sprinkler timer back on . . . and it rains. I kid you not, every time I set the lawn sprinklers to automatic, it rains. And you can bet your bottom dollar that (no matter what the weather report says) if I turn them off, it'll be nice and sunny for the next week at least . . . but if I leave them on, it'll keep raining.

The Big Day

Well, it's here. The day every red-blooded, apple-pie loving American looks forward to each and every year. Anticipation grows from even before the first huddle of the season. Grocery store shelves are now devoid of beer, pork rinds, potatoe chips and popcorn. Men sit down with their sons and fathers, or friends and other family members. It is a day of rejoicing . . . of bonding . . . of sorrow and disappointment for some.

So, in just a few short hours, I (like most every other true American) will sit down in front of a TV to view the biggest event of the year (aside from the Daytona 500, that is). And it is my sincerest hope that we all enjoy the spectacular Super Bowl Commercials as much as in past years.

No good deed goes unpunished

Eeeesh . . . can you believe it? Two teenage girls decide to do something nice for their neighbors. No special reason. Give the neighbors some home made cookies just for the heck of it. Something that's not common enough in this country (the "doing something nice just because" part--we probably have way too many cookies), and what's their reward? A lawsuit. Personally, I think these girls should be applauded for their consideration and good deed, instead of forced to pay the medical bills of a hypersensitive paranoid twit.

A new record!

My dog actually stayed clean for at least one full minute after his bath today! I swear that's gotta be a record for him. Of course, he was so proud of himself, he promptly found the biggest pile of dirt in the yard and rolled around in it. Y'know, the least he could have done was waited until I had changed into some dry clothes (funny how more water ends up on the dog owner than on the dog receiving the bath, ain't it?).

Mmmm...warmth

My new slippers finally arrived yesterday. Whoo-hoo! My tootsie toes shall never freeze again. And of course they came just in time, too. Afterall, we all know how cold California Springtime is.


Warm tootsie-toes 

Oh no! Now I gotta clean up!

Welcome all of you from Michele's Scavenger Hunt. Though I really wish she had called ahead and let me know you were coming today, so I had time to clean up this mess! lol

Now off I go to see if I can figure out my own clue . . .

What State?

Thought I'd do something really special for my 100th post to this blog (Holy guacamole! Have I really had enough to babble about for 100 posts!?! That's almost as amazing as the fact I've had over 2,000 visitors--never would've expected that ). But this was the best I could come up with on short notice. This is kinda neat, though nothing spectacular. Here's a graphic of all the States I've visitted (at least, ones I remember).



create your own visited states map