Monday, May 7, 2012

Sadaharu Oh, B-Boy Bouillabaisse, & Cinco De Wino

Of course I'm referencing a reference from the Beastie Boys song Hey Ladies as one of the members of the group passed away from cancer on Friday and it came as a big surprise to me. The line has always amused me due to the random reference to the guy that had 868 home runs in the Japanese baseball league (Nippon Professional Baseball) and for the record, had 2786 hits during his career. Imagine what he could have done in the major leagues... as for referencing that French dish, it's a title of a song from the Beasties and besides, that word seems wholly appropriate as part of a title for one of my blogs.

Here's what I've done since last Monday. On that day in the evening I actually did something. I went to DisneyQuest at Downtown Disney as I haven't used my annual Disney pass enough in the past few months and I hadn't been to DisneyQuest in I don't even know how many months, so it was the logical thing to do. While I wish there wouldn't have been so many loudmouth immature idiots around and I wish that more of their machines were kept up to standards so that they wouldn't play so poorly (i.e. on their Batman table based on The Dark Knight the paddles don't work too well anymore, ruining what was an awesome table), it was still fun being there and playing the usual machines (like Galaga) and the new pinball machines they have there, such as for Tron: Legacy, The Rolling Stones, and Iron Man, which is actually Iron Man 2. So, like I said it was fun making my long-awaited return there.

Tuesday was dull so I'll mention now that the Tuesday before I actually did go out to eat with someone. I don't know why I neglected to mention it the last time but I did. It was at the Orlando Ale House location in Kissimmee. The food and atmosphere there were fine. On another tangent, I got a spam e-mail, concerning sending money to help people purchase bibles for Africa. Hmmm, sounds legit... the name of the guy who sent the message: Abdul Razzak Billoo. Hey, it made me laugh.

Wednesday I went to Winter Garden Village and among other things, I went to Best Buy and picked up some items there. Thursday was dul so let me skip ahead to Friday, which was THE day this week for me. I went to Tropicana Field to watch the Tampa Bay Rays play agains the Oakland Athletics, a team that doesn't have any superstars on it but at least so far in this first part of the long season is a .500 club. I figured the Rays could use all the people at the game they can; despite them having the best record in the major leagues so far attendance at good old Tropicana Field has been rather poor. Typical Florida being terrible and not supporting their local teams... but anyhow, let me continue. I took a long scenic route to Tampa where I stopped at the International Plaza again-to pick up an old-school Tampa Bay Devil Rays shirt, no kidding-and then I went to Pinellas Park to get gas at Wal-Mart as it was like 15 cents cheaper than it was back in Clermont and then I went right to Tropicana Field. I did not mind not spending that time in the area before going to the game, as I was already in the area and spent a few hours there only two Fridays ago.

I'll mention now that the traffic I experienced on this day/night... pretty horrid, if only because at least 5 times, people pulled out right in front of me, necessitating me slamming on the brakes. I wasn't happy each time it happened and I always made it clear exactly how I felt about their clueless/rude driving. Speaking of driving, I do have something amusing to tell concerning some bumper stickers I've seen. Last weekend when I went up to Ocala I saw a car that had two stickers which proclaimed that the driver “loved vagina”! I passed by the guy and yes, it was a male driving and not a lady. Despite him coming off as incredibly crude of course he had a girlfriend in the passenger seat. Figures. Then, on Friday I saw a bumper sticker that said, “I love cooter.” I do too, but is subtlety a lost art these days?

Anyhow, I made it to the stadium and parked at where I usually park now (it's on the corner of MLK Street and 4th Avenue South; it's close to Tropicana Field and it's right by 175, which is a short jaunt to 275; I give my highest recommendations to it) and while I got there a little later than usual, I did have time to have dinner there before the game started. For the first time I sat in the 200 level; I paid a little extra to do it just to see what it was like up there. It's pretty nice; not a shock as that's also the level where the suites are located. The regular seats in the area have padded bottoms and backs, which was also pretty nice. The section I was in was pretty crowded; that was OK. Most of the people were fine. I wish that some of the knuckleheads would have been elsewhere but they weren't too awful. The official attendance was 18,799, certainly better than what they did earlier in the week.

As for the game, Tampa Bay won it 7-2. While I wouldn't have minded a competitive guy, a squash is also fun to watch as long as the team you like isn't the one getting its ass kicked. The Tampa Bay pitcher (David Price) was pretty awesome, striking out many and only giving up a few hits. It was fun to watch him pitch so well and for Oakland's pitchers being pretty piss-poor in comparison. So thus, Friday was a fun day even with all the near-accidents I got into.

The weekendd was rather dull. I stayed at home, pretty much. I didn't even drink any alcohol for Cinco de Mayo; I just watched some UFC instead. I certainly did not watch the big pay per view at night where a cowardly guy that's about to go to jail in a month for being a lowlife engaged in a pointless bout that of course he won and likely featured a lot of hugging, as that's what that sport is all about now. Laugh out loud, by the way, to that big fight everyone wants to see never happening due to sheer cowardice. Oh yeah, what was I saying... I did not go to Cinco de Mako despite it probably being a real wild time there. I also did not participate in Cinco de Wino; yes, I actually saw a sign in Tampa on Friday from a wine store advertising just that thing. If I did participate in that celebration I likely would have felt like death warmed over on Sunday! Instead, my Sunday was extremely dull.

As for the upcoming week, it's the usual. Not a lot is scheduled, although I do hope to find a new pair of shoes as I've basically just worn one pair daily for the past few years so now they're starting to fall apart. Hopefully that won't be the most interesting tale I tell next Monday.

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