Yeah, my birthday was this past Saturday. I am 33 years old and that seems impossible to believe. This birthday wasn't as exciting as the last one but I'll get to that later. Beat Hefti refers to a Swiss bobsledder. His name is hilarious. So is the name of the American-born Russian snowboarder known as Vic Wild. That so sounds like the name of an independent professional wrestler.
Monday I did not do anything so let me talk about Tuesday. It was a different sort of day, which I was happy with. I drove all the way up to Gainesville (Florida, not the Gainsville in Georgia; that would have been a multi-day trip) to check out the Trader Joe's they have in the city. It'll likely be the only time I go to that location. I hear that sometime in the future there will be two around Orlando and that would be great. Driving that long to get to one can be a pain, especially when you have to deal with other drivers. The traffic on this day was rather horrid. I saw some really horrible driving. I won't rant and rave about it; just note it was atrocious. The first place I went to was the Trader Joe's, where I got a variety of items. I only go to one in a blue moon so it was more than a handful.
After that I drove around the University of Florida campus. It looked like a typical college campus, except rather large as it's one of the largest schools in the country. I then went to a wacky local pizza place I just heard about the night before from a website. It's known as Satchel's Pizza. It's so hippie that they make their own sodas, don't accept credit cards and they have bric-a-brac all over the place... and yet they do have Wi-Fi for guests. Go figure. They indeed have really good pizza. It was a good call to listen to that website. After that I walked around the local mall in the city before driving home. Aside from the traffic it was a pretty nice day.
Wednesday, I did not do a thing; the same goes for Friday. Thursday, the only thing I did was go to a familiar haunt, Winter Garden Village where some random things were purchased by me. So let me skip ahead to Saturday, a.k.a my 33rd birthday. That day was also Ragnarok, a.k.a an important day in Norse mythology, where the world would end before it was reborn. Thankfully that did not take place.
It wasn't as interesting as my birthday last year when I went to Ghost Bar & Lounge for the first time and randomly, 6 random ladies invited me over to hang out with them for a bit and some website took pictures of it, resulting in my current Twitter banner and my Facebook banner and profile picture. Still, it was a decent night. I went to J.C. Penney's right in town to look for a pair of new jeans. One pair I've had for like the past 7 or 8 years developed a rip... in the crotch! Insert your own jokes if you wish. I did not find anything to my liking, which is OK. I can probably wait to get a new pair (as in, wait until late in the year) as I probably have enough pairs already as it is.
After that I walked over to the nearby Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC pay per view. The Fox Sports 1 fights were alright but the pay per view portion was definitely better. I had their boneless wings during the fights and the flavor was their limited edition bourbon honey mustard, which was good. For part of the time I sat by some random people, including a girl who used to work there, her boyfriend and some dude who was friends with them... and also happened to be quite drunk. Him acting like an ass was amusing at times... and annoying at other times. Without ever telling him what the day was, I got a free drink from him, which was a real nice gesture.
Sunday the weather around Central Florida wasn't the best. Thankfully right around where I lived it was alright. That is why I went out with someone for a late birthday dinner. We decided to stay in town because of the weather and I hadn't been to Beef O'Brady's in awhile so we went there. Eh... my burger order got screwed up (it was still edible), the fries weren't that great and the person I was with wasn't happy that their half rack of ribs had a huge glop of sauce put right on top of it as that isn't the best way to do it. So, it may be a long while before I return there. At least it wasn't a long drive and if the weather would have been better... but oh well.
For the upcoming week... I'll be talking about the WWE network. Yes, World Wrestling Entertainment now has an online network, appropriately known as WWE Network. I already signed up and I'll give thoughts on that next Monday along with such things as me being sad Harold Ramis passed away earlier today, and whatever I decide to do in the next 7 days.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Redbox, Russian Trampolines, & Redneck Family Christmases
The explanation for the title is that in the past week I used a Redbox for the very first time, a Russian Trampoline isn't something vulgar but instead was the name of a jump in the downhill competition at the Winter Olympics, & the last part relates to an incredible find at a giant flea market, of all things.
I already mentioned the one big thing I did this past Monday, which was getting a much-needed haircut. So, let me skip ahead to Tuesday, and that was an interesting day. I could have done several different things but I decided to keep it simple. I needed to look for something at IKEA so I figured I'd do it on this day. I walked around there and got a few low-buck items, including what I wanted and some food & drink. After that I walked around the nearby Mall at Millenia and I ate at The Cheesecake Factory. I brought home a cheesecake, because I wanted to.
Wednesday, the only thing I did was go to Walgreens to look for a new can of shaving cream. I couldn't tell you why the old can I had suddenly startiing spewing it's contents uncontrollably but it did so I threw it out. Thursday wasn't the warmest day so I stayed in and relaxed. Friday, I went to a RaceTrac and then a 7/11 gas station. I got a gallon of milk for the house and that was about it.
Saturday, that was the day of excitement. Again, I could have done a few things but I decided to go to a place I went to once before for a pretty bad local wrestling show WAY back when. I believe it was in December of '04. It was the International Market World of Auburndale. It is a giant flea market. I've been to my share of flea markets before, just not that one. I walked around for a good amount of time and it can be easy to lose track of where you are. I did make some minor purchases. More on that later. I did see plenty of “rural” people, to put it nicely To be mean, gawking at them and how they looked and acted was quite amusing. They lived up-or down-to stereotypes.
After that I drove on over to nearby Lakeland. I was at their open-air mall for a bit and I made a minor purchase from their Books-A-Million. I then returned to a restaurant I really wish would be closer to Orlando: PDQ. Their food is great. I had chicken fingers & fries & a chocolate shake. After that I filled up and got gas before driving home. I saw part of the free UFC show from Brazil... but not all of it, as it was pretty bad.
Sunday, I went to the local Publix grocery store to pick up a few items and that was it... until the evening. A few times before I've gotten blank VHS tapes that were used by others to tape old movies or what have you; those came from flea markets or from a thrift store. I saw the likes of the Winter Olympics... from 1988 and movies taped off of the Showtime Network... in 1981. They were a gas, but not as much as when among the VHS tapes I got yesterday I picked out one named “Christmas”. Believe it or not it actually is a 37 minute deal that some random “rural” family filmed on two days way back when during the holiday season. I thought I saw a date of 1992 on a Christmas stocking so I'll go with that.
Oh My God, that 37 minutes of footage was amazing. It may be my favorite comedy of 2014. I know I shouldn't laugh at what legit is a home movie that someone filmed of their family and it somehow ended up at a flea market, but why was it there to begin with? Pretty strange. The sights I saw... they were the definition of a redneck family. They looked like the type of people I saw at the aforementioned flea market. Besides the fact that they all just looked “interesting”, most of the adults smoked cigarettes, acid-washed jeans were everywhere, there were cans of Busch beer everywhere, the gifts included Harley-Davidson merchandise and a bottle of Jack Daniel's, multiple guys had beards & long hair and just looked greasy... it was a strange but fun way to spend part of my Sunday evening.
As almost always, I shall return a week from today. I do have some items of things I'll be doing in the upcoming 7 days and believe it or not, I'll be turning 33 on Saturday. That makes me feel really old. There's a UFC pay per view on that night and I'll likely see that, but otherwise nothing is planned for the big day yet.
I already mentioned the one big thing I did this past Monday, which was getting a much-needed haircut. So, let me skip ahead to Tuesday, and that was an interesting day. I could have done several different things but I decided to keep it simple. I needed to look for something at IKEA so I figured I'd do it on this day. I walked around there and got a few low-buck items, including what I wanted and some food & drink. After that I walked around the nearby Mall at Millenia and I ate at The Cheesecake Factory. I brought home a cheesecake, because I wanted to.
Wednesday, the only thing I did was go to Walgreens to look for a new can of shaving cream. I couldn't tell you why the old can I had suddenly startiing spewing it's contents uncontrollably but it did so I threw it out. Thursday wasn't the warmest day so I stayed in and relaxed. Friday, I went to a RaceTrac and then a 7/11 gas station. I got a gallon of milk for the house and that was about it.
Saturday, that was the day of excitement. Again, I could have done a few things but I decided to go to a place I went to once before for a pretty bad local wrestling show WAY back when. I believe it was in December of '04. It was the International Market World of Auburndale. It is a giant flea market. I've been to my share of flea markets before, just not that one. I walked around for a good amount of time and it can be easy to lose track of where you are. I did make some minor purchases. More on that later. I did see plenty of “rural” people, to put it nicely To be mean, gawking at them and how they looked and acted was quite amusing. They lived up-or down-to stereotypes.
After that I drove on over to nearby Lakeland. I was at their open-air mall for a bit and I made a minor purchase from their Books-A-Million. I then returned to a restaurant I really wish would be closer to Orlando: PDQ. Their food is great. I had chicken fingers & fries & a chocolate shake. After that I filled up and got gas before driving home. I saw part of the free UFC show from Brazil... but not all of it, as it was pretty bad.
Sunday, I went to the local Publix grocery store to pick up a few items and that was it... until the evening. A few times before I've gotten blank VHS tapes that were used by others to tape old movies or what have you; those came from flea markets or from a thrift store. I saw the likes of the Winter Olympics... from 1988 and movies taped off of the Showtime Network... in 1981. They were a gas, but not as much as when among the VHS tapes I got yesterday I picked out one named “Christmas”. Believe it or not it actually is a 37 minute deal that some random “rural” family filmed on two days way back when during the holiday season. I thought I saw a date of 1992 on a Christmas stocking so I'll go with that.
Oh My God, that 37 minutes of footage was amazing. It may be my favorite comedy of 2014. I know I shouldn't laugh at what legit is a home movie that someone filmed of their family and it somehow ended up at a flea market, but why was it there to begin with? Pretty strange. The sights I saw... they were the definition of a redneck family. They looked like the type of people I saw at the aforementioned flea market. Besides the fact that they all just looked “interesting”, most of the adults smoked cigarettes, acid-washed jeans were everywhere, there were cans of Busch beer everywhere, the gifts included Harley-Davidson merchandise and a bottle of Jack Daniel's, multiple guys had beards & long hair and just looked greasy... it was a strange but fun way to spend part of my Sunday evening.
As almost always, I shall return a week from today. I do have some items of things I'll be doing in the upcoming 7 days and believe it or not, I'll be turning 33 on Saturday. That makes me feel really old. There's a UFC pay per view on that night and I'll likely see that, but otherwise nothing is planned for the big day yet.
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Winter Olympics, Colon Hydrotherapy & Surfboart
To explain the title, “surfboart” is some sort of reference to a crappy Beyonce song which I don't quite get; I mean, I've seen some of the lyrics to that atrocious tune and I don't get them either... nor Beyonce's popularity in general! I've never thought she was any good and most of her songs are no good. As for the colon hydrotherapy, there was a Groupon offer which gave a discount to giving one. Their description of it: fancy term for enema, pretty much. I think I'll pass!
Here's what I've done since last Monday. Monday itself I didn't do a darn thing, which was fine by me. The friends of my parents had left already and it was nice seeing them again. Tuesday, that's when I did something. I got a late start but I went to the area of International Drive again. This time my time there was better. I went to a Barnes & Noble and yeah, I did purchase some items from there. I then went to a restaurant I had been to a few times but the last time was months ago: O'Charley's. I had some pretty good food there... and a drink. I'll explain why in a bit I was thankful to have a drink. On the way back I briefly stopped at Winter Garden Village and I got a beverage from Planet Smoothie.
Now, in the afternoon before I left, I had to book something for a parent. I won't go into details about it but it was something where I needed to print out a confirmation for the parent; I could have done it by printing out the confirmation right after it got booked, but when it's sent by e-mail it just looks better and that's what I have always done before. Well, it usually is sent a minute right after the booking; this time it was nearly 6 hours before it was sent! I wasn't too happy about that. From now on I know not to wait for the e-mail.
Wednesday, I was going to go somewhere and experience a not so common adventure for me but to put it mildly without being too gross, I ate something which did not agree with my stomach so I decided I should just stay in town and relax. I went to a Gamestop to add money to my Microsoft account and then get 3 months of Xbox Live Gold. After that I went to the local Chick-Fil-A in town. I've only gone to those restaurants before that are part of mall food courts. This was my first time in that local restaurant in town. I only go to Chick-Fil-A once in awhile. What I had was fine.
Thursday I did not do anything and Friday I watched the wackiness and sometime surrealness of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. What a disaster it was leading up to the games; besides the awfulness of their draconian anti-gay laws, I was able to laugh at how unprepared the area was for the start of the games. However, now that they've began it's been less embarrassing.
Saturday, it was a rainy day so I only went out once; it was to the local Walmart to pick up a few items I needed. I thought it wouldn't be busy because of the weather. Oh was I wrong! At least it wasn't too bad there aside from it being crowded. No wacky stories to tell. Sunday, I went out with a parent as that day was their birthday. We were going to go out to Longhorn Steakhouse but when we got there the place was jam-packed with people so on the spot we decided to go to the nearby Uno's. The food there was fine although I could have done without having to sit by bratty kids and a dumb parent doing a poor job of controlling them. Then again I could have done without all the awful traffic I had to deal with in the past week (where among other things, some idiot passed on a double yellow and almost hit oncoming traffic AND the guy he was passing) but alas...
Today I already did my one activity, which is why this is going up a little later than usual. I went and got a haircut. That went as expected so nothing to say there except that I really needed one and it couldn't wait one more day. I shall return a week from today and nothing is on the agenda... yet.
Here's what I've done since last Monday. Monday itself I didn't do a darn thing, which was fine by me. The friends of my parents had left already and it was nice seeing them again. Tuesday, that's when I did something. I got a late start but I went to the area of International Drive again. This time my time there was better. I went to a Barnes & Noble and yeah, I did purchase some items from there. I then went to a restaurant I had been to a few times but the last time was months ago: O'Charley's. I had some pretty good food there... and a drink. I'll explain why in a bit I was thankful to have a drink. On the way back I briefly stopped at Winter Garden Village and I got a beverage from Planet Smoothie.
Now, in the afternoon before I left, I had to book something for a parent. I won't go into details about it but it was something where I needed to print out a confirmation for the parent; I could have done it by printing out the confirmation right after it got booked, but when it's sent by e-mail it just looks better and that's what I have always done before. Well, it usually is sent a minute right after the booking; this time it was nearly 6 hours before it was sent! I wasn't too happy about that. From now on I know not to wait for the e-mail.
Wednesday, I was going to go somewhere and experience a not so common adventure for me but to put it mildly without being too gross, I ate something which did not agree with my stomach so I decided I should just stay in town and relax. I went to a Gamestop to add money to my Microsoft account and then get 3 months of Xbox Live Gold. After that I went to the local Chick-Fil-A in town. I've only gone to those restaurants before that are part of mall food courts. This was my first time in that local restaurant in town. I only go to Chick-Fil-A once in awhile. What I had was fine.
Thursday I did not do anything and Friday I watched the wackiness and sometime surrealness of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. What a disaster it was leading up to the games; besides the awfulness of their draconian anti-gay laws, I was able to laugh at how unprepared the area was for the start of the games. However, now that they've began it's been less embarrassing.
Saturday, it was a rainy day so I only went out once; it was to the local Walmart to pick up a few items I needed. I thought it wouldn't be busy because of the weather. Oh was I wrong! At least it wasn't too bad there aside from it being crowded. No wacky stories to tell. Sunday, I went out with a parent as that day was their birthday. We were going to go out to Longhorn Steakhouse but when we got there the place was jam-packed with people so on the spot we decided to go to the nearby Uno's. The food there was fine although I could have done without having to sit by bratty kids and a dumb parent doing a poor job of controlling them. Then again I could have done without all the awful traffic I had to deal with in the past week (where among other things, some idiot passed on a double yellow and almost hit oncoming traffic AND the guy he was passing) but alas...
Today I already did my one activity, which is why this is going up a little later than usual. I went and got a haircut. That went as expected so nothing to say there except that I really needed one and it couldn't wait one more day. I shall return a week from today and nothing is on the agenda... yet.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Saratoga Springs, Walmart Prayers & The Superb Owl
No, I am not referencing Stephen Colbert with The Superb Owl. I don't watch that program and I just discovered he used that phrase a matter of hours ago. Rather, I know someone (I don't know if they want their name mentioned or not) who used that phrase before this year. I don't know if he came up with it himself or borrowed it from somewhere else, but I figured I should use it here.
Here is what I've done since the last blog. I actually did something of note last Monday after I posted the blog. I was able to go to Walt Disney World... Downtown Disney to be exact. I parked, walked around for a bit then hopped onto a bus to enjoy their free transportation and I ended up at their Saratoga Springs Resort; I don't think I need to mention which famous city it was modeled after. I walked around the place and it's pretty nice; it's definitely larger than I expected... and yeah that is what she said. Anyhow, I had a quick service dinner there of chicken nuggets and chips; it was good. As I've said before Disney always does a nice job with its resort hotels. I don't think their more expensive places are doing well attendance-wise, but alas.
Tuesday and Wednesday I did not do much at all. A main theme for this week is cleaning my bedroom and adjacent bathroom, as both were filthy and needed a cleaning. So, let me skip ahead to Thursday. My parents had a pair of old friends come down here and visit. They had been here before. They decided to go with an expensive dinner so off we went to Boma's, the buffet style meal at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, again at Walt Disney World. There was a place I had been once before. I know I don't have the most diverse taste when it comes to food but they had more than enough there for me to eat. It was chilly on that early evening but it was OK.
Friday, I had to go to Walmart to look for some containers; they were to hold the crap I have in my room. They do make a big difference in making it look cleaner. After that I went to Burger King for dinner, which I ate at home. My time at Walmart was surprisingly light in terms of drama or frustration. However, I did see something and like I sometimes say, this could only happen to me. As I was walking into the store, so was someone else... and they made The Sign of the Cross before walking into Walmart! I have no idea why he would do such a thing, unless he needed the strength of The Lord to deal with the usual sort of people that you find at a Walmart, which IS understandable to me...
Saturday, I decided to be responsible and the only time I went out was to purchase more containers to put crap in and help make my room not as messy. I made the purchase at Office Depot. I decided to watch the UFC pay per view at home instead of going out to a place like Buffalo Wild Wings to check it out. I'll leave it at that. As I continued with the cleaning I saw a good amount of the undercard then the pay per view itself. The undercard was pretty bad and to be honest, cleaning my room was actually more entertaining! The pay per view portion had a great opener and some interesting moments but overall wasn't all that hot either. Staying in was a good decision on my part.
Sunday... oh Sunday. It was Super Bowl Sunday and things did not go quite as planned. I won't rant and rave about it, except to say that I tried to go to one place in Orlando but it was jam-packed with people so I left then went to a nearby joint and they were having a private party so I got mad and I went to downtown Orlando as it was close by. In the past when I went to sports bars to see the big game the places were rarely busy so I was not expecting these issues. As I knew for certain Ghost Bar & Lounge would be open and showing the game, I figured I should go there. Various people went in and out for the game but unfortunately (at least for the place) usually not that many people were around. Not too much to say about my time there except that I was a gentleman near the end of the game; most of the time I was there I was able to be seated to watch the game. I did give up my seat so that a pair of ladies could sit by their guy friend.
As for the game, I was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks to defeat the Denver Broncos. No offense against Denver; it's just that unlike the Broncos, Seattle has never won the big prize before and their defense is really impressive to me. It looked to be a really close game, so of course Seattle won 43-8 in the biggest ass-whipping in the Super Bowl in 21 years. The Seahawks looked so good as a team; many players played so well. As for the ads and the halftime show, I thought both were the best they've been in at least a few years. I already know that's not a popular view but that's OK. Bruno Mars is actually a rare modern pop act I don't strongly dislike; I am perfectly fine with him and the halftime show with the Red Hot Chili Peppers was good to me.
I was saddened when early in the afternoon I heard that Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away due to a likely OD. I've only seen a few of his films but of course I know how good of an actor he was and it just sucks, especially considering he had a wife and kids.
Nothing's on the agenda yet for the upcoming week. As I say often, I'll end up stumbling into activities that will give me material to write about.
Here is what I've done since the last blog. I actually did something of note last Monday after I posted the blog. I was able to go to Walt Disney World... Downtown Disney to be exact. I parked, walked around for a bit then hopped onto a bus to enjoy their free transportation and I ended up at their Saratoga Springs Resort; I don't think I need to mention which famous city it was modeled after. I walked around the place and it's pretty nice; it's definitely larger than I expected... and yeah that is what she said. Anyhow, I had a quick service dinner there of chicken nuggets and chips; it was good. As I've said before Disney always does a nice job with its resort hotels. I don't think their more expensive places are doing well attendance-wise, but alas.
Tuesday and Wednesday I did not do much at all. A main theme for this week is cleaning my bedroom and adjacent bathroom, as both were filthy and needed a cleaning. So, let me skip ahead to Thursday. My parents had a pair of old friends come down here and visit. They had been here before. They decided to go with an expensive dinner so off we went to Boma's, the buffet style meal at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, again at Walt Disney World. There was a place I had been once before. I know I don't have the most diverse taste when it comes to food but they had more than enough there for me to eat. It was chilly on that early evening but it was OK.
Friday, I had to go to Walmart to look for some containers; they were to hold the crap I have in my room. They do make a big difference in making it look cleaner. After that I went to Burger King for dinner, which I ate at home. My time at Walmart was surprisingly light in terms of drama or frustration. However, I did see something and like I sometimes say, this could only happen to me. As I was walking into the store, so was someone else... and they made The Sign of the Cross before walking into Walmart! I have no idea why he would do such a thing, unless he needed the strength of The Lord to deal with the usual sort of people that you find at a Walmart, which IS understandable to me...
Saturday, I decided to be responsible and the only time I went out was to purchase more containers to put crap in and help make my room not as messy. I made the purchase at Office Depot. I decided to watch the UFC pay per view at home instead of going out to a place like Buffalo Wild Wings to check it out. I'll leave it at that. As I continued with the cleaning I saw a good amount of the undercard then the pay per view itself. The undercard was pretty bad and to be honest, cleaning my room was actually more entertaining! The pay per view portion had a great opener and some interesting moments but overall wasn't all that hot either. Staying in was a good decision on my part.
Sunday... oh Sunday. It was Super Bowl Sunday and things did not go quite as planned. I won't rant and rave about it, except to say that I tried to go to one place in Orlando but it was jam-packed with people so I left then went to a nearby joint and they were having a private party so I got mad and I went to downtown Orlando as it was close by. In the past when I went to sports bars to see the big game the places were rarely busy so I was not expecting these issues. As I knew for certain Ghost Bar & Lounge would be open and showing the game, I figured I should go there. Various people went in and out for the game but unfortunately (at least for the place) usually not that many people were around. Not too much to say about my time there except that I was a gentleman near the end of the game; most of the time I was there I was able to be seated to watch the game. I did give up my seat so that a pair of ladies could sit by their guy friend.
As for the game, I was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks to defeat the Denver Broncos. No offense against Denver; it's just that unlike the Broncos, Seattle has never won the big prize before and their defense is really impressive to me. It looked to be a really close game, so of course Seattle won 43-8 in the biggest ass-whipping in the Super Bowl in 21 years. The Seahawks looked so good as a team; many players played so well. As for the ads and the halftime show, I thought both were the best they've been in at least a few years. I already know that's not a popular view but that's OK. Bruno Mars is actually a rare modern pop act I don't strongly dislike; I am perfectly fine with him and the halftime show with the Red Hot Chili Peppers was good to me.
I was saddened when early in the afternoon I heard that Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away due to a likely OD. I've only seen a few of his films but of course I know how good of an actor he was and it just sucks, especially considering he had a wife and kids.
Nothing's on the agenda yet for the upcoming week. As I say often, I'll end up stumbling into activities that will give me material to write about.
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