Chronic Tacos, IT'SUGAR, More Power Outages & Handbooks for the Recently Deceased

Monday I did not do anything of note; Tuesday was different. I finally tried out a location in Dr. Phillips I had known of for awhile now: Chronic Tacos. It's from California (naturally) and the name does make me giggle. The food did thankfully taste fine; in the same shopping plaza was a Tropical Smoothie Cafe so I moseyed on over there and I realized it must be a company policy to not have enough employees on duty at one time. Except for that, it was nice to have a drink along with a snickderdoodle cookie. On the way back I stopped at a Trader Joe's as my last visit to one was months ago-naturally, the place hadn't changed one bit. While in there I saw a young lady with a purse... I wasn't able to compliment her on it but I imagine others have marked out over her “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” purse; it's a nice Beetlejuice reference.

Thursday, me and someone else went out for dinner and as they hadn't been to the new Sunset Walk area of Kissimmee, that is where they went. They also hadn't been to a Ford's Garage before so that was the location for dinner. That went fine, along with me stopping in an IT'SUGAR store for a few minutes to look around, note that some of their items could charitably be called “expensive”, and still purchase a few fairly-priced treats. Friday... it was why I did nothing during the weekend. No, Friday was not a disaster and in fact I had a nice dinner. It was just that my plans after that were changed due to circumstances beyond my control. I'll explain that in a bit.

Friday I had dinner at a Joe's Crab Shack; besides not having eaten there in months, it's been too long since I've had any shrimp, so that is what I did. No complaints with the meal, the drink or the mostly older music I heard while I was there. I then got on I-4 (where the traffic was far less heinous than I expected for an early Friday evening) and ended up at the AMC in Altamonte Springs, the site of my disastrous Joker screening experience. Now, I think it'll be awhile before I am there again. You see, I was gonna attend an early screening of Knives Out; yes, this is despite the director bearing at least some responsibility for The Last Jedi not feeling like a Star Wars movie... or being a good movie in general. The cast being tremendous was enough for me to give it a shot; unfortunately, when I got there I discovered the screening was outright canceled, due to a power outage! Thank goodness it was at an AMC so the A-List app was used and the only issue with me not seeing it last night is that sometime in the next few weeks I'll have to see the movie when I have free time and the inkling to check it out one day. Not that I was delighted with these circumstances, or how aggravating the traffic was driving back home and how I may have encountered an impaired driver or two.

As previously referred to, the weekend I did nothing. I saw nothing of the Chicago Bears game, where they barely (or maybe it should be bearly) beat a terrible New York Giants team. Thanksgiving, the entire nation-and me at times-will have to witness Chicago play against another bad squad in the Detroit Lions; I know for a fact that will be a contest which will NOT be aesthetically pleasing by any measure. When I return next Monday I'll mention that and other activities.

Midway, Pepsi Spire, Raspberry Magic, Walmart Drama & November Rain

The first event I'll mention is that real early Tuesday morning I had to make... yet another airport run. At least it was Orlando International so the drive wasn't as long, but even at that hour the airport is chaotic and everyone drives like they are clueless, in a variety of different ways. It was also foggy for part of the drive there and back. Tuesday night I streamed the 1976 movie Midway, w/ an all-star cast. That was a first time watch and it was entertaining. That was done because Wednesday night I saw the 2019 Midway, which wasn't as good yet because 2019 has been a terrible year for movies overall and the new Midway did not make me mad, I'll be kind and say it was fine. '76 is better overall and is focused on the commanders, while '19 is more about individual soldiers & their heroics.

The rest of the week wasn't that exciting, except for what happened on Friday night... which caused me to do nothing during the weekend except for one moment I'll mention at the end. Thus, I will mention a few random things first. The movie theatre I saw Midway at required a little bit of a drive and I hadn't been there in a few years. Well, it's completely remodeled and it does look nice, which I imagine you have to do in order to compete as a small independent chain. They had something I did not even know was a thing: Pepsi Spire. It's their version of Coca-Cola Freestyle; I wish it was in more locations as its main gimmick is adding a few different flavors to their regular sodas... thus that is how I was able to have a Mist Twist with cherry and vanilla. Before then I had a gas station dinner and it went about as “well” as expected... my error. Also, a few days this past week it rained, so it was appropriate that one time I heard November rain on the radio. The Orlando radio stations... all of them are terrible overall and their variety is quite limited in scope, so I try not to listen to them. The only thing of note is when one does a Friday night 90's deal as not only is it nostalgia, but the music sounds great compared to the Autotuned tripe we get now.

Anyhow... Friday night, things did not turn out well. I went to a Walmart (I know, some will say that this was my big mistake) to pick up a few items. I attempted to pay for it with a Walmart gift card I got the previous time I was in the store. I use the card to purchase items in the store and to fill up at their gas stations, whether it be Murphy USA or their proprietary branded gas. I say attempted as the woman at the cash register was dumb and couldn't get it to work despite multiple different attempts. I realized I have seen like 10 different ways that those cards have been scanned-including me having to swipe them at the credit card machine-but this clown couldn't have called over someone with a higher IQ to try and do it right. I couldn't raise a stink about it as people were behind me in line and I couldn't say with 100% accuracy the card actually had cash on it (it's Walmart so the cashier from the previous occasion might have screwed up putting money on it) so I just paid via credit card instead. Of course, I then went to the gas pumps to fill up... the card did have 100 bucks on it and that person was a blithering idiot. Figures.

Should people be surprised that I would be happy to stay in for the weekend to avoid the traffic and running into incompetents like that? The only thing I did was on Saturday, where I got dinner from Wawa; that went fine and I saw that the Freestyle machines had a limited edition “Raspberry Magic” flavor for Coca-Cola. I couldn't tell you how it differed from regular raspberry... at least it was decent and I'll have to try the Sprite Vanilla Frost. As for the Bears game against the LA Rams... it was not watched by me and that was the right decision as they lost 17-7 and I would have received more entertainment from watching paint dry for three hours straight.

Nothing's on the agenda for the upcoming week... yet.

Parasite, Earl of Sandwich, Cajun Food & Mountain Dew Merry Mash-Up

This week wasn't too terribly exciting overall, although it did have some moments. Monday I did nothing but Tuesday, that was a positive day. I was at Disney Springs (even with the weather turning into light rain) to see a movie and to have dinner. The movie was Parasite, from South Korea and director Bong Joon-ho; hardcore movie fans will know him for such things as Snowpiercer (which rubbed me the wrong way), The Host-which was pretty cool-and some pictures which I shamefully haven't seen yet, but he's been highly regarded for years now. Many other places before the United States got it so on certain sites and forums there has been plenty of hype for it. Finally, on this day I saw Parasite, and thought of it as tremendous. It's not entirely mainstream yet that is fine by my standards. It blends together a few different genres as a rich family and poor family are followed; the latter grifts the former because they are fed up with poverty, but of course things go wrong. It may be my movie of 2019, as a matter of fact. There are various movies from South Korea I've seen over the years and many were worthwhile, w/ some of them being great; this has to be the best one I've seen.

Dinner was had at Earl of Sandwich, as I hadn't been there in many months. That went fine and I got the amusement of seeing some people not understand the different way you order food there (the meal is ordered at one spot, and no matter if you order any sides or drinks at the second spot, that is where you pay for it all) despite a huge sign hanging up above the first spot explaining the process. Believe it or not, nothing interesting happened between Tuesday and Sunday, unless people want to hear about such things as trips to Walmart (I purchased the returning Mountain Dew Merry Mash-Up, which is a nice limited edition cranberry/pomegranate drink), idiots creeping along on rural roads, or getting a meal at Zaxby's. Thus, let me skip ahead to Sunday, where the Chicago Bears were not watched as I did not expect them to defeat the Detroit Lions and well... Chicago actually won, albeit barely defeating a Lions team that at the last minute had to start a mediocre backup quarterback.

Instead, I went to several different places, including the Mall at Millenia-where among other things, I saw a feral cat roaming the crowded parking lot-and Rocket Fizz in Winter Park, where I picked up both food & drink. In between that was a stop at a place new to me: Tibby's New Orleans Kitchen. A few days previous I chatted with someone I know from Louisiana & the conversation turned to food. It made me realize that Cajun food isn't in my wheelhouse so I should try one of those places. The Tibby's in Winter Park is not in the largest space yet while busy was not overly crowded and the theme was executed well, whether it was all the murals or the New Orleans soundtrack. I had the Shrimp Creole; even with me wanting a little more shrimp, I cannot grouse about the meal overall... or the giant goblet of Abita Beer I had. It is always nice for me to try out new experiences & discuss them here.

There may be no new experiences in the upcoming week... but I should have a little more to talk about.

Doctor Sleep, Terminator: Dark Fate, Coca-Cola Cinnamon & Pumpkin Spiced Madness

Let me catch up and start this off by talking about Friday, October 25th. On that day, I went with someone to the local brewery in town, Suncreek Brewery. It opened earlier in the year but on this day I finally tried them out. The food did taste fine although I was tremendously turned off by one thing: someone thought it was a good idea to have not only loud music, but different loud music playing loudly at the same time. Such things give me a headache and it may be a long while before I return there, despite the extra special bitter beer I had being alright.

Sunday, I had free time so I went to a Total Wine & More to purchase some alcohol, specifically pumpkin-flavored beer; amazingly that location did not have much in that category, but I got what I could. I then tried some place for the first time ever: Tropical Smoothie Cafe. There I got a pumpkin-flavored beverage, along with a sandwich and both were good. The food took some time... it's not the fault of the employees as there was only 2 of them and it was preposterous there wasn't more.

Wednesday, I went and saw Doctor Sleep; for those wondering how this happened when it's not going to be officially released in the United States until this upcoming Friday, the Fandango website presented an early screening of the movie on 400 screens across the country and as The Shining is a tremendous movie, I was hoping I would enjoy its sequel... and I did. It's not legendary like Kubrick's movie, but I wasn't expecting it to be and plus, talk about unfair expectations. All I'll say is that while the movie is highly dependent on The Shining, the movie does its own thing and isn't a rehash... I wish I could say the same thing about Terminator: Dark Fate but I can't; more on that in a bit. 

The only things I'll mention before I get to yesterday's activities: I say Pumpkin Spiced Madness mainly because it's a cool phrase, although it can be used to describe some of the traffic I experienced as of late. Friday, I did go to a Target and among other things, I discovered there was a new Coke product, Coca-Cola Cinnamon. The taste was exactly what you'd expect... which is not a bad thing. As for yesterday, I went and saw Terminator: Dark Fate. The first two in the series have always been incredible, and that can be confirmed by me as I've revisited both in the past year or so. I haven't even checked out all of the sequels, as after Judgment Day many people don't like any of them. Dark Fate, I did not have the highest of hopes based on the trailers, although to me many trailers these days aren't great as they don't always accurately show a movie so it's difficult to judge if a film will be any good. Personally, I thought Dark Fate was pretty bad. Part of it is modern Hollywood tropes that are present which I am sick and tired of... but besides that, the story is SO stale as it's the same old BS again and really, it is a crappy version of T2.

Speaking of crappy, I have not watched the Chicago Bears as of late; from all accounts they looked atrocious against both the Los Angeles Chargers and the Philadelphia Eagles; I was happy not to bother with that nonsense. When I return on Veteran's Day, I won't discuss viewing their next game vs. the Detroit Lions (as I suspect that will be yet another losing effort) but other things will occur and hopefully the week won't include any bad moments.