Coca-Cola California Raspberry, Joysticks Arcade Bar & Who's On First?

This past week was another one where only a few days were interesting, but in this case they were quite interesting. Last Monday, I went somewhere in town to pick up a few items. Tuesday I did nothing until real late at night; I had to make another airport run. I dropped someone off at the airport in Sanford and on the way back I stopped at a Denny's for a late night meal; that went as expected. Wednesday I did nothing but Thursday I returned to Universal Studios CityWalk for dinner. I hadn't eaten at NBC Sports Grill & Brew in ages so I had my “almost always” of a burger & fries as I consumed a drink and watched TV. That led to some great comedy; some clowns came in and I soon realized they were so dumb... what an exercise it was in frustration to see them try to figure out what beer they wanted and I felt so bad for the bartender as she had to repeat things over and over again. It was like a bad Who's on First routine. Them attempting to order food wasn't much better.

Friday, I went to downtown Orlando and I went to a place that sounded pretty cool... and it was. A place called Joysticks Arcade Bar where you get to drink alcohol in a joint filled with 70's through 90's bric-a-brac and there's even small themed The Goonies & Star Wars rooms and there are vintage arcade machines from the 80's and 90's... heck yeah to that. Thankfully the place was as fun as I expected it to be. They had a DJ spinning tunes so as I placed my drink on the provided drink stands I could play Galaga or Rampage as tunes from the likes of Billy Ocean, New Order, the song that played during Kickboxer as Van Damme danced, and Eddie Murphy's Party all the Time were heard over the sound system. While there, an incredible moment happened. I was in the men's room... as an aside, the bathrooms are Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man themed. As I left, a woman came out of the ladies room and asked for toilet paper, as somehow the club did not have enough of that in there. I was then told to tear off enough to... well, I don't want to use the colorful slang she used, but after that comment was made, the girl then made the obvious (and correct) assumption that I would not know how much toilet paper was needed for a woman to wipe! Thankfully I apparently did tear off enough.

The weekend wasn't too terribly exciting, although on Saturday I went into my town as they had a special food truck event to celebrate Father's Day. It was larger than the city's usual food truck nights they have during the first Friday of each month. I had a tasty dinner so it was a wise decision to head out that way. Before I close this out and mention I'll be back next Monday with some adventures I know I'll be discussing, I did recently have Coca-Cola's limited edition California Raspberry flavor. I don't know how raspberries from California are different but at least it does taste pretty good.

Hotel Artemis, Kettle Corn Oreos, Walmart Imbecility & Hereditary

I had another up and down week. Monday and Tuesday I did nothing, which was hunky-dory with me. Thus, I'll mention now that recently I got the last limited edition Oreos flavor out now, which was Kettle Corn. A bizarre idea for a flavor although it does taste like it should. Wednesday, it did not turn out too well; to think that a simple trip to Walmart would result in such aggravation, but I had to deal with horrendous traffic and buffoons inside the Walmart itself. I know, that doesn't sound too surprising... but note that I thought the person checking me out was so stupid they could not even do the simple act of putting 100 dollars on a Walmart gift card that hadn't been used yet. As I explain a few weeks ago, I use those gift cards both for in-store and to once in awhile purchase gas from the Murphy USA gas stations. Thus, the card was never paid for and instead I only paid for the few grocery items I had. I did blame this person for not being good at their job but a few days later I was proven wrong...

Late Thursday night, I went somewhere to watch Hotel Artemis. I don't know if I ever saw a trailer for it beforehand; the premise made it sound like the Continental Hotel from the John Wick movies so I presumed it would be like that. Again, I was proven wrong. It was more drama than action yet me not liking the movie was because the great cast was wasted and the story was a whole lot of nothing & pointless. Friday and Saturday I relaxed as Sunday I would be at the Barnstorm Theater, a place I was at last fall. It is in The Villages and the place is shaped like a barn. I went and saw Hereditary, a horror film that had a lot of buzz.

That movie is one which many in the mainstream has rejected as it's not conventional. I'll say it's good although not great like many movie fans have. The movie is too long and you have to follow around a miserable, dysfunctional family for over 2 hours. There's a plot point or two I definitely could criticize but I don't want to give out any spoilers. I then had dinner at a nearby Five Guys before I headed home. I happened to drive by a Walmart on the journey so I stopped there for Attempt 2 at the gift card. Turns out, the issue was with Walmart itself and them being incompetent... I know, not a shock, right? Thankfully I did not get mad and yell at the person who checked me out on Wednesday. I felt bad as this held up the line for a bit and I imagine the people waiting were not happy with the delay... at least it was finally resolved.

When I return a week from today, I only have an idea or two as to what I will be talking about.

Clearwater Beach, Diabolique, XPA & Upgrade

The preceding week had some rather unique moments for me. On Memorial Day itself, I had to go to the Tampa area in order to make an airport run; I picked up someone from the regional St. Pete-Clearwater airport. What I did on this day: a place I mentioned recently (the cult/genre movie store known as Grindhouse Video Tampa) was open on the holiday so I stopped in. I did not spend as much as last time, at least. I then drove to Clearwater Beach; the weather was rainy but I was only there to hang out in two different establishments. The first was Frenchy's Saltwater Cafe, which was a small, pleasant place. I had food & drink there. I also had that when I went literally next door to a place with quite the name: Cooters! A cooter is a popular name for a species of turtle but it's also slang for something incredibly lewd I won't repeat here. Cooters was a larger place and yet was still nice for what it was. I then picked up that person and drove home; some fools on the highway were driving way too fast on wet highways... I was not shocked.

Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday I did nothing, which was fine as it meant not having to deal with fools on the road. Wednesday, I went to a local establishment in town for dinner, where I also had a margarita... good choice on my part. Friday, I ate at PDQ right in town and right before that was a trip to Target. I knew that Sunday would be a busy day so I might as well chill on the other days, you know. I had to drop someone off at 12:45 PM at the Sanford airport, then pick up someone else from the Sanford airport a little after 8 PM. Originally, I was going to attend a college baseball game (part of the Division I playoffs, as a matter of fact) up in DeLand; I make it up there and for some unknown reason the game was delayed two hours. I got ticked so I left and I went with Plan B and drove up to Daytona Beach. 

The main thing I did in the city was go to their nicest cineplex and saw the film Upgrade. A hard R sci-fi body horror thing won't be for all tastes, but it was a great B movie and a lot of fun. For those that enjoy such things, I give Upgrade a very strong recommendation. After that I stayed in the same area and ate at a restaurant that was part of a chain; a place named Rock Bottom is a little wacky but it was not bad overall. The food was fine and the beer they made on site was pretty good. One I had was XPA, which was an extra pale ale. I did not have the Belgian Strong Ale known as Diabolique; I mention it as it reminded me how I did not care for one of the bartenders. He was a tool and among other things, he always referred to that beer as “Diabolical”. He must not have known how to pronounce the word. As it was referred to on the menu and chalkboard as Diabolique, that made him look so dumb. As an aside, there's a great 50's French movie with the title which should be seen if you love Hitchcock films.

After that I did some things, including buying a giftcard and a soda at a Best Buy. That took longer than expected due to idiocy and as the person's flight arrived in Sanford early... I was not happy with that or the terrible traffic on this day. Too many blew by me on the Interstate as if they were on the Autobahn; more than one had to be going more than 100. I was not shocked there were multiple fender-benders and I almost got into one myself. A few minutes beforehand, someone flew by me going way too fast. Then, there was a slow-down at an exit as a lane was blocked due to a crash. Suddenly, as it was the exit I was going to use anyway, I moved into the lane, then suddenly that same fool cut over multiple lanes and almost caused a giant multiple car crash as he suddenly wanted to use that exit also. You can see why I am fine with days where I don't have to go far or don't even leave the house.

When I return next Monday, I have nothing planned yet in terms of fun activities or events.

Aliens, 2001: A Space Odyssey & Solo: A Mediocre Star Wars Story

I only had two noteworthy days last week but I have plenty to talk about just from last Thursday and Friday. Monday through Wednesday were not too terribly eventful. Monday I went to Best Buy (among other places) and Wednesday I went into town to make more random purchases. That is because I knew my Thursday and Friday would be quite busy, and they were. On Thursday, I first had to make another airport run; I dropped someone off in Sanford and on the way back I ate at a BurgerFi restaurant; that was where I was going to eat the last time I had to go to the Sanford airport, before the person I was picking up called and said they landed super-early. Their food is good so I was happy to eat there for the first time in a long while. 

In the evening, I went and saw the new Star Wars, this time out of force of habit. The Last Jedi I like less and less the more I think about it, and there were all those production problems during the filming of Solo. Well, I am glad I had no expectations as I found the movie decidedly average. There were some cool moments, but also dumb moments and it seemed like a story not really worth telling, to be honest. I saw it at a new theatre which just opened in Mt. Dora; it was by the small chain known as Epic. The place looked nice and they even have two large screen auditoriums (I saw the movie in one of those two) with very nice reclining seats, yet between there being no sign advertising where this new place is located at, there only being ticket kiosks to purchase tickets via debit cards and other things, I won't be back there anytime soon. Heck, there are closer places to me that are nice so that is of no concern.

Friday was the huge comic con taking place in Orlando known as Megacon. I've been there the past few years and it is always a marvel seeing all the cosplaying, even if I sometimes have no idea what is being cosplayed. There did not seem to be as much of that on this day but that is OK. It should be no surprise that such things as Stranger Things, Star Wars, and comic book characters were all common sights while I was there. The most impressive costume was a young woman creating and walking around in a facsimile of that yellow exosuit which Ellen Ripley wore in Aliens & was used in the first act to lift heavy equipment but was used in the final act for the climatic battle. As Aliens is an incredible movie and that fight was unforgettable, I was greatly excited to see someone take all that time to create such a costume.

I otherwise did not spend too much there, just picking up some cheap items. However, I did splurge one time. There are always plenty of famous names at Megacon who sign autographs. They typically only are there for less than the 4 days of the convention; the biggest ones this year included Jeff Goldblum, Jason Momoa, Norman Reedus, Billy Dee Williams, Cary Elwes, Elijah Wood, Paul Reubens, and some WWE wrestlers; no surprise that they would all be popular, and the ones who were there on Friday, yes they were quite over. 

To be honest, I did feel bad when I looked over at a table which had both Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood (they were the astronauts who were with HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey). The movie is celebrating its 50th anniversary so for that alone I hoped they would be more popular and yet the few times I was able to take a glance, no one was at their table. That was not fair so after a trip to the ATM, I went on over and I mainly talked to Keir for a few minutes. It was a typical conversation where among other things I talked about how great the movie is, how I was lucky enough to see it theatrically a few years ago, and as he was also in the original Black Christmas horror film with the late Margot Kidder, I brought that up and he was also sad she passed away as she was a nice lady and talented actress. While not cheap I got a photo signed by the both of them and it reminded me of how fun those conventions should be. I should do a bit of driving and attend more of those, in places like Tampa.

The weekend the only thing of note was that last night I went and got Papa John's pizza; I won't go into details but I'll mention that their employees were both idiotic and rude and it put a bad taste in my mouth... thankfully not literally as the food still tasted fine, although even I'll agree that the brand doesn't make the best pizza by any means. Some may think that is what I got for getting grub for them and that's fair... when I go a week from today, I'll explain why this Memorial Day for me will be different from the usual.

Bubba Gump, Voodoo Doughnuts, Royal Weddings, Laurel & Yanny

Yes, I have to comment on this phenomenon. I knew it was an interesting audio trick once I heard it as “Laurel” when I had my headphones plugged into the laptop and without headphones it was “Yanny” via the laptop's speakers. As for the preceding week, it being rainy pretty much the entire time did have an impact on my plans, especially on Friday.  Last Monday, I ended up at Universal Studios CityWalk, as it had been awhile since I was there. It was largely the same; a new Voodoo Doughnuts opened there recently but there was too long a line to even get into the establishment. Eventually I'll try it out. It rained off and on both going there and getting back home but there was no precipitation while I was at CityWalk. For only the second time ever I went into the Bubba Gump restaurant; I am not a fan of Forrest Gump personally but the restaurant's food is fine. For something different I had their peeled shrimp and that was a good choice. Otherwise I just walked around there for a bit.

Tuesday through Thursday were pretty uneventful; Wednesday I went to the Longhorn Steakhouse with someone I know as the neither of us had been there in a long time. That did go fine; the traffic there and back was less than fine. While I don't mention it, note that the way people drive here is never not terrible. Friday, I wanted to do something different. I went to Lakeland and I hoped the weather would be OK enough to where I could see some college baseball action... the opening round of the NCAA Division II baseball playoffs, to be exact. Well, it did not rain at the neat ancient stadium, but the lightning... there was some in the area. In short, there were games going on all day and evening but the terrible weather played a lot of havoc on the tournament being played; I only got to see the last few innings of the game where Nova Southeastern (of Florida) beat Motevallo (of Alabama) and I ate dinner at the stadium during a lightning delay; I was going to see another game but when a second lightning delay happened before that even got started... I left. 

I'll consider the money I paid to get in to be a charitable donation and next spring I'll see a full game in that stadium, I promise. I feel bad for all the teams and their fans that the weather here was so poor. I am not sure if I'd eat the stadium burger again... don't ask why I say this! The day was not a total loss; at least the temperature was not too hot while I was outside and on the way there I unexpectedly went in a Walmart. You see, I usually have a Walmart gift card and while sometimes that's used for purchases in the store, it is also used at their Murphy USA gas stations as the cards give you a 3 cent discount per gallon. When I got to that Walmart to fill up, those gift cards weren't working at the gas pumps (I later filled up at an Exxon), so I instead went into the store and purchased a few random items; I was glad I did not have to make a separate trip later to another Walmart.

My weekend was rather dull; I did nothing at all. I did not care too much about the royal wedding-I felt the same way about the last one also-and it was still poor weather. When I return the afternoon of Memorial Day, I know I'll have a lot more to discuss.

Irn-Bru, Lakeland Flying Tigers & Cherry Cola Oreos

It was a mundane week, with some interesting moments. Last Monday and last Tuesday were not too terribly exciting; at least on Tuesday I had interesting beverages. Late last month (the night that I unexpectedly saw the wrestling show) I was able to stop in Lakeland and get some gourmet soda; one of those was Irn-Bru, which is the famed carbonated soda from Scotland. As I had heard, it does have a sort of bubblegum taste and I thought it was fine. So was the Canada Dry ginger ale and lemonade I had. I don't drink ginger ale but someone I know blind bought a 20 ounce bottle and only had a small amount because they did not want to have so much sugar; I polished off the rest. Wednesday was definitely more interesting.

Wednesday, I went and saw a baseball game, albeit one that was minor league. I drove down to Lakeland to their stadium to see the Lakeland Flying Tigers (as the area used to be into aeronautics) play against the Clearwater Threshers. It did not matter to me who won... I just wanted to be entertained, and I was. The drive down there and back wasn't great as there were too many dum-dums on the highway but believe me I got used to such things long ago. The actual stadium experience was nice... for only 15 bucks I sat 4th row right behind home plate AND got a wristband so I could be a part of the promotion they do each Wednesday where if you participate, you get as much of a few items as you want for a few hours; that includes burgers, hot dogs, pizza and popcorn. I was happy to participate in that. As for the game, Lakeland won 6-5. They scored the 6 runs early on but did not do much offensively after that while Clearwater scored 3 of their runs in the final inning so Lakeland had to hang on to win. I can't really complain about the random people around me; sure, I could but honestly it's minor so I would likely come off as a jerk if I did.

Thursday I did nothing but Friday, I ended up at Walt Disney World. I hate saying that I had a bad day when I was at such a location... regrettably that is true. There were just too many rude and/or dumb people, and that includes individuals who were working at Disney at the time. I won't go in-depth and heck, some moments were still nice. I got to see some more pretty scenery at Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival and after that I got to eat the great pizza that Blaze Pizza offers at Disney Springs. I did nothing of note this weekend so I'll mention that after I left Disney Springs, I went to Walmart, where some random items were picked up... including the limited edition Cherry Cola Oreos. I understand many aren't fizzing with excitement over them but to me they taste fine.

Next Monday, nothing is on the schedule as of now.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Gourmet Donuts & Cow Chip Bingo

Cow Chip Bingo refers to the rural game where cows are in a field covered with squares and where they take a dump determines the winner; I am shocked that wasn't popular in my old Illinois hometown! That was covered during this past Saturday's Live PD; the show always entertains me due to all the lunatics on there but that particular episode was the funniest due to all the hilarious pieces of white trash and total goofballs that were on there... for example, there was a guy who tied a shoestring around a certain body part, someone else having synthetic urine and a domestic disturbance call over a woman clogging the toilet!

Anyhow, last Monday I did not do a thing but Tuesday, I ended up in Orlando. The highlights there were me trying out Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers for the first time. I've known of it for awhile but mainly due to location, it was just now that I finally tried the place out. It was fine; I had the burgers and fries, which both were quite reminiscent of Steak & Shake. The main difference is that Freddy's is fast food; one day I'll try their frozen custard or another one of their treats. I also went to a Barnes & Noble, where I purchased one item; I wish there was still a B&N close by me like there used to be. I ended up driving through different parts of Orlando on this day and well, experiencing those areas for the first time was not a revelation or made me regret not having driven through there before. 

Wednesday, I ended up getting food from Chipotle; that went as expected. I also spent some time fixing a laptop issue that someone I know had; I won't go into the particulars except that it involved reinstalling then making sure Windows 10 was updated. It took hours but at least the laptop is now operational again. Thursday I did nothing but Friday I returned to the downtown area of my city, where the first Friday evening of every month has food trucks come to the main street of the city; I hadn't been there in a long while and I was happy to correct that mistake. I did not purchase the healthiest food... what I acquired include some gourmet donuts (they were such flavors as raspberry lemonade and Fruity Pebbles), gelato that happened to be vanilla mixed with Fruity Pebbles, and candy that was from a “Raw pure honey” trailer from the small town of Polk City, a place I've passed through many times by now.

Saturday, it was a rainy, dreary day so I was happy to stay home. I did watch the big horse race; I picked Bolt d'Oro to win due to some random news article breaking down the reasons why he'd win. Bolt did not win, but as I bet zero dollars and did not make any wager, it's no big deal that Justify was the winner. Sunday was another dreary day; all I did was go to a Wawa to get dinner; even on a simple trip like that I run into dumb people... as I was there a large party of really LOUD people walked in, and I couldn't wait to get away from individuals who literally had trouble finding a trashcan and figuring out where the cash register was.

When I return a week from today, I have some ideas as for what I'll be doing.