A Week Away From Work

I took a vacation last week. That's sort of a rare thing for me. I'll take the occasional day or two off work for certain events, but usually I don't have enough to do to warrant scheduling off for a whole week. I also don't like making the imposition on my coworkers. We don't have a lot of operation staff so it generally means making someone work a lot, especially since I am the off hours shift man. Fortunately JL wanted the money and the company didn't complain about paying him an assload of overtime for the week.

Originally the plan was to just take Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off to go to the beach. My girlfriends best friend had gotten a free room at the Sirocco Motel in Rehobeth for her birthday, and I got invited along to share in the fun with the two of them and their friend Nick. I eventually ended up saying screw it and taking off Monday and Friday as well. Unfortunately I was unable to relinquish pager duty for the weekends, but oh well. Also I will say upfront that the weather didn't exactly co-operate for a beach trip, it was cold and wet a lot of the week. Overcast and yucky. The sun didn't come out until our last afternoon there, and there were no swimming signs in the ocean near constantly due to very strong waves. The hotel was pretty nice tho, but the no smoking was kinda a bitch to the people we had there. It was right off the boardwalk tho, and had a nice balcony area to sit out on.

Monday: I planned to head up to Westminster in the evening to meet up with Becky after she got off work, and get a room at the Boston Inn. This way I'd have a nice start to my trip and I would be nice and local so I didn't have to wake up at some ungodly hour of the morning to drive up on tuesday. I ended up just going early in the day tho. Hung out in the hotel room, got some food. Smoked and played games. Watched the colts preseason game and eventually Becky got off work and we hung out with her friend a bit.

Tuesday: We get off to a late-ish start for a couple reasons, but no worries. We eventually start off on the long drive to the Beach. The ride wasn't too bad, tho we were taking two cars so there were occasional annoyances with cars screwing up our mini convoy. Traffic wasn't too bad until we get 10 miles out of the beach or so and we basically hit a wall. We get to the hotel only to find that they only allow parking for one vehicle. All the parking on the street is metered, however the lady at the front desk says we can go get a permit that will let us park anywhere. That wasn't exactly the case as the permit parking only applies to streets maybe 4 blocks away. All of the localized parking was metered and only accepting quarters for 15 minute increments.

I drive down to the permit place at which point I am informed of this out of the way parking area where I would need to go to, but am also told that since it is now after 5 pm I wont actually need a permit to park there. I will however need a permit to park there starting at 10 am tomorrow, so they told me to come back the next morning. They gave me directions to where I wanted to park, but wouldn't give me a map, because of "limited supply." I drove off to park and then walked the 10-15 minutes back to the hotel to meet up with the crew. We headed out to take a brief walk on the beach/boardwalk and looked around at some shops before going to get food at Grotto Pizza.

I had heard a good bit about this pizza place, such that they had awesome kick ass pizza and even awesomer yummy gelato. I actually didn't try their gelato that night, tho I did later in the week and it was certainly quite delicious. It's also a bit more filling than one might expect. The cups they show you look pretty small, but even a medium sometimes seems hard to get down. The pizza was pretty yummy, not best ever in my mind or anything, but certainly a good meal. I also tried their cheesesticks, they put a LOT of cheese on them, which was great, but the breadsticks themselves were somewhat boring. A little later Becky and I took a nice nighttime walk on the beach, we got a little wet and sandy so we shared a nice shower when we got back to the room. Then I think we just hung out for a bit until it seemed like a nice time to go to sleep.

Wednesday: I wake up at around 9 am to walk to my car and drive back to the permit place. I walk in and ask for a parking permit for the day. The lady inquires if I want just the one day. Baffled, I ask if I can get permit's for future days. She says of course. Now granted, this was good news, in that it meant I could get a parking pass for Thursday as well, since I was damn sure we weren't leaving before 10 am and I didn't want to have to wake up this early again. Firmly in the BAD news department was the fact that if they had told me this YESTERDAY I would have purchased them both early and never had to come back to the stupid permit place again *shakes fist*.

Anyway I got that taken care of and drove my car back to the parking place. I didn't know if people would be up back at the room yet so I snuck off to buy a present for Becky. It was a very pretty handmade dress that I had seen her scoping the night before. I also picked myself up a nice corduroy hackey sack from the same store. That store among others also had a nice selection of glass pieces, but I have ample smoking devices and didn't see the point in spending on that. Though one store had totally awesome animal bowls, like pipes in the shapes of elephants, fish, lizards, etc. Really cool looking.

I head back to the room and Becky was waiting for me. Gave her her present and then we stepped out on the balcony for a bit so she could have a cigarette. There were some issues with the door and heavy winds so I kinda ended up waking up Rachael and Nick.... sorry! After some recreational activities Becky and I headed out to the boardwalk to wander around. Stopped in a lot more shops, got some candies, chilled back at the hotel for a bit. Went out to play a little in the sand and water. Later on we met up with Rachael for dinner at some place I can't recall. Dinner didn't sit fully well with Becky so I went off to find some Rolaids while they chilled at the room. I had to go back to the car anyway to switch permits. After she started feeling better we went off to the arcade area.

Becky and I played skeeball for about a half hour or so. Their system doesn't go by winning tickets based on score, instead if you score in a certain range you get a certain prize. The machines were rigged if you ask me tho, as the threshold was 250 for a small prize I think and at least twice the machine didn't count my final ball when I was at like 230 or so and scored a 20+. I did win a small prize once, but even then I was robbed because it again didn't count my last ball which woulda put me over the the next prize barrier to get me a medium prize. We found out they had a haunted house ride right near there so I bought us tickets for that, only $3 for the two of us. It was a little cheesy in parts but they did have a really cool room or two and some decent jump moments. It was fun times tho, we woulda rode it again but it was 11 pm and the closed down.

We wandered over to the next arcade type area and I spent some time on some of those claw games to grab stuffed animals. There was one that I really wanted to win that didn't seem practical as it was somewhat just shy of the area where the claws are sposed to go, really close to the glass wall. But it was this cute stuffed lobster and I was determined to get it. After a couple tries I just managed to snag it and although the claw dropped it early it bounced off some other animals and fell down the chute. Victory was mine! There was a simulator booth at the arcade that you get in and I guess it has a video screen and it moves around making you think you are in like a jet plane, going over a waterfall, on a rollercoaster, etc. But I didn't get a chance to try it. They did have a really fun "shooting" game that I got Becky to try with me once. It's basically a air hockey table sized field with a plastic beer can in the middle. The base of the floor is covered in light sensors that when hit from a certain direction cause the floor to pop up, which if the beer can is on that position it pops up into the air. Each end of the table has a goal and a light gun and you try and launch the can into your opponents side. The game lasts for 2 or 3 mins and whoever scores the most wins. It was pretty cool. We then went back to the hotel and passed out after a little while.

Thursday: Checkout was at 11 so there would assuredly be no sleeping in, but at least I didn't have to wake up too early. I drove my car back to the motel to pack up and then headed back out to park. We spent most of the day wandering around again(seems like there's a lot of that in Rehobeth.) The sun eventually came out and it got pretty hot for a bit, I think I got a little dehydrated because I felt a little ill. I also ended up getting a little sunburn. The girls got themselves cute hair wraps. I bought a couple small toys and another present or two for Becky. We grabbed some yummy pretzel bites. Before heading out we smoked on the beach and Becky and I played in the water and sand for a bit. She found two nice seashells but lost one to the evil waves. Eventually we had to head back to the car to get on the road. We rinsed ourselves as best we could with water bottles I had in the car, and stripped on the street to change into other clothes. On the way home we stopped at a Sonic because none of us had actually eaten there before. The burgers were pretty good, I wasn't impressed with their cheese fries. I also think I much prefer fast food places where you can go inside and place your order at a counter. Eventually we got back to Westminster and then I had to commence my lonely drive back to Virginia.

Friday: I pretty much used this day to recover. My feet were terribly sore, had a small blister or two. My achilles were hurting and I was limping around like Bryan on gout. I sat around and did nothing and ate food. Good times.....Good times....

The After Spring Before Fall Movie Review

It's been awhile since I've wrote a movie review, despite the fact that I've seen my fair share of them this summer. I don't know how effective I will be at reviewing them this long after but we will give it a shot. For the purposes of this post I will be using a 1-5 rating scale. A rating of 1 implies a complete crapfest/waste of time and 5 means that if you haven't seen this movie, you probably are a loser and we aren't friends anymore.

Transformers: This movie kicked some serious ass. I had my slight reservations about its quality going in, and even maybe hurt my chances by "accidentally" reading some plot descriptions while looking up pictures of the kickass robots before the movie. Regardless I was enthralled watching the movie. The special effects were great, wonderful pacing, good sporadic humor throughout. Really it was an all around great movie, and I would love to see it again like right this fucking second. Can't wait for the supposedly greenlit sequels.
Rating = 5

Straight Men Marry: AKA I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
I saw this one up in Westminster in a crappy yet packed theater, with crappy popcorn and only a somewhat reasonable sized beverage, sitting almost all the way in the back. There was also a man sitting next to me that practically orgasmed every time Jessica Biel was onscreen even telling his date at one point that he so wanted to bang her. I truly hope that if this man goes to see the movie coming up where she bares all that the rest of the people in the theater bring umbrellas. I don't think, however, that seeing it someplace else would have made anything better. I have mixed feelings on Adam Sandler, he has a good number of movies I have found funny, and then a good number that I felt were not. I'm putting this one into the latter category. There were some good parts, the Asian minister who oversaw the wedding was funny and a couple other good bits. But overall the acting felt forced and there weren't nearly enough laughs to make the movie. I honestly think the hardest I laughed was when Dan Akroyd slid down a fireman's pole (no homo).
Rating = 2

Simpsons Teh Movie: Here's another I went into hoping for the best but worried it could be a letdown. I couldn't have been further from the truth. This movie wasn't just hilarious, it was groin grabbingly hilarious. There wasn't enough interaction with the plethora of side characters from the show as they mostly followed the simpsons trials and tribulations, but that didn't take much away from the film. I laughed throughout this movie and I'm sure there are plenty of hidden jokes that I missed. My only real gripe with the movie was they didn't have Kang in it, and while the credits SAID Kodos was in it, I have no recollection of seeing said character.
Rating = 5

Live Free or Die Hard: While not as good as the original Die Hard or even the Second, I felt this movie lived up to the franchise pretty well. It was an entertaining flick and as plots go it could be worse. Bruce Willis still puts on a believable tough guy performance despite his impending Alzheimer's. Even the gay Mac guy had a good showing, though I wish he had got the crap kicked out of him more. I had some qualms with the believability of some of the action in this film. I try and ignore these things because I know "It's a moooovieeee", but when a man takes out a helicopter with a car and jumps onto or off of a jet I can't help but think No WAY. Odd that I have no trouble believing in cars that turn into robots eh?
Rating = 3.5

Bridge to Terabithia: I don't know if this counts as a summer movie, but I watched it on rental during the summer so you'll sit there and like it! I had never read the book and the only thing I knew about it was that the girl was sposed to die, though someone told me that disney went crazy and changed that for the movie. I was expecting a bit more fantasy to this movie, more like Narnia, but instead the whole fantasy element was just kid's imagination. Still it was a somewhat emotional tale and the girl did indeed die. As far as children actors go these kids weren't horrible and neither was the movie, but thats about all the good I have to say about it.
Rating = 1.5

Knocked Up: This came out in June so I'm including it. I thought this movie was really funny. The general plot is of course quite simple. Girl makes mistake and hooks up with loser, some wackiness ensues preventing the use of a condom and well, I don't have to explain the birds and the bees do I? There's plenty of bickering and fighting and getting to know each other and care for each other between the two expecting parents. But throughout all that there was tons of funny material. I enjoyed myself as did my lady. Wasn't the best comedy of the year, and it wasn't 40 Year Old Virgin either, but it was a good one.
Rating = 3.5

There's still a couple summer movies I didn't see that I wanted to. Ratatouille for one, The new bourne for another. I would like to try and see Stardust and might even try and check out the Lost Legion.

I Try So Hard, So Very Very Hard

Okay that's a damn lie, I'm a complete slacker. So I come back to post again. A certain comment leaver requested a better understanding of the guinea pig playpen in the visual form, so I'd like to take care of that briefly. Here's a picture of the whole thing, and then two slightly closer views of either size. I just cleaned it and did some slight redecorating, so huzzah!





Meanwhile, back at the ranch. My home computers hard drive failed a week and a half ago. I went out and bought a 160gb drive and slowly began the process of getting a fully working fully enjoyable computer back. I was hit with a snag in that my buddy Jason has my copy of XP Professional, so I had to go old-school with Home edition. I hope if I can get the cd from him I might be able to do an upgrade without much hassle. Of course it can be pretty tricky to get cds back from Jason, he's had about 80 of my techno cds on a spindle at his crib for like a year. I have made a lot of progress in my computer fixitude but I've still got a long ways to go, if anyone has any hot torrents you think would help, send em my way.

Another huge inconvenience was that the whole thing kinda nixed my Ipod/itunes connectivity. I tried using a program to offload my Ipod into a new itunes library, and ran into tons of snags ranging from windows updater rebooting my comp during an offload, hanging programs, supposed disk errors. I eventually got everything to the comp and into Itunes, however unfortunately when trying to format the Ipod and sync with Itunes it complains about being unable to locate basically every file that wasn't purchased in Itunes store or audible.com So I have another long task of ripping music to my comp ahead of me, and I'll definitely need to get those cd's from Jason *Shakes Fist*

Fuh-ball!

I never really cared about football when I was a little boy...yes I was little once. My interests laid in other sports I guess. I played baseball and a little basketball, perhaps some badminton or even some cheap street hockey with a broken hood ornament. Not that I give a damn about basketball or hockey. My dad was a football fan and he'd watch the redskins games and superbowls and whatnot. I took notice of it but didn't really get interested.

I went to a game in high school and though my team sucked I still had fun watching. So I started going to a couple more games, and watching the NFL with my Dad on occasion and I quickly came to love the sport even more than I did baseball. We occasionally went to some games. Saw a Navy game once or twice, a couple skins preseason or regular season games. We generally try and go to a Skins game every year.

I don't love the Redskins like my dad does. I like the Redskins tho. I like to see them do well, which unfortunately recently is rare. I root for them generally speaking unless there's a severe conflict of interest involved. During those cases I try avoid my Dad. So since I didn't love the Redskins I had to find a team I would love. A team I could support and cheer for like my life depended on it.

I'm not truly sure if there is an exact reason I jumped on the Colts bandwagon. It was around 97 or so. My grandmother was from Indy, which I used as an excuse for awhile, but not with much conviction. I do kinda like the jerseys, or at least when they aren't just wearing white. I knew some of the history of the team, and I loved that Baltimore hated them. Not that I truly hate Baltimore, but its fun to see them angry. It might have been that I saw them in a playoff run that although they didn't go all the way, they sure showed some heart.

So I don't know precisely why I am a huge Colts fan, but I do know that they are currently the World Champion Indianapolis Colts, and that pretty much kicks ass. I don't know if they can repeat, they've had some pretty tricky hurdles thrown their way in the offseason. I'm not giving up hope though, I've got faith they can overcome those odds and triumph once again.

GO COLTS!