So my mom was in Home Depot the other day, and saw a ceramic fountain she wanted. So she bought it. Probably one of the more creepiest things if not the creepiest decor around the house. Well, nothing beats that demon pig, but this little mass murdering girl comes close.Once i saw this thing i knew exactly why my mom wanted it. It was because it reminded her of her granddaughter. Of course this statue has way more hair and i'm sure that anna doesn't own any clothing even remotely close to the tacky get-up this thing has.
The fountain is really loud too. Just hearing it makes you want to pee, like really bad. i don't care if you just went you're going to pee again. So that's one of the new additions to the house.
Every year in May is the Dad Vail Regatta. The largest collegiate regatta in the country. Its pretty cool seeing over 100 college compete in two days. i have rowed in it twice in my two years rowing for Drexel. My first year we made it to the grand finals, and ended up getting 4th or something.
i got to the finish kind of late, but watch a few races by myself. After a bit i walked over to see if there was any one i knew. i ran into Terry and some other people. i caught the last race that day and peaced. Terry reminded me that there was an Drexel Crew Alumni gathering at the boat house but i wasn't sure if i was going to make it or not.
These two pictures are of the JV 8.
i had plans to go to Conshohocken to see Lee's band play but figured i could squeeze a little Drexel Alumni partying in. i saw my old coaches Stevie B and Pat...of course Pat was mean to me as usual. Some older rowers were there as well. There was also a lot of beer...i told myself i was just going to have a couple and then bounce.
Four beers and a glass of wine later i realized i should probably get some food rather than drink...left the boat house around 10:30.
i rolled up at the bar in Conshohocken around 10:50. Seven guys from high school were there. Brad, Brian, Alex, Lee, Drew, Tim, and Colin. My throat was ridiculously sore still...so even though i haven't seen these guys for like 4 years, i could barely talk to them.
It was a pretty good time, really fun just hanging out with some old friends. Just wish i could talk. The last song played was "Business Time" with a few of Alex's own lyrics thrown in there. At this point some of the older women were pretty smashed and Lee made his way through the bar with his guitar....
Lee was attacked by this older chick and later, not sure how, Alex switched shirts with the one woman that was grindin' with Lee...Something that i didn't have to see. Don't let the photo full you, she looked much older in person.
i guess some things never change...
The gig ended around 1:30am, i stayed until 2:30am before heading home. i didn't have a single drink at the bar, well...Lee got me a shot of jager...but that barely counts as a drink and it was when i first got there. i was pretty beat when i got home and went straight to bed.
Since there are no cute ducklings waddling around the back of the house, the goslings will have to do for now. The grass isn't good enough for them to eat, so they make their way all the way up to the house onto the patio to eat the weeds that have grown in between the tiles. Which is ridiculous because if the landscaper actually did the tile the right way, then there would not be plants and junx growing in the patio.
So because of the workmanship of the landscaper, i now have goose poop all over the patio like some kind of intoxicating poop mine field.
But i guess the goslings are kind of cute, even though they poop. Though i won't get near geese that have goslings. They're like a total different bird with babies. One tried to attack me in Philly when i was trying to free one of it's babies that had gotten stuck between the dock and ramp at the boat house, stupid birds.
One of my mom's favorite stores is Costco. Once and awhile my parents will drag me along because they think i'll find something there i will want. While heading to the check out line i had a craving for some orange tic tacs. i just wanted on little pack, maybe even a pack of four or something.
They don't sell the orange tic tacs by themselves, they only come in the variety pack at Costco. So i went ahead an picked up the variety pack thinking i could just eat the orange ones and the white ones.
Turns out there are no white tic tacs...How can there be no white tic tacs in the variety pack?? They're like the original tic tac flavor! At least there are more orange tic tacs than the rest of the flavors...but now i don't know what to do with the rest of them. For now i'll just build pyramids with or something...
i remember hearing the song "What's My Age Again" by blink 182 in ninth grade...the one line " Nobody likes you when you're 23" got my attention. i thought,"that'll be the day, i'll never turn 23..."
But here i am, 23 years old and no body likes me. Sure i got a couple posts on my wall saying "happy birthday" and i got a card and phone call from my sister but she's pretty much has to do that. Of course none of my friends called me. i really thought i would get at least one phone call from a friend wishing me a happy birthday ...but no, no happy birthday phone calls. My parents were busy traveling too, so i didn't even get a phone call from them. Poor lazy son.
But at least i went to a Phillies game..
Its been about 2 months now and all i have to show for it is 8 lbs. Pretty sad i know. You see those people on Biggest Loser lose 10 lbs in just a week. Maybe i should take up vomiting, that worked for a couple celebrities but i would just end up eating again. Or maybe the cocaine diet, but i'm pretty sure if i did that i would just eat faster. i got it, i'll just order me one of those fancy Richard Simmons Disco Sweat dvds...i'm sure that'll knock off the pounds! Oh wait, i can't stand that guy or disco...lemon.
i actually jumped on the scale 5 minutes later and it read 190 lb, but the picture i took of that was blurry...maybe i'll be able to break 190 tomorrow after a run. While helping josh move he asked if i lost some weight...i was wearing a sweat shirt...how can you tell if someone has lost some weight if they're wearing a bulky sweat shirt? i must of been huge or he was just saying that.
Hmm, maybe if i took up dancing...
Since i pretty much do nothing all day, and i have get some sick enjoyment out of helping people move...i asked josh if he needed a pair of extra hands for his move. Lucky me he did! Now i know exactly where he lives and i can visit him at all hours of the day since its only a few minutes from my house, muhahaha.
i got to the house around 6:40pm and there was josh with a massive flat bed truck with a few huge pieces of furniture. It actually only took a half hour to move all those boxes in the house. Removing the furniture from the boxes took a little longer than i thought it would. When we were done with that, we had a bunch of trash that josh didn't really know what to do with...so we just dumped all of it in the porch.
Josh and Abby said the got a pretty good deal on the furniture because when they bought everything, the furniture store was currently going out of business...too bad for the furniture store, but great for josh and abby! Everything they got was pretty cool, except the bed...the bed kind of killed me. Like someone got two old church pews and nailed them together with two boards...those are actually josh's words...sort of.
Along with moving stuff and unpacking, there were some pieces of furniture that needed to be assembled. i got stuck with one of the chairs. Took me forever to assemble this thing. My hands started to hurt using that lame allen wrench. After assembling the chair, turned out it wasn't even level...oh well, at least i tried.
Didn't leave there to go home until 9 something. i kind of wanted to assemble the remaining two chairs but josh was tired and wanted to return the truck before it got really late so we all bounced. For my help i was rewarded two slices of domino's pizza, woot!
If you're not using Crest Pro Health toothpaste you have to throw away whatever you're using, and grab a tube of this sweet toothpaste. It has that clean mint flavor that everyone likes and it doesn't have any crazy colors like other toothpaste. The dye they use to color toothpaste can't be good for you.
Pro Health makes brushing your teeth fun! Well, maybe not. i guess it isn't that great...there is probably crack in it or something and thats the reason i can't get enough of it. This toothpaste has a gritty texture to it, kind of like baking soda. That's a good time, using baking soda for toothpaste. Apparently it makes you mouth smell like poo but i've never had that experience.
My dad noticed we have a new neighbor by the house. A duck, that has two eggs by one of the windows of the house. Kind of a little random, at least it isn't a Goose nest...i'd be tempted to smash the eggs or at least shoot the mother while she was chillin on her nest. Since the ducks don't seem to be a threat to the yard i guess i can leave them alone.
i was out looking for the eggs earlier today and didn't see them, and i haven't seen the duck for awhile. Wonder what happened to them, probably packed their things and moved to Georgia to take advantage of the College Scholarships they off there. i saw it...i mean my friend saw something about it on the HGtv channel, Deserving Design.
Kind of hard to see the duck, but its there. Hanging out under the bush, pretty nice real estate if you ask me. 
At school, one year i was staying in the dorms...but it was really an apartment with a full kitchen. Even though there was a kitchen we weren't allowed to have candles or incense. i thought that was pretty silly so i went ahead and brought my incense burner to the apartment. One of my roommates decided to name it Mario, since the school mascot is a dragon named Mario...original i know.
The burner burns these cone shaped coals and even though i have a bunch of different scents...they all smell like a a buddhist temple to me. You just stick one of the cones in and light it for a few seconds, blow it out and you're ready to go. The smoke comes out of the mouth of the dragon, and if you can stand the smell its nice to watch.
My roommates thought it would be cool to put more than one cone in the dragon, like six. Managed to fill the whole apartment, and it leaked in to the hallway. Wasn't long until the RA came knocking on the door. Of course i wasn't there at the time.
She said,"I know what you guys are doing in there and it needs to stop, or i'll turn you into the Resident Director."
She thought they were smoking pot. Maybe if she visited the people that lived in that apartment before us...she might have been right. My roommate then told her she didn't know what she was talking about and that it was just incense. Embarrassed, she quickly came back with, "well you're not allowed to be burning incense either so stop or i'll write you up for that."
Should have hid the incense from the roommates.
My mom just got back from Vietnam a couple days ago. She went over for Tet and help her nephews and nieces celebrate since their parents are in the states now. She was over there for about a month. She didn't want to stay there that long but all the flights to come back sooner were full.
Anyway, my mom is always compelled to buy me something. She asked me several times what i wanted her to get but i couldn't think of anything hoping she wouldn't get me anything. That's never the case, she bought me some jade elephants. i guess they're pretty cool, not sure where to put them. Way cooler than the jade frogs she got me last time...and the time before that. A couple more trips to Vietnam, i could open up my own Jade Zoo...oh the possibilities.
Well today was the last day. Packed my bags and got ready to check out. i decided to take another look at this "spa". Since i couldn't even see the water the night before. Yeah...good thing i didn't jump in that junx.
you can barely see the bottom of that thing that resembles a swamp. Good thing i didn't have an open wound on my finger i'd probably have an infection. i'm surprised i didn't get pulled into the water by Swamp Thing last night. It doesn't even take that much maintenance to keep a hot tub clean. My fish pond i built for my eagle project looked cleaner than that.
Couldn't wait to leave the hotel after seeing that. The next stop for us was the Breeze Restaurant at the Century Park Plaza. We were meeting a banker that has been doing stuff for my dad for four years but they have never met. They guy was like in his 60's and was a real character. Had no intention of retiring because he wouldn't know what to do with himself. He gets into work at like 7 am but still finds time during the work day to golf and hop on his 34 foot sail boat. Ugh i need a job so can do fun stuff. For breakfast i got the Crab Cake Benedict. It had spinach on it too, which i wasn't crazy about. i like spinach but just didn't taste good with the egg and crab cake...or maybe it was just bad spinach, i'll never know. The banker got some omelette. There was half a tomato on his plate as garnish, he quickly asked the server to remove it. He couldn't stand looking at it. i had one too so i hid it behind one of my crab cakes. What is up with those crazy people that can't stand tomatoes?! Its like they watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes at too young of an age or something...
Well that was an entertaining breakfast. On the way back to the car rental place, i saw it...finally. The stupid Bridge movie theater. There is on in Philly, but every time i have searched for movie times for that theater i somehow end up at this theater's website. Its not even that great of a theater. They have assigned seating, who thought assigned seating was a good idea at a theater? On two occasions i have gone to see a movie and when i found my seat, the seat assignment was printed twice and i had to go back to the desk and get another seat assigned to me...ugh, i despise you bridge. Can't fool me into liking you with your cool up decor and modern art work.
Before returning the rental car we had to fill up the tank or else we'd get charged a million dollars for it. The gas prices in California are pretty high, silly crazy gas to decrease emissions...At the pump they had some crazy nozzle. You can't just put it in the car and bounce and let it pump itself. You have to hold it there and maker sure its air tight. At least thats what my dad said. 
Got to the airport and did the fun security dance before reaching the gate. i saw a guy with a Mac Book Air. i didn't think people actually bought those, they're kind of limited for the price. After seeing that a choir from Kenya started busting out some songs at a gate near by. They all had matching black t-shirts and black cowboy hats. That was pretty entertaining, i took some video too but i'll have to put that up later after compressing it and all that fun stuff later.
There were probably 30 people max on the flight to Phoenix. i quickly grabbed the seat next to the exit. There is no seat in front of you so you're able to stretch out. It was nice, but of course the time when i get a good seat the flight is only one hour long. Ugh, well at least i got to sit there for a little bit.
Arriving in Phoenix, Arizona we were pretty hungry and decided to get some Chinese food. They guy at the register looked like he was from Kenya, and the guy making the food looked like he was Mexican...After noticing that i wasn't expecting any authentic Chinese food, plus i ordered the "Thai Chicken". It came in a cool styrofoam container, if i was a container i'd want to be this one.
i'm a sucker for buying shot glasses, so once i passed the gift store i had to go in to see if they had any fun shot glasses, and of course they did. While buying the shot glasses they had some lollipops on the counter. $3.60 for the sucker! What's up with that? Oh, i see...after a closer look they have scorpions in them. i haven't had scorpions since, well...never. i almost bought one, but decided not too.
i went back to the gate and sat and listened to my iPod. After a little bit of sitting i had to go to the bathroom. On the way back from the bathroom i passed that gift store again, i had 10 bones in my pocket and before i knew it i was walking out of that gift shop with two scorpion lollipops. One Strawberry flavored and the other Blueberry. The girl that ringed me up asked if i was really going to eat them, PSH! Um yeah! I'm not afraid of a little scorpion! And i'm sure its just that much more delicious aging in a sugary prison on a stick.
Well, not quite sure when i'm going to bite into these delectable treats...maybe on my ski trip this weekend i'll try one...probably the blueberry one, i like the color blue. Now i'm ready to board the plane to Philly.
Arrived into Philly around midnight and didn't get home until 12:40 pm. Overall it was a fun trip and i'm glad i went. i'll have to visit SoCal again and hit up all those crazy places i didn't get a chance to.
Another day in L.A. Soon got dressed and headed out to find a place to eat. My dad wanted to go to The Oinkster since i talked it up so much from what i've read. We headed out of the room and jumped in our sweet Chrysler Pacifica.
We were actually going to eat at The Oinkster the night before but they close at 9 pm and it was already 8:20...and we decided to get some burgers instead. What we should have done was call to see when they actually open. We got to The Oinkster at 9am and to our dismay it was closed. Doesn't open until 11 am....lemon.
Hmm, well i guess i'll just hit the next place on my list, Pink's! i know, only the fanciest of places make it on my list to eat at. Pink's was established in 1939 and they say they have 21 different hot dogs. Though looking at the menu i only saw 20. From the looks of the place it looked promising, like L.A.'s version of Pat's or Geno's in Philly. Plus, you can't mess up a hot dog. They're always delicious.
So many choices, took me a while to decide. i ended up getting the Polish Pastrami-Swiss Cheese dog and the Bacon Chili Cheese Dog. The polish was massive, it was pretty much the equivalent to three hot dogs. And the bacon chili cheese dog was amazing, there was enough bacon on to thin out my blood and give me a nose bleed...My dad decided to go nuts and get the Guadalajara Dog. i know i butchered that the first time i said it. It has relish, onions, tomato, and sour cream on it...Sour Cream on a hot dog?! i'd eat it. Of course it was kind of whimpy compared to the awesome-ness of the Polish and Bacon Chili dog i had, so my dad soon ordered another Bacon Chili Cheese Dog after finishing his crazy Guadalalalallalaljara.
Good thing we had to go somewhere, i could have stayed there all day eating hot dogs. After lunch we headed south east to French Valley Airport to meet some crazy guy with some machine he's making. Something with silly putty and plasma arcs, not really sure what that was all about i still had those hot dogs on the brain.
Though this guy did say he did some business with In-N-Out Burger, had a hot air balloon made for them and said that the original family that started the joint were celebrating something and all the family including first cousins and junx boarded a plane and it crashed and they all died...and In-N-Out Burger was then left to people that weren't exactly ready to be the owners...not sure how true that is, i don't care enough to check on how accurate that is.
On the way back i saw a sign for fast food chain. Carl's Jr. What is that all about? They stole the star from Hardee's! i don't even understand that, i don't care if its a "sister chain". Can't steal Hardee's smiling star! i don't even know the difference of the two places, their menus look the same. But i had no intention to eat at this Carl's Jr., their logo only says "Charbroiled Burgers" not "Charbroiled THICK Burgers" like Hardee's.
Took us about 2 hours to get back to the Los Angeles area from the airport. What is the deal with their freeways? They have a special lane for carpoolers but i saw a motorcycle go down the lane every 5 minutes...how do they fit under the category of a carpool?
When we finally got back to the city we decided to head back to Eagle Rock and try The Oinkster one more time. There are only 2 things i wanted from this place, and that was the Oinkster Pastrami and a Ube Shake. i was denied the Ube Shake, they ran out of ube!! What's up with that?! The one time i make it down The Oinkster and there is no ube for an Ube Shake...lemon!
Fortunately it was happy hour and instead of the shake i got a pitcher of Widmer Hefeweizen and a cup of Oinksterade. The beer tasted amazing with the Oinkster Pastrami sandwich. My dad ordered the BBQ pulled pork and we both shared a half. The pulled pork was just alright, but i would choose the pastrami over the pulled pork any day.
Pastrami on the right...pork on the left...
The Oinkster was everything i thought it would be and i was happy. Just really wish i could have had the purple yam milkshake. Oh well, i guess i'll just have to go out there again sometime. i didn't even to do any of the touristy stuff on Hollywood blvd.
After dinner we jumped in the Pacifica and headed back to the Comfort Inn. It was only 7:30 and even though my dad is known for falling asleep i thought i would be alright not making sure he was alert every minute. Going down some crazy freeway, 101 i think, i got distracted by a store called the Halloween Club...the second i look at it the car veers off to the right and i am then lifted up and the car is riding the barrier...along with that was a bunch of scraping noises...my dad fell asleep, but after that quickly woke up. i would have offered to drive but i wasn't listed as one of the drivers.
We arrived back at the Comfort Inn around 8pm. i grabbed my backpack and then checked out the car. Somehow, there was no damage to the car. Not even a scratch, the wheel must of caught the barrier before any other part of the car could be damaged...you got lucky dad.
When we got the room, i felt kind of bummed out because my dad was already in bed asleep by 8:30 pm...we could be out partying! i guess i was kind of tired too. But i wasn't about to go to sleep anytime soon. i took a look at the Comfort Inn brochure and saw that they had a "spa". By "spa" they really mean a lame hot tub that is outside with no lighting. It was fenced in and i could barely make out where the gate was to get in. i looked at the hot tub, and it just looked weird...something was off. i stuck my finger in it and it was freezing! What kind of hot tub is this?! i really wanted a hot tub too, i messed with some switches in the corner and i think it was just on a timer. But i still got a funky vibe from the hot tub so i decided to spend the rest of the night in the room.
My Dad had some people to visit out west. He didn't feel like going by himself so he asked me to go along to keep him company. Plus it was a good chance to try out some places to eat at. Got my bags packed and was ready to leave at 9 am, the time my dad said he wanted to leave...45 minutes later he finally read to head out the door.
The first stop was the Philadelphia International Airport. After parking the car and taking the shuttle, we then went through the ridiculous security check. As i read the new rules...you have to put all your liquids in 3 oz containers and then put those in a 1 gallon zip-lock bag, and then put them in a tray to go through the x ray...
And there is no limit to how many 3 oz bottles i can have? Pretty sure with all the extra security, it wouldn't prevent another terrorist attack from happening...oh well, i guess it doesn't really matter...i'm just glad my pants stayed up while my belt was going through the x ray machine.
We had an hour to burn so we decided to get something to eat. My dad ordered a reuben. His most favorite sandwich of all time. But when his order was finally done, it didn't even look like a reuben sandwich...instead of rye bread they used some kind of pita, instead of sauerkraut they used coleslaw, and there wasn't even 1000 Island dressing it it...i'm no reuben expert, but that's no reuben. i ordered the philly cheese steak, i knew better than to order one in an airport but i was really craving one. It wasn't amazing but it looked way better than that sorry excuse for a reuben.
Not sure why i took this photo, i just thought it was weird seeing a guy in his mid 30's wearing birkenstocks and carrying a Vans backpack with a carabiner and some climbing rope attached to it...there was this other crazy looking guy that was texting a bunch and looked like he was 50. His glasses looked like they were mangled by a bear...
i believe this was my first time flying Southwest...i would have remembered this crazy seating system where i get to sit wherever i want. It was nice though, i got to get a window seat. i love the window seat. Just because i'm able to rest my head on the window and pass out. Then the flight doesn't seem as long. What i can't stand is sitting in the middle seat next to two crazy people...makes me want to punch babies, god forbid there are babies around when that happens...Anyway, Chicago here i come!
It was a pretty short flight, around 3 hours and on the way through the airport i was this nice sign to welcome me. Pretty sure John Street never welcomed me to Philadelphia...bastard.
Heading out of Chicago, i had wonderful Golf to watch. Mostly it was Tiger Woods on the screen because he's so great and wearing his red shirt since it was as Sunday. Ugh, i can't stand watching golf...could have really used that tv remote watch...
Leaving cold miserable Chicagoland...
The next declicious thing to eat was the Southwest Snack box. i didn't receive one on the first flight because it was so short...the only thing i ate was the Handi-Snacks. Can't pass up crackers and weird goo that tastes like cheese.
To wash it all down i had a small glass of water...when reading the napkin i could really hear the "Ding"...crazy how that works...
The flight to Los Angeles was packed...so many people going to SoCal. But it wasn't too bad, i managed to sleep most of the way. The flight attendants are nuts on Southwest, the airline lets them say anything they want as long as they explain the emergency procedures. Pretty sure i would say some ridiculous stuff over the intercom if i had the chance..
When we arrived at the LAX airport, and had gotten the rental car...it was time to get some dinner. We decided to hit up the In-N-Out...Everyone says you have to go to one when in California. It better be good...
i manged to get directions to an In-N-Out that was really no where close to our hotel. Turned out there was one 2 miles away on the same street when we headed to the room. While deciding to what to get, i decided to go big. i ordered the Double-Double with onions.
i'll have to say i was pretty disappointed with it. i know they make a big deal about how fresh everything is but it just wasn't as good as what i was expecting. Also my patties were red in the middle, i guess that's how they roll at the In-N-Out...
i didn't want to just judge In-N-Out on one Double-Double burger so i got two cheese burgers to go to eat at the hotel room. i know, i'm fat.
i only managed to eat one of them, and threw the other burger in the mini-fridge...i'm not a fan of their sponge dough either. Hopefully the next place i eat will be better. i spent the rest of the night watching all the Hollywood stars party it up after the Oscars...lemon, i wish i could have gone to those parties.
These two pictures are of the JV 8.
i had plans to go to Conshohocken to see Lee's band play but figured i could squeeze a little Drexel Alumni partying in. i saw my old coaches Stevie B and Pat...of course Pat was mean to me as usual. Some older rowers were there as well. There was also a lot of beer...i told myself i was just going to have a couple and then bounce.
i guess some things never change...
The gig ended around 1:30am, i stayed until 2:30am before heading home. i didn't have a single drink at the bar, well...Lee got me a shot of jager...but that barely counts as a drink and it was when i first got there. i was pretty beat when i got home and went straight to bed.
But i guess the goslings are kind of cute, even though they poop. Though i won't get near geese that have goslings. They're like a total different bird with babies. One tried to attack me in Philly when i was trying to free one of it's babies that had gotten stuck between the dock and ramp at the boat house, stupid birds.
Turns out there are no white tic tacs...How can there be no white tic tacs in the variety pack?? They're like the original tic tac flavor! At least there are more orange tic tacs than the rest of the flavors...but now i don't know what to do with the rest of them. For now i'll just build pyramids with or something...
When it finally came to close up shop, took Chris a good 10 minutes to lock the door. When he finally got it locked, he had left a light on. He then had to unlock the doors again and spend another couple minutes trying to lock it up once more.
i actually jumped on the scale 5 minutes later and it read 190 lb, but the picture i took of that was blurry...maybe i'll be able to break 190 tomorrow after a run. While helping josh move he asked if i lost some weight...i was wearing a sweat shirt...how can you tell if someone has lost some weight if they're wearing a bulky sweat shirt? i must of been huge or he was just saying that.
Josh and Abby said the got a pretty good deal on the furniture because when they bought everything, the furniture store was currently going out of business...too bad for the furniture store, but great for josh and abby! Everything they got was pretty cool, except the bed...the bed kind of killed me. Like someone got two old church pews and nailed them together with two boards...those are actually josh's words...sort of.
Along with moving stuff and unpacking, there were some pieces of furniture that needed to be assembled. i got stuck with one of the chairs. Took me forever to assemble this thing. My hands started to hurt using that lame allen wrench. After assembling the chair, turned out it wasn't even level...oh well, at least i tried.
Didn't leave there to go home until 9 something. i kind of wanted to assemble the remaining two chairs but josh was tired and wanted to return the truck before it got really late so we all bounced. For my help i was rewarded two slices of domino's pizza, woot!
The next thing she wanted to tell me was that when the flowers do open, to prolong the live of the flower and to delay the pedals from wilting...you need to pluck off the anthers from the filaments. She said she learned that from a guy in a flower shop a while back.
Here is a flower with the anthers removed...i personally think it looks cooler with the anthers, if i cared about flowers of course. After she shared her flower caring secrets with me she only removed the anthers from one flower. She must not care about the other flowers. Bummer..
Well there's your fun flower caring secret for the day...the more you know.
Kind of hard to see the duck, but its there. Hanging out under the bush, pretty nice real estate if you ask me. 
But what john did not know is that i'm pretty much a big deal when it comes to Mario Kart. i won most of the races. i got third a couple times, due to bananas...they get me every time, stupid bananas.
While walking around their apartment i noticed this massive thing in the corner. Look at it, what does it look like? Like a little radio or boom box. Its rich's super monster mouse repeller. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me, i wonder if it really works. rich said he hasn't seen a mouse since he plugged it in. Mice must not really be a fan of the ultra sound junx.
After everyone getting schooled in Mario Kart by me, they soon went back to Smash Bros until 1:20am before putting a movie in, Appleseed Ex Machina. John hates anime movies so he went to bed. Rich started falling a sleep so i headed to bed around 2am and after the movie joel fired up the Wii again to play more video games. i tried sleeping in the tv room but it was impossible with the sounds of button mashing and sounds effects of characters getting obliterated on the tv. So i migrated to the floor of rich's room and tried to sleep; time was 3:45am...awesome.
you can barely see the bottom of that thing that resembles a swamp. Good thing i didn't have an open wound on my finger i'd probably have an infection. i'm surprised i didn't get pulled into the water by Swamp Thing last night. It doesn't even take that much maintenance to keep a hot tub clean. My fish pond i built for my eagle project looked cleaner than that.
Before returning the rental car we had to fill up the tank or else we'd get charged a million dollars for it. The gas prices in California are pretty high, silly crazy gas to decrease emissions...At the pump they had some crazy nozzle. You can't just put it in the car and bounce and let it pump itself. You have to hold it there and maker sure its air tight. At least thats what my dad said. 
Got to the airport and did the fun security dance before reaching the gate. i saw a guy with a Mac Book Air. i didn't think people actually bought those, they're kind of limited for the price. After seeing that a choir from Kenya started busting out some songs at a gate near by. They all had matching black t-shirts and black cowboy hats. That was pretty entertaining, i took some video too but i'll have to put that up later after compressing it and all that fun stuff later.
Arriving in Phoenix, Arizona we were pretty hungry and decided to get some Chinese food. They guy at the register looked like he was from Kenya, and the guy making the food looked like he was Mexican...After noticing that i wasn't expecting any authentic Chinese food, plus i ordered the "Thai Chicken". It came in a cool styrofoam container, if i was a container i'd want to be this one.
i'm a sucker for buying shot glasses, so once i passed the gift store i had to go in to see if they had any fun shot glasses, and of course they did. While buying the shot glasses they had some lollipops on the counter. $3.60 for the sucker! What's up with that? Oh, i see...after a closer look they have scorpions in them. i haven't had scorpions since, well...never. i almost bought one, but decided not too.
Well, not quite sure when i'm going to bite into these delectable treats...maybe on my ski trip this weekend i'll try one...probably the blueberry one, i like the color blue. Now i'm ready to board the plane to Philly.
We were actually going to eat at The Oinkster the night before but they close at 9 pm and it was already 8:20...and we decided to get some burgers instead. What we should have done was call to see when they actually open. We got to The Oinkster at 9am and to our dismay it was closed. Doesn't open until 11 am....lemon.
Hmm, well i guess i'll just hit the next place on my list, Pink's! i know, only the fanciest of places make it on my list to eat at. Pink's was established in 1939 and they say they have 21 different hot dogs. Though looking at the menu i only saw 20. From the looks of the place it looked promising, like L.A.'s version of Pat's or Geno's in Philly. Plus, you can't mess up a hot dog. They're always delicious.
So many choices, took me a while to decide. i ended up getting the Polish Pastrami-Swiss Cheese dog and the Bacon Chili Cheese Dog. The polish was massive, it was pretty much the equivalent to three hot dogs. And the bacon chili cheese dog was amazing, there was enough bacon on to thin out my blood and give me a nose bleed...My dad decided to go nuts and get the Guadalajara Dog. i know i butchered that the first time i said it. It has relish, onions, tomato, and sour cream on it...Sour Cream on a hot dog?! i'd eat it. Of course it was kind of whimpy compared to the awesome-ness of the Polish and Bacon Chili dog i had, so my dad soon ordered another Bacon Chili Cheese Dog after finishing his crazy Guadalalalallalaljara.
Good thing we had to go somewhere, i could have stayed there all day eating hot dogs. After lunch we headed south east to French Valley Airport to meet some crazy guy with some machine he's making. Something with silly putty and plasma arcs, not really sure what that was all about i still had those hot dogs on the brain.
Took us about 2 hours to get back to the Los Angeles area from the airport. What is the deal with their freeways? They have a special lane for carpoolers but i saw a motorcycle go down the lane every 5 minutes...how do they fit under the category of a carpool?
Pastrami on the right...pork on the left...
The Oinkster was everything i thought it would be and i was happy. Just really wish i could have had the purple yam milkshake. Oh well, i guess i'll just have to go out there again sometime. i didn't even to do any of the touristy stuff on Hollywood blvd.
Not sure why i took this photo, i just thought it was weird seeing a guy in his mid 30's wearing birkenstocks and carrying a Vans backpack with a carabiner and some climbing rope attached to it...there was this other crazy looking guy that was texting a bunch and looked like he was 50. His glasses looked like they were mangled by a bear...
i believe this was my first time flying Southwest...i would have remembered this crazy seating system where i get to sit wherever i want. It was nice though, i got to get a window seat. i love the window seat. Just because i'm able to rest my head on the window and pass out. Then the flight doesn't seem as long. What i can't stand is sitting in the middle seat next to two crazy people...makes me want to punch babies, god forbid there are babies around when that happens...Anyway, Chicago here i come!
Heading out of Chicago, i had wonderful Golf to watch. Mostly it was Tiger Woods on the screen because he's so great and wearing his red shirt since it was as Sunday. Ugh, i can't stand watching golf...could have really used that tv remote watch...
Leaving cold miserable Chicagoland...
The next declicious thing to eat was the Southwest Snack box. i didn't receive one on the first flight because it was so short...the only thing i ate was the Handi-Snacks. Can't pass up crackers and weird goo that tastes like cheese.
To wash it all down i had a small glass of water...when reading the napkin i could really hear the "Ding"...crazy how that works...
The flight to Los Angeles was packed...so many people going to SoCal. But it wasn't too bad, i managed to sleep most of the way. The flight attendants are nuts on Southwest, the airline lets them say anything they want as long as they explain the emergency procedures. Pretty sure i would say some ridiculous stuff over the intercom if i had the chance..
i manged to get directions to an In-N-Out that was really no where close to our hotel. Turned out there was one 2 miles away on the same street when we headed to the room. While deciding to what to get, i decided to go big. i ordered the Double-Double with onions.
i'll have to say i was pretty disappointed with it. i know they make a big deal about how fresh everything is but it just wasn't as good as what i was expecting. Also my patties were red in the middle, i guess that's how they roll at the In-N-Out...
i only managed to eat one of them, and threw the other burger in the mini-fridge...i'm not a fan of their sponge dough either. Hopefully the next place i eat will be better. i spent the rest of the night watching all the Hollywood stars party it up after the Oscars...lemon, i wish i could have gone to those parties.
