Christmas and Santa Barbara

Fun Fact: Eggs is meat!

Alright Grandma… you told me these are still too long so this is my attempt to make these blogs more reader friendly.  Unfortunately by granting your wish for a shorter blog I will have to ignore your request to curtail the poop talk!

So as you all may or may not know - Christmas was this week!  I don’t really remember anything we did all week leading up to Christmas so I will start on Christmas Eve.  We went to the movies and saw “The Big Short” starring Steve Carrel, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and MOST IMPORTANTLY Brad Pitt.  It was about the housing crisis in 2007 and was based on a true story.  It was a good movie but the fact that it was based on reality and it pointed out that nothing has really changed since then it makes you pretty sad when you leave!

Speaking of movies!  You’ll never guess what we did on Christmas!  We saw the new star wars!  Spoiler alert: I enjoyed it and thought it was a great movie!  I would say it was better than The Big Short because I didn’t leave having lost some faith in humanity!  There’s also lots of fun action and lasers and stuff!  It’s so fun!  We saw it with some of the people we went to beerfest with (see post from early December-ish).  Afterwards we all went to the bar and enjoyed some beverages before finding out that the bar we were at was not serving food because the kitchen was closed.  Thankfully the Asian restaurant owners of Orange County understood the predicament we were in and we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner before coming back to our apartment and playing some Jackbox games until we were laughing so hard we were peeing our pants with excitement!  (Sorry grandma… I have a problem with bathroom talk that’s only been exacerbated by the fact that I was told not to do it).

Saturday (December 26) we woke up and jumped in the convertible (with the top up because it’s colder in OC than RI… which is really just more annoying than anything) and headed north to Santa Barbara.  Santa Barbara is north of Los Angeles just past Malibu!  Unfortunately due to a wild fire we were not able to drive through Malibu so I was unable to make any clever Mali-booty references - the ride up also took about 4 hours rather than the 2 hours it would have normally taken.  We ended up getting there around 2pm and went to State Street which is where lots of the touristy things are.  We walked around for a while until we found a winery!  That’s where I took this picture!

  

 After we left the winery we went to dinner where I took this picture…

THEN we left dinner and went to another winery where I took no pictures!  We did however get some wine and a couple cool wine glasses (one of which made it home unbroken)!  After our stroll around town we headed to the Airbnb where we stayed the night in a lovely room in a house owned by Charmaine and John… they were very nice people who offered us a California King size bed in a room with a city view!  We watched the road to the NHL winter classic on the laptop and dreamed about the hockey game we would be seeing six short days from then!

Sunday we woke up and went for a hike on a trail in the hills of Santa Barbara.  It was about a two and a half mile hike before we worked our way back down to Santa Barbara Brewing Company to get some breakfast and watch the Patriots game!  I had a breakfast pizza that included eggs, peppers and onions, and chorizo!  It was a yummy distraction from that train wreck in New York.  After the game we walked around town a little more.  We went to the historic courthouse and I took this picture.

After we left the courthouse (we didn't get married mom... don't worry) we got back in the car and headed home.  Luckily the fire was contained or maybe put out by the time we were driving home and we were able to take the highway home - which allowed for awesome ocean views!  After we got home Carissa made us go out and buy another dresser for me so she can have another arts and crafts project and so she can take another step towards making me an adult.  It’s like she doesn’t even know me.

That’s all for this week!  I did have a doctor’s appointment today which was my first trip to a doctor that wasn’t Dr. DeAngelis.  It was a sad moment and again - another trip towards the adulthood I’ve been trying to put off for so long.  It is Monday in California and Tuesday in RI which means I will be home in 2 and 3 days!  Hopefully we will somehow manage to see all of you in the few days we’re home!  I am excited to see you all and until then, may your poops be plentiful!

That Time I got Food Poisoning (and more!)

Fun Fact: Slurpee Machines to make frozen beverages were invented by Omar Knedlik in the late 1950s. The idea for a slushed ice drink came when Knedlik's soda fountain broke down, forcing him to put his sodas in a freezer to stay cool, which caused them to become slushy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN! (and Sarah I guess… but your birthday is old news now)

Hello!  It’s me!  I’m in California dreaming about who we used to be!  When we we’re younger… and freeee… (that’s enough Adele for one post).  So it’s been a couple of weeks.  I was busy last week and I figured if I just texted my mom instead she would know I was alive so I wouldn’t need to make any more coherent words.  So yeah last I posted I was mentioning that we had gone to beerfest and that Carissa’s family was stopping by so I will fast forward to Thursday when they got here (since nothing really happened last week that I can remember).

We Carissa cleaned the shit out of our apartment because the Pope Carissa’s mom was coming to visit.  On Thursday I was given a short list of things to finish before Carissa arrived from LAX with guests.  They arrived around 10pm or something and we pretty much just caught up and said our hellos and went to bed.  Friday I went to work and they went to Newport Beach to get the full California experience.  Friday night we pretty much just hung out if I recall, they went to dinner and I went to a work party where I got a bottle of bubbly Moscato as a Yankee swap gift.  It only exploded twice in the process of opening and pouring it and I almost shot my eye out with the cork only once.

So Saturday morning we took off for northern pastures and decided to give Carissa’s mom (Rhonda) and Carissa’s Grandma (Gram) an authentic look at Venice Beach and Santa Monica in Los Angeles, California.  Now if you don’t know what Venice Beach is the only way I can describe it is the place where beautiful beach, meets a crazy amount of drug addicts, meets street performer’s, meets lots of tourist shops.  It is probably a must see for your first time in LA (granted I haven’t seen all of LA and there are most likely plenty of things to do that are better) but for my money (free… plus the cost of parking) it is a great way to spend an afternoon people watching and enjoying the beach.

This is a picture of Venice Beach I found on the internet... I didn't take any myself

While there we saw a couple people perform, we looked at some of the art made out of various different mediums and Rhonda and Gram bought some souvenirs.  From there we drove down the street (about three miles) to Santa Monica Pier.  There are lots of fun facts about Santa Monica Pier that I don’t remember but my guess is the pier from Rocket Power is based on the Santa Monica Pier.  We just walked around the pier and took in the sights again before heading back down to Costa Mesa for dinner.

I also did not take this picture of Santa Monica Pier because I do not yet own a helicopter... but I'm working on it.

Sunday we tried to go to Knottsberry Farm which is both a farm AND an amusement park (it’s essentially like Six Flags).  Turns out that was really expensive!  So instead we went to San Diego!  We walked around the seaport and midway areas and eventually worked our way over to Coronado Island.  We stopped for an early dinner and walked over to Hotel Del Coronado.

I did take this picture of Hotel Del Coronado - you can tell because Rhonda and Carissa aren't facing the camera.  Candid shots only.

You may recognize it from some movie back in the day that may have had Marilyn Monroe and some other actors in it.  Gram remembered the movie but somehow I don’t remember it.  Anyway going to this hotel actually got me in the Christmas and holiday mood because they had a damn ice rink going on in the back court area of the hotel.  So there was literally an ice rink less than 50 feet from the beach.  Why that got me pumped for Christmas I have no idea but I thought it was amazing that the ice rink was there and it was probably mid-60’s and I took 3 steps and was standing in the sand.

The ice rink at Hotel Del Coronado.  Just beyond those palm trees is the beach.  As you can see there is a bit of a lake in the middle of the ice rink but the fact remains that having an ice rink in San Diego when it's in the high 60's is still pretty awesome.

So after we left San Diego we headed back to Costa Mesa and I went to a local watering hole to watch the Patriots play the Houston Texans.  So when I walked into this place I could tell it was unlike any other time I had been there because there was actually music playing and people inside.  Usually it’s like 5-10 middle aged men who are watching football but this time there was only like 5 of those and the rest were people in their 20's and maybe 30's who were watching football and hanging out and playing pool.  So I sat down and some dude I’ve never seen came over and poured me a beer.  I could tell in one second that this man had been drinking all day, if not longer.  I got about ½ beer and ½ head (the foamy part on the top).  Seeing that he was handing me that half full beer I decided I would take a quick bathroom break just to let it settle so my first drink wouldn’t be all foam.  I came back and he realized what had happened and filled it up the rest of the way.  Needless to say I was thankful but it was really foreshadowing what the rest of my night was going to be.  So I made a joke to the guy next to me about how drunk the bartender was and he confirmed my suspicions that that specific bartender didn’t even work there and that he was the brother of the real bartender… who at that time walked up… and she was just as drunk as the other guy.  So I talked to this bar stranger and he explained that this was a unique situation and how the real bartender doesn’t usually drink (which given the establishment I was at is actually a surprise) but tonight she was really drunk. 

Usually during patriots games I try to pace myself with drinking because even though I walk to the bar I don’t want to go too crazy (having work on Monday) and I don’t want to spend too much money (even though it’s $4 drafts – which is why I go to this place in the first place).  This Sunday moderation was not an option.  I had about 1/3 of my first beer left and the bartender came over and gave me a second beer instructing me to “drink faster” a command that I initially laughed at but then decided I would obey.  This practice repeated itself to the point that I was concerned about whether I was getting charged for all of these unwarranted beers making a joke to the other bar patron that my bill was either going to be $2 or $2,000 the way the night was going.  So a few beers (maybe 5-6 total?) and four quarters of football later I was feeling pretty good and ready to head home.  I asked for my bill and to my surprise the damage from all of those beers came to $8.  I gladly tipped 100% - making my total $16 for what would normally have been $24 worth of beer (not to mention the shot of Jameson that was slid my way… obviously I didn’t ask for it).  So on the way home I was feeling hungry and I stopped at Alejandro’s, a 24 hour Mexican food restaurant about 100 yards from my apartment.  I got a California burrito and life was great… or so I thought… more on that in a second.  I walked into the apartment and the end of Silver Linings Playbook was on TV and everybody was watching.  We hung out and I caught the end before bed time.

The next morning I woke up to what I assumed was a bit of a hangover, said our goodbyes to Rhonda and Gram and went off to work.  As the morning went on I started feeling worse instead of better.  My stomach had been upset and I had to go to the bathroom too much for it to be only from drinking.  That’s when I remembered the burrito and the questionable yelp reviews Alejandro’s had received.  After about 1:00 I realized I wasn’t going to make it through the day and I decided to leave early.  About 5 minutes from home I felt it.  That feeling we have all felt at one time or another.  I knew I was going to puke.  I made an agreement with my body that if I could hold it in for 5 minutes, I could throw up in the comfort of my own bathroom, rather than on the side of the road.  My body obliged and I made it home, puking about 3 minutes later.  This is pretty much when I figured I was clear from this being alcohol induced and that this was more of a sinister food poisoning situation.  I tried to fall asleep on the couch and I was doing a good job until I was awoken by another bought of puking that my body did not cooperate on… I puked about 3 feet shy of the toilet… it was on the wall… but not nearly as bad as the last time I puked on the wall (sorry Brian).  Luckily for Carissa this was a case of sober Jeff puking from food poisoning, not drunk Jeff puking from being an idiot.  So I cleaned it all by myself and she wouldn’t have even noticed if I hadn’t told her, or left the cleaning supplies in the bathroom, or if I had done a good job cleaning.

This is where this post would have ended if I had written it on Monday of last week… but unfortunately I didn’t so I have another brief section about going to Oakland.  Sorry Grandma (she said I should post shorter blog posts because she’s 85 years old and doesn’t have that much time left… which was really funny because she’s healthier than I am and she’ll probably outlive me… I love you grandma!)

So anyway – this week I went to Oakland for an audit of a hotel.  I was supposed to leave Tuesday morning at 6:45am but due to the whole food poisoning thing I changed my flight to noon hoping a good night’s sleep is all I would need.  When I woke up I felt a little better but I wasn’t 100% yet.  So I sucked it up and boarded a plane knowing I wasn’t contagious and flew up to Oakland.  I got to the hotel around noon and after I was offered food 5-10 times I finally ate the pretzels that were provided on the flight… first solid food in about 36 hours.  It went down ok and actually made me pretty hungry so I had a burger afterwards and everything was good.  We left the audit and I checked into the hotel and went up to my room where I fell asleep around 7:30pm.  It was glorious.

Hotel audits are pretty awesome because they’re not overly challenging and you get to stay in the hotel that you’re doing the audit of.  So it’s literally like you’re working from home… only you have to wear pants.  So I stayed on the 7^th floor and the conference room we were working in was on the 2^nd floor which meant my morning commute consisted of walking out of my room to the elevator (about 10 feet) and taking the elevator to the 2^nd floor.  Then I had to walk kind of far to the conference room.  On the way was the breakfast area though so I got to stop for breakfast on the way.  All and all I would say it was a pretty cool experience being able to audit the hotel I was sleeping in.  As for the city of Oakland I did not see much.  I walked about two blocks in every direction at night (starting Wednesday night when I was on a more normal diet again).  Thursday I went back to being a normal human who ate solid food and my life felt rejuvenated!  I flew home Friday and Carissa and I hugged and high fived to celebrate another successful return of Jeffrey from the San Francisco Bay area!

This weekend we went to Joshua Tree to go camping!  What’s a Joshua tree you may be asking?  They look like this:

This is a stock photo of a Joshua Tree!  The pictures I took are now on Facebook in an album called "Joshua Tree"

I don’t recall actually seeing any of these but we had a lot of fun.  We met a group of people there that we had never met before but also belonged to the same “orange county transplants” group we joined.  We met some cool people that were also from New England and we all talked about how we were freezing even though it was probably in the low to mid 40's (that’s what happens when you get cocky about the warm temperatures and leave all your winter clothes at home when you move cross country).  So we went for a few hikes during the day and one at night after the booze started flowing.  I’m happy to report no injuries.  We (Carissa and I) shared a tent and slept comfortably (except for the fact that I forgot my keys were in my pocket and just assumed the ground was uneven - when I finally realized I could get rid of the lump by taking my keys out of my pocket things got more comfortable).  I will post 3 or 4 pictures on Facebook so you can see the wonder of hiking in Joshua tree so go look for those if you have any interest!

Minor notes, we survived our first earthquake!  I would equate it to somebody pulling up too far in the garage and hitting the wall very softly.  Or what it was probably like if a T-Rex was approaching.  I saw the ripples in my glass of milk and immediately had to figure out if I should hide due to Jurassic era danger approaching.  Luckily it stopped after about 3 seconds and everything was cool. 

It is December 21^st right now (happy birthday again Bri Guy) and I don’t know where the hell the month went.  I hope you all had a Happy Hanukkah and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas on Friday.  We will be making a brief appearance back up in RI from 12/31 to 1/3 so if you are around text us and we’ll let you know where we are! (We won’t have a car so at least for this visit it’s on you to come to us)  We are also going to the Winter Classic at Gillette while we’re home but that’s at least one or two blog posts away.  Until then, from all of us here in Costa Mesa, may your poops be plentiful!

Beerfest!

Fun Fact: The United Nations estimates that there are over three million shipwrecks on the ocean floors. Lost, destroyed, or deliberately sunk, these wrecks are of interest to divers, underwater archaeologists, and treasure hunters alike.

I’m late again!  I try to post these on Sundays but that has obviously not been the case the last couple weeks… I can only imagine the havoc that is wreaking on my poor mother.  I am still alive and I would even say I am well!

Unfortunately for all of us I didn’t do much of anything this week.  FORTUNATELY for everybody this weekend I went to a beerfest!  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here… on Wednesday we actually saw the new Hunger Games movie and it was pretty good.  It was pretty crazy that Phillip Seymour Hoffman died during the filming of that movie.  I kind of forgot until about halfway through the movie but yeah - overall pretty good movie!

So yeah, that was pretty much everything that happened all week.  Then Saturday came along!  Carissa had found out about this beer fest (called Brew Ho Ho) from some people that she met doing yogurt classes.  We saw the flyer and were immediately even more pumped because there was a band slated to play at the event and that band was none other than Reel Big Fish (you may recognize the name from when you were in middle school - yeah they still play music and yeah its still great!)

So Saturday morning I put on my best beerfest attire and we ordered an Uber to bring us to the Phoenix club in Anaheim, CA. 

Jeff in his beerfest best.

The event was from noon to 4pm and when we arrived casually late around 12:10 the line was not nearly as long as we would have expected, probably only 30-40 people.  So we jumped in line and as we approached the front near the gates we spotted little Johnny Christmas! (also known as John Christianson or John ChrisHanson - the trumpet player for Reel Big Fish).  One of the guys at the gate was giving him the business because he wasn’t able to immediately prove that he was in the band… even though he arrived with two trumpets.  One guy was like “artist entry is around the corner, you have to keep going to the next gate” guy number two was like “just let him in” so guy number one said “do you have any ID or some way of proving you're in the band?” (again… he showed up with two trumpets AND me and Carissa recognized him and were talking to him about being in the band right before this line of questioning started) Johnny Christmas stated again that he had two trumpets and guy number 2 said “dude, just let him in.”  after about 2 minutes of guy one taking his job very seriously he finally cracked and let Johnny through the door - saving the concert for people everywhere!

So we made it inside the Brew Ho Ho area to find that it was everything we could have imagined!  There were beer stands everywhere serving the highest quality adult beverages on this side of the Mississippi!  We obviously started out by making sure we wafted in to get the sweet scent of each brew and then took a small taste before spitting out and grading each beverage in our homemade beer ranking portfolios… and by that I mean I challenged myself to consume as many beers as fast as I can because there’s nothing worse than the first 10 minutes of beerfest when you’re sober.  So we walked around the inside area for a while before making it to the outside area of beerfest where there were even more stands.  We wandered around noting that the stands with short lines usually had terrible beer and the ones with long lines had the best beers!  At one point we also came across this storm trooper and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this guy who had a much better “meeting a storm trooper” reaction than I did.

After about an hour or so of wandering and trying out some beers we wandered to the other side of the beerfest where there was (you guessed it…) more beer!  But what you DIDN’T guess was that inside of a small building within the confines of this wonderful beerfest was (wait for it…) a shooting range!  Nothing too fancy here… only pellet guns.  But the fact remains, they were having a drunken sharpshooting contest to benefit the same charity as the beerfest (Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County… take note BBBSOS).  Targets were $2 so Carissa and I each got one and although I turned mine in to be scored against the judge’s will I did not win.  Carissa was smart and kept hers as a souvenir.  I got all three shots inside the black center of the target (don’t be too impressed it was only like 20 feet away... and I don't mean a bullseye, I mean I hit the main target) but couldn’t bring home the trophy.

So after we shot we went back outside and got a couple more beers (I think you’re probably getting the idea here) and went to the food trucks they had onsite.  Carissa got a burger I think and I got some tacos I think and both were delicious in their own right.  After we ate we made our way over to the outdoor stage right as the sound check was finishing up.  To our delight and as advertised Reel Big Fish started playing!  As they began to play the crowd got bigger and that’s where a man and a shirt arrived that would change the course of our night.  Now I thought I was wearing a cool shirt to beerfest but this guy totally had me beat.

As you may or may not be able to tell - that is Will Smith (in his Fresh Prince days) surrounded by awesome 80s geometry as well as cassette tapes and those big brick cell phones (or as I call them - Zach Morris Specials).  So the concert continued, Carissa and I screamed our little hearts out and occasionally made a trip over to the nearby stands to get some refills before coming back and screaming more.  As the concert finished up we began talking to this glorious shirted wonder and the friends he came with.

So we got to talking with this group of people and found out that most of them worked for Blizzard (the video game company that I sold a good portion of my childhood to) and that they were going out.  Not only did they invite us to hang out with them I believe the word offended may have been thrown around if we had backed out… either way when you meet a group of people like that at a beerfest you’re invested in hanging out.  So we Ubered to a local brewery to keep the party rolling and after Carissa had spilled about 3 beers we decided to have three of them who were willing come over to play some rock band.

It’s around this point in the day that the timing of everything starts to get fuzzy… I know beerfest was over at 4 and I know from the Uber receipt that we all got to our apartment around 7ish.  I don’t think I paid for the Uber from our apartment back to their apartment but what I DO know is that I skipped the important detail of their apartment having a hot tub.  So we obviously wanted to go hot tubbin’ with these complete strangers.  We got another Uber from our place to their place with bathing suits in hand to go enjoy this hot tub.  We were told that the hot tub had a closing time but that they had gone in after hours before.  That turned out to be false.

Sooooo we got to their apartment and all changed for some good ol’ fashioned hot tubbin’.  We jumped the fence to where the hot tub was and to our unfortunate surprise the hot tub was not hot.  It was actually downright cold (probably not actually cold, probably like in the low 80s but that’s not what you want when you’re ready for a nice hot tub).  Heartbroken and dry as could be the five of us walked back to their apartment with even odder plans in mind.  Being that we were pretty much on hour 9 or 10 of drinking we all decided it would be a good idea to go in the bath tub with hot water since we couldn’t do a real hot tub experience.  So four of us all got in the bathtub together (bathing suits still on) and tried for about 30 minutes to find a way for us to fit comfortably (it didn’t happen).  After that time we just gave up and decided to go watch some TV.  I really have no idea what time it was at this point because from the time we left beerfest we thought it was like 9pm when it was 4pm so we were all still just hanging out watching some TV and talking about whatever crossed our minds.

Again, from an Uber receipt I can tell you that we left their apartment at 12:45 and arrived back at our place shortly after 1am.  I believe we ate pizza and I think I drank too much of their beer (if you’re reading this I probably owe you a six pack).  When we left our apartment at around 11:45am we had no way of knowing the recklessness that would ensue but overall I believe a good time was had by all!

It is Tuesday now and I haven’t really done anything big this week yet but Carissa’s mom and Grandma are coming to visit Thursday of this week so we may have some stories from the weekend of entertaining to jive about!  As always, have a good week and may your poops be plentiful!

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas!

Fun Fact: At various times in history, the White House has been known as the "President's Palace," the "President's House," and the "Executive Mansion." President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901.

It was a short week at work and a long weekend of giving thanks for all that we have!  Carissa and I personally showed thanks to everyone by going to Las Vegas!  We do appreciate all of you, but we don’t appreciate how much it costs to fly back to Rhode Island instead of flying to Vegas… where we intended to win enough money to be able to fly home to see you all.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  In fact not much happened Monday-Wednesday before we left so I am going to fast forward to Wednesday afternoon.  (I also don't know if I mentioned this but we plan to be home on or around New Years for the Winter Classic so we look forward to seeing all of you then)

Wednesday afternoon we boarded a flight to Las Vegas and after a quick 48 minutes we touched down in Sin City.  We stayed at the Luxor Hotel (the one that looks like a laser shooting pyramid) and made sure we got one of the rooms with the slanty walls so we could get the full experience.

So needless to say before we got to Las Vegas we did very little research about the city itself and relied on my memory of going there circa 2004.  Also needless to say I have a terrible memory so we only had about 6 hours of the 4 days planned based on what I remembered being fun (4 of those six hours were just drinking and gambling so I would say 13-14 year old Jeff probably didn’t recommend those things - he was lame).  We had done a little research and saw that there were shows there, most notably Circ De Soulay (apparently spelled “cirque du soleil” and roughly translated by me to “Circus of Soul” - which I believe is just a circus of James Browns belting out soulful classics like this)

So yeah, we were interested in the Circus but also noticed that those shows (like most things in Vegas) were pretty expensive.  To our luck when we walked into the hotel we were greeted by a short Spanish woman we couldn’t really understand who told us to check in and come back and see her and she could hook us up with discounted show tickets.  We did as instructed and went back to see her where she handed us off to a different guy who started talking to us about the different shows we could get discounts on and after about 10 minutes of us trying to decide what we wanted tickets to we were told that there was a short presentation the following morning (Thanksgiving morning) at 8:30am where we would just sit for about 2 hours and then we could have our tickets for $25 each (normally $140… so us being the savvy business folk we are we couldn’t turn down that offer).  So I joked that it sounded like they were selling us a timeshare and the guy just said something like “there’s no obligation to buy.” 

After that whole ordeal we decided to go to the buffet for dinner and drinks.  At this point it was about 9pm and the bar closed at 10pm so we spent $10 each to get the bottomless wine/beer package and the game was on to see if we could get our money’s worth.  The short answer is yes we got our money’s worth and we were both in bed by around 11pm (no gambling on day one).

The next morning we woke up at around 7:45am (delightfully hungover) and joked about having no idea what the hell we were going to do that morning.  We met about 50 other people in the lobby of the Luxor and got on a bus to go to places unknown.  After a 20 minute drive we arrived at a resort and our fears were confirmed - we were about to get a 2 hour timeshare presentation.  Naturally we were pumped because nothing gets us going like an excited sales woman telling us how great time shares are after a night of drinking!  Her name was Dallas and she spit hot bullshitty fire with the best of them, claiming that we were pretty much costing ourselves more money by not buying a time share.  The presentation took about 3 hours and we finally managed to get out of there with a packet of info and two tickets to the Circus for Saturday night!

After that morning we decided to explore the strip.  We walked up to around the Bellagio from the Luxor (which is like 4 hotels and maybe a half mile?) in the process we went through Excalibur (midevil themed hotel), New York New York (New York themed hotel… obviously), MGM (no theme/lion theme?), and more places I don’t remember!  We eventually stopped for the thanksgiving buffet at Monte Carlo which was way better than the Luxor buffet and went back to the Luxor for some gambling.  I ended up winning about $50 between roulette and blackjack so I was pretty pumped.

The next day (black Friday) we slept in because its vacation and we don’t shop (I don’t shop).  We eventually made it out of the room for more exploring around 10am.  We walked down almost the entire strip and along the way we stopped at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (which is one of the things I remember about Las Vegas that I remember).  It was fun and along the way I got a picture with Brad Pitt and Carissa got stuffed by Shaq!  Oddly enough neither of them moved or even seemed to breathe but it was cool anyway.  We ate dinner at Bobby’s Burger Palace (or Bob’s Burgers as I like to call it) which I was told by the DelSesto’s is owned by Bobby Flay so that’s neat!  That night we went down to Fremont Street (old Vegas) and had ourselves a time… we forgot to take any pictures of that so there are some parts of the night that are a little fuzzy.  I also forgot to mention that I took a Craps lesson during that afternoon so I could try to figure out how to play.  One of the things I remember from that night is that I tried to play craps at one of the hotels on Fremont Street and I lost the $50 I had made the previous night.  I think overall I was even on the weekend but I’d have to look at my bank activity to be sure.

Saturday we walked around more and saw the fountains at the Bellagio do their fun fountain dance thing (the other thing I remember from my youth).  I was waiting for Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac and the rest of the “Ocean’s Eleven” cast to show up but unfortunately they aren’t real people.  Saturday night we got to use our circus tickets!  They didn’t allow pictures or videos but the show apparently cost around $165 million to produce and run and it pretty much looked like it.  The set itself was a moving stage that was literally like a floating 15x30 foot slab of metal (or whatever stages are made out of) that was being suspended in the air by the biggest hydraulic robot arm I have ever seen.  The entire thing was gigantic.  The set itself also had pieces that made it out into the theater where the audience was that reminded me of Waterworld or Mad Max (which are the same movie by the way).

(set of Waterworld... focus on the weird tower things - that's what reminded me of the Circus set)

The show itself was pretty much amazing and since the Circus of Soul was actually based more on acrobatics than music there were some INSANE acrobatics involved.  I would totally recommend going to see it if you are in the area.  It was the “Ka” show at MGM.  Apparently there are many different Circus of Soul shows so I just want to make sure you get information on the right one.  Saturday night we attempted to go to bed early because we had an early flight out of Vegas to get home but like IDIOTS we stayed up until 1am and got the shuttle to the airport at 6:10am.  We got back to California around 10am and had breakfast before sleeping until like 2pm.  I then decided that I was going to buy Rock Band 4 and I did.  It was another fun experience with Amazon Now where I ordered Rock Band at around 3pm and it was delivered at around 6pm.  I was naturally not home because I was watching the Patriots but when I got home after the game around 9:15pm (thank you time difference) I played for about 2 hours (with Carissa for about 1.5 of those hours) and made a band called Grilled Cheese Hands… which reminds me, I was talking to these dudes at the bar while the game was on and we started talking about bands because he said he was in one with his buddy who was there… long story short they liked the same kinds of music as me and when I went to shake their hands I apologized because I had Grilled Cheese Hands (because I was eating a grilled cheese… not because of some medical anomaly).  They said that would be a good band name and naturally I took that as a sign that I should name my video game band that very thing.  Side note: that guy also bought my beers because apparently people in California really like buying me beers!  I think the whole state is conspiring to save me money on alcohol - a practice I really appreciate!

Normally I write these things on Sunday but since I waited the extra day I will include that I drove to Riverside for work today and on the way home I was driving past mountains that were b-e-a-utiful!  If I wasn’t driving I would have taken a picture… but alas… I was driving.  So maybe later this week I’ll try to snap a picture if I end up back that way.  No real plans for the rest of this week but I think we do have plans to attend a beer fest of sorts this weekend (that Reel Big Fish is playing at) so I should have a story or two for next week!

Hope you all have a great week!  May your poops be plentiful!

Looking back, I guess this post is about a hill...

Fun Fact: There are 118 ridges around the edge of a Roosevelt dime, 119 ridges around the edge of a quarter, and 150 ridges around the edge of a Kennedy half dollar.

So as mentioned last week I was imported to San Francisco again this week to help out on one of the jobs I’ve been working on.  Like last time there was not really much opportunity to see very much of the city but I did witness a few things in my week there that are blog worthy (by this point I’m sure you’ve realized that there is very little that is not “blog worthy”).

I took this picture before work on Wednesday, before I walked down the hill... more on that soon.

So Monday morning I boarded an aircraft at 6:45am and immediately fell asleep.  I don’t think I was even awake for takeoff.  When I woke up we were descending towards San Francisco airport.  That right there is the definition of a great flight (I did however miss my opportunity to get a ginger ale, my drink of choice in the air).  From there I took the BART to the office and got going on what promised to be a week full of long hours and expensive meals.  I don’t remember what time I left on Monday, my best guess is around 7pm.  I knew what hotel I booked and I had a GPS to get me there… what I did NOT have however was a topographical map of San Francisco.  Topographical maps are the maps that show the elevations of different areas as shown below:

Now I’m sure most of you (like me) when you think about San Francisco you think of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the “Full House” House, and maybe this road…

The sad reality is that’s not just like a joke road that somebody made… they wanted a road there but the hill was so damn steep that they couldn’t do it without making it look like a little kid scribbling some schematics for the construction company charged with building that unfortunate bit of infrastructure.  So back to how this effected me on Monday.  It came time to leave work and I grabbed my gym bag that was packed to the brim with my clothes for the week (I did not have a traditional rolly bag for a carryon because I think I’m hot shit and I can carry a bag without wheels).  So this time I stayed at a hotel on California Street known as “Stamford Courts.”  Last time in SF I stayed at an Airbnb on Post St that was not up nearly as big a hill (still up a hill, just more of a gradual hill) so I had no idea what I was in for.  Below I have highlighted my route as well as the points of interest in the following story.  Keep in mind that the entire trip was only about a half a mile.

A - This is where the Marcum office is in San Francisco.

B - This is where the Stanford Court hotel is (where I was staying for the week)

So back to me leaving the work on Monday to head to the hotel (the other points of interest will be explained shortly).  I left work with my backpack on my back and my gym bag over my shoulder.  I headed down Montgomery Street toward California Street where out of nowhere CRACK! BOOM! TERRIBLE NOISES! (see the red/white starburst above) the clip that connects the strap to the bag broke.  Now I’m thinking “this isn’t a big deal, I’m man enough to carry this bag draped over my shoulder, I’m man enough to carry it by the handles” so I pressed on - holding this 35lb gym bag by its handles.  I turned the corner at California street and as you can see, still not really very hilly, I’m still listening to my headphones and excited to get home so I can go for a run.  Then I start going up the hill toward point C. As you can see there is a slight increase in the elevation of the street before point C but at this point I am still confident, it’s just a hill, it’s not a big deal.

View up the hill from Point C toward point D:

Now I am standing at point C… still confident… still trucking along towards point D.  Then I go the two blocks up that hill to point D.  When I get to point D I realize that I am standing at the bottom of a HUGE friggen hill.  Which makes no sense… because I just walked up a HUGE friggen hill.

View up the hill from Point D towards point E:

Now I am standing at point D.  Confidence Broken.  My gym bag felt like 15lbs when it was over my shoulder, 35lbs when the strap broke, and now at point D I am holding what I believe is a 50lb gym bag.  Not to mention that I have the backpack with my work stuff on my back which by itself is causing some perspiration due to the lack of cool air between my back and backpack.  I am staring up the hill - not knowing how many more hills lie between me and this hotel that will hopefully be greeting me with a swimming pool, massage table, beers, steaks, etc. (spoiler alert, none of those were waiting for me).  I start walking towards point E and I am passing people who are also walking up the hill.  I am really just rallying at this point because I just want to get to the top of the hill and have it all be over.  Once I get to point E I found relief.

View up the hill from Point E towards the finish line:

I think by now you get it… I walked a half a mile and walked up the equivalent of 35 flights of stairs (according to the FitBit).  So I finally arrived at the hotel and at this point I must have looked like a broken man.  There was literally sweat rolling down my face and I was doing my best to wipe it off but I was fighting a losing fight.  I went to the front desk and told them I was checking in.  The lady at the front desk was avoiding looking at me as much as possible for obvious reasons and I was pretty much trying to catch my breath.  After a minute I broke the awkward silence by joking that the strap on my bag broke and I just walked up the hill from Montgomery street… which I guess wasn’t really a joke… I just said it in a joke-y way.  She laughed and said that she usually takes an uber to work and walks home and she only lives a mile away and she offered me a bottle of water.  Once I got to my room I took my shirt off to assess the damage and I am actually upset I did not take a picture because there was a clear outline of where my backpack was, clear outline of where my shirt was tucked into my pants, and cleeeeaaaaaarrrrrrr stains in the armpit region.  Before I told her I had walked up the hill I’m not sure how that lady hadn’t called for an ambulance because I must have looked like a serious mess.  I took about 10 minutes to cool down then I decided that since I was so sweaty I might as well just go to the gym - so I did.  Ate dinner at a 24hr diner because there was nowhere else open at 11:30 after I got home and showered and headed out to work on Tuesday.

TUESDAY rolled around and I worked a long time.  The biggest story from Tuesday is that I had a conversation with Carissa about ISIS and the attacks on France and whatnot which I can sum up in the following two points: 1. If you’re an extremist of any kind you need to take a step back and think about what you’re doing - this doesn’t just go for religious extremists, either.  Like if you’re the kind of person who goes to sports games in full body paint, if you’re the kind of person who spends all their disposable income on one thing (pimping out your car, etc.), if you're the kind of person who checks the box on the voting slip to just vote straight democrat or straight republican… what the hell are you doing?  Open your mind, take a step back, think for a minute.  Point 2: if you’ve ever thought that solving anything with violence was the right thing to do - you’re pretty much just wrong.  Outside of defending freedom, keeping peace, or if you’re actually paid to fight (boxer, MMA, etc.) if you’re fighting or trying to hurt somebody… chances are you’re wrong.  ::Mic Drop:: Also I found out my hotel had a 24 hour gym on Tuesday so I didn’t have to walk the half mile to the gym on Monday night.

WEDNESDAY I worked more, didn’t really do much else but while I was walking to dinner I walked past a homeless woman who was cutting her hair on the street when I was on my way to dinner around 9:45pm.  The place I went stopped serving food around 10 and closed at 11 so I was walking back up the hill to the hotel at 11:05 maybe and the same person was in the same place but her head was shaved and she was like looking in a mirror to see if she missed a spot.  So in the hour I was getting dinner she managed to go from trimming her bangs with scissors to full on shaved head a la Britney Spears circa 2007.

THURSDAY I kept on trucking through work.  At night I went out to dinner and had steak, potatoes, beer and warm seasoned peanuts - all the makings of a dinner that was fancier than I was prepared for.  Also the restaurant was called the Big Four (little accounting humor there... very little).  Everything on the plate was delicious and there was a lady playing piano so I felt like I was living the classy life at its finest.  This is a picture of my plate, as you can see it was a dimly lit restaurant to add to the ambiance.

So as I was leaving the restaurant I witnessed another person's interaction with a homeless person.  Keep in mind I had headphones in but I’m pretty sure what I witnessed was a homeless guy ask a person who was smoking for a cigarette.  As expected, I believe the guy said something like “sorry man, this is my last one” and gestured to the one in his mouth that he was already smoking.  Then I have no idea what the hell the homeless guy managed to say in one sentence but it just looked like he said something like “comeeee onnnnnnnnn” and the guy took the cigarette OUT OF HIS MOUTH and gave it to the homeless guy.  Baffling to say the least.  The guy even stopped to re-lite it for the homeless guy after giving it to him.

So I got back to the hotel right after this cigarette situation and remembered that I had a $30 coupon thing to use at the bar (they gave it to me day one… it might have been because my room wasn’t ready or it might have been because it looked like I was detoxing pretty bad).  So I sat down to grab a beer before going to bed and while looking at the drink menu I noticed there was an item called “Johnny Walker - Blue Label………. $40.”  I thought to myself WWBDDHWPOTJWBTMUARAI (What Would Brian DeLuca Do? He Would Probably Order The Johnny Walker Blue Then Make Up A Rhyme About It) so that’s just what I did.

I got a Johnny Walker Blue on the rocks (although Brian probably would have gone neat).  You might be asking what Johnny Walker Blue is and if you are I will simply tell you to look for it next time you’re at the liquor store.  I believe the going rate is around $250 a bottle.  That being said I felt like a champion for a few minutes and it tasted like what I would imagine rainbows and unicorns would taste like.

FRIDAY I worked again, left and jumped back on a plane to come home.  When I got home I saw Carissa and we high five'd and said “Hey! Missed ya!” then we went out to dinner at a bar down the street called “Social”…. It’s like SoCal with an “i”.  It was an aright place, the burger I had was amazing but the most notable part of the whole hipster bar was that “The Labyrinth” starring David Bowie was playing on all of the TV’s in the bar.  I don’t remember if I like that movie or not, I do remember that it was one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, and I did appreciate that it was on TV at a bar.  Social was however pretty expensive and I don’t really know if we will go back.  That’s your new restaurant update of the week!

SATURDAY was just like every other day this week… I woke up and went to work (seriously… I put in close to 65 hours this week) and left around noon-ish so that we could go to the beach! In November! Aaaaaaaaand it all makes sense why we moved here.

So yeah, we spent the afternoon at the beach and went to a couple breweries at night.  Today is Sunday and we have pretty much been hanging out all day since there is not football on.  Next week we will be live from Vegas for Thanksgiving.  Everybody enjoy your Thanksgiving and from all of us here at Wallace Courts, may your poops be plentiful!

Amazonian Basketball Hoops, Ducks fighting Islanders, and Shows that are apparently still on TV!

Fun Fact: Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

I am a fan of this fun fact opening.  This week was not super eventful due to the amount of work I’ve had to do for upcoming deadlines but I owe it to my mom to keep writing blogs so she knows I’m not dead or in jail.  I’m alive and free mommy!

This beginning of this week was largely uneventful!  Sunday Carissa and I walked down to a Tiki Bar near our house that came up when we Googled “bars with NFL Sunday ticket.”  It is like a half mile away and one of the guys who owns it apparently grew up in Connecticut and is a Patriots fan  the other owner is from Southern California and is a Dolphins fan though so it’s not a full on Patriots bar if you know what I mean.  Keep in mind this was the game against Washington so it was moderately interesting considering at no point during the game was there ever really a fear that the patriots would lose so our focus in the bar just shifted to the D bag next to us who couldn’t stop yelling about the Rams game (even one of the owners came over and said everybody at the bar hates him and that he’s there every Sunday).

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were relatively uneventful.  I went to work and came home.  Monday I also played basketball and schooled some Californians on how we do it on the east coast (for those of you that don’t already know, I am horrible at basketball… I’m told that I don’t even shoot the right way… that’s the joke there…).  Tuesday we bought a dresser on craigslist because Carissa needed a bigger dresser/wanted a new arts and crafts project.  Wednesday I worked late and found out I’m going back to San Francisco next week (tomorrow… or today depending on when you read this… or a few days/weeks/months ago if you're not as interested in reading these as I write them).  But yeah, another Monday through Thursday trip to make sure we get all our ducks in a row before the deadline!  So to me that means more nights working late and the same amount of not actually seeing any of the City.  Such is life.

Thursday we had our annual State of the Firm at work where they tell us how the last year has gone and tell us we all need to work harder and be better.  The best part is after the whole meeting and whatnot there is an open bar!  We get a couple hours where we are rewarded for sitting through the first couple hours of the meeting.  I got a little face time with the big brass of Marcum and even found myself talking to Jeffrey Weiner at one point briefly (Managing partner and Executive producer of the Bourne Films).  It was a good night and nobody lost their job by saying anything stupid!

Friday started like any other Friday where we both went to work but then it got better.  Since my entire office had been at the state of the firm the previous night we were all feeling some of the lingering effects of having an open bar the night before.  I was in at the normal time because I know my limits and when the rest of the crew strolled in around 9:30 we figured it was time to start the day.  Since they were in no real condition to be productive (mixed with the fact that not all were as busy as I have been) there was a good deal of carousing going on.  We were talking about how we should get a mini basketball hoop to hang on the wall in our office area but we obviously didn’t want to wait until Monday to get it.  Enter Amazon Now.  This was my first experience with Amazon Now.  I have had Amazon Prime since college and I knew that they did free 2 day shipping.  It was one of my favorite things in the world when I found it.  Little did I know Amazon was not done changing the world there.  Amazon Now is a new(?) service where Amazon provides select items and allows for same day delivery!  Lucky for us Amazon realized that a miniature basketball hoop was 100% needed by us as soon as possible.  So yeah… if you pay $7 you can get one hour delivery or if you want to wait 2-4 hours you get free delivery.  I ordered the hoop (and some pizza rolls) at noon and by 2:15 we were shootin hoops and eatin pizza rolls!  It was the best day ever BUT THEN….  Carissa calls me.  Completely out of nowhere.  To tell me this:

Carissa: Hi

Jeff: What’s up my love?

Carissa: Nothing.

Jeff: Carissa my love!  I am so happy to talk to you because I’ve missed you while I’ve been at work!

Carissa: You’re ugly.

Jeff: Oh no!  You’ve noticed!  I’m ruined!

Carissa: I am going home now to poop in all of your shoes.

Jeff: That will be so squishy!

That went on for another 5 or 6 hours after that so I will give you the main points

Carissa said: I got free Anaheim Ducks tickets from work!

Jeff said: Woohoo!

So yeah, Friday night we went to see the Ducks play the Islanders!  It was a great time and a great game that I for some reason did not take any pictures of!  Hopefully there will be more opportunities though.  I also decided I wanted to buy an old school Ducks jersey (you know… Charlie Conway style) but when we went down to the pro shop the only ones there were of Teemu Selanne (which is cool) but they were $500 each (which is not cool) unless they were signed by Teemu Selanne - then they were $1,000 each (which is even less cool).  We then tried to go to an exclusive secret restaurant that’s hidden behind a book case in a mall-type location and they pretty much decided that we were lepers and said that they were booked out two weeks in advance and even though they had open seating at 10pm (which was about 15min from when we got there) then said that the “open seats” were already taken?  Either way I was not willing to sit there and talk to them because I was getting a vibe I wasn’t a fan of.

Saturday we both worked again.  That time of year I suppose?  Not really though… I’m busy because of the client I’m on and Carissa got put on an inventory count because she took new years off because we are coming home to watch the Winter Classic!  Not sure about specific dates or times yet but we will be home for at least January 1, 2016.  Hopefully the Bruins learn how to win a home game/beat Montreal by then.  Saturday night we went to a different restaurant that was named after an animal that was less exclusive and my bet is way better.  I had a bison burger that I’m still thinking about and we got to watch the Kings game!  We came home and Carissa started her arts and crafts project and eventually we had to go to bed because we had a big day today!

Sunday came and we had big plans.  We ignored that the Patriots were playing (because I’m dumb and can’t read schedules) and missed what was apparently one of the best games of the year to go be in a studio audience!  First things first - the Patriots are now 2-0 in games vs. the Giants I don’t watch so it’s a good thing I stopped watching.  Second the studio audience we went to sit in was for America’s Funniest Home Video’s with new host Alfonso Ribeiro!  You may know him as the winner of Dancing with the Stars season 19 (thank you Wikipedia - I also can’t believe that there’s been 19 season of that show…).  You also may know him as Carlton Banks from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air!  We were told to dress up in more formal attire so Carissa wore a nice dress and I wore a suit.  We were rewarded with front row seats!  The entire experience was awesome and we got to see the filming of a show from the other side of things.  We also know who won so if you’re looking to start taking bets on non-live TV let me know and I’ll give you some inside notes.  Look for us on January 3^rd at 7pm on ABC.  For probably 90% of the show we were sitting in the front row on the right next to the giant cube thingy that showed some videos.  They did move us out right before they did the whole voting thing so we won’t be there when the lovely family from small town Georgia is sitting there.  That being said… We no longer have cable so you should all record it and send us pictures of ourselves on the TV!

That’s it for this week sports fans!  Have a great week full of rainbows and puppies!  More updates from San Francisco coming eventually!  Until next time - may your poops be plentiful!  (yup… loving this sign off)

Roscoe's Chicken is 'effin Awesome!

Fun Fact: Camels do not store water in their humps, as it is commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue. Concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes heat-trapping insulation throughout the rest of their body, which may be an adaptation to living in hot climates.

I think I may be onto something with that opening.  Definitely a strong contender.  So this week was once again full of normal things.  There was nothing too exciting so it’s time again for me to paint you a lovely word picture to make it sound more interesting than it actually was!

For starters, my company started a FitBit competition where everybody in the company walks and runs and our newfangled wrist bands tell everybody else in the company how many steps we’ve taken.  This is the second time they’ve done such a competition.  Last time I was in the top 20% of the participants and this time I am in the top 10 (so far… it is still week one).  So it is safe to say I might be a little obsessed so far.  It helps that most things are within walking distance of our apartment so I’ve been going for a run either in the morning or after work, parking in the street about half a mile from the apartment so I get steps in the morning and walking a mile to the gym to exercise more too.  The default goal that they give you for daily step output is 10,000 steps per day.  For most people (who work behind  a desk all day) that’s not too bad but it’s also not something you’ll get just by coasting through the day - you have to do some sort of outside exercising to get to that point.  Last week (Sunday to Saturday) I had a little over 175,000 steps (25k per day average) so it’s safe to say I am putting more effort into this than I am into actually working so far.  I wanted you all to have this background because over the next three months I may toss in a few more lines about this.

So Sunday I pretty much just walked and ran all day - played Frisbee again.  Monday was the same only without the Frisbee.  We got our first sample of California rain.  We walked to the supermarket and when we were inside it started raining.  When we walked out it was raining so we were literally caught in the rain.  We didn’t live that far so we were just going to walk quickly and deal with getting wet.  We put our heads down and made a break for it and by the time we got to the end of the small parking lot the rain had already stopped.  I guess that’s what rain storms out here are like.

Tuesday we went to Wahoo Tacos and got some fish tacos.  If you plan to visit remember the name because that’s most likely where we will take you if you want to get some delicious fish tacos. 

Wednesday was an interesting day.  When we woke up on Wednesday we felt an old familiar feeling - it was “cold.”  Now I’m not talking about “ehhhhhh I live in California and its 65 and now its cold ehhhhh” IT WAS 57!  Now I know at this point I’m just rubbing it in but hey… you all could have moved too!  Wednesday night we went to see the new Tom Hanks movie about spies and the cold war and whatnot.  It was pretty good but the beginning was kind of slow.  I may or may not have taken a 2 minute nap during it.  Which brings me to my next point that I am terrible in movie theaters now - I just can’t seem to make it through a full movie without either going to the bathroom (situations where I drink before) or falling asleep for part of it (situations where I don’t drink before).  The movie was called “Bridge of Spies” and except for it being slow in the beginning I would recommend seeing it.  So now to the best part of Wednesday/Thursday/the whole week/the whole year - the dream I had that night.

Now the dream I had is up there for one of the best dreams I’ve ever had but unfortunately I don’t really remember all of it.  I woke up in the morning (probably like 5:30am) and wrote some of it down in the blog note I started keeping on my phone so I could remember what happened during the week but once I fully regained awareness of my surroundings I had completely forgotten about it until I saw the note again - then it all came rushing back.  It all began when I was by myself in a bowling alley during a rock ‘n bowl kind of scenario.  This wasn’t just like a normal bowling alley though it was a great bowling alley.  Actually I just looked at my note to make sure I didn’t miss any details and it looks like I wrote down that I was in a fancy movie theater.  This story is already getting derailed… I remember it as a bowling alley so that’s what I’m sticking with.  Either way that’s the atmosphere I remember going on in this dream.  While walking around I went past the bar and I saw Mr. T!  Now if you know me you know that I do indeed love myself some Mr. T - so much in fact that Nick DelSesto gave us this for a housewarming present at our first apartment and it is still on display:

I asked the bartender of the bowling alley/movie theater if that was really Mr. T and he said it was and that he was a regular!  I was obviously so excited about it that I brought somebody back the next day! I don’t remember who I brought so let’s say Carissa because it’s probably good to say I dream about Carissa. Keep in mind this is all the same dream… I managed to immediately jump ahead to the next day in my dream.  I was so excited I found out that Mr. T was a regular I had to go up and say hi so naturally I did.  When I went up to him he was dressed in full Buffalo Bills clothing - he had a t shirt and a jacket and a baseball cap all with the buffalo bills logo.  He also didn’t even have any of his gold on so I felt that this was an authentic meeting with present day senior citizen Mr. T.  Anyway, he was sitting there yelling the names of drinks like “JACK AND COKE! BUD LIGHT!” etc. so we went up and I said “sorry to interrupt but I’m a big fan and I just wanted to say hello” so he turned to me and just started speaking nonsense and shook my hand.  I don’t know how I could tell but it looked like he was trying really hard to squeeze my hand and obviously since I was dreaming it didn’t hurt so I just reacted the same way you do when an 8 year old gives you a high five and just pretended it really hurt by exaggerating.  This seemed to make Mr. T very happy and he continued to speak nonsense to the point that I just smiled and walked away.  I remember thinking in my dream that this interaction would make a great blog post and then I woke up while walking away from the table.  At this point I wrote the note about this dream so I would remember to blog about the dream of me writing a blog post about meeting Mr. T.  I think dreaming about blogging makes me officially a blogger so I think I’ve probably reached my potential in life.  I’d like to thank everybody that helped me get to this point.  I couldn’t have become a blogging accountant without you!

Hard to top that dream this week but I’ll push through writing this damn thing.  Thursday and Friday I didn’t do a ton.  I did lots more walking for this competition.  Saturday I went for a hike in the morning where I took the daytime pictures I posted on Facebook.  It was really nice!  In the afternoon we went to Los Angeles and took the other pictures that are in the same album.  We went to the Hollywood walk of fame and saw a bunch of stars.  We started taking pictures then realized it was stupid because we were staring at hundreds of stars (of which we knew about 15% of the people) so taking pictures of them would probably have meant taking too many pictures.  We also went to the Chinese theater where people put their hands and feet in the cement.  All and all it was a pretty cool experience.  After that we went to the Griffith Observatory.  It’s a planetarium that is on the side of a mountain on the outskirts of LA and right next to the Hollywood sign.  It’s pretty amazing and it’s definitely on the list of things to do when in LA.  The view alone was reason enough to go up there and those are also the pictures I posed in the same album.  We went at night and I was taking pictures with an iPhone so obviously those pictures don’t do it justice but yeah… next time we are definitely going to go like an hour before sunset and just see the amazing picturesque moments unfold before our eyes.

The last thing we did in LA was go to Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles.  I have a separate note on my phone where I just write down places that are on like travel channel or food network or something and this was a food network special.  The only other thing I wrote about this place is that I needed to try the mac and cheese.  Let me tell you.  None of this was disappointing.  This is a picture of most of what we got:

Everything was delicious and I absolutely recommend going there after Griffith Observatory and if anybody comes and visits and wants to go to LA for the day you can bet your ass that’s the plan for sunset.

Other things to note:  before I left RI people kept telling me how terrible pizza is in Southern California.  Now I’m going to be honest, maybe I don’t have the highest standards but there is one type of pizza out here that I am a big fan of and will probably be on the east coast (if it isn’t already) in the next year for sure.  There are 3 or 4 different places out here that all do pizza the Chipotle/Subway way where you get a thin crust pizza, walk down the row of toppings, pick what you want and skip the rest.  Then they bake your pizza for like 5-10 minutes and call your name and BOOM custom pizza.  The places I’ve tried are MOD Pizza, Pieology, and a third one whose name I don’t recall but I can assure you it was great.  I got an 9ish inch pizza with chicken, bacon, onions, jalapenos, and cilantro all for around $8.  Well worth it.  I am a big fan of this style, it’s not super Italian like the pizza everybody is probably comparing the “crappy southern California pizza” to but I think it was delicious none-the-less.  I didn’t take a picture of it before I ate it… sorry.

Have a good week everybody!  Until next time - may your poops be plentiful! (Might be my new sign off)

San Diego and "Authentic" Mexican

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Blog Post.

Blog Post who?

What do you mean "blog post who?" there's a blog post at the door.  Open the door if you are interested in this blog post!

I think I’m onto something with that opening… So I last told you about my experience with time zones.  They are pretty crazy!  But Sunday brought the best gift so far… the gift of brunch and Tom Brady (this was the first 1pm Eastern Time aka 10am Pacific Time game the patriots had played since we moved here).  The patriots played the Jets and I got to go get brunch while Carissa was at yoga.  A few beers and a few close plays later (much to the chagrin of the Patriots haters in the bar) the Jets ran out of time on their final drive and the Pats won.  Nothing better than eating “The Hangover Burger”, enjoying some breakfast beers, and watching Tom Brady!  For those who are curious the hangover burger is a cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg - something about it made it taste better than just that though. 

Which actually reminds me - I know this whole blog is supposed to be about our West Coast escapades but I’d like to bring something up here.  This isn’t the exact article I read but it was the one I found most quickly with a Google search: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/world-health-organization-processed-meats-cause-cancer_562e1144e4b0aac0b8fd51b2 So apparently The Who decided that eating processed meats is as bad as smoking cigarettes.  Let’s take a second to process this information.  I have a few points here - 1) nobody was under the impression that adding bacon to anything was healthy and I don’t think anybody really thought they were doing themselves a favor by eating it. B) Is there anything else left that doesn’t cause cancer?  So now eating burgers, bacon, hot dogs, sausage, etc. is going to kill me as fast as cigarettes?  Which actually raises an interesting point in my mind - let’s compare one slice of bacon to one cigarette (for argument’s sake).  Smoking a pack a day is 20 cigs I believe.  If you smoke one pack chances are you haven’t done a ton of damage, it’s the whole pack-a-day for 30 years thing that gets people into trouble.  Let’s replace cigs in this example with processed meats.  If you're eating 20 slices of bacon a day for 30 years I think the heart disease would kill you before the cancer did.  I wanted to go on more of a rant here but then I made that connection and I’m not rewriting this paragraph so sorry.  Saw an article similar to the one above first thing Monday morning and it got me going a little bit.  Also Joey Chestnut is as good as dead…

So back to West Coast antics - on Sunday we signed up to be members at Costco.  Costco is a wonderful place like BJ’s or Sam’s Club but slightly larger and with an entire section full of inexpensive alcohol.  We signed up on Sunday but after seeing the mess that was the store, we left after about 5 minutes to return on Monday.  Afterwards, I took a trip to Sports Authority to buy some cleats (they are way too flashy but they were also the least expensive option) and went to a Frisbee meetup game.  For those unfamiliar, meetup.com is a website for people who want to do anything really with other people.  My best guess is it was started for pickup sports games but now it has pretty much anything ever you’d want to do with other people… I’m pretty sure there’s even like book clubs and stuff on meetup.  Either way I went to Frisbee and played for a couple hours - a good time was had by all and I probably have a new Sunday hobby (provided it doesn’t interfere with watching football).

Monday we went back to Costco and did a little shopping.  I won’t really elaborate because if you find me talking about grocery shopping interesting than I think you might be a little bit too interested in what’s going on in my life (sorry mom).  After Costco we went to a restaurant on our road called Taco Mesa.  It was voted the best taco’s in Orange County in 2012 & 2013 so naturally when I got there I cracked under the pressure of looking at the menu and I did not get tacos!  I guess I have a reason to go back now aside from the fact that what I got was delicious.  So what I DID get was called a Chile Relleno.  It was basically mozzarella stick only instead of deep frying the mozzarella they put cheese (probably not mozzarella) inside a poblano pepper and cook it in a pan then deep fry it a little at the end?  There also might have been a few other things inside the pepper but either way it was delicious and pretty big too.  Carissa got a quesadilla and she said it was also yummy so when you people finally come visit us we will take you there.

I tried to start taking notes so I could remember what I do from day to day and so far it is not going so well.  Either that or I seriously didn’t do anything on Tuesday except for go to work (which is entirely possible - I think I might have actually worked late then come home and made burgers - suck it WHO).  Wednesday was a little more interesting!  I went to San Diego to do an inventory count.  It was so close to Mexico that the guy who works there said the DEA found 3 tunnels last year that were built by the cartel for transporting drugs across the country.  This is how close it was!

The circle on the map is the San Diego warehouse and the line is the border between the U.S. and Mexico.  So yeah, like two streets over.  This client also had a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico.  I was asked on Monday if I wanted to go over the border for lunch to get tacos.  Like authentic Mexican tacos - from Mexico!  Obviously i said I did and I showed up with my passport ready.  Unfortunately things did not go according to plan and I ended up staying in San Diego while the person who asked me if I wanted to go get tacos went to the Tijuana warehouse to do the count.  Then the manager who went to Tijuana with her brought me back a chicken quesadilla for lunch.  Here it is ladies and gents!  An “authentic” Mexican Chicken Quesadilla!

I know… it tasted even better than it looked!  All jokes aside it was pretty good albeit very plain but there will be other opportunities I suppose.

Thursday the Patriots played and I went to the bar to watch them with Carissa and a couple guys from work around 5:45ish.  Nothing too special about that except the Patriots killing it and that our waitress was from New Hampshire.  We just keep meeting people from New England!  On Friday I actually found out that somebody who works with me actually grew up in Cranston and graduated from Cranston West before moving to California after high school.  Again, I don’t know how this keeps happening but I’m becoming more and more convinced that my life is a TV show.  Friday we wore costumes to work - I wore a Hawaiian shirt and a bucket hat so I guess I just dressed down and wore what I usually would wear.

As you can see I looked great.  Friday night we went out with some people I work with to a place that looked like it was built in the 70s and not updated since.  It was totally the kind of place you could picture people doing coke off the piano.  This is a picture of what the sign looked like and you make the call for yourself.

It was called Bistango.  I don’t know how I felt about it but I think if somebody wants to know what Southern California was like 20-30 years ago that’s a good place to start.  Saturday we pretty much just hung out for most of the day - drove around and ran some errands.  At night we went to a bar around the corner for their Halloween party.  Nothing too spectacular to report from there except there was an actual little person dressed as an oompa loompa.  It was pretty amazing.  Carissa posted a picture on Facebook if you're interested in what he looked like.

Today (Sunday) was the beginning of an exercise contest at work called the “fit-bit Challenge” basically we all got fancy pedometers (if we paid the subsidized fee - they didn’t buy thousands of fitbits for everybody) so I walked my ass off and right now I’m at about 27,000 steps with a few hours to go on day one.  For those that don’t track such random statistics a normal weekend day is probably 10-12k steps?  Obviously this depends on your activity level.  So we walked about a mile to breakfast, then I played Frisbee for about 3 hours, then I walked another mile or so each way to go sign up for the 24 hour gym around me.  Not to mention the fact that I had about 8k before I went to bed from rockin out on the dance floor between midnight and 2am (and the walk home from the bar and whatnot).  Either way this pace can’t stay like this or I might die.  But it has been fun!  My parting note today is that we finally started watching The Wire on Amazon Prime (originally on HBO like 10 years ago) and it’s a great show.  It’s about the drug trade in Baltimore and apparently its one of the best shows ever made based on its reviews.  Not sure what’s on the docket for this week but hopefully I can stir up something interesting!  OH the other big thing is we booked a trip to Vegas over Thanksgiving!  We got a room at the Luxor hotel from Wednesday night until Sunday if anybody cares to join us!