Pimpin’ Ho-Ho’s - *Home Entry*

Before you all think that I’ve crossed over to the dark side of this ‘new this weekend’ thing, I would like you to take a quick (click) journey with me for some understanding.

Please click here. Stay awhile if you’d like. I’ll be waiting for you when you get done laughing in wonder and amazement. Especially since the Cadbury Egg is the greatest man made creation this side of the Mississippi. Or even the other side. Hell, the world!

Because of this wonderfulness that is Pimp That Snack and the ease that the submitters appear to accomplish such feats of Pimpin’ Glory, I had to try my hand at it. It didn’t look too hard, really, and I figured it was about time someone gave kudos to the greatness that is the Hostess Ho-Ho.

My plan was to submit my entry to the site once completed. I didn’t do that. You’ll see why.

I got a recipe for Hostess Ho-Ho’s off of the Food Networks website. The recipe was for normal sized snacks but I figure a little improvising would get me through.

I started off with twice the amount of the recipe’s suggestion. This would happen to include the entire continent of Africa’s ration of butter.


This is only SOME of the butter I used.

Packages of Ho-Ho’s used to contain two, um, Ho’s. Hostess, God bless them for feeding into the nation’s obesity problem, has since included three ho’s in every package. Not knowing this, went for the classic two ho’s in my project. Man, how many hits am I going to get on this entry?

I started off with the cake part of the first Ho. This included a lot of melting of sugar via steam and brushing off my mixer that never sees the light of day except to whip Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. I added the cocoa and used a standard cookie sheet to bake the cake in.

While the first cake was baking, I tried putting together the sugar whipped creamy filling. This really was the start of my pimpin’ demise and the unneeded waste of a crap load of Africa’s butter.

While the filling looked OK, once spread on the cake, I realized that it wasn’t going to fill the cake once rolled. I tried whipping some mini marshmallows (read: more butter!) but I got too anxious putting the marshmallows on and rolling the cake that the filling just oozed out the side and covered most of my kitchen, myself, and the always underfoot cat with a sticky goo.

I put the pitiful first ho in the freezer to chill.

This might be the saddest thing I have cooked since souffle.

By the time I started on the 2nd cake, I felt like I had grown as a person just a little bit. I felt as though I couldn’t possible make the same mistake on the 2nd ho like I did the first. I would perfect it I said! And by all accounts, the 2nd ho is a heck of a lot better looking than the first. I figured that the standard Ho-Ho chocolate coating would cover up at least some of the mistakes I made.

Yeah. Except I kinda didn’t get enough chocolate. By this time I was both exhausted from 3 hours of pimpin’ and on a bit of a sugar high from all the wayward crème filling that just happened to jump in my mouth (oh the hits I’m going to get!) that I just poured on what chocolate I had and called it a night.

Kevin came down right at the point where I took my final picture and helped me clean up the kitchen. After the kitchen was finally clean, he preceded to make the best homemade pizza in the world. Show off. Too bad it wasn’t a pimpin’ pizza or else I would have forged his creation as my own and submitted it to Pimp That Pizza. If there was such a thing. Which there isn’t.

Getting hungry, huh?

See you folks next week when I plan to actually get out of the house.

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New Site of the Week:

If you haven’t yet, you should check out a blog called Whoopee. If the weasel on a motorbike entry doesn’t get you laughing (like a weasel rodent, not like a weasel dumb butt)(on a motorbike!), you are a robot and I will make you do my taxes…for free. Because robots don’t get paid, see?

Warner Bros VIP Tour, Burbank, CA

Happy New Year Boys and Girls! Hope this post finds you happy, safe, and not stuck somewhere in Toledo with no recollections of the New Year festivities and how you ended up in Toledo in the first place; unless you actually live in Toledo of course.

This New Year’s Kevin and I headed up to Burbank, a.k.a. the Valley. This was multi-purposeful as we had two destinations in mind. One was to watch Brett Favre’s last game at a Packer’s bar (previously mentioned in the Hollywood post) and to go on the Warner Bros VIP lot tour, this week’s new thing. In between we went to a great little lounge called the Blue Room to ring in the New Year. If you are ever in Burbank, I would highly suggest going to the Blue Room. The cocktails are cheap and the clientele are actually very friendly.

So the Warner Bros VIP tour…



First off, if you go on the tour I would recommend not going out for cheap cocktails to ring in the New Year the night before. That said, the Warner Bros tour was actually quite fun. A tour guide takes a group of no more than 12 people around the lot in a large golf cart. You get to see sound stages, prop rooms, fake-front sets, etc. Normally people would be working on the lot so the chance of seeing a show being filmed or Charlie Sheen picking his nose in between takes is quite high. Unfortunately it was a holiday so the lot was a ghost town.

One of the very first places we were shown was the outside set of ER. They described how the set was made, how they film in different angles, and how they can fabricate the dreary Chicago weather in sunny California, all very interesting.


Part of the ER set

We then moved on to Stars Hollow, the Gilmore Girls town. I am (and should be embarrassed to admit it but I’m not) a huge Gilmore Girls fan. Show watcher I guess would be a better term as I couldn’t tell you the birth dates or favorite colors of the main actors characters and I am not the president of the Gilmore Girls fan club (ala Marsha Brady). Regardless, Kevin made fun of me for taking so many pictures.

Gilmore House and the town center. I had to stop myself from stealing the gnome.

After Stars Hollow came the museum. No pictures were allowed or else I would have given you a photo of myself hugging the big spider from Harry Potter. (Just because I’m a big dork.)

Car from the Harry Potter movie

From there we did the sound stage for Two and Half Men, the Gilmore Girls house, the prop room where they had the Friends Central Perk café set up, and a few other things I barely remember. The tour is two and a half hours so by the end the novelty of it all wears off a bit and you start to hope that they feed you lunch. They don’t by the way.

German tourists love 'Friends'

I will say this though, to be a tour guide there you must have to be a walking IMdb(.com). Our guide was throwing lines from movies like a 13-year boy who just saw Animal House.

All in all I would recommend checking it out. The ticket prices are a bit steep at $42 a person, but is a great tour and worth the price. I would suggest going on a ‘working’ day, as I feel a bit cheated in not seeing Charlie Sheen pick his nose.

Kevin sings 'Smelly Cat'

Again, Happy New Year everyone! See you next week.

Christmas Break!

All good things take a break...

Chloe the hellyen takes a nap...

This week I simply enjoy the Christmas holiday. Hope y'all are doing the same. See you next year! (By the way, I really hate the "see you next year" bit. I still used it. Damn.)

I got a label maker!! Weeeeeeee!!!!

**UPDATE**

If you are looking for something to read this week while I kick up my feet relaxing, check out: Play in the City. I just ran across this site today. Apparently this blogger is doing what I started doing only she's been doing it for longer (I swear I didn't steal the idea!) . She also resides in the Milwaukee area so you cats who live that way can try the things she blogs about. I'm actually jealous...her site is so nice!

Cruise to Ensenada, Mexico

I am still home sick but if I don’t get this out soon…well, who knows what might happen. Flying fluffy balls might fall out of the sky to spite me. (Yes, flying fluffy balls. So sue me, I’m still sick.)

On to the blog…

So last Wednesday was Kevin’s birthday. I did something I’ve never been able to do for more than a day and that was to keep a surprise from Kevin. On Friday morning I got him up for work at our normal time, putzed around making us late, and then promptly took him to breakfast where I let him know that not only did he not have to go to work that day (or Monday) but I was also taking him on vacation. Kevin, of course, did not believe me and made me call up his boss to make sure that he really did not have to come in. I also ended up not telling him where we were going but he pretty much guessed it when we made the turn off for the San Pedro docks.

I had bought the tickets for the 3-night cruise to Ensenada on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas ship back in October and it had been killing me not to tell anyone because I was so excited. Thankfully Kevin seemed excited as well as this was his birthday present.

Stepping on to the ship we were met with the first buffet meal of many. If nothing else, you have no one to blame but yourself if you go hungry on a cruise. We than proceeded to our very small cabin (People complain about the size of the rooms on a cruise ship…why? You’re only there to sleep after all, and if not, you’re doing something wrong)(just saying) to drop off our luggage, then promptly took a tour of our home for the next 3 days. While I’ve seen commercials and pictures and whatever else of cruise ships, it still amazed me being on one that this boat had a pool and a rock climbing wall and a full sized theater and multiple restaurants and a mall and…well, you get the picture.

At 4:30, before we set sail, we had to go through an emergency drill. Everyone met at the Muster station on deck 7 in their life jackets while the captain speaking in some sort of unrecognizable accent over the loud speaker let us know what to do if the ship sank. Since no one could hear the captain or for that matter was paying attention, I’m pleased to tell you that the ship did not in fact sink. Thank God. The little flashlight on my life vest was broken; I would have been totally screwed.


Seriously, no one is listening to you Captain

The rest of Friday night was pretty much settling in. We ate, we gambled, we bought duty free liquor, we played the most expensive round of bingo ever, and we even saw a comedy show. But since I was starting to get sick already (though I was still in denial at this point) and we had gotten up so early, we ended up going to bed at 10 that night. I am also embarrassed to say that 10 PM on Friday night was the latest we stayed up the entire trip. So much for those salsa lessons they had.


Ensenada

Saturday morning we arrived in Ensenada. I tried really hard not to do the tourist thing and had us walk 12 blocks out of the way to a ‘local’ part of town. I’m not really sure what I was planning to do in the local side of town. Eat maybe? Unfortunately the ship fed us so well that there was no need to try our gastronomical luck on the local cuisine. Shop? We weren’t really out to buy anything. We ended up just walking around for a couple hours until we found this hole in the wall dive bar. Our Spanish was enough to order us two beers (“dos Coronas por favor”) and two more after that (“dos mas, por favor”). A fellow who sat next to us attempted to get us to have some soup they were serving, (“Esta FREE! Free! Free!”) but again, we really weren’t that hungry. After accidentally walking into the men’s room (Kevin: “Damas is ‘Ladies’ by the way”) we decided to move on. We next stopped in a place a few blocks down, which was incredibly touristy, but we still got the best shoeshine in our lives by our new friend, Manual.


Manual and Kevin

Finally, we stopped in my favorite place of the entire trip…the local pool hall. The owner of the joint gave us the stink eye the entire time (if you look hard enough in the picture below, he’s sitting in the corner), but we were well behaved. We played pool, had a couple $1.50 beers, and headed back to our ship…


Pool Hall. Kevin is losing.

…where we had dinner and fell asleep. At 6 PM. On a Saturday. We didn’t wake up until 7:30 the next morning.

Sunday is kind of a blur. We did so much, but not much at all, if that makes sense. We ate BBQ, we drank out of pineapples, we played trivia, we saw the Sexy Legs Competition at the pool, we gambled (I was up in roulette but lost it all at poker), we shopped, we ate some more…so on and so forth. And we were back in bed at 9 PM like the grannies that were in the room next to ours. The next morning we were unfortunately back in San Pedro.



Overall we both loved the cruise. It was more expensive being on the ship than we thought, but there was plenty to do. We both agreed that two more days longer would have been perfect. This is definitely something I would do again.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go lay down.

Merry Christmas everyone!


Looking out from our State Room

Delay...

Sorry about the delay getting this past weekend's post out, I'm out sick with bronchitis. It's going to be a long one too so I want to wait until my head is out of a fog.

Til then...

Souffle! *A Home Entry*

A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

I have never eaten a soufflé before much less actually trying to make a soufflé. All my knowledge of soufflés was what I saw on television sitcoms and they always were of the fallen variety. What I love about soufflés is that they join their cousins the banana peel, the cream pies and the sugar lump (Bugs: How many lumps would you like with that? Stupid Lion: Oh…3 or 4) as being food types that are always met with disaster. A comedy of errors I suppose. I figured that if I were to make something new, I best try the one thing that actors posing as cooks have never managed to accomplish.

Before there was Dr. Phil, Betty Crocker was backbone of the housewife mentality. I used her recipe, ‘Classic Cheese Soufflé’ as a starter point. I figured that if Betty Crocker didn’t know how to make a soufflé, no one would.

These are the ingredients. Thankfully we had everything in the house already except for the Cream of Tartar and Ground Mustard. The chances of me using the Cream of Tartar and Ground Mustard again are very slim. So slim in fact that 6 years from now I will need Cream of Tartar for something and go out and buy it again because I would figure that there would be no way that I actually owned Cream of Tartar.

So I began. Kevin helped by making the tin foil strip (why a tin foil strip? I have no idea, ask Betty Crocker) and separating the eggs. I actually made Kevin hold this yolk here for a while so I could take a picture. I might have stalled a bit as it’s funny watching someone stand uncomfortably holding a slimy yolk in their hands. Sorry Kevin.

Everything started off fine. Butter melted, flour stirred in, everything bubbled successfully. I started to think to myself what idiots actors posing as cooks must be not to find this simple.

But then I added the milk and cheese and something went horribly wrong. Betty Crocker kept alluding to this boiling that the milk and cheese would do. I stirred and stirred but it just got thicker and thicker until it was like bread dough, no boiling. Of course this is when Kevin’s brother, Robert (who is a great cook by the way), decides to call. I believe I was mumbling, “Oh, something’s not right here. Kevin! Look at this, is this suppose to look like this? I think I screwed something up. Oh man…”

Not wanting to stop at this point, I went ahead and started mixing the egg whites and yolks. I ‘folded’ the eggs into the cheese dough per Betty Crocker and carefully poured the mixture into the casserole dish. Betty Crocker used the word ‘carefully’ a lot in this recipe by the way.

I set the timer for 50 minutes and started to watch “I Love Lucy” while I waited. It seemed appropriate.

50 minutes later and I had an unfallen soufflé!

That is, until I cut into it. It also wasn’t very fluffy. In fact, it was kind of wet, like scrambled eggs. Kevin and I ate it anyway…it wasn’t too bad, but nothing I’d make again. Since I’m pretty sure that I screwed up somewhere, I’d like to try a real soufflé for comparison sake.
Is Betty Crocker still alive? I’d like to speak to her about this recipe. Boiling indeed.

Marlboro Hot Laps, Fontana, CA

I’m about to make Bethhead very jealous by saying that this weekend Kevin and I went to the California Speedway’s Driving School and IT WAS AWESOME.

Before I get into the event itself, I just wanted to let you know how I came about going to the driving school in the first place. I want you to know this simply because if you get the chance you should go too. Like right now. (Have I mentioned it was awesome? Because if I haven’t I will do so many many more times before I am done.)

I was able to attend this event because I receive mailings from Marlboro. I couldn’t tell you which bar I signed up for the mailings from Marlboro because I was most likely drinking and only wanted the free cigarettes. Normally Marlboro sends me coupons, which equates to paying for half the tax of a normal pack. This time they sent me an invite to attend ‘Marlboro’s Hot Laps’ which I honestly thought was just a joke at first (read: Attend Driving School! Small print: 1 in 10,001 chance to win!) I gave them a call just for the hell of it and 10 minutes later Kevin and I were reserved for the event. (Awesome).

On Saturday afternoon we arrived at the California Speedway. The Santa Ana winds were blowing pretty hard so I was worried that they would cancel the event. Nope. They rounded us up to the waiver release, gave us a backpack filled with gifts, got measurements, suited us up, snapped our picture, and off we were to the IROC stock cars.




Of the three cars that we rode in, the IROC was the least interesting. Not to say that going 150 mph around a track was boring. It was just the least interesting. I only felt that I might die three or four times.



IROC Stock Cars

After the IROC, they moved us on to the Panoz GTS for some street racing. Basically the drivers went 130 MPH then made a left turn. Or a right turn. I might have screamed a little. (Awesome!) After that, we got to ride in the Mustang. It was your basic Mustang really except that they let us experience drifting. I never quite grasped what drifting was until I was sitting in this car going sideways.


Drifting

Finally the rides were over and they fed us lunch. We filled out survey sheets that in not so many words said, “Do you think this event would make you tell your adult smoker friends that Marlboro is awesome?”

Adult Smoker Friends, driving school is awesome. Marlboro, keep sending me things like this while you kill me with your poison.
Awesome!

Comments...

I made a mistake somewhere and comments from yesterday's post are missing. You can put them here instead.

Hint Hint.

Sunday Brunch Cruise, Newport Beach, CA

I had a hard time thinking up of this weekend’s new thing to do**, which is a bit strange as we had a 4-day weekend that I certainly could have used to my advantage. By Saturday afternoon I was still pacing about coming up with ideas, none of which sounded too appealing. Kevin, again, came up with idea and a mighty fine one at that.

“How about one of those reggae brunch cruises that you are always talking about?” he said.

I immediately went to the computer and booked us two tickets on the Hornblower. Yeah, it does sound dirty, doesn’t it?

The Hornblower

Sunday morning we got up and went down to the pier where the Hornblower was. We were immediately greeted (Ha! ‘Immediately.’ I use that word in the vaguest of terms) by the parking attendant\inspiring model who I will now refer to as Chet. Parking was $6.00 so I gave Chet a twenty. At a second thought, I offered Chet another dollar thinking he could just return $15.00. Chet’s response? “Yeah, if you don’t mind, I want to keep my change.” Now I’m no parking attendant but one would think that he would want to keep his singles. Tool.

The boat wasn’t ready to be boarded yet so we walked down PCH, shared a drink at the Shamrock, and headed back. By the time we got back there was a line and our buddy Chet was chatting up a Paris Hilton look-alike completely ignoring the fact that he needed to dole out his ‘change’ to other people who were parking. It was at this point that I realized what the people of Newport Beach (the ones the other people roll their eyes about) do on Sunday. *Insert Stereo-Type Here.*

First champagne of the day

Finally we were seated and the champagne began to flow, as well as orange juice and coffee. The brunch was served buffet style, and I’m assuming that the lack of kitchen was the reason all items appeared to be from Costco. Not that Costco food is bad by any means, not great, but not bad either. Kevin really liked the Costco Orange Roughy and I really liked the Costco sausage links and potatoes. We ate, we drank, we kidded with the table of folks next to us, all while watching the harbor float by.

Costco desserts

After brunch we headed to the top level of the ship. There was a group of about 20 twenty-something’s with two bottles of champagne for every person hanging out with their designer jeans and CHIPs style sunglasses. They were really fabulous. It kind of reminded me of One Tree Hill\the O.C. throwing up. Kevin and I aren’t so-very-fabulous and we spent the remainder of the cruise watching birds and making jokes about ‘it’s not really a party ‘til someone jumps in!’.

Fabulous!

Overall, it was a good time. The food was OK, and they never skimped on champagne. The parking attendant was a tool, but our server was really nice and answered all my stupid questions.

Oh. And the reggae portion of this event? I just checked on line and it doesn’t look like they even have reggae cruises this time of year. D’oh.

After the cruise and feeling like we just didn't want to go home quite yet, we headed down to Balboa Saloon where I kicked Kevin's butt at pool. He was a good sport about it though.

**Due to unforeseen cash flow issues (read: “Oh my God! I spent HOW much on Christmas gifts?”) this weekend’s new thing almost did not happen. The surprise donation from a not-wish-to-be-mentioned sponsor (much to my protests) made it possible. So, not-wish-to-be-mentioned sponsor, this weekend’s new thing is dedicated to you. You shouldn’t have, but thank you so much. It was well used.

4 new things for the price of 1, Hollywood, CA

This week’s new thing brings us to the 2nd most populous city in America, Los Angeles. Ah, Los Angeles, the City of Angels. (Whoever came up with that name obviously didn’t have the foresight of 150 years of L.A.-ness.) And what would Los Angeles be, really, if it weren’t for Hollywood? This week Kevin and I ventured to Hollywood in what we thought would be a simple night of karaoke with some friends, a couple beers, and midnight hot dogs at Carney’s.

We never did make it to karaoke.

Karaoke in Hollywood was the supposed new thing. Even without the karaoke, we did a slew of new things that I’m tempted to say Hollywood itself was the new thing. But that would be cheating, since I have been to Hollywood before. So I leave it to you to be the judge.

Oh? Did I mention that this was going to be a long post? Get comfy.

Kevin and I headed up to Hollywood at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. By 3:30 we were still in traffic as you can’t go anywhere in L.A. and expect to get there on time. By 4:30 we were booked in our hotel (the Hyatt on Sunset Blvd – thank you Priceline.com) and started to get ready.

New Thing 1:
By 6, we were out the door. Our first destination of the night was Tiki Ti. I have to say that I am officially in love with this place. If Kevin and I don’t work out, I might marry the Tiki Ti…if Kevin doesn’t marry it first. Small, dark, smoky (you can smoke here!) and incredibly fun (OK, seriously, check out their site – the Tiki Ti Survival 101 is a great read) you have your choice of 86 Tiki drinks. All drinks come with a complimentary kiwi slice, pineapple, and cherry. Bob Marley played non-stop. Snacks were free. Did I mention I loved this place?



Kevin in awe of the Tiki Ti


Inside of Tiki Ti

New Thing 2:
A bit later on, we parted ways with our newfound love to meet Andrea and Roland for dinner. We had decided that not only were we going to try a new restaurant but to try a new type of food as well. We headed down to Fairfax and tried our palettes at an Ethiopian restaurant. I will have to admit that I really did like the food itself, very curry-like. You eat with your hands and I’m not sure this is normal or not, but we also did not have plates. I enjoyed the food save for the ‘bread’ which I was told by the waitress was made out of wheat flour but as Roland accurately described it, was “like a shammie.” I wonder how Ethiopian would be with naan.


Kevin, Andrea and Roland. No plates.

New Thing 3:
After dinner, Andrea and Roland headed home as they have a young-un to attend to. Kevin and I dropped off the car and took a taxi down Sunset to go to Daddy’s. The cabbie almost got in an accident and to make matters worse, after paying $20 fare we found out that Daddy’s was now closed. A group of hipsters (which is what I’ll refer to all L.A. residents from this post on) were lingering outside also quite dismayed to find the place closed. They very generously offered to let us follow them down the street (what kindness these hipsters have!) to another place called Well. Please don’t ask me if that’s ‘Well’ like a watering hole or ‘Well’ like, “wellllll…maybe I’ll try the salmon.” Well was, well, full of hipsters. We grabbed a corner couch and had a couple cocktails. We got the stink-eye from a few hipsters as we just happened to be on the corner of their reserved section and decided to move on.

Just down the street from Well was the Cat and Fiddle, which I have been to before. It was getting late so we had our last drinks here and headed back.

But not before stopping at Carney’s. What I love about Carney’s is not only are they an excellent source of late night bar food, Carney’s just always happens to be right next door to the hotel I’m staying at. It’s a train! It sells chili cheese dogs! Yay Carney’s!


Nothing says drunk like a hot dog at Carney's.

A chili cheese dog later we were finally in bed.

But wait, there’s more!

(Have I mentioned the long post thing?)

New Thing 4:
The next morning was Sunday. If you have been paying attention at all you have to know that Sunday is football. Packers football specifically (if you are Kevin). So at 10 in the morning we left the hotel and heading to Burbank to go to…a Packer bar. I have always heard that Packer bars existed but it wasn’t until I walked into the Park Bar that I was convinced. They showed the Packer game on every one of their TV’s. The SOUND was even on. When the ball was in play the place was deathly silent. When the Packers did some thing good (which wasn’t often on Sunday’s game) the place went wild. My only regret about the place is that it’s too far away for Kevin to go to every Sunday.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of the Packer bar. I was afraid of the flash going off and 40 Packer fans kicking my ass as it was right in the middle of an important play. I did, however, get this picture of a really nice Corvette that was parked outside.



And that my friend was Los Angeles\Hollywood\Burbank. Since I have absolutely no money left over from this very expensive new thing next weekend’s new thing will have to be of the cheap variety… like begging for money at the end of an off ramp type of thing.

Update Tomorrow...

We just got back from our Hollywood Advent-cha. I'm too tired now to do this post any justice, I will write it up (what will be a long post to be sure) tomorrow. Until then...

Working the Swap Meet, Costa Mesa, CA

My friend, Michele, at one point owned a custom card (as in stationary) store. She no longer owns said card store and consequentially now has a garage filled with all her old products. She was talking to me about her filled-up garage a few weeks back. Although I don't remember this, apparently I mentioned the idea of re-selling it. If I did indeed mention this idea I was most likely thinking a yard sale of sorts. Michele may have mentioned the swap meet herself and I was apt to say that it was a good idea and that I would help out if she needed me. Regardless, Michele called me last week to remind me that I was working the swap meet this weekend, and that I couldn't complain about it because it was my idea. Again, I don't remember specifically saying "You should do the swap meet" but since I can't account for everything I say at all moments and it was a new thing to do, I agreed.

The catch? 5 AM. On a weekend.




The above picture was taken at 5:45 AM of the rental truck. To be able to sell your wares at the meet, you have to be there no later than 5:45 AM to park in line and patiently wait your turn to enter and began setting up. I would like to mention that there are people who do this EVERY weekend**. Michele, Mari (who was also kind enough to assist in this venture) and myself waited patiently in line to enter and set up until 5:48 AM before we began to complain. I believe the first complaint was that the line wasn't moving and the second was that our boyfriends (the lucky bastards) were still sleeping.

But enter we did and we begun setting up. I would like to also say at this point that Michele was not lying or stretching the truth when she talked about the boxes and boxes of cards, stationary, and other assorted things she had stuck in her garage. From her reports we only scratched the surface of what she had.




So the day went on. And people came and bought and I mainly stood around with a glazed look in my eyes or bagged the items that people bought. I would like to say that if I ever do lose my job or just get fed up with this whole computer mumbo jumbo, I might have a career in bagging groceries. Not a profitable career, but a career none the less.



We closed up shop at 3 PM when the swap meet closed. We were all extremely exhausted but thankfully Patrick and Gunter stopped by to help box up what we didn't sell. Overall I think Michele did well but agrees that she won't be doing it again.


Michele and Mari

When Michele dropped me off at 4:30 PM, I took a much needed shower. I also applied 8 icy-hot patches to my calves as the last time I stood on my feet for 10 hours was ... uh ... damn, it's been awhile. I would probably guess bartending on St. Patrick's Day 1999. Kevin and I then went to the Harp where Michele rewarded her temp employees with cocktails.

Next week I hit the "big city" of L.A. for some karoke. Poor Kevin.

**CRAZIES! 5 AM! Every weekend! AHHHH!

Discovery World, Santa Ana, CA

Ah...Sunday. Every Sunday during Packer season I feel bad for Kevin. There is nothing he would like more than to wake up, make a pot of coffee, eat some left over pizza from the night before, and watch the Packers in his pajamas. Because we are in California and Fox refuses to show Midwest\Eastern games on regular TV\cable (unless you have DirectTV and pay $200 for their football package) you have to go to a bar at 10 in the morning to catch the Pack strut their stuff. Or, as I happen to know (even though I don't like football), watch them miserably lose to NY when their stats show that they should have won. Poor, poor Kevin.



After the game, Kevin with a pouty face let me take him to this weekend's new thing (and his idea I might add), the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. And it was good.

I pass by the Discovery Center every once in awhile when I'm on my way to something else. The big black cube in the sky always catches my attention and ever since I've moved here (even the first time), I've been meaning to go. This place *almost* kicks the Science Museum in Chicago's ass. Let me put it this way...if I was 10 and I went to both, I would, like, totally, like, think the Discovery Center, like, totally, way, kicks ass over tits the Science Museum in Chicago. But it's purely because the hand's on thing.

They had tornado machines and hurricane machines and earthquake machines and some sort of sand thing and a wind thing and water thing, and three way mirrors and mini planes you can drive and a 3-D thing and, uh...well shit. Just go here if you get the chance. Bring a bottle of disinfectant and definitely go on a week day.




This is the beginning of a horror movie, isn't it....?