That is part of the opening sentence of a news story and I have to admit I didn't know the words "Yangon" "Myanmar" or "junta". I have looked them up since then, of course, but that's not the point. I didn't know that the nation of Burma had changed it's name to Myanmar in 1989. Wow. That's pretty weak of me!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
This Is Embarrassing.....
Want to hear something about me that is sad? I normally consider myself a person of "a-bit-better-than-average" intelligence, but today as I was browsing through the news I came across the following sentence - "YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar's junta slapped dusk-till-dawn curfews on the country's two largest cities....."
That is part of the opening sentence of a news story and I have to admit I didn't know the words "Yangon" "Myanmar" or "junta". I have looked them up since then, of course, but that's not the point. I didn't know that the nation of Burma had changed it's name to Myanmar in 1989. Wow. That's pretty weak of me!
That is part of the opening sentence of a news story and I have to admit I didn't know the words "Yangon" "Myanmar" or "junta". I have looked them up since then, of course, but that's not the point. I didn't know that the nation of Burma had changed it's name to Myanmar in 1989. Wow. That's pretty weak of me!
The Return Of The King
See this nicely dressed gentleman above? He’s an ass. I love him. You will too. Tonight is the season premiere of House and I cannot wait. This is the beginning of the fourth season and (just like every other season) it promises to be a great one. Everybody should watch it. Those are my orders. Or else all your base are belong to us.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Drool....
1968 Convertible Camaro SS - WANT!
Concept 2009 Camaro - WANT!
Whatver the hell this is - DO NOT WANT!
Concept 2009 Camaro - WANT!
Whatver the hell this is - DO NOT WANT!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Open Mouth, Insert....Snake?
Hopefully next time Matt Wilkenson will make a different choice. Putting the head of a "pet" Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake in his mouth to show off for his friends has probably taught him a lesson he won't soon forget. Because, of course, the snake bit him - inside his throat. Here's the story (and a video with a cool, bloody picture)
Monday, September 17, 2007
Yo Ho Ho and A Bottle of Rum
That's right, I said rum. I also said ho, but I was merely referring to my cousin Sabrina who happened to be with me this weekend as I celebrated my birthday. I didn't lie about the ho (just kidding Sabrina), but I did sort of mislead you about the rum. I did not have a bottle of rum. What I actually had was a 6 pack of the new Parrot Bay Flavored Malt Beverages. The flavor I chose was "Wave Runner" which is passion fruit and mango. It was yummy! It was fruity tasting, like a wine-cooler, but packed the same amount of alcoholic punch as a typical bottle of beer. Since beer is the nastiest tasting thing on the planet and gets you drunk easy, and wine coolers taste great but don't do a damn thing to you, then drinking something that offers the best of both is awesome. The Parrot Bay drinks are more expensive than beer - I payed approx. $8 for a six pack - but much cheaper than my old method of buying various alcohols and flavors and ice so that I could spend my night making drinks instead of drinking them. Yep, you add the convenience factor in to the deliciousness and effectiveness and I will pay $8 for these things anytime.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Fo Shizzle
Yo, Yo - I know I aint been round much this past week. But it's cool. I just been chillin, checkin out some stuff on the intrawebz. Here's some of the latest things that have been keeping me busy:
Playing around with photos
Keeping track of the latest video game news
Drooling over the hottest new gizmos
Polishing up on some long-forgotten places
Laughing my ass off here and here
And, of course, watching lots of football and movies on the glorious Samsung 50 inch DLP HDTV. Man, that tv has been in the house now for a whole year - and I still stare at it with wide-eyed wonder and amazement. It's the most beautiful thing ever.
Playing around with photos
Keeping track of the latest video game news
Drooling over the hottest new gizmos
Polishing up on some long-forgotten places
Laughing my ass off here and here
And, of course, watching lots of football and movies on the glorious Samsung 50 inch DLP HDTV. Man, that tv has been in the house now for a whole year - and I still stare at it with wide-eyed wonder and amazement. It's the most beautiful thing ever.
Friday, September 07, 2007
One Of Those Days
Do you ever just have one of those days? You know, the kind of day when you seem to be pissed off at the world yet you don’t really have any one specific reason why? Well, that’s the kind of day I am having today. For some reason every single thing is just frustrating the hell out of me. And it didn’t help at all when I finally decided to cheer myself up with some chocolate and had a 20 minute fight with the vending machine.
Yep, even the vending machine was out to get me today. I walked down to the break room with five $1 bills in my pocket, some of which were in very good condition, and could not get the stupid machine to accept one. I kept straightening and shoving several different bills but not one of them would even get started. So, I finally put a dollar into the $.65 Coke machine that dispenses cans to see if I could get it to return my dollar to me in quarters. Of course, it didn’t. It simply puked my same dollar right back out to me when I hit the coin return button.
Then I got feisty and stepped over to the $1.25 Pepsi machine that dispenses bottles to try the same trick there. But this time the trick was on me because the Pepsi machine not only doesn’t give back quarters, it doesn’t give back your dollar either. Now I have to put another dollar into that machine and buy a damn Pepsi. At least when my change was dispensed from my $2, I did end up with enough quarters to buy some chocolate. So, it all worked out in the end – 20 minutes after it began. Unfortunately it wasted my time, made my crankiness even worse (the chocolate was no longer going to be enough of a help) and cost me money I don’t have for a drink I didn’t want.
And that was all before lunch. Guess what? My day hasn’t gotten any better from there. Luckily for me, I’ll be laughing about it all in no time. I never stay too cranky for too long.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Heads Up!
I just wanted to make sure everyone realizes what a busy weekend we have ahead of us. All sorts of really cool local activities are taking place with something to please everyone.
Here's a short list:
Blues Festival
First Friday Art Walk
Japanese Stroll Gardens Fall Festivle
Route 66 Days at Strafford, MO
Wickman Garden Village Fall Festival
There's plenty more - just check the events calendar at the The News Leader
Here's a short list:
Blues Festival
First Friday Art Walk
Japanese Stroll Gardens Fall Festivle
Route 66 Days at Strafford, MO
Wickman Garden Village Fall Festival
There's plenty more - just check the events calendar at the The News Leader
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
Weekend Roadtrip
One day last week I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Lope, and found an entry about the Wheel Inn Drive-In in Sedalia, MO. The Wheel Inn is a classic style drive-in diner that was founded in 1947 and has been a popular Missouri attraction ever since. It is frequented by historic car clubs, nostalgia buffs, and peanut butter lovers. Why peanut butter lovers? Because the specialty burger served at the Wheel Inn is the GuberBurger - a hamburger on a bun that is topped with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and (of course) melted peanut butter.
The building has been virtually unchanged since being built in the late 40's, both inside and out. The original u-shaped counter still accomodates diners who choose to eat inside and the round shape of the building means that the cars who are parked outside act as the spokes of the wheel. The menu is simple burger-joint fare and the prices are inexpensive. The interior walls are lined with old photos of the landmark through the years, with the only noticeable changes being the appearances of the cars.
But sadly, the Wheel Inn is no more. Today, Labor Day, was their last day of business. They are being forced to close due to the widening of the intersection where the building is located. While the construction project doesn't exactly interfere with the actual building, it will completely take away the parking and entrance at the front of the building and the back of the lot will now only be accessible by a right turn. It's just not feasible for the place to remain open. So, what does any of this have to do with me? It meant I was taking a roadtrip.
I decided I had to see this piece of Missouri history for myself and I had to at least try a GuberBurger while they were still being cranked out. So my friend Kim, her two kids and I hopped in the car on Saturday morning and drove about 2 hours away to eat a burger. It sure is nice to have good friends who are willing to go on crazy adventures.
When we got there, the wait for food was over an hour. And I don't mean to sit down, there wasn't even a chance to sit down, I mean that we stood against the wall and the waitress took our order and then told us it would be over an hour. But it wasn't a huge surprise. We knew we were going to have a bit of a wait when we couldn't even park anywhere near the building. We parked in the lot of a dentists office nearby and walked up. Once we placed our order, we went back outside and sat down on the sidewalk surrounding the building that the cars pull up to when they park and order.
The kids did pretty good with the wait time, and the place was so active that we had plenty of people-watching opportunities which made the time go by pretty fast.
I was the only one who tried the GuberBurger (it was good) but everyone like their food. Kim's son Ben didn't really think a cheeseburger was worth the drive and the wait, but he wasn't too miserable. After we licked our fingers and took some pictures, we headed for home. We were headed south on Hwy 65 towards Springfield when we decided to take a detour out to the Truman Dam near Warsaw. No point in driving within a few miles of it and never stopping. And it turned out to be a really great little stop. They have an amazing visitor center there with all sorts of cool displays and historic photos. There is an observation area overlooking the lake and damn which made for some pretty pictures.
Also, across the parking lot was the nature trail and the Hooper House, a reconstructed farm house of historic signifigance. We walked the trail and discovered several other historic reconstructions along the way. There was an old log cabin (that was apparently home to a pet black snake) and a one-room schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was my favorite part because when you walked in, it was just like stepping back in time. There were even old, original textbooks and slates on the student's desks.
From there we made a quick side trip to Pomme de Terre State Park where I got to meet Kim's brother and see where they like to spend their weekends at the lake. Then, we headed home. It was a great way to spend the day and I'm thrilled that I made the trip. I apologize for not having more pictures, but I discovered when I got home that my camera was on the wrong settings and most of what I took did not turn out. These are some of the few that I salvaged.
The building has been virtually unchanged since being built in the late 40's, both inside and out. The original u-shaped counter still accomodates diners who choose to eat inside and the round shape of the building means that the cars who are parked outside act as the spokes of the wheel. The menu is simple burger-joint fare and the prices are inexpensive. The interior walls are lined with old photos of the landmark through the years, with the only noticeable changes being the appearances of the cars.
But sadly, the Wheel Inn is no more. Today, Labor Day, was their last day of business. They are being forced to close due to the widening of the intersection where the building is located. While the construction project doesn't exactly interfere with the actual building, it will completely take away the parking and entrance at the front of the building and the back of the lot will now only be accessible by a right turn. It's just not feasible for the place to remain open. So, what does any of this have to do with me? It meant I was taking a roadtrip.
I decided I had to see this piece of Missouri history for myself and I had to at least try a GuberBurger while they were still being cranked out. So my friend Kim, her two kids and I hopped in the car on Saturday morning and drove about 2 hours away to eat a burger. It sure is nice to have good friends who are willing to go on crazy adventures.
When we got there, the wait for food was over an hour. And I don't mean to sit down, there wasn't even a chance to sit down, I mean that we stood against the wall and the waitress took our order and then told us it would be over an hour. But it wasn't a huge surprise. We knew we were going to have a bit of a wait when we couldn't even park anywhere near the building. We parked in the lot of a dentists office nearby and walked up. Once we placed our order, we went back outside and sat down on the sidewalk surrounding the building that the cars pull up to when they park and order.
The kids did pretty good with the wait time, and the place was so active that we had plenty of people-watching opportunities which made the time go by pretty fast.
I was the only one who tried the GuberBurger (it was good) but everyone like their food. Kim's son Ben didn't really think a cheeseburger was worth the drive and the wait, but he wasn't too miserable. After we licked our fingers and took some pictures, we headed for home. We were headed south on Hwy 65 towards Springfield when we decided to take a detour out to the Truman Dam near Warsaw. No point in driving within a few miles of it and never stopping. And it turned out to be a really great little stop. They have an amazing visitor center there with all sorts of cool displays and historic photos. There is an observation area overlooking the lake and damn which made for some pretty pictures.
Also, across the parking lot was the nature trail and the Hooper House, a reconstructed farm house of historic signifigance. We walked the trail and discovered several other historic reconstructions along the way. There was an old log cabin (that was apparently home to a pet black snake) and a one-room schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was my favorite part because when you walked in, it was just like stepping back in time. There were even old, original textbooks and slates on the student's desks.
From there we made a quick side trip to Pomme de Terre State Park where I got to meet Kim's brother and see where they like to spend their weekends at the lake. Then, we headed home. It was a great way to spend the day and I'm thrilled that I made the trip. I apologize for not having more pictures, but I discovered when I got home that my camera was on the wrong settings and most of what I took did not turn out. These are some of the few that I salvaged.
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