Living the American dream

Yea...that's what I did this President's Day. I went to the Rainforest Cafe with the wife and child, waiting for 25 minutes - you know you wait in line to check in, then you go back to the stand when your name is called because Your Adventure is About to Begin...then you go to the real line, where you put in another 11 minutes. Buddy, my adventure began when I rolled up and realized my kid was the 400th in line and I'm waiting in what amounts to a massive Point of Purchase display. I spent 4 bucks on two animal action figures, a smarmy-looking lizard and a flippant toucan. I believe we named the toucan Dayton. I did not purchase the 3-foot long candy snake branded 'Hissee Fit,' and with names like Blue Raspberry Bite. Dude, that's 36 inches of corn syrup, and a lot of nasty for $3.99. That's some 9-year old's American Dream...and a heckuva choking hazard, Rainforest or no. By the way, the food was awesome. And the kid loved it - there's the dream.

Fiber & balls

I got suckered by this confusing headline: To get your fiber, try making felt by hand. Kinda weird. Also weird...I work down the street from a place called Suburbanite Bowl. That sounds like a heckuva afternoon right there, maybe even take that through to the evening - toss down some balls, maybe get yourself some Suburbanite popcorn and a Suburbanite soda. Whooeee.

External hard drive image of the day v.1 #2

Improbable caption: Business is booming!

Where the flavor is

Ain't Marlboro country! It's the Asian market! I had a nice dose of culture at the Mitsuwa market the other day - hadn't been there in a while. I bought a bunch of bean-filled pastries and killed some time. I whiled around most of the grocery: the cooking utensils, the cooked-rice endcap, sushi and sashimi, poultry, beef, seafood, the refrigerated desserts section...also spent time in a long line in the bakery, walked around the food court and checked out the mag offerings in the bookstore. I can't wait to get my yakisuba and yakitori on. A magnificently-smelling dude walked by, rolling off a nice olfactory dose of cherry tobacco. There was also a dude at the little travel agency who nicely pulled off an argyle cardigan with a diagonal stripe tie, weird but cool...i think he was rockin a glen plaid sportjacket as well. Nicely done, travelguy-san. Here's a funny thing: in a far-off back corner there was some kind of doll-making-surgery-dressing center going on with a bunch of caucasian adolescents. I may have seen some scrapbooking happening - I can't be sure, because this crazy-mulleted kid was pretending a huge tripod was a machine gun and giving me the eye. All the Asians getting rice and octopus were pretty styling, like out of Tokion. Too bad the market's done at 8 pm everyday. I think I'm feeling the pull of the masago.

External hard drive image of the day v.1 #1

Improbable Caption: Spumoni? I'll fightcha for it!

Downtrodden in teal

How do you know it's tax season? You see a poor sucker dressed up as the Statue of Liberty by the ingress of some teensy strip mall. You know the poem that goes with The Statue..."Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."- This Statue man was despondent. The first day I saw him, he looked like he was shivering his yinneez off - this was like the first day of February maybe. The second time I saw him, his head was bowed kinda low - maybe tired, maybe poor, definitely cold. At least he had black gloves on both times. His white shoes didn't go so well with the teal though. I've also been seeing a different Statue of Liberty. This one's down the road from that one, but it's a statue in the real sense. I think it has wheels.

Give me your tired, your poor...what about your earnings. That one Statue man would probably settle for a cup of coffee.