Thursday, June 29, 2006

Don't Do Drugs Kids!

Teen Who Cut Off Corpse's Head To Make Bong Sentenced
On April 8, 2005, Buckalew went broke into a tomb, opened the lid of a casket and cut off the head of a corpse. He stole eyeglasses and a bow tie from the dead man. He then wrapped the head in plastic bags and took it home, The Caledonian-Record reported.The teen reportedly told friends that he planned to leave the head outside to dry and would then bleach it, a police affidavit said. The witnesses said his plan was to turn the skull into a bong -- a pipe generally used to smoke marijuana. Buckalew went to an apartment where some of his friends were and told them that he had chopped off the head because he was bored, according to The Caledonian-Record.
more

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Star Wars at COSI, Gaming, LibraryThing!

Evie had a great time hanging out with her cousins from North Carolina this weekend. Check out this awesome pic of Evie, Kate & Rob all reading:


Since the fam was in town, Saturday we hit up COSI to check out the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit. I've been interested in checking this one out since I first saw the ad for it while leaving COSI when we saw the Titanic exhibit. I didn't really have a good idea what to expect, but I was pretty happy with the results. It was a nice mix of props, models & costumes from the movies, interactive exhibits regarding applying some of the "science" from Star Wars, and video clips talking about the setting, the science, etc. It was pretty chaotic and we weren't able to all stay together, but for the most part I think we all had a great time. Evie did get pretty frustrated haggling with a jawa over a new NannyDroid though...



Read more about the visit on Evie's page. Lots more pics are on the pics site.

Sunday I hooked up with my friend Mike for some serious strategy gaming goodness. We played two games of Abalone, two games of Stratego, and a game of Age of Mythology. Not a bad afternoon at all - I had a blast, and it was good to see Mike again because we haven't managed to connect-up much lately. Hopefully one of these days we can get a few more folks together for a game of Civ, or even better, the ever-elusive game of face-to-face Diplomacy.

One more thing I have to share before I go -- last night I stumbled upon a site called LibraryThing. Basically, it's a site which allows you to keep track of your book collection. You can import your collection list using various methods, or add it book-by-book by searching on name, author, or even ISBN. On top of this, it lets you add descriptive tags, ratings and reviews for each book. It uses your collection, tags, ratings, and other people's information who used the same tags/liked the same things to recommend other books to you -- or you can just browse tags or other people's collections with the same books to find things you might be interested in. I got sucked in pretty hard and entered most of my collection last night (mostly using ISBN, it was fastest). I went ahead and added a link to my collection in the sidebar, but here's a direct link as well.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Becuase I Have A Problem, That's Why

So yeah, we went to Fujiyama last night with quite possibly the biggest group turnout EVAR. Let's see if I can figure out who all was there. If I leave someone out, bear in mind I have a horrible memory:

  • Randy, Heather
  • Jonesy
  • Me, Amy, Evie
  • Chris, Carrie, Allison
  • Beth, Paul, Abby
  • Steve, Holly
  • Gary
  • Jeff, Angel
  • Dan
  • Adam, (mind-blanking...Erin?)
  • Steve J.
  • Todd, Mica
  • Mike, Monica

I think that's everyone... for a grand total of 22 adults and 3 chilluns. It was a great time, but I'm pretty sure the staff were completely overwhelmed. They had us split onto three "sides" of the hibachi pairs there. We were on the "separate" side, and I think the separation made things a little easier, because from our side things went pretty well, but a number of folks mentioned mess-ups and service problems on the other side, which stinks. Still, it was awesome seeing everyone all together like that. I'm pretty sure it's the largest group assembled from the "gang" for anything other than weddings. I got a couple pics of the "just guys" and "just girls" shots (sadly after Chris, Carrie & Allison left though) and will get 'em up soon. Randy's camera had the full-on everyone shots. Lord knows how those turned out.

So after all that, what do we do for dinner tonight? Go back to Fujiyama of course. My Uncle T & his family are in town from North Carolina. They're big Japanese steak house-style fans, so we had to hit it up, and who am I to turn down such a good meal? I could eat there 7 nights a week I think. Well, maybe if they had sushi on the menu, too - that would be the total knockout blow. Anyways, we had a good time, got a good chef, and it was a blast seeing the kids (my cousins, 9 and 6) watch the show. The downside is we had the worst freaking service I've ever gotten there. It really was downright apalling. The waitress was almost never in the room, turned in her papers out of order (therefore getting a chef to a later table before us), took forever with our drinks and our salads. Yeah. Ridiculous. I'm wondering if it was the same person waiting us who caused the problems for the other folks last night -- if so, that explains a LOT, and I'd say that even if she is brand new, she needs to shape-up damn fast or they need to find someone else. Maybe put her with a "trainer" or something, someone who can keep an eye out and make sure she's doing things right, because it was ridamdiculous.

But you know what? I'd still eat there again tomorrow.

AND Sunday.

Yeah, I know.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Insta-Cover! Fujiyama Madness

BoingBoing linked this neat little "tool" - the Fake Name Generator. Each time you reload it presents another fake yet plausible identity, complete with address, phone, a fake credit card number (!), even a disposable e-mail address courtesy of Pookmail. It's a little scary to think what could happen if it hits upon someone's real info in some of the aspects, but still, it's pretty interesting, and perfect for the low- (ok, no-)budget spy on the run.

Frank D. Schulz
158 Elm Street
Sioux City, IA 51101

Email Address: Frank.D.Schulz@pookmail.com
(More information at PookMail.com)

Phone: 712-233-4627
Mother's maiden name: Lisena
Birthday: December 26, 1960

Visa: 4539 0656 4999 1861
Expires: 10/2007

Going to Fujiyama tonight to visit with Jonesy and celebrate Randy's dual-action good events. With TWENTY-TWO people in the party. That's just obscene.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Father's Day

I had an awesome Father's Day weekend. My write-up of it is on Evie's page, here. Amy wrote-up a bit herself, here. I won't really bother repeating any of it here, other than this picture, which is incredibly mega-awesome and will be put everywhere:



Seriously. I dare you to TRY and resist that. Isn't she awesome??

Speaking of awesome, if you haven't already, make sure to check out the big news over at the Lair. Most Excellent.

Google released an update to Picasa which offers some web uploading/album-type stuff. It's very similar to Flickr in a number of ways, but has some differences as well. I used the pups to experiment with it, check it out.

Last bit of crazy news: using some Father's Day cashola courtesy Amy's mom, I snagged my 1,000th CD today. It is: Warmachine: The Beginning Of The End. (That says Import, but I got it for a domestic price at Magnolia Thunderpussy. Gotta love that place.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Shots, Random Links

Evie had her two month doctor's appointment today, complete with four shots. She tried to be tough, but four big needles poking in such little legs was sure to produce screams and tears... Still, she did great. I'll write-up more at Evie's page (hopefully). Here she is flying (excuse the quality, it's a phone pic):


Some random links from all over the scope of things:
Enjoy!

Monday, June 12, 2006

The Bistro, the Baby Show, and the Birthday

Well, as alluded to on Friday, we had one hell of a busy weekend... didn't spend a whole lot of time just lounging around (or even working around) the house, as we were almost on the run from dinner Friday straight through to Sunday night. Here you get one long review and two brief summaries. The Saturday and Sunday events will get their longer write-up on Evie's page.

Friday: Nostalgia & Tropical Bistro Madness
As planned, we hit up Tropical Bistro Friday night. It definitely lived up to the hype -- the menu is almost a clone of the old Kahiki menu (the drink menu is the exact same picture as the old Kahiki drink menu), the atmosphere tries -- it's kind of heavy on the Chinese Buffet-style decorations, with the golden dragons, pagodas and the like, but it's also got some tiki heads, polynesian lamps, and when we were there Friday night they had a ukulele player from Hawaii playing some awesome Aloha-jams.

Drinks-wise, they have a lot of great choices, including all the Kahiki standards, in their distinctive mugs (which you don't get to keep any longer, unfortunately)... I had a Headhunter, which is rum and various tropical juices. Laurie had a Smoking Eruption in all it's dry-ice glory. Amy was tempted by the Vicious Virgin, but asked what was in it, and it was NOT virgin at all... Even for a non-drinker such as myself, the drink selection was a lot of fun.

Food-wise, the menu is split into "From the East", "From the West", and "From the Islands" just like the old Kahiki menu. Standards such as the Royal Pu Pu platter, Beef/Chicken Skewers, the Tahitian Mermaid (crab & cream cheese between two steaks - excellent), and such are still there, augmented with new choices like lettuce wraps and sushi. I had the beef teriyaki skewer, which was filet mignon cooked pefectly, on a skewer with a whole onion, some pineapple and some tomato, served with rice and a teriyaki dipping sauce. The whole thing is on a big metal skewer and finished off with an open flame tableside by the server. Lots of fun, and very tasty. Amy had the Sesame Chicken, which was good, Laurie spoke highly of her Tropical Chicken (served in a pineapple shell), and Gary had the aforementioned and phenomenal Tahitian Mermaid.

For dessert, pictured above, we had to get the Big Fat Mamasan, a Kahiki classic - a huge pile of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, with chocolate sauce and various fruits (including, or so Amy has told us, coochie fruit). How can you not enjoy a flaming, smoking mountain of ice cream?

So yeah, we had lots of fun, and I highly recommend the place to any good food lover, but especially to fans of the old Kahiki food and service. As a bonus they do daily lunch buffets (other than Saturday) and a brunch buffet on Sundays! For another take (and a horrible picture of me), see Laurie's review here.

Saturday: Evie Goes to Cincy
[pictures are here]
Me, Amy & Evie headed down to Cincy to visit with the Voellmecke clan. En route, as always, was a required stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade. Amy made a potty run at the La Rosa's next door and out of guilt bought a lifetime supply of LaRosa's pizza sauce in the industrial size "feed the whole famdamily" bag. We met up with some of Amy's family on her Mom's side briefly, then spent the rest of the day in the Voellmecke jungle. Saw pretty much all of them in the area, as well as the Chicago contingent. On the way home we hit-up Jungle Jim's... WOW. That's a helluva grocery store. Bought lots of fun stuff including:
Sunday: Alaina I.'s First Birthday!!
[pictures are here]
Sunday we hit Dayton with Gary in tow for Alaina's first birthday party. Irene & Jeremy put on one heck of an awesome party. Some awesome grilled kebobs, chocolate-covered strawberries, an awesome strawberry snake cake, cornhole, and a huge inflatable jumping room. Plus the birthday girl herself, who is a heck of a lot of fun (I can't believe Evie will be up and around and doing those things in less than 10 months!) And on top of all the other fun and comraderie, we got to meet their new pug puppy, PIRATE! Check out this mug:


Only 9 weeks old and already in prison! A true pirate indeed!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Friday Yo

Can't complain about Friday. Got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, though, so I expect going back to work on Monday is going to suck even more than usual. But that's how things go.

Best Of '06
Wednesday Amy & I hit up Shadowbox for Best of the Box 2006. It was, as you might expect, reeking of awesomeness. I typed up a pretty extensive review on their forums, so I won't really get into it here, other than to say that I definitely enjoyed it, and hopefully things work out so that we'll be able to go back again at least once before Freak Show rolls around.

Tropical Bistro
Tonight Amy, Laurie, Gary & I are going to try out Tropical Bistro, which is kind of a reincarnation of the Kahiki! Or "Kahiki Lite" as it were. We loved the Kahiki, and as with many folks, were very very sad when it closed back in '00. I'm still holding out hope that it'll come back with a full-blown fancy building and everything, instead of just in some strip mall, but with almost the same menu, drinks, several important staff, and a lot of decorations, I'll take what I can get. I'll let you know how it is...

Tomorrow: Cincy & the V-clan.
Sunday: Dayton for Alaina's b-day and hopefully to Casa Fish for game night afterward.
Monday: back to work...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Dream Dinners, Strawberries, 6/6/06

Dream Dinners
As mentioned previously, Saturday morning Amy & I tried out Dream Dinners in Westerville. Amy's already talked about it on Evie's page, but I wanted to get my own say in as well. Beforehand, I was unsure about the price, as it's a lot of upfront money to put out, but we had a lot of fun there putting everything together, and it's looking like it'll actually work out to be a really good deal. It is a lot of upfront money, but we made 12 meals (11 entrees and a dessert). The meals typically serve 4-6, so of those we split 9 of them (including the dessert) into two portions, making 19 meals and two desserts. Since then, we've had two of the split meals and they were definitely large enough portions for both of us to eat our fill AND have enough left over for me to take to lunch the next day. Given the amount of money we'd probably spend at the grocery store on trips for all those meals, let alone the time and energy we'd spend prepping everything... I can safely give a strong recommendation for Dream Dinners.

Strawberry Love
Sunday we went down to Troy to hit up the Troy Strawberry Festival with Gary, Irene, Jeremy & Alaina. At the festival we met up with Amy's cousin Emily and her friend Dan too. It did rain off and on while we were there, and I got pretty soaked while waiting in the ridiculous line for butterfly fries (or twister chips, or shaved potatoes, or whatever). They were good. Still, I'll take the rain over the 92-some degree heat and humidity of last year. Strawberry-food summary:
  • Deep-fried strawberries
  • Strawberry pizza (I had some of Amy's)
  • Strawberries & Chocolate (some of Irene's)
  • Strawberry & Lemon Cooler (like a Lemon Shake-up but with strawberry goo too)
  • Strawberry salsa (some of Emily's)
  • Strawberry donuts
They were all tasty, but the deep-fried strawberries and the cooler stood out above the rest. And of course, the strawberry donuts ROCK. Jeremy's a total champ for taking on the 1.5 hour line to get us some hot & fresh donuts. They were fantabulous. For NON-strawberry food I had a bloomin' onion, the aforementioned butterfly fries, and roasted sweet corn. Mmmm tasty.

6/6/06
June 6, 2006 -- or 6/6/06 as it were. As you might expect there are all kinds of tie-ins to this. As I mentioned previously, it's the National Day of Slayer. They're releasing an EP exclusively to Hot Topics today with at least one new song on it, and I believe they're doing a t-shirt thing for it as well.

Elsewhere, they're having a party in the real-life town of Hell, Michigan. (I think all Buckeye fans aren't surprised to find out Hell is located in Michigan).

The Omen remake comes out today. It looks pretty decent, but I'm not sure why a remake was really needed.

There's plenty more places talking about it as well... Apparently some bookmaking websites are even making odds on the world ending today. Not really sure how you'd collect on that bet though.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Gah~!, Go RPS yourself

So of course I've spent the past half-hour or so writing up a nice blog post summarizing the fun of the day's lunch selection dramas and Randy's apparent new nom-de-guerre "Catfish", when wouldn't you know it, Firefox (!) crashes and *poof* all gone.

I'll write it up again sometime soon I guess, but for now, I just want to throw a link out there and be done with it. But it comes with a bit of a story. Back in the day, in my early days at OSU (and working at the good 'ol Customer Services desk), Beth & I would use Rock-Paper-Scissors all the time to decide who had to do the next crap-job, or make the lunch run, or help the next customer, or whatever. The problem was, we knew each other so well that most of the time we'd tie over and over again. Well, one of us found a solution to this on the nascent World Wide Web in the form of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard, and it's 5 possible signs. Well, we had a desk job that had decent periods of down-time (or even more often, mindless work time), so we figured why stop there -- so we worked out the 7-sign version Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard-Dynamite-UTS. After all, there's always some stupid kid that would try to play dynamite and "blow everything up", just to be a pain-in-the-ass brat, and this gives it actual balanced results.

Obviously, we weren't the only folks to figure out that the game works with ANY number of symbols as long as you're always adding two more, and some dude took it to the extreme with RPS-25. That's twenty five signs for some insane number of different combinations. You've got all your usuals there, as well as Bowl, Axe, Monkey, and even Devil and Nuke. Check 'em out:

Thursday, June 01, 2006

My Musical Tastes

It seems to happen fairly regularly, but I still enjoy it when I search for an album on Amazon (especially when I add one to my Wish List), and it pops up the old "Customers who shopped for XXX also saw these items..." , and it's such a unique combination of stuff that it can ONLY be using my own data to build the list from.