Happy Halloween!

Boo! No big updates today - just changed all the clocks and gonna go buy gas to fire up the leaf blower. Wheeee!

No More Mr. Stinkypants!

Now THIS is a great idea! Does it filter farts on the way out, too? Click the title.

The Shining Redux

The is getting around pretty good, but I'm linking it just in case you haven't bumped into it yet. Just a redone trailer for the movie The Shining. What a hoot! Click the title.

Back (part 2)

More thoughts from San Antonio trip:

There were more trees there than I expected. Probably because of The Alamo, I was expecting dry, sparse land without much foliage. There were lots. The Riverwalk was loaded with beautiful trees, tons of noisy birds every morning in the trees. Even the Alamo area had been built up into a pretty park-like atmosphere.

Of course there are 'touristy' distractions. Across the street from The Alamo, there are a Ripley's wax museum, Guinness records attraction - that kind of garbage.

There was a restaurant called Steers and Beers. When the lights were on, you could see a few lights were out and the lit sign spelled Stee and B. I thought it was cool because the name still rhymed.

Although we liked the hotel, apparently at least one person on the staff doesn't make enough. First night in town we ate at a place called Zuni Grill, but didn't finish our meals. So, Lori called the hotel from the table, just to check if there was a refrigerator we could use. 'Yes', they said, no problem, lots of room. The clerk put our room number on the bag and took it away. Lori had 2 thin grilled pork chops go in the refrigerator on Thursday, but only 1 thin grilled pork chop on Saturday afternoon when we had our leftovers for lunch.

With a 4 day trip and no band to work, we had room for 'dressier' clothes and time for a 'nice' meal. We chose Las Canarias, one of the nicer dining options on the Riverwalk - part of the hotel La Mansion. Very nice - great food and outstanding service. Check it out if you go there.

One afternoon, we went to the Mexican Market (there was probably another, more proper name for it but that's what it was. Not very impressive, but we did buy some Mexican candy.

The other worthy-of-mention dining was at Schilo's deli, just a couple of blocks from our hotel. German deli serving home-style cooking - great space - really good food. Lori and I both had Jaegerschnitzel - pork tenderloin with a mushroom gravy. We went back there for breakfast on the day we left. Nothing beats 2 eggs and a brat for breakfast!

We didn't plan it, but the Saints were in town to play their 'home' game against Atlanta - downtown was all abuzz on Sunday.

Finally, the International Accordion Festival - the reason we went in the first place - was terrific. The title links to the festival's website. I think we saw all but 2 or 3 of the bands. Augie Meyers and Los Skarnales were standouts. We bumped into Donna & Bill - Brave Combo fans we know from St. Louis. One of the stages actually had the stage on one side of the river and hillside seating on the other side of the river. Boats would cross between the stage and the audience frequently.

Even more fun - Lori won a plane ticket at the festival. Southwest Airlines was a sponsor and one of the booths sold strawberry shortcakes. If you bought a shortcake, you got a chance at winning a ticket on Southwest - anywhere they fly. They drew one name each evening and you didn't have to be present to win. Apparently they announced Lori's name on Saturday night, buy we weren't at the right stage. On Sunday afternoon, Lori went for another shortcake, was filling out her ticket for Sunday and the booth worker said "Lori Young? You won yesterday!" Way too cool!

Choke the Chicken

Click the title for the link to an article about a controversial new toy.

Too many jokes to make here. Suffice it to say, as the toy company representative is quoted in the article, the Choking Chicken toy is "a toy that is used to relieve stress." I there is no arguing with that.

Back (part 1) and half gone again

Back from San Antonio! Always good to get away, yet always good to come home.

Tonight Lori leaves for St. Louis - a quick trip with the band. This weekend is our graduation at work, so I need to be there on Sunday. The graduations are always fun. Couple hundred grads, all in there cleanest chefwear, about 1,700 guests. It's really cool.

So, we saw the Alamo. They've turned part of the area around it into a nice park. There's a Library/Research Center run by the Daughters of the Texas Revolution. Artifact displays, dioramas, brief film, giftshop, and the 'main' mission building itself. Worth the trip.

On Sunday, I was up early, got out and took a walk around downtown San Antonio. I wanted to find the Starbucks, buy a paper and a coffee, hang out and read the sports section before heading back. Unbelievable - couldn't find a Starbucks! Or any other coffee shop. So I ended up at the McDonald's. The funny part of this story is the McDonald's manager. Nice guy - good service. He must have said "Bada-bing, bada-boom" at least twice to every customer. "Okay, so that's a large coffee" He punches it into the register. "Bada-bing, bada-boom! That's one seventy five, please." I hand him 2 bucks. "Two dollars - bada-bing!" And so on. He also liked the phrase "Schwing - and a miss", but he didn't say it as often.

On the way back, I picked up some Shipley Do-Nuts. If you find yourself in the great American south east, track these down. Mighty tasty! Link to their website is through this post's title. Nothing fancy here, but a list of locations, anyway.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Quickly, my latest news:

-Lori bought her new laptop last Friday. Our PC, Mr. Blue, died on Saturday. It's either the mother board or flux capacitor. Mr. Blue's in the shop for now. We moved the hard drive data to the laptop and are up and running in the meantime.

-We're leaving for San Antonio in a few hours. The International Accordion Festival starts on Saturday. We'll do the Alamo and the Riverwalk and tons of other fun stuff, too, I'm sure.

-Hey, if you see the new Wallace & Gromit movie, get there early to catch the Madagascar short. Brave Combo Christmas music is used over the closing credits of the short.

-Bought a new spare ball last weekend and had some work done on my 'regular' ball. I thought when I bought my last spare ball that I'd probably never have to buy another spare ball. What would I need a new one for? Well, a few years ago I went to a 15lb. ball and changed my grip, but have kept the 16lb. spare ball with the old grip for about 5 years now since I made that change. I never changed the grip on the spare ball to the new one, either. I just always figured that by the time I spend the money on the plug and redrill for the new grip, I may as well just get a 15lb. replacement. So, of course, after I got the ball, I wanted to practice the 10-pin shot with this weight and grip. It was just funny to see my score of 40 or something at the end of it.

Beer News

Click the title for a report on a beer with nicotine, marketed for those smokers who now find their favorite watering holes in smokeless zones.

This is great! Now, along with my catheter & piss bag, I have 2 things to help me just sit here and focus on the drinking!

Driving in a Pod

Nothing about new music today, but about new-to-me music. Lori picked up a Spike Jones box set recently and we've been going through it over the last several days. Fast, loud, obnoxious, irreverent - very cool and the sound on most of the tracks is quite good. Highest recommendation.

Changing topics, the link from the title will get you to some information on a concept vehicle shown recently in Japan, I believe. The article makes a couple of points about the car, but I'm fascinated by the concept of the driver/passenger area being a cockpit/pod thing with the ability to spin. Either side of the car can operate as the front/back. No need to back out of a parking space, just get in, spin the pod around and now you're pulling out forward. I love the idea of this, even though I can't think of many really useful reasons to have this function.