Chicago to Missouri

On Friday we left early to go to Columbia, MO.  This was our first road trip in the new Fiesta.  We were supposed to come up with a name for the new car on this trip but I think we kind of forgot about it.  The drive from Chicago to Columbia is about 6 hours.  And it rained/snowed off and on the whole way!

We made a stop in Springfiled, IL  to stop at a diner Don had seen on TV.  It was called Charlie Parker’s Diner.  The diner was cool because it was in an old building from WW2 called a Quonset Hut. I had the country fried steak special and Don had the breakfast horseshoe. The food was pretty good.  I think the atmosphere was a little better though.

We made it to Columbia around 4 pm and we killed some time doing a little shopping.  Then we met up with Judy and Steve and went to dinner.  We ate at Murray’s Restaurant.  We had to wait for a bit but we had some drinks at the bar.  Don and I both had steaks.  It was delicious.

The next day we woke up early to head to Saint Louis (about 2 hours from Columbia). Don and Steve wanted to check out the Star Trek exhibit at the Science Center in STL.  But first we had to stop at Pappy’s Smokehouse.  This place was awesome!!!  I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with potato salad and baked beans.  Freaken delicious.  If you are gonna go make sure to get there early.  We got there right at 11 when it opened and still had to wait about 30 to 40 min. The food was soooo good!!

After Pappy’s we went to the Science Center.  I have never really watched Star Trek but the exhibit was okay.  There was a lot of stuff to read about space exploration that was pretty interesting.  After the exhibit we walked around a bit, but most of the exhibits seemed to be pretty geared towards kids, so we left to check out the arch.  I really wanted to go up into the arch but the wait was long and it was getting late in the day.  So we just took some pictures and next time we will go up in it!

Then we drove back to Columbia.  We picked up Judy (she had to work during the day) and decided where to have dinner.  We decided on 44 Stone Public House.  It was an English/Irish bar.  They had an amazing beer selection.  I couldn’t resist and had to get a Strongbow and an Old Speckled Hen.  We shared a couple appetizers.  Then I had a burger.  After eating we decided to keep drinking and make a fire at the house.  It was a little chilly out but next to the fire it was nice.

Once we woke up on Sunday we got ready to head back home. We made a stop in Springfield again to visit a store called Scheels.  It’s like a sports/outdoors store. It was pretty cool.  But we were really excited to try an Irish restaurant called D’arcy’s Pint.  Little did we know it was closed on Sundays.  So disappointing but I’m sure we will be cutting through Springfield again in the future to visit Missouri.  So we couldn’t decide what to eat, nothing sounded good.  There were fast food places nearby and I said either Arby’s or Pizza Hut sounded good.  We decided on Pizza Hut since we haven’t had it in forever…..ugh I remember why I never Pizza Hut.  It’s okay while you’re eating it, not so good later.  So I was burping Pizza Hut the rest of the way home.

I noticed some things when we crossed the border from Missouri into Illinois. Immediately the price of gas went up 40 cents.  There were tons of political/election signs.  And a lot more traffic signs including tons of No Parking Signs on the side of the highway, which was highway 54.  Seriously…there was nothing on this highway, why in the world would there have to be no parking signs here?!  The middle of no where!  Even if someone did park there why would anyone care?!  I guess that’s just Illinois for you.

Today’s Clicky Clicky results in Korean Homeless Singer

Before I talk about the Korean Homeless Singer, I should first explain what “clicky clicky” is. Derived from the internet verb phrase “Click Here”, this is a term I use to represent the act of clicking through videos on youtube based off of the thumbnails of the videos. Through the act of clicky clicky one could have started their normal YouTube session while watching Pearl Jam music videos but somehow end up watching videos of the voluptuous Ladies of Spanish Network Television. (Just ran a quick clicky clicky test for Peal Jam and ended up here, http://youtu.be/zuwMqfNdQ6g Not as crazy of a deviation as I explained but hopefully you get my meaning)

Anyways, so today’s Clicky Clicky found me the following video. At first as I was watching it, I was like man this build up is so lame. But then I got to the moment I was waiting for from the start of the video and I was like WTF!? Not bad, not bad at all. So I thought I’d share.


Continue reading Today’s Clicky Clicky results in Korean Homeless Singer

The Walking Dead.

Every Sunday Don and I watch The Walking Dead. For the past several Sundays I have felt the same way when the show ends: unsatisfied. Nothing ever happens! Tonight’s episode in particular proved this.

I loved the first season and couldn’t wait for the second to start. But once they got stuck at this freaken farm the show took a turn for the boring. Every episode it was the same thing. The first half of the season was spent looking for the missing girl, only to find she was a locked up zombie in the barn. It sucked they killed her but I thought “yay, now we can move on with the plot! Let’s get off this farm!”

No….the next episodes were spent with everyone in a depression and trying to figure out if they would have to leave the farm. Now after getting into a fight in the town and bringing home an injured teen, we have to get rid of this teen. First of all…why we have to get rid of him is a joke. We nursed this kid back to health and now were going to just set him off to die on his own. When they could just keep the kid and move on from this freaken farm.

So the whole last episode was focused on Rick and Shane fighting over Lori and trying to ditch this kid. By the end of the episode we still have the kid….and is the fight over between Rick and Shane…probably not. Can’t wait for next week for part 2 of the episode where Rick and Shane will attempt to get rid of the kid again and try not to get themselves killed in the process. Then they will return to the farm with no plan. If this show was real, all of these people would be dead.

And yet I keep watching every week. Maybe there’s still hope.

Does coffee always smell better than it tastes?

So I’ve never been a coffee drinker.  Neither me nor Don has really ever been a coffee drinker.  The rest of my family-coffee drinkers. So every time my parents came up here my mom would always be like “you guys need a coffee maker”.  To me a coffee maker just seemed like a useless appliance for us that would just take up space.  For the pleasure of my mom we put “coffee maker” on our wedding registry.  Luckily, Don’s work got it for us.

Before I talk about this coffee maker, let me just explain a few things. First, I’ve never used one.  Second, not too long ago I was the type of person who went to starbucks and got nervous because I had no idea what to order.  But probably within the last year or two I’ve found a few favorites there: Caramel Macchiato, Cafe Mocha, or my favorite Peppermint Mocha.  So when I think of having coffee I want a good flavored coffee, so really not coffee at all. In fact I’d rather just have a Dr. Pepper but since we’ve been eating better this has not been in my diet every day.  And neither has starbucks…it’s just a treat every once in awhile.

So back to this coffee maker. I was very unsure about just buying regular flavored coffee so I bought a bag of some french caramel flavored coffee.  I can’t remember the brand.  The first time I made the coffee, it was a bit confusing for me. I had some issues with the instructions pertaining to the coffee filter.  Since the coffee maker has it’s own filter but it’s still recommended to use paper ones, it was confusing to me where to put the actual coffee grounds.  I know this probably sounds stupid, but if you’ve never used a coffee maker and you read these instructions you would see what I mean.  Believe me, I even showed my parents the instructions when I explained to them my difficulties.  They also said “okay maybe if you’ve never in your life made coffee this sounds confusing”.  Maybe they were just trying to make me feel better.

So the first couple pots of coffee had a few coffee grains in it.  Big deal okay, I’m new to this.  Every time I was using the coffee pot though I just felt uneasy about it.  I don’t know why.  Up until recently, probably since I stopped relying on Dr Pepper, I decided to give this coffee thing a real shot.  Especially since I read that black coffee is not bad for you, calorie wise.  One morning before work I made 4 cups of coffee and accidentally ended up drinking pretty much all of it.  It just went down so easy in the morning.  And I was getting used to the taste (not to mention it makes the apartment smell super good).  After having so much coffee I felt so energized.  It was crazy!  It made me want to experiment more with this coffee maker.

Now I’m not having 4 cups of coffee every day before work, don’t worry.  In fact, I try not to have it all.  I just don’t want to have to rely on something to make me feel good.  So I only have it if I feel I really need it.  But that’s besides the point, today we went to the grocery store and I told Don we need to buy more coffee.  I wanted to try different kinds.  We ended up buying 4 different kinds.  Mainly because the starbucks brand had a sale of buying 3 and get them for $6. We bought: Cafe Bustelo (because Don’s mom always used to make it), Starbucks Vanilla, Starbucks Caramel, and Starbucks Espresso Roast.

When we got home I decided to have a coffee tasting night.  So far we have tried the Vanilla and the Caramel.  Both are good.  I don’t really know if I notice a difference between the two.  I don’t think we will try the other 2 tonight.  So the coffee maker has went from a useless appliance to somewhat more of a friend.  Right now I’m kind of enjoying this new outlook on coffee.  I still think though, it smells better than it tastes.

Carnival Drive – Dreams

So this is an odd one.

It’s several hours since I’ve been awake so the details of this dream are a bit sketchy.

I remember being at some sort of public amusement venue. It feels like an Aquarium. I’m with one of Andrea’s uncles (Brian) and his two friends. Brian is taking us home. He tells us to get in his car so we can go home. His car happens to be a Pontiac Grand Am. This is the car that Andrea owned in real life before we purchased the new car. I remember wanting to make the comment but I never do, that this car is way cleaner than how Andrea used to keep hers.

I seem to remember having a hard time getting out of the parking lot. A lot of back and forth until we get to the gates. The location is a bit weird. It feels like the country. I see a lot of open space by the road side. It reminds me of the countryside from Smallville as seen in the Superman films, not the TV show.

I’m in the passenger side front seat with Brian driving. His friends are in the back seat.

As we’re driving we keep running into blocked off roads. Apparently there was some crazy storm and there is massive flooding all around. I remember reaching a bridge that has been destroyed. We’re stopped at the edge of the drop off and its surrounded by water. There are cars behind us honking. And every few seconds you can see cars going full speed into the water. I remember seeing a jeep and a semi truck just plunge into the water. Its crystal clear and I can see the vehicles driving around completely submerged as if just below the service there is no water. Even though we can see the cars moving freely underwater we do not choose to follow them. Somehow we are able to hop across the bridge… or maybe we find another way around. I cant remember to well.

I think we try to follow the semi actually. As if we backed up off the bridge, and then veered off to the side of the bridge and went down and under it. We eventually come up to a bunch of cars that are trying to negotiate down a one way street. It feels like a parking lot. And somehow we end up in a Carnival. I see people walking around and there are rides and lights all around us. We are still in the car though. And it seems important for us to just keep going trying to get home. We aren’t driving through the carnival though. We are trying to drive over it. There is a wooden walkway or something that goes over a few of the carnival game buildings. As we are driving we notice that we are running out of space on the left and ride side. Somehow we are now driving over houses. Or sides of houses towards the backyards. We’re definitely on roof tops. And our goal is just to get off the rooftops and onto the street. Eventually we are on like a shed and we are just one more backyard away from the street but there is a chimney blocking out path. I finally get out of the car trying to figure out how we will get down off the roof top. Should we just hit the gas and hope the car will hold up against the fall? I notice the gates are locked. Cause I feel even if we get off the shed roof, how will we get out of the backyard? Then I think why didn’t we just drive through the carnival, surely there would have been a front gate we could have driven out of.

I just remembered there was also a part of the dream where I am back in my mom’s house in Queens. And I’m in the basement. Only this is before it was remodeled. And even before I lived in the basement cause I think it belongs to my brother. It is late, like passed midnight. And him and his friends are pulling into the driveway. I remember that it is his old friends that he is with. Theres a movie playing on the TV. I’m in his room but he isn’t upset. (Thinking now, this reminds me of the one time I was hanging out in my brothers room and I think I was playing Starcraft or Warcraft, and him and his friends go out to do something, and several hours later at like 3am they all come back and I haven’t moved an inch, I’m still playing the same video game. I remember Luis saying HOLY CRAP YOU’RE STILL PLAYING!”. That was real.) I don’t remember too much of this part of the dream. I kinda remember there being 3 rooms in the basement. And I’m alone and I want to go to sleep but the basement is unfinished. Just concrete. I open a door to this closet and there is a bed in there, but the walls. There is something wrong with the walls. They dont come all the way down. There is a foot of open space between the floor and the walls. And I’m scared to sleep on the bed cause bugs and rats can come out from the gap. There is another room that is connected to the closet and I look in there and there are more beds. And its dark and the floor is still this unfinished basement floor. And I’m still too afraid of rats or bugs to use these beds.

That’s all I remember.

It was weird.

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