Monday, February 4, 2013

Dave's Thoughts of the Day, February 5th

All right friends, here's the story of the Judge Smails themed pontoon boat Super Bowl Party in the sky...

It all started at about 3pm on Sunday afternoon, when the Super Bowl was about to start.  My Dad and I and his friends got invited up to the Tower Club in Oxnard, which is on the top floor of Oxnard's tallest building.  We only have two buildings:

It's the one on the left!

It was a friend of a friend of a friend who invited us to the party, so we were delighted to join in.  Oh man was this place ritzy or what?  

Swanky setting... the building was built in 1987, so the whole edifice reminds me of OCP headquarters from "Robocop."   To the left of where you see this bar, above, were two giant TV screens, one LCD screen and a huge DLP monitor to the left of that.  Here's the kicker, both of them were showing the crappy standard def feed.

I freaked out!  I said, we paid MONEY to go up to this fancy bar and they don't even have an HD signal for these TV screens?  I nearly ran back to the elevator but then I calmed down and one of my friends there asked for the remote.   He was trying to find the channel with the HD version of CBS.  Thankfully I remembered the channel numbers on FIOS in Oxnard and told him it was Channel 502.  Crisis averted.   The same scenario applied for the second screen.

Once that was settled we were good to go, but predictably, nobody in the crowd (aside from people in my Dad's group and I) was under 50.   It was odd.   People got into it, though, it was just a little... unusual.

To give you an example, normally you go up to the bar and ask for beers and so on.  Here, people in tuxedos asked you for drinks.   So, all right, I asked for a few Bud Lights.  Thankfully they were just two bones each.  I heard the cocktails were ridiculous prices, so I passed.   I had to drive home anyway so they did me a favor.

Then, like, when you get food at the nice buffet they had, you come back, settle down, eat, and those tuxedo guys take your plate away right afterward.  This is a nice feature but I was not used to it.   Usually I'd either let it sit on the table a while and then some bus boy would get it or I'd return it to the bar.   Posh setting this was.



The other thing that stuck out to me was that when you look out the window, it felt like you were in one of those buildings from "The Jetsons."  In all honesty, this was a pretty damn cool bar.  Very exclusive place, I hear.  I wonder how I'd get in here as a civilian.  It's probably not possible.

The spread:  prime rib, bbq style for sliders on little french rolls, then beer cooked hot dogs, and chili, wings, giant chipotle bbq beef ribs, and a full nacho bar.  For dessert, a compliment of Pecan Pie, cookies, and brownies.  This place had great food.

It was a room full of Judge Smailses but the people there were mostly friendly.   My Dad asked me to help him select squares for a pool we enrolled in, $5 each for two squares... so I chose a square on the edge and he chose one in the middle.  Then they revealed the numbers for my square: Ravens 1 and Niners 6.

I told my Dad "There's no way they're gonna get 1 and 6!   Dang that's a bummer."  So we watch the first half and, suddenly, the score is Ravens 21, Niners 6.   Quarter ends, and the lady at the front is yelling "1 and 6!  1 and 6!"  Then like a light bulb went off in my head and we were like "That's our numbers!!"  My pop won $125 for that square my friends. It was a good night indeed.

I'm glad I saved this story for today: sports were dead tonight my friends.  Instead of sports, I embarked on a few other things.  I got a present for my friend's wedding on Sunday.  I had an unusual conversation with the lady who helped wrap the present at the Bed Bath and Beyond.

She asked me when the wedding was and I said Sunday.  Then out of the blue she asked me "Is it a Jewish Wedding?"  The heck?  ...it was an Asian wedding if anyone was wondering, but that doesn't make much difference.   Then I realized why she asked.   Usually church is on Sundays and weddings are on Saturdays.  I can see the confusion!  So I explained the whole thing to her.   The Wedding is not at a Church per se, but instead at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena.   Another nice place, very posh.  Good stuff.

It took a while for her to wrap the present but we continued to talk about stuff.   She was older, already married and with kids.   She was in London last April.   She thinks everything is too expensive.   At any rate, she finished wrapping and I was on my merry way.

Dinner was a tough call tonight.  I wanted the burrito from Tacos Por Favor, the chorizo and cheese burrito, but they closed once I left BBB.   Instead, I went to McDonalds.

All right so the McDonald's speaker... really difficult to understand what people are saying but it's worse when the person isn't speaking clearly.

Pull up to the window... "would you like to tryignubites?"

Me: "What was that?  I'm sorry I didn't hear that."

"You like to tryignabites?"

Me: "One more time?"

"Would you like to tryignabites?"

Me: "Six piece nuggets?  No, I want to do the ten piece meal..."

That was confusing... then at the end after I paid the money at the window, she asked somebody else about the ignabites aka the "Fish Filet BITES"  Those drive thru speakers are an enigma.

All ended well and I had a nice meal from the McD's.   Chicken McNuggets, fries, and the Orange Hi C drink.  My favorite!

Why do some drive thrus have only one window and other ones have two?    Wendys and Taco Bell have just one -- In N Out and McDonalds have two.  

Some of the driving I did last night reminds me why I take the bus to work in LA.

Sad to say, I have returned the digital piano keyboard to Best Buy and got a refund.  I realized it would take a really long time and many hours at the keyboard to compose music, so the dream of "Story of a Plumber" will have to be reduced to a poem.

I took for granted how hard it was to play piano.  It takes weeks of practice just to get one song right.   I was fool to not realize this immediately but I still had fun doodling around with the keyboard for a little while.  

Donuts sound good today don't they?  I had a great kick out of this moment on Friday... on Friday I told my co worker at the main office "Boy doesn't it feel like a good time for a donut?"  Then after a while he said "I'm getting a donut... you kept talking about donuts all the time and now you got me wanting a donut."  Hahahahahahaha, I laughed so hard.  He comes back with a whole roll of donuts... it was awesome.

I suppose one never underestimates the power of persuasion.

The Northern Trust Open looks great this year.   THIS time, after blowing it the previous three years, I'm going to find a way to that thing come hell or highwater.   I have no excuse to keep missing this tournament every year with it being less than three miles away from me.  I could literally walk to the course from my apartment.  I may consider taking a day off to soak it all in.

Man, this particular entry feels very narcissistic.  Balance will be key tomorrow to make up for it.  Hope you all enjoyed reading.  Catch you soon!




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