Thursday, July 31, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: August 1st

Cheers!  It's August.

Hot times these days in Los Angeles.  Well, this is the time for it!

We're doing all right since the UCLA flood on Tuesday.   The campus is nearly all dried up.  It'll take a while to get things repaired but many of the buildings affected are back in operation.  Pauley Pavilion, in fact, is expected to get its floor repaired and the whole site will be fixed for Fall Sports in October.

Drake Stadium, which had its track DELUGED in the flood, is all clear... in fact, people are running on the track now!  Here's an example.

Just took a jog at Drake Stadium 24 hours after it was under water. Big eight-clap for the @UCLA cleanup crew

Good news indeed.   UCLA could be on its way back.  The biggest problem right now is the giant CRATER in the middle of Sunset Boluevard.  It will take months, maybe even a year, to repair the pipes and patch the street.  In the meanwhile all traffic is diverted to Wilshire... and for those of us who usually travel that way anyway, its been a mess.   It's a small price to pay to get that street up and running.

I'm glad that no one got hurt, and I'm glad the campus is all dried up, for the most part.

This week marked a milestone.  It was the first time I went to souplantation twice in the same week.  What a week it was too!   They change the menu around the end of the month.  Fortuitously, the end of the month was last night, and the result was I got to try nearly a dozen soups within four days.  FAN-tastic!  I also got to indulge in soft serve, cookie bars, and jello.  The Jello at Souplantation is exceptional.   There is good jello and bad jello... like, if you ever go to those chinese food buffets, it can be hit and miss.  But Souplantation jello is on the money:  very sweet, flavorful.   The first time I went this week, they served red jello.  This time around it was green jello.  So good.

You ever hear of "Toto?"   I think there was a missed opportunity for more bands named after dogs.  "Fido" would have been a good one.  "Hunter" maybe?  "Rex" or something?

That's all I have right now.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 27th

One of my buddies told me the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger was back at Wendy's.  Do the dance!  I went over to the drive thru one night and saw the sign for it there.  Then the guy asked "would you like to try the Pretzel Bun Cheeseburger?"

If that was a pitch, I'm sold!  We don't need negotiations. 

That pretzel bacon cheeseburger is pretty good.   We mentioned a while back how Wendy's doesn't use foil wrappers, and what that means is that the burger is pretty cold by the time you eat it.   There's not much you can do, but it does make me wonder: why is this never a problem for In-N-Out burgers?  You get an In-N-Out burger, and the paper wrapper doesn't even cover the whole burger.  Yet, when you take it home, it's still pretty hot.  Riddle me that Wendy's!  Do you guys just cook your burgers on the top of a refrigerator or something?   How do the burgers get so cold all the time?  The Wrapper must have been the liason to heat retention back in the day.  Now it has been phased out, so Wendy's needs to get with the program and cook their stuff so it's hotter.

There's a side of me that believes Wendy's reduced the heat of their burgers on purpose so the lettuce and tomatoes don't get soggy.   Conspicuous.   We'll leave that debate here for the moment.

I was at my parents house again last weekend, and I went to bed.  I thought of a guy I used to know in high school.  We lost touch after graduation.   He wasn't well liked by most people, but when I met him, in a computer/networking class, we got along somehow.  We had similar taste in music, and both of us happened to like 70's and 80's rock n' roll.  So it was.

I thought of him because I was listening to Oingo Boingo's "Boingo Alive" album and some of the tracks on there are live covers from their "unofficial" album "So-Lo."  Unofficial because the Boingo were trying to get out of their existing record contract and sign with MCA records at the time. THis was exactly 30 years ago now.   The workaround is that front-man Danny Elfman decided he'd do a "solo album."   BUT, the album was solo in name only... all the other members of Oingo Boingo played on the LP with him.  In you just listened to it it would sound just like the other Boingo records.

Anyway, way back in 1999, my friend introduced me to this disc and told me how it wasn't a real solo album and how all the other band members were on it, etc.  That was a vivid memory.  The friend also was a huge USC football fan, and this was in a time when SC was awful... remember Paul Hackett?  One of the worst coaches ever and I was like "man these guys really suck!"  But he convinced me to be an SC fan rather than UCLA... there was a cachet to the program, a history and tradition, and so I decided to watch some games.  It became fun!   With each passing year they got a little better, and then this joker named Pete Carroll from the Patriots got them to a bowl game.  Man, I thought I had it so good then!  I think everyone knows the rest of *that* story.

My friend back in high school.. dude was huge... he would dominate any room he walked into.  He had other friends, some misfits of school (not like the deliquent type, more like the dorky kind).  People said he was argumentative, strong willed, and in some moments obnoxious.  Yet, somehow, we had a common ground for a couple years.  Most of the time we got along great!  So -- today here on the blog, I salute him. 

While I was in bed last night, I also thought about writing my old friend a letter.  I want to thank him for introducing me to Trojans football and some of the music I enjoy.  Things like that.  Then, I thought of re-conciling with other friends who I had a falling out with.  Long story... but I always felt like they patronized me.  All through high school I was just the "other guy."  It felt that way to me.   More than that, I think the attitude they had wasn't my cup of tea.   I eventually grew apart from them and moved on.  Even so I thought about at least saying hi.  We're all in our 30's now, things change and I'm sure I am no different.  Why not?  Many of my friends are now married and some have children.

I look at that and wonder if maybe I'm the one that needs to grow up.  I think so.

THEN while in bed I thought about my friends from college.  I thought, "why don't I go to the 10 year reunion?"   I'll see if I recognize anyone there.  Maybe I won't recognize very many folks, or PERHAPS I will run into a lot of people from my past that I had let drift into recesses of my memory.  I think it may happen, fellas.  The 10 year college reunion.  We'll see if I find anyone I remember... maybe they'll remember me too.

I also thought... if I DO this, I want to get the phone number of every person who recognizes me, or me them.   Maybe we can just exchange texts from time to time.

Anyway, that was the story this weekend.  I enjoyed my parents' company.  Earlier that day I was at an auto museum with my mother, sisters, and grandparents.   Especially in the case of grandparents, that particular weekend I was happy to see them.  You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.   I'm very thankful.
Many of the readers come here looking for jokes, but I hope to get those going again in the next entry.  Take care for now!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Dave's Thought of the Day: July 20th

Riddle me this... why is the big club in Miami is called "The Clevelander?"   Cleveland?   Who would use the name of another city to name their bar in their city.  Even if the owner was named "Cleveland"... maybe he could use his first name instead.   Hard to imagine.

I was thinking, Cleveland should get back at them and make a night club called "The Miamian."

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 16th

Short entry today, a couple points:

I am waiting for a giant truck to accidentally run over Donald Sterling.  There is no way I'm apologizing for that, what a pud.

I listened to Weird Al Yankovic's "Mandatory Fun" album yesterday.   It is indeed fun!   Check it out.

If you can't check it out, don't have the money, or the time, Weird Al still will set you up with videos from 8 of his 12 cuts of the album.  New one every day this week.  Two already in the books.  More to follow, including one today.

It was not a good day yesterday... I had a rough time working with several persons at home or on the road who could not connect to their email or network.  Those are the toughest kind of situations to resolve with people who are not up on technology and over the phone.  And since they can't connect you can't just email them or remote desktop an answer.   It's a rewarding challenge if you can solve it, but yesterday I was not on my A-game.   I did eventually arrive at the answer with some help, thank goodness for friends and help forums.

Now I said it wasn't a good day, but the day was quickly improved with Souplantation.   Excellent menu on display.  BBQ pizza foccaccia, corn chowder with bacon, they held over the lemon lava cake too!  I was not expecting that, a nice surprise.  I was in one of those downbeat moods but in those situations, I tend to want some of the Souplantation Colombian blend coffee with extra milk in it.   Ooh that hit the spot.   The night went a good deal better than the day.

Gosh you want to talk about worlds colliding?   There's a burger truck in town called "Baby's Badass Burgers" that features some babes in pink shirts and shorts selling the burgers from their truck.  Last night they were on "Shark Tank", some business reality show that's on ABC and CNBC.   The board follows that show fairly closely, or at least some of the board does.

Never been to BBB, but I think if they were in town I'd give them a shot.  I may try the burgers too!

I put on a 70's pop music internet station yesterday, and I gotta tell ya, there was a lot of smarmy sappy pop music on the air back in those days.   When the day ended this melancholy Anne Murray song was on and it got me way down... very depressed.  One of my colleagues stopped by the main office where I was at to pick up something and that stinkin' song was killing the mood... I was stunned by the whole thing.  Hopefully my buddy didn't notice but after he left I was like "you gotta be kidding me... Anne Murray?"   Her songs are a bigger buzz kill than Sweeny Murti reports.

Then I turned it off and left the office... I could not get that stupid song out of my head.  "you neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeded meeeeeeeeee, you neeeeeeeeded meeeeee."  As I've said numerous times before, all the great music we did have, iconic music, in the 70's was balanced and counteracted by the large volume of schlock that also dominated the charts.

It's true of every decade, but for whatever reason it sounded even cornier in the 70's.  Ah what are you gonna do?

One of my friends got really ornery yesterday and started to rip Virgin America... I was like "man... that's really too bad, I love that airline."  He used to be such a huge fan of theirs too... I couldn't figure it out.  Might have been a bad day.  I believe his flight was delayed, though.

Flight delays are no fun... I've never had a really serious one... there was one time, if you can believe this, it was on Virgin America, where the flight home was delayed by about 2-3 hours, so my friend and I just had dinner at a decent restaurant in the airport and then went back to the flight when it was ready.

Virgin America flights... most recently, I discovered that there were some basic games you can play on the flight entertainment system.   One of them was Mahjong, and I was *killing* the Mahjong... I won every single game... I was hitting a zone.  In fact, if I knew about it at the beginning of the flight, I'd have some fun playing that thing for a good 3 hours.

Nothing is as good a time killer as that Rubik's Cube... I always thought the Blackjack app was the ultimate time killer but no!  That Rubik's Cube does the job.

Hopefully I did a good job today w/ the blog entry.  Catch you all soon!   Been writing more, recently.   One other post from this week is online in case you missed it; 'til next time...

Monday, July 14, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 15th

It's a small world out there, but then when your phone runs out of battery, it gets a lot bigger.

I feel like some of my closest friends live 3000 miles away.

I'd like to get my own Rubik's Cube so I can save electricity by not using the Google Doodle Rubik's Cube.

Speaking of "Doodle" I found a GREAT pinball machine over the weekend.  "Doodle Bug."  It's so rare, it's tough to really describe what it is without context.  Here's a link to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-1OlViPF3I

That's the game in action... there's actually a gap behind the flippers which makes it impossible to just hold the ball because it will just slide down into the bottom.  but THEN you get this little target in the middle that
activates the "doodle bug" underground.   The Doodle Bug is this little 2nd pinball which bounces back and forth and each "bounce" is 10 points!   If you hit more targets, the bounces are worth 100 points, or 1000, or even 10,000 but that's really hard to do.  I love this game and I just started playing it last weekend.

I long had a dream to put a pinball machine into my house, or my apartment.   Yet, over the last 3 years I completely forgot about it.   Suddenly, seeing a bunch of pinball machines this weekend, I revived my interest, but not enough to go seek one out.  There's no room for one now.  I share an apartment with Coach... there's no place to put it.  I can barely fit anything into my room... a pinball machine would give me no walking room.

In the *old* days I wanted to get a pool table in my parents' house, but this is an even worse idea than the pinball.  A pinball machine is easy to play and doesn't require any extra setup.  The pool table you gotta get out all these balls and cue sticks and chalk, its a big production.

And the pool table takes so much space too.  You would need a dedicated room just for the pool table.

I had a dream to complete a Rubik's Cube... get all the sides into uniform colors.  All the yellow ones on one side, red squares on one side, etc.   I get closer every day, but still nothing.  32 years of trying this!  One day I'll get it.

I dreamt of driving all the way across the country.  I haven't given up on that one, but all I need is the time and some money.

I had a dream of going on a date with Mena Suvari, but that was a little far fetched.  I think even way back than she was already married.  I never took that one seriously, but I DID write her a paper letter once in high school which got no response.  Oi.

One time one of my cousins, this was when I was 7, clowned me and after I sent some fan mail to Paula Abdul, one of my cousins pretended to write a response postcard as her, and I got it and I flipped out!  I thought it was awesome!   Then later they revealed it was just my cousin pretending to be her, but I gotta say, she did a marvelous job writing that up!  She even drew a little icon of a record on the turntable as part of the signature.


I don't think I ever had dreams of eating one of those 72 ounce steaks as part of a challenge.  Usually any thought of one is superseded by the guilt and gross feeling I would expect afterward.


Ever go an extra day without shaving?  It's a weird feeling... its like your hair gets fuzzier and the face gets all oily.  Then you feel your face and its like you touched a piece of fried chicken.  My beard never gets long.  I tried one very concerted effort one summer and it never grew more than 1/8 inch.

Also when I was 7, I wondered if Paula Abdul was related to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.   I was quickly informed she wasn't.


One thing I loved about the World Cup was how unfettered and uninterrupted it was.  Games started on time, rigidly timed periods, ongoing action.   Little to no fluff during game telecasts.

It'd be kinda nice if a league like the NFL decided to just run the TV feeds themselves and do away with the networks' intervention (aside from halftime/pregame/postgame).  I get tired of the barrage of network promos, the constant reminders to check out the lousy half time show, the stupid NBC inspired fluff pieces, sometimes used between plays, the inane "did you knows?" about starting linemen, random cut aways to the sideline reporter.



I think that's all for the moment.  Take care everyone!






Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 9th

I got a pint of ice cream to help me get change at the cash register.  Often I do the "get change from the cash register" trick by using my ATM card for a small purchase and asking for money back.  It works even better when you ask for the roll of quarters ($10 worth), and it's pretty good for laundry purposes.

But today I was craving ice cream so I got the ice cream.   Today's deal was good... $2.99 for a pint of Haagen Dazs.   I got the ice cream and stowed it in the freezer for later... oddly I didn't have any, wasn't that hungry.

Anyway, I got the ice cream and it got me thinking: can you believe the prices of ice cream these days?   I've seen half gallons go for nearly six bones lately.   I never thought of Ice Cream at such premium prices.  Some ice cream companies try to trick you by selling smaller containers, less than a half gallon or a quart... what's the one they use for Dryer's?  Or is it Edy's?  West Coaster in me situation.   It's astonishing.  It seems like such a cheaply made product overall.   Like popcorn.  Will the cost of making popcorn ever exceed 25 cents a quart?   Movie theaters make a killing off popcorn!  Somehow, I still pay.  Hard to resist the temptation of popcorn pants at the AMC 'plex.

So it comes to some shock and minor dismay that ice cream prices are almost the cost of gasoline now.  It was only about a decade ago when I could get a quart of milk for around $1.19.  Those were the days.  Peaches at my fingertips, stuffed turkey breasts, and milk under a buck-fifty.  I would do my thing at the fancy Ralphs in Santa Barbara.  A huge grocery store -- enormous.

To this day one of my favorite stores.   At night they'd play this really soft elevator music, like the old fashioned beautiful music Muzak.  I didn't even think people used this fuddy duddy music anymore.  Mantovani around the clock!   It was like being in a dream.

So... back to the present, I picked up the ice cream and got a latte for the evening.  It was a good get.  Laundry was done that night.  Good times were had.

@LOLKNBR is one of my favorite follows.  I don't recall the exact circumstances that got me to follow it, but my gawd, it is great twitter.  Please follow... especially if you find Bay Area sports annoying, because apparently he does too, haha!

I mentioned a going away party at Barneys on Monday night.   It was a good time.   I made an unusual move.  There was time to kill so I walked over to the In N Out in the area, just 2 blocks from where Barneys was in Westwood.  I got a regular cheeseburger with pickles.   There was barely anyone there, except for one lady who went in ahead of me.  I saw her coming too, but she had the angle on me so I'd be a total douche if I tried to beat her out.  Even so, what a mistake.  If only I was there 40 seconds sooner.   She goes in and she's standing there spending about 2 minutes trying to decide what to get from the menu.  There are literally two things to order!  Burgers... and fries.  The only differences are whether you want a single, a double, or more (like 3x3's 4x4's and such).   She was the only one ahead of me, and eventually they got her order so I was next.   They had a new girl working the register and she was getting trained by one of the vets there.  That was all good.  I almost congratulated her on her new job at In N Out.   The people there always look like they're having fun... it's a good gig.   Granted, nobody older than 23 works there, but it's really perfect for those going through school.  I'm a little disappointed I didn't have in on it myself.  I'd be dangerous next to that many burgers, maybe that worked out.

So!  With all that in place, I ordered my cheeseburger with pickles, and I checked my watch.  With a short line I wondered what my "time to burger" would be, so I started counting.  I sat at a table to calculate the time elapsed.. some other guys came in, and eventually we started to get a pretty good line.  They started up the second register to handle the new traffic.  Another crew was serving burgers to the drive thru.  The Drive Thru always gets priority at In N Out, as it should.  I keep waiting... usually if time-to-burger is less than ten minutes, that's a good day.   It was right on that night!  Only 9 minutes.   Think about this cabbage... it would take about 5 minutes to make a burger like that.   Even if the burgers were made on demand and you were the only one in the store, it'd take about that long to get one.   9 minutes with the decent car traffic at the drive thru was tremendous.   Again, this is the dining room time-to-burger.  TTB at the drive thru is, remarkably, between 5-8 minutes.

After eating the cheeseburger I walked back to Barney's to say farewell (for now) to my former boss and fellow IT person.  He got a job over in Culver.   Great job in fact!  Big company.  I won't say what company it is, but as Mitch Hedberg might say there's a "Man Tec" involved.  All of his co workers past and present were around to wish him well.  His g/f was there with him.


Most of my buddies from work were there that night.  It was what we call good times.  We all split a pretty good pizza at Barney's.   Barney's pizza is their hidden secret... my goodness, very very good.   I got some Newcastle pints on draft for the occasion as it was on special.  It wasn't as good as I remembered.  It was one of the first beers I had over a decade ago... but it was palatable enough to muster on.  My request was for a Racer 5 but the server lady said they weren't on Happy Hour Special.   They used to be!  Strange... but Newcastle did the job.  That was a fun night.  Thankfully I just had to take a bus home so no issues with DUI or any of that.

One thing I learned to tone down recently was #hashtags.   I remember learning about them on twitter, it was multiple time Olympian swimmer Katie Hoff who I first saw using them.  Hers were hilarious!  Then I started to really get into them... I even used them on the board, and in emails.  Then I got carried away.  And every sentence ended with a #grinsadjustsmic style hashtag.  Almost every one.   After a while I started to read my own tweets and found them annoying.  This is too much, I said.  #toomanyhashtagscomeonnowtheylosetheirzing  Stuff like that.  Lately I've toned down hashtags.   I really only use them now for the intended usage, to actually denote them for search queries.  They have been and continue to be used as #punchlines but for me, just writing out the original thought was good enough.   I'll still sneak in one though... here and there, to try to be a humorist... but it was clear the over-use of them was annoying everybody HAHA. 

but I did do this one:


Maybe Brazil can get..... one? #mitchhedbergstyletweet

Can't help myself!  I am a mongo.  Or "mongeaux".

Anyone have the urge to go down to Junior's Farm?

Hey!  I got some salvos from our friend Mawquis that he might call into the DITCOW podcast tonight!   I would look forward to this greatly!  Let's see if he can make it... hopefully.

Does he call in?  Tune in and find out.  'til then, catch you all soon.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 7th (and 8th)

The day is winding down… time for a new entry!

Do you suppose the R.E.M. song "Orange Crush" is about soda?

If I could, I would build a bridge that goes from Agoura Hills and then *over* Thousand Oaks and Camarillo so those jokers who can't drive can be left on their own.   Let that bridge run over the Conejo Valley and then just descend straight onto Oxnard.  Man!  The traffic getting to Oxnard lately to see my parents has been b r u t a l.   Last three maybe four trips in a row getting there via the 101.  Man!

I was thinking… the last trip may have been the best of them, during Independence Day Weekend, and I was FLYING all the way through Los Angeles… I zipped by the Valley and zinged along Calabasas.   But no!   Once it got to Thousand Oaks, fwap, cars all over the freeway.  It was the Friday morning of Independence Day… surely I thought I'd manage a nice commute with most of the guys leaving the night before.  No!!!  So I waited… if you can believe this, it was not *as* bad as the prior two trips.  I could get the sense that "it was going to get worse" too.   I actually just got the front end of what appeared to be a BAD traffic day on the 101.  I'm happy to make it through all that.

The worst trip I had was the week before.  It was so bad that I thought I'd outsmart everybody and get off in Thousand Oaks and then take Thousand Oaks Blvd.  That did not work out well at all.  In fact all I did was go back north to Moorpark Blvd. and back onto Santa Rosa Road, a back way into Camarillo from Thousand Oaks.  I could have just hit that off the 118 freeway about 30 minutes earlier, but how was I supposed to know that?   I had hoped the 101 would cooperate when I caught up with it from 118… and it didn't.  The cars didn't move at all.  Oi.

So that was driving this weekend.  It wasn't as bad as the week before but it had rough patches.   I found out just yesterday that for the last three weeks I was driving my Camry with low tire pressure.  My goodness, I did not pay attention there.  I left my parents' house last night and my Pop calls me on the phone as I leave.  He said my tires look low and asked me to go check it out.   Thankfully I still had that tire pressure gauge he gave to me in my car.   I went to the gas station to check the tire pressure.  All the tires were low on air… under 25 PSI for tires that had a max PSI threshold of 40.  WHOOF.  

My Dad did me a solid… I didn't have change for the air machine, so I went to the counter to ask for change.   The lady there asked me what I needed and I tried ( for a while ) to explain that I needed change for the air machine.   I asked for the change for the air machine and she said "Oh I'll just turn it on for you!"

Right away I thought, "how is she gonna do that?"  The air machine is way outside and there's only 2 people at the counter so the store will be shorthanded and OHHHHHH she just pushed a button to turn it on from right there on the counter.  It blew my *mind.*  So I thanked them and went out to put the air into the tires.  I started with one tire, checked the tire pressure with each puff, and kept going to the other tires, but then the machine went off.  I'm like "what the hell?" but I forgot that the gas station air machines only operate for 3 minutes.  So, I had to go back and ask them to turn the machine on again.   These ladies were very generous, they hooked me up *again* so I ran out this time and went around trying to finish the deal.  Then the machine went out again so I went BACK to ask for just one more cycle.   They started it up one last time and I finished the last tire.  I got all the tires filled to 32 PSI.. I didn't want to overinflate it, but I wanted GOOD pressure.  I probably haven't filled the tires with air in years!

I've had the tires on my car going for roughly 4-5 years now.  I don't know how long tires last, but considering I didn't put air in them for so long, they held up great.  With the air, we were back in action.  I called my Dad to thank him, and went back on the road.

I gotta tell you something fellas… somehow the car was able to accelerate so much faster!  I didn't put as much pressure on the accelerator and I was flyin'.   Life was good.  We were back in business, and now I just have to make sure that the tires have the proper amount of air in them.

One reason I let the tires lose so much air was that I assumed the Jiffy Lube put air in the tires, but apparently they don't?   I've got to take the car to the tire shop to get the proper maintenance.   It's good to know, and I'll be better with it from now on.

Ever since that Johnny Manziel incident I'm getting hyper about any white substance anywhere.  On Monday afternoon I saw some chalky powder clumps on the hallway floor.  Now it might be reasonable to assume it's actual chalkboard chalk as we are in an educational building at UCLA, but I can't say… I was spooked.  The Manziel thing had me thinking people were doing coke all over campus.   Then I saw another white powder trail by the elevator.  Well now who knows?

You ever hear of those lingerie items called "teddy's?"   I don't really know how anything named "Ted" correlated to it.   That may be one for the lingerie shop to explain to me.

Forgiveness is just a swing of the bat away!  Just ask Brian McCann and Brett Gardner.

Congratulations to Novak Djokovic for winning the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles Championship on Sunday.  My friend Tom in NJ said "Fuck him."  A little harsh isn't it?!   Federer's a really popular player, and a humble one at that.  Incredibly great player and great human, but Djoko's fun to watch play too.  I was interested in seeing Djoko overcome his recent title match demons.  He blew a huge lead in the 4th set and then recovered in the 5th after Federer ran out of gas.  Youth won that match.. but to be fair Djokovic was really good at breaking serve.  I think Federer only broke a couple times and Djoko did a half a dozen times.

Federer would have been a great story had he won, but I think Djoko is the guy in his prime… if he can take that into a couple more Majors these next 365 days he could come get into serious historical territory.

Farewell party tonight at Barney's Beanery.  I had plans to go to Souplantation, but I'm happy to abandon them to say goodbye to a friend.  A former supervisor and NOW ready to start a new career at Symantec.  Good times ahead for him.  For me, just a few beers ahead, but I got a bus to take me home.

I think life's all right.  I love summer.  Hope yours is going well.   'Til next time.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 2nd

This is a big week.  Wednesday marks the official debut of the "Dave in the City" show on YOUTUBE.  Yes!  We are now going to do a TV simulcast of the show on Youtube for all of you to enjoy.  Let me know what you think!  We'll come on at 10pm Eastern.

It will be just like the regular show except that we'll put a camera on my dopey face during the show.  The calls will be taken like usual and the Random Q's are still at the same place: blogtalkradio.com/daveinthecity although I'm considering a move to twitter.   Twitter is fluid and easy to access from anywhere so we may go that route.  To help us along, I set up a separate twitter account: @ditcow , in order to take Random Questions.  That way it won't clutter my regular feed @diningwithdave.   We'll see how it goes.

Well it's over... the World Cup ends for USA, but it was a lot of fun to watch.  Now back to my usual nonsense here on the blog.

I am ashamed of myself... I ate Subway twice in three days.  Why?  Simple as this:  I was lazy.   I had my car nicely parked on the street across from me, and Coach needed the carport that evening so I decided to just leave my car on the street rather than drive to a better sandwich shop and spend the next 40 minutes looking for a space.

It's different here in Santa Monica.  Anywhere else in the universe, you can go to your street and just park in an available spot.  9 times out of 10 or 900million out of 900million and one places in America you can just go to your street and find a spot right there for you.  Not in Santa Monica!   When you live here, you gotta fight and fight for a space if you park any time after 6pm around town.  And... our apartment has only room for one of our cars to park at any given time.  

Since I take the bus to work, it's a bigger problem on my side, so Coach and I made an agreement when I moved -- if you can believe this, it occurred around this date a year ago.   The agreement was that during the week I was allowed to use the carport since Coach usually took the car to work and just drove right back.  The carport was helpful to me during the week because it kept my car off the street during sweeping day which was usually Tuesday or Wednesday.

The trade off was that when Coach needed to go out at night (for a date or for errands, whatever reason), I needed to move the car back onto the street before he left.  It was a fair agreement.  Still is.

Anyway, tonight, I had my car on the street so that Coach could return last Sunday, but it stayed there through Tuesday.  Tuesday night, I checked with Coach, anticipating he might go out to do stuff and it turns out I was right.

But that outcome also made me too scared to take my car anyplace, because I *knew* I'd lose the parking spot if I came back.  Ergo I had to go with restaurants within walkable distance.   My options were the grocery store deli... good meat but lame bread; Panera Bread, too far, and Subway.  So by default I went to Subway.   AGAIN.

A very disappointing moment.   It was fine though -- I lived and the sub was at least edible tonight.  Of course, I was walking home, never realizing the whole time I could have ordered from Jersey Mikes with the EAT24 app and had them deliver oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Usually when you order delivery they make you order at least 15 bones of stuff so I would have ordered two giant sandwiches and saved the second one for the next day.   I just wasn't thinking.   Nonetheless, it was all good in the end and I still had a surplus of peaches to turn to.

I have a question:  how many peaches could you eat in one sitting if you really tried?  I haven't quite put myself to the test but already I've had bouts with four peaches and three peaches at different points of the year.  Just call me the undisputed heavyweight peach champion of the world baby... undefeated.

I'm such a mongo with the peaches that I would go to the store the day AFTER I bought peaches and go get another bag of peaches.   I had three bags of peaches in the fridge at my peak just a week ago.  Oh these are good days my friends!


If you found out a girl you knew worked at a chocolate shop would that be a turn on to you?   I think its the sort of stuff that could potentially move your motor.   I love chocolate too!

I'm pleased to announce I'll be heading to San Francisco next weekend... well sorta San Francisco and sorta Santa Clara.  Day one is SF.. I'll walk around, look for "Golden Boy" Pizza in North Beach, meet my buddy Jacob, go see some sights, and eventually work my way to AT&T park for a Giants game, and I'm going to load up on concessions that night.

Jacob tells me that the Sheboygan Sausage Sandwich is the best.  I gotta see for myself!  And the popcorn is a must.  The Popcorn at AT&T is the best there is in MLB... I'm not even joking here!  It's amazing.  I will get crab cakes if they have any.  I'll get the garlic fries, that's a lock.  Lastly, I'd go after an It's It ice cream sandwich if they sold any.  They may not, so I'd probably just relax if it's not around.

AND... if I am so fortunate as to make good time on the drive up, I intend to get breakfast in the Central Valley at a place called Harris Ranch.  All the signs make it seem like some hokey tourist trap rest stop, but it's more than that.  It's home to some of the best meat in the state, no lie.  They have a great butcher shop and furthermore, they were wise to set up their own restaurant.   Meals there -- simply spectacular.  I haven't tried the breakfast yet though, so that's on the docket.

Ah and Day Two... the California Extreme Arcade Game convention show in Santa Clara.  I've been wanting to go to this show for years!  Every historic arcade game of the golden years, some 30-35 years ago.  I am PUMPED to see this!  The convention has been going for over a decade now.  Day Three will be back in SF to see the World Cup Final with Jacob at a bar in town.

I know a lot of people are waiting on pins and needles for football season but I love *this* season... it's like an offseason for me too... a time to worry less about sports and get to do other things with life.  I live for these days.   After this SF trip, I have a Boz Scaggs concert featuring legends like Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour collaborating on Piano and Guitar, respectively.  All three of these guys are BIG names in Jazz, Music, and Movies, and having them all on the same night will be quite a trip.  That concert goes down at the Bowl in Hollywood.

I'll have a chance to relax a tad... get to know my favorite spots and enjoy the sunshine.  I may get to swim more too.  Meet babes and such.  These are good times indeed.

It gets even better too... for jokers like us anyway.   July 14th:  New Weird Al Yankovic album!  "Mandatory Fun."  Ooh!  I'll be all over that.  Can't wait... let's do it.

That's all for now.   Catch you all soon... good tidings, good times.