In Pittsburgh

Has it really been almost a month since I've posted a blog?! I guess so.. Anyway.. Last week I was in Santa Clara CA, I woke up to my alarm and literally seconds after it went off a co-worker called me to tell me he was also in Santa Clara. I very rarely see him since his main office is in Irvine CA so it was nice that he was in town too, we hung out 3 of the 4 nights I was there. I was feeling crappy and wanted to eat somewhat healthy, first night I had a shrimp, veggie brown rice bowl at the Yard House which was very tasty and mostly healthy. I don't remember what we ate the 2nd night honestly, but it was not very healthy. The third night I told him to meet me after dinner and I went to Good Karma Cafe which is a vegan restaurant in San Jose, after dinner we bar hopped along a street that was closed to traffic, they were showing Princess Bride on a screen setup in the street so they had closed the street to cars. I would say that was the best night I spent in Santa Clara/San Jose but I don't know if I can really say that.. The last day I got out of class early and headed west to the ocean, I drove up and down the mountains through the red woods with the windows down and no cell phone service. I got to Santa Cruz and sat on the beach for about 2 hours before heading to the airport, I felt so much better getting on the flight because of the nature hike. The mountains and red woods of California are NOT to be missed, if you have the means I recommend getting out there to see them. There is nothing like driving up a winding mountain road having to make 180 degree turns around a tree in the road, and when I say tree in the road I don't mean a laying down one but a standing tall enormous tree!

While I was out in CA I got a call from my boss that they needed an emergency change of instructors for this week, end result is I'm here in Pittsburgh this week. Pittsburgh is a very pretty city (nature wise) with lots of hills and forest (not CA redwoods forest, more east coast "normal" forest), it's so cool to see the buildings sticking out among the trees and the roads (even new ones) that wind in and around the hills and trees. The hotel I'm staying at is on Neville Island which is a little strip of land in the middle of the river, the island is pretty lame as it's mostly old industrial buildings but it's nice to be surrounded by water. The view out of my window is of a very "old style" bridge spanning the river, what's better is the hotel has a sitting area along the river with a hammock and fire pit. I went out there last night to sit by fire and look over river and my relaxing experience was ruined by a drunk old guy, he was talking to me and it was clear he was WAY drunk, he apparently bought a case of Bud Light and was trying to finish it off in one sitting.. /sigh

The first night here I went to Primanti Bros, which is a world famous sandwich shop, and got a steak and cheese which came with french fries on the sandwich as well as coleslaw and tomato, it was very good but left me feeling rather fat.. Last night I went to the Double Wide Grill which is an old gas station turned sports bar/restaurant, they have lots of vegan options as well as 65 beers on tap! I had the Meatless Stroganoff which used mushrooms as its "meat" and was OMG tasty! Tonight I went to Hofbrauhaus which is clearly a German restaurant, I had a roasted pork tenderloin in a wine and bacon sauce with bacon strips and a potato dumpling, may not be healthy but MAN was it good!

Work unblocked Hulu and Dailyshow so I've been catching up on TV, I watched the whole season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution over the last two days which may sound like a lot but it was only 6 episodes. I really think everyone MUST see this, he does an amazing job and it's very eye opening to see how people fight the concept of eating (and serving) good food. If you haven't seen it check it out on Hulu.

Last thing I will mention before turning this blog in is.. Apparently it's not so hard to score 15 runs in a game when you play American League style ball, for all those who say the American League is better just remember that the DH is the reason why you see inflated stats all across the league..

Close the door!!

I'm on vacation and on the way to Disney.. We are taking the slow route to Florida.. We left Saturday and got all the way to Brooklyn! Left car at my friend Michelle's house and went into Manhattan for a pre-NY Anime Fest show. My friend's old dance troop was preforming so we went over to check it out. They are a super cute trio who dance to J-Pop and Anime songs.. After them a guy came up and sung a few songs, he was good too so it was a fun time. While we were at the show Jessie's friend Charles showed up and the 4 of us hung out for a while, we went over to the Mets Clubhouse shop because it was close by but didn't buy anything. After that Jessie wondered off with Charles and Me and Michelle went to Perfect Pint in NYC for dinner. I had The Perfect Cheese Steak which is "ny strip steak, applewood bacon guinness barbecued onions with irish cheddar and porter cheese", it was so good but oh so not healthy.. After dinner we went back to Michelle's house and played Mario Party with her room mates.

Went to bed far too late and woke up too early.. Long drive again... This time to NJ.. I know, we are getting real far in our journey towards Florida... Stopped at Matt's house and went over to a Chowderfest. Chowderfest is outdoors, sounds good right? Smeggin' weather didn't want to cooperate, it was cold and windy and if that was not enough it started to rain as soon as we bought our tickets. Was standing in line doubting the intelligence of going but oh well... It actually ended up being a really good time. They have two tents setup, one for "white chowder" and one for "red chowder", because of the rain everyone was staying under the tents and you really had to push your way to the front to get to the chowders. First place we went was a red chowder and it tasted like tomato soup. Left the red tent and me and Jessie waded into the white tent while Matt, Daniel and Sile went to get other food.. Once we got our system of pushing down we actually made it through the tent pretty quickly, most of them were good but the best was Panzone's Pizzza & Pasta which took 3rd place in the White category. This place Stefano's ended up winning both the red and the white but they were both crappy.. They must pay people off because they apparently win almost every year. Honestly I didn't have many of the reds but the one I liked the best won 2nd place in Reds.

After the fest we came back to Matt's house, Sile made home made Fish and Chips for dinner! So good... I took pics of the making process and the end process but my Droid cable is in the car so I won't be uploading any pics today.. Well, at least not yet... Went to bed super early (9:30) and slept for about 12 hours! My body really was in need of that after coming back from CA..

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Speaking of coming back from California.. Wednesday night I went to AT&T Park to see the Giants play the DBacks. I was going to take the train but ended up missing it, I was standing in line to buy my train ticket when the train left... Oh well, at least I didn't buy the ticket yet. Driving to AT&T Park shouldn't be too bad anyway, it's about 40 miles from Santa Clara and it was before rush hour so no problem.. /sigh... It took me almost 2 hours to get there and I got to park in the main A lot for $30!! What a bargain.. The stadium is in a beautiful area, it's right up against the SF Bay, the right field wall is right up against the water. I got in about 15 mins before the game and walked around the stadium, by the time I got to my seat the first batter had already hit a home run and the DBacks were up 1-0. The view from the seats were awesome and the people next to me were really cool. The guy right next to me was a season plan holder and he originally lived in NY and was a fan of the Giants before they moved to CA so we talked a lot about Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds and even Shea when it first opened. In the 4th inning I decided to go eat, the food on the upper level was not very exciting but the food on the field level was.. I got a crab sammich which was on butter toasted bread and served with cheese, it was very tasty! Unfortunately for me, while I was in line for food the Giants rallied and scored 3 runs to take a 3-1 lead. That was the final score which means all the runs were scored while I was not at seat.

Thursday was flight back day, but the flight was not till 10:45pm so I went up to Muir Woods after class and before my flight. The Muir Woods are right above SF and very beautiful! I posted pics on Flickr, go check them out. I don't think pictures can truly capture the amazing awe inspiring brilliance but they are still nice.. I felt very recharged from wondering the woods.. In the back of the parking lot they have a "first amendment area", it was a taped off area of the parking lot with sign saying this area was set aside for freedom of speech...

The flight from SF to Detroit was quick and I slept for most of it. The flight from Detroit to Boston was really annoying... We got on the plane in time for an "on-time departure" but the luggage people took way too long to load the plane to we ended up leaving about 20 mins late. Now the fun starts! Started to rise (got to about 10,000 feet) and they realized the door was not closed correctly. Had to turn around and land back in Detroit to reclose the door! Landed, opened door, closed door, refueled the plane and were ready to go again... Unfortunately now it was an "in-air incident" which means lots of paperwork... Left about 3 hours later than we were supposed to... Once in the air I slept again for a bit of the flight and then watched some Glee.

Ran home, showered and went to meet Becca for lunch.. I didn't even unload the car first because of all the delays in Detroit.. After she went to work I came home and started laundry and the process of getting ready for vacation.. Lynz came over for dinner and finished helping me pack..

And now the story wraps back around... About to leave NJ and head to my Uncle's house in West Virginia..

--Diversion of the Day

A Series of Uppers?

What does Randal know anyway, life is *not* a series of downers, what a depressing thought... I for one can say for sure that life is a series of uppers... Lets take the last week..

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were all great days/nights, each one very different, and each one with a different beautiful lady. :D

Thursday night I went over Becca's house.. Got the tour of her house, met her mom and went to dinner at a local pizza place. I always like my pizza plain (especially when trying a new place for the first time because that's the true test of the pizza), but most people find that to be "not enough" so it was great to find out that she also likes plain pizza.. Not to say I don't like pizza with crazy toppings either but sometimes you just want cheese and sauce, maybe it's because I grew up with plain NY pizza? We also had a spinach croissant like appetizer, it was too much food, lately I've found I'm back to eating smaller portions which is a good thing.. After dinner we mostly watched Shock Treatment (god that movie is bad) and listened to lots of good music while chatting about the life the universe and everything.

Friday night I went over Lynz' house, on the way there I was thinking about how we had not had a true night out in a long time and how we have this great comedy club (Funnybone) close by and never go.. So, after looking up the comedian for the night we decided he was funny enough based on his online clips and went.. Being the smart people we are we knew that getting food in Man-town would be a long and drawn out process so we grabbed some wonderful sushi at the Asian Bistro by her house before going to the club. The headliner was Matt Braunger, I had never heard of him but as I said, his online clips were pretty funny. I'm glad to say he was funnier in person than he was on his clips too! The first two guys (don't remember their names) were also really funny, the MC was a guy with a mustache and he did this whole bit about how having a mustache makes him a "wild card", you never know, he's either the best cop in the world, or he's on to catch a predator. He's either a porn star or a gay porn star, you can never tell.. The second guy was also really funny, he did this whole bit about being metrosexual which was really funny, I had not heard that term really used since Queer Eye and it was cool to see it brought back.. Finally was Matt, he did a whole thing about people throwing up and it was so funny even Lynz was laughing at it. Go check out his site and his bits, I want to get his MP3 CD he was that funny. His taco bell bit and his Easter bit were also top notch.. I left the show and my stomach muscles hurt because I was laughing so hard! Funny Bones has a deal where if you buy a shirt you can get in for free on Thursday nights as long as you wear the shirt. Got a shirt, who wants to go on Thursdays? During the drive there and back we played "new" music for each other, I put new in quotes because it was not really new, just new to each other. How is it that I have dated someone for that long and they never really heard ManOwaR?

Saturday I went to the CT Ren Faire with Jessie. I was walking in and got grabbed by my friend who was in the receiving line so me and Jessie ended up standing in the receiving line with her. It was a little odd to be in the receiving line but also pretty cool too, heck it's not like we aren't dressed well enough and it's not like we don't go there enough.. This years show is an all musical cast show which was awesome, I filmed all the cast shows on my Droid so if you're interested I can show them to you but I will not post them online because you should go see it live. If you can't I will show them and I may post them on youtube after the faire closes for the year. Everytime I started to wander and look at shops I was getting waylaid by friends working different booths, not that I'm complaining because they are people I don't see often and I did eventually look at all the booths I wanted. I just felt bad because I kept getting pulled away from Jessie, mom and Joe. This years faire is also a "choose your own ending" where the faire goers vote on the ending, of course good won. I'm going to go back on Oct 23rd and hopefully I will see evil win. After the faire closed we ended up spending lots of time chatting with a friend of mine and we finally left around 7. We got invited to the after hours party but I had to catch a flight at 5am out of Boston so I needed to get a nap in at least.

One other thing I just wanted to add, Jessie and my mom each bought a dress at Aetas Designs. Great deals and great materials and workmanship. Jessie's dress was off the rack but needs some alterations, total price $65.. My mom is having a dress made from scratch and the price? $115!! For a hand made dress!? Check them out, you won't be disappointed..

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Got up at crazy o'clock and drove to Boston. Wanted to be there for 3:30 because that's 90ish minutes before my flight. Funny thing is that the stupid airport does not actually open till 4 so I spent some time staring at empty booths. Checked in and was the first person through security. Watched a few episodes of Glee while waiting in airports and being on flights. I slept the entire first leg of the flight and most of the second and we landed in SF 40 minutes early! I'm glad we landed early because it was close timing to get into Oakland. The SF airport is actually south of SF, when I got in the car it said it was in the 80s, I drove north through SF and while doing so the temp dropped to the low 60s just to have it rise back up to the 90s by the time I got to the stadium in Oakland. I don't know if I could live in area with this kind of crazy temperature zones. I have to remember to bring a long shirt at least when I go to the Giants game on Wednesday.

Anyway, I got to the Coliseum and found out that parking was cash only so I had to turn around and go find an ATM. Got cash and drove back, while waiting in line to pay a guy came up and handed me a free parking pass! Guess the benefit of going to the last home game of the season is everyone is looking to dump their free parking passes. The outside of the stadium is very run down and the area around the stadium looks like a demilitarized zone. I was expecting the stadium to be a dump so I was not surprised by the area. I am glad to say however that the inside of the stadium is very nice indeed. The seat I had was amazing, right behind home plate and very close to the field. The food was top notch, I'd actually put the food in the top 10 for stadium food. The upper deck had nothing but generic stadium food but the lower level had an irish pub, cheese steaks, a farmers market, etc.. The beer was vast as well, they had booths for Fat Tire, ShockTop, Pyramid, and others. The only place they had American Piss beers was at the generic stadium food booths. I had a cheese steak, fries and a fat tire. I guess it says a lot about the fans and the area that all the booths had glass walls between the customers and workers. The only bad thing about the stadium is it's a 100% non-smoking stadium which means the bathrooms become smoke houses. The first season at Citi-Field the Mets tried to make the stadium 100% non-smoking and they quickly realized that by doing so you create bathroom smoke houses so now they allow smoking on the forever ramp. The game itself was pretty lame, the Rangers crushed the A's and I lost interested in the game itself pretty quick so I wandered the stadium for a while and ended up leaving after the 6th inning.

Yesterday I had a date with a girl I met on OKCupid, we went to a brew house called Fault Line and then hung out at the hotel and hot tub. She is very cool and we are planing to go out again tonight.. :)

I sort of want to go to the Winchester Mystery House, maybe I can convince her to go there tonight. It's about 8 miles from my hotel..

A Day in SF

Class got out before lunch, I changed into my MChat shirt and headed up to SF (that becomes important later). I got to the pier area and to the Alcatraz ticket line right before 1, but by the time I went through the ticket booth I missed the 1:10 boat so I got a ticket on the 2:20. I walked the pier for a bit while I waited and ended up eating a nasty hot dog for lunch because it was the only thing quick in the area.

The boat ride was actually quite enjoyable, I stood up on the 3rd deck in the front. At one point a group of kids were trying to get their picture taken and asked the couple standing next to me who ended up being from London. I ended up chatting with them on the boat and hanging with them a bit on Alcatraz during the Cell Block Audio Tour.

Got off the boat and walked the long way up to the Cell Block, and by long way I mean I walked all over the island before finally making my way to the Cell Block. The island is actually quite beautiful, it had a small town outside the prison that housed the guards, warden and their families. I walked by the old school, post office, shops, etc. Most of them were either ruins, rubble piles or at the very least very run down. The only thing that is in what I would think is usable condition is the actual prison.

When you enter the prison you go in as the inmates did, past the entry point and the showers before getting the audio unit and starting the tour. The audio tour was done by four former inmates and four former guards. Having them do the tour really added to the "realism" of the place, without the audio I can see some people not feeling this place could really be that bad. The cells themselves were so small I don't know if a tall person could actually lay down, there is a small cot, two metal "shelves" (one was a table, the other the chair), a toilet, a sink and two actual shelves above the sink/toilet. I took bunches of pictures and will sort through them before posting to Flickr, I hope I got some good ones but it was pretty dark in there. The audio did a good job of explaining how it felt to be there. It talked about a few escape attempts, one of them involved a prisoner making a "bar spreader" and scaling the bars to open a hole in the area where the guards had guns. It was crazy to hear about that and to have the inmates pointing to the exact bars the guy climbed, etc. The only escape that every actually worked was the one where three prisoners dug out a passage using spoons, the guards on the audio were saying how they think the guys drowned at sea, the inmates were saying they think they made it to Mexico. Nobody will ever know for sure I guess. The tour then brings you into the area where bad prisoners go, they have two stages of bad. The first is an open cell but away from everyone else, those cells were actually bigger than the ones in the normal cell blocks but they were facing the setting sun and the city.. According to the inmates on the tape you could hear the sounds of people laughing and partying from the yacht club which made being in there worse even though you had a bigger cell. The other level of bad was the "hole" which was a room with four steel walls. Apparently it's now a federal law that any solitary confinement had to have at least a light on, it was not back when Alcatraz ran so they would lock people into a four steel walled cell with no light or anything. After the tour I ended up jogging down the island to get to the 4:20 boat.

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Back on the mainland I saw the double decker tour bus getting ready to leave. It was the last tour of the night and I jumped on at the pier which was the first stop. The tour was about two hours long, all in all it was pretty boring. Most of the city is very bland looking and I couldn't get off since it was the last bus of the night which meant the few places that did look really cool (like Haight) I couldn't really go check out. Next time I'm in the area I must go spend some time on Haight street, it was the heart of the hippie movement in the 1960s and still very much looks that way. Looks like it would be an awesome place to kill some time. Speaking of Haight St, I saw Amoeba Music which is sorta like Powell's Bookstore but for music. Unfortunately I couldn't stop.. We went over the Golden Gate bridge and back, it was a nice bridge I guess, we went through some really nice parks I would like to visit and we went by the adult street. The bus didn't go down that street, just by it. Speaking of didn't do, the bus didn't go down to Lombard St which I thought was odd, I figured it would have to drive by at least the bottom of that block. As the bus got more and more empty it ended up just being me and this one girl, we were both on the top as it was getting ready to go over the bridge so we moved downstairs and ended up chatting for the rest of the ride.

Interesting fact: SF has the lowest mean summer temperature of any US city, but it hardly ever gets frost in the winter. It's just a steady 60-70 degrees for most of the year, too cold for me..

Oh, and we passed the building that Godfather was written in. They say that the first ever espresso was served in that building too. I want a fact check on that one.

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After the tour I decided to get something to eat on the pier, I had seen signs for a place advertising seating area over looking sea lions. Apparently the restaurant is only open for lunch but I did get to see the sea lions. This may be the oddest thing of my trip, I was walking along the pier and a girl stopped me and commented on my shirt. Now, I've had comments in the past like 'cute shirt' or 'hey that's funny', but I've never heard anyone actually say they heard of the comic or let alone something like (I remembered the actual quote last night but now I don't because it's 5am and I'm sitting in the airport) 'Nice shirt, I love monsieur chat'! That's right, a lady in SF is a loyal reader of MChat, I guess Joe's little comic isn't so little anymore.. :)

After my failed attempt to eat near the sea lions I ended up eating at the Crab House. The place was pretty crowded so they put me at the "fireplace" which is a bar seating area with a firepit in the middle. The lady on the left of me was a food critic working for Zagat the lady on the right was Kim from Arkansas who is in SF on business. I was debating the menu and was going to order the Crab Enchilada when the food critic told me that the only thing worth getting was the crab, just the plane old crab, by plane old I mean cooked like New Englanders cook lobster. The butter was not plane however, it was a garlic butter and was so good. Ended up hanging out with Kim for a while and finally headed back to the hotel.

When I got back to the hotel I went to hang out with Ashley, I was pretty exhausted so I only hung out for a few minutes.

Now I'm at the airport and about to get a bagel and get on my flight.

Where I put my attention creates my experience

I went to Cafe Gratitude last night and they have inspirational paintings around the restaurant. They actually sell posters of them, but apparently not all of them.. The one I loved was in the bathroom, it was a big mural and in the middle was a kid drowning in negative words, around him were positive places and the word choose repeated. Around the kid in the center and before the other places were the words "Where I put my attention creates my experience." I thought it was an amazing piece, but it's one of the few they don't sell posters for. I have emailed the artist asking him if there was a poster or print of it available.

So... I got out of class around 4ish and went straight up to SF. I love the fact that in California they let hybrids drive in the carpool lane. Actually the law has been changed, it used to be *any* hyrbid, now it's only select hybrids. I guess they are not allowing those crazy SUV hybrids which still only get 14-15 MPG in the carpool lane, you have to be above a certain MPG to get access as a solo rider. Well, using the carpool lane it took me about 40 mins to get up to SF. When I left work it was something like 82 degrees, as I was driving with the windows down, it started getting real cold. After a bit I rolled the windows up and looked at the temp gauge in the car, it read in the 50s, I looked up and saw signs for "Candlestick Park - this exit". I was pretty shocked actually, I had heard the stadium was built on the side of a mountain but what I didn't realize is that it *was* built into the side of a mountain. It was a beautiful view of the mountain, bay and stadium (didn't get pics because I wasn't ready for it). By the time I got into SF proper it was back up into the 70s.

First stop - AT&T Park. I don't count this as me being at the stadium for my stadium list, but I had to drive by. I actually parked on the side walk by the stadium, I asked the attendant and he said I could park there since I was only going to take some pics. I walked around the stadium and took some pics (uploaded to Flickr). The stadium is right on the bay and the outfield wall is open to the bay so people walking by can look into the stadium, there are signs asking people to please only stand in "viewing areas" for an inning at a time. You can actually see a good portion of the field from these "viewing areas", they were inside setting up for some concert. Anyway, around the front of the stadium there is a nice steak house built into the stadium. There are no doors into the stadium from the restaurant but I imagine it would be packed on game days, I went in to use the bathroom and there were a few people but not a mob.

Second stop - Lombard St.. There a few theories behind why this street is the way it is. Some of the locals say that the people who lived there didn't want the traffic so they convinced the city to screw with the road. Lombard is a short cut from the Eastern section of the city to the Golden Gate Bridge and they were getting tons of cars driving that way. If that's true it backfired because now people come from all over just to drive down the street. Other stories say that they made the road that way because the incline of the road was too steep and was causing problems with cars going up and not being able to and with cars not stopping as they go down. I don't believe that theory because there are steeper roads in SF and even in the surrounding area and they didn't do it to those. Either way this is one crazy fuck road, you really have to see it and drive it to really get the grasp of it. I stopped at the bottom of the road and took some pics, then I drove around and down it, back around and parked at that top. I walked down and back up and took some cool pics and videos. The best pic I found is one that was taken from a nearby building top, I posted it on my Flickr along with my pics. I also posted videos of people driving on it on my YouTube.

Third stop - Golden Gate Bridge.. Nope.. It was getting very foggy and the traffic was out of control going there so I decided I would go after dinner..

Third stop - Cafe Gratitude.. The restaurant was very pretty, as I stated above I loved the paintings they had. The staff was really nice too, the place was mobbed so I ended up sitting at the bar which worked out well because I got to chat with the guys working while I waited for food. All of the menu items are things like "you are wonderful", "you are insightful", etc. I got a White Bean and Kale Soup which was cooked, a raw Bratwurst which was made of nuts, fennel and had kimchi and a mustard seed sauce wrapped in romaine lettuce. For dessert I had a raw chocolate moose which was so good. I really never understand why people insist milk should go with chocolate to dilute the flavor. Nothing like a good strong raw cacao.

Fourth stop - Golden Gate Bridge.. Nope.. The fog was even worse and I didn't feel like going if I wouldn't really appreciate it. Maybe I'll go back on of the other nights I'm here, if not I'll get there eventually because after all it's just another bridge right..

Fourth stop - Candlestick Park.. On the way home I drove up to Candlestick Park. If you think it was cold at 4:45 you don't know cold. The car said it was in the high 30s! I got out and walked around and took some pics but it was too dark and none of them came out. It is a very pretty area, the stadium is generic but the area around it is very pretty.

Drove back to the hotel and relaxed in the hot tub a bit before bed.

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Oh, going back to yesterday's blog.. Rice-A-Roni.. I was going to post a big long thing about how I doubt Rice-A-Roni is the SF treat. I mean seriously, lets think about who lives in SF.. Gays and Asians. Can you possibly imagine an Asian whipping up some Rice-A-Roni? And as for the gays, I certainly can't see it. SF is probably one of the most "hippie" areas of the country (aside from maybe Portland) and I can't see people who care about food eating tons of Rice-A-Roni.. Anyway, so I was going to post this long blog about that and I decided I would post a little video clip of the old commercials. Well, I did a search for "Rice-A-Roni: The San Fransisco Treat" and the first hit was a blog ranting about the exact thing.. A guy answered that blog with a history lesson about why Rice-A-Roni was indeed the San Fransisco Treat..

The DeDomenico family all enjoyed an old Armenian dish consisting of rice, vermicelli pasta and chicken broth. The rice and pasta were sauteed in butter before the liquid was added, giving the dish its distinctive taste.

In 1958, Vince DeDomenico decided to take this recipe and produce it for sale in grocery stores. He placed the rice and pasta in a box, and added a dry seasoning mix in place of the liquid chicken broth. Because this product was made up of half rice and half pasta, he decided to call it RICE-A-RONI®.

Chicken RICE-A-RONI was first introduced in the Northwestern states in 1958. With it came the first RICE-A-RONI commercial, featuring San Francisco's Cable Cars and the now famous jingle. Created in San Francisco, RICE-A-RONI would soon be known to all as "The San Francisco Treat®!"

The RICE-A-RONI jingle, The San Francisco Treat® slogan, "Saute and Simmer" and scenic San Francisco became familiar to every household in America in the 60's as the product was introduced through television advertising.

Well, I guess I've been told..

All in all.. I think SF is a very nice city, it is easy to drive around, easy to park and pretty to look at.

BTW - I'm reading this blog realizing how much of a "gay hater" I sound like.. For those of you who know me you know I'm the furthest thing from that.. For those of you who accidentally stumbled on my blog, first off "welcome, hope you enjoy my tangents" and secondly I can assure you I'm not a gay or Asian or really an anything hater.. :D Well, ok, maybe I'm an Atlanta Braves hater.. :P

Gut be Gone - At Jack in the Box?

So, yesterday was a fail on the Gut be Gone program. I got out of work and headed over to a local bar called Quarter Note to watch the end of the Yankees / Angels game. I love being in CA and watching baseball games during happy hour that would be night games back east.

I had a Fat Tire (had it on tap).. This is a good point to mention.. After talking with Jessie I decided that doing no alcohol was not necessary for my Gut Be Gone program, and that I should instead just cut back greatly on it. I ended up sitting at the bar with a guy who worked at Cisco and his hot friend. After a bit the girl's friend came in and the four of us got a booth together and chatted till the girls had to go to work.

After the game I went on a failed mission for a new mobile phone charger. Sometimes I love my phone, but it's always a struggle to find accessories, the Verizon store was out of Z6World Edition chargers so they sent me to Microcenter which had a generic Motorola charger. The guy was nice enough to let me try it and it came up as an unsupported charger. Grrr.. I guess I give up now and will just order one online.

After Microcenter I went and got my California treat.. No, not rice-a-roni.. Rice-A-Roni may indeed by the SF treat but I probably won't have any of that in SF either.. My California treat is a Jack in the Box Ultimate Cheeseburger. I was standing in line and came up with a brainstorm, what would make this burger better is if they put it on sourdough bread.. I was sooo right..

I almost died laughing when I saw a sign on the counter for "healthy food options" at Jack in the Box.. Seriously, who are they kidding?

Speaking of SF.. Tonight I'm going there, going to hit Cafe Gratitude which is a big raw restaurant. Have to balance out the Jack in the Box right.. :)

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I updated Flickr and YouTube.. :)

Prius and warmth..

Saturday after dinner, I'm picking up where the last blog left off, me and Jessie went to see A Murder is Announced at the Bradley. We had not been at the Bradly in a long time, we apparently missed all the plays this year.. Have to make sure to get to more of those next year, the only one left this year is the Broadway Live Christmas show which is always "eh".. This play was good, I was actually wrong at guessing who did the murdering.. Jessie was right.. Not going to say who because I don't want to ruin anything for anyone who might see this play in their lives..

Onto sunny California..

The flight from Hartford to Minnesota was great! It was a brand new plane and had next to no noise and no turbulence, I actually walked up and down the aisle without having to hold the seats.. I sat next to a lady and her baby who where on their way to Irvine, she grew up in WeHa and now lives in Irvine with her husband. The baby was amazingly quiet too which was good because when I saw them come onboard I was a bit scared it would be an annoying flight.

The flight from Minnesota to San Jose was NOT a new plane, it was actually so old it still had ash trays in the seats! It was NOT a quiet turbulence free flight, as a matter of fact we hit a big storm right outside San Jose and ended up getting thrown around quite a bit.

Landed and shuttled over to rent-a-car where I was given a Prius! It's a 2009 Prius, but it's a base model which means it has no iPod connection. The radio station it was on had Madonna playing when I finally turned up the volume so yay for me.. :)

Speaking of iPod, I finished the Element on the plane and started Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I figure it's almost Halloween so it's a good time to listen to this finally. It's pretty short (7 hours), I listened to about 1/3 of it already. It's a fun book so far.

Oh, well back to class for me.. I have not done any real exploring but I found out that the hotel has free breakfast and dinner! I probably won't take advantage of the dinners because I want to hit some of the sites while I'm here but it's good to know.. Oh and since this is a customer class I get free lunch too!