80s hair metal with Steel Panther. There’s nothing better

Not even close to 6:06 but all I was doing then was catching a disco nap. Ostensibly we are out for my birthday but I’m not sure we wouldn’t all be here otherwise. Regardless I’m happy for the excuse to hit the Pond at GVR until it closed down and are now watching Steel Panther and being all nostalgic. These guys are the real deal. The costumes, the sound, the girls making out on stage. It’s -exactly- like I heard 80′s hair metal was. Thanks to everyone who came out tonight! Even if you can’t remember doing it….and I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of that.

I’m so happy…I can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or not

I’m doing a wine tasting with Ma tonight so we stopped for dinner first a Timbers right down the street from Valley Cheese and Wine to lay some food down before we throw a bunch of wine at ourselves.

As for the picture above, this is a birthday present from my dear sister, Manduh. Someone was raving about these books and offered to lend it to me only to later renege on that promise. It was possibly a brilliant reverse psychology ploy because by denying me access it only made me want to read it more. I refused to spend money on it though so for the last couple years it’s been a stalemate and I’ve had to live in a Twilight-less world. Until now. Manduh was who that book -did- get lent to and has enjoyed my consternation ever since. She finally relented and got it for me but has now tied my hands and said that since she got it for me I’m not allowed to whine to her about how bad it is. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do that but I guess we’ll see…

Happy Birthday, Me!

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Time for my birthday! I got the family all together and we went to Todd’s Unique Dining. It’s is one of my favorite restaurants in town and I don’t get a chance to go there very often but I figured a birthday was a valid and perfect occasion. Ma brought the perfect birthday cake. Nice and portable. In case you can’t tell by the picture, those are candles on peanut butter cups stabilized with a lifesaver mint. Genius. The candle numbers aren’t really correct but it wouldn’t be one of our birthday’s if it was. Ma has a limited number and variety of candles and it’s more fun this way than to just get a set with all the right numbers in it. My actual age is 34 so the 33 plus the 1 candle represented by a peanut butter cup/mint/candle combo makes the correct number. If I was 40 it would still say 33 plus the 7 peanut butter cup/mint/candle combos would make 40. It’s all about spinning the story.

Headed home

After a fun and eventful weekend we are collectively beat and ready to be back home. I’m really thankful Hawkins drove, and his family made the whole trip over and back a lot of fun, but since we’re living in the world of tomorrow and everything I have one question: where are my teleporters? I like travel but I hate the act of traveling. Flying is cool but driving makes me get all BA Baracus about travel. I get that sometimes it’s the journey and not the destination but between Las Vegas and LA it’s the destination. Baker, Barstow and Victorville are not stops worth taking along the way…unless you have to pee. How about that bullet train we’ve been hearing about for the last 20 years, huh? I’m -totally- ready to see that show up.

Introducing some friends to the glory of In-n-Out

My favorite thing about WordCamp events is getting to hang out with all the people we’ve met at previous WordCamp events. This is Abbie and Shayne who I met very briefly at Vegas WordCamp back in January. Luckily Hawkins has kept much more in touch than I have and has given me a proper introduction this time. They’re from Texas but don’t let that fool you, they’re ridiculously cool. It just so happens that they don’t have In-n-Out in Texas and being that we’re in the land that invented this blessed hamburger chain, we decided that they needed to try it out. Abbie had some back in her teens, I believe, but Shayne is in for his very first time. It’s so exciting! As you can see, I think he’s ready for more.

After 7 years I get to see the myth, the legend…Captain Kidd’s

I’ve known Hawkins for years and for all that time I’ve been hearing stories of “when I worked in the fish market”. It always seemed like a cool place to go but I just don’t find myself in Redondo Beach on a regular basis. That changes today. I’ve traveled here with the Hawkins family today and I’m going to get to see what the fuss is about. We’re in town for WordCamp LA and I told him that when we came I had a single request and that was to see this hallowed ground. I have to say I’m not sure the stories did it justice. I secretly looked it up on Yelp before we got here and I wasn’t sure I was looking at the right reviews. This place is legendary. It’s not just some fish market a friend of mine used to work for. It’s been an institution in the area for over 30 years and it was well worth its reputation. We had a group of 20 people so I got to sample a whole lot of the food and there wasn’t single bite I took that wasn’t well worth it. At this point WordCamp is secondary to finally getting to enjoy this place. If there is a just and loving god we’ll be able to come back again before we have to go back home on Sunday.

Oh Joe, say it ain’t so

This is Joe. He came, he saw, he left. His leaving announcement came today so we’re at PT’s across the street to give him a brief farewell. What I didn’t know was that tonight is the start of football which is kind of a mixed blessing. Large beer for $2.75 drink special, that’s good! Fergie singing in the pre-game, that’s bad. Free buffet, that’s good! My local bar packed with drunken football fans, that’s bad. Budweiser t-shirt giveaways that say “Tailgate Ready”…that’s bad. I’m not staying for too much of this noise. I have some work to finish and laundry and packing to do for my trip to LA this weekend. WordCampLA, here we come.