Soggy Spaghetti Noodle

That title represents the strength of my willpower.

Debauchery

It's been a long time since the last update. Not a whole lot was happening hence the lack of posts. Then the past two weekends happened and there's now a plethora of info and pics. Two weeks back we went to Vegas. This last weekend I brewed beer and then attended the demolition of the SDDD by the LADD.

First things first. Vegas. Showed up Friday after flying in from Los Strangeless. Immediately took a nap. Heh. Damn oldness. Mrs. LK was already there for work so she went downstairs to tune up the crowd for me. Amazingly they all left me alone to actually take a successful, much needed nap. After that it was off to Bouchon for dinner at eight. Mmmmm, dinner. Expensive, but delicious. After that we headed to Planet Hollywood for some end of the evening, err, end of the morning libations before bed. The walking scenery at PH wasn't bad either. Made it back to the room by four. In the morning. Weeee!

Slept until two the next day. Man did that feel good. Mrs. LK headed off to work at who knows when o'clock in the morning and I had the whole bed to myself for hours. Owww-errs. Ahhhhh. Finally rolled back downstairs and hooked up with Donnakins and Mr. Fancypants. Played a few nickel slots with them and a bit of video poker. Good times. Mrs. LK got off work around five? I think. We then all headed over to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner and drinks before the Raconteurs concert later that night at the Hard Rock.

The Hofbrau House was absolutely rockin'! We had our whole party with us at that point. Myself, Mrs. LK, Donnakins, Mr. Fancypants, Mr. Kimono, the Chinese Jet Pilot(CJP), Rosanna Kicks Ass(RKA) and Cheeselover. We filled the table. Great table too. We were the second table back from the band, Trenkwalder. We got there early enough to be able to enjoy our meal while still getting the party started prior to the concert. The party was started my friends. Oh. My.

As a preface there were a number of what looked to be bachelor party groups in attendance. There was also a woman going around the room selling Jaeger shots accompanied, if desired, by a paddle to the fanny. Ow. She was very enthusiastic with the paddle. Somehow Mrs. LK managed to talk one of the members of the band into doing the same thing to RKA. Hence the vid and pic above. More pictures over here. The concert was way better than I anticipated. I haven't gone to a "concert" since I don't know when. You know too loud, too many people, blah, blah, blah. I ended up really enjoying it a lot. The pictures, while vibrantly colored, really do no justice whatsoever to the show, but the colors are pretty.

I was going to post about the brewing and the skating here as well, but I'll leave that for later. Back to work. Yeah. Right.

UPDATE: Couple of things. One is a correction to the Bouchon night. I totally forgot about Bill's. Bill's used to be the Barbary Coast. Quite a bit of slot action occurred there. Yes I do mean slot, not slut, although there was an inordinate amount of that as well. Not to forget the marathon session of Let It Ride. CJP actually got shushed by the dealer for celebrating when someone else won. That's right he was told to keep it down while winning was going on at the table. Lame dealer.

Second additional bit. This picture.


This guy was part of the entourage with the band. I'm not sure how long they had been in Vegas or how long the party had gone on before they showed up at the place to play, but this guy totally snoozed out for a good little while. Even with the band playing right behind him. I couldn't resist after coming back from the restroom and had to sit down next to him. Heh! We danced later as well. Absolutely totally awesome fun night.

My Day

Swiped from Solonor via Sherri

This is what you do:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday.
2. Find 3 events that happened on that day.
3. Find 2 other people who were born that day.
4. Find 1 holiday that is celebrated on that day.
I'm going to add a bit. (Added by Sherri)
5. Find 2 other people who died on that day.
Because (she's) morbid like that."

Events:

1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, were rounded up and incinerated.

1858 - Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.

1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Birthdays:

1929 - Dorothea Puente, American serial killer

1881 - Edouard Beaupré, horse lifter (d. 1904)

Holiday:

Black Nazarene feast in the Quiapo district, Manila, Philippines

Deaths:

1873 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (b. 1808)

1947 - Karl Mannheim, German sociologist (b. 1893)

Stuff You Find

"Mean people only pass through your life unless you invite them to become part of it."

Not sure if it's an original quote or not, but found it during my reading of the internets today. Found it here. Something to try and remember I think. Thanks Fatman.

Bang! Bang!

Looking Back

Sherri posted today about moving. The house they're moving out of has been her home longer than at any other time in her life. It got me thinking back to when we moved from the only home I had ever known for our family. I posted a comment on her blog, but I'm going to post and expand on it here as well.

Six months after I was born my parents bought a house in Redwood City. Thirty miles south of San Francisco where up until then they had been renting an apartment in the city. We lived in that house, for better or worse, from 1971 until 1992, or so, when the parents could stand the next door asshole, er, neighbor no more. Even after having lived in Phoenix for a year by myself in 89-90 it was still heart wrenching to have to leave. The new house is nice, but it's not the old house.

Towards the end the parents and my brother had already moved out and into the new house and I was living there by myself while we renovated it for sale. I was attending community college at the time and it provided me with a quiet place to study. Most of the time. While most of the work done was done by contractors we did do quite a bit ourselves. Why oh why didn't we make some of those improvements for ourselves? Yeesh. Anyway when we left that house, despite it's little idiosyncrasies, it was a nice little house. My house. Clean and rejuvenated.

While I was there alone the house was mostly empty. Our stuff had either been moved to the new house or been disposed of. My room was the only really furnished room. I went through a lot of the same feelings I think Sherri is going through right now. I wandered around looking at the empty rooms remembering all the things that had happened there. Good and bad. Happy and sad.

• Mom and dads bed was huge. Perfect for snuggling with them in it as a kid. Crawling under the covers. Playing war. Jumping on. Heh. The bed on which we played our very first Atari games. Asteroids and Combat.


• My brother and I shared a room when we were younger and when he was old enough for a regular bed we got bunk beds. Of course I was on top. One night after I'm sure much antagonizing I was pulled off the top bunk by my younger brother. Boom! It seemed like such a long way to fall at the time, but it happened so fast.


• The day Dad's dad died and mom told me the news. Not really completely understanding, but knowing that something big and terrible and irreversible had happened and my sobbing that went with it.


• Fourth of July on the front porch watching fireworks with grandma and grandpa and grandma's Lemon meringue pie. All the oohs and aahs. In the same vein I remember waiting for grandma and grandpa to show up early on Christmas morning so we could get down to business and get those toys into active service. Scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice to follow afterwards.


• Getting caught coming home drunk after sneaking out and into the neighbors house while they were out of town and then proceeding to drink their bottle of rum. Stumbling to the bathroom. Falling down in my brothers room. And all of the wonderful things that go along with that at the tender age of fourteen or fifteen. Oi.


• Building cool things with Legos and playing with my creations in the back yard. Living out my science fiction fantasies using the tools I had.


• The day grandma died and hugging grandpa in our kitchen and sobbing into his chest as he held me tight as we shared our grief.


• We had a few trees in our yards and most were great for climbing so I did.


• Living out my own private Six Million Dollar man stories in both the front and back yards. Just me, my Steve Austin action figure with kung-fu chop arm, lazer arm and gas-mask arm as well as all the accessories I constructed for him out of paper clips and string. Taking him in and out of the storage case grandpa built for him.


• Playing out in the dirt in the backyard with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Ramps and caves and roads galore. Our own Star Wars stories with our Star Wars toys. The dirt patch that later became Lake Mud our own private mud hole.


• The year our family from SoCal came to spend Christmas with us and all the toys and people that went along with that. So many people. So many gifts. Stuff stacked not just around the tree, but around the baby grand piano. Piano lessons from Mom that I never followed through with. That lasted maybe two weeks, but I still remember sitting down on the bench in front of that piano with mom. Summer vacations sitting at home watching PBS programming all morning long with the little brother.

It was neat thinking we'd be in a nice "new" bigger house. It was great knowing that we wouldn't have to deal with our neighbor Vic the Dick anymore. It was sad to think that some strangers were going to be wandering around naked, yes naked, in the house I grew up in. The only house I'd known my entire life. My house.

I still miss my house. Every time I drive by there's a twinge. There are lots of memories in that house of all the things that happened there and of the people that passed through there over the years.

There was never a better one.

Roman Candle Lit

From last October. Rocket was lit, but not yet off the pad. Good shit.