Why I'm Dumb (Part 287)

During the summer in Atlanta, there is this event called "Screen on the Green". Usually they show really old (chick-flickish type) movies - ie - Casablanca this year. Last year (I think it was last year) they showed Ferris Buellers Day Off. That was the first time I'd gone, and I swore I'd never go through that again. Its downtown Atlanta (Piedmont Park) and a baseball stadium's worth of people (at least 30,000) show up, spread blankets out on the grass and watch the movie on a big screen set up in the park. Its 100% miserable. Traffic - miserabele. Parking - miserable. And don't even try and meet up with anyone there unless you've got a good half hour to put into it. Now, this week they showed the movie ET. If I remember correctly, it was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre (I was 5), and I'm pretty sure my grandpa took me to go see it, and he passed away when I was 7, so its one of the few memories I had with him. Anyways, I just felt a weird need to go see it. Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad idea. Traffic was awful, parking was awful, it seemed like we walked a couple miles before we could even see the park. Then trying to find anyone is pretty impossible. Finally, we get to the park, find our friends and what happens...lightning...thunder (repeat several times, add water). Show is cancelled. Never, ever again. Never!

I told me so! I told me so!!!!!

The return of Kevin Fulmer

I don't think I'd seen Kevin since 2002 or 2003 or so, so its been a WHILE! I lived with him in my Tallahassee days for about 5 years. Kevin of course is best known as "Garnet Guy". I stole this picture from ESPN the Magazine. Pretty cool, huh? He used to go running around at FSU football games with his golden painted and glittered buddy Josh White. I went with Rory to pick him up at the airport and Rory had the idea to make a sign for him. So we picked up some posterboard and a red, errrr garnet, marker and some glitter and glue. Rory did all the work, but it was pretty cool, he had a sign waiting for him that just said "Garnet Guy". So we found him and went to go get his bag and his flight was listed no where on the baggage claim boards. Figures! There was one carousel that had alot of bags and I just kinda pointed and said to check that one. Turns out his bag was pretty much right where I pointed!!! So, we left the airport and met up with some friends in Little Five Points and just hung out and chatted for a while. We didn't want to stay out too late because we were planning on waking up early to play golf saturday morning. We still wound up getting home pretty late and didn't get to the golf course til almost 10am. John was waiting on us and Kim was meeting us there, but was late because she (a nurse) managed to get herself drunk on what she claims was cough syrup! (ha!) We hit some balls on the driving range before Kim showed up. I don't think any of us had played golf in about 3 years (once we learned not to hold the clubs like a hockey stick, we were ok), so we needed the refresher. I did alright, I was only about 45 strokes over par :) (note the sarcasm). We did teach Kim a lesson though. She was hitting from the ladies tees most of the time and on one hole she was standing way over to the side, but in front of us. I took my shot and almost killed her. I didn't even have a chance to yell anything before the ball was at her head. That was one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced, it barely glanced off her hair I think. But it really scared the shit out of me more than it did her. We finished about 5 hours later (yes mom, I put on sunscreen at least 5 times!!!) and were about as sweaty and nasty as you can imagine! Seems like the perfect time to go to a fancy thai restaurant, right??? Shockingly enough they sat us in the far corner of the restaurant not near anyone else. After eating we went back to clean ourselves up, but more importantly a nap was essential. Me and Kevin went to my friend Divya's sisters' going away/birthday party. Hung out there for a couple hours, then met up with Kim and Rory and eventually Matt at the Brick Store, where, they sell no bricks, but more importantly, about 500 different beers. Don't ever ask for a Bud Light there! I can't even pronounce the beers that I had...and thats why I love that place. After that, the only thing left to do at around 3am in Atlanta is to go get some food!!! We were gonna try and go to "OK Cafe", which, we thought was 24 hours. Its not apparently. So we went to Waffle House :)

Slept in til about noon on Sunday, me and Kevin went to see Evan Almighty...pretty funny, not as funny as Knocked Up, but it was good. Steve Carrell is hilarious. And that was pretty much it for the weekend. Hopefully it won't be another 4 years before we hang out again!

Another trip to Jacksonville

Lots of interesting stuff to report from this weekend. I'll try my best to make it brief. (HA!)

(Nurse) Kim met up with me in Atlanta and rode with me to Jacksonville Friday. Got into town and met up with Tracy & Stacey and others at the local Mellow Mushroom. Some people know of Mellow Mushroom as a pizza place (some may not know it at all) but the version in Jacksonville is more like a bar it seemed. Still pretty cool. Tracy was being a party pooper and wanted to go home, but me and Kim stayed and hung out at "The Shroom" (I just came up with that! I'm sure i'm the first too). Right about at last call time, I went back to the bar to get a last beer ( a Newcastle - draught, of course) and was rejected. The taps were cleaned and closed out. I went back to Kim to give her the bad news, she went up there and next thing I know, here comes Kim with 2 very very dark glasses of beers? What the???? Well, apparently the bartender liked her boobs better than mine, so she got us beer. Oh well, whatever. After the bar we went back to Tracy's place and popped in Talladega Nights. Kim was asleep within 10 minutes. Funny movie!!!!

Saturday I got tricked into going to a shoe store with Kim & Tracy..THATS not gonna happen again!!!! After that we went to this place called CRAZY Sushi. It didn't seem too crazy, but I'm not a sushi guy. Later that afternoon me and Tracy drove up to Jekyll Island for my friends' Jill & Josh's wedding. Before I left I got the address for the hotel and got directions from google. As we're headed towards the island the directions took us in a different direction than the signs for Jekyll Island. I definitely got suspicious, but stuck with the directions. Shouldn't have! We wound up in Saint Simon's Island. the street name is apparently on both islands, and google maps screwed me over. Finally we got to the hotel and to the wedding. Oh, on our way to the wedding, I found out my friends Mike & Courtney got engaged. So thats pretty cool. No one seems to listen to my "stay single" advice that my Grandpa gave me!!! Anyways, the wedding was pretty cool. I tried to get drunk enough to dance, but it just didn't happen. They actually had a cool idea for the music at the wedding - they emailed a select few of the guests and took song requests. They had a band for the first part of the reception when we were eating, but after that they just setup Josh's ipod. I thought that was a pretty neat idea. Anyways, I, of course, requested "Get Low" (you know, the sweat drop down my balls song). At the wedding Jill kept telling me it was coming up next, but it never came!

Sunday morning just as we were getting back on the interstate, I was passing a truck who decided to shower poor little Vickie with oil. It was ALL over my windshield, my hood, my bumper and just everywhere. A couple exits later I finally decided to stop at a gas station to make sure it wasn't coming from my car, and it wasn't. I really wish I took a picture, but I didn't. It really was everywhere. We grabbed 2 squeegee's at the gas station and just completely wiped my car off. Not fun. But it wouldn't be a road trip with Tracy if bizarre stuff like this didn't happen!

Sunday we drove back to Atlanta. Then this morning after I woke up, my TV in my bedroom (not Mitsa) was on Sportscenter just like its supposed to be. I walked into the living room for a minute and I heard the sound from the TV go off and heard some odd noises. I went into my room and smelled smoke. Something inside my TV blew up!!!! I couldn't do anything with the remote, so I wound up just unplugging it. Looking inside the TV you can see a bright orange glow...not quite a flame, but something was definitely burning in there! So...now I need a new TV. And since Mitsa has spoiled me, I'll probably have to spend a good bit of cash on a new TV now. Nothing huge, but definitely something HD compatible.

Thats a pretty eventful weekend, huh?

The Adventures of Buying Matt's TV

Now that I am an expert in big screen TV's I'm getting all kinds of requests. Yesterday I went with Matt to pickup his new 42" Panasonic Plasma TV (named "Visor" with a soft "s" I believe). First we stopped at our favorite drinking spot, the sweetwater brewery. After that we were riding up to Buford, GA to get his TV. Which means I didn't have to worry about driving for a while, so i took advantage of it. I think I had 8-10 "half" beers (they're only allowed to fill your glass up halfway - its a law! And they're actually threatening to change the law, that would suck. There's a petition to sign, so do that) Anyways, I digress. And now I'm gonna digress some more. They have a new un-named beer that kinda tastes like a raspberry/chocolate combo. Its pretty decent, and 9% alcohol, I recommend it.

So, after sweetwater, we drove up to Buford - I slept (and snored, I was told) in the car. Finally we get to the Circuit City outside the Mall of Georgia. This TV was an "opened box" model. We weren't sure if it was returned or what. Turns out it was just being used in the employee break room. He got a pretty good deal on it, but it was kinda sketchy. They did let us go back in there and we got to make sure it worked. It was mounted on the wall and looked pretty good. They didn't have any HD channels for us to see, so that was kinda surprising to me too. So they take the TV down and bring it out to us and explained that they couldn't find the pegs that attach the TV to the stand. Oops. They said for Matt to call Panasonic to order the part, but it seems to me like thats something they should be responsible for. What do I know? Anyways, the store closed at 9, we wound up getting the TV in Matt's car by about 9:30. No box, just some bubble wrap and a reprinted instruction manual. Oh, and later Matt realized he never got a receipt. (Update - they apparently faxed it to him later)

From there, we went over to a friend of ours - Eric's - coffee shop (Its called Jittery Joe's). It was really a pretty cool place. I'm no coffee drinker, but it was neat. I hadn't seen Eric in a couple years I think, so it was cool catching up with him. We talked about the retarded aspects and laws he has to deal with in running this shop. Most of it didn't make much common sense, but, hey, what do I know?

We wind up getting back to Matt's place with the TV at about midnight, and without the pieces to attach the TV to the stand, we couldn't even setup the TV. So that kinda sucked. Anyways, I hope the TV works out for him, it was a fun night, even though I had to help carry a TV around town :)

A Sad Day in my Sports World

Last night the Anaheim (we're not Mighty anymore) Ducks won the Stanley Cup - thats hockey, by the way. I'm not mad that they won, I weren't rooting for them, but I'm just sad that there's no hockey now til October!!! What am I gonna do???? I sure as hell won't be watching the NBA finals. I guess its all baseball all the time for the next 3 months. Of course, I guess there's some non-sports related things that can take up my time.....nahhhhhh :)