Back from Texas, but not without my hotel spoils...

Ahh... the spoils of any long hotel stay. I know, I'm a weirdo, but I love to horde hotel toiletries. There are worse habits, right?

As for a last interesting Texas thing... I originally rented a car in Fort Worth, Texas, and then drove it down to the Houston area where I spent the rest of my time. So I wasn't sure exactly where I was supposed to drop it off in Houston since there are all kinds of rules and potential fees associated with "one-way" rentals. So as I'm combing my rental agreement, I notice some fine print on the very bottom...

"For rentals originating in the City of Arlington: The City of Arlington
requires that an additional tax of 5% be imposed on each motor vehicle rental for the purpose of financing a portion of the Dallas Cowboys complex development project approved by the voters of the city on November 2, 2004."

While different, creative public funding methods are not uncommon for stadiums and such, it still made me laugh a little bit. I'll have to ask my friend from Arlington if she remembers voting on the issue.

Of note, I went to a Rangers game while I was briefly in Fort Worth and it's right by the new Cowboys stadium under construction and that thing is looking pretty schnazzy (and expensive looking).

At least in Tampa when they got the voters to approve sales tax increase to support the new stadium (Raymond James), they included money for schools and etc., too... since when they previously put just the school tax to a vote without the attached stadium tax, the vote failed... which is kind of sad, right?

So they practically had to trick the citizens into supporting education by sneaking it into a vote on a new football stadium. That way the folks who wanted a new stadium, but hated children voted yes and the people who didn't want a stadium but knew it was the only way to get the education money also voted yes.

And folks wonder why other countries may be giving us a run for our money in the global economy in a lot of ways, hmmm...

Anywho... so my cable was out when I got home... an I'm still not sure why. It has just solidified my decision to just stop paying for cable, since I don't watch enough TV to warrant it.

I had read on the Houston Chronicle's site while in Texas that CBS was going to start putting full episodes of classic shows on YouTube, and for some reason I was thinking I had read that included Knight Rider. I was mistaken. It was in fact MacGyver I was thinking of... so when I looked for some full Knight Rider episodes, this is what I found instead...



I remember people saying something about a burlesque dancer being on the "America's Got Talent" show, but I didn't remember the Knight Rider strip. Classy.

Heck, in all honesty, the clip was probably better than watching a whole episode anyway... it had the awesome music, KITT, the Hoff and a stripper all packed into under two minutes.

So while there were no full Knight Rider episodes... I eventually found the MacGyver episodes but they didn't have the one where he ends up in medieval times and hangs with Merlin (which I swear was always the one on TV when I was home sick from school), so I decided to skip on watching one of MacGyver's ingenious escapes and looked to see what other shows they had... and they totally have original Star Trek episodes, which is kind of neat.

I watched the one where they end up in the 1930's. A classic of course.

I think on of my favorite parts has to be where Kirk explains Spock's appearance to a cop by saying he is Chinese and his ears are pointy because they got caught in a mechanical ricepicker when he was a child. The political correctness was overwhelming.

Back in the city...

So my Texas-sized adventure has officially come to an end.

I've left the endless miles of industrial refineries as far as the eye can see to come back to endless hives of apartments as far as the eye can see.

So I just got home from the airport... and I'm pretty exhausted, so I'm just gonna follow the Rays game and hit the hay. (A win tonight means we go to the World Series! Word?!?!)

Well, g'night!

Plus, what the heck... here's a few seemingly appropriate Overheard in New York quotes just for fun since I flew into LaGuardia...

Pilot flying into LaGuardia: If you look out the right side of the plane, you can see the beautiful, famous downtown skyline of Manhattan. [Pause.] And if you look out the left side... [pause, sighing] New Jersey.

--LaGuardia

----------

Flight Attendant: Thank you for flying US Airways, and have a happy... happy... what the hell holiday is this? Columbus? Psssh, that ain't no holiday. Have a good week!

--LaGuardia Airport

----------

AirTran flight attendant over intercom: We hope you ladies and gentlemen had a nice flight, and we ask that you all press your faces against the windows so Delta can see what a full flight looks like.

--LaGuardia

Radio Ga Ga - Texas style...

So I rarely ever listen to the radio in New York... my iPod is pretty much attached to me at all times and I only ever listen to the radio if I have to drive out to a site in upstate New York or over in Jersey (Jersey I have so far been able to avoid...)

So here in Texas, I'm back to a normal commute by car, 30 minutes each way, and today I drove out to Bridge City (basically where Texas meets Louisiana), which was hit pretty hard.

The trip was about two hours each way... which of course gave me the chance to surf through the radio stations in search of music to listen to on the road. (Commercials aren't acceptable, as my brother probably remembers, whoever was in the passenger seat of the car would get yelled at if commercials were on the radio for more than two seconds... so it's like a pavlovian reaction to turn the dial when commercials come on the radio now...)

With the seemingly limitless selection of songs put out over the years for all the stations to choose from, you'd think I wouldn't hear too many repeats right?

Well, of course, you would be very, very wrong.

Before I get into some specs on the songs from today, I'd like to make an overall observation on the radio so far in my Texas adventure...

Apparently Def Leppard's Hysteria is still treated like a new release, which is pretty awesome.



I mean, the album only has 12 tracks... and I've heard at least seven of them on the radio here (most of the several times) since I got here.

Pour Some Sugar on Me, Love Bites, Armageddon It, Women, Rocket, Animal (Most of Def Leppard's videos are admittedly pretty dumb and or overly simple, but I almost didn't link to the Animal video because it is just so damn stupid, seriously.) and, of course, Hysteria.

What? No love for Run Riot? That's cold.

Actually the seven I've heard repeatedly for the past week or two were all seven of the hit singles released from the album. Yeah, seven hit singles, which is no wonder it sold 12 million copies...

Anywho, back to the today, which I spent a large chunk of in the car flipping through radio stations.

Here are just a few songs that come to mind that came on enough times today that I started keep a count (and no, I'm not including current top 40 songs, because they of course were looped continuously)...

* 3 times - Here I Go Again - Whitesnake... though it's always the pop-radio edited version here without the guitar solo :(
* 3 times - Oh Sherry - Steve Perry
* 3 times - Ironic - Alanis Morissette
* 4 times - Don't You Want Me - Human League
* 4 times - That Nickelback song... though I may have heard two or three songs of theirs and just not known the "difference"...

Other notably random ones include Poison's Unskinny Bop (yes, women are still kind of sort of fighting over him, season after season) and someone sending out a request for Nelly Furtado's Say It Right to an injured high school football player. ...? I'm sure there is some fascinating explanation to that one...

However, overall, the big winner of the day though? I'm sure much the chagrin of my buddy in Philly who says he will forever be beyond tired of this song...

Drum roll...

With a whopping total of seven times! ...

Living on a Prayer!



I feel closer to Tommy and Gina now today than I ever have before. I hope things worked out for them...

And yes, that count was just for today (it's been on plenty of other days too). Don't worry though... the rest of Bon Jovi's library was
well represented throughout today including I'll Be There For You on the way back to my hotel.

I bet if Jon Bon Jovi donated his Texas-related ASCAP earnings to the Ike recovery effort, he could actually make a pretty at least a little bit of an impact. He really is somewhere on the radio here like all day.

Oh yeah... it really only seems appropriate to put a Radio Ga Ga link somwhere in the post, right?

I'm still alive in Texas...

Hey, I saw this story and it was just so random I figured I post it real quick... thus also providing proof that I'm still alive.

Just click it, it's just one of those truth is stranger than fiction kind of things.

Also, I'm keeping plenty busy in Texas and I'm trying to eat plenty of Mexican food while I'm here (since they really do outnumber folks like me where I happen to be working...)

Lately I've had lunch at such hot spots as "Pepe's Taco House" off the side of the highway, "Taqueria," and "Tacos y Tamales." They were all pretty good, but none were as good as the place in Fort Worth.

I've also gotten to try Jack-in-the-Box and Whataburger (both firsts for me).

So... is it a bad thing that my travels seem to always revolve around eating and getting drunk? Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it I suppose.

Also... go Rays! I'm hoping the Red Sox win tonight, because if they do, the Rays game will be moved later and I'll be able to watch at least some of it after work at my Hooters here! We'll see what happens with that.

On that note... I've got to hit the hay. G'night!

Oh yeah... and it really isn't uncommon to see folks wandering around with cowboy hats on at all here. I didn't realize how common that actually would be... and I seriously heard this guy yell out "Dad-vernit!" while the Texas Longhorns game was on at Hooters. I just found that interesting... and chuckled a little bit because it caught me off guard.

Well, g'night for real now!

The Lone Star State...

I got the Internet in my hotel, hooray!

It's been a while, and I gotsta get to sleep pretty soon so that means bullets...

First I went to Fort Worth, Texas, which was fairly laid back and I got to go hit the town and hit up some of the bars my friend from the area always talked up. They were a blast.

* One even had $2.50 Long Island Iced Teas... ridiculousness. I can't remember the last time I had that much to drink (literally). The only minus about that place was that they wouldn't sell me (alone) a pitcher of beer to save money. Oh well.

* I can't even describe how good the the Mexican food was at one of the places I went... though I have to admit I tried a different Mexican restaurant and its food tasted like dog food. You win some and you lose some, right?

* The folks were all really nice... including this one guy who struck up a conversation with me while he was waiting for a bus. I could probably write his bio with all the stuff he told me (it was only a ten-minute conversation, hehe). He told me several of his past jobs, family history and even the name of the hospital he as born in, ... weird.

After a few days though, I got sent down to the Houston area to roll up my sleeves and do some real work (12-hour days, 7 days a week, 30 days total) so I won't be doing much drinking or partying (or posting really) for about a month. Don't get me wrong, it's fun and interesting and I'm glad I'm here... it's just long hours and a lot of work.

Heck, my liver will probably enjoy the break and quality healing time.

Though I will say there isn't much to do around where I'm staying, and I don't have much time to do anything... I am staying near a Hooters though, which is a pretty big plus. Maybe by the time I leave, the girls at the bar will recognize me...

Well, work starts at 7, and I've got a driving commute again (I miss the subway, bad), so I've really got to hit the hay.

I'll be back!... eventually.

September isn't supposed to be cold, right?

I forgot to mention this in the last post...

So this morning, I wore my jacket to work and was glad I did. It was like in the high 50's and windy as crap. The wind is what really makes it frigid.

I think God forgot that it's still only September, word?

I guess I'm going to have to get used to the whole "seasons" thing. Seasons don't exist in Florida.

What the hell is "autumn" anyway? There's "hot" and "slightly less hot" (January, give or take a couple weeks). That's my idea of the two seasons.

I really am totally looking forward to when it really starts snowing, even though my office says I'm crazy.

I figure it'll at least be neat for a little while before I get tired of winter like everybody else.

Either way, I'll be in Texas for a little while starting tomorrow... and it'll probably be back to Floridaesque weather there.

Who knows what it will be like when I get back to the Big Apple though. We'll see...

I'm headed to Texas tomorrow, plus some random ish...

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A friend from home, Law and Order, the Vag-ankees and toilet water definitely make for an interesting weekend...

So this weekend was definitely an interesting one.

First, on the way back to the office from lunch Friday, I noticed some commotion on the steps of the courthouse across the street from my office building. Upon further inspection, they were totally filming some "Law and Order" action since its steps are the ones you always see people on in the show.

Unfortunately I didn't see anybody I recognized, but whoever was there got
some schnazzy looking director's chairs to chill in.

It looks like they were filming some sort of press conference. You can't really see it in the picture, but the people were crowding around a guy standing at a podium.
So that afternoon, a friend of mine from back at USF flew in, which was cool. I hadn't seen her since last winter, so it was fun to catch up. We went to see the D-Rays at Yankee Stadium... twice! Granted the first time, our game got rained out... so we had to go back Saturday night.

The game was a lot of fun (though we lost), but it's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get, right? As she'll probably tell you, I won on that front.

They had the final destination of this year's Vag-ankees team on
display right in the stadium.
P.S. Along with both being mature and taking the high road we found ways to include "gay" in every Yankees player's name (Bobby A-gay-u, Gay-Rod, Robinson Gay-no, etc... sometimes I miss middle school)... We also determined that the Devil Rays need to draft Oroku Saki and put him in the infield to complement Akinora Iwamura.

Though, unfortunately Saki might be on the DL for a while after getting jumped (like out of nowhere and for no reason!) by a group of crazy teenagers...



Sidenote... On the way to the game, we passed a bunch of kids playing in a spraying fire hydrant, which I always thought was strange. For a little while there in the middle of the summer, I saw kids playing in gallons and gallons of spraying hydrant water almost daily. Heck, in Florida we had lawn watering restrictions, so it's always crazy to me to see that.

Every time I see it though, part of me is just waiting for someone to come out of nowhere and start beating the crap out of someone on the street, a la "The Godfather."



That's why whenever I see the whole fire hydrant thing... I keep aware of my surroundings.

Anywho...

So, along with baseball, we did some barhopping and wandered around midtown and just had an overall good time. We even caught Brutus the Buckeye being naughty...

Maybe they were a bit distracted
during the USC game, hmmm...
So God decided to make sure the weekend stayed interesting even after my friend flew back to Tampa, I kept busy all day Sunday in the bathroom... since that afternoon my toilet clogged and flooded out the bathroom... twice. The room filled with toilet water, I cleaned it up, then it filled again. That was weak... and gross. I'm pretty sure my neighbors heard me yelling obscenities as it flooded the second time. I was quite pissed.

Don't worry, I have no pictures of that to post, as it wasn't too pleasant.

It was extra weak because it made me miss the WNBA game I was going to go to to get Bill Laimbeer's autograph at. I guess that will have to wait until next year.

I've never been to a WNBA game, and while I've heard people talk trash about them I'd venture to say they are probably more fun than being on your knees cleaning up toilet water.

On another interesting note, my work is going to send me to Texas for either a couple of weeks or a whole month to help with Hurricane Ike related work... so that should be interesting. I'll probably leave by the end of the week. I'm not quite sure yet how exactly that will impact the posting and such, but we'll see.

I'm really excited, I think it will be interesting...