Well, this is my first actual post of the year (not counting Twitter updates), so happy new year, losers my dear readers! New Year's Eve was quite uneventful, with the main thing I did at midnight being feeding the cat. New Year's Day was a lot more fun, though, as bethje and I went to New York City to see not_glimmer, who is visiting from Oregon. The crappy thing about being in New York on New Year's is that nothing is open. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but several places we wanted to go turned out to be closed. We decided to meet at Books of Wonder, and...well, we did, but we weren't able to go inside. Oddly enough, the cupcake place that shares the building WAS open, even though I think they might have the same owners. So we're allowed to fill our stomachs, but not our heads? Anyway, we had an early dinner at an Italian place called Focacceria, where Erin had actually eaten last New Year's. I'd been wanting pasta for a few days now, so it was cool that I finally had some. After that, we walked across the Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn, and had milkshakes (well, I had a smoothie, actually) at a diner called Kellogg's. Then we returned to Manhattan, and had a third dessert at a cafe there. All in all, it was a lot of walking. I enjoyed seeing Erin again, and should probably be grateful for the exercise, but I'm hoping our next visit to the New York metropolitan area will be more relaxing.

I think there were some other things that I wanted to address, but I can't remember what they were. I'm going to guess they weren't that important, though.

I might as well say a bit about the show that bethje, therealtavie, and I attended last night. It was John Waters' Christmas show, which he did at a place in Times Square called B.B. King's. It was one of those places that has food, but it's all prohibitively expensive. They also had notes about there being a $10 minimum for each person, which I don't think we actually met, but they usually don't seem to care too much as long as you order SOMETHING. Really, if they want an extra $10 so badly, why not just add it to the ticket price? Anyway, the show was fun, and John addressed everything from what he wanted for Christmas to his views on abortion to ways he could turn his old movies into kids' Christmas films. Tavie ended up really enjoying it, even though she doesn't like John's movies. Pretty cool, huh?

Also while there, Tavie gave me a bag of Goldfish crackers with a big red bow attached, because she's an enabler. {g} Seriously, I eat way too many crackers. Also, we had dinner at a brewery and restaurant near the Empire State Building. I was really tired by the time we made it back home, and I was only able to get about four hours of sleep. Good thing I only worked five hours today, and could take a nap in the evening.

This past weekend, I stayed in a hotel room with three girls, and lost my underwear. This is all true, but misleading. Let me explain. bethje's uncle Harry had gotten us a free room at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and the original plan was for Beth and me to go to Brooklyn on Friday night for Stephanie Myers' party, then drive back down to the hotel with her, therealtavie, and Gina. The first part worked out all right, although I have to say I don't particularly enjoy bars. It isn't even that I'm not much of a drinker (I'm not, but I'm willing to make exceptions when around friends), but rather, to paraphrase a beloved holiday curmudgeon, "all the NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!" Anyway, the next day, Stephanie and Gina both announced they were too sick to go, so instead we went to Atlantic City with Tavie and her friend Stephanie Appel (because Tavie has a backlog of Stephanies waiting in the wings {g}). That night, we ate at the House of Blues at the Showboat, where most of the food was cajun barbecue stuff. As many of you know, I tend to be a very picky eater. I like to eat, but one spice or ingredient I don't care for can ruin the experience for me. Yeah, I know I'm childish in that respect. Anyway, I had a pepperoni pizza, which is pretty hard to mess up. My companions did a little bit of gambling, but didn't win anything. We also didn't do much walking on the Boardwalk, since it was really cold on Saturday, and cold AND rainy today. We DID get to stay in a swanky hotel room without paying for it, though, so that's something. Oh, and as for the underwear, it turned out I'd put it in with my dirty clothes even though I hadn't worn it yet, so it worked out all right.

Also this weekend, I read a little bit of Lost Girls, Alan Moore's graphic (and I DO mean "graphic") novel series about children's book characters having crazy sex. As disturbing as that is, I'm not even sure the smut bothered me as much as the fact that there really wasn't any fantasy in it that I could see. As a fantasy fan, I don't like to see my beloved other-worlds reduced to Freudian fever dreams, you know? And of the Lost Girls themselves, only Wendy seemed to be at all in character. Dorothy just struck me as a European stereotype of an American. Eh, whatever. These are the hazards of the public domain, I suppose.

Living out in the sticks on the side of a highway as bethje and I do, we don't get any trick-or-treaters, which kind of sucks. For those of you who live in more densely populated areas, did you get very many trick-or-treaters, and what were some of the most popular and most creative costumes? I miss getting to participate in Halloween in that way, so I guess I might as well get some vicarious candy-distributing out of the comments.

What we DID do last night was go out to eat at the Olive Garden, where I had the four-cheese mezzaluna with sausage. Very good, but their sausage is a little strong. It's cool to have every once in a while, though, and it seems like they only have sausage dishes every once in a while. After that, we went to Barnes & Noble to look for a book to help me study for the pharmacy technician certification exam, but I ended up buying one on the Internet instead. Then we went to the movies to watch Saw VI. The series is a guilty pleasure for Beth, but I have to say I have a hard time following the later films. I did appreciate the hatred for insurance companies, though. At home, we saw Wolf, starring Jack Nicholson as a werewolf, Michelle Pfeiffer as his rather bland love interest, and James Spader as an asshole (wait, that's the role he plays in EVERY movie he's in, isn't it?). It's weird that they got some pretty big-name actors for such a cheap-looking film, but maybe they spent their entire budget on the cast.

The extra hour ended up not really making a whole lot of difference to me, and we're going to lose it again in a few months anyway. Why can't they add extra hours without taking any any of them away? I can't remember too much about my dream, except that it included a cursed swimming pool and some leftover pizza, and I felt frustrated throughout the entire thing for some reason. And now it's November, the month when both Beth and I have our birthdays. Too bad I can't afford to buy her much of anything at this point.

bethje and I spent most of this weekend in and around Hoboken with therealtavie and Gina. On Friday night, we ate at an Italian place, and then went to see Paranormal Activity at the movies with Stephanie. The best way I can describe the film is to compare it to one of those things on the Internet where nothing happens for a minute or so, and then something jumps out and scares the crap out of you. This was largely the same idea, only expanded into a full-length movie.

On Saturday, we had a meal at Jekyll & Hyde, a themed restaurant in Manhattan. Our table was on the third floor, which is the Laboratory, full of heads in jars and such. It was pretty expensive (and they only accept cash and, for some reason, American Express cards), but definitely a fun place to eat, what with the decorations and floor shows. And yeah, the food was also quite good. I had spaghetti with shrimp, and we shared a spinach and cheese dip appetizer. At night, Beth and I went with Tavie to her co-worker Staci's Halloween party in Jersey City. Beth and I didn't have costumes prepared, but Gina and Tavie managed to scrounge up some items, and I went as a fairy and Beth as a witch. Tavie was the weird hippie Superman Jesus from Godspell. I'm not much of a party person, but it was pretty fun, and Staci showed us some of what she'd learned in her pole-dancing class. (Yes, there apparently are such things.) Later that night, Beth, Tavie, and I watched The Worst Witch (the one from 1986 with Fairuza Balk and Tim Curry, not the later TV show). And today we returned home, so there isn't much else to tell. Oh, except that Tavie and Gina's cat Drusilla has somewhat warmed up to me, although she probably won't remember me next time I visit. You can see my pictures here.

Man, I wrote this hours ago, but I wanted to get my pictures up before posting it. That took much longer than I thought it would, so here it is, at long last.

bethje and I are back home from Oregon now. If you've been following my tweets, you know a little bit of what went on, but I'm going to describe the whole trip in this post. Basically, the trip came about because therealtavie's parents were attending a Lovecraft convention in Oregon, so Tavie decided to take the opportunity to visit our mutual friend not_glimmer. Then Beth arranged for us to visit at the same time. Our original plan was to take the bus and train to the airport, but since we missed the bus (my fault, since I decided to wait in a long line at the bank when I really didn't have time to do so), I ended up driving there instead. That probably worked out better in the long run. Our flight included a layover in Salt Lake City, where I got a Cinnabon (the first I'd had in some time, and probably the last I WILL have in some time; they're good, but so sugary that I can pretty much feel my blood sugar getting messed up) and Beth got a coffee, which surprisingly IS available in Utah.

I know some of you reading this are frequent flyers and probably think nothing of air travel by this point, but I'm still not that comfortable with it. The thing is, I don't so much mind the parts where we're actually in the sky, but the loading and unloading parts make me feel very claustrophobic. Anyway, we got into Portland on Thursday night, and were met at the airport by Erin and her dog Goblazers. There was a time zone difference of three hours, but I guess the one advantage to being unemployed is that I'm used to going to bed and getting up at weird times, so adjusting wasn't particularly difficult. Tavie showed up the next morning, and we went to a few places together, including a store of vintage stuff (it looked like the kind of place radiantwterror would have liked) where I purchased a few postcards. We had dinner at Andina, a place that served Peruvian food in the form of tapas, and I learned that I like octopus. Not that this is too surprising, considering that I already knew I liked squid. Our tentative plans to see a fire dancer that night didn't work out, but that's okay.

On Saturday, we spent a fair amount of time at Powell's City of Books, which is a pretty cool place. I like that they mix in both new and used books, so that there's an occasional bargain, but the inventory isn't limited to resold items. I was kind of impressed that they had two copies of the Del Rey edition of Grampa in Oz, and I ended up buying one to replace my old copy (which is also a Del Rey, but is falling apart). While we were there, a manager (I guess?) was giving a tour, and he seemed very proud of the small amount of power he had. Some of the questions he asked the tour group included whether they recognized a computer, and if they knew "who wrote Bart Simpson." The guy also told a story about how Stephen King's wife refused to let him sign the pillar at the store because there weren't enough of HER books there. Talk about coattail-riding! This was also the day we ate at Zell's for brunch (I had a really good Eggs Benedict), some place with outdoor seating for lunch, and the Davis Street Tavern for dinner.

Sunday included our trip to the shore with Erin's boyfriend. While there, we ate at a seafood place called Mo's, which had some really good seafood pasta. And it was the first time I'd ever been to the Pacific Ocean, so that was kind of a landmark for me. {g} Our dinner was at Burgerville, where they were featuring smoothies and other desserts made from blackberries. Pretty tasty, as was the fish and chips I had before that. Tavie left for the airport that night.

We spent most of Monday walking around the city, shopping at a few stores and eating at a few different restaurants, including one called Melt where I had a grinder, and a bar where I had appetizer portions of pizza and spaghetti. I bought a 1-Up Mushroom full of candy at one store (I probably won't eat the candy, any more than I did the stuff that came with my Mario Kart candy dispenser), a Ganesh figure at another (no, I'm not converting to Hinduism, but how can I help liking a guy who combines my interests in mythology AND elephants?), and copies of Cornelia Funke's Inkspell and L. Frank Baum's The Twinkle Tales at Daedalus Books. We caught the plane back home that night, and after a layover in Atlanta, it was back to Philadelphia and New Jersey for us. We were both pretty exhausted by that point, but we're up now. And, well, I guess that's about it. Be sure to check out my pictures!

Okay, I guess it's time for bed. Past time, really. Happy birthday to gick, and happy belated birthday to obsessical and zimbra1006! Since I'm behind on my usual blogging schedule, I'll probably write an Oz post tomorrow (i.e., today) and a video game one on Thursday.

It seems to be an old tradition in stories for children to have landscapes, items, and people made out of edible materials, especially candy and other sweet foods. The Oz books are no exception to this, although the idea actually appeared in some of Baum's other fantasies before making it to the Oz series itself. The Magical Monarch of Mo gives us the Maple Plains, Fruitcake Island, cows that give ice cream, a dragon with raspberry jelly instead of blood, and talking animal crackers that grow on trees. I think his first edible people, however, might well be the ones who appear in Dot and Tot of Merryland. The second valley of Merryland, known as the Valley of Bonbons, is inhabited by people with marshmallow flesh and stick candy bones, who coat themselves with powdered sugar to keep from sticking to things. They are also known to have some racist and cannibalistic tendencies, the former shown in the fact that chocolate people are a servant class, and the latter in that they'll eat any fellow candy people who end up broken into pieces. The candy man whom Dot and Tot encounter in the valley reappears in The Road to Oz, as a companion to Queen Dolly at Ozma's birthday party. Also attending this party is another edible personage, John Dough, a human-sized gingerbread man made by French immigrant baker Jules Grogrande in order to celebrate the Fourth of July, and inadvertently animated with the Elixir of Life. After running from people who want to eat him, John has a series of adventures on some Nonestic islands with a gender-ambiguous child called Chick the Cherub (hence the title John Dough and the Cherub for his book), eventually culminating in his becoming king of the unfriendly but united nations of Hiland and Loland.



The first occasion of edible people within Oz itself occurs in Emerald City, with its village of Bunbury (quite possibly named after the imaginary relative from The Importance of Being Earnest, but I don't believe there's ever been actual confirmation on this), home to a large number of rather aristocratic baked goods. Dorothy pays a visit there that starts out friendly, but goes sour when Toto, on a dare, eats a few of the citizens (and given what we learn about Toto in Tik-Tok, he really should have known better). There's no indication as to how the people of Bunbury came into existence, but since the neighboring town of Bunnybury was established by Glinda, and the book also credits her with setting up the Cuttenclips' village, I don't think it's too far-fetched to say that Glinda granted some life-giving ovens and a plot of land in her Quadling Country to an eccentric baker. Incidentally, one of the advertising pamphlets that Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote for the Royal Baking Powder Company was called "Billy in Bunbury," but since I haven't read it, I couldn't tell you whether it's about the same Bunbury. Her other advertisements for the company did feature live food people, including the Jinn of the Gelatin Isles. I'm not sure how many baking products Royal makes today, but I know their gelatin is still available as a cheaper alternative to Jell-O.



Speaking of Thompson, she brought in a candy giant named Bangladore as a minor character in her first Oz book, Royal Book. He's made out of taffy, with sour ball eyes and a chocolate coat. Her second book, Kabumpo, introduces another bit part, the King of the Soup Sea, who is made out of soup bones with a cabbage for a head and a soup bowl for a crown. He is a quite friendly ruler, whose job is to keep his sea of soup stirred and seasoned, and to present rolls to visitors.



In John R. Neill's Wonder City, there's an army of giant chocolate soldiers living on a chocolate star in the sky above Oz. The soldiers are made out of the chocolate of the star itself, and they typically act in unison, all except for their general. The soldiers set out for the Emerald City on a silver cloud with a dark lining in order to conquer the capital of Oz, but Jenny Jump saves the city by setting up her Turn-Style in the city gate, which turns them all into toy tin soldiers. His next book, Scalawagons, shows the Lolly-Pop Village, located at the foot of Carrot Mountain in the Quadling Country, alongside the Singing Brook inhabited by water fairies and kelpies. The village itself is inhabited by the six industrious Lollies, each of whom is a different flavor (the text mentions Minty, Scotchy, Choco, and an unnamed lemon-flavored girl), and their lazy Pops. The Pops are actually now somewhat more active, since Tik-Tok knocked some sense into them with a mallet.

In Dorothy, Roger Baum brings in his own edible Candy Country, ruled by the Giant Royal Marshmallow. The cannibalistic tendencies of the candy people of Merryland seem to come into play again here, with Dorothy discovering that all foods EXCEPT marshmallow make the monarch sick. Incidentally, a letter from L. Frank Baum mentions that he was originally thinking of replacing the Garden of Meats chapter from Patchwork Girl with an encounter with the Marshmallow Twins, but he was presumably convinced by the publisher that the book was long enough without it. I wonder if these twins are related to the Giant Royal Marshmallow.

bethje and I saw Inglourious Basterds tonight, and I have to say I liked it. Brad Pitt did a good job as a crazy Southern lieutenant (who speaks Italian with a really bad accent at one point), and I think the odd mixture of brutal violence and humor that Quentin Tarantino tends to put into his movies works well. I'm not sure why he's such a big supporter of Eli Roth, but nobody's perfect.

The movie theater was offering free Bloomin' Onions at the Outback, so we went there to eat after the film. Unfortunately, I don't like fried onions (or most kinds of onions, really), so the promotion wasn't of much benefit to me. It's been years since I last ate there, and my old standby, the Jackeroo Chops (yeah, that was what they called their pork chops), were no longer on the menu. In fact, it looks like they largely dropped the goofy Australian-themed names, although a few still remain. Come on, Outback, don't deny your roots as a gimmicky themed restaurant! Well, I guess they really haven't, since they still have boomerangs everywhere. The bread is still really good, though, and I also liked the pasta dish that I had. Beth had the Alice Springs Chicken, which I might have next time I go back there, assuming they still offer it by then.

1. While writing this post, I thought about how common it is for people who accept one belief system without thinking will often be the harshest critics of others. Look at Jack Chick talking about Islam, for instance. And for an example with more modern relevance, take the people who are always going on about how you can't trust the "liberal media," yet have no problem with anything Bill O'Reilly says, even when he contradicts himself. In a way, they're right. You shouldn't implicitly trust the mainstream media, or the government, or the Bible, or the Quran. But that doesn't mean you should just find alternatives that you DO totally believe. The thing is, I'm in favor of skeptical attitudes, but I think some of your Fox News viewers and the like don't really HAVE skeptical attitudes. Rather, they're so keen on false dichotomies that they feel that one news network or holy book is entirely right, and another entirely wrong. That doesn't mean I think you should consider every opinion equally valid, which often seems to be what the mainstream media want to do. No, Sarah Palin's death panel fantasies don't deserve equal time with ACTUAL coverage of the health care debate, any more than Creationism deserves to be taught in science classes.

2. The "bromance" concept is pretty popular in the film industry these days, isn't it? I guess it's just not something that appeals to me, because I've never really had guy friends. I've had friends who were guys, but not friends I did Guy Things with. Honestly, guys' guys kind of make me uncomfortable.

3. Are celebrity crushes more of a girl thing than a guy thing? I think the stereotypical view might be that girls can have fairly intense crushes on famous people, while guys just want to have sex with them, but I don't think that always actually holds up. Still, from the not at all scientific sample I've seen, it looks to be more men who say, in essence, "I don't like whatever it is that she does, but I'd still bang her!" For me, it's kind of difficult to separate the two. That can also work the other way, though, and I often find myself attracted to people whose work I do admire, physically as well as mentally. It's sometimes at least partially sexual, but not always. I mean, I think I have a certain level of attraction to Andy Partridge, but being a straight male, I wouldn't want to shag him. I don't know. Sometimes it's difficult to know where to draw the line, especially when you only know someone through a public persona.

4. I don't think I agree that pizza and sex are both at least pretty good even when they're not THAT good. For instance, I don't like pizza with onions on it. And while I haven't tried it, I imagine I wouldn't like sex with onions, either.

5. Happy birthday to themall, and happy belated birthday to revme!

When I was younger, I used to enjoy going to buffets and other all-you-can-eat style restaurants. In my adult life, however, I find myself not enjoying this sort of place as much. Part of it is that bethje doesn't like buffets (well, she likes Ponderosa, but those are very few and far between nowadays), so we generally don't go to them. But there's also the general feeling that such places bring on, which is that, if you haven't eaten enough food that you can't get up from the table without the aid of a forklift, you haven't gotten your money's worth. And really, most restaurants already have much larger portions than are recommended, so eating even MORE than that isn't the best idea. I've also noticed a growing trend in all-you-can-eat items at non-buffet restaurants, like the endless fries with a burger at Red Robin and Ruby Tuesday. We went to Ruby Tuesday yesterday, and I didn't even think the fries were very good. Even when they are, though, I often can't even finish what I've given with my meal. Fries are a very starchy, filling kind of food, so endless fries are sort of a scam anyway. Same deal with the never-ending pasta bowl that they featured at the Olive Garden a few months ago.

The two main all-you-can-eat specials I still like are the shrimp at Red Lobster and the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut, because, well, these are two foods I can eat a lot of without feeling full. In fact, most places that serve shrimp tend to skimp, and to use enough breading to suffocate a camel. I've had all-you-can-eat shrimp deals at Applebee's and Friendly's, and not only was the shrimp not as good as Red Lobster's, but you mostly got breading anyway. I haven't actually done the math to figure out whether I'm getting a good deal from Red Lobster or Pizza Hut (after all, part of the point of the all-you-can-eat concept is to make it seem like you're taking advantage of the restaurant, when of course you're really not), but it at least feels like it. Still, since I leave these places overstuffed, I'm sure it's a good thing that the shrimp special is only every once in a while, and I generally only get the Pizza Hut buffet on the rare occasions when I'm out in the middle of the day.

Yes, my brother Karl got married today (well, technically yesterday at this point, I guess), and bethje attended the wedding, which was held in the bride's family's backyard. It wasn't a big ceremony, but there were more guests than there were at our own wedding. Most of them were from the bride's side, as she has a lot of cousins. Actually, so does Beth. Do people who don't have any first cousins (as we don't in my family) tend to marry people who do, in order to fill some kind of gap? Anyway, from my side of the family were my sister, my mom, her sisters Sandy and Toni, her brother Tim and his wife Jann, my dad and his wife Barbara, his brother Devan (formerly Bruce), and his parents. The ceremony was performed by a weekend preacher, and included some of the annoying sexist stuff about the man being the breadwinner and the woman remaining meek, but Karl and Kelly didn't actually know what was going to be in the ceremony beforehand. For dinner, I had meatballs and ziti, but chicken and roast beef were also featured in the buffet line. The wedding cake, which was part chocolate and part yellow (I had the latter), was pretty good. And, well, I guess that's about it. We made it home despite my accidentally turning the wrong way and unintentionally entering Maryland for a brief time. Pictures can be found here.

Oh, by the way, my title might sound generic, but it actually comes from this.

Okay, so, yesterday was therealtavie and Kirsten's birthday, and bethje and I went up to North Jersey for their party, which was held at a beer garden in Jersey City called Zeppelin Hall. It must be one of the most uptight restaurants in the country, because it had its own security team, who absolutely refused to let us bring in a birthday cake, allegedly for health code matters. I guess it makes sense that this would have happened at a GERMAN restaurant. :P Also, it was pretty difficult to find a table, as people stuck around and played cards and such, with no sign of anything to eat or drink. We ended up sitting outside, where they didn't serve as much in the way of food. So I don't think I'd recommend the place, even though the sausage sampler I got was quite good. I'm not sure I could taste much difference between the varieties of sausage, though. I get the impression that the Germans basically sit around drinking a lot of beer, and then come up with different names for what's basically the same collection of pig organs in a casement.

But enough about German cuisine. The party itself was fun, although we didn't know all that many of the people there. Tavie seems to have more social networking skills than I do, especially considering that some of her co-workers showed up, and we visited her old boss's apartment after leaving the restaurant. I will say that her networking skills apparently work particularly well on Stephanies and Andrews. But anyway, the fact that we were invited means a lot to me, as someone who usually feels like a social outcast. And we got to hear Tavie and Kirsten sing together, which was something that Gina had built up for me, and turned out to meet expectations. They have the ability to harmonize that can only come with having been in the womb together. {g}

We finally got home a little before 5 AM, and I went to sleep pretty much immediately, only to have dreams involving skyscrapers, alternate universes, amusement park rides featuring the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz, and a power outage at a bookstore.

Since bethje has an uncle who gambles a lot, he was able to get us a room at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City last night. We stayed in the Chairman Tower, which is the newer, ritzier one of the two towers. I guess some people feel that a name reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Party sounds like a cool place to stay. Actually, the high-rollers at the Taj Mahal are referred to as "Chairman" and "Executive" levels, which kind of seems to destroy the fun image that most casinos like to have. I mean, is there anything LESS fun than high-ranking businessmen? Anyway, the room was pretty swanky, and it was on the seventy-third floor, which gave us a nice view. I did notice, however, that there was a fee to use the wireless Internet there, while there wasn't at the Super 8 where we stayed last month. Not that it really matters, since neither of us have laptops, but I found it interesting. We had dinner at a place called Plate (which was actually right next to another restaurant called Burger; I guess that Trump likes simple names), where the service wasn't very good, but I did like the little pepperoni pizza that I had there. EDIT: Also, we went to a go-go bar for the first time.

One thing I have to wonder is why I always see Indian people gambling at the Taj Mahal. Wouldn't they consider it an insult to their culture, and not want to go there? Oh, well. Maybe if I ever visit India, I can stay in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Hotel.

So, anyway, we're back now, and I believe my next post will be another one about Oz characters. Hey, what would you expect from me?

Yesterday was pretty cool. bethje and I went up to Hoboken to visit friends, including not_glimmer, who had flown in from Oregon. We met her at Gina and therealtavie's apartment, along with its two residents. Stephanie M. was also there for a brief time, along with Stephanie P. and Jen, both of whom I met for the first time. The three of them were going to a Nine Inch Nails concert with Gina, while Tavie was going to a wedding with yet another Stephanie. (I guess people of that name gravitate toward her. {g}) So, for those of you not keeping score, that left Erin, Beth, and me to hang out for a few hours, and go out to eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Ali Ba Ba's. Perhaps surprisingly, I quite enjoyed my chicken kebab pita sandwich with cucumber yogurt sauce. Despite my pedestrian taste that would usually prefer a cheese sandwich to something exotic, I've actually liked Middle Eastern food both times I had it. Then again, I've never gotten any of the spicy stuff. After dinner, we did a little research into Japanese panty vending machines. So much I've heard about the Japanese suggests that they're a nation of perverts, but they probably think the same about Americans. Anyway, it was past 11:30 when we got back on the road, and Beth and I were totally exhausted by the time we got home. Yet somehow, I'm awake now. (EDIT: It was about 10 AM when I wrote this, but I waited to get the pictures uploaded before posting it.) Oh, well. It's only twelve hours before I have to go back to bed so I can get up for work tomorrow, so I should take advantage of this time. Trying to catch up on my LiveJournal friends page counts as taking advantage of the time, right? {g}

In case you're interested, here are pictures from yesterday.

There's a lot I like about Bill Maher. He's funny, his show is entertaining, and I often agree with his arguments. In one particular case, however, I think he comes across as WAY out of touch. Every once in a while, he'll pull out his argument that Americans are unhealthy because we eat bad food, and then take medicine that doesn't actually make us feel any better. I'm not saying there's nothing in this argument, although I think he drastically exaggerates the point, and American health is probably better on average than that in countries that DON'T have much if anything in the way of processed food and prescription drugs. My problem is more that, for a guy who seems to want to be seen as a champion of the poor, Maher doesn't seem to take into account that, for people who don't have much in the way of money or the time or inclination to cook, processed food is often the most viable choice. And that's not even getting into the issue of tastiness. As unhealthy as it might be, humans are often inclined to enjoy sweet and fatty foods. (I'm not so sure about salt; I'm inclined to think that might be more of an acquired taste that Americans have gotten used to over time.) Eating a pepperoni pizza and a garden salad will both assuage hunger, but at least for me, the former is fun and the latter not so much. Maybe your own opinion is the opposite, in which case I kind of envy you. But I'm sure there's still SOMETHING you like to eat that isn't exactly a recommended source of nutrition. I have to wonder if people who complain about others' eating habits don't enjoy eating, or at least make it a point to try not to.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. Well, unless you're Eastern Orthodox, in which case I'll wish you a happy Palm Sunday, and a happy Cosmonautics Day. To all the rest of you, just have a good day in general, okay?

Yesterday, bethje and I went up to Hoboken to visit our friends therealtavie and Gina. Also visiting them were Stephanie and her rat terrier Adrian. After dyeing eggs, we had an Easter dinner made up of ham, beef brisket, deviled eggs, peas [1], potato salad, challah bread (which, ironically, orthodox Jews COULDN'T have eaten yesterday), and baked beans. Being a fussy eater, I didn't partake of all these things, but I quite liked the ones of which I did. We also participated in Tavie and Gina's Easter tradition of watching the Mr. Show "Jeepers Creepers Semi-Star" sketch, and their cat Spike took a swat at me and hissed. He has some serious mood swings. I had a lot of fun. It's a shame that our closest local friends live a hundred miles away, though. :(

Since I still owe you faithful readers a mythology post from yesterday, and I often like to do holiday posts anyway, I did a bit of quick research on the origins of the Easter Bunny. Apparently the first known mentions of a rabbit delivering eggs come from sixteenth-century Germany, and Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought the idea to America in the eighteenth century. But the idea of the rabbit being a symbol of fertility and spring dates back to long before that, and some sources say that the rabbit was closely associated with the goddess Eostre in ancient Anglo-Saxon paganism. So I guess it's not totally out of the question that, in a way, the Easter Bunny predates Jesus.

The main source for the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre is in the eighth-century works of the Venerable Bede. (See, I told you he'd be showing up again!) In fact, Wikipedia states that Bede was the ONLY source for Eostre, and I haven't done enough research to tell you whether this is accurate. Jacob Grimm proposed the existence of a German equivalent, Ostara. And that name isn't too dissimilar to that of the Semitic goddess Astarte, but then, "Krishna" is also very similar to "Christ." Folk etymologists come up with all kinds of connections between similar words in different languages, but they're not always right. For instance, the land of Edom probably wasn't really named after soup.

I think the earliest legends concerning the Easter Bunny and colored eggs say that the rabbit actually LAID the eggs, sort of like the Cadbury Bunny does with his chocolate ones. That reminds me of a dream I had once (which I think I've already described on my journal, but I'm mentioning it again because it's relevant) in which I was supposed to collect eggs from rabbits, but they got mad and starting attacking me. I seem to have a fair number of dreams about small mammals turning vicious, and I'm not sure what's up with that. On the other hand, Gina and Tavie's cat Spike really DID turn vicious on me the other day.

[1] When I was a kid, my mom decided that, when I said the word "peas," I had to eat some. So even today I can't help but think of it as sort of a Word That Must Not Be Spoken. Not that I really have a problem with peas, mind you.

Today, bethje and I attended the wedding of her cousin (and my former landlady and roommate) Patti. I don't think she'd even been dating her now-husband Joe for two years yet, and I'm not sure why so many people want to rush into marriage, but that's their choice. Anyway, the actual ceremony was in a church, and included a woman with a not-so-great voice singing "Sunrise, Sunset." Not exactly something you'd expect to hear in a Christian house of worship, is it? :P The preacher gave some speech about how love was a choice, not an emotion, which I don't think is true. If it is, then why would unrequited love ever exist? I also can't understand why the man is supposed to be strong and the woman tender, but I suppose sexism has always been a major part of mainstream organized religion. I'm really negative about this, aren't I? :P

The reception was at a caterer's not too far from where we live. It took forever for them to let us into the dining room, but as soon as it was open, some women started grumpily ordering everyone to go there. As if it had been OUR idea to hang around in another room with no chairs. Real classy, there. Anyway, it was all right once we got in, despite the toasts full of bad jokes. The food was served buffet-style, and I had chicken and pasta. They also had an open bar, and I tried a Seven and Seven for the first time. Not bad at all, and I had two Fuzzy Navels as well.

Okay, I guess that's all I have to say about the wedding. If you want to see some pictures, you can do so here.

You know, I've never actually tried a Shamrock Shake, but I had to post this commercial anyway. I've posted a link to it here before, but it's seasonally appropriate now, so why not?



I guess Uncle O'Grimacey was never a particularly successful character, since he doesn't show up anymore. I'm not even sure he was in more than that one commercial. Kind of a shame, really, as they could have introduced more of Grimace's ethnically stereotypical relatives to advertise other sorts of colored gum-based beverages. You know, like:

Gelato Shake - Don di Grimacio
Black Forest Shake - Baron Fritz von Grimazschnitzelhoffen
Prianik Shake - Comrade Grimasovich
Chutney Shake - Maharishi Grimashira (maybe he could have four arms like the original Grimace used to)

And that's not even mentioning Birdie's long-thought-extinct Great-Aunt McDodo.

Let's see what I have to report here. Well, on Saturday night, bethje, her Uncle John, and I were going to go to Red Robin, only to find out it wasn't open yet. Even though the signs are all lit up and there aren't any "coming soon" signs. I haven't been to Red Robin in a while, and I guess I'll have to wait some more to go to this one. I've heard of people getting sick from Red Robin, but I'm sure that's anecdotal evidence that's statistically irrelevant.

On Sunday, my mom and sister met us at a diner, where I had a sausage sandwich. And for dinner I had a meatball sub, so I guess I've had my share of subs for the time being. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I finally gave my mom the plants I'd meant to give her for Christmas, and she said that I'll be receiving some presents from her in the near future.

And now a quick rundown of the new cartoon episodes. In tonight's Simpsons, Ned Flanders did something nice for the Simpsons, and Homer treated him like crap. Gee, never seen THAT plot before, have we? :P I did think the prospective tenants were funny, though. I did enjoy Family Guy. It got off to a slow start with the horse bit, which wasn't that funny, but I thought it picked up after getting into the subplot with Peter turning gay. And I liked the James Bond bit, partially because it seems like not enough people acknowledge that Bond is basically a sex offender. And American Dad was once again the highlight of the night.

Beth and I also watched the Alexandra Pelosi documentary Right America Feeling Wronged, which was pretty disturbing. It was basically a "look at these crazy people" kind of film, which is unlikely to sway anyone's views, but fascinating to see. There was one kid who was afraid of Obama winning because he was a socialist, yet he could neither spell nor define "socialist." And another guy cried because he could no longer fly the Confederate flag, among other things. He also said that society nowadays considers people who hunt and go to "titty bars" (his term) to be bad. For the most part, they were the kind of people who constantly parrot slogans and buzzwords (I love when people say they they like Fox News because it's "fair and balanced," which is essentially the same as saying that you like Burger King because you can have it your way; repeating an advertising slogan is hardly an explanation) and refuse to be dissuaded from their ideas even when they make no sense, who certainly aren't limited to Republicans, but it often seems like the party tries to appeal to people who think that way. But the main thing I learned from the movie is that, for Republicans, EVERY day is Silly Hat Day!

Hey, it's our anniversary! Well, sort of. Since bethje and I got married on the twenty-ninth of February, I guess we won't technically have an anniversary until 2012. But it HAS been a year, and we were considering eating dinner at the same place we had our small reception in order to commemorate that. The only problem is that we found out they're cafeteria-style most of the time, and we didn't want to have to figure out the ordering system. So we ended up going to the Olive Garden instead, which I guess wasn't as special, but it was still good. I had the four-cheese mezzaluna with sausage (which, like most of the better dishes there, is only available for a limited time), and I enjoyed it, even if Beth didn't. (She didn't order it, but I gave her a bite of mine.)

After dinner, we went to Atlantic City and walked on the Boardwalk, which was cool, but we didn't see any cats. (For those of you who don't know, there are stray cats living under the Boardwalk, especially near the Trump Taj Mahal.) Beth was on the lookout for video roulette machines, but we didn't find any. So we didn't do any gambling, but that's fine with me. And when we got home, we watched Into the Wild Green Yonder, on which I've already commented. So I guess that brings us up to the present, at least as far as anything actually interesting goes. But since I took some personality tests, I'm going to include my results in this post as well.