Man, when they say that “Not a bang, but a whimper” thing, they are more right than usual. My favorite pizza place and all time best restraunt ever closed today and all I can show for it is that I drove up and left. And it wasn’t like I was too emo to go in there or something, but their sidewalk was standing room only. Not to mention their actual dining area. I mean Susi must think such horrible things of the Female Companion and I. We’ve been staunch supporters for almost four years and we didn’t even stop to say goodbye. I was really jonesing for a Thaichuan pizza as well. To say nothing of the Cajun, but Katrina killed that supply. There were a few ways I pictured this night ending, but in a TGI Friday’s never came up.

I can’t believe I took Sunday off for this.

Farewell La Pizza Cuchina. See ya at the crossroads.

Comments Off

Seriously. Happy B-day, co-founder of the EGC. It is the 28th, right? I’d hate to get the date wrong. That is something I feel I should know about friends of mine, imporant dates like that. I should put that in the PDA. In all honesty, you’ve got to be one of my oldest friends. I mean I met Martin in elementary school (Cub Scouts, actually), Jason and Tuten in highschool and the Female Companion freshman year of same, but other than those few, you’ve got to be one of the people who’ve managed to hang around me the longest without trying to kill me. Perhaps the internet has helped. It’s so difficult to kill someone over the internet.

But I’ve got b-day gifts for you. Seriously. I’m just poor now. Bad decisions and all that. So it may have to be a Very Special Chatty Christmas or something. But hey best wishes on turning 23. Its 23 right? Tell me I didn’t mess up the date and the age…

Comments Off

Yup. Everything went off without a hitch. My girl and I are fierce when we put our minds to it. That lake/wildlife preserve never saw it coming. Man I love the smell of gunpowder in the evening. I’ll have to do something to toughen up my lady’s nieces and nephews. Their fear in the face of fireworks is unamerican at best. I swear, watching their father almost blow himself up (See, when you use mortars, be sure to get a shell that fits the tube, or you get a four-burst at about eyebrow level.) must have scarred them or something. Man I love parentheticals. They get me all hot. I remember back in the ICQ days with Chatty and Voidstar (What the hell is he up to anyway? I swear that cat dropped off the face of the earth) I would employ mathematical parentheticals, actually nesting brackets in the middle of parenthesis. Wow those were the days.

I also, on the way to my girl’s sister’s place (I will not call them the in-laws. I refuse. I could just say Nancy’s, but you’d never know who I was talking about) she and I stopped by Target and picked up cokes and the suchlike. Also, I’m sad to say, I cracked. You see all these people in flip-flops nowadays and I’ve been among their staunchest critics. But as they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I’ve never been happier. My crazy hippy feet all hanging out. You’d almost think I didn’t cut all my hair off. Geez these things are comfortable. Next stop, geta!

Finally, I need to get a practice sword. I’ve been working on my Nakamura kata and my haya-suburi(the last, I’m going to need spellcheck for. Japanese spellcheck) so much that my bokken just doesn’t feel all that heavy anymore. Now you might think that wrist weights would help. They don’t. I got two five-pounders and I can hardly feel them through most of the extercise. So I need a large-scale two handed sword that at the same time isn’t TOO huge. The leading candidates are both on my wishlist. I’m having such a hard time deciding between Zangetsu and the FFVII Buster Sword. Both are so kickass….

(Read the article)

Comments Off

Who loves fireworks? Any red blooded American, that’s who! Its a shame (almost typed “sham” whew, Freud would have a field day) that I won’t be able to mark my country’s birthday by blowing up a small part of it. See, my girlfriend’s (ahem, fiancee’s) family believes strongly in the doctrine of the movable feast. See, with the fourty-one relatives of the immediate family they often can’t get together at the same time. Not the least of which is the 14 children all of which are under 11 and thusly cannot stay out late or on school nights. So everything has to happen on a saturday. Which actually means that almost every saturday is a birthday or something. I swear, these kids have more cake per year than I have alone-time with my significant other.

Ahem.

But anyway. Explosions this weekend. Whooo!

As to my birthday, I made out like a bandit. It was a good year for boardgames as I got both a rockin’ version of Stratego and a magnet game from thinkgeek. Both are verily cool. So thanks, people who love me, you guys rule.

Comments Off

So yeah. I made it through 26 years (A new record!), and now am reaping the bennies. It seems that this was boardgame year as Kristi got me that magnet game from Thinkgeek and my mom got me badass Stratego. We went to a pretty kickass fish restraunt and I had the steak. No, that’s a lie, I had the shrimp. Lord I love Sea Cockroaches.

Also got a rockin’ cake. All mint chocolate chip and stuff. Other than that, not much I can report on. Just updating the webpage and letting people know I lived through my birthday. Whoooo!

Comments Off

Ain’t that a kick in the head. Here we are, day before my birthday when the best pizza place in Cola, SC gives me probably the worst news I’ve ever recieved in a pizza joint, the news that they are closing. Yes, that is a cenograph. Hemingway I ain’t. And this is no mere pepparoni and sausage pizza place. This is the place where they make their own Thai penut sauce for the Thaichuan pizza, this is where that mustard on the club sandwich pizza was invented by their founder. Half the pies have names on them describing either a local area or the waiter that designed them. This is the place that introduced me to the two brands of beer I’ll actually drink. After I gave my then-girlfriend the Engagement Ring and finished making out with her, we went to La Pizza Cucina.

So I’m a bit, shall we say… miffed? The thing you have to realize about your friendly neighborhood ninja is that on that “Five Stages of Dealing with Shit” list, I rarely leave anger. Yes, it is petty and childish, but there it is. The only problem is that punching people (or hitting them with sticks) is rarely a good way to drum up pizza store bidness.

But they have already sold so the point is moot. Just everybody I know needs to clear their calenders on the last weekend in July so we can all go party. I’ve gotten that Sunday off, you know, just in case I don’t feel like going to work the morning after we close the only irreplacable restraunt in Columbia.

Comments Off