A Day Like All Days

MONDAY (New Year's Eve)

Woke up around quarter to eight for another runny crap. Went back to sleep while Gary went down to breakfast. Around ten we went to sit in the lobby and asked for the housekeeper to do our room next because I had been sick and couldn't let them in the past two days. About 11:30 we returned to the room and I threw up, and felt much better.

Around two I got up to replenish my system with applesauce, gelatin and a Sprite. Then back to sleep for a couple hours before I got up for the evening and showered, and we went to Bob Evans for dinner. Gary had a grilled chicken dinner and I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

We returned to the room, packed up most of our clothes, and I set up the Amazon Fire tablet I got for Christmas. Then we got ready for bed and watched the midnight ball drop from there, and fell asleep right afterwards.

SATURDAY

Woke up a little early, around quarter to seven, to use the bathroom. I took my medicine but decided to go back to bed while Gary got his shower. Once he was done, I showered quickly and noticed my back hurt while I was in there. We headed downstairs for breakfast and I noticed a cute ginger-blond bear in a hoodie, jogging pants and sandals.

Afterwards we returned to the room and decided not to do the Music Hall tour because of my aching back. Instead, we drove to the Banks garage and caught the streetcar to Findlay Market. As we boarded we were immediately asked to show our tickets to the somewhat bearish fare enforcement officer. After a few pictures we hopped back on the streetcar to Washington Park opposite Music Hall. Gary walked over to the dog park and a medium-sized dog started playing with him. We got some pictures of Memorial Hall and Music Hall before my battery died. When we got back to the streetcar station, a nice-looking young dude with a dark, trim beard asked if the streetcar was free this week. We said no and he bought tickets for himself and the lady with the Hudy Delight ball cap. Once we were on board I spotted a cute daddycub playing with his small son opposite us.

The bearded dude and Hudy Delight lady left the streetcar at the same stop with us, and when we got lunch at the Jefferson Social they were seated at the bar. We'd eaten there once before when we were in town for Labor Day weekend. The bartender had a long, thick, blondish beard. I had a burrito bowl and Gary had a burger, and we split an order of churros. Outside, a homeless man with a thick brown beard re-adjusted his wardrobe against the cold, adding a blue hoodie from his backpack between his red plaid shirt and outer jacket. We drove back to the hotel without incident.

Back at the room, we found the housekeeper hadn't been in to clean up, but I needed to charge my phone and Gary needed to sleep, so we put out the Do Not Disturb sign. We got up about 6 and left for Dad's, arriving at 6:45. We sat with Dad and watched the end of the Cotton Bowl. On the way out, we crossed paths with one of the nurses, who took one look at us in our leather jackets and said, "I wouldn't want to mess with you guys!" We all chuckled at that. We hopped in the car and headed for another Frisch's Big Boy location for dinner. At the table next to us, one of the ladies mentioned that she had been driving school buses for 41 years and had no intention of retiring anytime soon.

When we got back to the hotel we had a slightly awkward conversation with the desk clerk before returning to the room and turning on the Orange Bowl. I was feeling a little queasy and ended up running to sit on the toilet before calling it a night.

THURSDAY

We got a late start and missed the hotel breakfast, so we stopped by Frisch's Big Boy for their breakfast bar. From there we headed down to Union Terminal to visit the museums underneath the rotunda which is shaped like an old Art Deco radio set. The line for tickets was rather long, spiraling around the box office in a semicircle. At one point I noticed a black bear about our size with dreadlocks and wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of Bogart's, a live-music bar in Clifton. I suggested to Gary he just might be a bouncer there. We were served by a cute cubbish dude with a trim black beard and a nice smile; Gary noticed the rainbow pin he was wearing.

We descended the escalator to the mezzanine level to visit the Holiday Junction display, then continued down a long ramp to the Duke Energy model railroad display, which used to be in the lobby of the CG&E building when I was a kid. Also on the lower level was a reproduction of the Cincinnati Public Landing from the 1800s, complete with the Gibson print shop, a beer hall, a stand at the 5th Street Market, a boarding house, and a photographer's studio among others. The highlight of the exhibit was the Queen of the West, a steam paddlewheel riverboat model with simulated cargo. From there we returned to the mezzanine level to view the Lego model train exhibit before following a cute cublet in a construction hi-vis vest up the escalator to the rotunda level and making our exit.

The next stop was Dad's apartment, where we were surprised to find Colleen and Sheila had assembled his new reading lamp and table. We chatted for a bit while an occupational therapist checked to see if Dad could manage to wheel himself to the dining room. He did well walking the chair with his feet to the bottom of the ramp, but not so well navigating up and down the ramp itself. Colleen took care of testing his blood sugar and administering his insulin, then we all accompanied him to the dining room. On the way, an older dude thought Gary looked like his brother, but when Gary told him he's from Brooklyn, he said his brother is from Kansas City. We said our goodbyes at the dinner table and went our separate ways.

Gary and I returned to the room to charge phones and decide where to go for dinner. We ended up going to Golden Corral since we'd missed lunch and were pretty hungry. There was a cute ginger cub in a feathered cowboy hat with a lady companion. After dinner we went shopping at Meijer for drinks and snacks, and noticed the wind had gotten much stronger while we were eating. We checked out with a tall bear whose height and voice reminded me of Joe Dietl from Where the Bears Are; he had a nice gingerish beard though.

When we arrived at our room we watched axe throwing on ESPN, featuring rather a lot of cute bears and cubs (the runner-up, David Cycon from the Philly location of Bury the Hatchet, is particularly cute), then switched to hockey (the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Flyers 6-5 in overtime; Carter Hart was not in net). After that it was news and bed.

CHRISTMAS EVE and CHRISTMAS DAY

We took the usual route to the airport, starting with the Everett Transit 8, Sound Transit 512, and Link light rail. The trip was unremarkable except for how few people were on the train. There was essentially no line at security so we went through in less than 10 minutes.

Dinner at the Seattle Tap Room was nice; I had a burger and fries, Gary had a turkey sandwich, and we each had an Angry Orchard Rosé. The cider is made from naturally red-fleshed apples and is somewhat sweeter than their usual variety. Our waiter, a kinda cute young otter-pup with a scraggly beard, suggested we might like a shot of liquor with our cider, but I declined based on past experience with Angry Balls (a shot of Fireball cinnamon whiskey in a pint of cider). After tasting the cider I thought it would be ruined by the whiskey, which opinion was shared by a couple of our friends from the Fireplace Bears on Facebook. We made our way to our gate nearby, and while our phones were charging, I picked up cough drops, a soda and a copy of Rolling Stone. As we waited, a particular young dude caught my eye as he was taking off a heavy outer shirt revealing a black T-shirt stretched out over his broad shoulders. He spent some time trying to stow the other shirt among the bags at his feet. I thought it curious that he was standing in front of the ladies' room; obviously he was waiting for someone.

Because I'd spent some miles on upgraded seats, we got to board just after first class and VIPs. The chief flight attendant was a tall young bear, with a thick but trim beard, named Amir. All the flight attendants seemed to know the two young dudes, one seated opposite me and the other in front of him, on the aisle. Amir in particular was very friendly with them. We were delayed briefly after pulling back from the gate but took off without incident. I got a little sleep on the flight with the help of the relaxing music channel. When we landed we had to wait a few minutes for paramedics to check on someone in the far back of the plane before we could disembark; it was the mother of a family whose father was a tall strapping dude. It took me a little longer than I wanted to collect my things and leave the plane, but I managed.

Rather than taking the train, we ended up walking through the tunnel from concourse A to concourse C via the people mover, and noticed a rain forest scene in the first tunnel and an Atlanta history exhibit in the second. We had breakfast croissant sandwiches at Atlanta Bread, and then walked to the end of the concourse to our gate for the second leg of the flight to Cincy. A military dude in civilian clothes (guessing by his backpack and the ink on his arms), his wife and their cat sat opposite us. Down the row from them was a huge balding bear with a long, thick beard in a gradient from dark brown at the roots to platinum blond at the tip, in a black Carhartt jacket with hi-vis stripes, jeans and boots.

On the flight we sat in front of a couple guys who were apparently off-duty pilots, since our very bearish co-pilot came back to chat with them. Also, a couple rows in front of Gary sat a cute young bear with a trim beard and a thick neck, wearing a Nike ball cap in black and white. I slept most of the hour-long flight. Our flight path took us just west of the College of Mt. St. Joseph just before landing.

We made our way through the airport to baggage claim and on to the Hertz lot via shuttle bus. Of the full-sized cars on offer, I first tried a Nissan Altima but had trouble finding the controls for the trunk and the tilt steering wheel, so I decided to skip that vehicle and pick up a Ford Escape which is a small SUV like our VUE.

From the airport we drove directly to Erin and J's for the family Christmas party, because it was closer to the airport and Colleen and Rab were already en route with Dad, the gifts and most of the food. Of course, Colleen forgot to inform Erin and J we were coming, so it came as a bit of a surprise when we arrived and J answered the doorbell. Our family tradition has been to have Italian food for Christmas dinner: spaghetti with meatballs and sausage in red sauce, lasagna and garlic bread. This started 39 years ago when we weren't sure when Colleen's firstborn would arrive (as it happened, Steve was born late on Christmas Day, minutes before midnight) and so an elaborate turkey with all the trimmings was out of the question. Eventually Colleen, Rab, and Dad arrived and we loaded the gifts and food into the house. Soon after, Matt and Tristan arrived and we had a really nice conversation with Tristan over dinner. Afterwards we tried a new form of Stealing Santa that involved rolling dice and passing wrapped gifts around without opening them, but that didn't work out, so we went back to the traditional Stealing Santa. Matt and Len got the waterproof Bluetooth speaker and FM radio combos we contributed, while Gary got a set of CorningWare and I got an Amazon Fire mini-tablet for reading e-books.

After a few rounds of goodbyes we headed to the hotel with a stop at Walgreens for some needed supplies. We settled in to watch Jeopardy! and Gary was fast asleep by the time the game was over. I stayed up briefly to finish my journal and follow "Gary's son" (LeBron James) as his Lakers squared off against Golden State (Warriors... come out to play-yay...). I fell asleep about nine.

I didn't need to be in the office until 8 AM so I left a bit later for the bus than I usually do, and found the parking lot at South Everett freeway station was full. So I drove to Ash Way and managed to find a spot in the back relatively close to where I usually park. The ride in was uneventful. At the office I saw Seshu, both Matts from Cricket (the tall bearded one and his shorter, bald manager, who sound much alike), Veronica (who had an interesting proposal for me which unfortunately I don't think we'll be able to pursue), and Mike the Republican from my old days as an SA. Outside the office there was a big bucket truck parked close to the building to trim the trees.

Having gotten an early start, and guessing (rightly) that gmjambear would be downtown, I wrapped up about 3:30 intending to catch the 522 downtown. Having missed it by a minute or so, I caught the 535 northbound to Lynnwood to connect with the 512 there. At Canyon Park a dude who can only be described as a giant (at least 6' 7" and 400 lbs, but with no facial fur) boarded and sat on the back bench. The artic bus was fairly full but no one was standing. There were a lot of Asian kids on the bus, of high school or college age. As we crossed I-5 I noticed the northbound lanes slammed with traffic. The kid sitting across from me looked like he has potential to be a panda bear in about 10 years. He left at Alderwood (my phone's predictive typing suggested Aldershot, which is a stop on the train from Rochester to Toronto, so I found that amusing) and the giant came and sat in his place.

On the 512 I sat across from John, a chorus member who commutes from the U district to Lynnwood; he was on our bus the previous Thursday as well. At Mountlake Terrace a tall bear with long curly brown hair, in a throwback Mariners jersey with Ken Griffey Jr.'s name and number on the back, grey shorts and flip-flops boarded and sat on the turntable on the opposite side of the bus. A young dude sitting just forward of John had a long red beard and a severe haircut. By the time we hit the bulk of traffic at Northgate, I saw John nodding off; obviously it had been a long day. Downtown traffic was awful, more so than usual but not the worst I've seen. As we crossed Seventh Avenue on Stewart, we had to run circles around a #7 bus sprawled across the intersection; it was a tight fit, and I thought surely we'd snap off a rear-view mirror or something. We also had to wait at least three light cycles before we could make the left turn onto Fifth. Once we arrived at the stop at Westlake I ducked into the mall and through the lower food court, meeting Gary at the top of the steps by Wells Fargo. Someone had scrawled graffiti on the entrance doors to the bank in what looked like blue greasepaint.

We went in to BWW and were seated toward the back of the bar area. I checked the menu and noticed they were offering two different sauces in the Sauce Lab, without dates specifying when each would be available (normally they have one flavor at a time), so I asked the waiter and he said both were available. The one had a bit of a kick to it, but the other, the Scorpion with Myers' Rum in it, was on a whole new level. It wasn't all heat though; like the Mango Habañero I often order, there's a lot of flavor in it. I noticed a bit late that the new sauce came with a warning sticker not to touch your eyes, and to wash with plenty of water afterwards. ;) Still, I managed to finish the meal with vision intact and no upset stomach. And it was good.

The ride home was uneventful. We got out at Ash Way and I drove Gary to pick up his car at the far side of Everett Station.

Watching The National with Peter Mansbridge tonight, I was rather amused to hear the question with which I've titled this post.

As it happens, it's a reference to the fact that Cold Stone Creamery's peanut butter chocolate milkshake has the equivalent amount of saturated fat as the mentioned 58 strips of bacon (and 1600 calories). But considering what some of my LJ friends have posted about bacon in the past, I wonder if some of them would, if they could, drink 58 strips of bacon.

gmjambear chimed in with Kelis' "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..." :-) I think it would make a good music video played behind the scene of There Will Be Blood where one oilman threatens another with the words "I drink your milkshake!"

Update: It appears this has been done more than once. An embedded version of this video along with an explanation of the meme may be found at Know Your Meme.

And immediately following the segment, Claire Martin's triumphant return to the weather desk after a week's absence was greeted with "Hey wait! that doesn't look like Nick Cernkovich!" from Mansbridge, to which she responded "Oh, Nick's just gone out for a milkshake." ;-) I LOL'ed.

Didn't do much Friday night other than one last overnight maintenance call for work, nor yesterday as gmjambear finished off some schoolwork. Made up for that today though. ( Read more... )

Another fun day.

gmjambear and I went to the Everett Silvertips game vs. the Seattle Thunderbirds at Everett Events Center. The game was rather full, the ticket seller noted there were only tickets in pairs in about five sections of the arena, most of them upstairs and in the corners. He then recommended seats in the club section, which for a few dollars extra permitted use of the Club Lounge at the top. We went for those seats, then settled to wait in line for entrance to the arena to get our promotional cowbells sponsored by Monster Energy Drink. Cowbells in hand, we went to find our seats. They were about halfway up on the aisle.

With an hour to face-off, we decided to check out the lounge. There was a large bar with tables around it. There was also a separate door for folks with club and skybox seats to enter from Wall Street at the top of the hill, and we picked a table right by the door. So I sat facing the door and pointed out the many bears that caught my eye to Gary. We ordered dinner: Gary had linguine alfredo with chicken, while I had a cup of chili and a French dip sandwich. It appeared the kitchen was backed up as we did not receive our food until just before face-off, so we missed much of the first period. It was very good food though so I had no complaints.

The game was not as exciting as the previous game we attended, although there were a few moments: the Tips' goalie scoring an own-goal in the middle of the second period (which is credited to the last T-bird player to touch the puck), a couple of fights (not nearly as many as last game, and two of them occurring at or after the period-ending whistle), one of the T-birds charging after one of the Tips, checking him a bit high, losing his balance and sailing head over heels before landing flat on the ice, and watching Zack Dailey use some fancy stick work to try to dislodge the puck from the corner nearest us.

By the way, it does not matter who the Tips are playing, the opposing team is still treated to a rousing chorus of "AND THEY STILL SUCK!" whenever it is announced they are back to full strength. Even if, as was the case tonight, they are beating the snot out of the Tips, who ultimately lost 4-0.

Last night gmjambear and I invited a couple of friends from Federal Way up for dinner. Since this is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend we went with the Thanksgiving theme.

Menu:

Tossed salad of iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumber, shredded carrots, chopped celery, and canned mandarin oranges; choice of dressing
Roast turkey breast with gravy
Harvest rice medley prepared with chicken broth
Whole-berry cranberry sauce with Splenda™
Steamed fresh broccoli and cauliflower
Apple pie with no sugar added

Gary roasted the turkey breast, shredded the carrots, and made the cranberry sauce; I tossed the salad, steamed the veggies, and prepared the rice and gravy, and the pie we bought whole from Shari's restaurant and bakery.

Our guests thoroughly enjoyed the meal and I think we outdid ourselves.