Anniversary Surprise

I celebrated my 14 year anniversary last night (that's the Styrofoam anniversary, isn't it?) by surprising Nina with a night out. (Thank you Nick for taking closing duties at the shop for me)

Usually, neither Nina or I are all that concerned about anniversary's. It just seems a bit odd to celebrate being together for another year. It's like saying, "Hey! Look at that! I made it through another year without killing you!" or "Yay! Another year down! Just 36 more till everybody gives us gold!" I mean, really, didn't you intend to be with this person for the rest of your life when you asked them to marry you? If you're going to celebrate each year of being together it's like saying that you were actually hedging your bets the whole time. "Wow, another year down. I honestly wasn't expecting to make it this far. Good for us! Let's go out."

We started the night by going downtown to the Ipanema Brazilian Grill. If you've been there before, you know that it's damn good food. If you've never been, do yourself a favor and go sometime. Yes, it's downtown so it's a bit on the expensive side expensive. ($40.00 a person for dinner but a bargain at $17.00 a person for lunch)

To quote Invader Zim, "You might as well resign yourself to your meaty fate!"

Had we not been on a time schedule I'm pretty sure I would still be there eating all the delicious Garlic Infused Fillet Mignon, Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast, Parmesan Pork Loin and Roasted Cinnamon Pineapple that my stomach could handle. (And yes, my colon is not happy with me this morning. Not happy, AT ALL!) There was also Slow Roasted Sirloin, Beef Ribs, Pork Ribs, Bacon Wrapped Steak, Roasted Lamb, Brazilian Sausage Links, Garlic Fries with Sea Salt, Fried Plantains and a HUGE salad bar as well as other meaty goodness that I'm not remembering at the moment. Have I mentioned it's all-you-can-eat? I'm going back into a meat induced coma just thinking about it.

Now, I'm pretty sure Nina would have been happy to have just gone out to dinner at a restaurant she enjoys for our anniversary but I then busted out the chocolates! A hand picked box of See's fruit creme centers and chocolate covered cherries (Her favorites) as well as a tin of York chocolate mints and some limited edition Root Beer suckers from See's. (Is it obvious we aren't dieting in any way, shape or form at the moment?)

Finally, I sprung the big surprise on her. Tickets to see Eddie Izzard at the Paramount!


Nina and I have been big fans of Eddie's for many years but had never had the opportunity to see him live. We have all his stand up dvd's and enjoy watching him on The Riches. I knew that Nina would be thrilled with going and I was right. As I gave her the tickets and she looked to see who it was we were seeing, a smile spread across her face and just kept growing and growing. It literally stayed there the rest of the night.

Eddie was, as always, FABULOUS! He spent several minutes at the beginning of the show doing a very Seattle centered bit about "Chief Seattle" founding the city before amending it to Hendrix founding the city all with the help of his iPhone and Wikipedia. I can't do the bit justice but the man was on his game. We were laughing so hard.

All the material he did was new but a few bits were reminiscent of previous sketches. Which was fine, as it gave a familiarity to the show but you never felt like he was just a rehashing past glories.

It was also nice to see some Comic Stop patrons at the show. (Hi Matt. Hi Dawn.)

So, all in all, it was a great night out. I now have a day to recover before having to move the entire shop downstairs tomorrow. (I think my back just gave out writing that.) Anybody who wants to come by and help move stuff is welcome to. I'll have some free drinks and food for anybody who comes by. See ya in the new spot!

Demotivational Posters

They are horrible. They are sexist. They are wrong on SO many levels. They made me laugh.

Chocolate Motherload Cake and Cheetos

Folks, I warn you now. This isn't gonna be pretty.

I don't normally eat breakfast. I'm usually just not that hungry in the morning and by the time I do get hungry, I'm stuck at the shop. So my first, and only, meal of the day is usually dinner at 9:00 pm. Every now and then I will get so hungry during the day that I will put a "Back In 5 Minutes" sign in the door and run across the way for some pizza at Pizza Schmizza or downstairs for a Ruby Melt at Ruby's but that get's really expensive really fast so usually, I just don't eat.

Friday night after work, I decided I would stop by the market and get some food to keep at the store so that I could eat when I got hungry. Now, I could have gotten some apples, pears or some other fresh fruit which would be a good for me snack. Or I could go the fresh veggies route and get some carrots or celery with a little ranch dressing. That wouldn't be to bad. Or maybe something a little more substantial? I could get a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly.

What did I get?

A 9 oz. bag of Cheetos.

Cause I was really craving some Cheetos at that moment and I thought, "That will be fine. I'll snack on a few Cheetos when I get hungry though out the week. A handful of Cheetos a day isn't terrible for me." And so I got a large bag of Cheetos. (Besides, who can resist Chester Cheetah? He's easily the coolest corporate logo created in the last 20 years!)

So, Saturday comes and I'm at the shop when I start to get hungry. I look at the bag of Cheetos and realize I'm really craving chocolate cake. Well folks, lucky for me there is a Claim Jumper restaurant right here at Redmond Town Center! And damned if they don't have chocolate cake there! So I throw the "Back In 5 Minutes" sign up in the door and run over and buy me a $10 slice o' chocolate cake! For those of you who have never been to Claim Jumper, here is said cake: Yes, you are counting right. That is six layers. To quote the Claim Jumper menu:

Chocolate Motherlode Cake
Super Moist Slice of our Six-Layer Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Chips, Fresh Walnuts and Chocolate Fudge Frosting 9.95

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Chocolate cake. *drool*

Sorry. So I get my six layer, chocolate fudge frosted, artery killing monster cake and proceed to eat it. I get about half way through it when I start thinking, "You know, this is a lot of sugar. I'm kinda craving something salty now." Well I am damn lucky that I have a bag of Cheetos sitting right here! So I crack open that bag of cheesy yumminess and mow though about half the bag before my brain says these exact words, "You know, that's a lot of salty deliciousness you've just had on top of all that chocolate mana from heaven you've consumed. Don't you think you should stop now and give it a rest?" To which my stomach said, "Shut the fuck up bitch!"

I then proceed to finish the cake and bag of Cheetos and top it all off with a 24 oz. can of Jolt Cola. (I told you this wasn't gonna be pretty.)

And now for the sad part. Just before I started writing this I caught myself thinking, "Man, I'd really like some chocolate cake."

SOMEBODY STOP ME BEFORE I EAT AGAIN!

An Apology to Qtilla and friend

Yesterday afternoon I received a visit at the store from the beautiful and talented Qtilla, of Seattle Umbrella Conspiracy and Spoilers SUC fame. It was the first time she had been able to make it by since the opening and I was glad that she made the time to come in. Not only had she come by but she had brought a friend with her, (who's name I do not know even though I have now met him twice) It was a super slow day and normally I would have been thrilled to have friends drop by and chat but unfortunately, as I said before, it was a slow day. So slow that I thought, "Hey. The guys in my guild on Warcraft have been bugging me to do a raid with them for months now. Let's see if I can swing it this evening."

I had, literally, just spent thirty minutes convincing them that I would be able to raid with them and we had just started the fore mentioned raid when Q walked in the door. Now, all I had to say to the two of them was, "I'm so glad you came by but unfortunately I just started something online that I can't get out of so if I seem distracted, I apologize." I would assume that being around geek culture as much as Q has been, she would understand. But I didn't say that. As a matter of fact, I don't think I said much of anything. Without going into the particulars of my weekend, I was a bit out of it Sunday regardless of playing on the computer or not. Not that I am using that as an excuse. Just stating a fact that I was a bit of a zombie anyway Sunday.

Anyway, at the least, I must have seemed distracted. At worst, I must have come off as rude. In any case, I owe an apology.

I am sorry.

I hope that my social stupidity doesn't prevent you from dropping by again when you are in the area. I hope that I didn't cause any kind of embarrassment to The Comic Stop family by being an idiot. I promise that next time you are here, I will not be such a moron. (Well, at least not so rude as to play games while you are here. The moron thing I'm just stuck with)

Becoming a better person by being a couch potato Part 1

Part one in my new weekly series of putting the spotlight on films and shows that will entertain while making you *gasp* think! First up:

Mindwalk - A personal favorite of mine. I've watched this film several times and come away after each viewing with new thoughts and ideas. However, make no mistake. This is not a film for everyone. To call it “dialogue heavy” would be like calling the Grand Canyon a “big hole”. The statement would be accurate but would not convey the reality properly.
The film has no plot to speak of. (I know. I'm really selling it here, huh?) It's about two friends , one a poet and the other a failed presidential candidate, who get together while in Mont Saint-Michel, France. While walking around the island they come across a Norwegian scientist and the three of them have a conversation. That's pretty much it. But, oh, what a conversation! It's intelligent and thought provoking without being preachy and artificial. Like a real conversation, the topics of conversation jump around a bit. They range from politics to physics and then to poetry. Looking for mindless entertainment? Don't look here.

The major knock on this film is that nothing happens and that's true. At no point in the film does one of the characters suddenly stave off the invading alien horde that is about to conqueror France. Nor does the one friend profess his unrequited love to the other friend as he lays dying in a pool of blood after having been gunned down by the mafia. Neither does the Norwegian scientist turn out to be bent on world domination and only the two crafty Americans, who turned out to be not only a poet and a politician but ex Secret Service operatives as well, stop her. Nope. This is just two hours of people having a conversation that may or may not change the way they think about things. With luck, it will and with luck, it will do the same for you. I highly recommend tracking this film down.

Wall-E and Wanted

I went and saw both Wall-E and Wanted over the past few days. (I've been on a regular movie going binge lately! Iron Man, Hulk, Kung Fu Panda and Speed Racer in the past 2 months after having gone to the movies only 3 times last year) The bottom line on both of these movies is...

Meh.

They are by no means bad movies but neither are they as good as they could have been.

Of the two, Wall-E is getting the better reviews from movie goers. Several people have come into the shop and said not only is it the best film that Pixar has ever done, it's the best film this year. To those people I ask, "Did we see the same movie?"

Wall-E is, more often than not, to heavy handed with its "go green" message. I applaud the sentiment but I really don't want to watch an animated version of An Inconvenient Truth. There is no subtlety in the movie. And, honestly, after blatantly ripping off Doc Hollywood with Cars I had a lot of problems watching Short Circuit's Johnny 5 starring as Wall-E. The same goes for H.A.L. as the ships navigator. Yeah, yeah. I know. They are suppose to be "homages". I say that the folks at Pixar are suppose to be more creative than that. I hope Pixar's next, Up, doesn't use Geri as the old guy. (Geri is the old man that has been seen in the Pixar short Geri's Game and as the toy repair guy in Toy Story 2)

I'm not saying that Wall-E was a bad movie. Quite the opposite! It's good. It's just not as great as it's being made out to be.

Wanted also falls into the "could have been great" category. As a fan of the book, I was eager to see the movie. I knew going into it that many of the particulars of the story had been changed and I was fine with that. So long as the overall social commentary was still there I thought it would be ok. And it is there, to some degree. It's just not as blatant as it was in the graphic novel. Which is too bad because while the movie was visually stunning,(And I'm not just talking about Angelina Jolie), it fails to actually say anything. It's ultimately a standard summer action movie, albeit with a little bit of a dark humor edge. Had the filmmakers embraced that dark humor whole heartedly, I think this could have been a really classic action film.

Either of these is a fine choice to see if you are looking for a movie this July 4th weekend but if you haven't already done it, go see The Incredible Hulk over either of them.