One cold cup of Pepsi and a Philly Melt later...

OK...Weekend of August 14-15...San Diego to Anaheim to Montclair to San Diego.

Saturday we headed to Anaheim for what was supposed to be a great weekend celebrating our anniversary. As we started out LushRain wanted to check the mail and the California Department of Motor Vehicles...or rather the Division of Mortal Victims as I formerly referred it (actually I came up with that this very minute) decided to give us an annniversary gift. Apparently I paid my car registration twice. So they kindly wrote me a check and sent it mine way. Yippy! We'd actually end up spending most of that this weekend.

Traffic heading up to Anaheim was atrocious. How the heck is there stopped traffic north of Oceanside where there is NO off ramps, NO cities, NO Houses, NO stores, NO NOTHING!!! I also can understand people slowing down during a traffic jam to let cars safely onto the freeway or safely change lanes, but people there is no excuse and I MEAN NO EXCUSE for stopping on a freeway for ANY other reason than the car in front of you comes to a complete stop and you must in order to avoid hitting them. Otherwise I want to see your car moving because I want MY car moving.

Hit the Rainforest Cafe and had what must have been just a fluke of service. I've been there about 4 or 5 times always with excellent service. This time we sat there for 45 minutes before we got our food. Meanwhile everyone around us that was seated AFTER us had their meals and were half done before we got started. The orangesicle. YUMMY! That's it. I tipped quite low for my usual standard (I gave the guy 4 and change for a 35 and change bill). The only time I've tipped lower is the 42 cents I gave the waitress at Fat City in San Diego for a 32 dollar meal on July 26th.

We went out to the Angels game right after dinner. It was against the Tigres. Yes I spelled that just how I wanted. Let me say Angels Stadium is nice. It's not better than PETCO I don't think but the fans are 100000 times better. I guess since the Padres moved downtown it's now considered "uncool" or "out of style" to cheer your team on. It's much more cool to walk around, talk on your cell phone, or just overall not pay any attention to the game. Pretty pathetic when the only time you hear the crowd get loud is when the scoreboard tells them too. I swear if we were down a run with the bases loaded and no one out in the bottom of the 9th and our scoreboard operator forgot to hit the "GET LOUD" button the Padres fans would still be sitting there silently watching the game...just waiting for it to get over. Obviously it's more cool to be seen at the game than it is to be a fan watching and cheering. It's pathetic. And people wonder why the Padres have a hard time winning at home? Anyways the ballgame was a homer fest with Chone (pronounce Shawn apparently) hitting the would be game winning homer and K-Rod striking out 5 in One and two-thirds innings. He came on in the 8th with one out and the bases juiced. Struck out the next two and then retired the side in the ninth. Great game. Great fans. Great stadium. I love Petco Park but I miss Qualcomm. At least the TRUE baseball fans showed up there. I haven't seen 'em much in the new place.

After the game we headed to the Denny's on Harbor Blvd by the Disneyland. Wasn't hungry but had a Philly Melt anyways. Pretty good for a Denny's. Service was the best I've had there ever. Don't get too excited that's really not saying much as I've NEVER had good service there and this service was acceptable. 7 out of 10 vs. the usual 2 or 3. So I can't complain right? After a good romp in the hay while watching west wing (what is wrong with us?) we fell asleep.

Sunday morning we got up in great spirits and headed to the House of Blues for their Gospel Brunch. Let me tell you that buffet was by far the best I've EVER had. Jumbalaya, eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits, fried catfish nuggets, waffles, chicken, fruit of all kinds, shrimp, bread pudding, meats of all kinds, potatoes, veges, etc. WONDERFUL how it all just seemed to melt together on my tongue so well. About 11am the "gospel" part started. Now it's not what you think. There were no large mass choir but there was a reverend screaming and singing and getting people excited. There was a trio of men singing great gospel songs. They got people up and clapping and twirling their napkins and dancing and all sorts of stuff. One gentleman in the crowd seemed like he had tipped back a few before the brunch. When they invited everyone on stage to dance he grabbed a mic and was dancing and singing with the guys and even tried to take the minister's mic from his hand. Weirdo. Other than that we had a ball.

Headed out to DOwntown Disney for some shopping and then over to the Queen Mary for their haunted excursion tour. Bad thing is the $8 tour we were expecting cost us $28. Good thing is that included an annual pass so we can go back whenever we want and all it costs us is parking which is $8. Some places in that ship are quite scary. I didn't really feel or see or hear anything that could be connected with any ghostly activity but everytime we came to a place I knew to be highly active with spiritual residue LushRain got splitting headaches. She described it as a great pressure on her head, like she was deep deep under water. Even when we were above water or in open spaces this happened. Just kinda weird. Anyways we enjoyed it.

That was pretty much our weekend. We headed to my mom's to pick up my 12 yr old sister Rachel who's staying with us. Always cool having her down. I don't spend as much time with her as I probably should but just having her around makes my week fly by. She's a cool kid. Anyways I'm tired so I should end this and get back to work. ciao compadres.