Marla Visits

   So last week the lovely miss Marla Santoyo came down here with some coworkers to go to Disneyland. I accompanied them on these adventures.
   Here are some observations I had:

California Adventure: I've always thought "California Adventure" seemed like a really strange theme for a theme park in California. Being as, if you're there, you're already IN California. They should build a California Adventure in Disneyland-Japan or something.
"Soarin Over California": The scenes changed too abruptly every minute and a half for one to get into it at all, imo.
Tower of Terror: They set it up like you're about to find out why the tower is haunted... but then they just rocket you up and down in the elevator a few times and dump you out?
Space Mountain: Is awesome, of course. But why oh why did they get rid of the old music. )= Also I like to take note of random tidbits of information. Like that it says "Space Station 077" in various places on the ride and "Capt J Hench" in one place. I wonder if there's a story behind that. Was the ride's designer "J Hench" perhaps?
Pirates of the Caribbean: Did they REALLY have to add Johnny Depp to EVERY SCENE?!? And they changed the story from one of pirates god forbid doing what they actually do and raiding a town to trying to rescue Depp from said town. Silly how of course in all their Pirates movies you never see any piracy.
Submarine Ride: They keep the water so crystal clear so you can see all their fake fish and fake plants, but really, in order to keep it so crystal clear, I bet that water is positively toxic. Also the submarines all have numbers written on the side of 701, 702, 703, 70_... I think 7 must have been Disney's favourite number, as in addition to this and Space Mountain I think it cropped up elsewhere as well.
Matterhorn: Holy shit this ride beats the crap out of you!
Fastpasses: Going to Disneyland consists of spending 10% of your time wandering around, 85% waiting in lines, and 5% on rides. With fastpasses maybe you spend 10% on rides (and say 70% in lines, and 15% wandering around -- you still end up waiting in a line somewhere else while you wait for your fastpass timeslot on the one ride).
Highlights: There was a (real) cat sleeping on top of a moose around the back of the frontierland river. That was pretty silly. Also both days we saw a possum while leaving the park. Possums kick ass.

The Getty Villa
   On Wednesday we went to the Getty Villa. I'd been to the other Getty (simply called "The Getty" I think?) before, but not the Getty Villa. Its in a canyon by the beach in Malibu and modelled after a Roman estate. Its quite beautiful and houses the Getty collections pertaining to the Etruscans, Romans, and Greeks.

A few pictures at the Getty Villa
(Unfortunately due to its location in a canyon its hard to get any sweeping pictures of it or anything)

More Beer Reviews

   Its time for more beer reviews. As much for my future reference as anyone elses.

   So I've been going to the BevMo beer tastings most Tuesdays and Fridays. There's a group of other people that also do this, and we all recognize eachother. I missed last Tuesday since I was with Marla, but the week before that when I showed up several people there saw me and were like "hey Kris!! oohhh you're not gonna like the beer today!" And I was amused that not only did they recognize me and know my name, but the other beer tasting frequenters knew my tastes as well! (It was a lot of Belgian and white beers that day). Yesterday I walked in and they all commented about how I no longer had a beard, and asked me where I'd been on Tuesday.

   Anyway, notes from yesterday:
Brother David Ale: (Belgian) tastes like candied bananas! I didn't like it but someone else there bought a bottle of it after tasting.
ESB: (Pale Ale) Apparently ESB stands for "extra special beer" (!!). Anyway, we decided it was "extremely forgettable." Which isn't to say its undrinkable -- quite the contrary, I think if someone put a bunch in front of me I'd probably keep forgetting I'd just had a glass (which isn't to say it tastes good either!). It was amazingly unmemorable.
Boont Pale Ale: AKA Anderson Valley Boont Pale Ale or something. Its the beers with a moose with antlers on the bottles. I don't know why they write both "Boont" and "Anderson Valley Brewing Company" on the bottles, as if they can't decide which one is the name of their brewery. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of pale ales but I really liked this one. It tasted really nice and crisp.
Long Hammer: (Pale Ale), falls somewhere between the above. I'd say its a relatively mediocre pale ale. Not a very intense flavour. Not bad either though. I suppose one might like it if one wants sometihng in a pale ale direction but not as intense as most pale ales are.
Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock: This one wasn't actually part of the BevMo tasting. Rather I had it last time I went to Yardhouse and really liked it. When I was at YH again this week I couldn't remember what the beer I'd had last time and really liked was, but I texted Marla and she miraculously remembered (!!), so then I bought a bottle at BevMo yesterday. And it was indeed delicious. I really like dopplebocks. They're actually technically lagers but with darkly roasted malt and more thickness to them they taste more like less stout stouts.

   After we'd all tried each of the beers yesterday, we played a game where the host puts a beer in our glass while we're looking away and then we try to guess which one it was. I got 2 of 3 on the first try (but mistook ESB for Long Hammer O= )


Picture of the Day

This thing was monstrous!
Note also: I love a good hot dog. I'd rather eat a delicious grilled hot dog than a chocolate cake I think.

Beer Reviews

   Its time for more beer reviews. As much for my future reference as anyone elses.

   So I've been going to the BevMo beer tastings most Tuesdays and Fridays. There's a group of other people that also do this, and we all recognize eachother. I missed last Tuesday since I was with Marla, but the week before that when I showed up several people there saw me and were like "hey Kris!! oohhh you're not gonna like the beer today!" And I was amused that not only did they recognize me and know my name, but the other beer tasting frequenters knew my tastes as well! (It was a lot of Belgian and white beers that day). Yesterday I walked in and they all commented about how I no longer had a beard, and asked me where I'd been on Tuesday.

   Anyway, notes from yesterday:
Brother David Ale: (Belgian) tastes like candied bananas! I didn't like it but someone else there bought a bottle of it after tasting.
ESB: (Pale Ale) Apparently ESB stands for "extra special beer" (!!). Anyway, we decided it was "extremely forgettable." Which isn't to say its undrinkable -- quite the contrary, I think if someone put a bunch in front of me I'd probably keep forgetting I'd just had a glass (which isn't to say it tastes good either!). It was amazingly unmemorable.
Boont Pale Ale: AKA Anderson Valley Boont Pale Ale or something. Its the beers with a moose with antlers on the bottles. I don't know why they write both "Boont" and "Anderson Valley Brewing Company" on the bottles, as if they can't decide which one is the name of their brewery. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of pale ales but I really liked this one. It tasted really nice and crisp.
Long Hammer: (Pale Ale), falls somewhere between the above. I'd say its a relatively mediocre pale ale. Not a very intense flavour. Not bad either though. I suppose one might like it if one wants sometihng in a pale ale direction but not as intense as most pale ales are.
Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock: This one wasn't actually part of the BevMo tasting. Rather I had it last time I went to Yardhouse and really liked it. When I was at YH again this week I couldn't remember what the beer I'd had last time and really liked was, but I texted Marla and she miraculously remembered (!!), so then I bought a bottle at BevMo yesterday. And it was indeed delicious. I really like dopplebocks. They're actually technically lagers but with darkly roasted malt and more thickness to them they taste more like less stout stouts.

   After we'd all tried each of the beers yesterday, we played a game where the host puts a beer in our glass while we're looking away and then we try to guess which one it was. I got 2 of 3 on the first try (but mistook ESB for Long Hammer O= )


Picture of the Day

This thing was monstrous!
Note also: I love a good hot dog. I'd rather eat a delicious grilled hot dog than a chocolate cake I think.

Roadtrip Planning

   So I just spent, I don't know, half an hour, putting together a route map for Epic Roadtrip 2008 on googlemaps ... and then my browser crashed and lost it all. )=

   Anyway, while one obviously CAN map roadtrips out on googlemaps, there are a number of ways I'd imagine it could be more convenient to manage a roadtrip planning map. But I know of no better way to do it than googlemaps. Do any of you know a better site for roadtrip planning?


Picture of the Day

This is actually from Epic Roadtrip 2008, but I think its an awesome picture and I'm not sure I've actually posted it yet.