Charlotte Weekend
Took off this weekend for Charlotte to see my friend John. He's the busy type, so I had to schedule this weekend back in November, no kidding. Mistake number one: scheduling it on the day of the Magic: Planar Chaos pre-release. Gah, I hated that, but by the time that I figured it out, it was too late to do anything about it. I'll pick up the cards on eBay that I missed and see the new set for myself in a couple of weeks. I'll survive :-)
So anyway, back to Charlotte! Nicole and I took off early-ish Saturday and met up with John that afternoon. It was great to see John again. We sat around and chatted for a while, then we took some time while he was getting ready to read a couple of the art books that he had on his mantlepiece. The photographer's name is David LaChapelle, and the artwork was pretty freaking wierd. I know art is meant to speak to people individually, but this dude was just weird. Anyway, we did have a good time looking at said weird photos because Nicole and I sat there and tried to translate what the artist was trying to say in each photo. After John got ready, we all packed into his car and took off.
First stop was the SouthPark Mall, which is the mall in Charlotte for the uppity-up portion of Charlotte. Very high scale, very pretentious. Inside we visited the Mac store. This was something of a nirvana for Nicole and John (who both own macs). I simply walked around and marvelled at the people queueing up twelve deep for one of the seven harried salesmen walking around the floor. This store sold nothing but iPods and Macintosh computers. Insane. I couldn't believe that a store could even pay the rent selling only those things, but this place was packed. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste.
On we go to the "Taj MaTeeter". John told us about a Harris Teeter that had been overdone completely. So, we stop and in we go... and holy crap, he's right. This was the nicest grocery store I've ever been in. I could easily envision the cashiers to be in formal wear and have a piano playing softly in the background! This place is also notable for having a computer-based shopping service. You sit at home, fill out your shopping list, hit the button, drive to the store and hit another button outside. A dude walks out with your grocery order ready and off you go. Cool! After picking up a few essentials here, we head off for the Penguin. (Good eats if you are in Charlotte).
We met up with some of John's friend Pete and Mindy. Mindy is a sweetie and Pete is hilarious. Very fun folks. Anyway, at the Penguin I had a couple of beers, a very good burger and of course some fried pickles. Note, if you ever go to the Penguin, get some fried pickles. I don't see how they are doing the fried twinkies and fried coke at the fairs, but the pickles are awesome.
After dinner we headed back to John's house to play some Apples to Apples. Another couple, Johnny and Shelly shows up a few hours later and we sit around for a while and be silly. I try many new drinks which are nice and at like 2:00 drop off to sleep.
Next morning we wake up and find out that after we had both drifted off to sleep that John had gotten hungry and in his haste had poured some boiling water onto his foot. Yes, this means that he cooked his foot. Gross! Nice first-degree burn there, and Nicole and I tell him about putting mustard on burns. He freaks out at first, but tries it and says it works. I'll take his word for it since I've never done it yet. We watch some sort of "White Rapper" TV show as we munch on some Chinese food and eventually leave at around 4:00.
The drive back was much more interesting than the trip up because I had Nicole to talk to. She clocked out on the way up and I got stuck listening to whatever local radio stations were available on the way up I could find. Nicole is an excellent conversationalist, and I enjoyed all the conversations we had, from fourth-dimensional parallel realities to talks of our dreams of the future. :-) Now, I'm back in town typing this on a computer I've just set up for one of the county commissioners and have just watched anger management which was pretty good. I had a bit of peach ice cream and some sassafrass tea a while ago. I think that's all. Any questions?
So anyway, back to Charlotte! Nicole and I took off early-ish Saturday and met up with John that afternoon. It was great to see John again. We sat around and chatted for a while, then we took some time while he was getting ready to read a couple of the art books that he had on his mantlepiece. The photographer's name is David LaChapelle, and the artwork was pretty freaking wierd. I know art is meant to speak to people individually, but this dude was just weird. Anyway, we did have a good time looking at said weird photos because Nicole and I sat there and tried to translate what the artist was trying to say in each photo. After John got ready, we all packed into his car and took off.
First stop was the SouthPark Mall, which is the mall in Charlotte for the uppity-up portion of Charlotte. Very high scale, very pretentious. Inside we visited the Mac store. This was something of a nirvana for Nicole and John (who both own macs). I simply walked around and marvelled at the people queueing up twelve deep for one of the seven harried salesmen walking around the floor. This store sold nothing but iPods and Macintosh computers. Insane. I couldn't believe that a store could even pay the rent selling only those things, but this place was packed. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste.
On we go to the "Taj MaTeeter". John told us about a Harris Teeter that had been overdone completely. So, we stop and in we go... and holy crap, he's right. This was the nicest grocery store I've ever been in. I could easily envision the cashiers to be in formal wear and have a piano playing softly in the background! This place is also notable for having a computer-based shopping service. You sit at home, fill out your shopping list, hit the button, drive to the store and hit another button outside. A dude walks out with your grocery order ready and off you go. Cool! After picking up a few essentials here, we head off for the Penguin. (Good eats if you are in Charlotte).
We met up with some of John's friend Pete and Mindy. Mindy is a sweetie and Pete is hilarious. Very fun folks. Anyway, at the Penguin I had a couple of beers, a very good burger and of course some fried pickles. Note, if you ever go to the Penguin, get some fried pickles. I don't see how they are doing the fried twinkies and fried coke at the fairs, but the pickles are awesome.
After dinner we headed back to John's house to play some Apples to Apples. Another couple, Johnny and Shelly shows up a few hours later and we sit around for a while and be silly. I try many new drinks which are nice and at like 2:00 drop off to sleep.
Next morning we wake up and find out that after we had both drifted off to sleep that John had gotten hungry and in his haste had poured some boiling water onto his foot. Yes, this means that he cooked his foot. Gross! Nice first-degree burn there, and Nicole and I tell him about putting mustard on burns. He freaks out at first, but tries it and says it works. I'll take his word for it since I've never done it yet. We watch some sort of "White Rapper" TV show as we munch on some Chinese food and eventually leave at around 4:00.
The drive back was much more interesting than the trip up because I had Nicole to talk to. She clocked out on the way up and I got stuck listening to whatever local radio stations were available on the way up I could find. Nicole is an excellent conversationalist, and I enjoyed all the conversations we had, from fourth-dimensional parallel realities to talks of our dreams of the future. :-) Now, I'm back in town typing this on a computer I've just set up for one of the county commissioners and have just watched anger management which was pretty good. I had a bit of peach ice cream and some sassafrass tea a while ago. I think that's all. Any questions?