A Visit to OC
Having a four day weekend, Kritsy and I decided to scamper on down to Orange Country and have some misadventures down there.
While down there I was able to use the family digital camera again, resulting in about a million pictures of Kristy.
A Million Pictures of Kristy!
Thursday, 4:41pm - Kristy stands in front of Fricke Central Command, Mission Viejo.
We drove down on Thursday morning. Along the way a stone got lodged in the front left tire, against the break actually, and we had to stop and get the tire some professional attention. Though the service station was supposed to open a few minutes from our arrival there, at 9am, the gas station clerk informed us that the mechanic is usually about half an hour late. About forty-five minutes later Hamid comes cruisin in in a shiney black escalade and parks in two parking spots. He's wearing loafers with his mechanic cover-alls, a cigarette dangles from his mouth and he reminds me of the godfather - not just in physical appearance but in his stern all-business but not mean demeaner. Anyway he seemed to be doing a really thorough inspection of the car and we were very pleased with him. In the end he gave us a short fatherly lecture (in a thick north-mediterrainian accent) about how he always has to tell his 20 yr old son that it takes three hours to get to Los Angeles from there, but three seconds to crash and die.
Thursday - 4:43pm -- immediately after arrival Kristy is greeted by Feldspar. Compare to this picture from last time Kristy visited.
VIDEO: Greeting Feldspar
6:38pm (Thursday) - Kristy takes a picture of me
So I take a million of her. Bigger versions of two of them are here and here.
Thursday evening we ate at Spice Thai with Chonchol and his girlfriend Megan. Then we went to the spectrum and saw the only movie none of us didn't want to see, Birth. And really, the movie was quite pointless and a waste of money in all of our opinions.
Friday:
Friday, 2:53pm - Kristy in the rose garden in front of UCI. I needed to get a transcript from UCI. UCItrans or whatever they call it has got nothin on unitrans. Here's another picture of Kristy frolicking among the roses.
5:29pm (Friday) - Kristy and I ate at Salvatore's on Friday night. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this place is amazing. for $10-$12 you get a five course meal, of which each component is delicious and plentiful. Seriously each of the five courses would probably cost $8 at a normal restaurant, and it has a wonderful atmosphere and great service. Seriously if you're ever within 40 miles of the place and don't eat there you are missing out. (Second picture of us about to go to the restaurant - it looks like I just told a bad joke in this picture.)
7:53pm (Friday) - So my little brother Eric & his friend Monte often use "tactical" as a synonym for "awesome" "kickass" or "strongsauce." Mother asked them what exactly tactical meant, prompting a humorous attempt by them to illustrate the point. In the picture, Monte (left) is explaining "a rifle is tactical, a sweet potatoe is NOT tactical."
VIDEO: Tactical / Not Tactical - (unfortunately the sound isn't very good, but wait until he explains the fire extinguisher - thats where it gets good and one can hear it alright)
Incidently, Lance Corporal Monte Peters not only joined the Marine infantry, but volunteered to go to Iraq as soon as possible. This is a lad who can't wait to hang out in the streets of Falluja.
9:41pm (Friday) - Story time with Kristy. Not really, but we're back at Diedrichs.
Kristy found Villem to be hilarious.
10:38pm (Friday) - Then we went to the Spectrum again. I'm told the ferris wheel there was made by the original maker of ferris wheels and shipped from Italy at outrageous cost. Incidently this fact is lost on 99% of the people who visit the spectrum and probably all five of the people who actually ride it on any given night. If some gif-jocky wants to make this into an animated gif that would probably be pretty cool.
Kristy gazing at the ferris wheel
Saturday, 1:37pm - Yes we're at the spectrum for the third time. Every time we go Kristy wants to try on dresses at this one place, but we never have enough time, so we came back just for that.
3:44pm (Saturday) - Then we went down to Dana Point to visit the tidepools. In addition to the Pilgrim, there was this vessel of about the same size.
Is this not the most awesome picture ever?
5:14pm (Saturday) - Girlfriend Stacy looks incredulous as LCPL Fricke digs in to his jar of a million peppercinies.
LCPL Fricke & girlfriend Stacy. Because her mom is psycho she had to sneak out of the house to come to thanksgiving dinner.
On the occasion of Kristy and I being in town the family had Thanksgiving dinner two weeks early.
See the light green box in the background between me mum and me dad? Thats a stack of beehives ("supers" actually, stacks of which make beehives). Here's another picture of the use of beehives elsewhere in the livingroom (and a troll).
7:40pm (Saturday) - Kristy gets ready to head out for another evening of mischief.
8:57pm (Saturday) - Kristy finally got to meet the infamous Suzanne (your_evenstar). Also I had an eggnog latte, which in stark contrast in the pumpkin latte Kristy got (which was actually quite good), it tasted like bitter coffee with a weird aftertaste.
10:14pm (Saturday) - As usual we ended up at the Spectrum, where we got a candy apple. It was delicious.
10:59pm (Saturday) - Kristy was excited to receive a pink gumball from a gumball machine. Her excitement was later dashed when she discovered the spheroid to be shockingly stale.
11:48pm (Saturday) - We return to find our house mildly toilet-papered. I blame Eric's friends because (A) hardly anyone knew I was back in town, (B) hardly any of my friends know where I live (like two maybe). Incidently our house has been TPed once before - I'd been in Sweden for about four months at that point however.
And of course tehre were other events that happened to escape being photographed. They're harder to recall however. We ate at Pedro's in San Clemente for lunch on Sat. In addition to those persons mentioned already, Kristy met Shalane, Tristan and Cheri among others. Though we did visit the spectrum like four times, it certainly wasn't from lack of things to do - we left with a longer list of things we wanted to do in OC than when we came.
Related
Kristy Visits I - entry, in photobucket
Kristy Visits II - in photobucket
VIDEO: Feldspar
VIDEO: Tactical / Not Tactical