Sigh.

Yeah, the hot stove. Yeah, the post season awards. Yeah, the hall of fame vote. Yeah the Arizona Fall League.

Wait, that’s a lot. That’s a lot of cool stuff. I just needed to talk it out. You know me Walter, I just needed to talk it out.

Daylight, here I come. Let’s meet at the Orange Julius. Oh wait. I think it’s cold outside. Walter, if you want to come over, that would be better. I don’t want to risk dry skin.

First Blog Ever!!!

Like when the world experienced its first ray of sunshine or sugar infused Orange Julius, it now gets to experience my first blog. If you like Orange Julius, you will like this blog. I like the message that WordPress took the liberty of posting for me: “Hello world!” Thats right. This blog will reach out to the whole world. Its a global community. You know the gist. Anyways, I’m still excited.

In Mother Russia, I tell everyone secret of Beet Julius.

That white powder? That is egg whites.

In America, they make with orange. Not good as beet.

There are three words that could sum my day up today.  NEVER TRUST MAPQUEST!!!!  I wanted today to be a nice, relaxing day, but thanks to debotchery on all of our parts, our day was full of stress and anxiety and to make matters worse, we let our oldest daughter down!  I got up this morning a little later than we wanted to at around eight o’clock or so.  I wanted to be on the road by eight o’clock to get to the Crossgate Mall in Albany.  The ultimate goal was to watch “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″ in 3D.  This mall was the closest mall with a 3D theater, so we thought we would head there, catch the two movies (for the price of one – can’t pass that up!) and then shop for some things we needed around the house.  The goal was to get to the mall around eleven o’clock for our noon showing and then shop a little bit after the movie and head home.  That never quite worked out right.

We didn’t get on the road until nine-thirty this morning.  Some of that was my fault because I wasn’t feeling completely well to begin with.  I had a head cold.  It felt like my allergies were draining, but by the end of the day I believed it had turned into a head cold of some sort.  Of course, my children didn’t help us either by taking their sweet old time getting ready for the day.  We got on the road and got going towards Albany via route 88.  The issue I had was the fact that we only had directions from Mapquest with us.  My wife was the brilliant mastermind behind that idea.  She says she’s never had problems with Mapquest (I beg to differ!).  We had NO map of Albany and I knew we were going to regret this idea.  Things went smooth till we got to the Thruway.  We got on I-90 and headed toward Albany.  The next direction on the Mapquest directions was to get off of the Thruway via exit 1S.  Now, anyone that knows the Thruway knows that there is no exit 1S off of the Thruway.  When I asked Heather about this, she said she had no idea.

Long story short, we ended up in downtown Albany trying to get back to Route 20 to get to the mall.  I had it all set and ready to go until we ran into one other problem.  Half the city streets in the city of Albany were shut off for a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk.  Now, as much as I am a a supporter of walks to support causes, why the heck can’t a city, which is the great capital of New York, have detour signs for visitors that may be in town?!  Nope, we got lost in the shadiest part of the city.  I tried going to the local police department to find out where to go, but (get ready for this!) they were CLOSED on a Saturday!  Really?  A police department is closed on a Saturday?  So, Heather decided to go to the local Radisson Hotel and ask for directions there.  They copied out instructions, printed them off and gave them to her.  We started to get going following the directions for the Radisson, but their directions – WERE OFF OF MAPQUEST!!!!  Same crappy directions, same crappy results!  By this point I was fuming!  I hate being lost, I hate being in a place I don’t know, and I hate being late!  I’m mad, Heather’s mad and things were not going good.

After going up and down I-90 looking for exit 1S, we finally decided to ask one of the booth workers how to get to the mall.  That’s when we figured out that Mapquest was mising a key step.  In order to get to exit 1S (off of I-20), you need to get off the Thruway at exit 24!  So, we circled around and got off at exit 24 and sure enough, right there was exit 1S and so was the mall we wanted to get to!  How frackin unreal is that.  Well, that set off the whole rest of the day.  We wasted money in tolls and gas and now were too late for the noon show (it was 12:30 going on 1 p.m. by this point)!  So, we talked the kids into watching the 4 p.m. showing and decided to do our shopping first.  We bought our tickets for the four o’clock show and then got some lunch at the food court.  We did some shopping around the mall finding some cool things, including some Star Wars shirts at the local Old Navy store.  Of course, we also got some Orange Julis’ because we could (and we can’t seem to find them anywhere else!).  We got done with our shopping with forty minutes to spare, so we headed to the theater.  We thought we would head into the theater and get killer seats.  Well, we got crappy seats because the theater was already full.  We had to sit in the front row and I thought this could only be bad at a 3D movie theater.

In previous experiences I’ve had, watching anything in 3D in the front row was a really bad idea.  But, I was shockingly surprised.  The 3D technology has come a long way in the short five years since I saw it last (in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian).  I was amazed at the brilliance in picture quality and color.  The clarity of the 3D effect was substantial and having watched the movie in that format, I can’t imagine any other format for a movie.  All I can say is that if they can do that with the Toy Story movies, then imagine what they can do with the Star Wars movies!  The two movies were great to begin with, but in 3D, they were even better.  It has me tempted (now that we know how to do it) to come back to Albany to watch the “Toy Story 3″ movie in 3D just to see how it looks in 3D.  We all had fun watching the movies in 3D, even the kids.  We got done with the movie and walked out to a dark parking lot at 8 p.m. (it was two movies with an intermission after all!).  We told Ruth that she was not going to make her friends Birthday party because we weren’t going to get back there in time and she got upset.

We didn’t really have much time on our hands to begin with and the masquerade in the morning made it that much worse.   We probably tried to schedule too many things in one day.  We got done in the mall and decided to go to the Wal Mart at Cross Gates Commons.  It was supposed to be “right acrossed the street”.  Well, not as easy as it seems and we got lost – AGAIN!  So, I went into the mall to the “Borders” bookstore to try and find directions.  NO ONE in the store knew how to get there.  I finally had to ask a patron who seemed to know the city.  We got to Wal Mart, got into another huge fight.  Bought some things that we had been looking for (including a stormtrooper blaster I had been looking for) and left to come home.  I navigated us back to I-90 and got us home.  We didn’t get home until about ten p.m. and were so exhausted we all just went to bed.  What a day!  Getting lost sucks!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars – Medstar I:  Battle Surgeons, A Clone Wars Novel” by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry……Chapter 3 (Part 1):  The Sakiyan Admiral Tarnese Bleyd, had the lights of his office dimmed because his species could see the full spectrum of lights.  Bleyd was upset because he was stuck out here in charge of a Medstar backing up a Rimsoo unit instead of leading a fleet somewhere.  He moved to the transparisteel viewport and couldn’t help but think the planet looked vile even from this distance.  The planet had a copper tint to it because of the dust caused by the distribution of spores.  Turnese Bleyd shivered as even his bronze skin can get cold.  He couldn’t help bu tnotice that Tanlassa, the larger of the two landmasses, was the only part of this world that reminded him of his homeworld.  The Jasserak engagement, the only active battle on the planet, was taking place on it’s western shores.  Bleyd turned away from the window and looked at a transluscent  image of the planet, with statistics connected to it.  The Nikto survey, taken two centuries ago, had a lot of information on Drongar, including it’s radius and info about the two small moons no bigger than an asteroid.  The other three planets in th sector provided shelter for Drongar from meteor showers.  Drongar’s sun burned hotter than Coruscant’s and that’s why the surface temperature was much warmer.   Bleyd compared that to his homeworld of Saki.  But Saki also had forests, savannahs, and lakes…..

In order of likings

1) long john silver – dunno y their chilli just go well the deep fried chicken fillets

2) KFC – sometimes i get sick of their chicken but somehow kfc still have quite a pulling factor for the saltiness in the chicken skin.

3) Burger king - always can’t decide between mushroom swiss or chicken sandwich, onion rings is a plus factor. But their fries suckz!

4) Macdonalds – i ate this most among the rest but it’s still not ranked first. maybe because i ate too much. but i think if this question is posed to my when i’m in primary sch, i may choose mac as my 1st fav. (and hey, i work in mac before ok)

5) mos burger – this is almost like eaten once in a blue moon. I like the teriyaki chicken burger but it does get messy with the burger dunno y. IT’s probably the most difficult to eat burgers in the chain of fast food

6) orange julius – i like only the orig julius. hotdogs are so so only.

The rest of fast food outlets are not in order of preference but at least I will consider eating it when there arent better choices around

-carl’s junior – burger too big, too much onions (and eeks i hates onions in big raw rings)

-komala – indian fast food, not too bad other than it’s taste more fast food than the hawker type of fluffy piping hot bite

-yashinoya – one of the worst jap fastfood outlets that brings down the taste of jap food but i ate it more than 3 times in my life.

-subway – one word only - expensive with rich fillings of veg. give me more meat pls

-chilli dog – very expensive dog.

-old chang kee – considered that fast food? one of the fastest q to takeaway. good old choice that can never go wrong but not a preference as a fast food, more of a craving to munch.

Episode 69: Not as sexual as you may think an episode No. 69 would be…

Recorded 09-02-2009: BUCKET hosts Corey and Louie Dee tackle a Vegas vacation, fast-food misadventures, Spencer Pratt’s douchebaggery, Punky Brewster’s return (sort of), ridiculous sports ticket prices and more! (Direct Link to the Show MP3)

Good news. I made the best “treat” ever last night to take with me to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! (such a good movie!!!) I was inspired by the menu at One Lucky Duck Juice & Takeaway, when I saw their “Creamsicle” shake. I made a few changes to make it more detox-friendly, and when I tasted it, it reminded me of drinking an Orange Julius at the mall! Yum!

Detox “Orange Julius”

Meat of one young coconut

Coconut water

2 oranges, peeled and de-seeded (if I had a Vita-mix, I wouldn’t have to worry about seeds, but alas, I don’t… so my blender can’t handle those darn things!)

1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

liquid stevia, to taste

Throw the coconut meat, oranges, vanilla, and a splash of coconut water into your blender. I used about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of coconut water, but it can vary depending on how thick you want it. Once thoroughly blended, taste the mixture and add a couple drops of liquid stevia, as needed. (two drops worked great for me last night!) Pour in a pretty glass and enjoy!

*I had a little bit of leftover shake that didn’t fit into my container to take to the movie, so I decided to freeze it! I’m crossing my fingers that it turns into a yummy, frozen sorbet!

Since I was feeling guilty about not throwing any greens into my shake, I stopped by Robeks on my way to the movie and had a wheat grass shot. It’s amazing how sweet those suckers taste to me now! I feel like my taste buds are becoming more sensitive to the subtle flavors in fruits and vegetables. Still got that bad wheat grass after-taste, though… I was grateful for having my orange treat to look forward to, which I saved for drinking during the movie previews– that’s the time when I always want to snack! My friend said I looked like I was drinking lobster bisque through a straw! Ha ha!

I had a great yoga workout this morning, and now I’m relaxed and ready for a great Friday! I can’t believe it’s my 7th day already– I’m so content here! Of course, it’s helping that my clothes are starting to fit better… I’m down 8 lbs!!

Go here to print a coupon for a FREE 20 oz Light Smoothie at Orange Julius on Friday, June 19, 2009.  You can choose from these flavors: Strawberry Delight, Tropical Sunlight, Berry-Pom Twilight.  Click here to find an Orange Julius location near you.  Limit one coupon per customer, while supplies last.

Get your free 20 Oz Light Smoothie @ Orange Julius this Friday 19th!

Print out this PDF of 6 coupons to share or be greedy.

http://files.getdropbox.com/u/714516/OJCoupon.pdf

Go here to print a coupon for $1.00 off any 20 oz Light Smoothie at Orange Julius.  Click here to find an Orange Julius location near you.  This coupon is good until October 31, 2009!

I don’t know about you, but I am so ready for summer! I’ve started making some bright, fun colors to get into the summer vibe.

I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White (any white creme will do), Tangerine pigment from TKB Trading, and Hot Topic Neon Orange.

I added 1 tablespoon of Tangerine pigment into 3/4 of white. To give this polish a little extra spunk, I added in about 12 drops of neon orange.

A perfect summery orange! Now I am craving warm weather AND an orange julius!

Pastels are fun & easy to make, so if there’s a certain color you’d like to see…give me a shout!

The best part about going to the mall when I was a kid was getting an Orange Julius before we went inside. ‘Course the counter guy always overloaded the cup with ice cubes so it was mostly ice and orange foam. Creamsicles are nice, but when you’re craving that creamy tang, there’s nothing as satisfying as OJ.

The secret to whipping up that proper amount of head is milk powder. Christina Tosi told me so. Now if only she’d tell me how to make milk crumbles. This afternoon, after an exhausting morning of trekking in search of apartments and suffering severe wind burn, the other half declared it was time for some homemade Orange Julius.

From Wiki: “The drink grew out of an orange juice stand opened in Los Angeles in 1926 by Julius Freed. Sales were initially modest, about $20 a day (over $200 adjusted for 2007 inflation). In 1929, Bill Hamlin, Freed’s real estate broker, developed a mixture that made the acidic orange juice less bothersome to his stomach. Freed’s stand began serving the drink, which had a frothier, creamier texture. The sales at the stand increased substantially after the introduction of the new drink, going up to $100 a day. People began lining up at the store and shouting, “Give me an Orange, Julius!”"

Ingredients:
200ml or 6oz orange juice (no pulp)
2.5 tsp KLIM milk powder
100ml whole milk

Buzz together with immersion blender. No ice cubes, no problem! Apply Orange Julius mustache.

So here’s Shannon and Whit’s recipe:
One can of orange Shasta soda
Lots of vanilla icecream
Blend. Voilla.
Beware: to much pop and pop goes the blender lid.