FlyingJ

A sushi restaurant recently opened in my town. One of only 3 or so restaurants that fall outside of the whole Chilis/Applebee's/Fridays box. The food is pretty darn good, especially having not had access to anything but grocery store sushi for 3 years, but the service blows pretty hard. We had a reservation. I realize a reservation is an estimated time for being seated, but we waited for 40 minutes after our reservation to be seated. We finally sat and waited 15 minutes for someone to take a drink order. 25 minutes later someone came to start taking orders. Took 3 or 4 orders (10 of us) and vanished for another 10 minutes. Did it again. Was 40 minutes before everyone had placed their orders. First dish came out within about 15 minutes. Last person did not get their food until 40 minutes after the first person got their food. All in all the guy serving us was enough to make me never want to go back, regardless of how good the food was. On the way out the guy running the front half of the place (a bar, the reservations desk, etc.) asked how things were and my buddy asked if it would be possible to say a word to the manager. I almost shit myself when the guy that was called up to the front was the guy that had waited on us! My buddy put it well, just telling the manager that he has a wonderful restaurant, etc. but that if he really wants the place to be successful he needs to leave the waiting on tables to capable servers and keep himself to management. Killing threads since 2004.

Hopefully! I always get screwed with regional coverage on the networks. I mean, does anyone really give a flying fuck about the Longhorns, Aggies or those Oklahoma teams? Killing threads since 2004.

I just hope I can see it here in Texas. Cable company doesn't offer ESPN Gameplan. I can only hope that Georgia keeps a ranking towards the top and maybe the schedule they have in front of them will keep them broadcast on the mainstream channels. Killing threads since 2004.

GO DAWGS!!! Killing threads since 2004.

Peanut butter (crunchy preferred for me) on hot dogs. Not a big hot dog fan, but slather some peanut butter on one and I'm good to go! Killing threads since 2004.

Apples to oranges. Is this not the typical role for the VP nominee? Biden's speech was about his good buddy Johnny and why you shouldn't vote for him. You can probably be pretty sure that tomorrow night, McCain's speech will be much more similar to Obama's. Let's compare then. Killing threads since 2004.

Beef, not so much. But I have frequently purchased shrimp and beef tamales from guys that go door to door. I live right near the coast and I know the shrimp are local, though I don't know anything about how they are handled prior to reaching me. Mainly I just know they are delicious. Took me a little while to come around to buying stuff from "Tamale Man" but after my co-worker pointed out that going straight from his kitchen to his cooler is probably a much cleaner process than any of the local Tex-Mex joints around here, which are all routinely cited by my health examiner friend. Since I moved to Texas and started hunting for the first time I haven't been buying much meat from stores. A friend raises chickens and if I'm eating meat at home it's usually pork or venison that I brought home myself. Mmmmm.... Killing threads since 2004.

I just logged into my yahoo email and saw the attached "current" news. My browser is set to refresh with every page visit so it shouldn't have been pulling from the cache, besides, I read a bunch of current news just an hour earlier. Maybe Yahoo doesn't like the VP pics and wants to go back in time a few days? Killing threads since 2004.

Yeeeeeeehaw!!! 'bout damn time! I'm still coming to grips with the lack of SEC coverage in Texas compared to what I was used to in Georgia and Florida. My cable company doesn't offer ESPN Gameplan and the only sports bar in town has DirecTV but doesn't subscribe. They are building a Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm not a huge fan of the place, but I can only hope they'll have every game on, even if on a smaller screen. Either way, I'm psyched! A little worried about my 'dawgs coming into the season #1 as that never seems to work out in the end, but I'll be hootin and hollerin all the way! GO DAWGS!!! Killing threads since 2004.

I saw that article this morning and wondered if Kelly had recently purchased a National Parks Pass. Killing threads since 2004.

A few months back a group of us were on a rental car shuttle bus getting ready to fly home from a two week wildfire detail in the middle of nowhere. One of the guys on the crew is terrified of flying and upon being asked how he was doing commented "I'm so nervous even my balls are sweating!" While my group was taking up the majority of the rear of the bus, he didn't notice that there was a very cute young lady seated next to me just out of his view. We all just looked in her direction and started laughing as he turned 14 shades of red. She just smiled and didn't comment. A few minutes later she got up to get off the bus, and from the steps on the way out looked back at my buddy and said "Good luck with your balls!" I still practically start crying when I tell that story. Ever since, "Good luck with your balls" has become one of the more common phrases on the crew. Killing threads since 2004.

Will do, I'll see most of them tomorrow. Killing threads since 2004.

No kidding. I can't even comprehend how short an amount of time .08 seconds is! Killing threads since 2004.

The following link is for The Children's Art Project, a program from The Children's Cancer Hospital at M.D. Anderson in Houston. The young lady on the front cover and profiled towards the end of the catalog is the daughter of a good friend and co-worker of mine. After all they've been through in the last couple years it's amazing to see her with such a big smile on her face and I couldn't help but but post a link I was so excited when I saw the catalog! http://issuu.com/mrwilturner/docs/cap2008holidaycatalog Killing threads since 2004.

The graphics at the bottom of the screen show how many athletes are competing for a given country, but so far every country has had more people marching than the graphic shows will be competing. Are the other folks marching the alternates? Anyone know? Killing threads since 2004.

I just thought about him the other day when I was watching the Redskins game, wishing I could hop on instant messenger to give him some shit during the short time they were losing. "Come on dude, I'll pay for it" was something he told me more than a few times. The last two times I visited the farm y'all were there and both times he offered to pick up the costs of the jumps to get me current even though he knew it would only be one day of jumping then back to no jumping. I never felt I could let someone do that, but I always felt a little bad not taking him up on it because it was so genuinely offered. We didn't chat often, but the chats we did have rarely ended without an offer to put me to work so I could earn some extra money to jump (or just get by). A true original. Killing threads since 2004.

Ha...too funny. I haven't seen Tony since high school. Is he out that way? Killing threads since 2004.

Don't really know. I just got the video this morning and he's on the west coast so I haven't called him yet to find out what the story is. Knowing him I'm pretty sure it's meant strictly for humor, but you never know! Last I talked to him he was working in the television industry, so he has some experience and equipment at his disposal. Killing threads since 2004.

I really don't know what to say. This guy is my former co-worker in NYC. At the time he was responsible for all of our government funding, and prior to that he was an aid to a former Mayor of Atlanta. Now he's finally got his career straight! http://trainingwithtron.com/ Killing threads since 2004.

Don't know that I've ever seen it bottled. A few bars in NYC serve it, and there is a Hofbräuhaus on the Newport Levy (Cincinnati/KY border on the Ohio River). Definitely haven't run into it in Texas. Killing threads since 2004.

Thanks for the suggestion! Killing threads since 2004.

Keep up the ride-alongs even if you can't get a paying gig right away. Not sure where exactly you are in Florida, but when I was in Gainesville both the fire dept. and the life flight from the hospital allowed ride alongs. I was able to do so as a first responder and plan on doing the same thing when I complete my emt training (and hopefully pass my own NREMT) a few months from now. Killing threads since 2004.

If you make it to the panhandle, I suggest Grayton Beach State Park. The same emerald green sugar sand beaches you'll see in Destin and Panama City Beach without having to deal with the obnoxious crowds. I lived on the park for a year while volunteering with AmeriCorps and miss it every day! If you are looking at some downtime wherever you go, check out www.floridastateparks.org for parks in the area. There are very few parks you could go wrong with in Florida. Killing threads since 2004.

I've been really happy with Skype. It's come in very handy when traveling with access to a satellite internet connection but no phone service. I'm not sure I would want to rely on it in the event of emergency though. Killing threads since 2004.

Man, somehow combine one of those with one of these (http://www.ssfire.com/Apparatus/photos.cfm?aid=7)... I'm drooling just thinking about it. Killing threads since 2004.