car salon

when i got the new car it was plastered all over with stickers for the place i bought it from. there was a sticker on the back of the trunk, and a big huge ad for their website on my back windshield. quite tacky. i was wondering how to get them off, and then my dad told me this strange way to do it: use a blow dryer! sounds strange, but i just heated up each letter for about five seconds, and they just peeled off without a problem! i would have never thought of that. just another reason why dads are so helpful...

the new ride

my car finally gave up on me. it went kaput. i had been warned, but it was still a sad thing to witness. fair thee well, dear car, you will be missed.

what now? i didnt want to be pestering people to drive me here and there forever, so i figured i must step up and buy a new one. so i did! diana came over and we went looking. it didnt take long before we came across the one that caught my eye. after a couple test drives and a few calls home, i made the plunge and bought a new car: a 2004 grand prix gt! and oh, baby, it is beautiful!!! im not a car guy, but i know what i like. ive always been partial to the grand prixs, i loved their old look, and i love the new look even more. and now i am the proud owner of one. it had really low miles and all the extras: leather interior, 6 cd changer, sunroof, heated seats, and a bunch more. the price was right (and by right i mean too expensive), so we took it and gave it a new home. it has been a lot of fun to drive, and i feel totally awesome driving around in it.

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falling apart

yeesh, what a week! my car started acting up a bit over the past month or two. it would slide a bit when it would shift, and the temperature gauge on the engine was creeping up a bit too high. i figured it might be a good idea to bring it in and have someone look at it. i figured 'no problem, its probably just a clog in the coolant system and maybe it just needs a tune up'. boy was i wrong! i go in to hear what the prognosis is, and it turns out my car needs a new transmission and a new intake manifold. i can expect to pay a small sum of $3000! now, i know im not a car guy; i know some of the car stuff can get me a bit confused, but there is one thing i know: $3000 is a lot of money!!! i ask the mechanic (who is a friend i trust) what i should do- do i spend the money and fix it, or just call it dead? his advice was to just walk away from it and look for a different car. awesome. i was hoping i could spend a ton of money on replacing something i own!

then, about three day later my hot water heater starts acting up. i turn up the temp a bit for a warmer shower and it starts bubbling over! water starts pouring out of its release valve sputtering and stammering. i shut off the water and fear the worst. i call home to ask dad what to do, but hes not real keen on plumbing (hes a wiz at everything else, just not plumbing) so he just suggests that i call a repair guy. i do. its a bunch cheaper to wait until monday for him to come, so i schedule a time. i spend most of the rest of the day trying to figure out how im going to take a shower the next morning for work. after a few hours i turn the heat back down on the tank and turn the water back on. it seemed to have corrected itself for now, so i breath a bit easier. by morning i feel confident enough to take a shower, all but a very quick one, and get ready for work. i dont hear any water coming down the release valve. i figure it might have just been a fluke and i dont need to worry about it (you know, ignore it and it will go away). i cancel the plumber and hope for the best.

that was a week ago and its been running fine ever since. i wish i could say the same for my car...

poolhall junkies

one saturday night diana and i went to go visit grand rapids. we met up with the aaron and jeffry lee. we went out to eat at ruby tuesdays (i love their salad bar!) and then decided it was the kind of night that is best spent at a pool hall.

we arrived and got a table. we grabbed sticks, and went at it. as the night went on we took turns being on each others team. no matter the roster, we were fairly evenly matched: we all sucked! it was an awesome time, in no small part based on the fact that we got to hear 'banditos' by the refreshments...

the guys really had a great time, and diana got to spent some more quality time with my friends. she says she actually likes hanging out with them!

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play time

after returning from california i headed up to visit my family. one of the afternoons i was there, my nephew jackson was sitting at the kitchen table and wanted to play with me. i was totally in for it, so we headed up into my old closet and grabbed my bag of toys. first thing on the agenda: transformers!!! now, i dont mean the new transformers that came out as a tie in with the movie, i mean the original transformers from the 80s! we pulled them out and i got to show jackson how to transform them from vehicle to robot and back. he was loving it, and i must admit, so was i...
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the new look

what do you think of the new look? i spent some time rooting around the layout section of the site, and messed with the html code, and figured out how to fix this place up a bit. i though a few changes were in order, so i updated the title graphic and mixed up some of the colors.

hope you like it! oh, and dont forget to check out the other contents of the 'poke it with a stick' family listed at the right.

the 'scottish king' page is my personal favorite...

in conclusion

wow, we sure had an amazing time visiting adam. we saw the sights, enjoyed the culture, partook in the atmosphere that is california. i kept putting off the visit to see adam for many years, but am very thankful that i finally got the opportunity to finally do it. and was ecstatic that jeffry lee and aaron wanted to come too!

most of the stories have been included here, but certainly not all. some were omitted accidentally, others on purpose. i cant give away all our secrets, can i?

i hope you have enjoyed the past 60+ posts on the trip. mostly they were written for me so that i can return to them and remember all the fantastic times we had. i seem to have a few more random photos left, so ill throw some of them here, for posterity sake.

the long goodbye

wednesday morning we woke up in grumpy moods, mostly because we knew it was our last day in california and we would soon have to face the harsh reality: reality. we showered and got ready, packed the car, and off we went to the bob hope airport for the long trip home. after a short wait in california, and a long wait in colorado, and a short wait for ali to pick us up from ohare, and stopping to get my car, we were finally home. well, i was anyway. aaron still had two hours of travel back to his place, and then jeff still had a 40 minute trip after that.

we were sad to go, but knew we had lived up every possible moment we could while we were there.

sleepy time

on the way home we picked up some food from the infamous 'in and out burger' right by adams house. when we got back we dug in while we watched the nights episode of 'the late late show with craig ferguson'. we quickly ran out of steam and called it a night. we had some disagreements as to who was going to be sleeping on the couch for the final night because we had all taken our turn on the floor. through process of brute force, aaron ended up winning the consolation prize: the ground.

wiskey bend

after a couple hours in the blue room, we knew it was time to move on. our next destination: wiskey bend. as far as 'hole in the wall' places go, this was the hole-iest. for being in california, it sure felt like we were back in michigan kicking it at the pump house.

we must have arrived just in time because when we got there there were some really special gals belting it out as best they could singing karaoke. i was fairly sure i hadnt had enough to step up their myself, so there was no way i was joining them. fortunately the karaoke machine was put away about twenty minutes after we got there, so we were able to enjoy our time there in relative peace...

by the end of the night we dubbed it 'cigar time', and headed out into the parking lot to puff away in celebration of all the fun and festivities that were had by all. none of us really liked the cigars, because they are gross, but still felt compelled to stand out there a while as a sign of our last night together. for some reason there was an overturned grocery cart which adam promptly laid on. im not sure why either.

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blue room

we knew we wanted to go out with a bang, but not stay out too late (yeh, right...) or go too far away, so our best bet was to get everyone together again and go out and have a blast! adam and al decided the place to go was a local pub known as the blue room. which was quite a fitting name, i realized upon entry, in that the room is completely blue- chairs and all. once everyone arrived we had a great time chatting and throwing back a couple. while we were there jeffry lee decided it would be a great idea to drink something that smelled about the equivalent of paint thinner (you will notice the amazing reaction shot i was able to get). we relived all the great events we had experienced while we were on our california adventure, and finally had to say goodbye (for now) to amy. thus started our night...

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dukes

in malibu we went to a cool restaurant called 'dukes', it was right on the coast. there was an outdoor patio that we could eat on, so we found a seat out there and enjoyed a great meal and some great drinks. the sun was out and it was a beautiful day, but the strong breeze coming off the ocean was quite brisk!

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malibu

after checking out the sights, we decided it was time to eat. adam said he knew exactly where we should go: malibu! we hadnt been to the ocean yet, so we headed for the coast! after a drive through the long and windy mountainside, it opened up to a truly amazing view if the pacific coast.

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the sign

just down the street from manns and the kodak theater is a three story outdoor mall. we walked around for a bit there. on one of the walkways there is a great view of the hollywood sign, so we stopped to take a look at it. its still really far away, so its hard to get a close up picture of it.

while we were in the mall we stopped at a smoke shop because we decided we would celebrate the end of our vacation with cigars. as we were walking in i noticed an old woman sitting at a table coughing uncontrollably. didnt think anything of it as we walked in, well, until i caught a wiff of something strong... the woman behind the counter of the little cigar shop asked 'do you smell marijuana?' we kinda did. i peeked back outside at the woman coughing, now she had a couple cops standing in front of her and i overheard her saying 'what? i didnt do anything wrong...' yikes. the woman behind the counter admitted 'wow, i just sold her papers a couple minutes ago...'

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manns chinese

just a little bit down the street from the kodak theater is the famed manns chinese theater. it is a functional theater that is very impressive on the inside, which we didnt see. i figured even though it may be amazing to see, it still wasnt going to be worth watching 'drillbit taylor' for.

the outside of the theater was very impressive, and really cool to be in this place that i had seen so many times in pictures and on screen. the exterior was awesome, with its chinese theme and giant animal statues, but the place definitely needed some work done to repair and repaint some of the wear it has had.

the best part of the theater is the cement out front. this is the place where people put their foot prints and hand prints into the wet cement. we saw many different names and people, among them were john wayne, will smith, the cast of star trek, and even steven seagal (which i took a picture of, just for my dad...). oh, and across the street i found a really cool name on the walk of fame.

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kodak theater

tuesday afternoon we left downtown and headed over the some of the more recognizable touristy places. we drove down and found a parking garage, which turned out to be just below the kodak theater! we came up through the doors and found ourselves next to the grand staircase of the kodak! i was quite excited to be able to see this place- its where they hold the oscars every year (which i am slightly obsessed with...). i got to see the street that they close down and cover with a red carpet which all the famous people walk through on their way to almost certain disappointment. they had engraved on its walls all the best picture winners since they first begun 80 years ago.

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cliffys

adam had heard about this place called 'cliftons'. he had heard that it was kind of strange, set up like a cafeteria, but was supposedly cool. so we figured we would give it a try. wow, were we in for a treat! this place was amazing! when we first got in there we were blown away by the ridiculous decor. it looked like really a really cheesy outdoor scene, complete with animatronic animals and all. we got our food from the cafeteria line and found a seat. we werent quite sure what to make of the place. was this for real or was it meant to be a joke? we were by far the youngest people in there, the average age was probably about 65, at the youngest... we were convinced that most of these people were probably regulars and had been going there since the nixon administration.

we wandered around a bit after we ate our lunch and happened upon this strange place- it was a small chapel built into one of the 'trees' on the second floor. it was incredibly tiny, so we figured we would all four crowd into it. the photo at the left shows just how tight the quarters were. when we were in there there was a diorama set up of a forest, and a button to press to listen to a sermon about Gods beautiful creation. what a trip!

the true magnitude of the place sunk in when we wandered up to the third floor. it was filled with all kinds of photos of the place from when it was first built and newspaper clippings from that time explaining what it was all about. it was truly amazing! it had been around since 1931, and was quite the popular place to be! at the time the idea of a cafeteria was brand new- exciting and modern! but to see some of the pictures of stars coming to dine there, the neon lights that used to adorn its exterior, and the good things they were able to do in the community at the time all really showed us how cool of a place this must have been. you know, before there was an inch of dust on all the decorations... check out its website, it is really interesting.

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downtown

uh oh. the start of our last day. nooo!!! we woke up on time and got ready. adam had already taken care of his responsibilities for work by the time we got up, so he was free to play! we wanted to take in the sights today, so we started by going downtown hollywood. while we were there we happened across a commercial shoot. it was pretty cool- there were a bunch of actors all dressed up in 70s clothing with big afros, and in the street were a few really great cars from that era- there was even a wood panelled station wagon! hot! we stopped and asked them what they were filming and they said it was for a sprite commercial, so im going to have to keep my eyes peeled for the next couple months to see if i can spot the people we talked to.

sleeper

that night was not necessarily my favorite. we only had room for two on the couch, so we rotated sleeping on the floor, and tonight was my night to suffer. i tried to fall asleep in the chair, but that didnt work too well. i moved to the floor at some point in the night, and after al left for work, i snuck into his room and slept on top of his been for the last hour or two of sleep. he doesnt know that part, so dont tell him...

hard work

on the way home adam needed to stop by his work and take care of a few things, so we tagged along with him to check out the place. his boss was there as well working, so we met him and took the grand tour of the place. it was really cool, they had some awesome computers and editing equipment. we got to see a clip of a show that was a work-in-progress. the sound was amazing! adam took us up to see his work space and also the stage where they film some internet stuff.

man, that looks like a fun job.

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