...to this dude.

I was in my favorite fast food restaurant, and I got slightly perturbed by this dude in line in front of me, because he was standing like 8 feet away from the counter, waiting his turn. When the lady indicated that she was ready to take his order, then he walked up there. There was so much room in front of dude that it looked like maybe he had already ordered, and was waiting on his order.

Anyway, this dude had a ...MASSIVE...head. He was wearing an adjustable baseball cap - the kind with velcro at the back, instead of the old kind. Let me tell you how this dude's hat was crying for mercy! The little bit of velcro that was able to make that hit stay on his was sweating...working hard!

So. I did it. I had to do it. I took a picture. With my phone. Right there in the Chick-Fil-A.

I'm sorry dude.

When Mrs. Mau and I walked up to the ticket booth, I said "We're trying to decide between Oceans , Pirates, or waiting an hour for Fantastic Four." Without hesitation the chick said "Please wait for Fantastic Four. Pirates is 3 hours long, and Oceans has good action, but it's not all that great." That was good enough for us.

Enjoyed it. The Silver Surfer was done excellently. A bunch of inconsistencies between this and the first with regards to their outfits, but other than that I have few complaints.

My biggest complaint? Jessica Alba's makeup people. They gave her these unnaturally blue eyes that distracted me during the FIRST scene of the movie, and only marginally (if at all) improved throughout the movie. They looked huge and fake. Kinda like Michael Jackson's eyes in the Thriller video? When he turned into the...cat/werewolf-thing? Right.

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I really don't know who started this whole interview thing, but what I do know is that somebody interviewed TDot, and then my Duck asked her to interview...her, and then my brother asked for one, and of course I had to get in the mix. And now TDot has fired off like 18 sets of questions.

Ready? HHeeeeeerrrrrreeeeeee we go:

1. How did you know your wife was the one?

Remember The Last Dragon? When Sho'nuff was dunking Leroy's head in the water and kept asking him "Who's the Master?" And then when he thought about he realized just WHO the master was? Kinda like that. One day (can't pinpoint) I was just thinking about the future and what not, and in my 10-years-down-the-line vision, she was there. That's when I realized that even though I wasn't necessarily ready to get married yet, that I would spend the rest of my life with her. I actually had two such moments. In our EARLY days of dating, we had a phase when we would talk on the phone first thing in the morning. Like 7:00am. Whenever we said we were getting up after talking the night before. Anyway, one morning we were talking and all of a sudden I just realized that this was no longer "the woman who I was dating", but my girlfriend. We had dinner that night, and I told her "I realized something this morning. You're my girlfriend." She was silent for a few moments, and finally said "I accept." Or something to that effect. We talk about that conversation often.

Give us details on your most embarrassing moment.

Most of my most embarrassing moments come from my name being mispronounced. When I was in high school, nine out of ten times it was said over the intercom, it was butchered. Forget that. Every time. The WORST time was not during high school, but college. Graduation. Florida A & M University. Tallahassee, Florida. Leon County Civic Center. May 1998. I'm standing there at the edge of the stage, shoulders back, head high. The chick reading names hesitated briefly, and then spit it out. My head dropped. My shoulders all but hunched over, and I slumped across the stage. Sigh.

What is your theme song and why?

I think I have a few:
If you ask my Wife, Simply Beautiful by Al Green. It was our first song at the wedding, by my request. This has been one of my favorite songs for at least the last 10 yrs.
If you ask my Mother, The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. It's always been one of my favorites, and we both love Otis.
If you ask my friend L, The Soul Glow Song from Coming to America. That's his ringtone for me, and he cracks up EVERY TIME he hears it.
Um, I've always had a thing for Soul Man, by Sam and Dave. (Obvious reasons.)
Lately, I've had Ledisi's rendition of In a Sentimental Mood on repeat. Powerful stuff.

If you couldn't do your current job, what would you be doing for a living?

If I couldn't do this? Oh, I'd be a ssaaaaaadddddd case. You see, what I'm doing now is really thing I'm best at, I'd say. I'm an IT Consultant/Project Manager. I help people with problems make stuff better. I even do that kind of stuff outside of work. I have friends calling me for informal consultative advice and such. I think it matches my mindset very well. If I couldn't "consult" in some shape, form, or fashion? I suppose I'd probably go into some sort of sales job. The thing is that it's have to be something I actually believed in. Promoting something you don't believe in is worse that doing something you don't want to do. I sometimes think I could have been a pretty good doctor, but I don't savor dealing with...other people's private lives.

You're writing a letter to your 18 year old self. What advice do you give him?

Let's see. 18. On my 18th birthday, I was about to start my second year of college. I'd tell that dude that it's okay to do things the easy way. I have this chronic habit of "NOT doing something just because everyone else is doing it, and you know what'll happen and you know it'll turn out okay." I find that to be a bit boring and not very adventurous. The thing is, the road less traveled is a lot rougher and much more treacherous. I'll tell that 18-yr-old to go with the more obvious route sometimes. Sure, getting there is half the fun, but if when you get there you're broke and tired and beat-down, was the trip worth it?

Thanks, TDot!!!

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A show about a dude that's like, half Jack Bauer, and half MacGuyver.

Damn. That would be HOT.

And he would have a pet that was half Lassie, and half Battle Cat, but could fly.

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They say breakfast is the most important meal of day, so any restaurant that serves breakfast all day has got to be on to something. Thumbs Up Diner hits the sweet spot.

It's an Atlanta fixture for many, and if you're in the city, but haven't been there, then...well then you're just missing out.

One of my major gripes with most breakfasts away from home is there aren't enough good meat offerings that aren't made of pork. Most of the veggie substitutes don't hit the mark, and the turkey stuff is honestly a joke. On my recent visit to Thumbs Up, (yesterday) one of the specials was the Kirkwood Breakfast, which had a link of chicken sausage, along with a slice of french toast, and a small fruit salad. I mostly got it because I was intruiged by the sausage. My curiosity was rewarded. The sausage had great flavor, and was cooked just right - just a little charred all around, without being burnt at all. It was good enough for me to ask my waitress about it. It turns out that the chicken sausage has earned a permanent spot on the menu! This is great news. I'm very excited. This means that the carnivore in me will be satisfied when I go. This little addition really rounds out the menu at Thumbs Up. Get there. Ask for the sausage if it hasn't made it to the menu yet. You won't be disappointed. 3 locations in the Atlanta area to serve you.

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I had this meal over a week ago now, and I'm still talking about it, so I suppose it's worthy of a post.

It was last Saturday, June 9th. Mrs. Mau and I were in St. Pete for a wedding. She was in the ceremony, so she had to be at the hotel early to get ready. The result was that it was like 12:30, and the wedding was at 3, so I had PLENTY of time to feed myself.

I found myself at Zapata's, a Mexican restaurant just a block off Baywalk. It turns out that Zapata's had just opened on June 1, but of course I didn't know that at the time.

When I sat down, I was given the obligatory Chips and Salsa. After a quick glance at the menu, I supplemented that with the Guacamole. For my entree, I chose the "Beef Tips in Tomatillo Sauce". After I gave my entree order, this is what my waiter said to me: "How about to drink, sir? Just water? Soda? House margarita? Top shelf margarita? Homemade sangria?" Just then, something inside me just kinda clicked, and I knew it would be a good meal.

The Guac was, of course, fresh. At least, it tasted fresh to me! Nice whole chunks of avocado, excellent. I was honestly well on my way to being full when my main entree arrived.
I was quite glad I saved some space! The beef tips were well-done, as I requested, but not overdone at all, and very flavorful. Tender with excellent slightly charred flavor. The Tomatillo sauce was topped with diced onions and cilantro - two of my favorite produce-section staples. The whole combination, along with the rice and refried beans, was just right. Everything had just the right tone, and excellent flavor. The sangria had the whole fresh fruit thing going, and was quite tasty also. Tasty enough to order a second glass, so that should tell you something.

$35 bucks later, I rolled myself out of there, stuffed and happy. The food was great, the service was great, and I had NO complaints. The place also has a tequila bar, which I didn't get a chance to sample. Maybe next time. One day this week, expect to find me in search of a repeat experience a bit closer to home.

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Sometimes, living in this digital world of ours full of online calendars, address books and photo albums, it's more than a little refreshing to step away from the keyboard sometimes. Enter My Book of Lists.

My Book of Lists is just that...a book of lists. It has pages for all of the stuff that you jot down on random pieces of paper, or try to remember for later reference. Now you have a place to dump those random pieces of information detritus and free your brain. I'm sure you'll find it quite liberating.

The standard pages in My Book of Lists:

• a page for birthdays and anniversaries for each month
  
• my Books to Read
• my Movies to Watch
• my Places to Travel
• my Music to Buy
• my Restaurants to Try
• my Wine to Taste
• my Sites to Surf
• my Shoppes to Shop
• my Quotes to Quote
• my Things to Note
• my Web User IDs and Passwords

There are a variety of covers to pick from, or for a more personal touch, any of the covers or inside pages can be customized for an additional cost. That way you can add a page for..."my Bowling Scores" or "my Golf Scorecards". Maybe "my Blood Pressure Readings". Actually, that's not a bad one. I have borderline high BP, and whenever I find myself at a doctor for a random appt, I ask to have my BP taken. This way, I wouldn't have to memorize it, or write it on a random sheet of paper! The point is, the books can be customized to YOUR individual needs. They come in four different sized, from "Mini" all the way up to the full-sized "Portfolio".

A new offering in addition to the standard My Book of Lists is...I'm not sure what the official title is. Let's call it "My Week". My Week is a book of identical blank templates for planning your week. It's got an agenda for each day, as well as a detachable book of "Things to Do" that you can carry around with you. Quite handy! Currently Portfolio size only, because honestly everything gets a bit smushed up if you go smaller with it.

Patronize!

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I'm gonna use initials here to protect the guilty...

So...this long, long night.

It all started when me and two good friends of mine went to this concert hosted by Scion. I don't remember who it was that month. That's not important. The fact that Scion put on the event isn't really important either. What's important is that I got this bomb parking space, and my two friends, who rode together, parked about a block away.

So we leave the show, and I make for my bomb parking space, and I get gone, since my car was so close. I'm at least a third of the way home, when my friends, L and F, call me. "We got towed. Come get us." I'm not gonna get into exactly why the car was towed(it was bogus), because that's not important either. So, it's up to me to get the fellas home, and to the complete the job, I've got to help get the car back, which in Atlanta, is a slightly convoluted process. To muddy the waters, it was F's car, and his house keys were in the car. To get your car back from the tow yard, you need your registration. Luckily, he had the registration at his house. Unluckily, like I said the house keys were in the car. So, first step: get into the house.

The only other person with keys to F's house...is F's mom. So we end up calling her at maybe 2:30 in the morning, telling her we're on the way to pick up the keys. By this time, we're all tired, and slightly agitated about the tow situation, so it's a good thing she didn't press her son for details on exactly why he needed his spare keys. It's a solid 25 minute drive to Mom's house. We retrieve the keys no problem. Next step: get the paperwork. 15 minute drive.

Here comes the funny part. We get to F's house for the paperwork. While he's upstairs digging through files, L and I hit the refrigerator. We both look in there, but separately. Neither of us find anything fetching. A few minutes, we look again. This time, one of draws attention to something that both of us noticed the first time we looked inside, but didn't mention. There are like...6...glass bottles of maple syrup in the fridge, on the door. Each has maybe 1/2 an inch of syrup in it. There are at least two more on the counter top, similarly emptied (almost). There is also a pretty full one on the counter. We ask each other..."What's with all this syrup? Does he have some sort of weird syrup addiction? Do we need to have an intervention? What's going on? We'll have to ask him. An intervention it is." A few minutes later, F comes back down.
I say to him something to the effect of: "Listen man. There's something we need to discuss with you. If it's none of our business, and you want us to drop it, just let us know, but we need to at least bring it up." F looks at us, looks around the kitchen and points to the fridge and exclaims: "The Syrup!". We all literally collapse to the floor in laughter. For at least 6 full minutes. I'm talking belly-aching, tears-down-the-face laughter. It turns out that he makes oatmeal every morning, and sweetens it with syrup. When the bottle gets empty enough that there's so little in the bottle that it doesn't work itself out of the bottle and into the bowl quickly enough for him, he just sticks it in the chiller, and grabs a fresh bottle. Life is too short to wait for syrup, apparently. We recover for a few minutes, and head out. Next step: L's house. Because L's house is MUCH closer to City Hall, which is Stop #1 in the process of retrieving your car.
20 minute drive.

We get to L's house, and for some reason, the electricity has been turned off. Sigh. By this time, it's after 4:00, and you can cut the exhaustion and the disappointment in the car with a dull, rusty butter knife. It really wouldn't do to trek all the way back across town to F's house, because he's farther away from City Hall than my house is. Answer: Head to my house. The thing is, I'm the only one who's married, so I have to call my wife at 4:something in the morning and tell her that I'm bringing the fellas over. She wasn't happy being roused from her ever-so-peaceful slumber in the wee hours of the day to get the house suitable for guests. Another 20 minute drive.

By the time we get to the house, and get everyone settled, it's like 5:00 in the morning. Sigh. Luckily, I didn't have to work the next day, so I was able to get up and get F to City Hall to without much trouble.

True story. Long night. To this day, if you want to elicit at least a brief snickering fit from us, walk up, point at a refrigerator, or point at anything really and say..."The Syrup!"

Yup. True story. I couldn't make this stuff up, peeps.

Holla. Good night.

I was just thinking that it feels like it's been a while since I've shared anything in this particular forum. Then I was like "Well, it couldn't have been that long." Then I looked at my last post, and it turns out that it's been over two weeks! My, my. How time flies.

The odd thing about this little..."recess" is that I've got so much to share! I've actually got a little electronic sticky note on my computer with little notes to myself of things I need to get post about. So...let's see how many of them get out in the next day or two.

First is the story about the longest night I've had in a while...