I need a title.

Movies: Update

2009-06-22T13:52:28Z

Time for an update:

Earth, 4/22
Didn't get around to this one.

Wolverine, 5/1
Thought it was ok. Had some good action scenes, but some stuff looked really fake.

Star Trek, 5/8
Movie of the summer for me so far. The new cast will never top the originals, but they came in a close 2nd.

Angels & Demons, 5/15
2 hours of Tom Hanks running around Italy, where I'll be spending my honeymoon? Very nice. Even if it was fake Italy.

Terminator: Salvation, 5/22
Duh duh dun dun dun. Nowhere near the level of the first 2, but a vast improvement on T3.

Drag Me to Hell, 5/29
Previews turned me off to this. Maybe on DVD.

Land of the Lost, 6/5
What is the point of remaking a movie and then changing the central dynamic of the cast?

Moon, 6/12
Never got around to this one, too.

Hellraiser, ??
IMDB says 2011. I knew Fandango was lying.

Prince of Persia, 6/19
IMDB says this one is 2010. Fandango, apparently, is clueless.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 6/24
Duh.

Surveillance, 6/26
Two cops tracking serial killers? Sounds fun.

Public Enemies, 7/1
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger? Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis? YES.

Bruno, 7/10
Depends on the trailer, I liked Borat well enough.

Harry Potter 6, 7/17
Andrew/Noel--this is reason enough to come to Matt's beachhouse, so you can come see this with us.

G.I. Joe, 8/7
The real trailer I saw for this before Star Trek was bad. So bad that Trekkies laughed in derision when the title came up. That is just embarassing, when Trekkies laugh at you.

District 9, 8/14
The documentary feel to it in the previews makes this seem pretty interesting.ype your cut contents here.

DIY

2009-06-22T06:15:22Z

Renovation Realities on DIY is one disturbingly addicting show. But who agrees to appear on a show where you get made fun of for 30 minutes bc you don't have a clue what you're doing?

I should be in bed.

EDIT: Whoops, I meant DIY and not HGTV. I love HGTV, too, but I tend to only watch that when the fiance is around.

Twooting

2009-05-05T01:37:18Z

Much as it pains me to think that society's attention span has drifted towards 140 character bits of random verbage rather than long written posts, I'm sad to admit I am part of the problem. Currently, I am about 10 times more likely to update my twitter than my blog. So...follow me there at babylondecays.

This will still get updates...likely a few times a month, based on my current output. But you can follow my nonsense at least once a day over there.

Long Neck Diner

2009-04-28T03:35:05Z

The choice for April was the Long Neck Diner located in...Long Neck, Delaware (although it has a Millsboro street address...crazy Delaware). Situated between Taste Garden and Moon Cleaners, it's a pretty spacious diner that opened recently. When we arrived a little after 6 on a Saturday, it was completely packed, which is generally a good sign. The walls were bright orange and the walls were lined with fake awnings and roofing material. There were beach-type pictures above most every table, and I'm sure every stereotype popping into your head is correct.

Right of the bat, I will say the service was slow. Very, very slow. However, I tend to chalk it up to the fact that there was a party of 27 taking up the entire middle of the restaurant (26 septuagenarians and 1 kid in his early teens). Were it not for that massive party, I can only assume the service would have been much faster, so I won't hold that against them (this time).

Amanda and I had been told in advance that you got a ton of food for your money, and this was a correct statement. The meals we got came with soup or salad, plus two vegetables in addition to the meal, and we aren't talking about a couple measly spoonfuls of the vegetables jammed on the plate, each vegetable came on its own plate. We each ended up with a salad, as 90 degree weather isn't exactly conducive to chicken noodle soup, and while she went with a house salad, I had my first Greek salad (seeing as how the restaurant appears to be owned by Greeks, it seemed like the in thing to do). The feta cheese was good and the olive-oil dressing (I believe?) was tasty. Amanda's house salad came with an s-ton of onions, but aside from that was a pretty standard salad. While we ate our salads, we also nibbled on some sesame rolls they provided us, which were adequate but nothing amazing.

For my entree, I got the fried shrimp, which came with onion rings plus two veggies. I got steak fries and coleslaw, which ended up being ok, but I have had better. A few of the fries appeared overdone, and the coleslaw was overly messy. The onion rings ended up being three tiny rings, and although I normally like the processed onion mash type of rings, the breading wasn't something I wanted to take more than one bite of. The fried shrimp were butterflied and they were delicious. All 6 shrimp were large and the cocktail sauce was delicious.

Amanda ended up with Chicken Bella, which was chicken, tomatoes, crab, and mozzarella cheese. She let me have a bite and it was delicious. There was crab all over and the chicken offered no complaints. Her sides were applesauce and mashed potatoes. Her potatoes weren't very warm, and the apple sauce was chunkier than she would have preferred, but she still came away saying they were good.

Overall, I'd say a thumbs in the middle for the Long Neck Diner. The service was incredibly slow and the sides left us wanting a little better quality, but our salads and our entrees themselves were very good. It's entirely possible that party of 27 threw off the entire restaurant, as a repeat trip when it is not packed may yield better results. After Memorial Day, the diner is open 24 hours, so maybe at some point this summer I will take her there for some midnight nachos and I will re-apprise my assessment.

Summer House

2009-04-08T03:35:52Z

New restaurant of the month for March was the Summer House in Rehoboth. Once again, I am not posting in a timely fashion, so my recollection is probably not as good as it should be.

The first thing you notice upon entering is that it really doesn't look like a saloon. Yes, it seriously bills itself as a saloon. But it looks much too upscale for that, and the prices are much higher than you would expect to pay in a saloon. The printed menu is spare, only a page of burgers, seafood, and steaks, but they have a entire board full of specials, and Amanda and I ended up picking items from the board as our entrees.

We started off with a shrimp cocktail, and the shrimp were gigantic and the cocktail sauce was nice and tasty. Not too spicy, but not bland like some cocktail sauces you get, it was a very nice mix.

For our main courses, I got the kona encrusted steak, with a baked sweet potato and their fried potato balls. The sweet potato was also gigantic and it tasted very fresh. The potato balls were yukon gold mashed potatoes, mixed with a bit of cheese, coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. It was delicious, although I couldn't eat more than two or three balls before my stomach said enough. It was just too rich, I think. I didn't care for the steak, as the coffee flavor was just too strong for me. If you're the type of person who drinks coffee (as opposed to the frappucinos I prefer), then you may well love it. Amanda got a hickory flavored steak, I believe, and I ended up liking the bite I had of hers better than my entire steak. She also got a sweet potato and she got the yukon gold mashed potatoes, regular style.

I'd definitely recommend the Summer House, but it's no saloon, and be prepared to fork out a decent bit of cash for your meal.

Movies

2009-04-06T20:48:50Z

I've had it pretty light as far as movie-going in 2009. I've seen 4 movies that I can recall (My Blood Valentine, Friday the 13th, and Watchmen--twice). That's all set to change very soon.
Earth, 4/22

Wolverine, 5/1

Star Trek, 5/8

Angels & Demons, 5/15

Terminator: Salvation, 5/22

Drag Me to Hell, 5/29
Up in the air about this one, depends on the previews.

Land of the Lost, 6/5
Ehhhh, maybe.

Moon, 5/12
Depends on the previews.

Hellraiser, ??
Fandango says this will be released on Monday, 6/1, but they also said it would be coming out back in January, so I'll believe this when I see it. Also: it'd probably suck anyway.

Prince of Persia, 6/19
Considering Ben Kingsley's track record at picking movies, this could either be very good or very, very bad. Considering this is a video game movie, I would leans towards the later, so this may very well be a no.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 6/24
Duh.

Surveillance, 6/26
Two cops tracking serial killers? Sounds fun.

Public Enemies, 7/1
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger? Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis? YES.

Bruno, 7/10
Depends on the trailer, I liked Borat well enough.

Harry Potter 6, 7/17
Andrew/Noel--this is reason enough to come to Matt's beachhouse, so you can come see this with us.

G.I. Joe, 8/7
The trailer during the Super Bowl looked pretty decent, but man does Cobra Commander look shit-tastic. I am not one to quibble over minor changes (Oh noes! Optimus doesn't look exactly like he does in the cartoon! Michael Bay raped my childhood!), but I have never been a big G.I. Joe guy to start with. TBH, the most I can recall about the show is the Sgt Slaughter live bookends, and random episode with the evil twins. So, we'll see what happens in August.

Wheeeee

2009-04-04T14:50:02Z

6 1/2 months until I'm a husband!

I have a tremendous desire to bust our my wedding chucks and wander around in them, because they are just so awesome. But I will be a good boy and keep them spotless until the big day.

Hrrm.

2009-03-30T02:05:07Z

Got hailed on today. That was...odd.

Bones

2009-03-13T00:15:55Z

"I think it shows a real lack of humanity to push a monkey. No wonder somebody killed him."

Hahahahahaha.

And ha.

Hershey Kisses

2009-03-11T20:45:45Z

I'm looking for Hershey Kisses in various colors (pink, mostly, but I'm looking for all possibilities) and most wedding favors seem to be...a sticker with your name on it stuck on the bottom of a silver-colored kiss. I find this to be a bit lacking, for wont of a better term. Anybody know where I can get Hershey Kisses with different colored wrappers? In bulk, hopefully...

Potstickers

2009-03-02T03:28:16Z

Amanda and I went to Potstickers for Valentine's Day and I meant to write about it then, while it was still fresh in my mind. Oops.

Potstickers is an asian grill and sushi bar that has one of the most poorly designed parking lots I have ever seen. The lanes are much too small for a parking lot with three restaurants and various other stores located in it, and the exit back onto the road is not where you would expect. Shame on whatever mental patient designed that, but the restaurant certainly can't be held at fault for it.

The atmosphere in Potstickers is much like what one would expect. The Asian themes are obvious, as you're greeted by a fish tank and fountain as soon as you enter the restaurant, and the walls are covered with Asian statues and landscapes. It's very nice, although the addition of a large LCD TV above the bar is distracting. We also expected people to be a little more dressed up, but we were only one of a handful of couples who apparently put effort into what we wore. I'm not really a clothes snob by any means, but I do happen to think if you're in a restaurant where the drink list is 3 pages long and you're almost dropping a benjamin on a dinner for two, you should leave the baseball cap at home.

We stared off with the Potsticker Sampler, which netted us several potstickers stuffed with veggies, shrimp, chicken, and pork. While they were all very good, the texture was much slicker than I had imagined them would be, and I didn't particularly care for that.

For our meals, I had the Sichuan Seafood Medley, which was lobster, shrimp, scallops, vegetables, and tons of water chestnuts in a slightly spicy sauce. The bowl in came in was very imaginative, but very impractical. I don't have a good way to describe it, except maybe to say it had flared edges and it just didn't work well. The lobster wasn't as good as hoped, but the shrimp and scallops were delicious and I could eat water chestnuts all day. It was nowhere near as spicy as expected, but every once in a while I would get a little kick that was appreciated. Amanda had the Duck Two Ways, which was duck breast with orange sauce and duck meat with ginger-soy sauce. They came with a stack of "pancakes" that she didn't end up eating, but she seemed to enjoy the meal a lot. I gave it a try, and while it was worlds better than the last duck I had (some random place in Chinatown in NYC), duck is not for me.

Our desert was mini donuts that came with ice cream and 3 sauces. The donuts were the Chinese type of donuts, which means donut balls, of course, which are very doughy and sugary. Chocolate, caramel, and butterscotch were the accompanying sauces and each of that added a very different flavor to the desert and they were excellent. The vanilla ice cream was rich and creamy.

I would definitely recommend Potstickers, although next time I may go for some sushi instead of the namesake.

Movies

2009-03-01T23:41:09Z

Amanda and I watched The Graduate last night and I have to say, I don't get what the big deal is. The whole thing is absurd, but it's not the type of over-the-top absurd that I can get into...Dustin Hoffman is a numbskull and a pushover and nothing in the movie makes a lick of sense. This is a movie where taking a girl to a stripclub on a first date is the type of problem that can be solved by kissing her. I am pretty confident that wouldn't, you know, work. And: "If you try to date my daughter, I am pretty sure I can have you arrested." In what universe does that make sense? And why would ANYONE want to pursue a romantic relationship with someone who slept with their own mother? The entire soundtrack seems to consist of the same 3 songs, repeated OVER AND OVER. This is a lot more I could go on and on about, but let's leave it at that.

We also watched American Psycho 2, which I was pretty sure wouldn't be good, and I was correct. I've seen a lot worse, and if any reference to Patrick Bateman had been removed, I probably would have liked it more. Call it College Kid Killer or whatever and it's just a bad movie, but calling it American Psycho 2 and shoehorning in a single scene and 3 references to Bateman that honestly have no reflection on the plot just angries up the blood. It completely misses the point, in that the first movie was about a guy who killed people because he couldn't help it, and this movie is about a college girl who kills with a very specific goal in mind. Additionally, if the movie is called American Psycho, having the main character's shrink constantly refer to her as a sociopath seems a tad counterproductive. Shatner was kind of fun, tho.

Clothing Donations

2009-02-19T20:15:12Z

Why is it so hard to find a list online that tells me where clothing drop-off boxes are located in my area?

Ringtone Creator

2009-02-10T01:17:19Z

Anybody use any of the ringtone creators on Facebook? If so, do you know of any that are semi-decent?

baQa'

2009-02-04T15:14:14Z

This is one of the most unusual attempts to rob a 7-11 that I've ever heard of.

And I googled that expletive in the subject line...the only language besides English that I have even a rudimentary grasp on is Spanish, so Klingon is way beyond my limits...

Metallica

2009-02-04T14:55:42Z

I was just telling Andrew the other day how I certainly would have liked to play Death Magnetic on Guitar Hero, but playing on a PS2 with no hard drive/connection meant I could not download the content, and this was pretty crappy. So this news pleases me greatly.

But if I am forced to play through Orion to get to a decent song, so help me, the profanity I spew forth will shatter ear drums and make children weep.

Oh, Gordon...

2009-02-02T23:29:43Z

Gordon Ramsey, watching a chef stuff a chicken breast in a less than gentle fashion: "Make love to it, don't [bleep] it."

That's...something you don't normally hear about chicken breasts.

Hoorahs

2009-02-02T04:29:40Z

Haven't posted in a while, so here's a (very) brief update:

Got a best man and a groomsman.

Got a dvd burner to transfer about 160 wrestling tapes onto dvd.

Had chili two days in a row, and neither was the traditional kind.

That is all.

Moe's

2009-01-28T17:46:51Z

As an addendum to the previous post: The taco combo at Moe's is $7.50. If you wanted steak as your choice of meat, it would be more expensive.

Uncle Moe: you have made a powerful enemy this day.

Pet Peeve

2009-01-28T16:46:05Z

If you are a restaurant, and you have your menu online, what is the point of posting a menu without prices? I can understand (maybe) if you are a high-end steakhouse and you don't want to advertise that a meal for 2 is going to run more than a hundred bucks, but if you're bloody Friendly's or Moe's, why won't you tell me a taco combo is $5?

If I have $7 in my wallet, and am not going to drive to the ATM in snow and ice, it sure would be nice to know that the Friendly's burger I am looking at is less than $7. Since I have NO CLUE what the price is, Friendly's loses. I also have NO CLUE what Moe's prices are, but they win by default since they are the only other real place within walking distance that I know will feed me for less than $7. At this moment, if there was any other place within walking distance (I am not crossing Naaman's Rd in this crap) and that cost less than $7 (Red Robin is walkable, AND they have prices online, but their burgers are all $9+), I would go there simply out of spite.

Prices. On menus available to the public. SIMPLE.

Yertle = Hitler?

2009-01-28T14:27:27Z

Meant to post this last week, but got side-tracked (don't act so surprised).

10 Stories Behind Dr. Suess Stories

Car Insurance

2009-01-22T01:59:29Z

If I raise my deductible from $500 to $1000, I can save about $140 a year. It sounds very tempting...I am sure I could use that extra money for something. Like, oh, I don't know, bills once I'm married.

Decisions, decisions...

Odd thing of the day

2009-01-19T16:25:09Z

Family Cutz: a barber shop and bail bond place, all in one!

I am not making this up.

Reason 43C

2009-01-19T04:13:22Z

...why I love Amanda:

She'll call me when she is going to bed to let me know that her static electricity-generating blanket is creating sparks in the dark. Because she knows how AWESOME I will think that is.

Uninspiring...

2009-01-16T04:53:11Z

So uninspiring that it took me a while to post it...

The sign previously read: "Is Taco Bell a phone company?"

Riiiiight.