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This guy named Eddie came in yesterday. After ordering a drink, he asked if we roasted our own beans. Chloé and I told him that we buy our beans from Messenger, a roaster in downtown KC. When he said “this coffee is really good! Do you mind if I take a few pictures?” We said “sure!” Then I asked “do you mind if I take a picture of you while you take pictures?” He said, “sure!”

this week the west wing weekly podcast talked about presidental m&m’s that are given away as souvenirs at the white house– then they revealed that before 1988 there used to be white house souvenir cigarettes. yep. here’s the info on wikipedia: “under President Kennedy, guests and members of the press who traveled on Air Force One were given packs of 20 cigarettes in a box marked with the Presidential Seal and the signature of the sitting President, along with a matchbook; it became a tradition that all guests on Air Force One would receive a souvenir of their trip.” the m&m’s replaced cigarettes as the standard gift given to white house visitors and air force one passengers… and the boxes are about the size of a packet of cigarettes.thanks to addiction inbox and wikipedia for the photos. click here to see a pack of white house cigarettes from the reagan administration.

dave harris gave me the heads up on this new precious moments figurine collection. it’s the perfect gift that reflects the criminal, the basket case, the athlete, the princess, and the brain that’s inside every one of us. merry christmas grandma!

“be all that you can be” is playing in an army commercial that bill murray is watching in the opening scenes of stripes. a few minutes later there is a movie score that elmer bernstein created for bill murray’s character, john winger. it’s even listed on the original soundtrack as winger. i saw the movie when it came out in the early 1980′s. a couple of weeks ago i finally figured out how to play this little tune. thanks to imdb for the photo.

the kids were getting carried away at arkadia retrocade last saturday. the vintage 80′s arcade in fayetteville, arkansas draws in thrill seekers of all ages, not just middle aged nerds like myself. as i was  playing rastan (a game that looks like conan the barbarian), i heard a preteen boy exclaim I AM JESUS! because his air hockey skills were so divine.

i got the high score on spy hunter at 1984 last saturday. who am i kidding? i got the top 5 scores on that game despite the fact the steering wheel kept pulling to the left! spy hunter is a driving game where you can acquire oil slicks & smoke screens to disable enemy cars behind you, and you can shoot heat seeking missiles at helicopters above you!

last weekend i spent a combined time of 8 hours in two arcades. friday i was at arkadia retrocade in fayetteville, ar. saturday i was at 1984 in springfield, mo. when i wasn’t playing space invaders & congo bongo, i was hanging out with family and friends. the pic below is near avilla, mo. where i helped michael and michele get their cows across the road from one pasture to another. when i asked michele what we were doing, she answered “pushing up cows.”

friday night we went exploring and heard like a tiger at the rino, a coffee and cocktail bar in north kansas city. like a tiger were one of the opening bands for unwed sailor, an ambient drone group from oklahoma. we didn’t stay for the headliner, but we got to hear some cool instrumental rock as we sipped on our cocktails… just another sleepy night in the city.

last sunday morning i was practicing church music with the enduros. tanner was on drums, and josh was playing bass. josh was noodling around on a cool riff, and he asked tanner and i to join in. it turned into this. i tell you these young turks are fearless.

i was almost asleep when the cat woke me up. my cat doesn’t wake me up when there’s danger. he’s not a dog. he wakes me up because he’s bored. after a failed attempt at going back to sleep, i looked up some old xanga blog entries that tom geeding and i made 14 years ago. our online names were carlo and skeeter. i was carlo. here’s one from april 29, 2005:
The lilacs spoke my name as the sidewalk yawned, suddenly there were gas-powered hot wheels coming out of the grass blades. “Could there be a dealership down there? Who taught those ants to drive? I didn’t think Volkswagens could get any smaller.” These were just a few random thoughts that passed as I realized that my lawn needed mowing.
- Carlo
Man, I’ve seen your lawn…it could have been Teamsters and a Mack Truck. Break down and buy a Toro or something.
- Skeeter