My So Called Life

The Bongo Room

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Over the weekend we found yet another amazing breakfast place, the Bongo Room. We knew about this place and had wanted to try it out for some time, so we finally gave it a go. The thing is, it’s just around the corner from our other favorite breakfast place, Yolk. The first time we just sort of flipped a coin between the two and ended up going to Yolk. It was so good, we never really had a reason to look for another place.

So you can’t help comparing the two places. The thing is, it turns out it’s not really as much of a head to head competition as you might have expected.  Although they both serve breakfast, Yolk has more choices in the savory department (like egg-based things) and the Bongo Room has more choices in the cake-y department (like pancakes).

The things that we had at the Bongo Room certainly were amazing. Sara had an apple French toast with crushed up ginger snaps on top. I had red velvet pancakes with a white chocolate sauce. It was basically like eating a cake for breakfast! The interesting thing was that 3 of us independently made the comment that, although our food looked really decadent, it wasn’t too sweet. That is, it was plenty sweet, but not to where you were thinking, “I can’t eat all of this” (although it should be noted that I could not, in fact, eat all of it). There were also plenty of choices that looked good that I wasn’t able to order, so future visits should not be a problem.

The Bongo Room is much smaller, with nowhere really to wait. I imagine it could be hard to get in at times. We’ve had to wait for awhile at Yolk, but it is a huge place, with plenty of waiting room.

So, at the end of the day, I highly recommend either place. I guarantee you will not be disappointed! As to deciding between the two, it would depend on what you are in the mood for. For savory, I’d still go with Yolk, but for sweet, choose the Bongo Room.

Snuggie

/ Shane / 2 Comments

For Christmas, I got a snuggie. This is something I would never buy for myself, but when I got one, I was kind of excited.

For those not in the know, a snuggie is something sold in late night infomercials that combines a blanket and a shirt. Basically, it is a blanket with sleeves.

The height of fashion AND comfort!

I have to tell you, it doesn’t seem like much, but it is better than I could have imagined.

You don’t think about how often you need your arms when you’re in a blanket. Normally, you probably just pop your arms out and do something and then go back. Or, maybe you just have the blanket over your back, not over your front. But if you could keep your arms in, it would obviously be better.

Sometimes the best inventions are the little things. Also, I should point out that this blanket happens to be Nala colored, so cat hair is not a problem.

So if you come to my house, expect to see me imperiously strutting around in my tan-colored robe, smug as smug could be.

More Search Terms

/ Shane / 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, I am endlessly fascinated by some of the things that people google which result in them landing on my blog. So here are some of the highlights. These are broken down into a few categories of amusement, 1) what the heck was that person searching for, 2) how did that search land on my blog, 3) I don’t know why someone was searching for that, but amazingly, I have a blog post for them!

What the heck was that person searching for?

  • ‘tactical mayonnaise’ – Lunch tactics? Or war tactics?
  • ‘resplendent start with the dead’ – I don’t know what that means, but I’ve had that one no less than 4 times!
  • ‘pull out fingernails’ – Yeesh. No thank you!
  • ‘human zombie cat’ – Yeesh! NO THANK YOU! Stitch together your sick creations on someone else’s blog thank-you-very-much. I have enough trouble with a living, non-human-hybrid cat.
  • ‘jelly fish hunting fighting boats’ – What could that even mean? It conjures images of sea battles with giant mutant jelly fish.

How did that search land on my blog?

These are usually things that I don’t believe I’ve ever talked about, but I do in fact agree with or support. So it’s like Google detected that these people think like me and led them to my blog, despite me never mentioning anything of the sort.

  • ‘are “two question” marks aggressive’ – I don’t know how they found me, but for any future searches on this topic: Yes. Yes they are.
  • ‘awesome cat’ – Okay, I had a couple of hits on this one, but I’m not sure how those found me. I have the opposite. But I did get a hit on ‘nusiance cats’, so that one I understand.
  • ‘what do zombie pirates say?’ – I really don’t know. But I kind of feel like, if anybody should know, I should know, right?
  • ‘where there be pirates’ – Was this a search by an actual pirate?!
  • ‘i grit my teeth when i pet my cat’ – My favorite, hands down. It describes my position exactly. I don’t think I ever said that on my blog though, so how did they end up here?

I don’t know why someone was searching for that, but amazingly, I have a blog post for them!

  • ‘big headed chiquita bananas’ – Lead to this post, in which I mention the chiquita banana lady, but not the size of her head.
  • ‘bacon evie’ – Now those are good search terms for finding me! I get a lot of ‘erith1 is this thing on?’ searches, but those are more obvious. What if ‘bacon evie’ was looking for someone else?
  • ‘litter box in bathroom curtain AND cat peed on curtains why’ – I soo feel for the desperation of the person searching for this. Now, my cat didn’t pee on my curtains, but my story did involve both cat pee and a curtain. So I wasn’t too far off.
  • ‘picklerita’ – Wow, I actually had a good post for them! There can’t be that many picklerita posts out there.
  • ‘she toot on me’ – ::sigh:: but I did get a ‘toot hole’ search, so maybe the phrase is catching on!

Bacon Soap

/ Shane / 1 Comment

For Christmas, I got my brother an extra special gift, that only he could truly appreciate. I had soap custom-made to smell like bacon. And further more, this wasn’t just any old soap, but special oatmeal goat’s milk honey soap to help with dry skin.

It was pretty awesome, when I got the package in the mail, you could smell the bacon-smell rolling off of it. I don’t know if he’s tried them yet or not, maybe he can answer in the comments.

So anyway, if you need any custom-made soaps or body products, especially those that smell like bacon, you can check out the Natural Soap Shanty. I can vouch for both the products and the owner! 🙂 (She’s Sara’s cousin, but more importantly, she’s both a reader and commenter on this blog!)

New Board Games

/ Shane / 7 Comments

For Christmas and my birthday, I received a few new board games, some of which I asked for, and some of which I had never heard of. By and large, these games were amazing, and have really brought on a renaissance of game playing in our house. So, in no particular order (other than the order I received them in):

Ticket to Ride (Europe)

This is probably the most universally liked of the new games. Basically, you draw destination cards, and you must build trains linking those destinations (although obviously it’s a little more complicated than that). Although you play with several people, you’re not competing directly with them per say, although sometimes people build on a route you’d like to build on. It makes you think, but just enough; it’s not nearly as thinking-intensive as, say, Acquire. This also works really well as a 2 person game, which is something Sara and I are always looking for. I don’t think anybody who has played this one doesn’t like it. The downside is that games can be long, especially with a lot of people.

Palazzo

In this game, each player tries to build the biggest, most beautiful Italian palace. What makes this game interesting is that the bricks for the buildings are usually auctioned off to the highest bidder. So you are directly competing with the other players, free market style. This game has been pretty popular as well. I personally prefer Ticket to Ride, but I think at least 2 people prefer Palazzo. The other nice thing is that games are always pretty short. Sometimes you just have time for a quick game, and if so, this one’s for you.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot

Okay, I loved this game, but some people have expressed a strong dislike for it (although, I should point out that those people did not actually play the game). Basically, the point of the game is to try to keep your bunnies alive, while killing all of your opponents bunnies with things like flame throwers, black holes, and flying razor spatulas. I once killed two bunnies by having a clumsy bunny of mine open a pack of razor sharp melba toast, sending them flying. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to purchase your magic carrots. This game is hilarious and silly and a lot of fun, though maybe confusing on the surface. This game is also better with more people playing. I’ll be looking for people to play this with.

The Settlers of Catan

This is the only game I haven’t had a chance to play yet, but it is the game I am most excited about. Unfortunately you cannot play it with only 2 players. I found some various rules online that can allow you to play with only 2, but we figured we shouldn’t do that for the first time we play. So I’m still waiting. I have, however, read through the rules, so I think I have an understanding of things. Basically you build towns in strategic areas to collect resources to build more things. That probably doesn’t make sense, but suffice it to say, it is a strategy game that I think will require a lot of thinking. I wanted to hold off on this blog post until I could play this one, but it doesn’t look like it is happening any time soon.

One side story, my mom saw this box and mistakenly thought it said, “Settlers of Satan”, which I think sounds like a WAAAAY more awesome game that I should totally make. The box cover could look almost the same, with a few subtle modifications (that scythe could look a little more grim-reaper-y, maybe give the guy with the ax some glowing red eyes…). So anyway, look for the Settlers of Satan, coming soon to a gaming store near you!