Thanks again, I hope everything went well.

Having just seen Avatar at the dome on a recent visit home, I have to say that it makes me a little sad that you can't really see the beauty of the giant white turtle anymore.

Castle golf on Sepulveda, right? It really was better. (And even better before they colored the fountains blue.) God, I died a little when they put in the batting cages. Still, I remember going there with my Dad on Sunday mornings after breakfast at IHOP and playing the original space invaders with him. (And I thought the place with the concrete waterslide was in North Hollywood and Northridge had the nice fiberglass one, but maybe I'm just old and confused. Definitely old.)

Now my brain is wandering through a spinoff storyline where researchers extract the DNA from the frozen Wesley Crusher and create a herd of WesleyCrushersaurs (which in my minds eye, are actually more like malformed zombies) that take over an island theme park. And of course, a search and rescue party eventually arrives and gets killed off one by one. It's just me, isn't it?

Now my brain is wandering through a spinoff storyline where researchers extract the DNA from the frozen Wesley Crusher and create a herd of WesleyCrushersaurs (which in my minds eye, are actually more like malformed zombies) that take over an island theme park. And of course, a search and rescue party eventually arrives and gets killed off one by one. It's just me, isn't it?

Hey Wil, Sorry to hear that a bunch of other people ruined the experience for you. As a counterpoint, I'll just mention that I saw X at the Metro in Chicago a couple of months ago, and while the age demographics were probably about the same, (average age prolly mid-40s) I have no recollection of any inconsiderate douchebags. Not sure if it's a comment on the audience (aging punk-rockers vs. aging new-wavers), bands (X does tend to rock out slightly harder than Elvis or the Police) or venue (small/SRO vs. large/assigned seats).

Hey Wil, Sorry to hear that a bunch of other people ruined the experience for you. As a counterpoint, I'll just mention that I saw X at the Metro in Chicago a couple of months ago, and while the age demographics were probably about the same, (average age prolly mid-40s) I have no recollection of any inconsiderate douchebags. Not sure if it's a comment on the audience (aging punk-rockers vs. aging new-wavers), bands (X does tend to rock out slightly harder than Elvis or the Police) or venue (small/SRO vs. large/assigned seats).

Thank you, Wil. I am now happily reliving my high school years (despite sitting, at this moment, typing away in a stark gray cube in New England). I just about blew my load when I heard Oingo Boingo's "Goodbye, goodbye" just now. Yay, interwebs!

Thank you, Wil. I am now happily reliving my high school years (despite sitting, at this moment, typing away in a stark gray cube in New England). I just about blew my load when I heard Oingo Boingo's "Goodbye, goodbye" just now. Yay, interwebs!

My solution to the hard-butter-on-soft-bread problem is to melt the butter in the pan first and then basically mop it up with the two slices of bread. Then place the cheese on the bread until melty and then put the slices together. I'm also a fan of the dijon mustard, although I put it in the sandwich. In fact, if you're ever up in New England, my personal vote for the best sandwich ever is at this diner in Portsmouth, NH called the Friendly Toast. They have a sandwich called the "Mr. Haegar" which is a grilled cheese made with dijon mustard, horseradish sauce, cheddar cheese, pickles and tomatoes on two thick slices of homemade bread. Yum.

My solution to the hard-butter-on-soft-bread problem is to melt the butter in the pan first and then basically mop it up with the two slices of bread. Then place the cheese on the bread until melty and then put the slices together. I'm also a fan of the dijon mustard, although I put it in the sandwich. In fact, if you're ever up in New England, my personal vote for the best sandwich ever is at this diner in Portsmouth, NH called the Friendly Toast. They have a sandwich called the "Mr. Haegar" which is a grilled cheese made with dijon mustard, horseradish sauce, cheddar cheese, pickles and tomatoes on two thick slices of homemade bread. Yum.