Two local restaurants (Paesano’s and Paragary’s) just scrapped two of their outlets (Hukilau and Icon) for the increasingly popular counter service restaurant with Pronto and a new Cafe Bernardo (not to cause confusion with the midtown branch, this one’s been labeled R15, for its cross streets).
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Shiver me timbers
Talked like a pirate today
AAARRRGGGGHHHHH (A real pirate would make that five sylaballes)!!

Just wanted to let everyone know since it would explain why I saw a man wearing a pirate hat and eye patch in Capitol Park!!!

The UA Market Square at Arden Fair is running the classic Clerks this Thursday at 10:00pm.

I know these showings are sponsored by a local radio station - and Clerks is part of a series - but while I swear the sign said “KSFM” but I can’t find a thing on the website.

Either way - it’s a great movie and I imagine seeing it on the big screen in all its grainy glory is a treat. Go check it out.

We’re a bit of a one-company town here. It’s easy to avoid it if you want to, of course, but you can’t deny that there are a large number of legislative staff and assorted state employees. And while I’ve heard that IBM men counted on the wife to have an evening martini shaken and ready for a home-based happy hour, here in Sacramento, we pursue such refreshments elsewhere. Like bars.

You can’t just go into a bar unarmed, though. You gotta have a card. Within the Capitol, there’s a certain coded language within the 3×5 or so confines of recycled paper. Start with that, for instance. Some offices have “recycled” stamped on the back. Some have gold seals, others just blue seals. Some have countless offices worth of information, others a simple, name, rank, and email. Some even are embossed with braille translations.

Cue that scene in American Psycho where one’s worth is instantaneously determined by the silent cues of weight, font, and shade.

But what if you don’t have a card? Or have one you can’t use for the purpose you have in mind?

Enter Moo Mini-cards - the half-size card for full-sized personalities that just need to convey more than “Senate gunner” or “suave solicitor.” If you follow these things then - we’re going from business cards to bluetoothing vital stats and blackberrying our interest across the clouded bar and now back to business cards, but less so. And more so. Or maybe not so. Only time will tell.

A friend once rolled her eyes at a guy who gave his business card as a way to pass on his contact information (I know). But writing on a bar napkin seems a bit of a gamble - why not something more personal and more of a conversation piece? Or would you assume “player” and exit the game?

This morning I heard on the radio the striking county workers will be going back to work. Mix96 mentioned that 150,000 homes were affected by the garbage strike. I wonder if the strike actually affected the way any of those 150,000 households process their garbage? Think about it. We are a nation of consumers. The average household can fill up a garbage can pretty quickly with packaging. And if there’s a baby in the house…let’s not even discuss the prospective piles of dirty diapers.

Ever wonder where all that waste goes?

I’m hoping that at least one of those households realized how much they waste, how much they toss out in any given week. Maybe they even considered recycling some of it. I hope so. I also hope the garbage collectors, whoever they may be, are more valued now that they’re back on the job. A good way to value what you have is to live without it for awhile. This is true about garbage collection, about hot water, about just about anything. (Ask our friends in New Orleans.)

Blessed be the garbage collectors, for they help us not to live in the piles of our own refuse.

Ever play SIMS2? It’s a fun game, and my personal goal is to create and populate my own town with folks who all “know” each other–no computer “strangers.” It’s kind of like a microcosmic Sacramento, but you get to pick your characters, and their “genetics” are passed down to their children. (So if you only wanted red-heads in your town, you can do that.) If you’ve played the game and all the expansion packs, you know it eats RAM on your PC like nobody’s business. My PC had a little performance problem with the game–the more people in my town, the slower it got. So, in order to keep Mom happy, the whole family went on a shopping excursion this weekend for more memory. (Too bad they don’t sell it for us humans…I’d like a couple Gigabytes with that Latte, please.)
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If you’re around this Saturday, come out to the South Natomas Community Center (on Truxel Ave.) and Celebrate Natomas! The fun starts at noon and there will be booths, food, entertainment, and fun activities for the lttle ones. There will be concert in the evening and (bands Bucho and The Brody’s will be performing) and fireworks! The rumor is that there is a beer and margarita garden!!!!

The other day I heard a particularly enticing new ad on the radio. Basically, it was just a guy reading a menu, but boy did that menu sound good. Smothered chicken, okra, mashed potatoes. Corn bread, gumbo. It’s for a locally owned restaurant (not a chain), and if you like southern cooking–or haven’t tried it, you might want to give The Cobbler Restaurant and Club Jazz a look-see. Not only do they have a great menu, they do jazz too. I’m going to have to put my low fat low carb diet to the side and check this place out, at least once. And if it’s really good, I’ll have to check it out again. It’ll be in the name of research. Just how good is that gumbo, that jazz? And I’ll be supporting a neighborhood business. A two-fer. Everybody wins. And I get my fried okra too.

You may know the guy by those irritating ads where the child is telling you to go buy a car from his dad’s dealership. I understand getting the kids involved, but come on. There’s gotta be a better way. And there probably is, and you can’t blame guy for trying to make it work. Now he’s got an idea for a Fresh Air mall at Florin and Franklin in South Sacramento.

Well, I read the Bee article about the new mall they’re working on over by Paul Blanco’s Chevrolet dealership with interest. (Why did they call it a mall, anyway?)
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The Governator will be signing a bill today prohibiting cell phone usage behind the wheel without a hands free device. It’s about time. I only wish they’d sign a cheeseburger-eating bill and a mascara-makeup prohibition bill as well. Sometimes you just gotta legislate the duh out of dumb, unsafe activities people do. Now we just need more cops to write the tickets, and then if people have to pay, they’ll be less inclined to “play”–