Brodeur is Back!!!!!!!

Old Time Solves

I've now beaten Mega Man, Mega Man 2, and Mega Man 3 on the Wii Virtual Console. Too bad Mega Man 4 isn't available yet. I guess it will be time for Mega Man 9 soon. :-)

The Idiot Lady and My Near Death Experience

Nearly died this morning, though that's not unusual in the age of idiot drivers. :-)

So, I commute to work via bus and train. The first leg of my trip is walking from my house to the bus stop across from King Soopers on Ken Caryl. I get to the corner of Ken Caryl and Simms and hit the button to cross. I cross the same way every morning, so I know that when the cars on Simms (going southbound) get the left turning signal, I can start across the street because the cars on Ken Caryl (going westbound) have a red light. You see, so they don't hot the cars turning left, right?

Not so much today.

So, I start walking and take my usual glance to make sure the cars stop. I tend to read while I walk and this morning I just started "Ender's Game," which is a really good book, by the way. :-) I see an SUV in the left lane coming, and go back to my book. A second later, I sense the SUV is not stopping and look up and, sure enough, the lady is going pretty darn fast and I *know* she has a red light even though I didn't stop to look.

So, what do you do in that situation? What does your instinct say?

My instinct said "Turn around and RUN!" And so I did! I turned and ran as fast as possible back to the corner and behind the telephone pole to avoid any debris from the accident which hadn't happened yet. I think the instinct came from my wife's accident years ago...she got hit by a car that had hit another car and pinballed into her while stopped at the corner. So, I know it can happen.

Just as I was getting back to the corner, I hear the screech (oh oh) and then WHAM!! Sure enough, she did hit somebody. It was another lady, and it looked like she knocked her head a bit, too, cause she was holding it when she got out of the car.

I tried to get tot he middle of the intersection to see if everone was OK, but cars were already driving around them and I couldn't get there. (The middle of an intersection was not made to walk to...who knew? Fortunately, a few people who were behind the woman had gotten out to help. Everyone was OK, but the lady who went through the red light is SCREWED.

So, for my wife who always tells me to stop reading while I walk, I say this: "SEE?? I DO PAY ATTENTION!!" ;-)

As for that idiot lady in the SUV...not so much.

Update: It should be pointed out I was ont he corner where the red light was, so I was between that SUV and the intersection where the woman got hit, so I wouldn't have been shielded by the accident, though perhaps that would have been more dangerous if the SUV careened.

I've Finally Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

1,009 pages later, I am no longer in the dark about the LOTR trilogy. It took 32 years to get there. :-)

How would I review it. It was OK. Really, an overrated series. I'd rate Harry Potter as a better series, Bartimaeus Trilogy BY FAR a better series...and if you like LOTR, you should totally read Eragon.

But, the books were good, and since there's very little in the way of "mystery" in the books, the movies translate very well. So, I'm looking forward to finally seeing Return of the King now.

Of the three books, Return of the King was probably my favorite. With all books being one big book combined, you end up getting one entire book of climax. I read the final 120 pages yesterday as I was too caught up in things. However, the last 50-70 some odd pages coming after the climax was a bit annoying. Ruffians? What the heck, man? Also, Tolkien inserts several appendicies worth of background info on Middle-Earth.

Seriously...can you say skip it? I did.

For hard-core fantasy fiction readers who really like to feel like the story is real, though, Tokien did something amazing. It's so historically specific, you almost forget what you're reading isn't real. However, if you're not that kind of reader, the books are about twice as long as they need to be. To each his own.

But, now I'm done! It took about 6 weeks to read The Hobbit and all three LOTR ring books. Done!

The Worst Dinner Out Ever and Cedric Meets Cedric

OK, so every Friday night Michele and I go out for dinner. It's a tradition we started several years ago, and Cedric has done nothing to change it. :-)

This past Friday night, Michele and I, though, had the single worst night out ever. Oh, we've had some bad food (I'm looking at you T.G.I. Friday's), but this was different.

The evening starts out with Michele picking me up at work downtown. She'd gone to the zoo with Cedric and so was nearby. Yippee! No Light Rail needed!

I jump behind the driver's seat and we head off to Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeesecake Factory at the Park Meadows Mall. Yummm! Well, first, some dude nearly hits me when we turned into the same lane at the same time. The Honda has never been so close to imperfection, but after a stressful and trafficy drive all the way south, we were at our favorite restaurant.

We wait around for about 10 minutes, with an edgy Cedric, for the table. We hear a weird noise, but not sure what it is. The waitress comes by and says her usual and then says, "Excuse the noise, but the power is out and we're running on a generator." Oh. Weird. Yeah, so the droning noise is a generator. Uh...OK?

We get some bread (and oh baby it's good) and eventually order. After a while, the waitress comes by and says, "I've just been told that the kitchen is closed. They can't run the equipment. All we're serving is cold food - sandwiches, salads, etc."

NOOOOOOOOOO! I was literally (OK, not literally) *DYING* for the Factory Meatloaf. Uggg! OK, OK. Well, how bad could maybe a turkey sandwich be?

I shoulda thought better. Michele had already ordered a start salad and we'd scarfed bread. We had to stay, right? Well, we shoulda left.

The manager comes by and repeats what was said. Apparently, a transformer had blown outside and a witness reported what sounded like "a gunshot." OK, OK. Let's order the Turkey Club.

So, the waitress comes back and I say, "We'll each have the Turkey Club." Michele does her usual and orders hers with all the good stuff off: lettuce, tomato, cheese, bacon. SERIOUSLY, who asks for no bacon?

Michele does. :-P But, I get off track...

So, we're waiting for our new and less than optimal order when the lights suddenly grow dim and a couple of groans come from our right. Apparently, the LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT in the KITCHEN. The TV's went out and these weird emergency lights were trying to come on. They rotated in their cases on the ceiling but had some power trouble. The sound was scary. I was literally waiting for the lights to black out.

I was totally waiting for the waitress to come over and say ixnay on the club-ay, but never happened. Eventually, they brought the sandwich out. Wait? Just one? Yes, the waitress got the order wrong as well. They brought out ONE sandwich, without the stuff Michele didn't want -- but, randomly, TOMATO! Some weird hybrid of an order. Oh, and the bread wasn't toasted.

Yeah, and since I couldn't get fries, I had to get casesar salad. *sigh*

We decided it was just unappetizing enough that we'd just go ahead and have the one sandwich. It was huge, and who was interested in buying another $12 sandwich at this point? It was thoroughly unappetizing.

During the meal, the lights flickered some more and the emergency lights were going in an out. Everyone in the place was constantly looking at the ceiling, prolly with the same idea I had, "When is the ceiling gonna cave in?"

Ambulances and fire engines were showing up, too. What a crappy night. And to top it off, they did nothing to the check. Charged full price. Lame, Cheesecake Factory, LAME!

...

To make up for it, we went out to Toast Saturday morning, the great little breakfast eatery here in Littleton -- hey, we have something! Breakfast was excellent, but we had the most fun when we got the bill. Our waiter's name was Cedric. :-)

Michele told him and he got a kick out of it. They were quick pals. It helped that Cedric smiled at him the whole time, too. :-)