New Jersey: Yes, It Still Sucks

The power of NJ's evil is so great, that not even a giant Japanese supermarket could save it.

The HOchieS & Co. took an afternoon out to visit Mitsuwa - the much talked about Japanese Supermarket complete with a huge Japanese food court, bookstore, steak house and Japanese-centric accessories, toys and knick knacks.

The food court was alright.  I opted to go with a spicy miso ramen.  It was not bad and the pork was definitely a lot better than what I get at Sapporo.  It was melty (as they called it) i.e. fattier and just what pork should be when it is in some ramen in my opinion.

Sadly though, I will never be able to re-create a great bowl of ramen as I did at the Ramuen Museum in Tokyo.

The Supermarket proved to be quite the let down too.

I think the problem with it is that I could get most of the items from it at J-Mart and the Chinese grocery in Chinatown or WP, leaving me unimpressed.

We then headed next door to see if we could find some toys, presents, something... the store certainly had lots but felt fairly 'junky' but on top of it feeling 'junky', it did not have 'junky' prices.  It was expensive in there!

All in all, it was a pretty big fail but we should have known better.

NJ's joy in proving that it is Hell managed to route us in the direction of LOST.  Some may say it was the GPS' fault that we were lost and ended up in a trucker's service station but the evil magnetic field that Jersey's got effed up the GPS for sure.

Frass, in a somewhat related issue, I decided to call you as I usually do when I'm in your Hellish State and got your mother.

Why that woman hates me, I don't know but please let me know her response if she ever gives you my message that I called.

The D.C. Blog

Work is overrated but much more fun when you know that by 2 p.m. you'll be on a road trip with good friends!
Thanks for making work overrated stupid traffic - we didn't actually hit the road until 3.30 p.m. That extra hour and a half really killed it.

Being stuck in the car for 9 hours when the trip was supposed to be 4 hours is not good times. Can someone tell me if George Washington had as much trouble crossing the Delaware as we did? Delaware may need to be a part of the new Axis of Evil.

No one needs to tell me about New Jersey being hell, I already know because where else do you have people driving around in their cars with multi-coloured rollers in their heads?

At least we had interesting times watching and taking incriminating photos of sketch people driving while on their cellphones and doing recon missions on MC while he was on his cellphone. There were such classic lines as:

MC "You don't have time for me when I'm in Brooklyn..."
X, singing off to the side "All I need is the air that I breathe."

Finally at 11.30 we made it and even though we were cranky it was alright because what followed was fun save the part where more crankiness ensued the night after...and the day after that. Heh Heh...

After much laughing and HOchie 1 telling us that she could hear MC from her hotel room two doors down, we settled in and slept until morning, which brought me an awesome breakfast of a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. Now, it's only awesome because diners insist on screwing me over with their lack of bwwsawc.

Then came the walking. We walked all over D.C. and explored the monuments. It was there I had a few words with Lincoln, Slave Daddy. Aims was not impressed by my reasoning behind the title but Mitch and I know the real deal with the 16th President of the USA.

And it was there that the ducks had a few words with me or rather, showed me their asses. Man, I hate those bitchin' ass ducks.

We then took the shady metro to the Washington Zoo. The Metro is nothing like NY. The ticket system is shady. It's not simple like NY leaving me grounded in my belief that NY is still number 1 - yeah!!!

Before we could actually get to the zoo, we had to go up "The Escalator To Hell" or was it Heaven? Not sure but whatever it was, it took 2 minutes and 42 seconds to ride. Crazy!
The zoo was fun minus the double dose of annoying frickin' Behemoths. Grrrr.

Why did this happen though? What's up with animals in this place showing me their asses?!

But what was really hella awesome - my biatch Komodo Dragon. I don't know how smart the Komodo's keeper was because my ass wouldn't be in the enclosure trying to lure the Komodo in. Ah, he was a bitch though that KD; he ignored initial attempts at getting him in. "Am I interested? Meh. ::lumbered off::" That's what I do sometimes. We're kindred spirits.

At 5 p.m. we set off to see the cutest pandas eva'. Tian was being a Drama Queen. He flopped himself down on the floor all panting like as though it was the end of the world. Poor stupid panda. It was rather hot and humid though. Who can blame him?
Mei, the best lOOking panda eva' was tearing up bamboo like nobody's buisness, as expected. Bamboo was flying everywhere and all you could see was Mei's cute little head sticking out from a huge pile of the green stuff. It was awesome.

Finally, the main reason why we made this trip, the star of it all - Tai Shan became visbile to us. The little baby had his back to his viewing audience which prompted HOchie 1 to toss a mini hissy fit, scaring this dude next to her. But, due to clumsiness, Tai who had been munching on an apple, dropped said fruit and was forced to climb down his perch and then back up in all his cutie panda glory - ushering coos, squeals of delight and 'oooo's and ahhhh's' from all his fans.
The remainder of the evening was spent hanging out with TD5 and his family for good eats and good times.

That night back at the hotel was hilarious. X heard nothing and all I could make out was "It's MC" but apparently TD5 "porn slapped" MC which he claimed was really his getting up stupid in the middle of the night not knowing where he was and asking, "who dat?!" ::slap:: followed by MC's, "It's MC". Since it seemed they sorted themselves out I didn't bother to wake up completely.

The next morning was the most fun part of the weekend. HOchie 1, Luis and Aims set off for the American Indian Museum while MC, X and I made our way to the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian and African exhibits. Our pictures are hilarious. There are such memorable moments as "India vs. China in Japan", "Praying to the Sun God, Rah", "Red Ninja Ho of the Red Ninja Clan - D.C. Division" and "I don't know how to wrap iiittttt". We were infused with culture and had fun while doing it. Don't judge us!

The trip back home was long, once again thank you to NJ but not as bad as before. MC, X and I did get our asses handed to us though in round 3 of the Car Outburst Champeenship.

All in all it was fun.

Though, the question remains: was it really worth it being stuck in the car for 9 hours, a trip that was supposed to be about 4, to see that Panda?

A few general notes about Washington D.C.:

The signs are cool because this is EXACTLY how I run:



Everything is consolidated in D.C. There's the chinese food/fried chicken/seafood/crab/lobster eatery all in one on every corner. And these are right next to the lottery/liqour/pawn shop/spa shops. It's brilliant! They're on to something...

D.C. is FULL of Plague Carriers!!! ::shudder::

And don't mess with shady people in shady vans

Animal Story 1

Scientists: Sea Squirts Invading LI Sound


GROTON, Conn. -- A blob-like creature is invading Long Island Sound and posing a threat to its lobsters and other shellfish, University of Connecticut scientists say.

The researchers say they have found colonies of invasive sea squirts, blob-shaped animals that reproduce easily, on the floor of the sound.

They believe this variety of sea squirt, known as didemnum, arrived on the hulls of ships from Asia. They have no known predators.

"This thing has the potential for causing significant economic impact when it attaches to the floor of the Sound, where it blankets and suffocates shellfish and lobsters,'' said Ivar Babb, director of UConn's Undersea Research Center at Avery Point in Groton.

The animals range in color from a creamy translucent pearl to olive or tan. In Japan, there are some red species.

"This thing is ugly,'' Babb said. "It has no socially redeeming virtues.''

They cannot break the colonies apart, Babb said. Like sea stars that become damaged, they can grow replacement parts. Splitting one sea squirt in half doesn't kill it; it only creates two of the plankton-eating creatures.

If the scientists don't find bigger quantities of the blob-like creature, they might use chlorine or vinegar to kill it. First, however, they plan to study the effect those substances might have on other marine life native to the Sound.

Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

I lost the squirts!!!!! But here they are. All gathered in one area, blanketing one of the new axis of evil places. Good job, squirts. Good job!!!!

A few points about this story:

1. No known predators, you say? So...in my next life, my choices have expanded on what I would like to be - a crocodile, shark or sea squirt.

2. Oooo, being chopped into pieces only creates more of us! That's one awesome creature. And so what if the trade off is that it's one ugly beast? Whatever.

3. It's blanketing LI, people! Muwahahahaha. I knew that place was evil.

4. I don't like LI but I do like shellfish... well, can't have something for nothing, I guess. It's for the greater good.

5. There's a red species in Japan. I am not so not surprised.