Breakaway

On the radio: the above by Kelly Clarkson. Though this song is incredibly overplayed, I cannot get enough of her song "Since You've Been Gone" and got the cd last weekend. It's actually really good. She's been the only American Idol so far whose CD I would actually buy, though I'm starting to love that "Baby Mama" song by Fantasia, mostly because it's called "Baby Mama" and features a section where she spells out "B-A-B-Y, M-A-M-A" in a "Diamonds and Pearls" style. In other music news, I heard a new Ludacris song yesterday, apparently called "The Potion," which features the chorus of this song I had to sing in choir in junior high: "Jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton, jump down turn around pick a bale of hay." I was quite shocked to hear this mix of choir song and Ludacris, but it worked. Country wise, I haven't heard anything of note lately, but I will never stop laughing at "Drugs or Jesus."

It's been a busy week and I didn't get a chance to update till today, but we've had some interesting stories as of late. Last Friday we went out for Melanie's birthday to Naperville, and it was a good time. I was especially excited to learn that Naperville is getting a Jamba Juice. As everything good seems to be moving down 59 towards Shorewood, I'm hoping we'll get one closer soon. I wish I had some wacky stories to share from the evening but Melanie had such a giant entourage that we didn't do a lot of outside mingling. We did get to "enjoy" the sight of a middle-aged couple sucking face at Jimmy's, and saw the most males under 6 feet that I've ever seen in a single space since junior high at Features.

Saturday night I went out to Naperville yet again, this time for a belated celebration of Angie's birthday. Birthdays are plentiful at this time of year. We began our night at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Downers Grove, which has really, really good quesadillas and an extremely extensive drink menu. Our drinks came with gummy cheeseburgers, always a nice touch. After dinner we went to Samba Room, where the people watching was pretty entertaining. Next to us we had Two Cell Phone Todd, who felt the need to speak extremely loudly on one of the aforementioned cellular devices about some exchanges of money. I don't know if he was trying to impress us, but none of the monetary amounts mentioned were especially large, so we were a bit puzzled. Also hanging at Samba Room was Swolley Stewie. Stewie dared enter the "cosmopolitan" Samba Room with a muscle shirt featuring armholes bigger than his head, but quickly pulled a sweatshirt over the swolley in order to keep female patrons from attacking his not so muscular physique. We heard Stewie fervently expressing his desire to dance, and he eventually left, stopping, of course, to play the bongos outside the bar. Later on in the evening we stopped at Features for a little while. As we walked through the extremely packed dancefloor (again, worst bar layout EVER!), we saw that Swolley Stewie had gotten his wish. The sweatshirt was off, the swolley was in full glory, and Stewie danced with abandon. Also plentiful at Features: girls with striped hair, random Joliet people (they're everywhere. Megan and I recently discussed that there is always a random Joliet person, no matter where you are), and, in the old part of Features, a lot of people that looked like chaperones. Though this wasn't the case the night before, on Saturday night, the old part of Features was playing very bad older music and "featured" a lot of patrons that looked to be the parents and/or chaperones of the people in the new room.

Wednesday night was Melanie's actual birthday, so we did a very speedy Joliet pub crawl. We began at Jameson's, then did a 3 minute trip to Ambrosia to use the bathroom, check out the nice couches and the fish tank (yes, it has fish now) and pick up menus. Ambrosia is all about the chicken: they feature wings, chunks, and fingers. Ambrosia also has something called "macaroni and cheese wedges" on the menu, which scared me a little. After Ambrosia we made a stop at Gippers. Melanie had never been to Gippers and was curious, and we had heard a while ago (actually about a year ago) that Gippers was good on Wednesdays, and decided to finally check it out. Maybe a year ago Gippers was good on Wednesdays, but this year it was more of a riff-raff crowd. Luckily we were able to avoid the near fight that broke up as we moved to the TV area to watch SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy, and Melanie enjoyed the birthday special of sitting on the bar and having liquor poured into her mouth. Remind me not to go there on my birthday. We ended the evening at Grapevine, where I had a brief Cubs discussion with fellow patrons (we agreed that we miss Moises Alou more than Sammy. Also, I miss Kenny Lofton), and I received a very strange line from the friend of an acquaintance: "I've seen you around a lot, but never with your hair like that." Note: my hair was down. Nothing unusual there, hadn't acquired a mohawk for the night or anything. Anyway, we had a great time, and got a few bars out of our system for a while.

Herald News. . .nothing too interesting lately, but I remembered something interesting from a while back that I forgot to post. This is an interesting one, and yet another reason for me to continue not going to buffets:

Man reports razor in rice

Joliet eatery: Patron chews on metal object

By Joe Hosey
STAFF WRITER
JOLIET — A local man said his start to what he hoped would be a lengthy buffet meal ended abruptly when he bit down on a razor blade hiding in a mouthful of Spanish rice Monday night.
"It was my first plate, too," said David Harmon, who ate at the Old Country Buffet on Plainfield Road.
"Usually I get about five plates," Harmon said. "My first plate, I get a razor blade. Usually I don't even chew."
It was fortunate for Harmon that he was chewing Monday night, as he emerged from the incident without discernible injury. He said he planned on getting his mouth examined today.
"Actually, I'm going to the dentist to get my tooth looked at," said Harmon, who works in hardwood flooring. "I've got to get it checked out, make sure no weirdo gave me hepatitis or anything."
Harmon was eating at Old Country Buffet with three other adults and two children when he discovered he had a razor blade in his mouth along with some Spanish rice. He informed the manager, who ordered all food taken off the buffet.
The food was sifted through, but no other foreign objects were found, said the manager, Terry Cleeland.
"You just don't know," said Cleeland, who has worked at Old Country Buffet for six years. "I've never seen anything like it before."
Cleeland refunded the cost of dinner to Harmon's entire party. He said he asked Harmon if his mouth was injured. Harmon told him it was not and left, he said. Harmon then returned and called police.
Harmon had become worried that the object had "hepatitis on it" and wondered "what if it was used for cocaine?" Cleeland said.Cleeland said the piece of metal, which he is not convinced was a razor blade, was clean. He did point out that the cleanliness of the object may have been due to it being in Harmon's mouth.
Police made a report on the incident.
"The police said this would be random," Cleeland said. "There's no way (someone) could have sought (Harmon) out directly."
The county health department was not involved in the incident, said agency spokesman Vic Reato.
"If a complaint was filed, we definitely would follow up on it," Reato said.
The health department would investigate whether the object ended up in the food as a result of problems with preparation, he said.
Harmon said he has eaten at Old Country Buffet before, but he is not a regular at the establishment.
"My girlfriend just talked me into going," he said of his dinner there Monday night.

Ew. I have been to OCB once in my life, and it was not pleasant. Isn't it slightly amusing that OCB sounds very much like OCD, yet a person with OCD wouldn't dare set foot in a restaurant that has sneeze guards? That's (hopefully not razor blade-laden) food for thought. That's all the news I have for now. Adios!