Zel-kun’s Words

Literally, as I went on an Oblivion kick last week.  Zai finally pulled me away from it, being as she wanted to play, and my computer can run it as her laptop can not.  It’s usually not easy to pull me away from a computer game, but she bought me Two Worlds for the 360, with that explicit purpose in mind.

Such an evil genius sometimes.

Two Worlds is definitely fun.  Takes some getting used to, but once you do, it’s addicting.

Outside of that, I’ve been really busy at work, I’ve barely had time to think.  So I apologize for not updating.

When I do finally sign in… it’s nice to know I’ve been missed.

Julie:  Thanks for the comment on MySpace, first non-spam I’ve received in a long time.  And yay for the return of dancing Japanese clock girls!

Rodger: Updating the blog now, I swear!

So, excuses and explanations aside… what have I been up to….

Finally got a haircut on Saturday.  Most would think a simple thing like a haircut would be easy enough to get… but noooo…

I woke up early Saturday with the intention of driving to Schaumburg to get my haircut at a salon I knew there.  It was recommended by a co-worker, and they do good work for a good price.  They wait on you hand and foot, discuss one on one what should be done with the hair (because I sure as heck don’t have a clue, and if you left it up to me, I’d have a mullet or something) bring you ice water, and a hair-washing is included.  Costs about $30 for the whole thing.  More than what I would usually pay, but not too bad of a price for what you get.  Besides, I have long hair and it’s important that it’s done right.

So Zai and I headed out around 8:30am, which is very early for a Saturday, but I wanted to be back home before noon, before stores were too crowded or the day became too hot.  At about 9:30, we reached the salon and walked up.  Zai told the people at the front that we wanted haircuts.  Unfortunately they were booked for the day, so we headed back out in search of another place.  It is Schaumburg after all, there were five places to get haircuts right across the street…. at the mall.

*shiver*

The first place we stop is Mastercuts… which was closed even though it should have been open.  Seeing that, we trek all the way across the mall to Mario Tricocci…  I don’t know who this Mario guy is, but he can take his forty-one dollar haircut and shove it up his blow dryer.

We walked across the mall to another place I can’t remember, where we learned their stylists weren’t going to be in for three hours.  So we walk across the mall AGAIN to another place, who inform us their haircuts are thirty-five dollars for men (Seriously, I was willing to pay $30 for full-service… but this was basically a barber shop with a fancy name).  I grudgingly agree, and then they say that in three hours, they can do it.  So… we left.

On the way out (walking across the mall again), we passed Mastercuts again, and it was indeed open.  Their haircuts were fifteen dollars for men, and they could do it in ten minutes.  We had a winner.

I looked in the haircut book and saw something that I liked, a little shorter and a bit more professional, and something my wife, who LOVED my long hair and hated that I was cutting it, agreed on.  It wasn’t going to be too much shorter; a little off in back, a little in the front.  It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized they cut off way too much.  Oh well… hair grows back.

Zai decided to get her hair done and dyed, which meant I was pacing around Mastercuts for no less than three and a half hours.  It was boring, but we were out here now, so we might as well get it taken care of.  I left and went next door to a place called Yogen Fruz, which is Corporate-Yutzese for Frozen Yogurt (Much like Hagen Daas is Yutzese for Corporate Bully [As an aside to my aside, Hagen Daas tried to bully Ben n' Jerry's off the ice cream market, simply because they were part of Pillsbury and thought that they could intimidate stores with threats of refusing to sell to stores that sold Ben n' Jerry's.]).  It was very good.  Unlike frozen yogurt I’m used to, this actually tasted like frozen yogurt.  Usually, it tastes like ice cream, but I could taste the tartness of the yogurt.  They’ll either cover the yogurt with fresh fruit, or blend frozen fruit in it.  I had fresh raspberries on mine, and it was delicious.

My compliments to you, Yogen Fruz.  You made something good enough that I would actually consider braving a mall to have again.

At about three o’clock, Zai’s hair was done.  It looked great, she had her black hair streaked with bright red.  I look forward to next week, when the temporary color washes out and she dyes it turquoise.

After that, we went out for Indian food.  Zai and I have a love-hate relationship with Indian food.  She loves it, and I hate it.  I’ve had a couple dishes I like, but by and large most of it tastes like garbage to me.  The best chance I have at good Indian food is asking the recommendation of an Indian co-worker of mine (like I did last time when I had good Indian food).  I didn’t consult him, and we ended up going to Gaylord’s, a place about a block away from where I work.  We walked in and passed a makeshift buffet with Sterno-heated trays full of unrecognizable food.  When we took our seats, the waiter asked, “You come for buffet?”

“No,” I reply.  The waiter then walks off.  We sit there for several moments until another waiter comes by and asks us if we’re here for the buffet.

“No,” I say again, “Could we please have a couple of menus?”

The waiter walks off, and again we sit for a few minutes until yet another waiter comes up to us, “The kitchen is very busy, could you please have the buffet?”

Okay, fine, I’ll eat your stupid buffet.  I wasn’t very happy about being railroaded into ordering something I obviously didn’t want, and considered turning towards the exit on my way to the buffet, but I stayed.  I grabbed some Tandoori Chicken and some sort of noodle dish, I also got some cabbage dish and a potato-filled pastry.  The chicken was passable, and the noodles weren’t too bad, but the cabbage and potato thing were terrible.

On my second trip, I got some spinach dish and some sort of beans…. which again were inedible.  Finally, I decided I had enough bad food and tried the dessert, which was a too-sweet bread ball, a pink jello-like dish, and something that looked like rice pudding.  With the exclusion of the jello substance, which was passable, it was again inedible.

I drove home, and promptly heated up the leftovers from Famous Dave’s, brisket and sausage.  Delicious.  I had to cook the sausage twice because it rolled off my plate.  So I cleaned it off and re-cooked it to kill any germs it may have picked up.  Love the two-second rule.

Zel-kun out.