farmer in the

Why do I blog about food so much? Simple. Eating is the only non-work related event that occurs during weekdays, period. So I ENJOY it. Enough said.

I'm trying to branch out. So yesterday I ate a 7:00 PM breakfast at Del Taco. Del Taco is a California chain but they have a handful of locations in other states, including 3 in the Portland metro. Their value meals uniquely pair french fries with traditional Mexican items, leading to a confusing yet oddly satisfying combination.

Taco
It's a hard taco in a really cheap shell. Unremarkable. But it's nostalgic for me; it reminds me of the days as a youth leader hanging out with the kids and shooting dumb/awesome videos (more on this later). Some days these go for 3 on the dollar, which makes them considerably more appealing.

Quesadilla
What do you expect? Cheap cheese in a big tortilla folded over. Just like you make at home for your boyfriend every night. That's right, I said it.

Fries
It's been a couple years (my visit last night was the first in a while), but if memory serves me correctly, they are heated-up Ore-Ida bag fries. And I just realized that the "Ore-" part is probably Oregon. Woo hoo, we are famous!

All that to say, I highly, highly recommend it.

this is your life

Post-insane-week freakout; I'm in go, go, gopher mode. Making myself extremely uneasy. I refreshed my to-do list though and realized, it's really not that bad this weekend, so I can calm down a little bit.

I keep writing and deleting. What is this all for?

welcome home

I landed without much fanfare and proceeded to Dollar rent-a-car. I always thought I hated Dollar, even before I ever dealt with them. Now I know that I hate them. Although to their credit, I was in and and out faster than any previous rental experience, they barely said anything to me before tossing me the keys to a Chrysler T&C mini-van that I didn't ask for. It looks approximately like poop and drives a lot worse than that.

They even had the nerve to ask me to bring it back the next morning so that they could take back the more expensive car and give me something cheaper. In nicer words I told them to get lost.

I was hungry. So I hopped onto the 805 and got off at Telegraph Canyon for none other than...

Closed?! What, it's only 11:30!

A quick iPhone search gave me directions to a second, also closed, Lolita's Taco Shop in Bonita. At least it was a nice drive.

It was clearly time for Plan B. I remembered something about Roberto's Taco Shop being a close substitute and punched that into the phone. Up popped a number of pins in downtown Chula Vista so off I went. Broadway and H - success!

But I could never prepare myself for what I was about to eat. Friends... this was the most rewarding meal I have ever eaten. I had high expectations, being the snobby ex-Southern-Californian I am, but I'll tell you, the taste was above and beyond any and all of that. Shockingly, shockingly wonderful.

I could even smell the white cheese (seemingly unfindable outside of San Diego!) reminding me of the early years eating tacos as the good pseudo-Mexican toddler that I was. It's such a disinctive smell. Really, I must recommend, if you are in San Diego please visit this place; you will be blown away.

Then on to Lestat's for a late night cup of coffee. Lestat's is a 24-hour coffee shop situated under the Normal Heights sign. With heavy heart I must admit that it thoroughly trounces anything we have in Portland; the people are great, the coffee is great, and it's actually open 24 hours a day. There was a time not long ago where the only reason I was able to finish part of a project was because this place was open and serving caffeine with a smile, so I owe them eternal gratitude of sorts.

As all great coffee shops are at any late hour, it was packed. I moved on quickly because there was nowhere to put my laptop and I had a lot of email to catch up on.

The more time I spend in San Diego the more I really, truly like it. For certain it's a place I could live. Maybe it's time to consider giving the Northwest a break and trying something old-new for a while.

travel

So first, I swiped my passport through the Alaska check-in machine and received an electric shock between the fingers. Then I thought it'd be really cool to try to get through the metal detector without removing anything from my person. Meanwhile the guy at the scanner thinks my iPhone + headphones wrapped around = bomb. And how many of those things does he see on an average day? Although one has to believe, they probably disregard so much in their checks on average that they probably would disregard a real bomb as an iPod. But actually, the TSA was actually remarkably nice to deal with this evening.

Thank goodness I got here two full hours early. It only took me 10 minutes to get through security, but now I've got an hour and fifty to drink my Drop Top. Neat! (Shame on me, it's my dinner. Nothing sounded good.)

If you are looking for luggage of any sort, JC Penney has everything 50% off right now.

cheesy gordita crunch

This one is for Kendall. If you love the Cheesy Gordita Crunch as much as she, you need to sign this petition.

Viva la Cheesy Gordita Crunch

No, they probably won't bring it back on account of 109 digital signatures from the web, but America wouldn't be so great if we didn't sign this on principal alone.

For the obsessed (myself not included), here is an article that might help you decide if you should give your support to this cause.

Associated Content review

One must not think of Taco Bell as Mexican, he or she must simply consider it Taco Bell.

The only unique problem with the Cheesy Gordita Crunch will be exposed if one does not like cheese.

CGC Ingestion Simulation video

Oh. Now I'm hungry.

undying words

For those of you who were complaining about not being able to write comments, I reconfigured so that you do not have to have a Google account. Enjoy. Let your words rain upon me.

It all gets me wondering... what of this blogging technology now? Are the stupid things we think aloud going to live eternally (well, in an earth sense) without our intervention? If I expire tomorrow, what will happen to the words I've posted into Blogger or LiveJournal? How long will they be available for public perusal?

Would I be happy with the written legacy I left behind?

Wait, wait...
would I be happy with the life legacy I left behind?

shorts

Mom sends me this email tonight.

Remember these shorts? :-) Be nice to me.....I could use this picture some day. Love, Mom

At expense of your eyes, I'll just disarm her right now.