Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Our California Adventure

Last weekend, Berta and I went to Disneyland for our 8th anniversary.

It was just a weekend trip. We dropped the kids off with Mom on Friday night (after yet another late showing of the house), packed, then left for the airport around 6am on Saturday morning. We arrived in Los Angeles in the morning, and took an hour-long ride in a shuttle van to the Desert Palms hotel, which is on the same block as Disneyland.

Disneyland is weird. In our area, amusement parks are not inside cities. For example, Hersheypark is kind of out in the middle of farm country. Dorney Park is near Allentown, but not among the city buildings. Likewise with Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. King’s Dominion is nowhere near anything, and neither is Great Adventure. Disney World is it’s own gigantic place, but it’s away from everything. So it seems weird that Disneyland is tucked between some buildings in the middle of Anaheim. Anyway, that’s just an observation.

When we arrived, we were too early to check into our hotel. Thankfully, they were able to keep our bag for us, otherwise we’d have been lugging it around for the afternoon. They directed us toward Downtown Disney for someplace for lunch, so that’s where we headed.

Red Butt

Inspired by this list of top ten most violent children’s games, I was reminded of some games that we used to play on the playground, and one in specific: Red Butt.

In elementary school - 6th grade to be precise - we used to congregate in a small raquetball-like area on our playground. With brick walls on the sides, and a concrete wall opposing the open end, it was a perfect place for a Red Butt game. Matt would bring the blue raquetball in his lunch bag, and we would start the game.

Typically, the game was simply an exercise of throwing the ball at the wall, and catching it on the rebound. Repeat ad-infinitum until recess ended. But that by itself isn’t all that fun. So what’s the attraction?

Thunder and Lightning

Ken invited me out to the Elks last night for their monthly men’s night dinner. It was essentially as Ken originally described: A five course meal for $18 plus tip, plus whatever drinks you paid for. But last night was a bit of an adventure.

Just as they started serving the food, the lights began to flicker. After the salad, the lights went completely out, along with the rest of the building’s power. Outside, a storm was kicking up. The winds were blowing fiercely, and the distant lightning’s thunder rolled in with an appreciable delay.