3D: DOUBLE DINNER DATE 

On Tuesday morning, I received a text message from Little Joe about dinner that night at his house for Chuck's birthday, which was Sunday. Add that to the scheduled Yat-Together, and I was in for a pretty busy little Tuesday night. Awesome. 

It was my first official visit to Little Joe and Jenna's new place on Jena. How cute is that? Love their setup. Super spacious in the opening room. And Little Joe has a Mark Grace autographed baseball in there. It is my new mission in life to steal it. 

Oh yeah. I sort of got lost on the way there. I found the street and all, but I passed up the house and kept going for like five more blocks before it dawned on me that I had probably drove by it. I call Joe for the address. Then, I got lost again because I got confused by the way the addresses were going up and down. Eventually, I realized the confusion came from me looking at an address on a corner house, which belonged to the side street. Yup. I'm a moron. 

After downing two burgers (Well done, Joe. You should totally do that again. I will pay.) and some strawberries, I had to high-five and run. Chuck and I completed a high-five, low-five combo. So it took us two tries. Whatever. 

I pulled a Yat Gene No. 2 and showed up late (last out of eight, in fact) for the March Yat-Together at Miyako. Classic. The last time we had eight peeps for a Yat-Together was May 2008 at Superior Grill. Yawzer. As usual, a good time was had by all. 

This was my second adventure into a Japanese restaurant. The first time was in senior year when Regina dragged me to her favorite spot and made me try sushi. I threw it up in the napkin. She told me I needed to apologize to the chef because I insulted him. I did not apologize. 

Anyway, the second trip was much better. I had the hibachi chicken and enjoyed it. Surprisingly. I didn't like the soup or salad, though. Yuckie. The chef, who I suspect has done this before, made the meal in front of us. I was in a trance watching that magic. 

The chef tried to toss the leftover scraps into our mouths, with little success. (I caught mine on the second try.) The funniest moment of the night came on Kelli's turn. The chef pointed at her to get ready, and she immediately began waving her arms frantically for him not to toss. He didn't get the message and hit her in the face as she was still waving him off. Priceless.

Kelli also informed that the Harahan cop from Chalmette that was arrested and fired for stealing at the jail about a month ago is her next-door neighbor. Holy smokes! I told Tina that "the fucking Chalmatian" lives next to Kelli, and she found that to be interesting. However, she did not curse. Sorry. 

Amanda expressed a desire to start a revolt against me as organizer of the meetings. Don't even think about it, missie. I will crush you. I did like that she referred to me as a "fearless leader." Amanda may have had the line of the night. I think it was her. 

I ask Christina if she could get a discount for Tina on a product. She basically says yes. 

Christina: What's the name of it?

Me: Um. Um. Dangerous something. I think it was Dangerous Pleasure. 

Christina: No. I don't think that's it. 

Me: I'm pretty sure it is. Dangerous something for sure. I think it is Dangerous Pleasure. 

Amanda: No. I think that was something else you were looking up. 

(Side note: I told Tina today that a discount is possible if I give Christina the name of the product. She reaches for it off the shelf, and I swear right before she showed it to me, the name popped in my head. Wouldn't come to me all of last night. And now I remember it right before I'm shown the bottle. It's called Dangerous Obsession. Hey, I was really close on that one. Really close.) 

Now seems like a good time to apologize for not taking any pictures of Tuesday's two dinners. The battery in my camera apparently died, marking the second time in Gene Pool history that the battery gave out during an event that needed photographing. 

If you remember the first, you're sick. Or my No. 1 fan. Whichever you prefer. 

 

THE TINA CURSING CORNER

In case you didn't know, my mom is big into American Idol. She needs to be on some kind of analysis panel on the radio or something. Here's her curses Wednesday about the show. 

-- "Fucking Idol just figured out that they don't have a phone number for the 13th finalist. If you dial the number and end it with 13, you get a sex girl." 

-- "Almost none of the finalists are single. One of the guys is 23, and he's talking about his wife. Why would you get married at 23? What the fuck are you thinking? Are you crazy?" 

-- Each contestant had to pick a Michael Jackson song to sing this week. Mom is unhappy with one of the girl's choices. I forget what song, but it was from the Jackson 5. "He's got a-fucking million fucking songs, and she picks that." 

-- I ask mom if I can check something on live TV on Wednesday night while she's watching her tape of Oprah. She says OK. I hit the live button, and the TV goes to Idol. A girl is crying because she just got the boot. "Great. Now I know who gets cut. What the fuck are you doing?"

Mom wonders out loud why I haven't gotten picked for jury duty yet. "Right now is a bad time. One of the fucking lanes is closed on the fucking bridge. You should see the fucking traffic. ... You used to have to sit there for a whole fucking week for jury duty." 

We're watching House.

Me: Damn. That patient says what's on his mind.

Mom: What kind of fucking disease is that?

Mom: Can you do me two favors before you leave for this trip?

Me: Sure.

Mom: Get a haircut and a new pair of shoes. You were right around the fucking corner today from the store and didn't get them. That's sad.  

Mom says that she thought she was done with the dentist because her partial finally fits correctly. "Then this morning, I bite down, and a fucking piece of tooth came out. I don't know where it came from." 

I ask mom a question about the dentist process, and she answers it. She then asks if I'm asking so I can put it in the blog. 

Me: No. I just wanted to know. (Really, that's the truth.)

Mom: Good. I don't want people to know. Don't put it in that fucking blog. 

FOUR CORNERS

A closer look at The Gene Pool World.

-- I bought my Hornets playoff tickets for the first round today. I was worried because the e-mail said that you have to buy for all four games to reserve your seat. My account person, though, told me that if there aren't four home games in the first round, the remaining money goes as a credit on my account for next season. Good enough. 

In better news, my playoff tickets are the same price, and I'm now sitting in section 313, which is closer to the center than the tickets for my 10-game package. Plus, I'm on the aisle, so I can jump up and go crazy without having to worry about the person behind me. 

-- The transcript of a phone conversation I had Friday afternoon with a person I didn't know. 

Me: Hello. 

Person (talking to someone in the background): OK. OK. I'll get to that next. 

Me: Hello.

Person. Oh. Hey, honey. 

Me: Hello?

Person: Oh. Wrong number. (Click.) 

-- Love the new Kelly Clarkson CD. Her previous effort was dark and kind of scary. I only half-liked it. This one rivals the second album. It's basically 50 minutes of her just rocking and pouring out her soul. There's only two (of 14) songs that can be classified as slow. 

The cover is bright yellow, the color of sunshine. And the tone is set to fun. One disappointment: No poster. 

-- I'm watching Season 2 of Wings on my Netflix right now. I just finished the disc with the famous Ann Margaret scene. I was equally excited about a line two episodes before that one. Norm and Cliff guest starred. Shockingly, they drank a lot of beer. 

Lowell says something that's typical Lowell to Norm. 

Norm: That is one gene pool you don't want to take a dip in. 

PARTING SHOT

At Chuck's birthday dinner, there's a discussion about all the stuff that was moved into the new house.

Eric Paulsen: And Joe's pink computer. 

Little Joe: Hey, it's curing breast cancer. What's your computer contributing? 

THE DAILY TOP LIST

My top five TV deaths (spoiler alert), in terms of missing the character.

5) Adam Monroe. Heroes. 

Cool death, but the scene confused me. Didn't Angela tell Hiro that Adam was the key? 

4) Bill Buchanon. 24. 

A sad moment this past Monday. Really sad. For the record, I predicted to Tina during the season premiere that Bill would die in the middle of this season. Yeah. I'm good. 

3) Laverne Roberts. Scrubs.

Didn't see this one coming because characters don't usually die on comedies. 

2) Charlie Pace. Lost. 

OK. I haven't seen him die because I've only seen Season 1 so far. But he's not on the cover of the Season 4 DVD, so I'm assuming he dies. When he does die, it will be sad. He's my favorite. 

1) George Mason. 24. 

One of the greatest American heroes of our time.