Kelly Dani.com

our first dance… pwning begins at 1:40

I love love love love love my TDI Jetta. I love my 40+ mpg. I love getting more than 500 miles on a tank before my gas light comes on. I love knowing that when the gas light comes on I still have nearly 100 miles before I actually run out of gas. But… I HATE hate hate hate going to the gas station with a diesel car. First of all, my choices in where to fill up are very limited. I have to be aware of which stations even carry diesel, which can mean driving around for a while when I’m out of town (good thing I get that extra 100 miles!). Once I find a station which offers diesel, I then have to hunt for a diesel pump. I can’t just pull up to any open pump, oh no. In general, so I’ve found, only about a quarter of the pumps at a station have diesel. And sometimes they hide the diesel pump behind the building! (Although this last configuration doesn’t bother be so much once I find it – you’re about to see why).

My biggest pet peeve when trying to fill my tank is all of the ignorant people. I tend to go to my local Murphy station for the location and price. This particular station has sixteen pumps, four of which offer diesel. It’s a fairly busy station, but there are usually several open pumps at any given moment. But regardless of the number of open pumps, it is almost guaranteed that all four diesel pumps will be occupied by people pumping regular gas into their vehicles. Which means I have to wait, and wait I do. My average gas station trip takes more than twenty minutes! Thank goodness I only need to do this once or twice a month. So I pick a pony a get in line. I sit and wait patiently, ignoring the strange looks I get from people who wonder why I’m not choosing one of the available pumps. The pumper finishes up and starts to leave. Usually at this point I pull up and go about my business. But more often than you would expect, I get hit by the pump sniper.

The pump sniper is the jerk who completely ignores the fact that I’m waiting, floors it past the other open spots that I cannot use, and steals the diesel bearing pump from me. Pump snipers tend to strike when I’m already in a hurry, or otherwise annoyed. They fill me with a murderous rage, especially when they reach for the regular gas hose. When this happens, I begin to fantasize about leaping from my car and strangling them with the gas hose and pummeling them with the big, metal nozzle. This mental image often releases some of my frustration and I scan the station to see if any of the other diesel pumps has cleared.

Once I’m finally positioned in front of a pump, the real problems begin. Diesel pumps are notoriously filthy. I learned quickly to keep hand wipes in my glove box because my hands will inevitably be coated in grime by the time I’m done. It takes several attempts to find the “sweet spot”, that elusive point at which the nozzle finds the precise depth and angle it requires to pump without shutting off every ten seconds. From then on its smooth sailing. I stand without moving a muscle, for fear of slipping out of the sweet spot, and wait as my tank is s-l-o-w-l-y filled. I think diesel must be about as thick as molasses, since it takes an eternity to pump it into my car at every station I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. After I hang the nozzle back on its base, usually fighting with the hose and getting more grime on me, I clean up and get back in the car. I quickly calculate my mpg (that always makes me feel better), reset my trip meter, and I’m finally on my way, vowing to send Chad the next time I’m running low.

Great success! Despite a few minor setbacks, the first official OKDC camping trip was a blast. We got a later start than planned (not surprising to anyone, I’m sure) and had to set up the tents in the dark, but Chad managed to get a good fire going, and Alyssa had Christmas lights which we strung up across the camp, which helped with the lighting. When the ranger came by, we were told we had too many tents on the site, but GottiBoyTellEm managed to smooth things over, and we were good to go for the night. Once set up was complete, we enjoyed hotdogs and Chef Boyardee for dinner, and s’mores for dessert. Quiet time began at 11, and we did our best to keep our voices down, but after we decided to turn in for the night, we were invaded by raccoons. Chad and David did their best to chase them off, but they kept returning, chattering and whining, throughout the night. Chad had a little too much fun scaring them off, but it must have worked, because they didn’t give us any trouble the next night. Saturday morning we awoke and discovered a large bird walking around the campsite. He walked right over to GottiBoy’s tent, clearly ready for his walk. Later, we had brunch consisting of bananas, bacon and eggs, and more hotdogs. After we ate, we piled into the van and headed to the birdwalk. We didn’t see too many birds, but we definitely watched as GottiBoy birdwalked next to the birdwalk sign. From there we traveled to the nature trail and enjoyed the canopy walk across a bridge suspended 25 feet in the air, right through the tree tops. After crossing the bridge we climbed the tower and enjoyed a spectacular view of Myakka River Park from a dizzying height of 75 feet. It was a perspective we don’t often get to experience, and though the swaying of the tower in the wind was a bit unsettling, the view was well worth the venture. After completing the nature trail (and seeing a disappointingly little amount of “nature” along the way), we headed back to camp. I was still a little shaky from the tower, so I laid down for a nap, while the rest of the group explored the lake and concessions, then made a trip in to town for provisions. When they returned we started a fire, not as easy a task as it had been the previous night, and had an old-fashioned campfire cookout of hamburgers and (more) hotdogs. We considered attending the seminar on spiders at the main campfire, but ended up staying at our campsite. As quiet time approached, and the mosquitoes started biting, we turned in for the night. We awoke Sunday morning to rain beating down on the tents, and quickly began packing up. Fortunately, by the time we had the insides of the tents packed, the rain ceased, and we were able to break down the tents and pack up the campsite without getting too wet. Though it was an earlier departure than we had intended, I think we were all happy to get home and showered, and back to bed for some.

chad is pwning up the coups. we got 30 cans of campbells chicken noodle FOR FREE today from walmart, and another 10 cream of chicken @ $0.08 each. also got 8 boxes of betty crocker potatoes (4 cheese, scalloped, au gratin, etc) for $0.38 each.

got to do a photo shoot with the strangers. thanks nick!

Ok, so my review is going to be quite different from the okdc review, but that’s ok, because mine will be better

This was my first Employee Preview, and only my second HHN, so it was all pretty new for me. To begin with, I got to ride the new Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit a few hours before the event started, so that was exciting. The ride was awesome, but I tried to enter a secret song, which didn’t play. So I didn’t quite get the full effect, but I am looking forward to trying again this weekend.

On to the main event… Once we were let back in to the park we went straight to Wolfman. We were among the first to go through the house, although we missed most of the scares. The group before us and the group behind us got the scares while we got the resets. But I didn’t mind, it gave me an opportunity to walk through the first house and really check out what was going on around me. I kept turning around to see the scareactors jump out at the girls behind me and laughed as they were getting freaked out.

Next we attempted to go to the Dracula house. After waiting in line for about half an hour, and making it nearly to the house, we saw a girl run by in a panic, and a firetruck pulled up. Then everyone in the house started leaving, and we were all directed to leave the line. Apparently, as Employee Preview Night is a dress rehearsal, they also have to practice fire drills. We found out it would be at least half an hour before the fire marshal might clear the house and allow people back in. So we decided to move on…

We next walked through the Apocalypse Scare Zone. The school bus from last year’s Skoolhouse Scare Zone had run up on the sidewalk and mutilated crash victims wandered the streets among the “carnivorous humanoids” which were prowling the area. We also walked through the Horrorwood Die-In Scare Zone which was made to look like a drive-in movie theater, complete with screen and cars. The scareactors in this area are classic horror movie characters including the girl from The Exorcist, and the villains from The Strangers.

From there we went to the Silver Screams house. The entrance is the ticket booth at the Universal Palace Theater. The first thing I noticed once I entered was the plush, red movie theater carpet. Very nice detail. It really felt as if we were walking through a classic movie theater. Each room of the house was a scene from a different horror film, and a movie poster and small prop announced each film we were about to walk through. This house was very well done, in my opinion, and I am looking forward to visiting it again. I should probably watch, or re-watch some of the movies to really get the most out of the scenes.

After Silver Screams we wandered through Cirque du Freak. I would have liked to gawk at the freaks a bit more, but my group didn’t seem too thrilled with the area. The real highlight there was J Michael Roddy, Creative Director of HHN. He posed for a pic with Chad and Josh before disappearing into the night.

Our 3rd and final house for the night was Leave it to Cleaver. I was a little apprehensive entering this house, I’m not quite sure why. While waiting in line we were entertained by a series of clips advertising Meetz Meats, the butcher shop we were about to enter. Throughout the ads were single frame images of chopped up body parts, some animal, some human. Yummy. We learned in the ads that the “z” in “Meetz” stands for Quality, Fresh and Value. We also learned from Meetz himself that the “z” stands for Cannibal. This house had what I believe to be the most detail of the 3 houses we saw that night. I am looking forward to seeing more and more of the details with each trip through this house. After going through the slaughter rooms, and passing the prisoners waiting to be butchered, we finally enter the actual butcher shop. I really felt like I was standing in the butcher shop my mom used to take me to when I was a kid. Little did I knew what was hiding in the back. There were no scares in this room, surprising for as large a room as it was. But Samuel Meetz (hey, wasn’t Sam the Butcher the name of Alice’s boyfriend in The Brady Bunch) was there to greet us, as we exited through the storefront.

By the time we finished Leave it to Cleaver, it was nearly time for the evening’s final showing of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, a must see. I’ll leave the spoiler’s for a later review, but I will say it was an “excellent” way to end the night (was that too cheesy? Nevermind, I don’t care).

Overall, I had a great night, and am really excited to see the rest of the houses this weekend. I am also very proud of myself, I didn’t scream at all, and I only jumped one and a half times

Check out outkastz.com for pics

19 days til fall out boy!! i’ve had a running list in my head of my favorite fob line, so i decided to write them down. i narrowed it down to the top 15, and here they are, in no particular order:

My head’s in heaven, my soles are in hell. Let’s meet in the purgatory of my hips (w.a.m.s.)

Stop burning bridges and drive off of them (Tell That Mick He Just Made My List Of Things To Do Today)

We’re a bull, and your ears are just a china shop (Hum Hallelujah)

I’ve got a lot of friends who are stars but some are just black holes (27)

My smile’s an open wound without you (Homesick at Spacecamp)

If you are the shores, I am the waves begging for big moons (Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your PartTo Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows))

Peroxide princes shine like shark teeth (Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet)

Like a stove, I’ll turn my love down (The (Shipped) Gold Standard)

Don’t feel bad for the suicidal cats. Gotta kill themselves nine times before they get it right (West Coast Smoker)

Stood on my roof and tried to see you forgetting about me (The Pros and Cons of Breathing)

People will dissect us til this doesn’t mean a thing anymore (Take Over the Breaks Over)

I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake (Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner)

I love you in the same way, there’s a chapel in a hospital (Hum Hallelujah)

I’m just a painter and I’m drawing a blank (Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am?)

Say my name and his in the same breath I dare you to say they taste the same (I Don’t Care)