Salad and Noodles and Creepy Wig Women

I thought every night I would start off the posts with a shot of what I had for dinner. Tonight I went down to the corner and got a big salad and spicy noodles. The salad has carrots, broccoli, onion, snow peas, croutons and fried onions. I had low-fat Tex-Mex dressing on it. The noodles are noodles in some sort of spicy sauce with sliced carrots.

It was delicious. And so, out we go.

And it's off we go, into the wild dark yonder.

Scary wig women alert! I'm never walking on this side of the street again. Aaaah!

Good Afternoon—December 30, 2011

Okay, it’s Friday and the bad news is I’m back at work (writing this on my break in case my boss is reading this). The good news? It’s a holiday weekend and after tonight, I have three days off! I’m really trying to be loose with this new, live format, but I do have one place in mind for one of my stops tonight. It’s a familiar place I’ve heard some troublesome reports on after I got back from my vacation. All will be explained as I head out tonight, so stay tuned or check back tomorrow for all of tonight’s live updates from the road. I came in early to work tonight, so I should be able to get out of here around 9 PM. So if you’re around, look for the first post around 10 PM or so. See you then!

P.S. When I’m working, the updates will be late at night, so I know a lot of you will miss them as they go up live, but my schedule’s changing and MAD will soon be done live, in prime time. Consider this the Beta Version for the next couple weeks.

Daily Random Photo:
Daily Random Linkage

Goodnight, Everybody

Rock 'n Roll is here to stay,
Come inside where it's okay.

Further Reading: EV Grieve, NY Citysearch and IMDb.

(Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!)

See you tomorrow, around 4 PM!

Party City and James Gandolfini

Let's go see if this really is a Party City inside.

I have to admit, it's pretty festive in here!

Is it me, or does this sound like cat food for your children?

Nothing screams, "Elegance" like plastic hats and tiaras!

Puffy Shirt alert!

The words, "drug mule" just entered my mind for some reason.

Rush, rush, a true Paula Abdul moment.

Celebrity Sighting at Party City!
Okay, so I’m taking goofy photos inside and I look to my left and who’s looking at New Year’s Eve boxes, but  actor James Gandolfini. I did a double take and he noticed me and I could see a “here we go” moment coloring his face. I approached and said, “Do you mind if I take your photo?”

He winced and said, “I’d prefer if you didn’t, it’s kind of crowded in here.”

“Okay, that’s why I asked,” I answered back.

“That was really nice of you to ask!” He shot back smiling and extended his hand out.

“My name’s Marty,” I said while shaking his hand.

“I’m Jim,” he said, nodding his head a bit. “Thanks again for your consideration, that’s rarely done in this town.”

“No problem, have a great night and a happy new year,” I replied.

“You too, have a great new year,” he said walking away and disappearing into the aisles.

Oh, if he only could have seen me taking the photo of the Angry 7-Eleven man a couple of hours ago! Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom!

Pasta

Create your own pasta? If I wanted to do that, I'd have stayed home and whipped up some Chef Boy-Ar-Dee!

Beer Break!

One of the things I like about New York City is that you can get a beer on almost any block. Be it a bar, or a deli like this one. Let's stop for a pause for the cause.

This one's nice because it's got a seating room. I can enjoy my beer and work on the blog.

Here's the tables and chairs up here.

Here's my work station, complete with beer and chips.

There's a nice view of the whole deli from up here.

I got baked potato flavored chips, which struck me as odd. Potato flavored potato chips? That's kind of blowing my mind!

So I tried one. It tasted like...potato. Mind = blown.

Ketchup and the Angry 7-Eleven Man

I have to admit, I've been obsessing over ketchup lately and I'm wondering what kinds of god-awful brands they must stock in 7-Eleven. Let's go look.

God I hate these places. They're so brightly lit they look kind of like a surgical room gone horribly wrong, with fumes of bad meat drifting in and out.

Speaking of bad meat, here's a couple of Venereal Diseased Hot Dogs. Deeelish!

Aaaahhhh!

Okay, I think I see the condiments section at the end of this aisle.

Well, I apologize to 7-Eleven, all they stock is Heinz. That still doesn't make up for their scary-ass rib sandwich, though!

Speaking of scary-ass things, seconds after I shot this a guy grabbed my arm and screamed out, "What are you doing?"

"Let go of my arm," I said pushing him away. "I'm taking pictures of ketchup," I told him when he released his grip on me.

"No pictures in here!" He yelled at me, even though he was less than half a foot away from me.

"I'm just taking pictures of ketchup," I told him amazed at how worked up he was.

"No pictures in my store," He continued to bark out in a Tourette's-like manner.

We argued back and forth and I told him it was a public place, he asked if I would like it if he came to my home and took pictures and I told him I could care less. Then I told him I lived two blocks away and invited him over to take pictures of my ketchup. He declined.

After awhile it got old, so I left, pounded on the window and took a photo of the angry 7-Eleven Man.

And once more with feeling! Goodbye, asshole!

Ham Sandwich and The Glory Hole Santa

I thought I'd have a sandwich before I went out, so I went to the corner deli and got a ham and cheese on rye.

The only problem here is that it's all ham. There's no cheese to balance it out. I don't think I've ever had a pure ham sandwich. It's kind of like slapping two pieces of bread on Porky the Pig's butt and biting in. Kind of of a gross mental image to have before dinner time!

Luckily, there's plenty of beer for dessert!

Okay, let's head out and see what the night brings! It's freezing out here!

Glory hole Santa alert! O, O, O!

Yikes, that was scary, let's walk down to 14th Street and see what's happening there. Oh, by the way, they also put mayonnaise on the ham sandwich and I hate mayonnaise. I guess it could've been worse, they could've slathered the thing with Crown Ketchup!