Friday night I went out to the Vietnamese place. S skipped out on us for reasons I forgive her for, but Alan tagged along. Several people showed up, and when I sat down at the table I realized that with the exception of Eric, I did not know a damn person at that table. I think I had met everyone else a total of two times. And Eric sat way on the other end so I could not yak with him. Some other time, Eric! One of the people brought their mom, which surprised me a bit. Hi someone's mom.
So, I do not know shit about Vietnamese food. Eyeballing all of the stuff, I shrugged and decided to get creative and order some quail. Quails are cute. They have that little feather that hangs in front of their face. I'll eat one.
Since I was eating weird ethnic food I should not have been surprised at the little piles of crisped bodies that they brought to my table... but I still was. I was expecting a couple of little birds... Like game hens, sitting on a pile of rice. These were some sort of grilled corpses. They cut the quail in half leaving a ribcage and one arm. To be honest, it could have been a rat and I would have never known the difference. If someone cut a rat in half, quartered it, and then fried it up in a pan with some sauce, it would have looked like what was piled on my plate.
I ate it anyways. I bought it, after all. It was not too bad. The problem was I was not sure where to bite to get meat and where I would just end up with a mouth full of cartilage. All the meat was day but not really gamy. The vegetables it came with were excellent. I need to eat more piles of veggies like that.
Saturday I headed over to harbor freight to pick up that stove for my dad for Christmas. Before we went in I went and peeked in thirftko first. Turns out everything in the store was fifty percent off that day, so I snagged a black and white tv to mod out as well as a couple of toys to mod. While I was there I was also eyeballing this massive 60-70 inch television there. It was huge. It was 300 bucks, so it was only $150 that day. I eyeballed it for a good long while. I mentioned it to Alan and he snidely said 'Yeah? Who's going to help you move it?' I finally just left it there. No giant TV for me.
At harbor freight I also got some jack stands to hold up my Saturn as I work on it this weekend, as well as a bug zapper. The bug zapper is simply awesome. It is a little metal grill mounted on a telescoping pole. It runs off of two double A batteries. When you see a bug that displeases you, you shove the metal grill at it and the bug dies horrible with a little crackling noise. It's great. I still have those moths in my house. It's not exactly a swarm, but it seems like every few minutes one comes flittering by. I now yank out my bug zapper and jump up and fry the sucker. I feel like Zeus throwing down lightning bolts. One of these days I'll have to see it on bigger creatures, like wasps. I have not had the balls to touch it myself yet. I might try it out on a cat first.
I also stopped by the recycle center so Alan could drop some junk off. I had never been to this one before. It was pretty scary. You drive down a dirt road until you come to an area piled with junk so high you could hardly see more then a few feet away. A few surly Mexicans picked listlessly at some of the junk. At the urgings of one of the Mexicans, Alan put some of his crap on the scales. The Mexican scrutinized it suspiciously for a little bit, then demanded Alan's license. He took it and then marched self-importantly over to a dingy little box. Within the box someone shoved out some money to Alan. I was impressed. For an old tire rim, empty beer keg and some cast off copper he got something like eighty bucks. Not bad. It did not make the place any less scary.
Saturday night I had a hot date at the Fondue house where I met someone special. The details of which are for me and not for thee. However I did bring a bag of googly-eyes in case I got bored. All the desert pieces we could not finish got googly eyes. I have to admit, marshmallows look great with googly eyes. Like something you want to be friends with.
I did other stuff Sunday, but I'm too bored to blog anymore. I did pet a goat, though. And saw some goats pee. And shoot out goat pellets. Hooray, goats!
2026 Update
Dialing the machine back to November 2006: Ed is eating a quail that might be rat, and eyeing a TV too heavy for his social circle.
Ah, 2006. Back then a 60-inch television was a monument you needed a friend, a truck, and a spine surgeon to move—and Ed let Alan's sneer veto it. Now the same screen is a slab that leans against the wall and demands a subscription before it will show you anything, which is progress of a sort. The thrift store full of half-off CRT televisions and toy mods is the ghost of an older America; the modern equivalent is a shelf of orphaned cables and someone's abandoned air fryer. Even the scrap yard has changed: in Ed's day you could hand over a tire rim, a keg, and some copper and walk out with eighty dollars and no questions; today you'd get a QR code, a phone number verification, and a lengthy lecture about copper theft. And blogging this much about your week? Without a phone trying to eat your soul? Sheer decadent luxury.
“2006 Ed, you ate a bird you thought might be a rat and then skipped a 150-dollar giant TV because Alan asked who would help move it—which decision actually stayed with you?” — Beelzebubba the Third
2006 Ed: So, Beelzebubba, you want to know which one stuck with me—the mystery bird or the giant TV? Honestly, it's the TV. I mean, I ate the quail, or whatever it was, and yeah, it was a little weird, but I got a story out of it and some damn fine veggies. The TV, though, that still bugs me. A 60 or 70 inch monster for $150? That's the kind of deal I'd normally brag about for years. But Alan just had to say, "Who's going to help you move it?" and I folded like a cheap lawn chair. I could've called someone, or rented a truck, or strapped it to my Saturn's roof and prayed. Instead I walked away, and now every time I watch my little black and white mod project, I think of the one that got away. The quail was just dinner. That TV was a missed kingdom.
