Be Cool

Chris and I went to see the movie Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty this morning. We knew from the start not to expect the greatest movie ever, but it had its moments.

We had to see it no matter what because we are IN in the movie. We were at the Aerosmith concert that they showed in the movie (you can read more about that concert and see pics I took from the concert here). Despite what they tell us in the movie, the concert was not at the Staples Center in L.A. -- it was at the Tweeter Center last year, so it was kinda stupid of them to show such wide-angle shots because you can easily see that it's an outdoor amphitheater rather than the indoor arena as they were telling us. But anyway, there were at least 16-18 times when Chris and I were on the silver screen in crowd-shots somewhere -- we were right next to a part of the stage so we were in a prime location -- however all the crowd scenes went by too fast to see us without using a Pause button or a Slo-mo button.

But enough about us. There were some other good parts elsewhere in the movie. I especially liked the performances by the guy from OutKast and the wrestler known as "The Rock" -- and this opinion is coming from someone who completely dislikes wrestling and hates "The Rock" in particular! But I think he did a really good acting job because his character was nothing like how you'd expect a wrestler to be...verrrrry gay. It was amusing to me that big-headed maniacs like Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit) and Gene Simmons (from Kiss) were both extras who had no lines and less than like 10 seconds of screen time combined.

One thing that seems kind of weird to me is that a character in the movie who was beaten up with a baseball bat died in real life almost exactly a year before the movie was released -- the movie came out literally four days away from the one-year anniversary of the day he died. If I were part of his family, I think I'd be kinda pissed at watching him get beaten up on screen while that anniversary date was fresh on my mind.

All in all, I'd give it about a C grade. Or maybe a C+ because Chris and I were in it with our favorite rock band. :) Chris may not be so generous with his grade because he read the book and found lots of flaws between the book and the movie.

Better than nothing

I went to Mohegan Sun and won about $380-ish before I gave some of it back. I guess I felt badly for the Indians and didn't want to take too much money away from them? hahaha!

I started off winning $80 on the big (upright) wheel that they spin and you bet on. I think they call it the Money Wheel or Wheel Of Fortune -- many casinos have different names for it.

After that was about a $50 win on roulette which was quickly followed by a $180 win on roulette! This part got kind of weird because I knew that I had won, but couldn't really tell how much...when I saw them push nine big stacks of chips at me, I started to get excited and pretty much forgot how to do any math at that point! I had to call my friend Matty over to count them for me because I couldn't do it myself because I was too excited at seeing all those stacks of chips coming my way (oh and by the way, I won this by betting his birthday date...I didn't get shit by betting my own birthday or my parents' birthdays, but Matty's was a winner).

After that was a few hands of blackjack and a few small wins but nothing big. Then we went to the nickel slots and I won another $120.

When all was said and done, after eating and drinking and putting gas in my car, by the time I got home around 6:00 Sunday morning I still had $200 more than what I started out with...better than nothing!

Cabo Wabo, 2005

Just got back from Cabo San Lucas again. Wow! Shitty flights both ways and horrible airport experiences in Cabo and Houston, but it was a great trip overall.



This is a view from the lobby of the hotel. See that little hut-like thing in the middle of the pic between the two pools? That's a swim-up bar where we spent tons of time. Gotta love those two-for-one drinks during happy hour!

There are a lot of fun stories to tell but since they're at least PG-13 rated, I won't get into them here just yet -- what happens in Cabo, stays in Cabo... ;-) But I will say that we met several really nice people down there. In particular, we met a cool couple from San Diego at the hotel. It turns out that Rob and this guy both went to the same college at the same time in Massachusetts, but they never knew each other back then. We went bar-hopping with them a couple of nights to El Squid Roe, the Cabo Wabo Cantina, and a few other places including the World's Smallest Bar where there are only six bar stools -- my house has a bathroom bigger than this place, but it's quite cool and it has a full bar.

Here are the pics from this year's trip and here are some pics from last year.

If you want to read about Cabo San Lucas in general, there is a good article at loscabosnights.com.

Oh, I almost forgot...one bad story to tell: one night we met some people at a bar at the marina. They had been eating a pizza and there were two slices leftover. After a while, the waiter came to clear off the table. Not even a minute later, I saw the waiter bring a slice of pizza to the table next to us. It looked like the same pepperoni/black olive pizza that he just took off of our table! To try to make a long story short, Karin (who speaks perfectly fluent Spanish) confronted the waiter about it and he admitted to it -- he took leftover pizza from us and served it to someone else!

Happy 2005. It pays to be a girl.

A few weeks ago, Shannon planted a seed... She said she's never been to NYC for New Year's Eve and since she is temporarily living near Boston now, she was thinking of going. I went there 10 years ago and had a great time despite miserable freezing rain, so I was due to go back.

She picked me up from work and we sped down to New Haven, CT to catch the train to NYC. Everything went well...that is, until we got to NYC. Once in Manhattan, it became increasingly obvious that it was going to be tough to get a good viewing spot. 42nd Street was gridlocked with pedestrians starting before 6th Ave. We fought our way thru the crowds up 6th Ave. towards 45th Street. Every street heading to Times Square was completely closed. I asked a cop where we can go to get into where the action is and he said to go up to 59th Street and they'd let us in there. We hustled our way up 14 more blocks only to find that we had become fenced in at Central Park. Completely trapped! They had successfully corralled us -- like a herd of cattle into a holding pen, and there was no way out except to go back where we came from.

By this point it was less than 15 minutes till midnight so it wasn't looking very good. We backtracked down 6th Ave., looking for spots where we might be able to sneak past the police barricades. Nothing. NYPD did a damn good job of keeping everything blocked off so no one can get thru. With about six minutes left before the ball dropped, Shannon went up to one of the cops as a last-ditch effort. Next thing I know, I see her inside of the barricade and running towards Broadway! She managed to pull-off a, "Hi, I'm a tourist from Ohio...please let me in?", and they did!! So now it was MY turn... I went up to the same cop and said, "I'm with that girl from Ohio who you just let in". He took one look at me and said, "get out!". I said, "no, really...that girl from Ohio who you just let in...we're together". He again told me to get out. I tried again..."officer, you don't seem to understand...I am with that girl from Ohio...we came here together...if I can't get in, we'll be separated and won't find each other afterwards". He didn't wanna hear anything from me. Just didn't care.

We wound up finding each other around 12:30 and by that point, they had opened up some of the barricades so I was finally able to get into Times Square. We thought about trying to get into some of the pubs and bars but we were mindful of the time and the train schedule so we headed back down to Grand Central Station instead.

On the way home from the New Haven train station, we stopped off at Mohegan Sun, thinking we can get a bite to eat somewhere in there. But those dumb-asses only had ONE restaurant open! The line waiting to get in was about 20 minutes long. You'd think that (A) being a weekend, they might have more than just one place open at like 5AM, and (B) it's a popular holiday for night-owls and drunks who may want to eat!! But nooooooo...only that one place open. Figures.

When I woke up New Year's Day, I watched the festivities on TV (recorded from the night before). A million people because it was the 100th anniversary of the whole ball-dropping thing and the weather was nice. Maybe I'll try again in 10 more years.

Here are the pics...they're not very good because they were taken with my cell phone.

Breaking a record

My buddy Chris and I participated in the breaking of a world record last week:

• 'Jingling all the way' to a world record
• Record-setting Carolers
• video clip from New England Cable News channel (at about 1:10 into this one, you can see me from the chin down, standing behind the woman in the Santa hat whom they are interviewing)

Hooters #66

A new Hooters opened about 10 minutes from my house so as of this month, I have been to 66 different Hooters in the USA. Now, that's not to say that I've been to Hooters 66 times...no no no...these 66 are different Hooters locations where I have been at least one time each.

A little background on some of my previous Hooters visits:

• 5 were in the Denver area in 2000
• 11 were in South Florida in 2001
• 7 were around the Houston area in a three-day trip in 2002
• my 45th was the Grand Opening of their Sugarland, TX location...I was served their very first beer on Opening Day
• I was at the Grand Opening of the Cape Cod Hooters in 2003
• 9 locations were during a four-day trip to southern California in 2003

While at Hooters in Daytona with my friend Chris in 1999, I saw a t-shirt: "Hooters World Tour". On the back it had a list of cities, just like a concert t-shirt would have. While looking at that list, I realized that I had been to a bunch of those places so I decided that I would embark on a world tour of my own.

In 2003 Hooters ran a contest where anyone who visited 20 different Hooters in one year would win a party. They gave out little "passport" books that we had to have stamped at each of the different locations we went to.

Why have I done all this? Well, the last line of the menu at Hooters pretty much sums it all up: "Hooters makes you happy". :)

Check out some Hooters pics here.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

You know the TV show Whose Line Is It Anway? Shannon and I went to see two of the guys from perform live. Damn funny!

Aerosmith, 2004

Chris and I went to see Aerosmith and Cheap Trick at the Tweeter Center. Big surprise, huh?!? hahaha

We had a couple of the best seats in the house! Literally. We were barely 10 rows back from the main stage and right up against the runway/catwalk stage (whatever you wanna call it) that extended out into the audience from the main stage. Our seats were better than football star Doug Flutie who was about 10-15 rows behind us. :)

I took some really good pics with my camera-phone, one of which was published in the magazine Entertainment Weekly. You can see those pics I took along with pics that someone in front of us took here -- since they had a real camera, their pics are obviously much better than mine (but they didn't get any of theirs in a magazine, so there!!).

An extra cool thing about this show is that they were filming a scene for an upcoming movie that will be the sequel to the movie "Get Shorty". Since our seats were so great, I'm sure we'll be in a frame or two in the movie so I can't wait for the DVD to come out.

Bahamas, 2004

Lots of celebs on this quickie trip. James Caan has a son who is also an actor (who knew...?!?). He was staying at our hotel, in town filming a movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378109/). We saw Don Henley at the Atlantis casino. I missed it but Britney Spears was there the night before I got there as was country music guy Toby Keith. The owners of many of the Dallas sports teams were there, too (one of my buddies works for one of them and that's the reason I went on this trip).

The first day I got there, I was walking thru Senor Frog's (a bar like the Carlos N' Charlie's found in Mexico) and heard them playing pieces of some songs, followed by people shouting out the titles. After about a minute of this and hearing these Springsteen and Billy Idol riffs, I realized they were playing a "Name That Tune" game. Kewl! These people had NO idea what they were getting when I walked into the room!! Me + Classic Rock + Name That Tune? Forgettaboutit! Might as well send everyone else home. :)

Within the next 30 seconds, I quickly advanced to third place, jumped ahead to tie for first, and then held onto first for a long time. I would have won the entire contest if I didn't space out at the beginning of the last song. Unfortunately, the reason I spaced out was from consuming a little too much alcohol a little too quickly. Did I mention that the 'prize' for each correct answer was a bottle of something green poured into your mouth until it overflows? And upon correctly answering the bonus questions like "according to the song, The Heart Of Rock And Roll is located in which city?" and "how do you spell the 'Crue' in Motley Crue?", this 'prize' was doubled. Actually in the case of the last question, it was a triple shot 'prize' because the MC liked that I included the umlauts over the U. :)

I didn't go back to that place until two days later. This time was for lunch. They weren't playing any games but the MC was working the crowd to get people dancing and singing and stuff. Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" came on and the MC was walking around the room sticking the mic in front of people to have them sing "whoa, we're half-way there" from the chorus of the song. The MC walked past my table and said "hey, I remember you...you know all these songs, don't you", and then had me sing a full verse and chorus of the song. It wasn't a Karaoke thing -- there was no screen to read lyrics from -- so I got about a half bottle of that green stuff poured down my throat for this. :) I guess I must have done something right because this MC had to have seen at least several hundred people in the two days since he'd last seen me, but he remembered me right away. Like I said, they had no idea what they were getting when I walked into the joint... :)

Cabo Wabo, 2004

Details coming soon but you can see the pics.

Key West, 2003

Details coming soon but you can see the pics.

Italy/Sicily

See our pics here. We saw all the tourist spots around Rome such as the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Coliseum, and the Vatican. We also took a trip down the coast to Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento.

We then spent a week at a villa in Sicily and checked out Palermo, Agrigento, Taormina, Mount Etna, and Trecastagni where my mom found some relatives that she never knew she had before.

(do a Google search if you want to find out more about the various sights and cities listed above)

The airline flight over there was horrible! I couldn't watch the movie because the headphone plug for my seat was broken. The overhead light for my seat did not work so I couldn't even read. And because I was in one of the last rows, they had run out of all the good meals and only had fish (which I don't eat). So I got pretty whiney and pissy about all of this. I mean, on a $1000 eight hour flight, I should at least be able to eat something or watch the damn movie! Most of the flight attendants didn't seem to give a shit, which pissed me off even more. But one of them could see I was upset and kept on giving me lots of alcohol which eventually put me to sleep so I finally left them alone.

We had mixed feelings about Rome. On one hand, the architecture and artwork were absolutely stunning! In every sense of the word. But on the other hand, Rome is WAY too overcrowded and noisy and somewhat dirty. Graffiti everywhere. Lots of litter.

Our hotel in Rome wasn't in a bad part of town but it was noisy and we had trouble sleeping because we had to keep our windows open because they don't use air conditioners and there was a bar across the street that didn't even open until sometime after midnight. Oh yeah, and because the streets are so overcrowded during the day, the only time they can pick up garbage is during the overnight hours...and everyone knows how much noise garbage trucks make!

The tour group operator left a bad taste in our mouths. For one thing, they literally left me at one of the stops! The whole group took off without me! Despite my family's pleading and begging the tourguide. But the tourguide insisted that she had a schedule to keep and they had to move on. RIDICULOUS!!!! They KNOW we're tourists so what did they expect, that I could find my way back all alone?!?!? I called the tourguide's office to try to explain that I was left behind, but they didn't speak any English and I only know like maybe 10 words of Italian so that was useless. To try to make a long story short, being the smart fella that I am, I figured there would be another tour coming thru at some point. So I waited and found the next tour group and told the tourguide what happened. He couldn't believe it so he took me as part of his group. I was separated from my family for the rest of the day but at least I knew that I would eventually wind up back at the tourguide's office.

There was also an incident involving a tourguide and a restaurant they selected for us that was part of a tour to Pompeii. It was a very nasty and ugly scene. It was first-come, first-served seating and we almost didn't get seated because some assholes stole our seats and we got into a little altercation with them. We then kept getting pushed around to different seats...it seemed that every seat we tried to sit in was wrong so we were beginning to get upset. When we finally found someplace to sit, we were almost not served anything -- it seems they were extorting us and wanted us to buy a bottle of wine (the food was included with the tour but beverages were not). Apparently, since we did not want to buy their wine, they did not want us to eat. By the time we got something to eat, almost everyone else was ready for desert so when we finally did start to eat, we were rushed and the waitstaff was reluctant to serve us. And the strolling musicians started to annoy us and get in our faces when we started to eat. After all the bullshit, we didn't want anyone bothering us by this point but they took offense that we wouldn't tip them so they would play for us; we just wanted to eat in peace by now, not be forced to pay for music we did not want to begin with. I know it's too late to make a long story short but we got into fights with a lot of people there because of the way we were mistreated.

But the trip wasn't all bad. Quite the contrary, actually. We saw some of the most beautiful and amazing things. Buildings and churches that are thousands of years old but look brand new. We were at places that we've read about and heard about in history such as the Coliseum. The Vatican's ceilings have such incredible and intricate works of art that I can't possibly put into words! You should look at the pics and see for yourself, although the pics don't even come close to seeing everything in person.

Sicily was all good. We hired a driver, Rosario, who took us all over the island and to many of the hotspots and to some of the best restaurants. I think the places I enjoyed the most were Taormina, Mount Etna, and Trecastagni. Taormina has what's left of an ancient amphitheater on top of a mountain next to the ocean overlooking the coast. The views are breathtaking! I really cannot say enough about it. If you look at the pics, you can see partially crumbled walls in the foreground, different sizes of hills and mountains in the mid-ground to the west, and the coastline down below in the background. I really wish the pics can be 3D so you can get a better idea of what I am trying to say.

Mount Etna was cool because it's an active volcano. You can see steam coming up thru the cracks here and there. You can look down into old inactive craters and even the active craters if you dare. In the pics you can see a lot of black soot and ash. What you can't really tell, however, is that some of the soot and ash is piled up for dozens and dozens of feet, thus making parts of the mountain slightly taller. For example, we were able to see where an eruption a few years ago completely buried the giftshops and restaurant -- we could see the difference between the old top of this part of the mountain compared to the new top by the different shades of soot and ash. I know that probably doesn't make much sense to you but trust me: it was interesting to see it in person.

Trecastagni was really special to my mom. Both of her parents were born there and she often heard stories about it but had never been there until now. And she got to meet her father's family that she never knew about before. We had nothing except for a photocopy of my grandfather's passport but our driver, Rosario, was able to find the family anyway. He was like a bloodhound tracking a scent! We started at Town Hall and got copies of my grandparents' Birth Certificates that had old addresses. When Town Hall closed for lunch, Rosario took us

walking around a park across the street and where he asked all the old-timers if they had ever heard of my grandparents or their former addresses. He also asked the Police chief and when Town Hall reopened after lunch, we went to talk to the town doctor. The doctor made a bunch of phone calls and next thing we know, we were told "ok, come with us", and he took us to a house a short distance away. This turned out to be the home of one of my grandfather's relatives and my grandparents stayed at that house when they visited the old country in the 1960's. When the she answered the door and we showed my grandfather's old passport pic, we were greeted with open arms and "oh, Cirino...si...si...". It was truly amazing that with only an old passport photocopy, we were able to find this family. Rosario was unbelievable! A few days earlier, he had tracked down some of Rita's family, too. But that was almost easy in comparison because Rita had an old letter with an address that Rosario was able to find, way out in the middle of nowhere up in some mountains. We were pretty impressed by that but then like I said, that turned out to be almost easy compared to finding my mom's family -- he had a LOT less to work with.

St. Louis, Hollywood, Las Vegas, and The O.C. in 2003

In the Spring of 2003, I went to St. Louis for a few days and visited some Hooters. My 50th Hooters was across the river from St. Louis in Illinois.

Several weeks later I went on a weekend trip to Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Orange County. I stayed at the infamous West Hollywood Hyatt, which is nicknamed "The Riot House" because it is where rock bands of the 70's wreaked havoc and rode motorcycles up and down the hallways. Oh yeah, and I went to more Hooters.

I have more to say about this trip and I will add that later. You can read more about Hooters or see some pics here.

G.M.A. media-whore

ABC's Good Morning America came to Boston to broadcast live on May 3, 2002.

I guess all the times I was on TV in Boston wasn't good enough for me and I felt the need to go national? (LOL!) I dunno. But I decided to go to the show and be annoying and see how many shots I can squeeze into. This was one of them, shortly after I called my mom in Florida and told her to turn on the TiVo...


That's me in the upper left.

South Florida "work" hehehe

I spent considerable amounts of time both in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach from March to May of 2001. One of the coolest things to do in Lauderdale is the Water Taxi which will take you around town and drop you off wherever you want to go eat or drink or shop or whatever...all by boat. Very cool. In Miami Beach, I stayed a few blocks north of South Beach, where it's supermodels galore, and the parties and the night-clubbing do not end until 5am every day (after three weeks of that, I am almost surprised that I made it home alive).

I'll have a lot more to say about SoFLA eventually...I'm just too lazy to write about it now. In the meantime, you can see the pics.

New Orleans, 2001

Went to New Orleans in January/February 2001.

Stayed in the French Quarter.

Partied on Bourbon Street, where many happy-hours stretch from 11am until like midnight or so...and you can take your beer around with you from bar to bar in a to-go cup. Hadda have
Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's.

Lunched at Emeril's restaurant, went to the Camellia Grill for breakfast, and had one of the best burgers in town at the Clover Grill.

No trip to New Orleans would be worth it without a stop at the Central Grocery and one of their Muffalettas...a sandwich that's almost as wide as a Frisbee and four times fatter, with three types of imported cheese, lots of Italian cold cuts, and a special olive salad spread...mmm...

Regis & Kathie Lee/Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I took my mom to New York to be in the audience for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Live With Regis & Kathie Lee.

Regis is one of the coolest guys in the world! While at the taping of the Millionaire show, I told him that Mom & I wanted to see him in the morning with Kathie Lee, but we were unable to get in because it was Kathie Lee's last week and there was just too much demand. But Regis later came back to me and asked for my name and said he'd try to get us in the next day, even though it would be difficult. But it all worked out in the end and Mom & I got in the next morning. We also met Dianne Sawyer and Joe Thiesmann, both of whom are very nice people.


Kathie Lee didn't seem to like socializing much before the show. She was not pleased to sign autographs and squealed "no pictures, please" as I was taking this...



Mom on the set

I spent most of the first five months of 2000 on the road...

...mostly in the Minneapolis and Denver areas. There was also a week in San Francisco and some time in Daytona and Orlando.

In Minneapolis...

The steak at Manny's melted in my mouth. Dessert there was a brownie sundae thing that cost $14. The waiter described how big it was so I asked him if it was enough for me and my date to share. He said it would be enough for six people to share. When it came to the table I quickly saw that he was not exaggerating too much. This thing was HUGE. It was dessert that night, as well as breakfast the next day, and lunch, and a midday snack.

Also in Minneapolis is one of my favorite places for Sunday Brunch: the Pickled Parrot. They have all the typical breakfast and lunch stuff with carving stations and omelet stations, but the coolest thing about this place is the make-your-own-Bloody-Mary-bar! They give you the vodka and you do the rest. They have all kinds of mixers and ingredients and since you make it yourself, you can be as adventurous as you want.

No trip to the Twin Cities area would be complete without a visit to the Mall Of America, the largest mall in the USA. This place is enormous! If you spent 10 minutes in each of the shops, it would take more than four days to do everything.


In the Denver area...

I tried Rocky Mountain Oysters for the first (and last!) time. I had NO idea what they were!! (no, they are NOT seafood and no, they do NOT taste like chicken, and I have no desire to eat them again). I was told that they are a local delicacy, but my friend would not tell me exactly what they were until it was too late.

I went on several road trips while based in the Denver area. We drove up to Nebraska and Wyoming, went out to the real neighborhood of South Park, and in a 19 hour day I drove out to Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. There is a monument where Arizona and New Mexico and Utah all meet with Colorado, so you can literally be in all four states at one time. This whole drive was very pretty and scenic.

I went to the world's largest hot spring water pool in Colorado's Rockies. Millions of gallons of this spring water comes out of the ground at 122°F and they chill it down to 90-something for use in the pool. On the way back home from there, we stopped off and had a pizza at Beau-Jo's. Bring your appetite when you go there because their specialties include a five-pound pizza. But that pales in comparison to their "Challenge", which is 12-to-14 pounds! If two people order the "Challenge" and eat it in one hour, they get the pizza for free, $100, and a T-shirt.

You can see pics here.

David Letterman

On May 21, 1999, the Late Show with David Letterman featured an audience entirely from Boston. Audience members were mostly radio station contest winners. However, I had an idea...

I called the Late Show office the day of the show and asked if they had any standby or standing room tickets available. They said there may possibly be two openings but they wouldn't know for sure until later on -- just before show time. Perfect...that's all I needed to hear! So I called Chris with my whacky idea, we met at Logan airport, and took a shuttle flight down to NYC.

After a brief stop at Hooters in Manhattan (of course!), we made our way to the Ed Sullivan theater building. Courtney Love and her band, Hole, had just taped a show earlier that day so they were still hanging around. The bass player, Melissa Auf der Maur, was roaming around on the street while Courtney was hanging out of one of the windows of the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Chris saw Courtney up in the window and yelled, "Courtney, show us your boobs!". No such luck but she poured water down onto the crowd below instead.

Then out of nowhere we heard something like, "ok, who is showing their boobs?". We turned around and saw it was former WBCN DJ, Mark Parenteau. I hadn't seen him in several years so I was kinda surprised he recognized me on the street. While we were wandering around outside with Mark, we saw Biff Henderson and since it an all-Boston audience, the Mayor of Boston and a bunch of Boston's TV and radio people were there.

Among the media people was my old boss Charles Laquidara, who was a DJ in Boston for 30 years. It was Charles who made sure Chris and I got in to see the show -- he talked to a some people who talked to other people. They literally set up a few folding chairs for us way in the back of the balcony, but that was fine with us because at least we were inside and part of an historic broadcast featuring the J. Geils Band who reunited for the first time in years!


That's me, sitting in the audience.

There are pics on Charles' website, bigmattress.com.

Dallas

In January, 1999 I went to visit my buddy Rob-the-pilot in Dallas.

He showed me the jet he pilots...WAY cool and very impressive! I'm not talking about some small puddle-jumper type of thing -- this is the real deal!

We went to the spot where JFK was shot. The area looks the same as we've seen it in all the old news footage with the infamous book depository building and grassy knoll in the background. They have a red X on the ground where it happened and he took a pic of me standing on that X, but it's a little too eerie for me to look at now because I was standing RIGHT ON the spot where it happened with all the background scenery intact.

We also took a drive out to the Southfork Ranch which is where J.R. and the Ewing family lived in the TV show Dallas.

Here are some pics of the jet and stuff...