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had a fabulous 4th with the wife and kids out at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. Yes, it was hot and crowded but that’s pretty much a given at any independence day celebration.

we arrived there at 3:30pm (30 minutes after the gates opened) and surprise, surprise, the entire lawn area was already full. we took a spot under the pine trees next to the lake in order to get some shade which ended up being an OK spot. Still had a good view of the stage and was in a good position to hear the symphony over the noise of the crowd. and man did it get crowded. our area didn’t really get that bad until around 7pm when the symphony took the stage. every inch of space got used. it’s amazing how many people could fit into one spot. there literally wasn’t any space left for people to walk through. folks needing to go to the concession stand or the bathroom had to simply walk over people to get there. at one point when I took the boys to the bathroom, I could not, for the life of me, find my way back to our spot through the sea of people. Luckily the boys had a better sense of direction and led us back to our chairs but I personally would have ended up searching in the wrong section of the venue.

the fireworks display wasn’t the best I’ve seen in my lifetime but it served its purpose. I’d rate it better than the ones at the NC State fairgrounds though. all in all, we had fun. I could have done without the huge crowd but what are ya gonna do? The NC symphony was nice to hear and we packed enough food and drink to keep the boys satisfied.

Next time though, I’m bringing a large umbrella to shade ourselves from the hot sun. They don’t allow any “staking” or tents and such but holding or propping up a big umbrella for shade seems to be OK with the venue. The other thing I’d do next time is to arrive even earlier – maybe 2:30pm to try to get a spot on the lawn. but then again, sitting around the entire day for some run of the mill fireworks doesn’t really sound all that enticing, does it?

anyway, the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves and that’s what it’s all about really – creating memories with your family, right?
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UrbanSpoon is restaurant review site that I’ve been recently relying on to find new places to try while eating out. I like the fact that you can select different categories (i.e. Mexican, Italian, seafood) and sort the list by popularity/rating.

Since a lot of “foodies” use the site, I thought I could trust the rating system on UrbanSpoon but it turns out that we have to take the ratings listed on the site with a grain of salt. It seems that the problem that plagues other review sites like TripAdvisor and Citysearch, applies here as well. My guess is that savvy restaurant owners are skewing the ratings on UrbanSpoon in their favor. How else can one explain the reason for “Peking Garden” being listed as one of the top Chinese restaurants in Raleigh??

Until this past weekend, I had never been to Peking Garden since it looked to be one of those run of the mill old-school chinese restaurants from the 1980′s. But still it’s listed as one of the top picks in the area, so I thought I’d give it a try. bad idea.

I should have went with my instincts and stayed away from this place. It’s definitely old-school. From the bamboo decor to the koi fish pond, the place looks to be frozen in time, with no intention of updating their look or their food. And boy, is the food old fashioned and sad to say, just plain awful.

The General Tso’s was basic and passable. But the more expensive “gourmet” (not!) Hawaiian shrimp dish – was a joke. essentially prepackaged shrimp drowned in a “sweet & sour” sauce. oh and don’t get me started on the “Chicken in Garlic Sauce”. It’s more like GARLIC and more garlic with some chicken in it. I’m going to be smelling like garlic for days. oh and whatever you do, don’t ever order the double pan fried noodles with chicken. what a waste of money.

Two obvious tip offs that I unfortunately chose to ignore:
1) the place was far from crowded during dinner
2) we were the only asians dining there during our visit. So, if other asians won’t come to eat your asian food, what does that tell you??

This is no damn “hidden gem”, I can honestly tell you that right now. Obviously the owners (and friends/family etc) are tech savvy enough to know how to place these bogus votes/ratings on the various review sites like UrbanSpoon. Either that or these local yokels have absolutely no idea what good asian cuisine is supposed to taste like!
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Like most cat owners, I’m on a mission to find some decent cat litter. Back when we initially adopted our little kitty, we started out with “Scoop Away” simply because it’s a popular brand and is widely available at most grocery stores. Well, we learned very quickly that it wasn’t a good choice for our household. Before I continue let me make it clear that I’m far from being an expert on this matter but I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far…

Scoop Away Scented Cat Litter – This is a pretty well known brand of cat litter and heavily marketed on television and in magazines. We bought it thinking that it must be popular for a good reason. Well, the brand ended up not being a good fit in our household. First of all, Scoop Away is very dusty. Even though the package states that it’s 99.9% dust free, it ain’t so. Also the scented version smells like cheap perfume and the smell eventually overwhelms the senses. Yes, it does a good job in masking odor but that simply because you can’t smell much else BUT the cheap perfume smell. Since this is a clay-based litter, it clumps very well but I learned that clay isn’t good for a cat’s digestive system. Yes, I know a cat is not going to outright eat the stuff but the bits of litter gets on their fur & feet and you guessed it, the cat will inevitably digest it while cleaning themselves off. Oh and another downside was that the litter tracked quite a bit so we ended up with dust and bits of litter in our carpets and on our furniture. ugh. next up…

World’s Best Cat Litter (original formula) – Since learning of the health issues associated with clay-based products, we went with a corn-based litter called, what else, “The World’s Best Cat Litter”. Well unfortunately, it turns out, it’s NOT the world’s best cat litter after all. I mean, I like the fact that it’s natural and safe for cats and it clumps OK. But there are some negatives – there’s still a fine, yellow dust with this corn based litter. so you may end up with yellow paw prints after your cat’s visit to the litter box. And it does a poor job with deodorizing cat waste. the smell just lingers around a long while after the cat has done its business. We regularly scoop out (panning for gold) the box twice a day and it still smelled bad. blech.

World’s Best Cat Litter (multi-cat formula) – because of the odor issue, we tried out the multi-cat version of “World’s Best Cat Litter”. Again, it’s a natural, corn-based litter and it supposed to have an extra additive for fighting odors. And it did a better job with odors compared to the original formula but still a bit lacking.

So, just like the almighty Bono of U2, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. At this point, I know that I’m sticking with an all-natural type litter. Or at least that’s my intention. I like the multi-cat version of the World’s Best Cat Litter but it needs to do a better job in absorbing odors.

So the hunt continues…
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I get a kick out of visiting Food World over in Durham. It’s an Asian market that took over the space of a large grocery store in a faded old strip mall near downtown. The decor of the pre-existing supermarket hasn’t been touch all that much so when you walk through the place you get a weird mish-mash of cultures. The interesting twist on top of all that is that Food World also caters to the hispanic community that lives in the area. So there’s a section devoted to hispanic foods including a Taqueria. They make tortillas from scratch and the hot menu items look pretty authentic. Oh and there’s a fishmonger hidden in the back corner that get his fish fresh from Wilmington.

We don’t make the trek over to Food World too often since there’s a nicer (cleaner, more modern) Korean grocery store in Cary that we prefer. But I have to say that Food World’s got character. On our most recent visit (it had been about six months since our previous visit) we wondered if they had updated the look of the store to keep up with the new competition in Cary. NOPE. not a thing. Well, actually I think the hispanic presence in the store has become even more prominent now. and maybe the Taqueria/fishmonger feature of the store is enough to keep the place in business even with the competition across town. oh and surprisingly the prices of the various korean items we needed on our visit were just as high as they are in Cary. I would have thought with the lower rent in that part of Durham, the prices would reflect some sort of discount but I was wrong…

We took the kids to Carowinds over the weekend. We opted to do the park during the fall since it’s less crowded and the weather is nice and cool. And it turned out great – no long lines and no sweating profusely under a blazing hot sun. Here’s my quick sum-up of what we experienced during our visit to the amusement park.

The Good
- Carowinds had an october special that discounted the adult ticket prices by almost 50%. awesome!

- Afterburn is a great coaster. Nighthawk made me disoriented. and the “Drop Tower” almost made the wife pee her pants.

- the younger set LOVED Danny Phantom’s Flyers. I think they rode that particular ride the most out of all the rides. but it’s a bit scary to think about the amount of wear and tear the riders must have on these cables that hold the individual carts. if a cable goes snap, that rider is a goner! yikes!

- found an ultra clean men’s bathroom in the park. it’s located at the far end of the park near the Jukebox Diner. some of the other bathrooms were a bit dingy and old. but for some reason, the bathroom near the Diner was clean and almost looked brand-new.

- the kids give thumbs up to the following: Flying Dutchman’s Revenge, Fairly Odd Coaster, Rugrants Runaway Reptar, Hurler, Carolina Cobra, Vortex, Afterburn and Danny Phantom’s Flyers

The Bad
- they have a go-cart track and a bungee/flying contraption thing-y but they both cost extra. harumph. they should be included with admission if you ask me!

-the following were pretty darn lame: Scooby-Doo’s Haunted Mansion, the Dora the Explorer train ride, the LazyTown Sporticopters.

- the “age factor” reared its ugly head again. man, I can’t keep up with my oldest son any more. He was having a blast riding all the thrill rides and after the fourth or fifth coaster, I was pretty much done for the day. ouch.

- most of the newer steel coasters were too short for my tastes. since it wasn’t crowded, we had the opportunity to re-ride ‘em multiple times if we wanted to. but man, if I had to stand in long lines for some of those coasters, I’d feel gypped afterwards.

- ugh, the food/refreshment prices are high. yeah, it’s pretty standard for amusement parks but still, feeding the family put the hurt on my wallet. ouch.

- the park closes at 5:30pm in the fall.

The Ugly
- what in the world possessed me to eat their BBQ pork sandwich for lunch? ugh. bad choice. it felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon. avoid the BBQ at all costs!

- I’m guessing Carowinds is still in a “transitional phase”. From what I understand, Paramount is no longer running the park. The park is now with the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. All the Paramount movie references are gone and the rides now have generic names like “Hurler”, “Afterburn” and “Vortex”. Surprisingly, the Nicktoons portion (the lil’ kids section) of the park is still around. but for how long? who knows. This might be the last year we’ll get to see the Nickelodeon characters in the park. sadly, most of the attractions in Carowinds are in need of a facelift. lots of rides showing their age. lots of faded colors and we saw a couple rides malfunction during our visit. yikes. hopefully things will improve with the new owners.
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My wife calls my cell phone the “butt-ugliest phone she has ever seen”. thanks, dear. Yes, I own a Motorola i880 and I know it’s not the latest and greatest in phones but I like it. I have to admit that I get a bit embarrassed whipping it out when others are sporting the newer touch-screen styled smart phones but for what I use it for, the i880 does the job.

First of all, I use the i880 on the Boost mobile network. At the time I got the i880 there wasn’t an alternative clamshell phone offered by Boost that had the same features at this price range. Boost offers the newer (and more stylish) Motorola i9 but at $300, it’s just way too expensive. The other option was the i776 but it’s a bit barebones for my tastes and didn’t offer microSD storage. Anyway, the i880 is a Sprint Nextel phone that can also work as a Boost phone simply by inserting a Boost SIM. This is basically true for any Nextel phone using the iDEN 800 band. Just be sure that the phone isn’t currently registered under a Sprint/Nextel plan.

Anyway, two main reasons I’m on Boost right now is that I don’t make a whole lot of calls on my phone that would require me a regular monthly plan and the iDEN coverage is great inside the office building where I work as well as at my house. iDEN is an older technology but it definitely does a good job in getting signal through thick office walls where other cell providers can’t reach.

Things I like about the phone: it’s built like a rock, it’s got a large color screen, it features a good camera/video recorder, you can play mp3s on it and it’s got a push button on the side that quickly flips open the phone for you.

The few drawbacks that I’ve encountered include: no built in calculator or alarm clock (but I believe I can download/purchase a java app for those features, I think), it’s a bit particular in converting photos as full screen wallpaper (needs to be a specific dimension) and it’s also a bit difficult to convert mp3s into ringtones for the phone (but there is a way to do it and I’ll probably post a how-to in the near future).

All in all, it’s a good phone that gets great signal and is built like a tank. Yes, it’s a f-ugly phone but hey, it gets the job done and that’s all that matters. … at least until I can find a better looking phone that works on Boost Mobile, that is.

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We recently took the kids to Wet ‘N Wild at Emerald Pointe in Greensboro. It had been quite some time since my last visit to a water park. I guess now that our youngest child is old enough to handle himself in a pool setting, we figured it was finally time for a visit. Wet ‘N Wild has expanded quite a bit over the years and is now the largest water park in the Carolinas and the 12th largest overall in the United States.

Like most amusement parks it has the usual downsides – inflated food prices, questionable restroom cleanliness and some obnoxious teens here and there but for the most part, Wet ‘N Wild is still a fun visit for the whole family. There are a variety of rides and a new section specifically for the younger set which was great for our younger ones. Even though we went on a weekday we still ended up enduring some relatively long wait times for the newer rides like “Dr. Von Dark’s Tunnel of Terror” and “Dragon’s Den”. But if waiting in line on hard concrete in a wet swim suit isn’t your thing, there’s always easy access to the huge wave pool (Thunder Bay Wave Pool), Leisure Lagoon (for the younger kids) and Shipwreck Cove (a pool for older kids).

Oh there is one ride that didn’t have long lines at least from what I saw. It’s the “Daredevil Drop” which is the slide with a straight 76-foot drop. I guess the height and the near vertical drop scares off most riders but you have to try it at least once. Once was good enough for me, thank you. whew!

The only snafu that occurred during our visit was losing my locker key. I had my wallet and car keys in the locker and was sort of freaked out when I couldn’t find the locker key. Like a dork, kept the key in a velcro’ed side pocket of my swimming shorts thinking it’d be secure but after a couple rides, it was gone. Thankfully the park staff was quick to help retrieve my items out of the locker before anything *happened* to them. what a relief! I’m definitely going to be more mindful of the key the next time I rent a locker that’s for sure. Again kudos to the helpful staff and also to the lifeguards who all seemed very attentive to the folks in the pool.

This Old Man gives Wet ‘N Wild a big thumbs up!

We’ll be heading back there real soon!
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It has been interesting to watch Adam Sandler become this “bankable” movie star over the years but the question in MY mind is – “for how much longer?” I mean, most of his movies feel like retreads of either his previous work or blatant derivative hackjobs of other more successful rom-coms. His latest (out on DVD) is titled Bedtime Stories. Sandler plays “Skeeter Bronson” a handyman at a hotel that was once his father’s. It’s interesting what his father says near the beginning – “Your fun is only limited by your imagination.” Ironically, “Bedtime Stories” is lacking in the IMAGINATION department and so in turn is our enjoyment in watching it. The storyline is the typical Sandler, as The Loser, redeems himself and gets the girl bit that we’ve all seen before. And the talents of actors like Jonathan Pryce, Guy Pearce and Russell Brand are all wasted here with paper-thin characters. what a dissappointment. It’s good to see Keri Russell and Lucy Lawless in the flick but again, they didn’t get to do much here. I DO have to say that Courtney Cox (who plays Skeeter’s sister) is NOT aging well. Me thinks someone went a little overboard with botox injections to her face because half of her face did NOT move over the entire course of the movie. yikes! don’t get too close, cameraman! please! I’m not sure why Disney got involved with this forgettable film because it’s really not even worth a rental.

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