James Bond in Pasadena!

This super clean silver, right- hand drive 1965 Aston Martin DB 6 was in Old Town Pasadena a handful of hours ago today.  It has a striking resemblance of the famous DB5 that James Bond drove in Goldfinger and many other movies.

The owner was cool and smiled when I took the picture.  I noted that this model had a sunroof.

 This car had a 4 liter in-line 6 cylinder producing 280hp.  

                                  This car could do 150MPH which was extremely fast at the time.

The DB in the name is from the owner at the time, David Brown.   

There are some for sale for about 200k USD.  

I am just happy the owner takes it out instead of leaving it in his garage or museum.

Las Vegas November 2012

Hey everybody!

I just got back from Las Vegas and I want to tell you all about it.  First of all we stayed at Cesars Palace.  No free wifi.  No resort fee though.  I believe the internet costed $15/ a DAY and I wouldn't be surprised if it was per laptop.  I hate it when they do that shit on you.  Its not that these expensive hotels charge you something that is free with Howard Johnsons but that they are super strict and it is $15 per day PER device.  So basically if you and your significant other bring laptops you gotsta pay $30 for 24 hours of internet.  It is so cheap for the hotels and makes this pure profit.  That is the part that really chaps my hide.

Not a whole lot of people at the pool @ 11am.  Then again it was 60 degrees.

I noted that there were more of the "Mature" and family crowd there.  I saw this sign

But they were never obeyed nor enforced.  Jeeez.  I think they should have a "Child Valet" at the front door or they should pass out free Benadryl/Ridalin for the parents to give their kids.  That would make life more enjoyable that choose not to have kids or travel with them.

 

 

Fridge was well stocked.  No room for your stuff.

 

This shit is all high tech.  There are sensors everywhere so if you remove any of their goods you have about 60-90 seconds to restore it to its original state before you are promptly charged by the casino.

 

 

Another extradorinary thing I saw was a Starbucks! 

Not just any Starbucks but the most expensive one that I have ever seen.  This one was in the hotel by the VIP entrance on Flamingo Rd near the Octavius Tower.

Note the $6 grande latte. 

 

So this is Las Vegas Blvd looking Northbound.  Not a whole lot of traffic in the afternoon. 

Probably because it was a Monday @ 4:30pm.

 

Here is a nice artistic photo of Treasure Island.

 

 

And the next portion of this blog is what I ate!

 

 

This bad boy was $17 at Planet Hollywood.  Not a bad deal.  Good sized portion.  This is definitely not a meal.  It is a very good snack though.  This saved me from desperately buying convenient junk food later on the day.  I recommend this before your show.

 

These are quite possibly the best tater tots that I have ever eaten.  EVER.  I got them at P.J. Clarkes.  Wow!  Lots of flavor!  I had these with an amazing happy hour!  $1 oysters!

 

I ate quite a few of those bad boys.

 

This place is Max Brenners in the Forum Shops.  This place is kinda like Chocolate wonderland.  Seriously, they have some amazing chocolate martinis and a pretty good happy hour!

 

This store is a mecca for women worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alfa Romeo Coming to USA?

I hate Lexus of Glendale.  I hate that they desecrate all cars that were sold there with a non-factory nameplate addition.  All their cars say "of Glendale" below the rear Lexus nameplate.  I noted that that shit comes only from 2 sources.  First, CarMax and the other one is the entire Midwest.  They put all their dealership names on stickers on the back of the car.  Soooooo tacky. So not only is this dealership extremely tacky, I have given them several times to service my car and they have never impressed me contrary to Longo Lexus and Keyes Lexus.  I find Longo Lexus pretty amazing.  They have an actual Starbucks there! 

As for Keyes Lexus, they take care of me too.  I have to feel comfortable relationship with my "guy".  I am extremely paraniod with anything cars because there are many oppertunities to get ripped off.  It also helps that it feels like a nice hotel.  They have a nice lounge with plasma tvs, desktops, free wifi, pastries, microwave, sodas, bottled water, tea all for free!  It seriously makes you feel a bit better about paying a premium for auto service.


I was on my way to drop off my car for service.  So I got off the freeway and noted this camoflauged auto.  I pulled over and spoke with the driver briefly.  Apparently Alfa Romero will be coming to the USA!  We starting getting Fiat 500 which are extremly popular in Europe.  This is thanks to the relationship with Chrysler and Fiat.  So I saw this car parked on the side of Van Nuys Street

The actual car that people drive will not look like this.  They put stuff on the car to make it look wierd.  The idea is that there are certain cues you can look at like the L.E.D front and back.

 ]

The reliability of Alfa Romeros are definitely lower than the bomb proof Toyotas.  You see though thing with Alfas is that you don't buy it for reliability.  You buy it for the stylish-ness and the driver connection

Weekend in SF!`

So last weekend I was in SF with the wife! 

We went from Burbank ot Oakland. 

I managed to take this photo of the San Fernando Valley. 

Lots of pools!

 

We were in the "Little Italy" part of town and I saw this interesting Hunan (Not Human!) food. 

Here is one of the ugliest car you can buy today!  Say hello to the Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet. 

The starting price for an ugly car of the year contender is 47k. 

This frankenstein car is a 2 door, 4wd, SUV, convertible.  Not to mention ugly as all hell.

 

 

Note the 2 rear windows in the soft top.  It looks oddly proportioned.  It looks short and fat. 

This was at Union Square and the second time I have ever seen this terrible car.  The other time I saw it with the top down and that was wierd.  It reminded me of a boat.  Top up is even worse!

Here is a pic of the TransAmerica pyramid. 

I think that it is neat that they used the elevator shafts as a part of the design. 

That is why the top sections stick out.

 

Artistic photo

 

 

 

Here is a building designed by one of my favorite archtechts: Frank Lloyd Wright.  He makes some pretty striking buildings.  I know, I should have taken more photos on the inside.  The tenant was like a museum where you can buy stuff.  Everything was not cheap.

 

Here is a street performer off of Market Street.

Here is a street scene near the Embarcadero.  I believe that means "warf" in Spanish.

 

We went to lunch at one of my favorite spots... Mocca in the Union Square.  It's off Maiden Lane alley.  The food is pretty good.  I like the seafood salad and the roast beef sandwich.  What surprised me was that there was a "Bread Charge of $1.75".  Hmmmmm. 

 

 

 

Nike iD

I just learned about Nike iD!  This is super cool!  So here is how it works:  You pay a flat fee and you pick every section of the specified shoe style and you choose the color and material.  You basically get a custom Nike for about a month and $200.  I have a running joke with my people telling them that I sponsored a Chinese girl!  For $200 she gets food and medicine for a year.  Plus she makes my shoes!

Plain looking box.

 

Not a whole lot going on with the box. 

Unfortunately they do not let you choose anything about the box. 

That would be pretty neat if they did though.

 

And here is what I got!  This particular pair came with an extra set of laces.

 

So these pair are basically an Air Force 1.  I wanted everything to be reflective so I chose the 3 colors that were available and mixed it up.

 

I even chose the sole.  You can choose the color and if is "solid".  I went with clear.

Side View. You choose the color of the strap, laces, stitching also.

 

Rear view.

 

Here is what the shoe is all about.  The front, sides, back, and even tounge are all made out of reflective material.  In this picture, the flash was on!

The middle part is the reflective black part.

 

Here is the back of the shoe.  Compare how it looks without the flash above.

 

 



 

 

So the entire process took a month.  Perhaps you could eek about a couple less days if you cough up some $$ for a higher priority shipping.  Keep in mind this stuff comes from China!  All things considered this is actually a pretty remarkable deal for a highly customizable shoe.

 

 

 

 

Fred In His Condo

This post is about Fred and his Condo.  He has a Condo and a "Tree"  The condo has 4 levels and typically he is on the 3rd or 4th floor.  He does not hang out on the 2nd Floor.  Today he was on the 3rd. 

Fred zoomed in

 

The bottom floor is where Fred scratches his claws on.  He likes to "tear it up!"

 

Slow Stop or Go!

So I was on the 210 Freeway going Eastbound and I noticed this on an onramp.  Unfortunately I was already on the freeway and didn't have enough time to take the picture.  So I exited the next exit and went back on the 210 to take this photo.

I apolgize for the quality of the photo first off.  My piece of shit Motorola's camer takes shitty photos when the light isn't ideal.  That said, all the lights are on and I have never seen this before.  I have to remember to take my good camer when it rains.  You always get good pictures!

5 Dollar Make You Holla

Whoa.

Where In The World Has Robert Ate At Lately?

Recent reviews by Rob Y.

What's this?

Hoarders!

I would like to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite shows!  HOARDERS!  I specifically am fascinated with the one on A&E.  I watch this show enough to know the names of the Doctor's names and the other people that help out in the show. 

I am going to take a moment to tell you all why exactly I like this show. I find it is very curious that the casual observer woud think these people's problems are simple to solve yet in reality the problem is deciptively complex.  To most people, to solve the problem the guy just has to clean up after him/herself.  That is not the case.  The hoard itself is a physical manifestation of someone having a disorder(s).  You can clean it up but the people will immediately hoard it up if they don't get the mental help they need. 

The episodes are all different and each case have different challenges.  One thing that makes it even more fascinating is that not all of the people can clean their house which reflects reality.  Not everyone has a happy ending.  Sometimes, the house is so fucked up they can't go back!

Each episode has common thread:  taumatic event(s) causing the person to hoard.  It may be a divorce, problem marriage, death(s), drug addiction(s), and depression or a combination.  After these events, apparently if you don't get help, your brain makes an alternative reality.  The other common thread is that their families are severely dysfunctional to the point where they are clueless how bad a member of the family is living.

What makes me sad is when these people involve children and pets.  There was this episode where this guy loves rats.  So his pets got out of their cages and then OVERTOOK the house.  There were rats EVERYWHERE.  In the walls, attic, all over the place.  There was another episide where the owner's house was overrun by rabbits. 

Some people are attached to every single item.  For some reason they associate the item with someone or some event and relive that event by touching that object.  They are scared to throw out that possession because they don't want to forget that memory. 

Some people can't distinguish garbage.  Some people find self identity with their possessions.  In their logic the more stuff they have the "richer" they are.  Some people get a high off purchasing good deals and they keep on buying to keep that high.  Some people grow up very poor and never want to end up like that again, so they save everything "just in case". 

Lots of times, the people are just depressed and don't take care of themselves, or their house.  They just give up on life.  They just throw their trash anywhere and forget about it.

What blows my mind is the fact that most of these people are cool with sleeping with feces nearby.  Their noses get used to smelling shit all the time that they don't notice it!  That is just a testament of the human body adapting to the surrounding. 

Space Shuttle Endeavour visits Pasadena!

The Space Shuttle is taking a tour of Pasadena!  It was pretty chaotic in Los Angeles.  Everyone was outdoors with their cameras waiting patiently to get a glimpse of the Space Shuttle.  People were puling over on the freeway and I pulled over the bridge on the freeway to get some pics.  There were 3 passes over Pasadena so lots of people had great opportunities to get some pictures.

210 Freeway looking West

Bye Bye Space Shuttle Endeavour 

Puerto Rico Does It Better

Hello everyone in Internet-Land!  I just got back from Puerto Rico (PR) and I had a great time.  People say that PR is the Hawaii of NYC and that makes sense because it is less than 4 hours from NYC.  For me it was a 10 hour ordeal.  When you first arrive, the humidity hits you like a train.  90 degrees with 50% humidity is definitely not fun.  From what I understand, peak season is late November to Springtime.  We went there off-peak to save some $$$, and that we did!  First up is that we rented a car.  We somehow upgraded from a POS to a Kia.

This HZK 375 was my primary mode of transport in the "Enchanted Island"

 

 

The Kia was nothing spectacular.  We actually racked up nearly 400 miles in a weeks worth and this is the best way to get around if you don't want to take the tour bus.  Speaking of driving, from what people told me, PR has come a long way and that doesn't surprise me.  All the roads were pretty decent.  Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the local drivers.  I am amazed how much of a hurry these islanders are in because they love to cut people off yet don't love to use their turn signal.  Speaking of signal, they could use some more left turn arrows as well as stop signs, actually some more signs in general would be great.  There are parts of the island where there are no signs!  Actually these people have a wierd address system.  Actually more specifically, THEY LACK ADDRESSES.  Google maps is just somewhat helpful to get around.  Even Google can't figure this island out.  On the good side, the island is small so you should be able to find where you have to be.  Worst case scenario ask a local.  Most of the people know both English and Spanish and are super friendly. 

 

First stop was Bebo's BBQ.  This is close to San Juan airport and next to the car rental place.  So if you are renting a car, go here!

 

Bebos, BBQ.  Where the locals eat!

 

Rotissary Chicken.  We had half a chicken

 

Roasted Pork.  I had some of this too

 

 

Sausage and the Blood Sausage ont he right.  Had them both.

 

So we had 2 full plates of ribs, pork, rice, yuca plus 2 beers, with a grand total of $14.  Wow.  The bathroom was deplorable.  If you go to Bebos' go the bathroom first and bring yourself some wet wipes.

 

 

Next up is the SuperMax!

 

This supermarket was in the nice area of PR, Condado.  Very touristy!  I did note that the Blockbuster was open, but didn't have time to check it out.  This was an interesting supermarket for a couple of reasons.  First of all, they had valet parking. 

 

 When was the last time you saw valet parking at a supermarket?  This was a first for me.

 

Sorry for my finger blocking the picture. 

They had a "Gaurd Tower" in the middle of the parking lot. 

Look at that green thing in the midde. Hmmmmmm

 

Inside, things were definitely not cheap.  I noted Paula Deen pushing chicken. 

Since when is Chicken vegetarian?  Hmmmmm

Edy's looks like Dryer's.  And for $7. 

 

Hello Kitty hair care!

 

These beer cans are only 8 ounces, as opposed to the normal 12OZ.

 

This looked interesting.  Cream of corn cereal?

Mufungo!  This is what PR is all about.  Smashed Plaintains with some steak. 

Good Stuff.  This plate was $20! 

 

That $20 plate comes with an awesome view!

 

 

They have different condiments in PR.  Mayo Ketchup?  Kind of funky.  Not bad though.

 

Here is a fried fish plate.  The fried cakes on the left is from yuca.  Very tasty!

 

Subway is very similar to the new ones in the USA.

 

 

 

They do not have the $5 foot long but they did have this cheap special! 

 

Different flavor of chips for the locals!

 

 

They offered smoothies here!

 

Here was our home away from home for a week.

You can see it on google maps.

http://goo.gl/maps/v2pnN

 

Casino across the bridge!

 

 

Mini mufungo with ropa vieja.  Good stuff.

 

The local authorities have a high powered boats!  Note the boat between the rocks.

 

I zoomed in on the Police boat.

 

Note the buildings are the same as the ones above the Police one above.

 

Here is the view from our room to the right.  Note the bridge.  That is the same from 5 photos above.  The ad for El Yunque is their national rainforest.  I have some photos you will see below.  The building across has the casino, 2 pools, and beach.

 

Here is an artistic picture.

 

 

Here is looking to the left.  Compare the buildings to the beach pics above.

 

 

Here an artistic pic looking left.

   

 

We checked out the rainforest, el Yunque (Yoon-ke).  Very cool. 

I read that there are no dangerous animals living in the rainforest.

 

You see lots of these guys.

 

Rainforest.  You can barely see the ocean in the middle.

 

Kitty. 

 

 

 

Yokahu Tower.

 

View from the top.

 

Here is the same pic as above but zoomed in.

 

It took about 45 minutes of a walk through a rainforest to see this waterfall.  Definitely not for the novices.

 

Next up is the Bacardi Factory Tour!

 Find it on Google maps!

http://goo.gl/maps/dvQqp

Unfortunately they have EXTREME security measure in place.  You can only go to certain spots and you can only take pictures in certain areas.  That is the bad part.  The good part is that you get 2 free drinks!  If you have the need for more, you can get mojitos for $10 and they come with a nice souvenir glass.  Afterwards, you will be in a great mood to check out the tour.

 

When you park your car, you walk to this strange structure. 

There are 2 bars there and employees that will let you know what the deal is. 

One bar is for your 2 free drinks (they only give you 2 drink coupons.) 

If you wanna drink more buy some mojitos.  $10 and you get to keep the glass!

 

 

 

 

The flags were flown at "Half staff" in rememberance for Patriot Day.

 

 

In the tour, they re-create a bar in the 20's and teach you how to make a Cuba Libre, Mojito and how they made Daqueries originally.  They also explained how they got their names too.  Unfortunately you cannot drink here.  I bet some of the employees get crunk here.

 

Here is another photo of the bar.

 

In the backround is their original distilling facility.

 

 

 

At the end of the tour, you get dropped into the gift shop, naturally.  The prices where very good and you can get your people all kinds of stuff including zippos, umbrellas, shirts, golf stuff, pens, hats, and of course alcohol.  No Costco sized bottles though.

 

 

We were in Old San Juan and went to Toro Salao. 

Find it on Google Maps

http://goo.gl/maps/TtGdz

Spanish Food and first up were fish croquettes!  Pretty amazing food. Lots of flavor and not too expensive.

 

  Fried fish bites. 

 

Stuffed churros and ice cream!

 So we ate pretty good, 4 drinks and the tab was less than $100 for 2 people.  Not bad at all.

 

 

 

 This food is from Bar Gitano. It was featured in Bizarre foods with Andrew Zimmern.

Hot steaming muscles with some sausage.  Note the bread on the stick.  I think that is a PR thing. 

 

 

 

Sausages.  Very Tasty.

 

These were fried fish croquettes.  Very awesome.  Crispy and lots of flavor.

 

Argentenian-style skirt steak with chimmichuri and these awesome potatoes. 

Again with the bread on the stick.

 

So this places was one of the higher end places in PR.  The bill was only $50 with no drinks.