It's The Day of The Valentine ... Time for Cigars!!

Click here to listen!

All right, friends, welcome back to "What The Hell Just Happened?"! Oh yeah, happy fargin' Valentines Day, too! In this episode, recorded the week before the Super Bowl, we podcast from the Cohiba Cigar Lounge in high-falootin' Santana Row here in San Jose. We chat with Sam (one of the guys who works there) about cigar tech. What better place to talk tech than here in Silicon Valley!
We're then joined by co-owner Arbi, who gives us a walk-through of the store. We get the lowdown on the store, more cigar tech, and the wonder of cedar in humidors among other things.

(You can hear a couple other guys in the background off in the distance ... we'll try to get them on the next time we podcast down there, heheh!)

We even get to chat with an MMA fighter, too, for a bit. Good stuff!

Enjoy, one & all, and preferably with a good stogie!

(Watch this space for a possible video, too!)

BMSMA,

G&S

Superbowl, some WTHJH moments and a bit of philosophizing.

Click here to listen.

This week we wax lyrical about the SuperBowl, the show, where Greg saw it (3 guesses to our regular listeners) and the the ads shown during the game.

Dana Carvey was hosting SNL this weekend. He resurrected some of his famous characters from his years on the show. It was excellent.

Greg talked about a fun web site dedicated to auto spelling on computers and phones, and the messes it can get us into. It's hysterical.

We do recap the last day of our Yosemite trip, since that was not covered in last week's podcast. We won't repeat it here, but if you haven't seen the videos the links are on last weeks blog. 


Egypt!??!?! What more can we say, apart from the government seems to be playing a game of attrition, hoping the demonstrators will give up before any more changes have to take place.


Obama...what can you do for America? (Try not shipping jobs and factories over seas you morons).


Companies scrambling to get legal after government cracks down on illegal employees. We debate the difference between political parties.....none in conclusion. Bill Hicks stated it clearly.


This web page has some of the most amazing pictures you'll ever see. It's all about scale and perspective. We debate this a little and have very differing views on how insignificant it makes us, both as individuals, or a planet. Amazing. It gets very philosophical. Summarized, nicely, by Bill Hicks again.


BMSMA.


G&S

Yosemite baby

Click here to listen.

This week we have a special podcast, brought to you from Yosemite National Park. It's more of a multimedia podcast than normal, as we made 3 separate videos and these are linked below: 2 scenic, and 1 with Greg in front of the camera explaining a few things (with Simon chiming in at times)....all recorded in 720 HD so best watched like that on YouTube, and full screen too. Do we look after our listeners or what! The podcast itself was recorded on the portable digital recorder and the room sound qualities led to far more reverb than is usual, so please excuse the "not in the studio" sound...but, hey, it's in the field.

But first of all, a BIG congratulations to one of our listeners and friends, Wendy, who had her first food review published in the LA Examiner. It can be found here.

We also discuss the chaos currently unfolding in Egypt. For those of you who are regular listeners, you'll know that Simon has spent a great deal of time out there. 

So, back to the plot.....Greg and Simon drove up to Yosemite, and followed the tradition of stopping in Oakdale, a farming town in the Central Valley, and ate at the Oakdale Cafe, a definite local food joint. Because of time requirements to get back on Sunday we also stopped at one of the best tea shops in California on the way to Yosemite, not on the way back, as is our custom. Dori's Tea Cottage is a delightful place, with very friendly owners (Hi to Dori and Greg!), a great selection of teas, some traditional and some definitely not. They have their own web site of course but they also have a store on Ebay. While driving TO Yosemite, as you go through Groveland, Dori's is on the left, at the end of the main street. Don't miss it if you ever go through. Last time we visited there, we were mixing our teas and experimenting with flavors. Dori took note and when we went in this time, they had a couple of new blends based upon some ideas we were experimenting with....how cool is that! "Peppermint Patti" and "Milkie Way".

When we got to Yosemite, and checked into the Yosemite Lodge Hotel, it felt like Spring. The waterfalls were in full flow, the sun was out and it was  quite warm. Saturday night we ate in the Yosemite Lodge Mountain Restaurant, as they do incredible prime rib at the weekends. You have to try this. It's not on the menu so you have to ask. The secret is to get into the restaurant by 6pm though. We sat in the Mountain Bar after dinner, as we couldn't waddle back to the room yet, and chilled, talking to one of the staff members, Sarah, who'd been there for 35 years. She said the money sucked, but could you ask for a better place to live and work? "Nope." In the info video, linked below, you'll see Sarah briefly as she puts Greg's beer on the table.

The next day it was bright and sunny, so we drove up to one of the best viewing spots in Yosemite, overlooking the whole valley. Last year we parked at the same spot, to the day, and recorded this video. It's astounding. Again, it's in HD, so best to select that and watch it full screen.

We had to endure an inane talk by a hike leader. It was ridiculous, to the point of being farcical, but Greg got a good chuckle out of it, afterwards. We should have recorded it. At least we now know how to poop in bags so as not to spoil a stream! Ewwwww.

We then went to Curry Village and recorded a bunch of video to explain a few back stories that regular listeners will have heard, about sex starved rangers....yeh, you heard that right....and other such adventures. We grabbed a spot of tea while there, and one of the staff members had a little bit of a freudian slip, as when listen the types of tea they had, instead of saying "Camomile", he said "Camel Toe"...no kidding. That's what he said. Naturally, Simon could hardly contain his amusement at the time.

Back at the Lodge, we had another great dinner (Trout) and another fine time in the bar. We finished up the podcast so we could mix it and get it ready for uploading Sunday, not realizing that the weather was going to be so wild the next day. 

Sunday morning, we were at the Ahwahnee for it's famous Sunday Brunch. It's sooo good.

As a result of the heavy snowfall, we recorded more video and that's why there are 2 scenic videos on YouTube this time. It was bloody amazing, and thank God for Land Rovers. The drive back was interesting up at 6000 feet, and the road was more like a half pipe than an actual road, and we were on it before the snow plows in places. It was fuuuuuun.

So, onto the videos.

Video 1, scenic Friday and Saturday.

Video 2, scenic, Sunday, and lots of snow.

Video 3, Greg and Simon talking about Yosemite type stuff.

Tacos, a shitty week (unrelated) and Chinese medicine

Click here to listen.

We start off, as always, recapping the week. Greg's was fun, Simon's....er, not so much.


Greg spent the weekend at....wait for it....the Cohiba store in Santana Row. He was watching the play offs for the Superbowl, and generally enjoying himself.


He had an odd experience at a local Taco restaurant, Taco Bravo. Surreal in fact.


We discuss NASA's attempt to extend the life of the Shuttle program as they have asked for some extra funds to have another shuttle launch. Yeh! More money for them, less for anchor babies please! This leads us onto discuss that topic and the fact that Los Angeles County alone......one single County ALONE....spent $600 million on anchor babies in 2010. That's a lot of money, and that's just one county, not for the illegals, and associated costs, just their babies.


We then discuss (briefly) why Simon's weekend was so shitty.....turns out to be a dodgy digestive system, and he's been diagnosed with a parasite.....yucky indeed. Chinese medicine to the rescue. Yup, you read that right...Chinese medicine fixed it.


Greg ventured to see the same Chinese doctor as Simon for his own issue, and was impressed by how it worked. He picked up some herbs from Dana Market in Mountain View.


Next week, fingers crossed, a fun podcast, coming from a remote location. Will keep you posted.


BMSMA.
G&S

Birthdays, a fun weekend, living to 107 and not being grumpy.

Click here to listen.

This week we talk start off talking about the weekend of course.

It was MLK weekend, a nice 3 day weekend, so Greg ended up in the Cohiba store of course, living it up and enjoying himself.

It was Simon's wife's birthday, so it involved a pleasant relaxing weekend, ending up at the Plumed Horse restaurant in Saratoga, California. It's yummy and the food gets 4-5 noms at least!

We discuss the odd topic of Chelation, and in particular, Life Glow Plus, which we've both used, albeit a long time ago. This was a spontaneous subject, and we're not plugging this stuff!

We talk about a new game that's on Facebook, Cityville......it's very addictive and a lot of fun to play....and free if you avoid getting the extra energy or funds to play faster.

Then we're absolutely confused because apparently young people crave self esteem over sex. Huh? What universe are we in? The human race is doomed!

Last, or as much as we can remember....we chat about a guy who retired in 1968......over 40 years ago. He is still alive at 107 and living off his retirement.....and he didn't have a pension, but saved well and lives frugally. Amazing story. Read about it here. Inspiring and amazing.

Music at the end is "The Hidden Step" by Ozric Tentacles.

BMSMA.

G&S

A Week of Extremes

Click here to Listen

This week, we naturally discuss our recent activities, which, of course, involve greg at the Cohiba store at Santana Row.

A couple of really fun things this week......we took another flight to Monterey, because there were lots of clouds. We partook of the incredible avocado burger that is served at the airport restaurant.......it can not be over stated enough how good this thing is!

We took video too :-)......here it is.

On the way back, while talking to Norcal Air Traffic Control, we learned that there had been an earthquake. They didn't know how bad for a while but advised us to stand by to find out whether we could land or not.....just what a pilot wants to hear! It turned out to be a 4.1 earthquake. Then we had a reasonably close encounter with the big Farmer's blimp!

Greg's father had a birthday, so he went up to the House of Prime Rib in San Francisco to celebrate. Nice. Some of the best Prime Rib you'll ever have. Seriously yummy.

Simon spent some time talking to guys who'd been to the CES in Vegas the previous week, which is the biggest consumer electronic trade show in the US. It seems that despite lots of pretenders to the throne, the iPad still rules the roost....with the also rans still playing catch up. We discuss the possibility of AppleTV as a source for distributed house sound system....very cool.

Android phone, vs, iPad/iPhone.....The Android is very cool but it is just too complicated and has a lousy battery life.

Australian flooding. Bloody hell that's bad!

Of course we have to mention the Arizona shooting. That's seriously bad too, and it leads into a (biased) discussion on gun control and we turn into grumpy old farts for a few minutes.

And that wraps it up for this week.

BMSMA.

G&S.

Happy New Year....that was imaginative wasn't it.

Click here to listen.

This week we discuss what we did over New Year. Some of it was together, some of it, elsewhere....but it was fun. (with lots of side distractions along the way)

One of the things we did over the Christmas/New Year break was to take a flight to Monterey, California, to have what is, collectively and individually, our favorite burgers...just what we needed after stuffing our faces over Christmas. Here's the video.

For the last third of the show we talk about a few news articles that caught our attention in the first week of 2011.

The Truth About your Weight Gain and where your burgers come from:

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/truth-about-your-weight-gain

Then, here in California, we've got the ridiculous going on with one of our major gas and electric utility providers, PG&E....they charge you less if you waste more. Yup, that's real forward thinking. 
PGE (Pacific Gas and Electric) Rate Changes Are Screwy In the Cabesa

Lastly, Spokeo.Com (A Scary Site With All Your Damned Information posted for public consumption, interestingly enough, lots of it inaccurate), and how to get your details off it. BTW, the privacy link is at the very bottom of the browser when you're looking at it, not the pop up window that contains all your juicy information. This is so freakin' bad, we are trying to tell everyone about this so they can get their information off the site if they wish.

Happy New Year!

BMSMA!

G&S