Starvin Marvin's Bar & Grill

A group of us went to Starvin Marvin's when they first opened.  At that time, they had a limited menu and marginal service.  I've gone back a couple of times since that first visit, but it was just for drinks and appetizers on the patio.  I finally went again for dinner and everything was wonderful.

They have a beautiful outdoor area and live music Wednesday through Saturday with no cover charge.  I highly recommend the crawfish nachos.

Since the website doesn't have a copy of the menu, I'm posting it here.

Starvin Marvin's Bar & Grill
2310 N. 11th Street
Beaumont, TX   77703
(409) 234-5002

Hours:
Monday: 11am - 12am
Tuesday: 11am - 12am
Wednesday: 11am - 12am
Thursday: 11am - 2am
Friday: 11am - 2am
Saturday: 11am - 2am
Sunday: 11am - 12am

Thomas Jefferson All Alumni (and friends) Monthly Gathering

Every month for the last couple of years alumni from my high school, Thomas Jefferson in Port Arthur, Texas, have gotten together the last Saturday (sometimes Friday) of the month to hang out and harass each other.  In the past, we've mostly had alumni from 1972-ish through 1980-ish, but everybody is invited and if you'd like to join us, don't be shy about bringing friends. 

This month, our gathering will be Saturday, January 29, 2011, at the Logon Cafe .  The Logon is at 3805 Calder Avenue (beside CVS and across the street from Kroger) in Beaumont.  The sound is great and they also have delicious food.  The band starts at 8:30 p.m., but some of us will be there by 7:30 p.m.

The band Saturday night will be Longneck Road, which is one of my favorite local bands.  Class of 1973 alumni Ron Arceneaux is in the band and I work with the talented founder/singer/musician/songwriter Dick LeMasters.

You can find more details on the TJ Alumni Happenings events tab on Facebook.

An Exercise Class I Would Pay For

Today as I was jamming in the car to Donna Summer, I had a revelation.  Zumba is alright, but the music is not relatable to me.  I would pay actual money to join an exercise class that played just disco and funk and perhaps a smidge of Rolling Stones. 

No stretching.  No warming up.  No cooling down.  No standing in rows.  No instructor shouting encouragement and requiring me to do specific unattainable exercise moves.  It would just be a big room with flashing lights, a disco ball and straight move-your-body music for an hour.  I would go every afternoon.

I realize I could do this in a bar, but I couldn't do it from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and be sitting on my couch by 7:00 p.m.  Not to mention the fact that my gym clothes and tennis shoes are ever so much more comfortable than my bar hopping clothes and there would be no concerns for makeup mishaps or hair touch-ups.  Probably most importantly, the several beers I would consume in a bar would offset my calorie burning mission.

I also realize I could do this alone for free in my own home, but isn't dancing like a maniac so much more fun when you do it with other people? 

Movies I Can't Pass Up When Channel Surfing

I just saw a list of movies that Mike Rowe Can't Channel Surf By.  Below is my list.  This is not a list of my favorite movies.  That's a different list.  Right now, I'm watching "Stripes."  It's not listed below, but it's a good one.  "That's the fact, Jack!"

In no particular order and with the certainty that I'm leaving something off...

Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Annie Hall
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Any 1950s era scifi or horror movie
Tremors
So, I Married an Axe Murderer
Ghostbusters
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the one with Donald Sutherland)
When Harry Met Sally
Clue
The 'Burbs
The Money Pit
Midnight Run
Dr. Strangelove
Funny Farm
What About Bob?
Barefoot in the Park
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Vacation
Caddyshack
Support Your Local Sheriff
Honeymoon in Vegas
Stakeout
A Summer Place
Where the Boys Are
Valley Girl
A Star is Born (the one with Kris Kristofferson)
Outrageous Fortune
Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Penis Enhancement Anyone?

I was cleaning out my junk e-mail earlier and saw one with a subject line for "penis enhancement." I deleted it and moved on to the next e-mail.  As I was deleting the next e-mail, it occurred to me how nonchalantly I had deleted the "penis enhancement" e-mail. 

There was a day when stumbling across pictures of gynecological views of lady parts while doing an innocent search for bing cherries or seeing the word penis in my e-mail in-box would have possibly shocked me or at least made me hesitate.  Not anymore.

I Google through the images of penises and va-jay-jays without thought or hesitation until I find what I'm looking for.  I delete e-mails with subject lines that would send your grandmother screaming from the room without a hint of shock or embarrassment.

My apologies to all of you who happened upon this blog post while actually searching for penile enhancement tools or gynecological views of lady parts.  Keep searching.  Trust me, they're out there.

Now We Have Dead Cows, Too

Let's add dead cows to the list of weird dead things.  First birds, then fish, then crustaceans and now mammals.  Still think it's not aliens performing weird lab experiments on earthling type species?  Pneumonia my ass.

American Idol 2011 - Episode 1

Don't let Simon up there fool you.  I owe Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler an apology.  For the last few months, I've been whining and moaning about American Idol's decision to make them judges.  Tonight, I take it back. 

I could do without Steven Tyler screeching every five minutes, but it's still better than listening to Kara DeLaGuardiaAirport's annoying repetitive comments.  There is another not so minor problem with Steven Tyler being on the judge's panel other than the screeching.  I watched the first ten minutes of the show on my 13-inch television upstairs while exercising.  When I moved downstairs to my 42-inch television, Steven's 62 years and weird nose were there to behold in high definition. Dude does not look like a lady.

Jennifer Lopez wasn't obnoxious, as expected, and made a lovely and sympathetic judge.  Randy is still goofy and there were times when he would try to make fun of a contestant and would look to his right for some Simon-ish reinforcement, but got none from Steve-O or J-Lo.  A week ago, I would have never thought I'd say this, but Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez were too classy to act like jerks with Randy.  At least, that's how the show was edited.

I didn't think I would enjoy American Idol without Simon and now, I'm confused.  Does getting rid of Kara and going back to three judges make up for the loss of Simon? I guess it does...so far, anyway.

In Praise of the Lesser Bilby

According to CNN...

"A team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States hopes to clone a mammoth, a symbol of Earth’s ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The researchers say they hope to produce a baby mammoth within six years."


This is a bad idea.  While Google-ing around...I mean...while researching the wooly mammoth, I found a few lists of other not quite so scary extinct mammals that I would prefer these guys attempt to clone instead of something that is going to probably come back and bite them...and all of us...on our collective asses.

1.  Megaloceros - Huge ass deer/elk.  Seven feet tall at the shoulders, twelve foot antler span.  I know we all have friends who would like to give this guy a shot.  Literally.

2.  Dodo Bird - I've always felt sorry for the dodo bird, because as Wikipedia...I mean...as my research shows, "...its extinction occurred during recorded human history and was directly attributable to human activity."  We owe it to the dodo bird to bring him back since we extincted him.

3.  Great Auk - This one deserves to be brought back because, "The last known auk in Scotland was executed in 1840, after local villagers thought that it was a witch."  Scotland. What the hell?

4.  Lesser Bilby - Just because he's cute...

As a side note, scientists, lets not clone anything in the extinct rodent family.  Bison sized guinea pig?  I'm not cleaning that cage.


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Searching for "The Blunt Harpoon"

When I first started blogging in 2004, I acquired a few blogging friends that I have to this day:  Deek, Lorna, Se7en, Astrid, Abby Taylor, Jen T, Wang Chi, Silly Man, Danno, Aisha, SoCal Mom, GnightGirl.

Others have come and gone (Old Horsetail Snake [RIP], Sleepybomb, Sophmom, Dr. Sauce, Marinade Dave, Hattaraspainter), but I still think about them.  One that I think about in particular is Lauren (Dr. Sauce) who was a 14 year old girl and author of a fabulous blog called "The Blunt Harpoon."  She was an amazing writer, not just for her age, but for any age.  She would be around 20 years old now and I wonder about her life and how she's doing.

Lauren, if you're out there, Se7en and I hope you're well and happy and would love to hear from you.  We're both still blogging and us old timers are even on "The Facebooks."  Stalk us...please.

Ninja Toes

Not my big toe.

I just had to throw away my fourth pair of warm fuzzy winter slipper socks, because my big toes are poking through.  What the hell?  When did I acquire ninja big toes that are so strong and stealth that they feel they must ruin all of my fuzzy socks?

Say My Name, Say My Name, Say My Name

I do not know this man nor do I know if he will or will not make a fine Republican National Commitee chairman.  What I DO know is that, for some reason, his name makes me want to run screaming into the cold dark night.  I have no explanation for that.  

Reince Priebus. 

Creepy.

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Jesus is Watching You, Asshole

I was just driving home from seeing a wonderful Rolling Stones tribute band called Satisfaction, which was amazing, by the way, and I danced a lot...people really don't dance enough, you know...but that's not my point. 

My point is that as I was driving home, I came to a spot in the road where the people to my right are supposed to STOP at a stop sign...a STOP sign...before merging onto the road on which I am minding my own business and driving at the posted rate of speed.

Of course, the asshole to my right did not stop at the STOP sign and just drove right on through like he was the king of Phelan Boulevard or something.  He came nowhere near hitting me, but still.  Asshole.

Of course, he accomplished nothing by running the stop sign and ended up right in front of me at the very next stop light.  As I was sitting there staring at the back of his stupid stop-sign-running car, I noticed a Jesus fish on the back of his car. 

A Jesus fish.

On his car.  For the world to see.

Jesus is watching you.

Asshole.


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Why?

I have a sudden uncontrollable urge to possess a sundial.  I wonder what that's all about.

Just Say Thank You

Today, somebody told me my hair looked nice.  The thoughts that ran through my head simultaneously were:

"Yeah, but...my hair likes this cold, dry weather, but the rest of me hates it.  I can't get warm and my nose burns from the heater never shutting off while I'm sleeping.  I hate cold weather."

and

"Yeah, but...I need a haircut."

and

"Yeah, but...one day it looks good.  The next day it looks like crap.  I have no control over it whatsoever, hence, I cannot accept your compliment."

Instead of saying any of that, my response was, "Thaaaaanks." It was an oh-woe-is-me "thanks" that might have come out of Eeyore's mouth.  My complimenter gave me a confused look, because she could see behind my eyes that there was more to be said.  I just stared back at her until she finally walked away.  Awwwkward. 

Actual elapsed time:  about 5 seconds.  Time spent fretting about it: 12 hours.

I'm trying to teach myself to accept a compliment without also giving a "Yeah, but..." response.  My attempts at self improvement frequently end awkwardly.