Rocket Fizz

From Some Psychotic Ramblings

On Sunday I noticed a new store had opened up in my neighborhood - Rocket Fizz! They sell classic candies, soda pop and faux vintage tin signs.

Once per blue moon, if not less often, I head down to Eagle Rock (about twenty minutes away) to go to Galco's Soda Pop Shop. I'll pick up thirty to forty different sodas, and cart them back home to sample over the next months. Seeing a new soda store so close to my house set my heart a flutter. Yippee!

First the good - Rocket Fizz has a great selection of sodas. I think that Galco's may have more, but there were enough new drinks for me to try that I was quite happy. Also, they had many classic sodas that I've enjoyed over the years, staples for my soda lifestyle. Even better then the soda selection was the candy selection- Whoa- all of the greats were here, Zotz, Pop Rocks, Abbazabba, Chuckles. Enough variety that I could add another hundred pounds to my girth without repeating a single one. I'll be making as many trips to this place as my dearly beloved will allow (remember, I am supposed to be getting trimmer- she's my food cop, and she tries to keep me honest - I have no will power except for hers).

Now the bad - Rocket Fizz isn't really set up for buying more then a couple of six packs of soda. Galco's does it right, with the shopping carts and huge boxes. This is really too much of a slight to Rocket Fizz, I don't think that they meant for it to be a place you go for stocking up for the summer (or winter) - they want you to visit far more often then that. In the future, I'll be hitting Rocket Fizz for my personal use, but I'll still want to hit up Galco's when I want to stock up for a party, or buy bulk in a new ginger ale or something.

And, in the something else category - Galco's prices are all over the place, some sodas are as cheap as 90 cents and some are downright expensive ($3 and up). All of the sodas at Rocket Fizz are priced at $1.89 each. If you know which sodas are expensive, you can save a lot of money at Rocket Fizz, but if you don't know that the soda you are picking up can be bought on the cheap at Vallarta or Vons, then you could be paying a lot more then you need to. Buyer beware and all that rot.

From Some Psychotic Ramblings

Rocket Fizz

2112 Magnolia Blvd.

Burbank, CA 91506

(818) 846-7632

Game Update

I just wanted to keep you up to date on where I am on my video game completion list- I've installed The Orange Box on my PC. For those that don't know, this means that I'll be playing through Half-Life 2 (plus the first couple of "episodes" associated with Half-Life 2).

As far as consoles go- I've played quite a bit of the PS3 Ratchet & Clank game- it's a fun game that I enjoy playing, but I can see why I stopped playing it on the first go-round. The game play is very repetitive and generic. You really just jump around and shoot things- every enemy has a pattern used to destroy it, and once you've figured out that pattern, you just repeat it over and over and over again until all of that enemy type are destroyed. I've stopped thinking of the enemies as separate villains and started to consider them by the specific moves needed to eliminate them quickly. Is this a problem? Not really, but I think that I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I were younger. I guess I'm just too old.

Games

I'm a bit of a video gamer- but I never finish anything, boredom always sets in at some point. This past weekend, I decided that I want to actually finish what I've got rather then move on to other games- I give it a week, I've little patience for something that should be fun. The moment a game isn't fun, I'll ditch it at the used video game store.

First up on my pile of games- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The reason I didn't finish it the first time was that the game's combat sequences were really annoying- of the "We limit your ammo" type. Constantly shooting five or six shots into the same few pirate models stops being fun very quickly. On this run through I've gotten achievements for killing a nation's worth of pirates, and more still seem to pop up. I'm getting better at shooting them in the head, which is the only way to lessen ammo worries. Shooting them in the belly or genitals seems to have very little effect. I guess pirates are like zombies- only real way to kill them is the brain. How grisly.

Next up on my game pile is going to be Half-Life 2, which I stopped when my computer died, and never installed on my new machine and then...Bioshock- which I stopped because the atmosphere was getting me down, even though I liked the game play.

I'll let you know how things go.

My Condensed Review of True Blood's First Season

Piquant.

Twilight - my thought on this fine franchise

100 year old guy dates underage girl...I think that's called statutory rape.

Relishing the Dogs of Summer, part 2

I have been met with disgust and derision over my last post, "Relishing the Dogs of Summer". My response is my final word on the subject.

I put ketchup on my hot dogs, deal with it! It's not like I'm forcing you to do the same.

Relishing the Dogs of Summer

When I was eight, I had a horrible hot dog experience. It was at the British Club in Singapore. The hot dog was made with a British sausage instead of the processed meat product that I was accustomed to. The casing was completely burnt. American hot dogs didn't have a casing, even then, so I was already suspicious- but burning made matters even worse. I bit into the dog anyway. The casing was difficult enough to get through, what I found inside was even worse- my teeth had chomped down on some gristle that I couldn't chew through. Unfortunately, we were guests of some important person or other, so my mother made me finish the hot dog and actually thank them for the experience. That "hot dog" was so bad that the next one I ate was nine years later- and I had to cover it with chili in order to make it palatable.

Cut to now- somewhere in my life I turned a corner- I put the past behind me, where it belongs. At some point in my early thirties, probably at Pink's, I actually started to enjoy hot dogs and associate them with summer. Don't get me wrong, I'm still picky about my hot dog. I don't take many chances.

I bought some kosher dogs (hebrew national, of course) and I've just finished off the last in the pack today. Through the past week of these "dog days" of summer (sorry), I've been experimenting with different condiments- to decide which will be "My Hot Dog". First, the mustards. I started with French's Classic Yellow, which is fine, if a little mainstream. My second contender was Dave's Hurtin' Habanero & Honey Mustard - which has it's place in my world, but I decided wasn't hot dogs. The third, and final, choice turned out to be the winner - Zatarain's Creole Mustard. I has a taste and texture that works well for me. The vinegar accent was an especially welcome finisher for me.

The next decision was the relish- Vlassic's Sweet Relish, a favorite of mine for sandwiches, versus Bubbies Kosher Dill Relish. I have to say that I was trying either while I was trying mustards. I think that the Vlassic worked badly with Dave's Hurtin' Habenero because the double sweetness was a little too much for me. The Vlassic was fine when paired with French's - but was in direct competition with the Creole Mustard. Bubbies' Kosher Dill Relish, on the other hand, worked well with all three mustards. The fact that it was savory meant that it didn't make the dog too sweet with the Habenero, and it worked hand in hand with the Creole mustard...

So the grand winner for my home prepared dog- Zatarain's Creole Mustard, Bubbies Kosher Dill Relish and Organic's Tomato Ketchup (which is the winning ketchup only because it says "Organic" on it- which really brings something different to the table when you are talking hot dogs).