Thanksgiving Trip

For me, Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday of all. There’s just something about watching the Thanksgiving football games with your favorite brew or glass of merlot, spending time with your family, enjoying a meal that practically took the entire day to prepare, and heading out in the freezing cold to go Black Friday shopping. Who could ask for more?

This Thanksgiving, my family and I will going down to San Diego to spend time with our family and I couldn’t be more excited. In a couple of hours, we’ll be heading to the Sacramento airport to catch our flight and we’ll be in San Diego later on in the evening. While, I admit, I’m not too excited about the flock of people that I’m bound to encounter at the airport, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to see a famous movie star or artist within the midst of us normal people running around like turkeys with their heads cut off.

            

Ever since I was a kid, Thanksgiving has been the holiday that brings my entire family together from all over California. As an only child, I think that my love for Thanksgiving grew when it gave me the opportunity to see my cousins (my brothers and sisters from different mothers as I like to call them) that I would probably only a couple of times a year if it wasn’t for this holiday.

            

Looking back, I remember all the mischievous acts we would commit whenever we were together and I can’t help but laugh. I remember setting a couple of carpets on fire, running around and irritating our parents, and trying to convince my younger cousins to put them in a couple of wrestling movies that we used to see on t.v., all of which wasn’t my idea by the way.

           

Now that we’re older, calmer and less troublesome, I think my cousins and I have began to cherish all the time that we spend together. All of us have our own lives now so even though it might be hard to set aside time together, when we do find that opportunity, its feels as if we just picked up right where we left off. 

            

My family is a big part of my life and I feel that my life would be I completely different if I didn’t have them in it. I’d even say that they’ve shaped me into the person I am today. Maybe I would have gotten into less trouble but what fun would that be?

            

With the holidays just around the corner, planning a trip to spend time family is a great way to relax and forget about some of the stresses in life. Surrounding yourself with the company of your loved ones is what the holidays are all about after all. 

Restaurant Review: Fanny Ann's Saloon

Last semester, my roommate raved about a burger that could be comparable to President Gonzales of CSUS – almost never seen. Now this wasn’t just any burger adorned with all the common fixings like mayo, mustard or ketchup. This burger, in my eyes, had quite a unique ingredient that made me skeptical to say the least.

What was that ingredient you might ask? Well if you had to guess, I bet you would never come to the conclusion that it would be peanut butter. Who would have thought right?

I usually like my burgers plain and simple, but for this particular instance, I was feeling adventurous so I decided to pay a visit to Fanny Ann’s Saloon located at 1023 2^nd Street in Old Sacramento.

My friend and I arrived at Fanny Ann’s just before its 11:30 a.m. opening so as we were waiting, we checked out the menu posted just outside the entrance. As I was skimming the menu, the burger that I wanted to conquer was placed directly in the center, almost as if it was taunting any hesitant customers waiting to try the Jiffy Burger.

Fanny Ann’s has a wide selection of burgers, sandwiches, salads, hot dogs and appetizers to go along with a bar that greets customers as they walk in. The bar itself would be reason enough to entice any college student for lunch or downtime meal since all of the entrees are all priced at around $8 and are served with a choice of a salad or curly fries.

After much conflict within myself, I set aside my fear and decided to go with the Jiffy Burger (since the menu promised that the peanut butter wouldn’t stick to your mouth) and my friend ordered the more traditional bacon burger.

Once the orders are placed, customers are allowed to sit in any one of the five floors for seating as they wait for their orders to be called over the speaker. The top floor of Fanny Ann’s has an arcade room to occupy their waiting customers and they also have another bar at the lowest level that opens later in the evening.

When it came time to grab our orders and walk to our seats, excitement, anticipation and a tiny hint of apprehension began to run through me. As we both took the first bites of our burger and fries, the chatter between us suddenly came to a halt and all my skepticism flew out the window.

The peanut butter that was placed on top of the pepper jack cheese, the hearty strips of bacon, and juiciness of the burger made me a believer. The combination of every ingredient was so unique that, to my surprise, I enjoyed every piece down to the very last bite.

A downside to the whole experience, however, would simply be the age of the establishment. The entire place seemed so old that I found myself walking around with caution in fear that I was going to fall through the wooden floors. The old fashioned bathroom also stuck me as odd/weird in that they only had one stall and a community urinal that lacked privacy many are used to.

The food, however, more than made up for any issues I had towards the establishment, and I would without a doubt come here again. For those bold enough to try a not-so-typical burger, Fanny Ann’s is definitely the place for you.

The Walking Dead

If the streets of our beloved nation ever became filled with the living dead, what’s the first thing I would do to survive?... Head to Costco.

That’s just some of the random things that the show The Walking Dead made me think about after watching the series premiere.

After a couple of friends raved on how good show The Walking Dead is, I decided to check it out for myself.  Though the show is already in its second season, I was able to catch the very first episode on my Netflix account just to see if this zombie series is really something to get excited about.

The foundation for the story begins when the sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) awakens from a coma and finds himself in a hospital bed after being shot by a runaway criminal. 

Grimes then decides to venture around the hospital after not receiving any attention from his would-be nurses. With bullet holes decorating the walls, flickering lights at every corner and a cafeteria door reading “don’t open, dead inside,” Grimes realizes that, to say the least, the world is not how he remembers it.

As the protagonist, Grimes ultimately comes to the realization that a zombie epidemic has swept the nation, and he then attempts to find his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and his son Carl, meeting other survivors of the zombie infestation along the way.

The show is filled with suspenseful encounters with flesh-hungry zombies at almost every turn. With all of the drama, it made this first-time viewer imagine if I could survive in a world with zombies trying to take huge chunks out of my body.

The zombies are shown in an amazingly realistic fashion, and the special effects, such as the blood-splattering after a zombie is shot, accents the killing of zombies very well and adds a another dimension of realism.

This show is very unique in that there has not been any shows, pertaining to zombies, though there have been many movies based on the topic.  The make-up, special affects, and thrilling zombie confrontations make this show very comparable to its big-screen counterparts like Zombieland and Dawn of the Dead.

If you ever get the chance, I would suggest that you make a trip to Barnes & Nobles and purchase the book The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead before it’s to late (yes, its a real book).