Week of July 10, 2005

July 15 2005 -- Hey Frenchie!! So here I am on a Friday night sitting at home with my parents and having a good time doing it. You know why I am having a good time doing it? Because they get fancy things and being around allows me to partake in those fancy things. What fancy thing to I get to have tonight? Vodka. Not just any vodka, I am talking top of the line $51 a bottle vodka.



Jean-Marc XO Vodka, it's French, but they lost the 2012 Olympics so I suppose we are allowed to cut them a little slack here.

So what is so fancy about this vodka, anyway? Well, everything I have read about it has rated it at nearly top of it's class. This is not the cheap stuff you get for college parties or just sitting around doing shots with your friends. This is the kind of stuff you get when you have a bunch of fancy people over and you want to impress them. Heck, this stuff is so fancy that when you tell them what exactly it is they will pretty much be forced to like it, if they don't then they must not be very fancy.

So what does the ultimate authority in vodka have to say about it?

Jean-Marc XO $50 Origin: France

* Name game: The 'XO' adds a not-so-subtle hint of cognac terminology.
* Selling point: Distilled nine times in pot stills normally used to make ... cognac.
* The verdict: A supersleek taste with plum and cinnamon accents. Worth every penny.

So how about that, eh? MSN loves it so it must be good. But you know what, who cares what they think. I think a higher authority would be our Lord Beattie, but yeah, he had to go out and be cool instead of sitting in drinking the good drink. Heck, even my girlfriend is out tonight at a theme party dressed up as a boy and having a good time. That leaves only me to sit around and entertain the rest of you, and I use entertain in a very broad fashion.

So how about this vodka, eh? Isn't that what we all want to know about? Well, opening it up was a bit of a pain. The cork and the top of the bottle popped off. Not very good for $50 a bottle. We had to use some pliers and some mucking about of the bottle to get the whole thing open. That just led to the anticipation. So there we were, my mother, my father, and me, all with shots of vodka waiting to be tried. My mom sipped hers and enjoyed it more then any other vodka she has tried, and being that she pretty much only drinks Grey Goose that's saying a lot. My dad took his shot and made a puckered up face and complained about not liking vodka. I looked at mine for quite a long time and eventually just walked away from it and opened up a Sam Adams and decided to hang out for a while. I thought to myself "Heck, what am I doing? This is the fanciest vodka I have ever been around, lets try it out." So I did. I used to be a big vodka drinker but in the past few years I have given up on most everything besides Jagermeister. Well, this stuff tasted good, I think. It had no burn at all. It tasted like vodka but a good vodka, not some crap you find bottled off the NJ Turnpike in Edison for $9 a handle. It had a hint of other flavor it it but it was all pretty natural. Did I like it? No, not really, That doesn't matter though, I could tell this was good stuff. It was smooth and tasted just like you would want to taste.



But what fun is it drinking it plain? No sir, lets mix it up. Tonight we are having an Appletini. Was it good? Hell yes. Was as smooth as could possibly be. The vodka disappeared into the apple flavor. Just imagine if we had some really good apple liquor and some apple slices. We'd be living in even more luxury then we already were.

I'd say this stuff deserves be a prestigious 5 cheese vodka. Not so much because I liked it, but mostly because I know it's good. Here you go.

Posted by LordJezo

July 14 2005 -- It's Lebron, son. So here we are on a Thursday. It's hot and humid outside and the sun is no where to be found. All this rain and clouds just makes you want to have a nice comfortable day sitting outside on your deck drinking some lemonade with Lebron James. Who wouldn't want that? You could sit around with him, have some good bbq, drink some cool lemonade, and then go shoot some hoops. What could be better?

But unfortunately most of us can't just hang out with Lebron James on our decks so we'll take the next best thing. Ryan. Yup, 78west.com's favorite voting poll celebrity Ryan is the next best thing to Lebron James. Why? Because he provides Lebron James in an easy to carry around case and also provides good bbq and drinks. What is that, you ask? Well, I present to you the next great step in gum..



Lebron's Lightning Lemonade Bubblicious Gum. Heck yeah. Just like the man himself this gum is lightning fast! This gum could quite possibly make you as cool as Lebron himself. Pretty soon you could be the king of the courts and the idol of people everywhere. Yes, this gum could be your ticket to a destiny only a handful of people can ever expect to have.

Or.

This could be another marketing ploy to get easily influenced people to buy stuff they normally wouldn't. Luckily for me I don't fall into that category. I fall into the complete and utter consumer whore category who quickly snatches up anything with the word 'New!' on it.

So how did I end up with this stuff anyway? We can blame it all on Ryan. There we were at his luxurious beach house in wonderful Belmar, NJ and we decided that we all needed drinks. By 'we all' I mean Ryan and myself and then two wonderful women who just happened to be spending time with us that day. So we set out on the harsh journey to the convenience store to get ourselves some supplies. It was such a hard trip that I don't really remember what anyone bought other then I ended up with some Bubblicious. We were at the check out counter and Ryan pointed to the gum and stated in his commanding tone "Buy that". So I did, and the rest is history. On the trip back one of the girls tossed a fireball at my feet and tripped me up. How rude.

Getting back to the gum, well, it's Bubblicious. It's big, its very chewy, and it has a very sweet taste. The pink lemonade flavor is there and it tastes pretty good while you first start it off, but much like the name states the flavor goes away lightning fast. That might just be a bad joke though. The flavor does last for a decent time it seems this gum is more suited to a quick chewing session. Long term chewing might take it's toll, unlike many of the puny gums out there that are the size of your fingernail, this stuff actually takes effort to chew. Maybe that's why Lebron is on there, this is a gum for manly men who can chew and chew and chew, and we all know the ladies love a man who's jaw doesn't get tired.

3 cheeses. It's just what you would expect.

Posted by LordJezo

July 11 2005 -- Does it have meat? Well here we are, the week after vacation and it's time to get back into the grove of things. The reviews have to once again flow and the masses must be kept interested. So where should I start? Want to know about my vacation? No? Well, sucks for you because I feel like talking about it anyway (Livejournal, LOL!). I spent the tail end of it down in Atlantic City. Started off at an EconoLodge and ended at The Borgata, which I must recommend to everyone who wants to go to AC and not be suck gambling with depressing old people. Mixx has to be the best club down there now, and being that it doubles as a sushi joint, well, that makes it even better.

But after our luxurious stay we decided to come back down to the commoner's level and go to Denny's and what did I find? A big old NEW! next to some of the items on the menu. It was like a sign, vacation was ending and I was presented with something to review. Best part was that one of the manly men we were out with won a whole lot of cash the night before and paid for our expensive $30 meal. Everyone was winning all over the place.



There it is in all it's grainy camera phone goodness. It's supposed to be an egg based breakfast but by the looks and taste of it the egg is an afterthought. But just think of all the animals I have covered in there! Eggs = chicken. Bacon = pig. Sausages = cow. Man. It's like my own personal farm slaughterhouse. there are also some hash browns burried on the bottom so that's another food group I can add to the list. Came with a side of pancakes and bacon and more sausage. Yummy. If it sounds like it is going to cause a heart attack then it's usually good, and this is not an exception to that rule. Now that I think about it I think there was cheese mixed in with it all too.

Eating it made me quite happy. Maybe because I had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before after drinking Corona’s to the point of losing count, or maybe because I am a whore for meat, but this thing was good. This is for those people who can't choose your breakfast sides. Do you get the sausage or the bacon? Do you get the hash browns of the Taylor Ham (that's pork roll for all you non NJ people)? Well, fear not in this situation because you get everything thrown into one big bowl for your eating pleasure. Sort of like the McGriddles, this breakfast is a hodgepodge of different things mixed together in a happiness package.

4 cheeses. If you are a meat lover during breakfast I suggest you give it a shot.

Posted by LordJezo