Adventures in dinersitting.

Ethan and I took a road to nowhere drive last night and ended up at the Townline Diner, just off I-91 in Wethersfield. Or is it Rocky Hill? I guess it's Rocky Hill, but it's on Town Line Road, so at some point it must've been the edge of something-town and something-town.



I had an order of onion rings (not pictured) and some blueberry pie a la mode. Ethan pointed out that my dessert had the rare quality of the "triple-glisten", where the ice cream, pie filling, and the crust itself all glisten in the oddly dim light of the diner. Ethan also likes to unleash the "surprise order" and not say what he is getting until he places his order, and he chose the Napoleon, a multi-layered French pastry contraption.



We came for dessert, but we stayed for the Ms. Pac-Man.





Which was on a multi-game machine with the biggest screen I've ever seen. It actually has four games (including unadvertised Pac-Man), and is "For Amusement Only".



Earlier in the evening, right as Ethan was getting to our house, there was a "party bus" that pulled up on our street. About two dozen guys and gals, mostly guys, then proceeded to exit and started peeing in the back of the parking lot next door to our house. Really classy. It looked like maybe a casino bus or a joint bachelor/bachelorette party, but everyone was drunk and yelling and when confronted the driver was like "What am I supposed to do?"

Maybe you should have a restroom on your bus instead of a big screen TV.



Gateway Limo was called, but the schmuck on the other end of the phone denied that the limobus was even in Middletown that evening. I hate to say it, but check out their classy web site. I just reported them for copyright infringement for using "Magic Bus" on their web site.

We're investigating ways to report them to whomever we can report them to. BBB, local law enforcement, etc. Any suggestions?

Onward and upward, this morning we went across the river to Portland for breakfast. We were headed for the Main Street Diner, but on the bridge I remembered that Ethan had mentioned Da Laur's as a popular breakfast joint, as of ten or fifteen years ago, anyway.



We found it without any trouble and had a tasty breakfast. Val had eggs, toast, homefries and coffee, and I had the potato pancakes with two eggs and toast and coffee, all for $10.60 + tip.



The interior hasn't changed in quite a while, but why mess with success?

What-pin?

There's ten-pin (aka BOWLING), candlepin, and...



There are ten duckpin bowling states. Connecticut, Maryland, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia. Having lived in two of those states, it was about time I went.

Everything makes you feel slightly gigantic, but you get used to it.



Scoring is by hand, which taxed my mathing skills a little, since you get three rolls a frame, and the whole strike spare thing I'm a little rusty on.



The shoes are familiar.



I guess it's the ball you have to get used to the most.



It's like a heavy bocce ball, and you can really get some spin and pin scatter with a little practice.

Highly recommended.

More half-frames

Olympia Diner


Middletown






Stephen










Where Subarus go to live.



These were scans from the negatives, nicer than the last batch, of course. Some of them are surprisingly clear. Me thinks I'd like to get some enlarged prints...

Ahhhhhhhh, breakfast.

Some lovely ladies accompanied me to Rose's Berry Farm for breakfast this morning. We each ordered a cup of coffee with a side of...

Waffle (Val)


French Toast (Bethany)


Pancakes (Me)


The berries are seasonal selections from the farm, and the whipped cream is fresh from the kitchen. You sit on the deck overlooking a good portion of the orchards and enjoy the view.



There was also the non-functional pickin'mobile that has been parked in a new location since our last visit last season.



Complete with bird nest.

After I took this picture I went up to the counter to pay for some bowling and the manager asked me what I was photographing. I told her there was that goofy sign on the ball return, which happens to be the only sign left out of 30 lanes, and I wanted a picture of it. She then told me that it was against AMF lanes policy to photograph equipment. I asked about photographing people bowling with AMF equipment, and she said that was ok (?), but I could be a lawyer or an investigator, or looking to infringe copyright or some such and that was what worried her. I said I wasn't any of those things, and that I wouldn't photograph the equipment again, having been informed of the policy.

I know my photographer's rights.

You should too.

Hot damn! Hot dog!

Ethan and I went to Doogie's today and ate hot dogs. They were pretty awesome.

On our way to Doogie's, we went to the Olympia Diner (as seen here) for breakfast. Hash and cheese omelette for me...



...fried egg sammich with sausage for Ethan. Also a side of hash.



From there we went to Bob's Farm Market and got beverages.



Then, the new Stew Leonard's that just opened.



There we saw this sign, which was strangely sunbaked, yet even more strangely still decipherable.



From there, we ended up at a thrift store in Meriden, full of organs, facials, dirty hippies, and the RCMP.









There were a few other little stops thrown in, the used videos, the pawn shop that was actually closed due to owner death ("Everything's in probate!"), but we made it to Doogie's and enjoyed some fine hot dogs and tasty beverages.



Stay tuned for more adventures...

The film is back

Highlights from the Oly Pen EE-3, off a 12 exposure roll of AGFA 200 ASA.

















These are just quick scans from the prints I got. The prints were done two-up so the lab wouldn't have to figure out how to use their machine, but that also meant not correcting the exposure. Now that I know the camera works, I'm running a roll of Kodak 400 through it, which should come out a little brighter.