The Summer Burger Project!

As you know already, It's Summertime™ and with that usually comes my To-Do List for Summer! ('08, '09)

But this year, I have a specific goal in mind for this summer: Eat a cheeseburger at all of the regional Burger joints on Long Island. As regional stuff goes, we don't have many things here that don't exist elsewhere, but here are the places that are pretty rare for Long Island/The Northeast:

-Five Guys
-Fatburger
-Cheeburger Cheeburger
-Johnny Rocket's

And here are some places that only Long Island has to offer:

-Frank 'n' Burger
-All-American Burger
-American Roadside Burger

I don't know of any others, but if anyone out there would love to fill me in, that would be awesome.

Now the mission at hand is thus: Go to Burger Joint. Take pic of Burger. Eat Burger and assorted extras. Rate Burger on scale of "Beautiful Gold" "So-So Silver" and "Shameful Bronze." Report Back. So far, I'm making good progress. Granted, I've been to all these places before, but I need to visit the LI Exclusives again to have them fresh in my mind. I've completed my objective for everyplace else, though, and I think what I've had so far is pretty good.

Expect a full-blown entry at the end the summer that details the result of my quest. Until then, here's my pic from a 5 Guys burger:

Soundtracks For Summer: Holiday Road

Part 15 in my "Soundtracks For Summer" Series.

It's the official first day of Summer, so you know what that means: Year 3 of "Soundtracks For Summer," my summer blog series that highlights songs that define "summer."

We begin the 2010 edition with "Holiday Road," better known as the theme song to National Lampoon's Vacation.



Sung by Lyndsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac fame, this is a song that's absolutely perfect for road trips, especially ones where EVERYTHING'S hilariously going wrong. I know because I took one of those myself a few weeks ago to Atlantic City.

Tip of  the Trade: If you don't have EZ-Pass and accidentally bypass the toll lanes in New Jersey, don't assume they can't tell. Because they can. I don't know HOW an empty parkway was able to get a real close zoom on my license plate, but they did. It turns out this happened three times. In addition to the toll (Fifty Cents/One Dollar), they whack you for an additional $25! Yeesh. Thank goodness I got hit by the tolls when leaving & coming back from LI, because the Verazzano believes that it's not raping your wallet ENOUGH. $11 "Leaving New York Toll" my ass.

Where was I? Oh, right, the song. You're lost, your GPS can't help you, Christie Brinkley is following you in her car, and every street looks the same. On top of it all, the place you're driving to turns out to be closed the whole time. That's what this song means: The Journey, not the Destination, is what makes a roadtrip awesome. Okay, the destination is WHY you're road-tripping in the first place, and it might be pretty awesome, but it's the journey that makes it. I think.

By the way, this is probably the only non-Fleetwood Mac thing Lyndsay Buckingham's known for, aside from getting constantly bumped on "What's Up With That?!"



BTW, I'm also taking reader submissions for future "Soundtracks For Summer" entries. If you've got an idea, pop me an email at beamingforbunnies@gmail.com OR comment on this entry OR at the Facebook Fan Page with the name of the song, and a reason or two why it defines "Summer" for you. You'll be glad you did.

Beaming For Bunnies: Now With New Hat!

If you haven't noticed by now (by, you know, just looking at it), the blog's layout has been radically changed! Yes, my readers, thanks to Blogger's newly launched Design Template, I've been able to give this "Slightly Modified Blogger Template" the face-lift it so duly deserved.

Here are some minor details that come with the new layout:

1. New Color Layout!

The most obvious, no doubt. Before, we had a dark blue/orange color theme to the blog, now it's white & gray, with detailing on the header as Dark Green, links as Blue, and already visited links in Red. I've thought about changing the "hover over link" color into yellow to complete the set, but it's too bright of a color for me.

2. The Blog is Wider!

This one might be more subtle, but the blog is now a good 40 pixels wider than it used to be. The new editor was able to shrink the sidebar, not to mention the fact that this new template was already wider to begin with.

Overall, this might not seem like much, but the added 40 pixels add a LOT of space to the place. I no longer have to worry about tiny pics scrolling into the sidebar! I can add normal-sized Youtube videos and not make it look awkward!

3. Ratings!

This was something that Blogger implemented over a YEAR ago, but for some reason they wouldn't show up on entries until just now. At the bottom of every post, you can rate them as either "Beautiful Gold," "So-So Silver," or "Shameful Bronze." Their significance to the ratings system should be fairly obvious.

So, in a sliding scale between "Malibu Stacy Getting a New Hat" to "Spider-Man gets a Symbiote Suit," how do you like the new look? I know I'll still be tinkering with it for a while.

Where the Hell is Galileo?!

...Yeah, I'm not in that. But I WILL tell you where I've been this whole time: On Vacation.




Shocking, I know. I was in Atlantic City until Friday, and trust me...you really didn't miss much there. I basically just ate, slept, gambled, and pretty much appreciated that where I was wasn't where I currently was...If that made sense. Of course, AC didn't get ALL of my money, but a good chunk of it. It shouldn't affect the blog, as the overall budget is about $15 to begin with.

Speaking of the blog, entries will be coming! Sure, that's about the fifth time in as many months that I've said this, but it's true! The Simpons-centric entries I mention a few posts earlier are on their way, along with my new Summer Project, as well as Year Three of my Soundtracks For Summer series!
If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I profile a song that describes "Summer" to me. The Enchanted Tiki Room theme, Tequila, Under The Boardwalk, and Walk The Dinosaur are among the songs that I've covered so far. Here are my potential entries for this year:

-Holiday Road (the theme to National Lampoon's "Vacation")
-Octopus's Garden (The Beatles)
-Boys of Summer (The Ataris)
-Float On (Modest Mouse)
-Californication (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
-Various songs by the Beach Boys

Of course, this means I'm always open to suggestions of what other songs I should cover. Got any ideas? Suggest them either in the comments below, on the Blog's Facebook Page, or my email at beamingforbunnies@gmail.com.