Shabu Day One - Arrested Development - Part One of Two

For those of you confused by the title and the few who came across my facebook status and wondered what the heck happened, please continue to read. It's the only way I can have you first suffer through the little words and letters that are dribbling out of my mouth and off my bottom lip.

I believe that throughout most of our lives, we have been taught to build, not to break. I think that, after finally getting the keys to our location dropped into our grubby little hands, the thought of obliterating the failed business that once resided within our four (4) walls lured us in like Godzilla to Tokyo city. That and smashing stuff is...like...fun.

July 6th, 2008 A.D., the day started off normal enough - with Ash showing up to my place with handyman extraordinaire, Ryan, and a Jeep full of necessities to start the demolition:

Sledge hammer - check
Face masks - check
Drill - check
Work gloves - check
Razor blades - check
Baseballs (I'll explain later) - check
Beer - HUBBUH DUH WHA?

What kind of construction (destruction?) site is complete without beer? So we head straight over to Mitsuwa market, pickup twenty four (24) cans of whatever Japanese beer is on sale (Sapporo for $12.99, in case you were wondering), two (2) bottles of Hakutsuru, a seven (7) pound bag of ice, and a Kold to Go bag to keep everything nice and chilly.

Beer - check!

Steppin' In
The Calm Before the Storm

Our Bar

Ash - 'Nuff Said

Woah WOAH, ok now. I started getting a little too happy with the pictures. On to movies, ha ha. After a cheers and a few chugs of our beer, our first official video was:

The Ceremonial Dropping of the Sledge Hammer

Soon after that, the three (3) of us dug in and really started tearing into the space. Ryan and Ash were pounding away at the back walls as I was knocking down our drop-ceiling. A quarter of the ceiling, two walls knocked down, and probably a few too many beers later I glance at the glass window on one of the walls and kind of muttered "Too bad we don't have any baseballs". Ryan then gets up and thirty (30) seconds later, drops a baseball bag next to me complete with balls, a glove, and an Easton bat. We end up going to town on the window, first batting balls through the glass and then doing our best to win the Cy Young award by throwing fast balls while watching the glass explode around the room. All fun and games, right?

Wrong. Cut to me on one side of the glass, Ryan and Ash on the other, all of us after a few more beers. We start throwing balls through both sides of the glass when I chuck a ball towards the glass. As I'm following through with my arm going full-speed I see a ball quickly approaching and WHAMMO! It tags my the thumb, think car going seventy (70) mph into a wall versus two (2) cars both going seventy (70) slamming into each other. I quickly grab my thumb in pain, look down wondering why I'm not bleeding, and notice there's already a little puddle of blood forming in my palm due to the explosion of my thumb. Ash and Ryan help me rinse the little guy off and notice that the left side of the nail was ripped completely out. Luckily this was the only injury, except maybe to our egos. OK, my ego.

Yowzas, this is getting long already, so I will split this puppy into two (2) posts and finish up another day. I know we didn't get to the whole arrested development thing. It is completely my fault and I am taking full responsibility for it. Thanks for stopping bye for a peep, and I promise we will get to the juicy stuff next post. So, click on over to us soon!

Smoochies,

Len