Kymberlie "Zombooberlie" M.'s Profile

I started going to this Kroger when I became a Massage Envy (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) member since it was next door, making it easy to get some shopping done after destressing with a massage.

First of all, this Kroger is freaking huge.  I don't know if it's just me or what, but I don't think I've ever been in a bigger Kroger.  It would be perfect for holing up in case the inevitable zombie apocalypse happens to break out while you're doing your shopping.

Secondly, in addition to the giant bakery and deli area, they also make fresh sushi.  I don't eat rolls, but their nigiri (I get the ebi and maguro) is quite tasty.  I hardly ever eat out on my side of town (I spend my going out time in Houston proper), so I'm not familiar with a lot of places for sushi.  This makes a great place to pick some up.

Thirdly, they also have a pretty decent beauty aisle, so I've spent some time taking a lot at the various items and have found some steals (which is good since the last thing I need is more make-up).

There's also a large number of aisles, both regular check out and self-service, so it makes getting out of here easier.

All in all, it's a Kroger, but very nice with delicious sushi to boot.  It's hard to go wrong.

For Valentine's Day last year, my friend Jennifer took me to Massage Envy and I had a fantastic massage (you can read my ROTD review of it here: http://www.yelp.com/bi...).

After not having regular massages for a while, my back was beginning to really bother me since I spend most of my day sitting in my desk chair at my laptop.  I really needed a massage, so I thought I'd take a look and see if I could find a Massage Envy nearby and check for any promotional deals.

Lo and behold, there's a location about fifteen minutes from me and for first time visitors, you can get an hour massage for only $39.  I called and booked an appointment right away and, since they're open until 10 pm, had no problem finding a time to fit my (at the time) weird work hours.

The massage was fantastic.  I like a deep tissue massage and was delighted to find out that this is one of their specialties.  I was incredibly happy with the massage, so when leaving, I looked into their membership packages.

Previously when I had gone, monthly memberships were around $90 a month or so (I believe), which isn't bad, but you can find other massage places that are close to that.  Now, though, monthly memberships are only $49 and while you have to sign up for a year, if you don't use your massage in a given month, it rolls over to the next month, so you never lose any unused massages.

After debating about it for a few days, I went ahead and signed up and I've been very happy with my choice.  All of my massages have been good with some of them being downright spectacular.  The close location, late appointments, and almost always available appointments (I've even made ones on the same day) makes this one of the best decisions I've ever had.

When I went in for my massage tonight, it turns out that the location is a year old, so they're running a special for new members.  You get a free 1/2 hour massage and 20% discount on all products.  If you're not a member, you can get massages all week long for only $39 an hour (no limit on the massages).  They also have drawings for free massages and other items like bath oils.  This offer is good until October 24, 2009.

Bottom line, everyone out there can probably do with a massage at least once a month.  Massage Envy makes it easy and affordable to take care of yourself and give yourself a little pampering at the same time.  Who doesn't love that?

I've been a fan of horror ever since I can remember (I read Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew" around the time that I was ten) and when I heard that Houston was going to have a horror convention, I immediately made plans to go.   I'm a bit of a nerd anyway and have always wanted to attend a convention, so I figured that this would be a great first one.

A friend and I arrived at Reliant about twenty minutes beforehand since we weren't sure how busy this thing would end up being.  There weren't a lot of people that early, so after initially wondering if we were even in the right place, we found the convention table upstairs.  We checked in, got our wristbands, and after a little confusion on where the convention actually was, went inside.

The first person that we saw was Dee Wallace Stone (the mom in Cujo and ET, amongst other things) who was gracious and nice and called me cute when we posed for a picture together.  I totally developed a girl crush on her.

The convention also included other people like Michael Berryman (from The Hills Have Eyes and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Courtney Gains (from Children of The Corn), Adrienne Barbeau (from Swamp Thing and Creepshow), Kristy Swanson (from Buffy The Vampire Slayer), and Jonathan Breck (from the Jeepers Creepers films).  All of these people were so kind and easy to talk to.  I was very pleasantly surprised.

In addition to the celebrities at the convention, there were vendors selling items as diverse as horror DVDs, trading cards and photography of dead bodies by mock serial killers (I bought cards and this photo: http://www.flickr.com/...), corsets and horror-inspired clothing, and a tattoo artist.

There were panels with the celebrities which I found absolutely fascinating.  It was amazing to hear them talk about various aspects of their craft.  Their lives are so different from mine, so anything they say I found fascinating.

As an added bonus, I was an extra in a local zombie film, Zombiefied (http://www.zombiefiedm...), and they premiered the trailer and had a panel with the director, a few of the actresses, and the production assistant.  It was super exciting to see this start to come together.

In addition to the panels and booths, it was cool to have interaction with the celebrities like walking into the bathroom to find Adrienne Barbeau singing.  Dee Wallace Stone also came over to talk to my friend and me while we were sitting outside the convention area just to chat.

We found the convention a little unorganized (there were no programs with the panels on them, for example, so we had to keep going to the front table to find out times) and the rooms for the Q & A and the actual convention location weren't clearly marked.

The convention itself was actually a little on the small side, but since this is the first one, I'll cut them some slack on that.  As a first time convention goer, it may have actually been easier to deal with this way than a super huge one.

All in all, though, I had a blast at this, as did my friend.  We are definitely looking forward to next year's and hope to see it growing bigger and better over time.  If you're a fan of horror, you have no excuse to miss this.

I've been into video games since the early days of my Atari and my Nintendo, since Pac-Man and Galaga.  I moved to Super Nintendo and the original Playstation and then on to the Wii and now my Playstation 3.  Throw in a lot of time spent spending quarters in arcades and tons of pinball in college and you can believe me when I say I like games.

Imagine how happy I was to find that there was a place that would let me play all of the old and new video games and pinball machines that I love in just the type of place that I love - a bar!  Literally an entire building stuffed full of games and pinball machines along with alcohol!  Is this heaven?

Joystix has what they call Pacman Fridays where on the first and last Friday of the month, for $15 you can play all the games you want.  Considering that they not only have your run-of-the-mill games like Galaga and Joust but also the expensive games like racing cars and boats.  I try to hit these every few months and have had a blast playing Rampage, Galaga, DigDug, Mappy, Mortal Kombat and more while sipping drinks from the bar.

Speaking of the bar, there are waitresses that circle around getting your drinks, but I've found that if you go to the bar, the drinks are stronger.  Maybe because I make sure to request them that way.

Since I love games and booze, I've thrown a birthday party of sorts here as well.  I called Charlie the owner to see if I would be able to bring in a cake.  Not only did Charlie let me bring in my cake, he also held seats for me and my group so that we would have a place to sit when we needed a break from the carousing.

The only thing you need to look out for is if there's a baseball game, since this place is right next door to Minute Maid Park, it can make finding a parking place a little difficult.  It's not enough to keep you from going, but do be aware of it.

Seriously, though, if you're looking for something to do and like alcohol, video games and/or pinball machines (Who doesn't?), I highly recommend that you check this place out.  You absolutely won't be sorry.

I'd been away from Spaghetti Western for a while, but started going back now that Houston Roller Derby bouts take place just down the street.

Upon my first return trip, I explained to the waitress how I loved the pizza but it was too spicy for me to eat.  She quickly explained that several people had mentioned the same thing and that they had changed the pizza based on the feedback.

I ordered the pizza and was ecstatic to discover that it was no longer spicy but still delicious.  I've ordered the pizza several times since then, including a large to split with a friend that was way too much for both of us to eat, and since I'd said I'd up may rating if only I could eat the pizza, here's the five stars that I'd promised.

Try the pizza; I promise you won't be disappointed.

There are a few things that everyone needs to know where to find in their town.  You need to know where the best burger can be found.  You need to know where the best drinks are.  You also need to know where the best pizza can be found.  I know where some pretty good ones are, but I'm always on the look out for more.

My friend Jim swore by Ponzo's pizza and since I end up at Coffee Groundz at least a few times a month for different events, we agreed to meet up early so I could give it a try.

While the place is a little small and in a strip center, as soon as you get there, you can tell that it's a family-owned and that they take pride in the place.  There's Italian sayings and cute pictures on the wall.  The Sinatra channel is always on (which makes me happier than I can ever put into words.  The people behind the counter are always incredibly friendly and seem genuinely happy to see you.  As a bonus, they've even offered to walk my order over to Coffee Groundz so I didn't have to wait for my pizza to cook.

The real reason for coming to a restaurant, though, is the food and I've got to say that Ponzo's has some of the best pizza I've had in a very long time.

I was all set to order a standard slice of pepperoni, but when I saw the pizza rolls on the menu, that quickly changed.  Almost all the pizza places I go to don't carry pizza rolls, so I was excited to see them as an option.

The rolls were as delicious as I had hoped: hot, the dough almost on the sweet side, stuffed full with oozing cheese and pepperoni. Three of them cost $5.95 and they fill me up just fine.  It's now my staple order, though after reading about the lasagna, I may have to give that a go soon.  I haven't had good lasagna in longer than I can remember.

Jim got a slice of supreme pizza and it was massive, with so many toppings on it, I don't even think it's possible to actually pick up off the plate and I am one of those people that never use a knife and fork when eating pizza.

It might be hard to believe that an Italian joint in a strip mall might be fantastic, but Ponzo's easily passes that test.  They're also open until 11:00 on the weekends, so if you need something to eat after drinking, this is an excellent choice.  I'll be at Coffee Groundz in a few weeks and you can bet that I'll be by to get some pizza too.

Some friends and I have recently begun a yearly pilgrimage to Destin and while I'm not a big outdoorsy type, I can sit on the beach and drink with the best of them.

I'm pretty easy going, so when the girl in charge of planning any excursions told me that I was going on a boat to see dolphins for about $28, I agreed readily enough, though I wasn't exactly jumping up and down at that thought.

Our group drove down there, paid our money, and boarded the boat.  It had two levels and while it wasn't huge, was big enough to accommodate all of the people easily and leave plenty of room so you didn't have to be too near to other groups or kids (we drink and cuss a lot, so we're not exactly a family-friendly crew).

The boat started out driving around the harbor, followed by a massive flock of seagulls, stopping so that the crew could pull up a crab trap.  They gave some brief information on crabs and then walked around so that anyone that wanted to pet the crab could (I, naturally, wanted to).

Before leaving the harbor, the captain explained that seagulls LOVE Cheetos (Who doesn't?).  Holding a Cheeto in the air caused the massive cloud of seagulls to descend to pick them from your fingers.  My friend Brian even held one in his teeth and the bird plucked it from him, easy as pie.  I hadn't bought any Cheetos from the snack bar, but the captain gave me one to hold up to the birds anyway.

We then drove out into the gulf and the few dolphins that we had spotted in the harbor, became a fair number of dolphins.  We stood around the bow and watched as many as four of them swim right next to the boat, surfacing and playing.  It really was quite enchanting.

All in all, we spent about two hours in the boat.  When we were heading back in, the captain noticed my friends and me standing in front of the glass and motioned for us to come in and drive the boat.  We got to wear the captain's hat and take pictures, which was extremely silly and fun.

Honestly, I didn't expect much from the cruise, but that made the whole thing better.  Nothing like thinking you're going to have an okay time at best and then having a complete blast.  I highly recommend doing this if you get a chance.  It was really the highlight of the trip for me.

A group of friends and I make an annual trip to Destin to recreate a wedding that we were a part of.  Luckily for me, a good friend lives nearby in Pensacola and we always meet up for lunch and some quality time since I'm so far away in Houston.

Since neither of us were familiar with the area, we just hopped in the car and started looking for somewhere to go.  I spied a Carrabba's and figured we could at least get an Italian margarita and split an appetizer.

Next door, though, was a Cheeseburger in Paradise (naturally, on our drive from Texas to Florida, we listened to some Jimmy Buffett, including the eponymous song).  We noticed that happy hour was going to start in a half hour and quickly decided on giving it a shot.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from a chain based on a song by Jimmy Buffett, but we decided to split a few appetizers and get a few drinks.  We got one of their six mini-cheeseburger plates and their thinly sliced onion rings.

Surprisingly, the little burgers were absolutely delicious and I could definitely have eaten a few more of them by myself.  The onion rings were also battered just right and once we got some blue cheese dressing to go with it, we were set and happily devoured our food.

Once the half hour wait for the happy hour prices was up, I ordered their signature pina colada.  The drink was huge and was one of the best pina coladas I've ever had.  They topped it off with a purree of pineapple, a small dollop of their rum runner, and also a drizzle of blackberry puree.  The drink was probably a little light on the booze (or I'm just a seasoned alcoholic and couldn't taste it), but it was super flavorful.

All in all, with a decent amount of appetizers, tax, tip, and a few drinks, we got out of there for $30.  Far better than I would have expected from a touristy chain both for the value and the quality.  I could definitely see coming back here again.

Once upon a time, there was a girl that loved her Miata more than any car she'd ever had, and she'd had five or six of them by the time she got her sporty little car.  However, due to an unfortunate issue with low oil, her poor car was pronounced DOA.

I was incredibly despondent until my dear friend Allison B. pointed out that now was a perfect time to buy a MINI Cooper, which I said I would do if I ever needed to replace the Miata.

Turns out that there are only two MINI dealerships in Houston and since The Woodlands are out in my direction, so with my parents in tow, that's where we headed.

Upon arriving at the dealership, I was impressed with the number of MINIs they had, how nice the place looked, and the friendliness of their salespeople.  Joey Ishee, the guy who eventually sold me my car, was very kind and immediately offered to let us go for a test drive even though by the time we got there, it was close to closing.

I ended up coming back the next day and buying a new MINI. Joey helped me find one with the options that I wanted on a boat heading to South Carolina and promptly stole it from their inventory so it could become mine.

Their finance manager was also very nice and really, though I'd never bought a brand new car before ("OMG!  I am about to spend so much money!"), it whole experience was less terrifying than I thought it would be.

I've gone back to get my license plates and my bonnet stripes applied and both times was greeted warmly and well-taken care of.  The whole feeling there is less of being a customer than also being a member of an awesome society (most of the people there, naturally drive MINIs too).

Plus, Joey personally called me to let me know where Mazarine (what I named my car) was during the shipping process and also within a few days of getting her to make sure that everything was good and I didn't need anything else.

Honestly, I loved the car so much that it kind of sold itself, but their professional and warm service, their comfortable and well-maintained dealership, and the feeling that I'm genuinely appreciated, makes me glad I went to MINI of The Woodlands.

A few months ago I was eating kettle corn from Buc-ee's (Mmmm.  Kettle corn.) when I spit out what I thought was an oddly shaped kernel.  It took me a second to realize that it wasn't so much a kernel, as part of a tooth that had broken under a decades old filling of tooth number 19 (the next to last tooth on the bottom left hand side of your mouth.  Don't say I never taught you anything!).

Not doing really well with anything medical related, I panicked, almost fainted, and immediately started to try and find a dentist in my area.  After not getting answers or return calls from the first two on my list, I finally ended up making an appointment with Dr. Ruiz.

I went in the next day convinced that they were going to tell me that my teeth were going to have to be pulled and I was going to end up a toothless redneck.

Once I arrived, I was taken back to one of those chairs that fill me with dread.  However, the extremely nice dental assistant, who could probably tell I was nervous by my mile-a-minute speech patters, immediately put me at ease and assured me that they had seen worse.  There was no need to worry, he told me, they would get me fixed up right away.

After taking some digital x-rays with a USB device (the geek in me documented this with photos taken from my phone), Dr. Ruiz came in and assessed the situation.  I ended up needing a crown and they took measurements for the temporary crown.

I ended up needing a few visits - one for the temporary crown fitting (which actually fell out a few days before my final crown came in), another to put in the real crown, and a third visit to grind the crown down since I was getting headaches from the crown being a little high.

The office was very accommodating with getting appoints as soon as possible, especially the final visit since I was fairly uncomfortable and edging towards feeling terrible by the end of each day.  Dr. Ruiz also assured me that if I had any problems to just keep coming in.  He said that even if they had to scrap the crown and start over, that would be fine; they just wanted me to be comfortable and happy.

I really am terrified, so to have such warm, caring individuals taking care of me, made what could have been an extremely unpleasant situation into one that really wasn't that bad at all.  Why I was not pleased to lose a tooth and end up shelling out about the same amount of money as one of my car payments on my new MINI Cooper, all in all, I would highly recommend Dr. Ruiz and his friendly, competent staff if you're in need of any dental work.