Barbie truck stopping by
If a Barbie-themed coaster, pet bowl or other pink merchandise would make the day of you or someone you love, circle Saturday on your calendar.
That is when the Barbie Truck Dreamhouse Living Tour is stopping at Otay Ranch Town Center in Chula Vista from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the covered food court entrance.
“The Barbie Dreamhouse truck will offer an array of Barbie Dreamhouse-themed apparel, along with home goods and accessories inspired by a day in the life of Barbie in her Dreamhouse,” a news release says. Other items available include: T-shirts, hoodies, denim jackets, necklaces, key chains, baseball caps, blankets, totes and mugs. Prices range from $12 to $75.
The truck isn’t just selling merchandise. It’s celebrating an inveterate bestseller and its more than six decades of history.
“Encouraging children everywhere to dream big, Barbie bought her first Dreamhouse in 1962, before women in the United States could open their own bank accounts and when only 0.1 percent of young women were independent homeowners,” the news release said.
“More than 60 years later, Barbie’s Dreamhouse remains iconic. In fact, the brand sells one Dreamhouse every minute!” it added.
A taco math word problem
Q: There are 42 tacos on a table. Four people per team must eat all 42 tacos in less than four minutes and 20 seconds. How many tacos would 4 teams eat?
A: Who cares? The only thing that matters is how many tacos your team eats, and how fast.
This is the Ultimate Taco Challenge, scheduled for Feb. 13 — Fat Tuesday — at El Chingon, 560 Fifth Ave.
The restaurant calls it a south-of-the-border twist on Fat Tuesday.
In other words: Taco Tuesday meets Fat Tuesday.
In other words: Fat Taco Tuesday.
The team to finish first will win an El Chingon gift card and a bottle of Don Julio 1942 tequila. Teams are encouraged to enroll in advance, but they can sign up the day of. Check-in starts at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 13. The contest is open to adults 18 or older. There is no entry fee, and contestants don’t have to pay for the mountains of tacos they consume. The experience is free, a restaurant spokesperson said, adding that the competition tacos will be simple — meat, tortilla and maybe a few cilantro sprigs.
And yes, there is a waiver that includes the words “consumption of large quantities of food and calories.”
El Chingon’s regular taco Tuesday menu starts weekly at 3 p.m. and features a five-taco flight for $9.42, half-priced à la carte tacos (certain varieties) and discounted Don Julio 1942 shots and bottles.
Augmented reality plus car washes: It’s a thing now
Soapy Joe’s Car Wash is launching a car wash tournament.
It’s called the $10,000 Grand Slam Getaway. Prizes: Tony Gwynn Jr. signed memorabilia, annual wash memberships, and a $10,000 trip to see a professional baseball international season opener in March, the news release says.
Soapy Joe’s Car Was on 3048 Bonita Road.
(Gustavo Solis/San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We’re excited to partner with Tony Gwynn Jr., a San Diego sports icon and longstanding Soapy Joe’s wash club member and honorary Chief Bubble Officer, to engage our community in a novel way,” said Anne Mauler, Soapy Joe’s vice president of marketing.
The contest unfolds in a proprietary new augmented reality game called Soapy’s Splash Dash.
The company is not coy about its intentions: to build brand engagement by getting people to play its game as much as possible.
“The company is building on its success with gamified customer experiences that engage fans in a ‘more you play, more you win’ architecture,” the news release says.
“We launched the AR game via our Instagram on Jan. 2, and in the first two weeks, we had more than 875 plays from 514 unique users,” Mauler said.
Soapy Joe’s is a San Diego family-owned car wash chain founded in 2001, now with 23 locations in San Diego County. It has donated 120,000 free washes to community-based organizations that serve veterans, health care workers, schools, hospitals and firefighters, its news release said.
Do you know any stores or eateries that are opening or closing? Do you have a tip about San Diego shopping deals or news? Send me the scoop: [email protected]