Place: Arby's
Lunch: Steakhouse sub, potato cakes, Dr. Pepper
The steakhouse sub isn't all that great. It's on a ciabatta roll (that bread that reminds you of an English muffin). It doesn't have all that much roast beef, and the sauce is a little weird. Give me a large beef n' cheddar any day. If Chester could talk, he would agree. He loves the beef n' cheddar. Of course, the large beef n' cheddar sandwich costs more than this whole combo meal.
Another new thing they have is "prime-cut chicken tenders". Huh? They supposedly come from the "prime cut of the chicken breast". Okay.
I'll say this about Arby's...They throw a lot of LTO's against the wall in hopes something will stick. They always have.
Another hot day, but not so bad on the humidity side so it's actually nice. When I arrived here, I noticed they had outside patio seating. I thought to myself, "I'm going to sit outside". I thought that while I ordered, I thought that while I waited for my food. You know what? I didn't sit outside.
The last of my shows ended their seasons last night, and there's four-to-seven hockey games left.
Guess it's movies and video games going forward. Or getting out more.
Riiiight.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Fast Food Ribs
Place: Burger King
Lunch: BK 'fire-grilled' Ribs, onion rings, Dr. Pepper
The heat is here. The humidity is here. It's hot. Stupid sucky sweaty hot. I need to move to the desert. Or back to the Northwest. Or invent time travel and pass summer up completely. Fast-forward straight to football season and caramel apple milkshakes.
Over the past couple of years, BK has been moving away from their traditional conveyor rack flame broiler to something called a "batch broiler", which is said to reduce energy consumption by 90 percent and allow smaller batches of burgers to be cooked faster, allowing for a fresher tasting product. It also had an unintended side effect...Customers said the burgers tasted better. "More like they used to". (My opinion on that...they've gone from tasting charbroiled to intensely charbroiled. Unnaturally charbroiled.)
BK showed off the batch broiler at some recent convention or event or something by cooking all sorts of odd stuff in one, making the point that they would be able to expand menu offerings. They didn't waste time doing so...Some BK's last week started offering a rib meal.
This isn't the pressed pork boneless McDonald's McRib (whose popularity continues to baffle me). It's six (or eight if you move up) bone-in ribs, sold in a combo for what has been reported as high as $7.99 in some markets. The local BK's are corporate-owned, so I figured they'd have them here. They did...starting at $5.99. The eight-piece was $6.99.
So while literally everybody else in the building was ordering off the value menu, I tried the ribs.
These are not "I went to Tony Roma's and ordered a half rack of baby back ribs" ribs. They're individual pieces about three inches long and aren't covered with sauce (they come with two dipping packets of barbecue sauce of such a quality that the main ingredient...even before water...is high fructose corn syrup). They remind you more of wings wrapped around a bone. They're a finger food to be sure. You can probably eat them while driving without making a mess as long as you're not dipping.
Taste? Ever tried KFC's grilled chicken? That's what I immediately thought of. It's an intense flavor that doesn't come off as natural. In fact, this would make more sense on KFC's menu than Burger King's. I'm guessing they probably have a really heavy sodium content, but I don't know that for sure (I couldn't find them on BK's website).
I don't see them becoming a cult favorite.
I don't blame BK for trying this, though. They need SOMETHING to get people to move up from the value menu.
Lunch: BK 'fire-grilled' Ribs, onion rings, Dr. Pepper
The heat is here. The humidity is here. It's hot. Stupid sucky sweaty hot. I need to move to the desert. Or back to the Northwest. Or invent time travel and pass summer up completely. Fast-forward straight to football season and caramel apple milkshakes.
Over the past couple of years, BK has been moving away from their traditional conveyor rack flame broiler to something called a "batch broiler", which is said to reduce energy consumption by 90 percent and allow smaller batches of burgers to be cooked faster, allowing for a fresher tasting product. It also had an unintended side effect...Customers said the burgers tasted better. "More like they used to". (My opinion on that...they've gone from tasting charbroiled to intensely charbroiled. Unnaturally charbroiled.)
BK showed off the batch broiler at some recent convention or event or something by cooking all sorts of odd stuff in one, making the point that they would be able to expand menu offerings. They didn't waste time doing so...Some BK's last week started offering a rib meal.
This isn't the pressed pork boneless McDonald's McRib (whose popularity continues to baffle me). It's six (or eight if you move up) bone-in ribs, sold in a combo for what has been reported as high as $7.99 in some markets. The local BK's are corporate-owned, so I figured they'd have them here. They did...starting at $5.99. The eight-piece was $6.99.
So while literally everybody else in the building was ordering off the value menu, I tried the ribs.
These are not "I went to Tony Roma's and ordered a half rack of baby back ribs" ribs. They're individual pieces about three inches long and aren't covered with sauce (they come with two dipping packets of barbecue sauce of such a quality that the main ingredient...even before water...is high fructose corn syrup). They remind you more of wings wrapped around a bone. They're a finger food to be sure. You can probably eat them while driving without making a mess as long as you're not dipping.
Taste? Ever tried KFC's grilled chicken? That's what I immediately thought of. It's an intense flavor that doesn't come off as natural. In fact, this would make more sense on KFC's menu than Burger King's. I'm guessing they probably have a really heavy sodium content, but I don't know that for sure (I couldn't find them on BK's website).
I don't see them becoming a cult favorite.
I don't blame BK for trying this, though. They need SOMETHING to get people to move up from the value menu.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Cat Box
Place: Hardee's
Lunch: 1/3 lb grilled cheese bacon Thickburger, bacon cheddar fries, Dr. Pepper
I wonder why they didn't toast the bottom bun. Wonder if that's normal, or if they just screwed up. Whatever. Excellent otherwise.
Apparently we're FINALLY getting a local HD newscast today starting officially with WHO's 13 News at Five, but secretly soft-launching with the 13 News at Noon. You're terribly excited, I can tell. KCCI, much like their reporting, will continue to be fuzzy. My favorite newscast will continue to be KWCH Wichita's because they've been in HD for awhile already and they have a dog on the weather staff.
Ever feel like it's impossible to get ahead...that no matter how much or how little money you have, time and space converge to make sure you have just enough of a crisis at all times to have some expenditure that will keep you from getting over that bump? As if your budget was part of the delicate balance of nature?
*suddenly hears Activia theme song in head*
Well, nature called. For the cats, specifically. My litter box needed to be replaced last week.
You're thinking "Litter box? You can buy those for less than five bucks!" Yes. Normal litter boxes. I'm replacing a Litter Maid. And the solution I've found to replace it costs more than the monthly rent of five of my past apartments.
When I first relocated to the Townhouse of Solitude, I discovered something that had gone unnoticed at the old place...Everything was covered in litter dust. Everything. Regardless of where in the house it was. And everything smelled like cat litter, an odor I'd apparently mistakened for "old house".
Chester confirmed the litter problem when he trotted across my new black appliances, leaving behind litter dust footprints that had previously gone undetected somehow.
So I started looking at dust-free litters and settled on some stuff called "the worlds best cat litter" or some such nonsense. And the dust problem went away. But the litter didn't control odor as well and the cats didn't like the feel of it. So I got the self-cleaning box known as the "Litter Maid" to try and keep the smell down and keep the overall box cleaner for the cats. That cat litter ultimately didn't stick around (the cats and I swear by Dr. Elsey's "Precious Cat" 99 percent dust-free clumping litter now), but the Litter Maid did.
The Litter Maid has a big electronic comb that senses when a cat has done its thing and combs the litter box, moving the waste to a covered collector tray at the end of the box. In theory, this should result in an always-clean litter box, reducing odor and making cleanup easier.
In theory.
It has its flaws. First off, it's noisy in a loud high-pitched way. Second, they cost $100-$150 dollars. Third, the collector trays are not designed to be re-used and replacements are absurdly expensive. (But an Amazon reseller came up with a neat gadget that lets you use plastic grocery bags instead. It's awesome.) Fourth, stuff sometimes sticks to the bottom and to the rake, so the box isn't 100 percent clean. Fifth, clean litter would also end up in the collector tray (shoved in front of waste, I suppose).
Then there's my cats, who for some reason insisted on only using ONE side of the box. They do their thing, then cover it with the litter from the other side. So after a day or two, the box is half completely empty, and has a half row of groomed litter. The collector tray is also half empty and half full as a result, with everything spilling over the full side onto the carpet.
Litter doesn't just spill there...the cats throw it, track it in their paws, and who knows what else. This required the use of the Litter Maid accessory they don't tell you about...the Shop Vac. In fact, I was able to fill the box several times with litter I'd vacuumed up.
The Litter Maid doesn't have a terribly long lifespan, either. Most online reviews claim 1-2 years before the motor dies or starts doing weird things. That's how long mine lasted before it just kept combing and combing and combing over again because it didn't think it was finishing a cycle (when it was). So I started looking into replacements. I wasn't going back to the traditional litter box...the Litter Maid DID pretty much eliminate litter box odor, and significantly reduced scooping maintenance.
I wanted something quieter, cleaner, and with a bigger collector setup that would take longer to fill than the Litter Maid (which, tops, was two days).
Enter the Litter Robot.
The Litter Robot is a big globe on a base. Cats enter the globe, do their thing in a surprisingly small amount of space, and seven minutes later, the entire globe rotates like a cement mixer, clearing the litter of waste and depositing it into a drawer in the base (lined with any plastic bag you can find that will fit, which unfortunately does not include plastic grocery bags). The entire process also completely removes the unused litter from its sitting position and mixes the entire batch, returning it evenly dispersed in its proper place so it's like it's fresh every time a cat enters.
Fascinating.
So I ordered one. It showed up a couple of days later in a box nearly as big as my garbage can. I removed the dying Litter Maid, discovered a few pounds of litter that had escaped and was hiding under the Litter Maid, broke out the Shop Vac, cleaned, and set up the Robot. It's a little wider than Litter Maid Mega Elite, but about half as long, so I even gained some floorspace.
I was immediately sorry...that I hadn't set up the camcorder to catch the cats' reaction.
The cats were horrified.
They circled it. They observed it from afar. They saw it cycle. Chester stuck his head in, but wouldn't enter. Maggie wouldn't even approach it. They 'held it' for a good fifteen hours.
Finally, Chester tried it out and immediately was fine with it. Maggie, who considers Chester her own personal guinea pig, decided it must be okay and followed suit. I noticed this morning that Chester is working out the correlation between the cycling process and the waste disappearing...he did his thing, stood by and waited for the cycling process, then peeked his head in and dug around looking for it. He either thinks it's an amazing magic trick, or he's starting to figure out what's going on.
Quieter? WAY quieter. Cleaner? WAY cleaner. There's almost NO litter on the carpet near the unit since I set it up. Less litter waste? WAY less. The collector tray had nothing but waste clumps in it when I cleaned it (negative aspect: BOY did it smell!) Odor? NONE (unless the drawer is open, obviously). Capacity? I cleaned it for the first time after four full days...and I could have gone longer. This thing is ingenious.
More expensive? WAY more. $349. You could buy two or three Litter Maids. You could buy a hundred cheap litter boxes. But you know what? It's worth every penny. At least if it lasts.
We'll see.
Lunch: 1/3 lb grilled cheese bacon Thickburger, bacon cheddar fries, Dr. Pepper
I wonder why they didn't toast the bottom bun. Wonder if that's normal, or if they just screwed up. Whatever. Excellent otherwise.
Apparently we're FINALLY getting a local HD newscast today starting officially with WHO's 13 News at Five, but secretly soft-launching with the 13 News at Noon. You're terribly excited, I can tell. KCCI, much like their reporting, will continue to be fuzzy. My favorite newscast will continue to be KWCH Wichita's because they've been in HD for awhile already and they have a dog on the weather staff.
Ever feel like it's impossible to get ahead...that no matter how much or how little money you have, time and space converge to make sure you have just enough of a crisis at all times to have some expenditure that will keep you from getting over that bump? As if your budget was part of the delicate balance of nature?
*suddenly hears Activia theme song in head*
Well, nature called. For the cats, specifically. My litter box needed to be replaced last week.
You're thinking "Litter box? You can buy those for less than five bucks!" Yes. Normal litter boxes. I'm replacing a Litter Maid. And the solution I've found to replace it costs more than the monthly rent of five of my past apartments.
When I first relocated to the Townhouse of Solitude, I discovered something that had gone unnoticed at the old place...Everything was covered in litter dust. Everything. Regardless of where in the house it was. And everything smelled like cat litter, an odor I'd apparently mistakened for "old house".
Chester confirmed the litter problem when he trotted across my new black appliances, leaving behind litter dust footprints that had previously gone undetected somehow.
So I started looking at dust-free litters and settled on some stuff called "the worlds best cat litter" or some such nonsense. And the dust problem went away. But the litter didn't control odor as well and the cats didn't like the feel of it. So I got the self-cleaning box known as the "Litter Maid" to try and keep the smell down and keep the overall box cleaner for the cats. That cat litter ultimately didn't stick around (the cats and I swear by Dr. Elsey's "Precious Cat" 99 percent dust-free clumping litter now), but the Litter Maid did.
The Litter Maid has a big electronic comb that senses when a cat has done its thing and combs the litter box, moving the waste to a covered collector tray at the end of the box. In theory, this should result in an always-clean litter box, reducing odor and making cleanup easier.
In theory.
It has its flaws. First off, it's noisy in a loud high-pitched way. Second, they cost $100-$150 dollars. Third, the collector trays are not designed to be re-used and replacements are absurdly expensive. (But an Amazon reseller came up with a neat gadget that lets you use plastic grocery bags instead. It's awesome.) Fourth, stuff sometimes sticks to the bottom and to the rake, so the box isn't 100 percent clean. Fifth, clean litter would also end up in the collector tray (shoved in front of waste, I suppose).
Then there's my cats, who for some reason insisted on only using ONE side of the box. They do their thing, then cover it with the litter from the other side. So after a day or two, the box is half completely empty, and has a half row of groomed litter. The collector tray is also half empty and half full as a result, with everything spilling over the full side onto the carpet.
Litter doesn't just spill there...the cats throw it, track it in their paws, and who knows what else. This required the use of the Litter Maid accessory they don't tell you about...the Shop Vac. In fact, I was able to fill the box several times with litter I'd vacuumed up.
The Litter Maid doesn't have a terribly long lifespan, either. Most online reviews claim 1-2 years before the motor dies or starts doing weird things. That's how long mine lasted before it just kept combing and combing and combing over again because it didn't think it was finishing a cycle (when it was). So I started looking into replacements. I wasn't going back to the traditional litter box...the Litter Maid DID pretty much eliminate litter box odor, and significantly reduced scooping maintenance.
I wanted something quieter, cleaner, and with a bigger collector setup that would take longer to fill than the Litter Maid (which, tops, was two days).
Enter the Litter Robot.
The Litter Robot is a big globe on a base. Cats enter the globe, do their thing in a surprisingly small amount of space, and seven minutes later, the entire globe rotates like a cement mixer, clearing the litter of waste and depositing it into a drawer in the base (lined with any plastic bag you can find that will fit, which unfortunately does not include plastic grocery bags). The entire process also completely removes the unused litter from its sitting position and mixes the entire batch, returning it evenly dispersed in its proper place so it's like it's fresh every time a cat enters.
Fascinating.
So I ordered one. It showed up a couple of days later in a box nearly as big as my garbage can. I removed the dying Litter Maid, discovered a few pounds of litter that had escaped and was hiding under the Litter Maid, broke out the Shop Vac, cleaned, and set up the Robot. It's a little wider than Litter Maid Mega Elite, but about half as long, so I even gained some floorspace.
I was immediately sorry...that I hadn't set up the camcorder to catch the cats' reaction.
The cats were horrified.
They circled it. They observed it from afar. They saw it cycle. Chester stuck his head in, but wouldn't enter. Maggie wouldn't even approach it. They 'held it' for a good fifteen hours.
Finally, Chester tried it out and immediately was fine with it. Maggie, who considers Chester her own personal guinea pig, decided it must be okay and followed suit. I noticed this morning that Chester is working out the correlation between the cycling process and the waste disappearing...he did his thing, stood by and waited for the cycling process, then peeked his head in and dug around looking for it. He either thinks it's an amazing magic trick, or he's starting to figure out what's going on.
Quieter? WAY quieter. Cleaner? WAY cleaner. There's almost NO litter on the carpet near the unit since I set it up. Less litter waste? WAY less. The collector tray had nothing but waste clumps in it when I cleaned it (negative aspect: BOY did it smell!) Odor? NONE (unless the drawer is open, obviously). Capacity? I cleaned it for the first time after four full days...and I could have gone longer. This thing is ingenious.
More expensive? WAY more. $349. You could buy two or three Litter Maids. You could buy a hundred cheap litter boxes. But you know what? It's worth every penny. At least if it lasts.
We'll see.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Place: Steak & Shake
Lunch: Portabello mushroom-Swiss (lettuce pickles, onions, mayo), cheese fries, bowl of chili, Coke
It's getting harder and harder to defend Steak & Shake. The chili today is lukewarm at best, there's barely any cheese on the fries, and the burger is super soggy. And they apparently now offer a Grape Kool-Aid milkshake. WHAT???
Have you seen all the hoopla about Facebook the past couple of weeks? Mainly relating to privacy. Yeah, not good.
Because of the hoopla, I took a look at my privacy settings and discovered that my profile, which was set to only be shown to people I've designated as "friends", was suddenly wide open for anyone to see.
Me: pretty angry.
This has gotten enough press that even Congress has taken notice. People are now warning that you should either drop Facebook completely, or modify your information so that nothing is there you wouldn't want seen publicly. Which I'd pretty much done anyway, since some of my Facebook friends are just fans of this blog or my website or longtime internet friends I haven't actually met. Short of actual pictures, there's nothing more private there that you wouldn't have read here.
The one change I've made is that I set up a Facebook-specific e-mail address. I do that with most of my online accounts (even my personal website) so that I know specifically where the SPAM and what not comes from. I should have done that with Facebook in the first place.
Facebook IS a great tool. I love the steady stream of "news" from friends and media outlets I subscribe to. It's like a really customized AP wire feed. Plus, it's a great way to keep in touch with relatives. Several family members have just recently set up accounts. If it weren't for Facebook, most of them would be people I wouldn't hear from for years at a time. So even if the updates they're posting are about the color of their socks, I appreciate seeing them and just knowing they're out there. (Plus...let's face it...I dig random stuff like that.)
And I don't mind Facebook using information to help target advertising to me based on my likes. They should be able to make money, and I have in fact purchased things based on this structure. But having my 'likes' out in the wide open for any random person anywhere in the world to see...particularly when I specifically set my settings NOT to...is ridiculous. That stunt immediately made them a liability to every user they have.
They shouldn't even need to show my "likes" to advertisers. They should be able to sell advertisers their advertising and do the targeting internally. It's not that hard. Not that big a deal.
The sad part is, they don't seem to think anything they've done is wrong.
So what's the solution?
- There's already suggestions that somebody should create an open-source competitor to Facebook. Let the millions abandon Facebook and run to the new service. You know who should jump on this? Google. Googlebook. Or maybe Google could BUY Facebook. Google's doing everything else right (this very blog is hosted through a Google-owned interface), why not social media?
- Deactivate your account. Not so easy. Apparently, it doesn't really deactivate, so delete your pictures, unfriend your friends, and unlike your likes. Apparently, if you don't, it all stays up anyway.
- Deal with it and make sure nothing in your Facebook profile shouldn't be public knowledge. (Yes, that'd me my route.)
Sad, because everyone abandoning Facebook seems to be the only way to get the message to their management that they screwed up.
They really don't seem to care.
Lunch: Portabello mushroom-Swiss (lettuce pickles, onions, mayo), cheese fries, bowl of chili, Coke
It's getting harder and harder to defend Steak & Shake. The chili today is lukewarm at best, there's barely any cheese on the fries, and the burger is super soggy. And they apparently now offer a Grape Kool-Aid milkshake. WHAT???
Have you seen all the hoopla about Facebook the past couple of weeks? Mainly relating to privacy. Yeah, not good.
Because of the hoopla, I took a look at my privacy settings and discovered that my profile, which was set to only be shown to people I've designated as "friends", was suddenly wide open for anyone to see.
Me: pretty angry.
This has gotten enough press that even Congress has taken notice. People are now warning that you should either drop Facebook completely, or modify your information so that nothing is there you wouldn't want seen publicly. Which I'd pretty much done anyway, since some of my Facebook friends are just fans of this blog or my website or longtime internet friends I haven't actually met. Short of actual pictures, there's nothing more private there that you wouldn't have read here.
The one change I've made is that I set up a Facebook-specific e-mail address. I do that with most of my online accounts (even my personal website) so that I know specifically where the SPAM and what not comes from. I should have done that with Facebook in the first place.
Facebook IS a great tool. I love the steady stream of "news" from friends and media outlets I subscribe to. It's like a really customized AP wire feed. Plus, it's a great way to keep in touch with relatives. Several family members have just recently set up accounts. If it weren't for Facebook, most of them would be people I wouldn't hear from for years at a time. So even if the updates they're posting are about the color of their socks, I appreciate seeing them and just knowing they're out there. (Plus...let's face it...I dig random stuff like that.)
And I don't mind Facebook using information to help target advertising to me based on my likes. They should be able to make money, and I have in fact purchased things based on this structure. But having my 'likes' out in the wide open for any random person anywhere in the world to see...particularly when I specifically set my settings NOT to...is ridiculous. That stunt immediately made them a liability to every user they have.
They shouldn't even need to show my "likes" to advertisers. They should be able to sell advertisers their advertising and do the targeting internally. It's not that hard. Not that big a deal.
The sad part is, they don't seem to think anything they've done is wrong.
So what's the solution?
- There's already suggestions that somebody should create an open-source competitor to Facebook. Let the millions abandon Facebook and run to the new service. You know who should jump on this? Google. Googlebook. Or maybe Google could BUY Facebook. Google's doing everything else right (this very blog is hosted through a Google-owned interface), why not social media?
- Deactivate your account. Not so easy. Apparently, it doesn't really deactivate, so delete your pictures, unfriend your friends, and unlike your likes. Apparently, if you don't, it all stays up anyway.
- Deal with it and make sure nothing in your Facebook profile shouldn't be public knowledge. (Yes, that'd me my route.)
Sad, because everyone abandoning Facebook seems to be the only way to get the message to their management that they screwed up.
They really don't seem to care.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Skanky
Place: smashburger
Lunch: Mushroom-Swiss, chili, Dr. Pepper
In case there was any doubt, smashburger's mushroom-Swiss has officially displaced Arctic Circle's mushroom-Swiss as my favorite. Though I'd still take either one any day.
It was dark as night outside until about 10 this morning. The wind is blowing, and the rain has been steadily falling at a heavy pace since I got out of bed.
Maybe it'll help the taste of the tap water. It's been pretty skanky lately.
(Is 'skanky' even a word?...checks Merriam-Webster...Yep, it is. Is 'yep' a word? Yep. What about 'dickweed'? Don't push your luck)
Years ago, our city water system was contaminated in a flood and we all had to use/drink bottled water for a month. So Wife #1 and I got a couple of cases of water, which turned out to be an unintended revelation. "WOW! I'm actually enjoying drinking this!" Because the stuff coming through our old pipes was just dreadful. We joined the bottled water generation.
After she passed away and I moved, I found the tap water at my new place was great. So no more need for the bottled stuff. Until recently.
At first, I thought it was my ice that was the problem because I'd put some fish in the freezer and, even though I stored it in sealed freezer bags, the whole freezer smelled like fish. So I tossed the fish, tossed the (allegedly) offending ice, cleaned, and put in an Arm & Hammer box. No more odors in the freezer. But the water still tastes skanky.
So I'm back to bottled water for now. We usually have a period in the Spring where they put chlorine in the water, and you can taste that, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe that's the problem. I made Kool-Aid (grape...yay) and the odor is actually so strong you could detect it in THAT too.
But the weird thing that made me think more about this is that the office water cooler this morning seems to ALSO be suffering from this skankiness, albeit to a much lesser degree. I suppose this is bottled locally after going through their special filtering, but...weird.
Maybe it's all in my head.
I've considered getting a soft water system. Kinetico is allegedly right up my alley, but they're ridiculously expensive...several THOUSAND dollars.
A case of bottled water is under $5 at Costco and lasts me a couple of weeks.
Think I'll stick with the bottles for now and wait for things to get better.
Lunch: Mushroom-Swiss, chili, Dr. Pepper
In case there was any doubt, smashburger's mushroom-Swiss has officially displaced Arctic Circle's mushroom-Swiss as my favorite. Though I'd still take either one any day.
It was dark as night outside until about 10 this morning. The wind is blowing, and the rain has been steadily falling at a heavy pace since I got out of bed.
Maybe it'll help the taste of the tap water. It's been pretty skanky lately.
(Is 'skanky' even a word?...checks Merriam-Webster...Yep, it is. Is 'yep' a word? Yep. What about 'dickweed'? Don't push your luck)
Years ago, our city water system was contaminated in a flood and we all had to use/drink bottled water for a month. So Wife #1 and I got a couple of cases of water, which turned out to be an unintended revelation. "WOW! I'm actually enjoying drinking this!" Because the stuff coming through our old pipes was just dreadful. We joined the bottled water generation.
After she passed away and I moved, I found the tap water at my new place was great. So no more need for the bottled stuff. Until recently.
At first, I thought it was my ice that was the problem because I'd put some fish in the freezer and, even though I stored it in sealed freezer bags, the whole freezer smelled like fish. So I tossed the fish, tossed the (allegedly) offending ice, cleaned, and put in an Arm & Hammer box. No more odors in the freezer. But the water still tastes skanky.
So I'm back to bottled water for now. We usually have a period in the Spring where they put chlorine in the water, and you can taste that, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe that's the problem. I made Kool-Aid (grape...yay) and the odor is actually so strong you could detect it in THAT too.
But the weird thing that made me think more about this is that the office water cooler this morning seems to ALSO be suffering from this skankiness, albeit to a much lesser degree. I suppose this is bottled locally after going through their special filtering, but...weird.
Maybe it's all in my head.
I've considered getting a soft water system. Kinetico is allegedly right up my alley, but they're ridiculously expensive...several THOUSAND dollars.
A case of bottled water is under $5 at Costco and lasts me a couple of weeks.
Think I'll stick with the bottles for now and wait for things to get better.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Pinball!
Place: Jason's Deli
Lunch: Pastrami melt, Texas chili, Dr Pepper
I keep meaning to summarize the hybrid car deal from the weekend...My rental Altima hybrid got 37 mpg or better (I don't know if the tank was COMPLETELY full when I picked it up, and I completely filled it) on the 2.5 gallons of gas I used over my roughly 40 hours in Vegas. Pretty impressive for a V6. A lot of that is due to stop-and-go and slow moving traffic. I figure my four-cylinder Rogue would have been lucky to get 20-25 in the same scenario. In most situations, where you're driving longer stretches in town at 35-45 and on the highway more, the results wouldn't be nearly as good.
I've also since found out the hybrid Altima is only sold in like a half dozen states for some dumb reason. No wonder I hadn't heard of it before.
Oh...and driving around in a car with no audible motor sound? CREEPY.
Also, apparently to accommodate expansion, renting a car no longer happens at McCarran. It used to be you'd go to your favorite rental car company's booth near the baggage carousels, finalize your rental, and get bussed out to wherever their car lot was. Now you board a common rental car shuttle bus that goes out to a whole new facility about three miles south of the airport property (even south of 215). Enter what looks like a mall food court but with rental car companies instead of corn dogs and rent your car. The cars are all right there. They like to stress to you that, from the garage, it's just "three right turns to the strip".
It's true. I followed this advice and found myself at the bottom of Las Vegas Blvd. I went up past the famous sign, past the Luxor, Excalibur, and Tropicana hotels, and headed east on Tropicana Ave. I drove a few miles into the increasingly poor and abandoned area of town until I hit an area with a lot of empty space where buildings used to be...in some cases foundations still exist...until I saw the non-descript cement block on the left, its windows and glass doors mirrored like an adult book store, with nothing but a vinyl banner up top proclaiming the business inside...the "Pinball Hall of Fame".
The building was bare bones. One big room, save for maybe a makeshift unmarked bathroom in one corner. White walls and a cement floor. None of the overhead lights were turned on. There was a hodgepodge of change machines up front that supposedly were lifted off a casino's trash dock. There were some quarter candy machines.
And there were pinball machines. Over a hundred of them. Working. Playable. From every era of pinball.
I'm in heaven.
It's not a 'hall of fame' at all, per se. It's an arcade, plain and simple, that focuses on pinball. The man behind the machines is Tim Arnold, a lifelong pinball fan and a former Michigan arcade operator. Arnold and his wife invested successfully and sold his arcades in 1990 and 'retired', moving to Las Vegas, his massive collection of machines eventually following.
As he restored machines to play condition, he started having fun night parties at his home (where he has something like 1,000 old pinball machines waiting to be restored) to benefit local charities. Eventually, a building fund was started, and eventually, the Pinball Hall of Fame arcade opened to the public. This 10,000 square-foot location is actually their second building. I'm pretty sure Arnold is the guy with the thick glasses you see in the back of the building tinkering with machines in the dark, but I didn't ask.
Pinball is a dying art form. There's only one company still making new machines (Stern Pinball), and most of their machines are modern licenses of major franchises like Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even CSI. Yes, all three of those are here. CSI is a very odd machine, with the actors speaking their lines very matter of factly ("Skull...multiball."). Still, there isn't a whole lot of market for these...Stern claims half of their sales are to private collectors. I rarely see any operating anymore, save for an occasional modern model in a movie theater arcade.
The Hall of Fame has lots of everything, really. Old Gottlieb machines from the 70's with their mechanical scoreboards and bells. Early solid state machines like Bally's Eight Ball Deluxe. Franchise pins like Star Trek, Star Wars, Kiss, and even an Elton John "Captain Fantastic" machine. The legendary but rare Williams 'Pinball 2000'-design "Revenge from Mars". (See the documentary 'Tilt' for more information. I'd never heard of it until @michaelkreagan hooked me up, because he's awesome that way.) Some I was hoping to see weren't here, like Centaur and Spirit of 76, but the Pinbot and Addams Family machines more than made up for that. There's also a few classic video games scattered about, including a Donkey Kong, Centipede, Tron, and a rare working Dragon's Lair.
I spent a good chunk of time here over two days and spent a total of just $16 in quarters playing the machines. The patrons I saw in the building were largely guys who likely were in their prime in the eighties, but a few couples would show up, and parents with kids too.
It's completely awesome, and it's all for charity. Arnold donates any profits to the local Salvation Army.
The Pinball Hall of Fame is at 1610 E Tropicana. They CLAIM the building is right across from the Liberace Museum, but it's not...it's down the street across from an empty lot surrounded by a chain-link fence.
The Liberace Museum, by the way, looks like it's housed in a re-purposed motel. Like an old TraveLodge. Or a really massive old strip mall.
Lunch: Pastrami melt, Texas chili, Dr Pepper
I keep meaning to summarize the hybrid car deal from the weekend...My rental Altima hybrid got 37 mpg or better (I don't know if the tank was COMPLETELY full when I picked it up, and I completely filled it) on the 2.5 gallons of gas I used over my roughly 40 hours in Vegas. Pretty impressive for a V6. A lot of that is due to stop-and-go and slow moving traffic. I figure my four-cylinder Rogue would have been lucky to get 20-25 in the same scenario. In most situations, where you're driving longer stretches in town at 35-45 and on the highway more, the results wouldn't be nearly as good.
I've also since found out the hybrid Altima is only sold in like a half dozen states for some dumb reason. No wonder I hadn't heard of it before.
Oh...and driving around in a car with no audible motor sound? CREEPY.
Also, apparently to accommodate expansion, renting a car no longer happens at McCarran. It used to be you'd go to your favorite rental car company's booth near the baggage carousels, finalize your rental, and get bussed out to wherever their car lot was. Now you board a common rental car shuttle bus that goes out to a whole new facility about three miles south of the airport property (even south of 215). Enter what looks like a mall food court but with rental car companies instead of corn dogs and rent your car. The cars are all right there. They like to stress to you that, from the garage, it's just "three right turns to the strip".
It's true. I followed this advice and found myself at the bottom of Las Vegas Blvd. I went up past the famous sign, past the Luxor, Excalibur, and Tropicana hotels, and headed east on Tropicana Ave. I drove a few miles into the increasingly poor and abandoned area of town until I hit an area with a lot of empty space where buildings used to be...in some cases foundations still exist...until I saw the non-descript cement block on the left, its windows and glass doors mirrored like an adult book store, with nothing but a vinyl banner up top proclaiming the business inside...the "Pinball Hall of Fame".
The building was bare bones. One big room, save for maybe a makeshift unmarked bathroom in one corner. White walls and a cement floor. None of the overhead lights were turned on. There was a hodgepodge of change machines up front that supposedly were lifted off a casino's trash dock. There were some quarter candy machines.
And there were pinball machines. Over a hundred of them. Working. Playable. From every era of pinball.
I'm in heaven.
It's not a 'hall of fame' at all, per se. It's an arcade, plain and simple, that focuses on pinball. The man behind the machines is Tim Arnold, a lifelong pinball fan and a former Michigan arcade operator. Arnold and his wife invested successfully and sold his arcades in 1990 and 'retired', moving to Las Vegas, his massive collection of machines eventually following.
As he restored machines to play condition, he started having fun night parties at his home (where he has something like 1,000 old pinball machines waiting to be restored) to benefit local charities. Eventually, a building fund was started, and eventually, the Pinball Hall of Fame arcade opened to the public. This 10,000 square-foot location is actually their second building. I'm pretty sure Arnold is the guy with the thick glasses you see in the back of the building tinkering with machines in the dark, but I didn't ask.
Pinball is a dying art form. There's only one company still making new machines (Stern Pinball), and most of their machines are modern licenses of major franchises like Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even CSI. Yes, all three of those are here. CSI is a very odd machine, with the actors speaking their lines very matter of factly ("Skull...multiball."). Still, there isn't a whole lot of market for these...Stern claims half of their sales are to private collectors. I rarely see any operating anymore, save for an occasional modern model in a movie theater arcade.
The Hall of Fame has lots of everything, really. Old Gottlieb machines from the 70's with their mechanical scoreboards and bells. Early solid state machines like Bally's Eight Ball Deluxe. Franchise pins like Star Trek, Star Wars, Kiss, and even an Elton John "Captain Fantastic" machine. The legendary but rare Williams 'Pinball 2000'-design "Revenge from Mars". (See the documentary 'Tilt' for more information. I'd never heard of it until @michaelkreagan hooked me up, because he's awesome that way.) Some I was hoping to see weren't here, like Centaur and Spirit of 76, but the Pinbot and Addams Family machines more than made up for that. There's also a few classic video games scattered about, including a Donkey Kong, Centipede, Tron, and a rare working Dragon's Lair.
I spent a good chunk of time here over two days and spent a total of just $16 in quarters playing the machines. The patrons I saw in the building were largely guys who likely were in their prime in the eighties, but a few couples would show up, and parents with kids too.
It's completely awesome, and it's all for charity. Arnold donates any profits to the local Salvation Army.
The Pinball Hall of Fame is at 1610 E Tropicana. They CLAIM the building is right across from the Liberace Museum, but it's not...it's down the street across from an empty lot surrounded by a chain-link fence.
The Liberace Museum, by the way, looks like it's housed in a re-purposed motel. Like an old TraveLodge. Or a really massive old strip mall.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Home
Place: HuHot Mongolian Grill
Lunch: A plate of sea scallops with mushrooms, two ladles Samurai Teriyaki sauce, two ladles Feed the Horses Hoisin sauce, and three ladles Hot Chili Oil; a plate of chicken with Chinese noodles and mushrooms with three ladles of Samurai Teriyaki sauce, three ladles of Feed the Horses Hoisin sauce, two ladles of Burn your Village Barbecue sauce, and two ladles of Hot Chili oil; Coke
I am BEAT. Three and a half hours on a (padded) steel chair in the Palms concert hall last night, got back to the motel at 12:30, got up at 5:30, a couple of hours at the airport, and roughly three hours in a cramped seat on an MD-80. I need to start planning my flights so I'm either on a better more spacious airline, or plan my flights with stopovers so I get breaks in between. I just don't handle that 'three hours cramped in economy' crap well at all.
Oh well. I should be done flying until August.
Actually, I need to remember that I'm not really much into sitting at live events for extended periods of time either anymore. Even if I am in the front row and have unlimited leg room.
Conan was good. Not great, not spectacular, but good. Pretty sure that was all he was looking to achieve. The highlight of the show was LaBamba (the trombonist in Conan's band) singing a number before Conan came out. That guy is a talent and a half.
I'll probably write about the Pinball Hall of Fame and maybe other shenanigans later in the week, but the cats are totally demanding my attention right now, and it's hard to type when Chester's in my face.
Lunch: A plate of sea scallops with mushrooms, two ladles Samurai Teriyaki sauce, two ladles Feed the Horses Hoisin sauce, and three ladles Hot Chili Oil; a plate of chicken with Chinese noodles and mushrooms with three ladles of Samurai Teriyaki sauce, three ladles of Feed the Horses Hoisin sauce, two ladles of Burn your Village Barbecue sauce, and two ladles of Hot Chili oil; Coke
I am BEAT. Three and a half hours on a (padded) steel chair in the Palms concert hall last night, got back to the motel at 12:30, got up at 5:30, a couple of hours at the airport, and roughly three hours in a cramped seat on an MD-80. I need to start planning my flights so I'm either on a better more spacious airline, or plan my flights with stopovers so I get breaks in between. I just don't handle that 'three hours cramped in economy' crap well at all.
Oh well. I should be done flying until August.
Actually, I need to remember that I'm not really much into sitting at live events for extended periods of time either anymore. Even if I am in the front row and have unlimited leg room.
Conan was good. Not great, not spectacular, but good. Pretty sure that was all he was looking to achieve. The highlight of the show was LaBamba (the trombonist in Conan's band) singing a number before Conan came out. That guy is a talent and a half.
I'll probably write about the Pinball Hall of Fame and maybe other shenanigans later in the week, but the cats are totally demanding my attention right now, and it's hard to type when Chester's in my face.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Hybrid
Place: In-N-Out Burger
Lunch: Double-Double (regular onions, no tomato), fries (well done), Dr Pepper
There's an older woman...Korean, I'm guessing...sitting at the table next to me with a girl I'm assuming is her daughter. She leans over and says "Sweetheart, you no have no more hair on your head."
Me: "Yes. I got rid of it several years ago."
"You no need shampoo."
"No."
At the counter, Jerry from Dollar Rental Car is ordering. "I don't want no onions, see?" Smiling Counter Girl complies and finishes order. "Yeah, but I don't want no onions!" This guy is clearly a former mobster in the witness protection program.
Welcome to In-N-Out on Maryland St, the only In-N-Out I've been to where you can walk in after 11am on a Saturday and not have to wait in line and there's plenty of available seating. It's on the east edge of the UNLV campus, yet it's also basically in the ghetto. The Von's down the street is so locked down that you have to get an employee to unlock the general merchandise section and they have to babysit you while you shop. This is the In-N-Out the strip employees go to. They know better than to deal with the insanity that is the In-N-Out on Dean Martin Dr.
I dropped into Vegas to catch Conan O'Brien's live tour at the Palms tonight. Yes, I'm just that awesome. How do YOU stand to benefit from this awesomeness? If nothing else, I will have probably built enough fodder for at least three blog posts. YOU REAP THE BENEFITS.
My rental car this time around is a Nissan Altima hybrid...my first experience with one. (Hybrid, that is. AND Altima, I guess.) The good news is I have much less to whine about with this car over the stripped-down Mazda I drove over my birthday weekend because the Altima has the same Intelli-Key feature my Rogue does. So I don't get confused about having to use the keys. I know it sounds stupid and petty, but that was REALLY annoying.
The hybrid has been an interesting experience with some quirks of its own. Hybrid vehicles have both electric and gas motors that switch back and forth between gas mode and "EV mode" when appropriate to accomplish the goal of saving gas. It's a little weird when you get in and push the start button and no engine turns on. The instrument cluster lights up and a green "Ready" indicator is your clue that you can drive. The engine will continue to not fire up if you don't hit the gas. So if you put the transmission in reverse and let it propel under its own motion, there's still no engine. Put it in drive and let it coast, still no engine. I can pretty well start the car and get to the lower level of my motel's parking garage without the gas engine.
Once you punch the gas and accelerate to cruising speed, the engine fires up and you take off. Modes alternate depending on the situation...if you're stopped at an intersection, let off the gas while cruising or stopping, or only need slight propulsion, the gas engine shuts off and your dash indicates you're in "EV mode". The same display also has one of those live "miles per gallon" meters that shows what mileage you're getting. When accelerating with the gas engine, it's usually below 20. When cruising, it can be anywhere from the mid-30's to closer to 60 (where it defaults when in EV mode). Our competitive nature makes this meter a game...we suddenly want to be the best gas saver in the world. We pay FAR too much attention to it and drive slower as a result, much to the shagrin of nearby motorists, who get really annoyed with your 'old lady'-like slow driving quirks. At least until the novelty wears off, because by the end of the night last night, I was driving it pretty much the way I do my own.
There's two oddities to get used to while driving...There's a slight bumping feel when the car switches modes (particularly on takeoff), and there's new noises to get used to...particularly the brakes. Hybrids use regenerative brakes, meaning when you hit the brake, the friction creates electricity, which the car uses to help recharge the battery. These brakes have a high-pitched whine. Not terribly annoying...you get used to it...but it's there.
It's interesting, though. I like the idea of being 'off' when 'on' isn't necessary. But for my driving habits (spent mostly on long stretches of open highway at constant cruising speed), I'm not sure there's a practical cost benefit. And those batteries aren't exactly cheap to replace. But it's great for tooling around in the stop-and-go traffic of Vegas. The electric trip odometer indicates I've done about 50 miles on the battery. I haven't even used a quarter of a tank of gas.
Oh...the Altima is a really nice car, by the way.
I spent the morning at Aria at the new City Center, which pretty much blew my patience for the strip. I'm not a big fan of the strip or gambling or mass crowds of people or buildings that are mazes designed to trap you in so you'll gamble. I tend to get agitated and even a little confused, then I just wear down. Aria may well be the pinnacle of confusion. It's nuts. It's decor is beautiful, though. But I still prefer Wynn/Encore.
I'm staying east of the strip on Paradise at a non-casino hotel. The hotel's pool is on the roof (24th floor) and has a great view of the strip to the southwest. It's a great place to hang out in the evening. Plus, the location is a straight shot south to the airport.
After lunch, it's off to the Pinball Hall of Fame.
But I'll explain that in a future post.
Lunch: Double-Double (regular onions, no tomato), fries (well done), Dr Pepper
There's an older woman...Korean, I'm guessing...sitting at the table next to me with a girl I'm assuming is her daughter. She leans over and says "Sweetheart, you no have no more hair on your head."
Me: "Yes. I got rid of it several years ago."
"You no need shampoo."
"No."
At the counter, Jerry from Dollar Rental Car is ordering. "I don't want no onions, see?" Smiling Counter Girl complies and finishes order. "Yeah, but I don't want no onions!" This guy is clearly a former mobster in the witness protection program.
Welcome to In-N-Out on Maryland St, the only In-N-Out I've been to where you can walk in after 11am on a Saturday and not have to wait in line and there's plenty of available seating. It's on the east edge of the UNLV campus, yet it's also basically in the ghetto. The Von's down the street is so locked down that you have to get an employee to unlock the general merchandise section and they have to babysit you while you shop. This is the In-N-Out the strip employees go to. They know better than to deal with the insanity that is the In-N-Out on Dean Martin Dr.
I dropped into Vegas to catch Conan O'Brien's live tour at the Palms tonight. Yes, I'm just that awesome. How do YOU stand to benefit from this awesomeness? If nothing else, I will have probably built enough fodder for at least three blog posts. YOU REAP THE BENEFITS.
My rental car this time around is a Nissan Altima hybrid...my first experience with one. (Hybrid, that is. AND Altima, I guess.) The good news is I have much less to whine about with this car over the stripped-down Mazda I drove over my birthday weekend because the Altima has the same Intelli-Key feature my Rogue does. So I don't get confused about having to use the keys. I know it sounds stupid and petty, but that was REALLY annoying.
The hybrid has been an interesting experience with some quirks of its own. Hybrid vehicles have both electric and gas motors that switch back and forth between gas mode and "EV mode" when appropriate to accomplish the goal of saving gas. It's a little weird when you get in and push the start button and no engine turns on. The instrument cluster lights up and a green "Ready" indicator is your clue that you can drive. The engine will continue to not fire up if you don't hit the gas. So if you put the transmission in reverse and let it propel under its own motion, there's still no engine. Put it in drive and let it coast, still no engine. I can pretty well start the car and get to the lower level of my motel's parking garage without the gas engine.
Once you punch the gas and accelerate to cruising speed, the engine fires up and you take off. Modes alternate depending on the situation...if you're stopped at an intersection, let off the gas while cruising or stopping, or only need slight propulsion, the gas engine shuts off and your dash indicates you're in "EV mode". The same display also has one of those live "miles per gallon" meters that shows what mileage you're getting. When accelerating with the gas engine, it's usually below 20. When cruising, it can be anywhere from the mid-30's to closer to 60 (where it defaults when in EV mode). Our competitive nature makes this meter a game...we suddenly want to be the best gas saver in the world. We pay FAR too much attention to it and drive slower as a result, much to the shagrin of nearby motorists, who get really annoyed with your 'old lady'-like slow driving quirks. At least until the novelty wears off, because by the end of the night last night, I was driving it pretty much the way I do my own.
There's two oddities to get used to while driving...There's a slight bumping feel when the car switches modes (particularly on takeoff), and there's new noises to get used to...particularly the brakes. Hybrids use regenerative brakes, meaning when you hit the brake, the friction creates electricity, which the car uses to help recharge the battery. These brakes have a high-pitched whine. Not terribly annoying...you get used to it...but it's there.
It's interesting, though. I like the idea of being 'off' when 'on' isn't necessary. But for my driving habits (spent mostly on long stretches of open highway at constant cruising speed), I'm not sure there's a practical cost benefit. And those batteries aren't exactly cheap to replace. But it's great for tooling around in the stop-and-go traffic of Vegas. The electric trip odometer indicates I've done about 50 miles on the battery. I haven't even used a quarter of a tank of gas.
Oh...the Altima is a really nice car, by the way.
I spent the morning at Aria at the new City Center, which pretty much blew my patience for the strip. I'm not a big fan of the strip or gambling or mass crowds of people or buildings that are mazes designed to trap you in so you'll gamble. I tend to get agitated and even a little confused, then I just wear down. Aria may well be the pinnacle of confusion. It's nuts. It's decor is beautiful, though. But I still prefer Wynn/Encore.
I'm staying east of the strip on Paradise at a non-casino hotel. The hotel's pool is on the roof (24th floor) and has a great view of the strip to the southwest. It's a great place to hang out in the evening. Plus, the location is a straight shot south to the airport.
After lunch, it's off to the Pinball Hall of Fame.
But I'll explain that in a future post.
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