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Killing some time in Clio, MI with S. Money and playing with the restaurant's toys between courses.

Labels: food, s. money

Had to stop on my way to S. Money's place for a coke and it ain't getting warmer for sure. But I had to document being back in Genesee County.

Labels: travel

This is my nephew's dog, Chaser. And I've got to get out of here and meet up with my cousin so I can see his parents. Apparently there's some computer issues that need addressing.

Labels: family, technology, travel

I killed in Monopoly tonight! My brother and nephew put a valiant effort but were trampled in the end. I do like that they took their beatings like men and never thought of giving up, even though they should have.

Labels: family, minutia

I landed in Michigan about an hour ago to a heat wave of 40 degree temperatures. After getting my car, I've already done (and pictured) something I wasn't planning on, White Castle. Conveniently the only location I know of is still there in all its glory. I'll be feeling this for a few days. As will others.

Labels: food, travel

Nothing better than waking up an hour early when you're already planning on getting up at 5 am. At least my house errands are done (plus I watered the lawn) and now just need to finish packing. I've got about 40 minutes before my scheduled departure (to the airport; I still have about three hours until my flight leaves the ground). I'm wondering if I should pack some long underwear. It can't be that cold up there, eh? All I do know is that I'm taking one long ass shower because this will be the last time until Monday that I'll be able to get out of the shower and not be freezing my...well, pretty much everything off.

Labels: sleep, travel

I've got to be up in about five hours, I haven't finished packing, but I do have about 8 pairs of socks, five pair of underwear, and my iPhone charger stored away so I think I'm halfway there. I only need to backwash my pool filter, take out the trash, finish packing, and remember whatever I might've forgotten. And thankfully Bubba lent me his gloves because I lost one in the events surrounding Santacon. His gloves seem more suited to motorcycle riding or strangling than the cold but we shall see. It could be worse, I guess.

Labels: bubba, travel

So the week's flying by. It could be because my boss is in California and I've got next-to-no work or it could be that I'm leaving early Thursday AM for Michigan. I'm leaning towards the latter. Last I checked it'll be a 50 degree difference in temperature so I have pneumonia in my near future. Or getting caught in a snow drift during a storm if I'm more fortunate. It is obvious I'm looking forward to this trip.

Labels: travel

So I helped emjey cook up a marinara earlier, now we needed something to use that with. How about some chicken parmigiana? First off came the breading. I didn't take any pictures of that, but I had the seasoned flour followed by the egg wash then a dip into the breadcrumb mixture of breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The final result can be seen in that first picture. Then each piece was browned off.

 

After each piece was browned, two were chosen to be finished off in the oven. Some of the previously made marinara was put in the bottom of the baking dish then two of breaded and browned chicken breasts then a nice chunk of mozzerella, more sauce, more grated parmesan cheese and some freshly torn basil leaves. The pictures below are the before and after baking.

Labels: cooking, emjey

Spending a Sunday helping emjey learn some cooking techniques, so we started off with a basic marinara. Simple as simple gets with onion, garlic, tomato paste, diced tomatoes and tomato puree. The only slight change was adding green bell pepper.

Labels: cooking, emjey

So I started off the late afternoon catching up on the last three episodes of Fringe. This show is really growing on me. I first became enamored by John Noble performance as the truly eccentric Dr. Walter Bishop but now Joshua Jackson as Walter's smart ass son Peter is right there, too. The stories, though convoluted are clever and wrapped together pretty well. Though they are building towards an all-encompassing storyline I don't each episode is pretty well self-contained. So if you have some time to kill on your Tuesday evenings, feel free to try it out. Or put it on your DVR and watch it three at a time like me.

And speaking of compelling television that makes you have to think, you've got Lost. This show is getting stranger and less believable, but I'm still captivated. I had planned on only watching two tonight but went with three just because I just couldn't wait. Maybe because all the previous seasons had such loopy concepts that adding time travel into the mix just doesn't faze me. I'm just seeing so many things getting wrapped up that I can't see how this will take another two seasons to complete. Whatever it is, I'm in. I just hope this whole thing doesn't blow up leaving the producers with egg on their face and me disappointed.

Labels: television

How to kill some leftover beef tenderloin? A little cottage pie made with Guinness! Nicely long cooked with onion, carrots, mushrooms, peas, beef, and, of course, Guinness. Top that with some horseradish mashed potatoes and you got yourself a winner. I made a shitload of the pie filling last night so I think remaining portion will be going to the freezer for later consumption.

And, yes, I know a cottage pie (or a shepherd's pie for that matter) is made with minced or ground meat. Sue me.

Labels: cooking

So I had a dream that my boss was living with me. He had a corner room in my second floor home that overlooked the street. I'm pretty sure this was a weird apartment because there was a hallway that I ran into my boss later in. And then it gets weird: I left my laptop on a bench overlooking some body of water; that laptop was being used for stargazing. I left it for some time then came back to see my boss sitting on the same bench. So I then was sneaking around trying to get back to our residence before he showed up just to meet him in the hallway. He then withheld my laptop as he chastised me for leaving it there.

Labels: sleep

My laziness coupled with my overflowing dvr has me way behind on the current season of television shows. The good thing about that is I watch like two or three episodes at a time. Today 24's number came up. There were three episodes in the queue and I'm caught up through Hour 6. And I'll say so far that 24 doesn't suck. There has been a ton of action and the story isn't totally insane (so far). And Hour 6 had some great lines, including what might be the best Jack Bauer line ever. When asked by the President how she can trust his loyalties, he responds, "With all due respect, Madam President, ask around." Pretty sweet. And I think I'll move onto something else and leave the 7th hour for next week. What should I watch next?

Labels: television

emjey just finished round two at the Flying Saucer. It took him long enough! I've done three plus eighty more in that amount of time. And let's not even discuss Ichiban's four.

Labels: drinking, emjey, ichiban

Another Sunday, another brunch at Sagra! My once a month tradition, possibly. This time I had the carbonara. And I tried nearly everything and it was all great. But not nearly as great as Tuesday when the offer all-you-can-eat mussels. Ah yeah!

Labels: food

After my trip to check out the MetroRail, I decided to venture down south to Austin's first Carl's Jr! And they nicely have the wall painted to make it a little more Austin authentic. So I strayed from my normal Ranch Crispy and got a grilled version instead. That was still excellent. Now I'm considering having something besides chicken next time. Maybe a burger...

Labels: food

Cap Metro had an open house for one of its new MetroRail stations down in Plaza Saltillo. I've always been a fan of trains and mass transportation and JMVC let me know about the opening earlier in the week. The trains seem very comfortable and I look forward to trying them out in late March when they open up for real. Too bad I can't get them to route the thing closer to my house.

Labels: events, jmvc

Oh, it is sad when I sleep in until 9 and I think that's fine. All that crazy training all week hopefully doesn't have me accustomed to getting up early.

Anyways, got some drinks after my session with the crew down at Hula Hut for some mediocre drinks. Then we decided to blow that popsicle stand before we gave them any more money. I suggested Texas Chili Parlor and am glad for it; that place is damn good. After that, we grabbed a couple more drinks at Dog & Duck Pub (which is owned by the same guy who owns Billy's on Burnet so I'm keeping it in the family this week). And I was still in bed before 11 PM. What a night!

Anyways, better to get on with my day.

Labels: drinking, food

A friend of mine was in town and we felt like getting some barbecue so we went down Barton Springs way and Uncle Billy's (not to be confused at all with Billy's on Burnet where I ate earlier in the week). I would say that the food was good, but nothing spectacular. But I didn't pay for it and I've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow so that's good. They're a brewhouse, too, but I chose to not partake in any of the homemade liquid refreshments.

Now I'm to bed; my last day of training starts at 7:30 am!

Labels: food

I've ran one of the pillows I bought for a test drive and have come to a conclusion: they ain't bad, but I don't need two of them. My old pillows are a bit firmer so I'll keep them plus one of the nice new softer ones. And, no, I didn't use the second one at all. Now I better go try them out.

Labels: sleep

The second day of training has definitely gone better than the first, but maybe that's because I took a buddy of mine to Billy's on Burnet. I always forget how good their burgers are and was happy that my friend was pleased with the food and ambiance. I got the L.A. Jay but everything I've had is exceptional. A while back I even hit one of their lunch specials and was happy with the meatball sub I got. Definitely a good place to grab a bite.

Labels: food

I'm on a break from this crazy training but at least I got a gyro from Arpeggio Grill. I'll be all oniony for those surrounding me. OK, back to the grind; only another seven hours to go!

Labels: food, work

A pretty quiet weekend, but I did get to introduce some folks to Shady Grove. I broke from tradition and got a chicken sandwich instead of my standard chicken fried chicken. The latter might've been better to have some leftovers for the week. Especially as I've got a long week ahead: training from 8 am to 7 pm all week except Friday where I get to go from 8 to 4. Tons of fun.

Labels: food, work

I had a great lunch of leftovers from Superbowl Sunday.  A nice meat sauce with pork, sausage and meatballs.  Sunday it was accompanied with a a baked ziti and I gorged myself. Today I topped it over some spinach linguine with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. Delicious!

Labels: food

No matter how many times I dig these out, these plants keep coming back every year. Maybe they're onions? Never seen them flowering before so maybe they're evolving. All I know is that it impacts the view of my silverado sage bushes and rosemary. If it starts stealing water, I might need to resort to drastic action!

Labels: house

Holy shit do pillows cost a lot of money! I was looking at moderately priced ones that were over twenty bucks. Then I started thinking about it and you do need pillows around eight hours a day. So I ended up spending $76 on two. Yes, I'm a sucker. But a comfortable sucker.

Labels: sleep

I can think of a lot of things I'd set on fire before porta potties. Not that I'm into setting stuff on fire, of course, but in a wonderful city like San Francisco you'd hope people could entertain themselves in non-combustible ways.

Labels: stupidity