Review - George's Burgers and Subs - OPA!

There it is. The Double Fat Boy.  It has been a while since I have had one of these.  I'm generally good for about two of these burgers within one 12 month period.  I had one at VJ's back in May or June, and I decided to try one from Georges on this day in August.
I was out shopping and had some time too kill just after noon.  And having missed breakfast, I was feeling rather hungry.  I was about to head home when I decided to try a place I had never been, but oft considered.
I arrived at the right time.  I was lucky to get a table right away as shortly after I sat down I noticed a lineup build that was still evident when I left 30 mins later.  There is no possible way for this establishment to fit any more patrons into this restaurant.  The challenge of a roundish dining room was met by the finest Greek engineers and I am certain that aside from messing with the fabric of space-time, there is no way another seat could be added.  And it seemed oddly out of scale.  It reminded me of those Fisher Price play houses that had rooms that were just big enough for the furniture, but that was it.  No walking about allowed.  Which I suppose is fine, as Fisher Price people only have that roundish base so you can stuff them into their various vehicles.  No feet.
I was completely surrounded by the all too discernable coversations around me.  The people next to me were new acquaintances. They met the night before at the bar and spent the night together.  She was still wearing her bar clothes and what remained of her up-do.  He was wearing fresh clothes, and a pretty obvious hickey. 
The booth behind me was crammed full of at least 6 guys, one of which had brought his five year old daughter because "the wife was out shopping".  These guys belonged here.  Fixtures.  They were talking about horsepower, hunting, drywall compound, and the waitresses ass.  These were men.  All of them divorced, save for the latecomer with the 5 year old.  But, honestly, any guy that refers to his life partner, and the mother of his child as "the wife" is standing on the sidelines of the painful game of divorce.  But I digress.
The menu here is no surprise.  You will find the same fare at a dozen different places in the city.  Notably Steve's on Ness, the Olympia on Portage, and Johnny's on Marion.  I decide I will try the Double Fat Boy platter.  It was awesome.  I have always thought that even though shredded lettuce is a bit messier lettuce-wise, it prevents a more stain inducing condiment based mishap that can be caused by full leaves of lettuce.  I couldn't finish the whole thing.  I ended up leaving half of the fries, and a couple of bites of the burger.  The whole thing came to 12 dollars including tip and an iced tea.
So there it is.  You have just read an entire page only to find out that Greeks know how to make a decent Fat Boy Platter.  Which is a fact you already knew.  I'm sorry.  Please direct all complaints to the comments link below.

Well, hello.

This greeted me in the washroom this morning.  I stared at it entirely too long.  I just wanted to remember the stolen moment we shared.  So I took a picture.  And I put it on the internet.  For all of you to judge me.

Review - Princess Grill

I just got another response to my less than glowing (and far from official) review of the Lovey's BBQ restaurant. This has prompted me to consider that people are actually reading these musings so perhaps I should juxtapose my dissatisfaction with Lovey's with a thought stream about a restaurant I DO like.

Enter: the Princess Grill.

I don't know the history of this place, but I bet it's interesting. I saw a writeup in the Sun earlier this year, and thought I would try to make an effort to visit. Last week, I had some time, so I found myself a parking spot among the construction and went for breakfast.

The decor is clean and very basic. I like that in a breakfast place. I get nervous when there are hanging plants and doilies on the tables. You can count on your breakfast costing you a good dollar more just so you can have a plant near your table.

I was immediately greeted by a pretty, smiling face and given a menu and a coffee. I'm guessing Folgers. Hot and good. And served in one of those thick, white porcelain cups. Clear glass mugs are for the doily restaurant and giveaways at Domo.

I opted for the breakfast special: Sausage, Over Easy, and Brown toast. As I waited, I read the newspaper I brought. This proved to be a bit of a challenge. Note to future visitors, if you wish to read the paper, bring a headlamp, or sit closer to one of the many windows. I only had to wait about 10 minutes. Although I wish my eggs had shown up a couple minutes earlier. By the time the whole ensemble had made it to me, the eggs looked delicious, but they were rather cold.

The rest of the cast was excellent. The real potato hash browns were done nicely, and the sausages were split, but not overcooked. And the toast (hard to screw up toast) was hot and lightly buttered. I'd also like to note that the sausages were served on top of the potatoes. This is a nice presentation method.

One criticism I have about many breakfast joints, this one included, is the toast toppings and how they are offered. I dislike when the selection is decided for me and there is one jam packet placed on the plate with the toast. This was the case here. I would rather be given nothing and had to have asked for my preference than to have to appear to be dissatisfied with the selection given and ask for another. Some places have that top loading, bottom serving jam-a-rama deal that gives you ready access to 8 packets each of at least 6 flavors. This is the other side of the spectrum, and although appreciated, not necessarily required. A good middle road is the small bowl at the table with, say, a half dozen random packets in it. And as long as there is at least one peanut butter, and another non-marmalade choice, we're good.

Breakfast special including coffee came to slightly north of $7.00. Another 1.50 for the tip. I would have felt a bit better had the eggs been warm. But I will be back. I enjoyed it very much overall.

Good for you, Brad

I have been following the Luann strip lazily for the past few years. It's a pretty effortless read. I liked the story line where the parents buy a neighbors house as a flip opportunity and their son ends up staying there, and his friend TJ nearly burns it down. Apparently for me: house fires=hilarity.

Anyhow, around that same time they introduced the Toni Daytona character as an unattainable target for Brad's affections. It has taken over a year (or more?) but they have finally "hooked up". On one hand, on behalf of all my semi-attractive brethren, I am happy for Brad's new relationship. But let's be serious. I think this would be somewhat more believable if Brad looked a little less like Bert. Or perhaps Toni should look a little more like Bert.

Beer Can Chicken

This is by no means a cutting edge, or unique process. This is a method I had seen deployed numerous times on countless cooking shows. But I had never tried it myself.

Yesterday was the day. Father's Day. The day a man is required to grill the family dinner. At least that's the way it reads in the manual I follow. So this is that day I decide to try sodomizing a chicken carcass with a half a can of beer. That last sentence should make the results list of some rather spicy Google searches. Sorry, freak. No pictures here. Keep looking.

A simpler method, there could not be. You cover the chicken with your favorite rub, insert can, and place on a sacrificial baking sheet on the barbeque and keep the temperature slightly north of 300 degrees till it's done. Use indirect heat.

Trust me, it's amazing.

Rock Climbing

So I come home last Monday and over dinner I ask Mitchell if he remembers being at the YMCA and the rock climbing wall they have there. He assures me he definitely DOES remember. The reason for this clarity of thought is because he was not allowed to climb the wall due to the fact that he was only 5 years old when we were there last. The rules are that you must be at least 6 years old and weigh 40 pounds or more.

So seeing that he is now able to meet both requirements of the rock climbing pre-requisites, I ask them both if they would like to go back to the "Y" to try rock climbing and maybe some swimming.

A more enthusiastic yes, I could not have asked for. At least from the Mitch side of the table. Brooke chewed on the idea, along with her dinner for a couple of minutes and asked "Is there anything else that we can do there?". I kind of expected this response from her as she is somewhat less adventurous than her brother. She derives pleasure from more cerebral pursuits. Although she does have the capacity to surprise. More on that later.

We decide to go on the following Monday. This is not very popular with my wife. She can't attend on Mondays because of TOPS. Oh well. We would be sure to tell her all about it when we got home.

The concept of "next Monday" is somewhat lost on Mitch. So the use of the calendar is immediately deployed to help him visualize when exactly "next Monday" was. Until then, he was all ready to finish his supper and run out the front door and sit in the van.

It took an entire week, but eventually the day came. I put Mitch to bed on Sunday night and reminded him (unnecessarily) of the upcoming day at the Y after supper tomorrow. He was well aware, to say the least. I reminded him that the trip was not automatic. That he had to be well behaved tomorrow for mom. And wake up and get dressed when he was told to. He assured me that wouldn't be a problem.

Monday morning was interesting. Usually it is difficult to get Mitch out of bed. Well all it took was one wake up call and the next thing I know, he's standing in my bedroom all dressed and announcing "Look, Dad, I'm ready to go to school!".

I got home around 5:20. We had to be there by 6:00, so we had a frenzied dinner of PB&J's and out the door we went.

We got there and Mitch got rigged out and took to the wall right away. Brooke was happy to play on the play structure and the exercise bike. It took Mitch about 25 minutes, but he eventually made it all the way to the top of the wall.

After that, he was eager to try the intermediate wall and moved over to do so. Then Brooke surprised me by saying she wanted to try climbing. Cool! So we got her outfitted and off she went. She did so good. She didn't have as much time to get used to the effort as Mitch did, so she didn't make it to the top. But next time, she will do even better.

We got into the pool for 7:00 and swam for a half hour before heading home. Right after the swim, we went in the steam room for a bit. Oh, man, I love steam rooms! I think come fall, we will likely join as a family. Now that the kids are a little older, there is sooo much for them to do there.

My 41st Birthday

It was a great weekend!
My birthday was Saturday June 13th. I had a super day, or I should say, Weekend.

Last year was my big 4-0. My wife took it upon herself to plan an extravagant party at Westhawk Lake. She invited friends to come out to camp or just to party for the day and head home. So many of my friends were there and I had an awesome time. From flying the plane in Kenora, to losing most of my frontal body hair to the Jengafire on both evenings.

This year however, I gave strict instructions. No big parties. As a matter of fact, no parties that involved people outside of my immediate family. I was intent on taking it easy this year and have a nice relaxing day with my family. No frenzied activity. No entertaining. No stress. I love to have a party. And my friends are fantastic people that I rarely get to see. But this year was going to be a quiet one. I have spoken.

As far as a gift was concerned, I asked for nothing other than a day of my family's time on my birthday and as a special gift from my wife; a day of her time so we could take a geocaching road trip together. And, she agreed. Cool. Not like she had much choice. As I said before...I had spoken.

The day began the way most household birthdays do. Breakfast in bed with all of us crowding into our bed and trying not to spill anything. Then the kids presented me with their fantastic hand made projects. The pride and appreciation I feel when I recieve the artistic results of the solitary labor of one of my children is immeasurable. As I pour over the detail of their gifts I try to imagine what they might have been thinking while drawing/painting/stapling/glueing this particular object. I imagine them sitting their desks, faces barely an inch from the paper as they fastidiously colour with crayons and markers. Their bodies shaking in time with the fervent pistoning of their little arm. These are the gifts that matter. I definitely am not looking forward to the day when they discover the convenience of exchanging money for a pre-printed Hallmark sentiment that is shared among a few dozen recipinents, who, other than the card, have absolutely nothing in common. Of course I'll appreciate them. But I'll miss the other. Alot.

So after the cards come the gifts. I truly was expecting, and hoping for nothing. But as it turned out, I got some shower products from my kids, and a surprise from my wife.

I have never owned a leather jacket. I have never found a jacket that fits and was at a price that I could justify paying. I have periodically mused aloud at how I would like to have a nice leather coat. And I have shopped in the past, but I needed the eye of my wife for final approval. I mean, lets face it, I look amazing in any coat, but she's the one that will be looking at me. I want her to swoon just right.

Well it turns out that this is the birthday I got a leather jacket. And she shopped for it on her own. And it fit me. And it was perfect. The perfect gift for a guy who wanted nothing. Get him something he didn't know he wanted. Awesome.

After that, we just hung around for a bit at the house. Later we decided to go on a picnic. So we grabbed some sandwiches at Subway and headed to Whittier Park to have a picnic and replace a geocache that I had removed while the water was high. After we did those things, we went for a 3 km walk around the Whittier and Lagimodiere Gaboury parks and walked back to the car through the streets of St Boniface. All in all, a pretty happy day.

Then we dropped off the kids at Grandma and Grampas and went to The Line Up for a yummy dinner. We had planned to go out for drinks later, but somehow that never happened. I had a great day.