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.

Nice Hand Cream

Double standards.

The world is full of them.  I try not to get too excited about it.  For the most part, I find them amusing.  This one especially.

Today I found myself in another coworkers office sitting at their desk.  This is not an uncommon occurrence as I am the IT guy.  I spend WAY more time at other peoples desks than I do my own.  I also spend alot of time watching a computer screen.  Usually the prominent visual on that screen is the scrolling percentage counter of an installing application or ongoing process.  That is, you see, my raison d'etre.  I install and reconfigure stuff to make it work better.

In the cases where the caravan of pixels takes a longer time to populate than usual, I sometimes look around at the various items of personality that satisfies the users need of identity in the workplace.  Where a lesser being would take the time to urinate in the corners and at various key locations within the space, we bring in pictures, juvenile artwork, Dilbert calendars, vases, etc.  I particularly enjoy the pictures.  Some are fairly benign.  Simple poses at a favorite locale.  All smiles, and no worries.  While others are goofy or whimsical.  There are also some people who don't take the time to scan the background of a picture to make sure the setting is appropriate.  Exhibit 1- Four people sitting in a living room on a sofa. Sodas and beer on the coffee table in front of them.  Everyone sporting exuberant grins and mild sunburns.  However, if you looked in the corner of the picture, way up at the top, you would see the arched back of the owners dog, and his furry pucker dropping a "cigar" on the hallway carpet.  Exhibit 2- A vacation photo.  Based on the decor in the room, somewhere Mexican...perhaps Dominican.  This is a boudoir photo.  A picture of the boyfriend (thankfully fully clothed) laying on the King sized bed in the hotel room.  All smiles, and no worries.  Again, if you look in the background, on the nightstand, you can clearly see the telltale accordion-fold of a sizeable bandolier of condoms.  And right next to the condoms?  A vibrator.

But I digress.

The reason I thought to post today was the picture here.  Comparatively this is a far more dressed down work space than usual.  Nary a photo in sight.  Although, the freaky, whimsical pencil is rather interesting.

Hand Cream.  Swift and broad would be the judgement assessed on me for having hand cream figure so prominently at my desk.  I mean, seriously, the mouse is less available than the hand cream.  But girls don't have this issue.  Had it been a whole cucumber, perhaps.  But thankfully it wasn't.   

Car Shopping

Increasingly over the past few weeks it has become evident that it is time to retire my trusty companion, the Ford Taurus SE that I have been driving for the past 10 years or so. It was around December that I started to notice a shimmy in the steering that told me that the mechanic at Fountain Tire was not just pulling my leg when he said that I needed to replace my ball joints and tie rods. Being that I had just spent some 800 dollars fixing a far more critical issue, I couldn't bring myself to spend another thousand dollars replacing the front end of the car as well as all four tires.

So the shimmy has graduated to more of a shake. Like most other unfortunate palsy victims, some days are worse than others. On a particularly bad day, Tannis decided to take the car for a quick errand. Upon her return, she didn't even have both feet in the house before she announced, no DEMANDED, that we buy me a new car. And so it begins, the confusing, tiring and expensive (albeit exciting) search for a new vehicle.

I have enjoyed my relationship with Ford so far. We have had a Mercury Tracer, A 1994 Ford Probe, A 1996 Mustang GT, and a 1998 Ford Taurus. All good cars. Aside from a mishancled incident with the Probe, for which we were generously compensated with a fantastic deal on the lease of the Mustang. So I decided to first look over the Ford product line to see if they had any offerings that I would like. The first thing that jumped out at me was the Ford Escape.

I have been looking to get a slightly larger vehicle with more versatile cargo space. The security of the trunk on the Taurus is fine, but it has just become an overstocked catch-all.