Earn your right to complain..

This Saturday, after an enjoyable bike ride in Assiniboine Park, I went home and picked up my son so we could clean up some trash in our neighborhood.  There is a cache (Takin a Dip) near my house that is in an area that is covered in garbage.  The source of the trash is the City of Winnipeg property adjacent to it.  It seems that they have a couple of dumpsters on site, and have on occasion missed the dumpster when throwing out garbage.  I have written an e-mail to the city about that.  But that is not what I am stewing about today.

What irks me is the people who have either logged finds or DNF's on the cache have made a point of complaining about all of the garbage in the area, but have not done anything about cleaning it up.  One person went so far as to demand that the cache be moved, or arrange to have someone go and clean up the space.  OK.  If you wish to point out that there is garbage in the area, fine.  It is good advice for the next cachers.  But PICK SOMETHING UP.  Especially if you have kids with you.  These are the lessons that kids need to learn.  My kids will now pick up "safe" garbage even when we are not out caching.  Safe, meaning that it isn't broken glass, or anything like that.

We were only able to clean up about 2 big bags before we ran out of time.  And even though we didn't have the GPSr with us, Mitch managed to find the cache!  He is awesome.

Twitter

I'm on twitter (geolizardo).  I feel a little dirtier.  But I'm still not on Facebook...so that's something. 
Did you know that you can follow just about anybody on Twitter?  Now, whether or not you are following the ACTUAL person is anyones guess.  But I submit to you that it would be more interesting to follow a fake celebrity than an actual one.
I learned that nearly all celebrities from politicians to porn stars use Twitter to further their own agenda. 

Lift/Transfer Dummy- The Michael Meyers Model

This is terrifying.  One of the Personal Care Homes I work at had this in the multi purpose room.  I assume they are using it as a training aid for some sort of care regimen.  I can only hope it isn't mouth-to-mouth recessitation practices.

How creepy is this?  There are not many ways that this could be made to be more disturbing, and still be allowed to be used in a care home setting.  Paint stained coveralls, a longshoremans touque, and yes, that is duck tape wrapped around his head mafia-style.  And is it just my eye, or does he appear to be reaching "down there" pleasuring himself to the thoughts of the first time he heard Jamie Lee Curtis' scream?  Another ghastly feature of this fellow is his lack of feet.  So it appears he was "hobbled" before he was aysphyxiated with duck tape. 
I can only hope that this isn't a mandatory inservice for all staff.  Because I definitely don't need to see any more of this guy.

Y - M - C - A!

We have been visiting the YMCA now about 3 times a week.  Mostly as a family, which has been very enjoyable.  This past Sunday we started the kids in their swimming lessons at 1:30pm.  Tannis and I thought it would be fun for us to sit in the hot tub/steam room while the kids were in their class, and since it was the last swimming class of the afternoon, join them for a play in the pool afterwards.  Whee!
Unfortunately the hot tub had a sign on it that there had been a "fouling".  I guess some processed pablum slipped out of a little swimmer.  Fair enough, I decided to watch for the 30 mins the kids were in the lesson and then change out for playtime after that.  But what do I see when I look in the hot tub...the sign has recently been removed and sitting there in the tub with a big grin, is my wife!
I question her motives for being the first swimmer in the hot tub after the fouling sign had been removed.  She tells me that they were just adjusting the pH of the hot tub and don't have a "We're adjusting the pH" sign, so they use the fouling sign.  I ask her how she knows that and she says that the other lady in the tub told her that.  When I glance over to that lady, she shrugs and says, "well, probably".

O-kay.

It's been a couple of days, and so far no fecal-bourne illnesses, so I remain hopeful. 
We had a great time in the pool, and Mitch decided that afterwards he is going to climb the rock wall.  So off we go to shower and get changed.

I'll stop here to say that I really like the new disign at the Y.  Lots of (free) lockers, nice big pool, waterslides (although I have NEVER seen the red one in operation..why?), all the new machines and extra parking.  But they missed 2 things.  There needs to be an entrance off the parking lot, and the showers suck.

Why must I bring my kid through the sausage factory when I leave the pool?  It is impossible to make it from the pool to the lockers without walking past every shower head (pun intended).  This is unneccessary.  I'm not a prude.  At all.  But a shower is a shower and a hallway is a hallway.  N'er the two shall meet. 

And there is nowhere practical to hang a towel while you shower.  They have these weird grab bars, that are too far away, and too small to be useful. When I tried to engage my wife in my rant later, she says, "Don't you have hooks on the back of your shower door?"

WHAT!?

Ugh.  Well, there's no way they're going to change the men's showers to the extent of adding doors, but it sure would be nice to see some hooks.  I'm starting to see why the Village People were motivated to sing about this place.

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.