Mrs. Mikes - A cautionary tale

I received an e-mail this morning that caused me great conflict. My Burger Club mentor asking me if I was planning on attending this weeks excursion to Mrs. Mikes.  I initially responded "no" as I had a case of food poisoning a couple years ago there.  And shortly after that, I saw a news report about some infected beef that was found there by the health authorities.  This didn't bode well for my making a return visit.

In fact, the time we were to meet there was 11:30, and at 11:20 I was still in my house.  My commitment to Burger Club prevailed and I raced to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee and pulled in to a parking spot just down the street from Mrs Mikes at 11:38.  If I can't be fashionably dressed, I might as well be fashionably late.

The sun was strong and hot as I took my seat at the table of men.  I displayed dominance by arriving with 4 days of beard and wearing my finest grimy sandals. There was some posturing at first, but they eventually accepted me as their new alpha.

I steeled myself for the possibility of being poisoned, and strode confidently to the take-out window and ordered a Single King ($ 6.00 taxes in).  I apologized to the clerk for ordering off-menu, but she assured me that people do it all the time.  I fell short of telling her that I was simply trying to reduce the amount of salmonella I was about to ingest. There seemed no way for that to not sound confrontational.

A few minutes later I was handed a hot mess of meatlettucemayobunpicklemustard. I appreciated the faith the clerk showed in my eating ability by only handing me the allotted ONE NAPKIN. I asked for more napkins and was given a SECOND NAPKIN.  That's OK. I like a challenge.

As I unwrapped the burger, I was immediately concerned for all of the people in the world who would not have any mayonnaise because my burger had ALL OF IT.  It was oozing out of all sides and dragging the shredded iceberg lettuce with it. I reluctantly picked it up and chose what I thought was the head of this creature, and with some trepidation, bit down.  The chain reaction that this caused, was immediate and really, really messy. Nearly half of the shredded lettuce, lubricated by the copious mayo, oozed out the back of my Single King and hung there; draped from my burger down to the wrapper on the table.  I recoiled to wipe my mouth with as little of NAPKIN ONE as possible.

My had was filled with what appeared to be an albino Rastafarian with an affinity for cream rinse.  In respect for the lady that was now seated at our table, I reduced the lettuce in my burger by pulling it out onto the foil wrapper.  This was helpful in removing most of the mayo as well. This made for an easier time as I progressed.  I used every bit of NAPKIN ONE and SECOND NAPKIN as I progressed through my bukakke burger. (Don't Google that-SO NSFW).

Once I had removed the lettuce and mayo mess, I was able to concentrate on the flavor of the burger.  The bun was appropriately sized.  It didn't let me down.  The burger patty was a decent size and there seemed to be a lot of filler lending it to have an odd color and texture.. This is what I have come to expect from "Fat Boy" style burgers.  So I wasn't surprised.

Aside from the mayo, the other condiments were amount appropriate and complimented the burger well. I like a thinly sliced tomato on my burger, but in this case, I felt they were too thin. Nitpicking a little there. But the tomato didn't even have the seed and gel part. Just the cellular walls.  It was odd.

All things considered, I rate Mrs. Mikes a 3 out of 5 in each category. I would have elevated a couple categories to 4 had there not been the issue with the lettuce and mayo.  I also felt the price was too high for what was definitely not an all-beef patty.

Cubs Leader = Me

In the fall, Mitch joined Cubs. And this spring, after a great deal of paperwork delays, so did I - as a Leader. My shirt is bigger, and he's the one that gets to collect the cool activity badges, but aside from that there isn't much difference.

I really am enjoying working with the kids and the other leaders.  Mitch has become more and more independent as we attend more meetings. There are no other kids from his school that have joined, so it was tough to find people he related to quickly.  But he kept at it, and has become friends with a few of the other Cubs.

This past weekend we went camping at Birds Hill with all of the Service Area 9 groups.  There were over 80 cubs and some 300 campers all tolled.  It was a great experience for both of us. Mitch spent the day Saturday going around with the other Cubs and leaders to the various activity stations while I conducted a geocaching activity for the 6 Cub groups.  It was a blast. 

From building Cub cars, selling popcorn, going camping, hiking, launching rockets, singing camp songs, and completing badge work activities, this has been a very fun experience.  I'm looking forward to next fall when we start up again.

Food Symmetry

Presentation of the Kona burger at Original Joe's seems to be saying something about the cook's OCD. For the 2 optional sides, I chose the Caesar salad and mango pasta salad. For the latter, I was unable to find any mango, but there were entire peppercorns to munch on. Not pleasant.
The burger was quite tasty. The pineapple, bacon, and bbq sauce worked well together with the burger patty.
Speaking of which, based on the price of the burger and 2 sides (14.99) I'm quite certain it was not beef, but unicorn, or perhaps mermaid.
As usual, the best part of my lunch was the company. Burger Club is awesome!

An open letter to Burger Club

There are definitely different burger philosophies out there. The typical "Winnipeg burger" incorporates a thin-ish patty of seasoned beef, lettuce, tomato, onion and a thin meat sauce that is seasoned with chili powder and usually cinnamon and nutmeg. All of this is served on a day old kaiser made with an egg dough to give it a crumbly texture and glossy sheen(not the sheen that lives with porn stars).
I propose we visit 2 and no more than 3 of the type of establishment that serves this classic Greek burger.
There is also the other type of burger of the "bistro" variety that generally uses a thicker meat patty. No chili here, but you will still see the requisite lettuce, tomato and onion. In place of the 'one molecule from plastic' processed cheese slice found on most Winnipeg burgers, you will often find a slice or two of cheddar, swiss or mozzarella. Accompaniments available will include seasoned bacon, mushrooms, and sauteed onions.

There is always going to be a burger for everyone. Except vegetarians, I guess. And don't get me started on hippies trying to pass off giant mushroom tops and compressed olive patties as 'burgers'. Not meat=sandwich. End of story. Yeah I'm lookin' at you, Boon Burger.
The important thing to remember: we all love hamburgers. So instead of burger club being a wedge that drives us apart, let it create a bond that holds us united in our support of hamburgers.

Seagate GoFlex

Or as I call it...Seagate NoGoFlex.  I bought a Seagate GoFlex TV streaming media player. Basically it allows me to access media shared on other computers on my network on my TV using a simple menu and a remote control.  So far, I like it.  But it lacked the speed and convenience of a local storage medium.  No hard drive meant that everything had to stream over the network.  This slowed things down for other users, and led to annoying buffering when other users were on Netflix or streaming media sites.  Yes, we're a very connected family.

So I ordered a GoFlex internal drive.  I figured I could load it up with a bunch of shows from my computer, and then watch it locally on the GoFlex TV unit.  But so far, When I attempt to write files to it using my Windows XP desktop, I get constant delayed write failures, even though I have turned off the delayed write setting for the drive.  Yet it works fine in my Windows 7 notebook.  Why? Oh, you don't know either? Boo.

Well, off I go to the internet to see what the various support forums have to say.  Wish me luck.

Netflix.ca = Goodbye Blockbuster

We got the kids (ya right) a Wii for Christmas.  And as much as I enjoy swinging my arms and jumping up and down in my rec room holding a buzzing plastic wand, when I saw the free Netflix channel download on the Wii Shopping channel...well...free was right in my price range. And at 7.99 a month after the 30 day free trial, it's not a tough decision.  I'm sure that somewhere on this planet there exists a cheaper, more convenient and similarly legal entertainment delivery method. But that is probably in the same fairy-tale place as free lunches and daily hugs from [insert name of heart-throb/supermodel].

Canada's version of Netflix lacks the DVD/Blu-Ray home delivery component.  You are only able to stream to a game console (Wii, PS3, Xbox) or your PC. There are set top solutions available from other manufacturers such as Seagate's GoFlex. But as of this writing none work.  There are some network capable Samsung TV's and Blu-Ray players that are announcing a firmware update to allow direct streaming from Netflix.ca without a game console.  And finally, you Apple folk can sign up with a litany of devices (iPhone, iPad, AppleTV).

What you miss by not having access to the DVD/Blu-Ray delivery method is the newer and seemingly more popular titles (read: expensive to license). But to paraphrase from the great Shawn McCarthy "I've never had trouble finding something to watch".  The selection is well categorized and offers selections based on your previously viewed content as well as in response to an optional likes/dislikes survey you fill out when you sign up.  The interface is uncluttered and easy to navigate with the Wii remote. Your selection will begin to play in just a few seconds, even the HD titles.  You can pause or stop playback and resume at any time.  And if you miss anything, rewind and fast forward presents you with screen shots to reduce the guessing as to where to stop.

To give you an idea of the available selection, imagine going in to Blockbuster and only being allowed to select movies from the "middle" of the store.  You are not allowed to look along the walls at the new releases.  Unless you pay extra.  Extra meaning you spend 120.00 on Apple TV and 4 bucks to see a movie, or 99 cents to watch a TV show.

I hope Netflix works hard on growing and rotating their selection. But as it is, the value is definitely there. I recommend it.

"ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!"

Yesterday I joined the ranks of Facebook. There were just too many things I was missing as a result of not having yet drank the Kool-aid.  My concerns were mostly due to the wax and wane of the privacy policies and the lack of security granularity available to the users.

There are a couple of things that stand out to me. The mind boggling "friend suggestion" tool with its digital clairvoyance, and the lack of control over being tagged in photos that others have posted of you.

So you can imagine my joy when within 5 seconds afer signing up, it was suggested that I become friends with a number of people I am in close acquaintance with, and I accept a dozen friend requests that were inexplicably waiting for me already.

Well, I managed to get over that within about 10 minutes.  And as it turned out, that was just long enough for a friend to tag me in a few photos...huzzah!

Well, I welcome Facebook, my new Lord and Master.  I hope to be a dilligent slave to its every need and whim.