Lincoln

We finally got around to watching the movie Lincoln tonight. It has been percolating in the rental queue from some time now and it finally bubbled up to the top. I’m glad that I didn’t really pay attention to American History in school because it sure made the movie more exciting. I was on the edge of my seat when they were voting for that amendment thing. And wow, the hero dude gets shot and killed, didn’t see that coming.

All kidding aside, this was a really good movie. I totally believed at times I was watching a documentary, Daniel Day Lewis nailed it. Plus it was kind of fun figuring out who the actors were under all that facial hair. Some were real easy, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens and others were harder, like James Spader as W. N. Bilbo.

It’s National Doughnut Day! Part 1

And we got a free one this morning on the way to work. While somewhere in the depths of my lizard based brain I knew it was National Doughnut Day, I forgot all about until I was pleasantly surprised when we hit the drive-up at DD to buy a coffee and hot chocolate. The disembodied voice from the order board said, “Because it is National Doughnut Day, with the purchase of those two items you qualify for two free doughnuts. What kind would you like?” I got a glazed blueberry cake one and Donna took a vanilla frosted with sprinkles.

It’s National Doughnut Day! Part 2

In my inbox at work this morning was an email with the subject line that read: News: TOXIC BELLY-BUGS infest Nine out of every Ten people (is 1 of them you ?). Obivous spam, so I deleted it.

A few minutes later I tried to print something from Publisher and it wouldn’t connect to the printer. So to see if it was Publisher or the printer I printed something from Outlook. There was nothing in my Inbox, so I went to the deleted folder and printed the spam email. I could hear it printing out two cubicals over, so I kenw to end Publisher and restart it. When Publisher came back up, it printed fine this time. I went over to pick up my job and that is when I noticed that the spam email was longer than what I saw in the prview window. There was a second page that had a mini short story:

The grill. OMG. The grill is one of the baddest burger grills I have ever seen. Food constantly sits on it. A huge pile of onions sit in one corner the bottom of this pile caramelizes. Below this are jalapenos that do the same thing. To the left are the burgers and they’re huge. I’m guessing about 1 lb each. There’s a small space on the grill that’s not occupied with food. It really looks incredible. Like I want to just eat the food right off the grill. In a true Gourmet World the grill would have been my plate.

So I sit down and a lady tells everyone that she just flew in just to come eat here! Well, everyone knows she’s exaggerating about why she flew here but I ask where she flew in from. She says New Jersey and I laugh and tell her that I just drove from CA to eat here!

So I wait maybe another 10 minutes before my burger comes to me. Normally I’d be really worried about these wait times but as you watch Nic you realize the reason why the food takes so long is because he takes cooking these burgers seriously. And he shoots for perfection in each burger so you enjoy the fact that he takes so much time. In all honesty I think this may have been the longest I have ever waited for a burger. Guess what? Completely worth the wait.

My burger comes and it’s served in a plastic basket with all sorts of fantastic colors and smells just bursting from it. I grab my phone to take a pic to post to Facebook and the lady next to me offers to take a pic of me holding up the burger! Outstanding! Of course I take her up on the offer. As I grab the burger I’m wondering if I can hold up the entire thing. I manage but half my extras fall out. She takes the pic and I grab my phone from her then dive into the burger. Wow. I mean WOW! I just can’t believe it’s this good. Seriously one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. In fact, I it’s the 2nd best burger I’ve ever had in my life (want to know my 1st choice? Email me!). I’m in total awe. I munch down on it hard. Takes me a while to eat all this with the curly fries which are good too but nothing incredible like the burger. But I do recommend them if you’ve a huge appetite. Well, if you can’t finish it, you can ask for a box and take the rest home. They do to-go orders too but you still have to wait just as long. This is actually something I definitely do not recommend. As I started to get closer to finishing my burger it got lukewarm. Its taste really started to wane. I mean wane to maybe half of its taste. So if you eat here, definitely make time for the wait, and time to sit down and fully enjoy this burger of burgers.

And my whole meal? $10.50. This is a cheeseburger with everything and a drink. So completely worth it.

It may be National Doughnut Day, but now I want a hamburger for dessert.

Nice Job

Nice JobMy wife doesn’t have the strongest teeth and we have pumped a bit of money into her mouth fixing issues. She seems to like to open stuff with her teeth and every time she does I chide her about it and ask her how she’ll feel when she has to tell the dentist that she broke a tooth trying to rip open an bag of cheddar cheese or something. So guess who broke a tooth today?

That’s right – me. Doing exactly what I tell her not to do. I was trying to open a shrink wrapped microwavable frozen flatbread sandwich for my lunch. Nice job.

Orphaned

I have been orphaned by a TV show. Left out in the black.

I can’t get any of my small circle of sci-fi breathern to watch it, and to make matters worse there is just enough violence/gore to have made Donna stop watching the show with me after like the second episode. I’m all alone in the real world, but at least I have tens of snarky commenters at the virtual watercooler that is the AV Club website to share my thoughts with.

In a nice bit of internet symmetry here is an article from another of my favorite virtual watercoolers, written by the guy who reviews the show for the previously mentioned watercooler, that discusses the show, why I’m nearly alone and why I shouldn’t be. Orphan Black, the Pre-Recap-Era Throwback Sci-Fi Show You Should Catch Up With.

Orphan Black just finished its first season run of ten shows on BBC America* Saturday, but it might still be available On Demand from your local cable company. If not, this is the “Age of the Internet”, someone, somewhere, has recorded the show, thoughtfully edited out all the commercials and torrented the epsiodes…

*It has already been renewed for a second season.

32,000 Dandelions

32,000 Dandelions

Not too far out of town the Purple Whale glided through the 32,000 mile mark. We were on our way to Greenville for lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack. Back in April when we were in Myrtle Beach we ate at a Shack and bought a buy one steampot meal and a get a Classic Steampot for free certificate for a $10 donation to Autism Speaks. Today we would cash in on that deal.

We planned to do a little geocaching on the way up with stops at two parks near Greenville and that is exactly what we did, a little. Very little. At the first stop there were 3 caches and we DNF’d all three. At the second stop we found an ammo can right near the start of the trail and as we started to continue down the trail we were both being harassed by horse flies, so we decided to quit while we were ahead and go get lunch.