Mmmmm, Pizza

There is a new pizza place in town and we were excited to eat there, but our excitement was tempered some after our first visit.

We were pulling back into Aiken after our trip the Florida a couple weeks ago when I noticed that the long rumored wood fired pizza place was actually open. We took a sharp left turn into the parking lot. The place was sparsely, but tastefully, filled in with 5 booths along the window and 6 tables between the booths and the open kitchen. We stood in front of the entry area where the cash register was and waited to be seated. The girl behind the counter motioned us forward and explained we ordered there, paid, and then the food was brought to you. You want a drink? “Chose from these fine beverages,” as she sweeps her hand, Price Is Right style, across an array of Coca-cola products. I select a Coke Zero and Donna declines any, and asks for water. We are handed styrofoam cups and instructed where to get ice. It was right over along the side where you also get your silverware.

The pizza was great and worth the hassle. Sort of.

Turns out they had just opened their doors for a soft opening a mere 4 days before. Hopefully some of the rough edges of their service would get smoothed out as they get more experienced.

Well, we wanted pizza tonight, but weren’t real confident that they had worked out all the kinks, so I was sent over to pick up a pie to go. They did have a working soda fountain machine, so you get a wider selection of soft drinks and you don’t have to scoop ice out of a metal pitcher with a red solo cup. There are now four young girls working there instead of one, but the whole enter, stand around near the door while looking at the menu before ordering and shuffling off to a table thing still exists.

Unfortunately the greatness of a wood-fired oven baked pizza when placed in a cardboard box and driven 1.7 miles is severely diminished. Fortunately, it is still better than the frozen take home or chain delivered version. Barely.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1180

Skaneateles

We went to watch polo this afternoon and took along the new guy at work. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 70’s and the game was awesome. It was the finals in an 8 Goal* Tournament and after 5 of the 6 chukkers the score was tied 7-7. The final ended up being Skaneateles 12, Hutchinson Farms 9. Vaughn grew up around horses, but had never seen polo, so he had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for a better game either, usually when we go to a polo match we are lucky to see 10 goals scored total.

*The goal total is not an indication of how many goals the team should score but a player handicapping/ranking system.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1177

Bridge Run

Did a practice run today for the MMC Leaf Peeping trip in two weeks. Four hundred miles, 10 hours, 4 caches found and three bridges covering three centuries. Two of the bridges are covered, one you can drive on (shown above) and one you can’t and the 3rd is probably so old it never had a car drive over it at all.

Not so sure about the fall colors though. It is very spotty with a lot of trees in places bare of foliage and right nearby green leaves. In two weeks I’m not sure what we’ll get, blazing colors with a few bare trees or brown leaves with a lot of bare trees or something similar to today’s show which was worth the trip, but no postcard views.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1176

Lipitor Afterall

Just the generic version. Visited the GP today and my numbers were about the same as last time. When he hemmed a bit about it thinking sort of out loud wondering if we should adjust some of the meds I spoke up and asked if we could swap out the Tricor as that was the the only prescription I had that wasn’t generic. So he suggested Lipitor now that it was available in generic form. I said sign me up. Next check is in February.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal 80-199 40-110 30-130 30-150
10/10/12 196 36 128 160
04/10/12 193 39 121 166
10/10/11 162 43 88 155
04/04/11 155 38 96 107
12/06/10 176 41 114 105
05/18/10 151 38 91 109
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

If I Was Running For President

I would have to apologize to the citizens of the great state of Florida, because if I wanted to get to get elected I would probably need the 29 electoral votes it represents. But thankfully I’m not running. That’s Gary Johnson’s problem.

Florida is actually, in spots, a very nice place, and we have been to several. Including today when we visited a lock on the Okeechobee Waterway where we found 2 out of three caches and walked along a couple of nice nature trails. So we probably would visit Florida if Sandy and family weren’t here, just certain, less busy, spots.

25,000 Cars A Minute

We pulled off I-95 in near Melbourne, Florida to do a driver change. We turn right and make a u-turn to stop in a spot on the left hand side of the road. This allows Donna to just turn right out of the parking and turn right again to get back going southbound.

At the intersection at the bottom of the off ramp there is a red light. No problem we should be able to go right on red. Ha. It is a very busy road and we watch 25,000 cars go by until a light turns red somewhere back to our left. I zip across 4 lanes to get in one of the two left turn lanes and get caught at another light. We wait for another 25,000 cars to go every which way until it is our turn. Of course to two left turn lanes promptly turn into one lane creating confusion and jockeying for position. After navigating that mess we find ourselves in a giant Target parking lot. I make a left and then another left to head back out to the road where we run into a stop sign and no place to pull over to swap drivers. We do it anyway and rush through the procedure. Only to have to wait at the stop sign for another 25,000 cars to pass by before a big enough gap appears for Donna to pull out and get on the Interstate. What takes 3 minutes on I-95 in SC or GA takes 15 minutes in FL. If Donna’s sister didn’t live in this state we would never get anywhere near it.

On I-95 near Flagler Beach, Florida the Purple Whale passed the 25,000 mile mark. Since we bought the car we have been driving the heck out of it, in the five hundred and fifty eight days of ownership we have averaged 46.5 miles a day. We only live 6 miles from work…