Eating Out

Three For Three

We ate for the Trifecta. Breakfast at Autens where we were too early to for the annual pancake eating contest. Lunch at Chick-fil-A where the parking lot was full, the drive-up window line was long, but inside the service was surprisingly fast. Dinner was at Zorbas Pizza and Grill where the food was spectacularly mediocre for the price they charged for it.

Dinner with the MMC at Zorbas was a prelude to the Annual Bug Splat Rally and for only the second time in its 13 year history no one went home with the Biggest Bug trophy. I skipped 2002 for some reason and this year, as I alluded to in Friday’s post, no one hit a bug, let alone a big one. In an effort to make sure he didn’t take home the trophy, one member wrote the word bug on the green Avery dot on another car and another member, a past winner, said even if he did actually win the trophy, his wife would not let him back in the house with it. So, awaiting next year’s run, the trophy sits in a place of honor at our house; on top of the water heater in the laundry room at the back of the garage.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1052

Forget Something Patti?

Donna and I led 4 other Miatas to breakfast at Ms. Shelby’s in Millen, GA for the May Edition of the MMC Monthly Breakfast Runs. We formed a short line of cars along 4 lane US 25 for the 40 miles south of Augusta, where we ate in the huge, but nearly empty dining room. Rudy and Patti were the first to leave the restaurant and it wasn’t until ten miles down the road back to Augusta before she realized she had forgotten them. It was as the last of us had paid our bills and I was leaving a tip, that anyone else (me) noticed the left behind item.

The four cars remaining took the slightly longer, slightly more rural, slightly more scenic two lane roads back to Augusta. As we traveled north the train of cars slowly shortened as folks fell off the route to do other things or head home. Donna and I continued on into the heart of the Martinez shopping district to return Patti’s sunglasses to her before heading home.

Started down, went up, still up.
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Old School Fish Dinner

A while back on a Wednesday evening we decided to go to Captain D’s for dinner. Turns out Wednesday is senior night where the local restaurant offers several options for meals at the $4.99 & $5.99 levels, including a drink. Needless to say we came out happy for around twelve bucks, telling ourselves that we needed to remember that on haircut night.

Tonight was haircut night, so guess what we had for dinner? And, even at 55, guess who were the youngest folks in the room?

Veggie Pie

The MMC evening dinner meeting is on again, after a several month hiatus. Tonight we dined at the Polka Dot Pig Gastropub in Augusta. Nineteen members showed up, which is almost the entire Club, at least the active part anyway. The food was good, but not great. It could have been great, but it just missed in small ways, like there was too much flour left on the bottom of the crust on my veggie pizza. Someone else’s pasta was kind of watery, like it wasn’t drained entirely. Another’s burger was rarer than the requested medium. In an order of fish ‘n’ chips, the fish was a bit soggy on the bottom. Maybe that many folks at one table overwhelmed the cook staff.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 996

Mmmm…Pancakes

Unlike usual, the MMC’s monthly breakfast was held on the fourth Saturday instead of the third. Like last year, the March breakfast was at the North Augusta Optimists Club Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser.

Somehow, I don’t think they will be using my this year’s picture on next year’s flyer like they did with last year’s picture this year.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 981

Your Geocaching Name Is Tag-a-Long

In a scene eerily not at all reminiscent of Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman getting their Delta Tau Chi fraternity names of Pinto and Flounder, Joan received her geocaching user name today, tag-a-long.*

What started as a simple couple hour trip, with a mile and a half walk, to grab 5 geocaches along a new, not completely finished, section of the North Augusta Greeneway, turned into six hours, 6.2 miles of traipsing hither and yon, nine finds, 2 DNFs, meeting seven geocachers, one of whom is the local “godfather”, and lunch.

On the first pass we couldn’t find one of the five, so we got in the car and drove down to a different parking area to look for a few new caches located on the original section of the Greeneway. We were signing the log when a couple of folks walked up and one had a GPS in his hand. As is tradition, when meeting a cacher who is a stranger, you introduce yourselves with name, geocaching handle and then fall into discussing common finds, hints for DNFs and an invitation to the next group gathering.

With a hint hot in hand, we walked back to the car, drove back to the original destination to look for the one we missed in our first pass. As we walked up the gravel pathway, we saw up ahead, four adults, a loose kid and one in a stroller milling about at a spot that held one of the caches we had found earlier. Again we introduced ourselves around. One of the women looked at Joan and asked what her geocaching name was. I said, “She doesn’t have one.” Joan answered, “I’m just tagging along.” The woman said, “See, you have your name, tag-a-long.”

*She’ll have to add a number on the end though to differentiate between the other user who already has that name.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 948

Hostess Truck Version 2.0

This model is recognizable by the Hostess logo on the back and the rearview mirrors that I didn’t have time to put on the first version. I’m thinking for Version 3.0 I might have the rear door open with hundreds of tiny Sno-Balls tumbling out of it. I did this one at home using Elmer’s Glue and I’m not that happy with the results. At work I have a glue stick that works a lot better, but more importantly I have a very well lit area that makes it easier to see the cut /fold lines. The glue stick is an easy fix, but I’m not sure what to do about the lighting.

First up today was the usual Saturday breakfast at DD while reading the Weekend Edition of the WSJ they get. We enjoy reading it so much we thought about getting it home delivered, but you can only get the weekend paper if you subscribe to the Monday through Friday editions as well. Those we probably wouldn’t read, so it would be a terrible waste of paper, plus the cost was more than we wanted to spend for a newspaper for one day a week ($119 a year.)

Then we went out in the 27° morning and did a few local and semi-local caches. We found the first two we looked for and then it went down hill from there, ending up finding just three of the next seven. We were about due a few DNFs as we hadn’t had one in three weeks and 30 caches.

We finished out the day at Olive Garden with friends. We always go out to eat early to avoid the crowds, but that plan didn’t work tonight. We arrived at 5:15 and ended up with a 50 minute wait for a table. If it was just Donna and I we would have just walked next door to Wendy’s, but we had Rudy and Patti to share stories with while we waited, so while the wait was long, it was pleasant.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 931