The $5 shake

Just had lunch at a new local restaurant.  They sell gourmet Mac & Cheese.  I grabbed their Phili Cheese steak.  I bought the regular size which was $9.99 to go.  When I opened it up, I was surprised how little I got.  It was good, very good, damn good, but not worth $10.  The portion almost filled me up, but I still grabbed a bag of Fritos.  This place would work in a richer town, but it will fail here.

On a slow boat from China

I'm a sucker for new technology when I embrace it.  However, getting older, I find the familiar comforting.  After three years of ownership of the first Motorola Droid, I decided it was time for an upgrade.  Weighing the advantages of staying with Android, or jumping to Apple, I went to the cellphone store to get a iPhone 5.  I believe the software advantages of apple make the phone a better long term deal than an Android phone with its superior hardware.  I was told I will get it early November.

I bought an iPad this spring.  I never owned a laptop PC, and after a short infatuation with Netbooks, went with the New iPad, and haven't regretted it.  The Apple OS is a little weird (no flash), and Apple isn't currently on the best terms with Google, where I have most of my online life.
I've started reading books much more in the last two years.  I've been taking advantage of our local library system (impressive for a little county in Colorado).  Sometimes I can even check out a book in eBook format and read it my iPad.  My problem with the iPad is that the screen is shiny and hard to see and read outside, where I enjoy reading.  So, I broke down and bought the new Amazon Kindle Whitepaper E Ink eReader which works better in bright sunlight.  While I received the AC adapter in the mail today, the reader will get here in early November.

I have two devices racing to my doorstep.  Did I really just pay hundreds of dollars for products I wasn't able to take with me out of the store?

Selection?

Three restaurants within a block of each other.  All feature steak and seafood.

Trip 2 forgot pt 2

Watch to be repaired in AZ

Trip 2 things forgotten

Concert tickets.  Can have reprinted at will call.

Spending cash.  I assume the Casino will help me here.

Pizza Ranch

It's a Midwest chain of restaurants. I had passed a few on my travels.  Ate at one last night.  Buffet, three tables of food: salad, pizza, chicken.  Pizza is Cici quality and selection, salad selection looked poor, chicken table had fried chicken and mashed potatoes, wedges, and potato chips.  Ate a few slices of pizza, a slim dessert slice, and a small taster of soft serve.  Just under $10.

Second thing forgot

Laminated truckers maps.

2 hours into trip

I Remembered something I forgot.   No Camera.

Dreams: working through stress

The last two nights I've had a dream I remembered dealing with loss.
Two nights ago, I was running a business out of a house, and I had made a deal to sell the business, but the new owners had started moving me out and started moving in without me.
Last night I had another one, non business related, but I had still lost something and was trying to get it back.

I'm leaving the store for a week at Gencon Monday.  This must be a reaction.

Bundling and Blues Fest

Getting older I find I dislike change more than I used to.  Maybe this is only in some areas and not others as I still enjoy new experiences.
Today I switched phone and internet to be bundled with my DISH bill.  I keep my same number, and should save money or be the same, but get a faster internet, going from 1.5mb/sec to 7mb/sec.  There's no appointment, I'll all happen painlessly in 10 days.  I should stop receiving a bill from Qwest.  I'm going to keep track and see what the dollar chages are.



Tonight is the annual Greeley Blues Fest downtown.  12 bars, 12 bands.  It's also the kickoff of the new festival license, which will allow you to take drinks out of bars and onto the plaza.  I'm interested to see how this goes.

Craft Beer Week BINGO

Last week was Craft Beer Week.  Many of the local breweries had special events to celebrate.  10 Northern Colorado Breweries banded together and put together a game of BINGO.  36 beers were arranged randomly on a sheet (6x6) (there were different cards) and you had to go to, and drink, 6 of them to complete a line.  A complete line gets you a T-shirt.This was enough to get me out of the house and visit 4 brewers I hadn't been to yet.
Pateros Creek Brewery in Ft Collins is in Old Town, but sort of hidden at the back of a parking lot.  Small tasting room with 6 tables and a bar.  I had 2 beers and tasted a third.  Didn't like any of them.  They were styles I liked, but smelled funny and tasted off.  They're new and I hope their beers improve with age as our local brewery did.
Funkwerks is in the old location of Ft Collins Brewery.  Known for their Saison, I had that and a Stout, and liked them both.  A casual crowd, very hipster.  A few brought their dogs, and a bunch rode bicycles to the brewery.
Big Beaver Brewing in Loveland is another new micro, less than a year old.  Located off US34 in west Loveland, you can't see it from the street, it takes up two garages.  Bar and taps in one, a lot of tables in the other (good location for a band to play).  Had the beer I needed for the BINGO, not much to say about it: it's what I expected for it's type.
City Star is down in Berthoud, a very small town.  Located on main street (all 2 blocks of it), it has the advantage of being close to a few restaurants, so getting food with your beer is easier than most craft breweries located in industrial areas.  Having only opened two weeks before, they're still getting going, but I'm impressed with what they have scheduled and organized already.  They were out of their Red, but I had their Stout and tried their IPA.  Stout was imperial style,  and the IPA was a standard IPA.

Overall, I'd say I'd quickly agree to go back to Funkwerks (I want to try their White Saison), wouldn't mind going to Big Beaver and City Star, and would pass on going to Pateros Creek (at least for a few years).

Oh, I completed a line and got the T-Shirt.  I wish I could have done the trip with friends as I dislike drinking alone.

Unrelated notes:

I picked up the hobby of smoking cigars last summer. I've put

restrictions on smoking that limit me to outside. It makes me to have

to unplug from DVRs, TVs, Video Games, and block out about an hour to

doing nothing but smoking, drinking a beverage, reading, and enjoying

the outside. I find it very refreshing and recharging when I can get

to that relaxed state. I expect to 'save' money buying ebooks and

reading them on the iPad while smoking. There's a company that made a

good glare reducing screen film for the older ipads, and say they're

working on one for the HD. It might help my outside use. I've read

for hours with my Sony 505, but can't imagine reading that long on my

Droid. I'm not sure my stuffed nose and burned out palate can really

enjoy the cigar experience. It's taken me 20 years to get my head

around micro beers, and tackling cigars is akin to doing the same with

the world of wines. For now it's try everything and figure out what I

like, and I've already noticed my tastes changing as I experience more

flavors. Tried my first Cuban cigar last week, and it wasn't as

peppery as expected (after smoking a few central American based cigars

said to be Cuban style sticks). Very smooth and flavorful, a

wonderful smoke. Wish I could easily get more, but a whole range of

new flavors have come on the market since the cigar boom and bust in

the 90s.

There are two new Mechwarrior games this year: Mechwarrior Online is a

multiplayer simulator, free to play. I'm most likely skipping this.

The one that interests me is Mechwarrior Tactics. It's turn based

(asynchronous), hex based, browser based, free to play, and even if

you spend money, it's still 4 on 4 so you can't buy wins, just choices

of what to play/ how to equip your mechs. Both games claim to

overcome the 'play the biggest mech to win' strategy. We'll see. I

mention MW Tactics, as I should be able to play this via the iPad web

browser (unless it uses Flash?).

I'm going to Gencon this year. It's been a few years, as it's also the weekend of the Denver Knife Show that I

attend. They scheduled Gencon the same weekend as the Motorcycle GP,

and I'm dying to see the clash of cultures downtown after dark. I may

also try and attend some moto events, especially the flat track race

at the fairgrounds.

I may try and make the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in July. They say it

might be fully paved this year. Last year with it mostly paved, the

10 minute barrier finally fell to 'Monster' Tajima in the 900hp

'Suzuki' (purpose built for Pikes Peak's Unlimited class). It's

expected that may records will fall this year, and many tarmac

vehicles will make a run up the hill. Expect superbikes instead of

dirt bikes. Indy cars instead of Rally cars.

Tech notes

I've been taking a weird route with tech. I totally bypassed the

laptop computer, but made a big side step into netbooks. I figured

they were the future- small, powerful, low power, long battery life.

I even grabbed a pair of OLPC for the incredible WiFi range and bright

sun compatible screens (I wanted one, got an extra with a compromised

keyboard)(never did get the hand generator for it). The one I ended

up using the most (netbooks are cheap) was a HP Mini 1000. Windows,

small form factor, powerful enough for web and HD movies, and the best

keyboard in netbooks (normally undersized). These days I use a Asus

Esee that I installed Easy Peasy Linux as it allows me to go to web

sites with Windows viruses.

I picked up the first e-ink book reader back in 2006, the Sony

PRS-500, and later upgraded to a 505. That went unused for years, but

I've picked it up in the last few months after discovering my library

rents eBooks. E-ink has a slow refresh, but is readable from any

angle and in any light where reading a normal book is possible.

I picked up an Android smart phone right when 2.0 came out (Motorola

Droid) as Verizon didn't have Apple and AT&T sucked here in Colorado,

and have had it ever since. I'm thinking about upgrading, and my

experiences with Android (2.2.3 and the fact that Verizon won't

upgrade me to 2.3, and I won't jailbreak) may cause me to upgrade to

an iPhone, especially now that I'll have an iPad.

I still buy my music, games and movies on hard media. That burnt me

recently: the new Sony Vita came out (portable game system). It can

run many of my old Sony PSP games. However, since it doesn't have a

PSP disc reader, it can only run PSP software downloaded from the Sony

Store. My disc media catalog is useless on the Vita.

That leads me to the iPad. I wanted a modern eBook reader and

(hopefully) tablet computer. There are some books I want that are

only available in Kindle format. I thought about getting a Kindle

Touch (controls on the base eInk Kindle makes turning pages less that

optimal). Since I can get a Kindle App for the iPad, plus read Google

Books, plus Apple native format books, and even check all three for

the lowest price, I went with the more expensive iPad. I also gain

access to iTunes, and the Apple App store. It'll do more than any

other choice, but I am concerned about using it outside on a summer

day where I'll be using it a bunch.

I continue Apple assimilation

I just broke down and ordered the new iPad (iPad 3? iPad HD? New iPad?). This will have a bunch of uses to me, but the main should be as an eReader. It'll be my third, as I had an original Sony 500 and then upgraded it to a Sony 505. The problem with the Sony is book availability. There is a book I want to read that is only available in Kindle format.
I looked at the different Kindles, and settled on the Touch as I wanted an eInk reader so it would work well outside in the sun. However, that's all it does while the iPad is also a tablet computer. Plus, there's an App for the iPad that allows me to read Kindle format books, so I get to access all Kindle books as well as all Apple Store books (and most likely Google Books too). So, I can search for the best deal, or extras or whatever. Plus, when I check out ebooks from the library I'll be able to read all the formats, if the book is restricted to one.

I went with a wi-fi model as I don't expect to use it much outside the home hotspot, and I didn't want to pay $240/ year for an EXTRA cellphone data plan. And we don't have 4G here in town.


It also makes my next cellphone choice harder. I'm happy with my Android, or more accurately, I'm happy with the suite of apps I've downloaded (and paid for). But, if I can pay once for an app and get it on both the pad and phone...

80 degrees in March?

This weekend is going to be beautiful, with highs in the 80s (on March 24&25). I've charged up the Thunderbolt's battery and planning 0n a trip to Denver. Gonna check out two cigar stores downtown, do a meal at some beer friendly place, and maybe hit the Denver Auto Show.

Seattle on two hours a day

Planning on being in Seattle on a short trip. Too short it seems as I'll be boots down for less than 24 hours, plus I'm there to attend a wedding which takes up most of my awake time. I should have books myself a day or two to see the area, but I wasn't thinking or something. I'm only missing a day of work, so there's that...

My plan is to hit one cigar store and one knife store on the drive up to the wedding. Any other time I'll do whatever when not spending time with my friend the groom.

Turn the page, another chapter begins

Sold Project Mazda, my 1989 323GTX. I got what I paid for it, so I broke even, other than all the time an money I spend servicing it. I learned a lot from it, from what to look for when buying a used car, negotiating a price, and dealing with service and problems with the vehicle. I sold it to a friend, so I'll be able to monitor it and help if any problems occur. This leaves the driveway empty- easier to shovel snow from, and easier to use any vehicle in the garage.

It gets me to thinking what's next. I'm happy with what I have, but still want an AWD vehicle. I figure I'll just keep going with what I have until something dies, and replace it with something AWD. I regret not getting the AWD version of the Charger, so that's high on the list for my next car. Or, I could go to an SUV like the Grand Cherokee. The Cherokee is supposed to come out with a diesel version next year, which should raise millage while keeping power. The new Subaru Impreza has a new engine and gets the highest MPG for any non-hybrid AWD vehicle 27/36mpg. It has no power, but it's a trade off. I bet it has enough for most use.