more than a mini

I thought awhile ago that fast food places could maybe do their drink sizes maybe a - d cups. I was thinking that the above would be a d cup. Pretty good deal since it only cost I think thirty cents more than getting the normal combo drink. If I would have not paid the thirty cents, I could have got a mini shake, though I am not sure what size that would have been.

Iceberg is where we ate today. Good to get back on the statestreat route and mark another one off. We'll be to university ave in no time.

Iceberg reminds me of galaxy diner for some reason. Galaxy diner used to be over by movies 8
back in the day. They had all you could drink juice. Joe Christensen and I had an all you can drink contest or two, and I am pretty sure Joe won each time. Mormons chugging oj! Wow, they are party animals!

Hate to ruin the end, but my shake was a cup within a cup, so the real size was as below. Still a pretty good sized shake, but I felt a tad duped.

y return?

I went to the byu to talk to some folks that want to get quiz bowl going again. Funny enough, one of the honors deans that helped kill us off with rather extreme prejudice is still the gateway to the honors department. "I didn't actually look at the number on your proposal, but it was too much." Ok, he didn't say that exactly, but pretty close. Turns out he (and the department he speaks for) still feels the same. Good luck new quiz bowl team! This also in, that was like ten years ago, and yes, I am old.

If I am going to the y, that means I will sure try to grab a wrap or a navajo taco. Today it was the latter. So good. While we were there, some one put flyers like so out



For whatever reason, that kind of sums up a lot about byu for me. Oh, and wraps were a hit.




Finally, some pictures that might sum up a bit why I might not be too sad that I didn't end up as a college professor.


If I could have made dean or director, I could have driven a super-posh car, as pictured! Instead, I drive a super-posh kia amanti.

rat cream puffs!

Ok, just kidding, but it does kind of crack me up that our neighborhood chinese buffet includes good old cream puffs. You know, just like in china. It also cracks me up that the name of the place is called the new chinese gourmet buffet. Not only do they get to decide that they and their cream puffs are gourmet, they also get to say, that for now and perhaps forever, they are new. Like, I think they are incorporated that way.

Most of our team went to chinese to help celebrate the year of the rat. Me, like a dope, keeps putting monkey on my checks! Ok, I stole that from wait, wait don't tell me, but I thought it rather clever.

For me, the new chinese gourmet buffet is actually pretty tasty. It is also another, should I tip? place. The buffet price includes a drink, and the drinks (orange / mango++) are pretty tasty as well, but is someone getting me a drink to go with the meal I got myself, worth a tip? Today, it was. Course, it starts at the mongolian bbq. Today, someone giving me a strange look when I asked him to add more stuff as he felt so inspired, did not lead to a tip. Somewhere along the way, some things have to be include in the purchase price.


And yes, we were north of twelfth north, but there ya go.

quick change

Ok, so I went to burger's supreme, which isn't on state street, or even in orem, but I saw a sign that kind of cracked me up


That has got to be about the quickest change from excitement to reproach, ever!

chicken dinner!

Ran this one past the misses and since she laughed, I figured it was worth blogging about.

Thanks to my mother-in-law for the pictured card. I was just thinking that once I have three (or maybe five) useds scratched off for say, carls jr, that I could ask something like

"I got all useds, what do I win?"

say hola (again) to sopes!

Well, hard to compare when you have only had one sopes, but now that I have two, I definitely liked the sopes of El Gallo Giro. Kind of funny, but google language tools can't give me a translation. Also kind of funny, that when our orders arrived, the cashier had to come and tell us which were our respective orders. Not your father's gordita.



I chose chicken for my meat topping. Gotta say, that even though autentico mexican food may not be my total cup of tea, I was really impressed at how much these folks seemed to want us there. The cashier did come out when I think our food deliverer perhaps sensed our confusion, and walked us through it all. They kept the rather yummy chips and salsa flowing. They even brought us a fork. How cool is that? Whereas I usually don't get too excited about tipping at places where you order at a counter, a food deliver delivers your food, and you bus your own table, here I left a tip. If the trash can says thank you, I think that means bus your own table. Considering the level of autentico-ness, I am surprised we didn't have gracias trash cans.

pre-cloverfield

Guess I never stepped foot near the statue of liberty, I always thought it would be bigger. Darn french.

Victim of a little gandolfo's bait and switch. Well, kind of. The coupon was buy a sandwich, get one free. Too bad for me and drew, our particular statestreet gandolfo's, wasn't listed on our coupon. So whereas some places accept competitor's coupons, this one didn't even accept sister location coupons.



Funny enough, the one down the street did on a different occasion. The mrs and I like the occasional gandolfo's breakfast sandwich. We had a coupon as above, and figured we'd give it a go one saturday. I think we went a little later, and we got a full sandwich and a breakfast sandwich. The total came to like eleven dollars. The coupon said up to a nine dollar value, so naturally, our cashier took our coupon (though his location wasn't listed, though I didn't realize it at the time), and charged us two dollars and some few cents. We said, well, it should probably be more, since the breakfast sandwich would come free and we would pay for the full sandwich. Ok, he said, and charged us three dollars and some few cents. No idea what his algorithm was there.

And this of course would be post-cloverfield

push it baby!

As you may already know, I like hot dogs. Considering that wienerschnitzel is the world's largest hot dog chain, you would think there stuff pretty well kicked. I decided against the dog-named treat



and went for the good old #1, which was two chili dogs, fries and a drink. Considering that it was the #1 and that there did exist a (I think) #3 which only had one chili dog, I figured that the chili dogs would be a) pretty solid, quality-wise and b) pretty solid, filling-wise. Not so much on either count. 7-11 pretty good for me on both counts. And yeah, I know it is old news, but could the actual look at least a little bit like the picture. Again, 7-11 is pretty close.

Finally, what's the best joke you got for their slogan?

did you just take a picture of your food?

Yes. Yes I did. Drew and I ate with our boss today, and though steve is well aware of me wearing orange on payday to stick it to the man, I don't think he is aware of this blog, which led to the title's question.

It was goattee tuesday, but alas, I trade my view from the top for free root beer. Troy actually called me by name today. Wow, I finally made it.

the other other white meat

Went to the noodle company with drew and a former coworker of drew's. I asked if I could feature a picture that included his hand, and there it is. Of course the other hand is drew's, but if you're a regular here, maybe you recognized him.

I spent like six dollars on mac and cheese. Actually, I think it was over six. That would buy a lot of the good kraft kind.

Rajesh got tofu. Might be the first time for me that someone I was with ordered tofu. I guess I get miso soup which has tofu in it, and I might have ordered it on accident once, but rajesh knew what he was doing.

I also went to best buy and bought radiohead's ok computer for a white elephant exchange. Pretty well my favorite album ever. Used to be u2's war, but perhaps I have moved on. Wondering if my $9.99 purchase will be exchanged for the last two pieces of someone's gum or the like. Never really know what you're gonna get there.

. . . moroni speaking

So, I now work for the church and one of the cool parts for me is being able to occasionally hang out at temple square. Last week we had a luncheon there where I played the piano, jon schmidt's arrangement of bring a torch jeanette isabella. Can't say that I had ever heard the piece until a few weeks ago when a neighbor suggested it. Turns out I liked it and I think folks there did as well. For years I was a classical only kind of guy (not sure if there are enough such people anymore for them to qualify for a group), but since then I have discovered the beatles, radiohead, wilco, lots of others and now a touch of jon schmidt. Bring a torch wasn't the toccata from bach's sixth partita or beethoven's op 110, but that might be why folks seemed to like it so much. Undergrad graduation I played liszt's la campanella, grad school graduation I played the toccata from above. Guess which I think people liked better? That's right, jon schmidt.



The luncheon was on the twenty-sixth floor of the church office building. After the luncheon, I wandered out on the balcony and shot the above shot. Pretty cool up there. Looking around salt lake there were several rather distinct views. Like up around (I think) the avenues, it looked like a little village, plenty of apartment buildings for a different look, the whole mountains thing, downtown with it's high-ish rises, and for some reason a big U on the hill.

I also sang in a little double quartet plus one, where I think we had the great pleasure of having our best performance at the performance. How cool is that?

more than almost famous

Well, you pretty well heard it here first, but being as brandon just made the front page of slashdot, he is now famous.

denny's, lenny and carl

Denny's. And you know that that means moons over my hammy. The name doesn't really make much sense to me, except that there is ham involved.

I think I have at least two friends that are famous, or on the verge. The other one is brandon sanderson. He is a hit author, will likely get a movie or two made before too long, and who knows, may get really, really famous very shortly. Me and brandon used to come to this very denny's and talk. Often we would talk about my next great programming project. You may notice that those sites look much the same. Meanwhile brandon is working it. Good job brandon! Those cheese fries and shakes must have pushed you over the edge.

If you're pretty good at java, c++, image processing, or even programming generally, the church is hiring. If you're good at cheese fries and the shakes . . .


Cameron likes the simpsons. Suddenly, when simpsons quotes enter my mind, I can filter them through, and am pretty dang sure cameron will be there with me. Pretty well daily we walk through an episode for drew. Sure drew just loves that! Your fingers are too . . . fat! Cameron knows the lines better than I do.

Sitting by the counter were


first I thought they were for sale, then I realized they were just for use.

when worlds collide

I have been thinking that we could have another blog where each day we have to eat lunch from a coupon. Sometimes ideas are better left as ideas.

It is perhaps unfortunate that you can't short local businesses, because it hit me today that first time coupon book appearers are pretty good candidates to go out of business.

Today, we went to the hot dog king. They say that they have the best hot dogs in the world. Wow, on our own state street. Drew pretty well agreed. I got a chili cheese dog and it was good, but I think that there are several other places in the world with better offerings.

Yes, we ate at 7-11 and the hot dog king within like a week. Cameron even ate at hot dog king.

Sadly, hot dog king was nearly empty when we went. I am betting that there are several lunch hours that no one comes in, and off-lunch hours must be dreadful. I wonder if I could work there from my work during such empty times.

Sometimes when driving around, seeing all the places that are likely destined for a chapter of some sort, I get sad. Eating at such a place isn't much better.

And a cinnamon roll.

smaller continents need not apply

you will guru the day!

I read blogs of a couple famous people, and since they have you know, readers, and those readers send them email, they are able to kind of get their blog posts nearly for free. The readers send emails, and via simple cut and paste, nearly all their daily entry is written for them. With a simple quip here and there, on they go with their famous, undoubtedly happy lives.

In my rather non-famous life, I have no such luxuries. That said, I do have a pretty killer camera phone, and I have a few photos sitting around which have no corresponding blog post, so here we go. Think I will break these photos into different entries.

A week-ish ago drew was meeting a friend down in provo, and cameron and I tagged along. Guru's was the place. I guess it is healthy or something. Drew's friend is a vegetarian, and guru's was pretty much made for him. They did have some pretty good steak and chicken tacos.

For some reason, I had 7-11 napkins in my pocket, and thought they looked cool on the table next to the money. Guru's is one of those "we're not really your waiter, but please tip well" places. Other such places include fudruckers and sonic. Can't really decide which of the two I think is worse. At fudruckers they don't deliver food, and I think they don't even get your water. "Anything I can do for you?" You mean anything tip-worthy!

At sonic they don't really do anything different then say, wendy's and I don't recall ever tipping at wendy's. Whatever happened to wendy's?

My, look at the fancy wall and the many empty chairs. Wonder if those two things go together. We might have been there a little late, but there you go.
And finally, now you need not leave the restaurant, to find a tree to hug!

twenty-one?

Yeah, we ate at 7-11. I had two hot dogs and a slurpee. My favorites in order were probably the slurpee, the first hot dog, not getting the second hot dog, perhaps another slurpee, and yes, the second hot dog. For me, some foods just go well together. French toast and milk, steak and orange gatorade, and yeah, 7-11 hot dogs (with free chili and free cheese) and a slurpee.

Did I mention the free chili and cheese? I do wonder sometimes how far you could push that. What if I fill the whole container? What if I place the container in a bucket and then fill it? How about a garbage can? F150? F350? What if there were more than two trucks I could mention?

Sometimes, people tell me things. The other day "the dentist" wanted to see me, perhaps during lunchtime. We had exchanged an email or two and chatted on the phone a bit, so I guess he felt like he could open up to me. He said something like, "now just because it's going to be lunchtime, don't think that we're going to have any food. I could maybe bring some sandwiches. Peanut butter and honey?" Again, more than a little strange.

Today at 7-11 a couple folks chatted me up a bit. A xerox copy repair man who would rather be a programmer, and was going back to get his IT degree. He was saying that was maybe the first time he had seen someone that a picture of a cheese machine. I told him about this blog, and maybe he is reading this today. Hola, xerox guy! I would probably aim towards java, and I think this is a good book.

One of the 7-11 workers told me about his mom's garden, that she grew hot stuff that he eventually ate half of one of them. It was really hot. "Do you like hot stuff?"

Why did drew eat at two places today? Now that's a good question.

Thats a Wrap

It bothers me that they call the place New York Burrito when what it is they are selling is not my idea of a burrito. Evidently they ARE all burritos as per Dictionary.com which says a burrito is "noun: a flour tortilla folded around a filling". But it still bothers me.
It was good food. Didn't quite fill us up, but that is why they are located right by Great Harvest Bread that sells cinnamon rolls larger than the spare tire in the trunk of Cameron's Honda that you can grab for dessert.
Another thing that bothered me just a tad is that my "burrito" was supposed to be healthy, but it wasn't (my lunch's nutritional facts). Especially when you add the dessert (yum, they don't list it with the frosting, ha!)
It could be worse, it could be Jack-in-box's excuse for a burrito which is a flour tortilla folded around a breakfast, putting you well over your cholesterol limit for the day before it even gets started.

cold mug please

Must mean more to other folks, but I sure do like the occasional frosty mug of a&w root beer. I used to go a couple tuesday a month to state street's own a&w/kfc combo. Not sure how those two folks ended up together, but if you ever wished for a bucket of chicken AND a frosty mug of a&w with a single credit card swipe, wishes can come true.

This particular flavor of said combo is run by a guy nice enough seeming fellow. I was about to mention his name, but since drew (ages ago) said we should have nothing personal in the blog, I have mentioned, I believe nary a name. Now, I didn't go to high school with him, like I did the formerly unmentioned owner of our local chick-fill-a, but I am starting to feel like I know old troy a bit. His employees seem to like working for him, he seems to like what he does, his customers seem to like him, and there you go. Today he made the rounds just to ask us if everything was alright. Almost seemed like he really meant it.

Goatee tuesday means you get a free drink on tuesdays if you have a goatee. In the past, I pushed the envelope a bit on length (shortness), but I got the free drinks. These days, as my lackbeard self, I can't really even begin to ask. The routine for first timers goes a little something like this

"Would you like a free drink with that?"
"Huh?"
"Because it's . . ."
"goatee tuesday! woot! woot!" (said in unison by several of the workers)

It's perhaps a touch more than a little strange.

save a panda

I can't imagine that orem's own china bowl was real excited about a panda express opening in the same parking lot, but I am pretty sold on china bowl, so I eat there. In another life, I discovered cal's chinese (sorry couldn't find a link). Cal's was a couple of blocks from the cal berkeley, which may have helped explain the name. And yeah, for quite awhile, I thought the owner's name must be cal. Never did meet cal, but I sure did like his lemon chicken. For whatever reason, perhaps near-freakish height, folks seem to remember me. I lived in utah, and visited berkeley only occasionally, but the folks would give me a warm, smiling nod when I came, and another warm, smiling nod when I would order lemon chicken.

Same thing happens about half the time for me at china bowl. I have seen pretty well two people ever working at china bowl. One is warm and friendly, acknowledging that I have been there before, rhetorically asking if I want the lemon chicken, delivering chop sticks with my order, etc, etc. The other acting like it is my first time there, expressing no emotion when I usually order the lemon chicken, bringing chop sticks only after I ask, etc, etc.

That said, today I tried the peking chicken. It is pretty yummy and I guess I shouldn't always get the same thing. Try new things! Out with the old! Course, I used to get the peking chicken quite a bit, so I guess I mean try the things you used to try! How yummy is the peking chicken? Just take a look at the clean plate!