Like when I forget to give the day’s post a title.
Another Failed Trivia Night. Hey At Least I Won A Hockey Ticket
Last night I joined the crowd for trivia at Decatur’s Zucca Pizzeria. (side note: It’s wise to order pizza/calzone as such an establishment. Ordering the hamburger, even if it’s called an “Italian” hamburger with mozzarella and tomato sauce is not a great idea. Trust me.)
Another side note. Do you know the only word in the English language which has three consecutive repeating letters? I’ve put the answer at the end of this post.
Our team was charging along through the first half of the event. However in round three we hit a virtual brick wall — question after question stumped us.
At one point the night’s host asked a question, outside of the competition, whose prize was free Atlanta Thrashers tickets. Our team answered the question closely enough to score two tickets, one of which I claimed (I did provide the answer we submitted.)
Unfortunately my good luck did not signal a turn-around for our team as we failed to finish in the money.
When In Need Of Something Special, Avoid Decatur’s Kroger
I’ve resided in this part of the world long enough to remember when the little Kroger was once a Harris Teeter. After trivia I decided to pay the little Kroger a visit in order to pick up the items I needed for today’s potluck lunch at work and in the process avoid the ridiculously annoying Kroger in Edgewood Retail District.
Of course because this is a “little” Kroger it didn’t have a wide selection of items, including larger bags of frozen meatballs. It was off to the ERD to fight the shelf-stockers and and annoying patrons. At least I got the things I needed.
ITP Flickr Pic
This section is kept in the blog to remind me that I need to shoot.
RealiTV Update : Top Chef — The Fix Is In
SPOILER ALERT
For many weeks I’ve contended that the Final Four for this season’s Top Chef was going to be the Volt brothers, Kevin, and Jennifer. These four seemed to have skill at a level one or more notches higher than the rest.
I didn’t think that Robin’s dish was the worst one last week (although I was not upset to see her leave); It was just her turn to go. I didn’t think that Eli’s dish was the worst one last night; it was just his turn to go.
Last night was all about the proteins and the fancy presentations. For the QuickFire Challenge the cheftestants had to create a dish that was a protein, inside a protein, inside a protein. Jennifer took the contest and with it gained an extra thirty minutes for the night’s Elimination Challenge.
For the Elimination Challenge the cheftestants had to prepare their version of some fancy-pants “Olympics of French Cooking” competition of which I’ve never heard. Atlanta’s Kevin Gillespie decided to keep his food less complex than his fellow cheftestants and produces well-prepared food instead (it is still about the taste, right?). For his decision he received much derision. However, when push came to shove Kevin’s superb preparation over fancy presentation won the night. With his victory Gillespie also won $30,000 (hopefully to be invested, at least in part, in Woodfire Grill) and the chance to become a team member of the next US team to perform in the fancy-pants olympics.
The four remaining cheftestants will now compete in Napa Valley where we’ve been teased with new hairstyles, a potentially “showing” Padma, and some high-fallutin’ chefery. I know that I can’t wait!
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – listening to the “net@night” podcast
Website Of The Day – I can’t believe that I’ve never recommended PriceGrabber in this space. PriceGrabber is a great site for seeing what many sites are charging for a given item.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 4.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (5)
Vegetarian Days – 4, Carnivorous Days – 14
Marta Rides – 0
November Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August, September, or October)
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
TRIVIA ANSWER: “Bookkeeper” Technically variants of this such as “bookkeeping” are also valid English words, so I guess it’s not really the only one.
I must not be too bright either — I was trying to think of a word with three consecutive letters. Easy if you’re a pirate….aaardvaaark!
Brenan – I was thinking the same way as you. Oh well……
Did the little Kroger have any meatballs? I would have bought two smaller bags. I go to the grocery store too much, Harry’s (aka Whole Foods) for the 365 lemonade – it is made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup & Allan says it tastes better – but they don’t have everything, so off to Kroger &/or Publix for other stuff.
Very true, Brenan. In case I didn’t make it clear, we did not get the correct answer.
Barb, they did have the smaller bags but those seemed tiny. I thought that I’d need three to fill my crockpot and the price they were charging for the small size seemed high. The smaller size would be perfect for a single person, however.
I have to admit…..I was thinking the same way as Brenan and Barb.
So, what dish did you make? Meatball surprise?
I made sweet, BBQ meatballs. I jar of grape jelly, and some BBQ sauce poured over frozen (pre-cooked) meatballs. Heat in a crockpot until thoroughly heated.
I had delicious Swedish Meatballs at my visit to Ikea at lunch yesterday. I’m not sure why they serve them with boysenberry jam, but hey, when in Sweden…
That Kroger is a tiny place.. I’m not claustrophobic, but that place bugs me.
I’ve never stopped to eat the Swedish Meatballs at Ikea – that might be an interesting idea.
I think Maggie is finally tall enough to get into Ikea’s playground/babysitting area so we’ll probably head over sometime soon to enjoy a nice quiet lunch of meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, and assorted veggies.
I try to avoid IKEA for the same reason that I avoid Your Dekalb Farmers Market
1) crowds
2) I’ll buy things I shouldn’t be currently be buying
There is a trick to shopping at YDFM, first put enough stuff in your cart so no one will take it (because they will), then park the cart and then just make trips back to it. Also, there is some strange time/space thing going on when you go to check out…I don’t care how crowded the area looks, there never seems to be more than one or two people in each line. Checkout goes faster than Kroger, anyday of the week.
I went to Kroger at 6:15 yesterday morning…that was perfect for me.
I so wish for the days of WebVan…I really hate going to the store.
I also dislike that YDFM doesn’t take credit cards. Speaking of credit cards, I’ll have another rant about credit cards soon. 😉
I’m okay they don’t take credit cards but they did make my life easier when they started taking debit cards. I remember the days of either having enough cash or wandering around looking for some one to ‘approve’ my check.
You are right about one thing…I end up buying all sorts of stuff I would never buy at Kroger, usually because Kroger would never carry most of it.
A rant?? From you?? I’m shocked!!! :-\
Actually more of an observation than rant. 😉
I’ve never had a debit card (and don’t want one). I now carry checks with me, but hate using them. I understand why YDFM doesn’t take credit (more profit for them) but I like the convenience of credit. It’s become a moot point though since I do so little grocery shopping.
We stayed at a Swedish Bed and Breakfast place in Kansas….they had meatballs and jam for breakfast!!
Totally off topic…I went online today to make an appointment to get my hair cut and Rachel is gone!!!!
Never had a debt card?? Carry checks??? How old are you?? 😉
I didn’t trust debit cards when they first came out. “They’re just like carrying cash.” “Oh great, so if I lose it people can clean out my account?” I thought. Besides, back then I had an ATM card and a checking account in addition to my credit card, why did I need another outlet for making purchases.
I’ll go on the record that I also hate checks, but sadly they, like a land-line phone line, are still vital for my existence.
Rachel is gone? Huh, I wondered if she moved on to another salon like all other hairstylists seem to do. As can be seen by my appearance, I wasn’t giving her much business.
Also totally off topic: Today is ITP-Reader Betsy’s birthday. I completely forgot when I wrote today’s blog otherwise I would have given one of my favorite people her rightful congratulations.
Debit card I think you should use only with the PIN, never as the credit card type of option. I had my bank account cleaned out in the past, and I don’t want it to be any easier. I try to carry cash to use as much as possible, only using the debit card at the grocery store & to get gas. I’d really rather use the credit card for those things to get more miles, but I hate getting the bill with a big balance, so I tend to not do that.
Happy Birthday to Betsy!!!!!!!