With New Year’s, Snowpocalypse ’11, and having my brother (aka ITP-Reader Ronnie) and nephew (ITP-Reader Eric) visit for the past two nights this first two-thirds of January have been quite eventful.
Taco Mac — With A Twist
Last night Eric wanted to meet up with one of friends who lives in Lawrenceville. Since we planned to eat dinner out a suggestion was made that we meet sort of half way at the Taco Mac in Decatur. For me most Taco Macs are the same, though if you’ve been paying attention I have a certain leaning toward the Taco Mac near my office because of its female waitstaff. I kind of hoped that the Decatur location would have similar hiring practices, but sadly no.
The small parking lot at the Decatur Taco Mac was full at 8pm (though the restaurant itself was no more that 1/4th full at that time), so we had to lie in wait until someone to relinquished a parking space. I had no idea that this would be foreshadowing for the way the rest of the night would go.
We were quickly sat in a booth and greeted by a dude server. Boo! We placed our drink orders — me an Abita Xmas beer, ITP-Reader Ronnie a Coke with no ice, and Eric ordered some fancy soda concoction made available because of Taco Mac’s weird Coke flavor mixing machine. When our waiter returned he had three drinks, one beer and two sodas with ice. Wrong. The waiter eventually came back to take our food order, but forgot to bring my brother’s corrected soda order. We ordered food in hopes that this would be the sole error. My food, chicken nachos, came out well before Ronnie’s and Eric’s food, and my Ronnie’s soda had still yet to arrive. As I sat and ate, Ronnie’s and Eric’s food finally arrived, except there were mistakes with both — Ronnie received french fries instead of the black beans he ordered, and Eric’s hamburger was lacking the bacon he ordered.
When the manager came around to check to see if everything was “okay” we were compelled to explain the food errors in as polite of a fashion as possible. We heard from our server that he was reprimanded by his manager — dude, we didn’t even mention the time it took for you to get a Coke with no ice to our table.
Not the greatest experience. I’ll need time at Taco Mac Perimeter some time soon to wash this from memory. Anyone want to bet whether or not my Abita Xmas shows up on my beer list?
ITP Flickr Pic
Given the my devotion to creative photography has been low lately I am enjoying doing silly things with the iPhone app called Hipstamatic
This is one of my computers at work –” Hipstamaticized.”
I’m A Profiteer
I don’t exactly know what the opening price was yesterday, but I pulled the trigger on some of my holdings. The ITP Estate Repair Fund has been established, well once I donate a (far too large) share of the profits to the IRS.
I watched the market with bated breath yesterday to see how worthless the remainder of my holdings would become. To my surprise and pleasure the stock price did not plummet (much) and when Apple announced huge financial gains for their first financial statement of the year my fears were allayed. Phew!
Safe, Sound, And Partially Deafened
I forgot how easy it was for some cooking in the kitchen to set off the smoke detector near my bedroom. When Eric decided that he wanted to heat up some food around 1am this morning I thought nothing of it — until the smoke detector started to bellow. I tried my damnedest to silence the detector prior to waking my brother up, but as I’ve just found out through conversation, I failed.
Collichio!
It’s a Top Chef night. Bring it!
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat, need to start exercising
Current Music – silence as I write this from home before heading to work today
Website Of The Day – As I start to attempt to resurrect Sharpened Stone I am kind of stoked that I can now accept credit card payments using my iPhone thanks to the innovation at Square.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – Feb 1
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~16.3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 6 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
January Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run no fewer than 75 miles
– Prepare Sharpened Stone, LLC for 2011 so that I get no more penalties
– Lose two pounds
– Eat vegetarian at least one day a week
– A couple of goals which I will not divulge
– Eat lunch out no more than twice a week
– Limit myself to eating dinner out on laundry nights, meeting nights, and dates
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two half-marathons
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
That is pretty typical for my TM experience, especially at that location. Hence my general low expectation for good service from them.
If a houseguest was setting off my smoke detector at 1AM, brother or not, I might be just a bit pissed. I’m just sayin.
-FP
So, at that very same Taco Mac on Saturday late afternoon, our server told us they were out of Abita Xmas forever. Diana (aka Cheese Spread) was very diappointed. I can’t wait to tell her our server (also a dude) was an idiot.
and – it is experiences like you had – that I usually have – at Taco Mac, that I wonder about your obsession with the place 😉
But of course – I have yet to get to the Perimeter one that you usually go to, (and I really don’t care how pretty the waitresses are, as long as they can do their job and have a decent personality)
and – this is for Bob – is George’s for tonight still on? I’m really not in the mood (but it is early, I could rally) -but for your belated birthday – I guess we could come out & have a burger.
Yes, the Knoll family will be at George’s tonight! Laura will be running with the 6 o’clock group so burgers will be had as soon as she returns.
Taco Mac in Decatur is the one I usually go to. I never expect to park in the lot. It’s just too small(that’s what SHE said!).The street or in back of the lot across the street is the way to go.
I usually get great service, but the times that I haven’t, the management MORE than makes up for it. Taco Mac’s management in my opinion is second to none and they’ve ALWAYS made things right with me.
Just my 2 cents.
re: the smoke detector — shit happens.
Wish I could make it to George’s tonight, but I can’t.
1) I didn’t pack running clothes and I need to get a run in so that I can pretend that I am training
2) After wasting 20 minutes looking for my wallet at home I am *finally* in the office, so I’ll be working later than usual tonight.
I like Taco Mac for its beer selection, and the Perimeter Taco Mac for its cute waitresses. The Abita Xmas was in the “Going” column, which is why I ordered it.
I always feared parking in the CVS parking lot because I never knew whether I’d be ticketed, booted, or towed.
Here’s some ITP Inside Baseball for you:
Today’s blog was going to be titled “What A Difference A Week Makes” in which I contrast my life expectations today as compared to those last Wednesday morning. But, I figure I whine too much so I spared you all. 😉
The parking situtuation in Decatur is a big reason I don’t go there, unless it’s after work or Saturday afternoon and I need running shoes.
I hate to admit it but I don’t have a working smoke detector in my house because it went off everytime I cooked anything on the stove…even steam would set it off.
What distance are you running tonight? Today is my rest day so nothing but yoga for me, I was thinking about going to the gym before, today’s workout was overhead squats and running…two things I’m pretty good at, but it’s been more than a week since I took a day off…
My schedule calls for a 3-mile run tonight. I considered tacking a little more on since I didn’t run yesterday, but I’ve reconsidered and will be doing three around the hood. Top Chef doesn’t come on until 10pm so even if I want to eat dinner I *should* have time to get a short run and shower in first.
but – we saw that Abita Xmas on the going list, asked for it & were told it was already gone. I just find it funny that they “found” another keg of it? (or, was the guy just an idiot…. I’m thinking the latter)
We parked on the street – and at 10 minutes per quarter, it wasn’t that bad. we might have spent $2, maybe $2.50. (I just had to get enough quarters, but found a waitress easily enough for that)
Martha – get a smoke detector (and a carbon monoxide detector), please??? You can call your local fire department to suppply & install the smoke alarm….. maybe they can suggest hte best place to put it so it won’t go off for steam? Allan did that plenty when he worked in SW Atlanta.
And – while it is annoying for it to go off in the middle of the night – at least you know it works, in case there really was a fire.
Oh, I didn’t realize that it was on the “Going” list then too.
Yeah Martha. And it’ll give you an excuse to have some handsome firemen come over to your house. 🙂
The smoke detector that went off last night is one of the ones which were installed in the house when I bought it; it’s hooked up to the electrical in the house. I subsequently (read “when Jeannie lived there”) installed four new smoke detectors (battery controlled) and then added a CO detector when a handful of years ago.
Believe me, I’m not complaining that it went off when it did. I was miffed that I forgot to warn Eric, or to suggest that he should turn on the vent hood fan to such some of the smoke out of the house. Eric cooked the same thing the night before but in a different pan so I don’t think as much smoke was produced, hence the suggestions slipped my mind.
If you have 4 newer smoke detectors – why do you still have that old one?
What the heck is Eric cooking at 1am? (you now have me curious)
Martha – I can ask Allan which shift (A, B, or C) has the cutest crew at Station 13. I can’t wait for the look he will give me with that question. 😉
Because I never got around to disconnecting it and capping the wires leading to it. Besides, it still works so why not leave it? Oh, one reason is that it no longer has a cover — I knocked it off at one point and have no idea where it is. Perhaps when I (finally) replace my doorbell…
Eric is a diabetic and is controlling it through a regulated diet. He wanted to cook up some of the beef I prepared on Monday night for a late night snack. Eric is also a late-nighter (even at his ripe old age of 39) who doesn’t go to sleep until 2am(ish) so eating that late doesn’t affect him much.
Yeah Barb, I want to hear Allan’s reaction to that question!!
okay- I had to call him (about something else) – so I asked.
first he said – “Huh, say that again?”
then he said – “How an I supposed to know?”
then he said – “I’m not sure who is even at that house, it is in a different battalion”
then he said – “but seriously – tell Martha to buy a smoke (& carbon monoxide) detector herself, the free ones work, but they aren’t that good. But – yeah – call & have them come out, they might get a kick out of a white girl that could do it herself calling.”
Diabetic – that is all you had to say………
Barb, you know that I am all about oversharing. LOL.