Salt Lake!
Been in town for about 24 hours now, and impressions are favorable. Not a lot of time to write, but there is free wifi (and apprently wired access, and outlets, and comfortable tables) at the gorgeous downtown Salt Lake City public library, with sweeping views of the mountains.
Our new home/condo is beautiful. Three bedrooms, two baths, hardwood floors in the huge main room, dishwasher & laundry in the unit, for starters. And $800/month, with most utilities paid by the owner. Not too damn shabby! The parking stinks, but otherwise it's pretty damn nice. Oh, and did I mention that the building is on the National Register of Historic Places ? Just search down for "Hollywood Apartments".
Okay, time to head back home, to my refrigerator full of Gale Force IPA, and think about feeding myself. With something in addition to the Gale Force, that is.
Confidential to TGS: had to use your previously mentioned gift, but it remains entirely functional. And it's coming in handy: thanks! Call if you desire details. No progress made yet re: other discussons about... ahem. Uncle.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Hotlanta eats and drinks
My primary hope for today is that it rains. Now, suspend your disbelief for a second: no, it's not that I'm excited when it dips down to the high 80s during rain, nor do I like the flooding that inevitably results from rain in overdeveloped Atlanta communities.
Rather, it's because they pour $1 house beers at the Park Tavern on rainy days, and I want to try them without paying full price, since they have received somewhat mixed ratings online.
Mostly what we do in Hotlanta in our free time, besides look for places with air conditioning and free wireless, is eat. Last night, we made a serious mistake of eating at R. Thomas Deluxe Grill, which has a fun menu for vegetarian food, but serious, serious problems. Let's start with the vegan burger being cooked on the same grill as the meat. And our server not washing his hands after going to the FILTHY bathroom. And our server being awol for much of our dinner. (It got to where I made sure to be ready to whip out a credit card the next time he came by, for fear we'd be sitting there another 20 minutes.) And no, the place wasn't at all crowded for dinner at 6pm. Then we can pick on the smaller problems, like the wrong food being brought out, but nobody coming by for 30 minutes so that we could try to have it fixed. Basically, the place just sucked for service, and we won't go back. It's fun to have a 24/7 place that serves vegetarian food, sure, but not like that.
This morning, we had better luck at Radial, which definitely provides a preferred alternative to the pricey and ridiculously busy Flying Biscuit location in Candler Park. Radial's menu is better, simpler, somewhat cheaper, and makes it possible to actually eat breakfast with coffee for under $10 after tip. Unfortunately, the $1.95 coffee was abysmal: truly, almost as bad as McDonald's. The decaf I switched to was actually quite a bit better. I was so unimpressed by the horrible coffee that I won't ever order it again. We'll definitely go back: better food, same drive, and parking available as Flying Biscuit.
But we'll get coffee elsewhere, such as one of my favorite places in Atlanta, JavaVino . They have fantastic coffee, a very pleasant and nicely priced wine list (especially the specials!), free wifi, and are super friendly to boot. I'm gearing up to take them up on their Thursday special, the $18 bottomless glass of wine. Hah!
My primary hope for today is that it rains. Now, suspend your disbelief for a second: no, it's not that I'm excited when it dips down to the high 80s during rain, nor do I like the flooding that inevitably results from rain in overdeveloped Atlanta communities.
Rather, it's because they pour $1 house beers at the Park Tavern on rainy days, and I want to try them without paying full price, since they have received somewhat mixed ratings online.
Mostly what we do in Hotlanta in our free time, besides look for places with air conditioning and free wireless, is eat. Last night, we made a serious mistake of eating at R. Thomas Deluxe Grill, which has a fun menu for vegetarian food, but serious, serious problems. Let's start with the vegan burger being cooked on the same grill as the meat. And our server not washing his hands after going to the FILTHY bathroom. And our server being awol for much of our dinner. (It got to where I made sure to be ready to whip out a credit card the next time he came by, for fear we'd be sitting there another 20 minutes.) And no, the place wasn't at all crowded for dinner at 6pm. Then we can pick on the smaller problems, like the wrong food being brought out, but nobody coming by for 30 minutes so that we could try to have it fixed. Basically, the place just sucked for service, and we won't go back. It's fun to have a 24/7 place that serves vegetarian food, sure, but not like that.
This morning, we had better luck at Radial, which definitely provides a preferred alternative to the pricey and ridiculously busy Flying Biscuit location in Candler Park. Radial's menu is better, simpler, somewhat cheaper, and makes it possible to actually eat breakfast with coffee for under $10 after tip. Unfortunately, the $1.95 coffee was abysmal: truly, almost as bad as McDonald's. The decaf I switched to was actually quite a bit better. I was so unimpressed by the horrible coffee that I won't ever order it again. We'll definitely go back: better food, same drive, and parking available as Flying Biscuit.
But we'll get coffee elsewhere, such as one of my favorite places in Atlanta, JavaVino . They have fantastic coffee, a very pleasant and nicely priced wine list (especially the specials!), free wifi, and are super friendly to boot. I'm gearing up to take them up on their Thursday special, the $18 bottomless glass of wine. Hah!
Thursday, July 14, 2005
South
Free wireless has been spotty of late, hence the limited (okay, non-existent) posting. I've been in Hotlanta for about a week, and am wandering now. Today's trip has me in Greenville, South Carolina (a delightful, picturesque town) and continuing on to Charlotte, NC.
Lunch at the Blue Ridge Brewing Company in downtown Greenville (with free wifi all over the place!) has an excellent Total Eclipse XXX Stout: roasty, chocolatey, full, thick, and dark. (And I think it might be $2/pint for Throw Down Thursday!). Better have two. 4.25/4.5 ... YUM!
I visited the Shoeless Joe Jackson statue, and am headed to his gravesite after lunch on my way out of town. Weird, you say? Well, hell, his birthday IS on Saturday.
After that, on to Charlotte, and hopefully tonight's AAA baseball game between the Charlotte Knights and the Indianapolis Indians won't be rained out by the thunderstorms that Hurricane Dennis brought, and Hurricane Emily seems intent on perpetuating.
Then I fly out of Charlotte tomorrow to earn Delta Silver Medallion status with one flight: a ridiculously easy way to gain priority boarding (and in some cases, extra legroom seating and free upgrades). As importantly, though, it was a good justification for a fun road trip.
Greenville is remarkably pleasant so far, at least to my unstudied tourist eye. It's slow, but not dusty, and all the people so far have had (more apparently genuine than in Hotlanta) southern charm. Critically, it's a little cooler than anywhere I've been in Georgia or Tennessee in the last week.
Oh! We went rafting last week with the group on the Ocoee River in southern Tennessee. It was an excellent time, and seven of us had a great time camping the night before in the national forest. Well, it was great until the Russians showed up. A screaming, drunk, tweaking pack of Russians, about eight of them, wandered in to the campsite around 11pm and started wreaking absolute fucking havoc throughout the overflow camping area. They screamed and yelled until about 2am, when they decided to go back to their cars in the (very nearby) parking lot and blast techno music. After a member of our group (too) nicely asked them to turn it off, they did, and retreated to their campsite, where they screamed, yelled, played music, and broke things for another hour or two. Turns out they only sort of vaguely quieted down after one of their group stepped barefoot into some of the broken glass they were creating. Around 4am. Nice.
Anyway, it's more baseball for today, and trying to find some decent beer in the south, always a challenge. This has been a huge score so far: $2 pints of everything, though they are out of the Colonel Paris Pale Ale, so it's another Total Eclipse XXX Stout for me. And the $7.95 oven roasted vegetarian sandwich was excellent, with mounds of goat cheese, and excellent fries. They make their own amber ale ketchup, and apparently their own spicy grainy mustard, both of which are outstanding.
Free wireless has been spotty of late, hence the limited (okay, non-existent) posting. I've been in Hotlanta for about a week, and am wandering now. Today's trip has me in Greenville, South Carolina (a delightful, picturesque town) and continuing on to Charlotte, NC.
Lunch at the Blue Ridge Brewing Company in downtown Greenville (with free wifi all over the place!) has an excellent Total Eclipse XXX Stout: roasty, chocolatey, full, thick, and dark. (And I think it might be $2/pint for Throw Down Thursday!). Better have two. 4.25/4.5 ... YUM!
I visited the Shoeless Joe Jackson statue, and am headed to his gravesite after lunch on my way out of town. Weird, you say? Well, hell, his birthday IS on Saturday.
After that, on to Charlotte, and hopefully tonight's AAA baseball game between the Charlotte Knights and the Indianapolis Indians won't be rained out by the thunderstorms that Hurricane Dennis brought, and Hurricane Emily seems intent on perpetuating.
Then I fly out of Charlotte tomorrow to earn Delta Silver Medallion status with one flight: a ridiculously easy way to gain priority boarding (and in some cases, extra legroom seating and free upgrades). As importantly, though, it was a good justification for a fun road trip.
Greenville is remarkably pleasant so far, at least to my unstudied tourist eye. It's slow, but not dusty, and all the people so far have had (more apparently genuine than in Hotlanta) southern charm. Critically, it's a little cooler than anywhere I've been in Georgia or Tennessee in the last week.
Oh! We went rafting last week with the group on the Ocoee River in southern Tennessee. It was an excellent time, and seven of us had a great time camping the night before in the national forest. Well, it was great until the Russians showed up. A screaming, drunk, tweaking pack of Russians, about eight of them, wandered in to the campsite around 11pm and started wreaking absolute fucking havoc throughout the overflow camping area. They screamed and yelled until about 2am, when they decided to go back to their cars in the (very nearby) parking lot and blast techno music. After a member of our group (too) nicely asked them to turn it off, they did, and retreated to their campsite, where they screamed, yelled, played music, and broke things for another hour or two. Turns out they only sort of vaguely quieted down after one of their group stepped barefoot into some of the broken glass they were creating. Around 4am. Nice.
Anyway, it's more baseball for today, and trying to find some decent beer in the south, always a challenge. This has been a huge score so far: $2 pints of everything, though they are out of the Colonel Paris Pale Ale, so it's another Total Eclipse XXX Stout for me. And the $7.95 oven roasted vegetarian sandwich was excellent, with mounds of goat cheese, and excellent fries. They make their own amber ale ketchup, and apparently their own spicy grainy mustard, both of which are outstanding.
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