Places Not to Eat and Other Important Notes...

I have been busier than a one-legged man in an ass kickin' contest, so I regret that I will have to consolidate several posts into a single report here. In addition to going through the entire process of setting up a new computer and all that entails; getting files transferred, and all the pain of that, I have several other projects I am working on that have left me little time to post, watch TV, eat, sleep, and oh by the way, work full time. I told my neighbor Gus, if it wasn't for the pesky 10 hours a day for work, I could probably get a lot more stuff done.

So anyway, trying to consolidate things I had been having "issues" with my awesome computer. Long story short, I went to PC Outlet and bought one of those refurbished Dells loaded with Windows XP (which is what I wanted), a huge hard drive (which is what I needed) and 2 Gigs of memory (which is the least I can deal with), all for $269. Oh sure, I had to spend a few more bucks here and there to make everything suitable, but it beat going out and buying a full new system. Oh, and if any of you can give me explicit, detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make my DVD-drive work after adding a second 500Gb hard-drive, I'd appreciate the knowledge.

UPDATE: Kudos and thanks to reader Anon E. Mouse who sent me an e-mail with enough info to help me check my settings and fix the problem. He is a computer consultant, so if you need help of your own, why not give him a call?

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So on the same day we went to PC Outlet, we decided to go eat at a BBQ place I found on the Google. Interesting story, sort of. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a place to eat and I was doing the usual thing of opening up a Google map of the general location we wanted to go, then start doing searches on businesses with keywords such as BBQ or Diner or whatever.

I stumbled upon this place and went to the web page. It was more of a catering business but they mentioned having a restaurant. When I looked at the bio of the owner, sure enough, he was a guy my wife went to high school with. And for this reason (and probably why I would never make it as a good critic) I won't bother to mention the name of the establishment (though you can probably figure it out).

Anyway, the day I did the search, it was on a Sunday. They are closed on Sunday and Monday. Long story short; it took us several weeks before we could finally get to the place, and it was this past Saturday.

We find the place over on San Antonio's east side. Between the Alamodome and AT&T Center. We followed Garmin to the appointed intersection along Commerce Street, but I never did see a restaurant. Finally, I decided to pull into a convenience store and ask for directions, and my wife says, "Oh, there it is." And I respond, "Where?" And she points at the convenience store and says "There!".Yes, this is my kind of hole in the wall. A restaurant in a convenience store.

I asked her if she wanted to just skip it, but I think we both agreed that it was worth going in and at least getting the food to go.

Let me fast forward to the actual food. We both ordered a combo deal where you get two meats and two sides. We both wanted chicken and brisket. I was going to have the potato salad and green beans, and my wife was going to have beans and Spanish rice.

As we were waiting, the lady behind the counter told me that the chicken was going to be a while and offered instead to give us pork ribs. Not a problem with me at all. As the lady was bagging up our Styrofoam containers, I asked her about the two sides and she said, "Oh, I gave you macaroni and beans." Well okay then.

Just about then (and maybe because I was taking pictures of the place) the owner came out immediately recognized my wife. They exchanged brief pleasantries and I said to my wife, "Where was he when we were paying for this meal?" Hey, you never know.

Anyway, the bag of food was heavy - really heavy like maybe they had thrown in some extra meat and such. Bonus! We left and made our way to do other errands and look for a suitable place to park so we could eat. The fine diners that we are, we pulled into a Wal Mart parking lot, loosened up the eating pants and got ready for what was sure to be an awesome dining experience, picnic style.

My container had some brown sausage and some pork ribs. My wife got some inedible brisket and more sausage. We just laughed, and started to dig in with plastic utensils.Don't let the pictures fool you. The BBQ sauce was nasty. I can't even identify what the sausage was made of, though I did eat it, somewhat timidly. The pork ribs were just barely acceptable, but in fact neither of us ate all of them. The brisket looked like what is burnt on the bottom of a pan and you have to pry up with a chisel before scrubbing with a Brillo pad. In all, this was not a stunning performance for a place that we had been waiting to enjoy for several weeks.

In the end, we put all the food back in the bag and I put the bag in the bed of the truck for the ride home. My wife then looked at me and said, "Quick, I need some shit to eat so I can get this taste out of my mouth." I guess that's about all you need to know.

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We were in the HEB Plus doing some quick shopping and came across a nice lady giving samples of sausage with different versions of Stubb's barbecue sauces. I love that stuff. After the lady shooed off several little girls making repeat trips to the free samples, my wife started talking to her about the sauce (BBQ sauce, that is). Anyway, turns out the lady was Mrs. Linda Stubblefield, the wife of "Stubb's" Of course we took a picture. And of course she autographed a bottle of the sauce for me. And no, I'm not going to not use it simply because the lady signed it. Unless you send me an e-mail wanting to buy it from me.

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Tonight, I got home from work and my wife wanted to go to IHOP and get a BLT. Secretly, I wondered if the service we got the first time around would have worn off now that they have been open for a few months. Simple answer: Yes. The place wasn't even crowded but it took FOREVER to get the food.My wife had a BLT that was seriously lacking in bacon.I had (and I knew it was a mistake as soon as I ordered it) a Philly Cheese Steak. One word: awful. The onion rings were fine.

In fairness, my wife overheard another waitress explaining to her table that they had a new cook working and he had not quite figured out the menu. Like he was not aware that pancakes came with a certain order, and then when he made the pancakes, did not know that three instead of two came with the order. These are all things that happen, I suppose. Apparently among the problems with being new was that he had no idea how to properly make a Philly Cheese steak.

So there you have it. It has really been a banner week.

And It's only Monday.