I was really stoked to go to the Dallas Chop House this last weekend. Chef Kenny Mills. replete in 10 Gallon hat, was eager to show us his Himalayan salt lined beef aging cellar. That, sadly, was the highlight of the evening.
Chicken vegetable soup was very bland and uninteresting. My main course of ribeye, replete with four chili dry-rub was so salty to be almost inedible. The onion rings & steak fries were also buggered because of the insane amount of salt on them. The Maque Choux corn melange was good, as were the pop-overs. But over-all the ridiculous amount of salt made many dishes inedible.
The owner (?) came over and worked the crowd, cruising thru asking if everything was OK. My fellow diners, being genteel folk, said it was all good, but I had to let him know that many dishes were ridiculously salty. He didn’t like this and moved on fast- he looked half-baked.
The deserts were ok. The carrot cake got the table in a lather, mostly, I feel, because they have not had a steamed pudding before. The creme brulée was fine but nothing to write home about.
I am much more discriminating than most in that I eat out more than most. There are at least five steak houses in Dallas that are much better than this. Perry’s is my current favourite – although Patrys, Lawrys & Ocean Prime have to be right up there. For $175 for two including small amounts of wine it was a very expensive night out for very average quality and service.
Management’s behavior made me highly unlikely to visit again. Dallas has too many good steak houses to mess with places that do not revere the customer. Here, for what it’s worth, is the beef aging cabinet.
I would say all web designers hate MS IE6. It simply isn’t compliant with standards and people spend a lot of time fart-arsing around trying to make their sites look right in IE6. I personally am getting where I just say “Too bad – upgrade. Get a real browser like Firefox.”
Google has taken a stand here and hopefully this is the start of the end for this piece of shit. Email I got today….
Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Former (?) F1 ace Kimi Raikkonen blatting thru some frozen wasteland. Check out about 16 secs in how long does that jump last?! I shall miss his insanely monotonous voice on after podium panels. And his eyes – the eyes of a Husky.
Shame they don’t do WRC here, I think I like it more than the current F1.
So I’ve wanted to have a radio-controlled helicopter ever since DC Comics’ General Jumbo! He controlled his miniature army/air-force from a controller on his sleeve. This was back in 1965! Alas it was not to be until I was well into middle age.
In the last few years there has been a spurt in the popularity of RC Helicopters thanks to new battery & electric motor technology. No longer does cranking nitro motors add another level of difficulty to the dark art. Li-po batteries can keep even large heli’s in the air for over ten minutes.
I have a fixed pitch MSR Blade that is an incredible exercise in miniaturization. On one circuit board are solenoids, gyros, electronic speed control and all the other gubbings that keep a 1oz. machine in the air!
Downside – repairs. I have yet to go over one hour without ALL of my fleet of four choppers being out of action. I came by a Blade 400 in a sweet deal and am restoring it. However I know that without due care & attention it will be a basket case within seconds. Such is the tragic life of le pilote d’hélicoptère…
Went into Academy Sports today and was amazed to see full shelves of ammunition. I hadn’t checked in a while but all last year into the Fall I could not find any 9mm ammo locally. Turns out that after the election all the pin-head, gun-lovers thought that the dreaded Government was going to take all their guns away or levy huge taxes on ammunition or do all kinds of Machiavellian things to spoil their fun.
Of course the Govt. has better things to do than fuck around with the NRA et al, in fact they made it legal again to carry concealed in National Parks. So I guess all the rabid Obama-hating gun forums are softening their stance and punters are no longer stock-piling. God there are some idiots out there.
FYI got some of that pinko, Commy, Russkie FMJ by Monarch – cheap as dirt, goes bang just fine.
So we were going to build a small cabin in the back yard for me to use as an office, but it just started getting financially too much plus we have to contend with an Historic Preservation Order that stops you (quite rightly) from going mad. Not that I would have done anything ‘not fitting’, but the paperwork etc…
However we have a separate garage that actually is in its own plat and is not in the Historic area! Hurrah! It is an old three car garage from when cars must have been Model T size as each bay is pretty small. I am going to re-roof it and then take one of the bays and replace the garage door with siding and a regular door and window. Should end up with a space about 15′ x 20′.
Sadly it has a dirt floor so also have to pour a floor and then get electrical service! Starts to add up again. The first quote I got for putting in a panel, mast etc was $3,500! How funny. So I search for the cheap electrician – I reckon it’s a $1,200 job max. I wonder if I can even do it myself and then have the electrician do the actual electrical bits?
The garage is is a triangular lot – think isosceles, with it being parallel to the shortest side. Behind it is about eight feet of trashed out dirt next to the neghbours fence. I fancy a small patio/garden back there as it is quite shady. First things first though – electrical.
