I think the former restaurant was called “Miami Subs”. They tore this down and built PDQ. I thought there was no reason for me to go to a “chicken tenders” place, but I’m glad I did.
They have a very good Grilled Chicken Salad, which includes warm grilled chicken chunks, sliced roasted almonds, dried cranberries, small red tomatoes, thin carrot sticks and assorted lettuces. They have a default blueberry dressing, but I prefer either the Ranch or Honey Mustard ones.
There is a large helping of salad here for under $7 including tax and water to drink.
The drink dispenser reminds me of something out of the Jetsons. It has a computerized interface. Press the little aqua colored digital “Water” button and then press the actual dispenser button for water. Get lost, there is a small Back arrow in the upper left of the interface. Trust me. I did not find that on my own.
The staff are friendly, upbeat, and attentive to customers.
I was just visiting the Azalea Festival 2015 web site and started looking at past queens and dignitaries. I find it hard to believe that the list included Martha Hyer, Esther Williams, Shelley Fabres, Debra Paget & Ronald Regan.
I don’t think I ever see a movie with Martha Hyer in it that I don’t say, “Now that’s a pretty woman!”
Not sure what prompted me over the weekend to purchase an Amazon Fire TV box (with game controller). It arrived yesterday afternoon (12/9/14).
I had heard Payam talking about getting his and how fast it was, how easy the setup was, and how well the voice recognition feature worked. He was right!
I just hooked up the HDMI cable (came with it although the documentation said it wasn’t included) to the box and my TV. The little black box is about 5.5“ x 5.5” and about a half inch thick. I hardwired a network cable into it. I didn’t have to enter any authentication info for the network connection. The System also already had my Amazon Prime account so I didn’t have to put that info in the first time. *I say first time because at some point, I was setting up my YouTube account, and the sound went out on all videos. I didn’t know a better fix, so I just reset the whole Fire TV setup, which meant this time I had to manually enter my Amazon Prime account info… and my Netflix account info (which I had done the first time also).
After the reset and completion of the Fire TV setup, the audio was working on all videos, including the YouTube videos. I also connected my YouTube Channel (had to use my phone & browser to activate).
Previously, I have been using my Logitech Revue to view Netflix, and my Chromebook to view my Amazon Prime videos. The Review works well, but the video quality wasn’t 1080p, and the video player for Amazon Prime videos in the Chromebook would regularly fail. But, both Netflix and Amazon Prime videos are crisp (even Goldfinger, James Bond 007) and there is no delay. They have played, for half a day with no hiccups.
I hooked up the game controller and tried one of the games that came with the purchase. I have passed my gaming days. I just don’t want to spend the time to become proficient in playing them as I did when I was younger.
Overally, the Amazon Fire TV is a very good purchase and experience!
Yesterday I went to the grocery store to get some sandwich fixin’s. This grocery, a chain, had a large Deli Meat/Cheese section and a bakery section nearby. I have shopped here for years.
A few years ago, I ran through a short period where I ordered Black Pepper Ham, but when I got home, I had something else. I don’t know why I didn’t check after the first time, but now I normally check, and that problem has not re-occurred lately.
So I come to the counter and shortly one of the attendants, a young black man asks if he can help me. I say, “I would like a half pound of Black Pepper Ham.” He nodded, and started to reach for the ham. I started to walk down the display and I think I tried the sample cheese that was on toothpicks. I look behind the counter and he is telling me that he needs to go back to the walk in refrigerator to get the ham. I say, “Okay,” and I turn to go to the bakery to get sandwich bread.
There is a bakery person behind the counter, but I walk to the back where the “day old” bread is located. I look for the Whole Wheat loaf is that actually has the whole grain in the bread. There is an Organic Wheat Loaf that doesn’t have the grain. I get the loaf I want, but stop to ask the attendant what the difference is between the two.
I come back to the meat counter and the young man is beginning to slice my Pepper Ham order. He appears to be moving slowly, but I just step back and let other customers walk past, in front of me.
The young man takes the slices of meat and places them on the scale. He then appears to go back to slice some more meat. I have to squint at the weight showing on the digital scale, but I see that it is showing .68. I know that .68 is well above the .5 that I have requested. I step up and ask a woman attendant how much the scale is showing and she affirms that it is showing .68. I tell her that I only asked for a half pound. She fiddles, and apparently can reset the amount that is actually charged for, from the actual amount on the scale. She printed a label and handed it over to the young man who is still at the slicer.
In a little while the young man comes back over to the scale and puts the meat on it and generates a label. He sticks it on the package of meat and hands it over to me. I take a look at the label. The price is over $10 and when I make out the weight, it is about .98 of a pound. I immediately hand it back to the young man and tell him that I asked for a half pound of Black Pepper Ham and this is almost a pound. *The woman says something to him. Apparently, that she had handed him a label previously and they sort of look back to see where he might have put it by the slicer. A new label is generated and affixed to the meat and I look at the price and it is under $5. *I also get a third of a pound of the cheese special, which I think was called Baby Swiss.
When I got home, and was putting the sliced meat into my refrigerator, I realized that they must have put all the sliced meat (even the overage) into my package.
Still, I’m not trying to “get over” on them. I asked for a half pound of meat. Even if he had stopped at .68 of a pound I would have paid for that without a problem, but that it appeared that he had no clue as to what a half pound of meat was. Or even though he had repeated back to me, “a half pound,” he had in his mind he was going to give me a pound.
**Why do I stress a half pound of meat, and normally a third of a pound of cheese? It is because I have found over several years that if I order more than a half pound of meat, it turns green & slick (spoils) before I can use it all.
ADDENDUM [ 07/01/22 ]: Just re-read this. I know what I was thinking then. This young man had squandered his opportunity to learn what decimal fractions mean. Now, maybe no one had attempted to teach him about decimal fractions, but if that is the case, pooh on you teacher.
One quarter, or 1/4 or .25
A half, or 1/2, or .5
Three quarters, or 3/4, or .75
Re-reading this post reminded me of another grocery clerk, but she was behind the deli at Publix. At the time Publix sold prepared chicken wings and drumettes for a specific price. I had order 10 of these for their price several times before, so I thought nothing about this order, until…
I took a photo of the actual order when I got home. This was after I told her to add some drumettes, and she ignored my request.
I was standing at the counter, and was able to look directly down through the glass at the wings & drumettes. The girl was picking out wings and putting them in my order, but I noted that she was only picking out wings and none of the drumettes, which have more meat on them. I verbally told her that she could put some drumettes in my order and she continued to add, as she had been adding.
When I got the order home and opened it, there were 9 wings and one drumette (which had a broken bone). This angered me. In my mind she was being racist in serving me, and I had caught her, not because I was expecting her to be racist, but because I just notice patterns and I noted her only selecting wings for me.
I think I sent an email to Harris Teeter management about this incident, but I don’t know if she was rewarded or fired. This still makes me angry, and has now reminded me of another incident, but this one was at one of the fast food restaurants I’ve visited, and I don’t recall which one, but it was in Fayetteville.
I placed my order and gave the young black clerk a $20 bill. She fumbled around the register and handed me back my change, but gave me what I considered an “odd look,” and then went off to get my order. I turned around and started to put my change (bills) in my wallet, but I then noted that I didn’t have enough change. I had one $5 bill and I was supposed to have two. When she returned I said something to her, and she looked down at the counter and then popped up with the other five, saying something like, “Oh, here it is.”
As I went home, I got mad because I knew from the original look she had given me that she had intentionally put that extra five on the counter, hoping I wouldn’t count my change. I sent an email to the management, and I know they had cameras on the register, so I’m pretty sure they would have seen exactly how “slick” she had been… and fired her immediately.
Several years ago when Chancellor Anderson was relatively new to the FSU Campus, I sent an email suggestion that the Bronco Fountain add “misting” nozzles where the thin streams of water now flow out. I always thought the pencil thin streams of water looked “rinky dink.”
Why misting nozzles? Here is a Bucking Bronco, raring back on his hind legs. If misting nozzles could spray a fine mist of water upwards it would give the appearance of dust being sprayed into the air by the Bronco.
Apparently, the idea didn’t fly to the Board of Trustees… but I still think the concept works!
Bill Gibson, II 