I prepared this on the stove top (olive oil):
I had some avocado with salt with this.
WRAL 5 TV has a weekly tribute to a high school athlete. This person is normally also a scholar and invested in their community. I’ve seen a bunch of these athletes over the years, but I just heard someone provide a powerful compliment regarding this female athlete, “The schools a better place because she walked the halls.”
I’ve heard similar compliments, but this was simple and powerful.
Cheraw, SC is about 1.5 hours SW of Fayetteville, NC. My first visit to the Fatz Restaurant, in Cheraw, was back in November of this year (2015). My waitress was Ashley, and the overall experience was excellent! I had onion rings, and one of the provided dipping sauces was a Chipotle Ketchup, which was sweet, with a little heat, and a definite Chipotle flavor. Ashley was attentive to my experience and I left a good tip, for me;-)
Today was my third visit to the restaurant. I was seated and told that Ashley would be my waitress. Moments later, the hostess changed her mind and as Ashley came to my booth, the hostess pulled her off and directed her to serve someone else. Ashley leaned back to me and said, “Someone else will be here to help you shortly,” smiled and walked away. Another waitress came to wait on me.
I ordered unsweet tea, although I would sweeten it with an off brand sweetner. I had viewed the Lunch Menu online before my visit, and had decided to order the veggie trio. The Kale Slaw, Red Potato Salad with Fresh Dill, and Sweet Fried Brussels had looked good so I ordered them and I also asked for some onion rings. Later the waitress would return and ask if a substitution, for the red potato salad, would be okay. I asked if I could get a baked potato instead and she went off to inquire. When she came with my food, it included a baked potato, sour cream, butter, bacon bits and a mixed shredded cheese blend… kale salad, fried brussel sprouts (with onions in a sweet balsamic vinaigrette). The onion rings had arrived just a little before my entree.
It was all good! The kale salad and the fried brussel sprouts & onions had good flavor, as did the baked potato. I put some of the bacon bits on my potato, but I also put some in the kale salad. Good flavors.
My waitress did not return until almost the end of my meal. She asked if I wanted a tea to go but I asked for a water & ice to go. She came with my water and I signed the Visa receipt and left a small tip.
I do like Fatz and so far the food has all been good. *I forgot, they have a bread appetizer that is also good.
ADDENDUM [02/19/22]: A short time ago, I was looking at a Google Maps view of Cheraw, SC and in the area where the FATZ Restaurant had been, the building was still there, but it wasn’t labelled as FATZ any longer. I checked, and I think I recall that this restaurant closed, for good, a couple of years ago.
Danny normally works on the actual holiday, so we celebrate most holidays a week or two early. Thanksgiving 2015 was celebrated on Sunday, November 22nd.
The highlights:
myself, “Well, at least I don’t have to pay the taxes on it any more…”
I look to see no house, and a yellow CAT backhoe standing in what “used to be” the front yard. I got out and took pictures. A muddy pit exists where the house stood.
via the beach road, and stopped at Fort Macon to use the bathroom. I took a picture of the North Carolina flag flying just outside of the new FM Visitor’s Center because I realized it was one-sided and that the lettering, etc. appears backwards from one side of the flag. *This is just like the picture of the Steamer CITY OF WILMINGTON that had a picture taken with the name WILMINGTON reversed… which makes some think the image should be reversed… unless they actually look at the name of the vessel on the bow of the boat and above the pilot house, where both are in the correct order. A quick look in the gift shop and then back in the car to ride over to the Beaufort waterfront.ADDENDUM: I just noticed from one of the pictures that the Gardenia bushes that were at the NWern end of the house are gone. A shame! They came from the neighbor, next door from where the old two-story Morton home was, on the corner of Hwy. 24 and Bear Creek Road. And I noticed my previous visit down, that that old house was also gone.
NOTE [ 11/20/23 ]: I thought the Gardenia bushes were gone, but just last year I was riding by the old house location and looked over and saw that the Gardenia bush had flowers on it. I turned into the yard and went back to the Gardenia bush and picked about 3 wonderful smelling, white Gardenias and took them home with me. *I know they are no longer “my” Gardenias, but I hope Ray will never deny me the pleasure… and if he does, that will be okay too.
Another plant that apparently “you just can’t kill” is Wisteria. This is an invasive, winding vine plant that has wonderful smelling purplish flowers in season. 204 Johnson Boulevard had a Wisteria plant growing beside the light/phone pole in the front yard for many years. The plant eventually grew up a good ways on the light pole, and eventually grew over to a nearby tree and began to kill the tree off. The light company (or phone company) maintenance guy(s) came by and cut the Wisteria plant to the ground. It grew back. Another year they sprayed plant killer on the Wisteria and the Wisteria disappeared, finally killed, and not showing up for several years… and then Boom, there she was again. It did stay underground for maybe at least 5 years before coming back above the surface.
Well, that was easy enough. I did a Google Image Search on the white & red flower above and found that it was a Spectacular Flowering “White Red Eye Hibiscus.” Mom had planted it along the dividing line between our property and the Presbyterian Church’s property. There was also a tall Silver Maple tree on the line also, although after a while, if something that grows well is planted on the line, it spills over the line.
Less than a mile from returning to my apartment yesterday (after going to Raleigh) my white 2011 Honda Civic rolled from 99,999 to 100,000 miles. I now have three payments before my last scheduled payment in February 2016.
Panera Bread is about mid-way on my trek, to and from work each day. Until yesterday, the last Panera Restaurant that I had visited was in Petersburg, VA when I was coming back from a short vacation which included Wilmington, DE & Philadelphia, PA. My gripe, other than “too much salt” in their food, has been that their flavored drinks (e.g. Akai Berry… sp?) are so watered down as to be like drinking the day old remains of a fountain Coke with ice. You drank all the drink the day before, leaving some ice in the bottom of the cup, and today you have a watery Cokified drink that is almost flavorless and definitely not pleasant. Wal*Mart has several powdered flavor packets for sale (10 packets for about $1.74) which I have come to enjoy and use quite frequently. I sometimes think that I could order water at a restaurant and slip in a flavor packet to have a decent flavored drink… and Panera would definitely be a prime candidate. However, I see they have assorted soft-drink products at the location I just visited.
So I ordered a 1/2 sandwich and a cup of soup special, with water to drink. During my meal, I look down at the half-sandwich and think it unusually small, but flavorful (turkey, avocado, bacon) but the soup was enough (Broccoli Cheddar). And, I say to myself, “I could make this for about $5.”
I don’t want to stay at work during my lunch time.
ADDENDUM [11/17/15]: It is probably closer to $7 than $5;-)
Is that $11.85 for just the ingredients? Makes 2.5 small bowls.
You’ve got to figure in the cost of heating the ingredients & cleaning the pot, plate, bowl, and utensils.
If I buy the family size can of specialty soup, for $1.50 +tax then it is probably over $7, but if I try to make the Broccoli-Cheddar Soup, it is probably closer to $8.50 for me to do it myself.
I LIKE IT!
I don’t like crowds, but for some reason, I wanted to go to the “Rooms to Go” Showroom Grand Opening in Dunn, NC the first time I saw the commercial on TV. I know it is an important event for the area.
Although the main parking areas were already filled by the time I arrived (about 30 minutes after the 10 am opening), I saw an opening along the side of the road, just about in front of the main entrance. It was about 1.5 car lengths and was easy to slip into the parking space. Short walk and then the crowds. Relatively painless though, because I wasn’t going to wait in line for the crystal glasses they were giving away.
[NOTE 04/21/24]: It’s amazing to me that the grand opening of the Rooms to Go Supercenter was back in October of 2015. I had gone to the grand opening and braved to crowds, not because I thought there might be something that I wanted to purchase, (not how Michael Connelly uses the word ‘purchase’) but because I realized this business was a major boon to the local economy, and NC in general, along I95. Just as the opening of a Walmart Market in a “black” neighborhood had also been supportive of the local economy. (I think the Walmart Market only lasted about 2 years. Two years exactly before closing, but it had been a positive effort by Walmart.)
So, I’ve passed the R2G Supercenter many times since the grand opening, but never had a desire or need to stop in again. And, really didn’t have a good reason last Friday, April 19th, but just had the time & energy to stop in to see if there had been any changes. I think it was Andre (who said he also lived near Goodyear in Fayetteville) who came up shortly after I entered the front door and I told him I was “just looking.” Andre was a young black man, maybe late 20s or early 30s, and well spoken and friendly. I mentioned to him that I had come in the first hour the Supercenter had been opened. He looked a little surprised, but at the time I didn’t realize that the difference between that time and my current visit had been almost 9 years.
After talking with Andre, I walked around the floor, took a few pictures, and saw a few things that were of interest (Although at my age, what do I really need to buy?). Played with some lights that might be good for reading. Looked at an interesting bookcase, a large multi-screened video display on a wall, and a couple of chairs, and an outdoor dining set. After a comfortable visit, I left.
[end NOTE]
Connelly uses the word “purchase” several times, and in several novels to mean, “find footing,” I think. As when Harry is chasing a bad guy in an underground tunnel and there is wet flooring, and he tries to find purchase (footing). *Some time ago, I was reformatting an Agatha Christie story, “And Then There Were None,” that I had found online in a simple text format and putting it in what naturally was almost like a TV script. I wouldn’t be surprised if Christie hadn’t actually written the story with radio or as a play in mind.
But, as I reformatted the Christie story, she repeatedly used hyphenated words that I have never seen as being hyphenated, or probably never should be. That was irritating, and I think in my reformatting, I actually un-hyphenated (unhyphenated) them. So, now in reading some of Connelly’s novels, he uses several abbreviations that I know should not be abbreviated “in that way” or actually not abbreviated AT ALL.
**The funny thing is that as I have read more and more, and now most of the Bosch novels, I have come to really dislike Harry Bosch, and in some ways would find myself like Irvin S. Irving, in his feelings toward Bosch. Harry thinks nothing about pulling out his “lock pick” kit and breaking into anything, being it a bosses locked door, or a file cabinet, or a possible “perps” residence. “No Warrant Harry” And Harry will rag on a fellow detective who has released case info to a newspaper reporter, but thinks nothing about promising to keep autopsy findings private, but then immediately calling a journalist friend and suggesting they take a look at those autopsy findings. That is what Harry did to an “interim” medical examiner he was screwing, and she hadn’t even had time to wash his stink off before he made the call. That’s when I began to think of Harry Bosch as “that lying sack of dog shit.” If I had been a co-worker that he did that to (made a promise and then blatantly broke it), I would have never trusted Harry Bosch again. And that Harry Bosch, that “whore spawn,” could go about making judgements on the efforts of his fellow LAPD detectives, like Chu or Edgar and judging their level of commitment “to the mission.” Oh, “whore spawn” and by a father who never wanted anything to do with this son of his, because he had a new life with a wife and Harry’s half-brother, Mickey Haller, who would eventually become “the Lincoln Lawyer.” Or how about in the “Black Box”? If Connelly hadn’t stepped in and killed off the remaining bad guys (except for the actual murderer), Harry would have never been able to make the “shit stick” because of all the laws he had broken in getting “the confession” and other illegally obtained evidence. The Lincoln Lawyer would have easily gotten those bad guys off because Harry Bosch doesn’t even fake believing in or adhering to the law.
Why does the Master Climber have radical calm? Because of the Fall Gear he is wearing.
I went to my dentist this morning to have a filling filled. It only took about 30 minutes and I was out, with a filled tooth and the right side of my mouth and tongue numb. This was the magazine that I picked up shortly before going back for the procedure. I thought it funny to have the “Fall Gear” directly below the “Master Free Climber”.
I bought a couple of slices of pickled green tomato at Whole Foods from the olive bar. I had fixed a couple of pork chops on the stove top yesterday. The ones shown here are breaded, but mine were not. I sliced some French bread and spread some curried mayo on both slices. The curried mayo also has some small capers in it. I added a little Splenda to the green tomato slice. I sliced a Vidalia onion thinly.
Simple, but it was so delicious!
Bill Gibson, II 