We went to a place near here called Wreckers with Jim and Janelle for dinner Saturday evening. It's located up the shore of Dickinson Bay from us and has been open since probably the late spring. I had heard good things about it, and so I was disappointed it didn't come up to par.
First and foremost in my criteria for deciding if I want to return to a restaurant is the value of the food. If I pay a lot I expect a lot - either quantity or quality. I admit I'm cheap, but on the other hand, I don't mind every once in a while spending a few bucks. But I have to feel I'm getting value for it. I didn't get that at "Wreakers".
Beer was $11.00 for a pitcher of Shiner Bock. Now call me old fashioned, but no pitcher of beer ought to cost more than $6.00, or at the very most $7.00, if it's some import. $11.00 for Shiner? I was stupified.
Next, came the menu. There was no Entree available for less than $8.00. The burgers were $7.99, but came without fries. Those were an extra $2.50.
Steaks and seafood were all $25.00 or more. Even the chicken and pasta dishes were $13.00 and up.
I was amazed at the prices and wondered how anyone could think of charging this. Then I heard an explanation. This place is owned by the same people who own the local "gentleman's club", Heartbreakers. I went there once for a bachelor party in 1989. If memory serves, The cover was $5.00, and the 6oz glasses of Bud Light were $6.00. So it figures - the owner is used to charging the customers a lot and giving little in return.
I ordered a shrimp po' boy, to compare it to the other establishment near here, called Top Water Grill. it cost $9.99, Three dollars more than Top Water. But at Top Water they use popcorn shrimp, and serve the po' boy on a bed of fries.
This Po' Boy came with about 7-8 steak fries, and it looked pitiful. I was shocked that I almost said something like "That's all?" I guess I was still thinking they could have the gall to charge $2.50 for Steak fries .
The flavor of the Po' Boy was ok, the three shrimp were large, which I have no problem with, but I think popcorn shrimp are better suited for this sandwich. The lettuce was wilted, and the dressing was nothing to write home about.
Jim's Wife ordered a Coconut breaded shrimp dish, and said it was good. I think the prices on that entree were voer $20.00, however.
The service was decent and attentive, but I felt the waitress was a little over eager to get us to buy the more expensive things. - Is this another effect of
ownership or management by an establishment who's main purpose is to separate their clientele from their money as fast as possible?
The location is nice, and they had a blues band there which was a little too loud for this guy. I was surprised they felt the need to mike their horn section. They were good musicians, however, and I would have paid money for that.
But, I can't recommend Wreckers. The prices are too high for the food they serve and you get a better deal at Top water. I hope they don't raise their prices as a result of having a higher priced neighbor.
Both places have a lot of customers, so I'm supposing the folks who go there are looking for the ambiance on the water, which I get every day at my place.
I've mentioned his fondness for historical reenactment, and he sent me this note today.:
Market Garden + 60 After Action ReportHad a great time in Holland. We did two jumps, the first at Son and the second at Veghel, near the small town of Eerde. Both were original drop zones for the 101st. The Veghel drop zone had not been jumped since 1944. Interestingly, the week before the jump, they dug up something like 40 undetonated mortar rounds from the field. I guess that makes four types of emergency landings - wire, water, tree and unexploded ordinance.
The Dutch were really great. The military put us up in the barracks in Eindoven and fed us in the mess hall for the week. In addition, we were treated to a party on Sunday night in Eerde which was quite incredible given that it was put on by a town of 1,200 people. The Dutch remember what the Americans did for them 60 years ago in liberating Holland and they are very grateful for that. September 17th is their "liberation day." In addition, the paratroopers are a big symbol of that liberation. After my chute opened, I could hear the crowd cheering from 1000 feet below.
I also became sort of famous after another jumper got entangled in my suspension lines on the first jump and we both had to deploy our reserve parachutes. We were not in any danger, our main chutes had deployed, but the reserve has to be activated since the main chutes could potentially steal air from each other. But it looked pretty exciting and a picture of us ended up in the newspaper and there was also footage of us on Dutch National TV. They're going to try to get me a copy of the tape. As a result, I got to introduce myself to everyone by saying I was the jumper who got entangled. They all saw it on the news.
Saturday night I also got to meet two 101st "Band of Brothers" vetrans, Wild Bill Guarnere and Babe Hefron. I got pictures with both of them, but unfortunately did not bring anything with me to get their autograph on.
I was still getting comment spam ,so I closed comments where it was happening. it seemed to be occuring on certain entries, so as they occur I'll close the comments. what scumbags, to quote Mrs. Kerry. :-)
Mike Boone found a website That does what I've been doing with data from my sails on Surprise, it seems to have some advantages over mine. I'll try it out when I get a chance.
I get a lot of junk mail in my inbox - Stuff for online casinos, "performance enhancing" drugs, the infamous Nigerian 419 scam, and other crap I have no use for. Now it's gotten worse. This site was comment-spammed by someone at IP address 213.91.217.77. That host is offline, which makes me think they either shut down or got shut down. I hope they were also disemboweled, or other wise tortured in a way that Henry III of England would have approved of.
I wish there was a way to stop these slugs, but I don''t know what would be effective. Probably nothing. The only thing I know is that I will never buy anything from someone or something that approaches me first. If I want to buy something I'll make the first move, thanks.
I was considering turning off the comments section of this blog, I don't get many comments, but those I do get I like reading and replying to, so long as they aren't trying to get me to go to an online casino. I've banned that IP from posting here, but no doubt there will be others. So I may have to shut down comments, because deleteing 417 ads for various and sundry crap that only Bubba who lives up the street would go to is not my idea of a good use for the internet.
Things are settling a bit, I met with a professor and explained why I was enrolled in classes I had no right to be in, and next semester I'll have my full graduate status, (most likely). I'll press on from there.
So this week it was playing with fairly complex Boolean Algebra, which after you get the hang of it isn't so bad, it's the getting the hang of it that is the killer. It took a few hours and some hair pulling. Also a review of Newton's method, and the bisection method. Loaded the old Mathematica software on my laptop and used it some. Spent a lot of time reviewing the Java programming language that I'm going to use for the numerical methods class.
Okay, so the saying is true. The best thing to come from the blogging phenomenon is that it proves how boring everyone's lives really are. Oh well, no one said life is like the movies.