Week 15 - April 8-14

Fancy Dinner

We had a great time going to Ruth Chris Steakhouse in Grand Rapids on Saturday night to celebrate Steve & Cathy's and Brennan & Shannon's wedding anniversaries.  We went to Ruth Chris as the Amway Grand.  This is the first time I have been there since it opened. 

This is a pretty nice steakhouse.  The food was delicious.  The appetizers and sides are served family style, so it is fun to order a few a try them.  Jen & I are calimari fans and try it almost everywhere we go.  Brennan, not so much, but I think he enjoyed it here. 

Jen and I have had the chance to eat at the comperable steakhouses in downtown GR.  They are all good, but here is how I rate them. 

1. Chop House - Right accross the street from the Ruth Chris.  I like the atmoshere as being smaller, modern, darker....it reminds me of Chicago.  I would say it is as pricy as Ruth Chris, if not a little more.

2. Ruth Chris - Right accross from the Chop House....(duh).  Anyway, again, it's a nice fancy place.  The staff was really nice and made the experience the best it could be.  The only drawback, personally, is that Ruth Chris is a chain, which makes it seem more commericial, at least for me.  Tops though, again, I would eat here all I could, but it is expensive.

3. Louis Benton - This is the best value.  It is also more casual than both of the above two.  The steaks are just as good.  In fact, they have a nice butter sauce to dip your steak in as you eat it.  Everything is better dipped in butter!

Jen & I really enjoy going to Grand Rapids for a nice dinner event.  I do, however, experience buyers remorse in the morning, just thinking about how we could buy the same meats at the Meat Shack and make the same dinner at home, but its not about the food so much as it is the experience.

Week 14, April 1st - 7th

APES!

So I finally got my bike back with the new apehangers on it!  It took quite a while because they were working on Jen's bike too, and we were planning on getting them both at the same time.  Just getting it back this weekend, we missed all the great warm weather, and are back to typically spring riding in Michigan....aka "snowmobiling".

I have to admit, it was sort of weird to get used to, especially for the first ride of the year.  It was a bit intimidating.  You really need to think about how you are operating the bike, and letting the machine do the work and not try to wrestle the bike with the handlebars.  It is, though pretty comfortable for me.





Jenny thought it was a bit rediculous, but after she sat on it, she could understand how comfortable it was.  Plus, I think it's cool.  I am nervous however because after I had them put on, I learned they were "illegal",  so that's nice.  But they repealed the helmet law recently, so I am hopeful, this too won't be an issue.

Week 13 - March 25-31st

Low Bid on a Project in Washington!

Most of my career, I have been a Construction Estimator.  A lot of the bids I work on are public bids, whereas General Contractors prepare and submit bids for various projects at a specific time and locatation of the owner of the project.  Usually, these bids are opened and read aloud, so you have instant feedback on where you stand.

I have pursued these types of project outside of Michigan now, on and off, for the past couple years.  I worked on bidding a couple of projects in Lousianna and more recently in Olympia, Washington.  Other estimators at my company have been working on other projects in other vairous states.  None of us have had any success until this week.  We were the low bid on the Nisqually Public Safety Complex near Olympia. 

It is very exciting for me be involved in the varying strategies to win bids out of state and finally see some positive results.  It is not a done deal though, we will have to pass a series of qualification steps before we would be awarded the contract.

There were a number of other firsts this week, including having smoked Corn Beef, traveling to Portland, Oregon, and having some Crown Royal Black, but the bid success was by far the best part about this trip.

Week 12 - March 18-24

Week 12 - Real Food Cafe

This is the place to go if you want a great big breakfast.  And I do mean BIG breakfast.  We went to the location on Northland Drive.



5430 Northland Dr. NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49525

Check out their review on Yelp.

Real Food Cafe on YELP

I think I had a Scramble type breakfast and Jenny had the Pancakes.  Both were delicious.  We got there at about 9:00 on a Sunday.  The restraunt was already full and I think we were lucky to get a table because we only had a party of 2.  As we sat there, other patrons were starting to stack up eventually ending up waiting outside. 

The cost was portortionate with the size of the serving, meaning a breakfast was about $8, but you get $8 worth of food.  A good deal if your hungry and can pack the food away, which I can.  Now if they just had one of these on the way to Bristol TN, Rex, Jim, Duane, and the rest would be all set.  There is nothing like a big greasy breakfast to reset your system and cure what ails you.

Week 11 - March 11-17th

Live from Grand Rapids...It's Saturday Night!

This week, Jenny and I were lucky enough to be able to see a show at the DeVos Place called "Live from Grand Rapids, It's Saturday Night".  It was a nice dinner and show with old SNL stars Kevin Nealon and Martin Short. 

This was part of Laugh Fest, a benfit for Guilda's Club, which aids families dealing with cancer patients and the lose of family members by providing lodging, means, and other assistance as they can.  The club is named after former SNL cast memeber and comedian Guilda Randner, one of the original cast members of SNL, who lost her battle with cancer in 1989.  Longtime friend and original writer for SNL, Alan Zweibel, was also a headliner who told stories about how he and Guilda were selected for the original SNL and about the early years.  He also talked about Guilda's battle with cancer and how laughter helped her deal with her struggle.

The event was great.  Kevin Nealon was by far the funniest, but Martin Short is a true entertainer.  I am not a huge Martin Short fan, but he was entertaining.  We had a good time.  Other firsts for the evening included our first trip the the Buffalo Wild Wings downtown location as well as a stay in the JW Marriot.  I've been to the JW Marriot downtown a number of times, but never stayed in the rooms.  They are quite nice!

All in all, it was a nice evening filled with laughter as well as some thoughts about Guilda Radner's memorie as well as all the families that Guilda's Club supports in Grand Rapids and accross the country. 

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end."
Guilda Radner

Week 10 March 3-10

The Poney Express

I have enjoyed using a smoker to bbq for the past 4 or 5 years.  I have smoked ribs, pork shoulders, briskets, chickens, turkeys, etc.  I started with a cheap Char-broil smoker that has served us well as a starter unit. 
 

Saturday I was able to convince Jenny that we were in need of a new smoker.  We remembered all the good times and meals we had with the old girl, and decided it was time to move on, time to move up a notch in the world of smoking meat.

 

I did some research on line, realizing that you can spend anywhere from $200 to thousands of dollars on a smoker. We ended up getting The Good One, Pony Express.

 



The old smoker in action last summer

 

 

 

 

It is truely a smoking work of art.  Made from a 1/4 think metal, it holds temperature remarkably well.  The firebox is lower and offset to the front, which I thought was odd, but it allows heat and smoke to enter the smoking chamber evenly.  The venting is set up with intake vents on the firebox with an exhaust vent on the top of the smoking chamber allowing convection of heat.  There is also a damper between the firebox and smoke chamber that gives you great ability to control the heat getting to the smoking chamber. 

 

Once you get your charcoal going, simply dial down the vents as low as possible, adjust the damper between the firebox and smoking chamber to the desired temp., then walk away.  This baby holds the temperature really well.  I used it for the first time Sunday, and was amazed at how accurately it could hold the heat.

 

First Set of Ribs on the new Smoker!

 So, now we are all set for years of future bbq pleasure.  We all enjoyed a few nice pork ribs for Sunday dinner. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9 Feb 27-March 3

Olympia & Seattle

This week is full of firsts!  I made my first trip to the Pacific Northwest.  For work, I had to go to the Seattle/Olympia area of Washington for a few days and it was a good time.

Home of Pikes Fish Market

View of the sun coming up outside the house I stayed at.
You could see Mt. Rainer in the background when
there were no clouds.

I arrived late Sunday, so there wasn't much time to do anything. I flew into Seattle and traveled to Olympia, where my meetings were.  The next day was pretty busy until about 4 in the afternoon.  With the time change from the east coast to the west coast, this was about 7:00 at night Michigan time.  Wanting to explore the area a little, I headed out to take a trek to the Pacific Ocean which I have not yet seen or touched in person.



Me at the Pacific Ocean for Sunset

On the way to the ocean, we past signs for Forks.  Yep, from the Twilight Movies.  I didn't realize it was a real town.  The kids got a kick out of it though.  In fact, we had to explain to them the I was not going to the "Washington" with the White House, but the "Washington" with the Vampires.


Sign to Forks


More work on the second day, ending in with a meeting at 3:00, which was too late for me to get a flight home at a reasonable time on Tuesday.  Needing to be home Wednesday, I had to take the red eye from Seattle back to good ole' Grand Rapids, which left Seattle at 11:45 pm. 

With time to spare before I needed to go to the airport, one of my new found friends was able to arrange for us to have a small tour of Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners.  Terry, one of the people I was meeting with, has some pretty prestigious season tickets and was able to talk one of his friends who works for the Mariner's to take us on a quick tour.

Rowen, Me, and Terry at Safeco

My return trip was to fly all night, with little sleep, and back to work on Wednesday.  It was a good trip.  The temperature was close to the same as it was at home, but it sure felt a lot warmer.  It is so green there in the great North American rain forest.  I hope to be able to see it again in the spring or summer.