madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829 
|
Post by madmax on Aug 21, 2015 18:49:21 GMT -4
I'm back. What I didn't say last time is that my schedule changed, so my food selections changed. I was originally have the pizza on Fri, and on Th, I was going to have what I had on Sun that I will tell you about soon.
On Fri, I went to Long John Silvers. I got 2 of the Captain's Platter. With this, you get 3 seafood items(4 choices), 2 hushpuppies, and 2 sides. For one of them, I got the crab cake, 4 pieces of breaded shrimp, and fried clams for my seafood items, and extra hushpuppies and fries for my sides. For the other one I got 3 pieces of fish and 2 orders of onion rings. The crab cake was ok, but it was really small. Everything else was good. I think that I've mentioned before that I like the softness of the hushpuppies. I had a thing of LJS cocktail sauce in the fridge from a previous trip, so I took that out. I used it on the crab cake, a piece of shrimp, a few clams and hushpuppies.
Sat, I went to Taco Bell and got their 12 tacos for $12(actually $11.99 + tax). I got 6 hard and 6 soft. I used the Fire sauce on all of them. They were good.
On Sun, I had lunchmeat, which I'll skip, and eggplant. I didn't see any really big ones, so I got 2 smaller ones. Like last time, I sliced them up, salted them, and placed them on a clean dish towel, and put another one on top of them to soak up the water. I did a few things differently. I used a lipped baking sheet that is dark, which I've heard radiates heat better(it does cool off quickly). I also sprayed it with a generic equivalent of PAM cooking spray, even though I did brush the eggplant slices with canola oil. I set the oven to at least 400F, but can't remember if I bumped it up(or I did that the next day on something else). While there was no sticking, I did have the other problem. That is that these eggplant slices take a long time to cook. Also, like last time, the second batch actually takes longer than the first for some reason. I actually got a bit impatient and took them out a bit sooner than I should have. I tried the same condiments as last time, but in addition, tried red pepper flakes, which didn't seem that great. While they tasted the same as last time, having more of it, along with more meat than last time, made me kind of tired of it. I think next time, I'll stick with 1 smaller one.
I'll leave my last entry for next time. See you then! |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Aug 26, 2015 17:31:53 GMT -4
Mon, the last day, was leftover day. There were quite a few things to finish up, including the Walmart items. I set them on the counter to warm up a bit before I ate. Let me give a few more comments.
There was half of a jalapeno popper. I didn't heat this further. It was good, and may have tasted better than when I had them earlier.
There were 3 moz cheese sticks. I heated them on 50% power in the microwave for an amount of time I forgot. They didn't taste as good as when you get them hot from WM. Maybe I should have heated them longer.
I put the little bit of popcorn shrimp and chicken in one of the containers they came in, and heated them for 30 sec on 50% power. When I took it out, there was steam coming out the top. I don't think I heated them too long. Maybe they absorbed the water vapor in the container while in the fridge. They tasted the same.
Of course I didn't heat the "crab" salad. I still have the same opinion of it.
Another thing I had for dinner was a baked onion. I took an onion that was a bit bigger than a baseball, and cut off a bit of the top and bottom. I put some canola oil the baking sheet I used the day before, and set the onion in it. I then put some oil on top of the onion. I then put it in the oven which was prheated to at least 400F. I forget the actual temp, and I may have bumped it up some while baking. I forget how long I cooked it for. I took it out when it was soft when I poked it with a knife. I then cut it in half. It was good. I wonder what would have happened if I cooked it longer.
I don't know when I'll be doing my next food report. I won't be doing multiple says of takeout anytime soon. It would have to be some sort of one-off thing, like from Taco Bell or something. Actually, I saw something I might pick up Fri.
|
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Aug 26, 2015 17:34:00 GMT -4
The next adult beverage I had was Mike's Hard Lemonade. I thought this was going to be lemonade with alcohol in it, but it appears to be the opposite. The bottom of the can says "premium malt beverage with natural flavors". I can't remember how it tasted, except that it didn't taste like I stated above, and was probably more like the can quote. I don't think it had a beery taste to it, any maybe was very light on flavor, like watered-down lemonade.
I got another mini bottle waiting to be opened, and will review once done.
|
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 2, 2015 17:52:32 GMT -4
Fri, I went to Taco Bell and got 2 things. I didn't feel like having them that night, so I put them in the fridge and had them Sun. I got 2 of the Dare Devil Loaded Grillers. I got the Habanero(medium) and Ghost Pepper(hot). I didn't get the Chipotle(mild). The first thing is that they did not come in color-coded wrappers like on the site: www.tacobell.com/food/specialties?gclid=CNuWlqDL0ccCFdgLgQod6ecDpg I think instead the wrapping paper has the different names, and they fold it so the name is on the corner you open. They were good, but not really spicy. I even warmed them up in the microwave so the heat would enhance the spiciness. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 4, 2015 18:41:16 GMT -4
The next booze I tried was the UV Vodka Lemonade, which is supposed to be pink lemonade flavor. It wasn't. It just had that almost chemically taste like I mentioned with other bottles. I then tried mixing some in water. That was an improvement. It didn't taste like lemonade though, just a general citrus taste.
Shit, I gotta go! |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 9, 2015 18:20:47 GMT -4
There were 2 things I didn 't get to mention last ime. The first was I couldn't figure out what the best ratio of booze to water was, and was satisfied that it didn't taste nasty. The second is that I'm wondering if I should have done this with other bottles of booze that tasted bad.
I did open another bottle and will review it when done.
|
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 16, 2015 18:14:06 GMT -4
I'm feeling a bit shitty today, so bear with me.
I went 2 the 2 pawnshops on the same road today.
At the first one, the DJ setup was gone. The ENGL head and overpriced Gibson cab were still there. There was a Marshall cab for $199. There was a price sticker that looked to indicate it was part of the "crappy downtuned stuff" line. That and/or broken/missing speakers probably contributed to the cheap price. On top of it was a Peavey Transtube head for $149. They also had a Tubeworks amp for $199. I didn't pay much attention to the guitars, but saw 2 Epi LP's(might have been there before), a Yamaha Pacifica strat variation, and an Epi version of the 335. There were still a bunch of Casihas I just quickly glanced at. There was also an accordion. They also had a Roland D2 which I didn't check the price of
At the other pawn shop, that "cutom" Marshall was gone, but the VS one was still there there. There was also a Marshal MG30CFX, but I didn't check the price on it. It has a silver faceplate, whit means not conducive to good music. There was a Fender tweed amp that I don't know was the same one as before, but it had a lower price. There was also a Peavey Bandit 75. Again, I didn't pay much attention to the guitars. Behind the counter was a Gibson LP for $899. It is probably a Studio model. In the glass case was an Alesis drum machine for something like $119. They also had a few Casiahas which I didn't look at
I am planning on making my south of the river trip a week from tomorrow, so stay tuned for that. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 16, 2015 18:15:58 GMT -4
I picked up something from a restaurant, so I'll review that Fri.
The next bottle I tried was UV's Candy Bar flavor. The bottle says "chocolate caramel flavored vodka". When I opened the bottle, I did get a smell of carmel. Maybe I got a taste of it when I drank it straight, but mostly was alcohol burn. I also tried adding this to water. There was a carmel taste, but no chocolate. It also reminded me of coffee with cream and sugar. Like I said before, it's hard figuring out the booze:water ratio.
I have one more bottle of UV to try, then I get to 2 other ones that seem very interesting. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 23, 2015 18:15:23 GMT -4
Today I visited the strip club pawn shop. A lot of the stuff was still there from other times I was there. I think they had a Yamaha strat-style guitar there for $99. There was a First Act LP copy there. There was a regular trombone sitting next to the trumpet/trombone hybrid. It looked like most of the amps were gone except for the acoustic(brand, remember) head, and the Peavey tweed amp. It is a Classic 30. They had a Crate BT10 bass amp. They moved the shelf where the pedals are. They had some different ones there, but I didn't take a long enough look and/or couldn't see what they were. I could tell one was an eq pedal.
When I was getting ready to leave, the lady working there told me she had a guitar she wanted to show me. She had the case on the counter. By the shape of it, and that it said "Gibson USA" on it, I got a feeling what it was. Then she opened the case and took the dust cover off. It was a Gibson Les Paul Standard. The guy working there said it was from 2000. She wanted to know how much it is. I couldn't really give her help on that saying it's not too old and it's not too new. I also said maybe have somebody she knows play it unplugged and see how it sounds: if it sounds loud and clear, charge more; if it sounds dead and quiet , charge less. I didn't feel like messing with it myself.
Barring any catasrophies in the next 16 hours or so, I will be doing my south of the river pawn/thrift/etc. shop trip tomorrow. I will be changing things up a bit, which I hope to post about tomorrow.
|
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 23, 2015 18:23:49 GMT -4
Last Friday, I didn't want to stay to long in the library so I didn't post about what I got the previous Wed.
I went to Little Caesars and got the Hot N Ready Box Set: littlecaesars.com/OurMenu/Limited-Time/HOT-N-READY®$9BoxSet.aspx When I did get to it, it wasn't hot though. That night, I was suffering from major anxiety. Also, my nose was kind of stuffed as if I had a cold(maybe allergies). These 2 things made it impossible for me to really get a good evaluation. Also, the anxiety killed my appetite a bit, so I didn't finish everything. There was one piece of pizza and 1.7 pieces of cheese bread left. I had those on Sunday. I heated them up a bit in the oven. They were ok then.
I think I will be getting some food items to review tomorrow, but don't expect a review until Wed at the earliest. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 23, 2015 18:32:24 GMT -4
Now for the last item for today.
The booze I finished was UV's Blue. This is raspberry flavor. When I opened up the bottle, It did have a bit of a raspberry smell. When I tasted it, there was a bit of raspberry flavor, but mostly alcohol burn. This combination made it taste more like bad medicine. I did try it in water too. The alcohol burn/taste went away, and there was some raspberry taste. I'll also mention again the booze:water ratio. I would think this would taste good in some sort of berry drink, and if you didn't add too much, would add to the berry taste.
I don't know if I'll open the next bottle tonight. I think maybe I should stop for a while so I can take some Ibuprofen because my knee has been bothering me. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Sept 30, 2015 18:25:47 GMT -4
I was hoping to post this on Th or Fri, but that didn't happen. Since I needed to get my car fixed, I was thinking I could take it in after I finished my trip. I was going to try and accomplish this in 2 ways. First, leaving the house earlier. Second, skipping a few thrift stores and visit them after I got my car fixed. While I did leave the house earlier, it was one hour later than I wanted to. I did skip the thrift stores. But it was all for naught. I called the customer rep, and said they were busy. When I took it in Friday, he told me they were so busy that I would have had to have taken it in at 11am to get it done that day. Then when I was there, I was thinking I could get some of this done on the computers they have there. I was thwarted in that regard, due to me wanting to check out their used cars on their website. The website and the computer were not getting along, so it took me a long time. Also, it took them less than an hour to fix my car.
With that out of the way, let's get to things.
At the first thrift store, there was a Yamaha PF85 digital piano. There was no price tag on it, but there was something written in marker on the black casing. An employee looked and said the marker was the price, $123.41. Even if this is a really good deal, it was still too much considering I wasn't looking for one of these. There was also a Yamaha PSS-450 sitting in what looked like a stripped-out trumpet case. Googling it right now shows it has some editable settings, making it a step up from the garden variety preset keyboards.
Then I went to the music store across the street. There was an Epi SG bass and some Daisy Rock acoustic guitars. I told the guy in there about the Yam PF85.
Next was the flea market/antique store. There was a trombone in one booth, and a conga drum in another. In the booth where there have been guitars previously, there were 2 Rogue acoustics, a ukulele, and a tiny amp for $19. On a clearance table, there was a very old Bogen PA amp for $12.
When looking online to see if the Salvation Army thrift store that was next door moved to a new location, I saw there was a Goodwill that was in a shopping center at an intersection where I would turn the other way. I went in there, and there was a Thomas Californian 263 organ for $24.99. There looked to be only one guy working out there, and he was busy at the register, so I didn't get a chance to ask how long the GW had been there.
Next was Legacy Music. Since they open at 11am, I had to wait a few minutes for them to open. There wasn't much difference from last time. In the parking lot of the shopping center was Polaris Stilletto. It looks like what would happen if a motorcycle and a speedboat had sex.
There was nothing at the retirement community thrift store.
Next was the first Cash America. The Roland JX-3p was gone, but the Kurzweil SP 76 was still there. There was a Korg Triton Le. There was an Ibanez Destroyer bass, LTD explorer, Epi LP jr, and Daisy Rock LP variant. There was an interesting guitar also. It was an LP copy, but with a bolt-on neck. It was made in Japan. The headstock looked like it said Can. On doing some research, I think the brand was actually Lark, but the logo had worn away. It was $199. I played it, and it was very loud and resonsnant. I don't remember if it was heavy or not, which would kind of indicate the type of wood used and/or if it was chambered or solid. Ampwise, there was a beat up Fender RAD for $39.
Let me stop here for a second and say it looked like all 3 Cash Americas I visited had trimmed their amp inventory. Now back to regular programming.
Next was the building with the gun store and pawn shop. This building is easy to miss, so it's good the 18-wheeler behind me wasn't closer.
The gun shop had an IWI Uzi copy for $550. There was also a bunch of revolvers with mega long barrels. Apparently in the back, they have some kind of setup for testing guns and/or ammo. I mentioned to the lady working there that they should have some sort of warning, like a light that comes on, when they are going to do that.
At the pawn shop next door, I think just about everything was still there except for the Casiaha and Fender bass amp. There was a Yamaha HSH strat. There was an acoustic 12-string Ibanez that I played the intro of Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love on since I hade recently heard it. Ity was nice and loud. Sitting right inside the door was a Baldwin organ for $599, which is way too much unless it has a function to suck your dick while you play.
At the next thrift store, there was a Lowrey Holiday Symphony organ. It might have been $500, which again, is way too much.
At the hole-in-the wall pawn shop nearby, the Rickenbacker bass was gone, as was the Marshall amp and Mexistrat. The Wolfgang and Jackson woodgrain were still there. I noted seeing an Ibanez RG, but I don't know if that was mentioned previously. There was another non-J Squire. For amps, there was a Rocktron VH160Rn Vendetta head for $299.
At the pissbreak thrift store, there was some cheapo electronic drum set that I didn't dwell on. I then took my obligatory piss.
I then went to Guitar Center.
I think I'll stop there because I Want to get home. I may resume again on Fri. See you whenever. |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Oct 2, 2015 18:37:17 GMT -4
I'm back for a while. I left off at Guitar Center.
When I first walked in, I noticed that a lot of the displays in the center of the main area were gone. While there was more open space, the room seemed smaller. Due to me being in a hurry most likely, and a lack of stuff I wanted to check out, I only played on one guitar, which I'll get to in a second. There was nothing really interesting in the used guitar section. The one guitar I did play on was a Danectro semi-hollow 12-string. I don't know if that actual guitar was shitty, common to all of that model, or all semi-hollows, but it didn't sound that good. The bass guitar section looked a bit empty. I then went over to the drum area. I didn't walk down the whole section, so I don't know if they moved everything around, but the place where there used to be stuff like conga drums and timbales was filled with a buttload of electronic drumsets.
Shit, I got to go! |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Oct 7, 2015 18:19:39 GMT -4
I'm back for a while. We left off at Guitar Center in the drum section. Now let's get back to the action.
The electronic drums used to be in the back. I don't know if they had more than they had before. I don't know if they had any used stuff.
I just walked right past the acoustic room.
I then walked into the $$$$ room. For some reason they had 1 or more PRS SE guitars. That is the budget line. I think I saw a price tag saying $499. There were 4 guitars behind the glass. There was a Fender Coronado from the 70's(1972?) for $1199. There was a Gibson Les Paul 1959 reissue for $4999. I don't know how old it was. There was also another Les Paul, and a Gibson ES-330. I don't remember the ages or prices of either of those. There were some amp heads and cabinets, including a Hughes & Kettner head and I think an H&K "lunchbox" head. I think both were part of the TubeMeister series. I think there was also an ENGL cab there.
I then walked over to the effects area. I think the only stuff they had hooked up to test out was from BOSS. They have a counter over there where they have stuff like strings and picks. In the counter itself, there were some pedals. Since I haven't kept up with what's new for a long time, I didn't know what to make of what is there.
I'm taking off because I've had enough of these fucking annoying kids! I hope to be back Fri. Bye! |
|
madmax
Senior Dodger
Posts: 829
|
Post by madmax on Oct 9, 2015 18:35:30 GMT -4
Let's get back to business. I was near the effects area, at the accessories counter, which itself contained effects.
At the end of the counter was a small section that contained what looked like used effects. There wasn't anything worth noting.
Finally I stopped in the keyboard area. I haven't mentioned before that it is comprised of 2 rooms. One has digital pianos and the "Casiha" preset stuff, and the other is the synths. I went into the piano room first. The only thing I messed with in there was some preset kb, checking out the organ presets. I then went into the synth room. It seems there were more controller keyboards than actual synths; and of those synths, almost all were the workstation variety. I then went over to a shelf/rack kind of thing. I messed with a couple of drum machines. There were also 2 mini-synths there. One was a Roland JD-Xi. Unfortunately, this suffered from the same problems as other synths: no obvious way to initialize it to create your own patch; and that the presets are the "gee whiz" variety. The other synth was a Korg Microkorg. I have messed with it there before, and the one at Big Dude's. While it is a bit more straight forward than the Roland, you would still need the manual to edit it.
I then went to the gun store I visited for the first time on my last trip in the area. Nothing to report.
Next I went to the Cash America near there. There were a bunch of guitars behind the counter. There was a regular Strat for $799 and 2 Squires. I didn't ask about the country of manufacture for any of them. There was also some Jackson guitar, an LTD, and a Peavey with a 3/4 sized body. In the regular area, there were 2 more Squires.
I'll have to end it there for today. I'll try to be back on Wed.
|
|
