I Finally Get Myself to Go Jogging Again… Again

And finally, I get myself to go jogging for the second time since I reinstituted my jogging regimen.  Okay, okay, it’s not so much a regiment since it’s only twice, and it’s not so much a regiment when each time has been less than a half hour, and it’s not so much a regiment since my first time was two weeks ago, but I’ve been sick, darn it.  And it didn’t fit into my schedule.  And I just ate.  Or something like that.

Anyway, it’s silly to make excuses for why I haven’t been jogging more often (although, I really was sick), since I’m only justifying it to myself… and the random member of the jogging-stapo who can run 56 miles while drinking their morning coffee (which they of course got at Caribou or Starbucks) and came across this post because I happened to add a “jogging” tag to the end.  To that person, I will never satisfy.  To the jogging-stapo (“jogstapo”?), well, they’ve moved on already anyway since I haven’t started talking about Trader Joe’s yet.

But yes, I finally got myself to go again, and surprisingly, even after it being two weeks, and with me still not feeling 100 percent, I did better than last time.  Of course, doing better than last time means little more than not feeling like vomiting after two minutes of jogging, but I take my victories as I can get them.  The jogging I did today will at least have burned-off half of the half malt I had at the Convention Grill yesterday (oy, have I been craving one today).

It really wasn’t that bad this time, but I’m absolutely nowhere near where I was when I jogged in my college days.  Back then, 20 minutes wasn’t a problem, and once I got into a routine after a few times, I was able to go 45-60 without too much difficulty.  In law school, well, I was much worse, but could still go 25-30 without the difficulty.  I don’t plan on being the hyper-mega-jogger (as is obvious since I’m distancing myself from them, making them sound all crazy, the jogstapo that they are), nor do I really plan on being a person who exercises for at least an hour every other day.  I simply just plan on jogging fairly often, where it’s no longer a rare thing.  If I only do 30 minutes at a time, no big deal.  In fact, that’s my goal.

Anyway, it’s now two times I’ve gotten myself to go jogging.  Maybe, just maybe I can get myself to go a third… in about two more weeks

And now that I’ve exercised, time for beer.

Cheers,
Charlie

The Quest for “Our Place” – Part 3: Convention Grill & Fountain

The title to this series has been a bit of a misnomer.  So far, it has been not so much a quest for “our place,” but rather a quest for a burger to replace Grandma’s as the best in the Twin Cities.  Grandma’s had two things going for it, it had wonderful burgers, and it was a great restaurant/bar to hang out.  As such, when it closed, the quest began and somehow became completely focused on the burger, with the “hang-out” portion being only incidental.  That will have to change.

It will particularly have to change because I do believe we’ve found a burger very nearly as good as Grandma’s.  This time, number ten in Citysearch’s Top Ten Burgers in the Twin Cities for 2008: The Convention Grill & Fountain at 3912 Sunnyside Rd., Edina, MN 55424.

The Convention Grill is of the malt shop variety rather than a bar and grill.  The menu is very limited, and consists entirely of burgers, a few sandwiches, and multiple ice cream options.  It’s a sit-down restaurant with a pay-as-you-leave policy.  Since it’s a malt shop, it’s inherently not what we’re looking for in “our place.”  However, it does have the other thing we were looking for, the exceptional burger.  Even better, it has two other items that are almost more worth a mention.

To reiterate yet again: “As I’ve said before, the best burger is not a pre-formed patty with ’special’ toppings.  The best burger is juicy with just a decent kick of bite from the grill.”  And this is exactly what the Convention Grill offered.  I had a California Burger (lettuce (for me, sans lettuce), tomato, pickles, mayo) with swiss and grilled onions.  The burger was the closest thing to Grandma’s I think I could ever find.  The burger was very well cooked, with that bite from the grill (or, more correctly, griddle), I’ve been looking for.  The onions were flavorful without being overwhelming (although, I had to take half of them off since the burger was loaded with them), and the tomato was strong enough to add juice and flavor without taking over the flavor.  The pickles left a bit to be desired, as I prefer regular hamburger chips and these were more traditional fresh cucumber pickles, but did not detract.

I left the Convention Grill wondering exactly why the burger was extremely good, but didn’t quite reach Grandma’s level.  My wife and I have come to a consensus that while the burger wasn’t dry, it wasn’t as juicy as Grandma’s normally is either.  That said, however, the burger was still very good.

Almost more importantly, though, were the fantastic fries.  I’m generally not a french fry connoisseur, I leave that to my wife, but one bite into the crispy fries made me a believer.  The fries were exactly what I’ve been trying to make at home.  Freshly cut from real potatoes, fried to the point of crispiness, and not over-fried, these fries are what the State Fair fry places try to make.  The fries weren’t greasy or too salty, and did not have the harshness that “fresh” fries can sometimes have.  They were simply perfect.  A warning, though.  We ordered a half-order of fries, and that was far more than we ever could have eaten.  After our meal, we had failed to finish off enough fries to bring the fry level down to that of the lip of the basket they came in (on our second trip we ordered only a side order. As shown in the above picture, the side order of fries is still more than enough for two people).

I could already recommend the Convention Grill very highly after just these two items, but there’s one thing that makes it exception: the malt.  There’s a place in Bloomington I used to regularly visit when I was younger called The Shantytown Grill.  It was a bit of a dive, kind of like what I’m looking for now.  The menu was full of at least 24 different burger choices, and they had absolutely fabulous malts.  The malts were creamy even when melted, and didn’t have the generic vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup taste you get at most places.  The place was eventually purchased by new owners, who stripped half of the burgers off the menu (one of which was my favorite), and eliminated the one-of-a-kind malts off the menu.  The burgers that were left were the unspiced, pre-made patties, with odd toppings. 

Needless to say, with one exception, I haven’t been there since.  I no longer feel that loss.  I do not feel that this is an overstatement in any way, and any one who knows me will probably be very surprised by this, but these malts are as good, if not better, than the malts the Shantytown Grill used to have.  I had given up looking for a replacement, with Culver’s being the closest thing so far, but the Convention Grill malt is a more than suitable substitute.

As for the “our place” aspects, the place is a bit blah as far as that goes.  It’s rather close, and parking was fairly easy in their lot (although, when busy, I can see it being hard to get a parking spot).  Most of the booths are wood, which was nice, but as stated above, it’s just a malt-shop.  It cannot become the go-to place when it’s night and we’re looking for a place to have some good food, a drink or two, and hang-out for awhile.  On the other hand, the quest for “our place” can now officially begin sans the unnecessary burger requirement.

Cheers,
Charlie

The Quest for “Our Place” – Part 3: Chipotle

Ha!  Just kidding. 

Like the Internet needs another person yammering about Chipotle anyway… (or Tiger Woods for that matter, but that’s a different issue).

Cheers,
Charlie

The Possibly Related Posts Feature: “Toilet” = “Toilet Training”

So, according to WordPress’ “Possibly Related Posts” feature, the second you mention toilets (as was done in my last post), all toilet-training posts become related.  Perhaps they want to fiddle with the algorithm?

Cheers,
Charlie

The Best of Comrus: God Flooded the Bathroom

This post originally appeared on December 19th, 2006 at http://weblog.xanga.com/ComRus/557173220/item.html.

I had to call maintenance yet again today.  It started a few days ago, when I walked into the bathroom to find a puddle next to the toilet.  This couldn’t be, I yelled to the heavens, we just had the toilet fixed.  So I flushed the toilet (any good weblog entry contains “so I flushed the toilet,” you know), and nothing came out.  I mopped up, in that I grabbed some paper towels (like I’m going to go to the effort to pull out a mop?), picked up the rug near the toilet so as to eliminate a later possible need to wash it, and left it at that.  For the day, the floor was dry.

The next day came, and at one point in the afternoon, the floor near the toilet was wet again.  So I continued to fiddle with the toilet, and eventually determined that if I leaned on the left side of the tank (or right side, if we’re talking from the toilet’s point of view), Niagara Falls came to my bathroom.  This time I mopped up and left a few paper towels near where the falls hit the floor.

Did I call maintenance?  Of course not.  Sure, the toilet has proven itself to leave small puddles by the toilet when left unattended, but it’s not like it happened all the time.  We could live with a few leaks.  I mean, the alternative would be to actually call maintenance.  That would be awful.

As we all know, I hate doing that: gratuitous link to my post where I discussed that I dislike calling maintenance (which gratuitously links to another post on the same topic.  Both posts, incidentally, make up almost exactly what this post is).

The next morning, very early, I went into the bathroom and found Noah constructing something using what he called a cubit-stick, and complaining that the bathroom wasn’t big enough to fit something 300 cubits long.  Seeing as how I really don’t know what a cubit was, I accepted his expert opinion.  However, I had to draw the line when he wanted me to mail out some sort of cruise invitation to people like Mr. Camel and guest.

I then finished the annoying Ark-based joke, and continued on with the weblog.

So the bathroom was nearly flooded.  Luckily, it mostly pooled in the corner by the tub, so that most of the bathroom was spared.  I then spent the next 15 minutes cleaning up the mess, and sighing that I actually had to call maintenance.

I finally did so today, after the necessary minor cleaning, and they came and fixed it without too many issues.  But that’s not to say I now like Maintenance.

Anyway, after they left I noticed a large metal object next to the toilet.  They were in such a hurry to leave and check out of work for the day that they left a screwdriver the size of a katana blade.  And by comparing it to a katana blade, I do mean to reference the fact that the screwdriver was very much weapon-like.  It felt uncomfortable to even hold such an object, as its heft and length could only be used for evil.  As such, I became the screwdriver bearer, and had to bring it back to Nextdor to the Mt. Apartment Office to unmake it (yeah, I have been watching The Lord of the Rings series again.  I downloaded Rifftrax for the Fellowship of the Rings and got semi-hooked.  I just wish they had a Two Towers Rifftrax, as I missed watching the film without the commentary.  And to completely digress, I just started reading The Hobbit again for the first time since Junior High.  I never realized just how much it was written for the young.  Too bad, it used to be a legend of a book in my mind).

Bringing the screwdriver down to the office, however, posed a few problems.  The first of which was that I was headed out to run an errand, and I had to determine whether or not to drive the block to the apartment office.  I figured I might as well, but because of my experience in criminal defense, I knew that if I was pulled over, given its immense size, the officer could only interpret the screwdriver as a “burglary tool.”  Possession of such an object is a felony (of course, also in my experience, something as dumb as a pair of scissors has been called a burglary tool with enough prosecutor imagination).

I decided to drive it to the office anyway, and luckily wasn’t pulled over.  I then had to bring this gigantic weapon-like object into the office.  Do I walk in with it, scaring the hell out of the office workers?  Do I hide it in my jacket pocket, pull it out, and risk one of them diving to the back to call 911?  I decided to hold the “blade” of the screwdriver in my hand, with the handle rather clearly showing.  I have to say, it still looked like an instrument of attack.

And given the office-worker’s face, she interpreted it very similarly too.  I’m already a pretty large man, but I walked in and made the unfortunate mistake to tell her in a deep booming voice that maintenance was just in our apartment (in a very not a calming way) while walking straight up to her wielding a large heavy-looking object.  I raised my hand to give it to her, and I think she might have squeaked.

She was startled, and only after I started to walk out did she say “thank you.”  And then, as I was exiting, she confirmed my suspicion about the screwdriver.  She looked at the woman who entered behind me (who apparently worked there), lifted the screwdriver to her, and said, “be careful, I’m armed.”

Yup.  I’ll probably be brought up on charges tomorrow.

Cheers,
Charlie 

I Finally Get Myself to Go Jogging Again

For the first time in years, I finally have gotten myself to start jogging again.  Admittedly, it’s a little optimistic to say that I’ve gotten myself to “start” jogging, but rather I have gotten myself to go jogging.  One day.  One day does not a jogging regiment make, as I do sit here on the second day since I went, not planning on doing it today.  I have an excuse today: shin splints.  However, I had better get myself to continue jogging or else… or else… well, I’m not likely to get fat any time soon, but I certainly could keep my weight and heart in check.

The last time I jogged routinely was back in the first year or so of law school, where, while I didn’t have much free time, I was able to move around my studying so that I wasn’t exhausted when it was time to do so.  That’s the main problem now.  However, it’s not like I haven’t exercised at all since then.  While studying for the Bar, my wife and I would make routine visits to the apartment gym where I would use the elliptical machine. 

The elliptical machine is really what stopped me from even considering jogging for the next few years even though those “routine” visits became “periodic” and then “rare.”  However, it was while exercising on the elliptical machine I realized just how worthless jogging was.  I could spend 30 minutes on the treadmill, and in that time the machine would tell me that I burned. 7.42 calories.  The same 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, however, as the machine informed me, would burn approximately 52,173,221,513 calories.  So, naturally, even though I knew the machine wasn’t telling me the whole truth, I stuck with the elliptical.

Since then, and since my wife and I have gained employment, the only times we could go to the gym would be directly after work, which is when everyone else on the planet would go.  There are two elliptical machines at our apartment gym, and they would inevitably be in use.  As such, all of our exercising had died out with the exception of some random trips to the pool.

But now, now I finally have gotten myself to go out.  And oy vey, am I out of shape.  I ran for a good 30 minutes, looked at my watch, and realized that it had actually only been seven minutes.  My plan was to put in at least 20 just to get myself started, and I was dying by seven.  Worse yet, I had that pre-work-out mentality where one thinks he can run a marathon without too much difficulty, so that I headed off in a direction that didn’t allow me to return home without covering a lot more ground than reasonably feasible.

After a couple very short walking breaks, I was able to make the jog back and lasted about 25 minutes.  Not too awful since I haven’t exercised in a long time.  But, of course, my body wasn’t too happy the next day.  As I previously Twittered (which I’m starting to think is usurping even the tiny bit of motivation I have left for non-political blogging): “My legs today: ‘After years of sitting around on the couch, you decide to start jogging again? I will punish you.’”

And so, after legs being sore all day yesterday and part of today, I am left with shin splints.  I really would have gone jogging today if not for them.  Yes, I would have.  No really, I would have.  I swear.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.  Or Friday.

One quick thing.  When I was jogging I passed a kid on his bike.  As he was riding, the kid was talking on a cell phone.  So very disconcerting.  Oy.

Cheers,
Charlie

New post on this topic: “I Finally Get Myself to Go Jogging Again… Again”

“We Delivery”!

At a take-out Chinese food place near us:

Calling us now with your order!

Cheers,
Charlie

The Quest for “Our Place” – Part 2: Sandy’s Tavern

Round number two (or three, if you count Fuddrucker’s) in the quest for “our place.”  This time, Sandy’s Tavern at 6612 Penn Ave S. in Richfield, Minnesota.  Sandy’s has the distinct advantage of being a rather short drive away from where we live, and has a reasonably sized parking lot so that there are next to no obstacles to getting in the door in the first place.  Although, the Sandy’s is a bit small, so going there on a weekend night might pose some issues in getting a table.

The interior of Sandy’s is what I’d describe as a clean dive bar, which is next to perfect for what we are looking for.  The walls are lined with booths made of wood, and the place has a nice blue-collar, but not too loungy type feel to it, complete with neon signs and local sports team paraphernalia.  It’s just comfortable and quite welcoming.  This place is anything but pretentious.  Although, thank god for the smoking ban, as the place probably would have been saturated with smoke.  So, as far as the search for “our place” goes, it definitely had the style and location down pretty well. 

The food offering was a bit sparse.  The menu basically consisted of bar food off of an a la carte menu.  Not bad, but I was hoping for just a tad more than that since I’m looking for a more distinctive type place.  But the main reason we went to Sandy’s, of course, was for the burgers.  Sandy’s is listed as number eight in Citysearch’s Top Ten Burgers in the Twin Cities for 2008.

As I’ve said before, the best burger is not a pre-formed patty with “special” toppings.  The best burger is juicy with just a decent kick of bite from the grill.  And so, with all Sandy’s had going for it, the burger itself was a let down.  It was quite clearly a pre-formed patty.  Now, this doesn’t doom it outright, but the likelihood of juiciness is slim with such patties.  While it wasn’t dry, the burger just wasn’t very juicy.  It was also a bit thin.  Now, I made the mistake of not ordering any sort of onion on my burger, but I’m pretty sure that even with the onion the burger would have remained a bit bland.  Unfortunately, the burger only had a slight tinge of bite from the grill.

However, I would say that the burger was still above average, and it was mainly due to one thing, and this one thing is something you probably wouldn’t expect.  The burger was still fairly tasty, but it was the bun that made it better than average.  The bun was perfectly toasted, adding its own bit of bite and flavor.  Without the bun, the burger would have been unremarkable.  With it, it kicked the quality up a notch.

Anyway, as I’ve said, the search for “our place” does not hinge on the burger alone.  It hinges a lot on whether or not we’d just like to hang out there and have a few beers, as well as having a distinct menu item.  As such, it succeeds on the hang out requirement, but as of yet, does not quite succeed as far as having the food item.  The menu is filled with items such as cheese curds and chicken strips, so there is a chance we might just find a different food item that solves this issue.

As of yet we have not found our place, but we seem to be coming closer.  Although, as we were eating lunch on Saturday afternoon, a group of four seniors (two men, two women) over 70 came in, sat down and ordered a pitcher of Summit.  Maybe this is my place after all.

Cheers,
Charlie

Yet Another Meta Post

Once again, I find myself debating what I should do with this blog.  I generally have been keeping up with posting on my political blog (mostly just links, but at least that’s something), but with this one I cannot get myself to write the humor-type writing that characterized this blog at its old site.  My job has apparently stripped myself of the desire to sit down and focus enough to make my posts amusing. 

My last post was purposely not of this type.  For a year or so, I had been wanting to find out more information on the mini-golf course reviewed, and no such information was available on the Internet.  Because of this, I decided that maybe I should take this site in a new direction.  Instead of just posting humorous items, I would also try to add some information to the Internet that doesn’t sufficiently exist already.

I understand that this will probably make many of my posts boring and somewhat unreadable to most people, especially if I discuss a local topic only, and will not quite serve return readers.  Hopefully, though, I’ll intersperse these posts with others that are more appealing to a more general audience.  And, hopefully, my writing on the posts with less mass appeal will still be light and amusing to still entertain.

Of course, I’ve had many meta-posts on this very topic and have not increased my humor output yet, so we’ll see how it turns out.  At minimum, I’ll be posting more often to this site, even if it’s not such entertaining writing.

Cheers,
Charlie

The Links at Dred Scott and Other Miniature Golf

I can’t exactly call myself a miniature golf aficionado, but I probably have more interest in the game than your average adult.  I used to love going to our local mini-golf course as a kid (now-closed), and I especially enjoyed the numerous miniature golf courses whenever my family went to the Wisconsin Dells.  It’s a silly game, but it does require some skill if the course is made right.

With the exception of the Valleyfair Adventure Golf, I haven’t played in years.  My wife and I rectified this situation this weekend by visiting the course we live by, and have lived by for almost three years now, for the first time.  The unfortunately named The Links at Dred Scott.

Before I get into this course, let me explain what I look for in a mini-golf course.  First, throw all of the novelty courses out.  Novelty courses consist of flat greens with large statues, windmills and such blocking the way.  These are courses of the kitsch variety.  My favorite type of course, on the other hand, is one that has many elevation changes, corners, and obstacles, but is reasonable enough so that such challenges are not arbitrary.  While I enjoy a few bumps here and there, I much prefer a fairly dramatic change in elevation in a lot of the holes.  As such, I suppose I am not much of a putt-putt fan, but rather a fan of course with imagination.

To truly stand-out as a miniature golf course, it has to have the above elements, but it also has to have an interesting ambiance.  Most often this is achieved through caves, dramatic changes in elevation from the first to last hole, and most importantly, fairly large waterfalls.

One of the courses I remember fondly from my youth, and perhaps my favorite of all time, is Timber Falls Adventure Golf in the Wisconsin Dells.  Timber Falls mixed in the above elements very well, giving the whole course a logging-type atmosphere, complete with large waterfalls and trees.  On top of that, the holes were rather creative.

Another decent course in that area is Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf (apparently all mini-golf has to be “Adventure Golf”?).  It started out well enough, with waterfalls, large hills, changes in elevation, but once they started to add many more 18-holes, all creativity fell out the window, and they ended up creating holes that were essentially only straight, with a few rocks in the middle. 

And so we come to Dred Scott, which suffers from some of the main problems as Pirate’s Cove, and even more.  To begin with, it’s really not a bad course.  In fact, it’s pretty above-average (which honestly says more about the state of mini-golf courses than it does the quality of Dred Scott).  However, it also isn’t all that good.

Click on thumbnails for larger images

The main problem with Dred Scott is that it just isn’t creative at all.  Instead of having to navigate hills and corners, the holes consist of random bumps and tiny-hills as obstacles.  Almost every single hole is straight, and there’s rarely a change in elevation.  Additionally, the course commits the great sin of relying on raising the hole up a little in order to create further “challenge” in putting the ball in.  It wouldn’t be so bad in a couple holes, but a good half of them rely almost solely on this to create challenge.  They might as well be putting greens with random bumps.

There’s also really not all that much ambience at The Links at Dred Scott.  It’s a straightforward presentation, with a few fountains to add to the experience (they call them “waterfalls,” but I reserve that term for more than just water falling a foot from one small pool to another, where it’s recycled back to the top).  Unfortunately, the fountains also somehow soak the greens, which makes judging the friction very difficult. 

It sounds like I hated the experience, but again, it’s really not that bad of a course.  It’s just rather unimaginative, and there’s no additional ambience to make it more interesting.  Kids would probably have no complaints, but your average adult might just be bored by the repetition.  The cost was $6.00, which is a bit much for less than an hour of entertainment, but still better than a lot of courses.

For a better course that’s not too far away from Dred Scott, I’d suggest the aforementioned Valleyfair Adventure Golf.  It attempts, and for the most part, succeeds in creating an interesting atmosphere, full of caves, waterfalls, and interesting holes.  Although, be warned, the last time I went, two years ago, the course seemed to be falling into disrepair.  Hopefully they’ve fixed the issue, as it was one of the better courses around.

Also nearby is the golf course at the Mall of America.  When the Mall of America originally opened, it had a miniature golf course near one of the food courts.  The attempt at mini-golf wasn’t all that bad, as they tried to create an outdoor atmosphere where most of the mall was blocked from view, but the greens had more friction than shag carpeting.  Eventually, it closed, and was replaced by a number of exceedingly commercial attractions.  Luckily, those have closed, and there is now a new miniature golf course in its place: Moose Mountain… (say it with me)… Adventure Golf.  It looks similar to the old course, but hopefully without the excessive friction.  I doubt I’ll ever bother with it, it’s in the Mall of America after all and costs and astounding $8.95 per adult, but it might be a reasonable course, even if lacking in atmosphere.

Cheers,
Charlie

June 29, 2008 Update:
I just returned from trying out Adventure Gardens Miniature Golf in Richfield.  While not a great course, it is a few steps up from The Links at Dred Scott.  If you have a choice between either, try out Adventure Gardens.  I will post a full-ish review in the next few days.

July 4, 2008 Update:
The full-ish review is now available.