Entries Tagged as 'steak'

The Easiest Forty Bucks I’ve Ever Made, And Dinner at Outback Steakhouse

Ugh…I’m stuffed.

(As you might expect, there’s more on that later.)

Quick-hitters:

- I can’t remember the last time I’ve stepped foot in a CVS.

I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a “Where are you?” email :P.

(Either that, or a “Good riddance!” email.)

- Speaking of shopping, I stepped foot in a Ross earlier today…and stepped out with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!  Then again, it helped that none of the three shirts I tried on fit very well.  I didn’t even think that was humanly possible!

My sisters, on the other hand, did some nice damage to their purses.

Wait a sec…no trips to CVS in three weeks?  No purchases at Ross?  Am I the same person that has been blogging here for the past year and change???

- So earlier today, I made what might have been the easiest forty bucks ever.

The older of my two sisters (Nancy) had a $40 debit card, for which I was going to give her cash—I planned on using it to buy a $40 Amazon.com gift certificate, since I buy so much stuff from Amazon anyway.  When she got here, she handed me the gift card, and then we got to talking about her wanting either a new cell phone plan, a new phone itself, or discounted service.  I suggested that she get in contact with AT&T’s retentions department.

After being on hold for five minutes or so, she whined about not wanting to talk to customer service (apparently she keeps up with my battles with Sprint :P).  She begged me to speak with CS, to which I politely declined.  She then yelled, “I’ll give you that [debit] card if you deal with them!”

One minute on hold followed by fifteen minutes with a VERY knowledgeable rep later, I pocketed the debit card.  In fact, the experience with that rep might cause me to (at the very least) consider a switch back to AT&T.

Yeah, I’m THAT sick of Sprint.

- Over the Fourth of July weekend—I think that’s when it happened—cousin David casually mentioned something about Outback Steakhouse.  I forget the context of the conversation, but I think it had something to do with the best “mainstream” steakhouse out there.

Well, fast forward to last weekend, when Nancy offered to take me out to dinner.  For what occasion, I had no idea!  Anyway, that conversation with cousin David stuck in my head, and because I knew that not making a quick decision would have resulted in a week’s worth of deliberations over which restaurant to eat at (right, Krunk?), I quickly chose Outback Steakhouse.

We got to the nearest Outback at around 7pm, and were seated about ten minutes later (by a very attractive blonde, for the record).  I “settled” on the 16 oz. Prime Rib dinner, and was surprised to see Coke Zero among the drink options!  Nancy had ribs and chicken; my mom had the grilled salmon (the “l” is silent, dammit!); and my other sister (who likes to remain anonymous :P) ordered the steak, scallops, and shrimp dinner.

There is a good chance that my standards of food have gone down dramatically, but I thought the food was, overall, quite good.  It could have been a lot worse, I suppose.  I sampled every dish—and by “sampled” I mean everyone tossed a portion of their food onto my plate—and thought the ribs were quite tasty, the chicken was meh, the salmon (SAM-on, dammit!!!) was very juicy, and the bit of scallop I had was perfect.  My sister’s sirloin steak, though, was not close to medium-rare; it looked almost medium-well!

As for the Prime Rib…it was excellent!  It was so good, I had a hard time handing out portions to everyone else at the table (I’m stingy when it comes to good food.  Is that a crime?).  I could have used some horseradish sauce, though.

Actually, I could have really used an antacid.  Or at least some Beano.

A “New” Computer (And an Idiot eBayer), And Weekend B-Days BBQ (Three B-Days, One BBQ!)

My sister’s computer build has gone from a horrible time to a full-fledged disaster (and it’s still going on).  Brett Favre is really ticking me off.  The pet peeve I referenced last time still beckons to be talked about.  The Elton Brand-Los Angeles Clippers saga is getting interesting.

All that being said, I am a lazy bastard after all, so I will blog about one single topic:  this weekend’s July B-Days BBQ.

Quick-hitters:

- Oh dear.  It appears that that stupid KFC commercial where the blonde ditz declaring that “anything is possible” in this “whole new wing world” is airing again.

So apparently the brass at KFC not only thought the commercial was good enough to air it once…but they thought it was good enough to air it AGAIN???

Yikes.

- Speaking of stupid commercials, have you seen the T-Mobile one where Brett Favre makes a cameo?

Absolutely disgusting.  Seriously.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,199.  I can’t wait for the 2009 software to come out!

- (The following story is about *a* computer build, but not *the* build referenced at the beginning of this blog entry.)

So six months ago, I got a CPU/mobo combo (some junky ECS board + a Pentium Dual Core 915 @ 2.8GHz) from Krunk in exchange for a super-duper pricey, 23K gold-painted 6′ HDMI cable (no, not really).  Three months later, with the parts still sitting in their original boxes, I acquired a 500GB SATA hard drive (for reasons which are not important *whistles*).

This past weekend, I finally got around to hooking up the parts, though I did have to buy a new motherboard; Krunk warned me that the mobo’s onboard LAN port was busted, and I feared that that was going to be the beginning of a disastrous build.

I bought a cheapy ECS board (GF7050VT-M) on eBay for ~ $35 shipped, thinking that I was going to get 25% back via M$’ Live Search cashback (and for the record, I have not yet been able to claim my cash back, but that’s a story for another day).  The seller shipped my purchase almost immediately, and because he was located in SoCal, I got my package in two days.

(insert rant)

The motherboard was shipped, IN ITS ORIGINAL BOX, with nothing more than a USPS Priority Mail Tyvek envelope wrapped around it!!!  Who the hell thinks that the original box that a mobo is shipped in is sufficient packaging for something as delicate as a motherboard???

(end rant)

Fortunately, the board is working fine, and my system build went without a hitch.  I know have 300GB of free space to use for, um, data backup.

If only my sister’s computer build went that well…

- On Saturday, my aunt decided that she wanted to BBQ to celebrate the birthday of her sister (my other aunt on my mom’s side) and another individual who shall remain nameless.

We decided to go to Almansor Park for the festivities, and even though it was really warm that afternoon, it got chilly quickly, so much so that it became a chore to keep the charcoal hot enough to thoroughly cook all the food.  We had to go through two bags of charcoal and tons of lighter fluid, but eventually everything got cooked.

Food, you say?  Kebabs (New York steak, mushrooms, and bell peppers), chicken wings, ribs, potato salad, salad, celery and carrot sticks, some other stuff that I don’t remember, and of course, a birthday cake.

(In fact, when the birthday cake was ready to go and Happy Birthday was sung, I found out that a third person had a mid-July birthday:  “cousin” Darren :P.  Three birthdays, one BBQ…talk about saving money!)

EDIT:  I forgot to mention…during the day, I was forced into several hours of touch football and my best James Loney impersonation as a first baseman.  Boy am I sore today!

Until next time!