Just As I Have Always Suspected

I'm so glad I never wasted much time stretching before ultimate.

clipped from science.slashdot.org Stretching Before Exercising Weakens Muscles "Back in grade school you were probably taught the importance of warm-up exercises, and it's likely you've continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but are actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements."

Working In SoCal: Day 4 -- Agora Churrascaria

We all need to be careful when we hype a place, that we don't overhype a place. This is what happened to Agora.

I was promised by a co-worker that Agora was far superior to Fogo de Chao. He stated they had oysters on the half shell (actually it was just steamed clams). And that this place was going to blow my mind (it barely filled my belly).

I will give this place credit. It did have some nice clams, mussels and shrimp on the "salad bar" along with all of the usual suspects one would expect to find at a churasscaria. But the meat selection was woefully lacking. In fact, the meat selection was quite limited:

• Tri-tip - terrible, something I've never seen at a Brazilian steak house.
  
• Skirt steak - very good, but I'm not sure I've ever seen this low rent cut at other churasscarias either.
• Sirloin tip - very good
• Beef rib - very good
• Bacon Wrapped Filets - good but tiny, about the size of a large marshmallow.
• Sirloin - ok.
• Chicken, pork sausage - didn't try, I was waiting for more beef.
• Lamb chop - ok, lamb at other churasscarias is better

And not only was the selection limited, but there was seldom more than one meat on my plate -- and often no meat on my plate. The last time I went to a Brazilian steakhouse, also for work in Minneoaplolis, the plate was piled, literally, a mile high, with meat.

And on top of all of this, their wine list was extremely small for a steak house. It was essentially pamphlet sized.

Maybe the selection is better on busy weekend nights. So avoid it during the week and go to the Fogo in Beverly Hills.


1830 Main St Irvine, CA 92614
B-

Working In SoCal: Day 3

Another 12 hour day.

So there wasn't much to grab an In-n-Out burger (I may have a problem), had back to the hotel and watch history being made

This isn't a political blog. For that, go to Daily Kos or Little Green Footballs.

So, instead, i'm going to rant on about the greatness of In-n-Out. And I'm not talking about their food. But this place is what all fast food restaurants should strive to be.

1) Instead of trying to do 100 things halfassedly (see Jack in the Box) In-n-Out does literally a handful of things well -- burgers, fries, shakes, sodas, that's it.
2) They know how their food is eaten. In the drive thru, they always ask if you'll be eating in the car. If you are, you get a box instead of a bag and you get a place mat for your car seat. This is exquisite attention to customer needs.
3) Enthusiastic employees. Like Southwest airlines versus American Airlines, when you have a great product that you're proud of and not just a business, that enthusiasm trickles down to the lowest level employees.
4) Cleanliness. This is what I noticed about this place tonight. While in the drive-thru line, you can see the brightly lit, very clean kitchen. Nothing is hidden from the customer. And the truly amazing part of the preperation is that the cook has a stack of disposable gloves in front of her. So that each times she needs to touch food, on come the gloves. When she touches anything else, off come the gloves. Does any other fastfood place do this?? Does any other restaurant do this??

Oh, and it's cool Obama won. Can we go back to our lives of watching our 401(k)s evaporate now?

Ralph Nader Becomes Irrelevant in 3....2....and 1

I didn't see much of the Fox election night coverage, but I did see this live.

Good riddance.

YES YOU CAN!

clipped from www.theonion.com Bush: 'Can I Stop Being President Now?'

I, For One, Welcome Our New Voting Machine Overlord

Campaign 2012 Starts Tomorrow

Working In SoCal: Day 2

Working 12 hour days leaves not much time for anything, including eating. So after work today I strove to have a well balance dinner of locally grown organic fruit and In-N-Out burger. It was delicious.

The Whole Foods here is fantastic. It has far more prepared food than even the one on Preston and Forest. There was a station for Chinese/Thai and Indian, one for seafood as well as stations for your typical prepared foods. Here's hoping the Lakewood Whole Foods gets some of this.

As for the In-N-Out, I may have to rate this a bit high than I did last year. I had to drive a frustrating 10 minutes after getting my burger. I was so hungry and it smelled so good.

And while I'm not a fan of southern California, it is nice to look out the window where we're working and see palm trees and mountains. It's very comforting.

Working In SoCal: Day 1 -- I'm That Guy

Have you ever been on a plane, sitting at the gate, waiting for the pushback, wondering what's taking so long. Then some clod come running down the jetway and down the aisle -- searching for a place to stow his several carryons.

Well, that was me today.

I got to the airport in plenty of time and did the self checkin thing. I thought I had requested one checked. Apparently I hadn't. So I waited. And waited. And waited for my name to be called.

Eventually people who checked in well after me were getting called. I guess I had made an error somewhere (senior moment #1). But I barely made my plane.

So I'll be blogging from beautiful Irvine/Santa Ana California for the next two weeks. Beal is looking to buy stuff and I'm here playing tech support guy.

Oh, and I checked into the wrong hotel. Senior moment #2.

Walkabout 2008: Day 11 -- The Pittsburgh Grub Crawl

Matt had been promising a great grub crawl in Pittsuburgh, and he delivered.

Penn Brewery
Cool little place. I had there Oktoberfest and their Dark -- both very good.

Strip District
No titties bar like I expected. Just a lot of good food. It was very reminiscent of Pike Street Market in Seattle. We had the best sfogliatelle I've ever had there and a very good pepperoni roll.

Church Brew Works
Another brew pub and a place I had seen mentioned on several foodie shows. So I was very excited to finally see it.
Why can't Dallas be like this. Thanks TABC.
We had the pierogi pizza and I drank their Pale Ale (it was ok) and their Mole Porter. Wow did that thing have a spicy kick. Very good. Here

Coal Hill Steakhouse at the Grandview Saloon
Here is where most of the great pictures of Pittsburgh were taken. High atop Mt. Washington, Coal Hill Steakhouse has an amazing view of the city. We didn't eat here, but I did have a couple of Yuenglings.

Gandy Dancer
Cool bar inside Pittsburgh's old train station. We tried their crab cake (pictured, good) and had a beer which by this time I'm not sure what I drank.

Brewski's
The diviest of divebars. Here's where the Curry boys did much of their underage drinking. Watched an entire episode of Family Guy here and drank another Yuengling.

Smokin' Joe's
This place was touted to have great chicken wings. They were good. But I'm not sure they were the best. But, to be fair, I was in no way hungry by this time. This was yet another bar with an amazing selection of beers. I had something hoppy, but, again, I'm not sure what.

Fat Heads
Home of the South Sides Slopes "Headwich". This masterpiece has sauteed pierogis, kielbasa, grilled onions, cheese and horsey sauce. My greatest regret is that I was not hungry even a little bit to properly enjoy it. I guess I'll have to go back.

Walkabout 2008: Day 10 -- Pittsburgh Grub Crawl Pregame

Before diving in to what Pittsburgh has to offer, it was decided that a little "pre-game" the night before showing what south suburban Pittsburgh has to offer.


We started at Bruschetta's where we started with one of the tastiest items of the whole trip -- pumpkin and marscapone raviolis with sauteed onions.




For my entree I had a braised pork shank with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables. While not reaching the heights of the raviolis, this was another spectacular dish. The potatoes were outstanding and the meat tender and moist and yummy.



That's a big bone, yes??




Next we went to Sharp Edge. As you can see, they have a lot of beer here.


All this beer to the left of me.


All this beer to the right of me.
Great Place!! It would take a year to try all their beers. I'm not sure I could do it, but I'm willing to try.

Bruschetta's A+
Sharp Edge A+