Wednesday, October 19, 2011

harry potter haiku #8

Just when you thought your dreams of a haiku-less existence were finally coming true:

Some dragon smuggling
(Hagrid's a bad influence)
leads to detentions

I solemnly swear that this is the last Hagrid-bashing I'll do for a while.

Forbidden forest
something's killing unicorns
centaur saves Harry

Stay tuned because sometime in the next year I'll finish the first book and move on to Chamber.



Monday, October 17, 2011

gcabh round 2: arkansas burger company

When last we met the intrepid burger explorers, they were replete with their first burger hunt success at Frostop.  On the heels of that delicious and entertaining experience, the next locale on our burger adventure was going to have to bring it. On the recommendations of many, many people we know, our adventurers braved the wilds of midtown to face the Arkansas Burger Company. Could it live up to the hype?

The experience:  Once again the three natives in the hunt were late, and our bearded scout (CST#1BF) had to face the unknown alone, drinking tea and making what I can only assume was a very intimate connection with our waitress.  All I know is that by the latecomers arrived, she was throwing around the terms of endearment like there was no tomorrow--and no wedding ring on his hand.  Apparently she loved him so much that she her endearments could not be contained, and the rest of us got the "sweetie, baby, honey, sugar-puddin', love muffin, angel face" treatment too.

We ordered our burgers and criticized Shane while we waited for them to arrive.  Actually CST1BF was the only one criticizing him.  I was probably criticizing Jess because that's what I do for fun.  And then the moment of truth.  The burgers arrived.  I made the ravenous beasts pose for pictures before they fell upon their food with abandon.

Hey, is that a pickle spear?  Score.

Modeling food and sleepy faces.
Jess went with the onion rings.
We'd had our food for less than a minute by this point.  
The scattered remains of our carnage.

The results:
From CST#1BF:  The more I think about it, the more that I think the hamburger at ABC was better than the Frostop burger.  The meat had some kind of spice in it that was fantastic.  I didn't really notice it until I got to the end of my burger and was mostly eating bun and meat without toppings to overpower the flavor, but Jess was right when she said, "This meat is good."  The fries were also very good, though I was completely underwhelmed by Jess's onion rings.  I liked the variety of burgers available, but Frostop still had more options, but ABC had a pickle spear.  
The atmosphere and experience at frostop was better, but ABC was great too.  I'm glad that they're on different sides of LR so that I can have an excuse to eat both in the future.

9/10  A great burger.  

From Jess:  (Oh, that's right.  We lost Jess at ABC--it was her final stop on Burger Tour 2011.  She will have no say.  We'll miss you, burger-eating friend.  Sorry you weren't up for the challenge.)

From Shane:  lots of chewing--but no commitments on burger ranking yet.

Ellen's opinion:  I think the fries were on par with Frostop, but the ABC burger was definitely better.  I had a bacon cheeseburger in both places, and while both were delightful, the ABC meat was superior, and I had cheddar cheese which is a personal favorite.  I'll give it a 9/10.

Clearly, I'm very behind on my burger-blogging.  We've been to two more places since ABC.  Eventually, you'll hear about them, imaginary readers.  In the meantime, approach Arkansas Burger Company with caution.  The food is definitely worth it, but the deliciousness is apparently capable of swallowing up your dining companions.  I miss Jess.


Friday, October 14, 2011

i am overcome by my harry potter obsession at inexplicable times

Last night I was minding my own business on Pinterest.  Okay, that's a lie.  The whole point of Pinterest is that you're minding everyone else's business--but mostly people want their Pinterest business minded, so it's not a bad thing to do.  And someone pinned some piece of HP information that drew me to an their entire board of Potter deliciousness.  And then I lost an hour of my life.

Then I got to thinking about Wordle and how I've never made a beautiful wordle thing, and how my office would never be complete until I had a Harry Potter themed Wordle gracing its walls.  So I worked on it and worked on it and worked some more (and lost hours more of my life), and I think if I can get it to print the way that I want, I'll have something spectacular to show for it eventually.  Here's what it's going to look like maybe unless I change it again.

  Wordle: harry potter
(I hope that doesn't publish as tiny as it looks in this composing screen.  Sorry if it is.)