Gatorz

Do you enjoy wings?

Tasty, delicious wings?
Tasty, delicious wings slathered in yummy sauce?
Then you gotta go to Gatorz.

There is a location in Port Charlotte, FL and the new one in Ft Myers, FL where i went for dinner.
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays wings are 25 cents and you can get them in a bunch of sauces, naked or breaded, and drumettes only, whatever that other part is called only or mixed.
They are dang tasty. I tried both breaded and naked -enjoyed both- in Frank's sauce which is a mix of teriyaki and hot which was a sweet and spicy joy.
This place also has live music every night - score!
I suggest sitting outside by the Tiki Bar.

Hey Rea -

... know what you use to wrap burlap around viking's feet?

JUTE!

help a sister out, Frack

Okay J, i tried to do an image search to figure out what the cool big white bird with the grey head from the last post might be, but i kept finding things like this:

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/brdcs/blogs/field_of_view/2009/10/09/scenes-from-necedah-and-the-international-crane-foundation.aspx

and pictures of ibis and Siberian cranes that are obviously not the right species.
Could you please tell us what kinda bird it was.
Thanks so much.

nature versus nurture

Today while out on a golf cart constitutional i had two very different experiences with some birds.
As i started out i noticed a large white bird by the water's edge.

It was too big and bulky to be a heron, plus it had a grey head - i had no idea what it might be, a crane of some sort mayhaps - so i got closer to investigate.

He didn't fly away, but he was unamused.
 Can you see the hairy eyeball he's giving me?
Click on the image and look at that glare: he is deciding whether to shriek a warning or just flat out go for my tasty, tasty eyes.

Needless to say, as soon as the picture snapped i backed away slowly.

A bit later i was tooling around by the other lake looking for alligators and noticed a duck swimming out in the water. In the land of cranes and herons and ibis, a duck kinda sticks out, especially cause it was of the notoriously ugly Muscovy variety (sorry Rea).
After thinking Look, it's one of Rea's ugly ducks; that's odd I went back to searching the shoreline for gator tracks. About 10 seconds later i saw movement from the corner of my eye:

Whoa! How did you get here so fast?
Duck dude saw me, swam to shore and waddled right up to the golf cart looking for treats. No fear at all. I explained that i did not have any duck treats; he just looked at me and shook his tail feathers. I mean he made such a rapid beeline to the golf cart that he was still dripping water. I went about my gator hunting business and he just hung by me unable to accept that i could possibly be at the lake without treats.
I think you can tell which bird must live here and which one was just passing through.

there's a frog in the kitchen

I was getting myself some breakfast when i noticed a frog hanging between the Venetian blinds and the glass over the sink.

It was posed so perfectly in mid-climb, with each foot on a different slat so that you could see its whole body stretched out that i thought it was one of those resin ones you can buy to put on your flower pots.







It wasn't.
Dad and I worked to get him into a container

and then i took him over to the woods by the lake since i wasn't sure if he'd prefer land or water.
As soon as i put him down in the grass he just froze, hyperventilating a bit to collect himself after the ordeal.
Pretty quickly, though, he recovered and went about his froggy way.

Change of scenery

I'm taking a few days of shore leave to sit by a lake on the lanae.
Mayhaps this will be a chance to catch up on blog posts.
You know, maybe.

Hey - stop laughing!

snort, snort, snortle

Geeky, science humor slays me -for obvious reasons.
The R&D team has been working on a science humor experience and i can't get this joke out of my head:

Two atoms are walking along when the first atom exclaims, I've been robbed; someone took one of my electrons.
The other atoms asks, Are you sure? and the first one replies, Yes, I'm positive.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Honestly, it busts me up.
For the last week it has been playing in my head.
Sometimes i will be sitting in the van or reading a book or doing sudoku -minding my own business- and a little voice inside -with no warning- says Yes, i'm positive, sending me into a fit of giggles.
Then people look at me like i am deranged.
This is a problem.



Yes, i'm positive.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

you know you are surrounded by crazies when...

on the notice board by the staff elevator

... and the best part is that people are taking them.

why i love my job, part947

Since it is a school holiday, I'm in the museum today.
Last week the director of education bought a small digital synthesizing oscillator and i decided to take it out on the floor to play with teach kids about sound.
That is cool.
Then he brought over a multi-key analog oscillator so that i could play with teach kids about the difference between analog and digital.
That is even cooler.
I had everything set up on a cart with speakers and an amp, but needed an extension cord. While searching in the back, back, back of storage, guess what i found.

Go on... guess...


What could possibly make my explainer about sound even better?



Did you say a big honking drum?
Cause that's what i found in the back, back, back of storage.

squeal!
A double-head, shoulder-slung drum that MATCHES MY UNIFORM!
So today i got paid to go play with teach families about different ways to make sound: physically, electronically and digitally. We were jamming. At one point a 2 year old was banging the drum from his stroller and smiling maniacally like a rock star.
Plus, now i have a drum by my desk.

Alchemy

I've never participated in Baltimore's Restaurant Week.
Sometimes it has been money issues, sometimes it has been timing, but mostly it is because i don't pay enough attention to when it is happening.
fTM Felicia was talking about trying a restaurant in Hampden that she'd never been to, called Alchemy; her intended companion kept changing the plans so she finally just gave up on him and asked me to go with her. I agreed cause i'd never been there, either, not knowing at all that it was indeed Restaurant Week.
Three Cheers and a Tiger for lower prices!

Located on the Avenue in Hampden, Alchemy is located in a refurbed row and doesn't look like very big from the outside, but it has dining space upstairs and down, as well as a bar.
They describe themselves as Modern American cuisine, which in this case means lots of ingredients and normally out of Niki's price range. Luckily, the Restaurant Week menu had an impressive number of selections.

 Felicia started with French Onion soup and I went with crispy flatbreads with beets because i have never in my life willingly ordered something with beets as a main ingredient. They were diced and roasted, then mixed with bleu cheese and applewood bacon. It was surprising delicious and i loved the little cripy herb garnish.


For our main courses, Felicia had the crab mac and cheese which she described as very rich and full of hunks of crab meat, while i had the chorizo burger - it was phenomenal.

that knife is so cool

Obviously i took off about half of the arugula because even i couldn't possibly fit that in my mouth and removed the tomatoes cause ewwww; there were caramelized onions and Manchego cheese on the sirloin/chorizo blend patty. Never, ever have i tasted anything like it. Served with homemade chips and green chili mayo i can't recommend it highly enough.
It was a pleasant lunch with good company in a cheerful, brightly room. Plus, with the reduced prices, it kinda felt like we were getting away with something.

I'm not up to anything; what makes you think that i'm up to anything?