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We went to The Melting Pot restaurant in Ann Arbor on Sunday. It was a unique experience, so I thought I would give a complete review, just like the nice lady sometimes does in the newspaper.
The Melting Pot is a chain, but this was different from many of the chain restaurants we've seen. It had a nice bar with a nice countertop on it - not a typical wood bar top, but marble-like and very sleek. There were no moose heads or street signs or sports jerseys hung on the walls. The kids were not given crayons or kids' menus. For sure this was going to cost a lot of money.
The theme of the restaurant is not immigrants and the ethnic make-up of America, but fondue. If you're not familiar with fondue, it was popular in the 70's in the U.S., and it involves warm pots of liquid cheese/oil/chocolate/etc. into which you dip various morsels of food. It was invented by the Swiss, who for some reason had trouble just putting the cheese on top of the bread and eating it like the rest of us. For main courses, you fry meat or veggies in oil, dip them in sauces, and then use the hot treat to burn the roof of your mouth. For deserts, you dip fruit and other sweets into chocolate. For appetizers, aka the "cheese course", you dip bread and veggies into cheese, then stuff them into your cake hole until you feel your heart slowing.
We were seated in an oversized booth that seats as many as eight - there was a group of seven a few booths down from us, and they did look a little cramped, but they laughed a lot so either they were comfortable or tipsy. On the table were two ceramic burners, like chunks of a smooth-top stove. The burners were controlled by switches under the table that the server could reach, and he turned them up and down based on where we were in the meal. At no time did the server offer to let me adjust the burners (I have a college degree!), which I mentioned to the manager later during our visit.
There are different courses - cheese, entrée, and dessert. We decided to have cheese and dessert courses. There were about eight combinations available for those courses, each with its own blend of different kinds of cheese or chocolate. We had a cheddar cheese bowl (with a beer base to keep it liquidy) and a swiss cheese-based blend that was a little milder and had wine mixed in. For dessert, we had a peanut butter and chocolate bowl, and a bowl with chocolate and caramel, topped with pecans. We had a little cheesecake, some Rice Krispy Treats, and fruit to dip into the chocolate. If you hear anyone say I licked the bowl and burned my tongue, don't believe them unless they can show you photographic evidence. I will admit trying to scrape the hardened cheese off the side of the bowl, though. No shame in wanting to get your money's worth.
The server introduced each component of each dipping bowl as he mixed the courses together ("This is the beer base!" "This is cheddar cheese!" "This is a fork!", etc.). This helped us to know what we were going to be exercising to burn off later in the day. The server was prompt and courteous, and had no problem giving our table a senior citizen discount - I think he was lobbying for a big tip.
As far as the rest of the restaurant, the lighting was very dark and fashionable, and we could see through a glass wall to a large wine rack with a hundred different kinds of wines. The bathrooms were almost fancier than the eating area; the next time we go there I would consider having our food delivered directly to the men's room. We also discovered that M, K, and I were the only male patrons in the restaurant - apparently this is a "chick" restaurant. Duly noted. Also noted was the time it took for us to consume the two courses - almost two hours. We were warned that this was not a place to go if we were in a hurry to be somewhere. If we had ordered an entrée course, I believe they would have brought out portable cots for us to use.
Was it kid-friendly? Yes, in the sense that my kids like to eat food smothered in cheese and chocolate. No, in the sense that there were no table-side magicians or TVs with Spongebob Squarepants.
As we were leaving, I asked for a Carry Out menu, resulting in a very strange look from the hostess, and an unnecessary apology from my wife. (I could heat the cheese up at home, I have a microwave. It's not like you have to win Iron Chef to melt cheese and beer in a bowl.)
Overall, we were pleased with our experience there, and while we may not be going back real soon, we will keep it in mind for our next fondue-related outing.
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Open Letter to Robert, Man of Mystery
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Dear Robert,
You don't know me, but I know a little about you. You recently changed phone numbers, and your old phone number was assigned to me a few weeks ago when my employer gave me a cell phone to use.
I'd like to keep you up to date on the calls you’ve been getting.
So far, Americredit has called you four times. More accurately, they've called ME, and I've told them that this is no longer your number, and that I don't know you, and that I don't have your new number, and yes, I really mean it when I say I don't know you. All four callers have sworn they are sorry they bothered me and will remove this phone number from their records, but the first three who promised me didn't come through, so I'm looking forward to Call Number Five any day now.
On New Year's Eve I was out to eat with some friends, and I received a text message for you. I don't remember the actually wording but it was a friend of yours who wanted to wish you a happy new year and say they loved you. Blah blah blah something something something. Not sure who this person was, he or she didn't sign his or her name, but just know you're loved by someone who is unaware that your phone number now belongs to me. No, I didn't text them back, but I could have had some fun with them, couldn't I? Pretending to be you and maybe saying something mean or proposing marriage or confessing a crime spree on the East Coast. But I'm not that kind of person. And I don't want to make you upset with me in the unlikely event you're an axe murderer. (I hardly ever read about axe murders in the paper, but I'm sure they're still happening somewhere.)
Moving on: Please contact with your dentist's office. The nice lady called and asked for you, and was quite dismayed she couldn't reach you. She asked me if I had any advice for how to find you, since she was not able to think of anything to do. I was going to say she should Google you, but I was afraid she wouldn't know what that meant, and then I'd feel responsible for explaining it to her. So I said I didn't know. Fortunately, she realized she could call your Emergency Contact number and see if that person could give her your new number.
I hope you didn't list the person who texted you on New Year's Eve as your Emergency Contact. Because he or she is just going to turn around and text me again, and I don't have time for that.
And Robert? Call your mom. She hasn't tried to contact you on this phone yet, but I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.
Best Regards,
Don
Dear Robert,
You don't know me, but I know a little about you. You recently changed phone numbers, and your old phone number was assigned to me a few weeks ago when my employer gave me a cell phone to use.
I'd like to keep you up to date on the calls you’ve been getting.
So far, Americredit has called you four times. More accurately, they've called ME, and I've told them that this is no longer your number, and that I don't know you, and that I don't have your new number, and yes, I really mean it when I say I don't know you. All four callers have sworn they are sorry they bothered me and will remove this phone number from their records, but the first three who promised me didn't come through, so I'm looking forward to Call Number Five any day now.
On New Year's Eve I was out to eat with some friends, and I received a text message for you. I don't remember the actually wording but it was a friend of yours who wanted to wish you a happy new year and say they loved you. Blah blah blah something something something. Not sure who this person was, he or she didn't sign his or her name, but just know you're loved by someone who is unaware that your phone number now belongs to me. No, I didn't text them back, but I could have had some fun with them, couldn't I? Pretending to be you and maybe saying something mean or proposing marriage or confessing a crime spree on the East Coast. But I'm not that kind of person. And I don't want to make you upset with me in the unlikely event you're an axe murderer. (I hardly ever read about axe murders in the paper, but I'm sure they're still happening somewhere.)
Moving on: Please contact with your dentist's office. The nice lady called and asked for you, and was quite dismayed she couldn't reach you. She asked me if I had any advice for how to find you, since she was not able to think of anything to do. I was going to say she should Google you, but I was afraid she wouldn't know what that meant, and then I'd feel responsible for explaining it to her. So I said I didn't know. Fortunately, she realized she could call your Emergency Contact number and see if that person could give her your new number.
I hope you didn't list the person who texted you on New Year's Eve as your Emergency Contact. Because he or she is just going to turn around and text me again, and I don't have time for that.
And Robert? Call your mom. She hasn't tried to contact you on this phone yet, but I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.
Best Regards,
Don
Dear Stomach: Happy New Year
I just got around to moving the pictures from the camera onto the computer, and amidst all the pictures of the kids and Christmas was this: one slice of the gorgeous prime rib J made for us on New Year's Day. I resolve to eat more.
Please do not attempt to bite your computer screen, this is only a picture.
Please do not attempt to bite your computer screen, this is only a picture.
Detroit Institute of Art
We went to the Detroit Institute of Art on Saturday.today. It's the first time any of us have been there, and it was really great. I know Detroit gets a bad rap for the economy and crime and so on, but they have first-rate museums and other attractions. We went to the Detroit Science Center a few years ago, and it was terrific.
I encourage everyone to go for a visit. Their collections include Picasso, Rembrandt, Degas, Matisse, and a whole bunch of people you've never heard of. There are suits of armor, Greek pottery, furniture, modern art installations that had us scratching our heads, and a cafeteria with a salad bar.
Here are a few pictures from our trip:
M and K in front of the famous Diego Rivera mural
Rich guy from a long time ago
Bust of a young Paul Newman
I encourage everyone to go for a visit. Their collections include Picasso, Rembrandt, Degas, Matisse, and a whole bunch of people you've never heard of. There are suits of armor, Greek pottery, furniture, modern art installations that had us scratching our heads, and a cafeteria with a salad bar.
Here are a few pictures from our trip:
M and K in front of the famous Diego Rivera mural
Rich guy from a long time ago
Bust of a young Paul Newman
Windmills - Made In China
I have mixed feelings about giving businesses tax breaks and government bailouts, but I do like the idea of the government helping push us towards more wind, solar, wave, and other types of energy. Michigan has a lot of skilled labor, and it would be nice to see some renewable energy manufacturing going on in Detroit. I recently read a Wall Street Journal article about a firm that is planning to put up a wind farm. Great, except they're hoping the federal stimulus money they're applying for will be sent to China, and used to hire Chinese workers to make the windmills.
Some of the money is coming directly from China, but how about we keep federal stimulus money in the country as a general guideline? I don't see why we need to pay companies to hire workers in other countries to do work we could do here.
Here is the full article.
Some of the money is coming directly from China, but how about we keep federal stimulus money in the country as a general guideline? I don't see why we need to pay companies to hire workers in other countries to do work we could do here.
Here is the full article.
Alternative-energy Vehicles
I like the show "Planet Mechanics", a show about two men in England who try to solve renewable energy challenges, such as constructing windmills or water turbines. In one episode, the men were building a moped powered by compressed air. Their projects usually start with whatever materials they can find, they're not a big production shop, so the resulting moped looked pretty odd with two big air tanks strapped to the frame and the motors on the back. But it worked, and it was a proof-of-concept of a pretty neat idea. They even had it certified by the transportation department as fully street legal.
Part of the episode shows them going to a compressed-air car manufacturer; they make a small commuter car that uses compressed air.
A few links:
Planet Mechanics episode
Gizmodo reported on another example of the same thing
A few questions that came to mind (and others' minds) when talking about this kind of "fuel":
This isn't really "green", is it? Don't we need to generate electricity (which emits carbon dioxide) to fill the tanks?
Sure, but you could use solar panels or windmill to generate the electricity. And even if you do have to plug it into the wall, a coal power plant can create that electricity cleaner than the equivalent gas engine would provide the same power.
What if an air tank breaks or explodes in an accident?
Air tanks can be made to crack if they are damaged in an accident instead of shatter or break open. This will allow the air to leak out in multiple directions and under more control than if it were to be punctured. Also, air tanks are made of very thick steel, which makes puncturing them very difficult. (And don't forget, cars have gas tanks which sometimes leak after an accident, so there's no perfectly safe fuel for cars yet.)
How far will I be able to travel before recharging the tanks?
This is a question that comes up a lot with battery-powered cars. The answer varies. The Chevy Volt, a battery-powered car, has an on-board gasoline engine that runs when the batteries need to be charged. It's not an emissions-free solution, but it's leaps and bounds better than using strictly gasoline. Using the engine to refresh the battery will result in a range comparable to most gasoline-powered cars. An air-powered car could borrow this idea and use a gasoline engine to replenish the tanks when needed.
A second answer to this question is another question: How far do you need to drive? The average daily commute in the US is about 30 miles. Teenagers driving to school, work, or on dates will rarely drive more than 30 miles in a day. So battery-powered (and air-powered) cars make sense for those situations. I make very few round trips that are longer than 30-40 miles.
Part of the episode shows them going to a compressed-air car manufacturer; they make a small commuter car that uses compressed air.
A few links:
Planet Mechanics episode
Gizmodo reported on another example of the same thing
A few questions that came to mind (and others' minds) when talking about this kind of "fuel":
This isn't really "green", is it? Don't we need to generate electricity (which emits carbon dioxide) to fill the tanks?
Sure, but you could use solar panels or windmill to generate the electricity. And even if you do have to plug it into the wall, a coal power plant can create that electricity cleaner than the equivalent gas engine would provide the same power.
What if an air tank breaks or explodes in an accident?
Air tanks can be made to crack if they are damaged in an accident instead of shatter or break open. This will allow the air to leak out in multiple directions and under more control than if it were to be punctured. Also, air tanks are made of very thick steel, which makes puncturing them very difficult. (And don't forget, cars have gas tanks which sometimes leak after an accident, so there's no perfectly safe fuel for cars yet.)
How far will I be able to travel before recharging the tanks?
This is a question that comes up a lot with battery-powered cars. The answer varies. The Chevy Volt, a battery-powered car, has an on-board gasoline engine that runs when the batteries need to be charged. It's not an emissions-free solution, but it's leaps and bounds better than using strictly gasoline. Using the engine to refresh the battery will result in a range comparable to most gasoline-powered cars. An air-powered car could borrow this idea and use a gasoline engine to replenish the tanks when needed.
A second answer to this question is another question: How far do you need to drive? The average daily commute in the US is about 30 miles. Teenagers driving to school, work, or on dates will rarely drive more than 30 miles in a day. So battery-powered (and air-powered) cars make sense for those situations. I make very few round trips that are longer than 30-40 miles.
Happy New Year
I hope everyone is having a Happy New Year and had a Merry Christmas. I don't want to brag, but as of last night, I had exercised every day this year.
Christmas was great for us this year - we saw all but one of our extended family members on both sides - we were in East Lansing, Jackson, and Concord for various gatherings and it was nice to see everyone.
New Year's Eve found out us out on the town with some friends at Aubree's Pizza, then back to the friends' house for Wii games. The Wii is a really neat system, it's a video game where your physical actions (not what button you press) dictate what happens on the screen. For example, to play the bowling game, you hold the game controller and make a bowling motion with your arm, as if you were rolling an actual ball. Your motions are translated by the game, and the ball on the screen rolls as if you rolled it. If your arm arcs too far to the left, the ball will roll to the left. If you move your arm fast, the ball rolls fast. There are other games, such as baseball and tennis, which require you to make baseball bat or tennis racket swinging motions (backhand, forehand, and serves.) The seven year-olds beat me, naturally, but that doesn't count because I'm old and creaky, and they've had a chance to practice.
Last night, J made prime rib. This isn't something we normally have, but she knows how to make it and it was wonderful. We gobbled it up, along with sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and Hawaiian rolls.
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I got a BlackBerry smartphone from work last week. Work is paying for it because they want to notify me if a problem occurs on a server that runs the software I'm currently working on. There are now four of us that have phones set up to do this, so at least one of us is likely to notice the phone ringing and be able to address problems. The BlackBerry is OK; it's not a great phone, and it's not a great web browser or email reader. It does a lot of things, but none of them particularly well. It will be good enough for what I need it for, and it is now my primary cell phone - if you need my number let me know. I'm getting used to it, and since I have plenty of other ways of reading email and browsing the web, it's not that important that this phone do those well.
The first day I got it I was at my desk learning how it works, and it surprised me by ringing. It was Americredit, looking for someone named Robert. Apparently Robert has some credit problems. On New Year's Eve I got a text message from someone telling me he or she loved me and didn't want to end the year without saying so. Robert leads an interesting life.
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We had a computer problem on Dec 24. J told me the computer wasn't starting properly (our new computer, the one we bought in November.) I used our laptop to browse the web and found the answer: take the case off the computer, take out the memory, unplug the hard drive, plug back in the memory and hard drive, and start the computer again. I was relieved we wouldn't have to return to the Geek Squad. They're nice people and all, but we don't need to see them again so soon.
------
It's hard to describe how this bridge works, so you'll just have to look at the pictures. It looked like a joke to me at first, but it's real.
------
Each year, Dave Barry, whose writing style is often shamelessly copied on The DEB Log, writes an annual yearly wrap-up which always makes me laugh. This year's wrap-up is here.
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Michigan State plays its bowl game tonight at 9:00. If you've been reading the sports section, you'll know that about a dozen players on the team were recently suspended or kicked off the team for an altercation on campus a few weeks ago. More recently, the coach of Texas Tech, their bowl opponent, was fired for mistreating a player who had a concussion. I think both schools should just suit up some of the fans who come to the game and let them play so they can sort out their various team issues.
Christmas was great for us this year - we saw all but one of our extended family members on both sides - we were in East Lansing, Jackson, and Concord for various gatherings and it was nice to see everyone.
New Year's Eve found out us out on the town with some friends at Aubree's Pizza, then back to the friends' house for Wii games. The Wii is a really neat system, it's a video game where your physical actions (not what button you press) dictate what happens on the screen. For example, to play the bowling game, you hold the game controller and make a bowling motion with your arm, as if you were rolling an actual ball. Your motions are translated by the game, and the ball on the screen rolls as if you rolled it. If your arm arcs too far to the left, the ball will roll to the left. If you move your arm fast, the ball rolls fast. There are other games, such as baseball and tennis, which require you to make baseball bat or tennis racket swinging motions (backhand, forehand, and serves.) The seven year-olds beat me, naturally, but that doesn't count because I'm old and creaky, and they've had a chance to practice.
Last night, J made prime rib. This isn't something we normally have, but she knows how to make it and it was wonderful. We gobbled it up, along with sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and Hawaiian rolls.
------
I got a BlackBerry smartphone from work last week. Work is paying for it because they want to notify me if a problem occurs on a server that runs the software I'm currently working on. There are now four of us that have phones set up to do this, so at least one of us is likely to notice the phone ringing and be able to address problems. The BlackBerry is OK; it's not a great phone, and it's not a great web browser or email reader. It does a lot of things, but none of them particularly well. It will be good enough for what I need it for, and it is now my primary cell phone - if you need my number let me know. I'm getting used to it, and since I have plenty of other ways of reading email and browsing the web, it's not that important that this phone do those well.
The first day I got it I was at my desk learning how it works, and it surprised me by ringing. It was Americredit, looking for someone named Robert. Apparently Robert has some credit problems. On New Year's Eve I got a text message from someone telling me he or she loved me and didn't want to end the year without saying so. Robert leads an interesting life.
------
We had a computer problem on Dec 24. J told me the computer wasn't starting properly (our new computer, the one we bought in November.) I used our laptop to browse the web and found the answer: take the case off the computer, take out the memory, unplug the hard drive, plug back in the memory and hard drive, and start the computer again. I was relieved we wouldn't have to return to the Geek Squad. They're nice people and all, but we don't need to see them again so soon.
------
It's hard to describe how this bridge works, so you'll just have to look at the pictures. It looked like a joke to me at first, but it's real.
------
Each year, Dave Barry, whose writing style is often shamelessly copied on The DEB Log, writes an annual yearly wrap-up which always makes me laugh. This year's wrap-up is here.
------
Michigan State plays its bowl game tonight at 9:00. If you've been reading the sports section, you'll know that about a dozen players on the team were recently suspended or kicked off the team for an altercation on campus a few weeks ago. More recently, the coach of Texas Tech, their bowl opponent, was fired for mistreating a player who had a concussion. I think both schools should just suit up some of the fans who come to the game and let them play so they can sort out their various team issues.
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