August 2008

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Progresso Minestrone soup.

August 26, 2008 in Lunch Reviews by MAD | No comments

Microwavable, in the container soup.  The specimen today is Progresso Minestrone.  Which is a Betty Crocker product.

Serving size is 15.x ounces, of which 14.x ounces is broth/water, so it’s not all that filling.    This isn’t a Chunky soup, so maybe my view is a little skewed.  If this is all you have you’ll still be hungry.

Would I eat this again?  If I had too, it’s not my favorite.  But I’d certainly eat it before I’d skip it.  I would willingly try other flavors in the future though.   This small thing of soup contains 930mg of Sodium, which seems like a lot to me.

progresso_microwavesoup

Progresso Minestrone Soup

Category Rating
(1-10) with 10 being the best.		 Notes
Portion Size 6 Overall a decent portion size.  But could be a little better.
Portability 9 Fits fairly well in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.  Nice and compact.
Cookability 9 The time indicated on the box is spot on.  2 Minutes to soup.
Preparation 9 Drop dead simple, pull the lid off, open the can, replace lid.  Zap.  Lid keeps the stuff from blowing up in the Microwave.
Food Quality
*Taste*		 6 I realize taste is subjective, and if you didn’t like Minestrone you wouldn’t buy this.  For me the taste was simply OK.
Over ALL Score 42 out of a possible 50 isn’t just barely tolerable.

Selling Stuff On the Internet.

August 26, 2008 in For Sale, Miscellaneous by MAD | No comments

We’re going to try something new.   No we’re not getting in the e-commerce business per see, but we have some stuff to get rid of.  I’ve spent the last two weekends cleaning out our big barn and I’m only about 20% done.   There’s stuff in there that we’ve had for a long time and is no longer used or needed.

Some of this will go on eBay, some on CraigsList, but for now, we’re going to try and cut out the middleman and see how it goes.

It also looks like I’ll be helping Kyle Jr. part out his dads bike.  Which got me thinking, there has to be a simple and easy way to throw together a simple e-commerce site.  One to publish items for sale, and manage inventory.   When we part out this bike (and other stuff), there’s pretty much only going to be one of everything.  Once it’s sold I want it to just disappear without a lot of head aches or management.

I’m going to give this Wordpress plug-in a go (wp-eccommerce).   

The first item is posted on the products page now, it’s a big spool of electrical cable that we purchased for the barn but didn’t use.  (Long story but the bottom line is it’s left over, and I’m tired of looking at it).

I suspect Claudine will want to post some of our used Home Schooling Curriculum that she no longer uses.

There’s simply no sense in paying eBay fees for stuff like that.    So without further adieu…   Our online store is here:  The Product Listing Page.

Healthy Choice: This aint your mothers meat loaf.

August 25, 2008 in Lunch Reviews by MAD | No comments

These all-in-one meals are tough.   Remove the covering from the ‘desert’, slitting the covering over the meal and/or veggies as required.

They never cook right.  With Healthy Choice meals the desert is always cooked to death to get the main portion cooked right.  Cooking inconsistencies aside, this isn’t too bad.  Would I eat it again?  Sure.

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Healthy Choice – Meatloaf

Category Rating
(1-10) with 10 being the best.		 Notes
Portion Size 7 Overall a decent portion size.  But could be a little better.
Portability 7 Fits fairly well in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.
Cookability 7 The time indicated on the box is spot on for the main course and veggies.  Ruins the desert though.
Preparation 7 Remove covering from desert, slit over meal and veggies.   Removing the covering from the desert whilst not breaking the seal on the other compartments is easier said than done.
Food Quality
*Taste*		 7 I realize taste is subjective, the meatloaf is better than some cafeteria meatloaf I’ve had in the past.  There is certainly cause for speculation that this might not actually be meat.  It’s still edible though and that’s a plus.  Veggies are usually good with these meals.  Desert, is burnt apple mush.
Over ALL Score 35 out of a possible 50 isn’t just barely tolerable.

Lunch and Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers

August 25, 2008 in Lunch Reviews by MAD | No comments

So a while back I wrote about my efforts to lose weight.   Nothing super fancy, more like fixing my diet and eating ‘more right’.  That primarily includes:

Eating breakfast, which makes you hungry for lunch and then not skipping lunch, and then snacking when you’re hungry on good stuff.    Basically getting your metabolism going and no longer starving yourself so your body stores everything it eats.

So far this is working for me.   Its had its up and it’s downs though, Primarily in the ‘Lunch Category’.

When possible, Claudine packs me a lunch of good home-made stuff, a turkey sandwich or a pork roast sandwich.  But when she’s busy, or we haven’t eaten anything the night before that I care to eat again, I get one of those ‘package lunches’.

So far we’ve tried numerous things and I will eventually get around to rating them all so you don’t have to suffer as I have.

First up is the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers…

Far and away these are the most consistent cooking of all the microwave lunch in-a-box type meals.  There is a reasonable portion, and most of them taste pretty good to boot.  

I’ve had the Beef Merlot, Cajun Style Chicken & Shrimp, and the Grilled Whiskey Steak.

They so far have been the only meal that you put in the microwave for the indicated time and they actually cook properly.

So here’s how I’m going to rate this stuff on a scale from 1-10.

Steamers

Cafe Steamers (only applicable to the 3 that I’ve tried thus far).

Category Rating
(1-10) with 10 being the best.		 Notes
Portion Size 8 Overall a decent portion size. 
Portability 8 Fits easily in a small soft sided thermal lunch box.  You still have room for snacks and what-not.
Cookability 10 The time indicated on the box is spot on, in the different microwaves I’ve used.  Very Consistent
Preparation 9 Drop dead simple to cook, open the box, put it in the Microwave.  No poking, or slicing.  When done peel of the top, dump the food into the sauce and eat.  Comes with it’s own bowl* 
Food Quality
*Taste*		 9 So far all have tasted great or better than expected.  I realize taste is subjective, but this is good stuff.  The quality of the meat has been good too, no hard rubbery steak, etc.
Over ALL Score 44 out of a possible 50 isn’t too bad.

Viore TV’s What a shame…

August 20, 2008 in Commentary, Gadgets by MAD | No comments

In November of 2006 we grabbed a Black Friday special…  a 42” Plasma TV for $999.

Brand: VIORE…  There’s plenty of speculation on the Internet as to what this really is under the plastic.

Feature for feature it was a great TV for the price at the time.  Its biggest shortcoming was a single HDMI input.  But again at the time that wasn’t uncommon.  The only complaint was it was really slow switching inputs.

I really enjoyed this TV, it was bright, and sharp.  Colors were good, but it was reflective as hell which made watching TV in the daylight with the windows open troublesome.

16 months later it’s dead as I suspect most VIORE TV’s are.  It also appears that we got more use out of ours than most people did.

Viore as a company is pretty sad.  They don’t answer their phones or return emails.  We had a hell of a time finding someone to service it.   We finally did and the results are in.

It needs two boards replaced:  $200-$300 each, plus labor at an estimated $200.

So: $600 to $800 to repair a TV that we paid $999 for.   That really blows.

I understand it’s pretty expensive to repair just about any TV these days, but this brand should be avoided if at all possible.

The Bengals are dead to me.

August 19, 2008 in Bengals, Cincinnati Sports by MAD | No comments

And I was so looking forward to another 8-8 (more likely 7-9) 2008 season.

Today they Bengals re-signed the king of thugs, Chris Henry…

Why?  I have no idea.   He’s already suspended for the first four games.  I don’t care if TJ or Chad is hurt.  I really don’t.  This is silly. 

Paul Daugherty is 100% right.

“It’s hypocritical, fraudulent and lacks integrity.”

It only proves the following:

  • Mike Brown is an idiot.  Paul Brown is turning in his grave.  While we’ve certainly suspected this for a long time, it’s now a fact.
  • Marvin has absolutely no control, and is a pathological liar. Early this week when the rumors were swirling he said; “Not Interested”.  Marvin’s flat out lied to the press and fans in the past so this really clears it up.   I do leave room for the fact that he personally has no interest, but this only clarifies that he’s powerless.

I highly suspect that he’ll be arrested for something by the 5th game so it won’t really matter.  No other teams were interested or he’d be playing for someone else by now. 

Now who to root for and support this year?  That is the question.

A Day at Kings Island…

August 13, 2008 in Commentary, Family by MAD | No comments

Yesterday I spent the day at Kings Island with Michael.  It was good father/son bonding time.  Especially since he works there currently and I worked there in 80’s.

The weather was perfect, and it was a Tuesday so lines weren’t all that bad.   We were only there from 10am to about 5pm but rode nearly everything we wanted to ride.

The morning started with a dash to the new ride ‘Fire Hawk’…  We would have been about 30th in line, but my son (did I mention he works at KI) didn’t realize he couldn’t take his man-purse on the ride and we had to go back out and put his man-purse in a locker.   This proved to be difficult.  The part about putting in your 3 quarters, turning the key and PULLING IT OUT, wasn’t easy for Michael to grasp, but he finally figured it out.

This put us about 120th in line for Fire Hawk, which given the day was no big deal.  That was until the dang thing broke down when we were about 20 minutes from getting on.   So our first wait in line was well over an hour when it should have been 20 minutes.

From there we headed to Flight of Fear, the indoor ‘Space mountain’ like coaster.  Again, lines were reasonable, but again something broke as the line stood still for 30 minutes.

For those of you not familiar with Flight of Fear, they wind you through ‘Hangar 18’ and through a space ship model.   The entertainment factor for this ride while in line used to be fairly impressive with lights, some smoke around the thing, monitors everywhere with technicians detecting some paranormal activity.   All of this stuff was gone or busted.  The monitors were there, some playing the video.  No lights, no sound but what really bothered me was simply how filthy the place was.   I mean, if they’ve dusted any of the displays stuff in the last 5 years, you couldn’t tell.

So back in the day, when I worked at K.I.  Cleanliness was paramount, right behind rider safety.   There is no way in hell the management team of the 80’s would have stood for this.  Honestly I was hugely disappointed.  did it affect the ride?  No, but the experience was tarnished quite heavily.

From there we headed to go ‘Sling Shot’ where the put you in a ball, and sling shot you up into the air.  Early bird pricing was a mere $5 a ride.  But, the ride had just broken a spring.  What Michael tells me is a daily event, and the video that records you as you do this is broken (also a daily event).

Again…  This wouldn’t happen in the 80’s.  But we got our tickets and would come back when it’s working again.

It was time to eat something, so we headed to Oktoberfest, and the fest haus which while it’s still the German Fest Haus, now has a ‘country bar’ theme which makes no sense.

The very best deal in the park…  It’s not advertised anywhere that I could find, but if you ask for it they will sell you a wrist band for $9.00 that gets you unlimited 20 oz drinks.  Any vendor that sell fountain pop will just hand you what ever you want.   With a 20oz costing $3.49, you only need to drink 2.5 to break even.   You do have to ask for this though.

After a drink and a couple slices of Larossa’s Pizza we headed over to the Drop Zone, no wait it’s now ‘Drop Tower’…  Which is another thing that bothers the hell out of me.   I understand Paramount had a number of ‘themed’  rides based on movies, so for the licensing was no big deal.  But when they sold the park and the rides they should have granted some perpetual use for existing rides. 

From there we headed to Top Gun, no wait, it’s now Flight Deck.  Again, the pre-ride presentations that used to be there, the Top Gun music, the air craft carrier radio banter, etc, were all missing.  The Queue used to wind through the loading deck like you were in an air-craft carrier going up to the top to ride a jet.   No more.  All gone, and not very exciting.   I suspect this ride is on it’s last legs and will be replaced soon.

From Flight Deck we moved on to Face Off, no wait, it’s now called Invertigo.  Again, outside of the actual queue lines, the ride was a mess.  Trash, dust, crap everywhere.   This ride can be brutal, as your head bangs into the restraints.   Not good.

We passed on the ride formerly know as “The Italian job”, now the Backlot Stunt Coaster.  (Who the hell thought up these names anyway…   That’s pretty weak.   The ride only handled like 8 folks at a clip and even though the lines were relatively short, didn’t think it was worth the effort.

We wandered around, and I was mentally comparing what used to be where when I worked there.   The lake is gone, that’s where the new coaster is being built.  The Antique cars are also gone, that’s where the Stunt coaster and a few other minor things are now located.   I’m not sure when they disappeared.   We passed on the Vortex, I’ve ridden that in the past enough.

We then hit Tomb Raider, no wait, that’s now the Crypt…  If you haven’t ridden this, it’s well worth it.  Again the presentation leading up to the ride was lacking.   Skeletons missing parts and pieces, I realize park patrons tear stuff up, but things were obviously missing and vandalized as well as very dirty.   Inside the ride is dark, but it appear there are things that you should see.  Maybe some lights burned out? I don’t really know.

This ride did really mess with me though, so did Flight of Fear…  I don’t know if it was the darkness, but my inner ear was jacked after both of these rides.   It didn’t use to be that way.   So we slowly wandered back to the Action Zone.  Michael wanted to see me fail at the rope ladder.  He works games and this is one of the games he takes care of when he’s working.   Of course he knew I’d make a fool of myself but that was worth $5 to him.

After that we got our turn a Sling Shot.  It was good, well worth $5 but the Sky Flier is much better in my opinion.

A few more drinks and a pretzel later and we decided we’d had enough.   Still good value for the price of admission.  ($30).   But I was disappointed in the overall cleanliness of the park.   I hope someone from KI reads this.