A day of changed plans...and restaurant reviews

April and I were going to travel down to Louisiana to visit her parents today, but Gustav changed our plans. I wasn't so worried about the travel down there. Today is sunny and warm. It was the trip back that had me concerned. The Weather Channel virtually guaranteed a deluge of rain being created in the wake of the mega-ginormous storm. Since I don't like the thought of swimming home, we simply stayed home.
Anywho...since we had no packing, loading, and driving to do, we decided on a cheapy pizza and some hot wings for lunch. I had the pleasure of procuring said food and bringing it home. Smelling the goodness emanating from the boxes made me very ready for lunch to begin. The pizza was what it was...a $6 pizza from Little Caesars, but the wings were a downer. I got them at Wingstop on Prince St. which has been less than impressive the last couple of times we've eaten there. That made me think, "why do I return to places that don't make me happy??"
This train of thought lead to me to remember that I have a blog. A place to reach out and touch the masses. Why don't I share my all-important opinions on local eateries so that others may be enlightened? So here goes:

• Wingstop is not going to be on my list anymore. Their wings were literally dry, stringy, and very, very small today. Unless they improve the quality, they're out.
• Las Palmas (in the new mall) is the best TexMex restaurant in town. The prices are right, the service is efficient, and the food is unsurpassed.
• Smokehouse BBQ is head and shoulders above the competition. The owner has a grandson with health problems. Every year, he does a fundraiser for the Arkansas Children's Hospital. The food is awesome and the servers (even though they are usually college kids) are really good. Eat here.
• Whole Hog BBQ (in the old Shoney's place). I'm mixed on this one. While the food is downright great, the service is non-existant. No one greeted us when we came in. You must carry your own food to your table. That doesn't automatically exclude them from the good list, but they did not have trays, nor did they offer any help. It took me three trips to get all the dishes for our table. No offers to refill drinks, or ask if everything was OK. Eat here, leave no tip.
• Faby's is just plain good. They are located in the shopping center at Dave Ward and Salem. Family owned, good food in good portions, good prices. A little place that you may not have been told about. I've never seen them advertise. Try this place when you want something a little different.
• Gusano's...Hooters girls serving bad pizza. There you go.
• Blackwood's Gyros just remodeled their place in the last year or so. They went from a hole-in-the-wall diner with awesome Greek food to a classy establishment with awesome Greek food. Right off of Harkrider about a block from Oak St.
• Michelangelo's is probably the best Italian place I've ever been to. On April's and my date nights, this is the first place that makes the list, then we decide if we are in the mood for Italian.
• Brick Oven Pizza is like the U.S. Pizza Co. of Conway. Great pizza and fast. Try the Margharita pizza....none better.
• Holly's Country Cookin'. If you have never eaten here, you can't call yourself a resident of Conway (my rule). She's only open for lunch M-F. Get yourself over there and try her cookin'. Put her homemade chocolate pie on top o' yo' head and yo' tongue'll beat yo' brains out tryin' to get to it.

I hope this helps you, the beleagered diner. Your opinions and mine may differ, but remember, you came to me. :)

Happy Bday, Matt!!

Matt!

Happy Birthday, man! We're so glad that you enjoyed the box of goodies. Be sure to keep some of that stuff for yourself; don't let the other guys bum it all. :)

We hope you have a Happy Birthday, and to prove it, here is an attempt at something like a resemblance to a kind of birthday song...

Happy Bday! See you soon.

Kenny Loggins

Some of you may know that my birthday is August 1. April had begun asking me what I wanted for my birthday, but I couldn't really come up with anything, so I told her I would think about it. As I was listening to the radio, a commercial came on for the Kenny Loggins concert. I said, "This is it!" (yes, pun intended for you KL fans).
Fast forward about three weeks, and we are sitting in the rain in Riverfront Park waiting for the concert to start. Just before he goes on, the skies clear and the ponchos come off. Kenny takes the stage, and tells us that he is going to make this one THE concert because of all those who wussed out because of the weather. I have to say, he did. He was on.
Now, all those famous entertainers who are more or less "branded" feel the need to play their new stuff at their concerts. The audience listens politely, simply waiting this part out because the good songs are coming. This was not the case here, even the new stuff was great. I recommend you check out the newer songs here.
OK, so the concert swings to full momentum for "I'm all right" and the lead guitarist is just wailing away...the audience is feeling it...the sound equipment, not so much. During a particularly awesome guitar riff, the speakers make this horrible static sound and half the band ceases to exist (audibly, anyway). The drums and bass are gone, and the guitars lose half their volume. We figure the rain got into the system somewhere and shorted something out. Bummer!!
KL leaves the stage and the audience start chanting for the encore. A roadie comes out and announces the PA problem, and could we please hold on a minute. It should be noted that there has been no "Danger Zone" and no "Footloose" so far. A KL concert without these two? Yup. The sound folks couldn't fix the problem, so that was it. It was over. Except....wait....KL comes back out anyway. He tells us that the only things working are the vocals and the keyboard. He knows that we are ready to riot without hearing something, so he performs a slow (but very well done) song that I have never heard before. I applaud his honor. He knew that the concert was not going to be all it should have been, but he stepped up and performed off the cuff a song that I'm sure they didn't plan to play. It was well done, and I think it helped the audience calm down. He is a truly talented performer. He apologized for what happened and left the stage.

Randy Pausch...an inspiration

As I try to recover from my ever looming head cold, I have been surfing the net trying to entertain my brain. I never know what I'm going to run across while I read random pages from people who see fit to put their thoughts and feelings out there for everyone to peruse.

Tonight I found out that Randy Pausch had died. He died on July 25. He was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over a year ago, and was told that he had 3 to 6 months to live. What made the world take note of him was his "Last Lecture" that he delivered to the CMU graduates last year. Below, you will find a small part of his lecture and part of an interview that he gave...

While his lecture was not notably spiritual in nature, he managed to speak some of the teachings of Jesus anyway. I can only hope that the graduates will take the next step and realize not only what does not bring joy and fulfillment, but Who does.

Sick, sick, sick

I've been lying low on the blogosphere due to my lying down in my bed for the last three days. I've been sick as a dog since Wednesday. After our community group meeting Tuesday night (when I felt just fine), I came home and went to bed a little more tired than usual. The next morning I woke up with the worst head cold I have had since last year. I thought I might be able to make it to work today, but I slept until 10:30am and just couldn't see myself doing it.
I would have attempted it if I had an office job, or could work from home, but I drive pretty much all day. I don't want to put other's lives and well-being in jeopardy just so I don't take a sick day.
Speaking of jeopardy, I found that it's now Teen Tournament week on Jeopardy. I've been watching this morning, and have known most of the "questions." I'm so glad that I can stand toe-to-toe with fifteen year olds at a trivia game. What a boost to my ego!

Say whaaaaat?!?

Out of the mouths of babes. Doesn't Psalm 8 have something to say about this?

Savvy has been in rare form this week. April and I decided to forego the fast food and cheap meals that we so very often eat, and treat our family to a nice dinner at Michelangelo's downtown. I have never had a bad experience there. The food and service are excellent. April had wanted a date night, but we weren't able to find a babysitter, so we brought the little tyke with us. Don't worry, this story ends happily.
Savvy has been very bad about going down for naps recently. She will fight them for everything she's worth. Most of the time, she will just get really cranky, catch a second wind about 8pm, and not want to go to sleep until 10pm. On this night, she couldn't hold out. She fell asleep in the van on the way to the restaurant, and stayed out for the entire dinner. She put her little head down on the table and slept through our ordering, conversing, and eating. We had a date night after all!
We had the most popular table in the place. Servers and patrons alike gave us the "awwwww, she's so cute!" "She's really out." And so on. God bless the sleeping children. She did wake up for desert, so she didn't miss out on everything.
OK, so on to the reason for the title of this post. Tonight, we had just finished eating with my family in Little Rock, celebrating grandma's birthday (79!), and were driving home. On the way, Savvy announced to her proud parents, "I wanna poop really big in somebody's potty."
We got home, she did her business in our potty (she seemed OK with that since she did not specify who "somebody's" potty was), and we began watching Backyardigans before bed. While singing along with the opening song, the words became:
"we've got the whole wide world to explode"
I'm so proud.

Mountain View, AR

The fam and I went to Mountain View for the last few days. Funny thing was, there was no cell signal in our area, but there was Wifi. It didn't matter much since I didn't have time to blog while we were there.

If you have never been to Mountain View, you are missing a treat. It has a really nice town square right in the middle of everything. The Stone County courthouse is literally surrounded by gazebos and restaurants. Every Friday and Saturday night, local musicians come into town and play under the stars.

Even though it was a million degrees, the musicians came out in full force Friday night. I captured a sample on my little digital camera:

It is only about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Conway if you take your time. There are plenty of places to eat and stay, so make a weekend of it sometime. I suggest going when it is a little cooler.