Omaha Firsts

When in Rome...

Never had a lime version, it's alright...more flavor than the original I spose. 

UNO Hockey at the Century Link in Omaha. 

This made up for the can of lime-flavored beer. Great taps and bottles from beer all over the world, nice people too. 

I guess everything comes in 25oz. "American" cans now...even Japanese beers. 

Did not disappoint. 

Damn good cakes...and who doesn't like a business name with a pun?

Contender for America's Best Sandwich

The Pork Tenderloin at Barrett's in Omaha, NE. 

It's better than it looks. 

All aboard!!! Choo Choo Restaurant, Loretto, MN

If you want a taste of Americana in the heart of not-so-far-from-the-city rural Minnesota, think about heading out to the Choo Choo. It seems like it's an institution and been there forever, probably because even their wings are 45yrs old. They have a good bar and full bar food menu. They're famous for wings and after having a half-dozen, I agree...thought I would get one or more sauces next time. 

This place pulls in the range of people from the towns nearby, old dudes, families, and folks like yours truly, which gives plenty of people watching, like any good bar should have. 

Unique place, nice service, and solid evening out in rural America. 

Derby Night Done Right

Tanpopo Noodle Shop, St. Paul, MN

Wow, what a cool, hidden gem. And that's not to say it's hidden from everyone, but I'd bet from the majority. Reason being, if the majority knew about this very modest space, shared in a building with artist spaces and a coffee house, it'd be way bigger and way busier. Frankly though, part of the charm is being an out-of-the-way place (for quisine in MN) in an out-of-the-way location. 

Although on inspection they are a Japanese restaurant serving all kinds of foods, like sushi, sashimi, tempura, etc. , the word "noodle" is in their name and that's what drew me in. A quick web check has them listing two famous noodle varieties, if a noodle can be famous:

Soba (buckwheat flour)

and Udon (wheat flour)

They have daily specials

But on a chilly winter into spring evening, I wanted a bowl of boiling hot broth and fresh noodles. Dining solo, I had plenty of time to choose a beer 

from a brewery I'd never heard of, Hitachino... Japanese no less, and was delicious too. 

I could take my time on the menu, finding and settling on kimchi nabe, which I recognize as having a Korean influence, though maybe kimchi is more universal than I think?

They also did me a solid with my order and wouldn't let me, or strongly suggested not to, order soba noodles with the dish. They said the soba would disintegrate in the hot broth. So, I chose udon in the broth and had a side of soba just to get a taste. Both were awesome noodles. The fixins in the broth were also very well done. All in all, I had a great meal and left feeling like I found a hidden gem. That's a good feeling...plus the full tummy feeling too. 

Grand Ole Creamery & Pizza, St. Paul, MN

Though I'd been in to this ice cream shop before, I don't think I've done a post. 

This is a great old-school ice cream shop, including water in the back and old-timey stuff on the walls. 

Even after inhaling a Juicy Lucy and fries, I couldn't say no to Marshmallow Man and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Wow, delicious. Go, go now. 

Shamrocks/The Nook, St. Paul, MN

This post could also run with either of these two subtitles:

- OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FRIGGIN' GOOD!!!

or

- FINALLY. WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG?!?!

After an epic fail to have my first juicy Lucy burger at St. Paul's Blue Door Pub (100% their fault), just last night I was able to have a no-chance-of-fail attempt at Shamrocks Pub, which is owned by and serves the menu from The Nook. 

I can confidently say that this burger, their Juicy Nookie, was well worth the wait, even after five years. The only regret is not having gone here sooner. That's my own fault. 

I had an expert Lucy eater with me and he steered me in the right direction for ordering, side choice (get the sweet potato fries - like crack!), and even eating technique. 

In spite of the advice, the Juicy Lucy got all over the bun, plate and my hands. But, I did avoid scalding my mouth with liquid hot magma cheese. 

It tastes even better than it looks. If I'd ordered two at once, I would have gladly eaten both in one sitting. 

It truly is friggin' awesome. If you never had one, go now. If you've already had one, go get another...it's been a long winter. 

Note: Shamrocks was a cool, broken in Irish pub. A definite contender for any St. Pat's Day shenanigans you might be getting into. 

Bike (Re)Build, Salsa El Mariachi Ti

What's missing?

Just Takin my Svenska Quiz

Red Wing Brewery, Red Wing, MN

A small adventure day requires a place to take a load off, decompress, and have a good beer (root or otherwise). We found this 15 month old resurrected brewery name down near the water of the mighty Mississippi. 

This new brew place has a max capacity capacity of 49 people, so it should never feel too packed, but the compact, light industrial space is filled with all manner of Red Wing brewing history. This artwork and history makes the space. 

The beer and pizza menus finish off the place. Be prepared to wait a bit for your pizza, perhaps filling the wait time with more beer? You can also get to-go growlers of anything on tap, including their very good rootbeer. We had that "beer" plus their fully leaded porter and stout. All of them were delicious, esp after an ambitious and somewhat white-knuckle drive on twisty snowy WI side roads...you got me this time Google Maps.

Two suggestions for upping their game or watch out for if you go - 

1. Watch the ingredient mix on the calzones. Ours had way too much ricotta and not enough of the ingredients we'd chosen. The crust and side of marinara were great though.

2. Service norms - while the crew is very friendly and helpful, they are missing some speed in the kitchen and what now seems like a ubiquitous POS system. They hand write checks then tally totals and taxes on a calculator. iPads aren't that pricey and a plug-in credit card reader can be bought at Target for $10 (like one from Square). 

Guest Pic, Hager City, WI

Found this gem of a small town bridge going from Hager City, WI to Red Wing, MN. Kinda sketchy roads this trip, but we could clearly see it could be a cool day-trip in the summer. 

 

Blog All Time Stats

For a long time I've used a free service called Stat Counter to count all manner of stat-related things on this blog. It really is informative, and somewhat scary, to see how much data is collected on all the people that visit. I can get right down to country, city, and ISP information.

I'm also now more familiar with the Google and its stat counter. I thought it would be interesting to see how the two compare. This is for the life of the ole blog...

From StatCounter:

 

 From Google:

 

In total, only a difference of 4,000 views. Those could be my own views alone... maybe. With this post, I'll be at 698 in total, over the 6 years I've been writing. Maybe that's not that many in the grand scheme of things, meh. What I also found interesting above is which posts had the most views all time. Clearly people are still finding the ones about the University of Texas, Japan, a horribly good MPLS dive-bar called the Red Dragon, and a great transportation museum in Omaha, the Durham. They were written so long ago, maybe posts get more popular as they age, gaining views and search results placement.

 

I'll stop rambling now - thanks for all the page views.

Maybe don't use this as your main dating profile photo.

I think it's a pretty universal truth that people visiting dating sites categorize others with intuition and experience. I think flattering pictures actually help people see beyond the cover, giving them time to peek inside the book. 

To that end, there may be some simple ways to get a leg up. Below isn't an exhaustive list, nor would I say they are absolutes, maybe someone has a good reason for making their main profile pic include a lizard (yet to see that actually). I also realize you may be trying to attract a certain/different kind of man. Good luck, but read below just the same.

I wouldn't make any of the below your main profile pic:

- you holding more than one drink (aka double-fisting)...at least not in my age bracket

- you posing with something dead that you've just killed

- you with a cat... ok, more than one cat

- you with a little teeny dog. Even just one. There's only one kind of woman that wants the kind of dog you can carry in leather luggage

- you with a random dude with your arms around him, face blacked out or not. Don't make us think of you with other guys...we don't know who they are just by seeing the pic

- you in zombie make-up...unless it's professionally done or just before Halloween

- you in a dark elf costume, including pitch black face and body makeup. There must be a dedicated dating site for that, or a support group

- you almost naked...why don't you leave something more to the imagination? We get it though, you like getting down. News flash - everyone does

- you on a bed, see above

- you with only your eyes/top of head/forehead/legs/cleavage showing. If it goes well, we'll see all of you eventually. Might as well start strong, start with all of you...or a nice headshot

- someone that isn't you. Duh 

- you in an amazingly hard yoga pose. You can impress me with your yoga prowess over a drink

- a sideways pic. You can't straighten an image file, really? How will you locate a bar for a first date?

- no pic at all... are you in witness protection? Do you work as a private investigator? Are you on the FBI's Most Wanted list? Maybe. And I'd guess your  job isn't that important. You aren't a spy, are you? ...if you can reveal that info. If none of the above, just post a pic of yourself 

I've seen everything above and presume people dismiss the profile immediately. Personally, I look for someone to date and hopefully more. It's slightly insulting to see someone's first introduction of themselves taken as a boast, goof, gaff, or outright lie. Not only that, but you have nine other photo slots to fill that aren't your main profile pic. Fill 'em up with all your pet/body/yoga/sideways shots, just not the first one. 

So join us - We all take a risk by making a real profile, main pic included. You might just be surprised by the results. 

Note: while I view female profiles, an astute reader has confirmed that male profile pics can be just as "creative"... probably worse.

Guest Pic, A Minnesota winter captured in one pic

This is a guest photo that the photographer enhanced with Instagram.