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Flat Top Grill

March 8, 2009 by ·

Having a craving for stir fry, last night I went with friends to an all you can eat stir fry place called Flat Top Grill.  This place is a little different than your typical restaurant.  It’s a build your own dinner type of place.  Very unique and delicious food.  I mean, how could it not be? You get to decide what gets into your dish.  It’s your choice on the type of rice or noodles, vegetables, sauce and meat.  You can design your bowl of food however you choose.

This place looks like they got their act together as it was fully packed with people waiting at the door so they can sit.  Been a long time since I have been to a restaurant that has this kind of business that is not some upscale place with reservation only seating.  It took us 30 minutes to sit down and we had reservations.  Not sure whether they overbooked the place, or had unexpected customers staying too long.  The prices are reasonable, $12.99 for 1 bowl or $14.99 for unlimited.  You can’t go wrong with that!

For my first bowl I did a mix of white rice and yellow noodles. For the veggies I added some broccoli, carrots, pea pods, and a little onions. I stuck with just beef for the meat and a combination of sauces for flavor.  1 scoop of Asian Sesame Ginger, 2 scoops of Teriyaki, and 1 scoop Red Hot Chili Sauce (hot). This was a fantastic combo of sauce for myself.  A little mix of sweet with some hot to spice it up. This combo I will definitely try again.

For my second bowl, I stuck with just white rice, same vegetables and meat, and added some chicken into the mix.  I did another scoop of the Asian Sesame Ginger, a scoop of Peanut and a scoop of Teriyaki.  Not hot sauce this time.  It ended up far too sweet for my tastes, even though I did manage to eat most of it before I was full and stop stuffing myself.

If you planning on making a trip to try out the food, don’t forget to add the blue stick to get the optional pita bread they have. It’s delicious! Heck throw in 2 sticks so you can get to pieces of it :) . They have several different kinds of color sticks that can modify your order.

Overall, I have been there 3 times and have enjoyed it every time.  Two big thumbs up from me. For more information on locations and menu items, visit their website, www.flattopgrill.com

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MacBook Cracked Keyboard / Keypad

March 7, 2009 by ·

So this the second time this has happened to me. The right lower palm area, My MacBook started developing a stupid crack. At the top of the screen, there are stop pads that are about 1 inch long and real thin. Right where those rest on the computer is where the crack is. Only on the right side too which makes no sense. You would think that it would happen to both sides!

Last time I took it in it was fixed under warranty. I remember at the time they told me this was a problem Apple was aware of and that it was common across the entire white plastic based MacBook line of laptops. They had said to me that they were even fixing, for free, laptops that were out of warranty as well.

This time around, the computer is out of warranty so I am hoping for the best. I hope their policy on repairing out of warranty latops hasn’t changed since the last time I brought it in. I have an appointment at the local Apple store to bring in about an hour from the time of this post. I will update this post later in the day with the outcome at the store.

Maybe it’s time to dump this plastic computer and finally upgrade to the MacBook pro I always wanted. Those are all aluminum and will never suffor from this problem. At the time I purchased this computer, I didn’t have the money to pick one up at the time even though I really wanted the larger screen and dedicated graphics that it has.

UPDATE: Went to the Apple store today. It is a known manufacturing defect according to Apple and they will fix all the MacBooks automatically even if the one year warranty has expired or apple care, if you bought it, has expired. While the genuis bar tecg was looking over the computer, he spotted two cracks on the screen bezel. That will get replaced for no charge as well. Parts are on order and I’m waiting for the call to bring it in for service and have those parts swapped. Very cool.

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2009 Pontiac G8 GXP

March 6, 2009 by ·

If only I had the money!  Two weeks ago I was at the annual Chicago auto show drooling at the cool cars there.  Being a G8 owner (I have a 2008 G8 GT), I had to go take a look at the new GXP.  If only it was in my price range…

No one can complain when there’s an LS3 V8 under the hood with a whopping 402-horsepower.  When compared with my car, they changed up the front fascia and rear diffuser, used bigger fog lamps, and added new side and rear badges to denote that the car is the GXP model.  This car also gets an optional 6-speed manual transmission that is not available on the GTs.

Performance wise, there’s no question that this car is a fast ass 4 door machine.  This car will blast off 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds, 0.6 faster than the GT.

In the car, another feature is available that us poor 2008 owners never had either, XM radio factory installed and ready to go if you use it.  Pricing isn’t set in stone, but I figure this car to come in around the $40K area, or about $8-$10K more than the GT.

Filed Under: Cars · Tagged With: , , ,
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