Five Guys Burgers - Good for Obama, Good for Me

I'm out with one of my sales guys today and it's about 1pm and we need to stop for something quick to eat. We were in Carson, CA and my rep suggests Five Guys Burgers. I told him that the place sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. He told me that was the place that President Obama went to in May and ordered a burger.

I looked it up on the Huffington Post and found this excerpt:
"The president ordered a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, jalapeno peppers, and mustard as well as several other cheeseburgers to go." - Rachel Weiner

There are only two locations in southern California. One in Carson and one in Cerritos and apparently, business has been very good. I am a bacon cheeseburger fanatic and this one was top of the line! The beef was of good quality and it had a real piece of bacon on it. The Fries were thick and very good. They also serve peanuts in the shell while you're waiting.

Two thumbs up on this restaurant and I wouldn't be surprised to see more of them popping up in Southern Cal sometime soon. Check it out!

Newspaper Headlines from Across the World

My wife forwarded this site to me and I thought it was very interesting. The site is Newseum, and it is the World's most interactive museum. Just put your mouse on a city anwhere in the world and the headlines for the newspaper pop up. Extremely cool! From there, you can click thru the newspaper or read the pdf version. It starts off with a picture of the United States, but you can also click on different parts of the world and read newspapers from different countries.

What a great way to catch up on what's going on around the world. Check out the paper from places you used to live or explore a little around the world and see what's going on in Argentina!

Funny Toddler Chewing Gum Story

So, I'm in the kitchen with my wife and we're getting lunch ready and our 2 1/2 year old runs in and says, "Mama, I want a drink of water". My wife got him a small plastic cup of water, but was suspicious of his behaviour because he was sticking out his tongue. She inspected his mouth and smelled wintergreen on his breath. She asked him if he was chewing gum and he said yes. Now keep in mind that we do not and have not given our son any gum, but he has seen us chewing it in the house from time to time.
I looked in his mouth to see if it was still in there and it wasn't. I asked him where the gum was and he said, "In the potty." I marched back to the bathroom with him in tow and looked at the closed toilet, nothing. I peeked over to his small portable training potty and the lid was up. I peered inside and at the bottom I found a slightly mangled piece of wintergreen Orbit chewing gum.
My wife and I had a big laugh. We realized that we were extremely lucky because had he picked one of the bubble gum flavors or something tasty, then he would have been all over the gum, but fortunately enough for us, he picked one with a very strong taste. I think we're in the clear for a while when it comes to chewing gum. Now, cookies and cupcakes, another story...

Save Money by Testing Your Internet Speed!

I finally added my home phone line to Charter Communications to get a bundled price. Now I get my home phone, cable, and high speed internet from the same company. When the phone guy came out, he tested the speed of our internet and it was at 2 Mega bytes but we have been paying for 10 Mega bytes for the past couple years. No wonder our internet has been slow.

We went to http://www.speedtest.net/ to verify the connection speed and it was really slow. They dropped a separate line and did some things to increase the speed and now I'm getting what we have been paying for.

My wife called Charter and told them that we have been paying for 10 Meg and have only been getting 2 Meg. They put us on hold for a while and they finally said they would give us some credit. They went back and forth and they finally gave us 1 month free or a $36 credit on our account.

It doesn't hurt to ask!

Spamalot Review - Find Your Grail

My wife and I finally had a date night the other day and we saw Spamalot . For those of you Monty Python lovers, it's a must see. And for those of you who aren't familiar with Monty Python, but want a great laugh, it's a must see.

The musical is based on the original movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail which was made in 1975. The story is a spoof about King Arthur and his knights who are on the search for the holy grail.

We had so much fun and it was great to have some quality time together. I highly recommend this show! It's currently playing at the Ahmonson theater in Los Angeles, CA. Even better, enter the word "Arthur" and you'll get a great discount for tickets!

You can always bargain!

For about one month now our ice maker has been broken. Not ideal when dealing with 100 degree temperatures! We've intended to get it fixed, but time just continued to pass and before we knew it, it was August. We called Sears and was told it would be $70 just to come out and look at the problem. I then went online and scanned the Better Business Bureau for local appliance repair companies. I found one that came out the same day - for $35. Of course, he told us the ice maker was broken and that it would be $280 to fix it. I excused myself for a minute to check out the cost of the parts on line. Found out it was $180, not including shipping. As desperate as I was for an ice cold coke, I said, "all I have is $230" and the repair man said "okay!" I've negotiated before, but not usually that much. Lessoned learned - bargain, bargain, bargain!

New Bicycles equals Good Exercise!

So, for my birthday my lovely wife gave me the best gift ever! A brand new forest green three speed bicycle complete with Dreamer Design Executive Trailer. We have been talking about getting them for years and she finally pulled the trigger and now we all have a bikes.

We went for our first ride last weekend around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes. I was skeptical at first that Max would not go in the carrier, but after putting a kangaroo and a cat in there and a nice refreshing beverage, he was lured into the cave. He was like a king on his throne, just watching the world go by as we cruised around. It was nice to have a few speeds to play with on the bike, especially when we were going up hill. Next time we'll be a little more adventurous and go to the farmer's market or the Rose Bowl for a nice jaunt.

For those of you looking for a nice family activity, I highly recommend getting some bikes. Good times!!!