The Porch in Vernal

There is a new joint to eat in Vernal called “The Porch”. For the locals, it’s the new place that is occupying where “The Red Onion Grill” used to be. I was told this was “Cajun Food”, but it’s not. It’s “Southern Food”, and that’s not a bad thing, but it’s not Cajun. However they tried a couple Cajun things. Such as the Gumbo. Then a Po-Boy sandwich.
Let’s give you the run down. 20 minute wait to sit down, 30 minutes until food arrived. I ordered a cup of Gumbo and their Shrimp Po-Boy.
It was a tasty sausage soup… but it wasn’t Gumbo.
The sandwich though… Let’s just say that when it landed on the table, Jer, across the table looked at it and said, “Dude, I’m sorry.” It was an Embryonic Po-Boy… One that if it was left to come full term, could have grown into a Po-Boy, but as it was, it was just a sandwich. With 5 shrimp on bread not much bigger than Golden Coral’s dinner rolls.
A. This sandwich was 15 bucks. B. It wasn’t a Po-Boy.
It was a tasty sandwich if I had just ordered a 4 dollar shrimp sandwich. But I didn’t. I ordered a 15 dollar mother of all sandwiches called a “Po-Boy.” If you don’t know what that is… Watch this.   It’s huge.  It’s over-stuffed.  Normal humans usually can’t finish one in a single sitting.  You order one and you take half of it home with you – THAT is a Po-Boy.  That’s what I paid for.  But that’s not what I got.  And the last time I had a real Po-Boy, it was 7 bucks and they kept the drinks topped off without question.  5 Shrimps… Five.  WTF is that?  3 bucks per small undersized and overcooked shrimp.

So I left “THE PORCH” having dropped 23 bucks and the only real thing I got that I had ordered was the Sweet Tea.  They made a good Sweet Tea.

Now, I can cut The Porch some slack for being slow.  They were busy.  But the prices and the portion size don’t line up.  Dan ordered a Rib Eye.  It was half fat and gristle.  Fenris had a Shrimp stew, which looked just like the Gumbo but with more rice.  Jer had a big bowl of Gumbo… but again… it wasn’t Gumbo.  It was Soup.  Soup and Gumbo are two different things.  Gumbo is freaking Gumbo.  Saying Gumbo is Soup is like saying Chilli is Soup too.  This will get you a beating in some places.

Anyways… yeah… I’m not going back to The Porch.  If they don’t know what a Po-Boy is… and had the audacity to charge 15 bucks for it… No.  Not ever again.  This makes me said as I really wanted to like this place.  I went in excited about this place.  The disappointment was staggering.

 

The SIG ACP arrived.

Unfortunately the adapter clamp wasn’t in the kit, so I can use it yet.  But within moments of the ACP’s arrival, and my mentioning of this… SIG already has it on the way.
First impressions:
Yeah, its cool.  If fact, I am not sure that SIG is going to get this unit back.  I may have to buy it from them.

I suck.

I called a friend the other day and his response was “Dude, you have never called me before… What’s wrong?”
Huh.  Really? This has been bothering me ever since our conversation.
I guess what is wrong is that I’ve never called him before. We’ve been friends for over a decade… talk online all the time… but that’s not the same… its not really talking.  Its sad because I consider him a brother.  I suck.
And another friend… I only see when I need to crash at his place.  Damn it… I really suck.
I have good friends, but I am not a good friend.
I need to work on this.

Any of my friends are cool to call me any time. If I can’t talk, I’ll call you back the instant I can. You don’t need to leave a message, I’ll return the call. You can send text messages. Now, if you call, and I answer, but you only hear wind… I’m on my bike with my ear buds in and I can hear you… probably… and when I stop… I’ll call you back.

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet.

I got one tonight.  I’m geeking out about this thing. 
Quad core processor, 16 gigs, 7” screen, Wi-Fi, thin and light.
The Android OS is cool too.  See, I’m running Droid on my phone… I got all my apps and stuff… its all set up.
Now, when I started up the Nexus 7, I signed into Google and within seconds I had all my apps, pictures, everything.  Just like my phone.  And thanks to G-Drive and Cloud… I have all my Docs and Music.  Bam.  Just like that.
250 bucks.

Monday’s Motorcycle: Kawasaki ZX10R

The Bike of the Week this time around is the Kawasaki ZX10R.  Another one from The Big Green.  Unlike my ZX11, which is aimed for “Sport Touring”, the ZX10R is pure sport.  The differences are in Rider Position, Engine Tuning, and Suspension geometry and settings.  It’s a completely different animal.  Like a Ford Escort is almost completely unrelated to the Mustang GT.  This bike is all about Aggression.  Speed and handling.  This thing is a monster.

We have a small group that watches a couple motorcycle races every few weeks.  Primarily we really only pay attention to the Liter Class Wars.  We’ve noticed a distinct trend.  The first handful of laps are always led by the Kawasaki ZX10R.  After about the 5th lap or so, the Ninja starts to drop back a few positions… and usually ends up coming in 7th place or something.  However, the last time the Ninja stayed up front  all the way to the Almost End.

I say “Almost End” because in the last lap, that damned Messerschmidt Pilot tucked in to the Ninja’s 6 O’Clock and in the last few corners… gunned him down in Cold Blood… Passed him and took the race.  It was something the BMW Pilots have been doing to Honda, Aprilia, freaking everyone.  What’s different this time though is that the Ninja was finally leading, and he did so by a good long margin.  It really came down to not the bike, but Tire Selection.  Looks like they finally found the right one.  Now if someone could just sabotage the BMW’s, they might win!

Outside of Racing, the ZX10R remains a fantastic street bike.  According to Motorcyclist Magazine, if you want the Best Liter Bike you can buy – that’s not the BMW – then it’s the Ninja.  It’s got more than a huge following… It’s one of the best selling Liter Bikes out there.  This bike doesn’t have any new huge advances in technology, just an evolution of everything Kawasaki has been doing right since the move Top Gun.

Oh, and yes, Maverick is a fucking Squid.

Continue reading Monday’s Motorcycle: Kawasaki ZX10R

I like my AR again.

My AR has been bugging the hell out of me.  The thing was heavy as hell.  No, seriously, we’re talking at AR-15 Carbine that weighed more than a Springfield M1A National Match or a SOCOM II.  It just weighed a friggen ton.

Here’s what it looks like now.

Much better.

The parts I took off were really not all that heavy to be honest.  The Surefire Rails, Weapon Light Mount and Light, the Rail Covers, Tango Down VFG, and the VLTOR Stock.  It’s just that the MOE stuff with a Pistol type Weapon Light are much lighter.  The problem though really stems from the fact that my AR has Rhinemetal 120mm barrel on it off an M1 Abrams.  Or so it feels like that.  Even stripped, it was still a touch heavier than an M1A Standard Synthetic.   My Take Offs on a normal gun would be just fine.  But that’s not the AR I have.  Mine is a freaking Tank.

Anyone want the goodies I took off the gun?

Not shown is the VLTOR stock.

The Surefire Rails are “Mid-Length”, not Carbine or Rifle.  Who wants to make an offer on the parts?  I take Cash in Person or PayPal and I’ll ship it to you.  I’d like to start the bidding at a hundred bucks.

Open Letter to the Gun Industry

Please for the love of all that is holy… Stop using cheap Styrofoam in your packaging.  Use better quality stuff.  Remington uses some, but it’s denser and generally problem free.

Here’s a Winchester.

This was a Shotgun and the area where the barrel’s gas ring was chewed the foam up during shipping.  This caused little foam bits to be all over the gun.  Not too bad but I hate cleaning brand new guns after just opening up a box.  Even when a little bit comes apart… it quickly becomes a mess.

Here’s a Stoeger.

This was just ridiculous.  That stuff was freaking everywhere and it had collected some static so it stuck to everything and fought being wiped off.  It took some time to get it cleaned out.  But for weeks after we would still pull foam bits out from inside parts.  External, Internal… just a train wreck.

Not gives a customer confidence in a product they have just purchased, when we open the box up and it looks like that.    There has got to be a better way.  Eh?

ZX-11 Update

This last weekend the trip to SLC on the bike was both good and bad.
The bad was because if my knee.  The tendon took a couple minutes to stretch back out.  This meant when I came to a stop, I could only put down my right foot.
That’s not good.  If I tipped to the left, I’d have gone down because I had nothing to stop it.
Once I was rolling though, it was smooth sailing.  The bike loves to cruise.  It ran flawlessly and turned in 48 mpg.  I topped off in Lapoint and didn’t have to gas up again untill I was well into SLC.
On my Magna or Superhawk, I’d have refilled twice more. I’ve never had a bike with this much range.
I couldn’t be happier with the Kawasaki.

Mark Your Calendars

Saturday, August 25th, is Basin Sports Factory Range Day.
This isn’t a Gun Show, It’s a Gun Try.
Come out and try a bunch of new guns!
No rental fees, range fees… You only buy the ammo for what you want to try out.
Don’t miss this!

Crusader Contest

I have a couple Crusader Jackets here at Ogre Ranch.  Joe gave them to me to pretty much do with what I want.  Wear them… give them to my kids…

But I think I’ll put them to better use.  Slipstream sales have slacked off… that’s the problem with making a product that the more someone uses, the less they need.

So I am looking for people to start Dealer Programs or to get your local gun dealer to carry Slipstream.  If you can start your local dealer carrying Slipstream, I will send you one of these jackets.  Say, the first 3 will get jackets, and the last one will go into a drawing for those after the first three.

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