So I went to The Melting Pot a few weeks ago with my Lovely for the first time. We went to the one closest to us at 11023 Montgomery Road in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a random, non planned trip so we did a little research online. We ended up placing our reservation online at OpenTable.com. As I said it was a random trip out there and we were able to set our time on the website for our reservations. I have to say the OpenTable.com website is very easy to use, and a great idea. I would like to see more companies using it.
When we got there they had us sat with in 3-5 minutes. I was expecting more of a wait even with placing our reservation. We got sat and were given a few minutes. By the time we figure out what we wanted to drink the server was at our table educating us on the menu and making suggestions. I knew what drink I wanted based off of a friend's suggestion (Ying-Yang). It was just as delicious as it looked in the menu.
She brought back our drinks a few minute later after dropping off waters (didn't even have to ask for them!). She further explained the menu and their highlighted/special promotion they had going on. She suggested the dinner for two for $88 special as this was my first trip. It came with the appetizer fondue; which we choose the cheddar cheese fondue. It came with all types of healthy items to dip into the fondue.
Second course was our salads that we each got. I was happy with their ceasur salad as they put a lot of dressing on it (just how I like it). The house salad looked good also with their ranch dressing. My sampling proved it's appearance to be correct.
Third course being the main entree was a plate full of various meats. Coming out to the table they bring out a broth, and throw in potatoes, broccoli, and ravioli since they take longer to cook. Our plate was piled full of 3 types of steak, lobster, shrimps, and chicken. It surprised me when it came out raw as I have never been to a fondue place it. Our waitress put the vegetable in to cook for us, and told us that we would need to cook our meal 3-5 minutes for each piece. Everything turned out perfect with her cooking instructions. There was more than enough of a meal for two. I ended up getting stuck with my half plus a little more. That was fine with me as I was able to be rolled out the front door when done.
The Dessert.... It was a chocolate and nutty peanut butter mix with a plate full of rice crispy treats, brownies, pound cake, cheese cake, strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows. As with the rest of the meal this was delicious.
After all the eating, and filling up it was check time which is normally the worse part of the meal. This was no different but there was a small upside. When the waitress brought me our check she mentioned that another table gave her a gift card they couldn't use for $25 off of your meal for two. She said it was something they got restaurants.com and they could only use one of the two they had. It was a nice surprised and added to her tip. After discount, and tip we still spent a little over $100 for the meal. My own impression from the value to quality was that it was a little over priced (especially if we didn't have that coupon). I guess that is why this restaurant would be one of twice a year location for special events, and not a normal weekend place.
Let me know what you think if you have been there before, or leave a suggestion of a great new place to tray!
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Burnout
The Burnout it's happening with everyone at the start of a new month. In my last two jobs I've experience it, and seen it hit hard with people.
My last job at Cincinnati Bell, we had to earn commission to get paid. So the last few days of the month could make or break you. At the end of the month you were always "thirsty" for a few more dollars of commission for that following check. Which the thirst everyone had at the end of the month killed people start to the month. This also happened to me, just like everyone else in the stores that I worked at. It's kind of like you try to run at full speed all month, and then try to push a little more at the end. It ends up in exhaustion, and irritation. And hopefully it also ends up in you getting where you need to be, or where you wanted to be.
Now with my new job I am noticing this happening again. I really think it's contagious. We cruise all month long, and then at the very end we have crunch time, power hours, and intent of pushing ourselves into exhaustion. Which is great, and looks good on the board. But the following month we're burnt out, and not ready to do it again. So our numbers start out bad, and we get a message the first week from our Lead about how we need to step it up. Luckily enough this has not happen to me up until the last 2 months. Now it's happening to me and that is why I think it's contagious. My numbers will always be made but I hope that I can break the cycle that I'm getting sucked into.
It happened to me at my last job, and it was so annoying. This job I like, and I'm not going let it annoy me. I'm wondering how many other people have this issue? I really should not be complaining as I do have a great job, and a perfect employer.
Just to brag how great my place of employment is because I do not want to appear to be unhappy in my position, or not thankful for it. As a first year employee I got 2 weeks of vacation, and was able to buy a 3rd week of vacation. They give me every benefit under the sun, even if it is sorta expensive in my own opinion. They take out medical deductions pre-tax under cafeteria laws (I think that is what they are called). So that saves a little money but it not being taken after taxes. They pay us for 15 holidays; one of them being a personal holiday we get to pick to use like a vacation day. They pay us for one full day of work to volunteer anywhere we want. Which a lot of people use to go to their children's field trips or class room parties. They allow us to be tardy 15 times a year without being punished. At 4 years you get another week of vacation, at 10 years you get two more week (5 weeks given, six if you buy it). They also do 401k which they currently match 4% of my pay at %50, which used to be 5% at 100%. Due to the economy they cut that back instead of firing people, and have the intent of giving it back. Also when time were really bad they didn't lay people off, but they did cut everyone's hours/saleries down to 37.5 hours.
Now that I am done bragging, and pointing out the burn out it's time to go!
See-ya,
Eric N Cincy
My last job at Cincinnati Bell, we had to earn commission to get paid. So the last few days of the month could make or break you. At the end of the month you were always "thirsty" for a few more dollars of commission for that following check. Which the thirst everyone had at the end of the month killed people start to the month. This also happened to me, just like everyone else in the stores that I worked at. It's kind of like you try to run at full speed all month, and then try to push a little more at the end. It ends up in exhaustion, and irritation. And hopefully it also ends up in you getting where you need to be, or where you wanted to be.
Now with my new job I am noticing this happening again. I really think it's contagious. We cruise all month long, and then at the very end we have crunch time, power hours, and intent of pushing ourselves into exhaustion. Which is great, and looks good on the board. But the following month we're burnt out, and not ready to do it again. So our numbers start out bad, and we get a message the first week from our Lead about how we need to step it up. Luckily enough this has not happen to me up until the last 2 months. Now it's happening to me and that is why I think it's contagious. My numbers will always be made but I hope that I can break the cycle that I'm getting sucked into.
It happened to me at my last job, and it was so annoying. This job I like, and I'm not going let it annoy me. I'm wondering how many other people have this issue? I really should not be complaining as I do have a great job, and a perfect employer.
Just to brag how great my place of employment is because I do not want to appear to be unhappy in my position, or not thankful for it. As a first year employee I got 2 weeks of vacation, and was able to buy a 3rd week of vacation. They give me every benefit under the sun, even if it is sorta expensive in my own opinion. They take out medical deductions pre-tax under cafeteria laws (I think that is what they are called). So that saves a little money but it not being taken after taxes. They pay us for 15 holidays; one of them being a personal holiday we get to pick to use like a vacation day. They pay us for one full day of work to volunteer anywhere we want. Which a lot of people use to go to their children's field trips or class room parties. They allow us to be tardy 15 times a year without being punished. At 4 years you get another week of vacation, at 10 years you get two more week (5 weeks given, six if you buy it). They also do 401k which they currently match 4% of my pay at %50, which used to be 5% at 100%. Due to the economy they cut that back instead of firing people, and have the intent of giving it back. Also when time were really bad they didn't lay people off, but they did cut everyone's hours/saleries down to 37.5 hours.
Now that I am done bragging, and pointing out the burn out it's time to go!
See-ya,
Eric N Cincy
Monday, August 31, 2009
Digsby!
I have been using Digsby as soon as I could get my hands on it. Which was probably about a year ago. I have fallen in love with it.
The program used to be extremely slow loading, and running with lag when you would use alt/tab to move through various programs. Digsby would just hang, or lag when putting up an Instant Message, or the main list window.
Now I have like 3 screen names that I have used growing up that I should probably delete, and get rid of, but just can't bring myself to do it. What is that one person I've been waiting to hear from whats to get hold of me via that deleted screen name. It does a very nice job putting all three names, and organizing all of my buddies into one list. It took a little work on my behalf but it was well worth it now never needing anymore work.
The next thing is it keeps and eye on my various social networks. It takes Facebook stalking to a whole new level. It tells me when people change status, logs in, loads pictures or has a new wall post. With this information go set up your Facebook, or myspace account and stalk that ex of yours! She wont mind, I promise she'll friend you!
And finally it also will keep an eye on your email accounts. I, myself purfur to use the Modzilla ThunderBird program for mail. It makes me feel more organized. As I can't say how well the email portion works on a day to day usage it did appear very well done the time I was messing with it for a day.
I would suggest the program to anyone that is on their computer, and wanting to stay connected. It's got a pretty interface, and is becoming more and more efficient. I leave it on 24/7 and never really experiences any troubles at all.
You can head over to www.digsby.com to download, and try!
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
The program used to be extremely slow loading, and running with lag when you would use alt/tab to move through various programs. Digsby would just hang, or lag when putting up an Instant Message, or the main list window.
Now I have like 3 screen names that I have used growing up that I should probably delete, and get rid of, but just can't bring myself to do it. What is that one person I've been waiting to hear from whats to get hold of me via that deleted screen name. It does a very nice job putting all three names, and organizing all of my buddies into one list. It took a little work on my behalf but it was well worth it now never needing anymore work.
The next thing is it keeps and eye on my various social networks. It takes Facebook stalking to a whole new level. It tells me when people change status, logs in, loads pictures or has a new wall post. With this information go set up your Facebook, or myspace account and stalk that ex of yours! She wont mind, I promise she'll friend you!
And finally it also will keep an eye on your email accounts. I, myself purfur to use the Modzilla ThunderBird program for mail. It makes me feel more organized. As I can't say how well the email portion works on a day to day usage it did appear very well done the time I was messing with it for a day.
I would suggest the program to anyone that is on their computer, and wanting to stay connected. It's got a pretty interface, and is becoming more and more efficient. I leave it on 24/7 and never really experiences any troubles at all.
You can head over to www.digsby.com to download, and try!
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
Friday, July 31, 2009
Love, Lust, and Laptops....
Catchy Title Huh? Well I just wanted to share that I have purchased a new lap top. Its a HP Pavilion dv7. I was a little iffy about buying anything with HP on it. As I've always had friends with issues. So we'll see how this laptop treats me.
It's very nice, and loaded I suppose for a lap top. I have to say that I'm surprised by the amount of thinking it does for a new laptop. I guess I'm just used to getting beefy desktops and they never have thinking when you first put them to use. I haven't had the chance to really test the system.
It does have a blu-ray player which would be nicer if I didn't already have a Playstation 3. I have though used it once so far watching Talladega Nights in bed. The quality of the video was what it should have been. The sounds quality was pretty nice for a laptop. It does have much better video, and sound quality compared to the Dell Inspiron that my mother owns.
The 500 gigbyte hard drive is only 5,600 rpm which I'm sure will be an issue for running Everquest or other hard drive intensive games. Out of the box your hard drive is 451gigs, and a recover partition of 12gigs. What oh what happened to those other 37gigs. Maybe I'm showing how little I know about computers there! I know you always loose memory but I never expected that much.
I am impress with the quality of wireless. It seems like I can take it a lot further than the Dell laptop and it will have a stronger connection. I haven't had any trouble connecting it to my, or the neighbor wireless.
I do however wish that I had a choice of colors on the outer shell. It looks nice in the grey/silver. But the silver keys do make it hard to sometimes see what I'm looking for. Luckily I can type without that but the additional key (home, end, page up, page down, insert, delete as examples) are in much different than on a normal keyboard. I do like still having the number pad on the laptop. Which is nice for gaming. I also don't like seeing my finger prints all over the keys, and mouse pad. Also this laptop does come with a flash light built into the back side of the monitor. It lights up with a HP symbol. Can I sell that space for advertising?
It has enough ports to keep me busy filling them up for a while. A few usb, hdmi, and various others that I will probably not ever use. Also it came with a snazzy little remote. It didn't seem very good the other night when I was using it from 5 feet away. Maybe I just was aiming in the wrong spot, but if that is so it would be picky which is a downer.
Maybe one day I will find the need for a webcam. And when I do I will already have it with my laptop! I did however play with it the other day, and it has a lot of different options that can be changed. Filters, popping balloons, and various other stuff that will distract you from what I'm doing.
So my first gaming experience on my new Pavilion dv7 was a struggle. What game you might ask? Well I felt like playing some old school robot world domination, Total Annihilation. After trying to find the game for an hour I got back to my desktop to turn off the music, and move to murder of the Arm forces. It didn't take long to install Total Annihilation at all. But when I tried to install the expansion, The Core Contingency the ever so loving Windows Vista told me that it couldn't install this. I searched the web for a little looking for answers and found out that many other people have the same issue. Hello Micro$oft, I never had problem loading this software on XP. You might want to think about people playing old games, as I'm sure a very large portion of people using Windows is playing games. Don't always think ahead, and never look back.
So far I'm pretty happy with my HP Pavilion dv7. The battery life seems to be pretty good for the size of screen, and HP logo I'm powering. Ha. It is about what I would expect as it's weight is concerned. I feel that I got a good deal for the money I have spent on it.
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
It's very nice, and loaded I suppose for a lap top. I have to say that I'm surprised by the amount of thinking it does for a new laptop. I guess I'm just used to getting beefy desktops and they never have thinking when you first put them to use. I haven't had the chance to really test the system.
It does have a blu-ray player which would be nicer if I didn't already have a Playstation 3. I have though used it once so far watching Talladega Nights in bed. The quality of the video was what it should have been. The sounds quality was pretty nice for a laptop. It does have much better video, and sound quality compared to the Dell Inspiron that my mother owns.
The 500 gigbyte hard drive is only 5,600 rpm which I'm sure will be an issue for running Everquest or other hard drive intensive games. Out of the box your hard drive is 451gigs, and a recover partition of 12gigs. What oh what happened to those other 37gigs. Maybe I'm showing how little I know about computers there! I know you always loose memory but I never expected that much.
I am impress with the quality of wireless. It seems like I can take it a lot further than the Dell laptop and it will have a stronger connection. I haven't had any trouble connecting it to my, or the neighbor wireless.
I do however wish that I had a choice of colors on the outer shell. It looks nice in the grey/silver. But the silver keys do make it hard to sometimes see what I'm looking for. Luckily I can type without that but the additional key (home, end, page up, page down, insert, delete as examples) are in much different than on a normal keyboard. I do like still having the number pad on the laptop. Which is nice for gaming. I also don't like seeing my finger prints all over the keys, and mouse pad. Also this laptop does come with a flash light built into the back side of the monitor. It lights up with a HP symbol. Can I sell that space for advertising?
It has enough ports to keep me busy filling them up for a while. A few usb, hdmi, and various others that I will probably not ever use. Also it came with a snazzy little remote. It didn't seem very good the other night when I was using it from 5 feet away. Maybe I just was aiming in the wrong spot, but if that is so it would be picky which is a downer.
Maybe one day I will find the need for a webcam. And when I do I will already have it with my laptop! I did however play with it the other day, and it has a lot of different options that can be changed. Filters, popping balloons, and various other stuff that will distract you from what I'm doing.
So my first gaming experience on my new Pavilion dv7 was a struggle. What game you might ask? Well I felt like playing some old school robot world domination, Total Annihilation. After trying to find the game for an hour I got back to my desktop to turn off the music, and move to murder of the Arm forces. It didn't take long to install Total Annihilation at all. But when I tried to install the expansion, The Core Contingency the ever so loving Windows Vista told me that it couldn't install this. I searched the web for a little looking for answers and found out that many other people have the same issue. Hello Micro$oft, I never had problem loading this software on XP. You might want to think about people playing old games, as I'm sure a very large portion of people using Windows is playing games. Don't always think ahead, and never look back.
So far I'm pretty happy with my HP Pavilion dv7. The battery life seems to be pretty good for the size of screen, and HP logo I'm powering. Ha. It is about what I would expect as it's weight is concerned. I feel that I got a good deal for the money I have spent on it.
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Dear Raven,
Dear Raven Software,
I have to say that Raven has shown poor form in releasing the Weapon X Arena as a downloadable content for 800 Microsoft points / $10. My reason for this is they gave to free to people that pre-ordered it from GameStop. What about all those fan's that pre-ordered, and didn't have the option of doing it with GameStop? Which if I knew it was going be as good as it is I would have pre-ordered, and if I knew it was going give the downloadable content for free from GameStop I would have probably done both.
How about those people that paid the full $59.99 to get it on the day it released (me!), and don't even get a discount? Why would I get a discount?
Amazon's Newest Price!
That is a lot cheaper than I paid for it to have it the day it came out, plus I got an email from Amazon to save $5 off of that price (use promo code XMENWLV5 at checkout). Well I guess they need to do what they need to do to make a dollar. I mean the economy does suck now doesn't it? I know my opinion of it is not to buy from Raven, and put forth effort to not buy from Activision. I would say since April I have bought 12 games, and received a system for my birthday in April. The economy must not be hitting me as hard as it is for Activision.
Guess the good thing is Raven don't produce a whole lot of games per year. Which looking over since 2000 they have made 13 titles, of which I own five. I was going purchase Wolfenstein but now I know if I do they are going get my $60 bucks, drop the price by $20, and sell some downloadable content for $10. So nix that idea, and anyone else I can spread the word to.
Once again I vent about them, and to my friend that works there. Who knows what will happen but the point would stand regardless if I got the content or not. Anyways if I inspired anyone please feel free to send them a message, as I already have.
Raven's Site
The Email Address
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
I have to say that Raven has shown poor form in releasing the Weapon X Arena as a downloadable content for 800 Microsoft points / $10. My reason for this is they gave to free to people that pre-ordered it from GameStop. What about all those fan's that pre-ordered, and didn't have the option of doing it with GameStop? Which if I knew it was going be as good as it is I would have pre-ordered, and if I knew it was going give the downloadable content for free from GameStop I would have probably done both.
How about those people that paid the full $59.99 to get it on the day it released (me!), and don't even get a discount? Why would I get a discount?
Amazon's Newest Price!
That is a lot cheaper than I paid for it to have it the day it came out, plus I got an email from Amazon to save $5 off of that price (use promo code XMENWLV5 at checkout). Well I guess they need to do what they need to do to make a dollar. I mean the economy does suck now doesn't it? I know my opinion of it is not to buy from Raven, and put forth effort to not buy from Activision. I would say since April I have bought 12 games, and received a system for my birthday in April. The economy must not be hitting me as hard as it is for Activision.
Guess the good thing is Raven don't produce a whole lot of games per year. Which looking over since 2000 they have made 13 titles, of which I own five. I was going purchase Wolfenstein but now I know if I do they are going get my $60 bucks, drop the price by $20, and sell some downloadable content for $10. So nix that idea, and anyone else I can spread the word to.
Once again I vent about them, and to my friend that works there. Who knows what will happen but the point would stand regardless if I got the content or not. Anyways if I inspired anyone please feel free to send them a message, as I already have.
Raven's Site
The Email Address
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dear Duke Energy,
The other day at work I saw an email about how you were approved to bill me for the damages that happened around September 14. When I was without power for a week. You can read the short editorial by clicking here.
I have to say that you being able to bill me to keep your equipment maintained to provide me with a service is amazing. I have since though about this and the next time I'm at Bigg's, or maybe Krogers I think I will offer them some money to pay for repairs when their freezers break down. Because when their freezer breaks it is clearly my fault, and responsibility to repair it for them.
The storm, and being with out power was dramatic enough for your customers but now you're going to slam us with the cost of this storm plus interest. In light of the this I have looked into alternative energy providers and it appears you have the niche for electricity, but I have already changed my gas over to "the other guys" that advertise to me. They even honored their price without a two year contract. Which is why I haven't switched over to them before. No contact is my type of business and plan, and one nice thing I guess about Duke. But in the end when I'm already paying you at least $300 a month I would happily do a contract if I could save 15% a year on energy cost.
Well, if you feel similar about this situation. Fitting the bill for Duke please feel free to follow the link below to file a complaint about these future cost we will see on our bills.
Energy Complaints with in Ohio
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
I have to say that you being able to bill me to keep your equipment maintained to provide me with a service is amazing. I have since though about this and the next time I'm at Bigg's, or maybe Krogers I think I will offer them some money to pay for repairs when their freezers break down. Because when their freezer breaks it is clearly my fault, and responsibility to repair it for them.
The storm, and being with out power was dramatic enough for your customers but now you're going to slam us with the cost of this storm plus interest. In light of the this I have looked into alternative energy providers and it appears you have the niche for electricity, but I have already changed my gas over to "the other guys" that advertise to me. They even honored their price without a two year contract. Which is why I haven't switched over to them before. No contact is my type of business and plan, and one nice thing I guess about Duke. But in the end when I'm already paying you at least $300 a month I would happily do a contract if I could save 15% a year on energy cost.
Well, if you feel similar about this situation. Fitting the bill for Duke please feel free to follow the link below to file a complaint about these future cost we will see on our bills.
Energy Complaints with in Ohio
Cheers,
Eric N Cincy
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