adaptation

It used to be called Cluck University and then University Chicken, and now it's changed names once again. I pulled up today on my way back from a business trip to Monterey to pick up some spicy buffalo wings from my favorite wing place in Santa Clara and now the place is called Smoke Eaters?

Personally I think it's a horrible name but I had to go in and see if the wings were still the same. I asked the server when they changed and she said about a month ago. The menu looks different but has essentially the same offerings as before. The wings are still called wingers and there are still different levels of hotness for the sauce, but the highest level of hot is now "Inferno" instead of "Global Thermonuclear". Maybe the change makes sense; probably only the older customers will remember the classic reference to the old Matthew Broderick film WarGames.

Anyways I took a box of 10 "Nuclear" wingers home and dug in. Still the same sweet and tangy hot sauce, with a good dose of spicy heat. Too bad the name stinks. The weird thing is, the Chicken University website is still up and lists the Santa Clara location, so I'm not sure if they changed all of them or if just this one changed. Seems like they still serve the same good ol' wings though so I guess I'll still drop by from time to time.

cutbacks

So, 6 months have passed since I hatched the grandiose scheme of investing my money and having the dream of someday driving a V10-powered auto.   And unless you've been living under a rock (which I sort of was for a while, but even I've managed to notice), you know now that the financial and investment world has seriously gone down the drain and, almost to add insult to injury, the price of gas has shot up to $4 and even $5 a gallon for a while, making both investment in stocks and the purchase of any kind of gas-guzzler appear to be very foolish ideas.  But who would have known?  I'm sure there's someone out there that could say "I told you so", but I'm no genius and surely did not see this coming.  Needless to say, I haven't made it big and bought my retirement mansion in the Bahamas yet.  Nor am I driving a Bugatti Veyron or even a humble V10-equipped M5.  Instead I'm lamenting the demise of my WaMu shares and dusting off my trusty 4-cylinder powered MR2 to try and save some scratch at the pump.

And while I'm not necessarily packing my things and moving into a cardboard box just yet, surely this is a great time to be rich.  With all the economy in a tizzy and gas prices shooting up it's crazy but you can find some really sweet deals on some automotive hardware.  It's all about supply and demand, and right now it's a buyer's market like nobody's seen in quite a while.  If you're in the market for a Mercedes S-Class or a Ford F-150 truck, it's on like Donkey Kong.  For everybody else, though I think we're going to be finding ways to cut some of the excess fat from our monthly bills.  All of sudden my $95/month cable bill has moved from simply silly to outrageously ridiculous.  I think I can do without 200+ channels that I don't really have the time to watch anyways.

Last night I was having dinner with J.T. and we tried out a new restaurant, San Mateo Prime.  Which, as you might surmise, is in San Mateo. The prime rib there was decent and certainly enjoyable but not quite up to the standard of House of Prime Rib up in San Francisco. I'd say that in terms of ranking, HOPR > Broadway Prime > San Mateo Prime. But it was pretty sobering to see that even at prime time dinner hour on a Friday night, the restaurant's tables weren't full. The waiter commented that business has been slow and they were even lowering the prices of wine offerings in an attempt to drum up more business. Food for thought indeed.

contrast

It took all night, but I was actually able to finish this 24oz. can of Amp!