3-5-11 Saturday (Don’t Go Into The Light)

Thursday: My typical at work lunch situation is: I pack a lunch cooler with a 1/2 gallon of Crystal Lite, snacks and a turkey sandwich.  I’m the only one in the class who pours a drink throughout the day.  At lunch, I grab a large table in the cafeteria, eat my lunch and several of my teammates join me.

On Thursday I didn’t bring lunch.  I brought a bottle of salad dressing (Maple Grove Farms balsamic vinegar, no oil) and it was my intention to get a salad from the cafeteria’s salad bar.   Our trainer gave us just over an hour for lunch.  I was invited out to lunch and I caved.  6 of us went out to lunch at Boardwalk Billy’s.  They have a great menu of lunch specials.  A 1/2 pound cheeseburger, fries and drink for $5.99.  Excellent deal. 

Above: Camera phone picture of the parking lot at work.  Beautiful pink and white trees all over the place!

Saturday: We had a pretty busy day.  While we were at the RV show last week, we picked up some literature and scheduled an appointment with Bath Fitters.  Unlike the Bath Fitter location in Fort Myers, FL, this location said they do RV’s.  Today they came out to provide us with a free estimate to replace our RV shower/tub.  If you’re wondering why and have forgotten, click here to review the Caulkenstein stories.  We met an estimator at the RV storage site and received an estimate for a new shower surround, new shower floor, and glass doors totaling $3500.  Yeow.  We’ll consider it.  We’re still thinking about getting rid of the MoHo and the Jeep and getting a mid-sized pick up and bumper-pull travel trailer.  We’ll see.

While we waited for the estimator guy Jim removed all 3 MoHo batteries.  They’re all dead.  One will have warranty and hopefully the other 2 are chargeable.  We dropped them off at the parts store and should get word about them on Sunday.

For lunch we redeemed a Groupon for Revolution Pizza and Ale House (Their website doesn’t work).  I had pepperoni pizza that I thought was awesome.  Jim enjoyed his pineapple, ham, balsamic oil, concoction. 

Now to walk off some calories.  Off to the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show we went.  The convention center is huge!  Vendor after vendor.  Some of the center is old.   Perhaps it was built in phases or something because the first area we were in felt like a basement.  It had low ceilings with pipes for that “basement feel”.  We walked into other sections and it had high ceilings and seemed a lot more modern overall.  The place was packed with wine tasting, window vendors, cookware, plants, roofing materials, décor, countertop manufacturers, flooring, etc, etc.  They had a huge Ikea booth, some RV’s on site, Home Depot, etc.  There was so much.

That above was a snap shot of the “basement feel”.  I didn’t take pictures of all the other areas that were stunning.  Honestly, I just don’t “need” photos of a home show.  But below is a 30 second TV commercial of the event that will show other stuff.

The commercial

Speaking of homes, Jim called the contractor supply store that Mohawk recommended to get a sample from.  They said they didn’t have samples.  Jim emailed Mohawk again.  He told them we’re concerned about the poor service in obtaining a sample and we’re reluctant to purchase from them especially if this is any example of what it would be like to get warranty issues resolved.  Jim asked that they escalate this issue to the appropriate management for resolution.  Mohawk… you suck.

An unrelated side note.  If I’ve not mentioned it before, these Kellogg's FiberPlus™ Antioxidants Bar Caramel Coconut Fudge are yummy.  If you like Girl Scout Samoa’s, these kick ass.

That’s it, now back to my day.  We were at the show for so long that it was approaching dinnertime.  We stopped home, let the dog out and then took off for dinner to Harbor Inn Seafood… with another Groupon!  We’re never been here before.  The Groupon was for $30 and we had a hard time reaching that goal.  Everything seemed reasonably priced.  We discovered afterwards that they can do cheap when they serve low quality steak.  The steak flavor was good, the texture was strange.  Let’s just leave it at that.  The portions (we had steak and shrimp platters) were huge.  Too huge.  The dining room had huge chandeliers with compact florescent bulbs that were a hideous bright white.  The lighting was awful.  I felt like I was in some sterilized cafeteria.  Horrible ambiance.  

There were plastic seagulls hanging near the chandeliers.  We laughed about having crapping birds above the tables.  It was one big open room which added to the poor cafeteria feel.  It was so bright and washed out.  I kept staring at the lights, squinting and laughing.  I must admit, Jim and I had so much fun over it.  Looking at their website, I don’t even see a contact us link.  We still have another Groupon for this place so we’ll have to go back.  There’s hope though.  The dining room in the next area had regular yellowish lighting instead of stark-white.  We’ll be asking for a table in there next visit.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart to get a few things for brunch tomorrow.  Oh yeah, Beth is hosting brunch at her place tomorrow!  Anyway, while in Walmart we walked by this aisle:

Above: One of these things is not like the other.

Silk plants, paper towels, Tostitos and mouth wash.  I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere.  I understand this is their seasonal area but couldn’t they have tried to make some sort of theme?  At some point I assume a member of management said, “looks great” and walked away.