Time for a new phone?

A few days ago Danielle and I took the dog on another hike. This time we tried the Arizona Hot Springs hike on the other side of the Hoover Dam in Arizona. This hike is only about a mile or so past the Liberty Bell Arch hike that we took previously, but it is nothing like the Liberty hike. The Arizona Hot Springs hike involves hiking down a long canyon until you reach the Colorado River. We then hiked about 1/2 mile south near the banks of the river looking for the hot springs, which were very elusive. Other hikers were down there as well and nobody could really find the springs. It turns out that a ladder that the park service puts there to get to the springs was not there (I guess it is being fixed), so nobody could bask in the hot springs goodness.

Unfortunately, the many pictures that I took on my camera phone seem to have a hazy fadeness to them (that's the best description I can come up with). I think the camera component of my cell phone is starting to go. Actually, that aspect is moot due to the fact that I can no longer get the memory card back into the phone itself. I think something broke up in there. Although the camera is only 1.2 megapixels, I really liked how that thing worked these past 3 years. But alas, if I can't use the memory card in it anymore, then it really seems like I have no choice but to get a new phone.

This one has lasted almost three years, so it was a good run. Within the next month or so I think I'll be getting on Verizon's web site and signing up for another two years. That, along with the online discount, should get me a really nice phone with a camera of 3.0 megapixels or better.

Have a happy New Year everyone!

The week off

I was off from work this past week while my parents were in town. We did a bunch of cool stuff, which I'll highlight here:

1. Spent a night at Danielle's parent's house while she and I cooked dinner for the folks. The menu included a "rainbow salad", french onion soup and braised balsamic chicken breast.

2. Celebrated my mom's birthday, at her request, by having dinner at Fuego Steakhouse in the Fiesta Henderson. I would not say Fuego is the best steakhouse in town, but its definitely above average and is just as good as some other, more expensive, places in town.

3. Danielle and I introduced my parents to "real" sushi at our favorite AYCE sushi place right down the road. Actually, for anyone interested, its called The Sushi Factory on Eastern just south of Horizon Ridge Parkway past the Smith's shopping center. The place is great and serves up some real fresh sushi at a reasonable (AYCE) price.

4. Met Danielle's parents for a good meal at the Mirage buffet and then saw Love, the Cirque show based on Beatles songs. It was a terrific show and I loved the sound system in that place. A weird thing happened during the show. It had to be temporarilty stopped about 3/4 through for a technical issue with a net. I've never seen something like that happen in a Cirque show before. It was impressive how the cast members got immediately back into their groove as soon as they started back up again!

5. I took my parents up to the Mount Charleston area and drove around for a while. It's the first time I've seen the area under snow! The ski slopes were very busy and there were plenty of people with their kids up there building snowmen and sledding. It was a winter wonderland in the desert!

6. We also took a drive out to the Hoover Dam to show my dad the progress with the bridge. I drove into Arizona for a few minutes and parked at the parking area for the Arizona Hot Springs hike, which I'm hoping to take tomorrow (Christmas Eve day). I planned on going today, but laziness and a severe sleep detriment finally caught up with me as I slept for over 9 hours! The hike is anywhere between 4 to 6 hours long. So with it being dark at 4:30pm these days, I'm going to have to get to bed early tonight.

7. Santa brought us gifts during the trip. Danielle and I got a really good knife set, which we've needed since I moved in. I was cutting up the onions for the French onion soup with a steak knife and put a slice into my thumb at one point. Now we have the correct tools! Danielle got an official Ohio State snuggie to wear around the condo (we have yet to turn on the heat this winter) and I got some bottles of hot sauce, a Pepperidge Farms gift box and a pair of Ohio State utility gloves that I can wear while hiking. My sister also sent me a gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She did the same last year, which I used to buy a mini-food processor. I'm not sure what this year's purchase will be. How about an onion chopper!?

8. My parents stayed at the South Point, which I would highly recommend. My mom and I played 25cent video poker (full-pay Jacks or Better) for a couple hours on 3 separate nights. She finished about even for the trip and I was exactly $10 on the plus side. With our play, I got a meal in the cafe comped and she got $17 off our final breakfast. I've always felt that South Point does things right, but now I know for sure. The free drinks in the casino are larger than anywhere else I've noticed, the normal room was very spacious, the employee for the most part were friendly and helpful, the booze prizes in the 24 hour gift shop are good, etc.

My vacation is still not over. I recieved notice today that my next day on the job isn't until Sunday, believe it or not! I already knew I'd have at least until tomorrow off, but to find out that I'm not working on Christmas is surprising. I'm almost sad to here that since I know there are plenty of people that would rather be home that day while I really have no plans on Christmas day. Oh well, I won't complain. The vacation will total 13 days in a row, which I think might be the biggest such time span since I started working at my current location!

Quick Joke

I can't remember if I've ever embeded this on the blog before, so I thought I'd post it for your enjoyment. It's one of the older jokes I've heard being told by one of the best comedians of all-time. The bit at the end is pretty lame, but you can't deny the brilliance that precedes it. Sorry about the commercial at the beginning.

Chicken Wings

A couple weeks ago I was having lunch at one of my favorite spots in town, Buffalo Wild Wings on Eastern. At the end of the meal, I made an impulse buy of a package of three bottles of BWW wing sauces (I went with Terriyake for Danielle and Medium and Mango Habenero for me). Since then, I've purchased chicken wings from the grocery store and have fixed them twice, with excellent results.

Thoughts:

If you buy 6 "traditional wings" from BWW, I think you pay somewhere around $5. I paid $6.91 for an entire package of wings at the store, which is 17 full wings which means I'm getting 34 "wings" (wingettes + drumettes) for less than $2 more of what I pay for 6 wings at BWW! Even considering I also pay for celery, the sauce and ranch dressing, its still super cheaper to make wings at home.

I've found cutting the wings up to be a pain in the ass. However, the video below that I found on youtube does a quick good job of explaining how to do it. The problem is that we don't have ANY good knives in this condo at all (maybe Santa will help us out with that).

The quality of the wings at BWW and from the grocery store are exactly the same in my opinion.

I've made wings twice and have also poured some medium sauce over things like hot dogs and a regular chicken sandwich and I STILL have some medium sauce left! I haven't even cracked open the mango-habenero yet!

I've noticed that the medium wing sauce becomes LESS spicy once you open it and have to refridgerate it. Therefore, I nuked a small bowl of the medium sauce for about 30 seconds before coating the wings last night, which was a very good move!

I don't own a deep fryer, which is probably the prefered way of cooking the wings up, but Danielle owns a very nice deep frying pan that I've used to pan-fry the wings in olive oil. I've been frying them for about 6-7 minutes on each side or about 13-15 minutes total. I then transfer them to a noodle strainer and let them sit in the sink for a minute or two. From there its into the big bowl where they get introduced to the sauce. Cover the bowl, shake it for about 10 seconds and you've got some awesome wings. With the exception of the pan-fry part, I think that's pretty much how their made at BWW. The one drawback is that I can only fit about half of the wings in the pan at a time. So I've been frying up Danielle's portion first, and she'll be enjoying piping hot wings while I'm still slaving away while making mine up.

I still love BWW and will go there on occasion, but I can't see myself ever ordering their traditional wings again. If anyone can tell me how to mimick their boneless wings at home, let me know. I'm aware that their boneless "wings" aren't part of the wing at all, but without a deep fryer, I doubt if I could come close to them at home.