Posts Tagged ‘Orlando’

Happy Hour at Crave Orlando

Apr 26, 2010 food and drink

Rhonda and I noticed the other day that there was another new restaurant, Crave,  over by Millenia, so we decided to try out their happy hour for a cheap early dinner today. It’s right next to the TGIFridays on the corner of Conroy and Millenia.

042610-cravefoodWe went in and were sat at a booth in the bar. We almost got derailed because it seems Mondays are also Burger & Malt night, where the restaurant has a special menu of burgers and malts/shakes available. The specialty menu even had “adult” malts with alcohol. But we decided to save it for a future visit.

Not knowing how big the food portions were on the happy hour menu, we decided to order three items. We tried the Mini-Burger ($3), the Loaded Waffle Fries ($4) and the Korean Chicken Nuggets ($4).

The burger came cooked to order, topped with bacon and cheese melting off the side of the burger onto the Ciabatta bread. It was served with a side of root vegetable chips that tasted like they had just come out of the fryer. We agreed this would be a good-sized portion for one person.

The waffle fries were good, but a bit greasy. They were topped with chunks of mostly lean bacon and melted cheddar cheese. They were OK, but nothing spectacular.

We both agreed the chicken was the best of the three appetizers. The chicken was cut into bite-sized pieces, coated with Tempura batter and deep-fried. Then they were coated in a red sweet/spicy Miso sauce and served atop a small pile of mixed greens. Not being a huge fan of Miso, I didn’t think I’d like it, but I found the sauce to be just the right blend of sweet and spicy. The portion was definitely enough for a meal, but a small bit of white rice on the side would definitely kick this dish up a notch.

We both topped off the Happy Hour meal with a $3 Leinie Sunset Wheat on draft. Being from Wisconsin, we both get excited when we see our fave indie brewery on tap somewhere. Total with tax and tip came to about $22, which is pretty good for two. I think next time we’ll skip the waffle fries.

The service was good here, too, and if you miss the 3-6pm happy hour, it starts back up again at 9pm.  The atmosphere was upscale bistro, and I would imagine they get quite packed on weekend evenings.

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Dinner and a Trip on the Hot Tub Time Machine

Apr 10, 2010 Orlando, food and drink, movies and tv

041110-hottubtimemchneMet up with Clare tonight out at Downtown Disney. We started with dinner at House of Blues. I haven’t eaten here in a few years, but I had a Restaurant.com gift certificate to use. Unfortunately we just missed Happy Hour, but I wasn’t feeling up to drinking alcohol anyways. The food was good, as I remembered it, but it was a bit higher priced. My blackened Cajun chicken sandwich with a side of mashed potatoes was $13.  Rhon’s sandwich was about the same price and Clare’s salad was a  bit more..

Afterwards, we went over to the theater and decided to see Hot Tub Time Machine. Clare ended up having to leave after we just got into the theater, so it ended up just being Rhon and I watching it. Neither of us had any real expectations from the trailers we’d seen, but it turned out to be a rather funny film.

I think we enjoyed it so much because of the pop culture references to the 80s. A lot of the humor was non-PC, but it was kind of like if Judd Apatow directed an episode of VH-1’s “I Love the 80s.” We loved the cameo by William Zabka (still hot despite the moustache) and the soundtrack was great, too. The only thing I feel they missed the boat on was somehow working in a way for John Cusack (who not only stars in the film, but produced it) to parody his classic Say Anything boombox scene. This will probably be one we’ll get on DVD when it comes out.

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brakes don’t fail me now

Oct 13, 2009 life

Last Friday, I took my car in to get the rear breaks fixed. In the last week, they had started making a grinding noise whenever the car came to a stop, and I didn’t want to wait until the damage got worse.

101309-chevyimperialI normally use Tuffy’s in Metrowest, but I’m getting tired of getting gouged by chain garage pricing for repairs, not to mention the inevitable, “…we found other problems…” I always seem to hear from them. So I asked around and my co-worker friend Janet recommended her friend Victor. He works out of a tiny backyard-style garage at an small owner-run auto body shop in Kissimmee, so the setting isn’t fancy, but she said he was very reliable and fair-priced.

I gave him a try and I have to say I’m happy with the result. There was a small bump in the original price quote, but that was because once he started taking the damaged back brake parts off, he noticed the calipers were incredibly rusty. Not surprising since they were the originals and have spent most of the last 20 years of the car in the cold Wisconsin winters. As a result, the repair work ended up taking a few days, since he and the rest of the shop crew tried to find the additional parts at the lowest price for me. In the meantime, he loaned me a van to drive so I wouldn’t be inconvenienced. I also liked that he took me over to the car and actual showed me the parts he was talking about on my car so there was complete clarity in what he was saying and I could see for myself what the issues were.

In the end, the repair took longer and the final bill was more than expected. But even so, the final price of the repair only came to a little bit more than the original quote and the car does run a lot smoother. More importantly, the brakes actually stop the car and without the bonus noise of metal on metal.

Yeah, that’s a nice change.

So if anyone in the Orlando area needs a reliable mechanic, I’d be happy to pass on his information. Just send me a contact email and I’ll shoot over his details.

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is this thing on?

Apr 15, 2009 life, work, writing

Well, I’ve gone and lost another month. Been crazy busy — so much so that I’ve not even been able to blog about it all here till now.  I don’t even know where to start.

I guess I’ll start with the fact that I’ve taken a seasonal job with Universal Orlando as a vacation planner. It’s a fancy term for ticket seller basically. LOL  But it’s a steady job with a weekly paycheck, and basically, unlike a full-time position, I’m scheduled only during peak time periods, like the recent Easter break, and then my hours drop back when the attendance dwindles down.  I’m trying to pay down all my bills asap so I don’t owe anybody anything and then I can put aside some extra cash to go extended traveling by the end of the year.  What’s also cool is that since Universal is also a working film studio, I’ve been able to see some Hot Sets (when they’re filming at the park) like upcoming episodes of the Guiding Light tv soap opera and this week I saw the Final Destination 4 hot set.

The only drawback is that it’s a morning job (often I have to be up before 7am) and anyone who knows me knows I am not a morning person. And during the extreme peak times, like this past week, I work 40 hrs at the theme park and then I put in another 30 writing and doing my web design jobs. So not much time to do anything else. Sorry to all my friends who have been finding it hard to schedule stuff with me. I promise it will ease off soon and my schedule will open up a bit.

I’m still travel writing full-time, but it’s nice to be able to bank that money with the extra funds from the Universal job and give myself a nice cushion to work off of.

Speaking of travel writing, I’ve also taken on a new position as a lodging blogger at Uptake.com. I enjoy the people I’m working with on the blog and I also enjoy having another steady writing outlet.

And if you’ve missed any of my recent stories, here’s a quick list:

Suite 101 Budget Travel -

Uptake -

Why Go Las Vegas -

I also may be going on a quick trip to wrap up some family stuff next month. Not looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. I’m hoping that I might at least be able to sneak in some time with friends or maybe get some article material together whilst on this trip.

I’m also working on some projects, both personal and professional that I hope to start debuting soon.

Anyways, I have to be at Universal in the early a.m., so I’m signing off for now. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this photo of Leeshka doing what I wish I had more time to do…

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epcot candlelight processional with neil patrick harris

Dec 5, 2008 Orlando, photography

Wednesday night, Rhonda and I met up with my friend Clare to go to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional. It’s been years since Rhon and I have seen it, but she finally had a night off and actor Neil Patrick Harris (Dr Horrible, “How I Met Your Mother,” Harold & Kumar, etc) was the celebrity narrator for the evening.

For those who’ve never seen the Candlelight Processional, it’s basically a reading of the story of Jesus, from birth to crucifixion, narrated by a guest celebrity. Mixed in are choral renditions of secular holiday songs performed by a choir made up of Disney castmembers (aka employees), the Walt Disney orchestra and the Voices of Liberty, who normally perform at the American pavilion at Epcot. The show lasts about 40 minutes and there are three shows a day.

We got there early enough to get in line for the first show at 5pm, but it was a long line, so by the time we got in, we were five rows from the back of the theater. Thank heavens for the zoom lens on my camera or I’d never gotten any photos. And the lighting was atrocious – way too much use of red and dark golden yellow tones. Here are a few of the better shots I got of Harris and the CP performers:

Epcot Candlelight Processional :: Walt Disney World :: December 03, 2008 Epcot Candlelight Processional :: Walt Disney World :: December 03, 2008

As you can see from the second photo, I was quite a ways back from the stage. If you look at that second photo, you can spot Harris between the two singers dressed in red, just slightly above the last one.

I liked NPH’s rendition of the story, but I enjoyed his casual banter at the beginning and end of the show more. He comes across as a very pleasant, down-to-earth kind of guy. This was reinforced by a co-worker of Rhon’s who told us after the last show, they caught him just hanging out watching Illuminations and he was more than happy to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans. The choir and orchestra were also first-rate.

Unfortunately, we didn’t stay that long as Rhon and Clare were starving and we all agreed it’d be cheaper to eat outside of the park. Plus, my camera batteries died from all the extreme zooming. On the way out, I did try to take some shots of the Christmas decorations at Epcot with my cellphone. A few of them surprisingly turned out well. These were a few of my favorites:

Walt Disney World :: Epcot Holiday Decorations 2008 Walt Disney World :: Epcot Holiday Decorations 2008

I have a few more up from the CP and the decorations at Flickr.

I think Monday Rhon wants to go check out the holiday stuff at Animal Kingdom and then the Osborne Lights at Hollywood Studios. Depends how much writing work I can clear up over the weekend. I went in for another check-up on the hand and the doctor says it’s healing a bit slower than he’d like, so he’s gonna give it through the holidays and look at it again in January. If it’s not at 95%, I may have to go in for more tests to make sure there wasn’t any nerve damage. * sigh * At least he switched me to a brace I can take off every now and then to let my hand breathe.

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posts and photos

Oct 7, 2008 Orlando, photography, travel, writing

Just a quick post linking to some recent articles I’ve done that are now online for your reading pleasure:

At Suite101.com Budget Travel -

At Las Vegas Logue -

I’ve also uploaded a bunch of Epcot photos from my visit with Dan and Jilly last month, along with some older Sea World Orlando photos to Flickr. Here are a few of my faves:

Epcot : Morocco Pavilion : Sept 2008
Epcot : Illuminations : Sept 2008
Sea World Orlando : February 2005

Enjoy! :)

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