“Three’s a crowd” to the rescue

The Feeder Line at Peet's Coffee & Tea
The feeder line embraced
at Peet’s Coffee on 19th Street

A recent Associate Press poll found that most Americans are in a hurry and lose their cool in a hurry when waiting in line or on hold.

Almost one in four in the AP-Ipsos poll picked the grocery checkout as the line where their patience is most likely to melt like the ice cream turning to goo in their cart.

Hmmm, doesn’t that mean that almost three in four didn’t pick the grocery checkout? At any rate, I have to agree that a grocery store line does seem to irritate me faster than other lines around town.

“We walk in the door with the clock ticking with various degrees of loudness in our heads. And if I get to the checkout and if I have the perception it’s not working efficiently, often that clock gets even louder.”

A line not working efficiently you say? If only there was a way to make a line work more efficiently.
Continue reading ““Three’s a crowd” to the rescue”

Oops, we did it again

Our second one in 3 days:

A bizarre hit and run accident in Fair Oaks after a car slams into a home and the driver bolts.

It happened on Biplane Way near Navigation Way. And while Sheriff’s deputies have not been able to find the driver, they have found a rifle with a scope and ammunition in the car.

CBS13 considers this a “bizarre” one. I consider this to be media in denial.

A home’s best friend?

KCRA.com recently reported that home invasions are on the rise in Sacramento.

In the last 28 days, the Sacramento region has experienced at least nine home invasion robberies. In each case, the homeowners were tied up, bound or held at gunpoint.

Yikes. What can we do to protect ourselves, you ask? Well, Sacramento Police Department Sgt. Terrell Marshall recommends installing a home security system and to never blindly answering a knock at your door. Makes sense to me. However, his first recommendation is what led me to write today.

Continue reading “A home’s best friend?”

Red state, blue state

Ms. Paws is on book deadline, and so not much allowed out of the house. But … she did allow herself a trip to the Whole Foods, to stock up on healthy eating during the final deadline push.

Is there any place in town where the reds and the blues mix so easilly as at Whole Foods? Just look at the parking lot. Shiny earth-fuckers with their Bush-Cheney stickers still proudly displayed, parked right next to battered old Subaru wagons with 20 year’s worth of tree-hugger bumper-stickers plastered over every inch of rear space. Everyone seems to “support our troops” but the way to do that seems to differ. You can see those yellow ribbons next to a “somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot” sticker or a “these colors don’t run” one.
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Sushi on Aisle 3

Because someone, not sure who anymore, requested it, here’s a quick rundown on all of the grocery store sushi I’ve consumed in the last 4 weeks.
Nugget- Various selections of pre-packaged sushi, all small rolls or shrimp and/or eel ngiri. I went for the spicy combo with spicy tuna, California and unagi rolls. Not bad tasting and well worth the $4 price tag.
Safeway- Hmmmmm, same selection, looks like SW and Nugget buy from the same distributor.
Bel Air- Same selection, see item 1.
Raley’s- See previous selection.
Albertson’s-Ditto
Ralph’s- Oh come on, this is getting silly.
Whole Foods- I hat those assholes; I’m not shopping at their market anymore.
So, it appears that all of the supermarket sushi in town is rolled and packaged by the same company somewhere in the Inland Empire with one of those made up sounding Spanish names like Rancho Santa Dominguez Enchilada Hills or something. I guess it’s all the same no matter where you go. So don’t be choosy. Just grab-n-go and try not to imagine some poor illegal immigrant putting together sushi in East LA for $2 an hour. Instead, think of the poor Chinese laborer who has to works for pennies a day trying to fit a thimble full of soy sauce into those small ketchup sized packets. Eat wisely, my friends.

Open house

An anonymous tip from Sac Rag reader Plumwin brings us another vehicle-building crash – this one ending tragically – just days after the last one:

GALT, Calif. — A big rig driver died Thursday morning after plowing his truck into a house just off Highway 99, the California Highway Patrol said.

With all the talk about how housing developments have been built in floodprone areas around Sacramento, I wonder if we’ve also built buildings where cars seem to want to go? Just a thought.

I also have to question this line in the report of this story by KCRA:

Nobody was injured at the house, which has a for sale sign in the front yard.

A For Sale sign, you say? And you couldn’t tell us the listing price of the house, or who the realtor was? What kind of shoddy reporting is that?

Is it time for a “Car Crash of the Week” category?

Exactly one week after we had our last car crash into a building, we were probably overdue for another one, don’t you think?

A Sacramento family got a rude and violent jolt out of bed overnight when a stolen car being chased by deputies slammed into their Oak Park home.

Rude and violent? Since when? This is Sacramento, and that’s just how we roll (our cars into someone else’s living room).

Foreclosures and comedy

Two interesting articles on the Sacramento Business Journal’s Web site today.

  1. Sacramento 1Q foreclosures top 2,500
  2. Old Sac tour operators give visitors a history lesson with a side of fun

There is not much to the former that hasn’t been hashed out here many times already. My only comment would be what does foreclosing on a house have to do with a slowing housing market? Seems to be tied to either folks losing their jobs or their 5 year interest only loans surfacing and folks can’t make the new refinanced loan payments.

I am thinking that sac-eats can comment on the latter link. Has anyone taken this tour? Seems like a decent idea. But then again, I’ve lived here ten years and have only been to Old Sacramento 2 or 3 times.

Burger Bests & Worsts

After 30 years in Sacramento, I have finally eaten my first hamburger from Ford’s Hamburgers in Land Park and I’ll have to say that it may be, in fact, the best burger in Sacramento. I’ve been to myriad burger joints in Sac and think I have a pretty good read on where you, the wily consumer, can best spend your burger bucks. So here’s a rundown:

1. Ford’s-1948 Sutterville Rd, Sacramento. Fantastic burger on a wonderful bun, killer fries and shakes put Ford’s Real Hamburgers in the top spot. Burgers are about $5.
2. Squeeze Inn-7918 Fruitridge Rd, Sacramento. Sidle up to the bar and order the “Squeeze with Cheese” and get ready for a gut-bomb. The “cheese halo” that surrounds every Squeeze burger sets it apart from any other burger you’ll ever have. Fries are pretty good. Call before you go, limited hours and limited seating. Burgers about $5.
3. Bandera- 2232 Fair Oaks Blvd, Sacramento. I know it’s a yuppie haven and mid life crisis pick-up joint, but the $9 ground sirloin burger might just be the best restaurant burger you’ll ever have. Fresh sirloin, ground in-house with a slab of cheddar and crisp cole slaw top this exceptional burger.
4. Hot Rod’s- 2007 K, Sacramento. By far, the best gay burger joint in town. Great meat and hot buns make this burger a heavenly treat that you don’t have to call the next morning.
5. In ‘n Out Burger- Various Locations. OK, despite its proclivity for putting you on the john for a few hours after you eat one, an In ‘n Out burger is a damn good burger, and a great deal for your money. Burgers about $2.

And now, the worst…
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