Unofficial Apple Hill Guide

NOTE: For an updated 2007 Apple Hill Guide, click here. (Don’t worry, it’s not link to another website.)

Fall is in the air, and on the calendar, and in the malls, but nowhere more omnipresent than up highway 50 at Apple Hill. I’ve had a few shocks in my life, including that time when I missed two straight periods (turned out to just be work stress), but none more jarring that finding out that several good friends and close acquaintances had never been to Apple Hill. Hating to think that those unfamiliar with the joys of the hill might not want to venture east because of the alien nature of the trip, I’ve concocted my own little visitor’s guide. The following are just suggestions, mind you, and please feel free to let me know if there is anything that I missed, but more than anything, I provide this little guide because I don’t want to hear anyone say that they didn’t head up the hill this year because they “didn’t know where to go, what to do, my kids were sick, I had a flesh eating virus, I’m a big puss-puss, etc.”
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Could We Have Written This One Up Any Better?

This story won’t do Sac’s reputation for driver inability any good, I reckon. And check it out, looks like KCRA is gettin’ a bit snarky themselves.

We’ve launched a snarkolution. And it has been televised.

By the way, I “accidentally” typed up this entry and hit “Publish”, and it showed up on the site! What are the odds!

All Eyes on “the Cruiser Chick”

Cruiser Bike
Cruiser sans chick

Way back when, you know, in April we did a post about The Walking Dude phenomenon. Well, today as I walked to lunch with a co-worker I cemented a new phenomenon, The Cruiser Chick. This gal or gals (you can be the judge) is seemingly everywhere in midtown at once. She has black hair and wears bangs and a ponytail. She has a piercing or two along with various tattoos, sometimes obvious, sometimes not so obvious. The bike morphs from having a basket up front to being green to having fenders and back again. Where is she going? How did she get from Alhambra and Capitol to BeachHut Deli in less than the time it took me to get there by car? And why was Locke so calm with a gun pointed at his head…oh, sorry, wrong blog…I will bring a camera with me, I promise, and photograph our two wheeled maiden of midtown. I challenge you to do the same.

Dinner at the Dump

Taking the back entrance into Tahoe Park, where the CoolDMZ clan resides, my wife and I keep noticing the banner advertising the Power Inn Business & Transportation Association’s self proclaimed “unique and lively event” Dinner at the Dump. Why work so hard to convince people not to conjure up the smell of a landfill when sampling your catered surf and turf? Why not just have a tour of the dump and let everybody have a free grab at some of the many usable items others have discarded but are usually protected against scavenging? Why not just put Jack Gallagher on top of a pile of concrete waste and have him do jokes?

Speaking of scavenging, big trash pick up day in my neck of the woods was last week, and my wife reported that while walking home with the kids, she came upon a woman scavenging somebody’s pile of garbage. Now, hey, we’ll all been there. One man’s broken chair is another man’s broken chair. But this woman fended off Mrs. CoolDMZ’s friendly smile with the following: “Back off! I got kids of my own.” Which reinforced my wife’s theory that ghosts of the Gold Rush still walk the streets of Sacto. Mostly the streets around the downtown bus station.

(On a side note, check out the redesign of CBS13/UPN31’s site. It’s a pretty good design, many notches above UPN 31’s previous one.)

Check This Out

I thought it would be fun to test out sac-eat’s “reticular indicator” theory by asking you, our loyal Rag readers, to pay attention to how many check cashing stores you come across this week. Extra credit will be given to those that take notice of how many said stores are next to convenience/liquor stores.

Please comment with your findings. Now try not to think of a banana!

Oktoberfest

My German blood warms at the thought of Weisswurst, Oompah bands and an overflowing stein. Everyone is German during Oktoberfest, so come out and help drain the tanks!

Fair Oaks’toberfest is this Saturday from 1-5pm at Fair Oaks Park. More than 25 breweries will bring their Autumnal favorites for local charities, with celebrity tap handlers. Well, me.

I will also be attending Capitol Public Radio’s Oktoberfest at Pavilions Shopping Plaza on Sunday, October 2 from Noon-3pm. The Carntoa Schuhplattler will lead drunken revelers in German folk dancing.

Sacramento’s Turn Verein Soccer Club will hold their 36th annual Oktoberfest on October 7 & 8.

Prost!

Also I Lost My Porsche

I decided that crime blotters are fair game for The Sac Rag. Here is a gem from the CSUS log:

September 16
Theft – LIBRARY – A man reported that upon returning to the bike he’d locked to the bike rack at 9:30 a.m., he found that someone had opened the lock and replaced his new bike with an old bike.

The same thing happened to my car once. Oh right, like a guy as important as CoolDMZ really drove a Mazda. Come on!

Bali Wine Bar & Grill

If you’ve kept your ears open, you’ll notice that Bali Wine Bar & Grill has gotten a lot of press lately. Recent reviews in the Bee, the News & Review and Pravda have given this place a good deal of visibility and no small amount of buzz. All of the buzz, however, is not necessarily aimed at Bali’s food, but rather the fact that it’s a nice restaurant on Broadway. Broadway, usually known for its divey ethnic joints and the iconic but rather shady Pancake Circus, is undergoing a bit of a culinary renaissance. With the renovation of several restaurants, including Sweetfinger’s Jamaican Restaurant (see previous review), and a new cookie cutter complex containing a Starbucks and Jamba Juice, the Broadway corridor is getting its urban gentrification on right in front of our eyes. So, is Bali an usher of things to come? Let’s hope not. Unless, of course, high prices and mediocre food are the hallmarks of an elite neighborhood.
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No Offense, Rick!

Hey all you Kings fans, not to reign on your, as yet to be held because your team can’t go the distance when it counts, parade, but our own Sacramento Monarchs have the distinction of being the “first professional basketball team in Northern California to win a national basketball title.”

Well, uh, unless you count the Golden State Warriors sweep of the Washington Bullets in 74-75.

Way to go News10.net!

UPDATE: Thanks to Sac Rag author Stickie for letting News10 know about their most egregious error. The people spoke and the people won! The Rags got juice, y’all.

Attention Local Ipod Users

Interesting term I learned the other day: reticular indicator. A reticular indicator is something that is around you but you don’t notice until someone points it out to you, and then you see it everywhere. Like the Toyota Prius. There were a lot on the road, but when they started getting more press and that kinda hippieyuppie friend of yours bought one, you started noticing them a lot more. Didn’t you? Anyway, I just got myself an IPod and I’ve noticed that just about everyone who isn’t pushing a shopping cart has one. So, to the local angle. If you happen to be using the Griffin ITrip FM adapter with your IPod in the Sacramento area, I’ve found the station with the least amount of interference and the best IPod signal is 97.5. If you don’t have an IPod, or aren’t using the ITrip, then please, ignore. But now that I’ve pointed it out, you won’t be able to ignore it. Will you?