Lunch meat

OK, we're starting with the people that work at the deli counter of the grocery (the troll isn't the only horrid one, Nick). At the store last week, I wanted some roast beef sliced thin ... like shaved. The roast beef in the case already was not sliced thin. (Some of you know of my aversion to questionable-quality lunch meat, and if my friend, Wally, were on MySpace, he would get a great laugh out of this. Look, I'm not the biggest fan of lunch meat, and if I'm going to eat it, it has to have decent texture and not be Subway slimy.) So, the woman stops, looks at me for a minute, rolls her eyes and goes to find the roast beef to cut. When another person working there points to the precut meat in the case, the woman serving me says in a Fran Drescher-like voice, "No, she wants it cut thiiiiiin." Um, you're not behind a glass wall, ladies. What else do you have to do back there? Make cole slaw? Slicing meat is what you are there for. Sorry that's your job. (As an aside, yes, my need for thinly-trimmed meat means mine is always fresh, not the stuff that has been sitting in there for six hours. It really isn't about that, although that is a bonus.)

I uploaded some photos to the face-recognition Web site that Chuck had mentioned in one of his earlier blogs. I probably tried four or five different photos to see how different the results were. In each one, the top or second best match was Kelly Clarkson. Um ... I think it should be that Kelly Clarkson looks like ME. Haha. On one of my pics, Beyonce was pretty close to the top as one of my look alikes, so I don't know how much I trust it. Actually, I don't even know about the Kelly Clarkson one either ... but your match was good, Chuck.

Hmmm ... OK, some good stuff ... there's a restaurant here named Five Guys. The burgers are pretty good, but what makes the place is how many fries you get. In the bag, you get your sandwich, a 12 oz. cup of fries stuffed full, then they dump a whole additional scoop of fries on top. I usually am full and have had plenty of fries before I even get to the ones in my cup, so it's definitely a waste, but it's good that they're there if you're really hungry. Better to have too many fries than not enough in my opinion.

My favorite baseball park food is not the hot dogs, but the nachos with jalapenos. I've been to both Camden Yards and RFK Stadium, and both places' nachos blow Wrigley and Busch out of the water (especially Busch, where I wouldn't even get the nachos because they pour the cheese on top of the chips instead of letting you dip ... hopefully they have rectified this issue in the new stadium). Both stadiums here have trays with two areas for cheese, so you never run out. Spectacular. Of the two, RFK kind of loses out because the cheese is spooned in from a shallow tray, which hurts consistency, so Camden is the winner so far. Also, RFK just kind of sucks in general for atmosphere anyway. Oh, and on the topic of baseball games, "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," is NOT an acceptable replacement for "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," in the seventh-inning stretch. Take note, Baltimore.

And here's a shocker ... there are some things I miss about Springfield: The top, of course, being La Mex. I've replaced the weekly routine with Chipotle, but it just isn't the same ... they never know exactly what I want when I walk in like Lupe did. Even Ernie butting into our conversations would be nice haha. Oh, what am I saying ... I love Chipotle, but I'd rather just be able to eat both every week. The next is Polar Pop ... 59 cents, a styrofoam cup and a high-flow straw ... nothing better than that. And finally, the biggest shock to me since I don't really like Italian food, Saputo's baked rigatoni. Never would I have imagined that I'd miss that, but it's so deliciously slathered with melted cheese that I could deal with the marinara sauce. Yes, if you're still reading now, it has been revealed: I care the most about food.