Palermo has been around for forever in my hometown. I never think about it when it comes to Italian food, even though I have been there 3 times prior. It is a family-owned restaurant that clams to make Italian food from scratch. Let’s get to the review!
Blogger Note: on this trip we were in a party of 5 and were seated at 7 pm in a mostly empty restaurant.
Ambiance: It is a small, quaint restaurant, definitely an Italian vibe. Décor was pretty cool. The owner was the host, he sat us. He kissed each lady (2) on the hand and shook hands with the men (3). I thought that was a little odd, my mother is a sucker for things like that, she loved the attention. We were seated away from the other two occupied tables witch I liked; it could be more intimate. The weird thing was the Spanish-like techno music being played from the speaker system above…odd. 4.5/5
Service: Yikes. We were seated and after about 9 minutes our server came by to announce the bread was in the oven baking fresh for us and walked away. After about 7 more minutes, she returned to announce yet again the bread was baking fresh for us, and turned and left. No chance to order drinks. 15 minutes in, and they have made $0 on a table of 5. The bread finally came out and our server took our order, drinks and food. While piping hot, the bread was definitely not made in house; it’s premade for certain. It is the same exact bread served at most locations, you know the Dutch crunch looking bread. Maybe he meant freshly delivered off the Sysco truck? 2.1/5
Food: The menu is your typical Italian faire, pasta, salads, assorted proteins (chicken parm, veal, lamb etc.) Also, your classic appetizers and desserts. It is your basic Italian place. The only surprising thing, no bruschetta on the menu. I have been warned by other Italian places that if bruschetta is not on the menu beware, it’s likely a “frozen food” place. I decided on Penne Siracusa, it’s a penne pasta with sausage and vegetables. My folks got the lasagna, the portion is big enough to serve 3-4, you cannot order a smaller amount. Our company ordered their two dishes. It took about 30 minutes (I am not going to mark down for this, as the vibe the place gave off was “do not be in a hurry, nothing is from a can”). Our company’s dishes came out first. Then…. Nothing for a solid 7 minutes. Our dishes finally came out. This is a big deal to me, tells me your kitchen forgot about the other dishes, likely mine, and threw mine in the blast oven. After the food arrived, we were offered cheese. The owner’s wife had a bowl of parmesan and if you said, “yes,” she fired a spoonful onto your dish and asked “more?”. This seemed odd, but oh well. My dish? Sad looking. Big time sad looking. It was barely warm. The pasta was so overcooked I could not stab it with my fork; I needed to essentially scoop it into my mouth. The dish tasted like nothing, I mean it was flavor less. The sausage amount was about ¼ of a dinner sausage sliced up, barely anything. Make no mistake, this dish was not “scratch” made, it was sauce out of a can, and ingredients pre portioned out and bagged to be boiled later. Tasteless and barely warm, if we didn’t have company I would have sent it back and said “no thanks” to a remake. It was that bad. Oh, the lasagna? It’s cheap thrills. Sure, it is huge, its 9 layers, it would look great on social media. But again, it tasted like nothing. I had a small carving off one side and it is bland. I would describe it as hospital food; it really has no taste. Again, cheap thrills impress my folks, and yeah, this lasagna is Instagram worthy, but again zero taste. One of the others in our party tried the lasagna and agreed with me, no taste. 0/5 yeah it was that bad.
Overall: I hate to hate on a family owned joint, I really do. The restaurant is nice inside, I think the family does try to do its best. I just think they are stuck in a different era, and the Italian food business has past them by. The service missed badly, they had a chance at a second round of four drinks but passed. The bread was not worth waiting for, order drinks and let’s get going! Kill that Spanish techno music, I have no clue what that is about. Bring the food out all at once, get your timing down! The lasagna is obviously premade, my dish was obviously out of a bag, the other dishes as well. You made 3 people watch 2 people eat and then made 2 people watch 3 people eat. Ouch. 1.5/5 Skip this place.
Johnnie Does
Oh, I never thought I would say this. In my hometown, if you asked me for Italian rankings, I would go like this; (bottom to top) Old Spaghetti Factory, Olive Garden, Brickhouse. I would slot this place below Old Spaghetti Factory, it really is that bad. If you want to pay 5-star prices for 2-star food, be my guest.
Subway, the sandwich shop, is the largest franchise by store count. I believe McDonalds is larger by revenue, but I digress. Back in my college days in 2008, Subway was my go to when the cafeteria food was bad. The sandwich was just that a sandwich, the cost was $5 as the 5-dollar footlong was running.
Bloggers Note: by no means am I saying the $5 footlong promotion should still be going on. $16.50 minimum wage in California, plus inflation, rent etc. makes it impossible to sling a sub for $5.
Price. First of all, Subway sandwiches (footlong) are about $15. Subway is more of a value sandwich in my opinion; this is a premium price. Jersey Mikes and Firehouse subs near me are similarly priced and far better quality.
Quality of product. Boy this was stunning. The meat was awful, the Chicken Bacon ranch sandwich didn’t have any taste, it was shredded chicken and bacon, how does it taste like nothing? It seemed to me the 90-day guy types started sourcing the meat from Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan to save $.10 a pound. Some online reports claim some Subway products are not even really meat, based on how this tasted, the claim might have some credibility.
The vegetables were on their last days. I am not a health inspector, nor do I play one on TV, but my goodness, the lettuce was browning, the tomatoes didn’t look great, and the onions looked odd. Outside of the jalapenos and banana peppers it looked bad. The general impression was that the franchisee was too cheap to take a loss.
The amount of sauce, yikes! Peppercorn ranch and baja chipotle. There was enough that came out of the back of the sub on to the wrapper that could cover William and his Girl’s sandwich with some to spare. Again, speaks to a low quality meat, you are trying to cover it up with loads of sauce.
No couponing. This is a big one for me. We have a lot of Subway’s near me, only 1 took the coupon online. $6.99 footlong just the sandwich. Yeah, the local store took it, but after, no dice. It seems odd that of the about 9 local Subway’s, none took the coupon. Odd. They come in the mail, btw waste of advertising money by corporate.
Inject Jersey Mikes or Firehouse Subs right into my veins!
Noticed the price of fast food lately? Wonder why it is so expensive? Wonder what happened to portion sizes? Wonder why Chili’s and Applebee’s can sling a cheaper meal and they are full service?
Well strap in, it’s going to be a rough ride!
While this blog is mostly based out of California, I am sure in your local town that you have noticed similar issues.
Quick history lesson, about 2 years ago the People’s Republic of California agreed to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour. Keep in mind the minimum wage for other workers is currently $16.50 per hour. Fast food is hard to define in a sense, I would say any quick service restaurant with the large portion of their locations having a drive thru. I say large portion because we have 1 Chipotle and 2 Panda Express stores that have drive thru’s but the lion’s share of them do not.
This caused some issues for both types of stores; fast food and fast/casual eateries. First of all, most fast/casual think Chipotle and Chili’s types likely didn’t start at $20 an hour, their fast-food counterparts did. So, they had to work through some staffing issues.
Now a couple of years later, we can see where the carnage from this law is laid.
I am checking the KFC website right now, and an 8-piece bucket, no sides or beverage is running $25. Actually $24.59 but I digress. My colleague and I used a coupon where the same 8-piece bucket is $13.99. As you can see it’s now quite expensive, oh and the pieces of chicken are small, I could have knocked off all 8 on my own.
(Editor’s Note: occasionally, KFC coupon prices on their bulk mail fliers are actually more than the regular price they charge at their store.)
Let us compare KFC to the Chili’s located just down the road from my office. Here at Chili’s, they are willing to do a burger, fries, soda, and either a salad or chips and salsa for $11. Chili’s is a sit-down place, so I know tax and tip will be added but it’s a far cry from KFC. Oh, the chips and salsa are bottomless and they even insisted I leave with a bagof chips and a pint of salsa! Oh, Red Robin has a similar deal of a burger, soda, and unlimited fries. Again, it’s a sit-down place. No coupon required by the way!
So how can Chili’s/Red Robin do it you ask? Their stores are bigger, have a full kitchen. and lot’s of waitstaff!
Several factors actually.
First, fast-food places do not serve alcohol, this is a huge advantage as chances to upsell a more expensive drink add a massive advantage! Your typical alcoholic beverage is $10 give or take, so in essence your ticket doubled. Bringing to point #2. The longer you linger in the booth, the more dessert starts to look good. Ah, now let us add the chocolate brownie at about $9. Your lunch just became $30. But I digress, as most likely do not do this! #3 is the menu is far more complex at the sit-down restaurant. Sure, you went in there for the loss leader, but you spied that steak, or pile of nachos that look better. Well, that’s not part of the meal deal and thus more expensive ticket.
At fast food, the upsell chances are minimal. Sure, offer me the meal deal of fries and a coke for an extra $7, not going to happen when you want $25 for 8 pieces chicken. At that price, I’m washing it down with water from the tap. The other massive disadvantage is fast food is supposed to be… well fast. I do not want to linger in the drive thru, get me my meal so I can get back on the road. This is another issue as we waited nearly 12 minutes at KFC to get our order in the drive thru. Fast is key, whereas at Chilis I am not in a big hurry.
Fast food, having to be offered as cheap as possible, is another way they are behind the eight ball. As a result, they must walk a fine line on who they hire/how many they hire, again fast food is supposed to be cheap! Quality of product, as I mentioned, the pieces of chicken resembled a pigeon more than a chicken. Wendy’s has since switched to cheap shredded lettuce rather than leaf lettuce. Most places charge for sauces now. Last time I was at Burger King, my Whopper was gray, it almost appeared boiled or microwaved. It didn’t taste like much. Oh, and the Whopper, fries, and drink “meal” was about $18.
In business school they teach you, quality, price, service…. Pick 2/3. As it’s impossible to hit on all 3. The problem here is, they have now made it very hard to hit on even 1. $18 for a meal deal is a ton of money…. Oh, and in my opinion, horrific quality to boot. $25 for 8 pieces chicken that really cannot even be shared by 2 is bad as well. Fast food used to be an asset, a light and quick way, to sling a meal on the cheap. It’s the opposite now. Our Governor and the older generation of bleeding hearts, want fast food to be a career, as such, the food is priced how it is. Oh, and the minimum wage for fast food went up to, I believe, $20.70, so your meal just got more expensive. As such, the operators have tried to hold the line on price, but have resorted to cheap quality food, or very slow service.
It will not get better, actually it’s gotten far worse.
Wendy’s recently announced the closure of 350 stores this coming year. Jack in the Box closing 150-200. The carnage has started. They simply cannot compete. If you supported the fast-food minimum wage hike and relied on them for your food to boot, you reap what you sow!
Long time no blog out of me. Like most I have been busy, but also prices have gone up so much at local eateries that I am going to have to re-evaluate my criteria for judging businesses. However, I have killed the local Dickey’s “BBQ” joint for what may be the final time.
You may recall my initial review of Dickey’s that led to the franchisee trying to coerce me to “take down my review” in the comment section here. That franchisee subsequently closed down his restaurants, and re-branded as “Side Burn BBQ” which was essentially a copycat of Dickeys but with different names on the menu. He claimed he never read his franchise agreement with Dickeys, was sued and his concept was shut down.
The place re-opened as a Dickey’s again under a new franchisee.
Just a quick reminder of Dickey’s, I reviewed it again after it re-opened. Dickey’s is supposed to be Texas style BBQ that was going to go country wide. It’s a franchise model so you pay a fee, buy equipment, and must source the food from the local supplier, ala Sysco or US Foods. The menu is standardized and prices are set by Dickey’s corporate but “may be higher in select markets.”
They serve the usual BBQ faire, brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken, turkey, sausage and it can come as a plate, small or large sandwich. They also offer salads, and large baked potatoes. Their signature feature was that you got as many large pickles as you want, and a free soft serve cone as well upon leaving.
As for the BBQ itself, it was average at best, with a five-star price tag. NO smoker or BBQ on site, food was pulled from a warmer, wrapped in shrink wrap, cut, re-wrapped and returned to said warmer. This place had all the tell-tale signs of pre-made BBQ from a supplier, flash frozen/cooled and revived in the store. It was odd really, the place never smelled like BBQ, kind of like a Subway never smells like a deli. That being said, when I asked about how the meat was cooked, the worker opened a cabinet revealing a rotisserie type cooker with multiple shelves holding product. I’m guessing this was their version of a smoker. On my only visit when the place re-opened, the pulled pork on my sandwich had to be soaked in sauce to have any sort of taste. This place was not going to last.
But enough about the products.
I am stunned by this bankruptcy filing, here are the details, I am using the names because they are listed in public records.
Elk Grove, Calif. franchisees Miguel Zarate Ortiz and Maria Zomeno Sevilla filed their petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California on Dec. 8 listing only $17,987 in assets and about $1.04 million in liabilities, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.
Most of the liabilities are debts owed to the Dallas-based parent company.
The Elk Grove franchisee did not state a reason for filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in its petition. The restaurant’s listing on the Dickey’s locations page reveals that the store is closed, and the phone number listed is not operational.
I had to do a double take, how on God’s green earth can a franchisee owning a single store have 1 million in liabilities owed? While Dave Ramsey would spontaneously combust upon hearing this, I want to examine it a little more. I actually have no issue with folks taking out a loan to start a franchise or small business. The way I view it, you do not own the store, or the concept, so why invest a lot of your own cash? While I would never own a franchise, I can see the draw. As a franchisee, you use a concept that already exists and is easily duplicable, use their menu, and use their supplier for food. I do not see how you can run up a million in debt.
Allow me to explain. Owning a franchise is an “asset light” model. Think of it like owning a Dominoes Pizza. You buy their oven, the decorations, the shelving, cooling units, ice machine, etc. These products cost money but not any amount touching 1 million. In the case of Dickey’s sure you have that smoker type thing, a cooling unit, a warmer unit, the ice cream machine, soda fountain is likely leased from Pepsi/Coke, the machine that butters/toasts the bread, and that’s really about it. Again, I’m not seeing 1 million dollars here. Nowhere close. I guess it could be they are not paying the franchise fees assessed monthly, but I cannot verify that.
Buyer beware, but my God in Heaven, you must be one crappy owner/operator if you somehow ran up that kind of debt. I do not think this store has been in operation under the new owner for more than 6 years. Sad!
This is an update to my last blog about Covid never going away.
90-day guy is a special creature. The guy will tell you to your face one thing, then decide he is neutral when confrontation hits. He likes to fancy himself as Switzerland then right afterward claim he had your side the entire time, but it’s about harmony. Make love not war right? He is also one of the most gullible people on the planet… but then again what do you expect from a guy who views as much as 12 hours of tv a day at least?
So, he claims he called my colleague to discuss the Covid situation last night, a call that lasted 10 minutes, I highly doubt this to be true. He proceeded to text me saying “we all need to do a better job of staying home when sick.” All of us? Why me?
The following morning my colleague wanted to speak with me about the incident. I simply stated if you know we both got it at Chipotle, I need to file a complaint, we cannot have a business that allows people to flaunt the Covid 19 laws regarding restaurants. (For those not in the know, you CANNOT under any circumstances come to work in food service with any symptoms of virus/illness). I could tell by the look on his face, he knew I was on to his BS, and unlike the 90-day guy, I was going to actually make him prove it. When he said “we both felt sluggish” yep, but I said how did you know to test for Covid in the AM with no symptoms? He tried a retort, but I once again called him out saying “if you were Covid positive, why wouldn’t you demand I test? Or warn the other two (he has a temp replacement who comes in when he is out) about me likely being a Covid positive…. Because you know we both got it at the same time, right?
The look on his face said it all, it’s the same look a married man gives his wife when he states “sweetheart this is the only times you cheated on me right?” and her “well honey….” Response.
He knew the gig was up, and it was time to come clean. He told me he was exposed to it via friends over the weekend. Not a crime, it happens. Parties/events etc. It’s a thing. He said symptoms started Monday afternoon, he simply ignored them, figuring this would just go away. Tuesday it was worse, so he was downing the Robitussin to suppress his coughing symptoms. He took me to lunch to try to place the blame on me. When returning to work, he could no longer hide his cough because I sat in the breakroom the entire afternoon so he couldn’t grab said Robitussin. He tested positive Wednesday morning early, and decided he was going to take the day off. He continued throughout the day texting me asking if I had any symptoms, since I didn’t, his master plan wasn’t going to work. You can’t say we both got it at Chipotle when I’m not sick yet.
He told me that he told 90-day guy the lie simply because he knew he would believe it, much like the second time he gave me Covid and he said I got it at the gym. He thinks 90-day guy is stupid, I think he is just very gullible.
The real lesson he needed to learn was not that he got Covid and was not exactly forthcoming, it’s that he created chaos. When you give a very contagious virus like Covid to someone you are also exposing their entire network. By not being forthcoming you allow said network to be exposed when you are likely highly contagious. I have always lived by “its better for ask for permission than to ask for forgiveness” having to explain to folks you may be exposed to covid is a hard thing to do. As a result, I had to burn a day off work, and am out of pocket around $600 for doctor visit, official covid test from a pharmacy, and Paxlovid. All avoidable. His temporary replacement was supposed to go to a 1-year-old’s birthday and a family party the following day, out of abundance of caution he stayed away. He got lucky, he was briefly exposed and did not test positive over the 5 days.
If there is a lesson to be learned here, I will say this, Paxlovid works. Really well. I was over this in about 3 days, as I started feeling better Saturday night. He on the other hand, waited until the symptoms were so bad Paxlovid didn’t work. It must be taken at the first sign of symptoms, which I did. I lost about 7 lbs. over those 3 days, but I came out alright, he did not.
It could have been a lot worse.
Johnnie Does
Editor’s Note: This was submitted right after I went to Europe, but I couldn’t post it until today.
If you are wondering when the covid 19 plandemic will go away, the answer is likely never. It’s our own damn fault too. What was the saying during the height of the lockdowns? We are all in this together or something like that? Well turns out some of us are serious about infectious diseases, others do not give a rip.
I will give you a run down of my now 3rd exposure to covid by the same person and explain why this will never go away.
Tuesday last week, my co-worker basically guilt tripped me into going out to lunch, I’m talking like he had a gift card he wanted to use up, in the amount where 2 would be required to do it. We went to Chipotle. There was no line, and we took our order “to go” please remember those facts.
Tuesday afternoon he develops a loud barking cough within minutes of eating his meal, he also appeared to have a fever as he was sweating profusely. He left a little early but felt a need to declare he “didn’t have covid.” Upon him departing I noticed a half-drained bottle of Robitussin cough suppressant in the break room that wasn’t there until that day. Immediately I had a feeling something was up.
That following 7am he texts me that he is positive for covid. Yep. He claims “we” got it at Chipotle. I guess that Chipotle didn’t smear the chik-fil-a sauce above the door like the Babylon Bee said to do way back when. It was weird, as I had zero symptoms at all.
Fast forward to Thursday, he claims he “had two bad days in a row.” I was fine, until around 3pm when I started sweating, and had a gnarly sore throat, I’m talking like a large piece of glass cutting my throat each time I would take a breath, or swallow. The pain was unbearable. I tested at a pharmacy, and viola! Positive! A full 2 days after eating and being “exposed” to some mystery person at Chiptole who doesn’t exist. Friday was a rough day, even after taking government mystery drug Paxlovid, and copious amounts of NyQuil (the sore throat and barking cough were painful, sleep was at a premium. Finally on Saturday around 6pm I began to come out of this. Sunday I was back to being a fully functioning adult.
As mentioned above this was now my third bout with this highly contagious virus that attacks your lungs…. Did I mention I race obstacle courses competitively and rank 12000 in the world? One would think your co-workers would at least give half a damn about that but no. Oh did I mention my father is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer? Guess who I was with Monday and Tuesday last week? Yup.
Monday at the office he stuck to his Chipotle story. So, I guess there is now a wild variant of this virus, one that has a time lapse of 2 days prior to releasing, while simultaneously having on that impacts instantly? He also denied any symptoms on Monday or Tuesday, yet had the presence of mind to test himself Wednesday early morning? Maybe Warren Buffett has competition when it comes to predicting things? Makes no sense. The only people who we interacted with were each other, for 2 straight days, Monday and Tuesday.
That’s when it became abundantly clear. He was exposed over the weekend.
He likely developed sore throat symptoms on Monday circa lunchtime, and that part is easy to hide. He developed the cough symptom I’m guessing Tuesday mid-morning, hence the downing of cough suppressants to “fool” those in the office. If you do not cough, and don’t complain of throat soreness did it ever exist? The gig was up Tuesday evening as he likely had such a bad cough, throat and fever that he knew he could no longer hide it. So he pulled the Chipotle excuse. By doing that he could say we both got it at the same time. Timelines do not lie though.
Covid will never go away due to the actions of the above culprit. Rather than staying at home or getting tested at first symptom, he waited yet again until it was too late. The bigger issue is by doing so he rendered any sort of isolation pointless and moot. The virus very likely could have impacted my father, or anyone I play basketball with ay the gym, or interact with at church or my extracurricular activities. It’s not just about yourself. People like him are the reason we keep needing new boosters/vaccines. I am not sure what is so hard about isolating/distancing when sick, but obviously that’s too much to ask.
I have permanent damage to my lungs from this virus and being exposed 3 times to it. I do not want to have to pay for this in my 60s and 70s but I fear I will. While I do not think my racing career will be affected in the near term, it likely will be if I plan to keep it up after 50.
On a serious note, I am making a big change. I will be telling the head man in charge here next time I get any virus form my colleague I am quitting on the spot. Yep, I have had it of the gaslighting and prolonged exposure to communicable diseases, my father is in immunocompromised state (Jesus, I sound like Fauci) and I am sick of burning vacation days when I get sick form a colleague. Oh yeah, the covid 19 test, subsequent doctors visit (required for a prescription mind you) and Paxlovid has run me about $600. I do not mind exposure to a common cold/flu due to seasonal nature, but folks all 3 times I was given covid the early symptoms were enough to know something serious was wrong, I am too young and energetic to have to worry about long term health effects.
I guess we will see what next poo-poo platter of viruses my coworker tries to hit me with.
So, on Sunday last week, while over for dinner, my father told me his cancer was back. Prostate, that he had treated 13 years ago. He shared that the survival rate was 13 years so it was kind of expected that it would return. I was told it was very treatable, and it was caught early enough that essentially it would be defeated again. This is not to say that things can’t go horribly wrong. Again, reference the timeline, it was this past Sunday.
Thursday comes around, and prior to dinner my mother (who appeared 10pm drunk at the early hour of 6pm) while my father was on the phone told me, “The cancer is very aggressive and chemotherapy treatments are starting Saturday, as in the immediate weekend.” Maybe it’s just me, but why start ASAP when it’s not serious? Like really serious? You would think most starting ASAP likely have extremely unfavorable diagnosis and likely are fighting Father Time. My father then declared he wasn’t going to let anyone know who wasn’t an immediate relative… well, I guess that’s his prerogative, but leaving people in the dark doesn’t seem smart, and likely causes more stress later. My father also said he doesn’t want people crying here or calling him with wild and whacky things to try to remedy the cancer. What? I thought it was very treatable? Hair on fire treatments and fringe internet “cures” are what happens when hope is lost, I thought?
Fast forward to Saturday, he heads off for chemotherapy and my task was to cook. I received a text message early that afternoon saying my sister was in route from Southern California. Seems odd she would make this trip if everything was Hunky Dorey fine right? Oh, she is in town for 3 weeks, again something seems very off here. My father also said he will not be telling his mother as he doesn’t want her to worry about him… yet he told his 5 siblings? Does he think they won’t spill the beans? My father’s side of the family has more drama than all major networks carrying soap operas have combined.
Sunday was a whole different experience. My phone was blowing up as word had spread like wildfire. Folks I haven’t spoken to in my family for years suddenly wanted to know about his condition and since I live 3 minutes away, I was the one to call. I obviously had zero info, but it sounded like the story they got was completely different from the one I got. Now its chemo through the month of November, a far cry from “7 treatments.” Also, my mother who accompanied him to said treatment started oddly using strange “legal disclaimers” after each question she was asked by me. “Your experience may vary” “Every person is different.” “We sincerely hope we caught it early, but things happen.” It sounds like a whale of a tail I was told.
To put a bow on this, I feel strongly I have been given a best-case scenario, with the hope of “he will run with this info and do my bidding for me!” I have been asked over the last 3 months if my father was ok as he was losing weight. He is wearing shorts/pants that are a good size or two too big for him, and his belt now appears as if he got it at Goodwill for a buck and they only had one size, XXXL. He still has a large appetite, but that could just be a front when I am coming over. He has traveled outside the country for the first time in his life. 2 months ago…. He never had a desire to leave the US. Could this be a “bucket list trip?” I’m not sure. What I do know is he is suspiciously silent and somehow everyone knows what is going on except for me. It seems odd he wants no one to know yet tells his siblings that essentially act like the world’s megaphone, everyone within earshot will know. Then I am being forced to tell a favorable story that is also likely not true. Summoning my sister was a warning sign that things are not what they seem. My mother’s “drunk person’s words that night, were a sober one’s thoughts.” I got a version of the story run through a filter several times to make sure it put me at ease.
I have a sneaky feeling that the next update may be planning for life after my father. I am not sure why they would not be honest to their oldest offspring, but such is life I guess. I hope I’m wrong but sadly things are not lining up that way.
With Covid now in the rearview mirror (except for some). the food/meal reviews are back.
I came across this “Old El Paso” Stacked Queso crunch kit at my local grocer. It was on the “closeout rack” marked down to $2. I bought it for a couple reasons. First, I was going to cook tacos and secondly, I had no shells or taco dirt (aka the spices) so I decided what the heck.
The taco kit contains, 6 soft taco shells, 6 hard taco shells, a packet of taco dirt, and a packet of nacho cheese sauce. The point of this kit is to essentially to make a hard shell taco (you must buy the meat, and fixings) and then put the nacho cheese on the soft shell and wrap it around the hard taco. The hard shells are flavored with nacho cheese dust, quite similar to the Taco Bell Doritos Nacho Cheese Loco Taco. I cooked the meat, seasoned it with the dirt, got my fixings ready, and made a few of these for myself.
Honest assessment? Not great, ok at very best. The nacho cheese sauce was a garden variety high school basketball/football game melted plastic type cheese. There were some pepper flakes in it, so it had a vest. The soft shell was fine. The taco dirt was your garden variety dirt, nothing special. The hard shell was an odd choice. The shells have a flat bottom so you can “stand and stuff them” a nice change from the old, you have to hold it and stuff it, but the flavoring was odd. I would describe this meal as eating nachos but with nacho cheese Doritos instead of tortilla chips. 2.5/5
Price point: $2 is a steal, I went back to the scene of the sale and found the item on the shelf a week later (likely this had to do with expiration dates) retailing for $6.99. Yikes. Based on $2 4.7/5. Full retail? Even a Biden voter would say this economy is causing these shells to be a rip off. Seriously? 12 taco shells, a package of taco dirt and nacho cheese for $7? That’s whack. Hell, a pound of ground beef cost me just $3.
Aftermath: This was not great. I ate the entirety of the shells. They were not large, think basically fast-food sized tacos. The meat, fixings, and shredded cheese were not an issue. The nacho cheese and hard taco chemical shell caused some issues. Let’s just say I haven’t seen a blow out that bad since Tampa Bay played the Raiders in a Super Bowl about 20 years ago. The processed cheese product and the hard shells I would definitely pass on in the future.
Johnnie Does
PS I was able to report back to my doctor that I am able to delay my colonoscopy another year because this taco kit cleaned everything out down there. If you’ve ever considered a cleansing routine and like mildly spicey food this may just be your ticket to better health.
Chief and I were at the same Thanksgiving table and broke bread with a group of other readers of this blog. Two leaned left, two leaned right, all of them had issues with the foreign policy takes on this blog. Specifically, Israel and Ukraine. Simply put they feel the blog staff here are nationalist, isolationist whackos. This could not be further from the truth!
I believe we had a lot we could have learned from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we did not. Other countries do not like to be occupied. Outside of Afghanistan, we have NEVER left a country we have invaded. While keeping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan like we did, we lost numerous additional troops. For zero reason.
We normally go to war/invasion over false pretenses … weapons of mass destruction anyone? How many missiles/bombs/drone strikes have we lobbed at another country in the Middle East simply over “we think they are responsible for such and such attack on one of our bases there”. It makes no sense, in most of these regions we have no reason to be there.
We even enter wars via proxy when we have no real connection to the invaded country. Take for instance Ukraine. They are not a member of NATO or the EU (European Union). They never wanted to join either! So now that they are attacked, we need to step in? Why exactly? Think about this, we are sending our munitions to a country who is not an ally in any way!
(Editor’s Note:Obama, Biden, and Soros did finance and coordinate the overthrow of the government in Ukraine in 2014. In a sense, we started this mess, but Johnnie Does is correct; what business did we have getting involved in the first place?)
Despite my best efforts, I didn’t land any punches with this group.
In the case of Israel, they are technically an ally, but they are surrounded by countries who have been/are hostile towards our foreign policy. Egypt kinda blows hot and cold with us, Jordan as well. Lebanon doesn’t like us. Iran wants our country wiped off the earth and Syria, Yemen, and Oman like our money but could care less about us. Israel, simply put, will not be helping us much in any war we engage in because they know they are on an island geo-politically.
When asked my opinion I gave the following regarding both “conflicts.”
On Israel: We get our navy/ships out of their ASAP and back to their normal positions. We do not need those strike groups in that region, we have NATO allies and troops stationed not far away. To be fair, Israel has stated they don’t want, nor need our help. Regarding the numerous, (yeah check it out) numerous bases in Syria and Iraq, it’s time to pull up stakes and leave. We have a massive airbase in Qatar, another country that in my opinion tolerates us, not really likes us. That should be enough. It’s time to bring our young people back home. Just remember we believe Iran is funding the groups attacking Israel via proxy….
This brings me to my next point.
On Russia/Ukraine: How come it’s ok for US/NATO to provide Ukraine with money, weapons, planes, vehicles, etc. but not ok when Iran does it? On that topic, how much has NATO really given to Ukraine? I read an article stating that the weapons we promised (NATO) will fall short of the goal. Why must we arm them? It seems like NATO really isn’t giving much; Germany gave some helmets, France has sent a few tanks and guns. Seems like the countries sending the most are Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland. Each of these countries are small (the 3 Baltic states) or share a border with Russia and I would argue should be stockpiling not donating. Why aren’t the other member nations stepping up? If they don’t want to donate from their stock, they could purchase from US and give. If the member nations who are not directly neighboring Russia are giving very little what does that tell you about this alliance? Hate to say it but they are counting on us to bail them all out. I would be ok with donating outdated weaponry such as missiles, bombs, and guns. Tanks, planes, and other toys? No chance. By the way check out how much money the US and other countries have donated that is flat out unaccounted for… think we could be using that to solve the homeless issue a little? Ukraine is corrupt, and has a very weak military, we are simply propping them up. Sucks they got attacked but at some point, we may wish we had those weapons.
Let us address the real reason we are involving ourselves … the military industrial complex. Raytheon, Boeing (yeah, they make war ships too), Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and others spend millions to lobby congress each year. In return they get billions in defense contracts. Over time we accumulate a stockpile of military products. As such we feel we must use/sell them to other countries. As a result of this stockpiling, some of our leaders–think Bush’s, Clinton’s, Obama, Lindsay Graham, John McCain types feel we must invade or bomb anyone we do not like. As you can see it’s a bi-partisan issue here, or I guess one issue both parties can agree on. Buy me an expensive steak and lobster meal each time I want one, and you will get a blank check for defense spending. Just look at how hard it is to get a slot on the defense committee in either branch of congress. These folks are smart and know where the lobby money hits hardest. As such we have decades of pointless involvement in the Middle East and now Ukraine. While the conflict in Israel has an end or goal, the Ukraine conflict shows no signs of stopping which is exactly what the military industrial complex wants. They want continued war to get extra contracts. Notice how some are sounding the alarm about us running out of vehicles and weapons? Again, why are we in these wars?
How would I fix these? Let’s say I am king for a day. I am calling Israel and saying what is your end game here? How about kill the folks leading Hamas who ordered this brutal attack and demand all hostages released? What they are doing now amounts to borderline genocide. I am sorry but Hamas is a terror group, they don’t wear uniforms, they have no real military. Israel looks like it’s going door to door and blowing up whomever appears to be a terrorist, so I guess all males aged 17-60. This is not a strategy. Kills those responsible, anyone in the direct way/tunnel etc. is collateral damage.
After this I am calling the president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan and telling him here is the plan from Israel, and the US is pulling its warships out of the Middle East. I am telling him stop dialoguing with Russia and Iran…. Yeah, he recently started trying to thaw relations with both adversaries of ours. He has always had the ear of Putin, but Turkey has been one of the countries supplying Ukraine fairly heavily with drones and equipment. Turkey has the second largest army in NATO. Speaking of NATO, we cannot lose Turkey, as they control the Black Sea, and are a bridge to the Middle East. By the way check out the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict; Turkey picked Azerbaijan, apparently, we are picking Armenia. Doh!
As far as Ukraine… they aren’t in NATO or the EU, as noted earlier. I would call the president and tell him the stockpile is thinning out and he will need to fill the holes elsewhere. We can send the old things, but the flow is slowing, and he gets no more money! I do not trust this country or any of their “leadership.” They are very corrupt and frankly I don’t think they really care about their people. Ukraine is out gunned and outmanned. It’s time to re-trench. Our goal in NATO is to defend those in the alliance, not those who feel they want to be after being attacked. It’s time to fortify Finland, the Baltic Countries, and Poland, as they directly neighbor Russia. Actions have consequence and Ukraine never wanted to join either group. Russia is being made fun of right now militarily, but those making fun do not understand, Russia can lose 10 million people in this war, Ukraine cannot. Look to history, even when fighting on our side in WW2 Russia has always been a meat grinder militarily.
Final thought: An isolationist policy isn’t what I am advocating. I am saying our days as being the world’s police force are over. If we are being honest and looking at this rationally, Russia will take Ukraine, and maybe Moldova, they won’t go farther that way. Perhaps they also have designs on Georgia and maybe Armenia since Armenia was a former ally of Russia. Outside of that they do not have many options. If they attack a NATO country, it’s on. Then we get involved. Israel, they have proven they can defend themselves; the show of force was dumb. Also, we need to think about our military’s sustainability, not in a “green” way but in a numbers way. No one wants to sign up for the military now. We have been in pointless conflicts for my entire life, I am 37. We continue to send our young people to die and for what exactly? Move our troops back, and bring them home, if things get even more dicey, we can always re-deploy.
Credit cards, they are a polarizing thing. Some will tell you never to obtain one, others will declare you need one, or you won’t be able to rent a car/house/apartment, buy a house or car, or what if some emergency comes up. I will examine both ways in this blog.
Personally I have 3 credit cards. I use all 3 for different things, one is all my auto-payment bills (utilities, internet) one for work expenses (reimbursement), and another for literally emergency/pleasure use (think going out etc.) I track all purchases when statements come in monthly. I receive a paper bill each month… never auto pay with a credit card. I do not open or use a card simply for earning “points” or “miles” as I think and believe both are a scam. I cash in my “earnings” each year and do something with them, usually buying items off Amazon as that tends to be the best use. I tried to use it for airfare, and quickly found out the price of a ticket in points was unreal compared to just booking as usual. With my method I am able to track my expenses by category and find out exactly where I spend too much, and adjust as necessary. I always pay the bill in full, and have never paid a fee or interest. Don’t feel good for me as the credit card company still makes money off me, as the swipe and usage fees charged to the merchant on each swipe are not avoidable.
I bought my house in large part due to my 820 credit score and got a lower interest rate to boot. I was also able to lease a brand new Toyota Tacoma after my old vehicle finally kicked out again due to said credit score. (I have since paid it in full, and owe nothing on it.)
This isn’t to say you should go get a credit card, many get by without, quite a few by choice, and you can still buy houses/cars and rent houses/cars without a credit card. It’s just a longer, tougher, nerve wracking process. The point of this blog isn’t to whack anyone without a card, it’s a choice, I live my way, you are free to live yours.
Now for the folks who need/needed or understand Dave Ramsey’s advice.
Some do not need a credit card, nor should they own one. Credit cards create a false euphoria when used, you simply swipe it, and are worry and carefree until the bill is due. Even then they offer a convenient “minimum payment option” of a nominal amount say $40. In addition each time you log into the website to view/pay bill you get a prompt saying sign up for paperless billing, quite literally every time, there is no way to opt out. Mess up and click on the link, well good luck getting taken off paperless billing. They bill it as a “green initiative….you are doing right by the environment.” Give me a break; a paper statement of roughly 3 pages, and a mailed envelope? That isn’t causing the ice caps to melt Al Gore. These are corporations and while they make money each time you swipe the plastic they make even more when you opt out of a monthly paper statement. But wait there is more…
You forgot to pay the bill this month…. just by a day darn it! Well, you get hit with a late fee, your interest rate goes from probably 17% or so to about 38% which, oh by the way, they can do since that is the agreement you agreed to when you applied. Of course, you didn’t read the fine print, you needed the card to earn miles or points. Oh, they also report that missed payment to the 3 credit bureaus, watch what happens to the interest rate on your other cards, suddenly that 17% turns into about 30% But that’s ok, you only missed one payment and you will make it up next month.
It not just fees and extra interest, it’s your entire buying pattern that changes. Suddenly you find yourself going down each aisle at the grocery store, you only went there for 8 things, but your basket turned into a cart full, which turned a $25 total into about $175. But you had to get 3 more bags of chips because they are on sale, and you earned “points.” Ditto for those spices in the spice aisle that will migrate to the back of the pantry, but hey you earned a few points, and they were on sale… the cool red tag said so. Now you are swiping so freely you lose track and forget how much you spent… hello, surprise bill. You make the minimum payment but keep spending, you do so because, well you always get a bonus in December, so you will pay it off then. You don’t get the bonus, or even if you do the interest compounds daily, and is on your bill monthly. All of a sudden that 1-3% cash back doesn’t look so great on 19% interest charges now does it?
The last and most worrisome is deferred interest charges. And yours truly almost got caught in this. I had just bought a house, and my down payment took every dollar that was not in my retirement account. I know cry me a river! At my house I had no washer, dryer or fridge. The dishwasher was quite literally on its last leg, and the oven/stove and microwave had been through a lot. In fairness the family I bought it from had moved out 3 years prior and let their grandson live there rent free. Everything else was fine, but I needed appliances, using my parent’s wasn’t going to cut it. Enter Pacific Sales, conveniently located inside the local Best Buy. They had a big sale going as it was a three day weekend, and to be fair I shopped around and for all seven appliances I needed it was the best deal by far. The total came to about $3,500 I reckon, then after the installation and “other” parts required for said appliances we were at about $4,000. Obviously I didn’t have the kind of coin, and right on cue they had a financing offer. No interest for 1 year! Just get the store branded credit card. Even better I was told 3 months of no payments applies as well…. how great 1 year and 3 months of zero interest! There’s a catch, I will get to it later. 2 months later, the tires needed to be replaced on my Explorer, about $1,100 worth. Of course, they have you by the proverbial balls, since they can pull the “your car isn’t road worthy so we cannot let it leave card.” Again, they pulled a great offer, 1 year no interest, and $200 off. I didn’t want to do it, but hey… why not right? If you are keeping score at home, I now have 2 store cards, and about $4,800 in monies owed. I was making minimum payments on the balances each month, $100 on the appliances, $50 in the tires… because…. Well, time value of money, right? I was going to pay them off later, but had other things to worry about.
Well at the bottom corner of the statement, there is/was a box, it stated deferred interest. This box was the way the store makes money. You see the store likely is losing on the deal offered up front, but they stand to gain a large amount from these deferred charges. Luckily for me, in both cases I caught this before it became a problem at all. To give you an idea, had I been a month late on the tires, the interest would have been $350, on top of the $900 I would have paid. Had I had just paid in full that day, $1,100 would have been the damage, instead I would have paid about $1,250. The appliances would have been far worse, deferred interest would have been about $1,500. Again, look at the deal upfront, and the deal had I not paid in full in the “promo-time.”
Don’t believe me? Check out these quotes from the earnings reports of Macy’s and Nordstrom
Macy’s executives disclosed on Tuesday that rising delinquencies cut credit card revenues to $120 million in the second quarter, down $84 million from the previous quarter. While Nordstrom’s credit card revenues rose 10% in the first half of this year, company executives said Tuesday that delinquencies are now above pre-pandemic levels and could “result in higher credit losses in the second half and into 2024.”
Credit cards are big $$$ for these corporations, and a large part of the earnings numbers. Keep in mind interest earned is basically “free money” to these groups. They only have to mail out a statement each month.
The last item I wish to address is when you pay with plastic it truly is “buy now, pay later.” Items purchased may or may not show up on the next bill. Take this for example, I paid for a tank of gas Tuesday this week, in the amount of $80, I used my trusted cash back card. Well, my statement closed Monday night, so the gas I bought will not be on Septembers bill, it will be on Octobers. Let’s just say in September I owe my house insurance, in addition to my other utility/recurring expenses, well my October bill will be higher thea I likely budgeted. This is another trick the credit card companies do not want you to know.
Use my example, if you are not careful, those appliances, or tires quickly become very expensive. Dave doesn’t need me shilling for him, he offers and does good things, especially for folks who find themselves not realizing the pitfalls of “2% cash back.” If you don’t carry a card… more power to you. I don’t judge, if you messed up previously… I don’t care, just don’t do it again.
As far as renting a car goes, yes, if you have no credit card it may be tougher, may even need to check a couple of companies to rent you one, but you will find one. As for buying a house/car, sure there will be more hoops to jump through and you may need to shop around for a bank who will “manually underwrite you” but if you qualify for the loan, you get it. Federal law.
Johnnie Does
PS check out the value of those “points” thepointsguy.com I think is a good site, it will show you the best/worst uses for them, and you can see firsthand how some banks…cough…Citi… cough, devalue points if you use them certain ways.
