I finally made it out to Jack-n-Grill  this past Sunday.   We have wanted to try it ever since one of my wife’s cousins alerted us to its existence when he saw it on The Travel Channel’s Man v. Food.   I didn’t visit  to conquer the seven pound burrito that the TV show host attempted to eat, I just wanted to sample some regular sized meals.   Fortunately for me, their meals are far from normal sized.  

We arrived at the original location  in the middle of the afternoon and were immediately seated at a table directly next to the kitchen.   There is a large glass window that allows diners to view the kitchen and the preparation of their food.   We started with the chips and salsa, which only cost $1.   I knew we were in for a spicy meal the second I tasted the salsa.   I remember it burning my mouth right away, but it was very delicious.   Before long we watched as our meals were quickly assembled in the kitchen and then delivered right away to our table.  

I ordered a chicken burrito smothered in both red vegetarian and pork green chile, also known as Christmas style.   I was given the option  to have sour cream and guacamole added, which I agreed to.   My wife ordered the plate of four gorditas, choosing one each of refritos, chicken, chicken and bean, and breakfast.   These are deep-fried sopapillas that are again served with choice of chiles for dipping.   We decided to split both meals, and I’m glad we did.   The gorditas were delicious!   The burrito was also good, with the standout items being both chiles.   The pork green chile was very hot and full of flavor.  

Finishing the last bits of my smothered burrito.

Even though we were very hungry, we could not finish all the food, as the burrito was very large in addition to  the serving of four stuffed sopapillas.   The prices seemed fair, $10 for each of  the meals, though I wasn’t aware that the guacamole and sour cream on my burrito would be extra.   $2 for one scoop of guacamole seems pretty high to me.   I would recommend ordering the guacamole as an appetizer and saving some for your meals, if desired.   Overall I left the restaurant happy and completely full.   Their menu is very long, so I hope to make it back to sample more in the future.  

To kick off the weekend Kim and I went out on Friday night to catch Ozomatli at the Ogden Theatre.   I was first introduced to this band back in college by one of my roommates.   He took me to my first show in 2002, and though I have only seen them a couple of times since them, they put on one of the best live shows I have seen.   The show on Friday night was no exception.   It was a solid mix of old songs that I can remember hearing back in ’02 and new songs.   The band was formed in 1995 and is showing no signs of slowing down.

The band currently  features seven members: Asdru Sierra (lead vocals, trumpet), Raul Pacheco (lead vocals, guitar, tres, jarana), Justin Poree (rap vocals, percussion), Wil-dog Abers (bass, backing vocals), Jiro Yamaguchi (tabla, percussion, backing vocals),  Ulises Bella (sax, clarinet, requinto jarocho, keyboards, backing vocals), and Mario Calire  (drums).   Their mix of music includes everything from hip hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LA R&B and New Orleans second line, Jamaican ragga and Indian raga, all sung in a mix of spanish and english.   It is very hard to explain other than to say it is a very worldly sound  and a ton of fun.

At times on Friday the number of players on stage nearly doubled as guests on all sorts of instruments came and went, including sousaphone and an entire horn section.   The sound was great, the crowd was large but not overly packed.   We were able to find a great spot downstairs, off to the side but with a great view of the stage.   Part of the show is watching the band members and their dances and theatrics.   The crowd knew nearly all the songs and fully participated at all the right times.   It was a wonderful show and I hope to see them play again soon.    

Image taken from heyreverb.com

Somehow my hockey team  lost to the last place team in the league on Wednesday night.   What’s strange is that this team didn’t seem like a very bad team at all.   In fact, most of their forwards were really good skaters.   This game was played  at what must be the oldest hockey rink in Denver.   Most of the rinks I’ve played in have been really nice and up to date.   This rink was up to date for the most part, but you could definitely tell the age of the building based on the locker room facilities and small size of the benches.   What’s worst, there is no bar!

Bowling went really well last night.   Not only for me but also for my team.   I started with a score of 111 in the first game.   Second was my third highest score ever of 146.   And finally I finished the night with a 130.   My team will still be in second place, as the first place team also won all of their games.   However, we put should put some space between us and the team we played against, who were in third place.   We only have a few weeks left to climb back into first, so I hope that my bowling continues to be above my average.

I went 2-1 in fantasy football.   With one of my wins, I moved up into second place overall.   I remain  in fourth place in the other league with a win.   And in the final  league with a loss, I remain tied for fourth.   This week may be  a struggle for some of my teams, as injuries continue to bring down some of my better players.   I also lost some points in the college pick’em game and fell all the way down to sixth place.   And  I’m stuck in eighth place in the NFL version.

I put together one of those baby pools where you can guess the delivery date, size of the baby, etc.   Originally I was thinking of making it a money pool, but that seemed like too much work to collect the money.   So the entries are free and take very little time.   Please follow this link to enter your guesses.   You have less than 30 days to enter.   Maybe we will find some kind of prize to give the winner.   Best of luck!

We had our first Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend.   A good friend of ours will be leaving the country for work before Thanksgiving arrives, and she wanted to have a great American meal before she left.   This group of friends are all quite the cooks, so I had to prepare a couple of my favorite recipes for the occasion.   The first are these wonderful garlic mashed potatoes.   I’ve been making them for years, and I don’t think there are any better mashed potatoes out there anywhere.   I also made a large batch of stir fried asparagus.   I followed both receipes closely, except for I heated the teriyaki sauce for the asparagus until it thickened and was much more like a glaze.

Just as I was posting this, I remember that today is the Thanksgiving potluck at work.   So I am actually having my second Thanksgiving meal of the season right now.

Over the weekend I made my first visit to Swing Thai.   My wife had tried their food once before, but neither of us had ever dined in.   There is a location  close to our house (301 S. Pennsylvania) but we always seemed to pass it up when heading out for Thai food.   The nearby Thai Basil gets most of our business.   Since we were on foot, and Swing Thai is a few blocks closer to home, we decided to give it a try.

Immediately I was amazed  at how small this location  is.   You can see that it is small from the outside, but it was even smaller than I expected.   The nice thing about the small size  is that the kitchen is very close and the wonderful smells greet you right away upon entry.   We were seated  at a small table in the middle of the room.   The service was alright, though it did take awhile  to get our drinks, just a water and iced green tea.   Refills came much quicker and the food was served quickly too.

I decided to try the Jungle Curry, while my wife had the Pad Thai.   The curry came with a warning of it being hot, but I didn’t think it was too spicy.   It was a little more soupy than I’m used to, but the vegetables were wonderful.   I was a little shocked at the serving size of the dish.   Typically when ordering curry at other restaurants  I’ve been given so much that it often supplies enough leftovers for multiple lunches.   The serving of curry here was much smaller and I had no problem eating it all.   The Pad Thai was closer to the normal service size, but perhaps still a little small.   We left with absolutely no leftovers.   Despite this complaint, the food was very good and of the highest quality.

Saturday was a productive day for us at the Paff house.   We spent the majority of the day working on the baby’s room.   Details can be found over at kimandedjr.com.

It's a jungle in there!

I had another night of inconsistent bowling last night.   It all started off great with a score of 150 for the first game.   This was the highest score for the entire league last night.   However my second game ended with a pathetic score of 77.   The third game was improved, finishing the night with 109 pins.   My average for the entire season is 110, and I think that will remain the same after this weeks results.   My team played against the first place team, and we beat them two out of three games.   Our team remains in second place, one point behind the first place team.

My hockey game two nights ago was pretty mediocre as well.   Our team lost the game 4-2, but I managed to score our first goal and was on the ice for the second.   So even if my team is doing poorly, at least my play is improving.

Finally, my fantasy football  teams went undefeated this past week.   I moved up to third place in one league, and remain  in fourth in the other two, though one is technically a tie with Kim’s dad.   I have tough matchups this week in two of the leagues as I go head to head with the first place teams.   In the other league I am playing against the last place team.   I’m predicted to win all three.   In the pick’em games I remain  in third for college and eighth for NFL.

After using Windows 7 for six months, I can definitely declare it the best version of Windows to date.   I’m using the 64-bit version on my work laptop and I have really grown to love it.   Not only is it really fast, some of the new features are so good I can’t imagine how I got work done without them.   The biggest is being able to drag a window to the side of the screen, where it will then automatically occupy that half of the screen.   Using this feature it is a piece of cake to make two windows open side by side.   It is no replacement for dual monitors, but it definitely gets the job done when needed.

I have also grown to like the grouped taskbar.   This was a little harder to get adjust to at first, but when you start opening tons of windows, it is nice to have similar ones grouped so you can easily find what you are looking for.   I haven’t loaded Windows 7  on to  any of my computers at home, but it’s only a matter of time before I bite that bullet.   I’d really like to see if it performs much better  than Windows XP on the old box that I’m using for my webserver.   I will likely try that out in the near future.   Otherwise it may be  time for a new server, as this one seems to be dragging more and more.

I purchased a new TV about a month ago.   Over the weekend I was alerted by Price Protectr  that Best Buy had dropped their price of the TV I bought $50 under the price I paid.   All I had to do to get money back was take my receipt into the store and they credited $50 plus tax back onto  my credit card.   I’ve used Price Protectr  before, but it has never saved me much until this latest purchase.   Still it is worth using if you aren’t already.   All you have to do is enter the URL for the product you bought and provide  your email address.   Their system watches the product and will email you if the price falls below what you paid for it.   With 160 supported stores, it is well worth your time to utilize the simple process that could save you money in the future.   I’m glad I did.