Back in April, Jewel announced their “Big Relief Price Cut.”  The announcement was well-received around the Chicago area.  Families with tight budgets would be able to get more groceries for their dollar.  From a business perspective, it would also help Jewel compete with other retailers.  This announcement was covered in newspapers and on television.  However, I don’t recall any discussion of alcoholic beverages having their prices cut.  I don’t see any discussion now.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through Jewel’s weekly ad.  I usually skip the alcohol section since I am a prohibitionist and do not drink, but something caught my eye.  Jewel was advertising price cuts on their alcohol.  Below is this week’s liquor ad.

Big letters across the top, “We’ve cut prices” and “Big Relief Price Cut.”  Some of the price cuts have been very large.  I recall seeing vodka that had its previous price listed at around $40 going for about $18 now.  In this particular ad, Sutter Home wine has a “before” price of $12.99 and an “after” price of $7.99.  Note the larger print at the top-left of the ad – “We’ve cut prices up to 20% less.”  Hmm.  By my math, this is nearly a 40% drop in price.

Ordinarily I would be applauding price drops for consumers.  However, this is alcohol we are talking about.  Is dropping alcohol prices the most prudent thing to be doing?  This makes it easier for those with alcohol problems to buy more alcohol.  The barrier of entry to alcohol is lower with these new prices.  I understand people wanting to enjoy an occasional adult beverage after a job well-done.  However, if a family is struggling to pay their grocery bill, why should a grocer tempt them to buy alcohol with these low prices?  Lower the prices on staples like milk, vegetables, and breakfast foods.  We want these families to have access to good nutrition when going to school, working a physically-demanding job, or pounding the pavement looking for a job.  You know some idiots will choose to buy two packs of the newly-discounted Leinenkugel’s beer instead of stocking up on pasta, mac and cheese, and tuna (those items have new lower prices).

Alcohol is a luxury.  We got into this economic mess because people overdid the luxuries.  They overextended themselves by purchasing unnecessarily large homes filled with televisions and home theater systems that cost as much as a community college education.  Priorities were misplaced.  During grocery trips, people need to focus on nutritious foods and getting the most for their nutrition dollar.  Alcohol is not nutritious.  It is not a necessity, and it certainly is not cheap.  That $13.99 spent on Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita would be better spent on meats, vegetables, and breads for meals.

I think it is socially irresponsible of Jewel to drastically lower prices on alcohol.  Jewel should be steering customers to healthier foods with these discounts.  The $5/bottle discount on that Sutter Home wine could have been spread as discounts on many other more nutritious products in the store.  Discounting should be used to encourage consumption of safe healthy products, not products that have negative effects on society and health.

I have been a geocacher (GPS-based scavenger hunting) for nearly five years.  One of the long-running debates in geocaching is “Is it about the hide, or is it about the numbers?”  In layman’s terms, is geocaching more about adventure and discovery, or more about increasing your number of geocaches found?  Quality vs. quantity.

When you log a geocache, your total find count is shown next to your name.

A high find count could be viewed as a sign of prestige or proficiency.  A geocacher may care more about having a high find count than seeing interesting places and encountering creative hides.  They want the prestige of a high find count even at the cost of seeking repetitive mundane caches.  Of course, there are ways to inflate your find count.  Some geocachers think the game would change if find counts were no longer displayed – maybe bad caches with the sole intention of increasing hide/find counts wouldn’t be placed anymore.

Today I realised there may be a similar situation in the Twitter and Facebook universe.  I started using Facebook in December 2008 and Twitter last month.  I’m not really big into social networking because I regularly see in-person the people I want to be friends with.  Facebook and Twitter don’t really aid my friendships, though they do keep me in touch with current and former acquaintances.  Since I am somewhat detached from the social networking movement, I think I may have a more unbiased or slightly negative view of the phenomenon.

This CNET article about social networking mentions how young people use their online profiles as a way to create a brand for themself.  Twitter and Facebook are quick and easy ways to draw attention to yourself and create a “public.”  It’s not like blogging, where you have to create original content and have some insight to establish a public following.  The aforementioned article also brings up the use of social networking to show off – creating attention-getting status updates and posting photos with the intention of eliciting comments from your friends/public/followers.

So where am I going with this?  I wonder if prolific Facebook and Twitter users have somehow tied their self-esteem or perceived self-importance to the number of friends and followers they have on Facebook and Twitter.  Does a person feel more valued or liked if they have a high number of friends and followers?  Likewise, do others have more respect for someone with a high friend and follower count?

Just like geocaching, Facebook and Twitter offer a metric.  On Facebook, your profile shows the number of friends you have along with their pics.

On Twitter, your page says how many people you are following, and how many people are following you.

What I would like to know is if Facebook and Twitter usage would change if the number of friends and followers were not placed on users’ pages.  I suspect some users get a certain satisfaction from having lots of friends and followers.  While I think most people add a friend on Facebook with the main intention of keeping tabs on that person, I think the bump in the friend count plays a small role in the decision to friend someone.  I mean, nobody wants to have only two or three friends on their page.  They will appear socially inept, or even unattractive or undesirable.  By having lots of Facebook friends, you create the illusion of being popular.  To fulfill the need to feel popular and respected, I suspect many Facebook users friend other users with a slight motive to stoke their own popularity.

Likewise with Twitter, though I agree with that CNET article that Gen Y people are not serial Twitter users.  I’m 29, so I am a tail-end Gen Y or really young Gen X person.  Only two of the 21 friends I have on Facebook have Twitter pages.  However, my point is that it is not just a young person’s game to have a bloated friends and followers list.  Everybody wants to be popular and have lots of friends and acquaintances.  The friend count on Facebook and the follower count on Twitter are a hard numeric measurement of your popularity.

If these counters were done away with, users would have trouble measuring how popular they were.  Perhaps they could take a look at the number of pages it takes to get through their list of friends and followers.  However, that is a step I don’t think a popularity seeker would take.  Someone seeking popularity wants it quickly.  They will read a tally, but they won’t look at a list and note the number of pages it has.  Let’s say a user was faced with friending someone they kind of know, but don’t really care about, and the friend tally was no longer displayed.  I think the user would not friend the person.  That one thing they would have gained, an uptick in their friend count is no longer visible.  And yes, I honestly think users friend people they barely know and aren’t really interested in.  I bet 3/4 of the people who have friended me on Facebook have no interest in the status updates and links I post.  They friended me just because they went to school with me, and maybe, just maybe, they wanted that increment in their friend count.  I’d say the rationale was like this – 95% I remember geognerd and 5% I get +1 in my friend count.  So the find friend count increment is a factor, but a very minor factor.

Maybe I’m completely off-base with my theory that friend counts and follower counts influence how people use and behave on social networking sites.  However, we live in a numbers-driven society.  Everything has to be measured.  Everything has to be modeled.  Everything has to have a value.  I suspect that some (and perhaps to a certain degree, all) Facebook and Twitter users pay attention to their friend/follower counts, and have a desire to increase them.

As for me, I obviously go against the crowd.  It took me longer to adopt Facebook and Twitter than most people my age.  I’ve always felt that people I deal with solely online are mere acquaintances, so the number of online acquaintances I have does little to stroke my ego.  I use Twitter and WordPress as personal soapboxes.  They’re places where I can spew my BS, and what I say is what goes.  As for Facebook, I don’t really know why I use it.  I like the updates about stuff I am a fan of, and I like Scrabble, but all those quizzes are pretty silly.

A few weeks ago, I was geocaching along the Illinois Prairie Path in Elmhurst.  The weather and the scenery were nice, and I wished I could have covered more of the trail.  I was on foot, so I could only go so far.  I was a bit jealous of the bicyclists who could travel a lot farther on less energy.  I decided it was time for me to start riding my bike again.  I quit riding my bike after I got my car when I was 18.  I’m 29 now.  I have lost some interest in geocaching, and it’s less fun to do in the summer, when you slog through mud, sweat bullets in the humidity, get bit by mosquitos, and constantly check your pants for ticks.  I could do urban caches, but parking lots aren’t my cup of tea.  Bicycling seemed like an ideal way for me to get the exercise I would be missing by not geocaching.  Riding a bike creates its own breeze, and most trails aren’t bug-infested or muddy.  I would start riding my bike during my vacation.

My bike was in disrepair.  The tires were flat and nothing had been lubed in over a decade.  All this was easily fixed.  I tightened up some things on the bike as well.  The moment of truth came when I rode my bike down the driveway and around the block.  I was a little wobbly at first, but the adage held true – you don’t forget how to ride a bike.  I found that the brakes weren’t as strong as I remembered, but they still functioned.

Eventually a day came when it wasn’t ridiculously hot or humid.  I decided to ride a crushed stone trail at the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve between Streamwood and Elgin.  The crushed stone was no longer crushed.  Maybe it never was crushed.  I found a gravel trail instead.  The gravel was no big deal, except in a few places where it behaved like quicksand and killed my momentum.  Part of the trail wasn’t maintained by the forest preserve district anymore either (thanks Cook County), consisting of a couple of ruts through some grass and mud.  My bike ride was OK, but not as fun as I had hoped.  I completed the loop and ended up crossing the street to ride a paved trail.  Now that was a lot more fun.  Easier to pedal, more breeze, and I could ride faster.  Here’s where I went – I ended up covering 7.95mi at an average speed of 4.5mph.

I bought a bicycle mount for one of my spare handheld GPS receivers, and use it to record my track, speed, distance traveled, and max speed.

Two days later (today), I overdid it.  I thought I would make a 10-mile bike ride.  Ride from Festival Park in Elgin up to Route 72 in Dundee along the Fox River Trail, then ride back.  I got greedy when I reached 72.  I wanted to ride all the way up to the Kane-McHenry County line.  I got to the county line.  Not good enough -  I wanted a 30-mile bike ride.  I ended up stopping at Rakow Rd and Pyott Rd in Lake in the Hills.  Time was running short and I needed to get back home for the FIFA Confederations Cup, and I was close enough to my 30mi roundtrip goal.  Riding north, I was constantly faced with subtle inclines.  Made sense – I was riding upstream along the river.  I thought I would have an easy downhill ride back to Elgin.  Um, not really.  I don’t know how, but I swear I spent a lot of time going uphill both ways.  I guess I’m out of shape or suck at riding a bike.  Here is my 28.2 mile track (6.3mph avg):

I was so pooped out during the ride back that I had to repeatedly stop to take a break.  My butt hurt so bad, and my legs were getting tired.  I think my aching butt was more of a factor in my stops.  At least I didn’t run out of water.  I made sure to ration it correctly during the ride up and the ride back.  I should check out those Camelbak drinking systems.  It could be a nice option – drink from the uninsulated bottle on the bike first, then drink from the Camelbak.  Some are expensive, but I see there are some around $40.

Today’s ride taught me some good lessons.  I now know that I should stick with a 10-15 mile bike ride.  That way my butt won’t hurt as much and my legs won’t be as sore later.  I also need to consider getting a new seat or adjusting my seat and handlebar height.  If I continue to ride for exercise, I may want to invest in a hydration system and possibly a lighter bicycle.  My old mountain bike is freaking heavy.

A couple of days ago, I did two things I hadn’t done in over 10 years.  First, I went for a bike ride.  More about that later.  I then went to Sears.  I have an interest in failing/dead shopping centers, but I am by no means a mall rat.  It might have even been 10 years since my last mall visit.

So why did I go to Sears (Spring Hill Mall, Dundee IL)?  They were they only store that had what I was looking for.  Back in October 2008, I requested a DTV converter box coupon.  After reading numerous reviews and web forums, I decided on an Insignia converter box from Best Buy.  The Insignia box was just a re-branded Zenith DTT901.  We didn’t really need a box, since we have cable, but it seemed like a good thing to have in case the cable goes out for an extended period of time.  Also, Uncle Sam was paying for $40 of the cost.  I thought the box would just sit in the closet, but I set it up in my parents’ room one day and my dad liked it.  He likes the constant weather from the ABC and NBC affiliates, as well as a couple of channels that broadcast old TV shows.

The June DTV conversion date came and went, not affecting us at all.  I heard that the coupon program was still running.  I figured everyone who needed a coupon had theirs already, so I didn’t feel particularly greedy requesting a second DTV converter box coupon for my household.  I could either put the box in the living room (we don’t get the digital subchannels on our cable) or save it as a spare.

The Insignia box I got last fall worked well for us, so I checked BestBuy.com to see if they had anymore.  Nope, just a couple of Apex boxes.  I then searched retailers for the Insignia-equivalent Zenith box.  I couldn’t find a store I trusted that had it in stock.  I saw it at Sears.com, but it didn’t look like they had it in stock because their website kind of errored out when I tried to add the Zenith box to a cart.  Off to Amazon.com I went.  I used Consumer Reports’ reviews to lead me to a Tivax box and a Zinwell box.  Despite the good reviews from CR and Amazon buyers, I still wasn’t sold.  I did further research and saw a forum post saying Sears did have the Zenith box, and a sales associate said their website wasn’t a good indicator of an item’s stock level.

I resolved to call Sears after my bike ride the following day.  I wanted to see if their Spring Hill Mall store had the Zenith DTT901 in stock.  I have to say, I was impressed with Sears’ service over the phone.  It was surprising.  Calling the store put me into a voice-recognition menu system.  Fancy for a department store, at least to me.  I waited a few minutes on hold for someone to pick up.  A young woman answered, asking how I could be assisted.  Very courteous, formal, and responsive.  She sounded more like someone at a call center than someone standing on the sales floor.  Inquiries like mine were just forwarded to a floor sales associate when I worked at Ward’s.  You would hear the background noise and the associate would speak rather colloquially.  Calling Sears was like calling a corporate office or a well-run tech support line.  In a matter of seconds, I was told that there were 5 of the Zenith boxes at the store.  I totally expected to get some crusty old guy on the phone who would put me on hold while he waddled over to the shelf to check stock.

Once at the store (the drive to the mall took way less time than I expected), I found the Zenith DTV converter box fairly quickly.  I didn’t count the boxes on the shelf, but it looked like there were about five of them there, so the stock estimate was correct.  I redeemed my coupon and for $9.99 I had the DTV box I was looking for.  The whole process of going into the store, buying the box, and leaving the store took less than 5 minutes.  The store didn’t look as drab or dirty as I expected either.  I guess all the news article comments about the ills of Spring Hill Mall had prejudiced me.

I don’t expect to head to Sears again anytime soon, but I have to say they pleasantly surprised me, and at least I won’t be avoiding the chain intentionally.

As an aside, there is only one chain I avoid.  I hate Advance Auto Parts.  Overpriced, and they have rude staff.

Sometime in May I got this weird idea to do a comparison of submarine sandwiches from restaurants and delis around my office.  I knew I liked some sandwiches more than others, but I wanted to do a more formal comparison and write it up.  For this comparison, I focused on Italian-style subs.  In other words, they typically have salami, capicola, maybe mortadella, other Italian lunch meats, and some sort of dressing or vinaigrette.  During May and June, I hit six delis and restaurants in the Geneva, Illinois area.  They include MichaelAngelo’s Deli, Josef’s Elegante Meats and Deli, RJ’s Deli, Subway (Downtown Geneva), Jimmy John’s (Geneva Commons), and Quizno’s (St. Charles west side).  So there is a good representation among local delis and national chains.  I took photos of each sandwich and have mental notes regarding taste, cost, and service.  In the end, there weren’t any bad sandwiches, but some were definitely better than others.  Now for the comparison.  The deli’s name is linked to their Yelp review page if it exists.

MichaelAngelo’s Deli, Geneva IL.

I have been going to MichaelAngelo’s for over a year now and visit pretty much weekly.  My office uses them for some catering every once in a while, and that’s how I got turned on to them.  What I always order at MichaelAngelo’s is their 6-inch Italian sub with a small container of their rotini pasta salad on the side.  And I do mean I always order this.  It’s to the point now that when I walk in, I’m just asked “The usual?”  This combo costs me about $7.  The price varies, depending on how much my pasta salad weighs that day.

This is a right-sized portion for my late lunch/mid-afternoon snack.  Not so much food that I won’t be able to eat dinner.  The meat and cheese is sliced on the spot when you order.  The sandwich is made on French bread.  There have been a couple of occasions when they have run out of French bread and instead substitute a roll or sliced white bread.  The sandwich is definitely better on the French bread, but here’s the thing I like about MichaelAngelo’s – the flavor of the meat, cheese, dressing/vinaigrette, and veggies is good enough that the sandwich doesn’t suffer much due to the change in bread.  The deli meat used at MichaelAngelo’s has a strong tasty flavor and the cheese provides more flavor than you’d expect.  The flavorful dressing is just right – the right amount so it doesn’t waterfall from the sandwich, and it isn’t super vinegary.  I also think the sandwich has just the right ratio of meat to veggies.

Even though I am concentrating on sandwiches, I will pause to give props to the pasta salad.  A nice mix of the pasta, some different cheeses, carrots, olives, and what looks like cauliflower.  I wouldn’t eat it before a date, though.  Tastes great, but your breath will be strong afterward.  There are specks of onion in there, and probably some garlic but I dunno.  This pasta salad stands above other pasta salads I have had because it has flavor, but not too much flavor.  I’ve had some pasta salad that really only tasted like pasta.  But I’ve also had pasta salad made with too much vinegar that made me pucker.  MichaelAngelo’s pasta salad strikes a good balance.

I have had other sandwiches from MichaelAngelo’s on a catering platter, and they were quite good as well.

Josef’s Elegante Meats and Deli, Geneva IL

I got introduced to the sandwiches at Josef’s by a couple of co-workers.  These sandwiches are quite large, 10-12 inches long, and loaded with meat.  They cost about $7.25.  Yes, that is a steeper price than normal for a sub, but the quantity and quality make it worthwhile.  The sandwiches are big enough that you could eat half for lunch and half for dinner, or split one with a friend.  I should also note that you can phone in your sandwich order to Josef’s and they will have it ready for you ahead of time.  I usually phone in my order when I leave my office, take my half-hour lunchtime walk, then pick up my sandwich.

Plenty of meat, seen here.  There are signs in the deli saying they use Boar’s Head meat.  Like MichaelAngelo’s there is a good ratio of meat and vegetable.  The meat flavor is not overwhelmed by the vegetables.  I actually had two Italian subs from Josef’s during the course of my review period.  I typically order their American sub, and after this review, I still favor it over the Italian.  The first Italian sub I had had too much dressing on it.  It was dripping and it overwhelmed the meat and cheese on the sub.  I concluded that I should stick with the American.  However, I decided I should give the Italian another try.  My second Italian was much better, with a better portioning of the dressing.  It was a sandwich I would want to have again.  I should note that while the Josef’s Italian sub has more cheese, it is not as flavorful as the cheese on the MichaelAngelo’s sub.

I will digress and discuss Josef’s American sub for a moment (pic here).  It has American-style meats like turkey and ham and stuff.  They also put on tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, and American cheese.  This ends up being a moist, cheesy, meaty sandwich.  To top it off, they sprinkle some herbs on top that give the sandwich a nice touch.  I have taken to doing that to sandwiches I make at home.

Jimmy John’s, Geneva IL

A couple of years ago I tried Jimmy John’s in Batavia.  While the service was fast, I was unimpressed with the quality of service and the sandwich.  The sandwich tasted like something I could make at home.  Hence, I stayed away from Jimmy John’s for quite a while.  After having better Jimmy John’s sandwiches from Geneva for a couple of business lunches, I thought I’d give that location a try in-person.  Now I see how someone could like Jimmy John’s.  I had the Vito.  The service was fast and welcoming, and the sandwich tasted unique (in other words, not like lunch meats thrown on bread).

I initially started eating regular Vitos.  However, a co-worker turned me on to getting the Vito with hot peppers.  I thought it would be too strong of a flavor or too hot, but I was proven wrong.  The peppers do give the sandwich more flavor and a bit of a kick.  Just hope that they don’t accidentally put too many peppers into one part of the sandwich.  After having the peppers, I can’t go back to a regular Vito.  One time I accidentally forgot to ask for peppers, and as soon as I bit into the sandwich, I felt like it was missing something.  I am a tightwad and don’t like paying extra for stuff, but the peppers are worth the extra money to me.  The bread on the Vitos I have eaten have a nice level of softness, though on occasion the bread has been too crusty and actually ended up crunching when I bit into it.  I could use a little more meat on my Vito, which I guess is available on request.  However, I’d say the sandwich makes a good respectable showing.  Pricing is fair, about $7.05 for a 10″ sub and a bag of their kettle chips.

Quizno’s, St. Charles IL

I used to be a regular once-a-week patron of the Quizno’s in Geneva.  However, I quit going there when I found I could get good subs from MichaelAngelo’s and Josef’s within walking distance of my office.  No more driving into Randall Rd traffic.  My favorite subs from Quizno’s were the Classic Italian, Chicken Carbonara, and some kind of turkey sub I can’t remember the name of that got discontinued.  The advertisements for the $4 Torpedo piqued my interest.  A cheap Quizno’s sub.  Sounds good to me, especially since I always thought Quizno’s was a bit expensive unless you used a coupon.  My enthusiasm went away when I started reading reviews of the Torpedo.  One of the most common comments was that the sandwich was basically made on a breadstick.  I got the sandwich anyway.  Yes, it was over a foot long, but it was very narrow.  I initially thought I got ripped off because the sandwich was cut in half and served side-by-side.  I was expecting that long wrapper they show in the ads.  Here’s my pic of the Italian Torpedo I was served.

When I unwrapped the sandwich, I thought “Holy crap, it really is like a breadstick!”  The sandwich is quite dainty.  All the veggies are cut up finer than they are for the Classic Italian.  Of course, there is less meat.  So how did this sandwich stack up?  As soon as I bit into it, I got that Classic Italian flavor.  Yep, it tasted exactly like the Classic Italian, which is good.  The ciabatta bread was tasty.  I devoured the first half of the sandwich in only a few bites and started to think the $4.32 sub wasn’t much of a value if it was half-gone so quickly.  I felt fuller by the time I got to the second half of the sandwich, but by the time I was done eating, it was just barely satisfying.  I didn’t feel hungry anymore, but I didn’t feel like the sandwich would keep hunger away for more than a couple hours at most.  In summary, I’d say that the Italian Torpedo makes a good snack and has an OK price for the quantity and quality.  I don’t think I’ll be wooed back to Quizno’s though.  First, I have to bear Randall Rd traffic to get to the St. Charles location.  I have closer sub options.  And second, Quizno’s subs always made me really thirsty afterwards.  I read online that they have high sodium (2850mg according to Quizno’s), which would explain my thirst.

Subway, Geneva IL

When I was a pre-teen, I was wild for the Italian BMT.  I think it was just called a BMT back then.  I remember it as having plenty of meat and cheese; a really great flavor.  Jump ahead a decade.  I had pretty much stopped going to Subway.  The few times I went there, I’d usually end up with a sub that had way more vegetables than meat.  They were well into their healthy meal kick by then.  Sure, a sub loaded with more veggies than meat will be healthier.  I hit Subway maybe twice a year, and I always end up wishing there was more meat on the sub.  For this comparo, I made a rare visit to Subway.  I was disappointed to see the BMT wasn’t on the list of $5 footlongs.  Here is my Italian BMT.

Subway is consistent across locations, gotta give them that.  My opinion of this BMT was the same as the other recent BMTs I have had.  I took a couple of pics of the sandwich.  From above, it looks like it has plenty of meat.  But from the side and slightly open, you see that there is way more veg than meat.  Granted, a Subway sandwich is what you tell the “Sandwich Artist” to make, so you could say this is my own fault.  However, I wanted the playing field to be level, so I ordered toppings that matched all the other subs I had and was likely to have during the comparison.  I also acknowledge that I could ask for extra meat, but I wanted all my sandwiches to be ordered straight off the menu, and not have any special requests.  The highlight of this sandwich was the bread.  Subway’s bread has always been good.  The low was the complete domination of the sandwich by the veggies.  I should also note that I could hardly taste the vinaigrette that was put on the sandwich.  Too much oil or vinegar is definitely bad, but a sufficient amount of vinaigrette could have helped this sandwich.  In summary, the Subway Italian BMT is plain and not really worth the $6.45 price tag.  There are Subways everywhere, so you can get a just-OK sub wherever the urge strikes.  The BMT isn’t bad, but it doesn’t excite me either.

RJ’s Deli, Geneva IL

After giving Jimmy John’s a second chance, I thought my Italian sub comparo was done.  I was reading reviews on Yelp and noticed a few people said they liked the sandwiches from RJ’s.  I’ve had decent Mexican food from there in the past, so I figured I should give them a chance since it would add another local competitor to the comparison.  I ended up getting their Italian sub and a tamal, which I wrote about in my comparison of three tamales.  So here’s the sandwich.

It looked alright, but looked like it might be heavy on veg.  I saw some herbs or spices on there, so that was good.  In the end, the sandwich was a disappointment.  The vegetables were fine, it just looked like a lot.  The problem was that there wasn’t a lot of flavor to the sandwich.  I could taste the meats, but they weren’t as tasty as the meats from Josef’s or MichaelAngelo’s.  Also, the sandwich had too much dressing or oil, and by the time I got to the second half of the sandwich, the bread had become soaked.  I was expecting a better sandwich based on the Yelp reviews, but I still think my expectations were realistic.  On the plus side, the service was friendly and the price was good.  I was able to walk out with a decent-sized sandwich and a tamal for $7.22.

Other notes

I am sure I left out some other candidates.  One that comes to mind is Potbelly at Geneva Commons.  I have been to their Downtown Naperville store a couple of times and was satisfied.  Not sure why I didn’t put them into this roundup.  I see they do have an Italian sandwich.  The In the Neighborhood Deli in Elgin sounds pretty interesting.

Summary

The best Italian sub in this comparison would be MichaelAngelo’s, followed by Josef’s Italian.  However, I would put Josef’s American right up there with the Italian from MichaelAngelo’s.  The third-place Italian would be the Vito from Jimmy John’s.  A very close fourth place goes to Quizno’s Classic Italian (their Torpedo has good flavor but is too small).  Subway’s Italian BMT gets fifth.  Bringing up the rear will be the RJ’s Italian.

I was making my daily check of CNET to get the latest on tech-related news this afternoon.  On the right side of the page was an ad that didn’t make sense.

Why would Trojan waste money advertising their condoms on a tech website?  Don’t they know us geeks don’t get laid?  We’re the last folks who would need condoms.  The two condoms in that Trojan 2go package would last a typical geek 10 years, easily.  “Anytime, anywhere.”  Pfft.  Try “Never, nowhere.”

Lately I have been hitting a restaurant called Mike & Miguel’s that is a few blocks away from my office.  Every couple of months, I would treat myself to their hot dog special – two hot dogs and a big bag of fries for like $4.  But with my high cholesterol, I am trying to eat less and eat better.  As a result, I have switched to picking up a couple of tamales from M&M’s for $2.97 once a week.  They make for a cheap tasty lunch.  Don’t know if they’re healthy overall, but I assume they are better than the fast food burger and fries I have pretty much deserted.

I like the consistency and flavor of the masa, and the chicken has just a bit of spicyness.  They are also quite hot when I get them, so by the time I walk back to work to eat them, the tamales are still pretty hot.

A few days ago I noticed a sign in the window of RJ’s Deli advertising their tamales.  I had planned on going there to finish my monthlong round-up of Italian-style sub sandwiches.  I plan on writing about that soon.  Anyway, I got the sub and a tamal at RJ’s.

The tamal from RJ’s, as you can see, looked nice and kinda fancy.  It did cost more than the tamales from Mike & Miguel’s.  I think this tamal cost something like $2.29.  Unfortunately, the tamal from RJ’s was no match for the Mike & Miguel’s tamales in terms of flavor.  A colleague had previously said RJ’s tamales were bland.  I thought they were OK at the time, but either the tamales changed or I changed, because this tamal was a let-down.  The masa consistency was good, but lacked flavor.  There was no spice or kick to the tamal.  Thankfully, the drizzled cream was there to help give some flavor.  It wasn’t a bad tamal (those are coming up soon), but it wasn’t good enough for me to want to go back for another.

So now let’s discuss the bad tamales.  I saw an advertisement from a grocery store for Hormel Tamales.  They come in a can.  The picture on the can looked good, so I bought a can.  I spent a few minutes looking at and reading the can at the store.  I wasn’t quite sure what was in the can, to be honest.  Canned tamales?  Am I actually going to get yummy masa goodness?  Or is this like a sauce to put over tamales?  I was confused.  I saw masa in the ingredients and saw instructions about removing paper wrappers, so I felt safe in assuming there were somehow tamales in the can.  Once home, I eagerly opened the can and saw these paper-wrapped tubes sitting vertically in some liquid.  After seeing how unappetizing they were, I just went with the microwave cooking instructions.  I am hardly one to take the easy (microwave) way out, but I didn’t want to waste much cooking time on these things.  So how were the tamales?  Not so good.  The main problem was the masa.  Its consistency was terrible.  Kind of soft, slimy, and pasty, and it didn’t have that masa flavor I look for.  The beef filling was quite good, along the lines of Hormel Chili.  As much as I liked the beef filling, I just couldn’t deal with the masa and ended up eating only two of the tamales.  The rest went in the trash.  Lesson learned.  No pics of the canned tamales – I wanted to get rid of them ASAP.

There are plenty of Mexican restaurants in Elgin, so I am sure I can find some good cheap tamales around here.  In the meantime, I will stick with Mike & Miguel’s, which offers the combination of price and flavor I am looking for.  For more reading about tamales, check out this well-written food blog entry.

Around 10:12 this morning I noticed that “kaka” was the 9th most-searched term on the Yahoo search engine.  I was curious if people were really searching for kaka – as in feces.  I clicked the link and found they were actually searching for Kaká, the Brazilian soccer.  I knew people weren’t searching for poop.  Nothing wrong with wishful thinking.

These are two of my favorite commercials.  Let’s start with the most recent Odyssey commercial, which features some awesome 80s music combined with a montage of some old-school GM and Ford vans.

I also like the older commercial for the Odyssey that has Parliament’s Give Up the Funk playing.  Gotta buy that song.

Today I experienced some unintended consequences of my actions.  Let’s start with the weather radio I bought two weeks ago.  I had been wanting a weather radio for the house for a while, so I can wake up and take precautions in the event of a tornadic storm during the night.  If I’m asleep, I’m not going to hear the sirens.  However, my problem was with the capabilities of the units on the market.  Only the expensive models (>$60) would let you select which warnings would trigger alerts, and none of them would let you adjust the volume of the radio’s siren.

At the office, we got a Reecom R-1630 for free through some sort of federal government program.  I saw “Reecom” and assumed it was some cheapo Chinese-brand radio.  One dayb the radio kept sounding alarms for LaSalle County.  We’re in Kane County.  These alerts became bothersome, so I looked into how to program the radio with the S.A.M.E. codes for the counties my office is interested in.  During this process, I discovered I could set the siren volume on the Reecom.  I looked up reviews online for the R-1630, and most were favorable, preferring the Reecom over the Midland units that dominate the weather radio market.

Anyway, I got a new Reecom R-1630 off eBay for a decent price and programmed it the way I wanted.  Last night we had some severe weather and the alarm sounded around 3:30AM.  Slightly panicked, slightly curious, and slightly perturbed, I rolled over in bed and took a look at the radio, which now had a blinking red light to indicate receipt of a warning.  The NOAA weather radio broadcast came on after a few seconds of siren, informing me of a severe storm that was to pass to my south within the next half hour.  Meanwhile, there were constant flashes of lightning from a storm that must have been closer to me.  It was like somebody set a strobe light outside my window.  I had a hard time going back to sleep because of all the lightning, plus I was concerned the alarm might sound several more times.

I hadn’t stopped to think that if my radio awakens me for a severe thunderstorm, I might not be able to go back to sleep because of the lightning.  (I am a heavy sleeper, but lightning is the one thing that keeps me awake.)  I am now reconsidering my decision to be alerted for both severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings.  I definitely want to be awakened for a tornado warning, but I’m not so sure about severe thunderstorms.  Most storms probably don’t merit me being awakened, but if a storm is particularly severe, I want to be prepared for it in the event it becomes damaging or tornadic.

I can’t imagine too many severe thunderstorms occurring between midnight and 4:30AM, so I think I will leave my radio programmed as-is.  I have, however, put a folded washcloth over the speaker to dull the siren a bit so my awakening isn’t as jarring.

In summary, the adjustable siren volume was still a little louder than I would have liked on the lowest setting, and I failed to account for difficulties falling asleep after listening to the warning.

The second unintended consequence today had to do with Facebook.  I taped the Milwaukee IndyCar race yesterday and started watching it this morning.  I got about 2/3 of the way through the race before having to leave for work.  While sitting on the toilet, I pulled up Facebook on my cell phone.  I saw an update from the Danica Patrick Facebook group I am a member of that gave away where she finished.  That’s OK, I still didn’t know who won.  This afternoon, I checked for friend updates on Facebook again and accidentally looked at an update from the IndyCar fan group I’m in.  It congratulated the winner.  Whoops.  I successfully avoided sports reports last evening and this morning, but forgot that the IndyCar-related Facebook groups I’m in would post updates related to the race.  Now I know – no looking at Facebook while I am in the middle of watching a race on tape.  When I joined the groups, I forgot that I would get spoilers.