Mrs ERJ, Quicksilver and I joined Pelee for breakfast at the Bob Evan's restaurant in south Lansing this morning.
There was extreme shrinkage in the portion sizes. I don't think the menu has kept up. The "scramble/bowl" that I ordered was listed as 1100 calories and consisted of two eggs and a bit of corn and beans and salsa...maybe 8 oz volume in all. No way was that 1100 calories.
I am not throwing shade at Bob Evan's. The restaurant business is in the middle of a brutal shake-out due to crushing food prices and difficulty finding enough employees. Also, the segment served by Bob Evan's is considered "dying" so it might be tough to get operating credit to bridge cash-flow hiccups.
Mrs ERJ and Pelee wanted to talk, so Quicksilver and I slipped across the street to tour the community garden at St Michael's Episcopal church. They do a fine job. Small, round eggplant (aubergine in British speak) were very popular among the gardeners from Nepal. The plants have a spiny, undomesticated look to them. (Maybe this variety?)
Quicksilver and I had a nice talk with an 81 year-old gardener who told me this was probably her last year. She is just running out of gas. The dear lady gifted QS with a handful of cherry tomatoes. Mrs ERJ called while we were chatting. I had the phone on speaker mode. The 81 year-old told her "You kin have him when I am done wid him!" and gave a wheezy laugh.
House Hunting
The house we looked at was a good house to learn on. A train went by while we were there.
It had been a rental. One of the "tells" was the octopus for "cable" feeds. There were five outgoing cables snaking away from the splitter. Maybe families put cable into every bedroom through the exterior walls...what do I know?
Some of the foundation had splintered away and the ends of some of the floor-joists were floating. There was a "fire place" in the center of the house with no damper, just straight up the chimney. I bet the heating bills were astronomical.
At least one of the bathrooms was so far away from the furnace it had electric baseboard heaters...right where shower spray could hit them.
The fifteen year-old shingles looked good suggesting the roof was adequately vented.
Some of the foundation was dressed field stone. Other was round cobble with mortar slung between the courses. My guess is that the house is 1890 vintage build and had four major additions. It was an odd, eclectic house as are most houses of that vintage and layering-of-build.
Southern Belle turned on the charm and I found myself agreeing to go with them to check out two more houses tomorrow. Southern Belle has been nick-named "Coach", she runs the clip-board. Handsome Hombre is "Quarterback" and I am "Water-boy".
And being a rental it has been rode hard. That house sounds more like a teardown/rebuild than a fixer-upper, even for someone in the trades.
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Unless that house is an unbeatable deal, I'd suggest passing on it.
ReplyDeleteJonathan
I had a house from 1876. Bad foundation (missing in places). Don't do it. Roger
ReplyDeleteBide you time in patience. Buy from a bank.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to use the calorie listing, intended to allow people to pick a meal option for health reasons, to hold a restaurant accountable for shrinking portion size. Response; they then bulk the calories with excess fats which make the meal tastier, but less healthy, defeating the whole premise of the calorie listing....
ReplyDeleteDiffer
It is great that they are looking without a need to "find something" right at the moment. It is great practice for discerning what will meet the need and what will not. Even better that they have your active participation.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have updated my thinking on is having a much clearer idea of going in how long you intend to stay there. We cannot always predict that situation (see my life), but it helpful to at least have an idea. It may impact the where and the what.
Went to Costa Rica a bunch of years ago. Breakfast was a good serving of rice and beans with a little cheese sometimes, served with an egg and fruit. Lost weight and never felt hungry.
ReplyDeleteThose eggplants look like the invasive "tropical soda apple" thats overtaking some cattle fields here. Leaves and stems are extremely thorny. It grows a fruit very similar and it turns red/orange/yellow eventually. I've spent hours digging them from a friends 100+ acres... It freezes handily but here can survive in protected areas. Never thought of em as edible but the cows do when everything else is died.
ReplyDelete