Giraffas, Psycho, Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar & Not Watching Bad Football

Here's a recap of what I've done in the past week. Last Monday I didn't do a thing so let me skip ahead to Tuesday. The night before I heard about a restaurant called Giraffas and it was in reference to some people hearing about it and having no idea what it was... which was the same boat I was in. I used Google and discovered it was a popular Brazilian quick service restaurant which after its success in its native country opened some stores in Florida, including two locations in Orlando. 

Tuesday I went to the location on Mills Avenue and holy cow was the traffic this past week absolutely brutal, especially on this day. I know I talk about it all the time but it was really bad. Multiple people weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating, the typical rude ignorant behavior, etc. It got to the point of being infuriating. It's a shame I rolled in there in a bad mood, as they do make good food. They don't have too many items on the menu but as it's a quick service place and most of it is Brazilian dishes, I understand. They do have a burger and fries and needless to say, that's what I had. I enjoyed that and the Brazilian soda known as Guarana Antarctica, which I hear is even more popular than Coca Cola down there. If it was closer I'd go there more often but I will give them a plug.

Wednesday, I went and saw Psycho on the big screen. It was presented by Fathom Events all across the country. I saw that classic film on the big screen once before, years ago. I was happy to see it again as it's a great motion picture. Heck, I saw the crappy 1998 shot for shot remake on the big screen back in late '98 and I was like every other vocal member of the audience in thinking it was not good. I went to the future Disney Springs to watch the film. Beforehand I ate at the T. Rex Cafe. The food is pricey there but at least it's good and the theme is great. Even before that I went in a new place there called Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar; it's a minor character from Raiders of the Lost Ark... he was the pilot in the beginning, to be specific. It's more a 30's airplane hangar inside than a joint with a strong Indiana Jones theme but that's OK. It was still cool. It's mainly a bar with some appetizers served. The menu has many references to the franchise, at least, although nothing about “No time for love, Dr. Jones!”, which is a fan favorite.

Thursday through Saturday I did not do much of note, which was fine by me. Sunday, I had to make another airport run, which was also fine by me. Going somewhere to see the Bears game was out of the question; besides missing their QB and their best wide receiver, they were playing against one of the best teams in the entire NFL in the Seattle Seahawks, so I knew it would not be a competitive contest. Well, it turned out to be a bad game in another way; from what I saw on the NFL Redzone Channel (which I did not pay attention to the entire time), in the first half both teams played bad and it seemed like such a dreadful contest, then the second half Seattle pulled away. I am especially glad I stayed home.

Sunday night, I made the airport run and it was rainy weather most of the way to Sanford; some of it was pretty bad, and of course people drove even worse than usual in the rain, as it always happens. At least it did not rain on the way back. While in Sanford I stopped at a Walmart to get something, I got gas there, then I went to a nearby PDQ for a shake and cookie before I picked up that person and went back home. As for the upcoming week, I do have a few things in mind so when I come back next Monday it shouldn't be a dull post.

Lilly's On The Lake, Southeastern University & The Ballad Of Jimmy Clausen

Here's a recap of what I did in the past week. Monday and Tuesday I did not do anything of note so let me skip ahead to Wednesday. On that day, I went with someone to a new restaurant in downtown Clermont; at least it was new to us. “Another party” was the source of this information about the joint known as Lilly's on the Lake, which does live up to its name in terms of location. It serves a decent variety of food and at least there was a burger and fries for me. Turns out, it is a place I recommend. The place looks nice, their food is good (the person I went with also enjoyed their meal) and I have no complaints with it. Hopefully they stick around and are a success.

Thursday and Friday were more boring days so I'll skip by those. People don't need to hear me carp about such things as local traffic or how too many A-holes tailgate me, as I do such things often enough already. So, let me skip ahead to a much more eventful weekend. I decided it was time to attend a local football game, as I hadn't done so in 11 months. This time I drove to Lakeland to go to Southeastern University, a Christian school... which is why before the game there was a prayer delivered; that was out of the norm for me. Just last year the school started a football program and I did not go to any of their games, even though against the competition they've gone against they have done well. Their opponents on this day was Concordia College out of Alabama. Considering that before this game they had lost 22 out of their last 23 games... I know it wouldn't be a competitive matchup but I still wanted to attend.

I made the drive there and I could take the scenic route through some quite rural areas. It's nice... at least the parts where there is little to no other vehicles around. I ate at a Zaxby's as it was on the way and I only go there once in a blue moon. They make decent food and that was the case on this night. I could have done without the Mercedes S-Class almost hitting me while changing lanes but sad to say, such incidents in this state happen often.

They play at Victory Field and it's a quite nice little stadium that can hold about 3,500 people, although a little less than 2,000 were there. I was happy to give some cash to them as I want to make sure small programs like them stick around; I know that football teams are a big expense for colleges, especially if they ever have to fly anywhere. The weather was warm but fine; while there was a half hour weather delay for lightning it did not rain a drop. As for the game, the Southeastern Fire (yes, I heard several puns concerning their name) won 37-7 in a game more dominant for them than the score would suggest. No offense to Concordia but they are a poor football team and they made many mistakes. While I don't know when, I'll go back there in future years as it's not a far drive and like I said it's a nice stadium.

Sunday-even though I was exhausted from the night before-I decided to go out and see the Bears play, so I returned to Twin Peaks to have lunch, a cold beverage and check out all of the games. I expected Chicago to lose to Arizona and I was not proven wrong. The game started off badly and never got better from there. Arizona blew them out. Chicago's regular QB-Jay Cutler-got hurt and even though he's bad now, his backup Jimmy Clausen is horrible. He was never a good NFL quarterback but he was a special kind of awful in this game. I have seen plenty of bad Bears QB's in the past quarter century or so... such illustrious names as Cade McNown, Craig Krenzel, Henry Burris and Peter Tom Willis. Clausen looked worse than all of them. I decided to pay attention to other games instead. I left before the games were over due to me getting fed up with the sports fans there. It was the usual loudmouth idiocy but it was a few in particular that ruined it. Loudly dropping F-bombs when there was obviously young children around... nice, real nice. I wasn't in the mood for such gross behavior so I got out of there when I could. To be honest, I don't even know if I'll go out to see them play against Seattle this upcoming Sunday, as not only will it be another bad loss, but in the evening I have to make another airport run.

When I return a week from today... as I sometimes say, I do have a few things on the agenda so it should be at least a halfway interesting post I'll make. I doubt it'll be as interesting as what I wrote today, but who knows... 

Shake Shack & Imperator Furiosa & The Bears, Oh My

Here's a recap of what I did last week. I did indeed do nothing on Labor Day, which was fine by me. Tuesday was another dull day so onto Wednesday. I went with someone to an Applebee's restaurant. The last time we went to one it was in Kissimmee and we received poor service so that's why we hadn't been to one since. We decided to go to the one on 27 south of 192. The service there was at least fine. The other person wasn't a fan of the food they got but what I had was fine; having two small appetizers of boneless wings and mozzarella sticks for only 10 bucks worked for me.

Thursday all I did was go to Wawa's for a sandwich so onto Friday. Back in May I saw Mad Max: Fury Road on the big screen and unlike most of the rest of the world, I didn't care for it overall, despite digging the action scenes, the score, and how it was shot. The story and characters were pretty bad in my eyes. Well, this week on some IMAX screens across the United States they are showing the movie so I figured if I would give it another shot it should be in a big way like that.

The traffic there and back reminded me that this past week I had to deal with some poor examples of it. I might as well have been a Warboy and spraypainted my mouth with silver chrome as some of the creatures I dealt with were straight out of Fury Road with their action. Just on this day I saw several vehicles almost get wrecked due to getting cut off, and on another night I had to pass someone in a double yellow (something I very rarely do, to clarify) because I was not only practically tailgated but thee guy in front of me was driving so slow he had to either be drunk, on drugs, a senior who was having “a moment”, or some combination of the above. I know I stereotype often (even when I shouldn't) but I am pretty sure I am right here.

Back to Friday. I went to the Shake Shack in Winter Park and I enjoyed their food, but I can't explain why now they suddenly ask if you want your burger medium or well done or why an order of medium well was impossible to do; talk about rude and lazy. But it may be awhile before I eat there again anyhow. After that I saw Fury Road for a second time and sad to say, my opinion on it hasn't changed at all. I thought the movie tried WAY too hard to be “cool” (the stupid names most of the characters have is an example of this) and that typically is a turn-off for me.

Saturday and Sunday I didn't do anything, and I was hunky-dory with that. I watched or half paid attention to various football games and thankfully the Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers football game was on locally so I did not have to go anywhere to see it; again, I was glad I did not have to go to a sports bar to watch it and deal with loudmouth obnoxious crybaby overly dramatic football fans. As for the Bears, I did not expect them to win so when they lost, I was not surprised. Even if they lost in a gut-wrenching fashion, it was not a surprise. Even if they had a good chance to win... it is looking to be another long year, but at least I am prepared now for this unlike last season when I thought they'd be fine.

When I return a week from today, as I typically say, I don't have much planned but I'll stumble into a thing or two.

Labor Day, Lazy Fast Food Customers & Via|Port Florida

Thankfully there wasn't any hurricanes or tropical storms to deal with in the past week, as feared beforehand. It was still a week where several days were filled with rain but I managed that and it was better than the alternative. By the way, it was recently that I heard the giant Flea World flea market up in Sanford that has been open for many years... it closed down and they're going to build something “more profitable” on the land. Lame. I went there a few times throughout the years and besides always marveling at the sort of customers they drew, I also bought some cheap items there like games and movies. There are other flea markets around but I will miss going there.

This past Monday, I went and got a new cell phone at the local Verizon store. I won't go into detail on what I got except that it works for me and my tastes and that is what counts. While there, there were no shortage of dumb people there. The employees were fine but the customers were such people as a pair of grey-haired ladies who were looking for new phones and a new data plan; this went about as smoothly as you could imagine. For hardcore horror fans, though, you'll laugh as you hear that there briefly was a young lady there who looked like Sandra from the second Friday the 13th movie.

Tuesday, I happened to be in Orlando so I figured it was about time to return to the I-Drive 360 area and I ate again at the Tin Roof restaurant. I still don't know if the roof is rusted or not but at least they make some tasty food and they play the sort of music for me, i.e. mostly 80's tunes, and their inclusion of the live Grateful Dead song Deal from one of their Egypt concerts was a quality deep cut. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't do anything and Friday I had to be out and about in Orlando and between the quite rainy weather, the even worse than usual traffic and the street lights being out for part of the journey... not a fun experience.

Saturday I stayed in and partially paid attention to the start of the college football season. I still say that major college sports is corrupt and hot garbage but I am fine with only halfway paying attention to it. Sunday, that was a day where I could go out as I am not doing a thing during Labor Day today. I looked online to see if the almost dead mall up in Leesburg known as the Lake Square Mall is still open and I saw it has a name change. A Turkish company bought it and it now has the rather odd name of Via|Port Florida. I wanted to check it out, so I did, and...

The place may have a new coat of paint, a new fountain in the center of the mall and the food court does look more modern, but overall it's still the same old small drab place with not a lot of stores and only a few places I am interested in, such as the Books-A-Million. It's slightly less behind the times, in other words. They are supposed to add more things to it and hopefully it will survive as I don't want to see them close down. After that I went to a place I've talked about once before, that being the Rural King store; the name says it all as to what they sell. All the Belvidere people reading this will understand what I mean when I say it is like the Farm & Fleet store; it's for farmer types and/or individuals who love Duck Dynasty. There definitely were some “colorful characters” present but I did get some food & drink and a cheap shirt.

After that I drove home and as it was on the way I stopped at a Wendy's for some dinner. Now, various times in the past I have noted how I've seen things in Florida that even catch me off guard and surprise me, whether it's on the road or in person. That goes along with those moments that could only happen to me. Well, the former happened on this rainy early evening. I went in and I was shocked to see a middle aged woman waiting in line... sitting in a chair her son brought over! Now, if that woman was disabled or had a hard time getting around, that was one thing. But seeing her move about afterwards, I am quite confident in saying she was just lazy; that definitely was something I had never seen before.

Today I did not do anything on this Labor Day. I just got tied up in things at home so that's the reason why I am posting this a little later than usual. I should be back at the usual time next Monday, and I do have a thing or two in mind when it comes to activities to do.