Greek Bistro over by Sunset Casino is a nice little cafe with really good food. We have gotten gyro’s to before but wanted to try some other menu items. The babaganush is fresh, the spanikopitas are also freshly made upon order. Everything was good.
The driveway here is narrow and you cant open both car doors. The neighbor’s retaining wall is starting to erode away and that side was an eyesore so we are attempting to fix all that. The driveway was dug back a foot and some bricks were put down and now we just have to build up the wall using stones from the corrals nearby. We gave the poor palm tree a new home.
Ventano Italian Grill is our favorite Italian restaurant in town. Nora’s is a close second. It is in Henderson and has a good view of downtown from the patio. They only had the lunch menu available this afternoon, but that’s okay as it is all good. The dinner menu has a potato wrapped salmon which sounds strange but is pretty awesome.
Ventured to the Bellagio for somebody’s 79th birthday. They had the Chinese New Year theme out. It’s the year of the Tiger. There were crowds inside but not crazy amounts of people. Lots of marijuana smokers outside.
Everybody has heard of chicken and waffles. Most of us think what’s the big deal, I know what a waffle is and I know what fried chicken is like. Why would you put those 2 together?
The nurses at Duke took me to Dame’s in North Carolina 10 years ago. It was packed at 3 in the afternoon and I was the only white person there. You pick your own waffle batter, your own butter, your own toppings, and your chicken. Get the spicy greens and you have your ‘sweet-salty-spicy’ food triangle. That is where the magic happens – when you get all 3 of those elements in each bite. I was hooked.
Roscoe’s in Los Angeles has a reputation for the best chicken/waffle on the west coast. Friend Bart and I went there one evening but it was a let down as it was run down and full of vagrants. All of LA is like that now.
In Vegas we have Mama Bird which is very good – but I had the chance to get back to Whiskey Cake in San Antonio. They have half a dozen other places mostly in TX. They have a gazillion types of whiskey too at the bar which unfortunately I cannot appreciate anymore. The chicken and waffles bring me back anytime I am in the area. They add bacon to the waffle batter. They add 2 eggs to the waffle. They have large boneless battered chicken tenders added. They cover the chicken with a sausage gravy. Then you cover the whole mess with maple syrup to tie it all together.
This Chinese Noodle shop doesn’t look like much from the outside or even inside decor, but don’t let that fool you. This really is a hidden gem. You thought the tortilla lady at Cafe Rio was fun to watch, well you ain’t seen nothing yet. These folks are swinging and stretching and twisting all the noodles by hand. Here is a video. So you get fresh noodles but the beef broth is really, really good. The szechuan brisket soup is devine. The regular brisket soup is also very good. The sesame balls (filled with red bean paste) are a good appetizer not seen often on menus. We will be back but I dont know how we will ever try anything else on the menu as the brisket soup is perfect.
Right before Thanksgiving, covid came to visit. After 2 years of full time travel and working in hotspots without a single issue, we get it while both working from home. About 5 days after exposure you get slight fever, body aches, head aches, light cough, and loss of taste/smell. Tomoko got it first and after a few days went to CVS for a test and it came back positive. I knew it was a matter of time before I would get it. The first week wasn’t too bad, just take it easy and sleep a lot. Unlike a common cold, it keeps going strong for a second week. You think you are getting better but then your fever spikes. You think you are getting better but then your cough gets much worse. Once it gets in your lungs, then you need to get antibiotics. Tomoko had to go to the clinic and get Rx for zithromax, medrol, and codeine cough syrup. That made a huge difference. It can take a month for your smell and taste to return. We both still have a lingering cough a month after.
I had the advantage of seeing this coming so I was able to hit the pony paste and HCQ a lot sooner and had a much milder time. I did stop taking these meds after a week and that is when my fever spiked. So keep taking your IVM, D, C, Zinc, aspirin for a full 2 weeks. I should have also used the neti-pot to flush the sinuses (use some iodine or peroxide) to knock the viral load down. Also get some azithromycin to have on hand. You want all these things readily available BEFORE you get sick. You need to have a plan for home treatment.
The good news is we both have good natural immunity now which is orders of magnitude better than the gene therapy being pushed.
Even though we hardly ever leave the house anymore, a virus of some kind snuck past the mandatory masks into the household. Nothing major, but to be safe it is best not to infect others and have the traditional thanksgiving with others. So we made a small dinner here on the BBQ.
Not sure if we are 6 months late on the spring cleaning binge, or 6 months early, but we have been thinning out the junk. lots of FREE signs on the curb. Moved a bunch of storage boxes outside of the house to a new shed. Moved all the coats to the laundry room. Converted the old coat closet into a pantry. The new pantry is in the air conditioned part of the house which makes a lot more sense.
It has taken me half a year to get this all figured out but I am finally generating a little ‘free’ electricity. You can see all the pictures on the Projects tab above. I saved $0.06 yesterday!
I have 2 panels of 300W and a big ass lithium battery. There is a regulator thingy that measures the house current in real time and lets the solar power trickle in less than what I am using. No power goes to the grid and I don’t need a special meter. The battery will trickle current back out at night and charge during the day. It is a clever little system.
It took a while to run the circuit and get the antenna wires and get everything communicating properly.
The parts from Legion Solar via indigogo set me back $1500 with a few hundred more in rails, wire, roof parts. This is a ‘do it yourself’ kit and this was a big job. I actually have 2 more panels coming and an inverter. The inverter will let me run AC items from the battery if the power goes out.