Outback Steakhouse

Well, I didn't realize it had been month since I last posted here. During that time, Mr. Incredible and I celebrated our eighth anniversary, I began homeschooling our girls, and I celebrated my 30th birthday. It has certainly been a busy month!

We always eat out to celebrate our anniversary. This year, we decided we would finally try Outback Steakhouse. Mr. Incredible had been wanting to try that restaurant for years. We ordered the blooming onion appetizer and two entrees. While we were waiting for our appetizer, the wait staff brought us a wooden cutting block with a small loaf of brown bread, a scoop of butter in a cup, and a knife. The bread was pretty good.

The Blooming Onion ($6.50) was a bit dark, probably from the grease that it was fried in being in need of a change, but the taste was good - the slightly spicy breading paired well with a spicy dipping sauce.

Our entrees (Alice Springs Chicken and Cyclone Pasta) were rather boring - nothing really special. We didn't feel that the food we received was worth the ridiculous price we paid for it. At $12 and $13 apiece, our entrees were nearly the cheapest ones on the menu! We did end up taking a little bit home, but we still felt the food was overpriced.

Another minus: there was an open bar in the center of the restaurant. That made us distinctly uncomfortable.

Summary:

• Atmosphere: 6/10
• Taste: 8/10
• Portion size: 8/10
• Price: 6/10

We both agreed we would not eat at Outback Steakhouse again.

I Like Mike

I am going to get into a very touchy topic here: politics. I do not claim affiliation with any party and have no intentions of ever doing so. Independent I am, and independent I plan to remain. I will vote for the politician who best matches my convictions, not caring with which party he affiliates himself. (I must say that I do not believe there will ever be a Democrat who will gain my vote!)

Having said that, I must tell you that the current field of Presidential candidates has looked very discouraging. The Democrats don't even come close to meeting my standards: a candidate who has a realistic plan for reducing excessive government spending, is pro-life, is committed to protecting heterosexual marriage, has creative solutions for the economic difficulties that plague our nation ... am I really asking that much?

The "top tier" of Republican hopefuls is equally depressing:

• Mitt Romney is a Mormon who sees no problem with allowing for abortion in certain situations. Chuck Todd of MSNBC had this to say about Romney:

"In fact, some Democrats worry privately more about Romney than McCain, because they fear he is a Republican Bill Clinton -- that he's impossible to pigeon-hole ideologically."

• Rudy Giuliani supports abortion "rights" - a fact which immediately negates any chance he would get my vote. Added 7/18/2007 - According to MSNBC, Mr. Giuliani also supports gun-control (a stance that I find patently ludicrous - let's disarm all of our law-abiding citizens so that law-breakers have free reign to do as they please!) and, even more importantly, gay rights. Quoting from the article:

"On gay rights, Giuliani backs benefits for same-sex couples and says "gays should be protected." In 1997, he signed a bill creating domestic-partnership benefits in New York City. "We should be tolerant, fair, open and we should understand the rights that all people have in our society," he said recently.

While campaigning, Giuliani has been careful to declare his opposition to gay marriage, saying: "Marriage should be between a man and a woman. It should remain that way."

However, he says, at this point, he doesn't see the need for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage that way..."

• John McCain lost my respect and my vote when he became so vitriolic in the past election campaign. I am pleased that he desires to effect the overturn of Roe v. Wade as well as protect the sanctity of marriage. If it came down to voting for the "lesser of two evils," I suppose I could bring myself to vote for McCain.

With all these strike-outs, will I have to resort to voting for the least "evil" candidate? Actually, I am really hoping that I won't. I recently became aware of Mike Huckabee, considered the cream of the second tier crop. A former Southern Baptist minister, Gov. (AR) Huckabee is staunchly pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-Israel, and pro-family. Here is what The Hotline, "the National Journal's daily briefing on politics", has to say about Huckabee:

"...Huckabee is not an ideologue. He's a social conservative with a stellar voting record who worries about seeming mean or punitive. He's a political conservative who is a functional pragmatist when it comes to economic issues. Dare we say: he's a 'compassionate conservative?' "

Is Mike Huckabee the perfect Presidential candidate? That is a question that each must answer for himself. The more I see and read about him, the more I personally like him. You will have to take your own look at Gov. Huckabee's stance on the issues and decide how you feel about him.

Got Dust?

source for both images

I despise dusting! I think it is because it seems like such a futile task - when I dust, my duster does nothing but spread the dust around, and seconds after I have dusted, the surfaces have another coat of dust on them. Aggravating!

Enter the surprise package I received via FedEx on Saturday morning. Wondering what on earth it could be, I opened it to find a cute cardboard house containing a free Swiffer duster, 5 refill dusting cloths, a blurb about the "5 Signs of Clean," and several other little freebies for good measure. I don't know how Swiffer picked me for this, but I'm glad they did!

Let me tell you, the Swiffer duster is the best thing - ever! Based on all the marvelous, deliriously happy reviews I read, I bought FLYlady's duster a couple of years ago. Let me say that I absolutely adore the FLYlady and highly recommend her services, but the duster just didn't do it for me. (Sorry, dear FLYlady!) The Swiffer duster, however, did!

Skeptic that I am, I started out with the easy stuff: our bookcase. When I saw that no dust flew into the air and the shelves remained dust-free after half a minute elapsed, I decided to try something a little more challenging - the TV. What do you know? Even the tiny crevices were free of dust! Would this clean our fake plants that were absolutely gray with dust? It did, with no problem.

Whoo-hoo! I'm sold! If you haven't yet tried a Swiffer Duster, give it a shot. It just might make that horrid dusting chore more bearable.

Best Incense, Co.

When I think of incense, I think of strange smells, eastern mysticism, and religion, although I do know some people burn incense simply because they like the smell. When I came across Best Incense, Co., I was not really interested in their site because I assumed that they only dealt in incense.

Upon further investigation, however, I discovered that this company sells more than just incense. Their natural aromatherapy bath crystals from the Dead Sea offer such scents as Lavender, Mango-Kiwi, Eucalyptus, Tea Rose, and many more. Perfume oils are only $2.00 for a half dram vial (not sure how much that is, but it sounds like a good deal) and include scents for both men and women. If you do like incense, they offer a free sample pack; the only cost is the three stamps you must send with your request.