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Urban Belly

/ Shane / Leave a comment

We were looking for somewhere new for lunch and Sara vaguely remembered hearing about a restaurant by the name of Urban Belly.

It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

I think I can say that with some confidence too, since we ordered about 50% of the menu. Each dish was more amazing than the last. Seriously. There wasn’t a one that I tried that I didn’t like. We had Asian squash & bacon dumplings, duck & pho spices dumplings, and pork and cilantro dumplings. Pork belly & pineapple rice, phat rice and sticky brown rice. We had udon (shrimp, coriander, and sweet chili lime sauce) and Asian egg noodles stir fried with spicy garlic chili, tofu, and Chinese eggplant. And finally we had wrinkle beans and kimchi. I wasn’t kidding when I said we sampled half the menu.

As proof of the fact that all of the dishes were equally good, everyone had a different favorite. We were all eating off each other’s plates, but my dish was the phat rice, and I thought it was the best.

It’s Asian food, but Asian like I’ve never had it before. It’s kind of hard to describe what it is exactly that makes it different, but whatever it is, it’s kind of awesome.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the decor, which was also amazing. Everything is made of rough, old, reclaimed wood. The decoration on the walls, the table tops, and the “stools” which are sort of like sitting on a pile of old, stacked logs. The dining room is set up to promote “communal dining”, which it certainly would do, except it wasn’t very crowded when we were there.

Despite it’s pedestrian appearance on the outside (it shares a strip mall with a laundromat and a dollar store), this place is highly recommended. Well worth the trip.

Dinoprints!

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Get your very own picture of you RIDING ON A DINOSAUR from dinoprints.com!

Find. Of. The Century.

Basically you just take a picture of yourself (or your child I guess) sitting on something, such as a stool or the arm of the couch, in the proper pose. Submit that, (pay of course,) and there you have it. All of your wildest dreams come true, suitable for framing.

Because, as we all know, I would totally ride a dinosaur, if I saw one.

And really, why stop at people? Because, you know, your dog would totally appreciate this picture.

I think it would look great on the wall of his doghouse. Ah, who are we kidding, if you’re the kind of person who commissions a $50 fake picture of your dog barking at a dinosaur, your dog probably doesn’t live in a doghouse.

Zenni Optical – Round 2

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Just about a year ago, I bought a couple of pairs of glasses online from Zenni Optical. They were so cheap, and the experience was so good, it was literally unbelievable. I do mean literally, because I have told so many people about getting glasses from this place, and they don’t believe me. It really does seem inconceivable that I can get a pair of glasses for less than $25 (including shipping) that would cost > $300 at a store.

Well, all I can do is put the information out there.

I just ordered another 2 pairs of glasses from Zenni. Last year I tried out a pair of plastic frames, and they served me well. Unfortunately, Oliver slapped them off my face, and they broke on the floor. I don’t blame Zenni for that. They weren’t “cheap” frames, they were just slapped off my face and onto the ground with a lot of force. The style I chose had little brackets or clasps at the corners, which were thinner than the rest of the frame, and one of those broke.

Since they were so inexpensive, I had ordered an extra pair last time as a backup. Those got me through until I could place an order for another two pairs. This time, I was even more adventurous in my selections. I dub this the “zenni-effect”: the glasses are so cheap, why not try something crazy? Get a frame you would never have thought of before. This is something you could never afford to do when the frames were $400 and you could only afford one pair. If you’re paying that kind of money for frames, they better be a pretty good, solid, risk-free pair!

The only complaint I had about my first order was that the lenses seemed particularly hard to clean. On my previous, store-bought lenses, I could just clean smudges off with my shirt tail. These glasses required a cloth at least, and even still they never quite seemed to get clean.

I did some research online, and found out that the anti-glare coating that I paid extra to add (recommended, especially if you work on computers all day) works as a smudge magnet. So I thought perhaps I might risk my eyes and go without the anti-glare coating this time. However, Zenni offered an additional smudge-resistant coating for $10.

Both of my new pairs have the new coating, and so far they seem to be perfect! Just as good as my old, expensive ones. So my one caveat is that, if you are getting the anti-glare coating, go ahead and spring for the anti-smudge coating as well. Best $10 I ever spent.

So anyway, unless you hate money, order glasses from Zenni Optical. I get nothing out of this, other than the satisfaction of saving my readers money. It’s just too good of a deal to keep under my hat!

You will know we are elderly by our phones

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Sara and I have suspected that we could save a lot of money on our cell phones for a long time. Basically, we just had Verizon since time began, and we never really looked around or anything. We are also pretty minimal cell phone users as these things go (super old phones, don’t use a ton of minutes, no texting, no web, no nothing), so we sort of figured we might be getting ripped off. At the very least, we knew we could get a small discount through our jobs, so at the very least we could be saving 10% – 15% or so, but we thought maybe we could do better with a pre-paid phone or a smaller carrier, like Cricket. But we were lazy, so we never got around to doing anything about it.

However, the other day, Sara was going through her consumer reports and found that they had rated actual cell phone companies, and the top of the list was a company we had never heard of before, Consumer Cellular. We decided to check them out, and they turned out to be phenomenal. So we officially made the switch, and we are no longer Verizon customers.

Consumer Cellular is saving us about THIRTY DOLLARS PER MONTH. That’s $360 a year we will save, by basically just paying for what we actually use on the phone. In fact, that price includes a texting plan, which we never had before, so we actually have more functionality. And another thing about Consumer Cellular: you can change your plan retroactively for the month. So, if at the end of the month you find that you used more minutes than your plan allows, you don’t pay ridiculous per-minute charges on the extra minutes, you just adjust your plan to the next one up. More amazingly, if you find you didn’t use all your minutes, you can adjust your plan down to a lower plan and pay the lower rate. When have you ever heard such a thing from a cell phone company??

There is one funny thing about the company…it’s for old people! (This is why Sara and I fit right in.) You never really realize how advertising pictures are exclusively young people, until you get a brochure full of pictures of old people. This should have been the first sign. Then there’s the fact that they offer a “large button” phone, and the fact that their FAQ page specifically talks about how to use the phone on a cruise ship. There’s a checkbox for the AARP discount when you order. Even as you’re reading through the text on the webpage, you feel like it is meant for old people.

Shane: “Wow, this really is for old people. Everything is just spelled out so clearly, so there can be no confusion.”
Sara: “Yeah, but why is that for old people? Shouldn’t everything be like that?”

The fact is, it should be, but it’s not. Most cell phone plans are byzantine at best, with times when calls are free and times when they aren’t. Roaming. Overage charges. Contracts. Service fees. Early termination fees. Can you imagine a company that’s actually laying everything on the table, just trying to make an honest buck instead of trying to trick you somehow?

There are a few downsides, but they don’t really matter to us personally. So one would have to decide if this place is right for them or not. First off, they have a very limited phone selection. The free phones that Sara and I got are probably a step backwards from the very old phones that we used to have (except that this one is smaller, lighter, and the battery lasts longer than my old phone, so I guess it’s not all bad). So if you’re into the latest smart phone, they’re probably not for you. (They do have a few other choices, including smart phones, but nothing like what you’d get with a Verizon. I also understand you can use any AT&T phone on their network, and I’ve heard of at least one person using an iPhone.) They don’t have an unlimited data plan, which doesn’t matter to us, because we don’t have smart phones. There is no free nights and weekends or mobile to mobile minutes. However, the plans are cheap enough and we don’t use so many minutes, that we can still pay a lot less even paying for these extra minutes (I guess there’s a reason even the big companies offer them for free). Consumer Cellular is on the AT&T network, which might be a plus or a minus, depending on how you look at it (and how much you like the AT&T network).

So, Consumer Cellular. Check it out. We kept our old phone number, and the transition was hassle free. If you’re going to sign up, let me know: I can get us each a $10 credit as a referral fee!

Patchwork Products

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I know lots of people who have made quilts from old tee shirts. Some of these ideas are particularly unique, but I’ve never seen any ideas as unique as this: heavy metal quilts, using old concert shirts to make a logo that is distinctly metal:

And while we’re on the topic, how about using little carpet squares to make customized land carpet:

Well, I’ll just let them explain:

First link via Sara I think, but the second was all me