A Very Luxurious Burger

Ok, this one time, as you may have recently read, my fiancee and I were in Providence, Rhode Island for a short amount of time. The most common response that I got when I told people that we would be going there was “Why?” However, one of Alisha’s friends had a much more helpful reply. He told us about a really good burger place that we should check out, right in the middle of downtown Providence. He said it would be one of the best burgers we’ve ever had, so of course, I was excited to try it. The place is called Luxe Burger, I had never heard of it, but of course, I’m not exactly from the area. Alisha’s friend couldn’t remember exact directions to it, so we just googled it up. The immediate results were slightly disheartening.

Luxembourg sounds like Luxe Burger, but man, we can’t drive that far!

But as soon as we typed the full name, we were set. It was easy enough to find, and our timing was perfect, we got there about five minutes before it opened up for lunch. It’s a really cool place, definitely caters to a younger, hipper crowd, but of course the real standard that it has to meet is taste. They have a good selection of stuff on the menu, some really great appetizers and burgers, but as our waitress told us, the big seller is the Build your Own Burger option. You choose the meat (beef, Wagyu beef, chicken, turkey, or bison. I may be forgetting one) toppings, sauce, sides, and temperature.

Now here is the thing I was really excited for at this burger place. It was the first restaurant I had gone to in the United States that was strictly a burger place. Up here, pretty much anywhere in Canada, burger joint or not, you can not order your burger Rare, or Medium, or pretty much anything other than completely Well-Done. Its just not a thing you can do in Canada. You might be able to find a place that will cook it to Medium-Well if you ask real nice, but that is it. I suppose that there is just the ingrained fear about under cooked hamburger, but what ever the reason, all burgers are cooked through and through. I have ALWAYS wanted to have a burger cooked Medium.

So I told our waitress that I had never had a Medium burger, only Well-Done, because that is the only option where I’m from. She was flabbergasted, possibly even gobsmacked. She could barely comprehend that concept. As she pointed out (after asking to confirm) you can in fact get a blue-rare steak, eggs over-easy, sushi, and/or steak tartare (aka, raw hamburger) in Canada, so whats wrong with a Medium burger. So I asked her if she would recommend getting my burger Medium, and she said she would not recommend it any other way, unless I was willing to try it Medium Rare (too adventurous for me), especially seeing as I was getting the Wagyu beef. I didn’t need much of a push to try it, but with that endorsement, I went for it. Alisha could not get over the innate weirdness (for a Canadian) of anything other than a Well-Done burger, and she went for the bison.

So our burger’s came out and… wow.

Yum

Alisha had her Bison with Swiss, onions and peppers. I had Wagyu beef with pickles, lettuce, bacon, and chipotle aioli. It looked great. It smelled amazing. It felt substantial when I picked it up. This was a great looking burger. The only thing left was the all-important taste-test.

My first ever Medium burger.

I closed my eyes and took a bite. And Damn! It passed the test with flying colours. I’ve had Wagyu beef burgers once or twice before, but having it cooked Medium was really something else. It was so juicy, and tender, and beefy, but it still had a nice sort of crust on the outside from the flat top. Having it cooked Medium just makes it so much better, it was amazing. That burger was just everything you want your burger to be. It was only improved by the really great chipotle aioli, which was flavourful, but not too hot, and crisp, thick cut bacon. Alisha also agreed that her Bison burger was the best one she had ever had, and Bison is not an uncommon burger where we come from. We also took a bite from each others burgers, and agreed, both were undoubtedly in the top three burgers ever. This place really knows how to get it right.

The best Bison Burger Alisha has ever had.

And each one was less than $15 for the meal. If you’re going to go to a restaurant for a great burger, I don’t think $14 is too much to ask for Wagyu beef done to perfection. I was at a loss for words at how good this burger was, so I’ll let a wiser man than me sum it up.

Very succinct, Jules.

In conclusion, if you are ever in Providence, go and treat yourself. Get a Luxe Burger.

Road Trip! Driving the Interstate, Universities, and State Houses

Ok this one time, this past week, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling. I flew down to Boston, and from there I’ve been doing some driving. I drove up the I-93 from Boston to Manchester, New Hampshire for a job interview, and back, then the next night, from downtown Boston down to Providence, Rhode Island. It was a lot of fun, I have been out to Boston seven times now, and not one have I driven myself around. I’ve been driven around, and seen plenty of how Bostonians drive though. Frankly, its a little terrifying.

The largest city I’d ever driven in before was Calgary, which is not nearly as densely populated as Boston, and laid out much differently. So I was a little bit worried about trying to make my way around. I was especially worried about the highway part, because I had rented a Fiat. Not the sturdiest car to be blasting down the highway with. Also, I wasn’t sure how I felt driving to my job interview in a polo/sweater combo, in a Fiat, but rocking Rage Against the Machine on the car stereo.

But it all worked out fine, my first adventure onto the highway was going into New Hampshire. The Fiat didn’t end up being much of an impediment, and all in all, driving on the highways wasn’t too bad. It is much busier than back home, for sure, but its not too bad. The best thing to do is just try and keep up with the rest of traffic, which seems to vary from 5mph below the speed limit, to 20mph above. Driving in Boston isn’t so bad either, just requires a lot of patience. Lots and lots of patience, traffic sure can move slow. Driving in Providence was no big deal at all, that’s just like back home. As long a you know where you’re going, driving in New England isn’t some big, scary event, its just driving, with a lot more people around.

I got to see quite a bit of Providence, which is a really beautiful city. I’d really recommend visiting. I didn’t get much time there, just had a few hours to drive around. I got to see the University that they named after me. Its weird to think that even 250 years ago, they would know how awesome I would be, and preemptively named it in my honour.

Behold, Brown University!

I walked around the campus a little bit. It doesn’t seem like a very big university, but it sure is beautiful and picturesque.

And I can’t think of a better sign than “Imagine Brown” I mean, that’s always good advice. I’d have to say that I am almost always imagining something involving myself.

I also had to get a picture in front of the Rhode Island State House

Because apparently I love taking pictures in front of state houses. Whether they’re old

Or new. Well, less old anyways.
I would have taken more pictures of some of the other interesting sites, but only my rear-facing (selfie) camera works, so it takes more effort than is necessary to get a nice photo. That’s also why most of my pictures are selfies, I’m sorry, but its the only way. Maybe some time I’ll have a better camera, and more time to actually explore these places.

Way-Back Wednesday: The Old State House

This week I am visiting lovely Boston, Massachusetts. I love this city, there’s a crazy amount of stuff to see and do, and a lot of it involves a lot of great history, and history is my jam. There are a lot of great museums all over town, and the last one that I went to was really great, and very easy to get to. Its right in the middle of the financial district, and the subway goes right to it. Actually, it is situated directly on top of a subway station for two of the MBTA lines. If you are from Boston, you’ll know that I mean the Old State House.

That one building alone houses a lot of Colonial American history. Built in 1713, it housed the Massachusetts General Court (the state government) until it was replaced in 1798. From 1830 – 1841 it was Boston’s City Hall, and in 1881 it became the museum that it is today. In the years in between, it was office space, the post office, and/or retail space. It was from this building that the Declaration of Independence was first publicly read in Massachusetts. That in itself is a rather monumental event. The genesis of the United States of America happened, in large part, right there in that building, that has stood preserved for 300 years. A few years before the reading of the Declaration of Independence, another iconic event took place in front of the Old State House, that some argue helped set the colonies on the path to revolution. On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired on a crowd of protesters, killing five of them, in what would come to be know as the Boston Massacre.

The Old State House museum has a really great exhibit and guided tour relating to the Boston Massacre. If you’re interested in it, and able to get to downtown Boston, I very highly recommend going there. If you can’t get to the Boston area, here’s the short version of it. In the early evening of March 5th, 1770, a pair of no good teenagers started heckling British soldiers stationed around the State House, and the nearby Custom house. The state house is located on what is now called State Street, but at the time was known as King Street. (Hopefully, what with the rebellion against the crown, it should be obvious why they changed the name.) One of the teens was a wig maker’s apprentice, and accused a British captain of not paying his bill to the wig maker, despite it being paid the day before. The pair of teens went around the square, telling everybody that the captain was a deadbeat. The soldier guarding the Custom house, Hugh White, hit the troublemaker with his musket, which only attracted more people to the crowd. Things quickly escalated, and a large group of sailors, dock workers, and other lower and middle class people gathered around the East side of the State House. They started to throw debris at White, daring him to fire his musket.

That night, Captain Tomas Preston was officer of the watch, and was notified of the events transpiring on King Street. Showing that he was not an idiot, he realized that a crowd of angry people heckling someone with a musket was a bad thing. He brought himself and seven grenadiers from the 29th Regiment of Foot to reinforce Hugh White. Grenadiers were the largest, strongest, most intimidating soldiers in a regiment, and accordingly wore the most bad-ass hats.

In the 1700’s, a guy in this uniform meant bad news.

Captain Preston positioned himself in front of his soldiers, between them and the growing crowd, at this time numbering around 300-400. The crowd continued to throw debris at the soldiers and dare them to fire. Captain Preston called for the crowd to disperse. Being an angry mob, they did not listen to the sound logic proposed by the man leading seven terrifying armed men. By most accounts, some one in the crowd threw an object that struck one of the grenadiers, causing him to fire, whether by accident or anger. Although Captain Preston did not give the order, the rest of the grenadiers discharged their muskets into the crowd. Three of the protesters died right away, and two more died in the following days from their injuries.

The Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, had arrived at the State House, and emerged on the balcony to call for order in the crowd, and promising an investigation and trial. For the most part the mob dispersed, and in the morning, Captain Preston, the seven grenadiers, and Hugh White were arrested. Two trials followed, one for Captain Preston, and one for the other eight soldiers, both of which were defended by John Adams (future second president of the United States) and Josiah Quincy. Two of soldiers were found guilty of Manslaughter (the sentence for which was reduced to a branding, instead of death) while the others were acquitted. It really does say something to the character of John Adams to defend the British at these trials, as his believe was that the rule of law was more important than prejudice and revenge.

As I had said, the museum at the Old State House has a really great exhibit on all of this.  One of the most impressive things I found, was the level and unbiased way they present the events. The Boston Massacre can be seen as one of the inciting events of the American Revolution, yet here it is presented not as an act of malice from oppressive soldiers, but an unfortunate event that stemmed from the actions of an angry crowd.  It really is a fascinating piece of history, and I am very glad that I had the chance to go check it out. The entire museum is very interesting too, and its just a great area to go and visit.

PS, I know that it is Sunday today. I started writing this on Wednesday, but I didn’t finish, I’m on vacation. So my Way-Back Wednesday is posting on Sunday, and there will be no Sunday Punday, because again, I am on vacation. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this article!

Boston! And the travails of travel.

Its that time again, one of my favorite times of year, when I can finally get enough time off from work to travel. Its my spring time trip to Boston! This is my seventh time visiting the city, and I’m always excited to go, because it means I get to see my fiancee. I always seem to go at the same times of year each time I go, middle to late March, middle of October, and some time in the summer if Alisha doesn’t come here instead. But whatever time if year it is, I do really like taking a trip down to Boston.
Actually no, I don’t. I like BEING in Boston, but damn, do I ever hate flying. There is nothing I like about flying, I find it uncomfortable, and it always makes me slightly uneasy. I also don’t like airports. Right now its 4:45 am. Still an hour until I fly out and I’ve been here for 40 minutes already. The only good thing is that this early, getting through security is incredibly fast. From getting dropped off by the cab, to getting through security was maybe 15 minutes, I think I was maybe the tenth person through after they opened. And that included printing my boarding pass at the self serve kiosk. So a guy really can’t complain about that. Everything else though, I can complain about. Its an international flight, so they recommend you get to the airport two hours early. Fine, that’s good advice, and its what I do. Then I wonder why I did that, if it only takes 15 minutes to get through security. Its so damn early! Better safe than sorry I guess, sitting around the airport isn’t so bad. Except it is. This airport is so small, there aren’t any restaurants. There is one Tim Hortons where you can get breakfast sandwiches and coffee to go. That’s it. It lines up pretty fast. Like I said, I was about the tenth person through security, and I was ninth in line at Tim’s. It took me longer to get my breakfast than it did to get through security. I’m probably just cranky because its early, and my morning tea is still too hot to drink.
On a positive note, as far as airports go, I like Minneapolis St Paul a lot, which is my first stop. Now that’s an airport with a lot of stuff in it, its like a mall, its better than half the malls in Regina. No problem killing time until your flight there. After that, I just have two more flights to catch, and a total of 12 hours, and I’ll be in beautiful Boston, with my beautiful fiancee. It will be beautiful. In the end, it makes the hassle of flying worth it. Flights boarding now, let the adventure begin!

The Beard

Lots of people have beards. Well, lots of men have beards, I’ve seen only a few women and no children sporting some facial hair. I have a beard, some of the time. I like having it, but I’m not all about it like some guys are, it is mostly a convenience thing: growing a beard is much easier than shaving everyday. So whenever I know that I won’t be working with the army for a while, or when I know that I’ll be out of town for a long stretch, I’ll leave the razor next to the sink and let nature take its glorious course. This used to mean that I’d have a couple of three or four week stretches to grow it out during the year, then I’d come back to civilization, the army, and of course my fiancee. My fiancee, Alisha, hates my beard.

Well, in the last 18 months, things have been a little different. I’m currently in the process of releasing from the army reserves, so I don’t have to shave for that very often, and Alisha has been going to school in Boston, while I am back here in Saskatchewan. So with no requirement from anyone to keep a clean shaven face, I’ve largely given up on it. I don’t have anyone I need to impress, no standards to meet, not a care in the world about how my face looks, so I am free to grow as much facial hair as I want. Or at least as much facial hair as will naturally occur, it comes in pretty slow. The only time that I do shave is when Alisha comes home to visit, or when I go to Boston to visit her.  Right now I haven’t shaved since new years, about three months.

“Hey, not a bad beard at all, looks ok” -Everyone except Alisha

But nothing on Earth lasts forever, and its getting to be time again for me to visit Boston, and not take my beard with me. If shaving my face is the price to pay when I see the love of my life, I’ll make that trade any day, although if I did it everyday, I would hardly have a single whisker to shave. Alisha has told me before she doesn’t think I look bad with a beard, but they aren’t her thing. She can stand to look at my beard, just not to touch it, or be around it. So whenever we get the chance to see each other in person, its time to bust out the razor. I’m more than willing to make that sacrifice. I am especially willing if I do it over the course of a few days, because the best part about shaving off three months of growth, is taking the opportunity to shave it off in stages, and try different styles. None of them are good. But I like going in to work and watching people try to figure out why I would do something like that to my face. Remember that movie, Joe Dirt?

“People say Joe Dirt’s a weird name, and how cool am I”

I actually wore it like that for the better part of a summer one time. I started shaving other weird facial hair styles when Alisha asked me to shave my beard this one time. So being such a clever guy, I shaved my beard into a pair of mutton chops. Technically its not a beard, its just sideburns. She wasn’t impressed.

To which I replied “Harrumph!”

I don’t know why she wasn’t impressed, I look just like an old-timey British Member of Parliament. Or German royalty, who can’t appreciate that?

Two mentions of Kaisers in one month? Odd trend, but glorious facial hair

Or how about just a mustache? By some accounts, its not a terrible mustache, but wow, I really don’t look good with one. And also, by many, many accounts, it is actually a terrible mustache. The mustache is the one thing that I do trim when I grow a beard, otherwise it gets food and drink on it.

It really is terrible.

And after sporting the mustache for only a few minutes (just long enough to take the photo) I revert back to a normal human being, and go completely clean shaven. I like having a beard, but I also do like having a clean, smooth face, its refreshing. And Alisha likes it, and if she likes it, then I like it.

Much better.

BONUS

Here’s a quick, funny story related to my mutton chops. This one time, I went to work in the morning sporting my mutton chops, and only one guy said anything about it all day, about how terrible it looked. I had been hoping for more of a reaction.  Then, near the end of the day, one of our summer temps was doing some calculations and wanted me to double check them. I pointed out an error she hadn’t caught, and she said “Oh wow, that was a stupid thing for me to do” and I shrugged and said “Meh, not as stupid as shaving mutton chops into your face.”  She dropped her paper and started laughing and said “Thank God! No one wanted to say anything about it, because we didn’t know if you thought it looked good. We didn’t want to hurt your feelings if you were serious about those chops.” THAT was exactly the reaction I had been hoping for.

Sunday Punday! Just Walk Away

If you’ll remember back to last Sunday, I was overjoyed that it was finally warm enough to go outside and walk, and that was the subject of my pun.  Well, I was afraid that this would happen, but of course it did. We got another cold snap a few days ago, and it even dumped a few centimeters of snow on us. That makes me sad. But I still want to be outside, and be able to walk around, but I just don’t think it would be the same. Luckily I was prepared with another Pun-Drawing for just such an occasion: BEHOLD!

For what does he mourn? The loss of Spring? Innocence? His umbrella?

Now you know the answer to one of Life’s great questions: Can Clubs Feel Sorrow? Yes, but only while walking in the rain.

Lights! Camera! Switzerland! Update!

So, some of you may remember my post from not all that long ago about the travel contest that I had entered. It was a very cool contest, with the grand prize being a 10 day trip to Switzerland to host the pilot episode of a travel show, and $10,000.  I put my application in pretty close to the deadline, and I had a lot of fun making my video for it. The top 10 finalists were announced two days ago, and sadly for me, I was not chosen. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to settle for 11th place (which is where I’m going to assume I ranked).

Even though I’m not in it, and I know everyone reading this is disappointed and heart-broken, you guys should still go check out the website and take a look at the finalists. There are some pretty quality future TV hosts there. Just for fun, tell me in the comments which of the top 10 you voted for!

As for me, I’ll just have to wait for a different country’s tourism board to hold a travel show contest.

Great Blog Ideas

So I would wager that a lot of you who are reading my blog are bloggers yourselves. I wouldn’t wager a lot though, I don’t have money to throw around. So I’m going to pose a question for all you bloggers out there blogging on the blogosphere. Have you ever had an idea pop into your head, and you’re like “oh yeah, I can flesh out this idea. This one small idea will yield my magnum opus of blogs! ” And then bam! Turns out you can’t. You start writing and your one brilliant idea amounts to less than a paragraph.

This is one of those times.

Pictured: My blog idea for today.

The end.

Sunday Punday! Join the Club!

I don’t know what the weather is like where you live, but here, spring is just arriving. This winter wasn’t even particularly bad, but there were still enough cold days to make me hate it, just like every winter. It wasn’t even a month ago that I was getting up early to start my car in -40° weather. And yes, that’s -40° Celsius (although through witchcraft and sorcery, both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales sync up at -40). So now the weather is finally nice enough to go and do stuff outside.  Perhaps go for a walk? It was something occasionally discussed at my office, someone was trying to do more walking, and thinking about getting up early to do it. Maybe they could get a group together and go walking before work? Perhaps they’d start a….

Special Bonus Pun: the club resembles a MORNINGSTAR. Sunrise, Morningstar… That one isn’t as good.

With artwork like that for inspiration, doesn’t it just make you want to wake up at dawn, and take a stroll around the park? How could it not? I mean, I hope it doesn’t make you want to beat something with a club.

Five Weeks In, a look back on the last Month

Hey bloggers and blog aficionados. I just realized something today when I was checking my notifications on WordPress, I have been writing this blog for more than a month now!  Its actually been about five weeks.  I did have plans to write something for my one month mark, but I guess that date has come and gone, so I’ll have to do an awkward five week anniversary, and pretend like I put it up last week.  One month is a relatively short amount of time, but I’m very happy with myself that I stuck with it, unlike my attempt at being twitter famous. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep up with enough posts to keep this interesting, but I’ve surprised myself with the amount that I can write. Whether its interesting or not, I suppose, is up to you.  I have really enjoyed writing all my posts, and I’m glad that I’m getting a decent amount of views and likes, and all that good stuff. I don’t get huge numbers, I didn’t expect to, but I’m getting pretty steady numbers. So thank you to everyone who has been reading and liking my work. It means a lot to me that people are enjoying my writings (and Pun-Drawings). There’s still much more rattling around up in my skull.

So if you’re a fan, please continue to be a fan, and if you’re new, please start being a fan. Also if you’re new, now is a great time to catch up on old stuff, there’s only about five weeks worth. Maybe check out my first post, or perhaps one of my personal favourites, or browse my collection of puns, which I think are all pure gold.

Anyways, enjoy your weekend everyone, and thanks again for reading.