On the Border, Another Employee Dinner

We had another employee dinner on Thursday. This time it was at On the Border on the East side.

This time I knew about this a day ahead of time. This allowed my wife and I to come up with a plan for our transportation that day. I got a ride over there with our IT Director and got the opportunity to talk about the presentation I did that day. We picked up our German visitors and then I got to talk to them about my presentation. Everyone was impressed which made me feel really good.

I got a ride home from another coworker who lives in the same general direction as me so it worked out well and gave my wife the opportunity to drive to her class, get home, and not have to worry about coming to pick me up or wait around for me.

I have been to On the Border many times but it had been a while.

I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food and usually get the same thing when I go — a beef burrito covered in cheese. It’s simple and quick.

These are photos of all of the other meals that were around me.

This time since I was not driving, I decided to have a few beers with meals. The nice thing about my job is they are not opposed to you having a few drinks at work functions. They just ask that you not go nuts and embarrass yourself or the company.

If you have not been to On the Border then you should go at least once. It’s a pretty simple and straight forward Mexican restaurant and they have great margaritas.

March 23, 2013 | Posted by Brian under Food and Drink

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Piccadilly Project Recognigtion Dinner

I had to go to an impromptu dinner on Tuesday night for my work. The IT Director wanted to recognize the Project Managers for each department for their continued support and assistance for getting the new project platform off the ground.

I don’t like spontaneity as I am a planner and already had plans that evening. My wife advised that I should never decline these offers as it tends to look bad; like you’re not a team player. So my wife and I came up with an alternative plan for the evening and I reluctantly went to dinner.

We went to Piccadilly Market and Grill located at 7728 E. Central here in Wichita. It’s been around for years but it had been some time since I had been there. It was originally touted as a Mediterranean place but over the years it seems that their menu has expanded beyond that. I noticed they still had a lot of Mediterranean items to choose from but their menu seemed to be more well rounded now.

Here are some pictures of a few of the items we got to enjoy.

This is the hummus appetizer that we ordered. It was a good size for the eight people that were in attendance and we all passed it around with some still leftover.

This was the nacho plate that we got as a second appetizer. Again, it was more than the eight of us could eat.

I got the butcher block. Normally this is one of my favorite sandwiches. It’s a simple plate. Unfortunately, I was unimpressed with this one. The fries were okay but the bread on the sandwich was overdone, and there was hardly any meat in it.

This is what my boss got. It was some kind of noodle dish with teriyaki chicken, pork, and shrimp in it. She said it was very good.

I should have ordered the chicken fried chicken. It looked amazing and the two people who got it said it was very good.

The rest of the people in our party ordered steaks. Overall it was a good night. I even managed to make it out in time to pick Ching up from her workout class.

March 23, 2013 | Posted by Brian under Food and Drink

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Granite City Meet-Up

Our boss decided to take the team from work out to dinner the other night. He said we had a rough 2012 and were going to have an even tougher 2013 so he wanted to show his appreciation by taking us all to dinner at Granite City. I personally love Granite City. Especially their 2-Pull Beer, lol

Here is some gratuitous food porn.

And of course, since we didn’t have to pay for anything we all got dessert.

All in all it was a good evening. We had some great conversations and tried really hard to just avoid work subjects. It didn’t really work, we ended up talking about work eventually but it was limited and short.

Granite City is one of may favorite places to drink…I mean eat.

February 2, 2013 | Posted by Brian under Food and Drink, Reviews

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The Strong, Silent type…Not!

I have always been the emotional one in our relationship. I share my feelings and don’t hide when I am upset, angry or hurt. However, when my wife had to get a Thyroidectomy, I decided that I needed to be the strong one this time. Suppress all of those emotions that I normally wear on my sleeve so that she could feel that everything was going to be OK.

What I didn’t realize was that the suppression of my emotions was going to be much harder than I anticipated. On Thursday the day of her surgery I was doing really well. I was worried but I was keeping it together pretty well. I have always been a worrier but it’s just something I have become accustomed to. With all that worry comes a great deal of impatience. I try really hard to keep that in check as well. It’s something that I have learned to be aware of and work to keep at bay. Occasionally it gets away from me but it takes a lot now. Friday evening was when my emotions boiled to the surface and reached a point that I could not hold them back.

I tell my wife everything. We started this relationship with a “No Secretes” rule and we have kept that. I fessed up and told her that I was having a hard time controlling my worry. I explained that it was hard for me to see her out of character, down for the count, not running around wanting to do so much. I always tell her that she needs to learn to relax, needs to slow down. Now that she has, I freaked out and started to worry…even miss it. She reminded me that she just had surgery, she needs to take it easy, but she was not going to let this beat her and keep her down. She wasn’t going to let this stop her from doing what she has become accustomed to doing. I explained to her that I had been researching things that I needed to look out for, things that would let me know that she was not in prime condition. The problem with this is that for every one informative post, I had to weed through twenty post of people talking about how worse off they were. The first few didn’t really worry me, but more and more posts started to wear on me to the point that I could not hold anything back. My emotions surfaced. My worry for our future started to spiral out of control and for the first time in a vary long time, I felt very helpless.

I told her all of this, crying and trying to control it all. Needless to say, even after her pep talk I still didn’t sleep that well. I even told her this morning that I may need to go back to our therapist just to try and get back on track. On the plus side, the therapist had the same procedure done several years ago. She has given me a few pointers as well as my boss and a few other friends and co-workers that I learned recently have all gone through this procedure. I actually learned over the last couple of months that this is one of the most common procedures that is done.

This still doesn’t stop me from worrying. I have learned so much over the last few months in my research. I have learned what to watch for, loss of hair, loss of concentration and memory, violent mood swings, fatigue, extreme depression, the list goes on and on. I have faith in the doctors but that still does not stop me from worrying. Honestly, I have a feeling that I will continue to worry for quite sometime.

I love my wife more than anything in the world. I just hate seeing her like this and I feel so helpless. At this point in time I wish I had the ability to heal her, give her her natural thyroid back so that she didn’t have to take any medication. I know I can’t, so my only option is to be patient, be there for her, support her as much as I can and pray for the best.

December 15, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Health, Relationship

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The BISTRO at 151

Not to be confused with the “Cafe 151” in Wichita, KS. This is one of the restaurants that is located in the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

We ate at BISTRO at 151 on Sunday evening after our group decided that we were hungry around 8 PM, since we had such a late lunch at Giordano’s.

The menu is a variety of different items ranging from soups and salads to sandwiches and steaks. Since we got there so late in the evening they didn’t have a lot of seating. They had already shut down a large portion of the restaurant and we were being limited to the bar or a 35-minute wait. We chose the bar, of course.

We sat down got our menus and realized that the meals here were not going to be cheap. The cheapest item on the menu was around $8.00 and it went all the way up to about $30.00 for the steak.

I wasn’t that hungry and I really try not to eat that late in the evening so I just had a small chicken quesadilla appetizer.

I was not impressed with my meal. It was alright but not worth the $12 price tag. The guys in my group decided on more substantial meals.

We went there again for breakfast. This time we all had the $22 breakfast buffet.

This was a little better. Again, I am no longer a big buffet eater but for the money you do have a pretty vast selection. The buffet is definitely the way to go, though. The $22 buffet price also includes coffee and juice. It actually costs more to go a la carte. Yes, the coffee and juice were that expensive. I am already looking for a different place for breakfast. The food is good. It’s just too expensive. [Check Urbanspoon Chicago. ~ Ching]

August 27, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Food and Drink, Travel

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Giordano’s

I had to make a trip to Chicago for some training. I asked a few of my friends, where to eat in Chicago. They responded with Giordano’s. So I asked the group I was with if they wanted to go and they agreed that it sounded like a good place. And, it was right down the street.

When we walked in they handed us a menu. They told us it would be a 15 minute wait, and then told us that we could order the pizza while waiting for a table since it took 45 min to get a pizza made. This was a little concerning but we figured what the hell, the place is packed, it must be really good.

We started with the bruschetta appetizer. It had really good flavor and was actually a really large portion.

The pizza was not just large, it was gigantic.

This was a medium three topping stuffed deep dish pizza. We each got two slices and we still could not finish it.

We thought about taking it back to the hotel, but we didn’t have any fridges or microwaves in our rooms.

I would have to say that this was a really good place. Prices are reasonable for what you get. But be warned. The wait is pretty long. So keep this in mind if you are making plans for a date or something.

Speaking of dates, I think I will need to make plans to bring my wife back here for a vacation at some point.

August 26, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Reviews, Things to Do, Travel

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New Dining Panel Review

Check out Ching’s latest Dining Panel review for the Wichita Eagle.

August 9, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Reviews

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River City Brewery

Last week I was part of a company focus group to help us redesign and rebuild a system that we use. We brought in a few sales reps, a couple regional managers and a director to assist in getting what everyone needs while at the same time fulfilling the companies requirements for useful information.

After the first day we had a scheduled dinner at The River City Brewery. It’s been some time since I had been there, Ching and I used to go there every week when we played poker a lot. However, since we started not eating out so much we have not been in a while.

The food was just as good as I remember it. Our Vice President ordered several appetizers to start with. We had some Sweet BBQ wings that were pretty good. They had just enough heat to them that kind of snuck up on you. We also had some pork quesadillas that were pretty good and a nice spinach and artichoke dip.

When it came time for dinner I ordered one of their pizzas, the Tomato Basil.

It’s really good. I didn’t realize that it came with tomatoes on it. I was just expecting tomato sauce and some nice cheese with some basil sprinkled on it, but I was pleasantly surprised to have gotten whole sliced tomatoes. It was also very, very good.

I also had never had any of their beers so I ordered their Brick Red.

It’s not as good as the Samuel Adams Brick Red that I had in Boston (and can only get in Boston) but it was still a very good beer that I will order again the next time I go.

If you are new to Wichita or are just visiting, I would highly recommend that you pay The River City Brewery a visit.

You will not be disappointed.

July 29, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Food and Drink, Reviews

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The Best Wife Ever!

See that woman hanging on my shoulder. If there was a “Best Wife in America”, she would win it, every year.

She is the most supportive, understanding and loving wife. When I am down, she cheers me up, if I have one of my self doubting moments (and I have quite a few) she kicks me in the ass and tells me to suck it up and do better. Because of her I am a better person.

Now, I know that everyone says that about their wives, but I am actually a better person because of my wife. You see, before I met my wife I was very content on just doing the bare minimum to get by. After I met my wife she started improving herself, getting a better job, getting a better education. After a while I realized that just doing the bare minimum was not going to be enough for her. I loved her so much that I was worried that she would wake up one day and look at me and realize that she could do better. So I tried improving my self in the ways that I knew how. I improved my personality (it used to be pretty bad), I improved the way I looked (that was also somewhat bad), I improved my job (actually trying for promotions instead of just doing the easy things) and then realized that I could improve myself further and further. I was amazed at how much I could improve if I just applied myself a little. If I had not met my wife, I would have never realized what I could accomplish.

I am so grateful for all that she has given me. Without her I would not be the person I am today. I hope that I can continue to improve myself and make you proud.

I love you baby. Forever and always.

(As a bonus, she is also beautiful and intelligent.)

July 15, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Life, Relationship

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Our Little Talks

I received my first issue of “Men’s Fitness” today. A gift from my Sister-in-Law Jenni for Christmas.

Here is how the conversation when.
Me: If I look like Robert Downy Jr. when i am his age I will be Ecstatic!
Ching: You’re going to have to start doing a lot of drugs.

These are the types of little conversations we have.

January 1, 2012 | Posted by Brian under Life

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