Panchero's

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I ate lunch at the new Panchero’s in Cedar Falls.  It was okay food, though I’m not really sure how different their dishes are from each other.  You choose tacos, burritos, salad, etc. and then what ingredients you want.  All the various tortillas are made from the same dough, on the same grill in front of you, so it’s basically you choosing your shape of food, rather than any actual difference, as far as I can tell.  Also annoying is that the round hole in their trash receptacles is smaller in diameter than the round plastic container that held my steak salad, so I really had to cram it in there to throw it away when I was done eating.

Their tortillas were tasty, but for some reason I prefer hard tortillas to soft generally.  Not bad, all in all, but they won’t be replacing Rudy’s Tacos as my favorite in town.

Chantico

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After lunching at Panera today, my co-worker Aaron and I ducked into the new Starbucks nearby. This is the first "real" Starbucks for the Cedar Valley, so we thought we'd check it out. I saw they were advertising a drink called "Chantico" and since I don't like coffee, I opted to try it instead of the usual Vanilla Creme I get when I'm in a Starbucks. The barista told me that it was like hot chocolate, but "different", so I gave it a shot. A shot is about all I got, as the drink is only about 6 ounces, and I felt more than a little effeminate walking about with my dainty coffee cup among the talls, grandes and ventis around me. The drink tastes much like this USA Today article says, like a melted Hershey's bar in a glass. It's REALLY chocolatey, more so than you'd expect. The real shock came when I got back to work and read this article, and realized the nutritional value (or lack thereof) in the drink. Three Hundred and Ninety Calories?!? In 6 Ounces?!? 21 Grams of fat?!??!

If you're a chocolate lover, give it a try, but I think I'll stick to the Vanilla Cremes...

Winding down

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It's been a busy week at work, but I can't talk about most of it, so that's why I haven't been posting much here. I've still got to finish the presentation for the talk I'm giving April 1 at a conference in Cedar Rapids, but I've got at least half of it already laid out in Keynote on my PowerBook. I'm going to try to relax some at my grandparents' house this weekend, where we're going for Easter, and maybe I'll do some more vacation planning while I'm there. We're thinking about making a trip to Glacier National Park via Amtrak this summer. With gas prices as high as they are right now, it's really not any more money to take the train than it is to drive, and they get a lot of visitors there who come that way, so there are shuttles that will take you around the park, or you can rent a car if need be. We never really got much of a chance to take a honeymoon, due to my wife's job when we were married, so this would be a nice opportunity for us to get away for a few days, and I think my wife would be glad to drag me somewhere without internet access for once.

Has anyone ever been to Glacier? Have anywhere you'd suggest staying? I'm leaning towards visiting West Glacier, as there seems to be more to do there, like rafting, boat tours on Lake Macdonald, and even helicopter tours of the park. I'd love to hear your suggestions, just post 'em below.

Two Down

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My PowerBook returned today from Apple. They replaced the hard drive and the "flex cable", whatever that is. The good news is that the noise is completely gone. The bad news is that I have to reinstall everything. I got the essentials put back together tonight, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow at work. I wouldn't mind doing this so much if Tiger (aka Mac OS X 10.4) wasn't coming so soon, which means I get to do it all over again...