Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #1: Arby's Chicken Bacon 'n Swiss

We all have things that we are passionate about: politics, religion, sports, etc. I for one am passionate about fast food. Thats why I've decided to try to do a weekly post highlighting one of the wonderous fast food items that makes my life extra special. I realize that fast food is not the healthiest of foods and has led to several films and books being created to ensure that we are aware of that fact. So please don't try to warn me. I've been warned. And I'm actually doing much better lately at shopping and then eating the food that I buy at the store.

Anyway, this week I thought I'd start with one of my staples: Arby's Chicken Bacon 'n Swiss sandwich.


You really can't go wrong with this one. Crisp peppered bacon. Fried chicken breast. Sesame seed bun. Swiss Cheese. And some sauce that I think is Honey Mustard. Add a dash of Arby's Sauce and you are in heaven.

Over the years Arby's has had a vast array of chicken sandwiches available, including my all-time favorite, the no longer offered Western Chicken Bacon Ranch, and several other that featured sliced roasted chicken, which I find to be more enjoyable than the fried chicken. But given that none of the Arby's I am familiar with are currently offering sliced roasted chicken, the Chicken Bacon 'n Swiss is definitely a great choice. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.

Random Thoughts on the English Language #6

You always hear about people with low self-esteem. Is there another kind of esteem? Like peer-esteem? You're suffering from low peer-esteem.

Something I'd buy if I could find one

I've been thinking of something I'd like to buy, but don't know if it even exists and if so where to find one, but here's my idea. If its not out there and someone wants to invent it, just give me the credit.

I want a device that lets me transfer data between electronic storage devices that is much less bulkly than my laptop. Let me explain. I, like most people these days, have a digital camera. When I go on vacation, I take pictures with it. But unlike a film camera, once you have used up all your memory, buying another memory card isn't quite as cheap as buying another roll of film. Granted you can take many more photos than you could with a roll of film, and you can delete the ones you don't like (although with my camera, I have been unable to delete pictures off my memory card without clearing the whole card). But once the card is full, its full. If you want to take more pictures you have to upload the pictures to a computer and clear your memory card to start taking more pictures. My solution to this dilemma is to take my iPod with me on vacation (as if I wouldn't already take it with me) and use its hard drive to store my pictures once I've filled a memory card. A USB Flash memory drive would also fill that role. But in order to accomplish this feat I need a computer to act as the middleman. If I'm staying with friends I'll just use their computer, but if I'm travelling solo, I generally have to take my laptop with me to be sure I'll have a way to do it.

It seems as though there ought to be a way to create a simple device that allows you to connect to electronic devices and transfer data between them. I mean you'd need a couple USB ports, maybe a firewire port, and some kind of OS that can recognize the devices, and perhaps an LCD display to give the user a little bit of control over what happens, but really thats about it. Obviously there would be options for expanded versions of this idea. For example, add a CD drive that would let you rip songs and send them to your iPod. In order to have an mp3 player, you pretty much need to have a computer as its home base. Why should you need a computer that costs $1000 to put music on your $100 mp3 player? I realize most people already have a computer, but still.

If anyone out there knows of a device like this, please let me know. If not, please invent one and give me a freebie, as you'll soon be raking in the dough with this lucrative idea that I am offering you.

Jake Needs...

So one of the blogs that I keep on list of ones I check daily had a post recently entitled "Claire Needs" and then showed how much fun it is to go to Google and type "Jake needs" or whatever your name might be and then look at the phrases that come up. Let me just say it was a lot of fun to see what the world at large thinks that I need. :)

Here's some of the top results that I found:

(Results in orange. My comments in blue.)

Jake needs to make changes -- someone's obviously been paying attention

Jake needs financial backing -- not sure for what, but I wouldn't say no

Jake needs a vacation -- its sad that I need one this shortly after returning from 3 weeks off, but luckily Martin Luther King, Jr. day is just around the corner.

Jake needs someone who can show him love, spoil him, hug him, kiss him, and show him life can be all that -- would be scary in its accuracy were it not part of a pet adoption ad

Jake needs someone to love him -- ibid

Jake needs to jack it up -- actually I tend to have no problem jacking things up

Jake needs more backstory -- you mean the thrilling story of how I won the Grantsville Middle School Geography Bee in back-to-back years isn't enough to hold your attention?

Jake needs a yard -- if only to have a place to put up the American flag kit that my parents gave me for Christmas

Jake needs 2 pints of milk for a cake -- and of course the motivation to cook

Jake needs three pegs to win the game -- if I can get down to one peg, I hear I can get into Mensa

Jake needs help -- in so many ways

Jake needs a wake-up call -- I prefer breakfast in bed, but I guess this would be okay

Jake needs to realize that he's an amateur at this media thing -- just when I had more than one reader of my blog

Jake needs some fast money -- its for my fast offering

Jake needs to spread delivery over four months -- I always forget to manage expectations

Jake needs to make some vital changes in key areas -- if only I knew which areas and which changes

Jake needs to know the URL patterns in order to make a link -- I actually can do this pretty well on my own

Jake needs Joey for moral support -- is it still on Thursday nights?

Jake needs $100 -- in addition to the fast money and financial backing mentioned earlier, a crisp Benjamin would be nice.

Jake needs a cyber > date -- I do not! (I mean the thought has crossed my mind, but still...)

Jake needs a quiet home to go to so he can relax and stretch his little cat legs -- they get so tired after all the ball of yarn chasing

Jake needs a hairstyle -- I think thats debatable

Jake needs us, but he also needs someone else -- and thats why I'm still looking

If you made it this far, I commend you, and suggest you do the same if you are looking for some cheap laughs. Feel free to stick in the name of someone else once you get tired.

Arrrrr You Kidding Me? Sullying the Name of the Gaucho in an Attempt to Disguise Pirate Pants

I realize its been a long time since I blogged anything, but first I was on vacation and second I couldn't really find a topic that spoke to me. Anyway, this past weekend, I was downtown at the Gateway waiting for a table at one of the fine dining establishments to be found there, and since there were girls with us, we had to go shopping.

We stopped in to Express which happens to sell fancy clothes, sometimes even to men I gather from the fact that the big sale sign in the window said "Women's Clothing only". Strangely the store only seemed to sell women's clothing so I didn't quite see the need for that disclaimer. But I digress. While we were there waiting for the girls to try on some of the latest and greatest fashions, my roommate and I began a conversation about one of these latest trends in the world of high women's fashion. No, I don't mean the re-emergence of sequins, we'll save that tirade for another day. I speak of the "the gaucho pant" aka "the pirate pant" aka "the garbacho pant" as my roommate likes to call them.

On the off chance that you have not seem this trend in action, here are some images I culled from the internet (my apologies for the fact that as far as can be seen here the pants are to be worn without any shirt. My personal experience is that I've always seen them worn with a shirt) :







Ok, so that last one wasn't actually filed under "gaucho pants" but I think I make my point, which is: why would a girl want to a) wear pirate pants, and b) wear them with high heels instead of the traditional high, large-cuffed, buckle-sporting boots? They seem to be some kind of dressy capri pant or as I like to think: coulats' (sp?) ugly cousin.

At first I found the trend mildly amusing, just another example of how some women will wear anything if they think its "in-style". That was until I found out that these pirate pants were masquerading under the name "gaucho pants". As a former resident (or I guess legally my status was extended tourist) of Argentina, I personally have met gauchos and would like to let the fashion world know that gauchos in fact wear no such pants. Gauchos are the Argentine equivalent of cowboys, ranchers, cattlemen, etc. They wear traditional pants called "bombachas" which apparently (or so my Google search would indicate) is also a name for women's undergarments. These true gaucho pants are just baggy trousers, usually having multiple pleats to create the bagginess, and often having a button closure at the bottom of each leg. I didn't discuss fashion much with these gauchos, so I can't definitively give the purpose of the buttoned leg, but my guess is that it allows for the pants to be worn easily over boots.

In any case, I found some pictures of gauchos online and was able to even find website offering to sell me bombachas. If they were smart they'd label them as "gaucho pants" and try to cash in on the recent trend. Without further ado, I give you real Gaucho pants, as worn by actual gauchos:








I guess this last photo might give a hint as to why they are called gaucho pants, but I think its fairly clear that this gaucho has pants that are actually quite long and are not actually cut off right at the top of his boots.

Just wanted to stand up for the gauchos, as I doubt very few of them have internet connections and even fewer of them have blogs with a super high readership (unlike mine of course).