Food on delay - Let's talk bail out then eat out!

Here’s a thought for our representatives, both Republican and Democrat: No more bail out!

If we are going to bail out each country that comes along and says, “Help” and we’re going to bail out each business that fails and says “Help,” then let’s bail you and me out. Our representatives are supposed to represent us. It doesn’t matter whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independents once elected, the represent all the people of their district or area or even nation. So, tell your representative that you want a bail out too. Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail that makes good sense:

“I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a "We Deserve It" dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. citizens, aged 18+. 
 
Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child. So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

Now, divide 200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billion - that equals $425,000.00 each! Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a "We Deserve It" dividend. 
 
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So, let's assume a tax rate of 30%. Every recipient would pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25.5 billion right back to Uncle Sam! It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife would have $595,000.00! 


What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595, 000.00? Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved- Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads 
· Put away money for college – it'll really be there 
· Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs 
· Buy a new car – create jobs 
· Invest in the market – capital drives growth 
· Pay for your parent's medical insurance – health care improves 
· Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else 
 
Remember this is for every adult U.S. citizen, 18 and older.

Remember, this plan only really costs $59.5 billion because $25.5 billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.”


To me, it looks like this guy has the plan that will work. Maybe we should forward it to our representatives. 
 Should the government be worried that we can’t handle out money, let us send in an IRS form indicating how the money was used and they (our government) can send each of us a form telling us how they used our money. After all, someone once said that “people do what you inspect, not what you expect”.

On The Border Again

As you may have figured out, we enjoy eating at On The Border. Once again we had the take out last night. A Border Sampler, and Superior Dinner made up the main group. Prices seemed to have stopped going up, but at the same time the staff seemed a little greedy with the Cheese Dip and chips.

We were only given one package of chips and the cheese dip was only about half full. I did request an additional package of chips and received them without a problem during the checkout process. Naturally, the rest of the meal was great.

My suggestion to anyone eating the take out is to pay close attention to how many bags of chips you are getting. If you are an avid chip eater, as I am, then you will need to request additional bags of chips. After all, if you were eating in at the restaurant, they would give you as many chips as you wanted. You might as well get the chips you want with your take out or else you'll find yourself short a chip or two during your meal.

Two Chicks Cafe

Two Chicks Café is located on Summerhill road in Texarkana, Texas and at the old location for Old Time Burger. This small café recently opened without much fanfare so I decided to try it out. On the Friday before Hurricane Ike hit Texarkana as Tropical Storm Ike, I visited the drive through of the café. The first thing I noticed was there was no outside menu at the time. I figured I should have called ahead with my order, but when I reached the window, the people were friendly and notified me that they had a menu. The menu presented decent prices on things from chicken (not surprising) to hamburgers and other various items. They offer a daily special and the special that Friday was fish.

I took the special and returned to my office. The fish was better than I had expected. The portions were large and the sides modest. I found both the taste and portions far better than some restaurants offer in the Texarkana area. I would recommend Two Chicks Café for families or lunch during the week.

A note of interest I found positive for this new café. They were given an “A” by the Texarkana-Bowie County Family Health Center by the Food Inspections department. Found at http://www.txkusa.org/health/foodinspections.htm you can see a wide list of restaurants from the Texas side with grade listing. More importantly, you can see restaurants that have been graded to possibly cause sickness to you or your family. It’s a great list that I like to consult and it is updated by the department as needed.

McDonald's - St. Michael's Drive

Tonight was a night to take the kids out to see Star Wars: Clone Wars (great movie) and grab something to eat right afterwards. You can imagine what kids wanted, McDonald's for the new Star Wars toys. We chose the McDonald's on St. Michael’s drive for two reasons. First, we didn’t want to deal with all the kids at the Stateline location, and second we didn’t want one with a playroom for us to have to have a major fight with the kids when it was time to go.

The McDonald's was clean and well stocked with friendly people inside. There were signs that the recent rains had penetrated the room as water spots were on some ceiling tiles. The kids got the Mighty Kid Cheeseburger meals, my better half got the Big N Tasty meal, and I got the Chicken club meal. We did notice that service seemed a little slower than is usual for McDonald's.

Once the meals arrived, we ate and watched the kids play with Star Wars toys. The basic order for the kids was correct, except that we had ordered the cheeseburger meals and they received the regular double meat burgers with no cheese. The kids didn’t notice.

After the meal, we decided to give in to further temptation and ordered Sundays. I paid and waited. While the worker prepared the Sundays, my wife noticed that the worker dropped one of the lids on the floor, picked it up, seemed to think about it, and then stuck it on one of the Sundays. She pointed this out to me. Once the Sundays were done, I told them that they could keep them as I was no longer sure which one had the lid that the worker dropped, but that we could go somewhere else for ice cream. To the credit of the manager on shift, she immediately intervened, and offered a refund. When I told her a refund wasn’t necessary, we were simply not going to eat the Sundays when one of the lids had been dropped; she immediately threw the Sundays away and started making new ones herself.

We ended up leaving with the new Sunday’s because our youngest decided to throw a fit about the chocolate on his Sunday. In the end, the warm air outside claimed our Sundays and they ended up in the trash anyway. I obviously have a problem with the way the employee handled a dropped lid. However, I have to commend the store’s on-shift manger for doing everything in her power to make it right. This manager apparently knows how to keep customers and what it takes to offer good, fast food service. McDonald’s should be commended for keeping such managers on at all times when the store is open.

Pizza Inn

Here in Texarkana we have an outstanding group of pizza places to enjoy eating in. You can go to Dominos, Papa Johns, CiCis, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, or even have pizza at the local mall. However, despite all the choices, my favorite remains Pizza Inn.

Pizza Inn’s buffet is consistently great. They provide a variety of pizza without cutting ingredients. Unfortunately, many pizza buffets seem to have the unsaid goal of filling you up with bread. This is not the case with Pizza Inn. Further, Wednesday night is my favorite night for pizza.

You may not know this, but eat in or carry out on Wednesday evening is half price on medium and large pizzas. This along with great service, friendly people (consistently of employees is a huge plus at Pizza Inn) and the great food makes for great midweek break for cooking.

Last Wednesday evening was no different from any other. We ordered our pizza, picked it up and found it to be outstanding. The combination of half-price on medium and large pizzas along with the other benefits makes Pizza Inn my choice Wednesdays and just about any other day of the week too!

On The Border

It was call-in night again here at the house, and we decided to use our two ten dollar gift certificates for On the Border. We made the call and the order without a problem around 9:00p.m. We were told that it would be ready in ten minutes. I slipped into the car and hurried to the restaurant. The food was ready and the reception time in the take-out order room was great.

I left with the order and returned home. As usual the food was great and there was plenty of it. We had the Border Sampler, Tres Enchiladas (beef), and Pico Chicken and Shrimp along with a bowel of Chile Con Queso. I did notice that, like everything else the prices have increased at On The Border. For example, the Border Sampler used to be $9.99 and it is now $10.49. However, for the amount of food you get that is a fairly low increase.

Besides great food, On The Border also provides great take-out packaging. A large brown paper bag with handles carries all the food in neat, and stacked, containers with chips on top. The containers are made of a hard, sealed type of cardboard, that takes about one day for your left over Enchilada to soak through (I know, it does). I have no problem setting anything ordered in the front seat of the car unlike some of the pizza boxes I have carried before.

Once again, great food, good price despite the increase, and friendly service at On The Border here in Texarkana. My only concern came when the lady at the counter stated that my wife usually comes to pick up the food and that means we must really be eating out too much for them to know us! :)

Ruby Tuesday

We were out shopping the tax free weekend and decided to stop in Ruby Tuesdays for a quick lunch today. Overall it was a good visit. My kids had turkey burgers, my wife those mini-burgers, and I took the salad bar.

Our waitress was polite and the atmosphere was standard for any Ruby Tuesday. The only flaw our waitress seemed to have was using her cell phone to text messages while talking with people. Otherwise the waitress was extremely nice with the kids and our order was delivered very quickly.

Mini-burgers were cooked great and the side of fries (standard with this order) were well seasoned. The turkey burgers (also mini from the kids menu) were reported by my critical children to be great! Taking a moment to sneak a little bite of one of them, they were at least as good as the ones you can purchase and cook yourself.

The salad bar was well maintained, clean and orderly. There was a brief moment of panic when the bacon bits ran low, but a server monitoring the bar quickly refilled the cup and continued to monitor the bar.

With four people (and four meals, including two kids) we stayed under thirty-five dollars and that included the tip. I found it interesting, and helpful, that the check had an area with the suggested tip pre-printed. It covered a tip for 10%, 15%, and 20% of the total check.

I should also mention we ordered water and this did not deter the waitress from ensuring our glasses were always full. I should also mention that we visited the restrooms before leaving and found them to be clean and well stocked. Overall, I would recommend this restaurant to anyone, especially for the lunch crowd!