Andrew

2021 Week 18 – Outdoor Activities

It’s getting close to camping season! The parks are starting to open back up and reservations are becoming available. I’m hoping to hit my southern Indiana favorite Indian Celina North Face Campground soon to shake down some new gear. It’s not a fancy campground but it’s clean and usually really quiet. I also discovered a Disc Golf course at the Saint Meinrad Archabbey 25-minutes away from camp so that’s going to be a must-visit.

Also this week I give you the “Porks & Rec” Tenderloin sandwich at Big Lug Canteen in Nora. Recommended by my good friend Rick from The Tenderloin Guy. Dressed with all my favorites, Lettuce, Onion, Tomato, Mayo & Mustard. Served with a side of herbed mayo that was excellent on the waffle fries I ordered as my side.

Keeping this post a little short because it’s already past due to be published. Look for more pics and reviews in the coming weeks!

2021 Week 17 – Snow Day!

We just had 2-3” of snow hit the Indianapolis region last Tuesday evening. Snow, in Indy, in April, is not that uncommon. In fact according to weather.com we have a 10-20% chance for snow in April. The average date for the last snowfall is March 19 and the latest snowfall ever recorded was May 9, 1923

I finally ate at Loughmiller’s Pub & Eatery on West Washington in Indianapolis last week. I was out for a lunchtime walk and decided to stop in. They had a decent lunch crowd with a lot of people (at least around me) from out of town. The menu had a nice variety and the service was very good. I enjoyed the Skillet Burger which is an open faced sandwich on Texas Toast covered in house made chili and cheddar-jack cheese. Crinkle fries were included and were cooked and seasoned perfectly. The gentleman next to me ordered the Fish & Chips and they looked amazing (he really liked them too). That’s a reason to go back!

Finally, we had some amazing weather yesterday so I took advantage and drove up to Morse Beach in Noblesville to check out their Disc Golf course. It’s a 9-basket course but they have 2 Tee Pads for each hole for a total of 18 holes. You basically make 2 rounds. It was more challenging than I was expecting and is considered a “beginner” course. Either way it was a great way to spend a few hours outside getting some much needed exercise.

2021 Week 16 – Hey Y’all!

Kickstarter has some interesting projects. I’ve backed several over the years and have mostly been happy with the end products (a few were failures and never got enough funded to get off the ground). A new one caught my eye a few months ago called Tidbyt. Tidbyt is a retro display kind of along the lines of a lite-brite that we all had as a kid. It’s “connected” and can be customized to display all kinds of data from weather to stocks to transit timetables. If all goes according to plan it will start shipping in September. I’m looking forward to setting one up as a weather station and clock!

If you have pets do yourself a favor and locate at least 2 emergency pet hospitals that are open 24-hours and make sure this information is easily accessible. It’s also a good idea to know where they’re located so you know how to get there quickly. We had a situation where one of our pets needed emergency care and the first place, closest to our house, had a 5-6 hour wait to see a Vet. The parking lot was full of people sitting around on lawn chairs! We identified an alternate emergency facility about 30-min away that advised they had a 1-2 hour wait. It still took almost 6-hours to get the exam and necessary medications. Current protocol requires you to call from the parking lot and stay there the entire time you’re waiting for triage and treatment.

And finally, I’ve really been enjoying the “Bless Your Rank” food review show on the “It’s a southern Thing” YouTube channel. It’s helping me get some ideas of snacks to try when I make a trip down south later this year!

Bonus Episode!

2021 Week 15 – Batter Up!

Baseball is back! I played baseball for many years before I moved to Indiana and have followed the Cincinnati Reds since I was a kid. When Major League Baseball (MLB) went on strike in 1994-95 I just stopped watching. I’ve attended several Indianapolis Indians games over the years since then but I never got back into the MLB. I found myself watching a Reds game the other day & actually enjoyed it! I’m now back on the bandwagon rooting for the Cincinnati Red Legs.

Remember that Cargo Ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal last month? There have been some funny Internet memes as well as canal simulators that came out of the mess. One I quite enjoyed allows you see the actual size of that ship compared to everyday objects on Google Maps. Like this one comparing the Ever Given to Lucas Oil Stadium:

And it even showed up in the Microsoft Flight Simulator game

Fishers has a new(ish) Mexican restaurant near the Geist Marina. El Lago (meaning “The Lake”) has been open about a year and quickly became our go-to place for dinner. The prices are great, the portions are huge, and the quality is amazing. My favorite is the Burrito Choriz which has chicken and steak cooked with onions, covered with cheese sauce, Mexican sausage, shrimp and pineapple. Served with rice or beans. For $13 you can’t beat it! I recommend the beans, they are really good and obviously homemade, as is their salsa.

Finally, some good news for the Castleton area. It was posted on the Indianapolis Reddit they’re finally making progress on the Saraga International Grocery that was reported in the IBJ back in 2019. I have some concerns bout the other asian markets in the area (Patel Bros, Asia Mart, Viet Hua, and One World Market) being able to compete with Saraga but I welcome the addition to the area. It’s about as close and Indianapolis is going to get to a Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati.

2021 Week 14 – 72 Sat / 21 Thu

You have to love Indiana weather. We were enjoying 70-degree weather last Saturday & woke up to 21-degrees and flurries on April 1 (no joke!). At least we’re finally into April and spring sprung on March 20th. This next week is supposed to be back in the 70’s. I’ll take that!

A week after I get signed up for the Johnson & Johnson “One-and-Done” Covid-19 Shot news breaks that up to 15-million doses are being recalled because of formulation issues. I was able to get my vaccination at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week and it was one of the most organized things I’ve done since the Eli Lilly drive-up COVID testing last May. Kudos to the IMS staff, Indiana National Guard, and IU Health for making that an amazing success.

I love cooking shows and spend a lot of time watching my favorites on Youtube and Food Network (PBS too!). I discovered a new chef (new to me) last week that I didn’t realize I had been reading about for years.

J. Kenji López-Alt is a restaurant owner and Chief Culinary Consultant at the Serious Eats website. He also just published a book called “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science“. I really like his Point-of-View (POV) video style and his more advanced cooking techniques like this one:

Finally, I have some camping trips coming up and will be reviewing some new gear I’ve picked up in the past year. Look for those in the coming weeks. Enjoy the amazing weather this week!

2021 Week 13 – Sweet 16

So we’re down to 16 teams in the NCAA March Madness Tournament. It’s been a year of upsets as some of the top teams (including ALL of the Big-10) are knocked out. It’s going to be an exciting weekend along with an even more exciting round next week!

YOU get a Shot, and YOU get a shot. Ads of March 31 anyone 16 years old and above is eligible for a COVID vaccine. I’ve been trying to get one for a while now but the demand far outweighs the supply. Governor Holcomb just announced there will be a mass vaccination clinic at the Indianapolis motor Speedway starting on 4/1. I’m scheduled to go on 4/2 for the J&J shot which I’m assuming will knock me on my butt the following day. Good thing there’s basketball to watch!

If you know me you know I have a few hobbies. Camping, Hiking, Cycling, Kayaking, Photography, Cooking (and eating)… I have a new interest this year and it’s Disc Golf. I’ve only just started but I’m very intrigued with it and have a few trips coming up that I plan to play while out and about. I like that it’s an inexpensive sport to get into and the courses are 95% free or only $5-6 where there is a fee. That makes it very accessible to people and easy to walk away if it becomes boring. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Speaking of Disc Golf I found an app called UDisc that makes finding courses and leagues, scoring games, and tracking your stats possible (and fun). All that for only $5 a year (it even has an Apple Watch app included! It’s well worth the price and I’ve really enjoyed using it so far!

Finally, for my Mac friends out there here’s a short video explaining 13 Keyboard Shortcuts you might not know about.

https://youtu.be/m6UJRd8SdQo

2021 Week 12 – Tourney Time!

The NCAA Basketball Tournament (March Madness) started this last week after a successful Big-10 Mens College Basketball tournament the week before. Indianapolis is getting a TON of press and our city is looking pretty nice on the national stage.

My friend Joe Pellman at the Indy Chamber has been working on a project to help get Indianapolis in front of people who would normally not even think of it. When asked about their perception of Indy a lot of people outside of the region are neutral (better than being negative). Life in Indy was created to change that perception and help people discover our amazing city.

The truth is that Indianapolis is one of our country’s best kept secrets—a hidden gem in the heart of the Midwest. But we decided the Indy region shouldn’t be a secret anymore.
Life in Indy

I’m going to keep this weeks post a little on the short side. Lot’s of stuff in the hopper but the weather is way too nice to be inside playing on get Internet. Have a great week everyone!

2021 Week 11 – Spring Forward

I hope everyone remembered to set their clocks forward an hour before you wane to bed last night. I usually have DST on my calendar as a reminder but didnt for some reason this year so the time change kind of snuck up on me.

I was doing some work in Downtown Indianapolis this past week and you can feel the energy of the big basketball tournaments. The Big-10 games started last Wednesday and wrap up today. Then we start all over with March Madness this Thursday through April 5th. EVERY Big-10 championship game and EVERY March Madness game will be played in Indiana. This is the first time this has ever been done and really puts our State under the spotlight. From what I’ve seen so far Indianapolis has cleaned up quite nicely and is doing a great job hosting everything.

If you ever want to know how much of the year has passed you can get real time updates on the Year Progress twitter page. I’ll admit I was watching it closely last year.

The BEST cheesesteak shop in the city has a second location! Originally starting in Flat-12 brewery on the near east side, and later relocating just south of Butler University, Hoagies and Hops just opened a second location inside Chilly Water Brewery on Virginia Ave (Fletcher Place). I stopped by on Friday to try the 1/4 pound chili cheese dog and a small side of fries. This was a BIG dog. The chili and cheese were both infused with beer so it was a different tasting chili dog. Overall I enjoyed it and would order again if I wasn’t getting a cheesesteak.. I dipped my fries in a lot of the cheese and that was a winning combo.

And finally, I’m a fan of the Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich. When it’s done right it’s delicious. Sam the Cooking Guy makes his version at home and it looks really easy to make. I think I’m going to give it a shot next weekend.

2021 Week 10 – Last Dance with LastPass

It was reported last week that the popular password manager “LastPass” had no less than 7 trackers reporting data back to sites like Google. I’ve been looking for another password manager prior to this news but I wasn’t finding anything with the same functionality. I finally found a tool worth moving to called Bitwarden. It’s open source and FREE to use! You can optionally pay $10 a year for some advanced features, and to support the products development. After moving my data to Bitwarden and deleting my LastPass account I was more than willing to pay the money to support the tool It’s got a very active community and is constantly getting new features and updates. If you’re not using a password manager you really should and now you can for free!

Can a vegan Cheeseball taste good? It can if it’s from Eat Surreal! I’ve been seeing the “Amazeball” pop up from time to time on Instagram and it finally got my attention. I visited the Broad Ripple Farmers Market and picked one up. This is an amazing recipe that has honestly got my attention of how well vegan food can taste! if you didnt tell someone they were eating a blend of tofu, coconut oil, various veggies, and spices they would never know the difference. It’s THAT good! You can find this, and other Eat Surreal products at shops around town like Amelia’s Bread and Mass Ave Wine.

And finally… Gears and Gasoline released a 3-Part series where they take a couple of Mazda RX-7s and visit all 48 states. It’s a great set of videos to watch and looks like something that would be a lot of fun!