A little from column A, a little from column B

Wow, it's been a month since I updated. Bad, Tim. Here are some stream of thought updates...

First, a fond farewell to my sister's awesome standard poodle, Chattee. After 13 years, my sister had to put her to sleep a couple weeks ago. Everybody's friend, she was about all anyone could ever want in a dog. Shes was always friendly and just happy to be around people. We played many hours of fetch and I'm gonna miss that. I'm not going to miss her chronic, as Jen put it, "dragon breath".

Urban Campfire in Tempe reopened in a slightly renovated form, but the food has suffered. The menu is more compact, some of the nice extras are gone, and you can tell that Robert has left the building. Tara had some sliders and I tried a burger. Tara enjoyed her sliders. I've never had a worse burger in a restaurant, let alone one the specializes in grilled meats. They even tried to make me a second one, but it was only marginally better. They both had a horrible burned, acrid taste. They did bring me a free beef slider while I was waiting for the second burger that was good, but overall Tara and I won't be back. There are better burgers around and better bbq to be had not too far. We are sorry we only visited the original incarnation a few times.

Restaurant.com was having a special where you could get $25 gift certificates for only $2. While there weren't a ton of places we were interested in, we snagged a few. The first one was for Il Posto at 7th St and Mountain View in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix. We got therre after 8 and it was kinda slow. The staff was great and we ordered the stuffed mushroom appetizer, lobster ravioli for Tara, and their white pizza with added pepperoni for tomato-phobic me. The mushrooms were way overpriced at $7.99. Four small button mushrooms were in a huge serving dish that was about 5 times too large. They were not really memorable. We only got it to fulfill the $35 min for the gift cert. Tara loved her lobster ravioli and I tried some as well. It definitely had lobster in it. I adored my white pizza. Four cheeses, fresh garlic, and I think some herbs, along with the extra pepperoni, made for a great meal. It was just as good cold the next morning, part of my criteria for great pizza. The crust was crunchy and chewy with a nice flavor. They also didn't skimp on the garlic. They had a free bread and pesto that were very tasty as well. So except for the mushrooms, we really enjoyed our visit and will be back.

Some great news for fans of Shish Kebab House in Glendale. Friday night, Tara was lamenting their absence of late as their move to a new location appeared to be stalled. The last time we saw their new location, it was basically white walls and nothing really done. That lasted for a few random scoutings since they closed in February. We'd given them up for dead. Just for fun, I called their number to see if the answering machine had any updates. I was SHOCKED when a real voice answered at 8pm. I thought it was the wrong number. It was the correct one, and the gentleman who answered said they should be open sometime in November (aka this month). We were very happy to hear that.

For lunch today, Tara suggested Mr Greek. We stopped in, only to find it's been renamed "Z's Greek". Luckily, it appears to be the same owner and nothing else is different. We had our usual and it was awesome as always. We're both still stuffed. I did opt for a small greek salad instead of fries, and got a nice sized salad loaded with feta crumbles. Tara loved the cheese and kept taking bites.

Last but not least, many happy wishes to our good friend Seth, who finally tied the knot with his beloved J yesterday. We were unable to travel to SoCal for the wedding, but it seems to have gone off without any major hitches. We aren't sure if they headed to Montreal for the honeymoon yet or not, but we are very jealous of that. We can't wait to hear the wedding stories, as Seth's friends and family are usually quite entertaining.