June 25, 2007 by chad.

This week has the promise to be a very busy week both personally and professionally. I have had a number of clients call and say they want some computer assistance this week and most of them, thank goodness, are not asking for it this instant. That means I should be consistently busy all week serving peoples technology needs.

On the personal side, since there is no chair for the St Cloud Jaycees Glow Necklace sales this year, the president…me…has stepped in to make sure the project goes over well. This year we are planning on covering both Hester and Wilson park and the downtown area in conjunction with Freedom Fest on July 4th. Its a big undertaking as we will need at the very least 30 people total covering all the area. Now, if you take out the fact that the St Cloud Jaycees don’t currently have 30 active members, we will definately need some help on this one, so calling in the reinforcements from other local chapter is a must. As long as we have enough coverage, we should have a very successful glow necklace sale. Check out the St Cloud Jaycees website www.stcjaycees.org to see what that’s all about.

The Twins won last night! Woohoo! It is soo good to see a little run support for Johan when he pitches well, which is pretty much all the time. Mauer hit 2 home runs last night which is extremely exciting to see. It is nice to see someone else pick up the offense now that Morneau is down for a couple days. I heard he has been cleared to fly after the lung contusion so he should be in the lineup by Tuesday or Wednesday. Tonight Kevin Slowey pitches against Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays. Its a veritable Jason vs. Goliath moment as the rookie takes on a really very dominating starter. Good luck, Kevin.

That’s about it. The computer to my right needs a little more TLC as I see the scan is completed, so I am out of here for now.

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June 21, 2007 by chad.

On Wednesday I decided it was time again to let the caffeine well run dry in my system. Maybe there’s some truth to it, but I truly feel that going without caffeine for a week really helps me out from time to time. Let’s preface this by saying that I am not an insane caffeine head, but I do have a couple cups of coffee and a pop or 2 daily. On days that I go to The Corner Bean I probably have a few shots more of some coffee based beverage. Other than that I am good without it.

Tuesday night was a poor night for sleeping so the usual suspect needed to be stricken from my diet. It did not seem to help this morning when I woke because sleep tried to take me back a few times throughout the morning. Now it is just past 2pm and I am tired but not asleep. We’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow…

Anyway, yesterday I posted one of my recent reviews of Val’s Rapid Serv. If someone actually reads this stuff, feel free to respond. Granted, if you’re not from around here you have no reference point on which to form an even remotely worthy opinion so maybe its just best if you keep your mouth shut.

end of line

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June 20, 2007 by chad.

Industrial but classic, that would be the best way to describe the East Side of St Cloud and its landmark fast food restaurant, Val’s Rapid Serv. Val’s is a hold over from a time gone by when you didn’t have to be big to be successful as a restaurant. You didn’t need a huge parking lot and you didn’t have to decorate your dining area with elaborate themes. It truly is a burger joint with a classic appeal and a HUGE following of devoted fans from far and wide. My wife works in Onamia and one of her coworkers proudly proclaimed that he wanted to eat at Val’s when they had to come down to St Cloud for a seminar, just because it was Val’s.

Just because. Normally that is not necessarily a good enough incentive for me to dine at a place. There are hundreds of restaurants in this area so its hard to justify going somewhere based on that flimsy reason. Find a more dynamic reason like the fact that it is an experience not to miss when coming to, living in, or finding yourself in St Cloud….ever.

Good: 7 (Mmmmm…grease)

A small army of workers like the core of a bee hive make your burgers on the fly in a tiny cooking area. Good thing there is a lot of family working in there because if they didn’t have the family tie, they would most certainly hate each other. Take it from me, when I worked for restaurants, the confines of the kitchen were sometimes battle grounds for bruised egos and bitter rivalries.

The burgers, and almost everything else on the menu, are greasy. Expect this. Its part of the charm of the place. Fresh ground beef patties…none of that preformed burger meat garbage, relish comes on the burger unless omitted during order, Oh, and if you are eating alone, never order more than a regular french fry because they already fill your bag up with fries…a large is overkill. You’ll find other menu items like fish,a Lent specialty, and chicken but don’t expect a huge variety. The main reason to go is for the burgers.

Service: 7 (Uniquely setup)

The first Time I went to Val’s ordering food was very in a very original way. You used to pick up a phone to place your order and you would talk to a lady who would key in your order. It would appear on a screen in from of you. This was very unique because you were no more than 3 feet from the window you receive your food from. Welcome to the 21 century. Now you have a touch screen to enter your order. When your order is done you will be beckoned to the window and pay for it there. The service at the window is quick but polite and almost neighborly.

Atmosphere: 5 (….uh, nice picnic tables)

Unless you have a desire to be dumped by your date who thought you were going to a posh restaurant, don’t expect a dining experience beyond that which you would get at a local park. This place is small…..no, smaller than you are thinking. Picnic tables are sprinkled around the tiny lot they have. Val’s sits on the corner of Lincoln Ave and East St Germain, a very busy intersection on the east side so there is not much else to do but jaw a bit and watch cars fly by.

Sometimes you go to restaurants for different things. Sometimes its comfort and sometimes its the experience. Well, for Val’s its the opportunity to strip away all the superficial trinkets of dining out and focus on the essential experience. What you see is what you get.

Overall 6.5

A half point? Well, I right the rules so I can do as I see fit. Val’s is definitely an experience unto itself, but as a “dining” experience it is lacking. You can’t make a classic car look like a 2007 model, but, then again, why would you? Know that you are eating at a piece of history and know that you will probably get something greasy but good.

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June 19, 2007 by chad.

Bulletin boarding, and those who used to communicate on them, is a lost art. Unless you are the Yoda of an IT firm, and you sit on the edge of an internet steam, you don’t hear too much about a successful bulletin board anymore. Blogs are the next generation of the bulletin board. You can get pseudo-news and information and feel connected in a cursory way to the lives of the people who chose to write blogs. You don’t have to agree with them, just read them.

Oh, I happen to have a picture of my daughter. It may be a little old, but you can see in this picture that she has the same passion for food that I do.

(Hmmm…note to self. Please resize images BEFORE you dump them into the editor.)

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June 19, 2007 by chad.

If there ever was a SHOUT BAMA-LAMA! moment its when I received 2 boxes in sealed containers that presumably contained install disks for Microsoft Office 2007 Pro. I opened them only to find a license key and the instructions to download it off the web.

The world is continuing it progress toward a paperless, productless existence. In some respects this is a good thing, but when you want to do a quick install for a client, the shear fact that you need to DL the program before installing is maddening. Actually I need to download the 2007 Microsoft Office System OEM Pre-Installation Kit(OPK) Master Kit. I was advised that downloading the 60 day trial is sufficient for making this work, but we will have to see on that one. I have found that the best way to deal with software vendors is follow E-X-A-C-T-L-Y what they say I should be doing and then figure out a workaround when their directions fail. Why bother re-inventing the wheel if you don’t have to. End of line.

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June 19, 2007 by chad.

When you draw comparisons to Norm from Cheers, you know you have been someplace too many times. As of late I have spent a great deal of time at The Corner Bean. Its a new coffee shop in St Cloud where Peaberry’s used to be. I have been a seat warmer in coffee shops in the St Cloud area for 15 years now so I have seen a lot of them come and go. Hopefully they can make a go of it here. Being close to SCSU is a good thing…now it just needs the volume a school year can bring. Opening at the end of the school year may not have been the best decision, but it atleast gives them a chance to get the staff up to speed and the machines of business tested. I’ll probably talk about them more later. Maybe even a FULL restaurant review someday. I just need to get some work done right now.

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