I had a call to the showroom the other day… One of our salesman had a customer named Eric Stall. “Corny”, the salesman was taken aback when he asked the guy his name… He thought it was a prank! I came up front and met Eric. We had a laugh about it. Seems like a nice enough guy. He was looking for a Sienna.
Pekin Doppelganger discovered… Unfortunately he does not spell it quite the same. And he was not really evil. Kinda ruins the mystique!
Written by Eric on Monday, 1 of February , 2010 at 5:02 pm
Above, Aiden on a “down” after a fall rollerskating. From January 2010
Fun weekend! Its over too soon, but aren’t they all?
It started off REALLY great on Friday night. Ang called me and said the furnace was not running. The temp was 58 in the house. I rushed home to find the switch and mini breaker were messing up…. I tightened it up… Got the furnace running. But by Saturday morning it was out again. THANKFULLY, I have customers who are heating and cooling techs… I gave Peter a call from Central Heating and Cooling for some advice. He said to get a new switch and remove the mini fuse. Did that on Sunday morning. Bammo! It all works now.
Money Saved… Probably about 200.00
Saturday morning Aiden had a birthday party with one of his classmates. I had talked to George, the boys Dad, and he said to bring out as many people as we wanted. I thought, “This might be a good time to try roller blading”. Realize that I have not been on skates since Ang and I were engaged, 15 years ago. (Because you do crazy things to prove your manhood when engaged… ie, Dan and Bow Hunting) I remember falling backward and about cracking my head at an ice rink in Downtown Indianapolis.
I did it! Roller-bladed for about 30 to 45 minutes. Never fell! got to watch Aiden fall all over the place! Wow! He made me look like an expert! Poor kid wiped out hard at one point and cracked his head on the floor. He was OK… But I could tell that he was about wiped out from the experience.
Saturday night we went out to dinner at Taj of India. We were brave and took the kids! They actually did pretty well considering.
“Considering” meant dealing with a myriad of poor service!!! Man… I REALLY want to like this restaurant… They are in Peoria, and they have a larger menu than Puran in Bloomington… But it was not even close!
We had a new waitress… She had NO idea what ANY of the menu items were. I cant fault her completely… We should know more… But, we were hoping to have some assistance in the ordering process.
They sent another waiter to our table for the order. He was more helpful. Unfortunately we could not tell if he had our order. He just kept smiling and nodding. When he reviewed the order… It sounded pretty close.
We got our appetizers in decent time… But after eating some hot stuff… Everyone had drunk all their drinks. Then, we did not see a waiter or waitress in the dining room for 10 solid minutes!!! When we did ask refills… It was another solid 10 minutes!
Ang ordered Tandoori Shrimp. When she asked what vegetables came with it, the waiter had said only fresh vegetables were used with her dish… Well, they looked pretty flaccid on the plate. Kinda like they had been pulled out of a birds-eye freezer bag.
My Rogan Josh was more bones than meat. It was VERY tasty… So, I could have overlooked that.
My bottle of Taj was 12 bucks! It was a 20 oz bottle. But 12? Give me a break?
After being there for more than 90 minutes… We were ready for the check. It was unintelligible… I spend 93.00 bucks on a dinner for 2 adults and 2 kids. Ang wanted to argue about it… But I really didn’t care. For the first time that I can recall… I DIDNT leave a tip. I have worked for tips when I was younger, and always tried to give something if an effort for service was made. But this young girl didn’t care at all!
In the end… I will probably not go back to Taj. Puran is a gem in Bloomington. I would recommend it 1000% over our Peoria choice.
Down 100.00.
Overall… I am still 100 bucks up for the weekend. At least that is how I am rationalizing it!
Written by Eric on Friday, 29 of January , 2010 at 12:28 am
Above, picture taken out the back door with my phone 2 weeks ago.
So, what can’t I do with this thing?
Ang got me an iPhone for Christmas… I don’t think a day has gone by that it’s batteries have not nearly worn out! I am always picking at this thing! On the downside, I do not use my regular computer enough. It was shocking to see how much of my time on the computer was reading news and emails! I can do all of that on the phone now!
One cool thing that I have been doing… I already had my blog tied to Facebook. That means that all my posts show up on that site. Now, I am tying this blog to the phone. Totally sweet!
The advatage of this? I always feel like short updates need to bypass planetstahl as a matter of convenience to Facebook. Now I can get both.
Written by Eric on Thursday, 14 of January , 2010 at 11:51 pm
It may seem trivial and dumb… But, I wanted to through my 2 cents (About all any posts on this site are worth!) of support behind one of the best minds in late night TV. Conan O’Brien is what I WISH Letterman would have turned into. He is still fresh… Original… And has the best sidekick of all the shows! Andy Richter!
If Jay Leno goes back to this old show… I may very well throw up! What gives that man the right to screw up awesome prime time shows like “Medium” last year… And now knock down Conan’s career?
Jay Leno must have an ego that doesn’t stop! He should have taken a page from Carson. Retired with grace. Playing tennis in Malibu. He let younger talent take over and grow on the foundation he helped create. Ground that Leno maintained, I am hesitant to say he raised the bar or broadened anything with his simple humor. Instead…. Leno will ruin the sacred ground. Scorch the earth and make sure NO ONE ever wants to set foot there again.
Word on the blogs is that Conan will be done at the end of the week… Leno will be back in Late Night. I hope he rots in the ratings cellar!
One sidebar: If Craig Kilborn ever comes back to late night… I am tuning in no matter where he goes!
Thursday morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow in the area. It was nothing drastic. But, its not something we have had to deal with for a few years! I never thought twice about getting to work, but Ang takes the interstate and was a little more worried. I volunteered to let her take the truck while I would take the Prius to work.
Well, it was a lot trickier on the interstate. Less than a mile from work, at the exit ramp… Wipe-out!
I was getting pretty PO’ed with Katy this past week. I could not get her started 2 days in a row. I can see why gas engines are preferred! Started a diesel in these conditions, without a block heater, is nearly impossible! Last night was not so cold, 10 degrees? So, I got her fired up and FINALLY got the driveway done. All was well until I hit a big block of ice that Ang had dumped out of her horse waterers. I blew off 2 lynch pins… The blade moved to one side and jammed up on a tire. I could not move! I had to fight with that in foot deep snow by myself. I just about called Ang out… That thing is HEAVY!
I really hope Aunt Carla reads this… I REALLY want to thank her for that WONDERFUL marble tower she sent Aiden for Christmas!!! Dan and I spent 2 hours on it the other day… I have logged in about 2 or 3 hours… ITS STILL NOT DONE!!!! Now, I consider myself pretty good at this kind of stuff… But this particular set is pretty darn difficult! I think it was made for ages 18 and up! Pictures when its done??? If that ever happens!
Last day of Christmas break for the parents was VERY white! We got about 6 inches of the white stuff. I honestly cant recall when we have had such fluffy powdery snow. It was great for pulled the kids on the sled. Too cold for packing and making snowmen. Below is a movie I made while driving the tractor… If it ever gets processed by YouTube!
I must have some pretty good kids… Santa and everyone treated them with lots of gifts this year! And to be fair… They have done well in school… And other than a few weirdo events in the principals office. I cant say they have been anything other than good. You always have to let them know they have room for improvement… But that might move them to “exceptional” status!
Ang loaded me with a new iPhone. Its sweet. No doubt about it. I will be hooked in about 20 more minutes! Ang got some new earrings from me. Noelle gave Ang her latest casualty of new tech. Her old (How old can it be???) Mac Book. That is going to require some serious study. We have been Mac free here for about 15 years!
Summer got a little keyboard. And tonight sang us some songs while playing!!! That’s cool. When kids can play the instrument… It doesn’t sound so much like noise. When I tried to sing an Eels song, “Rock Hard Times”… Someone unplugged my microphone! Tough crowd!
Aunt Carla will be on the “naughty list” for sending Aiden a monster 500+ piece marble run. Its all fun and games till someone has to set it up!!! I had initially pegged that on Don. Sorry for any rude remarks I may have made.
Mom admiring Jame’s Home-made items. From December 2009
New this year… We had a gift exchange for some hand made festive items. 2 jackalopes were submitted. That has to be a record of some sort. Lots of ornaments were also present. Ang made chocolate goodies. Everyone walked away from this new holiday tradition satisfied… Or confused. Its hard to say!
I uploaded a pile of pictures from earlier in the month on the December album. I would like to say I have been busy. But really, I have been laid up with monster headaches and fevers… And then it turns out I had pneumonia. Last week was a drag. When I did get out of bed… The last thing on my mind was updating this site or the photos at Picasa! Sorry! I still wheeze and cough when I laugh… And that happened a few times over the past 2 days.
I did not even attempt anything fancy for dinner on Christmas. I had NO time to plan… Or to really think I could be over food without grossing people out! Mom almost told me to “hit the road” one day before Christmas Eve if I was still contageous!
So, that was Christmas 2009 in a nutshell.
Hey… If anyone has any cool apps I should know about… LET ME KNOW!!! There as to be a few beer apps out there!
Welcome to the Stahl homepage. This is where Eric posts all thoughts, comments, videos, pictures etc. Basically. You have found our digital homebase. There are links for our other places, like facebook, but this is the permanent site for our blog and our going's on. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment.
I had a call to the showroom the other day… One of our salesman had a customer named Eric Stall. “Corny”, the salesman was taken aback when he asked the guy his name… He thought it was a prank! I came up front and met Eric. We had a laugh about it. Seems like a nice enough guy. He was looking for a Sienna.
