Greg

Best Burger in Seattle

Was reading citysearch the other day, and was going through it's list of “best restuarant” for the different categories...  Some of the choices I agree with.  Some of my favourites are not on there.  Since I happened to stop by and have a burger at what I remembered as 'best burger joint' thought I'd put something up with *my* choices :)

And no, I haven't had a burger from every place in the city - it is likely there's one better.  If you know of one, let me know.

Best Burger in Seattle:
Edgewater Hotel bar (67 lounge or something like that - cleverly named for the fact the edgewater is on pier 67).  The burger is good-sized hand-shaped patty (not just a meat-puck from the freezer) that has been perfectly grilled when I've had it.  It doesn't hurt that the fries here are quite nice as well.  It's a bit pricely, but is a step up from the usual burger you'd get at TGIF, Chile's ClaimJumper, most resturaunts around.  Worth the extra dollar or two.  All-in-all, it's the closest thing to the best burger I've found yet - from the Cheshire Inn (pub adjacent to the Cheshire Lodge in St. Louis).  Bonus points for the location - since you're on a pier you have a great view of the water and boats going by, etc.  Double Bonus points if you're hungry during happy hour - the time I had it then it was ~$4

Honorable Mention:
McCormick and Schmick's (citysearch review):  Burger is a bit above normal, but the real value of it is that McCormick's has a generous happy hour (starts early and often) and the burger and fries are two bucks then.  Definitely far better then the equivelently priced fast-food burger+fries you'd get in comparison.  Three locations in seattle, all have the same happy hour special.

Palace Kitchen (citysearch review): Burger is top-notch with good fries.  Comes on a specially made hamburger plate that has the different parts (meat, bun, lettuce, etc.) on a seperate tower of goodness.  Dan claims this is the best in seattle but hasn't experienced the bliss that is the edgewater burger.

Does the job in a pinch:
Rock Bottom Brewery
Pyramid Brewery
Paddy Coynes Irish Pub - new irish pub in south lake union.  Scores extra points for serving it on a really nice sandwich roll instead of a hamburger bun
Red Robin - claims to be gourmet burgers.  a number of different burgers that some of which are fairly creative... 
Cheesecake factory - have to admit that I broke down and had one in Hawaii and it was one of the nicest burgers I had in a long time.  I'm suspecting that the rest of the chains are of similar quality...

Don't Bother:
Pike Place Pub - it doesn't help that their beers aren't particularly good either.
Wolfgang Puck Cafe - yes, this went out of business in Seattle but if you ever come across one please skip this and try the weinersnitzel.
Chili's, TGIF, Applebee's. - All of these purport to have excellent hand-made burgers.  overpriced for what they are.

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Updates:
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4/18/05 - copy & paste from 'articles' to a new 'posts' category on Seattle stuff.  Update the price of the Edgewater burger.  It is $4 during happy hour.

the sounds of silence

I did a bit of re-arranging this past weekend... Nothing too crazy or shocking (in terms of moving furniture), but I moved the old computer into the closet.  This is something that I had been meaning to do for a while, but since I had to get a couple things (cord to run power into that closet, long network cable) it hadn't happened yet. 

Since my morning golf was rained out a trip to Lowes that took occured instead.  One heavy-duty extension cord and un-earthed network cable later, I was ready to go.  Now, the “office“/“2nd bedroom“ is stunningly quiet.  Apparently if you choose the right hardware a computer can be essentially silent.  Up until the latest computer (a refurbished Dell) I've built all of my computers and have been heavier on the 'processing power + industrial strength fans' and de-emphasizing things like looks and ambient noise.  And in work, I have something like 5 computers of varying age contributing to my ever-increasing deafness.  eh?  what was that?  Speak up sonny!

Just one more reason that I doubt I'll ever build another computer.  Dell + friends are around the same price for far less hassle, and things like fit-and-finish are just better.  Only real justification I could see is for the high-end gamer that needs the bleeding edge processor/graphics cards/sound cards...  And even that is starting to be pushing it.

N.B. I've reached a shocking 5 posts in April!

Finding a music download service

So, I've actually been going to the gym on a quasi-regular basis these days.  While this is good for me, it's bad for my pocketbook (do people still say pocketbook?)...  Not because of the price of the gym but because I'm getting tired of the music I have in MP3. 

After my two previous MP3 players turned out to be not good, I've started using my phone (the audiovox version of the smartphone) as my mp3 player.  So far so good.  Now I'm through all of the more upbeat stuff I have to listen to and am starting to look for an audio service online...  The couple that I have looked at so far are Musicmatch, iTunes and finally Napster.  I'm in the midst of the Napster trial period at the moment because it seems like the best option for what I use the MP3s for - working out at the gym, listening on my home computer while I'm working or playing games, and finally, listening at work while I'm... well... working.

So far it seems pretty good but it is a little frustrating that not all of the music in their catalog is available for free to download, given that's what the service is based around.  What makes these other songs so special that I still have to fork out $0.99 for them if I want them?  And it seems to be a random determination of what is additional charge and what's included - do a search for Sir Mix-a-Lot and of the 42 tracks of his they have, probably half are included and the rest require payment.  But for Ludacris almost all of the tracks are included.  Strange.

I'll give this a few more days before I decide if I want to keep with it - probably something that's a per-song charge (i.e. iTunes or MSN's music service) wouldn't be as good a fit for me at the moment since I want to be able to change the music out pretty quickly and without hassle or additional charge to dissuade me...

Oh, and if you're in the market for a new cell-phone and work anywhere that uses outlook/exchange I would highly recommend the smartphone.  But that's another story.

cool stuff from microsoft

I've been playing with the new version of MSN messenger a bit since it was released the other day...  There's a few really cool things that they've added since the betas and previous versions:

- “personal message“ - a TON of the people on my IM list just change their display name to the message.  And it's a real pain in the ass to figure out who is who sometimes, particularly if you're pressed for time and just want to send a quick message...  This is a cool feature where your name can be one thing (like your actual name) and the message will just be shown after your name.  It's a different take on what a few of my friends standardized on a while back - <Initial> sez: “message” (so I would have my name be “G sez: 'is it friday yet'” or something like that...

- “What i'm listening to” - this is something actually that Gene used to do, and it may be tied into trillian or whatever he uses as a client.  He would update his name via a script (I think) to be whatever was playing on his computer at the moment.  This ties in media player to update your personal message to be whatever you're listening to.

- Tighter integration with MSN spaces - not really a big deal for me, given that I use this site instead and am not inclined to move things to the MSN space at the moment (though I may someday in the future).  It makes sense from a 'all things MSN' point of view, and it helps spread the word if you have a personal website since it's much easier for your contacts to find it...  In fact, I just created one here, which is really just a link back to http://kinasewitz.net/greg but figured I might as well take advantage of it.  I like the 'lists' feature and the photo support doesn't seem to be too bad.

- display pictures - I'm not sure if other IM clients support it (I'm sure they do now, if they didn't first), but messenger has a 'display picture' that you can set - 7.0 now supports the contact page, where everyone's status is available, to have a thumbnail of their display pic...

Downsides?  They moved the status icon “away, busy, etc” overlayed with the generic messenger or display icon, and it's harder to tell at a glance if someone is away or busy, or free to chat.  Also, the text at the end of the line (Away) is in a different lighter font - with the new personal messages italicized at the end of the display name, status overall is a bit harder to determine.

Also, I find it strange that you can buy emoticons.  How does that work?  Is it cached on the local computer and you can only use it from there?  Is it available from the server, so any time I'm signed in from any computer I can use that emoticon?  Does it expire?  How did they come up with the pricing scheme?  Somehow I'm just not motivated enough by any of them that I've seen, or that I'd want to send, that I'm convinced it's worth a buck or two to get them...

Practice makes perfect

I've now gotten out and played a little golf in the past month or so.  And my total score is increasing.  I actually keep track of how I'm playing - what more scores are, how many putts I had, etc. throughout the year.  I started last season, and it's a really useful way to see if/how my play is changing.  For a while it was a lot more granular - including shots with woods, long, middle and short irons as well as putts but that gets kind of annoying to keep track of throughout the round.

Last year, I kept track of most rounds I played and I had steady improvement all year...  It finally hit me this morning what one of the big reasons for that improvment - last year I was going to the driving range for lunch probably 2 - 3 times a week.  I wouldn't necessarily get to hit a ton of balls but it was a still a good way to get some practice in.  So far this year I haven't been to the range more than once or twice in total - the rain has returned with a vengence and when it has been nice enough outside, work has been too hectic to step out... 

I think I've been at Microsoft too long: I've started applying some of it's philosophies to my regular life...  This is the second year that I have set goals for my golf game.  Last year the goal was just to shoot under 100 - and I did achieve that mark a few times, with a low score of 93.  This year, my goal is to average in the mid-to-low 90s and to dip down into the 80s.  Hopefully I can correct the trend but putting in some more time practicing and getting back into the swing of things.

Working from home

Was on messenger with Aaron a few minutes ago and he said that if I was working from home today that I had to post to kinasewitz.net...  This got me thinking about 'working from home'.  At one point, 'working from home' meant checking email a few times to make sure that nothing was blowing up, and otherwise doing whatever I felt like at the time (laundry, clean the house, watch a movie, etc.).  For a lot of people, that's still what it means, near as I can tell.  Somehow, things have changed so that I'm actually a lot more productive at home and working from home means actually working.  But from home.  Ah, for the nostalgic days of slacking :)  The drawback is if you need to talk with someone, you're relying on email or instant messenger and that can be a bit frustrating when they don't respond as quickly as you'd like...

Anyway, why am I working from home today?  I had my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday and scheduled today as an online from home day because I anticipated a lot more pain and reduced ability to talk.  Things have gone swimmingly so far, and it's only if I talk for a prolonged period does my jaw start to get sore.  I did get to eat a TON of ice cream this weekend per the doctor's orders, which is never cause for complaint!