M.I.C. Canadian Eatery & Whisky Pub

Posted on Monday, December 12, 2011 by

This past weekend we went to M.I.C. Canadian Eatery & Whisky Pub located at 1200 Price of Whales Dr. Ottawa, Ontario.

The atmosphere is very much lodge like with several large rooms.  The serving staff are friendly, polite and efficient from what we experienced.  The food was plentiful and tasted very good.

I ordered the THE DRUNKEN COWBOY -An 8 ounce marbled top sirloin steak, seasoned with cowboy spices and topped with homemade whisky butter. $22.99  I ordered this steak medium rare and that’s what I got and tender too.

My wife ordered the HOUSE FISH STICKS -A generous portion of haddock fingers, lightly dusted with a seasoned flour, then fried to a golden brown. Served with fries, coleslaw, and tartar sauce. $11.99  These fish sticks are crisp and not at all greasy as you might think.  Real strips of haddock, not processed fish.

Both of us enjoyed the food and it was not overly noisy until someone turned the volume on the overhead telvisions.  This is a family place so don’t think it’s someplace nice for a romantic evening, it’s not.  But, if you want to go out for good food and bring the kids, this is a great spot.

M.I.C. (made in Canada eh?)

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Main Street Cellar – Manotick ON

Posted on Sunday, October 16, 2011 by

My wife and I went out to dinner at the Main Street Cellar Wine Bar last evening.  5561 Manotick Main St., Manotick, Ontario.

The Main Street Cellar is in an old building on the Manotick main drag.

It was a rather rainy evening and a little cool at 10 deg. C. so I was up for some comfort food.  I enjoyed the Grilled Pork Chop which came with apple, fig, & mint compote with rustic mashed potatoes and asparagus spears that were done perfectly. The compote was especially tasty with a hint of mint on the finish. My grilled pork chop was thick and well done and surprisingly moist and tender.
I pared this dish with a nice Pinot Grigio from Italy.

My wife had the Vegetarian Chickpea Pancake which she enjoyed thoroughly. A unique baked, seasoned chickpea cake with tomato bruschetta and mint couscous.

For desert we shared a generous slice of peanut butter pie – Peanut butter folded into whipped cream to create an airy mousse. Poured over an Oreo based black bottom crust and topped with melted chocolate and shattered peanuts. Delicious!

All in all we enjoyed the food, service and atmosphere very much. Bravo!

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Kobo in Review

Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 by

I like to read.  I don’t read a book a week, but maybe a book or two a month.

I recently purchased the Kobo Touch eReader at Indigo.  I bought the silver coloured one with a Kobo eReader leather sleeve made by Roots to protect it.  Unfortunately it seems to get just as dirty in the protective sleeve due to the leather colour transferring through the lining.  Now the textured back of my Kobo Touch is somewhat stained.

As far as functionality, I love the Kobo Touch.  My battery may not be lasting as long as advertised though.  My books are said to be about 400-500 pages and the Kobo needs charging at that time.  Overall I’m happy with my purchase.  One thing I like is you can borrow books from your library online and read them on Kobo Touch.

As for purchasing Kobo books online I find it okay and prices are competitive enough, but I do have one serious complaint.

Kobo refuses to budge on their “all sales are final” motto.  Okay I get it.  By law they don’t have to do anything for you if there is a dispute.  And you know what, they don’t.

My complaint is that Kobo changes the regular price of books on a whim and then won’t refund the difference to their valued customers.  For example:

I purchased, through Kobo,a novel by Richard Castle that has only just been released last month.  I bought it on September 22, 2011.  I paid $10.49 or there about (came to $11.85 with tax).  Just last week, on October 6, 2011 I found that the same novel has a new regular price of $9.29 plus tax.  This is not a “special” or a “sale”.  This is the new regular price on a book that was just released.  After contacting Kobo with my complaint they said:

We do apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately all sales are final on purchases, however when you log onto the web site, you can click on to My Account click” yes please” for special offers, discounts and promotions. In the future you will receive an email in advance informing you of our discounted prices. We do appreciate your loyalty and hope to continue having you as one of our valued customers.

Now I know they’re not obliged by law to provide a refund of the difference, but in all honesty any other company I deal with would have happily refunded the difference.  Again, this was a change in the regular price, not a sale that I would have been notified about.  I do subscribe to sales and promotions but I wasn’t told about this price change, nor would they ever tell me.  Shame on you Kobo.  You remind me of buying fuel for my car… never know when the price will change.

Update Nov. 14, 2011:  Kobo now is selling Heat Rises for $17.99!!!

 

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Hot Water Regulations in Ontario

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 by

As you may know we purchased a new build home in Barrhaven built by Mattamy Homes in Half Moon Bay.  We are happy with our home now that everything has been fixed properly.  Thanks Mattamy.

One thing I didn’t know at the time was the Government has a law that states:

…the maximum water temperature at a household faucet is 49 C.

How this regulating is done is the craziest thing I’ve seen in a while.  By Law you have to have a “anti-scald” mixing valve installed after your hot water tank before it gets to your kitchen or bathrooms.  What this does is inject cold water into your hot water line cooling it to 50 deg Celsius.  No matter how high you set your hot water tank, the water is cooled.  What does this mean?  It means you are heating your water higher than 50 deg Celsius and the government is cooling it for you.  This is a total waist of energy in my opinion.  I heat with gas so the gas I use to heat my water is wasted because the government is cooling my hot water with cold water before I can make use of this hot water.  The irony is I also have to pay for the added cold water to cool my hot water.

I didn’t understand why they do it this way.  Why not, if you must control our hot water, adjust the water tank so it can’t heat higher than 50 deg C?  Then we wouldn’t be wasting energy overheating our water.  The answer to that is that Water stored below 50 C increases the possibility that Legionella bacteria will thrive in the tank. In a study done for Hydro Quebec, an estimated 100 people annually were hospitalized for pneumonia-like symptoms caused by contaminated hot-water heaters.

I don’t like this idea of controlling my hot water needs in the first place.  I see too that I’m not alone.  See article here.  I then have to have my dishwasher heat the hot water more in order to clean my dishes.  I have to take showers with mostly hot water and we run out after three showers and there are four of us in the house.  Good thing we don’t have three children…

This is all about government controlling things they don’t need to control and it’s done way too much.  Next they’ll be telling Starbucks they can’t serve coffee hotter than 50 deg Celsius so people that are stupid won’t burn themselves.  (see McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit).

Okay, so the government will defend itself by saying they are doing this to protect the public from scalding themselves in hot water.  Personally, I think that’s my job as a parent to keep my children safe.  If need be, I can adjust the hot water tank so the water coming out is safe for children.  But when my children are grown up I can set it higher.  Now I don’t have this choice.  It’s been taken away from me by the city.

If the government is so concerned about our safety, then why are repeat offenders for Drunk Driving still driving?  Seriously folks, if the government is so damned concerned they should put these repeat offenders in jail and revoke their driving license permanently.  See article on 11th conviction for drunk driving here.

Frankly I feel that there are copious number of things that can be done in the name of public safety that are far more important than policing my hot water tank.  Taking bad drivers and dangerous drivers off the road will save lives and most likely reduce my car insurance premiums too.

Think about it Ontario, are there better ways of keeping your citizens safe?

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Al Gore’s Green Nazi Movement Have Lost The Global Warming War!

Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2011 by

Marc Morano, who runs the climate website ClimateDepot.com for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, talks with Alex about Al Gore losing it and cursing out skeptics of the climate scam at the globalist Aspen Institute in Colorado earlier this month.

Chief Gore’ is not a happy man. He lost Tipper…he spent $300 million to convince us of a global warming Armageddon…But all he got was falling support’

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