Jeff, Meg and I hit the Hops on Equinox Spring Beer Festival today at Seattle Center — I was looking forward to it, and it definitely measured up. For our entry fee, we got 6 beer coupons (they give you a mini-mug for your samples), and then each of us bought another 5 coupons for the tidy $5 sum. All in all, it was a yummy day.

Some of our favorites:
* Boundary Bay Brewery – India Pale Ale
* Georgetown Brewing Co. – Manny’s Pale Ale (got served by one of the co-owners, Roger)
* Iron Horse Brewery – Locomotive Red Ale (located in Ellensburg, WA)
* Stone Brewing Company – Arrogant Bastard Ale
* Young’s Brewery – Special London Ale

Denali Fitness (located on Madison, between Capitol Hill and Madison Park, near the Arboretum) had their Open House today, so I stopped over to put them through a workout 🙂

Quick review here, but really the equipment is the nicest I’ve ever used, by a long shot. Each of the aerobic machines (I used the treadmill) is made by Technogym, and not only are incredibly solid, but come with their own individual, in-dash, touchscreen television screen! All you need to do is plug in your headphones, and then tune into whatever you’re interested in. Really an excellent draw — especially since it seems like every club I’ve ever belonged to either has no entertainment, or has a single TV that always seems to be (a) tuned to terrible stations or (b) have no sound.

The gym was comfortably full, which gave the feeling of community that is nice in a neighborhood gym, and I think all of the employees were there, taking people on tours, etc.

All in all, a definite two thumbs up!

After trying both Delicious Planet and Organic To Go, we’ve settled on Organic To Go as clearly the better of the two, for a few reasons:

1) More frequent delivery options — you can have delivery on any day… in fact, I logged on Sunday and was able to have delivery on Monday at 7:30am (Delicious Planet restricts you to two delivery days & ordering deadlines each week)

2) Larger portions – in fact, with the full dinners and lunches, I’m finding myself leaving items out to eat later (and that isn’t an easy accomplishment for a food provider attending to my diet…)

3) Better website – it does a good job of allowing you to select quantities for each and add to cart — then, you move to the next tab (to ‘Dinner’, from ‘Lunch’, say) and add a few more items. (Delicious Planet’s website is just not very good — makes you ‘backpage’ to go order more items… very clugey… and also very easy to fix)

4) Organic Beer and Wine! In fact, I just got the Fish Tale Ales Organic India Pale Ale, and honestly, it is delicious — it may become my standard in-home beer!

5) Excellent delivery personnel – they come in a ‘Home Grocer Like’ truck, and the driver is decked out in uniform. (Delicious Planet seemed to favor ‘leaving it outside in a styrofoam cooler’ over ringing the bell and handing it to you…)

Some things Organic To Go can still do better on?

a) on checkout page, allow existing user log-in — is weird, but my first inclination is to fill up my cart, then to go and checkout. But, they don’t allow that. Instead, as an existing user I need to go and click a button to ‘log in’. They should have that option below your cart, so that you can either ‘log in’ right from that page, or enter in new customer information.

b) cut down on the amount of raw materials in packaging — this is a nitpick, but each meal comes in a handy little bag, complete with plastic utensils, napkins, etc. That is great, for lunch bags, but for dinners at home, it is really unnecessary — would be nice if there were an option to not include that, so as to save on the materials/recycling

c) more variety — again, a bit of a nit — the vegetables are great, but it seems like we’re getting similar stuff with each dinner. some of the onus is probably on me in ordering, but it would be nice to get more variety.

All in all, though, kudos to Organic To Go — you all are doing a great job, and helping make the world a better place!

p.s. Can I come join you and help you grow even faster? 🙂

I’ve been spending more and more time listening to podcasts the last few weeks — however, I still prefer listening to them in the car the most (since I’m not doing other things like reading, writing, etc. while I’m driving). I’ve tried all the quick&easy adapters:
– Monster Cable iCarPlay iPod Wireless FM Transmitter
– Griffin iTrip MiniFM transmitter

THEY ARE TERRIBLE! Sound quality terrible, even when clear reception, and 90%+ of the time, you can’t get and keep clear channels. I couldn’t more strongly steer you clear of them.

Then, I considered ‘iPodding my BMW’… however, when I read the fine print, I found that you don’t get to see what songs & artists are playing on your radio display. Thus, with the iPod in your glove box, and with lots of random podcasts, you’re pretty much driving blind (pardon the hideous pun).

I eventually went to the local Magnolia Hi-Fi, and they’ve hooked me up (pun #2… I should be punched… hard). Basically, they’re hardwiring my iPod into my stereo using the CD changer input — then, I’ll mount the iPod using a ProClip mount and control my iPod using the actual iPod — when not in use, I’ll just stash it in the compartment above my ash tray. (If you’re interested in learning more about this, let me know, and I’ll post some photos.) Oh yeah, all-in cost was ~$350.