Discovering Little Rock One Meal at a Time

Carrie and me walking across the bridge

We took a vacation this past week while Carrie was on Spring Break at her work. I took a few days off so we could all go on a trip together. We traveled with Erin and Greg, and while we had originally planned to go to Florida, those plans did not work out. Instead, we threw a bunch of destinations into a virtual hat and voted.

From that list, we narrowed it down to Chicago, San Antonio, and Little Rock. We do plan to go to Chicago at some point, likely by train, but decided now was not the right time. While we had all passed through Little Rock on various trips, none of us had ever spent any real time there. With the voting finished, we started researching places to stay and, more importantly, places to eat.

We reviewed several Airbnb options and selected one. About two weeks before our trip, the owner reached out to let me know they needed to cancel. What? There was some mix up on their end, and they said they could no longer host us. The host asked us to cancel the reservation so they would not lose their preferred host status. Instead, I contacted Airbnb customer service and asked them to assist with the process. The host was not happy about it, but they ultimately had to cancel, which allowed us to receive a full refund. Airbnb's FAQ clearly states that if a host asks a renter to cancel, you should not do so and should contact customer service, which is exactly what we did.

Lunch at Torchy's Tacos on our Way

We scrambled to find another place since several of the spots we had originally saved were no longer available. We did find one that had been on our original list, but it was outside of Little Rock. The house was in Alexander, about twenty minutes from downtown. It turned out to be the perfect spot. The host was excellent, kept us updated on everything, and provided great recommendations on where to eat and drink.

We stayed in the Little Rock area for five nights, leaving on Saturday, March 14, and returning on March 19. We could not take Oliver with us, so Joan and Eddie watched him while we were gone. We figured he would have a better time with them than traveling with us, and the Airbnb we selected did not allow pets anyway.

Between friends, Reddit, vloggers, and our Airbnb host, we had no shortage of recommendations for places to eat, drink, and visit. We had a great time exploring the area and even managed to fit in some cultural stops along the way.

Some highlights from our trip included the following.

• George’s Little Rock is an upscale Italian restaurant in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock, located on Kavanaugh Boulevard. The menu focuses on classic Italian dishes, along with house made desserts and a thoughtfully curated wine list.
  
  

  

  Lasagna at George's

  
  
• Brave New Restaurant overlooks the river and is located in a business area. The food was delicious, with a menu that includes seafood, wild game, and locally sourced ingredients. It was a perfect spot for lunch or dinner. We went for lunch and sat outside.
  
  

  

  Shrimp for Lunch at Brave New Restaurant

  
  
• The Oyster Bar was a place we discovered while searching for local spots. It was a great find, offering oysters, Cajun options, and other seafood selections. It worked well for either lunch or dinner.
  
  

  

  Oysters and Lobster for Lunch

  
  
• Dust Bowl Lanes was another spot we found when we decided to go bowling on Sunday. It is a retro location where we bowled on old school lanes, drank local beers, and had a great time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Brood & Barley was recommended by vloggers Kelly and Cody, whom I follow. We stopped in for drinks. While we did not eat there, the food coming out of the kitchen looked amazing. We almost went back before we left town but decided to try something else. It is definitely a spot we will visit again on a future trip.
  
  
• Local Lime was another place we came across while researching. It offers Mexican inspired street food done very well. They also had some of the best margaritas I have had in quite a while. A great spot overall. No pictures from this visit.
  
  
• Scoops was one of the ice cream places we found that had not been on our original list. We each ordered two scoops, which turned out to be a lot of ice cream, but I finished all of mine. It was a great stop and one I would highly recommend if you are in Little Rock. We almost went back again before leaving the area. No pictures from this visit.
  
  
• Delicious Temptations was the one breakfast spot we visited. It is family owned and was very busy, with about a twenty five to thirty minute wait, but it was well worth it. This was a recommendation from our host, and I would absolutely suggest stopping in if you are nearby. No pictures from this visit.

Bill Clinton Presidential Library

Those are just a sampling of the highlights from the trip, covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and dessert. We all want to go back again, as there was so much more to do beyond eating and drinking. We also did some sightseeing to expand our cultural experience. We visited the Bill Clinton Presidential Library, which was interesting to see, and stopped by the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, a key moment tied to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling and one that connects directly back to Topeka, Kansas.

Sunset in Little Rock

It was a fun trip, and we all hated to leave and head back home. I cannot wait to visit again. Hopefully next time we will be camping, as we scoped out several locations for a future camping trip. After all these years of driving through Little Rock without stopping, I am glad we finally did. It was well worth the trip, and I look forward to going back.

Join Me for March Madness Fun in the Annual Bracket Regret Society

It is that time of year again. Brackets. Buzzer beaters. Questionable picks. And absolute chaos.

March Madness is back, and once again I am running my annual ESPN Tournament Challenge group. It is completely free to join, takes just a few minutes to set up your bracket, and makes every game way more fun to watch.

This is not about being an expert. It is about bragging rights, surprise upsets, yelling at the TV, and realizing by Saturday afternoon that your “perfect bracket” is already toast.

Whether you watch every college basketball game or only tune in during March, you are welcome. The more people who join, the better it gets. More brackets, more trash talk, more drama as the tournament unfolds.

Here is how it works:

• It is free
• You fill out one bracket
• You watch the madness unfold
• You spend the next few weeks checking scores way more than you planned

If you have joined in past years, you know the deal. If this is your first time, now is the perfect year to jump in.

Click the link below, join the group, and get your bracket in before the games tip off:

Join the ESPN Tournament Challenge Group

Feel free to share this with friends, family, coworkers, or anyone who enjoys a little March Madness chaos. Let’s make this year’s group the biggest one yet.

Good luck. You are going to need it.

Listening for Tappy Toes

Short post this week… I think. As I start writing this, I am struggling to think of something to write, so I will provide an update on Oliver.

As you may recall, he was struggling a few weeks ago with coughing. He is taking medication on a regular basis, and while he sometimes fights taking it by spitting it out, he is doing well. He coughs some during the day, but not nearly as bad as it was.

We take each day as a blessing when he is not coughing or appearing uncomfortable. He sleeps through the night and is in good spirits, especially with the nice weather, where he has been running and playing with the neighbor dogs. It is good to see.

Oliver will be 15 in June. I know the life expectancy for a Japanese Chin is 14 - 16 years, so I am hoping we can go the full 16 years, or more. He fights us when it comes to taking his medication, as he is on three different medications multiple times a day, but he is doing so well. I love hearing his tappy toes on the hardwood floors as he walks through the kitchen. I want that to continue, and I want him to be comfortable, which he appears to be at this point.

Thank you to those who have been asking how Oliver is doing. Until next time, have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week ahead.

Coming Back to Gaming After All These Years

I am going to write about something that is not necessarily new to me, but something I had not done in a long time. I grew up with the Atari game console when I was little. In 2002 or 2003, I got back into gaming after not having played for years and spent a few years playing games on the PlayStation. After that, I went through a long stretch where I did not play games much at all.

Well, this past week, for some reason, I felt the urge to play games again. We have been using an Apple TV as our primary device for entertainment, and I knew it could support a PlayStation game controller. Over the years of having the Apple TV, I have played a few games here and there, but it was never ideal using the Apple remote. Because of that, I decided to buy a game controller specifically for the Apple TV. It arrived this past week, and I have been playing games each day since.

It is amazing to see the graphics in the games I am playing now compared to what I experienced growing up with Atari and even later with the PlayStation. My favorite games to play are sports games, and the first one I tried with the controller was PGA Golf. I also enjoy action role‑playing games, so I downloaded a few of those and have been spending time playing them as well.

I had forgotten how quickly time can fly when playing games. Granted, I am still learning the controller and how it works with the Apple TV, but there have already been a few times when I completely lost track of time. Before I knew it, it was past my bedtime and I was still playing. It has been a lot of fun, but I realize I will need to set a timer to make sure I do not play too late.

Through this process, I also realized that I can use the Steam app on my computer and play games from my Mac on the Apple TV using the controller. I am still working through this setup and have downloaded a few free games, but nothing too exciting yet. My home Mac does not have a lot of storage space, so I need to try out each game to decide whether to keep it or remove it to make room for something else.

For now, I am enjoying a renewed appreciation for gaming consoles and the ability to use a game controller with the Apple TV. I am sure there will be more games for me to download, learn, and test as I continue this process. I look forward to improving my skills and continuing to learn along the way.

Until next time, I hope you have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week ahead. This was a slightly different post for me, but I wanted to share my refreshed enjoyment of gaming and learning something new.

Washburn Basketball Clinches the Regular Season Title

Team Celebrates MIAA Title

Another successful season for the Washburn basketball team this year. We clinched the regular season title with only one loss on the season, finishing with a 28-1 record. Wednesday night, the team cut down the nets and celebrated another win. It has been a fun journey, with still some work to do ahead. The MIAA Tournament starts this week, and Washburn plays on Thursday.

I made it to the majority of the games this season, though I did have to miss a few. With the newly renovated Lee Arena, it is a great place to be to watch Ichabod action. I considered making the trip to Kansas City for the MIAA Tournament, but with other events happening those days, I decided to watch from home instead. A friend of mine attends the tournament every year and makes a fun weekend out of staying in the area. It sounds like a great time, and I hope to do that one year.

Below are a few pictures I captured Wednesday night of the team celebrating the conference title and cutting down the nets.

I look forward to following the tournament starting this week and continuing to cheer on the Ichabods as they begin their postseason.

Go Bods!

Our YouTube TV Bill Keeps Climbing. Here’s Why We’re Still Subscribed

As many of you know, we have been a YouTube TV household for a few years now. I was trying to remember exactly when we signed up, and I think it was four or five years ago, though I do not recall for sure. We moved to YouTube TV after trying out other streaming options and have not paused or canceled our subscription since we first signed up. Overall, we enjoy the benefits YouTube TV provides, especially its viewing experience and DVR capabilities.

We have certainly seen price fluctuations since we first started using YouTube TV. I believe our bill when we first joined was around $50. We are now at $82.99 per month, and we also have HBO Max and NFL Sunday Ticket, so my monthly bill is around $145. I have NFL Sunday Ticket broken out to charge throughout the year so it does not hit all at once, which was a nice change made last season. Still, that is a lot to pay for watching TV. Plus, like many others, we have subscriptions to Netflix, Apple TV, Disney/ESPN, and more. We spend a significant amount of money each month on streaming entertainment.

Recently, with the MLB season starting and YouTube TV not carrying MLB games, I subscribed to Royals.TV. This also gives me access to watch games from around the league, or I can listen to games through their radio broadcasts. That added another lump sum of money just to watch MLB.

YouTube TV announced different tiers, although we have not seen them show up on our membership yet. They shared that they are gradually rolling them out to their user base, and I believe the full rollout is scheduled by the end of March.

• Sports Plan: $64.99 per month
• Sports and News Plan: $71.99 per month
• Entertainment Plan: $54.99 per month
• News, Entertainment, and Family Plan: $69.99 per month
• Base Plan with all options: $84.99 per month

Customers have been asking for different tiers for a few years. I do not think I will be changing plans, as I use many of the channels. I was hoping for more of a price break with the different packages. It will be interesting to see if they offer future options that allow customers to select individual channels for their package. I know some other streaming services offer this. YouTube TV has been resistant to providing options until recently.

The future looks promising as YouTube TV plans to include ESPN content that is currently streaming only. This will be really nice, as I currently pay separately for ESPN to watch games that are only available on ESPN Plus. From what I understand, once this is integrated into YouTube TV, it will be possible to watch directly within YouTube TV without having to switch to the ESPN app. It will also be possible to record games that previously aired only on ESPN Plus to the YouTube TV DVR. My hope is that once this is introduced, it will allow me to cancel a subscription that is currently billed through Disney and ESPN.

Happy streaming, and enjoy your weekend.

Seeing Our Community From a New Perspective

Ride Along with Officer Hoffman

The Leadership Greater Topeka (LGT) experience is going well. We are a number of classes along and not yet halfway through all of the meeting times. I am learning so much about my community. As part of LGT, Saturday I went on my first ever ride along with the Topeka Police Department. I was a bit nervous about going, but Officer Hoffman was great answering all of my questions. We did not have any crazy calls while I was on the ride along. Well, at least not crazy calls as compared to some of the other stories he shared with me.

I have wanted to do a ride along for a few years, but never had the energy to start the process. Thanks to the LGT, I was able to accomplish this goal. Officer Hoffman asked me about the LGT and what I get out of the process. I shared with him it is learning about our community, having us involved, and helping to lead in our community is the goal that I see from being involved in LGT. I further shared that doing the ride along is providing a better understanding of what our fellow citizens are doing to protect are city.

A few weeks ago at LGT, we did a tour of the Topeka Public Library where they shared the process of a book return to the library. Something most people do not see. What happens when a book is returned that does not belong to the library? Well, they have a process for that and it automatically drops into a bin to transport to the correct library. I also did not realize that they have years books for most schools in Topeka.

Returning to the day I just had and the ride along, I found it interesting learning the process of the officer for which I was riding with today. The view of traffic stops and how to deescalate an issue was interesting to hear how he goes through the process. How he enters a situation can directly impact the outcome. I often times think of this as I go into different situations whether those be personal or work. Sometimes I do not go in with the right attitude and the issue escalates needlessly. 

Thank you for the ride along Saturday, Office Hoffman, and the Topeka Police Department. It was shared with me that ride alongs happen throughout the week and they are booked out weeks in advance.