Imablog

In the middle of the Radcliffeborough neighbourhood is a tiny little unassuming corner store called Charlie's Grocery. It doesn't look like much on the outside and it's the kind of place you probably wouldn't notice driving by.

I walked over there for lunch to meet fellow blogger Andra Watkins, who told me there were really good falafels to be found here.

Walking inside brought back childhood memories of being in the corner store dad used to run. Charlie's is a lot smaller than that store, but has almost the same kind of feel (I don't remember Dad selling wine or beer though). In the back of the store is a little lunch counter where you can place an order for a variety of subs or sandwiches, including the sought after falafels.

We placed our order, and about 15 minutes later walked out with falafel in hand. Along with a Diet Mt Dew, lunch was just over $5.

The falafel was pretty good. Warm balls of mashed chickpea, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and sauce stuffed into a half pita.

Yes, oh so tasty. It's only a short walk from work, so it's definitely going on the list of nearby lunch spots.

Aside from the area code, still don't remember the phone number.

Recently got a firmware update pushed down for the phone. Battery life is much, much improved. Now I can let it sit all day and it's only down to 90-95% battery from a full charge.

Word is the Cliq will be getting Android 2.1 sometime after April, which should bring some cool new features and capabilities.

The vibrating alarm thingy isn't very strong. Clipped to my pants, it's faintly noticeable and easily ignored when I'm distracted by something. Clipped to a belt I can barely feel the Cliq when it starts buzzing.

Would still like a decent calendar app. I've been spoiled by using Datebk for the past 5 years or so. Doing everything with Google Calendar is ok, but is lacking in a few areas.

Started using it as an e-book reader with Aldiko. Lots of free e-books available to download, and plenty of O'Reilly titles to drain my bank account. Uses the ePub format, which is pretty standard.

For now, still a high end PDA. I may even put some effort into remembering what the phone number is sometime soon.

With Nala turning 5 and Simba turning 4, I figured an update to my previous Dog TCO post was in order. Here's the breakdown from 1-Jan-2005 through today.

In case you haven't bothered to click on the graph for the large version, some of the bigger chunks are food in blue (22%), vet in light green (17%), pet supplies in burgundy (20%), meds in green (10%), kennel expenses in yellow (13%) and other (11%).

There hasn't really been too much change from the last analysis in the way expenses are distributed. Food, supplies and vet expenses continue to be the biggest chunks of the pie at 22%, 20% and 17% respectively. The total for the past 5 years (2005-2009) is just over $22 300, or about $4 460/year.

I typically don't skimp too much when it comes to the dogs, so I probably spend a little more than most people do. They're worth it though.

Seafood Pho from Quyen.

Note to self: have them make it without the cilantro and onion next time.

Fish has been around for a few years now, but tonight was my first visit there. Forgot to bring my camera with me, so I had to settle for the camera phone.

We started off with some of the steamed clams and the butternut squash soup

Mmmm, clams.

Triggerfish was the special for tonight, served with something resembling fried rice. My first time having triggerfish. A firm fish with a hearty mouth feel to it, but still mild tasting. The fried rice was good, although a little heavy on the soy sauce.

There was also vermilion snapper filet, served with coconut rice and a coconut based sauce. Very Caribbean island-y flavours.

Finally we finished off the evening with dessert: the chocolate malt souffle and the banana cake. The souffle was flambéd, but by the time the camera app started, the flames had disappeared.

Fish can be a little on the spendy side, but the food was excellently prepared and all of it was delicious. Definitely a place worth checking out.

Yesterday I managed to catch the MSC Rita, the largest container ship to visit Charleston so far, as it was heading back out to sea.

It was definitely a large ship. Here it is passing under the bridge, looking through the salt marsh exhibit at the SC Aquarium and two layers of mesh screen.

Passing by the aquarium.

Not sure why the tug was spraying water, but it was doing it pretty much the entire way down the channel.