Lincolnite

Blue Orchid's owners have responded (second comment) to my previous post about the restaurant's less-than-stellar service. It is, in my opinion, an excellent response, and I am more than happy to highlight it. For those of you who find yourself in a similar position some day, please note that they:

• ...responded quickly to their clientele's unease;
• ...did not insult me, belittle me, or even express disagreement with me. They acknowledged the problem openly and honestly;
• ...offered explanations, but no excuses;
• ...identified good solutions to several of the problems, with timelines for some of them;
• ...wrote clearly, concisely, and correctly.

I'm the head honcho here at Lincolnite. I could change history if I wanted to. I could go back and edit my review of Blue Orchid to try to erase my mistake. But I'm not going to. Doing so would be dishonest. What am I talking about? The Missus and I went to Blue Orchid last night for our weekly Date Night. For me it was my third trip in as many weeks, inspired mainly by the excellent food, nice atmosphere, and very reasonable prices. And the service? Well, it was passable on my first two trips. I had heard it could be poor to awful, but that wasn't my experience. Until last night. If I could amend my review I would rate Blue Orchid's service at 1.5 or 2 (out of 5). (I gave it 3.5 in my review.) Where should I begin?

• There is no greeter or clear waiting area. Upon arriving customers have to just mill around until an over-worked server takes notice. If there's a wait, customers stand in a mob, and the servers attempt to keep track of who is next by using make-shift lists rather than an organized system.
• The Missus and I were seated at a table that was way too close to an adjoining table. I couldn't squeeze into the seat with my place setting, so I had to move to sit next to The Missus. I like The Missus and all, but I hate having to look to the side through the entire meal to try to have a conversation.
• Our waiter was too distracted to listen. She thought The Missus ordered a Pepsi (rather than the correct Diet Pepsi), and it took me three tries to get across that I wanted a Mountain Dew. (Yeah yeah, I'm not a liquid gourmand.)
• We waited 20 minutes (well, 21, but who's counting?) before our waiter returned to take our order. Again she didn't listen. "Yellow curry" became "lemon curry", for example, which isn't even on the menu!
• Eventually our waiter told us why she was acting like it was her first day -- it was her first day! The poor woman obviously had not been sufficiently trained, and she was responsible for way too many tables.
• Our appetizer never arrived.
• Our food arrived 35 minutes after we ordered. Fortunately, the order was correct. That was about the only thing to go right all night. They only gave us one small bowl of rice for two people, though, so we had to send for another.
• Our waiter did a decent job learning on the fly. She eventually figured out, for example, that empty drink glasses are a bad thing.
• When our bill arrived, our absent appetizer was on it. I crossed it out and wrote "DID NOT RECEIVE" underneath. Our waiter apologized, but she did nothing to try to "make it better", as any good restaurant would do. I wasn't looking for freebies, but for a nice joint like Blue Orchid to not offer any sort of tangible apology is shameful.

Believe it or not, those are just the highlights. It wasn't just a matter of our first-day waiter having a rough time. The service throughout the restaurant appeared to be poor. Watching one server attempt to deliver food to a neighboring table actually made me so embarrassed on her behalf that I had to look away. I looked around the restaurant and observed many knowing, uncomfortable glances from patron to patron. Everybody seemed to know that the service was awful. When The Missus came back from a quick visit to the ladies' room -- "It's like a football stadium restroom", she said -- she noted "it's not a good sign when the restaurant is full and yet nobody has any food on their plates". Indeed. I stand by my assertion that Blue Orchid could easily become Lincoln's best restaurant. It could. But Lincolnites -- yes, the very folks who voted Applebee's as "Best of Lincoln" -- will only tolerate institutionalized service incompetence for so long before they rebel. I won't be going back to Blue Orchid for a good long while. In part that's because I've had my fill for a while. Three trips in three weeks is plenty. But more importantly, I need to stay away until I can look at Blue Orchid's service with a fresh eye. In the mean time, I hope those of you who do go let me know about your experiences.

Republican Dave Nabity, "running for Republican Governor of Nebraska", spams. (I like how he's not just running for governor, he's running for Republican governor.) The Nabity for Governor campaign sent me -- and likely thousands of others -- an unsolicited e-mail today. The poorly edited e-mail -- it includes the word "Nebraskan's" in place of "Nebraskans", for example -- was ostensibly written by Dave Nabity's son, Justin. Justin apparently has a very friendly relationship with his dad because he likes to call his dad by his first name. The message includes some fun phrases:

• "As Nebraska taxpayers, we pay 2-3 times more than other states to live." Not only is that deceptive, it's just plain not true. For one thing, there is no "life" tax in Nebraska, so we don't pay anything "to live". For another, Nebraskans do not pay 2-3 times more than every other states' citizens in taxes.
• "Now that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is confirmed we as a state are one step closer to the unique opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade." I had no idea the state of Nebraska had the power to overturn Roe v. Wade. I can't believe the other 49 states would trust us with that responsibility.
• "Never before, nor during this current primary race, has any candidate for Governor addressed so many issues and offered so many solutions!" Now that's just hokey marketing.
• "Thank you for taking the time to read this message and for your contined support..." I'm not sure what "contined" support is, but I'm happy to have offered it.

I unsubscribed from Dave Nabity's spam list, but I'm really curious how his campaign got my address in the first place. Strike that. I just resubscribed. Granted, the campaign's tactics are tacky, but I want to keep tabs on Nebraska's candidates. I already know I'm not voting for Dave Nabity so at least I know that his campaign's dirty marketing won't gain him my vote.

I don't think this story needs any commentary from me.

TGI Fridays is leaving Lincoln. The chain cited the (not yet begun) O Street widening project as the reason for their closure.

Nebraska's gas station owners did not gouge their customers, just as I said back in September. Not that this one little report matters. If you're a gas station owner, you just can't win.

Two very unusual tax-related events happened at the Wilson household this weekend. First, I actually looked at our taxes before April. That in itself is unbelievable. Second, it looks like we might actually get a refund this year, if only a small one. Not unlike most Americans, I'm usually a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to preparing and filing my taxes. I don't want to do that this year, though, because there's a small, but non-zero, chance that our new little pooper could decide to show up around tax season. The last thing I'll want to do is taxes if that happens. So a February filing it is. It was great to see that The Missus and I might receive a refund this year rather than having to pay extra, like usual. Our problem in the past was that we were not withholding enough, mainly because I made too much untaxed money umping and reffing (and, unlike many sports officials, I actually report that income). This year we adjusted our withholdings, and things look much better now. How many of you folks out there have already taken a look at your taxes? Any tax filing tips you'd like to share?

After a couple months of sloth, I finally engaged in a little exercise yesterday. Normally I exercise all year round because of my soccer reffing and baseball umping, but I decided to take this winter off. Indoor soccer just didn't sound all that fun to me this year, and I have plenty of stuff to do around the house. The down side is that my metabolism isn't what it used to be, and I haven't really cut back on my food consumption. I don't think I have to spell out for you the inevitable result. So yesterday afternoon I went for a jog. I ran about 1.5 miles without stopping, and then I took a quick rest to fix my bunched-up sock. I turned around and did some light fartlek work on the way home. The whole run felt reasonably good, despite the fact my body hasn't been asked to work very hard since October. And I really don't feel too bad today. My legs are tired, but not sore, and there's a small irritated spot on one of my feet where my stupid sock rubbed (I knew I shouldn't have worn those socks). It's pretty sad to see how far I've slid, though. Ten years ago I could run two 800m races in under two minutes and two 400's in 50-52 seconds, all within the span of a couple hours. Today? I'd be pleased as punch if I could hit 2:20 and :60 in the 800 and 400, respectively, even just once. Now that I think about it, that sounds like a fun goal. I may have just found something to work toward...

Can we all agree that this morning's front page fluff piece on Rev. Tom Swartley was further evidence of the Lincoln Journal Star's descent beyond mediocrity? The headline alone is beyond pardy, if only for the "No duh!" quotient:

Minister driven by God's will

(The headline is different in the online version of the story.) I especially loved this part of the story:

[T]he controversy Swartley kicked up had mostly settled by Sunday, when he took the pulpit at First Christian Church. His words had spiced dinner conversations, filled a news cycle or two and then disappeared into the ether.

...but we're so desperate for filler, we're going to milk this story for yet another news cycle! ::sigh:: If it weren't for the comics there'd hardly be any reason to get home delivery of the LJS.

A friend and I recently tried out Lincoln's newest Thai restaurant twice over the course of two weeks. Based on those experiences, I've written up a Blue Orchid review.

This morning during my weekly walk near Beal Slough I noticed that a few trees were already starting to bud out, and that a few plants and grasses were already trying to green up. And then, not five minutes ago, it hailed. What month is it again?

Daisy watches the hail fall.

Our patio, all covered in hail.

I suppose if we don't get any snow, we'll have to resort to throwing this stuff around.

This headline is running all over the wires right now: 7 adopted children killed in fiery Florida school bus crash Perhaps I'm missing something, but what is the relevance of the fact these children were adopted? It strikes me as an unnecessary adjective in this context. Interestingly, there seems to be a Lincoln link to the crash, through Crete Carrier:

Statement from Crete Carrier Corporation regarding Florida accident January 25, 2006 Our thoughts and prayers are with those involved in this accident and their families. We are in the process of gathering information, and at this point we are unable to accurately discuss the incident. We are very sorry and deeply saddened that this tragedy has happened. We will work diligently with the appropriate authorities on the investigation. --Jack Peetz, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Crete Carrier Corporation

Update: CNN is doing it too, with a caption to a photo:

Barbara Mann, the adoptive mother of the Mann children, is consoled at the crash scene. (emphasis added)

Apparently CNN thinks that adoptive parents grieve differently than birth parents. I don't dare make the accusation that I want to make...

It's not a theater boondoggle. It doesn’t require the use of eminent domain. It won't cost the public tens of millions of dollars. It doesn't include a Wal-Mart. And it doesn't require the sale of a public building that would be extremely costly to replace. Is there any down side to the new parking garage and commercial/residential project proposed for the parking lot south of the Gold's building? As it is being presented right now, I'm all in favor of the project. There's still plenty of time for deal-breakers to pop up, of course. But the project's early goals match many of my long-held opinions about the best use for that block. (Hint: the current use is not the best use.) Sure, it could use more retail space (only 19,000 square feet planned), but they've included residential space in the plan, which is nice to see. And let’s be honest: downtown Lincoln doesn't have enough draw right now to fill too much more retail space than that, especially when you consider some of the new projects in the Haymarket coming online in the next couple years. The current plan does fall short on one of my hopes for the block. I would like to see the primary bus stop moved from in front of the Gold's building to the project block. There is not enough space in front of the Gold's building to effectively house the bus stop, and the current shelters are very insufficient. I would love to see StarTran work with the folks leading this project to see if a new bus stop could be integrated into the plan. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. The Powers That Be™ at StarTran rarely admit that Lincoln’s mass transit system—or any part thereof—is anything short of perfect. And the vast majority of Lincolnites don’t care enough about StarTran to demand excellence.

Nebraska men's basketball head coach Barry Collier should be fired. Or at least that's what a bunch of recent visitors to Lincolnite seem to believe. Those of you who've read my blogs here on Lincolnite for a while probably know what I'm up to. Back when Husker fans were calling for Steve Pederson's head I noted it, and subsequently angry Husker fans came calling via Google, et al. Well, the furious hordes are back, but this time they want Barry Collier's head. The phrase "fire barry collier" has drawn a lot of visitors to Lincolnite lately. Probably a half dozen each day, I'd guesstimate. So all you Barry haters, this is your chance. Tell the world why you hate Barry Collier and why he should be fired in the comments. And when you're done, browse around the site a while. Lincolnite is (still!) a work in progress, but we're happy to have you here.