Tonight we tried a new place to eat. Melt Bar and Grilled. I’ve been hearing (and reading) about the new place in Lakewood that makes grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches and does lots of other amazing things with dozens of kinds of cheese.

As you can see, Ashley enjoyed her grilled cheese made with sharp cheddar and bacon. Carrie brought home half of a HUGE grilled chicken salad with pepper jack cheese and I could barely finish an 8-oz burger with monterrey jack. The sandwiches were served with really tasty seasoned fries and what the menu termed: sweet slaw. It was all very good.

Everything I’d heard about Melt had me prepared for a huge wait to be seated, but it wasn’t to be. We walked in the front door and sat right down. By the time we got our check, it was starting to get busy but I’m sure they were willing to wait if they knew what they were in for.

Since Bloodview was sort of a disappointment this year, we were hoping that our planned trip to the 7 Floors of Hell would turn out a little better.

It did.

Before resigning to paying $22 a person (we knew about the price in advance) we were surprised to find that this year they were charging $2 to park! (Last year it was free). While we thought the price of admission was steep but not prohibitive, the new charge to park in the back lot (where it’s convenient) seemed like just plain greed.

Seven differently themed haunted houses dot the back field of the Berea Fairgrounds. With plenty of creepy looking actors running around with props like swords and chainsaws (sans chains, of course) the wait to get in the each house (15-20 mins each) just flew by.

The advertisements say that they have spent over a million dollars to put this show together and I’ll admit that the special effects, lights and mechanized props in each house were pretty effective. Lots of loud noises, music, shrieks, strobe lights and decorations made it easier on the relatively few actors that kept the crowd entertained.

One particular house was nothing more than really thick, thick fog, strobe lights and loud music and sound effects. The maze was just chain link fence that allowed the lights and sound to diffuse through the entire house and made sure we were almost constantly disoriented. In that house, I think we saw two actors, but didn’t really require a lot more because trying to find our way out was nerve-wracking enough.

We left the fairgrounds about two and a half hours later and spent the trip home comparing the relative merits of each house with Bloodview and decided that if we had only gone through one house at the 7 Floors, it still would have been better than Bloodview.

It’s been more than ten years since we’ve been to Bloodview and boy has it changed.

PROS:

• As long as the weather is (relatively) dry, the line to get in leads you through the ‘cemetery’ and ‘haunted woods’ where you get besieged by an assortment of ghouls and goblins. Good fun.
• A Bloodview staple for years: Monsters and freaks wander up behind you in line once you arrive at the covered waiting area making waiting 30 – 45 minutes to get in much more tolerable
• The makeup and atmosphere in the house is still top-notch. Everything looked good and creepy.

CONS:

• The price. $12.00 to get in might be the product of not patronizing haunted houses for the last ten years or it might be because with Bloodview’s reputation, they know you’ll pay it.
• The length. After spending the entire day building Ashley up for her first trip ever to Bloodview, she stepped out of the exit, blinking in the light from the ‘souvenir booth’ and said “that’s it?” Yeah, that was it. Only about 15 minutes of fun for $12. Maybe it’s nostalgia that makes me think it used to be a bit bigger.

So after what seemed like a 3 hour discussion, we wind up at Lonestar Steakhouse tonight. We’d been out grocery shopping A L L D A Y L O N G and were all ready to eat something.

We get there and while outside waiting for one member of our party (Joe) to show up, Carrie comes out and says “I need the keys to get our jackets out of the car – it’s freezing in there!” Great.

Joe shows up and we go in and find our table. They gave us a booth and the first thing I notice is that our side of the booth was apparently designed for children. I squeeze my ass into the seat and the table is pressing up against my stomach. Not hard, but just enough to be really annoying. I unroll my silverware and realize that there’s no point in putting my napkin on my lap because I can’t see my lap.

Our waitress shows up and welcomes us to Longhorn. Wha!? She catches herself immediately and blurts out “No, no… Welcome to Lonestar…Lonestar. I can’t believe I just said that!” We all laugh and make her feel a little better. After a bit she takes our orders and after a vote Ashley decided she’d like a “Texas Rose” (which is what that other steakhouse calls a “Bloomin ‘Onion”. No not THAT steakhouse… the other one) We also complain that we’re freezing our asses off and ask if something can be done about that. As it turns out, there could. She had somebody turn off the ventilation duct right over our heads and we began to thaw out.

A bit later we’re sitting there watching the tables around us get served and still waiting for appetizers when the waitress shows up with our dinner salads! Where’s the onion-thing? Ah, here it comes. We all look at the appetizer in the middle of our table and then at our salads. Then back to the appetizer. Hmmm. Joe reaches out and touches it. “It’s not even hot!” he says. So we all take turns touching it and agreeing that it’s not hot. Just then the waitress rolls up and asks if we need more drinks. “Uh…yeah. And while we’re at it we’re gonna go ahead and send this appetizer back, OK? It showed up too late, we’re all eating salads and it’s not even really hot anymore. So if you could take this away, that’d be great.” She complies and sends a manager over. We repeat the story. Do we want another one? No, we do not. Are we sure? Yes, we are sure. OK then, it will be taken off the bill. Thank you.

Long dinner story short: good salads, great steaks. The entrees were all hot and done correctly. Everybody enjoyed everything. What started out a bit wobbly, stabilized and turned out to be a very nice evening.

Except for the booth. I have a red mark on my stomach from where the table pressed up against me. But then, I probably ate less than I would have normally because when I stood up, only then could I feel my dinner enter my stomach and begin to digest.

Wow…busy week.

Last Saturday – the accident thing with Joe (see post below). I wound up putting over 100 miles on the car last weekend. Cool. Maybe I just need to drive it more often, huh? Oh, and Kiki’s in sushi heaven. Yeah, Nemo the fish that plays dead is still floating, but Kiki, his tank-mate finally gave up. Funeral services were held on Saturday afternoon. It was beautiful.

Sunday – GPa’s graduation party. If you were there you know how much fun it was. If
not… well – it was fun. Once again we were lobbied to go camping on Labor Day weekend – yeah, at the end of summer. There’s snow on the ground and were being invited to camp at the end of summer. It’s supposedly pretty fun. We’ll have to see how things go this year. Our defenses are weakening.

Monday – Friday. Average work week. I started a new project revamping an internal web site, so that’s been pretty fun. It started me thinking about my web sites again and once again I’m looking into seriously getting a paid web host and putting all my web pages up all at once. For those who don’t know – my big page – Creepy Cleveland – is gone. The free host I was using went down. I can’t complain, it was free. Unfortunately, the cruise review web site was on that same server so it’s gone too.

I’ve got like 10 web pages I’ve put together at one point or another. Plus I’ve got ideas for more. I need $75 a year to do this. Anbody care to donate? (HAHA, only serious.) Damn it, I could also use the site to host in-progress pages for web page design jobs I take in the future. Maybe I could make enough money to pay for the hosting! Now that would be cool.

Anyway – back to the week in review…

Thursday – went to the library. I got a couple math books. Ashley’s having a problem with her ‘math facts’ She says her teacher is picking on her at school about it. I know it’s because she does so well at everything else, she just can’t get the multiplication tables down. We’ll work on it.

Today – went everywhere. Joe’s birthday is tomorrow, so we had to pick up last minute cards and party supplies. Stopped at Walmart, the bank, returned movies to Hollywood Video, Tops, went to lunch (on Joe and Rita)and wound up at Kohls. We got some luggage for the Disney trip (BIG SALE – we got a great deal.)

Since they took us to lunch we took them to dinner at Wah Fu’s. It was cool – Carrie said it was ‘Dinner and a Show’. We’re getting to be regulars there and all the waitresses know us. We kidded with them and they kidded back. We made left-over jokes and they made fat jokes. (Joe said he never eats left-overs, our waitress said he looks like he does!)

That’s it.

Next Thursday is St. Patty’s Day. We’re helping at the legion. I’ll be taking the camera. We’ll be drinking. Need I say more? This promises to be good.