Monthly Archives: April 2010

Abo’s Pizza, Colorado, is it worth the extra price?

consumer, dining, food, ,

So we ate at Abo’s Pizza this weekend- it had been awhile. I remember when i lived in Boulder County, I was completely enthralled with Abo’s. After trying other places in the metro area, I am not sure why I Was.

The pizza is your typical NEW YORK STYLE SLICE but comes at approx. $2.90 a slice (cheese only) with 0.60 per extra topping. A lunch special is approx. $7.30 for 2 1-topping slices and a soda. The better deal is the pizza slice, salad, and soda for the same price. In any case, compared to places in Lakewood, Broomfield, and Wheat Ridge that I have tried slices at, I have to say, Abo’s seems a bit pricey. It is good pizza but I do not think worth the premium. Sorry, Abo’s…. I am moving on 🙁

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A review of Hyatt Regency – Downtown Albuquerque

consumer, travel,

During my first trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, I stayed in the Hyatt Regency in downtown ABQ. I gotta say, what a nice hotel but without the frills – meaning, there is no mini bar in the rooms, or coffee maker (you gotta ask for it), and there are no robes or fun things but the hotel was just nice. From the lobby to the noise levels in the room, it is a well designed hotel. I had a decent room but no view which was fine- I was only there 2 nights. In any case, the meeting spaces are nice, and the temperature is great. The hotel catered our food and I have to say, it was a great taste of New Mexico. I think I was not used to eating so much and got sick from eating way too much good spicy food.

All in all, it was a good trip and I would recommend the Hyatt in Albuquerque. Some warnings though: Everything in downtown including the Starbucks in the hotel itself shuts down by 430-5pm so be prepared for that and to get anywhere you definitely need a car. I was lucky that my colleagues had a rental car. Otherwise, I would have been stuck at the hotel – there are worst things than being stuck in a hotel though.

Happy Trails!

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Review of Sears Carpet and Air Duct Cleaning

consumer, home,

After we had our basement finished, we knew it was time to clean the ducts and the carpet — all that dry wall and construction debris can wreak havoc on one’s sinus and allergies. So, we took the plunge. I went with a company I knew and could trust and that I could complain to if things went wrong – after all, AAA is cheap but then again, who are they?

I have great things to say about the duct cleaning- it went a little quick though which made me wonder what he did but he explained everything very thoroughly and hopefully, I start to see a difference.

The carpet cleaning was even better- the job was very professionally done, although on a rainy humid day in Colorado, I wish they had a dryer they could have run through the house. The carpets are still wet and I only hope to keep the girls off of it til it dries which may be another 12 hours or so. If you do your carpets too, make sure to schedule that after the air duct. It is easy to set up at sears.com and all the employees were very professional. All in all, it was good to do but it is a lot of money so you want to do it when you can get the most out of it.

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Review of Cici’s Pizza, Westminster, Colorado

consumer, dining, food, ,

Since we were with the kids and near Cici’s, we decided to stop in and have something to eat. Kids under 3 eat free which is a great thing especially if your kid is not 3 yet. In any case, this place is a haven for lil ones but can be equally good for adults. This is not a glamorous joint and if you want a better eating experience in the pizza arena, go to Old Chicago’s lunch buffet which is amazing but is $8.99.

In any case, the variety of pizza at Cici’s is decent and more geared towards kids. There is a mac ‘n cheese pizza but the best was the thin crust veggie. The salad is okay and the soup I hear was not that good. The garlic bread sticks and the cinnamon rolls for dessert are very good and the pasta is okay but perfect for kids. Like I said, this is a great place for kids and they can run around without feeling like they are in a china shop as well.

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Best Iphone Apps and Most addictive – PART TWO

consumer, technology,

In my previous post I wrote about the top 15 apps after three weeks of owning the iPhone. As promised, after 6 weeks of owning the iphone, it is time to write another installation of the most useful apps. I am also going to factor in the most addictive. Here goes:

1. Words with friends- this one is free or for 99 cents you can get it ad free. This app is addictive. It is essentially scrabble with friends and/or strangers. You can have a billion games going at once which is fine since it can take days or weeks to finish a game. The game has some flaws because words can be spelled that are not words and yet dome words that are in the dictionary are rejected so be prepared for that. WARNING: If you get this App, you will not be able to put it down and the world around you will become almost non-existent so be prepared!

2. Shazam – this us a cool app to help you find out song you’re hearing but do not know the name or artist. It let’s you download it and even gives you a tour schedule. Pretty cool.

3. Camera One is an app and turns your iPhone camera into a more functional tool but I do not know what all the buttons do so need an instruction manual. Hopefully I can find it through the App store or google – that is the only flaw of this thing but the features appear cool. There is even a timer on this camera!

4. Irelax- is an app that is a sound machine, lullaby-maker, and alarm clock all wrapped up in one. When I travelled to D.C. a few weeks ago, I had to download a sleep machine. It is Free and called SLEEP MACHINE. There are tons of white noise makers on the app market and they all work great but I gotta say, a friend got me turned onto IRelax and it really is the best out there. The options are endless and it is easier to use than most of the other white noise or sound machine apps out there.

5. Urbanspoon- I really like this over yelp and the SHAKE feature lets you turn your Iphone into a “restaurant” slot machine… be careful what you land on. If you are not in the mood for Polish food.

There are tons more apps that are useful. I like Mapquest and google maps and really love having GOOGLE CALENDAR right there as my home page Application to quickly check the calendar, and I love dictionary.com and Wikipedia. All in all, I have had a great 30 days with the Iphone. I was even to shop online and quickly find what I needed on a HOME DEPOT App. Amazon.com is available on line but the features are a bit limited. I wish I could stream daily episodes of “The Daily Show” and other shows on the iphone like I can on my laptop or PC but for some reason, I cannot do that yet – I think Apple does not let you run Adobe Flash Player because they’d rather I pay 99 cents on Itunes and purchase the episode rather than watch it for free. This upsets me a bit but I am not surprised that Apple does that. In any case, I will just have to Tivo my episodes and do my best to convert them for the iphone.

As far as service goes, AT&T is an okay 3G network. I wrote a blog on that. But, did you know AT&T rolls your minutes? This is a bonus for me since my usage varies with how much I travel in a month. Stay tuned for more App-reviews to come…

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