A guess one sign a shopping center is not new anymore is when a once exciting new business closes up. We suggested a hungry friend try out the Tin Star fast food place in the Summit Sierra and he called back and said they were gone. Also the Pannini place next door. Too bad. The Tin Star’s gimmick was a cheeseburger in the shape of a taco which was really good and at least something “different” but I guess their remote location and competition killed it.

We went back to Cabela’s the other day as I really do like the catalog and a desitnation sporting goods store really appeals to me. Our first foray was a failure as they made it too difficult to actually buy anything. I guess that’s partly my fault, as living here in Nevada, I am used to not having to wait in line much.

So we cruised around, mostly marveling at all the gear for killing animals, and settled on a gizmo that I’ve seen in the catalogs. It is a weatherproof camera you strap to a tree that has a motion sensor and it takes a photo of any critter walking by. Combines my love of cameras, animals and curiousity about what goes on outside in the dark.

They had a model on sale so I instinctively grabbed it and entered the checkout. It took awhile for the young woman checking to catch up with her friend and their mutual acquaintances in front of me and we began getting acquainted with the folks behind us. Finally it was our turn and I noticed the register rang up our camera at the non-sale price. I pointed this out and everything ground to a halt. The ensuing inspection of the sales flyer gave no satisfaction so it was up to her young assistant to go back in to the mega store, find the unit, verify the price and return, all in one day. He confessed he had no idea what the item was and no clue where to look.

As I mentioned we were talking and commiserating with the folks behind us in line and so I had, even though small and brief, an emotional relationship with them and didn’t want them to suffer in line as I had so I told the clerk I didn’t want to hold anyone up and to forget the purchase.

Amazing. Been in there twice and was not able to buy anything despite giving it a good shot. Also I checked and they still have tons of maps of Couer d’Alene Lake in Idaho but none of Tahoe, Pyramid or any other.

One aspect is that our area has been booming economically and I think all the qualified employees are already taken and new businesses are hiring anyone they can get. That is great for the people who are willing to take advantage of it and work at becoming good workers.

Maybe we’ll try again another year and meanwhile go back to REI.

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Originally uploaded by RickC.

The latest storm is moving in and I’ve taken a minute to sit down with my cell phone and try to learn a little about it. I’ve only had it for 2 months so it is about time I get to know how it works.
I’m very familiar with how it doesn’t work. It seems that everything about our lives is rural and cell phones are about as good as 2 cans and a string most of the time.
So I played with the camera feature and figured out how to upload the photos to the blog (in a roundabout way through flickr) and it works great. I’m afraid that there are enough button pushes to make my memory fail next time I try it though. Stay tuned.

We are always looking for dining options in Carson City, especially now that the national chains rule and there aren’t too many locally owned, unique, good places left. So we’ll mention one we went to today.

We were in town and looking for a place to have breakfast and remembered that we always drive by the Creekside Deli on college just east of the freeway and have wondered about it. We decided, what the heck, lets see what they have, even if it is a deli. Hopefully it would have a more varied menu than the usual high calorie, high fat breakfast fare (which I like).

We went inside and discovered it is really more of a cafe. Upon walking in, there is an appealing dining room to the right with several tables and three big windows that look out on to the Virginia Range to the north. Off that, there is another dining room. The hostess welcomed us an suggested we sit wherever we wanted as she retrieved some coffee for us.

The menu is large with burgers, wraps and 12 hot sandwiches. Soup combos, cold sandwiches and 9 salad choices round out the choices which are all made to order. Add to that a full breakfast menu and we realized it is more of a cafe than a deli. The DW (Dear Wife) had to choose between a salad, falafel or the veggie burger to get her healthy “fix”. She choose the burger and was delighted with the natural and varied ingredients all blended in a tasty patty.

Check this place out and support a local restaurant/deli that is actually really good too with a nice atmosphere and friendly staff. They cater in and out and you can call in your food order for dining in or take-out at 841-3354. If you are on a “lunch hour” calling in ahead is great as things are made to order and take a little longer than the “fast food” joint.

Joanie’s Creekside Deli, 1795 East College Parkway, Carson City 841-3354

Now that the chains have driven all the local restaurants out of business, where do you go for a good meal with a nice, comfortable, non-chain like atmosphere. We’ve been looking. We like Chili’s but it still feels like a fancy Dennys.

So we’ve been on the lookout for somewhere to maybe get a nice meal in a nice place and keep our money local. We’re still looking.

A pretty good imitation of a local restaurant is the new Firkin and Fox. Here’s a good article on aroundcarson.com . We went last Sunday and the sumptuous Victorian english pub decor fits in nice with the town and the historic St Francis Hotel building on Carson Street, downtown. The food was good and the service was good also. It was difficult to be a satisfying conversationalist with my wife though, with football on flat screens everywhere you looked, but it was the NFL playoffs and maybe they aren’t on all the time.

They are still a chain though with 31 in Canada, 8 in the States and 135 “in development”. Which, if nothing else, maybe they will have the staying power a mom and pop might lack.

I also see that there is an article on aroundcarson.com about Khristophers Cafe up by the Walmart on South Carson/395. Sounds good and we’ll have to try it out.

There’s a saying that says “It’s human nature to, when things are going good, to toss a “hand grenade” in it and mess it up.

When I started washoevalley.org the theory was to minimize monkeying with glitz and concentrate on content and that has worked well. Now, though, for some reason I am switching to the Mac and that is starting a cascade of things that are making things more complicated and taking time away from content (and everything else around here).

I guess the reasoning was that the Mac was supposed to make my life simpler and more logical but 6 months into it, it is just more complicated. The software I use for the website is not available for the Mac and so I still keep the old PC around just for the website and Family Tree Maker. I have Dreamweaver, the website creation software for the Mac, but it is for professionals and the learning curve has been more than an hour so I have gotten nowhere with it.

I decided, since washoevalley.org is really just a complicated blog, to switch to blog software and this would make me platform and location independant. I could update the site from anywhere. I selected a blogging program, WordPress, who advertises itself as “easy” and a new hosting site as it advertises itself as having a “one step” automatic intallation of WordPress.

Liars! After two days of wading through segmented bits of help sections, emails, forums and searches for this mysterious “one step” or “one click” process, I am just now getting a handle on how to complete the process of setting up and designing the NEW washoevalley.org. And it ain’t gonna be easy.

So stay tuned, even though new content may slow a bit, I am still working on the project, just behind the scenes. Hopefully, when the transition is made the new site will be slicker and and easier to update and manage. But isn’t that the eternal promise of computers. Are we there yet?

Well, at least here in Washoe Valley, it wasn’t all that. In the last couple of years we’ve had deeper snowfalls and higher winds. Even the rain just reminded me of a rainstorm last year. I don’t think we got the predicted 10′ of snow and 200 mph winds on the ridgetops either.

But we don’t get many “natural disasters” or even severe winter weather anymore so I can’t blame the news and weather community for getting all excited once in awhile. We all get tired of endless network coverage of storms back east and in a sick way feel kinda left out. It even seems to be standard operating procedure for weathermen, when standing before the national map, to stand to the left, obscuring our region.

Our thoughts go out to the folks in Fernley today though who are suffering a flood from a canal breach. Initial blame is being placed on an anonymous gopher although no gopher terrorist group has claimed responsibility. I’m sure this will cause months of recriminations for all concerned as apparently many in the area don’t have flood insurance and even if they do it is still a big mess. Was it classified as a flood plain? Is it a coincidence that a gopher hole caused the breach during the big storm? Was there a lack of human concern for the danger of gopher holes?

Already looking forward to the next “storm of the century”.

Well, the guests have all driven off, and the decorations are almost packed up so I can get back to not “having a life” and resume normal operations at washoevalley.org. I did try to organize a Christmas light contest on the site but with the distractions here at home never got it together. Hopefully next year.  Although we did go out Christmas Eve and take some photos which I  will post on the site. It was a nice thing to share with our guests and thanks to all those who worked so hard putting up the displays.

Hopefully, the “storm of the century” will keep me home and cozy to catch up on things.

We did it with a review of the Postal Express Cafe on Eastlake and now with the “south shore eagle”. RGJ posted a reader submitted photo of the big guy this week but we did it thanks to a reader before that.

Thanks to our readers for continuing to make washoevalley.org the most local and responsive information source for Washoe Valley.

Last Tuesday we made the journey over to Verdi to check out the new Cabela’s store. If you are not familiar, Cabela’s is a midwest mailorder sporting goods company (www.cabelas.com) that as been opening sporting goods “super” stores. I’m a real fan of their merchandise and have placed several orders, mostly for clothing. It seems that in stores, if you have a 38″ waist, you are supposed to be short. It is rare to find a 38 waist pant with a 34″ inseam. Cabela’s will tailor the inseam for free. For that and other reasons, I am a fan.

Back to our trip. The Cabela’s stores, as I have seen them in the catalogs, are over the top with aquariums, shooting ranges, stuffed animals and all manner of cool outdoor gear. So I was excited to go. Especially since it is hard to find something new in a store these days. For the most part, now that all the local stores are dead, a “new” store in town is just a copy of one already here. So we went.

You get off I-80 at Boomtown and maneuver through a new road system complete with a roundabout. Even for Tuesday morning the store was busy. It really is cool if you are at all interested in the outdoors. There’s a holiday gift for everyone there.

Now to the nitpicking. The catalog and website are heavily weighted towards hunting and that is true with the store. Not being a hunter, I don’t really consider the Reno area a big hunting area, but maybe that’s just me. So there is a big area in the middle you can ignore if you are like me. You will recognize it as everything imaginable is camo.

I wandered over to the boating area and drooled over all the electronics and gadgets. A display of nautical maps had about 6 hooks of maps of Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. Did someone at corporate think Reno is in Idaho? No maps of Tahoe, Pyramid or even Lake Mead or the Delta.

The gun section is a gunners dream. All kinds of stuff. Even short barrel 50 caliber carbines. I don’t know what for, ask a hunter, I guess. I did fondle the “home protection” short barreled shotgun, though. Off to the side, next to the snack bar and computer hunting games (just buy tokens) are the BB machine guns. Wow. We kids used to dream of BB machine guns back in the 60’s and here they are. Both electric and gas powered.

The wife was getting impatient so I grabbed a crock of hot cheese with caribou sausage and a small package of gourmet beef jerky (the buffalo jerky was $30 for a pound) and headed for the exit. We got in line and waited, and waited, and waited. I understand that the clerks are new and still trying to learn all the coupons, special offers, buyers club ins-and-outs but it was just silly after a while. Finally I put the stuff down and walked out. Just wasn’t worth it. During the holiday-grand opening period, they should have every register manned. Maybe its just me and a thing about lines.

So check it out for yourself sometime. The aquarium with the giant trout, bass and catfish is definitely cool, the clothes are nice, and there’s even an old fashioned, coin-op shooting gallery for the kids. Look at cabelas.com to see what kind of stuff they have.