Category: McDonald’s

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Ah, The Weekend…

After having my birthweek off, I made it through five days at work.

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you crawl to Friday like a baby who’s never put one hand in front of the other in tandem with a leg? That’s what it was like this week. (taawd thought: Ayden crawled for the first time on my birthday) I ended the week with a trip to McDonald’s for breakfast. Yum. (Note to self: working out is a must today)

After almost two weeks, this cold/sinus infection/allergy/gunk that fills my lungs still hasn’t totally let up its chokehold on my body. I’m sure the lack of sleep and stress hasn’t helped my immunity’s cause.

Now this weekend, I can relax… and relax, I will.

Can I tell you something? There’s something to be said for a two person life. I have laundry to do, I have dishes to put away. I have shopping to take care of. I also need to relax. Everyone needs to take care of themselves every now and then. The focus needs to be shifted away from everything else and shined on themselves. You know what I saying?

I can’t believe summer is over and fall is already here. It’s one of my favorite times of the year, it’s my mother’s least favorite times. I love the leaves, the apple cider, the county fairs (which I missed this year, there’s always next year!) and just everything else that means winter isn’t that far off.

Call me crazy but I can’t wait for the first snow fall. Of course, I’ll be singing a different tune come March when I’ll be again longing for the summer. That’s the reason I moved back to Ohio from Texas. Down in the Lone Star State, you barely get your seasons. They’re something I’ve grown up with all of my life and I miss the changes in the climate and precipitation. Everyone loves a good snowstorm. Nothing quite brings people together. My (still) favorite holiday of the year happens during winter. Christmas is awesome and I can’t wait to see what this year brings.

Weren’t we just talking about the weekend? How did I get myself already into 2009? Here’s to the future, just one day at a time.

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McDonald’s Love & Life

The manager at McDonald’s gave me some love today. Er, in the way of free food. I thought he was just going to give me a free breakfast but he comp’ed my entire order. I can’t tell you what that consists of because it would make me look like an absolute pig. (quick blog search confirms I haven’t divulged that in the past. thank God!) My weakness is McDonald’s breakfast. Afterward, I get that self-loathing feeling (think Crying Game, sitting in the bathtub with the shower going) Okay, maybe it’s not that bad but I do feel like I at least need to work out that night.

On another health note, I got this strange sore throat after this past weekend that was the weekend of the summer for me so far. Thursday night with a couple of friends eating out, Friday night at Twilight with some great friends, Saturday with the family and some awesome food, Krusty’s with some great friends and some new ones. Sunday was just an awesome day of rest. This morning, I had zero voice. This afternoon, it’s amazingly bad. My throat still hurts. Maybe it’s that freaky “i-slept-too-close-to-the-air-conditioning” syndrome or something.

I just spent about 40 minutes on the phone with one of my friends. I realize being on the phone focuses me. I can get the dishwasher loaded, windex my counter tops, put the dishes away, load the washer and dryer. Yesterday, I straighten up my closet. Believe it or not, I realize I have this awesome ability to multi-task while I’m talking to someone. The problem is some people don’t like the pots and the dishes making noise but they’ll get over it. My sister claimed she could still hear me over the vacuum, (why do I always misspell that word?) I don’t believe her.

On the technology front, Samsung and Sprint pushed out a software update for my phone, the Samsung Instinct. Push, I guess, is a strong word because I pulled it into my device. At any rate, the update, BF30, apparently corrects at least one of the issues I have with the phone. The volume over the bluetooth headset is not that loud. I have a stereo headset and I don’t like to hear the radio or the TV in my gym over my music. I haven’t tested it to see yet.

One of the other issues getting a lot of net buzz is the update to the calendar, which I think is admittedly weak compared to my old “Q”. Now you can set your appointments to recurring.

There’s apparently also an issue with voicemail, which is one of the strong points with the Instinct. I loathe having to dial voicemail, wait through the password sequence and then listen to the message. Some people are reporting problems with having the voicemail immediately download to their phone. I hope this is not the case.

I just hope Samsung fixed the constant prompt for a password I get through the e-mail. I always seems to think I changed my password even though I didn’t.

Well, if I’m to get this workout in sometime today, I better get my rear in gear,

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Supersize Frustration Please!

Admittedly I tempt fate leaving the office just before 10:30am just in time to get breakfast at McDonald’s. I left in enough time to get in line for breakfast before they change the menu over to lunch.

I normally go to the McDonald’s on Carnegie Avenue. It has two lanes so you can choose either. Of course, I chose the wrong one. The same thing happens at Wal-Mart, Target or any grocery store. This is why I do not gamble. I always pick the wrong one. A woman and a man were in front of me, the other lane had a person, I notice too late, he’s finishing up his order. At this point, I can’t back up and change lanes.

The woman and man in the car clearly didn’t know what they wanted. After about three minutes I rolled down my window to see what was taking so long. Here’s what I heard:

Customer: “I have an expresso as well.”
Drive-Thru Clerk: “Will that complete your order?”
Customer: “You know what? I’ll have two coffees.”
brief silence
Drive-Thru Clerk: “Would you like anything in them?”
Customer: “Nope.”
Drive-Thru Clerk: “Okay, would you like anything else?”
Customer: “You know what? I’ll have a cream for one of them. That’s all.”
Drive-Thru Clerk: “If you don’t want anything else, your total is…”
Customer: “You know what? I’d also like to have an ice water as well.” {scrunching up her nose as if she’s only now becoming a pain}
Drive-Thru Clerk: “If that completes your order, your total is $12.44, please pull around.”

Now, the clerk switches to the person in the other lane, takes his breakfast order then comes over to me.

Drive-Thru Clerk: “Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?”
Me: “Can I still get breakfast?
Drive-Thru Clerk: “I’m sorry sir, we stopped serving at 10:30” {my clock in my car read 10:31}
Me: “So what you’re telling me is I can’t order breakfast because the woman in the car in front of me couldn’t make up her mind.”
Drive-Thru Clerk: “That’s exactly it sir. Can I take your lunch order?”
{conversation terminated}

I called McDonald’s and asked for the manager, who ironically answered my call. I don’t have a long history of complaining about much but this time my blood was pumping fast and furious. To the manager’s defense, he did listen to the above conversation and was very sympathetic. He said for me to ask for him the next time I came through and he’d take care of the situation.

I appreciate his generosity but instead of my beloved breakfast from the home of the Golden Arches, I had leftover DiGiorno pizza for my first meal of the day.

Talk about a supersized dose of frustration!

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NewsChannel 5 LIVE at the Coast Guard

NewsChannel 5 anchor Paul Kiska interviews Frank Jennings of the U.S. Coast Guard about boating safety. They talked about new life preservers that aren’t as bulky as the old ones. They also talked about drinking while boating. It’s more dangerous because the wind and the waves can make navigating a boat more difficult while impaired. Also, many times people who are drunk may end up swimming the wrong way (down) instead of the right direction (up) because of an imbalance in the inner ear. If you didn’t watch Good Morning Cleveland this morning, that’s only a little bit of what you missed. Did you hear McDonald’s is giving away free sandwiches today and Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away free ice coffee? More information from this morning’s show!

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Coffee Chaos

Since I’m working mornings, an ugly monster has reared its head back into my life, McDonald’s breakfast. It’s truly a guilty pleasure. It doesn’t help my diet but I don’t eat all of those cookies, cakes and sweets like I once did. I guess it’s my comfort food. It has been for years.

My friends know I don’t drink coffee but I’m happy to get mom2amara a cup of joe when I go to McDonald’s for breakfast. She tries to give me a couple of bucks but if I can’t buy a co-worker an occasional cup of coffee, I have to check my budget.

This morning, I was talking on the phone, driving and honestly, eating some breakfast. So far, I multi-task fairly well. When I turned the corner of East 30th, over went the beverage carrier tray. The coffee spilled all over my floormat. It was coffee, nothing sticky or smelly. I somewhat even liked the aroma of the java. I decided to bring the floormat to my place for some cleaning. I checked out underneath the mat and realized none of the coffee had seeped through.

Here was my surprise, the floormat apparently prevents a bunch of liquid from soaking through to the bottom. It’s weird because the bottom of the mat looks like fabric, not rubber or plastic. What looked like three-quarters of a cup of coffee washed out of the floormat.

Gotta love those Honda engineers for designing a floormat designed to keep liquids in the mat and away from the carpet lining my CRV.

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A Sad Day

Being on mornings is tough because if I have one weakness (actually I have a lot of them) but if there’s an overwhelming one it’s McDonald’s breakfasts.

Back when I worked at WKYC, I’d always stop at a McDonald’s. It honestly got so bad I could pull up to the drive-thru and tell them “Good Morning, It’s Todd.” and they’d say “Good morning, pull around!” I know it’s terrible but I crave the McDonald’s Sausage Egg McMuffin with Cheese value meal… with milk instead of coffee. I don’t do caffeine even though I like coffee but I don’t drink decaf.

Imagine my horror when I read this morning, “Mr. Egg McMuffin”, Herb Peterson passed away earlier this week.

McDonald’s says Peterson demonstrated creativity and innovation as the inventor of the restaurant’s Egg McMuffin, which revolutionized the food service industry. Through this breakfast product innovation, Herb leaves a long-term legacy with McDonald’s.

The fast food giant goes on to day Peterson’s invention altered the face of the food-service industry and literally changed the eating habits of millions of Americans as no other quick service restaurant offered breakfast before the development of the Egg McMuffin.

Today, breakfast accounts for approximately 30 percent of sales at McDonald’s restaurants.

I love ’em! Yum!!

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McDemolition

I don’t know why this bothers me but it does. McDonald’s has a practice of demolishing their restaurants, hauling away the debris and then rebuilding. They did just that in Westlake near Crocker Park. They are in the process of doing it near East 30th & Carnegie.

To me, it just seems to illustrate how we’ve become a disposable society. Nothing seems made for the long haul anymore. Instead, you buy something knowing it has a shelf life. Think back to our grandparents, they bought something knowing they’d probably pass it down to their family. I have three watches sitting in my closet that all need batteries but I’m not going to throw them away. I’ve even replaced the bands on them. Things are so cheap and made that way it’s easier to buy them, use them and toss them. Where is all of this stuff going?

Couldn’t McDonald’s just remodel these restaurants? Is it that much cheaper to bulldoze the building and raise up another? How did these buildings get in such a state of disrepair anyhow? Just a thought. By the way, the McDonald’s near East 30th & Carnegie promises to be open in December.

I couldn’t mention McDonald’s however without talking about their breakfasts. I crave them almost daily but I have to stay strong and avoid them. Besides knowing the grease is ready to clog my aging arteries, I know the fat is ready to cling to my body and undo any good workout that I do. Still, I have to succumb every now and then with a trip to the golden arches. Er, I’m hungry and I think McDonald’s is open… I’ll be right back… I’m lovin’ it!