Book Review

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of elephant book reviews.  As in reviews of books about elephants not book reviews written by an elephant.  Although, if I could work that out I would definitely blog those too.

The first book to be reviewed is:

Rudyard Kipling's How the Elephant Got His Trunk: The Graphic Novel by Blake A. Hoena (author) and Pedro Rodriguez (illustrator)

This is the story of how an inquisitive baby elephant went from having a nose like a boot to having the trunk that we all know today.  This retelling of the classic tale is pretty faithful to the original.  It has all the adults who discourage the baby elephant from being curious which leads to his trip to find answers which leads to his fateful meeting with the crocodile.  It leaves out all the revenge spanking that the baby does when he gets home that Kipling put in, but it hints at it, and the rest of the story is very close to Kipling's.  It has cute, fun illustrations that would make it fun for kids and even has a little dictionary in the back for some of the harder words like curiosity and insatiable.  (Which makes it just about the perfect level for the Monkeys.)  It also includes the poem about the honest serving-men what, where, when, how, why and who.  It would be a good introduction to Kipling for young readers that might inspire them to read the original stories.

Random Shout Out

This week Pee Wee Herman has been coming up in conversation a lot.  Why would we be talking about Pee Wee Herman?  Beats me.  We are as surprised as everyone else.  Our conversations often go places no one could ever imagine.  Apparently, even to fictional characters that we haven't thought about in years.  So I wanted to give a little shout out to Pee Wee Herman.  Thanks for the entertainment you've provided us this week.

Elephun Wednesday

The weeks seem to be flying by and we find ourselves in Elephun Wednesday once again.  This week we have picked a distinctly red elephant in honor of our favorite pachyderm.  We hope you like him as much as we do.

Food!

I have fallen behind in my food posts so there is a lot to catch up on.

Last Friday we went to Five Guys.  The burgers are really good and all the toppings are free so you can get whatever you want on it.  Pictured is a little cheeseburger.  Which is by no means small.  If you do not order the 'little' size you get two patties.  Which is a lot of food for lunch. We made that mistake once and almost went into a food coma.  Now we stick to little. And the fries.  I love the fries.  And you get plenty.  They really don't measure them.  They just dump a bunch in the bag so you  leave with a sack of fries.  The sign that you are getting good fries is that the bag will go translucent from grease stains in about 30 seconds.  Can't beat that.

Because I was lazy and didn't bring my lunch on Wednesday I tempted some people into getting pizza with me.  In the interest of economy and convenience I went to Star Market.  Their rustic style pizza is surprisingly good.  And it's super cheesy.  You may have to wait a few minutes if you want a whole pizza but it doesn't take long.  And at nine bucks for the whole thing that can feed four people you really can't beat the price.  And I advise that is you are buying it by the slice you just get one.  They are big and very filling.

This Friday we went to Emilio's.  It is a typical neighborhood sub and pizza shop. No surprises on the menu.  There is pizza, subs, wraps, fried seafood, salads and all the usual stuff.  So there is something for everyone.  The food is good.  Not fantastic but you will not be disappointed.  All the ingredients seem to be of good quality.  The pastrami and steak are not stringy and have no little bits that you can't chew and everything is fresh.  And the service is fast and friendly.  (Yes, that is my finger in the picture of my steak and cheese sub.  I was anxious to get eating and didn't want to waste the time to take another picture.)

Kudos!

To Danny...Boy who remembered that we had zip lock bags.  It doesn't sound like much, but when you have delicious cake that you don't know how to store and keep safe from the mice it is a big deal.  Cake saved!

Also to all of the Monkeys (except Babbit, who is not here) for making it through this crazy week.  For dealing with Mount Bookmore EVERY day.  (What was up with that?)  And the oppressive heat.  And internal annoyances.  (You know what [or who] I mean.)  And our "guest" who stayed all week long.  It was a long hard week.  Congrats on making it to Friday.

Elephun Wednesday

Once again Wednesday is upon us, and you know what that means.  That's right.  Elephun Wednesday.  This week is the wiener dog elephant, better know as the weinerphant.  Enjoy!

Kudos

This week we have an honorary kudos because, even though he is not a Monkey, we thought he deserved a mention.

We will call him Officer Friendly (because believe it or not some people don't think it is an honor to be mentioned on our blog).  He saw a car illegally parked that he could have had towed.  Instead he went above and beyond to find the owner of the car and have her move it so she would not have to spend $200 to get it back.  Bucky and E-Dog get an assist on this kudos since they helped Officer Friendly track down the wayward parker.

Danny...Boy also gets a mention for making another perfect pick for lunch this Friday.  That makes three in a row.  All picks have been just right and dispensed with all the drama that usually goes along with trying to get all the Monkeys to agree on what to eat.  Let's hope he can keep the streak going.

Elephun Wednesday

This week's Elephun Wednesday picture was the cause of some controversy.  And, of course, Babbit is to blame.  He went and changed our wallpaper without checking with the group first and threw our schedule all off.  We are supposed to pick new wallpaper on Wednesday and post the new picture here.  But Babbit went and changed the wallpaper on an unofficial day.  We think we have worked it all out so everything should go smoothly now.  At least until Babbit gets back.

Bon Voyage

We have to wish Babbit Bon Voyage!  He is off for two and a half weeks. The lucky duck is going on a cruise.  The cruise is only a week so I'm not sure how that math works out but he assures us there is a reason.  He will be missed here, especially since I will have to answer the phone now.  We all wish him a wonderful trip and hope the drugs his doctor gave him make him feel so good on his flight to the departure point that he forgets he's afraid to fly.  Let's hope he comes back refreshed and rested because we are going to be leaving all the hard work for him to do when he gets back.  Have fun, Babbit.

The Best Italian Sub Ever

See this sub?  It is the best Italian Sub that I have ever had.  It comes from Tutto Italiano.  Sometimes the Monkeys decide on Tuesday to get Tutto subs on Friday just so we have something to look forward to.  It's enough to keep us going all week.  It comes with Mortadella, Genova Salami, Sopressata, Provolone, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Hot Peppers, Oil, Vinegar, and Oregano.  And the hot peppers are pepperoncini instead of that pepper spread.  They add just the right touch of hot.  The bread is fantastic.  The sub roll will tear the roof of your mouth off.  But it is a small price to pay.  If you are scared to try the sub roll you can have it on some other, softer bread.  But I wouldn't recommend it.  You would be missing greatness.

Night Out

After much searching for restaurants, discussing menus and changing dates we finally managed to get out to dinner.  We had quite a group.  Fishy Fishy was there.  And even Alan deigned to be seen with us in public.  We ended up at The Five Horses Tavern.  It is a nice place, cozy and not too big but had plenty of space for the nine of us.  It reminded Danny... Boy of an Irish Pub.  You know, a pub that is actually in Ireland.  I'll have to take his word for it.  I did like the ambiance.  It was casual enough for us but still nice.  And the service was good as well.  Everyone was attentive and friendly.

I had planned to take pictures of the food but I was too busy talking and eating.  So a run down of some of the things we tried will have to do.

Everyone who tasted the ribs said that they were too salty.  Like you couldn't finish them all salty.  The fried Cornish game hen and the pork belly tacos both got an 'They were ok.' Not high praise but it could have been worse.  On the good list would be the hanger steak, horseradish mashed potatoes, tater tots, mac and cheese, and fried chicken sammy.  The quesadilla special also got a good vote but that came from Alan who would say the same thing about a dirt sandwich so that one should be taken with a grain of salt.  Everyone really liked the haus pretzel and the spicy mustard and beer cheese that comes with it.  But the uncontested winner of the evening was the cornbread.  It was awesome.  It comes out in a little skillet with a dollop of butter on top.  It is moist, slightly sweet and cooked so it is a little crispy around the edges.  Everyone at the table was talking about it.  And we were still talking about it the next day.  We plan to go back and just eat cornbread.

Although the food (except the cornbread) was nothing all that special for the most part, that was alright.  That was not what the night was about.  It was about getting together with friends.  (Okay, so it was a little bit about the food.  But mostly not.)  And in that sense it was a complete success.  I believe a good time was had by all.  And even though we had our loudest and most obnoxious alum (Alan) there we managed to NOT get kicked out of the restaurant.  I am very proud of us all.

Kudos!!!

Kudos this week goes out to two Monkeys.

First, Babbit who got us these great pens.  A whole box of them!  And they actually write.  We are all very excited.

And, Danny...Boy who raided several locations to reclaim our shipping bags.  Which for some reason people try to keep from us so he had to search high and low to root them out.

Good job, Boys.  Keep it up.

Elephant Wednesday

Sorry for being a day late this week.  We will make every effort to get you your elephant picture on time next week.