PotW

One, one picture of the week is up. It's been there a while, just now getting to post here about it ...

10 August 2008 Confucius This large statue of Confucius overlooks a reflecting pond in the Chinese Cultural Garden at Overfelt Gardens Park in San Jose. The statue, thirty feet tall including its marble base, was a gift to San Jose from the people of Tainan, Taiwan and was erected in June, 1974. Another image of the statue (with base) may be found at the Wikimedia Commons. Location: 37° 21' 51.24" N, 121° 51' 11.52" W

Overfelt Gardens is easy to drive past; it's barely marked and only stands out because everything around it is built up. It was amazingly brown and dry when we were there, though the ponds were full because they're part of the system that recharges the aquifer under San Jose, preventing the intrusion of salt water from San Francisco Bay. The amplified announcements from the adjacent high school -- they were having a track meet -- echoed loudly over the park, too. The main pavilion was locked up, and looked to be set up for some sort of social function later, with folding tables and chairs set up inside.

DarkFang and I still braved stepping over the caution tape so we could each spin the marble ball in the mouth of the Foo Dog guarding the pavilion's right side. Three times, no more, no less.

PotW

Two, two pictures of the week are up. (Ha, ha, ha)

17 August 2008 The Haunted Tunnel Halloween is getting closer; here we see the Haunted Tunnel entrance at Casa de Fruita, part of their miniature railroad (Casa de Choo Choo). Location: 36° 59' 16.02" N, 121° 22' 55.96" W

Yes, it really is called Casa de Choo Choo. I'm cheating a bit, because the Haunted Tunnel is a year-round part of Casa de Choo Choo, and not just there for Halloween. Of course, they're cheating too, since all that haunts Casa de Choo Choo's Haunted Tunnel are a couple of strings of Christmas lights.

And, yes, I just like saying Casa de Choo Choo. Don't you?

Ah, the fast food hamburger

I'm confident that most of us have eaten a fast food hamburger/cheeseburger. There are several different fast food chains across the world that make and sell them.

The question (and meme) now is, what "makes" of hamburger/cheeseburger have you eaten? I think the definition of "Fast Food" should be obvious (no gourmet $40 burgers need apply), a "chain" should be more than two or three locations (at some point in time), and the basic hamburger shall be defined as a bun and at least one meat patty (Arby's sliced beef doesn't count).

EDIT: As two commentators have pointed out, fast food involves ordering at a counter as opposed to having a server come to you. If I'd been more awake when I first posted this last night I'd have picked up on this :)

I'm keeping the "sit down" places for general interest, but not considering them fast food.

These are the ones I could think of quickly (feel free to add to the list, especially those regional chains):

A & W's -- yes
Blake's Lotaburger -- no
Burger Chef -- no
Burger King -- yes (some of my earliest memories of "eating out" were at a BK)
Burgerville -- no
Carl's Jr -- yes
Checkers (AKA Rally's) -- no
Dairy Queen -- yes
Dick's Drive-In -- no
Fatburger -- no
FuddRuckers -- yes
Griff's Hamburgers -- yes
Hardee's -- yes
Harvey's -- no
In-n-Out -- yes
Jack In The Box -- yes
Johnny Rockets -- yes
Krystal's -- no
Lick's -- no
McDonalds -- yes
Nation's Giant Hamburgers -- no
Sonic Drive-In -- yes
Steak 'n' Shake -- yes
Wendy's -- yes
Whataburger -- yes
White Castle -- no (I plan on correcting this in the near future)
Yankee Doodle Dandy's -- no

---

And, the not-fast-food places we all came up with ...

Fran's -- no
Red Robin -- yes
Kip's Big Boy -- yes
Denny's -- yes