It was our wedding anniversary yesterday and the wife and I decided that Chicago Fire in Folsom, CA would be a great place to go. We ate there on our wedding night (after the wedding and reception, of course) and it’s close to the outlets where we’d be able to do some clothes shopping.

Unfortunately, Chicago Fire was closed for lunch.

We remembered an upstairs eatery along the same street and thought we’d check it out. It’s a quaint little place called Balcony Bistro that we had actually looked into for hosting our rehearsal dinner. The decor is pretty artsy in that wannabe French cafe sort of way, which makes sense since they promote themselves as “Folsom’s Finest California French Cuisine” on their website.

When we arrived, the only person working the floor was doing the bussing and the serving. He continually looked busy throughout our stay, though it wasn’t that crowded. There was a couple or two outside and two or three tables inside, besides ours. The music was pretty horrible: “pop adult contemporary theater music” is the only way I can describe it.

We were seated, and asked for water. Upon bringing us water, I asked if there was a drink menu for liquor, as I thought I might enjoy a glass of wine with my meal. Or even a beer. They only served Bud and Bud Light, so beer was out. I did get a wine list but decided to stick with water, which was a mistake. First, my wife’s glass had lip imprints on one side. While I’m sure the glass was washed, that’s pretty gross. I gave her my water and did not ask for another glass because I decided I didn’t want to drink anything during the meal. Then, she sipped the water, and made that face one makes when it’s obvious they’re drinking hose water.

I ordered a crab sandwich, which was to come on a French roll with lettuce, tomato, and melted Swiss cheese. My wife ordered the BLT. Lunch orders are supposed to come with a choice of home potatoes or a salad. We weren’t given a choice, but I had realized this after the server went to the kitchen. Though my wife wanted potatoes, we decided we didn’t care that much. At the same time we were wondering why the choice wasn’t given.

The food arrived. Mine came on toasted, buttered, white bread instead of a roll, which I didn’t realize until halfway through. It tasted great, but again: not according to the menu. The sandwich was delicious. The crab meat was slightly warmed and wasn’t too heavy, which meant that it wasn’t over-mixed with mayonnaise and other ingredients. The crab was able to take a front seat in the crab salad. The lettuce was crisp iceberg and red leaf. The contents went well with the toasted white bread. Each half of the sandwich had a sandwich pick upon which a strawberry was skewered, which was great to cleanse the palate. The salad was a mix of spring greens topped with tomatoes and a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese, dressed in a light, sweet vinaigrette. A great accompaniment to the sandwich.

My wife’s sandwich featured the same produce and salad as my dish, except, for some reason, no tomatoes on her salad. Odd. She really liked the sandwich at first, but after a while found that there was just too much bacon (which I find hard to believe) and lettuce. To each their own!

To eat my salad, I needed a fork. The first fork was wrapped within my cloth napkin. As I opened it, there was a clump of food stuck inside, so I considered the fork and napkin dirty and got another set. The new fork had dried food on it. One more try and I finally got a clean fork.

Overall, the food made for a nice, light lunch. Four stars for the food. Unfortunately, while the waiter was very nice, the overall service was only average. If the menu says one thing, the waiter and the food should reflect that. If there is supposed to be a choice of sides, one should be given. If a dish describes that it comes with a specific food item and it turns out to be different, the customer is then eating something unexpected and, with some people and some foods, this could ruin a meal. Imagine if a menu item described a 1 1/2-inch steak stuffed with blue cheese. Yum, right? But when the steak comes and, upon eating it, you find that it was instead stuffed with feta, the taste your tongue was expecting and the taste it received contradicts each other, which can be quite off-putting. Part of eating is anticipation, right? A pet peeve: I expect the menu to be correct.

Then there were the dirty dishes. Too many of them. While most people won’t even think to look at their glasses or silverware, I do. I expect clean dishes. No one wants to eat off something that has someone else’s lip imprints or a chunk of food stuck to it. Hey, I’ll eat in a dirty situation if I need to; if I go to Malaysia and eat in the market, I’m on their turf and I will eat in the manner my food is presented to me. But, dammit, this is America where restaurants have to pass health inspections. I don’t care if it’s fine dining, lunch at a pub, or fast food. No, I will not drink out of a glass with lip imprints.

The waiter, while not efficient, was nice enough to make me consider the overall service to be average. Three stars for service.

That said, what’s this review’s rating guide?

	It goes on the “Must Visit” list.
	Goooooooooooooooooood!!!
	A decent place to eat, but not first on the list.
	If nothing else is available…
	Garbage

I give Balcony Bistro 3 1/2 stars. The food was quite good, even though it was slightly different from what we were expecting. The waiter was nice enough, but the inefficient order-taking and the dirty water glass and silverware was not acceptable.

For those of you that frequent my web-bursts via this site or Twitter, you know that I postponed drawing full-sized pages of Payday in order to try doing thumbnail layouts. And you know that I have said on more than one occasion that I really, really, really didn’t like doing them.

In case you haven’t heard that before, here it is: I hated doing thumbnail layouts.

It’s not that they weren’t productive, overall. My last, full, penciled page of the book was page 19 (which didn’t get posted; I posted page 18 if you care to look). When doing the thumbnails, I laid out pages 20-52. That’s right, I got to page 52 in layouts.

The problem is, I lost my feel for drawing the main character, it wasn’t fun, and I didn’t sit down to draw the thumbnails in a consistent manner. The work was sporadic. So, while I don’t have to think as hard about what to draw for the next 33 pages, I still feel like I’m behind.

Actually, I don’t have to think too hard about the next 32 pages, because page 20 is penciled:

My general method for making comics is that I write a script for myself, then I go directly to full pencils, laying out the pages as I go along, often two at a time to make sure everything is visually cohesive. Since Payday isn’t a scripted comic, I’m making things up as I go along according to the story in my head. Doing layouts for this sort of comic was like a) writing a script, but not as fast, and b) an extra step.

On one hand, I’m glad that 52 pages of comic are solid and that there are only a few more pages to go after that. Using my thumbnails I should – should – be able to pencil through them quickly. On the other hand, the thumbails weren’t that fun to do, and it was a bit of a demotivator.

Time to brush it off, suck it up, and move forward. Page 21, here I come.

Though very late, I’m continuing with my food reviews from our trip summer trip to Oregon. I feel it’s important that I do so, because our next food outing was Pietro’s Pizza.

I first visited Pietro’s when my wife and I were in Salem, OR for my now brother-in-law’s wedding, about four years ago as of this writing. I had incredibly fond memories of this pizza: the chewy crust with the cornmeal on the bottom, the fresh taste of the toppings… my mouth watered at the very thought of this pizza, even during the four years away from this pizzeria.

The first time we went, we got it to go. There was no one in the place as we ordered and waited, but I remember the lively atmosphere. There were plenty of video games and decorations that seemed to say, “Family fun zone is right here.” I couldn’t remember what the decorations were, but now that I had a chance to come back, I was reminded.

Pirates.

The place was full of pirate stuff. And this time, it was crowded with kids aplenty. I was not to be deterred: I was going to get my pizza and love it. It had been four years, and no screaming child was going to get in my way.

We ordered two different pizzas: a pepperoni, to satisfy those that didn’t want to deal with certain toppings like mushrooms and olives (those people are sacrilegious), and, if I remember correctly, a Pietro’s Combo: pepperoni, salami, beef (sausage), olives, and mushrooms.

I gave a small, unnecessary speech before I took my first bite. I got odd looks from my friends and family members. I took that first bite and…

Not quite how I remembered. Time and high expectations will do that to you. The crust was very good and came the closest to my memories. It was crispy yet chewy, with a nice texture and mouth feel. The combo came with lots of toppings, so describing it as decadent, regardless if that word is overused, is accurate. It was a very good pizza, and they used good ingredients, but the abundance of toppings made it a rich, filling pie. If you want a simple pizza, this was not it; it was quite overloaded.

The pepperoni pizza was very much like a Round Table pizza except for the crust. The cheese was dominant, causing the crust to take a back seat. I’m not sure if it was the amount of cheese or just the brand/kind they used – it has been some time since the summer so I can’t recall. It was good cheese, and tasty, but it certainly overshadowed the crust.

Don’t get me wrong. The pizza was very good. And yes, I will go back the next time I’m in Salem. But it didn’t have quite the impact it did during my first partaking.

The prices are about what you’d expect for a popular pizza chain that specializes in high-end pizza. According to their current menu, a one-topping large (our pepperoni) is $18.30, while a large Pietro’s Combo is $24.00. Their pizza is worth the price. Sodas are refillable.

That said, here is this review’s rating scale:

	RUN, don’t walk, to this place and eat.
	A staple on my list of places to visit while in Salem.
	Pizza night? Consider Pietro’s.
	I want pizza and there are few other choices.
	Avoid like you would a moldy pizza.

I give Pietro’s Pizza 4 stars. If you’re looking for pizza that will make you feel self-indulgent when eating the toppings, Pietro’s is definitely a must. Beware, though, for their lovely crust takes a back seat to those toppings, which is a shame.

So here I am, still freelancing for Demand Studios, except that lately, I’m finding less articles that I can research and write quickly to justify the pay per article.

I generally try not to work more than three hours when writing two articles. At $15 per article, that works about to about $10 per hour, provided I actually work no more than three hours. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stuff that prevents me from continually finding a decent queue of articles to write.

Many articles are very specialized, which is fine, except that in order to write a decent article about those topics, I’d have to do a good amount of research. That, in turn, means more time spent constructing the article, prolonging my allocated work time.

Then, when I think I’ve found an article I can research and write quickly, I find that it has been miscategorized or given the wrong article template (How To, Strategy, About, etc.). If I want the article, or was intent on correcting everything, I’d have to report the title to the forums. If you saw the number of titles that I would consider to be in need of recategorizing, you’d understand how much time that would take, not to mention how forum posts there would be.

The last few days I haven’t found much to meet my personal criteria. I have a few articles in my queue that I’m going to complete, but after that it’s a crap shoot.

I’m watching a rerun of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and All-American Rejects is the musical guest. After watching them for a bit, I have a short message for them:

Dear All-American Rejects,

Phillip