A reminder as to why NOT to move to Malden

Downtown Malden, with one of its sixty-zillion nail salons. SRSLY?

If you recall correctly,  Business Week magazine named Malden as the best place to raise kids in Massachusetts.  This was in 2008, and Malden sucked then.  It’s getting worse now, yet Malden flies banners all over the place squawking about this *honor*.

The truth is, the place SUCKS, and it’s not even a good place to raise PETS.  A lot of that has to do with the fact that most of the homes here are rentals, and most landlords won’t even allow pets.  yet landlords are forever bitching and moaning that they can’t find anyone to rent their units.  Well, maybe if they allowed pets, they’d have a better choice of tenants than they do now.  And pet owners are much better tenants than Section 8 people who have a zillion kids.  When they keep the pet owners out, those people go elsewhere, and the landlords have no choice to rent to whatever white trash comes along.  These are trashy people who cry poverty, yet seem to have enough money to spend on a playstation 3 and sixty-zillion games to go with it. Yet they pay NO taxes, and they dump their trash near our cans, because they don’t want to pay for the city trash bags, and would rather get US and others in trouble for putting out non-bagged trash.

If you need another good reason not to move here, check this out: Eight injured in Malden blaze last Friday; department reflects on fighting fires after budget cuts.  This house is three doors away, and it’s scary.  All the more reason to want to move, if the city feels that public safety is less important than spending money on useless crap.

Finally, let’s not forget this:  Malden Shootout Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Wounded.  Just a few blocks away from my house.  I suppose the next budget cuts will be cops.

This is a big part of why we’ll be moving to New Hampshire when our current lease is up.  Enough is enough.

Not the way we’d want to go to Vegas!

Melrose-Wakefield Hospital - stay far, far away unless you have a death wish!

I can’t believe that summer is almost over!  As David Letterman just said, “summer has gone by quicker than a Brett Favre retirement”.  And this summer was a good one – nice weather, and no major medical issues.  As you may know, we’ve had a couple of summers all but ruined due to the ineptitude of Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.  If you do a search of that name on this blog, you’ll see some of the horror stories about that dump.  Not only did they almost kill my husband, but did you also know that they could very well have gotten him addicted to morphine?

It’s true.  A few years ago, Mike had to have an emergency appendectomy.  After the surgery, he was hooked up to this IV thing where you push a little button and it puts morphine into your system, in order to reduce any pain.

But the thing was, he wasn’t in very much pain, so he barely hit that little button.  Also, he knew that it was morphine, and he didn’t want to risk getting hooked on the stuff.

So you would think that the nurses would be happy that he wasn’t in much pain and did not need to use much of the drug.  But NOOOOOO…they YELLED at him for NOT using enough of the stuff!  Can you believe it?

WHY?  Did they WANT to get him hooked on the stuff?  We know that they like to keep patients in this hospital for as long as possible, in order to soak the insurance companies for as much as possible.  We know that Hallmark Health has been having money problems.  Is getting a patient hooked on a narcotic drug another way to keep patients incarcerated for longer?  Who knows?

As far as I know, Melrose-Wakefield does not do any sort of detox/drug rehab stuff.  So what would they do with a drug addict, except keep him there and keep feeding him the dope?

If Mike had gotten addicted to this drug, possibly the only way he’d ever have a chance of resuming his life and his career is to go to a rapid detox center. Rapid detox is an intensive treatment, in which the patient is withdrawn from the drug within a few hours, as opposed to a week or more.  This reduces the symptoms of withdrawal dramatically.

However, this is only for the physical dependence on the drug, the patient would still need to get the appropriate psychological counseling.

I don’t know how many such places are in the United States, but I know of this one place out in Las Vegas.  Hey, I like Vegas, but this isn’t my idea of what I’d want to do while there!  And it is rather pricey – starting at $13,000, and not covered by insurance.  They do offer various forms of financing, though.  And I think it’s well worth it for those addicts who truly want to get their lives back.

But still I wonder, WHY would a nurse, a medical professional, want to try to force a patient to take such a drug, risk getting addicted, when it was not truly needed for pain?  I mean, in Mike’s case, just some regular over-the-counter Tylenol would have been sufficient.  I know people who really do suffer chronic pain and are on narcotic pain-killers.  Without them, they cannot function.  But these people are also under the care of specialized pain doctors, who carefully monitor their patients’ use of these drugs.  They do not want to see their patients abusing these drugs and turning into addicts who need a rapid detox program.

This whole thing with Mike and the morphine happened years ago, but I’m still shaking my head over the insanity of it all.  Needless to say, we will never so much as get a Band-Aid from any Hallmark Health facility ever again.  We now get all of our health care from Lahey Clinic, which is a much better place.  Thanks to their excellent level of care, Mike is no longer in and out of the hospital all the time, as he was when he was still with Melrose-Wakefield.  Lahey prefers to keep people OUT of the hospital, by caring for their patients properly in the first place.

So, once again, I remind you that if you want to live a good quality life, stay away from Hallmark Health!

Banned in Boston?

Beer served in a plastic cup at the Sam Adams Bar & Grill at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, Manchester, NH

You’ve probably heard the story about a man being killed by a shard of glass from a beer mug, as the result of a bar fight at the Landsdowne Pub in Boston.  Now, this bar is serving all drinks in plastic cups.  I don’t know what this bar is like, because I’ve never been there, but this is probably a good idea.

But now, according to an article on BeerAdvocate.com, the Boston licensing board is considering banning glass containers in ALL of the city’s bars.

It’s one thing to drink beer from plastic cups at a baseball game or other sporting event.    In addition to eliminating the risk of drunken fans throwing glass containers at players on the field, or at other fans in the stands, there are other practical reasons.  The cost of breakage would go through the roof, and make ballpark beer even more expensive than it already it.  And then they’d have to worry about washing all those glasses that don’t get broken.

Even at the Sam Adams Bar & Grill, which is located inside the NH Fisher Cats’ ballpark in Manchester, all drinks are served in plastic or paper cups.  This place has a really nice mahogany bar and all, and looks like the sort of place where you’d not expect your beer to be served in a plastic cup.  But they also allow people to take drinks out of the place and into the seating area of the ballpark.  They can’t watch every single person the whole time, so plastic all around makes the most sense.

On the other hand, I would not want to go into a nice beer bar and have my beer served in a plastic cup.  Different styles of beer are supposed to be served in different kinds of glassware; something they can’t do if they were forced to use only plastic.  Rather than give you a lesson on proper beer glassware, here’s a basic article about it from BeerAdvocate.com.  Many beer lovers have assorted glassware in their homes (we have a good collection), and we expect bartenders at better beer bars to know what beer goes in what glass.

The banning of glass would hurt these businesses.  Who is going to pay top dollar for a fine beer dinner, when all of the brews are served in plastic cups?  Beer geeks will simply go to places outside of Boston, the people who plan the beer dinners will have them at other restaurants, etc.

Also, at these higher-end establishments, people are less likely to get so drunk that they get into fights.  There is a huge difference between “beer geeks” like us, and people who go into some dive bar to get drunk on Bud Light or some other cheap, mass-produced swill.  Beer geeks enjoy the flavor of beer, we don’t drink to get so drunk that we can’t taste anything.  We’ve grown way beyond the college days of keggers and cases upon cases of Natty Light.

Those who drink to get drunk do not only not care what their beer is served in, they also do not care what beer they drink, as long as it’s cheap and there is plenty of it.  So the places that cater to such a clientele should, by all means, eliminate serving anything in glass.  But they should also be paying more attention to patrons who’ve had too much, and shut them off as necessary.  This not just because of potential bar fights, but for the safety of the general public.  You would not want someone to get so drunk that they cannot safely drive home.  Even the better beer bars should be paying attention; they would not likely serve somebody endless glasses of some 9.0% ABV double IPA.  As much as I personally love beers like this, I might have one serving at the beer bar, and then switch over to something with a lower ABV (alcohol by volume).

Hopefully, the owners of beer bars and brewpubs in Boston will speak out against this stupid law, and it will never be passed.  Let the bar and restaurant owners decide what to do, according to what would be best for them.  But don’t put people out of business over an issue which is not applicable to their establishment.

Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill

This restaurant opened to great hype – if you live in New England and have never heard of Jerry Remy’s, you must be living under a rock or something.  Or at least spending all of your internet time reading and/or writing diet pill reviews.

Located on Boylston Street near Fenway Park, this restaurant is indeed owned by legendary Red Sox TV announcer Jerry Remy.  And on days when the Sox aren’t playing, you just may see him in the restaurant.

We had been wanting to try this place, but wanted to wait until all of the opening hype had died down a bit.  Even so, we knew it would be busy and crowded whenever a Red Sox game is going on.

Then I heard that Jerry would be hosting his annual All-Star Party at his restaurant, in past years, it has been held inside Fenway Park.  We decided to go, as this would give us a good way to check the place out for the first time, without having to wait a zillion years for a table or seats at the bar.

This is a really nice place.  The focal point of it are the “Screen Monsters”, two ginormous TVs that hang over the bar.  One of these TVs alone is bigger than our bed, that’s how big they are.  There are also smaller TVs all around the place, so that no matter where you sit, you will be able to see the game.  They even have TVs in the restrooms so you won’t miss a play – the ladies room has three TVs in it.

Since our ticket for the event included a buffet, we did not look at or order off the regular menu.  But if the offerings on the buffet are anything like the regular menu food, you’re in for a treat, it was excellent.  Note:  they do NOT have a buffet all the time, this was just for this special event.  Buffet offerings included pulled pork sliders, beef sliders, St. Louis style ribs, assorted styles of wings, assorted quesadillas, a tuna platter (with FRESH tuna cooked rare, not the canned stuff), and assorted vegetables and salads.

If you enjoy good beer, this is a great place, as they have many fine selections in bottles and on tap.  Most of the craft brews on tap are from local breweries, but they have some from other places, as well.

Jerry has an interesting marketing plan that I’ve never seen before.  For $500, you can purchase a “season pass”, to either all Red Sox home games, or all away games.  The home game plan is currently sold out for this year.  The season pass not only bumps you to the front of a line and guarantees you a table with no waiting, but also comes with a $25 food credit and a free beer, ON EACH VISIT.  A lot of people  dissed this idea, saying it was a rip-off.  But think about it – if you have Red Sox season tickets and come to all the games, and eat at Remy’s before the games, that’s a lot of free beers and twenty-five dollarses!  It will pay for itself after just 25 visits!  They also have other packages for other Boston sports.

You do not have to sign up for this to eat at the restaurant, of course.  And it’s really only worth it if you are a die-hard who goes to Fenway a lot.  So it’s not something I would sign up for.  But the fact that many people have, prove that the idea is a success.

We liked the place and will definitely be back.

Save with HHonors Points!

It does pay to be loyal to one chain or another.  Mike and I often stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester, NH, because we go to a lot of Fisher Cats games.  And we’ll likely be staying there a LOT more next year, because we are getting season tickets.

So I decided to sign up for the HHonors Rewards Program.  Why not, we stay at this place enough, why not earn some points to use for free future stays?

It’s a cool program, you can also choose to earn airline miles, as well as room stay points.  Or, if you are like me and don’t fly, you can earn HHonors Points and HHonors Points, earning 150% points in lieu of airline miles.  Not too shabby.

A cool thing they do is offer Point-Stretcher periods…these are only in selected hotels at selected times, but if it happens to be where and when you want to travel, you can make out very well.  You can get a free room for 40% less points than normal.  This worked out very well for us – we are planning to go to Manchester, NH in November for the New Hampshire Brewers Festival.  Naturally, we have to stay at a hotel nearby, as we don’t want to be driving all the way home drunk!  Rather than staying at the Radisson, where the beer fest is taking place, I checked and saw  that the weekend of the beer fest was a Point-Stretcher period at the Hilton Garden Inn.  So I booked with them…the room will be free, and they also have a free shuttle van that will take us to the Radisson and back, we stayed there for last year’s fest and used it.  Even so, it’s still a reasonable walk.

The points can be earned and spent at the entire Hilton Family of hotels.  When we visited Mystic Seaport, and I had a choice of hotels, I chose the Hampton Inn in Mystic, because I could earn some HHonors points for staying there.  Sadly, they are not a Point-Stretcher hotel, but the Hampton Inn in Sturbridge is.  And they have Point-Stretcher periods every weekend in December, right when Old Sturbridge Village has their Christmas programs.  Yay!  Another free hotel stay!  Yeah, we’ve been normally staying at the Super 8, which is closer to the Village and also walking distance to the Piccadilly Pub.  Nothing wrong with it, but who am I to turn down FREE?  I did sign up for the Wyndham Rewards thingy through Super 8, but we don’t stay at any of their properties enough to ever maintain membership or qualify for any freebies.  So why bother?

The Hilton properties are nice – the Hampton Inns are a small step down from the Hilton Garden Inns, mostly in that most rooms do not have refrigerators.  But we have a portable mini-fridge, so that is not a problem.  Still, they have a lot of amenties, such as cable TV, free internet, free breakfast, and a well stocked bathroom.  No acne treatment gel, if you need that, as I do, you gotta bring your own. But they have shampoos, conditioners, nice soaps, lotions, and more.

I’m so glad I signed up for this!  We’ll be enjoying many freebies now!