Business review: Milaca Unclaimed Freight

My first time. I’ve heard of Milaca Unclaimed Freight before, but don’t pass that direction often enough to think about making the stop. Next time, it’s on the agenda.

Take along your patience and resistance. The aisles are narrow and crowded. But if you take your time, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll come across – often at decent prices, once in awhile a terrific bargain.

I don’t think you can go looking for something too specific. Instead, approach it like an upscale garage sale, but new stuff. There’s food, hardware, toys, cleaning products, vitamins, paper goods, kitchen utensils, fishing equipment, clothes, towels, etc., etc., etc. – and a huge furniture department.

I was more proud of what I resisted than what I did get. Best surprise of all: guessing our full cart to check out at $225, but it barely cracked $100.

Business: running the rat race

Took a field trip into the land of corporate America on a work assignment.

I normally don’t have to inhabit the land of multi-story office buildings, so when I do get there, it’s usually an adventure of finding my way and observing a new sub-culture.

This particular one starts with checking in at the security desk, and being given a visitor pass that lets you unlock locked doors (and most certainly records who and when did such unlocking).

The business meeting itself was straightforward, with the usual courtesies of a food/beverage table and a take-home promotional item with the host company’s name imprinted on it. At the serving table, I intentionally covered both ends of the health spectrum by taking a jelly bismarck and fresh fruit.

Outside the meeting, I stayed on the authorized route and wasn’t able to see the cages for the daily inhabitants beyond other secure checkpoints.

Inside, since we were close to the airport, it was entertaining to notice airplanes swooping in every few minutes.  Property insurance must cost more by the airport, because if the planes are off by even a couple hundred vertical feet, there is a mess.

Like any guided tour, it was over at the appointed time and the participants went our separate ways back to our comfortable surroundings and old habits.

Business review: Edel's Meats, Montgomery MN

Walk into any small-town meat market and the aroma is overwhelming. It makes you salivate and it makes you buy. It even follows you out the door for a few minutes.

Edel’s Meats is no exception. They all smell great, but when we make a southern trip, I make a point to stop at Edel’s, not for the smell, but for a product: jiternice.

Jiternice (pronounced e-thur-nitz-uh) is a Czech liver sausage that reportedly uses almost every part of a pig. According to the label, ingredients are pork, barley, pork skins, pork snouts, pork tongues, pork hearts, natural juices, salt, spices, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Although there certainly are others who make it, the only place I know of to get it is at Edel’s in the town of Montgomery, MN, where Czech heritage means many names are spelled with very few vowels.

Jiternice is good when baked to a golden brown, although I confess to having warmed it in a microwave. Jiternice in a microwave is like making pizza in a microwave – you get it heated, but not the toasting effect.

Of course, these days there are more options, as with many products. Besides the traditional rings, you can also get jiternice in links and even patties.

Don’t think about what’s in it. Just give it a try. Here’s where to find it.

Hotel review: Fairfield Inn, Mankato MN

There’s something about sitting in a hot tub and being able to look out the window at snow-covered trees. Sort of a one-up on winter.

Besides the view, Fairfield Inn’s hot tub was a good temperature and in working order, with of course, plenty of chlorine, so make sure to shower. Best of all, the pool area had a tile floor that wasn’t that false-gravel texture that hurts tender bare feet.

The room and bed was clean and comfortable, but with several small half-pillows on each bed. Worked sort of nice for being able to adjust them for comfort, but a new concept we hadn’t seen before.

There were several all-commercial cable channels, with only brief interruptions of actual programming. (Or is cable tv like that all the time now?)

Highlight of the stay was the morning breakfast – a wide variety of waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, yogurt, fresh fruit, cereal, breads, rolls, muffins, etc. Keeping in the mind that it’s prepared in bulk and served over four hours, it was very well done for a hotel breakfast.

Hotel coffee can run in a very wide range from motor oil to delicious. This, too, was on the excellent side of the spectrum.

The only catch was, even with a decent-sized seating area, it was full to the point of having to sit and eat on a couch without a table. Good things draw a crowd.

All in all, for a pre-tax rate of $89, Fairfield is an excellent value in hotel choices in Mankato. Here's more.

Restaurant/hotel review: Oak Ridge Conf. Center, Chaska MN

Got the opportunity (obligation) to attend a fundraising event at Oak Ridge Hotel and Conference Center in Chaska.

An evening of rubbing elbows with well-dressed old rich white people. Now I know why I was there: I fit three of those descriptions, just not the one they were really looking for.

Step one was putting on my suit. A check of the pockets revealed where I’d been last in it – a co-worker’s funeral three years ago.

This muddies my blog categories because although we ate there, it was a banquet-type setting rather than a restaurant, and although it was at a hotel, we were there only for a few hours of an event.

Oak Ridge is an elegant facility. You can poke around for more details here.

Geographically, it appears to be the hotel that would be associated with any major events at Hazeltine National Golf Club, which is just a triple-bogey to the east.

The three-course meal was served by white-gloved waiters and waitresses over a period of time equal to seven innings of a Twins game.

Ahhh, fine dining. As I buttered my dinner roll, I smiled at the irony of why eating a hard, crusty piece of bread while wearing a tie is thought to be enjoyable. All in all, the food was fine, but realistically I could have gotten the same menu items from Perkins for one-quarter of the cost, albeit without the wine.

I’ll give ‘em one point for the dessert – which no one at our table was able to exactly identify, but it came closest to chocolate cheesecake embellished with whipped cream.

The best moment of the evening was the opening prayer, including a request that we let go of our entitlement mindset and focus on giving. Appropriate words for any time.