I figured something out about the AdvCap replay events... playing through replay events awards free Time Warp tokens that can be hoarded, presumably to spend en masse in a later event to help break into higher ranking tiers. My unthinking impulse has been to spend them during each event, once I unlock all the usual unlocks and upgrades, to unlock more MegaBuck exchanges. But at my stage of play, I've gilded all the Earth, Moon and Mars investments I'm ever going to - cashing a Time Warp to gain another MegaBuck or two is meaningless.

Friday or so, I chanced across an article about the most popular restaurant chains in the nation. Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE) led the pack with more than double the popularity of the next contender: Texas Roadhouse, followed by Olive Garden. The article spelled out CAKE's winning formula: anchored by its dessert fame, they're free to rotate and tweak the menu to incorporate seasonal and general culinary fashion trends, and claim "something for everyone". I would not turn down free CAKE but it feels overpriced and not really all that gourmet to me. Less presentation and more manageable portioning would suit me fine. And the Olive Garden draw-in concept always struck me as terribly boring: AYCE salad, soup, breadsticks, pasta, but no meat. Basically just the filling carb-loading stuff that Mom told you NOT to load up on while you were waiting for your entree when the family went to nice restaurants when you were a kid. If you want a meat entree, the entry level is over $15 for something basic like chx parmigiana. Yawn.

I'd never been to Texas Roadhouse, and I don't gravitate to steak often, so I thought for my birthday it'd be interesting to try. The beer selection was non-crafty, which I suppose is to be expected from a corporate chain. We got the combo appetizer, everything was pretty good except the Rattlesnake Bites which were great. I had the 8oz sirloin + ribs combo. The ribs wow'ed me. She got 6oz sirloin with shrooms onions + chz, which wow'ed her. Comparing her steak to mine, hers was thicker and perfectly pink in the middle, mine was flat and not pink at all in the middle, so we suspect hers got upgraded or mine was fumbled. But it was all good, I'm not complaining. There will be a next time. It will probably involve ribs.