Mongolian BBQ & Tips

Over on Tesh's Blog a culinary discovery led to him making a comparison between Mongolian BBQ and MMOs, which I promptly rerailed into a rant on Tipping.

If you're not aware, Mongolian BBQ is where you start out by grabbing a bowl (that's you, personally, who grabs the bowl) and filling it (usually to overflowing) with your choice of ingredients. You pay the cashier who takes the bowl and hands it off to the cook (sometimes they're the same person) who empties the bowl onto a large (very large) hotplate, stirs the mixture with over-sized chopsticks until the food is hot and any meat ingredients are cooked, before scraping it off into a second bowl which he hands over to you.

At some point I guess you're supposed to drop a dollar into the Tips jar, conspicuously placed on the counter next to where you're standing waiting for your food.

But why?

What service have you been provided that warrants a Tip?

Not only have the cashier and cook done nothing more than some other fast food places, they've actually done less.

You yourself "took" your own order by gathering together the desired ingredients. And while the staff had to put the food items out for you to be able to do that, but they did no more than the servers at Quiznos or Baja Fresh, who keep the salsa & condiment bar stocked with fixings.

All the cashier did was ring up your transaction, just like the cashiers at every other Fast Food establishment.

All the cook did was cook/heat up your food, and while he did so right there in front of you, he did nothing more than the guy at The Steak Escape who cooks your cheesesteak sandwich right in front of you.

Do you leave a Tip at Quiznos, Baja Fresh, or The Steak Escape? I don't. Why should I?

Now don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't believe in Tipping, because I do IF the service warrants it.

The waitress at Leroys? She takes my order, brings me coffee, refills my cup, brings me more creamer if I run out, and checks if I need anything, homemade salsa or marmalade, napkins, etc. She takes care of me. She works for, earns, and deserves her tip.

But the guys at Mongolian BBQ? What did they do to earn a Tip? What did they do above and beyond every other Fast Food place that makes them so special that they deserve a Tip? Merely working in the service industry does not warrant being Tipped. Just because you made my lunch does not warrant being Tipped. In my opinion if you want a Tip, you have to earn it.

Now maybe I'm wrong here, but if so, explain how.

Explain to me why I should leave a Tip at Mongolian BBQ, but not at Quiznos, The Steak Escape, and Baja Fresh?

What about McDonalds? Shouldn't I Tip them? Because let's be honest here, the staff at McDonalds do more to enhance my dining experience than the staff at my local Mongolian BBQ.
McDonalds provide me with a clean restroom, Mongolian BBQ doesn't.
McDonalds prepare my food for me. I have to do that myself at Mongolian BBQ.
McDonalds provide me with tables & chairs, which they keep clean; Mongolian BBQ don't.
McDonalds provide my kids with a place to play so I can relax and begin slipping into a food coma. Mongolian BBQ don't do that.

What does Mongolian BBQ do that their staff deserve to be Tipped?

Beef Brisket

After spending a day at the beach in San Diego we stopped at Kula Sushi in Irvine for dinner, then decided to hit the Korean market next door. While I was looking at the beef briskets Liz asked me if I knew how to cook it. "No," I said, resignedly placing the packet back into the refrigerator. But just as we moved on impulse hit me and I grabbed it back out and threw it in the cart.

Back home I wondered "Just how does one cook a beef brisket?" so I decided to hit up someone I was pretty sure would know. The Man came through, suggesting that because my cut was the Flat (lacking the layer of fat along one side) I should do a beer marinate to keep it tender while cooking (the role the layer of fat normally plays when one barbecues a brisket). He also recommended I slow cook this cut in the oven, covered or wrapped in foil, to keep it tender.

Alternatively, if I didn't mind a tougher cut, I could still marinate it and barbecue, but glaze it, and glaze it, and glaze it some more. That sounded like a lot more work than I was prepared to do. Not that I'm not afraid to stand out over the barbecue, tongs in one hand, beer in the other, but I'm rather partial to the "slap it in the slow cooker and forget about it until the house smell delicious and you start drooling" method of cooking.

Of course a beer marinate is not as simple as it sounds. What kind of beer are we talking about here? Lager? Ale? Draught? Bitter? Stout? It turns out Guinness is one of the most preferred beers to use as a marinate, as are English ales. Problem is my house currently has no beer, but we'll probably go shopping later so at least now I know one of the things we'll be looking out for. I also now know how to cook a brisket, but more importantly, how to shop for one. Thanks Daniel!

How to turn Ramen into Nomen

As in Nom-nom-NOMen (no, not "No-Men" :P) and thanks to TJ for coming up with that awesome name.

Take some grilled chicken. Or fried chicken, either works. (or raw chicken, but you'll need to grill/fry it first. Just get some cooked chicken somehow) You'll need about 1 breast's worth, or the meat from two drums, or the meat from two wings plus some other bits from some other part of the chicken (just as long as they're edible). Chop chicken up into bite-sized pieces. No, smaller; your mouth's not that big. Actually it is, but just chop the pieces smaller anyway!

Add cooked chicken (and if it's not cooked, cook it first. Didn't I already say that?) to your 2-cups of water (or however much your Ramen packet recommends. I'm calling it Ramen at the moment because it's not NOMen, not yet) and bring to a boil. If you want you can use chicken broth instead of water but water is cheaper and that's usually why you're buying/eating Ramen.

While water & chicken mixture are coming to a boil take some kielbasa, or your favorite sausage-flavored mystery meat product, and chop into bite-sized pieces. Didn't I say smaller? I like to quarter my kielbasa, then cut each length into 1/4" to 1/2" segments, but that's just me. Fry/brown pieces in a frying pan and when done (whenever you think they're done. I like my kielbasa almost blackened for that extra smoky flavor), place on paper towel and set aside to drain.

When water has come to a boil add Ramen (I told you. It's still only Ramen at this point. It's not NOMen yet!) and one egg, uncooked (unless you can't stand egg, or are allergic, in which case don't add it). Now keep an eye on it because unlike ordinary Ramen, NOMen has a tendency to boil over if you're not watching it.

If kielbasa (or similar sausage-flavored treat) has drained to your liking (and are you really that picky? You bought Ramen for Pete's sake!) add to NOMen, along with contents of flavoring packet, and...one slice of cheese. Feel free to omit most of these ingredients if you want, just realize it's not real NOMen if it's only noodles & flavored water.

Boil NOMen for 3 minutes, stirring and watching to make sure it doesn't boil over (and it will if you're not watching it), then carefully pour into a large bowl big enough to hold it all (or eat it straight from the saucepan if that's how you roll. Your house, your rules.)

And that is how you make NOMen. Enjoy!

Anatomically correct balloon characters

Saturday was a hectic day, starting off with a pancake breakfast hosted by one of the local Fire Departments. As the Boy Scouts were assisting at the breakfast by bussing the tables we turned up as early as we could (about 8:30am), enjoyed our breakfast, then sent JE off to bus tables with a couple of his friends. The Bunny and I then lined up so she could don a Fire Fighter's (plastic) Helmet & (a kid-sized) Fire Fighter's jacket, then run through a smaller version of a Fire Fighter's Obstacle course. Everything from running out the hose to stacking coiled hoses, and even a turn with the Fire Hose (aided by a volunteer) to put out a burning building (a wooden cutout with three knockdown "flames" in the windows).

After breakfast we left Liz at the nearby Mall to return some things she bought last time (& buy some more things so she'll have something to return next time) then JE & I took the Bunny to her Ballet Class. After Ballet we called Liz to let her know we were done, then we picked her up and headed off to JE's golf lesson at the Brookside Country Club, located next to Pasadena's Rose Bowl. The Soccer Fields next to the Rose Bowl were packed with families like they always are, and having arrived almost half an hour early we decided to take a short walk partway around the Rose Bowl.

At our turn around point we came across an R/C club, where one talented chap was making his R/C Helicopter dance around the parking lot. Upside-down, sideways, loop the loop, this guy made his R/C Helicopter do things no real helicopter can do (except maybe one ;)

After Golf Lessons were over we decided to stop at Pasadena's 2-story Target where I kept the Bunny occupied with a Jack in the Box toy that she popped out of its box time & time again. By the time we finally made it home later that afternoon we were all ready for naps.

Sunday I was up bright & early when the dog decided she wanted out of her cage, so I fed her, put her outside, had a shower, then with the Bunny still asleep the boy and I headed off to Church, where he patiently sat through the extra long Communion Service. Being the earlier (8am) service there was no Sunday School so the boy did pretty good to sit through the whole service (although he did have a little help ;)

Back home we barely had a chance to sit down when we were off again to Taps Fishhouse & Brewery in Brea to partake of their Sunday Brunch. For $25 a head you get a brunch that not only compares favorably to others of which I've partaken (proper English sentence structure FTW!) but is cheaper, to boot! That $25 also includes all the champagne/mimosa you wish to imbibe, or two real pints (not those bloody metric things) of any of their house beers. I started with their Cream Ale which went quite well with not only the Brie, Blue, and Camembert cheese platter I made for myself, but the "Carnivore" Omelet I ordered (no prizes for guessing the ingredients in an Omelet with that name). By the time I'd washed all that down I was ready for my second beer and desert, but what beer goes well with sweet deserts? Oddly enough, an Irish Red complimented the Banana Cheese Blintz perfectly, so I had two. Blintz that is, not beers. Actually I had a Blueberry Cheese Blintz as well, so, counting the Cream Ale that makes 3 Blintz and 2 Beers :P

The trip home took us past Ikea, so we stopped there to walk off some of our brunch. We also got some ideas for re-organizing the kids' rooms. Someone is going to be busy on his next RDO. Finally we made it home and another weekend slowly wound down.

Whoops. Forgot the very reason for the title of this entry. At Taps was a young lady making Balloon Critters, so the kids stopped by and got a balloon critter each. The Bunny went with Sleeping Beauty, while the boy got a dog. Check out the attention to detail in putting these things together. (Click for bigger view).

$100 Starbucks Card

For quite a few months now the folks at my local Starbucks have been after my Starbucks Card. When I make the purchase which brings its balance down to $0, I have to ask for it back.

"Oh, you want it back?" they say, as if people frequently burn them down then just reload a new one.

I do get a new card when they come out with them, but they all go in The Drawer at home, this particular card I've been using for a couple of years now.

Then today, the cashier asked if he could have it when I'm finished with it.

I told him when it's empty I just reload it.

He then offered me $100 for it.

I looked at him. "I might take you up on that," I said to him, "if I thought you were serious."

"I am serious," he replied. "I spend more than that on shoes."

"$100 for my card," I repeated. "I guess it would give you bragging rights. I know you all have been after my card for months."

He laughed and mimed flashing my card around at the other 'Bucks employees. Apparently it's the same style card that you get from Seattle, which you can no longer get down here in California.

"When I get paid," he said, "in two weeks time. Think about it."

I am thinking about it. One hundred dollars for my Starbucks card. And he'll be getting it empty, of course, or at least with a very low balance.

I guess it's time to look through The Drawer, and find my new Starbucks Card :P

Griddle Cafe

With Monday being Columbus Day and a Public Holiday, at least for me, Liz decided we would have breakfast at The Griddle Cafe. After dropping the kids at school (JE wasn't too happy that he had to go to school when Dad wasn't going to work) we jumped on the Freeway and headed for West Hollywood. We had an interesting conversation on the way about if North Hollywood has been dubbed NoHo, does that mean West Hollywood should be called WeeHo? Liz disagreed, and also said she thought NoHo sounds silly, too. I asked "What about Soho?", which totally confused her.

We found The Griddle Cafe fairly easily (south side of Sunset, just west of Fairfax) and pulled into Hayworth Ave. where we found street parking at 25c/hour. Not bad for that part of town. The Griddle Cafe has tables on the sidewalk out front but even at 9:30am on a warmish Fall morning nobody was sitting outside. All the customers were inside, where just a couple of tables were free.

The greeter waved us further inside with a "sit anywhere, I could care less" attitude. Almost as an afterthought he handed me two menus. We sat ourselves down at a cozy (small) table-for-two and I handed Liz her menu. I thought Liz wanted pancakes so I chose the "Addicted to Noiselle" Stuffed French Toast, then Liz said she wanted Eggs and was going to order a Manhattan Frittata, so I switched my order to the BLUESBerry Pancakes. They came with Blueberry-laced Sour Cream and weren't too bad, but the portion was so large (and doughy) that as hungry as I was, I barely ate half of the three very large blueberry-stuffed pancakes.

Liz's Manhattan Frittata wasn't too bad but she couldn't finish it either. I needed protein, not just empty carbs, so I polished off the last of her ham steak and we took the rest of the pancakes home.

The coffee comes served in a 6-cup French Press and was pretty good, although the waitress was slow bringing out the cream. When it arrived I was glad she brought two little jugs because one of them had little black bits of something floating in it. I don't mind little black bits of something floating in my coffee, but I'm not too keen on little black bits of something floating in my creamer.

Although the triple-stack serving of pancakes is huge, I'm not quite sure they were worth the $10 price tag. Liz's Manhattan was also $10 though, so that's not too bad. We got out of there for $30+tip, which is a little more than I like to spend on breakfast, even for two, especially at what amounts to (in my opinion) nothing more than a rather pretentious diner.

Overall, given the neighborhood in which it's located, I'd give The Griddle Cafe 2 stars out of 5.

Now given my druthers, I'd rather eat at Le Roy's on Huntington in Monrovia, where a very hearty breakfast for two is more likely to weigh in under $25, including tip, and where I can get some of the tastiest and crunchiest Tater Tots this side of the Pecos.

Le Roy's has their own parking lot (which they share with a neighboring mechanic) so parking is free but limited; it fills up quickly when they're busy, which they usually are as it's a popular spot with the locals. Besides being small, the parking lot is also hard to navigate in anything much larger than a sedan, but street parking is also available, sometimes right out front if you get lucky. That said, if you get there early, or don't mind a wait, or don't mind rubbing shoulders with your neighbor at the counter or a communal table, Le Roy's is a good place to go to get a hearty, home-style breakfast at a reasonable price.

The warm welcome from the staff at Le Roy's is also more convincing than the display put on by the lack luster greeter at The Griddle Cafe. If you go during the week and you can wait until after 8:30 to 9am, you should be able to just walk in and sit down. Go during prime breakfast time, or on a weekend, or just turn up without your full party, and you can expect a wait, but it's a wait worth bearing.

Sushi, Asahi, and Karaoke

Not having seen Xinh or Natey for a while, we made arrangements to hang out with them this past Saturday night. Natey had been talking about a sushi restaurant he frequents where he doesn't so much order sushi as tell the Sushi Chef "surprise me," and Liz was keen to try it out.

After settling in at the sushi bar and placing a couple of orders (I ordered Jalapeno rolls: Jalapeno, Crab meat, avocado, cream cheese - fried then drizzled with Eel Sauce) for some reason the waitress wanted us to move to the end of the sushi bar, so we obliged her, picked up our chopsticks and wasabe and relocated.

The Sushi Chef asked us what we'd like. "Surprise us!" I shouted, over the karaoke machine and the girl doing quite a good job on a Celine Dion song. "No octopus!" shouted Liz.

"What did you order?" asked Natey.

"We said 'Surprise us'," I said.

"That can get expensive," said Natey.

It actually wasn't too bad, but as Natey eats there a lot he is pretty sure the Chef comp'd us a couple of dishes. It probably also helped that this Gaijin was enthusiastically eating everything he put in front of us. There's nothing like a very happy & appreciative customer to make you pleased with your career choice.

Did I mention the karaoke machine? When we entered, the girl doing a very good (albeit somewhat nasal) job of singing Celine Dion was actually a young, teenage girl eating there with her parents. After she sang a few songs Dad got up to sing, and it was immediately apparent that she didn't get her voice from Dad. When Mom got up to sing my suspicions were confirmed. Mom could sing, Dad could not. I applauded them both, anyway. Even the truly dreadful singers need to be applauded for doing Karaoke, if for nothing more than having the balls to actually get up and sing in front of a bunch of strangers.

I'd asked the waitress if they had a song list I could peruse. They didn't. If I wanted to sing, I had to get up on the stage. The guy running the karaoke machine was pretty good himself, at both singing and playing guitar, although we did notice he seemed to be singing the wrong words every now and then. I discovered (when it was my turn) that it was because he had an Asian karaoke machine, and the lyrics had been entered by someone for which English is not their first language. Lucky I know many Beatles' songs by heart, because there were one or two words that weren't quite correct. I belted out a trio of Beatles' songs then plopped back into my seat at the sushi bar.

But the fun didn't end there. The food kept coming, the conversation flowed like Asahi, and every now & then I'd jump back up on stage to sing another song or two. As well as the first family another woman and another guy also took their turn singing. We were there for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, and we had a great time...perhaps I had an even better time than Liz, Xinh, & Natey, or maybe they enjoyed my singing as much as I did :D

As we'd never been to Natey's house before, we popped in before heading home and got the midnight tour. The previous owners had obviously done a bit of renovation, converting one of the bedrooms into a massive closet/storage area accessible off Natey's bedroom (the master bedroom). With a little bit of work he could actually convert it into a secret room and nobody would know it was there...except that I've gone and blabbed about it :P

Xinh took video footage of my karaoke efforts, and she promised to email them to me. She said she'd prefer I put them up on Youtube, that way I can't get mad at her for doing it :P I'm guessing she had a busy day today, because I haven't seen the videos nor has she updated her blog, yet ;)

A stuffed weekend

Liz and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Friday, April 25th. We went out for sushi at Maki & Sushi in Arcadia, the in-laws treated us. Why does the second cup of Sake taste soooo much better than the first? And the third tastes even better still?

The kids went home with the in-laws and Liz and I hit the Starbucks next door where Liz discovered that good things really can come in small packages when she ordered a Short White Chocolate Mocha. We then stopped at Target and picked up a few snacks and goodies, for Amber's school and in preparation for Saturday night.

At home we watched Night Watch. Don't take it too seriously and it's quite an enjoyable movie. Some very clever special effects, interesting storyline. The Night Watch are the alleged 'good guys', the Day Watch are the alleged 'bad guys', but we get the feeling that things are not that cut & dried when we see a Night Watch patrol first mock a Day Watch patrol, then threaten to drive over the DW patrol's car with their truck. Day Watch (the movie) should be arriving within a day or so, and with the way Night Watch ended Liz and I are both looking forward to seeing what happens in Day Watch.

Saturday arvo we picked up JE and took him to Baseball. The kids were pitching for the first time this game (instead of using the pitching machine) and they didn't do too bad. There were a few wild pitches but nobody got hit; the kids were pretty good at dodging :D They were also allowed to steal Second Base, but only Second; no stealing Third or Home. It was a bloody hot day and by the time the last kid was struck out it was 3pm and my shirt was almost wet through. I left Liz at the Snack Shack where she was working and dropped JE with the in-laws; Liz called me shortly after, she was done with Snack Shack duties and was already on her way home where Xinh was waiting for us.

I made it home by 3:30 or so, had a quick shower and off we went to the Sports Arena (near USC) for the filming of Gladiator. Our tickets said to arrive no later than 5pm, we were there a little after 4pm and were admitted shortly after 4:30, after signing the NDA. The funny thing with NDAs is while they restrict your right to talk about what you see, they don't say anything about not talking about what you didn't see, so let's talk about what we didn't see :D

We were at a taping of American Gladiator but we didn't see any Gladiators, because we didn't watch any of the events where the challengers go up against the Gladiators. Notice I have not told you what we did see, only what we didn't see, and that's not a breach of the NDA ;) Now in knowing what we didn't see, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what we did see, but I can't tell you what we did see because that would be a violation of the NDA :D

After leaving the Sports Arena and heading home we decided to dine at the Denny's close by our house; it being one of the few dining establishments still open at 10pm where they don't ask you "Would you like Fries with that?"

We ordered a plate of Nachos to share (very, very good Nachos) I also ordered a Boca Burger and a Chocolate Shake. I finished the Shake, the Boca Burger, some of my fries, and between us we ate almost the entire plate of Nachos. I was stuffed! We sat there chatting and picking at the Nachos until Xinh wisely covered them with her napkin. We were stuffed full but with Nachos still on the plate we felt compelled to eat them, until Xinh covered them and declared them 'dead'. It was almost 11:30 by the time we got home. Liz stayed up, claiming she couldn't go to sleep on a full stomach. I don't have that problem and was asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

Sunday was my office's 'March of Dimes' Fund Raiser, in the form of a Bowling Tournament. We picked up JE from the in-laws and a-bowling we did go. JE came second among the kids. Among the adults we had a couple of guys who brought their own balls...and shoes. They were able to do clever things with the ball, like throw it towards the gutter but get it to spin back into the center of the lane and knock down all the pins, and they could do this almost all the time. Pretty clever. For being a kid JE got to pick a couple of books from the assortment brought by the organizers. It cost us $62.50 which was two games each and all the pizza & soda we could eat & drink, plus JE got himself two new books. Not bad for an afternoon of fun and fellowship with family and coworkers, and all for a good cause, too.

When we got home I showed JE Ninja Gaiden:Dragon Sword for the DS. He thought it was pretty cool. It's a video game with Ninjas, what more could a 7-year old ask for? I left him playing Ninja Gaiden and went upstairs, where I fired up the Wii and began playing the latest incarnation of Mario Kart. I got busted when JE came up for help with Ninja Gaiden. We played some two player and I was disappointed to see that the two-player Grand Prix option is not in the Wii version. In almost every other version of Mark Kart that I've played two people can play together and race in the cups and unlock extra content. In the Wii version you can still do a Grand Prix of sorts, but it's not the official Grand Prix so winning won't unlock any extra content.

For a two-day weekend we sure packed in a lot of fun.

A lunch date

According to Xinh's Rules of Dating, it was just lunch, coz there was no activity before or after the the meal :)

Normally lunchtimes find me in the lunchroom with my coworkers, but today almost everyone was out of the office. I had a coffee bill to pay so I seized the opportunity to go to the bank on my lunch break. I was amazed to discover the bank was practically empty, especially as it was high noon, and within minutes of walking in the door I was heading back outside, wondering where to go for lunch. I decided seeing as I was free, I'd give Natey a call and when he answered it sounded like I'd woken him up but he said he was in downtown and he was available for lunch. He also works a few block from my office so I recommended a South American place (actually El Salvadorean) on Olympic & Hill where I'd eaten a few times before. Natey said he knew of it but had never eaten there, but he was willing to give it a try.

For about $10 we each got a HUGE plate of food and two papusas, although after finishing our plates we were only just able to get down one papusa each, which we used to wipe clean our plates. Oh, $10 included Iced Tea as well.

I don't know the name of the place, but if you're ever in downtown Los Angeles and are looking for a feed that won't break the bank, and you're rather partial to semi-authentic El Salvadorean food (or Central/South American in general), look for the restaurant on the south-west corner of Olympic & Hill.

Tap's Fish House & Brewery

Today Liz and I made our way to Brea for brunch at Tap's Fish House & Brewery. I was surprised when I got there to discover they offer not just the traditional Champagne Brunch, but a Beer Brunch as well. You all know what a Champagne Brunch is, well, a Beer Brunch is pretty much the same, just you get to sample two 16oz glasses of one (or two) of Tap's fine microbrews. Per our server's suggestion I ordered the Cream Ale, a light-bodied beer which was very easy on the palate, and disappeared very quickly when I made myself a cheese plate from the various cheeses available. The surprising taste was the bleu cheese which had a very strong, distinct flavor; it practically exploded in my mouth, and exploded out of Liz's when I gave her a small taste. No sir, she didn't like it. She also didn't like the Pumpkin Ale, my second beer of choice. I don't know how to describe the flavor of the Pumpkin Beer, which Tap's describes as "a medium-bodied ale made with 100 pounds of fresh pumpkins and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice." They don't get the 100 pounds of pumpkin into each glass, but each glass sure does pack a lot of flavor. I ended up stuffing myself so much (the beer didn't help) that I told Liz we weren't going to the Brea Mall straight away, so we took a stroll around the shopping center across from Tap's instead, and that helped settle everything :)

Then we went to the Brea Mall, and that's pretty much the last time I set foot in a mall until at least the second week in January. Having worked in two malls for two Christmases, they're the last place I want to be between Thanksgiving and New Years. Not enough parking spots, too many people, not enough tables in the food court...so I'm doing my part to reduce the crush by staying out of them. The problem is Liz saw a Toys-R-Us catalog with a "Buy 2, get 1 Free" special on Wii games, so I think we're heading to our local Toys-R-Us tomorrow night. Monday night at a very small open-air mall, it shouldn't be too bad.

The problem will be buying three Wii games and not letting JE play them until the weekend, or Thanksgiving at least. Actually the problem will be buying three Wii games, period. We already have Mario Galaxy, Zelda:Twilight Princess, and Guitar Hero3. There's not too much else out there (that I know of) that's worth spending $50 to $60 on.

*edit* except I just found out that Link's Crossbow Training AND Ghost Squad both come out tomorrow, and both games can be picked up for around $50+tax. Bargain! One more game and Link's Crossbow Training (cheapest game at $20) is free!

The Mediterranean

After bumming around most of Saturday we decided to do dinner at the Mediterranean Garden Grill in Monrovia. I'd got take-out lunch from there before, and the food was pretty good, and somehow Liz and I were thinking of the same place so that was where we went. We really should have known better, at 7:30 on a Saturday night, but this is Monrovia we're talking about; the place is practically dead after 5pm on a Friday, except as we drove up Myrtle the old town still showed signs of life. The movie theater had people milling around outside, cafes and restaurants were jumping, and even some of Monrovia's small-town speciality stores had their doors open.When we turned on to Foothill and approached the Mediterranean we didn't realize it was the happening place to be in Monrovia on a Saturday night. We pulled into the parking lot, drove around the back of the building, and exited the other side. The lot was full (then again, it's a small lot) so we ended up parking on a side-street. Back to the restaurant we were told it would be about a 15 minute wait. Not too bad for a Saturday night, even in Monrovia.

The thing that got to us, and what really got to the couple ahead of us, was the apparently flagrant display of nepotism going on. A customer would walk up and the owner would greet him in a typical European fashion with kisses on the cheeks, followed by a very friendly conversation in Armenian or Greek or some language other than English. And shortly afterwards this guest and his party would be seated, while we waited outside. The couple in front of us eventually gave up and stormed off and I hardly blamed them, although it meant our wait was shortened so I was also happy to see them go ;)

It was close to a 45-minute wait before we were seated. Really, we should have known better. It's a Saturday night and we were there at 7:30 looking for table. Almost every restaurant worth eating at is going to have a long wait on a Saturday night. Next time we're either going at 6pm, or waiting until 8:30 or later. There also wasn't really any nepotism, just a lot of camaraderie among countrymen, and an owner wanting to try to get everyone seated. So he was seating parties of four ahead of couples, because he knew a slightly larger party that was occupying several tables pushed together would be done eating soon, so he could seat the party of four now, and in 10 minutes when the larger party leaves he can seat the three couples. It all makes perfect sense, except when you're waiting for a table :P

So our food finally arrived and we'd ordered the Dinner Combo for Two, which was the same dish the couple next to us had ordered, being two younger guys (in their 20s) with their toddler son (ok, he was one of their sons and probably the other's nephew...maybe, and even if it's something else there's nothing wrong with that ;). They ate their fill then called for boxes and ended up taking a lot of food home. Liz and I devoured pretty much everything between us, then finished up the evening with a serving of Ashta and a Baklava chased down with an Armenian Coffee, which comes served in a thimble not unlike an Espresso (which, contrary to popular belief, does not need to be drunk in one hit like a shot of liquor, although it must still be drunk within a couple of minutes of brewing or its individual components break down and it loses its flavor).

Just as we were leaving a couple of Hookahs were delivered to the party a couple of tables over from us. The interesting thing about the Mediterranean Garden Grill is its quasi-outdoor setting. Although you're surrounded by four walls and a ceiling, the windows are kept wide open and I think the owner has somehow got it classified as an outdoor restaurant. I'm assuming it's legal for diners to smoke cigarettes, cigars, or Hookahs, which can be rented from the restaurant for an after-dinner smoke, or it wouldn't be happening, right ;)

That night we finally got to enjoy an extra hour in bed as Daylight Saving Time officially ended, but we were still up somewhat early because we needed to go to LAX to pick up Liz's aunty, who was flying in from Chicago. We dropped her luggage at the in-laws' house then met up with the in-laws themselves (& our kids) at a local Shanghainese-style restaurant for lunch. I've been to this restaurant a couple of times now, and it drives me nuts, because their A/C fan is not balanced properly. It doesn't seem to affect anyone else but me, but the imbalance makes it oscillate at a particularly annoying rate which ends up giving me a headache. Last time we sat at the table in the center of the restaurant, and it was free when we walked in, and the waitress tried to show us to that table as well, instead I said I wanted to sit at the other empty table against the window. The vibrating fan was still audible, but not as intrusive as at the other table, so I was able to concentrate more on enjoying the delicious food, of which there was plenty. My dish of choice was Orange Beef, which came with several chili peppers that I managed to pick out. I thought I got them all but Liz's Aunty still found one. Lucky she had a glass of water, although milk or beer is better for putting out a chili fire. The in-laws had brought milk for the kids, but the kids had drunk it all :D

JE went home with Aunty and the in-laws, while we took Amber home for her nap. Liz decided she wanted a nap, too, and after a bit of fuss & bother and threatening to put her in her own bed, Amber finally fell asleep beside her Mommy. The house is so much more peaceful when they're all asleep :)

Waiting for Kimmel

The more correct title would be "Waiting for Rimes" as it was LeAnn Rimes holding up the show, but Waiting for Rimes doesn't have the same ring to it as Waiting for Kimmel.

Around 3:50 we headed over to the El Monte Bus Station where we caught a 484 bus to Union Station, followed by a ride on a Red Line Train out to Hollywood & Highland and the El Capitan Theatre. The eTicket told us the doors would open at 5:30, so we were in line and waiting around 5pm. Sometime between then and 5:30pm a staff member told us the egotistical diva known as LeAnn Rimes had arrived late (don't ask me how when she drives a Dodge Viper) and she wanted to practice her songs so we were forced to wait some more. It was almost 6:30pm when the doors finally opened and the line started to move, and it was 7pm by the time we'd been seated and Jimmy made his first appearance. I must admit, for a 1-hour show, I was seriously impressed that Jimmy managed to get the job done, interviews completed, etc, in about one hour. Nice work, Jimmy.

With the show over shortly after 8pm, and with the El Capitan being right across the road from the Hollywood & Highland station we managed to catch the 8:22 back into downtown, where we waited for our 484, and waited, and waited, in the cold, at the entrance to the Freeway, wearing not much more than jeans and light, short-sleeved shirts. For me, an ex-pat Aussie and former Victorian, it was nice, cool but nice. For Liz, a long time southern California resident, it was particularly chilly. We saved a few dollars on parking and wear & tear on our car by taking public transport, which cost us $6.25 total (for Liz, I already have my Metro pass for getting to work & back). Tickets for Jimmy's show were free, just in high demand, so we were lucky that Liz was able to get them.

We finished off the night with a late supper at the Red Ant, a local Chinese restaurant (somewhere on Valley Blvd. in Temple City) where you get a large portion of quite good food for a fairly decent price. For $20+change we were both fed to bursting, with food left over. All in all, it was a rather good evening.

Shop 'til you drop.

After dropping JE at school on Friday I returned home, only to head out again a couple of hours later with Liz for Dim Sum. Although 888 in Temple City has become our favorite Dim Sum restaurant I was not overly impressed this time around. But as Liz said it's probably because I didn't finish the meal with my favorite pastry, because there were none. The dessert cart went around a few times but with a very limited selection, then got parked near the kitchen and the server disappeared. Finally a lady emerged from the kitchen with a tray of small, freshly baked tarts, but she proceeded to go the long way around the room and we watched as one table then another took a plate or two. Finally Liz snared a waiter and told him we wanted some of the egg tarts, so he practically dragged the server across to our table, but not before another table took the second last plate.

We decided we won't do Dim Sum on a weekday any more; weekends are a lot busier, but the food selection is far greater.

We dropped the bunny with the FIL for her nap, did a spot of shopping, then stopped for Boba Milk Tea, where the servers forgot to put the Boba in Liz's Milk Tea. Then we picked up the boy from school, got him a haircut and dropped him with the FIL as well. Then we went shopping, again, before winding up at Maki Sushi for dinner where we ate way too much food. I ordered a Fried Spicy Tuna Roll. This is twice I've ordered a fried "sushi" roll and to be honest, I'm not too impressed. It was tasty but the sushi becomes a lot "heavier" in being fried. I also ordered a dinner combo with a Philadelphia Roll and Teriyaki Chicken, while Liz ordered a plate of sashimi. With all of this following on the heels of two bowls of Miso soup and a salad that meant we were pretty well stuffed. Overstuffed, even. So we went to the local Trader Joe's to do yet more shopping, but for groceries this time. It really hit home now why they say never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I've done that before and you want to buy everything. But the reverse works, too. With a full tummy I looked at all the food and I didn't want to buy anything. But just walking around instead of sitting down like sedentary lumps felt good, and after buying some milk and a couple of other things we wandered into the Marshall's next door...where Liz did not buy a thing! Yeah, I know. That surprised me, too.

Saturday we pretty much bummed around the house until it was time to head down to the O.C. to visit our friend Susan for dinner and a games night. We also met Susan's boyfriend Lazlo for the first time, and our (almost) first conversation went something like this:

Lazlo: What would you like?
Me: Whatever it is that smells good.
Lazlo: That would be me.
Me: I need to get a bit more drunk first.

And I did...














...but the drunken tryst never happened :D

We played a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples, then Natey set up his Wii and we played Mario Party. After that Drew and I played a game of Wii-Baseball that Drew won, 3 runs to zip (I hit a triple but couldn't get the runner home). Then we played a few games of Wii-Bowling, and after I bowled a 200+ game we decided to create a Wii-Me of me. We had two more games after that (with me using my Wii-me) and I still bowled pretty well but didn't break 200 again. I bowled 5 Strikes in a row to get that double century.

We made it home around 3:15 Sunday morning but before going to bed I logged on to SigAlert.com to check out why the I-10 ramp off the 605 was closed. Which is how I found out that just before 3am there'd been an accident on the 605 at the 90. It had to have happened within minutes of us driving through that interchange.

5 hours later I woke up, then nudged Liz awake and told her to call her parents and let them know we weren't picking up the kids that morning like we'd planned. Liz called and spoke to her parents for a few minutes, then hung up and told me we were still picking up the kids because JE had been sick the night before. We picked up both kids and JE ended up throwing up a little in the car on the way home. Lucky the in-laws had given him a "barf bag". Actually a plastic shopping bag, but it worked just the same...maybe even better :)

When the bunny went down for her nap that afternoon Liz went and lay down as well, so I told JE to go lie down, too. He lay on his bed playing his Gameboy but when I checked on him after a few minutes he'd fallen asleep. And the house was quiet :)

For a 3-day weekend it sure has gone by pretty quickly.

A farm? In Los Angeles?

Ok, so it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "A tiger? In Africa?"

Saturday afternoon I dropped the bunny with the Inlaws while picking up JE, then we were off to Wilderness Park where the Cub Scouts were having a BBQ dinner. We had a couple of hikes around the park, through the woods, and down by the river where we saw a toad. Apparently a couple of boys had seen a deer earlier, and we did see lot of tracks, but no more deer. There was a hole in the fence that's supposed to keep nasty animals out and it's not that I'm afraid of bears and mountain lions, ok, maybe I am, so after seeing the large hole in the fence I was glad we weren't camping there overnight.

As we walked back and got closer to the BBQ area we were met by the delicious aroma of barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, and boy, did they smell good and kick our taste buds into overdrive. I ended up having two cheeseburgers, plus two helpings of the peach cobbler cooked in the Dutch Oven over the coals. The hamburgers were delicious but the peach cobbler was just divine!

Afterwards we all headed down to the campfire and toasted Smores. JE had two, I had one, then JE wanted a third but took one bite out of it and learned about the Law of Diminishing Returns. So not wanting to waste food I was forced to eat it. I wasn't feeling too well afterwards :P

Now it's Sunday and we've just returned from a trip up to Forneris Farms in Mission Hills, where they have a 4-acre Corn Maze (no, it's corn, it's not a Maize Maze :P) and a large Pumpkin Patch. We were there again with a few of the Cub Scouts and as we pased through the maze we had to find the 10 tires. With 8 boys looking we found all 10 and were back out within 40 minutes.

On the way home Liz wanted to stop in Pasadena at the Container Store, then we ended up at the Cheesecake Factory for an early(ish) dinner. My attention was caught by a couple two tables over, in particular by the fellow who had all manner of gang-style tattoos over his body, coming up from the neck of his t-shirt, etc. I was amused by the tattoos he had across the knuckles of his hands. "YOUR" on one hand, and "NEXT" on the other. Oh, I so wanted to tempt fate and ask where the apostrophe and E were, but I figured those people who did ask that were probably "next".

After dinner we stopped at Pinkberry's and were not overly impressed with their Green Tea Yoghurt. I thought it was ok, not sweet, in fact a shade on the tart side, which I liked. It complimented the Chocolate Drops and Orio Cookie pieces JE had added to the order. Liz took one bite and refused to eat any more. JE ate a bite, shivered in mock cold (it was a very cool frozen Yoghurt, then concentrated on picking out the choc bits and cookie pieces. So I ended up eating the lot.

We never bought back a pumpkin from the Farm because they were rather expensive, although they were good sized pumpkins, but it's still too early to buy a Jack O' Lantern pumpkin. Maybe next weekend.

A long, wet, and fun weekend

Friday night, after dropping the kids off with the in-laws, Liz and I made our way over to the Vineland Drive-In Movie Theater in the City of Industry to watch the Bourne Ultimatum. All of the weather reporters had been predicting rain & thunder storms but nothing had come down yet, although on our way over we saw a few flashes from down Orange County way so the thunder & lightning were out there.

It's very different to be "standing in line" but sitting in your car, waiting to buy your ticket to enter a Drive-In. There were only two lines going in so we were slowly moving up, bit by bit, when a car pulled up on our left, the passenger door opened, and a girl jumped out and ran up to the ticket window. A minute or so later the girl ran back and got into her car, and a ticket attendant came out of the ticket booth and opened a gate, letting the girl's car through and the one following it. Liz was fuming but calmed down somewhat when the ticket attendant closed the gate and stopped a third car that had come down behind the first two. She gestured at them to go back then ran back into the booth. The temperature in our car raised a little again when it looked like the driver of this car was thinking about trying to cut in front of us, but finally he managed to make a three point U-turn and back he went to the back of the line. The car behind him did the same thing but I think the third car behind them cut in line somewhere behind us.

Something that irritates both Liz and I is people who hold up lines by asking stupid directions, like: Where do I go? What should I tune my radio to?

To complicate matters the Vineland Drive-In does have four screens, one in each corner of the lot, but it also has sign posts, clearly visible while you're sitting in line, showing you what movie is playing on what screen and in which direction you'll find that screen, and it even has signs clearly posted at the front showing you what station to tune your radio to for each movie. But obviously some people still weren't paying attention at all and felt compelled to ask the ticket booth attendants "Where do I go to watch Halloween? What do I tune my radio to? etc, etc, etc."

Finally we got to the booth and I handed over $20 and said Two Adults, please. ($7.50 per adult, kids under 9 are Free!!! Not that the kids were with us.) The attendant said something in return and it took me a second or two to realize she was asking what movie we were here to see, which makes sense, they probably need to keep track of how profitable each movie is as they probably need to pay royalties based on attendance per movie. I said "Bourne Ultimatum", the girl rang us up and as she handed me my change I said to her, "Back behind us on the left, tune in to 91.9, right?" Both her and the other booth attendant happily replied, in unison mind you, "You got it!" It probably makes their day/evening to serve customers who know the routine and don't stop to ask, "Where do I go? What do I tune my radio to?"

I haven't been to a Drive-In for close to 20 years so it was quite fun and very nostalgic for me, and until this night Liz had never been to a Drive-In, ever. Although she's a woman of the world, having lived in several cities in three countries (four if you count six months in Australia) it makes me happy that there are still "firsts" I can do with her. She'd never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show until I stopped on it while channel flipping one evening, and this weekend at the Drive-In was another First that I was able to share with her.

Usually each of the screens at Vineland has a double feature but our screen tonight was a triple header, although it was "Halloween" both before and after "The Bourne Ultimatum". Not overly concerned about watching "Halloween" we made our way out when "The Bourne Ultimatum" was over. I found it amusing that they finally introduced David Webb in the third movie, when he's a huge plot element of all three Ludlum books. Then again, almost the only thing the books and the movies have in common is Jason Bourne. It's very easy to read the books and disassociate them from the movies, treating them as additional adventures in the life of Jason Bourne.

It's a good thing we didn't stay for "Halloween" because the rain finally came down shortly after we got home. I've never been at a Drive-In when it started raining, but I'm thinking it would drastically affect screen visibility.

When I woke up Saturday morning it was quiet...too quiet. I looked at my bedside clock and found a blank face staring back at me. I looked at the VCR and it was blank, too. The power was out. That would explain why it was so quiet; with the power out our air filter wasn't running. I got up and checked my watch and saw it was only 8am. Normally at this time I'd have breakfast then jump into Azeroth and get in some uninterrupted WoW-time, but we had no power, so WoW was not gonna happen. But I still needed to eat breakfast so I could take my antibiotic (to treat a Sinus Infection I've come down with) so I had breakfast, called the El Monte P.D. to ask about the power situation and got SoCal Edison's number. When I called SCE I got a recorded message telling me the power had been out since 4:30am but they expected it restored by 1pm. So I crawled back in to bed and snuggled up next to Liz, and went back to sleep.

An hour or two later we were woken up by people talking outside. It was the HOA President talking to another resident but Liz couldn't quite understand them. I knew what they were talking about, though; how to get our front gate open without power. They worked it out because when Liz and I went outside the gate was sitting wide open. Lucky my car is parked outside because our garage door is electric as well, although I'm sure there's some way to manually open and close it so we probably could have got Liz's car out if we'd really needed to.

We went to Liz's hairdresser first so she could get her hair done then we hit the local Norm's for second breakfast/lunch. It was pretty busy and when two seats opened up at the end of the counter I told Liz we should sit there instead of waiting for a table, so we did. I told the host we were sitting at the counter and gave her our name so she could cross us off the list of those waiting for tables, but she only remembered when another waiter called out our name and she turned to point us out. By that time our food was arriving so I'm glad we sat at the counter because my body needed fuel. I had no idea what my temperature was but it was 99.8 on Wednesday when I went to The Doctor's. Hot bodies need fuel, and mine was Hot. A medium-rare 16oz T-Bone steak, 2 Eggs (over medium), and breakfast potatoes got the job done.

Meanwhile the rain had started pouring down again and Liz was concerned about her hair getting wet on our way back to the car. I gestured to all the customers waiting for a table. I told her nobody was in a hurry for our counter seat (by now there were 8 to 10 counter seats available) so if we had to, we'd sit there drinking coffee until the rain stopped, which I knew it would, and soon, because it had been raining off & on all morning. Sure enough, as I was mopping up the last of my egg yolks the rain slowed down and before we'd paid our bill and made it outside it had stopped completely.

I called SCE and the recorded message had changed. "We expect power to be restored by 4:30pm." The power goes out, and it takes them 12 hours to restore it? Lovely. We went home anyway, planning to restock the fridge at SCE's expense. Hey, if they want to take 12 hours to restore power so the food in our fridge goes bad, they can reimburse us the replacement cost. Nearing home we saw lights on in the 7-11. Down the street there were several security lights on outside people's homes. We swung into the drive and the security gate was closed, but a press of our remote had it sliding it open. Hooray! We had power! We didn't need to take SCE to court to make them pay for our food after all.

We spent the next few hours bumming around the house, which meant WoW for me, and Animal Crossing on the DS for Liz :) With my Guild's help and a friend of a Guildmate we took on the 18 portals of Black Morass, wiped on the 12th Boss, but bounced back and blew through all 18 Bosses without any further incidents. And just like that I and another Guildmate had our Karazhan keys. And just in time to help Raid Sunday afternoon, which I did, but more on that later.

About 6:30, suspecting that rain would have brought out the worst in our fellow L.A. drivers, we left for dinner at the Red Ant, and so it was that by 7:30 we were on our way to the Blu Monkey in Hollywood to celebrate a coworker's birthday. Traffic was so light that we were there by 8pm but the Monkey doesn't open until 9pm. Lucky we spied a Pier 1 Imports so we managed to kill 20 minutes there, and then there was a Ross's down the road which hung out in until right on 9pm, despite it being one of the messiest Ross's I have ever seen...seriously.

While Liz was shopping, knowing my coworker is normally very punctual I texted her and asked if she was going to be there at 9pm. She said she probably would, but that we didn't have to be. I replied that we were right there, killing time in the Ross's just down the road, so we'd see her at 9.

With the Ross's about to start kicking customers out we left then drove across the road to valet park behind the Blu Monkey. We may have been able to stay parked where we were, given there's a 24hr Ralph's supermarket there, but I told Liz I'd rather not risk it. Who wants to leave a club in the middle of the night and find their car has been towed because it was parked in a supermarket parking lot for too long? Not me, that's for sure.

The alley/parking lot behind the Blu Monkey and its neighboring establishments was very dark, with not a single sign to point our way, but the valet had gestured towards the end of the alley so we slowly started down that way. Then we were passed by a guy carrying a case of bottled water. He looked like he knew where he was going so I asked him about the Blu Monkey. He was only its bartender, so of course he did. Yup, they'd barely opened their doors. We followed the bartender in and were their first customers of the evening...almost.

We walked in and there was no sign of Faye. I texted (you know, that word doesn't look like it should sound, I'm going to use txtd from now on :P So I txtd Faye "We're here. You're not. You're late :o" A few minutes later she was walking in the door :D

Having Reserved the Back Room, which is actually at the front of the club, we were a little surprised to see two large platters of food sitting on the two tables there. Two huge plates of empanadas, tiny strawberry trifle cupcakes, and rolled baklava. Along with someone's drink and 1/4 of an empanada (3/4 eaten). Pondering where the food had come from, if it was safe to eat any (I ate a baklava, one of Faye's friends ate a strawberry trifle), Faye's friends cheerfully piped up and said they'd ordered it. "Surprise," they said, but you could tell they weren't responsible.

Then another girl arrived and claimed the food. No, not a coworker nor a friend of Faye's. She was part of a different party. She also claimed she'd Reserved the room we were now sitting in. Faye turned around and looked at this woman and I could tell she'd just gone into combat mode. Faye may look all cute & girly-girl but she's not someone I'd want to mess with. She's a woman who knows what she wants and if you're in her way, she'll roll right over you...or through you. "I Reserved it too," she told this woman who'd dared to challenge her, "and I confirmed it earlier this week."

"We were expecting about 40 people," the woman said.

"I'm expecting 50," said Faye, "maybe more."

Obviously not as dumb as she looked the woman quickly backed down, so we graciously helped move her plates of food to the other end of the club. Some time during the next hour we found Faye's Reservation sign in one corner of our room, buried beneath some cushions. Nice try, silly woman.

It's been a long time since I went clubbing...a long time ago, in a country far, far away :P

We had a really great night without drinking too much, although the three Heinekens I did drink had me burping more than I usually do, and the pepper steak dinner I'd had at the Red Ant did not make for pleasant-smelling burps. Liz was being critical of me burping up a storm, until she made a burp of her own and it wasn't particularly nasal friendly, either ;)

Not being as young as we once were we Cindarella'd and were home by midnight, just. I was up again at 8am but unlike Saturday morning, this time I stayed up and finished sorting through the comics I brought back from Australia. By 12-noon I was done, with three Trader Joe's paper shopping bags of comics ready to go up on eBay, just awaiting pricing, photographs and descriptions. And my back was killing me.

I logged in to WoW and saw we barely had enough people on to hit Kara (minimum of 10, if we have a perfect class makeup) but Raid time was still almost an hour away. I got my Raid gear out of the bank, repaired my Armor and refilled my ammunition pouch, then made my way to Kara's front door. As Go-Time drew near more and more Guildies logged on and joined us, and a few people couldn't resist having a duel or two. One of our Rogues took down both our Protection-spec'd Warrior/Tanks, twice. The two Tanks then Dueled each other while the Rogue and I got it on, and I somehow managed to beat him. Rogues can be nasty if they sneak up on you from behind, because they can Stunlock you, basically getting in numerous free attacks while your toon stands there, dazed, unable to fight back. But most players don't have a Pet Cyboarg, who I'd set to Aggressive, meaning he would attack anything that came within range. Pets are good at sniffing out stealthy Rogues trying to sneak up behind their Master, so before the Rogue could close in and Stunlock me Cyboarg had hit him, bringing him out of stealth and preventing him from using his most devastating attacks on me. Despite not having done any PvP for a while, I've still put in many, many (far too many) hours on Kwazi, and for me, playing him is like riding a bike or playing a Piano. You may not do it all the time, but you never forget how to do it, so it wasn't long before the Rogue went down, but it was still a fairly close fought duel. As we bandaged up the Rogue mentioned our two Tanks were still going at it. With Shields for protection against each other's one-handed weapons, which don't do a lot of damage to begin with, they were barely hurting each other. It was one of the longest duels I've seen between two players with no way to heal themselves midfight. The only possible longest duel would be between two Healadins, or Healing specced Paladins. Holy Warriors with one-handed weapons & Shields, but who can also heal themselves and so take forever to kill. It was a closely fought fight that swayed back and forth as each player got in the odd big hit. And when it was all over and they'd bandaged up, I laughed my head off as they went at it again, with the same molasses-slow result.

Finally we had the players & classes we needed to attempt Kara and in we went. With this being the Guild's third foray into Kara for the week, several bosses were already down, and we were up to the Opera event, perhaps one of the most unique and novel Boss fights in the game. There are actually three different Opera events but the one we drew was Romulo & Julianne. Yes, a play on Romeo & Juliette :P

In the WoW version Julianne comes out swinging and the Raid has to take her down as fast as possible. Romulo then comes out to avenge her and the Raid now has to take him down, without a break. When he goes down there's a momentary pause...then both Romulo & Julianne pop up and the Raid has to defeat them both, with a twist. They must die within 10 seconds of each other or the one who fell will rise back to life. Several times we attempted this encounter but were never successful. On the second last attempt we took out Julianne but were unable to defeat Romulo within 10 seconds and Julianne came back with a vengeance. The last attempt was a repeat of the preceding one, Julianne went down and everyone turned on Romulo, and 10 seconds never seemed so long. Finally Romulo went down and everyone held their breath...only to see Julianne rise from the dead, followed by her lover, 10 seconds later. With our Casters and Healers out of mana, the lovers danced a lethal tango over the Raid and one by one we died a death. Somewhere along the way we stopped off at The Maiden's chamber, and after two attempts we successfully defeated the 50' tall colossus. So my first foray into Kara wasn't all doom & gloom, and despite dying numerous times it was still a lot of fun.

And that concludes a saga-length blog entry and this weekend :)

The Tam O'Shanter

A Tam O'Shanter is a scottish bonnet or cap. The Tam O'Shanter I'm going to write about today is a Scottish-style pub or restaurant, but an upscale one, not quite somewhere you'd go with the lads for a pint after work or the game.

Two days ago Liz emailed me (at work) saying she'd made a reservation for Lawry's in Beverly Hills, but the earliest she'd been able to get was Saturday Sept. 15th. Wondering what Lawry's was, and why Liz was keen to eat there, I googled them and found out they are a steakhouse (of sorts) that specializes in Prime Rib. I promptly hit Chowhound.com and discovered mention of a place called the Tam O'Shanter, owned by Lawry's, and reported to serve a Prime Rib the equal, if not better, of their parent company.

I emailed Liz back telling her about the Tam and a few minutes later she replied that she'd made a reservation for 7pm for the next night, being last night...and that she'd canceled the Lawry's reservation :P

So shortly after 6pm last night we tootled off to Glendale and the Tam, which is located no more than 10 minutes from where we used to live in Eagle Rock. We got there about 30 minutes prior to our reservation but the host checked her computer and said she could take us back, and we got our first real glimpse at the inside proper of the Tam O'Shanter.


That's not the entire restaurant, it's just one small area, but it's even more amazing than it looks in that picture.

Male waiters were wearing tartan waistcoats, female waiters were in almost full, formal highland dress. The busboys were wearing puffy pirate shirts ;), knicker bockers with knee-high white socks & blacks shoes. The dining area was divided into several smaller rooms and we were taken in to one of the back rooms and sat at a table in the corner. The table was set for two but was larger than most two-person tables. I hate restaurants that use tiny tables in order to accommodate more people (and make more money), then squeeze 3 or 4 people into a table designed for 2. The chairs! Oh, the chairs. You can see them in the picture and they were practically arm chairs. Large, comfy chairs that you sat back in to and said, "Oh yeah, I'm not getting out of this seat in a hurry." And we didn't.

Liz elected not to have an appetizer, but her Prime Rib meal came with a salad anyway. I chose to strart my meal with the Scotch Rarebit, a variant of the Welsh dish with a similar name, and I was not disappointed. Although little more than a warm, thick cheese concoction with a dash of whisky, mustard & nutmeg, it was surprisingly good when spread on the thinly sliced toast that came with it. I actually ran out of toast and ended up using bread to mop up the last of the Rarebit from the small, metal tureen.

When our entrées arrived (note: the entrée is what North Americans call the main dish, and no, I don't know why. Maybe just to be contrary?) we were not disappointed. My Rib Eye, cooked to "medium", was perfect. A little pink in the middle and very tender. I ate a few mouthfuls then cut off a slice to share with Liz, and I think I gave her the best cut from my Rib Eye, not to say the rest of it wasn't amazing as well, but the expression on her face as she ate was a sight to behold; it literally melted in your mouth. Liz's Prime Rib was good, too, but I thought my Rib Eye was just a little better.

The wine I had complimented my Rib Eye perfectly. I have no clue what it was, I ordered it at the recommendation of the waiter, but it was a delightful Pinot, not too rich with just a little bite to it. I drank the whole thing and enjoyed it to the last drop. Unusual for me, who's not a big wine drinker.

Although we'd rejected the chocolate soufflé at the start of our meal as the dessert of choice (you have to order the soufflé at the start of the meal because they cook them to order), we still took a look at the dessert menu and ended up ordering the Coconut Bread & Raisin Pudding with Vanilla Cream Sauce. Oh boy! It was goooood. Liz & I split one between us and we finished the lot, except for one small piece. I told Liz it's good manners to leave just a little bit because it tells your host you've had sufficient to eat. Besides which, we were both Stuffed! Yes, with a capital S!

Remember earlier I said we weren't getting out of those chairs in a hurry? We somehow took almost 2 hours to have our meal. For parents of two small children this is unheard of, but then our kids stayed with their grandparents last night so that helped immensely. We were able to take our time over dinner but it never felt like we were trying to stretch the meal out. It was a fantastic night for just the two of us.

More Coffee News

The Calorie-Count.com website claims the following...

A Tall (12oz) Non-fat Caffè Latte apparently has 126 calories. 0g of Fat, 12g of Protein, and 18g of Carbs, of which 16g are Sugars.

A Tall (12oz) Soy Latte has 162 calories, 5g of Fat (1g Saturated), 8g of Protein, and 22g of Carbs (1g Dietary Fiber, 17g Sugars)

At Starbucks' website I was able to pull up the following information.

Tall Non-fat Caffè Latte - 100 calories, 0g fat, 10g of Protein, and 15g of Carbs (14g from Sugars).

Tall Soy Latte - 130 calories, 4g of fat (0.5g Saturated), 7g Protein, 18g Carbs (14g from Sugars).

Now I don't drink Tall drinks, I drink Grande, and according to Starbucks,
my Grande Non-Fat Caffè Latte has 130 Calories, 13g Proteins, and 19g Carbs (18g from Sugars)

While the Grande Soy Latte 170 Calories, 4.5g Fat (0.5g Saturated), 9g Protein, 23g Carbs (17g from Sugars).

Oddly enough the Calorie-Count.com website's figures for Tall Lattes are very close to Starbucks figures for their Grande drinks. Do we believe Starbucks? Or Calorie-count.com? Or do we hazard a guess that someone at Calorie-Count.com entered the Grande figures for Tall-sized drinks? And why are both of these figures different from those I found last month on a third website?

Regardless of who's right or wrong, what this all boils down to is that I was about to go and get a Soy Latte but I've changed my mind; I'm sticking with my Non-fat Caffè Latte, Grande of course ;)

Although, I just noticed the Café Au Lait stats.
70 Calories (almost half that of my Caffé Latte), 0g Fat, 7g Protein (but who drinks coffee for Protein?). 10g Carbs, all of it sugar, but again close to half that of my Caffé Latte.

I think I'll give a non-Fat Grande Café Au Lait a try.

Of course an Americano has even less calories, carbs, etc, but with it I'll need to add Creamer & Sugar which defeats the purpose of getting the lower calorie drink in the first place.

The weekend in review

As has become customary, our trip down San Diego way this Friday was via Ontario, specifically the Homestyle Cafe on Old Brookside Road in Guasti where we stopped for a late breakfast. Liz and I split a plate of Pork Chops and eggs with breakfast potatoes, biscuits & gravy, and we pretty much managed to finish the plate. JE got the kids breakfast pancake, which was not a kid's pancake but one of their regular pancakes and it was as big as JE's head...bigger even. I helped him out and together we devoured most of it.

We weren't overly impressed with the service this time around, mainly because a large group of bikers were already there so the place was very crowded for a Friday morning. Our waitress seemed to have no clue how to be a waitress, but I'm sure I've seen her working there before. Several times she passed our table, and she'd acknowledge us, but she just kept saying "I'll get to you a minute" or something like that. Finally she stopped but only to ask if we wanted coffee, and as soon as she poured Liz and I a cup each she was off and running again. I didn't get why she couldn't just take our order as several times she brought other people their food then ran passed our table, empty-handed, back to the kitchen area. Of course once we'd finally ordered our food was pretty quick in coming.

The trip down to Carlsbad (Legoland area) was uneventful, which is good, except for the guy who'd run his car headfirst into the concrete divider which backed up traffic for a bit, but finally we'd made it to Legoland. Liz dropped JE and me near the front entrance then went off shopping at the nearby outlet mall. We met up later and after a bit of a drive found this local deli where JE refused to eat anything but chips, I had some roast pork (very tender and tasty), while Liz had prime rib. Afterwards we shared a cup of coffee and a slice of chocolate cake (this is a euopean/german-style deli) before the drive back home.

Saturday morning Liz took JE to the in-laws, picked up our daughter and took her to ballet, then dropped her back at the in-laws before coming home where we spent the next hour or two cleaning up the kids toys in the upstairs hallway, and we did an awesome job of cleaning and getting the place straightened out. We also visited Lowe's where we got two new toilets and Liz picked out the tile to redo the upstairs bathrooms' floors. We also checked out shower stalls and our en suite bathroom will get a total overhaul for well under $1,000, at least in materials; not sure how much the family friend will charge us for labor. The plan is to remove our current tub/shower which takes up 1/3 of the bathroom and replace it with a corner shower stall (half the size), while also having the current linoleum floor replaced with slate/tile. This will really open up our bathroom. The second new toilet will go in the kids' bathroom which will also get a slate/tile floor. I'm hopeful that these new toilets will do a much better job of flushing unmentionables than our current toilets, which tend to do an incomplete job and prompt one to flush a second time...and maybe a third. In light of one my recent posts that's not a very water conscious act.

Sunday we bummed around most of the day before joining the kids at the in-laws where we spent far too long in the pool. Last week almost the entire complex was in the pool, this time we just had 3 families in the water and it was considerably more pleasant. Our daughter is really taking to the water now. We have a vest on her so she can float and bob around and she loves in. At one point she had a nerf ball filled with water and she was squeezing it out on my head. The next thing I knew she was climbing into the pool and sitting on my back. "Look at me!" she'd cry to Liz. This is one of her favorite phrases right now. "Look at me! I'm swimming!"

With the summer evening fast approaching it was starting to get a little cool and we managed to get the kids out of the pool and inside in showers, followed by a yummy dinner prepared by Liz's mom. It's funny how the food her mom prepares is traditional Shanghai-style food, but it's certainly not what most westerners would consider traditional chinese food. That doesn't mean it's not yummy, coz it is :) In fact I offer prefer Liz's mom's food to the same dishes we sometimes order in Shanghai-style restaurants. Mmm-mm good :)

Carbs in coffee

Or Why you can't lose weight drinking coffee.

Actually you can, but how many of us drink straight coffee these days? I do, at home, but I also put in an ounce or two of creamer. At Starbucks or Gloria Jeans or a random coffee house I usually order a Latte. Now I've recently taken to drinking non-fat lattes in an effort to be a little healthier, but a recent trip to a dieting website to find out how many carbs are in my coffee revealed some startling news.

A 16-oz latte made with whole milk can contain approx. 23 grams of carbohydrates and 146 calories, while a non-fat latte contains approx. 24 grams of carbs and 86 calories. Less calories for going non-fat, which is good, but practically the same amount of carbs; not so good if you're trying to lose weight. That morning latte has almost 25g of carbs in it, which is 5g more than the recommended daily allowance of carbs for a starting Atkins' dieter.

Then you get another latte midway through the morning, and maybe a third after lunch to take back to the office. Midway through the afternoon, as you're struggling with a report the boss just dumped on you, a coworker suggests a Starbucks run and you're all over that like Whipped Cream on a Frappuccino. Congratulations. You've just consumed 100g of carbs in one day, and that's potentially your average work day. You cut out 300 calories going non-fat (which counts for something), but you're still snarfing down all those carbs.

Guess it's time to switch from Lattes to Cafe Americanos. After all, water can't have many carbs in it, can it? Can it?

Tipping

I was leaving a comment on Mike's Blog but it began to turn into a Blog entry, so I figured I'd better post it here rather than leave an essay length comment on his Blog. Besides which, I'd already commented on that particular post of his once already ;)

We just had dinner at a restaurant where they listed on the Menu that parties of 8 or more would be charged a 15% gratuity. So 15% would seem to be the industry average, and I'm ok with that. I'm also ok with just a 15% gratuity being added to the bill. I frequently tip at 15% for average service, but I'll also tip better or worse depending on the quality of service. What I would not be ok with would be dining somewhere with a party of 8 (or more) and receiving sub-standard service and being expected to cough up a 15% tip (or more).

You might be pleased to know that you can, in fact, dispute that compulsory tip if you don't believe the service you received warranted a tip of such magnitude. The law allows the compulsory tip to be legally added to the bill IF it's listed either on the menu, or clearly displayed in the restaurant in a location where it is assumed the "common man" could not fail to notice it. But you can still dispute it. In fact if the restaurant correctly identifies the tip for "parties of 8 or more" as a "gratuity" and not as a "surcharge" and the authorities are called in and you find yourself in court because you refused to pay 15% (or more) for crappy service, there's a bloody good chance you'll win your case. A "gratuity" is provided at the customer's discretion, a "surcharge" is mandatory; see the difference?

If I have a drink that comes with free refills, I expect my glass to never be empty for more than a few minutes. If it does, or I have to stop my waiter and tell him I want a refill, that's poor service. If you make me stop you for a refill consider yourself lucky if you still get 15%. At Denny's or any other breakfast diner I expect my coffee mug to never be empty. Of course I take care of that myself by adding creamer and sugar when I need a refill but that's just so I don't have to tell the waitress to leave room for creamer & sugar, plus when they top me up it automatically mixes the fresh coffee with the creamer & sugar so I don't need to stir my cup, which drives Liz nuts because I like to ring the bell when I stir my coffee.

At a steakhouse that Liz and I dined at with a friend, we'd been working in the yard all day (laying pavers) and had developed quite a thirst. I forget how many Arnold Palmer's we put away during our meal but we're talking at least 5 pints, each. Our waitress was right on the ball and we'd barely drain one glass when she'd whisk it away and return with a fresh one. Excellent service. She got at least a 20% tip if I recall correctly.

I once ate breakfast with about 10 coworkers at The Pantry in downtown Los Angeles We got itemized bills. We also got an 18% to 20% gratuity automatically added to the bill because of our party size. Our waiter never brought out my toast until I reminded him. He needed reminding. He brought everyone toast but me, and showed no sign of bringing my toast either. The Pantry does excellent sourdough toast and it is delicious with orange marmalade and coffee.

Remember what I said earlier about the bottomless coffee cup?

My coffee cup, and everyone else's at the table, sat empty after we finished our first cup. Our waiter never offered any of us refills. Finally someone asked him if we could get a refill. Our separate bills arrived with an 18% tip added on. Half the table got up and paid then hung around outside waiting for the rest of us. Just as we were getting up to pay our bills the waiter arrived, with a pot of coffee, and asked if anyone wanted a refill. Asshole. While paying my bill I tried to tell the cashier I was not happy with the service and did not feel it warranted the 18% gratuity, but she relied on that age old excuse of shrugging her shoulders and staring at me blankly while saying "No comprende, senor."

So, if it's listed as a "gratuity" and you honestly do not feel the service you received warranted the percentage that was automatically added to your bill, you can dispute it. Cross it out and write in what you think is a more appropriate amount and re-tally the bill. Also make sure they didn't tax you on the gratuity, because if they did you will want to work out the tax based on your bill sans the gratuity.

I wish I'd been armed with the knowledge I now possess when I ate at The Pantry and received such crappy service. I'd have crossed off the gratuity amount, retallied the bill and left $1 tip, which is still more than that crappy waiter deserved. What is insane is one of my coworkers who ate with us is a lawyer, and she was unaware of the law regarding gratuities and surcharges, and she didn't offer me any advice...then again, with her being a lawyer, I should probably be glad she didn't. I might have saved a couple of dollars on the gratuity, but spent $20 for the legal advice :P