Recently a food blogger friend of mine proclaimed on her Facebook page that she hated the term "foodie". I had to wonder to myself (with a shrug), "What's the big deal?"


It made me think of the same debate amongst Star Trek fans, which I am proud to admit I am one (Classic vs TNG, btw). The term "Trekkie" has been hated by some fans who think it belittles them and their reverence for the show. The Trekkie has been stereotyped to be the overzealous, trivia filled, costume wearing convention goer. They are the ones who can quote every line from every episode and will endlessly debate scientific arguments regarding the space-time continuum. Trekkies were famously lampooned in the William Shatner sketch on Saturday Night Live where he told them, "Get a life!"

I know what vanity is, but for the sake of this post I wanted the true definition, which is: "Excessive pride in one's appearance or accomplishments; conceit". Therefore, I would not consider myself to be an example of it. After all, I often go to the grocery or drug store sans shower, makeup and in sweats. Hell, I've even gone in my scrubs that I wore as pajamas and was to lazy to change out of. This compared to some of my friends who won't leave the house without full makeup.

I realized that what I'm getting done is not due to vanity, it is due to self image or self perception.  You see, starting tomorrow and over the next couple of months, you will be reading about my getting laser liposuction done.

Yikes! My ears are ringing! I'm hearing all the people who have met me saying out loud, "What the hell? She doesn't need lipo!" But that's where self image comes in. You do these things for yourself, not for everyone else.

I'll get into my why and how shortly. First I want to discuss that issue of self-image. How do you see yourself? The anorexic or bulemic sees themselves as too fat when they look in the mirror. The rest of us see skin and bones. A person sees their own big nose, yet I find it's what gives you character and makes you attractive.

There's also those with misconceived ideas of physical attributes. Mainly, big breasts will make me more attractive to men. We all realize that all they do is increase lust, not attraction. Getting to know you as a person is what will make you attrative or not. If you're a bitch, triple D's aren't going to help you.

It's what you see in the mirror and how you feel about yourself that matters. If you don't like what you see, you can make yourself miserable.

I'll admit that when I look into the mirror I am pretty damn pleased with what God (and mom and dad) gave me. And that last sentence is admittedly vain. I'm thankful that I got my mom's Filipino tanning skin versus my dad's British burning skin. That my mom's flat nose was countered by my dad's bigger nose to give me the right sized nose.

So why the lipo? Because I grew up well into my 20's thin. Like this. And even though I understand that age means added weight, I'm not happy that it all goes to my middle. You see, it's true - women become like their mothers. My mother was small as can be and yet she had a Buddha belly. All her added weight went to her round, little belly. So while you look at me and see thin extremities, you don't see that most of my weight is in my midsection. I've hid it well or covered it in Spanx.

I do exercise. I go to spin class at least three times a week and do weights the same. But as much as you tone up your muscles, the fat is still there.

It's funny what you remember from school. I vividly remember the day Ms. Zimmer explained in biology class that a fat cell never disappears. It only inflates and deflates. I'm getting rid of those fat cells the only guaranteed way there is - removing them.

As to the how? My first article tomorrow will go into why I chose the clinic I did and the pre-op stuff. But I must issue the required FCC disclaimer and explain to you that I asked them if they would give me a deal in exchange for my detailed blog accounts. Much to my shock, they agreed. I really didn't think they would and so when they agreed it became a case of - you can't pass this once in a lifetime opportunity up! They get some publicity, which they are free to use in their own marketing campaigns, while I get a super deal. The only catch for me - it's public! You all know about it! Yikes!

So that's it. You'll be reading about how I chose them, the pre-op appointment, the surgery day itself, the recovery, the follow-up appointments, and the final results. I just ask that you read them as informative articles and don't embarass me too much when you see me next.

Today is my 46th birthday. Now many women wouldn't admit that, but I can say it with a bit of pride. You see, I happen to think the 40's have been my best decade and I highly recommend them.

When you are in your 40s you have pretty much become the person you are. It's not set in stone, but it's hard to make changes to your personality. The saying, "You're set in your ways" comes to mind. You should hopefully be in good physical shape so that you can do whatever activities you would like to. You also hope that you are in decent financial circumstances so that you can afford to do what you want as long as you are reasonable with your money and savings.

That sums up my life right now. I'm lucky to be able to count my blessings. I'm employed, own a home, am healthy, look younger than my age, have plenty of friends, and am kept busy with many activities including this blog. I also appreciate the time and country I live in. We've had a few smaller wars and are having a tough economic period right now, but compared to past centuries or decades, this is a good time be alive.  Life isn't bad.

My dad will turn 78 in January. He's in fairly good health and remarried this year to a 75 year old. With luck, he'll live to well into his 90s like his mother. My grandma had hoped to reach 100 so she could get a birthday card from the Queen (British). She made it to 98.5.

We were talking about physical versus mental age. I think of myself mentally as being in my 30s. Dad says that works even at his age. He might be 77 but probably still mentally thinks and pictures his inner self as in his 40s. Unfortunately the body doesn't agree. He certainly can't be lifting things like he did in his 40s. He's also got a back condition and due for back surgery in the next couple of weeks.

I must admit it does give me pause to think I'm approaching the big 50. We all laughed when I told my father I was dating a 51 year old. OMG! To be dating someone over 50! That's the one area I worry about - finding a partner as I get older. I guess I can take comfort that dad did - even in his late 70s.

So as I start another year I can take satisfaction that my life has been blessed in many ways and hope that it continues to be for many more to come.

This post is written on behalf of all party hosts - including you. Yes, I will be voicing my own personal frustrations of late. But these frustrations are shared by you and every other host out there and I felt that something had to be said. At the same time, I am guilty of being a bad guest on occasion myself.

What am I irritated about? RSVPs. The simple act of responding to an invitation with a 'yes' or a 'no' on attendance and then following through.

I've sold Pampered Chef for over 13 years. In my early years I was gung-ho with hosting an average of three parties a week. I had to coach the hosts to have the best party possible and part of it was getting them to be realistic about RSVPs in the modern age. I told them to invite as many people as possible and to expect a third of them to show up. That means if you invite 30 people, you'll be lucky if 10 show up. How discouraging is that!? In this case, though, we were talking about a shopping party.

How about an actual social party? We are entering holiday party season. There will be plenty of social parties. How will people handle RSVPs? How will the host feel?

Put your host hat on now. You clean your house. You shop and spend money on the necessary items you need. You decorate your house. In many cases you might cook or bake. Finally, you set everything out and await your guests. As hosts we put out a lot of time, money, and effort.

In my recent case I hosted a party on a Sunday and sent out about 20 invitations. In terms of a social party, the ratio should be about 50% of the people will attend. Here is what happened. (Now my friends will go through this figuring out which they are, but that's not the point of this exercise. It's to show a spectrum of how RSVPs work these days.)

4 people immediately said they could not come.
1 person first said yes, and then a few days later changed to a no.
1 person said yes enthusiastically and then didn't show - forgot.
1 couple said yes and I was certain they would show and they didn't.
1 was a maybe and didn't show.
1 was a yes and then an hour before the party emailed they weren't coming.
1 couple was invited, I never heard from them all week, then the day of the party I get a text saying they couldn't come.
3 people never responded at all.
2 people who said yes actually did show up.
2 people who I never heard from surprised me by showing up.

So I had 5 people. As a host, this is really frustrating.

I said up front that I'm guilty myself. The day before I was supposed to go to an open house selling party. I had a migraine, took my meds, and by the time the headache was gone I realized I had totally forgotten the open house. I had to send an email apology. I felt terrible even though I had a pretty legitimate reason.

We are now officially into holiday party season. In some cases we have multiple parties on the same day/night. Please be realistic, honest and do your host a favor - RSVP and then honor your RSVP by showing up if you said you would. Not only will your host thank you, but you'll be happy when people show you the same respect when you host your next party.

As I've repeatedly mentioned in this blog, I'm allergic to alcohol and so I don't drink it. So when I go to any restaurant or happy hour I'm in it for the food.

Sometimes I'll go out to nibble. A bar or restaurant is offering free or cheap appetizers. On occasion I'll go to a happy hour to meet with friends. Mostly I'll go to promotional events such as grubcrawls or social gatherings like Tweetups and charity events where restaurants are donating food. They may be donating the food, but they are hoping that there will be drinkers who will pony up to the bar and buy a round or two. (Sorry I'm not a cash cow for you in that regard.)

But when it comes to the food, especially if you are a restaurant and not just a bar, you should be making a little effort. This is a case of making an impression to make me want to come back and actually eat a full meal, give you business, tip your servers, recommend to my friends, Tweet and blog about. It amazes me when restaurants totally drop the ball.

Good Example: Last week I did the Halloween grubcrawl. First place was Vive, the new Mexican place that is by the downtown ice rink. It's already got its location working against it since the area becomes a virtual dead zone after 6 p.m. Three Monkeys, the prior occupants, didn't make it. It is one of those places that I would look at every day as I exited the 24 Hour Fitness but wasn't giving any serious consideration to going to. We entered and it was pretty darn empty. (Although Tuesday nights aren't exactly happening anyway.) They did put out a decent spread though. There were chicken, cheese, and carnitas quesadillas, taquitos, and, of course, chips and salsa. I enjoyed my quesadillas and we found out that Vive does $1 taco Tuesdays all day long, not just for happy hour. What a great lunch deal! They fed us and I learned about their taco Tuesdays.

Bad Example: Compare that with stop #2 at Table 260. First of all, I had very low expectations for this place from the get-go. The Bee had a scathing review months ago that basically said that you know a restaurant is on its deathbed when they don't even bother to try anymore. "Table 260 Downtown is a restaurant in a free fall, with practically no apparent effort to be a viable business, let alone a proud practitioner of soul food." Ouch! So here we are, a crowd of about 30 people, most of whom have never been there before. If you are trying to save your restaurant, especially after a bad review and you are trying to prove you are making changes, then you should make an effort with this captured audience. What did we get? They didn't bother to set up a table of food. Instead they came around with those tiny little condiment cups with "Gumbo shooters". Talk about skimping and not very good gumbo anyway! Then they came around with a tray of sweet potato french fries and napkins so that you could take a small handful. The last thing was some chip with Cajun beans or something on it. Skimpy and bad! All they did was solidify my decision that they aren't worth my effort either.

Last week I also went to the Sacramento Magazine kickoff party for their "Best of" issue. It was at Cafeteria 15L. Here's a restaurant that has been on my to-do list for a while. How did they do? The food they had was their famous mac n cheese (yum!), cut up chicken n waffles with gravy (not bad if you grabbed the chicken pieces), potstickers (pretty good, better than many places), and pork and meatloaf sliders (didn't try). This was enough to keep them on my to-do list versus deterring me.

Tonight I'm off to Cosmo for the election night happy hour. They have free "left and right wings" from 5-6. Hope they make an effort!

Last night I was a guest of Poor Girl Kimberly to see Anthony Bourdain. I had told her earlier in the evening that I wasn't going to bother with a Bourdain post because I figured other food bloggers would get around to it, including her (which I'll link here). But then Bourdain started talking about some of his travels and food experiences and it made me reflect on my own. So this is not a post about his talk last night as much as the thoughts that came to mind as he was talking.

Bourdain first started talking about the dumbing down of the Food Network. This is something that I definitely agree with. Real chefs like Emeril have disappeared in favor of “let’s take some nobody home chef and turn them into a star”. Or the few real chefs that do remain (Florence and Flay) have been relegated to TV personality hosts because of their pretty boy looks. I say switch it up. But Florence and Flay back to teaching cooking and get the newly discovered home chef to host The Great Food Truck Race, etc.

It’s a shame that America and it’s fast food diet wants to cook like Sandra Lee. Shortcut cooking. It’s something that we even teach via Pampered Chef. Take packaged goods, like cake mix, and then doctor it up to make a different finished product. A favorite Pampered Chef saying, “Homemade no longer means made from scratch, it just means it was made in the home.” The thing is, real cooking of healthy, flavorful food can still take as few as five ingredients and 20 minutes. Wouldn’t it be better to teach basic cooking skills. Thank goodness there are a few shows such as Five Ingredient Fix.

Bourdain then continued by talking about his travels over the last ten years and his advice on traveling. It really boiled down to the same things my father taught me as I traveled the world growing up - stay out of tourist hotels, travel around by car, immerse yourself in the culture, be respectful of the culture and the people.

Example 1: Dress appropriately for the culture. I grew up in the Middle East and so I learned early that you covered your shoulders and to below the knees. In Arabia there were times when a Western woman’s legs would be spray painted if she they were not properly covered. Now some anti-Islamic ignoramus out there would say some idiotic thing about this. But the fact is, it’s their country, respect their culture! Even here in America, if you enter a Jewish synagogue, you should be respectful of your attire there as well. And don’t think it’s limited to Jews or Muslims. In some Catholic countries you are being disrespectful wearing hot pants and tank tops when entering a cathedral. Actually, I really believe it gets down to an underlying social problem in America - the “it’s all about me” selfish attitude of people. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about the bigger, global community.

Example 2 is what Bourdain called “take one for the team”. This story is about my Filipina mother. As any No Reservations viewer knows, Filipinos eat fertilized duck eggs called Balut. That means there is an embryonic chick partially formed in the duck egg when it is boiled and then eaten. It’s considered an aphrodisiac. My dad says that grandfather’s house in Manila was near a brothel and at night the balut sellers would start selling their wares out on the street. What you might not know is that there is an even worse form of balut, where it’s actually left to get a little rotten (or you could say fermented if you prefer) for a few days. Anyway, this isn’t about balut so much as it is about my Filipino mom being used to eating all sorts of weird foods. Filipinos eat a lot of blood too. And during World War II my mom even had to eat insects to survive. Suffice it to say, my dad would say that my mom would eat anything.

My parents were invited to some Arabian dinner. At these events for Westerners they would sometimes allow the Western wives to eat with the men. These Arab feasts always include a roasted whole goat served atop a platter of rice. The eyeball is the delicacy that is reserved for the guest of honor. On this night my dad was offered the eyeball. He deflected the honor by saying mom would eat it in his place, since she would eat anything. Mom took it for the team. Go, mom!

At an early age I was faced with the culinary courtesy of trying what was offered. It was the early 70’s and I was probably about 7 or 8 at the time. We had gone on a campout with other Americans in the middle of the Arabian dessert in search of Qasuma diamonds. These were polished quartz stones that looked like poor man’s diamonds. My dad took my brother and I out in the car and we went off on our own one day and came across some Bedouin camel herders out in the middle of nowhere. All Arabs are very hospitable, especially the Bedouin. After all, if you travel across barrenness for days without crossing another human being, when you do you want to converse and share food and drink. We were invited to share coffee with them even though my dad doesn’t drink coffee. They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Arabic. Being small children, one of the men ran out to a camel and milked it for us. We, of course, had no interest in drinking fresh camel’s milk. But dad made it clear that we had to at least fake it  - and so we did.

After Bourdain finished his entertaining talk, he opened it up to Q&A. I was amazed at the groupies. After all, Bourdain admits himself that he’s not an exceptional, star chef. He became famous for his book, Kitchen Confidential, that exposed restaurant secrets. A world of opportunity opened up to him, aided by the fact that he has a fun, snaky, tell-it-like-it-is attitude. So to see people just gushing like silly schoolgirls just amazed me. And the fact that some people hit the mic just to say silly stuff to him for the sake of being able to say they talked to him…   To each his own. I’m sure I looked just as silly when I met Russell Crowe this year. Michelle and I admit that we were jumping up and down squealing like schoolgirls after we got our picture with him. (And in Michelle’s case, she wasn’t even a Crowe fan.)

As I said, this post wasn’t so much about Bourdain as it was about the thoughts and memories he triggered for me while I listened. In the end it was an entertaining evening that only reminded me that I have to give thanks to my dad. It’s daddy that made us travel by rental cars through countries and stay at the cheapest hotels and B&B’s. (Keep in mind that B&B’s in other countries are just spare rooms in a person’s farmhouse and not luxury accomodations like they are here.) Yes, we saw the typical tourist attractions of cathedrals and castles, but we also went off the beaten path as much as possible. It’s because of this type of travel that my interest is in down and dirty travel where I am immersed in a culture as much as possible.

Bourdain has the dream job. Thanks to daddy, I have the same appreciation for travel and food.

I've been divorced for 9.5 years now. The first couple years were on/off with the ex trying to make it work. The last 7.5 have been dating with three long relationships in there. But now I'm single again and dating afresh.

A few years ago the book He's Just Not Into You came out and created quite a lot of discussion. The author, Greg Behrendt, spilled the beans on a lot of actions guys do that women just don't pick up on, all boiling down to the fact that he's just not into you. It was a revelation into how men think. It caused enough of a stir to be turned into a movie with an all-star cast acting out many of the scenarios.

Early on in my post-divorce dating I coined the phrase "disappearing into the ether". This is when you've gone out with a guy once or a few times, maybe even months, and then SILENCE! No calls to you, no calls returned. Which boils down to the "he's just not that into you" as he disappears into the ether.

OK! I don't have a problem with that. Not everyone is a perfect match and sometimes it takes a few dates to figure that out. But why can't guys (and gals) have the cojones to just say something instead of disappearing into the ether???

This is the most incredibly frustrating thing! It's just a matter of respect and courtesy. It doesn't have to be a long, drawn explanation with reasons about this or that. It can simply be "I don't think we are a match but thank you for your company." Is that really so hard?

Now I will admit to disappearing myself ONLY ONCE. And that was after I had already given the "I don't think it will work out" talk. It started getting drawn out and so I finally had to just disappear into the ether. But I did have "the conversation" first, so I'm exonerated from the evil deed.

Guys (and gals), be a bigger person and be honest and polite and just say it and then be done with it. Don't take the coward's way out. It makes you look like a schmuck for having no class.

The airline industry is in a sad state. I've been on planes since I was three weeks old. I've traveled all over the world and gone on different airlines. Foreign carriers are still pretty good (I love Singapore Airlines the most) but domestic carriers are sad, sad, sad. Gone are all the freebies that were included in your ticket price. Now you have to pay to check your bags, for your drinks, for your meals (depending on each airline's new policies). A long time ago we lost the hot meals in the little trays. Flying is no fun.

I've really gotten to appreciate Amtrak. I've taken it a few times now and recommend it if you can deal with rail time, which I'll explain first. Rail time means you have patience and your schedule is flexible. You see, Amtrak has a lot of delays. So you have to be able to roll with it. The number one reason for delays is the fact that they don't own their tracks. The tracks are owned by the freight railroad companies. So if a freight train and an Amtrak need to use the same track or cross each other, the freight train gets priority. How stupid is that? Like a trainload of cars, vegetables, cows and ipods need to be on a schedule.

The second part of rail time is the schedule. There is only one train per day that goes along the route (we are not talking about commuter routes like the Capitol Corridor train). So each day in Sacramento there is one train going south from Seattle to L.A. and another one going north from L.A. to Seattle. Basically you need to make your schedule fit the train's.

Once you are on the train, though, you can relax and enjoy the scenery. If you pay the big bucks you can get a roomette which includes a little bunk so you sleep and some privacy. I've only traveled coach so far and it ain't that bad. Airline seats are jammed in there so that you have no leg room and you have to worry about the size of your seatmate in case they start invading your personal space. Not so on Amtrak. There is so much leg room that my short legs can barely reach the footrest on the seat in front of me. I can stow my smaller bags at my feet and still have room. Plus, the seats recline really far and have legrests that come up from underneath so that it's like an extended Barcolounger. Most of the time you can end up with a row (2 seats) to yourself so that you can really spread out. There are overhead bins as well and each coach car has five bathrooms below.

If you've got electronics, outlets are at a premium. The coach cars only have one each and so you have to try and snag that row. There are a couple of outlets in the Lounge car as well, that people compete for. There was also an arcade on the lower level of one of the coach cars, but the games were pretty lame.

Speaking of the lounge car (or observation car)... A lot of people like to hang out there for their entire trip. The upper floor has tons of windows for enjoying the scenery outside. There are different seating arrangements and there are some tables in case you want to play a game of cards. On one trip up to Oregon there were a bunch of volunteer ladies who got on at Klamath Falls and gave a history and trivia talk about Oregon all the way to Eugene. On the lower level of the lounge car is some more table seating and the snack bar. They carry items such as pizza, burgers, breakfast sandwiches, beer, coffee, and other snacks.

The first class passengers (in the sleeping cars) had their own parlor car. I imagine that it is very similar to the lounge car, but perhaps a tad more upscale. During each direction of my trip they offered a wine tasting in the parlor car. For the first class it was $5 and for the coach passengers it was $10.

Then there is the dining car. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A server will walk through the train to take down your desired reservation time. When you arrive at the car you will be seated at a table with other passengers, so it is very social. The tables are set with linens and silverware and you can even have wine with your meals. On my recent trip I went in for dinner. The special for the evening was crab cakes with a lobster cream sauce. The fish was ahi tuna that was fake grilled. (They put grill marks on it, but it is finished in the oven.) The pasta special was cheese ravioli with marinara sauce. There was also a flat iron steak with baked potato and veggies, but I opted for the half herbed chicken. Although the menu said it came with rice, I was given the choice of rice or either mashed or baked potato. We had a nice warm dinner roll, a small salad, and then our entree, which was piping hot. WAAAYYYY better than airplane food (or the lack thereof).

My coworkers might have had a 5 hour roadtrip in cramped cars dealing with traffic and construction, but my 8 hours was a nice relaxing trip where I could walk around, read, sleep, dine, and enjoy the scenery. I think I chose the better choice.

Reprint from 06 employee newsletter article:

I think I have mentioned my Things To Do Before I Die List in past articles. Recently I got to tick off another item—a glider ride. The occasion was my friend's 45th birthday. I wanted to do something really special that we both could share.

Last year I had seen an article in the Sacramento Bee about soaring. Soaring is the term that glider folk use. Turns out that the Reno/Minden/Tahoe area is one of the best in the world for soaring. The weather conditions make for world-class soaring. The hot desert air meets the cold mountain air as it goes over the Sierra. This creates the updrafts and air currents that gliders need to soar. When all is right in glider-world, there is a phenomenon they call the Wave. On those days there is a white cloud that stretches north-south over the Carson valley and you can see gliders like seagulls in the sky. An experienced pilot can ride the wave as high as possible, even up to 30,000 feet! They need oxygen tanks for that.

I had researched on the Internet and found that Soar Minden had the most appealing deal. They allowed two passengers instead of the usual one because they had a larger three-seater. They also had a tour that went over Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, and a bit over Desolation Wilderness. It was also the longest ride—50 minutes. This is the one I chose.



Our pilot was Jon. He was a retired Air Force test pilot, like in Top Gun. He said he had flown about 250 different types of aircraft in his life. I asked him about getting licensed for soaring. He said that if you studied and flew every day, you could be qualified in two weeks. The hardest part is learning take off and tow. Because the tow plane is short-wing and the glider is long-wing and there is a rope between you, it takes some skill to keep the rope at the right slack amount so that you don’t detach and that you draft behind the tow plane properly.

There were several typical one and two-seater gliders on the tarmac, but we were headed for the three-seater. It was a tight fit—Dean and I had to squeeze side-by-side behind the pilot.

The tow plane pulled us up and we circled to gain altitude over the valley before heading over the ridge toward Tahoe. It was noisier than I thought it would be just from the wind resistance. The plane towed us over the lake, a bit over Desolation Wilderness, back over the lake, and then we detached over the eastern ridges near Heavenly. Jon took us back and forth along the eastern ridge before doing a final swoop very close to the trees and back toward the valley. By this time I was a little queasy, so when he asked if we wanted some roller coaster stuff, I asked for a mild one in deference to my boyfriend. That did it. I got sick. They are prepared with airsick bags. It was short lived and we were soon coming in for the final landing.


I have an interest in learning to fly. If I lived in the Tahoe/Reno area, I’d definitely look into soaring lessons.

Yesterday I got a comment on my review for Dad's Kitchen. Because I link my blog to Urbanspoon.com, they have a direct link to my blog. Kinda cool because it means more traffic to my blog. Anyway, I get a complaint about Dad's Kitchen about how they were not kid friendly. So I checked the Urbanspoon site and they had posted the following review there:

"Rude Owner!!" by csdavis22
July 18, 2008 - We met some friends there recently. They were told to bring chalk for the patio to occupy the kids while eating from friends. So, the kids had fun drawing on the sidewalk. Well, the owner - young bald guy (Zack) with a serious attitude came out and inspected the sidewalk and gave us a dirty look and shook his head. I tried to apologize and he brushed me off with an even more of a rude glare. He could of just asked us nicely to stop drawing on the patio. But, he instead decided to glare at us and mumble obscenities. We heard from other people that it was a really kid friendly place. That is not the case. He seemed extremely put out. Chalk comes off with water. It is quite unfortunate. Everything else was good except for the attitude. We would never go back again. If you do go there, don't bring your kids.

Now at first I was surprised because whenever I've been to D's K there have been plenty of families around and things look just fine. But then I slept on it and thought this morning, did they ask permission to deface property? It says they were told to bring chalk by friends. Were they told chalk for the sidewalk or chalk for drawing on paper? I'm thinking there might have been some miscommunication there. And I guess Zach could have asked them to stop and I'm not sure why he didn't. Ok, so then his attitude was bad. Was the rest of the service bad or just Zach? They say everything else was good.

I'll actually give more credence to the poor review that just happens to be a day before this complaint. This other complaint has some valid(?) complaints about treatment, but I would key on one kid comment. That their kids were told to slow down when going to the bathroom. Gee, isn't that a safety issue? There are servers carrying heavy plates of hot food and drink and they don't need to navigate through running children. Lose children have no place in a regular restaurant anyway. Let them run around McDonald's, but at a restaurant kids should be well mannered, quiet, and kept at the table. Dad's, Chili's, Piatti's, or Biba's are not playgrounds.

It boils down to the age old issue of parental control. I'm not anti-kids. I just know that I was raised properly. And I observe my godson and his brother (7 and 10) and they have ALWAYS been well behaved and I am happy and proud to be able to go out with them. Same with my own nephew in Seattle. Angels, all three of them! And even though my family dislikes my brother's ex-wife, we do give her kudos for doing an excellent job of raising my nephew. For that we are extremely grateful.

So what does or should "kid friendly restaurant" mean? And does D's K fit that description? I haven't been in a while, so I can't say for recently. But I can tell you what kid friendly means to me. It means that kids are welcome, when they are well behaved. It means they should have some items to keep kids occupied. That usually means crayons at most places. It means they should have a kid menu or kid portions. And it means that the servers have respect for the family. But this can be very difficult to do if the families don't earn the respect. So although I can imagine some fault on Zach's and staff's part, I can also imagine that their patience might have been stretched to the limit depending on the kids and the parents.

Update 8/1/08 Loved this comment so much that I'm putting it right up on my blog - a witness to the events that day!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Thoughts on Kids in Restaurants":

BTW: The children running to the restroom were unsupervised & using the restroom to host a water fight. The children who were allowed by their parents to deface the public seating area were drawing crime scene pictures of dead body chalk outlines. Most children and their parents have an enjoyable experience at DAD'S Kitchen. These children have parents with class who have had to work hard for their accomplishments and do not tolerate such poor behavior.

This post has two titles for two very distinct reasons.

The story begins way back at my cake decorating classes where one of my classmates was Marie, a Filipina. We didn't talk much, but after class she saw on my blog that I was half Filipina (she hadn't even guessed) and that I grew up in Saudi Arabia. She then emailed me to tell me she'd be happy to feed me (food adoption!) and that she had lived in Saudi also. She, in fact, had met her husband there and he worked for ARAMCO. Wow! I'm an ARAMCO Brat! Small world! So she invited me over for dinner.

Marie has a very beautiful home and yards in South Sacramento. I met her husband, Brian, and daughter and some of her coworkers. And, happily, she had prepared a Filipino feast. There was barbecued pork skewers, lumpia, and pancit noodles. This is homemade Filipino food - the good stuff! There was also cassava cake, flan, and halo halo.





We all talked about life in Saudi. My family was there from 1970-1987. Brian was there in the mid 1990's. Brian was way out in the oil fields. Marie was a nurse at a hospital in Yanbu, an export point, and my dad worked at the Saudi headquarters in Dhahran. Three very different experiences there.

My mother's favorite dessert was a Filipino classic, halo halo. Basically it is shaved ice, milk (evaporated or coconut usually), and then a bunch of things like tapioca pearls, sweet beans, fruit, flan, and then topped with ice cream. It is as varied as the people who make it. Here Marie is making it with some of these ingredients...




The ingredients are layered like a parfait and then mixed up before eating. Here Marie has already mixed hers up, so it looks like a purple milkshake.



Marie was a wonderful host and sent me off with a bag of frozen lumpia and the promise of future invitations. I told her next time I want some cooking lessons. Until then, I have some lumpia to tide me over!