Three Dog Kitchen

Okay, so I spell it “refrigerator” or “fridge” and I was going to get all up in arms when I saw people spelling it “refridgerator” because that seems like an odd combination of the word and it’s abbreviated version.  But Google brought up seemingly legitimate sites spelling it that way, too, so I’m going to let it slide.

When it comes to flavoring food, though, I am going to have to put my foot down.  People, a “marinade” is something you use.  It’s a noun.  To “marinate” is a verb.  It’s an action verb!  You “marinate” food in a “marinade”.  At no point, ever, should you be “marinading” things. 

When I’m bored, I mill around Chowhound. I’ve gotten pretty good at not reading posts with titles that I know will annoy me. I now ignore them. Sometimes I get tricked and read a post only to discover that it’s a stupid question (yes, there are stupid questions AND stupid answers in this world) or completely unrelated to the title. These days, Chowhound is most useful to me for providing insight on new restaurants in the area. Of course, I don’t trust chowhound praise outright. No, typically I’ll see a few restaurants named and I’ll read about them and try and get an idea if the reviews are balanced enough to believe. I don’t trust gushing at all. Especially if it’s accompanied by PRAISE in CAPITAL LETTERS. So, I make a mental note of these places and then if I see it pop up on a couple local blogs it triggers a “hmm..” moment. At that point, I probably write it down somewhere and tell T that I want to try it. Or Cami. And then a few months go by before we ever get to where it is we’re craving. So, I’m totally not a trendsetter when it comes to new restaurants. Except for places in Poway, I guess.

My actual point, however, was to say that I don’t actively try to annoy myself with Chowhound. I feel like I’ve been on that site long enough for the vast number of topics to actually start repeating themselves. What to make for V-Day. What to cook to impress a first date. What to do with leftover ham. What’s your favorite cheese. OMG - Greek yogurt rocks. How long do I roast a chicken. Where to eat during Comicon. No car in SD - what food is bearable. And on and on.

What I don’t understand is what people think the site is for. I see questions pop up that make me wonder if they think they’re having live conversations*. Like, there’s a chicken burning in the oven and the dinner party starts in half an hour - what should they do? If I had a dinner party in half an hour and my food was burning, my first instinct would not be to consult a message board for an answer (and then wait for said answer to eventually appear). I would turn on the vent hood, stick the food outside, and either run to Costo for a roast chicken or make a frantic call to Joey’s Smokin’ BBQ. But, I also plan my dinner parties very carefully, so the chances of this happening to me are small. Also, for small get togethers, I don’t tell people what I’m cooking. For all they know, I was planning on having take-out all along!

Or someone will pull out chicken, a pepper, cheese, and couscous and ask what they can make for dinner that night. In half an hour. Do you really think people are sitting at their computer, constantly hitting “refresh” to see what last-minute disasters they can solve?

My latest favorites, however, involve broken appliances. My oven sometimes bursts into flames - should I worry? My refrigerator is leaking water - what should I do? Weird noises, odd smells, random flames, and puddled liquids are not questions for a message board. That’s when you start calling repair people. Some problems don’t get better the longer you wait to fix them (actually, I don’t know of any problems that do that). The concept boggles my mind.

But, just so I don’t end this post on a grumpy note, I will tell you about a cookie from Trader Joe’s (I know, surprise, surprise!) that I bought and didn’t like that later grew on me to the point where I took the bin to work so I didn’t eat them all. In one sitting. They are like Nilla Wafers, if Nilla Wafers were made with butter and vanilla beans. They’re called Ultimate Vanilla Wafers. They come in the plastic tubs, like the chocolate chip cookies that are also addictive. The cookies are crisp-soft. Not as hard as Nilla Wafers, but not as soft as a chewy cookie. You can definitely taste the butter, but sometimes you can also feel the vanilla bean seeds (some people don’t like that). It’s kind of nice to know that you could use a more natural cookie in place of Nilla Wafers (remember making mini cheesecakes with the wafer as the bottom crust?), but I also take comfort know Nilla Wafer are always on grocery store shelves. For all I know, the vanilla thins are “seasonal” and will disappear once summer is over. All in all, it’s a good butter cookie, with just a hint of vanilla.

* Some message boards really are like real-time chatting. I know friends who frequent boards like this and they form their own little odd community. This comes in handy if, say, your car is stolen and you need hundreds of eyes keeping a lookout until it’s spotted, at which point they band together, block said stolen car in until police arrive, and help you get your car back. I’m just saying.

So, I’m back from Hawaii on what was a whirlwind trip with too little time and too much food.  Also, do you know how exhausting it is to spend all day being alert and conversational with people?  And how sad it is to realize that typical trips to Hawaii often include zero beach visits?  Another tidbit of information - it costs $150 to ship a painting from Hawaii to San Diego via UPS “Ground”.  Does anyone have a better way to ship large and/or heavy items?  I mean specifically, with company names or something.  Because there is a large, hand-carved, wooden trunk in my grandparents’ house that I would love to bring home. 

I was also going to do a full review of the Trader Joe’s frozen brownie-in-a-box, which I may do with a wrap up of other tasty foods I’ve discovered, but we’ll just sum it up and say I wasn’t impressed.  I’ll stick to their chocolate chip cookie dough.

But!  The main point of this post is to grumble heartily about the incompetence of Hotels.com so-called Customer Care.  Hotels.com is a subsidiary of Expedia, but they have totally separate websites and customer service.  To date, I have no grudge with Expedia except that they are partnered with the lame Hotels.com. 

I actually do pay attention to my bills and my credit card statements.  About 5 years ago, I noticed that my phone bill had almost doubled.  When I looked into it, I discovered someone had, somehow, set up a voice mailbox on my account so all calls would be forward there.  Apparently, that’s why I wasn’t getting any sales calls or telemarketers on my standalone answering machine.  Now, that’s pretty tricky stuff.  So, that account got cancelled and I had to change my phone number.  It’s also part of the reason I keep a land line.  Can you imagine if you had to change your cell phone number?  Way more people have that number (personal friends, not companies) than my land line.  Someone also got hold of my Discover account and charged a lot of gas on it.  I noticed that because it was on an account that I seldom used.  So I went through the motions of closing the account, opening a new one, checking credit reports, and monitoring everything.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to really think about fraud.  Well, no, that’s not true.  T had his account information taken and someone tried to charge $500 at Wal-Mart in Seattle (or somewhere) twice.  It’s scary to think that you can have your credit card in your posession and someone can take the information and transfer it to another piece of plastic.  Because you need a physical card to buy gas and items at stores.

Anyway, when I got back from Hawaii, I went through my accounts, updating MS Money and my checkbook.  I noticed the balance on my credit card was abnormally high.  At first I thought the program was wacky and maybe it had duplicated charges in the register.  Then I saw a recent charge for $4,180.26.  Now, I had also just paid the balance of our Alaska cruise, but that was well under $4,000!  I considered that maybe Holland America had made an error, perhaps charged me twice, but the “Payee” was different.  So, I tracked down the phone number associated with the charge and called.  The company was IAN Travel Services, but they answer the phone “Hotels.com” and then the headache began.

They must use the lowest-educated people to handle their phone calls, because no one could help.  I don’t even think they know how to help.  The first guy I talked to was the worst - I had to spell my name 4 times and repeat numbers too many times to count.  But, I did get the most information out of him.  He told me the charge was for a reservation for 9 nights at the Alex Hotel in NY and that it was under my name and that it had been made over the internet.  I told him I never made that reservation.  He also said he would forward the file to some other department so they could follow up (this never happened) and that I would have to call my credit card company and file a police report.  I did both and my credit card company (Chase) was extremely helpful and informative and the police were, too, actually.

Then I called them back to make sure someone was following up on the matter and would be cancelling the reservation.  The girl I talked to was of absolutely no help.  She kept trying to tell me that the only person who could have made the reservation was me, as only I had access to my online account (it turns out even I don’t have access to it because I can’t sign in), and the reservation was under my name.  She said, why would someone make a reservation under my name when they wouldn’t be able to check in without ID?  True, it doesn’t make sense, but I know I didn’t make plans to stay in NY as the check in date was 3/5/08.  Also, if I was staying at a $500/night hotel, why would I go through Hotels.com?  If I had that much money, wouldn’t I also have people to take care of that for me?

So, after I tried signing in and couldn’t (my “profile” isn’t under any e-mail or username I use) I called “Customer Care” back.  I told the girl that I couldn’t sign in and the website said to call them.  She then proceeded to tell me to open Internet Explorer and type in hotels.com to get to their website.  Then she said in the upper right corner is a link that says “Sign in”.  Like I didn’t know how to navigate a website.  I told her I know how to get there, but their system wouldn’t let me in and there was a message that said to call them.  I then asked to be transferred to their tech support or someone who could help.  I was actually put on hold before she told me they don’t have that kind of department and all I could do was open a new account.  After I requested to talk to her supervisor, she told me he had “just stepped into a meeting” and that I could call back later.

In between all this, I had called the hotel to let them know what was going on and that I hadn’t made the reservation.  The hotel called back to let me know they still hadn’t received any notice of cancellation from Hotels.com.  No one ever checked in under the reservation, either.

The next morning, I called the stupid Customer Care number again and someone who spoke English-as-a-first-language (whatever, it sounds harsh, but it’s true) and sounded like he had the ability to think and reason answered so I explained the fraudulent reservation and the fact that no one I had talked to earlier had been of any help.  His immediate response was to give me the number of their Corporate office (214-361-7311), where I talked to someone in “Transactions”.  At first, this sounded promising, but I’ve since been passed around through departments and no one has, of yet, contacted the hotel to cancel the reservation. 

Update:  I was finally contacted by someone in the Corporate office and my dealings with that company was completed.  However, when I asked if they were going to notify the hotel, I was told that they don’t have to notify hotels on fraudulent charges because the hotel doesn’t receive money until the reservation is complete.  Which kind of makes sense except that 1) what happens to the charge on my credit card to IAN Travel Services after I “pay” at the hotel and 2) don’t you think they should notify the hotel so they can release the reservation?  I mean, the hotel is kind of counting on getting paid for that reservation ($4,000!!), so isn’t it just courteous to let them know that money isn’t ever showing up?

So, don’t use Hotels.com for anything.  Because if you ever have a problem, you will get no help whatsoever.  And if you have a profile, who knows what kind of reservations might get erroneously charge to you?  I can’t recall ever having made a reservation through them, although I’ve gone through Expedia and Travelocity before, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the error originated in their system.  Because, really, it doesn’t make sense for someone else to make a reservation under my name.  Hotels check ID when you check in.  And if they had added any other name to the reservation, that’s who would get investigated.  So, I blame Hotels.com.  I don’t honestly believe my identity and credit is in jeopardy, but I’ve still taken the necessary steps.

Coincidentally, I read this post on Get Rich Slowly today, too, on steps to take to prevent and deal with identity theft.  And remember, you can get a free credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com once a year (1 report from all 3 reporting agencies) or you can request 1 report from 1 agency at a time (thereby spreading it out to 3 reports over the year).  You can also place temporary and permanent fraud alerts on your credit report, which means that extra steps must be taken before someone (even you) can open a new account in your name. 

Dear World:

If you have not already made your New Year’s Resolutions, may I make a suggestion?  How about knocking it off with the “McDreamy” variants?  I understand that you (World) fell head over heels with the smokin’ hot doc on Grey’s Anatomy, played by Patrick Dempsey, and nicknamed him McDreamy.  It was cute.  But then everyone else started nicknaming everything in the same fashion.  Fatty McFatso.  Shouty McWhiny.  Then!  The new hot doctors on the show got nicknamed the same way!!  This craziness has to stop; it’s been going on for way too long.  Stop it.  Just, stop.  Seriously.

Much love,

Me

ps - in order to play fair, I will post my resolutions here.  For all of the internet to see.  You may think they are weak resolutions and maybe even a cop out for hardcore, life changing resolutions and to you I say, “Tough cookies”.  They’re my resolutions and I think they’re actually doable. 

• Brush the dogs at least once a week.  They look so good after being brushed and it really does help with the loose fur flying around.  The exception may be Lexi, who requires a muzzle and steel determination (on my part) during the grooming process.
• Exercise at least three times a week.  Exercise counts as 30 minutes of anything.  Walking, running, hiking up a hill, hopping on the elliptical, etc.
• Limit dinner meals to one red meat meal per week, Mon-Fri.  I think this is very doable considering I have left weekends to be open for anything.  I think the hardest part here will be when we have beef for dinner and also have a lot of leftovers.
• Start making one meatless dinner per week.  I think this will actually be tough because we enjoy meat.  On the other hand, maybe we’ll find some good bean-based recipes.

That’s it.  I normally don’t make resolutions and I find it funny that if I had made these decisions in June they wouldn’t have the same connotations that “resolutions” do.

See this?

My finger and thumb were casualties of The Great Chestnut Disaster of 2007. I suppose it could have been worse, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.

See these?

Those are the prisoners of war. They may very well stay in their little netting bag for the rest of their shelled little lives for all I care.

And these?

Those are the faces of happy dogs who ate most of the chestnuts that I could pry open with my injured fingers.  You can also tell which dogs go outside to play in the rain and which one is too prissy for such activities.

See, every year I look forward to roasting chestnuts, peeling them open, and eating a warm nutty soft chestnut. One year I read about the Chestnutter, a little device that pokes an “X” into the chestnuts, allowing them to release steam and not explode in your oven (or fireplace, or wherever you roast your chestnuts). I pooh-poohed it because, ha, who needs an actual device to make an “X”? Two moves with a knife and you’re good to go! What a silly waste of money! But, when I make an “X” in my chestnuts, either I have bad chestnuts, or the cut doesn’t go deep enough, or I’m just really bad at the whole chestnut thing because I have the hardest time getting the chestnut out of the shell and that funny paper skin that clings so fervently. I end up pulling it in half and scraping the soft meat off with my teeth. It’s not very fun or festive.

This year, I found bags of chestnuts at Ranch 99 for such a good price, I vowed to do it properly, even without a Chestnutter. I read up on various cooking techniques. I perused the conflicting recommendations on how to cut, how to cook, how to cool. I made my “X” deeper than usual. Then the knife slipped and I freaked out.

I don’t do well with injuries, especially if they involve bleeding. Immediately (after cursing the chestnuts), I wrapped my finger in a paper towel and held it above my head. I willed my finger not to bleed, but then worried the willing would cause my heart rate to go up, which would pump more blood out of the wound. I gave up and sat on the couch to watch my DVR-ed House. I ate a chocolate bon-bon, justified that my pain and suffering deserved a treat. Then I got tired of holding my arm up and decided to maybe bandage up properly. Is it bad that I don’t have a real first aid kit for people, but my dog first aid kit is fully stocked with sterile gauze and bandages? With my finger gauzed and taped, with pressure to staunch bleeding, I resumed my tv viewing. Periodically I would look at my poor finger, trying to determine what to do next. When it started throbbing and looked purple, I determined the next thing to do should probably involve loosening the tape.

After a while, I got bored with the whole injured-person thing (I mean, the dogs certainly weren’t sympathetic). Then I got mad at the stupid chestnuts. But not the knife. You shouldn’t get mad at sharp objects… they’ll haunt your dreams and you’ll fear retaliation. So, I lightly scored a couple more chestnuts to fill the pan and threw them in the already heated oven. After 20 minutes, the dogs started barking at some banging noises, but I figured T had come home and was fiddling in the garage. It then occurred to me that perhaps my lightly scored chestnuts were too lightly scored. Sure enough, the dogs were barking at exploding chestnuts, also an indication that perhaps they were done!

Have you ever tried opening chestnuts with one good hand, a wounded finger and a just-noticed cut thumb? It’s hard. Especially when the chestnut shells are hard and not splitting open and you still have to peel away the annoying paper skin. After a few, I just started sulking and feeding the dogs the chestnuts I could get open. Then I went and ate tapioca. And watched ER.

I’m still not convinced a Chestnutter would have helped. I think my underlying problem is with peeling the dumb things afterwards.  I’m so over the chestnuts.  I’m ready to move on to a different cold weather snack.  Like maybe the peppermint Jo-Jo cheesecake I just read about in the Trader Joe’s flyer.

Does it bother anyone else that there are so many Chowhounds talking in the third person?  Is there a reason for it?  It’s bad enough when people talk about themselves in the third person, but it’s ever more annoying when it’s done using a screen name.  I would rather you use the “royal We” than refer to yourself in the third person. 

Just stop it.  Seriously.

Way back in the day, my friend turned me on to Chowhound, which was a basic message board that discussed cooking, restaurants across the nation (and worldwide), and food in general.  I used to go there to figure out which restaurants to try during San Diego Restaurant Week.  I don’t think I ever posted there when it was nice and civilized.  You could get simple restaurant reviews and people would say if they truly loved a place or if it was just a good place for a good meal. 

Then, Chowhound got a makeover and got more popular.  Posts were everywhere and there were more opinions than ever.  Then, Chowhound merged with Chow.com and Cnet.com (something like this), the format changed again, ads and articles appeared, and even more people started posting.  I started posting somewhere in the middle of all that.  Sometimes I was looking for answers or suggestions on dinner meals.  Sometimes I was giving my own advice.  Sometimes I looked for new places to eat in San Diego, chimed in on the request for San Diego to break away from California, and added my 2 cents when we found a restaurant I truly loved.  Even if other people didn’t.  Chowhound is where I first learned of The Linkery and Anthropology.  It’s where I searched for places to eat when we went to Napa and San Francisco.  It’s where I tuned out of the ridiculously long discussion of why Phil’s BBQ is not true bbq and not worthy of all the crowds and long lines.

In the last year, I have fallen out of love with Chowhound.  There are a few “people” who do genuine posts, admit that sometimes they enjoy a meal that is not gourmet, seasonal, or high-end, and talk about where to go for a good sandwich.  I like these people and pay more attention to their posts.  Then there are the people who put down our city because we don’t have the dining scene of LA or NY, put down other people’s opinions of food/meals/restaurants by saying others obviously don’t have the refined tastes as they do, and throw out generalities like telling people that Mission Valley is a wasteland for good food.  I won’t even start telling you my thoughts on any of those, it would take too long.  If one of the “bad” posters has entered a thread, I typically walk away from it and pay no more attention.  Why annoy myself or risk getting drawn into the argument? 

However, I had to mention a post I read regarding biscuits in San Diego.  As long as the thread lives (those Chowhound moderators can get so tricky), you can find it here.  Someone was looking for a good biscuit, using Popeye’s biscuits as a reference point.  Someone else pointed out that Hash House has outstanding biscuits.  And then it just went all wrong from there.  First, let me say that Popeye’s does have good biscuits and I, personally, find the biscuits at Hash House a tad bit too dry for my tastes.  Would I call it “bland and uninspired”?  No, I would just say they’re dry, but if you slather on butter and the homemade jam the experience gets a lot better.

Now, just in case the post gets deleted (see: tricky moderators), here’s what the reply was:

“Maybe it’s just me, but I also think “bland and uninspired” is sort of an odd criticism for biscuits.”

I have a feeling that anyone from the southeastern US will COMPLETELY understand my statement. Just as well-executed BBQ needs no sauce to be enjoyed, a proper biscuit does not need jam to be cherished. An “inspired” biscuit is delicate, flakes at to the touch, has a buttery (but not overly so) flavor. The perfect biscuit is feathery light with a light brown crust on the top and a moist interior. It tends to have slight indentations on the sides where it has bumped into other biscuits as it baked.

I see nothing wrong with calling a poor biscuit bland and uninspired, as I spent many years refining my palate for this delicacy. Some may also think that delicacy is an improper, undeserved term for something as simple as a biscuit. I could easily say the same for a item I did not grow up with and is not a part of my familial history. Biscuits are an art form in the south.

Alice, I respect your opinions on this board, but the fact that you question my usage of bland and uninspired when referring to biscuits, tells me you are not the best resource for this item. Your comment is as offensive to a southerner, as saying the same about california burritos or fish tacos to a native SoCal resident.

I kind of wanted to reply that Pillsbury makes a flaky biscuit that is 1) buttery, but not overly so, 2) flakes at the touch (you know, with the layers that peel off, yum!), 3) is feathery light and 4) gets a brown top.  I also wanted to tell that person to back off and calm down.  I get that people get protective of their regional “delicacies” and that you can argue over bbq and bbq sauce and coleslaw types for weeks on end.  But don’t you think it’s a little overboard to say you’ve spent years refining your palate for a biscuit?  Yes, yes, part of your heritage and blah blah blah.  To me, this says you are a food snob who is unwilling to eat anything that does not live up to the expectations of your delicate palate.  If you were anything other than that, you wouldn’t have felt the need to point out your refined palate in a thread about BISCUITS.  I also notice that you admit you like Popeye’s biscuits, which is weird because most people like you look down on fast-food chains. 

As to you claiming Alice Q.’s remark was as offensive as commenting on California burritos or fish tacos, well, um… I’ve never seen anyone boast that they’ve spent years refining their palates for a fish taco.  Go ahead and complain, see if anyone cares.  Maybe that’s because we’re more laid back here in California. 

I like Alice Q.  She puts up good posts and has good content on her website.  She doesn’t come off as pretentious, but she shows that she appreciates good food and good food efforts (like the Slow Food movement and farmer’s markets and such).  She also has time to take baking and pastry classes, which makes me totally jealous.

I like the concept of Chowhound and I still look around here and there, but I don’t like feeling judged by people who think their opinions are better than others and if they don’t like something, then no one else should like it either.  That’s not the point of an opinion or personal taste. 

On that note, we are meeting with friends for free Chipotle tonight!  The burritos aren’t authentic!  The cow meat isn’t local!  They put corn in the salsa and cilantro in the rice!  Horrors!!

No one likes to find out someone has been talking behind their back.  Complaining behind their back.  I’m surprised enough when someone find out this website exists and that it belongs to me.  But to have a random stranger (okay, not so random) find this site, read a post, take exception to just one paragraph in the whole post, call someone who wasn’t even there to complain about the post, and not once try to contact me first?  I don’t like that.

It made me feel cautious when writing a new post.  Like I was looking over my shoulder even though the topics were completely different.  Because, what if he keeps checking in to see if I recant my 4 sentences?  Or if I’ve changed it completely to give glowing praise?  Technically, I don’t know who reads this and who doesn’t.  If someone leaves a comment, I’ll see it (and yes, Chef Niles is kind of hot and who wouldn’t want to be served dessert by a guy like him?  Hi, T!  Luv’ ya!  Your smile is way better.)

Bah!  I don’t talk about people close to me or name names.  If you know me, you’ll also know who I’m talking about and I don’t have to spell it out for you (literally, ha ha!)  If there’s anywhere in the world I get to complain about anything just because it makes me unhappy, it’s here!  And if you don’t like it, well, go complain about it on your own site.

We kind of feel that we should just let the whole thing drop, barring any further communication from the offended party.  In order to tie up loose ends on my part, I offer up this response to the unoffical complaint against me (because until you complain to me, I don’t consider it official at all).

To You:

We had a lovely weekend at your inn and appreciate your letting us commandeer the common area Saturday and Sunday mornings for our meetings.  While I understand you didn’t have to do this, considering that we comprised the total of your guest count with the exception of the cottage guests (one of whom we met when we first arrived) there really weren’t any other people to complain if we unofficially gathered our group in the common area.  You were nice and helpful when we checked in, offering us water and sodas and baking the cookies in the evening.  The cookies were good.

Yes, we moved your round sectional couchy chairs for our meeting and were also planning to move them back (those 4 chairs and the pedestal in the middle were the only pieces of furniture we moved, though; oh, and a dining chair) and it just seemed unnecesary to pointedly ask if we were going to move them back.  By the way, we also swept up with a napkin the dust bunnies and leaves that had been under the couchy chairs.  They are very comfy chairs, too.

After that, and reading the paper in the room on the encouragement of using coasters, I found myself quite often looking around to make sure everyone was using a coaster if they had a beverage.  I don’t even check that closely in my own house!  But, I also have a dog who chewed the corner of my coffee table and I didn’t even blink.  I understand water rings on wood are just awful, but perhaps some lace tablecloths that absorb moisture would relax your concerns and allow for less obtrusive coaster placement.

Your rooms are very cute and comfortable and I like how they are all decorated completely differently.  As decor goes, your B&B is spot on.

I’m sorry a deep scratch was left in a table due to a poker case.  I personally wasn’t there but I can understand how you would have been disappointed at seeing a scratch in the table.  To a point (see above re: dog that chewed the coffee table).  However, I think that is a matter that you bring up to a guest individually and not at the breakfast table.  Or you just, you know, chalk it up to something that happens when you run a B&B and your guests like to entertain themselves with something other than a book.  Or Scrabble, which we played, although some people cheated and made words that really don’t exist just so we could finish the game.

It was a personal observation regarding your reaction to our visit to JoAnn’s.  It doesn’t reflect on your character whether or not you like the place.  I wasn’t offended by anyone there, but I do admit being a little leery of the characters who were there.  Honestly, they were a little bizarre but provided for some good people watching.  We were entertained, let’s just leave it at that.

What mostly left me uncomfortable was the announcement at breakfast that you cannot legally serve people who were not overnight guests, that there would not be enough food to do so, and while the overnight guests were welcome to breakfast, it was implied that anyone else would not be.  First, when arrangements were being originally made, we were given the impression that while you cannot technically serve people who are not guests and cannot charge separately for a breakfast meal, if a couple of our group were to show up for the family style breakfast, a “who would know” kind of thing would occur.  Perhaps there was a lack of communication somewhere.   I get that you can’t serve meals to non-guests.  This would put you in a restaurant-type of deal or license or something that operates under separate conditions of a bed and breakfast.  But to make an announcement at the table seemed unnecessary.  Not to mention, we had a “registered guest” who did not attend at the last minute.  Did you account for that absence in the detailed portioning of the food?  By serving family style, there was plenty of extra food.  We also had guests who opted to sleep in and not come down for breakfast.  If they came down later, would you have reheated the leftover strata from one of our dishes, made new food, or not served at all?  I almost felt like I shouldn’t take seconds, because what it there wasn’t enough food?  If you didn’t charge extra and weren’t counting heads, why feel the need at all to even mention all this? 

I perviously acknowledged that, as a large group, we brought a different dynamic to the place.  You tended to have a group of people where typically you would have seen only one or two couples at a time.  But I, personally, just didn’t feel as comfortable or welcome as I have previously at B&Bs.  According to TripAdvisor, I’m not the only one.  I’m used to relaxing and feeling at ease, with the owner always coming out with a warm smile and telling us not to fuss over stacking the dishes and asking if there’s anything else we need.  I’ve never had a host make a remark in any way that suggested there was something we needed to improve upon as guests.  Which is how I, personally and not as a collective of the group, felt at the end of the weekend.  Like you were disappointed at how we, as guests, had behaved.  However, even if this were true, isn’t the proper channel to just let it all go and vent to co-owners or staff?  Let your guests go home happy, thinking everything is well and looking forward to returning another weekend.  Let them leave feeling that they would be openly welcomed again so they go home remembering their lovely weekend and tasty appetizers and warm cookies and when friends ask how their weekend was they can respond cheerily and mention that they stayed at your inn and it was all great.

How did you even find the post in the first place?  It didn’t show up in any searches I conducted.  If it’s that hard to find on the internet, who in the world did you think would find it and think less of your establishment?  I certainly didn’t post any of my thoughts on any established lodging review sites where other people actually go looking for reviews.  So, what does it matter?  Who cares what I think?  And, sorry, but if you felt that going to our “Director” would get you better results and maybe, possibly, have me reprimanded for something I said on my personal site that isn’t even tied to my volunteer position, it’s just not going to happen.  For all intents and purposes, we could call our Director postion the “Grand Poobah” and it still doesn’t carry much weight.  Plus!  My complaints towards you were limited to one short paragraph at the very bottom right after I had said your inn was cute!  Sorry to say, but if that’s what got you all riled up, then perhaps you really do need to lighten up.  You could have just brushed it off, been relieved that no one else would read it, and then I wouldn’t have felt compelled to write this much longer post addressing the situation.

This article makes me so mad.

I really hope they find who ever did that to the poor kitten.  Animal cruelty is something that should not ever be tolerated.  It breaks my heart when I hear stories like this one. 

When you get home, please give your dogs an extra cookie and your cats some kisses.  Or tuna.  Or whatever your cats eat.  Heck, give the dogs two extra cookies, just because.

Because of the special anniversary menu at Thee Bungalow, they had automatically added an 18% gratuity. This reminded me of our visit to Rockin’ Baja Lobster (I’m not linking to them because I’m now very unhappy with them and henceforth they will be called RBL).

After our long day at Sea World, we went to RBL for dinner, remembering their buckets of shrimp, carne asada, slipper lobsters, and chicken. We decided to split a bucket (which isn’t really a bucket since they put filler in the bottom and you food only sits on the top layer, but whatever) because we had been eating here and there throughout the day at Sea World. $4.50 split plate charge - okay, fine, I think that’s high but I’ll go with it since we’re both eating from the salad bar, unlimited tortillas and salsa, and beans and rice (not that anyone ever gets MORE beans and rice). The salsa bar has been reduced to only 5 salsas and you now have to ask for their honey chili butter. So if you want, say, more than the tiny cup they give you, you need to continuously ask for more making you feel like a butter-eating glutton wishing they would just put it back in their salsa bar so you can indulge yourself privately. The food is still good, although the prices have gone up astronomically and what I swear used to be a bucket for 2 is now a single person bucket but the prices are still high. But, the shrimp and slipper lobsters aren’t overcooked and are very tasty (being fried and covered in salty spices) and the chicken was even moist and tender.

Being our party of 7, which included a kid, they automatically added the 18% gratuity. BUT! They also added a gratuity tax, which is essentially sales tax on the non-voluntary gratuity (I learned this non-voluntary part is important, but it also seems to go against the whole gratuity part in my mind). I bring it up as a grumbling rant because I have never seen a restaurant add the gratuity tax. Yes, it’s a sales tax that goes to the IRS or whoever and blah blah blah why should the restaurant have to cover it blah blah blah. Well, on top of the raised prices, funny smelling restaurants, downsized salsa and salad bar, and making me ask for the honey chili butter, AND adding the gratuity, adding a tax on the gratuity is just the last tacky straw. Oh, and the buckets of tortilla chips that we paid for were basically crumbs from the bottom of the barrel. Look, I know we were there kind of late, but could you give us chips that are maybe large enough to even hold salsa?

We won’t be going back to RBL. There are plenty of really good Mexican places around Old Town to frequent. I’ll learn how to make my own honey chili butter and spread it on my own warm tortillas and laugh fiendishly at RBL’s expense. Boo, RBL, boo. We used to like going to you for a consistent meal.

I bring this up now because when we were at Thee Bungalow (such love for you!) they added the gratuity but no gratuity tax. Most people don’t even notice (or know that gratuity tax exists) but now that I know, I totally appreciate that gesture.