I tried to play tennis with my father-in-law but ended up spraining my ankle early.  We went swimming with Isabelle the first time and she really loved it.  Only thing was I think she swallowed a bit too much pool water and vomited.  We took that as a cue to exit the pool.  As far as we can tell no one noticed.  The suite was spacious with two bedrooms, a kitchen, two baths, and a living room.  They had an odd layout of the doors since I think the suite was built as a one bedroom and they have a bedroom attached through one of those secure partition doors so that the single room could be rented out separately.  The kitchen was fully functional so I made breakfast each morning.

This leads to the two frustrating things about Split Rock.  They kindof treat the resort like a cruise ship.  They charge you for everything, tennis court rentals, movie theater, bowling …  They try to mask it by using a room charging system but it just felt awkward.  When I sprained my ankle only 30 minutes into our two hours on the court they didn’t offer to refund the un-used time.  I can understand if there was a huge queue of people who wanted to play and our reservation kept someone else from playing, but there was no one else there.

Finally the restaurants are pretty bad.  They claim to have three really good restaurants at the resort.  We went to their American style in the Galleria and the Italian themed one in the lodge.  Both were pretty poor in quality and service time.  I think our experience would have been a lot better if the food was up to par.  We ended up going to Burger King, a 20 minute drive out of the resort, for lunch because we just weren’t up for another meal there.  If we ever go again, I’m probably going to fill up the cooler with marinated meats and groceries and just cook all our meals in the kitchen.

It was a good trip though.  Isabelle had fun and got to hang with her grandparents.  Hopefully we’ll find things to do in Orlando so she can hang out with my parents a little more.

So I’m sure a lot of you already know that my parents took us out to Per Se in New York for Kevin’s birthday (Dec 24).  I put up some pictures that we took there.  Sorry the quality isn’t that hot, but I have the hardest time working with those little automated cameras.  I should have just brought my behemouth 10D, but the atmostphere of the restaurant seems to preclude that.  I don’t have time right now to give a thorough review, but overall it was a great experience, but the check was way too much.  They gave us printouts of the menu and wines that we had (although they left out the “VIP” items they threw in … more on that later) and I’ll scan those in and post them once I get a chance.

The food and the service were absolutely amazing.  Dad though was a little dismayed that the menu was that expensive.  I think he enjoyed the experience but didn’t warrant the $500 / head cost.  I think his favorite dish was the foie gras pate.  They brought out these Texas Toast size bread triangles with the pate, which was wonderfully buttery and smooth.  Mom’s favorite always ends up being dessert, I still don’t believe that Kevin’s been there twice already!  Ah, the benefits of a bachelor in New York.

For those of you who have stayed over at our new house, rejoice, rejoice we have fixed the leaky toilet. We ordered two new toilets online from toiletwarehouse.com We got the Toto Drake which was reviewed in this pretty interesting study. The study’s pretty cool, and you should read it. It’s pretty interesting. I’ve already “christened” the toilet and it’s a pretty nice toilet. It takes a little getting used to since it uses so little water. But of course there is more to this story than just the new toilet, thus the title

So we were originally going to have a plumber come in to install the toilets. I called a few places and they all said that it would cost around $150 to $200 per toilet. While I guess that doesn’t sound like so much, but we just bought a guest bed, some drapes and these toilets, so it kindof adds up. I wasn’t so worried about the toilet itself, but changing the water supply line, since a little mistake could mean quite a mess.

So we started with the guest bathroom. We have had the water supply turned off for awhile since the water supply was leaking quite a bit. I had to saw off the bolts holding the toilet down since they were rusted on. I think these have been in since the house was built. I finally got the toilet out and carefully pulled it out and stuffed a rag into the hole. It is nasty down there. The wax ring came up easy and we went ahead with cleaning everything up. Sarah then kindly painted the bathroom, this periwinkle blue, which I picked out. Unfortunately our existing tile is yellow, so there’s kind of a strange clash going on.

So now here is the hard part. What do I do about this supply line? Well I shut off the water and took off line and we head out to home depot. Ughhhhh, there is nothing designed to fit the existing valve we have. So the only choice is to take the whole valve off. We run back home to check what type of pipe we have. Turns out we have a half inch hard copper pipe. Great! That means we can use a simple compression fitting instead of having to solder. So I bought the right fitting and went home.

I thread the on the compression fitting, give it a quarter turn with my wrenches. I asked Sarah to turn on the water. She mentioned to me that she has no idea where the valve was. Well that’s no good. It’s important that every homeowner knows where there water shut off valve is. You never know when you might need to find it. We saunter down to the basement and find the valve. I turn it all the way over and you hear the wonderful woosh of water flowing into the pipe. As we walk upstairs I hear water running and think, “I must have left the tub on when I depressurized the water. I get to the top of the stairs and it dawns on me, “OH NO!!! That’s the supply line.” I turn around and tell Sarah to run and turn off the water, and I continue on to the bathroom. There is a beautiful jet of water coming out of the copper tube, and I see my nice compression fitting sitting on the floor. I think when I made the quarter turn, I turned it the wrong way and actually loosened the fitting instead of securing it. So now we have a couple of gallons of water on the floor going everywhere.

Some of it gets out onto the carpet, and we have a wonderful mess to clean up. Sarah sees it dripping into the kitchen and hears it going through our walls. It actually ends up in the basement storage room eventually and we’ve had to peel up the vinyl laminate floor that we put down too. So now there are some nasty water stains in the kitchen, and a pretty wet basement. We’ve dried up the best that we can, and the dehumidifier is running non stop. We hope we get everything dried up soon.

Despite all this we did get our two toilets installed. Saved a few hundred dollars, which we will now put towards putting down new tiles and fixing the ceiling. But all in all a good experience. We can look back and laugh at our little accident, but hopefully this never happens again. Well stop on by and check out our new toilets. Feel free to have a big meal before hand if you need to be convinced of its flushing power

I need to come up with better titles, but eh I’m just not that creative. We went up to NY this weekend. Back when we had the accident Acura sent us the wrong door panel so we had one leather panel and one felt. Looked a little funny. Dad’s been holding the panel for us for over a month. Given the training and store opening schedule we couldn’t make it up until now. I put up Mom’s new house numbers. Looks good, but I probably should have mounted it six inches higher.

My parents took us to Scalini Fedeli’s NYC restaurant. Kevin said they got a Michelin star. I knew it was pretty hard to get a star but didn’t realize that there were only some 15 restaurants in NYC that got at least 1 star. Pretty impressive. We got there but still had to wait for our seats. When we did sit we noticed that they had a tasting menu but it wouldn’t be available until 9:30pm. The staff were nice and let us get it anyway. Kevin always picks out the wines for us and selected two great bottles. Maybe we shouldn’t get two bottles all the time. It ends up being Kevin and I drinking 75% of it anyway. I don’t think I’ve seen Mom take more than a sip, ever.

The food was good overall and it wasn’t nearly as expensive as PerSe. But the service was very uneven and even bordered on unprofessional. They only brought us 4 menus and said they would bring over another. The waiter didn’t show up for 15 minutes with another one. I was sitting on an inside corner and they kept dropping things or just dropping the plate in front of me. Lots of clanking and spilling. Maybe that’s what kept them from getting a second star. Try to get a table in the middle.

Mom had a funny incident. When she went to the rest room she didn’t realize that the markings were in Italian so she didn’t recognize which was the lady’s room. Well turns out some guy that was down there didn’t realize it either and went into the lady’s room so she just went into the other. Well when she came out of the stall she saw a guy standing at the urinal and just ran out without washing her hands because she was so embarrassed. Turns out the guy at the urinal was me. Oh well

Peter posted a bunch of pictures of our dinner party that we had.  We had a lot of fun, and it was great making all the food.  The recipes will go up in time, with the first one posted below.

While the night wasn’t a complete surprise to them, it seems like everyone had a great deal of fun.  And in the vein of the whole evening, Susanna posted a “review” of the night.  Now we’ll need to start planning for how to top the event next year!

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From the CLC Times…

“Head chef Vee and his assistants outdid themselves!  Guests raved about their gourmet dining experience from the elegant china and table decor to the excellent service.  The three-course meal was superb and faultless.  For the appetizer, the shrimp were cooked just right, not overdone and the flavor of the cocktail sauce melted in our mouths.  The filet was cooked to perfection and the bernaise sauce complimented the peppercorn crusted meat without overpowering.  The chicken was juicy and still tender with just the perfect hint of rosemary.  The presentation of the entree was precise and artful.  The dessert was divine!  The fruit selection was the finest and sweetest, and the combination of chocolate and cheesecake kept our mouths begging for more.  The service was noteworthy.  The servers were conscientious and attentive to our needs.  This was a culinary adventure worth taking again!”

* * * * *
5 stars
Reviewed by Bang CG ladies

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Hi Everyone.  I know there aren’t that many people coming to my site, but I figured I put this up here anyway.  I’m getting involved with a project called Librivox.  They have a goal of recording all public domain books.  They’re looking for volunteers.  I’m going to be recording Chapters 17-18 from Treasure Island, and there are a lot of other good books out there as well.  If you want to lend your time and voice talents I’m sure they could use all the help they can get!

I haven’t posted anything in a long time.  So I can’t think of a whole lot of stuff to talk about right now.  So I’m going to talk about my shaving brush.  This is by far the best way to shave.  You use it to whisk up a good lather and put it on your face.  It lifts your whiskers and exfoliates the skin.  Shaving is a pleasure with this.  I’m also using an almond scented soap for shaving, which just adds to the experience.

We bought one for Sarah’s dad and he loves it.  Sam’s using one too now and he seems to enjoy it.  If you haven’t tried this yet, definitely think about it.  I bought mine from Classic Shaving. You can read up there about the different types of brushes and the price differences.  Basically it comes down to how big the brush is and whether it is super, best, or pure badger.  I’ve been using the pure badger, and it’s been sufficient.  Maybe years from now I’ll get a super badger and pass the old one on to my first son when he needs to shave.

Sarah and I went to Cafe de Paris last night for dinner. After we saw a show on Food Network on Saturday we really wanted French Fries. The Secret Life of French Fries is a great show. They do a lot of historical information on a number of different foods. Well Sarah’s been wanting good French Fries since then.

The more we thought about it, the harder it was to think of a place that makes good French Fries. There’s McDonalds and Burger King, but the rest of the menu is kindof lacking, and places like Red Robin make those horribly soggy and limp steak fries. We couldn’t really think of anywhere else to go. Sarah remembered seeing the ad in some junk mail which had a coupon, so we figured we give it a shot.

The restaurant is located on 8808 Centre Park Drive in Columbia. It is really hidden and took a bit to find. At first the restaurant looked kindof empty, but there were a number of people in the back, and lots of senior citizens. That’s usually a good sign. We both decided to have the Prix Fixe menu for $35.95. Sarah had the Lobster Bisque, SwordFish, and Creme Brulee, while I had the Escargot, 13oz Angus Ribeye, and the Warm Peach and Pear Cake.

We found the Lobster Bisque to be a bit salty. It had a good creaminess and mouth feel. The Swordfish was grilled very well and came on a wonderful bed of risotto and vegetables. There was a shelled lobster claw, which Sarah thought was a carrot , which was a little overcooked. The creme brulee was made with real vanilla bean, and was quite good, but I didn’t care too much for the slightly burnt sugar topping.

The escargot was conveniently shelled for me, but wasn’t perfectly fresh. The garlic pesto sauce was strong, and suited the snails well. The ribeye was excellent, and perfectly cooked to medium rare. The brown “gravy” was perfect and there was absolutely no need for steak sauce. Of course they included pomme frites, (french fries for all of us uncouth americans), which were perfectly crispy and tasty. They easily satisfied Sarah’s craving. The warm peach and pear cake was topped off with an excellent vanilla ice cream and was generally very good. The crust was a little dry, but with my expanding belly, I could definitely afford not to eat it.

Cafe de Paris was overall a pretty good restaurant, and we would definitely entertain the thought of going back. If I had to give a rating, I’d say a 3 of 5.

So as many of you know already we installed laminate flooring in our aunt’s house a few weeks ago.  I thought I’d give a review of the product we bought and how the process went.

We bought our laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators .  We bought 34 boxes of the Dream Home Charisma flooring at $1.29 a square foot.   Their website just underwent a massive overhaul, which makes it much easier to figure out what you want to get.  The Charisma line is 7mm thick and looks pretty good.  I was tempted to get the Nirvana v3 line but it was $1.99/sqft.  The v3 comes in three inch wide, individual planks, more like hardwood flooring, so it would take more time to install.  Standard laminate flooring comes in 7-8″ wide planks, where each plank consists of 3 faux strips. It’s easier if you just look at the picture than to describe.

The Dream Home line doesn’t use any glue, but is more like Legos.  Two sides of each board has a tongue, and the other two sides is a groove.  You basically snap one board into the other.  You need to get a pounding block and gently tap them together.  It is almost impossible to get the seam to fully snap together without the hammer.  Be careful though, we found that it chips if you pound too hard, so make sure you use lots of tapping.  When you use the pull bar, I can almost guarantee you that it will chip, so only use it when you have to.  Sometimes we would put a glove inbetween the pull bar and the flooring, which would reduce the chipping.  I’m not sure how other products hold up but we were kindof surprised by how easily it would chip.

When we did the installation, we completely removed all the baseboards.  This lead to an interesting problem.  The wall board did not extend all the way to the floor.  There’s a small gap at the bottom between the wall board and the sill plate.  When we were trying to use the spacers to ensure the 1/8″ gap, the spacers would slide under the wall, making it rather difficult to maintain the proper spacing.  Well I compensated by measuring a little shorter on the outer edges.  That lead to the problem of their being too much gap in the room.  So we ended up putting in quarter round in addition to the base molding to cover the gap completely.

I brought a lot of tools with me.  I recently purchased a Dewalt D718 which I used for almost all the cutting.  You have to have a mitre saw of some sort because of all the cuts you need to make for the molding, but the power saw makes it a lot easier.  I got this model because it also has sliding capability, which makes it good for cutting the flooring as well.  If you don’t have a sliding compound mitre saw, you’ll have to use either a jig saw or a table saw to cut them all.  I wouldn’t even want to try using a hand saw to cut them.  I had a jig saw and a table saw as well which made things really easy.  The jig saw is great for making more intricate cuts, especially around doorways and cabinets.  The table saw makes it much easier for making rip cuts (cuts made along the long edge to make the boards thinner).  You could do it with a jig saw as well.  So at a bare minimum make sure you have a jig saw, but let me tell you from experience, this is the hardest way to go about this.

I couldn’t fit my saw horses in the car, so I ended up making all the cuts on the ground, which just made my knees and back hurt.  Granted, you need to bend over a lot anyway, but it’s nice when you can make the cuts standing up.  The place will be a mess though.  The dust that is kicked up from all the cuts really gets everywhere and makes quite a mess.

Some final notes, if you are installing over a concrete floor, make sure that you put down a vapor barrier.  The barrier should extend up the side walls and overlap each other.  Tape everything down.  And keep the pets away.  Wear a  face mask because the dust is really not pleasant to breathe in.  Ok good luck!

UPDATE:  The floor isn’t holding up that well.  With the two dogs in the house they seem to be peeling up the laminate in certain corners.  So at the moment, I really woudn’t recommend this.