I miss views like this

Cake from half way across the US

So when I was back home during Christmas, I was not able to go to Pambiche. One of my most favorite things there is a cake called Torta Dominó.

Torta Dominó ~

White chocolate mocha cake, soaked with Kahlúa coffee liqueur and café cubano, is filled with chocolate canela mousse and glazed with Oaxacan chocolate ganache; finished with a white chocolate domino and served with crema chantilly.

The whole process of getting it shipped turned in to a big production. I would have thought that they would have the facilities to ship their cakes, but they did not. So I had to arrange to have the cake picked up, prepped for shipping, shipped, and received.

All in all, it turned out great. I got a piece for some friends, a piece for the people that I work with, a piece for the people I live with, and a piece for me. Everyone loved it. Some did not think it was the best cake ever like I do, but I did not expect them to.

With how much this cost me, I don't think I will be doing it again. I think I will make sure to get over there to eat the next time I am back. Plus I will then get to eat all of the other great food as well.

Someone sucks

San Antonio or Google... one of you two suck.

Again, I had a nice frustrating evening trying to get somewhere in this honorably laid out city.

I wanted a steak for dinner, I have been wanting a steak all week. The good steak places I have been told about were too far away (strike for SA) so I tried looking up some steak places closer. Google maps has been less than reliable for me in SA and again it fails me (strike for Google).

So I decided to just drive and see what I could find. Well every time I have ever tried this method, I end up finding the same 6 or so crappy chain restaurants (strike for SA). On top of that the retarded layout of the roads, mean you are going to miss the turn to the place so you have to go around (strike for SA). Even the parking lots are crappy designs (strike for SA).

After I was done with what I was doing this evening I wanted to find some ice cream. Well just repeat the same frustrating ordeal from above all over.

Now I know that Google changed stuff with there map data about a month and a half ago, and may people are not happy, but I was having bad results from the day I got to this town. I truly hope that Google has not messed the Vancouver/Portland area up as bad as SA is. I have to think that it is just the crappy layout of SA that causes Google to have a hard time providing good results.

If I had hair, I would pull it out.

Getting on the plane to fly back to SA in December is going to be hard.

T-minus 5 weeks

5 weeks and counting.

839 hours 54 minutes
839 hours 53 minutes
839 hours 52 minutes...

T-minus 6 weeks

6 weeks from today I will be landing at PDX. I will literally be going strait from the airport to Jason's bachelor party. I won't even be passing go, collecting $200, or even stopping at my house.

I am not really that excited, I have only been privately counting down for about the last 3 months. ;)

I still need to plan a little bit so that I get to see as many people as possible while I am home.

Week three

Getting a new job is fun.
Moving is fun, in a strange sort of fun way.
Getting a new job and moving at the same time is even more fun in a strange sort of way.

You have so much stuff to do, that you don’t really have time to have fun, but you are having fun not getting to having fun…

So today I got a big envelope with some mail from Vancouver. I also got a new debit card, a bunch of stuff on my car insurance, my life insurance, my dental insurance, stuff about my new 401k and my old 401k. I have mail all over the place.

My new debit card is because I somehow crack my card in half about every 6 to 9 months. It started to crack 3 days before I left to drive down here. Not so good timing. I have been babying it until I got the new one. I also have to learn a new PIN for it because my bank is not around here to get it re-PINed. I wish I could get a debit card made out of steel. It would be a little heavy, but I but it would last longer.

I then got all the stuff for transferring my auto insurance to TX. They messed the address up and they un-enrolled me from my automatic payment, which they said they would not do. Now I have to call them on Monday. On my life insurance, they changed the address to the house address that I am staying at. First, I never wanted them to touch the life insurance part, only the auto, and I told them to never send any thing to the house address, only the mail box that I am renting. I fear that they have somehow messed up my home owners insurance as well. At lest the dental insurance stuff is only the new card and I don’t have to do anything with it.

I also got about a pound of info from both my Nautilus 401k and stuff to look at about my new 401k. I really wish I could trust the financial adviser guys out there so that I did not have to spend a bunch of time looking this stuff over. I have contacted one of the people that Dave Ramsey recommended, but I still am leery of people in this profession. It also does not help that some people have the “southern hospitality” turned on a little too thick for a cynic like me. It is only my retirement at stake!

Other fun things to do when you move, get your new license and license plates. Well maybe if they had the DMV and all the other places they make you go to open on the weekend! I am going to be lucky if I get this done this year, with all the stuff they make you do.

While I am close to the subject of cars, I am going to give you a sneak peek at my observations of Texan drivers. I will bore you with a full post about this some other time, but for now I can sum them up with this: bi-polar lemmings!

And the best part about moving, getting to miss my nieces 3rd birthday. Getting to miss all my friends. Getting to miss all my family.

Ya moving is fun…