I've just been perusing the posts on a travel forum, reading about expectations and thoughts on the opening of Gordon Ramsay's new steakhouse in Las Vegas. I've seen the menu, it's on par with all the other high end steakhouses in Vegas. In other words, far more than you'll ever see me pay for a piece of meat. Sure, it's a hand selected, dry-aged piece of meat, but I doubt it really tastes any better than the steak I get from the cow I buy every year. And I know my beef is humanely raised, grass-fed (except in winter when prohibited by snow) and locally sourced. What you're paying for is the name on the restaurant.

And that brings me to my biggest issue on these high-priced places with big names attached to them. Most of the chefs who garner the Michelin stars, the fame and all the money - most of them never set foot in a kitchen. Those television chefs? Most of them don't cook in their own restaurants either. Gordon Ramsay has over a dozen restaurants, so we know he's not cooking in all of them. I doubt Bobby Flay has done any cooking in recent years that wasn't for the Food Network. I know Rick Moonen doesn't cook at RM Seafood. They charge nearly $500 per person for a tasting menu at Joel Robuchon in Vegas and I know he rarely cooks there.

Sure, there are a few exceptions to the rule. Hubert Keller has 4 restaurants in 3 cities. He spends most of his time at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, which makes sense as that's his first and highest end spot. But I know he also does cook at Fleur in Vegas at least every second weekend. And there are big name chefs who only have 1 or 2 spots and actually do their own cooking.

But my annoyance is with those who don't cook in a restaurant regularly. We have Canadian versions of this as well - Michael Smith, anyone? This guy bugs me to the nth degree. First of all, he goes on and on about being Canada's best known chef (as per his own website) and he's not even Canadian, for crying out loud. Nope, born, raised and trained in the state of New York. That's a relatively minor nitpick, though, since most of the great Canadian chefs were born elsewhere (Susur Lee in Hong Kong and Roger Mooking in Trinidad, for example). What bugs me most about Smith, though, comes from first hand knowledge. The man has other people cook for him and then takes the credit. I don't mean in any restaurant he might own, that's kind of a given with celebrity chefs. I mean, book him to cook for an event and he doesn't actually cook. Happened here in Ottawa in the last couple years - right before Sodexo named him the chef in charge of the 2010 Olympics. He "cooked" at a Sodexo event here in Ottawa. Well, he actually never even picked up a knife in the kitchen. But he passed the food off as his own and took credit for the meal. So who actually cooked? The regular staff at the venue where the event was held. So not too surprising that a chef who doesn't even do his own cooking got his ass whupped on Iron Chef. And then whined about it being unfair.

Okay, rant mostly over. Will I ever pay $42 for Ramsay's fish and chips? Nope. Despite plenty of opportunity, have I set foot in Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill? Nope. Will I keep going back to Hubert Keller's places? Hell yes.

But lots going on the meantime. My team is out of the playoffs, like you didn't already know that. I have a job, assuming I pass the background check. Nothing fancy or special, just cashier at the neighbourhood grocery store. Not a lot of hours to start, probably 3 shifts a week (15 hours total). Still, I am close by and can be used for on call shifts. And am available during weekday hours, which they have a very hard time filling.

This will mean that in a couple of paycheques I can pay down the credit card (which is within $10 of being maxed out) and spring for registration to Sirens. Will do like last year and fly via Las Vegas, I think. Can do Vegas easily with airmiles. Cannot do Portland so easily, would have to fly the day before and after the conference. Will probably have free hotel in Vegas, so that makes it a no brainer to stay there. Airfare LAS - PDX is similar in cost to bus ticket Vegas to Vail last year. Will still need to pay for shuttle.

Vegas plans coming together nicely, including a pizza/drinks and either hockey or cheap roulette with a couple from the travel forum that I frequent. An afternoon with glowing_dragon. Lots of fantastic meals, including the very fancy brunch that I have convinced Nyssa to do (by paying part of the meal).

My Mom will stop by sometime this week and drop off my birthday card, which will hopefully contain cash that can be used for this upcoming vacation. Then she and Dad are off to the cottage for a few weeks.

What else? Oh, job has come just in time, as my unemployment benefits run out this week. Sucks to work for 7 years and only be eligible for 21 weeks of benefits (it's based on the unemployment rate where you live).

Have books and movies to list but will do that another day. Must call my sister-in-law and berate her for not being home all weekend. How dare she go camping for the long weekend and have a good time? Well, can't really complain, had a nice weekend myself - movie with friends and then a marvelous meal at Wasabi on the market. Nothing better than an afternoon/evening with good company.

Time is flying by again. Except when I think about vacation. That part seems so far away. And I haven't even posted about my last vacation. Texas adventures to come, when I rack my brain about everything we did. And where we ate. I have food photos, too! But not a clue as to how to get them into a post on LJ. Will have to take some time to read FAQs and figure things out. Oh, and get the photos off my camera. And figure out what all the restaurants were called.

Dad was back into and out of the hospital a couple weeks ago. Initial thought was a stroke - garbled speech, lack of ability to pick up even a fork to eat dinner and his legs gave out on him. Turns out it wasn't a stroke but bleeding on the brain - aftermath of last month's fall. They drained the blood and put him back on anti-seizure meds.

Very cool discovery that glowing_dragon will be in Vegas at exactly the same time as we are. Have offered services for a tour of downtown Vegas. We can show here the light show and free bands, teach her useful things like how to play roulette without breaking the budget. :)

Still no luck on the job front. I really do hate the whole "apply online only" thing for retail jobs. How the hell does anyone get an idea of someone's customer service ability from a piece of paper? Can't be effectively done, IMO.

Hockey playoffs? What can I say? Go Flyers!? Had to love the insanity of the first round Flyers/Penguins series. Seriously amusing to hear a TSN between periods announcer call Sidney Crosby a weasel for skating up behind someone and punching them in the back of the head. It was truly a bizarre series. Now to beat NJ. Am also hoping Washington to beat the Rangers. We'll see who's still standing by the time we get to Vegas. Games that air at 5 pm truly screw with dinner plans. Having to watch hockey screws with vacation time anyway - trying to fit that in with all the things to do. Maybe early games are better - Vegas is an easy place to fit shows and stuff in afterwards and there are plenty of 24 hour restaurants or at least places that are open pretty late.

Time to go back to bed. Woke up around 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I can feel the eyelids drooping. A couple more hours shut-eye sounds like a good idea.

My father spent a few days in the hospital, having fallen down a short flight of stairs in the middle of the night. Aside from a wicked set of stitches running along the top of his entire left eyebrow, he also broke 6 ribs and his shoulder blade. He's home now, probably driving my mother crazy.

Got my hair cut and coloured. Pretty much the same colour as usual, cut a wee bit shorter. Up to around chin length. Great coupon on Dealfind. I had been thinking that I should have bought 2 instead of one and wouldn't you know it, they put the same offer up on Dealfind again. The first one I bought a while back and just got around to using it. By the time I got around to buying the new one, the offer was better, they'd increased it to 2 cuts, shampoos, scalp massages, styles, hair colour and all the fancy doodads. All for $39. So I bought 2. I think I'm set for cuts and colour for the next year. :)

Counting down to San Antonio, leave here one Wednesday morning. Flying via Chicago. Praying for better travel karma than I had on this trip last year. Why does the weather channel website insist on telling me that it will rain the entire time I'm in Texas? Still need to get some American money. And do laundry and pack, of course. Must bake bread, too, on Tuesday as I've told Andy I'd leave him some.

Still watching airfares to Vegas for end of May. Best flights are still around the $530 mark. There is an alternative of flying there via Vancouver. Why does Air Canada think this is a good idea? Ah, but we all know that Air Canada is run by a bunch of idiots. No surprise there. Not a lot of wiggle room on dates this time. I have 2 comped nights at our hotel that must be used by the end of May. We're looking at May 30 - June 5. Will use the comped nights for the beginning, pay our reduced rates for the weekend and then book another promotion for the Monday and Tuesday. Second promo will be similar to the ones I traveled on recently - $89 for 2 nights stay, $10 to gamble and a $40 food/beverage credit. Have to pay for the weekend as there has to be 72 hours between promotional stays.

Bought myself a treadmill. Am actually getting on it every day. My legs are sore. 'Nuff said.

Really? Where did February go and why did it leave so quickly?

We are now a single cat household. Akira passed away last week, died on his way to the animal hospital with Andy. As soon as the ground thaws he will be buried in the backyard, under the peonies that were his favourite place to sleep in the summer.

I have another Vegas vacation under my belt that is begging for me to post a couple entries. Despite my intention to take photos of all the marvelous food, as per a conversation I had with logospilgrim, I remembered this thought only as I walked away from a completely awesome meal. Will endeavour to do better on my next vacation.

Much to my dismay, my Flyers are proving somewhat hit or miss this season. Not at all aided by erratic goaltending. We are still in a playoff position but will have to work to keep it because points are close in the Eastern Conference. After a public comment by an exiting player that they are losing because they think and play like losers (paraphrasing on my part but true to the essence of the original statement), Montreal has made it to the very bottom in the East. Good, though, to see the Sens and Jets in good spots. Toronto is a possibility as well, though we don't care so much about them. :) Vancouver is sitting pretty in the West, with Calgary fighting for a place. Edmonton is, of course, out of the running for this year. If things go well tomorrow, Ottawa will beat Boston and we'll beat San Jose.

I didn't watch the Academy Awards last night and will be going to do that now.

Next vacation is coming up in just over 2 weeks, when I will fly down to San Antonio and spend a week with amandageist and family. We'll be taking a side trip to Dallas while I'm there and Jan has mentioned a daytrip to Langtry. I'm very much looking forward to it.

And before I forget, I have a couple thank yous for lovely LJ gifts. To condwiramurs for the lovely heart and to coffee_n_cocoa for the marvelous dragon.

Oh, one last thing. It has come to my attention that my next trip to Vegas at the end of May coincides with glowing_dragon being there. Who knows, if she has enough time to spare we may manage to meet up.

Whoever has been sending us snow and cold? Stop. Now.

I'm not any better at keeping track of what I've been reading. :) My biggest problem is that I have too many books on the go right now. I'm part way through about 7 at the moment. Guess I better back away from the keyboard and do some reading!

1. What Katy Did Next - Susan Coolidge
2. Explosive Eighteen - Janet Evanovich
3. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
4. Silent Girl - Tess Gerritsen
5. Ice Cold - Tess Gerritsen

Looks like I need to stop watching so many movies and get back to reading books.

I've been a bit slack about keeping track of movies. And you'd think it would be easier now that I don't work for a video store. Apparently I still watch too many movies.

1. The Silencers (1966)
2. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
3. The Thin Man (1934)
4. After the Thin Man (1936)
5. Another Thin Man (1939)
6. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
7. The Thin Man Goes Home (1944)
8. Song of the Thin Man (1947)

Yeah, there was a Thin Man marathon happening on TCM. I can watch these everytime they're on, though I prefer the earlier ones to the ones done in the '40s.

9. Holiday (1938) I can never pass up a Katharine Hepburn film
10. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
11. Letters to Three Wives (1949) Better than I expected it to be from the brief description I'd read.
12. Each Dawn I Die (1939)
13. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
14. The Public Enemy (1931)
15. The Misfits (1961)
16. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
17. Total Recall
18. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
19. Boom Town (1940)
20. Fury (1936)
21. Action in the North Atlantic (1941)
22. All the King's Men (1949)

I know I watched more than that but didn't keep track well at the beginning of February.

The travel meme I did the other day was fun, so I decided to take a few of the more interesting questions and post them separately. Not all at once, that would be too long. Just one or two at a time. I'll include my answers.

Favourite cuisine?

C'mon, this is me. Do you really think I have a favourite? That I could narrow it down to one or two?

Favourite and least favourite destinations?

I'm not sure I have a best and least in this one either. I'm all about food, especially when I travel, so if good food can be found then it's a good destination. I've never been anywhere that I didn't like. There's been something wonderful or unique about every place I've been.

That's it for today.

Yeah, instead of doing useful things, I'm doing memes. Don't like it? Move along, nothing for you here. :P

This time a travel meme, borrowed from pinkfinity. It's a long one so I'll ( put it behind a cut )

Borrowed from condwiramurs

I'm running a test to see who's reading my posts. So, if you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the third letter of you LJ USERNAME. Only one word please. Then repost so I can leave a word for you. Don't just post a word and not copy - that's not as much fun.