Michelle and I decided to check out Pacific Diner for the first time.

Diner truly is an appropriate description. When you enter the front there are a couple booths and a counter, but they have a nice outdoor patio too, where you can enjoy your food in the warm California weather.

I love their biscuits and gravy. I’d be a fat(ter) kid so fast if I had these available every day.

This is the machaca omelet. They brought out two types of fresh salsa to go with the omelet. The texture combination of the fried potatoes and the egg and meat is pretty darn good. The portions are big too, so you should have something to take home for a delicious snack.

They have a huge selection of omelets on their menu in addition to a long list of specials that changes on their white board. It’s definitely a place to check out. Perhaps we can go together sometime after you’ve spent the night on my couch from drinking too much.

De-icing the plane in Seattle. Apparently the flights before us and after us never made it out.

Dining.

Bison Chili.

By the time we arrived, about half a foot of snow had fallen.

Snow flakes actually look like the crafts we cut from paper!

Our cabin.

Megan Fox stayed here before us, and she built this snowman. It grew a Marge Simpson style hairdo with all the snow.

Hot tub time machine! Really though. Hot tubs are totally awesome in the snow.

White everywhere.

Afternoon activities.

It was only after we asked the staff to get us a snow shovel that we realized there was a sign that said not to build jumps.

Killer icicles.

We even got to throw hatches and knives, while drinking beer!

Another afternoon’s activities.

The snow stopped and the sun came out, but only after 48 hours and over three feet of snow.

Here I am, enjoying a snow bath.

Waiting at the Seattle airport to go home. I just lucked out on the way home too. Planes didn’t get in or out after my flights again.

Saw this when I looked out the window in LA. Ghost plane!

After waking up at 3AM to get home, I was happy to arrive in LA, but there was no rest for the weary. Michelle and I had three engagements to get to that day.

Happy birthday, Delphi! Babies love me because I look like a cartoon.

Next on the list was my cousin’s housewarming. He had a live band and a DJ. What a way to show the neighbors you’re not going to wreck the neighborhood!

Last but not least we headed to Congregation Ale House in Pasadena for a birthday party. It’s been a long time, but after trying so many Montana brews, I could not bring myself to drink a beer. I know, the beer guy couldn’t drink beer. Weird, huh?

It was good to see everyone after being away so long, but I am still recovering. I have seen enough snow to last me a lifetime.

Mom: When are you leaving?
Me: Early Wednesday morning.
Mom: Do you need a ride to the airport?
Me: No, it’s too early. I was just going to take a shuttle.
Mom: I can take you.
Michelle: I can take you.
Me: You sure? It’s early.
Michelle: Yes.
Me: Okay then we’ll do that.

This morning the conversation was quite different.

Me: Don’t forget we have to go real early to the airport on Wednesday.
Michelle: Awww, man!
Me: Did you just offer to take me after my mom offered so you’d look like a good wife?
Michelle: Yeah. Can you take a shuttle? And also tell your mom I took you?

I will be at a work conference at the Paws Up resort in Greenough, Montana. The vendor that holds this conference every year for its distributors likes to choose very nice destinations, but this is their first winter destination. I am afraid.

As someone, who has lived half a mile from the ocean for pretty much my whole life, I don’t do cold weather. The weather is currently double this here at home, and I’m already cold. Hopefully I don’t freeze.

Well, the table showed up…damaged.

Right now I am waiting for a call back from their customer service, but because I’ve already waited six months for this table, I can’t imagine anything they could tell me would make me think the situation is not so bad.

Your move, Macy’s. Fix the problem.

Thanks, everyone for reading my rant about Macy’s blunder. I felt good just knowing that people cared enough to read, and a lot of you even chimed in with your own horror stories of Macy’s. Now if you could all continue to visit my website daily, that’d be great.

7/21/11 – We purchase a dining room table with a bench. Macy’s doesn’t tell us the furniture is not available until October. I wish they would’ve noted that when I purchase it, but that’s okay. No major family gatherings until the holidays, right?

10/5/11 – I receive a voicemail from Macy’s to let me know that our furniture is ready for delivery so I schedule it.

10/13/11 – I receive a voicemail from Macy’s that they’re not getting the table until December 15th. They’ve moved the table to another sales order so they have to leave special notes that I want them delivered together.  They still call four times to tell me our furniture is ready for delivery when it’s just the bench, and I have to keep responding that we don’t want them delivered separately.

We pretty much gave up on having our dining room table ready for Thanksgiving, so we scrapped plans to host at our place and tell our families to come over for Christmas.

10/19/11 – I receive a call from Macy’s telling me the table is going to be available on November 5th and to schedule delivery. Holy crap, they came through! I ask them to double check, and it turns out it’s just the bench sales order they’re looking at and the table won’t be available until after Christmas.

We had Christmas dinner on a shitty folding table and an IKEA table because Macy’s couldn’t deliver our table within five months.

I got a call this week to schedule delivery, so I called this morning expecting for it to be the bench only again. I got a pleasant surprise. The table is in now! They double checked and it’s finally arrived, but to think that Macy’s could give me all good news would be too much. Yesterday they cancelled our order for the bench and reassigned it a new sales order number and that won’t be available until February 11th. That means the bench they’d been holding since October was given away to someone else.

At this point I am so angry with Macy’s. I have absolutely zero faith that Macy’s will hit that February date for the bench, and even if they did meet that date, they would probably give away our table and assign it another sales order number before then. Macy’s has offered one option to me, cancel my order. I would but I feel like I’ve come so far. I believe I will just use the dining room table as a conversation piece to slam Macy’s.

Here is my advice to you. Don’t ever buy from Macy’s Furniture.

Here is the reason we went up to San Jose for Thanksgiving. This is my niece, Myla, who just turned one not too long ago. Her upper teeth are probably due out soon so she likes to chew on her tongue.

Myla with her mom and the bunny we got for her.

Here Michelle is telling her the importance of online web presence.

Kids like me, and I think it’s because I look like a cartoon.

We made her play with the bunny every chance we got so it would become her favorite, and then we would become her favorite. Muahahahha!

Myla plays like a little boy. She doesn’t like to sit still and only has one speed, extreme. I was fascinated by the fact that she can mimic just about any sound you make. She can pop her lips, click her tongue, and do whatever that thing is called in the video.

Now that we’re done looking at my adorable niece, let’s talk about family and food.

People ask whether spending time with my niece makes me want to have kids any sooner. Playing with kids is pretty fun, but part of the fun is being able to say, “She pooped. Playtime timeout. Someone take care of this.” What you don’t see in all these pictures is all the hard work the parents put into raising Myla. You also don’t see the loads of stuff they have just to accomplish that task. Hard work is hard. As I am having a difficult time taking care of myself most of the time, I don’t think pushing up kids is a great idea.

This is vanilla bean, split and cut, soaking in Maker’s Mark. It is one of the ingredients of my latest home brew. I’m five days from bottling, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.