Anyone who knows me knows that I love Outback Steakhouse. I eat at Outback at least twice a week. I am a bit of a steak snob having been to many fantastic steak houses in the country (and around the world for that matter)and been fortunate enough to have tasted some of the best filets out there.
With all that said, I was always so thrilled with the quality of steak (namely the filet) that I would get at an Outback. This was surprising because not only is it a family place, but it is a CHAIN! The same can be said for Ruth's Chris, I suppose (minus the family for the most part), but that is a different caliber of restaurant and one would expect to get great steak for the price you pay at a Ruth's Chris.
But Outback was one of those restaurants that I could go to anywhere I may travel and get the same quality every time. Same great salad, same great bread, same great filets.
Being in the military, I move around a lot, sometimes for 3 years, sometimes for 3 months. No matter where I end up, one of the first things I did was look up the nearest Outback. Coming here to Goldsboro, North Carolina was no different. Sure enough, there was an Outback here and I was SO happy. Mostly because this is a really tiny town and the choices of places to eat are few. Places for decent steak...even fewer.
Over the past 3 or 4 months, the quality of everything from the bread, to the salad, and especially the steak has just gotten worse and worse. They changed the type of salad they use from what used to be fresh, to what tastes like a bag salad with dry carrot slices and purple shredded cabbage. Yucko! The honey wheat bread, which was always very good, has been coming out less than hot to downright cold. When we ask for new bread, what comes out is not all that much better. The steaks are what really let down, though. I used to get a consistent, tender filet that I could quite literally cut with my fork. Now, only about 1 out of every 7 or 8 times I visit is the steak good enough for me to really enjoy. I feel badly sending it back every time, because what comes back is never much better so I stopped sending it back. I keep ordering it though because I am always so hopeful that they will come through for me this time.
I am even a member of Outback Rewards and then I fill out those surveys (that give you a free bloomin' Onion for filling out!) and I always tell them about the issues. It has not improved.
I hate to think this, but I don't want to go back to Outback anymore. That bothers me because when it is good it is SO good! I always make sure on Outback days that I don't eat lunch. That way me (and even the people I go with) are nice and hungry by the time we get there. But I really think I only have a few more chances left in my heart for you dear Outback. I really don't want to start learning how to cook my own steak. That borders on sac-relig.
Anyone else having the same experience I am?
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thoughts on Mother's day
Eric and I went to a mall in Raleigh this afternoon to meet with/interview a DJ for our wedding. While there I couldn't help but notice just how many men were out at the mall with children in tow, sans women. Enough for me, a person who makes it a point NOT to notice much of anything dealing with children, to notice the oddity. I began to wonder if it was just a fluke. Perhaps today was National Chester-the-molester-takes-their-kid-to-the-mall day. I then remembered it was Mother's day. Funny how all a mother seems to want on this Mother's day is to NOT be a mother. Not deal with their kids. Not cook any meals. Not do any of the things for which this day was invented to give thanks for. Get rid of the kids, pawn them off on anyone willing to take 'em, right? Well good for you. Hear that silence? Feel the peace within the walls of your home as you drift easily out from your slumber and start your day with the peaceful tranquility that can only be achieved by having a house free from children. Ahhh....welcome to my world. I get that every single day. Jealous much?
In all seriousness, I know enough about what a mother has to go through to be a successful parent to know that there is no way in hell that you would ever catch me doing it. There are some people who would call me selfish, but make no mistake, there is ZERO selfish about taking care of oneself. No one else is going to do it. Selfish is having children then being unwilling to do what it takes to be an effective, loving parent.
I find it hard to believe that it has been 12 years since my own mom passed away. This was a woman who successfully and lovingly raised two children of her own to adulthood, then turned around and married a man with three young children and adopted us as her own. This is the woman who had already gone through the years of making chicken soup from scratch to ease the tummy of her sick little ones, to start doing it all over again. This was a woman who already dealt with first periods, first dates, broken hearts and broken bones. This was a woman who had already broken up countless sibling fights, cooked countless homemade meals and cleaned countless sinks full of dishes to turn around and go practically back to the starting line to do it all again with my brother my sister and myself. And she did it with such passion, gusto, and love, that it never once occurred to me that she never had to do any of it. I think of my mom every single day. I am thankful to have had her for the years that I did. Most of all I am eternally grateful for the mother that she was, but especially for the mom she didn't have to be. I love you mom. And give a shout out to dad for me too.
In all seriousness, I know enough about what a mother has to go through to be a successful parent to know that there is no way in hell that you would ever catch me doing it. There are some people who would call me selfish, but make no mistake, there is ZERO selfish about taking care of oneself. No one else is going to do it. Selfish is having children then being unwilling to do what it takes to be an effective, loving parent.
I find it hard to believe that it has been 12 years since my own mom passed away. This was a woman who successfully and lovingly raised two children of her own to adulthood, then turned around and married a man with three young children and adopted us as her own. This is the woman who had already gone through the years of making chicken soup from scratch to ease the tummy of her sick little ones, to start doing it all over again. This was a woman who already dealt with first periods, first dates, broken hearts and broken bones. This was a woman who had already broken up countless sibling fights, cooked countless homemade meals and cleaned countless sinks full of dishes to turn around and go practically back to the starting line to do it all again with my brother my sister and myself. And she did it with such passion, gusto, and love, that it never once occurred to me that she never had to do any of it. I think of my mom every single day. I am thankful to have had her for the years that I did. Most of all I am eternally grateful for the mother that she was, but especially for the mom she didn't have to be. I love you mom. And give a shout out to dad for me too.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Suggestion for restaurants...
Those who know me know that I have an aversion to disruptive children. What a parent may tune out, the rest of the world is still subjected to and I think it is important to never lose sight of basic consideration for others in public places like restaurants. Becoming a parent does not exempt you from this basic rule of etiquette. While I understand that there are some children that are very well behaved in restaurants, (these are the ones you don't even know are there), there are also way too many who's parents should know better. And judging from the restaurant we are dining in should be able to afford a sitter for the night.
So since it is not reasonable for me to hope that a law banning children from restaurants (other than perhaps fast food types), will soon be passed, I have a different proposal for the restaurant industry. Now that the majority of states have banned smoking in all restaurants, the host/hostess no longer has to ask a patron "Would you prefer smoking or non-smoking?", so how about they replace it with the question "Children or no children"? and have a separate section specifically for families with children! See?? Everyone wins!
Far be it for me to complain without presenting an alternative solution.
So since it is not reasonable for me to hope that a law banning children from restaurants (other than perhaps fast food types), will soon be passed, I have a different proposal for the restaurant industry. Now that the majority of states have banned smoking in all restaurants, the host/hostess no longer has to ask a patron "Would you prefer smoking or non-smoking?", so how about they replace it with the question "Children or no children"? and have a separate section specifically for families with children! See?? Everyone wins!
Far be it for me to complain without presenting an alternative solution.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Soapbox returns
There is a story in the news this week about a teenage girl who committed suicide. Very sad. Looked like a beautiful young lady by her picture. Her parents (I am assuming) feel that the harassment she suffered at the hands of other teenage girls were the cause of her taking her own life. This has spawned a lawsuit against the teenagers who were harassing her in the weeks prior and leading up to the day she took her own life.
I am a huge believer in being the master of your own destiny. People never, ever, commit suicide due to the actions of another. People commit suicide because THEY do not have the ability to deal with their problems in a different way. Children and teens are not exempt from this.
Take heartbreak for example. If the person you love breaks your heart and you commit suicide, is that really the fault of the person who broke your heart? Or is it YOUR fault for not being able to deal with the pain of the heartbreak? Arguably, heartbreak is one of the worst kinds of pain a person can feel in their life and it is a test of endurance to be able to come through on the other side. But no matter how bad the pain is, how each person deals with it is entirely their responsibility. If they learn something from the experience and grow stronger from the process then good for them. If they find that the despair is too much and they commit suicide, then bad on them. But just as you have to give credit to someone who comes through pain and adversity a stronger person, you must lay blame on the same person who takes their own life. This is because it was their decision.
Parents are shouldered with the responsibility of making sure their kids have the tools necessary to deal with life issues as they come up, but even with that, even the best parent can only do so much. If a child commits suicide, it isn't the fault of the parents. As I said before, children and teens are not exempt from being the masters of their own destinies. Suicide is a highly personal choice and no matter how badly a person is treated by another, harassed by another, or had their heart broken by another, it still comes down to a personal choice to live or to die.
The fact the the teenage girls who were harassing this poor kid are horrible, awful, bully bitches who should probably be sent to a North Korean labor camp for some retributional bullying of their own is a different story all together.
I am a huge believer in being the master of your own destiny. People never, ever, commit suicide due to the actions of another. People commit suicide because THEY do not have the ability to deal with their problems in a different way. Children and teens are not exempt from this.
Take heartbreak for example. If the person you love breaks your heart and you commit suicide, is that really the fault of the person who broke your heart? Or is it YOUR fault for not being able to deal with the pain of the heartbreak? Arguably, heartbreak is one of the worst kinds of pain a person can feel in their life and it is a test of endurance to be able to come through on the other side. But no matter how bad the pain is, how each person deals with it is entirely their responsibility. If they learn something from the experience and grow stronger from the process then good for them. If they find that the despair is too much and they commit suicide, then bad on them. But just as you have to give credit to someone who comes through pain and adversity a stronger person, you must lay blame on the same person who takes their own life. This is because it was their decision.
Parents are shouldered with the responsibility of making sure their kids have the tools necessary to deal with life issues as they come up, but even with that, even the best parent can only do so much. If a child commits suicide, it isn't the fault of the parents. As I said before, children and teens are not exempt from being the masters of their own destinies. Suicide is a highly personal choice and no matter how badly a person is treated by another, harassed by another, or had their heart broken by another, it still comes down to a personal choice to live or to die.
The fact the the teenage girls who were harassing this poor kid are horrible, awful, bully bitches who should probably be sent to a North Korean labor camp for some retributional bullying of their own is a different story all together.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wedding dress
I bought my wedding dress yesterday. So let me get this out of the way up front. I am not going to post a picture of the wedding dress that I bought. This is because I just don't want to risk Eric seeing it by mistake. I may be an old bride, but I believe there is something fundamentally special about your husband-to-be seeing you in your dress for the first time on your wedding day. Getting married/having a wedding is an experience that I never predicted for my life and I am really going to stick with the traditional (as much as it can be without appearing foolish for a woman my age).
The experience of buying the dress was everything I had hoped it would be. Considering that I never really ever thought about getting married, I didn't have any preconceived wishes for what I wanted my wedding dress to look like. This is probably both a good thing and a bad thing. No expectations, but no good ideas either. I had two girlfriends with me and that was a GOOD thing. They were both supportive and gave me eyes that I didn't have. They also knew when to stop me. Basically at the dress that made me go "Oh my god" as I looked in the mirror. This was my dress. It had no price tag (as was the case with almost all of the dresses that were appealing to my eye), and perhaps there have been too many episodes of "Say Yes To The Dress" in recent weeks, and that terrified me. Say Yes To The Dress Rule #1, never ever try on a dress unless you know you can afford it because without a doubt, that will be the dress you fall in love with and have to mortgage your home to own. But I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of this amazing Casablanca gown. And afford it, I could. And buy it, I did. I thought lovingly of my mom for a moment or two who passed away almost 12 years ago, and knew she would have absolutely loved this dress and being with me for the shopping. I am sorry I missed out on that part of the experience but I don't think I could have asked for a better day or a better result. I know she was looking down at me, and giving her approval.
The rest of the world will just have to wait until June of 2011 to see it.
The experience of buying the dress was everything I had hoped it would be. Considering that I never really ever thought about getting married, I didn't have any preconceived wishes for what I wanted my wedding dress to look like. This is probably both a good thing and a bad thing. No expectations, but no good ideas either. I had two girlfriends with me and that was a GOOD thing. They were both supportive and gave me eyes that I didn't have. They also knew when to stop me. Basically at the dress that made me go "Oh my god" as I looked in the mirror. This was my dress. It had no price tag (as was the case with almost all of the dresses that were appealing to my eye), and perhaps there have been too many episodes of "Say Yes To The Dress" in recent weeks, and that terrified me. Say Yes To The Dress Rule #1, never ever try on a dress unless you know you can afford it because without a doubt, that will be the dress you fall in love with and have to mortgage your home to own. But I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of this amazing Casablanca gown. And afford it, I could. And buy it, I did. I thought lovingly of my mom for a moment or two who passed away almost 12 years ago, and knew she would have absolutely loved this dress and being with me for the shopping. I am sorry I missed out on that part of the experience but I don't think I could have asked for a better day or a better result. I know she was looking down at me, and giving her approval.
The rest of the world will just have to wait until June of 2011 to see it.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Nice and Not Nice...
So today I read a headline off of CNN (I think) and it said “Big Banks Try To Make Nice”. I will admit that I didn’t read the article. I am just arrogant and judgmental enough to believe I didn’t need to. I have been in that situation and have had my opinions for many years now.
My philosophy has always been rather simple when it comes to “making nice” or being respectful in general. My phrase of choice to describe my feelings is this: A person who is nice to you, but not nice to the waiter, is not a nice person.
This can be applied to many different areas of concern, banking being one of them. Back in the day when I was a poor hard working minion, I couldn’t afford to bank with a big bank. Weather it was First Union, Wachovia, Bank of America (for whom I even worked for 6 years), or countless others. If you didn’t have $X amount of collateral, assets or worth, they would charge you exorbitant fees to utilize their holier-than-thou services. Services that the upper financial class got for free. As a logical person, this made no sense to me. You are charging the people who are just starting out or having a difficult time financially and who are the ones who obviously cannot afford it, and yet you are giving the services away for free to those who could easily afford to pay for them.
As I got older I began to understand the logic that the banking industry used in choosing the threshold at which they charged for services and that at which they didn’t, I am a business major after all. But understanding it never got me any closer to agreeing with it. To this day I think it is a low-down dirty shame.
My turning point came one day about 15 years ago when I did my banking with First Union. I had about $17 in that account. Money was tighter than my jeans after a Friendly’s ice cream sundae with peanut butter and hot fudge topping. Every month I was charged a fee for not maintaining a minimum balance and every month I hated that they took that fee right out of my account. Well that month the fee was $18 and they took my very last dime. In addition to 10 other dimes that I didn’t have. I had to borrow $20 from my sister and pawn my keyboard to pay for gas to get to work. It was the only time I ever borrowed money from any one in my life. I would have managed to get to my next payday had they not taken that “maintenance” fee.
Several years later and no longer a person who lived paycheck to paycheck, I opened an account with USAA. I opened it with $25. Just as a test, really. It is a huge hassle to change bank accounts and I didn’t want to make a decision I was going to regret later. Well it was the best decision I ever made. This was a bank that worked with me before I got on my financial feet and you better believe I developed a rockin relationship with them after I got there. From one checking account with $25 in it to nine different accounts from Checking and Savings to IRAs (ROTH and Traditional), to both of my houses and so on.
So to the big banks that are now trying to ‘make nice’ I say this: I am reminded of a line uttered by Julia Robert’s character in Pretty Woman: “Big mistake. Huge.”
My philosophy has always been rather simple when it comes to “making nice” or being respectful in general. My phrase of choice to describe my feelings is this: A person who is nice to you, but not nice to the waiter, is not a nice person.
This can be applied to many different areas of concern, banking being one of them. Back in the day when I was a poor hard working minion, I couldn’t afford to bank with a big bank. Weather it was First Union, Wachovia, Bank of America (for whom I even worked for 6 years), or countless others. If you didn’t have $X amount of collateral, assets or worth, they would charge you exorbitant fees to utilize their holier-than-thou services. Services that the upper financial class got for free. As a logical person, this made no sense to me. You are charging the people who are just starting out or having a difficult time financially and who are the ones who obviously cannot afford it, and yet you are giving the services away for free to those who could easily afford to pay for them.
As I got older I began to understand the logic that the banking industry used in choosing the threshold at which they charged for services and that at which they didn’t, I am a business major after all. But understanding it never got me any closer to agreeing with it. To this day I think it is a low-down dirty shame.
My turning point came one day about 15 years ago when I did my banking with First Union. I had about $17 in that account. Money was tighter than my jeans after a Friendly’s ice cream sundae with peanut butter and hot fudge topping. Every month I was charged a fee for not maintaining a minimum balance and every month I hated that they took that fee right out of my account. Well that month the fee was $18 and they took my very last dime. In addition to 10 other dimes that I didn’t have. I had to borrow $20 from my sister and pawn my keyboard to pay for gas to get to work. It was the only time I ever borrowed money from any one in my life. I would have managed to get to my next payday had they not taken that “maintenance” fee.
Several years later and no longer a person who lived paycheck to paycheck, I opened an account with USAA. I opened it with $25. Just as a test, really. It is a huge hassle to change bank accounts and I didn’t want to make a decision I was going to regret later. Well it was the best decision I ever made. This was a bank that worked with me before I got on my financial feet and you better believe I developed a rockin relationship with them after I got there. From one checking account with $25 in it to nine different accounts from Checking and Savings to IRAs (ROTH and Traditional), to both of my houses and so on.
So to the big banks that are now trying to ‘make nice’ I say this: I am reminded of a line uttered by Julia Robert’s character in Pretty Woman: “Big mistake. Huge.”
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Rest of My Life
I am engaged. A week an a half into my engagement and I am finally posting about it. It isn't that I didn't think about posting about it, but to be honest, we have just been flying on a cloud since he asked (and I said yes) that it just slipped past my usually diligent fingers. Well, that and working my tail off this week which included one 26 (yes that would be TWENTY-SIX) hour day. I suppose technically that is TWO days but hey, semantics. When no sleep is involved the days blend together.
In the past week and a half it seems like my thoughts are all about having a wedding. This is something that I never anticipated in my life. I had never even looked at wedding dresses before. And did you know they have entire magazines dedicated to nothing but brides and weddings?? So I have been trolling the Internet looking at wedding dresses, bought two magazines and was given one magazine by a wonderful coworker. I have discovered a couple of things in this wedding dress process. First of all, I have pretty consistent taste in designers (Casablanca, Alfred Angelo, Demitrios) and second, wedding gown sizes are enough to drive an otherwise sane woman to homicide. The saving grace to the second is that larger size than I have ever worn aside, a Casablanca gown looks magnificent on me. And looking at wedding dresses...holy canoli it's a LOT of fun!
I am really looking forward to having my crew here with me when I try on the final 5 contenders.
Even MORE than that I am so looking forward to spending the rest of my life with the man of my dreams.
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