Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Yummmy !

The Jones Clan is settling into our new digs nicely. Although the boxes seem to be multiplying when I am now looking. Anyway. We are starting to explore our new environment. So we decided to go out for Chinese food. As we pulled into the parking lot we saw a sign for the Bombay Palace Authentic Indian Cuisine.

Oh no. Now we couldn't decide which to go to. So we flipped a coin and Bombay Palace won. I must say I must say I am glad it did. The food was so good.

Since we had never been before we let the proprietor decide what we wanted. He asked us to try some different relishes and tell him what we thought. I could for the life of me tell you what they were. All but one of them was fairly mild. When he came back Mini-me and I went for middle of the road medium. The 'Bum decide to test the fates and go for hot. Hehe.

While we waited we got Paneer Pakora (a home-made cheese, dipped in gram flour with Indian Spices) which was so tasty. Then our food came. All served family style but really elegantly. The basmati rice came in a raise covered dish. Each of the main dishes came in a smaller covered dish. All of them covered with Indian motifs. So I got Lamb Korma. There are not words in the English language to describe how good it was. Melt in you mouth. Seriously. Here is how they describe it: Tender lamb cooked in creamy tomato sauce with coconut, raisins and plump cashews. That really doesn't describe it.

Mini-Me got Butter Chicken (Rich Delicious sauce smothers boneless white chicken chunks). She didn't really care for it. She likes her food with a little more spice to it.

The 'Bum got Lamb Vindaloo(A spicy hot dish of tender, de-boned lamb. Which was so spicy, he almost choked. snort I shouldn't laugh. Poor Guy. But I warned him and the proprietor warned him. He was so sure he could take it. See Indian cuisine has a special kind of hot or so I have been told (by people who eat habaneros whole.)

Anybody who has eaten out with me will tell you I like to share bites with everybody. So everybody knows what everybody else dish tastes like. So we kind of did a fire drill for the 'bum. He took Mini-me's dish and Mini-me ordered another order of what I had. By the time we left we were full and mellow. You know the kind of mellow you get when you have eaten some really well balanced meal as far as textures and tastes?

So the whole bill came to $60. whew! But let me tell you everytime the wallet allows we will be back. Oh yes. We will be back.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Odyssey by Me

Gather around all as I tell the tale of the month the CeliaAnne Clan tried to move.

Once upon a time, this lovely man that Clan CeliaAnne knew offered to help them get into one of the lands he manages. These were nice lands in a good part of the city. He even offered to give it to them at a lower rent. The Clan was excited and started making plans to move.

Landlord man came back to Clan Chief a few days after and said that he really need them to move in before the first of the month not 2 weeks away. Their leader pondered a moment and decided it was still do-able if they all buckled down. Then the lands the clan was living in said that they were fine with them moving but they would need to give them 30 days notice and pay the last 3 months on their lease. Still CeliaAnne's Clan persevered.

Then all of a sudden they had a clan member break ranks and not help with the move. Then another did the same. OOOH! What was their fearless leader to do? She struggled and she packed. She pleaded and she yelled.

Meanwhile the clan leader also tried to prepared the new homeland for the clan. She made sure the water was there and fuel for their fires. She made sure that they had lights to see by during the long dark evenings. Finally clan leader tried to make sure that Clan CeliaAnne would be able to communicate with other clans. Lo! She ran into yet another trap set out to ensnare our intrepid clan.

The Keepers of the mystical Internet/phone/cable decided to be difficult. So the clan leader went to the seers to confer with them regarding the Keepers. The 1st seer gave the clan leader high hopes that this would be resolved easliy but no. She told the leader to talk to The Keepers directly. So the leader did. After much discussion Keeper 1 sent the clan leader back to the house of the seers. At the House of the Seers, the clan chief was told to speak to a different seer than she saw the 1st time. So our heroine talked to 2nd seer. 2nd Seer looked at the message 1st seer sent to the keepers and discovered that 1st seer didn't follow the proper rituals required to get a favorable response. So 2nd seer resent the message supposedly with all the proper rituals observed. Alas! This message too was not properly worded to suit the Keepers. The Clan leader repeated this scene with different seers and keepers 7 times. Then she broke down and had a teeny tiny panic attack. Clan CeliaAnne's fearless leader was reduced a gibbering fool.

Finally The Amazon from a neighboring clan stepped in and told Clan CeliaAnne to back their leader and help her out. Her second in command stepped-up to help with The Keepers of the mystical Internet/phone/cable and also with Those who dispose. After 2 abort attempts by her second, The Keepers of the mystical Internet/phone/cable finally bestowed the wonders of Internet/phone/cable. So a month after our intrepid clan moved to this new homeland, they once more could trade with neighboring clans and it was good.

So did you like the story? It way more entertaining to read about then to live it. The truth of the matter is this: At&t U-verse is crazy good. I really like having it. However, they have a major problem with their information flow. If they tell you they will call you back, they won't. You never get to talk to the same person twice. Every time you talk to a new person they close out the old ticket and open a new work order ticket (that is how I ended up with 9 separate tickets). Also every time they open a new ticket, they hit your credit report. I now have 9 new credit inquiries. So on the whole I would not recommend U-verse to anyone based on my experience. They got a solid F- from me.