Over the past week we went to many restaurants. One of my favorites was in Little Italy, called Sotto Voce Restaurant & Bar. We only had three dishes and an appetizer, bruschetta. For the main courses we had three bowls of pasta. My favorite was the Dal Mare which was egg fettuccini with lobster and fennel in a brandy cream sauce. Another pasta that we got was the Pomodora E Gambarini which was linguine with black tiger shrimp, chilies, roasted roma tomato and roasted garlic. Another pasta was the Polpentina which was spaghetti with sicilan meatballs and homemade tomato sauce. All of these pastas were $16 which is probably reasonable for such good pasta.
M1
Friday, March 20, 2015
My Mistake
I made a mistake. I made a parenting mistake. I made a mommy mistake.
My oldest daughter M1 was invited to a sleepover party. She is 10 years old and has never been to a sleepover. To me 10 years old still seems too young to be sleeping over. This daughter still likes me to 'set up her toothbrush'. I still dry her hair. I shop for her clothes. Sometimes we'll sleep together just because we want to cuddle - and just because. So I said no - she was upset at first, but I explained my reasons. I was not comfortable because I felt she was too young and had never been to a sleepover; neither she nor I had ever been to that friend's house before; I didn't go to my first sleepover until I was probably 15 or 16 years old. And yes, there were a bit of tears but she got over it quickly (or so I thought). Anyways, the party was yesterday and when The Big Oh went to pick her up he said he hadn't even pull out of the driveway when the bawling started. I knew as soon as she stepped in the door what was going on...and the crying didn't stop until she fell asleep.
And you know what? Between all the crying and bawling she was still able to reason with me, to explain to me why she was so upset - and it made sense. Everyone was so excited about sleeping over and she felt left out. They are good people. These are her dance friends - they are like 'family'. I understand and agree with all these statements. I remember being young and feeling left out - I don't even like to feel left out now! These families ARE good people. I know first hand because when I needed help last year all these families let me know that we could count on them during dance rehearsals and competitions. We are a part of a special group of 'dance families'. I'm so happy that my daughters have found another place where they can feel safe, and flourish and grow besides their own home.
The last thing M1 said to me was "Mommy, you have to let me grow up and be independent...you aren't going to be there to hold my hand forever. " So true. But I can't help it...but I will try. I promise.
My oldest daughter M1 was invited to a sleepover party. She is 10 years old and has never been to a sleepover. To me 10 years old still seems too young to be sleeping over. This daughter still likes me to 'set up her toothbrush'. I still dry her hair. I shop for her clothes. Sometimes we'll sleep together just because we want to cuddle - and just because. So I said no - she was upset at first, but I explained my reasons. I was not comfortable because I felt she was too young and had never been to a sleepover; neither she nor I had ever been to that friend's house before; I didn't go to my first sleepover until I was probably 15 or 16 years old. And yes, there were a bit of tears but she got over it quickly (or so I thought). Anyways, the party was yesterday and when The Big Oh went to pick her up he said he hadn't even pull out of the driveway when the bawling started. I knew as soon as she stepped in the door what was going on...and the crying didn't stop until she fell asleep.
And you know what? Between all the crying and bawling she was still able to reason with me, to explain to me why she was so upset - and it made sense. Everyone was so excited about sleeping over and she felt left out. They are good people. These are her dance friends - they are like 'family'. I understand and agree with all these statements. I remember being young and feeling left out - I don't even like to feel left out now! These families ARE good people. I know first hand because when I needed help last year all these families let me know that we could count on them during dance rehearsals and competitions. We are a part of a special group of 'dance families'. I'm so happy that my daughters have found another place where they can feel safe, and flourish and grow besides their own home.
The last thing M1 said to me was "Mommy, you have to let me grow up and be independent...you aren't going to be there to hold my hand forever. " So true. But I can't help it...but I will try. I promise.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
A Tale Of Two Restaurants
Our extended families recently had our Chinese New Year dinners at two local, very popular, restaurants. We celebrated once with my father-in-law's side of the family, and once with my mother-in-law's. Both dinners had approximately 40 people people attending. And for both we ordered off their regular menu instead of opting for one of the restaurant's banquet set menus. In my opinion there was clearly one restaurant more superior than the other in terms of service, food taste, and overall value.
We visited Grand Lake Chinese Restaurant on the weekend immediately following Chinese New Year. The restaurant was packed and every inch of floor space was used to accommodate the Chinese New Year rush. I felt the tables were extra 'squished' together making it quite uncomfortable. The food obviously was prepared in advance and reheated as most of the dishes came out barely warmed. Note that a lot of Chinese restaurants pare down their menus during Chinese New Year, offering only a select handful of their most 'popular' dishes so they can prepare the food in advance and just reheat. This is suppose to allow the restaurant to provide quicker service so they can turnaround the tables to do more business. Even though they did this, our dinner still lasted over 2 hours! There isn't much to say about the taste of the food - just average, however the portion sizes were small and, I felt, wasn't good value for what we were served.
On March 1st we visited Fancy Chinese Restaurant. What a great difference it was from the previous weekend. First of all, the restaurant gave our party of 40 a private area even though the restaurant was packed. They have a great 'build your own set dinner' menu as well as their regular menu. The portion sizes were larger than the previous week's and the taste so much better. The cost of this dinner was over $100 more than the previous week's but I consider it a much better overall value when you factor everything from taste, portion size, service and comfort.
I definitely know which restaurant our family will be making our regular go-to one from now on.
Y.C.
We visited Grand Lake Chinese Restaurant on the weekend immediately following Chinese New Year. The restaurant was packed and every inch of floor space was used to accommodate the Chinese New Year rush. I felt the tables were extra 'squished' together making it quite uncomfortable. The food obviously was prepared in advance and reheated as most of the dishes came out barely warmed. Note that a lot of Chinese restaurants pare down their menus during Chinese New Year, offering only a select handful of their most 'popular' dishes so they can prepare the food in advance and just reheat. This is suppose to allow the restaurant to provide quicker service so they can turnaround the tables to do more business. Even though they did this, our dinner still lasted over 2 hours! There isn't much to say about the taste of the food - just average, however the portion sizes were small and, I felt, wasn't good value for what we were served.
On March 1st we visited Fancy Chinese Restaurant. What a great difference it was from the previous weekend. First of all, the restaurant gave our party of 40 a private area even though the restaurant was packed. They have a great 'build your own set dinner' menu as well as their regular menu. The portion sizes were larger than the previous week's and the taste so much better. The cost of this dinner was over $100 more than the previous week's but I consider it a much better overall value when you factor everything from taste, portion size, service and comfort.
I definitely know which restaurant our family will be making our regular go-to one from now on.
Y.C.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Banking Service Fees
Tomorrow is the 2014 deadline for contributing to your RRSPs. Not sure how many people still go to an actual branch to do their banking with a human teller but I still do for certain transactions. Inevitably, at this time of year the teller will ask me if I have contributed to my RRSPs yet. So I tell them, "I can't. I need to save my money to pay for all the bank's service charges."
I heard that joke on the radio several years ago so I can't take credit for it. But I like to use it every year during RRSP season, or whenever the bank tries to get me to invest in whatever new product they're offering. You know, like those "high interest" accounts that pay you 1.3% if you keep $25,000 in the account. Yeah, I just happen to have 25 grand lying around!
I know banks rely on service fees to make money because the spread between their lending and borrowing rates have decreased over the years. But some of the charges are a bit ridiculous. I'll let them have the mutual fund fees and fees for trading stocks because you could argue those are a more specialized service. But I would like to focus on the more basic services like withdrawing cash and maintaining a savings account. Many years ago, there would be no charge for either of these basic banking services.
Today, in some cases when you withdraw cash, you need to pay a service charge. One case is when you withdraw from an ATM that does not belong to your bank and a second case is when you don't have a minimum balance in your account. So sometimes you can get nailed twice on one withdrawal. Talk to the bank and they'll tell you that the ATM charge is from the other bank. That's a load of crap! The banks just got together and created this service charge in order to rip off customers then blame it on another bank. CIBC gets service charges from RBC customers and RBC gets service charges from CIBC customers, etc. I guess they are an oligopoly so they can screw the public and get away with it.
There are also certain types of accounts that charge you if you make more than a certain number of withdrawals a month. Remember back in the old days when you filled out a deposit slip at the bank to deposit a check. On that slip you could fill in the line called "less cash received" to take out some spending money. The net amount would be deposited in your account. For example, if you had a check for $300, you could get $200 cash and the bank would record a $100 deposit to your account. Today, they make you deposit the $300, then withdraw the $200. This way they can charge you for the withdrawal!
So any time I have a chance to talk about service charges with bank employees I will tell them how I feel. I know, the teller has no say in this and it doesn't really bother them. So I usually just leave it as a joke. But if a manager talks to me I will bring up the fact that CIBC (my bank) made a $4 billion profit before tax in 2013. $800 million of that came from service charges. Surely they can give their customers a break from their ludicrous service fees!
Big Oh
I heard that joke on the radio several years ago so I can't take credit for it. But I like to use it every year during RRSP season, or whenever the bank tries to get me to invest in whatever new product they're offering. You know, like those "high interest" accounts that pay you 1.3% if you keep $25,000 in the account. Yeah, I just happen to have 25 grand lying around!
I know banks rely on service fees to make money because the spread between their lending and borrowing rates have decreased over the years. But some of the charges are a bit ridiculous. I'll let them have the mutual fund fees and fees for trading stocks because you could argue those are a more specialized service. But I would like to focus on the more basic services like withdrawing cash and maintaining a savings account. Many years ago, there would be no charge for either of these basic banking services.
Today, in some cases when you withdraw cash, you need to pay a service charge. One case is when you withdraw from an ATM that does not belong to your bank and a second case is when you don't have a minimum balance in your account. So sometimes you can get nailed twice on one withdrawal. Talk to the bank and they'll tell you that the ATM charge is from the other bank. That's a load of crap! The banks just got together and created this service charge in order to rip off customers then blame it on another bank. CIBC gets service charges from RBC customers and RBC gets service charges from CIBC customers, etc. I guess they are an oligopoly so they can screw the public and get away with it.
There are also certain types of accounts that charge you if you make more than a certain number of withdrawals a month. Remember back in the old days when you filled out a deposit slip at the bank to deposit a check. On that slip you could fill in the line called "less cash received" to take out some spending money. The net amount would be deposited in your account. For example, if you had a check for $300, you could get $200 cash and the bank would record a $100 deposit to your account. Today, they make you deposit the $300, then withdraw the $200. This way they can charge you for the withdrawal!
So any time I have a chance to talk about service charges with bank employees I will tell them how I feel. I know, the teller has no say in this and it doesn't really bother them. So I usually just leave it as a joke. But if a manager talks to me I will bring up the fact that CIBC (my bank) made a $4 billion profit before tax in 2013. $800 million of that came from service charges. Surely they can give their customers a break from their ludicrous service fees!
Big Oh
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