I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things.

We went out to III Forks last night ‘thank you Toray’. The service was so/so. Cocktails took forever to arrive. We tried to order a second one, but when 20 minutes went by and it still hadn’t arrived we canceled the order. I was impressed with their bread and butter. I’ve never seen such a thin layer of crisp crust before. The bread was easy on salt, but the butter made up for it… just the way I like it. We started out with scallops which we sent back because while the menu said nothing about any sauce being on them, they arrived with some that tasted like BBQ, not to mention they were very rubbery. The replacement crab cakes were much better and almost gave me confidence to order seafood, which is what I wanted, but I thought it best to stick to steak. Their signature III Forks salad was tired as was a lot of their menu. It was the usual field greens, granny smith apples, and pecans in a vinaigrette. I think Panera does a better job of it with their Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. The steak was under cooked, not because they didn’t know how to cook it, but because the waitress didn’t hear us correctly. It was a good piece of meat and we’d rather have a steak undercooked than over. It makes heating up leftovers easier. The veggies were very good, but a restaurant should know how to cook vegetables. For desert Ryan ordered creme brulee. It wasn’t bad, but we’ve had better. I ordered their bread pudding with their home made cinnamon ice cream. The ice cream, sauce and pecans were the best part. I could have done without the bread pudding. It was overcooked. Their hot flame is great for steaks, but they need to tone it down a bit for other things.

Illianna doesn’t like green foods just yet. They have a strong flavor and when you know there are yummy things out there like peaches and sweet potatoes to eat, who wants to eat their veggies? She does better with green beans than peas, but still makes the funniest faces. It’s hard not to laugh at these faces and I wouldn’t change them for anything. I started to think, one day when she does like green beans and peas, I’m really going to miss this, so I reached for the camera. She is one smart cookie and a big ham. The second the camera came out green beans were no longer this disgusting thing they were just a few seconds ago. Maybe she’s got more sense than to let me take future blackmail photos. Here’s the best I could do.

This photo was taken at Thanksgiving right after it snowed. Yes, it was snowing in Texas on Thanksgiving and today it was a sunny 72. While Illianna was in attendance, she was passed out, and you let a sleeping baby sleep.

While I love my baby girl and am having major separation anxiety ‘I return to work next week’, I am looking forward to leaving Illianna at home to attend Ryan’s Christmas party. I can even fit a little black dress of mine! Woohoo! I got this dress years ago for one of my Christmas parties. I love it when I can reuse a dress, but I’m really looking forward to wearing my shoes that go with the dress. If you’re lucky I’ll post photos.

In Southlake, Texas, there is a really nice town square shopping center. In the phase II area they opened a Hilton. Granted it is a Hilton, but I figured “It is Southlake, and I am sure they are trying to be boutique.” Well, they were. It was very tastefully decorated, very much like theHotel in Vegas.

The room, a corner suite with whirlpool was $319 a night and probably worth it but for a few things I will get to in a second. The room was huge, a comfortable desk, two flat screen TV’s, a monster bathroom with both a large whirlpool and shower. The bed was comfortable, although we didn’t sleep in it. Overall, no complaints for the room, but it was perhaps a little overpriced. $260 would be a bit more inline with other hotels in this area as well as other major cities.

We checked in early, about 1p, there was no valet on duty at this time. We self parked, lugged our bags to the desk, and checked in. The staff was friendly and efficent. At this time we declined bell service. They had our reservation and check in was fast. But here is where the problems began. For those of you that do not know, I use a cane due to my hip injury several years ago. The front desk clerk saw my cane and without asking put us in an accessible suite. The only difference was the shower, it was one of those with the stool and hand shower head.

I can’t stand it when people make assumptions about me. I didn’t reserve an accessible room, nor was I asked if I required one. In fact, I do not require or want one. I do not like the showers, they are cold, and often there are a lot of handles everywhere that get in my way.

At this time, I chose not to complain, but to just deal with it. Jessica and I went about our evening and returned to the hotel after a decent meal at Truluck’s. We decided to try the whirlpool, only to find it did not work. Engineering came up and tried to fix it for about 30-45 minutes then we were called by the front desk and moved to another room. Ten minutes later we tried the new room’s whirlpool, only to find that it did not work either. Again another 30 minutes of engineering tinkering with it and it still didn’t work. I went to the front desk to complain and Dan told me that they didn’t have any more rooms to move us to. That was fine, and this point I was so annoyed that a “4 star” hotel couldn’t have a whirlpool working for $319 a night!

We decided to checkout and just go home, which really sucked. I really was looking forward to the whirlpool due to my hip and really wanted to spend the time with Jessica while my mother watched Illianna. Jessica had mentioned several times that night about how much she was looking forward to the bath that never got to happen.

Checkout was fast, thank God, but I was pissed off and quite terse with the front desk staff. I rarely stay in Hilton hotels and am again reminded why that is. I really prefer the Hyatt chain if I can not find an Omni or iPrefer hotel instead. I doubt my Hilton Honors card will get much use in the future. Oh well, back to planning and getting ready for either another great New Mexico trip staying at a B&B or the Hyatt, and then of course there is Hawaii we are planning which will be Four Seasons, where I am sure the whirlpool will work.

Yesterday was a busy day. We got to see how wonderful Illianna is with going out.
First, we ran to Staples to return a chair because Ryan initially bought one at Office Depot, which was supposed to deliver to the house on Wednesday, but of course it didn’t and when he called to find out where it was they didn’t know, so he went to Staples and bought a different one because he’s been programming again and our old chair is way old and kills his hip. Well, the Staples chair had a screw hole that was messed up so he had to take it back anyway and meanwhile the Office Depot chair showed up.
Then we went to Lava Grill because we’d been watching Bleach and it made me think… Sushi! It was our first experience dining out with the little one. We went at an off time to be on the safe side, but she was great, so we decided to keep on running around and headed to Walmart to check out the Halloween gear.
We love Halloween. Halloween starts off a great few months of decorating, entertaining, and family. For the past few years now we’ve really gone all out at Halloween ‘party 2006′. Last year we got a comment from one of the trick-or-treaters, “I knew your house would be creepy!” That of course has only encouraged us to top ourselves this year. We have our theme ’sorry I cannot reveal’. We just need to find our props/costumes. Of course Illianna is going to partake. We’ll get lots of photos so we can show her all the fun torturous things we did to her when she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Walmart was a a total bust, but on a side note they have some elegant black Christmas decorations. I’m not sure what theme/style I’m going to do for Christmas yet, so I was very good and didn’t buy anything.
Next, we ran to BabysRUs because we always need *something* from there. This time it was a hunt for ready-to-feed organic formula. They didn’t have it, but I did get a cute little outfit.
She started to kind of fuss while at BabysRUs, but we managed to sneak into Party City to search for props for Halloween. Again, total bust.
Something happened to Ryan while working in Pampa, TX because he actually wanted Chick-fil-a for dinner. I haven’t eaten there in years, but their charboiled chicken wrap wasn’t too bad, and instead of fries you can get fruit! Thank goodness fast food places finally have a “healthy” option, so those of us who are forced to eat there against our will, don’t die.
We made it home just in time to feed her and get her in bed without a wailing session. She’s such a good girl.

I admit, I love Quizno’s. Its a pretty good place to get a pretty good meal. However, when this commercial came out, I had to have it explained to me over and over again how this sells. Deformed little rats, singing, badly I might add, about food. I stopped eating at Quizno’s during this run, I just didnt want to find a flattened little rodent in my food, like that woman did with McDonalds in Southlake. In our moron count, lets assume this actually meant something to 1000 people. I know, that is probably way out of proportion, but its my blog, so back off. 1,000 morons down, 299,998,986 to go.

http://www.kresrestaurant.com/

Kres is easy to find in downtown Orlando FL a very easy walk from the Westin hotel ‘to be reviewed later’. A fairly small space, the décor was tasteful and stylish, a bit modern and dark, but inviting and comfortable. Service was prompt and attentive. I was there on a slow weeknight, so it probably much busier on weekends.

The wine suggestion was paired wonderfully with my steak and scallops adding quite a bit to my total enjoyment of the meal. The steak was a little overdone, I ordered Medium Rare, but overall the meal was quite excellent.

I passed on the dessert, I really wanted crème brulee, but they did not have it.

I did see their seafood tower brought out to another table and I admit, the ice sculpture surrounded by delicious looking seafood would be a treat for a table of at least 4.

If you read here often, you will soon find out I don’’t care what the chef’s family did or who the managing partner is; neither of these trivial facts make a difference if the service is slow and my steak is overdone, or, as in the case of Lanny’s, both.

Lanny’s had a nice atmosphere, cozy but nice, a little too loud to be considered romantic and the couple sitting next to us was sitting NEXT to us.

Tap water served, without asking our preference, something that really irked me considering the money. This would easily be a $150+ meal, the very least a place like this can do is offer us bottled water, just not toss the smell Fort Worth tap at us. I finally requested bottle water and was pleased to see the waitress bring VOSS to the table.

The menu looked quite amazing, the selection a little daunting as I didn’t know where to begin. Jessica took the easy way out and ordered the five course tasting menu, without the wine parings and I took even a more wussy way out and went with the steak, medium rare.

Service was amazingly slow and inattentive, again, for this price point, I expect more. Jessica’s courses came out with little fanfare, and were pretty good overall. Some were a little bland, like the goat cheese potatoes, but they would have been better had she gotten the wine paring with it.

Eventually the entrees arrived, and my steak was medium well. I never got to tell anyone this since we didn’t see our server again until after we had eaten. I didn’t bother informing her since I did eat it, but again, at this price, I would expect it to be right.

I decided to order a desert so I wouldn’t have to watch Jessica eat her crème brûlée, but it didn’t arrive until after she had finished her bland, if perfectly textured, custard. I refused it and sent it back, prompting a visit from the manager who then comped us our drinks. Jessica had a pomegranate margarita and gave it a non-comitial “meh” when asked. I had two vodka martinis but in typical Ryan style they were just vodka with a twist. The check came out to be about 100 even plus a little for tip, but I will admit had the manager not been so generous with the comps, I would have tipped much less than the 18% I did.

Overall, Lanny’s either needs to up the service, or drop the price, but as it is, the entire experience was unbalanced and painful.

Don’t go to Sullivan’s anymore. We went this past weekend and it was horrible. They ended up calling Del Frisco’s to get a table for us. It’s bad when you would rather pay for a meal somewhere else rather than accept a free meal. It’s also bad when we had our wedding reception at Sullivan’s, back when it was a classy place, and we say to avoid it now.