Clearly, and based on the title here, one major change involves food — I’ll talk about that in detail. First, let’s identify the two main disappointments: Customer Service and Food.

Again, overall, I still love going to Disney. Honestly, if we didn’t love it we wouldn’t get those annual passes. Also, because we do go (very) often, we probably end up noticing a lot more than others.

Customer Service

We just went to the Magic Kingdom today and here are two examples of how Disney’s legendary customer service degraded to become standard, crappy service. First, when purchasing some snacks at the bakery on Main Street, the attendant never said “hi,” “hello,” or offered any greeting. She held out her hand, swiped my card, and handed me back the card; not even telling me the total. Again, nothing “rude,” just not what we would get from Disney even just 2 years ago.

Later on, we were walking next to the Pirates of the Caribbean and a cast member ran into Yeni with one of those huge Disney strollers. He didn’t knock her down, but he scraped some skin of her ankle; if you’ve ever done something like this, you know it’s not a huge issue– but it hurts like hell. The cast member saw Yeni’s reaction and yelled “sorry” as he walked away; never breaking stride or checking to see if she was ok. Again, major? No. But even just two years ago, the cast member would have at least stopped.

The “nonchalant,” “could-care-less” attitude at Disney is alive and very noticeable.

Eating at Walt Disney World

I am now convinced that there is simply one or two good places to eat inside each park within Walt Disney World. In the past, eating at Disney was a treat. Food tasted good and there seemed to be some pride in what was presented. Those days are long gone– even at the high end places, such as Crystal Palace, the food is just “eh.”

Magic Kingdom

The two best places to eat are the Castle and Pecos Bill’s. At Cinderella’s Castle, the experience really makes the meal, but the food itself was good. At Pecos, it’s clearly fast food… but it’s good. The chili is very good – different than the chili at Casey’s. It’s just very good, and the topping bars are exactly what you would like to see at Disney. Sauteed onions, mushrooms, sides– just a very good meal. Very good.

Everything else? Crap. Crystal Palace is great for seeing Pooh and Friends. The food? Nothing special. The only other place I love? The Ice Cream Parlor on Main St. I’m scared though– it’s been closed the last two times I visited the park. Last time this happened was at MGM (sorry), Hollywood Studios, when the McDonald’s Fries stand started closing… which brings me to…

MGM/Hollywood Studios

There is only two good places to eat. There’s counter service in a ship that serves very good “meals in bread.” They’re great, and for Disney, not overly priced. The other? A little ice cream stand near the Tower of Terror.

There used to be a great McDonald’s Fries stand– it’s no more.

Epcot

The bakery in France is excellent, but go early before the croissants become stale. Also, there’s random eateries right as you enter the World Showcase. I’ve had some great emañadas there– but the menu comes and goes.

Animal Kingdom

Haven’t found the good place yet– open to suggestions.

I’ll call this a mini-rant and use it to hopefully help you enjoy a good meal at the park.

» Top Ten Cakes of 2011 from Dream Day Cakes®

** Remember, I am completely biased.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Whatever you celebrate this Winter (welcome to Winter by the way), both Yeni and I wish you a happy and healthy new year! So, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Festivus, or anything else, please celebrate and return home safely.

Please note that I said “Merry Christmas.” This is because I don’t care if you’re Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Wiccan, Pagan, Jedi, Trekkian, Klingon, Satanic, or pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster— December 25th is Christmas. Changing “Christmas break” to “Holiday break” certainly doesn’t change the fact that the holiday you’re breaking for is Christmas. No one should be offended by the use of the word Christmas, and if you are… excuse my French, but get a fucking life.

Speaking of French… calling French Fries “freedom fries” is not American– it’s stupid. They’re french fries. If you want to reach a larger audience and avoid the word “French,” call them papas fritas.

As I was saying…

Have a Merry Christmas! Of course, you can always choose to make that celebration even more special (inserting shameless plug) as every celebration deserves Dream Day Cakes^®. =)

This is our dream house. I love her smile.

Florida Field

I love you, baby.

Happy Halloween!

There’s a thousand reasons and theories behind my stature. I’ve heard it’s the carbs. I’ve heard it’s the red meat (although that’s very limited thanks to the Mrs.). It’s high-fructose corn-syrup. It’s processed foods. It’s yatta yatta yatta. Bottom line: It’s me, it’s me, and it’s me. Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I’ve got a theory (it’s not rabbits)… but let me digress.

I’ve tried low carb. It worked well. I lost weight. I put it back on when I reintroduced carbs. I lather, rinsed, repeated, and gained and lost weight in true yo-yo style. Of course, I believe I did this with style and grace— more of a Yo Yo Ma style. I will not give up carbs. I love pasta. I love bread. My favorite meal in this world is Paglia e Fieno. For crying out loud, I bake bread and cakes every day. I’m not giving up carbs. Period.

I’ve pretty much already cut out soda… but on late nights at the bakery, Yeni and I have been known to do the Diet Dew. Hard. Like crazy hard. When I drink soda, I don’t gain more weight. When I stop drinking soda, I don’t lose more weight. I cut out soda simply because I’m not a big fan of soda.

I don’t eat that much red meat. At the most, once a week. Normally, once every two weeks. Although, if it were my choice, I’d eat a steak twice a day, every day. At the Peter Luger Steak House. My wife doesn’t eat red meat and therefore we don’t buy red meat. When I eat red meat, it’s only because we’ve gone out to eat.

In the past, I’ve tried Atkins. South Beach. The 40/30/30. The “eat what fits in your hand” diet. Vegetarian (longest week of my life). Here’s my belief (props to Kevin Smith^[1]): These aren’t diets; they’re lifestyles. If you’re living in the Atkins/No carb lifestyle, go for it. Not me brother. I’m not giving up carbs. I’ve been to Italy. I’ve seen smoking hot, thin Italian women and thin Italian men eating pasta and drinking wine. Then smoking. Smoking’s out for me, but just saying. Again, to be perfectly clear, I am saying “no” to no/low carbs. It’s simply not my lifestyle.

Last night it hit me. Literally and figuratively. Yeni and I left the bakery after a long day— we were starving. Long day plus not eating properly left us BEYOND hungry. A hungry Fred is a dangerous Fred. Fred must eat. When the boiler needs food, it overcompensates. We went to Las Margaritas and I gorged. Yeni did as well, but she’s so petite that her gorging is just adorable. We ate WAY too much and paid the price. After dealing the heartburn pills, the fullness, the crankiness, we woke up to the increased poundage.

It’s my fault. 100% my fault — not Las Margarita’s. Not Yeni’s. Mine. All mine. I’ve gone to Las Margaritas and not devoured food like a madman. I’ve gone before and left food on the plate. So why was last night different?

Yeni and I left the bakery after a long day— we were starving.

There you have it. The key my friends, at least my new theory… “a starving Fred makes bad choices.” My new philosophy: one bite at a time. So far I’m 10 hours into it. It’s going great. But of course, 10 hours is nothing.

This is not a diet. This is a lifestyle, and with any lifestyle, one must fully commit.

My choices last night kept me from enjoying anything post-dinner. My fullness prevented me from exercising. I didn’t sleep well. I didn’t feel well. Again, it’s my fault.

With my new “one-bite-at-a-time” attitude I will be eating all day long. When I’m hungry, I eat — immediately. But the portion is literally, a bite; a big bite, but a bite nonetheless.

With luck and perseverance, I’m confident this lifestyle change will allow me to actualize my goal of losing a tremendous amount of weight. Of course, only time and Yo Yo Ma will tell.

Footnotes

^[1] If you haven’t seen Dogma, please watch it. Great movie. Kevin Smith is simply one of the best screenwriters of our time. Anyway, Rufus (Chris Rock) plummets from the sky and starts jibber jabbering with Jay, Silent Bob, etc. when asks why having beliefs isn’t a good idea. Rufus states, “I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant.“

Dream Day Cakes

A little self promotion never hurt… in theory.

I have great news. Yeni’s been baking now for well over a year and her cakes are simply amazing. Living in Gainesville provided us the perfect opportunity for Yeni to follow her dreams and try doing something she truly loves. And with that introduction, I introduce Dream Day Cakes — Gainesville’s newest Wedding Cake Bakery.

I’ve posted a few of the cakes before, and Guillo with o3b.com produced an amazing site for us. We’re very excited and looking forward to our new adventure.

New Makers Mark

We all know that I love Bourbon — after all, there’s a Fat Freddy Says page dedicated to the subject. Although Yeni has put a nix on my cigar smoking, I do still enjoy a good Bourbon whenever I get the opportunity. I also try to share my love of Bourbon with all, which genuinely works out very well for me (and Yeni’s Bourbon infused buttercream frosting is a great benefit). But enough about me, let’s talk Bourbon.

Maker’s Mark recently announced a new Bourbon, titled simply Maker’s 46. The difference between Maker’s 46 and Maker’s Mark Bourbon happens after the regular distilling process, in four steps:

1. Fully matured Maker’s Mark is removed from its barrel. Top hoops are removed from the barrel, and the barrel head is pulled.
2. Ten wooden staves are then affixed to the inside of that barrel.
3. Searing the staves caramelizes the sugars in the wood, adding a unique flavor that finishes on the front of the tongue.
4. The fully matured Maker’s Mark is then put back in the barrel and aged several more months. When it tastes exactly right, Maker’s 46 is removed from the barrel, bottled, corked and dipped.

Simple as pie. Maker’s 46 is 96 proof and supposedly has a hint of caramel flavor… I might need to get a bottle of this asap.

(By the bye… when Yeni adds a little bit of Jim Beam Red Stag to her cakes, it’s out of this world)

More information:

• Maker’s Mark
• Maker’s Mark to uncap first new bourbon since ’50s (Associated Press)

My beautiful bride

Saturday, Yeni and I will be celebrating our first wedding Anniversary. Of course, we could think of no better place to go than Disney World – after all, we go there quite a bit (Florida Annual Pass has it’s privileges). Anyway…

Yeni’s always been fascinated by these beautiful cakes that have become popular. She watches Food Network non-stop and just loves that cakes can be very custom and yet very beautiful. When we got married in May, she had made a stuffed mini-cake, as our wedding was very small and we wanted to keep costs down (plus she didn’t know I had a surprise Courtney Clark cake waiting for us ).

Luckily, around Christmas time, Yeni decided to try and make these cakes on her own. The good news? She’s amazing. I know I’m biased, but it is awesome to see her make these cakes. The bad news? The cakes don’t just look good, they taste REALLY good. And of course, this means that it’s been even harder to lose this big ol’ gut I’m carrying around. Ugh. Plus the house always smells incredible, so I’m consistently hungry… but I digress.

This year, it was my wife’s turn to surprise me. You see, I love that little cake she made for our wedding. I love it so much I thought she should actually go in business making replica wedding cakes for Brides. I mean, seriously… look at that picture… the cake is just awesome (yes, we’ve already established my bias).

So, what was my surprise?

This year, Yeni reproduced our mini-replica in real cake!

Score!

Ah, married life is good.

(If you want to see more of Yeni’s cakes, look at just a few of the ones she has made this month. Crazy)

Makes it harder to lose weight– but it’s gooooooood.

While working away, managed to post some quick words:

• VoIP Tech Chat: Blackberry desperate? RIM announces FREE Blackberry Enterprise Server Express
• Team Forrest: SIP Response Codes (just for a quick reference)
• Fat Freddy Says: Updated Review for Nick’s Original House of Pancakes, Ann Arbor

Curb Appeal? Not so much.

Thanksgiving 2009 involved family, a road trip, and lots of yard work. Although Yeni and I made yet another trip to Florida, we sadly did not get the opportunity to visit all our friends and family “on the list.”

While traveling to sunny Fort Lauderdale, we took a pit-stop in Gainesville and checked out the house. The condition shocked us. It looked absolutely horrible and had what could only be described as negative curb appeal. We headed down to SoFla and knew we had to return and get down to business on some serious yardwork.

Borrowing a chainsaw from the old man, we quickly got to work on the thickest of foliage decorating the house. The chainsaw proved no match for the Gainesville Growth and we ended up with a Home Depot run for reinforcements. A lot of yard work and a good amount of pressure washing brought the house to a more presentable condition; but there’s still more work to be done. The pressure washer gave out and well, it’s time had come. It lasted for a better part of 10 years and I can’t really complain.

For your entertainment, please “enjoy” the before and after.

You can almost see the windows

It screams to turn around

Once, a porch was here.

look ma, windows!

I knew I saw a porch there once

Fred visits Jim Beam in Kentucky

If you haven’t done so… check out my article on Fat Freddy Says about the difference between Bourbon vs. Whiskey.

Yeni in her studio.

Lately, thanks to our newly purchased Kitchen-Aid mixer, I have been eating well — very well. Although I guess that depends on your definition of what “eating well” means. If it means eating low calorie, very healthy meals, then no. If it means eating delicious cakes and desserts that make your mouth water, then YES — I have been eating very well.

Yeni loves those cake shows and well, I truly think she’s a natural. Not only are the cakes great looking, they also taste out of this world. Add this to the homemade cannoli and well, simply put, I’m a lucky man. Lucky man.

For more pictures of the cake (you have to see the little fondant bear), check out the album posted on my picasa account.