Easily the best place we ate during the trip. Everything was good from the coffee to the breakfast sandwhiches. It is pretty hidden away in Santa Barbara, and I am glad I found it during my quick search.

I would go into what I ate, but there were four of us, and between us we ordered maybe 12 things off the menu, between drinks and breakfast plates and sides, and every single item was good. I believe the owner was working the counter, and she was friendly, brought us our food on outside where we had pulled two small tables together, checked on us several times and cleaned up dishes as we finished. It was amazing service for a place where you order at the counter.

If you enjoy a tasty breakfast, this is the place to go. Not much of a view being that is is on a small back street about 2 blocks off of state, but the food was impressive. Next door is a Crush cupcakes, but traveling with the gluten free girls means I have to keep my sweet tooth in check.

Crush Cafe’s menu

At this point, my dining companion is in such high spirits, I would really rather be dining alone. She is radiating “pissed off” quite visible, although she denied it then and will probably deny it now.

Even after all that, we still went sat down to have dinner, because I was really excited to try Buchon.

The service was mediocre for this kind of establishment.

The wine list was great, with a focus almost exclusively on California wines, with some excellent options by the glass. I had a wonderful Pinot Noir.

The food on the other hand…

I ordered the braised pork cheek and sage ravioli to start. The asparagus was good, but everything else was amazingly disappointing. The heirloom tomato ragout was thin and tasteless, the pork cheek was somehow dry in texture while still having a gelatinous fatty feel.

As the main course I ordered Bourbon & Maple-Glazed California Duck Breast, it was better. It was a decent dish, but there was no contrast to the sweetness. The succotash was sweet, the glaze was kinda non existant, the duck was breast was rare and didn’t contribute much to the dish flavor or texture wise, and their was a duck leg confit, that was easily the most boring duck confit I have experienced. The vegetables were again the best part of the dish, and they were just good.

At this point I asked my wife what her opinion was, and she said everything was ok. I gave Buchon a fair shake, with two dishes that should have been interesting and tasty, but was disappointed in both. I finished my single glass of wine, paid the check and left Buchon disappointed.

I don’t think the circumstances tainted the taste of the food, but it is possible, but highly unlikely. I have tasted good food under worse circumstances.

And it was great.

This place is known for its food, not for its service. The location is a kinda strip mall/shopping center, but really small town. I am pretty sure the building was purpose built as part of the “town center” for Santa Ynez, but since I am unfamiliar with the area, the architecture didn’t look like everything else I am used to in the DFW area. The building was a traditional two story farm house appearance with wrap around porch, dormer windows, standing seam metal roof and pier and beam foundation (or maybe just the porch was pier and beam). The interior of the dining room had the open kitchen in one corner with a bar around it, and then typical restaurant tables and chairs filling a rather small room. The place was packed.

There was a group waiting when I walked up to the hostess to check in. This totally threw her off. Apparently she was getting ready to seat them, and didn’t know how to tell me that it would be just a moment. Quite funny. We were seated immediately after she returned.

The waiter was quite laid back, to the point that I doubted any of the gluten intolerance information was getting through. Everything turned out fine, for the most part.

The food was excellent. We started with 3 appetizers between 4 of us, and should have just done two. The caprese and carpaccio di bue were well prepared. The rollio veneto, a pizza roll made with smoked mozzarella and radicchio, was awesome. We raved about it so much, one of the gluten free girls felt obligated to lick the center of one of the rolls. That was enough to make her sick later, oops.

The only problem with the rollio veneto was that both men ordered large plates of pasta, and both men were already full. A large plate of pennette con funghi e salsciccia left me stuffed. It is a traditional penne with a tomato mushroom sausage sauce, where the bits of sausage and mushroom were small enough enough to stick to the pasta. It was amazing. The girls raved about their gluten free dishes (Fagioli con Salsiccie and Calamari alla Positano) and all the gluten free dishes were shared, thus we know the culprit was a single lick to the pizza roll.

Everything was washed down with a bottle of Brunello. It was my first Brunello, and while I was assured it was a good representation of the wine, it wasn’t my favorite. Of course, having a wine list with almost a dozen Brunello’s to choose from was a treat.

In summary, the food was outstanding, the service is what you would expect from a small local restaurant and the wine list was great if you like Italian wines.

Location: The Shop’s at Legacy is a nice little open air mall that provides plenty of free garage parking if you are willing to walk a block instead of valeting, but there really wasn’t much of casual interest there. The wine bar Cru nearby, and I would like to stop in for wine and a appetizers, but we weren’t that early, and we aren’t really big enough eaters to pull that off. The area is nice, but rather boring.

Atmosphere: The restaurant was nicely decorated, and the patrons well dressed. The lighting was low, steak house style, but the building had floor to ceiling glass windows, and the walls were dark but not wood paneled. Probably a little on the trendy side.

Service: The service was great. Our waiter was not stuffy or pretentious nor overly friendly. He had been with the restaurant for quite a while and had worked previously as a sommelier, so he was very familiar with the menu and the wine list. Since it was our first time, and we passed on appetizers, he brought us a their signature appetizer to try, small order of bleu cheese potato chips, which I devoured. They were very good, and I hate potato chips. His wine recommendations were intelligent. I asked about a glass of interesting wine on the menu (Atlas Peak, non vintage cab blend), and told him I usually drink Pinot Noir, but I had tried everything on their menu except the Pinot they were out of and wanted to try something new (by the glass menu, not their full wine list). He said I might like the Atlas Peak, but it was a very non standard Cab, and also recommended something else Pinot like. I told him I would take the Atlas.

Our server returned with our wine, with two glasses for me. I got to sample both the Atlas and the recommended. He was spot on with his recommendation, on the dry side with lots of mineral which was very similar to a lot of Pinot I have had recently. The Atlas had a very soft mouth feel, with a lot of red fruit flavor without being fruity or sweet. I went with the Atlas.

Food: We shared the small potato chips, which were very good, and might have been the best thing I ate that night. I enjoyed the Jasper’s Greens salad, which was mixed greens, candied pecans and blue cheese. The vinaigrette was a very light lemon, whose tartness just offset the sweetness of the pecans and the tang of the cheese. I enjoy bold flavors, but someone else might have found the bleu cheese dominating in the salad.

For my main course, I asked the server between the Rotisserie Roasted Prime Rib and the Hickory Grilled Flat Iron Steak. He hands down recommended the prime rib, which has won awards. The prime rib was good, but I was not over welled. There was a good 2-3 inches of smoke ring around the prime rib, but that only accounts for about 25% of the meat. After that, it was just plain prime rib. Good, but I have had just as good prime rib that has not won any awards.

Sadly, no dessert for me. This is typical, since the portion size at a restaurant is usually larger than the largest portion I would prepare at home. I am considering resolving this by ordering appetizers, salads and dessert, since so often the creativity of a restaurant lies there. Well, the salads aren’t creative, they just make me feel less gluttonous.

Overall: I enjoyed Jasper’s and would be happy to take people there.

If academics where financial geniuses, they wouldn’t be academics.

From 1871 to 2008, the average rate of return for the stock market has been 8.76%.

That number and similar long term numbers are thrown around regularly as to why the stock market is still the best place to invest long term. This is absolutely true if you are Yale or Harvard, and your trust fund really will survive for hundreds of years, but for mere mortals, we need to take a few other things into consideration.

First, most people don’t start saving seriously when they first start working. Second, even those serious savers aren’t saving number initially, because their income increases so much the first 5 to 10 years of their careers. So instead of looking at a 137 year window of investing, the window should be much smaller.

Most people who do a good job saving will be looking at a 30 year window before they have need to start making draws against their retirement funds. So instead of looking at the average rate of return over 137 years, people should plan for the worst 30 year period that we have experienced, and know that it could be worse than that.

Doom and gloom I say? It could be worse than that? The average rate of return ending Feb 28, 2009 was -5.8% for the last 10 year period (45% loss overall). There are two strong bull markets and two strong bear markets in that time period, and the bears won.

I am not even considering inflation. If you retirement started at the end of Feb, you were probably worth about half what you were a year earlier. You could have stuck everything in a savings account in the beginning of 1998, missing out on another 56% gain from the internet boom, and still been much better off than if you had left everything in the market from 1998 to 2008.

Instead of using 8.76% in your calculations, use 5%. 5.09% was the lowest compounded rate of return I found for a 30 year period. If you plan for 5% growth, and get lucky enough to average 10% growth, it is much easier to live on extra money then not enough.

My conclusions, pension funds managers are idiots.

First, lets say you are a company that has been around forever, has grown considerably over that time, employees pay into the pension 20-40 years and the payouts lasting 20 years. The company has grown and so has the number of employees funding the pension. In good times like these, the pension should be net positive cash flow. By this I mean the outgoing retirement benefits being paid are less than the incoming funds from existing employees, thus the pension fund has a growing net asset base and the existing base is never touched.

Now, in this ideal situation, I believe that this is true.

Next, take a company (or government) that provides a pension and has grown linearly with time, or just at a much low exponential rate than a highly successful company. The cash flow should still be net positive, because you have more people paying in then are taking a draw.

In this situation, I do not believe this is true, because pension fund managers allow companies (and governments) to underfund the pension, creating a cash flow problem, and thus to meet current obligations, assets have to be sold, thus decreasing the size of the pension. Thus, pension fund managers are idiots.

Finally, take a company that offered a pension, but is now bankrupt. If this company has met all obligations to date, the remaining balance in the pension should allow the pension to make payments for 20 years.

In this situation, the funds start out underfunded and the asset base, the portfolio of the pension, contains too much risk. Not only could the pension not meet obligations because it started out underfunded, but being invested in risky assets means that there is variable chance that the pension will even last as long as its current value would indicate. Thus, pension fund managers are idiots.

This kinda sucks, because it is one week before Zones, but I am already training on my own once or twice a week. The question is, can I train hard on my own all the time, or do I need the team practices to keep my consistency.

I have the following options. The CAC pool has a team that trains there 3 times a week, and if we joined there, it would eliminate the need for our Lifetime Fitness membership. Lifetime has a team, but the setup Lifetime has for the team is so pathetic it isn’t even a consideration. The final team option, and by far the best option as far as teams go, is to join DAM and swim at their Southlake practices.

DAM has a very large team, and the Southlake practices typically have 8 lanes with about 3 people a lane. That is 24 people regularly showing up to practice compared to LACs 5 people. The downside to swimming at Southlake? It is more than 30 minutes away, and the practice is at 5:15. I already am used to getting up at 4:30, but what I am not used to is having to get ready in a gym locker room for work and not being able to cook a hot breakfast for myself. Spoiled am I.

The alternative, and likely choice at least initially, is to workout at Lifetime from 4:30 until 5:45 every morning. No one is using the pool at that hour, so lane space is not a problem, and I can get out and get back to the house to shower for work and eat a hot breakfast and still make it to work by 7am.

Brook and I would really like to swim with a team, and Brook is strongly considering CAC. I have kind of already discarded it because I don’t think the intensity will be there, but this is an area where more research would easily change my mind.

As for Southlake. Next Saturday I am planning on swimming with DAM in Southlake (next Friday is my last LAC practice), and that will determine if I think it is feasible. If it is, I will probably check out a Sunday practice at SMU, just for fun, and then finish out the month practicing in Southlake in the mornings and getting ready there to gage if I think I can tolerate doing that on a regular basis. Practice is over at 6:30, and Southlake pool is only about 10 minutes from work, so I would not be adding to my commute.

Now if I could afford a nice house close to the Southlake pool, it would be a done deal. Brook would become a full time trophy wife, and living in Southlake would decrease her commute to the salon and spa, and I could train 5x/week and still enjoy a hot breakfast and a nice shower before work.

Since afford and Southlake don’t go well together at this current time, Brook will continue to be a full time veterinarian and a part time trophy wife and the most likely scenerio will be that I train at Lifetime for a while.

Lotto Texas is at $28 million, maybe I will invest a dollar.

Here are the full meet results: http://www.damswim.com/meet_results/2009_dam_scy_spring_meet.pdf

Here are my results:
100fr: 55.86
splits: 27.42, 28.44

50fr: 25.30

200fr: 2:04.54
100 splits: 1:00.04, 1:04.50
50 splits: 28.61, 31.43, 32.41, 32.09

The meet went 500, 100, 50, 200, with the 500 being the 3rd event and the 200 being second to last. There was less than an hour between events, which was fine, but the heat was not turned on until an hour after the meet started, so it was very cold on deck. Pool temp was fine.

I ate my goggles on the start of the 500, so I stopped, put them on, and swam a pretty easy 6:20, with 200 being back. Swam just fast enough so I didn’t get last

I am happy with my 100 time and my 50 time, but I think my 200 should have been 1:57ish. I think I have the speed, just not the endurance. My last season US times were 25.x, 55.x and 1:55.x consistently in season SCY.

Outdoor pool was not open, but I did head to Lifetime and do 900 cool down after the meet. Felt pretty good until I couldn’t breath through my nose anymore later that night.