At the beginning of October 2013, I received an invitation to attend a dinner at Fleming's to preview their new menu. With a new baby and my work schedule, I wasn't able to make it, so I didn't participate. At the end of October, the menu revamp was launched nationwide at all Fleming's locations. A couple weeks later, Fleming's reached out again to see if I was interested in tasting some of the new menu items. I wasn't able to get the time to work until the first week of January, but we managed to get the dinner arranged and set up at the Fleming's in Austin, Texas (downtown location near the convention center).

Unfortunately, I had never eaten at a Fleming's before, so I couldn't compare the new menu to the old with this visit. In fact, I knew very little about Fleming's and what little I had heard about them over the years led me to believe the steakhouse was expensive, boring, and mediocre. After dining there, I have to say I was quite surprised with the experience and truly enjoyed my dinner.

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Restaurant Review: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar of Austin

For the last three years, I've published the schedules to the fall television season and which shows I plan on watching. This year, I'm a tad late. And it's probably closer to the shows that I plan on recording (as opposed to watching). I also had a slow start learning about the shows, so I have more shows selected than ever because it's hard for me to tell what's going to be good or bad due to lack of information.

Like last year's grid, the new shows are in italics and shows to be recorded are in color (with green and blue for my two different DVRs). All times are Eastern / Pacific. Central Time would be one hour before the listed time.

Here are the previous year's schedules for comparison: 2012, 2011, and 2010.

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What I Plan on Watching During Fall Television Season 2013

A couple of my relatives posed an interesting question to me the other day and I realized it had a complex answer that wasn't easy for me to explain over the phone. I thought a blog post might be just the thing since I could easily provide pictures and tables without worrying about what their email client does. They live in the LA area and have some American Airlines miles accumulated and, more recently, Chase Ultimate Rewards points which they can transfer to airlines because they have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Since I was the one who convinced them to get the Sapphire Preferred card in the first place, naturally, they asked me how to use those points since they were mostly familiar with using American Airlines miles for redemptions.

I recommended Chase Sapphire Preferred because Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points do not transfer to American, but instead transfer to United, Avios (British Airways), Korean Air, and Southwest. This allows them to diversify their miles to provide some more options when American isn't the best deal or isn't flying at the best times for them. The best part is that by redeeming Avios points through British Airways for domestic flights, they can get an American Airlines (oneworld alliance) or Alaska Airline (partner) award if they need it.

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HOWTO: Redeeming American Airlines AAdvantage Miles or Chase Ultimate Rewards for Los Angeles to Alaska

Like Confucious, we've eaten at Fu Fu Cafe more than once this year. The first time was actually on the same night that we ate at Confucious the first time (two lobsters with ginger and scallions, jade tofu with king mushroom, and water spinach). After Confucious we stopped in at Cafe Kubo to taste their ramen (no good). Then we went over to Fu Fu Cafe (not to be confused with Fu Fu Restaurant in the same shopping complex) for the third dinner of the night when I ordered their Pork and Chive Dumplings.

Pork Chive Dumplings ($5.99). These were as close to homemade as I've ever had in a restaurant. The value was excellent - we received sixteen dumplings for our $6. Unfortunately, five were ultra slalty, but I still ended up eating all of them (even after just having two dinners back to back). Technically, I ate 13 dumplings, and Tina ate three.

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What I Ate: Fu Fu Cafe (Houston, Texas)

For our mid-day meal, we decided to try out Hong Kong Food Street on Bellaire Blvd. We ordered a few dishes that caught our eye (and we hoped we could finish since we couldn't take leftovers with us; we weren't heading back to the hotel for a number of hours).

Congee with Pork & Preserved Egg ($5.50). We had never had congee served to us this way before. It came in a large clay pot so hot that the circumference of congee was splattering and sizzling. The texture of the rice was excellent - liquidy porridge with soft rice (not completely mushy but still in discrete pieces). I felt the pork that was in it was a bit on the fattier side and was fairly strong tasting when compared to other examples of this dish. The pidan tasted pretty good with just enough of its strong flavor to contribute positively to the congee. Tina did not like a "lardy" flavor that (to my taste was subtle but seemed to be quite strong for her) permeated the congee. She is typically the one between the two of us that enjoys congee the most, but she did not like this one because of that flavor she was overwhelmingly tasting.

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What I Ate: Hong Kong Food Street (Houston, Texas)

This year, we've had the opportunity to dine at Confucious Seafood Restaurant in Houston twice. The first time was January 2012 and the second was tonight. The highlight of both meals was the Chinese style lobsters (two of them) for $18.99.

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What I Ate: Confucious Seafood Restaurant (Houston, Texas)

Each year, I plan out what I'm going to record during the Fall TV season. This year, I have two TiVo HD's so I don't have nearly the scheduling conflicts I did in previous years. In past years, I used green for what I'm planning on recording and yellow for shows I was interested in. This year, I'll use green and blue for the two DVRs (with green being the downstairs TV and blue for the secondary unit which gets either won't get watched often or will be streamed). Shows with names in italics are new shows and those with underlined titles have mouseover notes. All times are Eastern or Pacific. Central Time would be one hour before. (Click to see: 2011 Schedule and 2010 Schedule)

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What I Plan on Watching During Fall Television Season 2012

There's a long awaited Whole Foods Market opening up in the Shops at Arbor Trails shopping complex (at MoPac Expressway and William Cannon) across the parking lot from the South Austin Costco. All day today, media had the opportunity to tour the new Whole Foods Market four days before the grand opening on Tuesday, June 19, 2012. Here's a quick sneak peek of the new market.

At 39,600 sq ft, this newest Whole Foods Market is a little less than half the size of the flagship Whole Foods on Lamar in downtown Austin. The space is beautifully lit by a mix a natural and artificial lights with a good number of skylights providing most of the illumination when sunny and ambient light sensors which automatically increase or decrease the artificial lights as necessary.

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A Whole Foods in South Austin Opening June 19th

Over the years, I've heard a lot of different theories about how to increase your credit score. Most of them are grounded in some truth, but are based on incomplete knowledge. For example, a lot of people say that given the choice to buy a car with cash or finance it, you should finance the car to build credit. Although, that is generally true over time (in the short term, the auto loan will actually hurt most credit scores), there are often better ways to increase one's credit score without the initial negative effects and without having to pay real money on interest.

A credit score, such as the FICO score (produced by the Fair Isaac Corporation), is a numerical way for banks and lenders to determine if an individual is a credit risk. The scores generally range from 300 to 850 depending on which company and which method is being used to calculate the score. In theory, an individual with a 300 on this scale would be someone who would definitely default while an individual with a score of 850 would be guaranteed to not default. Since nothing is ever certain, the scores are designed so people will fall between these two extremes.

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Credit Scores and What Really Affects Them

We've been meaning to check out Wink (1014 North Lamar, Ste. E Austin, TX 78703 512-482-8868) for quite some time - since we moved to Austin over two and a half years ago. We finally made it!

amuse bouche
A very crispy and flaky tart with bacon flavored filling.

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What I Ate: December 23th, 2011 (Wink)