Welcome to Chez Cliff!

certainly hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Christmas this year was incredible.  For the first time I can remember, I sported a tie at Christmas dinner.  Also, the people I spent the day with also got dressed up. 

The idea of getting dressed up is somewhat of a lost tradition.  I want to do it more often.  Of course that’s a bit difficult to do in a town where the fashion trend is towards bathrobes and knee-high boot/slipper things.

Because of a massive conspiracy, I was not allowed to know the menu until we actually ate it.  To be honest, I think that was probably the best present I could have gotten.  I do so love surprises!  I spent the week, practicing my French call sign of "Oui Chef" so I could at least help out in the kitchen.  However I was denied at every turn therefore I was relegated to the couch.

So I have to give kudo’s to Natacha and Alex who put this shindig on.  It amazes me what people can do with very little.  But I get that phrase "You can do a lot with a little." now more than ever.  I prefer subtle to gawdy.  The rooms were accented with well-placed candles.  Nothing says "warmth" more than a lit candles.  And I’m eternally grateful that they weren’t scented!  I hate scented candles with a passion!  At dinner, I want to smell the food.  Not "Warm Summer’s Breath". 

Their decoration style was not fancy but it was cozy.  This is something I appreciate and prefer.  If I want to have dinner at Nordstrom’s then I’ll have dinner at Nordstrom’s! 

Dinner started at about 8 o’clock.  The first course started off with Foie Gras and my favorite champagne, Veuve Clicquot.  You could tell that the Foie Gras was good because everyone was silent while eating.  Or we were all just super hungry.  I have had Foie Gras before (and love it!!) but this was the first time I tried it with a sprig of Parsley.  The only other time I remember someone eating parsley like that was my mom.  She claimed that it freshened breath.  That night the French Chef put some parsley on top of her Foie Gras and chomped away.  I followed suit.  Hey, I’ll try anything once!

On Thursday, my french instructor gave me a bottle of wine and said "Cleef, this is for your dinner on Saturday."  The bottle she gave me was from St. Emillion.  With the opening of this wine, we moved onto the main course.  It was called "Magret de Canard", which is duck breast simply sauteed and served with peaches.  That is one thing I’ll have to give duck credit for is that it tastes really, really good with a variety of fruits.  I make a similar dish to this but I flame it in Calvados, which is an apple brandy.  The side dish for this was potatoes, sauteed in the grease from the Foie Gras.  Oh my god!!  Potatoes are normally just potatoes but sauteed in foie gras grease? 

I have three words for you
MAG
NIF
IQUE!

A shot of calvados after dinner soothed the exquisite duck.  Of course you don’t pound calvados like a shot of tequila.  Because this is a brandy, one served cold if drank, you sip it.  And it aids with digestion.

Engineer X surprised us all by bringing this excellent bottle of Pomerol, 1998 which nearly brought us to tears.  It was so good.  With this wine, we started our salad course. The salad consisted of endives, shallots and a nice vinaigrette.

A cheese plate followed.  Armed with my slices of baguette, I attacked the piles of Camembert, Roquefort, Gruyere, and goat cheese.  I’m still trying to figure out how I got it all in me.  I know that my hollow leg, where I normally store my food, was already full!

The onslaught of dessert followed.  First, a plate of chocolate covered strawberries was placed down in front of us.  By now, the Pomerol wine had opened up and it perfectly accompanied the chocolate.

The next dessert, yes there were two, was a flour-less chocolate cake.  At this point, I understood why chipmunks store food in their cheeks.  I found myself doing the same thing.  Even though the salad and calvados helped settle the food in my stomach, I was still struggling to get that delicious dessert down.  Nonetheless it went down and I was the happier for it.

After our four hour dinner, we sat around and exchanged some gifts and talked about just about everything.  For Engineer X, this was a night of firsts for him.  He had never tried Foie Gras, Magret de Canard, nor Calvados.  We had successfully corrupted another one of my friends.  It was a great way to end a perfect evening.

So to end this adventure, I will give you my top three pictures of the season.  Thanks to all of you who sent them to me.  I’m sure we’ll all get a kick out of these.
So we have the "awwwee factor for Astrid.  I just love this photo!	I guess all the creatures enjoy Christmas!	and I wasn’t doing too good the next day.

Changing Directions will be on vacation until Tuesday, December 27th.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!

Since my rather serious chat about credit scores, I’m turning to something more festive.

I was quite happy when I put my tree up.  This I made clear.  But it was absolutely spectacular when I shut off all the lights in the house.  The tree is quite lovely.

Thanks to the magic of television, click on the image and it will get bigger!

I hear so many complaints from people that a real tree is a pain in the butt to keep clean.  The only thing I can figure is that their complaint should end with "on carpet".  My tree has been a snap to maintain!

Yes, I know I’m missing a star at the top.  I can do without this year.  If anyone thinks that I’m climbing back into WalMart this year, then you are smoking crack!

I learned something today.

Bank managers have to submit all of their income and expenses each and every year to the federal government.  This is to make sure that they aren’t pilfering money or embezzling or things of that nature.

Also, bank managers must have good standing credit.

Guess who has a bank manager for a tenant?

               This guy!!

I really wish that when I graduated college that someone would have explained to me how the world of credit scores work.  Everyone is aware that they have a credit score and that the higher the credit score, the better.  Since I’ve been dealing with mine now for 10 years, I have learned a few things about credit scores that I will discuss here.

Why?

I’m glad you asked.

Because I really wish someone had explained to me how the world of credit scores work when I graduated college.  What is more is the same myths about credit scores seems to be perpetuated everywhere.  Growing up in Michigan, I heard the same rumors about credit scores that I hear college graduates spew forth every day in California.  I really, really would like to tell them that what they are saying isn’t true.  However I am often reluctant because you can’t argue with "Well, my dad told me . . ." and when I ask if their dad is a credit consultant or if they work for Experian, I get "Well no.  He’s retired from company X where he made widgets."

Ah, gotcha.

In working closely with two loan officers, I’ve pieced together a "road-map" of sorts.  As an FYI, these two loan officers that I have dealt with (and still deal with) each own over 10 rental properties and have been doing loans for over 12 years.  Into this mix, comes my real estate agent.

As the saying goes:  The proof is in the pudding.

If you feel that the sessions that I am going to write under this subject are complete hog-wash, then I’d like you to explain to me how I got my credit score to swing by 90 points in less than 30 days.

Actually that sounds like a great intro to an info-mercial.