I had promised restaurant reviews when we go out, as it seems hard to find info on the net for such things. So far I’ve reviewed the Cactus Club Coquitlam and I am working on reviews of our two outings during Dine Out Vancouver. Karin and I will be going into New Westminster this afternoon for an appointment, and rush hour will trap us out there for the dinner hour, so I will post a review if we go somewhere worthwhile. Right now, however, we’re discussing the likelihood of the food fair at Metrotown.

In the meantime, during my surfing I have come across several reviews of note:

• C Restaurant by John Chow - Outside our budget, but maybe not your’s
• Stonegrill by Michael Kwan - we wanted to try this during Dine Out, but could not get reservations
• The Cannery by John Chow
• Hamilton Street Grill by Jeffery Simpson - this helped us make a dining decision

There was also an excellent review of Sip Resto-lounge, a place that we tried twice unsuccessfully to get reservations for during Dine Out Vancouver. The review I read reconfirmed that this is a place we need to try, but I’ll have to search some more for the link.

After my dental appointment in the morning yesterday (Saturday) we went to Alberto and Lucy’s new home in Langley. Alberto is Karin’s brother, and he and Lucy have two children. They moved from Delta to Langley two months ago after a long search for the perfect home. When I first met Karin, they were already looking. In the meantime, Karin’s three other siblings, her parents, my dad, and Karin & I have all begun searches and moved. Since it took this long for them to find the perfect place, we needed to see it.

Lucy had taken advantage of a Telus offer of a free Dell computer if you signed up for ADSL. She therefore had dropped her old computer off for me to reformat and set up as a kid’s computer. So we packed the prepared computer into the car and headed off to Langley.

It certainly was nice only having to drive one town over. Once there, we were treated to a tour of their large house and yard, complete with thick green-watered pool and hot tub (the last owners obviously did not bother winterizing the pool). Unfortunately there are no pictures of the pool, as I did not get the camera out until after dark. Much time was wasted trying to connect the kid’s computer to their wireless router, as I was following the proper steps and we even made a call to support to confirm that the number on the bottom of the router was the WEP key, but it was only when we called back in frustration that we found out that Telus’ system does not like to use the factory provided WEP key and you must assign a new one. Overall, Lucy is not impressed with Telus.

Dinner was delicious, and we talked late into the evening. Here are a few pictures of the new place. Click on any of the below pictures to go to our Flickr page, where you can see all seven pictures from the evening.

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Dear Capital One,

Get your damn hands away from my pocket!

I have watched your commercials and listened to your inane jingle. While the ads were amusing at first, my reaction to the first one was “Who pays credit card fees?”. Even here in Canada, where we have less credit choices, the only fees I know of are for cards with loyalty programs or for people who are poor credit risks. In the case of the loyalty programs, there is usually a no fee option also, with the fee option allowing point collecting at double the normal rate for those that charge a lot per month and therefore would still come out ahead. Fees are simply supposed to exist when you risk not making a profit, a very unlikely task with your industries insane rates.

Photo credit mag3737 on Flickr

You and two companies like you did not even have an interest in me until I had a mortgage. When I signed the paperwork with my bank, I did not realize I was getting bi-monthly mailings from all three of you as part of the deal; and in a review of the fine print I cannot find it anywhere. But none-the-less, you send me your mailings stating, “Whether you’re starting from scratch, or starting over, you deserve the chance to build your credit”. Why do you send me such letters when neither applies, and you know it? You were no where to be seen when I was first starting out, and then when life circumstances did take an unexpected turn and I did need to rebuild my credit, you still were hiding behind a bush. My credit union was more than happy to help me, and I have fine credit now. But you already know that, since that’s what triggered you to start sending me these letters saying I should apply in order to build my credit.

But as I read your letter just before it hits my shredder, I have to wonder even more if you think I’m an idiot. You “guarantee” me a credit card, either a Gold Card or a secured card. Imagine that, you’ll guarantee me a credit card with at least a $300 limit, and all I’ll have to do is give you $300 as a security deposit if it turns out I have poor credit. It sounds like your really risking it all!

But wait, it gets better. It says in your letter that my annual fee will be $59, even if I qualify for the Gold Card. Hold on, why is there a fee? You have no loyalty program, so I would expect a Gold Card to not have a fee. And if I had no credit and had to give you a $300 security deposit in order to get a secured card with a $300 limit, then you have zero risk and there shouldn’t be any fee then either. No banks or credit unions that I know of charge a fee when the card is completely secured. At the most, I’ll accept that you might charge a fee when their is an applicant with a poor credit history, and you are providing a card with a higher limit than any deposit you collect; but that fee should then disappear if they prove themselves after a year.

Opps, hold on, I can hear that irritating tune; your commercial is on TV. Let’s listen for the exact wording.

“With their fees and high interest rates, banks all have their hands in your pocket.”

But your different? I’m confused, as I’ve already stated, you have the highest fees of which I know. Are you saying that you are cheaper when you compare the combined fees and interest rates? I’ll concede that a fee would be acceptable if the interest rate is a lot better than the competition. Let’s look at your letter again.

The first 5 months are at 9.9%, and thereafter it is at 19.8%. Ask anyone in the general public to say what a common rate is, and they would tell you 18%, not almost 20%. And that’s on no fee cards!

Before you tell me that my perceptions are not reality and I don’t understand the industry since I’m not the experts you are, let me direct you to a simple Google search of credit card comparison Canada. The first result is the excellent government prepared tables comparing fees, rates and features of all cards available at the Financial Consumer Agent of Canada’s site. Checking these charts shows that for each type of card, you have the worst rates and fees of all lenders of whom I recognize, and the couple that I don’t recognize are really no worse than you but rather are your equals. I would be better off with a bank’s hand in my pocket rather than your vacuum hose.

To make it even more ironic, the first sponsored link above the regular results on the above search is yours! Why did you purchase these search words, don’t you think that you’ve lost the battle if someone is comparing rates?

If I could, I would just throw your letters into the trash bin beside my mailbox. But you have made it too easy for identity thieves by enclosing an application that is half filled in with my information, and includes a handy section to fill in if I want to report that the address you just mailed this unsolicited application to is wrong and I’d like the card to be delivered somewhere else.

So it seems that you are not even middle of the pack of potential lenders, but in fact you have the worst combination of fees and rates, behind all the major banks; which call into question what you represent in your Hands In My Pocket commercials.

So consider this your notice; stop sending me your applications. I will not be informing you through other means than this public post, as your actions were unsolicited in the first place and I therefore have no obligation to give you any sort of notice. If you do not cease, I investigate the options at another Government site I found in a Google search of false advertising Canada.

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I started yesterday with a visit to the 7Oaks Laser Dental Centre, where I go every few weeks to see Dr. Ajar, the Oral Surgeon who is fitting me with dental implants. This is my second visit since I last blogged about my dental adventures. I realize that many will not find this of interest, but my family may wish to know the progress, and I’m actually starting to get visitors from Google searches on dental implants.

It seems I heal too well. The last visit was to expose the screws that had been implanted and was awaiting me to grow bone into the threads of the screws. My body accomplished that goal, and also grew bone around several of the screw heads.

After a couple of weeks for the gums to heal so they were stiff to pressure, yesterday was time to go in for the final impressions for the model of my mouth that will be used to make the crowns that will go on the implants. But the night before, I could only count 5 healing abutments, which are the ends that had been placed on the implants during the last visit so the gums would heal with tooth shaped holes. Sure enough, I had overly healthy gums that grew right over the abutment that was supposed to keep such a thing from happening.

This all meant extra work for Dr. Ajar, and extra pain for me; but of course it is good news when you heal better than expected. All that is left now is that I will have to go to the dental lab, which is downtown Vancouver, to have them match my tooth shade. I’ve always had the dentist do that himself, but since this is so permanent, they will apparently be shining a bunch of different lights on me so that they can match my shade in fluorescent light, my shade in sunlight, my shade in incandescent light, etc.; and then average these. Then on March 17th, I return to the dentist’s office for the crowns to be attached.