Tacolicious!

This was one damn good layered taco salad. Ok-it was really just decent, but the standards I judge my cooking by are significantly lowered. It just has to be to level the playing field. But anyway, from start to finish, the recipe claimed that this was a 45 minute meal. It took me nearly 2.5 hours. And that's not including the trip to the grocery store to get all the ingredients (where I proceeded to have a spazz fest in front of the butcher because I didn't know what ground chuck was or what a proper substitute for it was).

My True Calling

So if roughly a million other people come up with the same brilliant ideas as mine, does that idea lose its brilliance and gets relegated to the status of being a good idea? If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it still make a noise??

I figured on Mother's Day everyone should be taking their mom out for brunch and a day at the spa or a day shopping. Thus, it would be the perfect day to hit up Disneyland. I've obviously given children way too much credit because Disneyland was PACKED. A thousand moms got hosed. But anyway, this is the picture of Nico and I on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. My score puts me at Level 5- Ranger First Class!!!! I'm doing my part to save the universe from the evil empire Zurg. We'll forget for a minute the fact that the ride stopped twice which helped my score immensely...
Good to know I'm good at something. Always need a Plan B in case a career in finance isn't in the cards...

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Growing up I used to watch this show. It was touted as the fun way to learn geography. I'm sure this show, along with my elementary and high school education have taught me generally where countries are located.

Through the UCLA extension program, I'm going towards a certificate in International Trade and Commerce. It's definitely not all that and more. One of the courses I'm taking this quarter is titled, 'Doing Business in Europe.' This is taken verbatim from the course syllabus:

DOING BUSINESS IN EUROPE is a 12 week course designed to introduce various participants to approaches, opportunities, and risks of doing business in the markets of the Western and Eastern Europe, primarily Germany, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, Greece, and Turkey. The course focuses primarily on the member nations of the European Union.

I should sue the program for false advertisement. Let me re-hash what I've learned about doing business in Europe after 4 weeks (a quarter of the way through the quarter)

1) The Swedes are the most educated group of people

If you read that line and you didn't know it before you read it, you owe me $181. That's about what 4 weeks of this class has cost me.
I sit in class for 3 hours every Tuesday evening bored out of my mind. I think gouging my own eyes out with an icepick would be a more pleasant experience. Studying for the bar was more interesting. Yes, read that again-studying for the bar was more interesting!

Last night we discussed the roles of various religions and how they effect business policies. Fair enough. However, we had already discussed religion last class. So this class session, we broke into groups of 3-4, had to pick a country, and talk about how the various religions affect business decisions by companies in that particular country. It sounds like a good plan. Until you realize that the class is made up of students (students in the sense that no person has more than a year or two working experience, not student in the sense that we are students taking this course). And I already learned the first class that no one has any experience working in another country or working for a company in that company's global relations/sales department. Basically none of us bring anything to the table. Which is fine. That just means that it cannot be as interactive as the professor had hoped, and as the students, we rely on him for information on doing business in Europe.

So, with none of us having any global working experience, we can't really say how religion shapes the business practice of a company doing business in Europe. Nevertheless, we trudge on. Here's the kicker. The first group picked as their country India. The second group picked Japan. My group picked France. The last group picked Russia. Now tell me when Japan and India were officially recognized as European countries?

Welcome to Chevy Nation

This is the Chevy Cobalt. It is not only a car, but also doubles as a patience tester.

Nico's friend came into town, and had this for a rental car. Its unfair to knock a rental car, because hello-that's why they are rental cars to begin with. But this one was extra special. Extra special as in the-key-won't-come-out-of-the-ignition special.
It was stuck at In-n-Out Burger.

A: Oh shit-the key's stuck
Nico: What???
A: The key won't come out of the ignition
Me: (hee hee)

A: (turns car back on)
(reverses car)
(re-parks car)
(attempts to take key out)
A: It's stuck!
Nico: (reaches over to turn the key)
Oh my god-you're right-it won't come out!
Me: (laying across the back seat dying)

8 rounds of turning the car on and off...
7 reversals and parking in THE SAME SPOT
6 rounds of cursing later...

The key miraculously came out!!

Here's a list of the things we did try to get the key out

1) turned the car off with the A/C off
2) turned the car off with the A/C on
3) turned the car off with the radio on
4) turned the car off with the radio on
5) turned the car off with foot on brake pedal
6) turned the car off with foot off brake pedal
7) turned the car off with handbrake off
8) turned the car off with handbrake on


Next next stop was Griffith Observatory. It was fabulous. It was gorgeous. It was a freaking surprise hike. Cars are not allowed to drive up during the day. People are not allowed to hike up at night. Guess when we showed up. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't in jeans. If I had my sunglasses on. If I was sporting real sneakers and not Chucks. The view was gorgeous. The view of the smog that is...

Nevertheless it was an awesome workout. I think I'm going to hike up to the Observatory every weekend. I think I'm insane. But, no joke, its a great workout. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Monday morning and didn't have buns of steel.

Back at our apartment came another round of 'the key is stuck! the key is stuck!'
This time it was street parking. So...after...

4 rounds of turning the car on and off
5 rounds of reversing and pulling back into the same spot
5 rounds of cursing
2 fake outs (people thought we were leaving only to watch us lurch back and forth)

...the key was still stuck. The woman whose house we parked in front of was eying us suspiciously (but wouldn't you?). So what did we do? Drove around the block and re-parked at the same spot. The key came out. Good thing the neighbor didn't. I'm not sure exactly how we were going to explain our car problems. It was a riot though. Its been too long since I've laughed so much. All I was doing was laughing. Oh wait-I had one idea; drape a jacket over the steering column and hope nobody looks in thinking, 'I wonder if that jacket is there because the key is stuck...'

Soup

I made soup last night. Supposedly it was Irish Beef Stew. Supposedly.
It took three hours from beginning to end, and trust me when I say that I will not be making that again.
I'm not sure what went wrong, but little went right. Hence this blog is sans picture of stew.
I've emailed Nico aka Roomie to see if she is still alive. Cross your fingers. Its been three minutes and I haven't heard back from her yet. But I'll start fretting if I don't hear back from her in three hours.
I guess one of the problems was the excessive amount of thyme I added. Its not my fault though-all the other spices had the 'control' top-you know, the plastic top with holes for easier measurement control. The thyme is the only spice without that plastic covering, so needless to say much more than one tablespoon was added. Probably much more than two tablespoons. I think half the container let loose.

The other problem was the fact that I used half beef stock and half chicken broth. Not intentionally. Once again-its not my fault. Once I went into Ralphs I had to go pee. BADLY. So I blazed through the aisles picking up potatoes, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, and beef stock. I didn't bother checking to see if the container behind the beef stock was beef stock or not. I just assumed. MY BAD.

After browning the beef, I added the first container. Then I added the second box. The coloring of the second box was much darker than the first. Imagine my surprise. My shock. I yelped. But what can I do, right?

Roomie still has not emailed me back. Shit

Job Fair Ka-put

One of the millions of reasons I loved childhood was the boundless opportunities life presented. It was the time where I could declare myself to be an astronaut on Monday, a doctor on Tuesday, a scientist on Wednesday, a ballerina on Thursday (sans my non-lithe figure), and a circus clown on Friday. Life was chalk full of opportunities.

The downside to growing up is the realization that not everything is possible, and as you progress through life, you're suppose to narrow your career choices down. In other words, focus on one career path. Basically dashed dreams. Right now my title is Compliance Associate (as you can probably deduce, it wasn't any of my Monday-Friday career paths either). There's no way to describe it in plain English so I'm not going to bother trying. I've batted around the idea of working at a bookstore or Starbucks if I'm ever in the situation where money is not an issue (just to point out my lack of progress, from the day I got my first job to the present, money has always been an issue).

I'm old enough to know that I have to actually do something to become rich, but young enough to believe that the way to go about that goal is by playing the lottery. J-Unit sent me a link to a Starbucks game, 'Be the Barista!'


http://www.epicurious.com/promo/starbucks/indexs.html
(for some reason I can't get my links to work)

Its a time game where you have to make various drinks. Its suppose to highlight the hundreds of variations to a Starbucks drink, but in all honesty, it highlights my inadequacy and lack of coffee knowledge. Its a damn good thing I'm nowhere near winning to lottery. I got 1 out of 8 drinks correct. So far I've played this game 5 times.

All Grown Up

Supposedly...
I spent my birthday-Super Bowl weekend in Vegas. Had a blast (as always).


This is the crew at a bar in Mandalay Bay. From L to R: Nico, Bob, J-Unit, Marky Mark, me, Paul.
I couldn't quite figure out what the bar was called, but I think it translates to 'Red Square.' Or at least that's what we called it (maybe it was the whole Communism theme going on).


Mark and Nico. I think Mark is wishing for some other kind of action.


Mark again. Really, no need for an explanation.


I'm not even sure how to explain this one. This is at the Bellagio hotel in the garden area. I have no clue what the garden area is called, but they decorated it for Chinese New Years. And this is the picture I have to show for going there.

To sum it all up: won at blackjack-the $5 table at Palace Station and the $3 table at Slots O Fun (hey-we po' folks can't afford tables at the big fancy-smancy hotels!), lost at bingo, lost at craps, and lost a dollar on a slot machine. Oh...and lost betting on the Bears :( But...nonetheless, only lost around 25 bucks!!!!