Another "Stay-cation"

I enjoy staying close to home. When you live in the Napa Valley, why go anywhere ( except perhaps the south of France ) to enjoy the cool mornings and warm halcyon days somewhere else. This is why I live here. I do miss San Francisco, however and perhaps will return there sometime in the future.

Vacation TIme

Yep, I am off until the 19th of August. I left a note on the Concierge desk for my co-worker who comes in on my days off, so she doesn't get the idea that I got the axe. On this note I wished her well and made menton that I would be off until August 12th. ( WRONG ! What was I thinking? ) After five years of employment at the CIA, you get three weeks of paid vacation ... not two !! and I am going on SEVEN Years ( I can hardly believe it myself, considering I usually start looking out the back door around four years ). The truth is, I love my job and I am learning to respect those people I have held grudges against. Admittedly, I do get upset from time to time, but other staff knows that it is only because I don't want to disappoint anyone. In the business of Hospitality , It is all about having a "Sense of Urgency" that Thomas Keller refers to at his establishment, The French Laundry ( The sign is posted above the kitchen door ). It strikes me that without this presence of mind, the ball gets dropped and things don't get done in an efficient and timely manner. It has also been said that the "Devil is in the details" . Don't I know this... when a guest needs a recipe at the cooking demo and I am short a few, I have to get a fresh batch printed out and brought to the Theater before the demo progresses too far. This happened on Saturday and I freaked out because my co-worker wasn't getting these copies to me fast enough. I stopped what I was doing,and ran out of the theater, 50 yards toward the place in the building where the copier is located. I met her half way as she was coming towards me explaining how slammed she was at the Concierge desk. I just wanted the recipes without any time to spare. I was completely out of breath when I got back to the theater and in the heat of a tense moment, I broke down. Luckily, is was not in front of guests... but my team... Patricia and Andy. They were both very supportive until I could bring myself into some semblance of composure. It was clear to me, then and there, that a vacation was eminent.

A Blogs (Bugs?) Life

If you are going to keep a blog, It is important to have a life. Today I went and cleaned out my closet of a bunch of old clothes and donated them to the Salvation Army over in Santa Rosa, CA. ( okay, so I missed Spring cleaning, so this is Summer cleaning ).Then I went shopping for groceries at the Grocery Outlet. Later this morning, I went over to my friend Reid's house and saw the swing set he put up for his kids.( Good Job I might add, but initially the plan was that we were going to hike up Channel Drive but canned that idea because he had to go pick up his son, William ) After that, I left Reid's place and went to meet my friend Dieter for coffee at Pete's in downtown Santa Rosa. I paid for my parking using my debit card in this new system that has replaced the meters on Fourth Street for the first time. I took the ticket that was issued with me and was reminded while meeting with Dieter to return it to my car and place is above the dashboard near the steering wheel otherwise, how would the meter person know that I wasn't parking there illegally...duh ! Then he and I went to Best Buy to see about a new battery for his mobile phone. It turned out that he did not need a new one because he had inserted the old one the WRONG way and it caused the phone to lose power ( back atcha Dieter ! )Then we went to Trader Joes for some items that I couldn't find at the Grocery Outlet... things like Irish Cheddar Cheese, Golden Flax Seed Cereal and dehydrated blueberries. Then it was time for a late lunch, so we went to have some Sushi at Yao Kiku on Yalupa street only to discover that they were not open until 5pm. which sucked because I was hankering for some Yellow Tail Himachi. Our Plan B for lunch turned out to be a Mexican Restaurant where Dieter ordered three carnita tacos with salsa and a horchata drink. I ordered a combination platter of a Chile Rellano and a Chicken Enchilada with Lemonade to wash it all down. I made a pig of myself. Then I drove back to Calistoga and Dieter drove back to St. Helena where he lives. Like I said in the beginning of this submission journal submission, you have to have a life to blog.

Fishing for a faster connection

I am being placed on hold as the Comcast agent Alea restarts her computer which apparently is giving her some trouble. I want to get cable so that my internet connection will be a little faster than it is now. DSL has been rather underwhelming and expensive. I really feel that I have ridden the crest of a wave as the internet has grown over the years. Starting out with a 14.4 modem for dialup back in 1996 and eventually upgrading to a 56K modem in 2000, made me feel like I was in hog heaven... for about 3 weeks. Then DSL became all the rage because of the download times. Initially I signed up with COVAD because they were the only carriers available in my area. I have been with Earthlink now since 2001; and although Earthlink has been very helpful when I have called, their tech support calls are farmed out to India and a few months back my cell phone bill was outrageous! The problem involving my airport wireless connection was more an Apple issue than an Earthlink one, but the Earthlink server still drops out over my DSL connection even though I am able to retrieve it when needed. Hopefully cable will be simple, fast and trouble free when I get it installed. One can only hope. The image above was done with household bleach on black construction paper and highlighted with color pencils. Then I scanned the work and brought it into Photoshop for some tweaking. Pretty cool, huh? It sort of looks like a dangerous fish that would sit at the bottom of the river ,waiting to gobble up some unsuspecting creature that saunters along.

Fireworks Finale

Watch this video until the end. It will only take a minute. The kids next door let out a big Scream at the very end. Well, today is Tuesday, July 7th. I've ordered a Cable Internet connection because my DSL connection kinda sucks. Hey, If I am gonna blog and upload videos like this one, I'd better have a high speed, high bandwidth connection. Lately I've been enjoying my summer even though I haven't taken a vacation. I am not even sure that I will get one this year because of my suspension from work back in February. We shall see. I was called for Jury duty on the 20th and won't know how long that will take until I call on Sunday the 19th. Yesterday, I went for a swim and movie. I saw the movie "Heist" with Gene Hackman and Danny De Vito. It was okay. I fell asleep so It couldn't have been that riveting. My Great Nephew Mika, was baptized on Sunday. I worked that day,so I missed it (damn). It seems like the only social events I get invited to these days are either class reunions, baptisms or birthdays. Admittedly, I haven't felt very socialable lately. It's weird, I work all week for a couple days off and all I want to do is sit around and draw or post stuff on the puter. Exercise has NOT been on the agenda lately, either. The fireworks were fun to watch. The kids next door sat on thier dad's pickup truck as they OOOoooooOOOo'd and AhhhhhHHHhhhh away the evening

That takes the cake!

Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett and Ed McMahon all passed on this week. It was difficult to imagine the first two people ever getting old, but Ed McMahon seemed almost as if he was born into the persona of the eternal uncle or something. It's all pretty sad nonetheless, to have these icons of our era pass on in so quickly. It has been said by many people I have talked with; That celebrities leave the planet in three's. Well there may be something to that... I wonder if a serious study has been done about that Last night I sat up drawing the cake shown above using colored pencils. The whole time I was drawing I was watching videonews podcasts about Michael Jackson. All in all, I think I saw the video, "Thriller" and "Beat it" about two dozen times !

Summer 09' Commences

It is early morning and I just went out on my deck to look at my tomato plants. I have two of them. They both are doing well.What is it about tomato plants that make you feel like you are getting something accomplished in life? Whatever it is, I like it. The sun is just coming up and a new day is dawning. My breakfast this morning is a bowl of Special K with strawberries. One could survive for years just eating cereal .Maybe that and a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon.I have cut back on dairy using this Silk stuff instead. It's not bad and seems to go well with the cereal. At least it hydrates the dehydrated strawberries enough to make them edible. Otherwise, these things taste like those red strips that they used to put inside of flavor straws that turned your milk pink. Remember those? If you do, than you are surely dating yourself. But hey, at least you are dating someone !

Trade offs

Me and my big mouth. Here I go telling everyone about my quest to loose thirty pounds by exercising every day. Well, one little distraction and my inner slob takes over. The good news is that when I get a little depressed I do my best art work. The drawing i did above is from a picture I found in an old lettering book by Speedball. I just loved the color, and the idea of taking color pencils to Canson™ paper was more than I could resist. Lately, landscapes have a lot of appeal. Anyway, the tradeoff to not exercising and indulging my artistic ability is that I can feel good about both or either. One will actually compliment the other. When I am running or swimming, I think about creative stuff. When I am drawing or painting I think about getting out and going running ! So go figure...

A Short Trip

Monday I went to S.F. to participate in a focus group. I got paid $75.00 for determining if "Skype" was a viable alternative provider for making wireless calls internationally and/or domestically.Not bad, huh? Well I arrived early in the day and went by Cliff's Variety Store to visit my sisters and my niece. Martha was about to take her lunch break so we went next door to fetch a few Turkey Sliders and some drinks. All in all in was a great visiting family. My sister Rita said that she was getting off at three and if I thought about it, I would have invited her to go see the movie "UP" at the Castro Theater at 2 PM. I am sure Martha would have let her cut out early. I went off to see it myself from 2- to 4 PM .The movie was a family film and a bit of a tear jerker.The movie was and animation story, that required 3-D glasses to get the full effect of the graphics. After the movie, I had time to visit the Apple Store on Stockton street to pick up an adapter device for my Apple TV.The focus group lasted about an hour and a half. Afterwards, I visited the Hyatt Hotel where I used to work when I first got involved in the Hospitality field. The place has a new look at the top in the restaurant but the view is still one of the best in the city. All in all, it was a great getaway for the day.

Opening Day!

This is a picture of Dianne Martinez who is the Vice-President of the Calistoga Community Pool Project. She is also the landscaper/gardener at the Culinary Institute of America where I work. Today I took the day off to attend the ribbon cutting of the new pool(s) that were constructed for the families and Community of Calistoga. Being that I was the first place winner in the logo design contest, I received special recognition and several pool passes along with some swimming lessons thrown in! I was introduced by the mayor of Calistoga, Mr. Jack Gingles and received applause, as I went up to stand next to the committee that was responsible for bringing the project to fruition. Everyone there was thrilled to see this long time dream of local visionary Sylvia Scott come to life. The pools are absolutely gorgeous and I plan to take movies/pictures throughout the summer when I visit this place with my family and friends. This is going to be a great summer!

Lake Hennessy

Tonight was the second time in a week that Dieter and I went for a hike up at Lake Hennessy. The evenings could not have been more peaceful and beautiful. The first night ( Wednesday ) we gave ourselves about a half-hour out and a half- hour back, which amounted to around 3.5 miles total. We did not make it as far as the dam the first night, but about ten minutes shy before we headed back. We saw a few ducks and geese and blackbirds who made a host of natural sounds that made the whole gestalt quite lovely. Thursday evening we went all the way to the dam which took us about twenty minutes to a half-hour longer to complete.We talked about work, food and our travels. He is quite the world traveller. The only person I know who has probably travelled more than he has was my dad. My dad visited every country on the planet and brought back many items from many exotic places just to prove it. I forgot just how much my dad flew throughout his life, but boy did he log those miles. After tonight's hike, Dieter invited me to have an incredible abalone dinner at his house. Man, who could refuse that ! What a great way to end the day.

Baaaaaah !

This past week has been challenging. I have worked out every day in some form or another. One day I will ride my bike, the next day I will run a couple of miles with three pound weights in each hand, then the next day I will go for a swim. The Calistoga Community Pool has not opened yet, and won't until the 16th of June so swimming won't be something I will be doing on a daily basis for a little while longer. My muscles are sore an tired, but some have mentioned that I am slimming down a little bit. I think that is most noticeable in my face rather than my gut ( which is the last to go and the first to show back up again ). Last post I talked about my before picture which is on my home computer and you won't be able to see until I get a suitable "after" picture. I may go for a long walk when I get home tonight, but have not decided as of yet. I still feel spent from the extensive exercise I have been doing most every day this past week. I did not even get up in time to go to mass this morning. The rest I get will be on my days off.

Before and After

Okay, so I am not the Mona Lisa but I am going to be a work of art I tell you.Yesterday, I went to the St. Helena high school track to run laps. This morning I rode my bike about four miles. I have been eating right and getting enough sleep. It is day four of my summer routine. My friend Joe wants to sell me some nutritional products to help me along the way and I just may go for it. So far I am a stout 183lbs. at 5'8" and to my way of thinking that is around 30 lbs. overweight. So my goal is to get down to 150lbs. by my birthday in December.I am NOT going to TRY... I am going to DO IT. I put a before picture of me that I am afraid to look at... just because it disgusts me. Enough about that. You will see me looking lean and mean come this Fall I am sure. Any of you reading this are welcome and encouraged to ask me about my progress. If I start to slack off, you have my permission to give me a swift kick in the Keester. But beware, I will be a force to be reckoned with because I don't intend to be a slacker.

Marisella

 
Marisella is out in the garden picking flowers for the campus store. It pleased me to see her smiling face in this natural setting. She is so friendly and personable when you go by the campus store to pay a visit.This has been a rather slow week here. No weddings are planned for this weekend. The weather has been spectacular and yet people haven't yet shown up here as a part of thier vacation.

Amuse Bouche

This term represents and item that a chef will present to a guest to tantalize thier taste buds. It is usually a one-bite hors d'ourve that will keep one intriqued enough to ask for more. I have been picking up a few French culinary terms this week just for giggles. Today is the third day I have gone out and run a mile after returning home from work. I intend to loose a lot of belly fat this summer if I can just get back into a steady routine of exercise and diet restriction. I guess I will be limiting myself to quite a few "Amuse Bouche's" as opposed to having full-on meals this summer. The latest about the chefs hats are that I have submitted a bid to Bob Coyle from the Peanut Board. I hope he can accept it, because it would help me establish an account with the company that makes the chefs hats. I can then further my creative pursuit by making a whole assortment of graphic images to be displayed inside the toques. Tonight I was watching a video podcast about a festival down in Santa Monica that has theme called "Glow". I think these lighted toques will be a good fit for this event. Hmmm... I 've got my work cut out for me.

Fingers crossed, Hopes high

Okay, so now I know a couple of things about disposable chef's hats. They CAN be printed on, but not on a laser, offset, or other traditional type of printer. They can be silkscreened. The material is almost like a coffee filter type of substrate. It absorbs the sweat from the brow of a chef toiling away over a hot stove. I still don't know if the manufacturer ALSO prints anything on them, or if I will have to purchase the hats outright and have them sent to the Printers who say that they can apply the logo right on them. ( Worse case scenario is that I would run these through Epson Inkjets, but that would be impractical at this point.) The hat vendor may be a one-stop shop. I am still waiting on the artwork from the buyer, and the people that actually manufacture the hats. Once I can get a price breakdown, I can figure out how much I will charge for each. Phew ! So much is contingent upon each entity, each step of the way. I hope and pray that this deal doesn't fall through the cracks. Besides, I have a lot of cool ideas for chefs' hats that I may be able to market once I have a little capital to build on... We shall see.

May Day, May day !

The rain has been pleasant and a nice surprise to have around here this first weekend in May. Lately, I've been going through an attitude adjustment around my work and social life. Most of the time I come home, have something to eat, play on my computer awhile and then into the sack ( this is usually around midnight ) Then I wake up around 3 am with this restless feeling (probably because I've gobbled up a snack before I went bed in the first place ). Well I get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink of something sweet from the fridge and then back into bed. fortunately, I will usually be back to sleep in ten or fifteen minutes then right on through to 7:30 am when I get up to shower and prepare myself for work. Do you have this pattern going on? Lack of exercise, motivation and general laziness are the culprits. I'm looking for positive change in my life but haven't yet taken the initiative to get something going. Some good news however, I am working on a contract gig where I hope to make some extra $$$ jing to put a little spring in my Spring. I will keep you posted.

Getting Grateful

Sundays are my Fridays and the next couple of days are usually spent doing things I like to do... even if it's going grocery shopping or hiking with my friend, Don. I like that I get to sleep in on Monday mornings when the neighbors are all starting their cars at 7:30 am and getting their little jitterbugs off to school. Of course this week I have swapped days with my coworker, Marty so she can attend a family function. Tuesday, I will be doing a tour for Houlihan's restaurant execs after my regular business hours. Any opportunity for a few more shekels is much appreciated in today's economy. Last night I attended the "Quencinera" my neighbor Anotonia had for her daughter, Jessenia. It was held at the fairgrounds and I saw a lot of people from the Hispanic community, and a few people from work. I enjoyed cake and got to dance a Latin celebration number with Antonia. All in all it was a nice time. Jessenia is a sweet teenager who takes care of her little brother and works out dance routines in her spare time. Many times I will come home and both she and he boyfriend will be making out on the stairway up to my apartment. I always greet them by saying, "Good evening, young lovers!" They always smile coyly and wait until I pass to go back to their business. This is just another aspect of life in the hood.Below is one of the dance routines that Jessenia performed with her crew.

Another day, another 5 cents

Today was payday and it is also the same day my direct deposit turns around and automatically pays my rent. Let me just tell you that it takes two paychecks to pay a month's rent.This is insane. I am not getting ahead, and yet I still live here in the lap of luxury. This past weekend I created the logo above for the new pool that is opening this summer. I have entered in a contest that may fetch me some passes when the place opens up. It also may give me some publicity if anyone wants to enroll my services as a logo designer. This week I took a health screening and found out that my cholesterol count is back to normal but my blood pressure is still high. I am also about twenty pounds overweight. Maybe if I win these pool passes I can start getting more exercise. That would be nice.

A Sad Day

We leaned today that two of our Students were killed in an accident that happened over on Pratt Avenue, not far from our off-site housing complex.It is suspected that alcohol may have been involved but the toxicology reports have not come back from the autopsy yet. The driver who was not a student, was driving a white BMW too fast down the straightaway on Pratt Avenue around 1am on Friday morning. It is alleged that the students were participating in Karioki night at Ana's Cantina, a local watering hole where a lot of the students go for a beer. Apparently, they came up on a turn and lost control of the vehicle and plowed into a tree. A security guard from the CIA happened to be driving down Pratt Avenue when he discovered the tail lights. He called 911 and the Local Police along with an ambulance were summoned. Their were three deaths total, including the driver who was a 45 year old man from Petaluma. The entire campus took on a stunned silence as classes took place during their regular times on Friday.Many students were seen sobbing as they learned the news of their classmates.Our managing director, Charles Henning called a meeting in the Teaching Kitchen to announce this unfortunate incident to the entire student body. Funeral Services are still pending.