Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Inaugural Meeting of The Cooking Club

Yesterday was the first ever cooking club event that Jake and Heather, and I have started. It was a lot of fun. The theme for the day was curries and so I did Japanese curry served with breaded chicken breast strips. Heather did a chick pea curry and another red curry that was Indian inspired.

Everything turned out very well and a lot of people showed up for the cook-off. Since it went so well, we are going to do monthly meets, each with a different theme. April is going to be a Texas BBQ theme and May is going to be an "Anything Grilled" theme since Summer will be starting up around then and people will be warming up their barbecue grills.

My Japanese curry seemed to be well received and thanks to the way the Japanese serve it, it was also good for the couple of vegetarians in the group. My Japanese rice cooker also got some recognition which I thought was kind of funny. Heather's two dishes were very good and the mango lasses that she made to go along with them were excellent. It was fun to see how other people make dishes that I like to eat. The other cool part about this club is that I get to meet new people and most of the ones that came to yesterday's cooking were pretty cool. It is always good to expand your people pool.

In other news, I am going over to Ben's parents' place for dinner tonight and am looking forward to that. Ben's mom is a kick-ass cook. I also got a new client at work which means more hours and money. He is a nice guy and I don't think it will be much of a chore to help him out. We are almost the same age and like some of the same stuff so that helps. He is an awesome artist and I am hoping to trade him some of my photos for a piece of his artwork. There is one piece of his in particular that I like and I think it would look sweet in a frame so after I get to know him a bit better, I may try to make a deal with him.

Other than that, not a ton is going on. The crappy part about moving back is it seemed like every weekend I could do something new and exciting in Japan without much effort; here, it is a bit more work to find something unique and cool to do. Anywho, I am getting ready to format my computer and the files I have been copying over to one of my drives look like they are almost done so it is time I close this up and get ready to format the drive.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Stupid Sentence

Last Sunday, over steak dinner with Tony and my family I unintentionally said this, "Do not dictate to me what condiments I can and cannot use on my food."

Say that sentence to yourself and tell me what two words stick out. Yes, it is childish but at the time it was really funny and best of all, it was my dad that caught it first. Somehow, off color humor always pops up around my family's dinner table when we least expect it. Tony quickly followed up that little moment with a conversation about how people classify one thing pornographic but not others and what elements lead to something being deemed pornographic.

All in all, it was a savory and proper Sunday dinner for all who attended.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Winding Down and A Sort of New Job

As the weekend approaches, I can feel a wave of relaxation washing over me. This week hasn't been that stressful but I have really been looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow I have a bunch of stuff going but most of it is fun so that is good.

On a different note, I think I have a new job. Teddy works at a video game store that is near my house so I occasionally go there and hang out for an hour or so. It came up in conversation the other day that I should get paid for the time that I spend there and then I sold about $125 worth of stuff to a guy that had a severe hankering for the original Super Mario Brothers. After some figuring out of schedules and whatnot, I think I will spend a few hours a week tending a video game store. This is a good thing for several reasons. First, it's a few more bucks a month that will be coming in and as I said, money is good. Second, discounts on video games can never be bad. Third, I normally go to this place to kind of relax and hang out so I may as well do the exact same thing and get paid for it. It should be kind of fun and it will help pay the bills so that works. I just never thought I would work at a video game store. Oh, I will still be working with kids with issues during the day, this is just kind of a side job that I am doing mostly for fun.

Not a whole lot else is going on. Tony is here this week so we have been hanging out and trying to fix his new computer. I can't get the sound to work on the stupid thing and it is starting to irritate me. One way or the other, the thing will be figured out before the weekend so I am not too worried about it. I just don't have the patience that I used to have when fixing computers.

Anywho, I am up way early today because I had to follow my dad to the place where he was dropping their motor home off to get tuned up and bring him back home. Now I need to find some breakfast before I head off to a meeting at work.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Yes, I Need To Update More

Stuff has just been a tad busy.

I started back up at the gym and pretty much all of my excess energy that I have been dealing with as of late is now gone. I missed the gym so much; it feels good to be lifting weights again. Now I just need to work on getting my diet in order.

Work is still going well. I am continuously amazed by the total lack of parenting prowess exhibited by one of my client's elders. I learned the other day that when they don't want to talk to or deal with their children they go in their bedroom and hide in a closet. This is the parents I am talking about here, not the kids. The icing on the cake came when after my client's two sisters failed to find their parents, the three year old sister suggested that both of the adults my have committed suicide together. All of the inhabitants of that household are totally sane...really.

I have been taking a few more pictures lately but I haven't had the time to upload them to the Flickr account. Expect an update in the next several hours. I have some nice country scenery I have shot and some of it turned out well. Speaking of photography, I attended my second Flickr meeting tonight. I enjoy talking to a few of the people there and it is nice to be able to talk about picture taking to other people without sounding like a nerd. Oh yeah...I am a nerd. Oh well. Either way, it's nice to talk to people outside of my normal circle of friends.

I have been procrastinating about turning in my application to the Boise school district. Instead, I may go back to school and get certified in special education. The way I see it, I like the job I have now. A special ed certification would let me teach pretty much anywhere I wanted and I would get paid well and still have all of the normal school holidays off. I would get good benefits and the admiration of all of the ladies when I tell them I help special kids. We will see, but right now, I think I am leaning toward this option. I should still turn in my app to the school district right now but ambition has been lacking and I am not sure why.

Not a ton else has gone on to report. I have just been hanging out with friends and going to work. Work is good and the friends are good so I think life is going relatively well at the moment.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

I Like My Job!

I think for the first time in a long time, if ever, I can safely say that I enjoy my job. Yay!!! I can't get too specific about it but I enjoy working with the kids and now that I am getting more hours, I am liking the money too. I got a new client yesterday and may have one more new one by the end of the month so that is cool. The people I work with are also pretty cool so I think I will hang around at this place for a while.

The way that I started to get more hours is by picking up a second job within the company. Now on some mornings, I work with a couple of autistic kids. I am meeting one of them today for the first time but I have been working with the other kid for about a week. He is a funny little guy.

In other news, Boise is kind of sort of boring. If you don't have any other things going, it seems like the three big things to do here are renting movies, going to the movies, and going bar hopping. The latter can be fun in moderation but I don't see a point in the other two. I think I would be less bored if I had a girlfriend or significant other or something, maybe I should get on that and work my manly wiles on some poor lass. Or maybe I will just play more Halo 3. Seriously though, it bothers me that there isn't more to do around here and it bugs me that so many people are okay with just going to the movies. I will be glad when the Shakespeare theater starts up in the summer; it is at least something different. I have been feeling very boxed in and anxious lately and I think it is due to Boise's size. It is very odd to move from hanging out in cities with twelve million people to one that has about three hundred thousand when you add in all of the smaller towns nearby.