Friday, May 28, 2004

Vegas, baby, Vegas.

I like Vegas, a lot. I really enjoy playing craps, but rarely do I get out to Nevada to enjoy the game. In fact, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve been, and for some odd reason, I ended up going to Vegas twice in one week last week: once for a good friend’s bachelor party and again two days later for a technical conference.

Although I didn’t play much, I did become closer to my friends and to my colleagues at work over the time I spent there. On the second trip, we enjoyed a fine dinner at Gallagher’s at New York New York. They have steaks that are aged for 14 days, and since I had never had one these before, I gave it a whirl. Outstanding, but bring your appetite!


Before dinner at Gallagher’s


The other highlight of my time there was watching my soon to be married friend’s brother play trumpet in a very good lounge act at the Bellagio. His brother has been able to make a good living playing in Vegas in a variety of shows, and has had steady work for the past six years!

As always, each trip to Vegas results in the impression that this town will never stop growing. How many hotel rooms is enough? I don’t know, but they apparently haven’t reached the limit yet. Practically every large resort on The Strip had some sort of ongoing construction project.

Enjoy your weekend and thank a Veteran if you get the chance.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

The joy of ownership or just how insane is the Southern California housing market?


The new house as of last Saturday, May 8th


So, it's been a scant 10 weeks since I signed the purchase agreement for this house. Today, in the mail, I received a listing of new houses that have been released in this same tract and they are a full $20,000 more than what I paid.

So, I've learned two lessons:

1. The housing market in Southern California continues to be nutty. Proof positive is that my home has already increased in value by $20,000 and it's not even completed yet!

2. The sales people don't even care who you are, because even after dropping a bundle on my house, they still call me and send me mail as if I'm a prospective buyer. I guess buying one home from them isn't enough!

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Last Friday evening, I went to Disneyland with my kids and was enjoying the “grand circle tour of Disneyland” on the Disneyland Rail Road. My son loves trains, so this is one of his favorite things to do at the park. Oddly enough, he loves the tram ride from the parking lot so much that he cries when we disembark. I digress.



We happened to sit in front of the conductor that makes all of the announcements on the train (e.g. sit down, hands and arms inside, etc.). The conductor also calls out “all aboard” before the train is ready to move.

The conductor asked my daughter, “can you say ‘all aboard’?” “Uh huh,” my daughter replied. So the conductor put the microphone in front of her mouth and said “say it.” In a tiny squeaky soft voice, my daughter said “all aboard.” “You’re not that shy,” the conductor said.

So, the conductor turns to my two year old son and says, “how about you, can you say ‘all aboard’?”

Now, let me tell you that my son has been practicing for this moment his entire life. I don’t think ‘all aboard’ were his first words, but they were in the top ten. He has loved the Disneyland train since he first went to Disneyland when he was 6 months old. Whenever he is playing with his train sets (yes, that’s plural) at home, you can often hear him say, “all aboard, toot toot!”

My son replied to the conductor, in a booming two year old voice, “Uh huh.”

“Well,” the conductor smiled, “then say ‘all aboard,” as she moved the microphone in front of his mouth. The strapping young lad then said “all aboard” at a nice volume that everyone could hear throughout the train. That’s my son!

The Cast Members at Disneyland can really make a routine trip to their park extraordinary. Thank you!

Monday, May 10, 2004

Long time no blog. I’ve been very busy day to day recently, and the blog is usually on the low priority for the day. Plus the fact that I have never really enjoyed writing all that much, so it’s easy for me play hooky.

Today’s topic: eggs. I’ve been meaning to post this since Easter when my family visited and I whipped up a batch of scrambled eggs.

First, some history. Growing up, I worked at Law’s Coffee Shop in Oak Glen for about 5 years. Most of that time was spent in the kitchen. Every month, we’d have a breakfast buffet, and my main responsibility was cooking more eggs than any human should have to. I believe I cooked over 30 flats of eggs one morning, which is just wrong on so many levels.

So, with that amount of experience, I consider myself a damn good cook of eggs. Enter Alton Brown of Good Eats fame.



I love Alton. He’s my hero. If you’ve never watched his show on Food Network, and you have even a passing interest in cooking, you need to tune in. Even my 5 year old enjoys watching this show!

Recently, an episode addressed egg cooking, and one of the topics he addressed was scrambled eggs. I thought I’d give his method a spin, and wow. Wow. I’m not kidding. The results were mind boggling. If you ever wanted perfect scrambled eggs, here’s what you do:

1. Scramble your eggs in a bowl, and add a little milk.

2. Place some butter in a pan and let it melt on medium low heat.

3. Put the eggs in the pan, stir occasionally.

4. Here’s the magic: when the eggs just start to curdle, turn the heat to high! Yes, high! Stir constantly with a spatula.

5. When there is no more liquid in the pan, move the eggs to the plate. This is the hard one for me, because the eggs do not look done. But, they continue to cook on the plate and by the time they are served, they will be done.

Voila, perfect eggs. Give it a try. It’ll knock your socks off.

And if you’re interested in Alton Brown, you need to check out this wonderful fan page that has a transcript of every show he’s ever done with links to his recipes.

Now, that’s Good Eats.