Thanksgiving Week!

Just a quick brief on my Thanksgiving week.

My Thanksgiving week was full of food, shopping, and a little bit of art. My mom flew in from Texas on Sunday night and flew back earlier Saturday. Every day in between, Monday - Friday, including Thanksgiving Day, we were out shopping.

In between all the shopping we did a pit stop on Wednesday at the Phoenix Art Museum. It was as good as the previous time I was there. This day we also went to check out the new Wild Horse Pass which is part of the Gila River Casinos. Thanksgiving Day we opted for ham instead of turkey.

On Friday, for the first time ever for both my mom and me, we got up early to and went to the Target 2-Day Sale and actually waited in line before they opened. They gave us a free reusable bag designed by Marcel Wanders. They had some great sales of which the door busters were the best deals and were all gone within the first few hours. I finally have the complete FRIENDS series.

Forgot to take pictures. I should really start making it a point to take my camera with me and take photos.

Theatre for Everyone

The Childsplay 2009 - 10 season recently started. The booklet that I got says Childsplay's 2009-10 Season of Strikingly Original Theater for Young Audiences and Families. It's at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

I have volunteered to help stamp and pass out books of upcoming shows twice before with the Target Storybook Season. I was able to help out again this past September when the new season began. This season began with a play adapted from the book Honus and Me. Us volunteers stamped/stickered the paperback book of Honus and Me and put an insert of Androcles and the Lion, which is the play to follow, and passed them out to the families that came to see the night's play. The bonus was that those of us that wanted, got to stay and watch the play.

I am really enjoying volunteering for these events.

Midwestern Meats

Me and a friend went to Midwestern Meats from a Facebooked recommendation that it is one of the best places to purchase meat here in the Phoenix Metro area.  So I checked out the website and it convinced me to go plus per their list online they say they have lamb. So we make a special trip that for us was about 35 - 40 minute drive. We walk in the door and the place was small compared to what the online photos make it seem to be. The selection of cuts of meat were not any different than what could be obtained at places near where I live and, unless it was hiding in the back, there was no lamb. Also, we were given looks when we were in there that seemed to say what are these gay guys doing in here. Oh well...

The following Sunday after this I got the Lamb my friend wanted from the Fresh and Easy that is just down the street where I was greeted with smiles.

Purex Insider

I submitted to be a Purex Insider back on 9/2/09 and received a response on 9/8/09 that said no without saying no. :) I was rejected... :) Something about them only having limited amount of slots. I'm thinking I may have not fit the demographic because looking at their site seems only females got accepted and all the reviewers of the Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets talk about the positives of the product. And lets be real, there are pros and cons to their product. So here's my two cents on that product that I have been using for the past several months.

What I like about the Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets is that they are convenient and simple to use for the everyday type of laundering. To use the product I drop one sheet in the laundry machine, turn it on, add the items to be washed, and let it do its thing. Then I transfer it to the dryer. It leaves the clothes with a soft clean smell. I found a fourth use for the used sheets. They are great to wipe dust off electronics. Specially the PS3 that seems to be a dust magnet.

What I do not like about the Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets is that they are not good at tougher jobs. For example, they will not take out the smell of cat pee and white socks will be clean but not white. Although, they do leave a soft clean smell I do miss the smell that using an actual fabric softener (Downy, Snuggle, Suavitel) and dryer sheet gives to laundry.

It is more than likely that I'll continue to use the Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets for small everyday laundry needs however for tougher jobs and for that great clean laundry scent I'll stick to the actual stuff.

OXM

Just a quick post to say goodbye to my subscription to the Official Xbox Magazine. I was a subscriber from issue number 6, and my last issue is number 102. I really enjoyed it while during the original Xbox. When Xbox 360 came out in 2005 and I decided that I would instead get the PS3 when it would come out in 2006, I still kept the OXM subscription.

The look of it changed when the Xbox 360 came out which was quite alright with me. Then they stopped including the nicely designed cardboard disc holders and started using those cheap white disc envelopes. I thought of canceling when that happened specially when the store versions of the disc holder was updated to a nice plastic covering.  Now it's just become pointless so I chose to not continue with the subscription.

Scheduling Posts...

The last four and then now this post were pre-scheduled. It's been interesting pre-scheduling posts. I look back and forth at the calendar and then keep thinking what would be the best time to have it post. All the previous times when I posted was when I sat down wrote it and posted it. Don't think that I'll be consistent in pre-scheduling posts however definitely something that I'll hopefully use more often...

At the same time I signed up at twitterfeed.com so that my new posts will update to my twitter which then updates to my facebook and then to the various other sites where I have a twitter app or feed available. Makes it much easier than what I used to do which was copy and paste the post to each sites individual blog/notes sections.

Valley Fresh Lettuce Wraps

This is the third recipe that came with the Valley Fresh Canned Chicken. Also have not tried it, yet...


Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup diced cucumber
2 Tablespoons sliced green onions
4 Tablespoons prepared teriyaki sauce
2 Tablespoons sliced almonds
1 head iceberg lettuce, washed, cored and leaves separated

Cooking Instructions

In a bowl, combine chicken, carrots, cucumbers, and onions. To serve, top lettuce leaves with chicken mixture. Drizzle with teriyaki sauce and top with almonds. Serves 4.

Valley Fresh Pasta Salad

This is another recipe that came with the Valley Fresh Canned Chicken. Haven't tried it but it looks simple enough, yeah..

Pasta Salad

8 ounces uncooked spiral-shaped whole wheat pasta
1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 cup fresh quartered strawberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh pineapple
1 cup creamy poppyseed salad dressing
Fresh spinach leaves
Toasted pecans, for garnish

Cooking Instructions

Prepare pasta as package directs; rinse under cold water and drain well. Toss pasta with next 6 ingredients. Serve salad over a bed of fresh spinach leaves and garnish with toasted pecans. Serves 6.

Ebay and Paypal not worth it...

A couple of weeks ago I decided to give selling a couple things via ebay using paypal for the payment. I have many things I no longer want and figured Ebay with paypal was the way to go. Turns out it is not worth it. I listed 3 cds of which 2 sold.

To list an item, Ebay charges an insertion fee which I was able to get to zero based on the options I chose. Once the items sold and payment was received there is a fee based on the final value of the item when sold plus a fee from paypal from processing the transaction. Then there's the shipping costs of packaging, ink and paper for the invoice, and the actual mail carrier shipping fees.

Not including the time and gas spent to purchase the packaging materials and to get to the post office,  I made 11% of  the amount I was paid. Literally I made cents for the items I sold a whopping $0.44. I don't see myself listing any more items to sell via ebay, at least not the same types of items. It's great for buyers, I have gotten some great deals. However was not a good deal for me as a seller. Maybe different items next time... We'll see.

I Like Pizza

All these posts about pizzas... :) You probably figured out I really like pizza :) This is just sort of a follow up to the Pesto Pizza post. So aside from the pesto pizzas I also made mini pepperoni pizzas with black olives, 'cause I love black olives :) I'm not really good at shaping the pizza dough into perfect rounds. So here are some before and after cooking photos:

Pesto Pizza

Although I prefer to buy fresh of flash frozen chicken to cook, when you are in a time pinch, having canned chicken in the pantry is a great time saver. My favorite brand is Valley Fresh. Use it on salads, pot pies, etc. My previous post about pizza dough made me give the below recipe that came with one of the cans a try. I did however make some slight substitutions to the one listed. Instead of whole wheat flatbreads I made my own pizza dough and made my own pesto from basil that I got from one of the vendors at the Phoenix Public Market.

Pesto Pizza

Ingredients

4 Whole Wheat Flatbreads
4 Tablespoons Prepared Pesto
1 (10-ounce) can Valley Fresh 100% Natural Chicken, drained
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, halved
4 Ounces Fresh Mozzarella, cut into pieces

Cooking Instructions

Heat oven to 400 F. Brush pesto onto each piece of flatbread. Top each with chicken, tomatoes, and cheese. Place bread on a baking sheets and bake for 12 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Cut into pieces and serve. If desired, serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. serves 4.

It's in the dough

When I was in high school I took 1/2 semester of home ec class. The cooking portion of that class was making pizza. We learned how to make pizza dough one day and cooked it the next. We were in groups of two or three if I remember correctly. Now I couldn't keep it a regular pizza so I decided our team would stuff the edges with cheese ala stuffed crust from pizza hut :) After this followed several weeks of me making pizza at home.

Then comes graduation and me moving to Phoenix, Arizona, USA. I forgot how it was made and didn't really give it much thought.

Fast Forward to 2005, I am a much more homebody person, and Martha Stewart's new show MARTHA had recently started and I happened to be home to watch it. She is making chocolate chip cookies from scratch, they look yummy, and she suggests that everyone should have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. So I go out an get one.

The mixer comes with a booklet of instructions that includes some recipes. In it there is a recipe for pizza dough. So although I got the stand mixer because I wanted to learn to make my own cookies, I gave the pizza recipe a try. Hurrah! I like it.

After re-learning how to make pizza dough, I wanted to compare my fresh made dough with ready made doughs from the grocery store. So I tried the Pillsbury Pizza Crust and the store brand versions of it and to me there's something about them that seems off. I also tried the Boboli pizza crusts, those are the pre-made in the plastic bags, and to me they taste very cardboardy preservativish. I have also tried the Fresh & Easy pizza dough which is more fresh tasting than the Pillsbury ones but there's still that something that is missing, however if you are going to go with pre-made pizza dough then it's the one to go with.

Nowadays I may or may not use the stand mixer for the dough, as I found I could just mix the ingredients in a regular mixing bowl to great results. I also use garlic salt instead of just salt. Here's the recipe:

Crusty Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water(105°F to 115°F)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer
bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach
bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup
at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until
dough starts to clean sides of bowl. Knead on
Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about
1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough
down.

Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with
cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan,
forming a collar around edge to hold toppings.
Add toppings, as desired. Bake at 450°F for 15 to
20 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings (1/4 pizza per serving).

Per serving: About 373 cal, 11 g pro, 74 g carb, 3 g fat, 0 mg chol, 271 mg sod.

It's a hot one...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

7:00 pm - So I get home from work on Tuesday and the AC is running but no cold air. It was about 3 years ago that it did that and it happened to be a motor and some other stuff.  I wonder what's wrong with it.

7: 05 pm - No time to think about it, I have to go turn in a couple movies(Pedro and Phoebe in Wonderland) and a game(Soul Calibur IV) I rented this past weekend.

7:08 pm - A guy walking on the street is scratching his nether regions and I think to myself, "Did I notice that 'cause I am gay or would a straight guy notice that too?"

7:20 pm - Back from the rental store and start fiddling with the thermostat and check the unit out and notice the fan isn't turning but air is coming out from the vents. Weird.

7:30 pm - I'll just wait to tomorrow, how hot can it get.

11:35 pm - It's really hot, thinking about checking into a hotel room., but didn't.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

6:30 am - After on again off again sleep 'cause it was quite hot, wake up and do another check of the thermostat and unit. Beats my I have no knowledge of AC.

6:35 am - Pull some weeds out, might as well since am already outside.

7:30 am - Call my landlady, she would call repair people and have them call to set up time for them to come by.

8:30 am - Call out from work, update my voice mail from home with an out of office message. I am starting to like the new voice mail system, Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging.

8:35 am - Oh man, I am going to miss Port of Subs Wednesdays. A tradition now with few of my co-workers.

8:45 am - Today will be a crock pot meal, do not want to turn the stove on. Simple recipe here. I added chopped onion on the bottom, then added a package of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, sprinkled with salt, I added some left over shredded carrots I had, a few cloves of garlic and the topped it all with a jar of chunky salsa. Super simple, tasty, and very modifiable for next time.

9:00 am - or so, A guy calls and says he could be here around 2pm.

9:03 am - Coffee, and the hot waiting game begins.

2:45 pm - The reapair man gets here, he goes outside to check the unit.

3:00 pm - It is fixed, he said something about wires and showed me the ones that he removed. Cool air once again flows through the vents. Hurrah!!

3:15pm - Late lunch/Early dinner, crock pot meal is done.

Now whatever happened between coffee and the repair person getting here will be forgotten 'cause it hotness with waiting and I didn't like it.. :) Here's to cooler days!! :)

One Skillet Meal

This past Sunday I was reading the latest Fall 2009 Food & Family Magazine from Kraft. There are many recipes in it that I want to try. I did try one of them and it was tasty although it did not look as pretty as the picture of it that they provide. The wording on the steps is slightly different on the magazine than on the online version but they are pretty much the same recipe. I used my Martha Stewart Everyday non-stick skillet that I got at Kmart. They don't have it online or I would link to it. Yeah there are still some Kmart stores around! There's also instructions on how to make it in the oven instead of a skillet. Oh! Martha also has some good recipes, I have tried a few to varied results. I'll post about those at a later time :) Here's the recipe from the magazine or click the link for the online one.

Stove Top one-dish chicken skillet

What you need:

1 1/2 cups hot water

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1-1/2 lb.)

1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/3 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

Make it:


Mix hot water, butter and stuffing mix.
Cook chicken in nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 5 min. on each side or until browned on both sides.
Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing;cover. Cook on low heat 10 min. or until chicken is done (165°F)

Use your oven: Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare stuffing as directed. Place chicken in 13x9 inch baking dish. Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing. Bake 35 min. or until chicken is done.

Cooking and Recipes

I find that I really enjoy recipes and cooking. I like trying new recipes even if they don't always come out like they look in the books and magazines. Sometimes I really mess up the recipes. I get frustrated when that happens but eventually I'll laugh it off. When I get lazy and don't want to go to the grocery store, I'll open the pantry and the fridge and put something together. So anyways, I think I may start posting more recipes as I try them... :)

Need to simplify...

Feeling the need to simplify. To do this I am taking inventory of the things that need to go out and keeping only those that are necessary.

Chicken with Spinach

Haven't really been feeling the whole cooking thing, however last Sunday I put this together and it was yummy.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 package ground chicken breast (I think it was a 1lb package)
1 Tablespoon garlic (I used the kind that comes in those little jars)
1 Tablespoon simple pesto (my simple pesto was made from just the leaves of my indoor basil plants, olive oil, and about 1 Tablespoon of garlic, yup no nuts)
1 bunch fresh spinach, washed (I think it was a 1lb bunch)
2 Roma tomatoes, diced (3-4 if they are small, the ones I had were huge for a Roma)
salt, pepper, spices
tostada chips

Directions:

Heat pan or skillet. I used a medium sized saucepan. Add the extra virgin olive oil and then ground chicken. Add salt, pepper, and spices to your taste. I just eyeballed it. Once the chicken has been browned, mix in the 1 Tablespoon garlic add 1 Tablespoon simple pesto. Now, add the spinach. Depending on the size of the skillet/pan you are using, you may need to add the spinach in batches. Add the diced tomatoes just as the spinach starts wilting. Simmer until most the liquid is gone. Plate. Enjoy with tostada chips. Serves 2-4.

I used tostada chips since that's what I had on hand, however it seems to me that it lends itself to be in taco shells topped with cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, fresh tomato, avocado, or whatever else it is you may like.

Morning Person no more!?

There was a time not too long ago(really just over a year ago) that I was a morning person. Really an Early Morning Person. I would wake up at 5 am or 6 am to get to work by either 6am or 7am, depending on Daylight Savings Time.

The day after Memorial Day 2008 is when I started in my new job position with the company I have worked at for 9 years come this November. This new position had a schedule with start time 10am, which I have really come to enjoy.

I can stay up to around midnight and get my full 8 hours of sleep. Early mornings in my opinion are the ones I enjoy most. I feel well rested getting up at around 8am, make coffee, and prepare lunch. The morning rush hours has or is dying by the time I head to work. Sure I get off later in the day causing me to miss Rachael Ray and Oprah, but I have found that I don't really miss watching those shows.

So this week, I'm training for some new "skills", which has meant getting to work at 7am. I don't like it one bit. I'm moody in the early mornings and tired the rest of the day. I don't know how I did it before. I guess one gets used to a particular schedule when one has too. One more day of these early days and then it's back to normalcy.

Movies, Car, and Garden Mostly...

It's been a little over 3 weeks since my last post on May 3rd. Nothing exciting really going on, I have mostly been spending time on my container gardening.

May 8th - My plants keep growing.


May 9th - My plants keep growing but there's something eating the eggplant leaves. Took a picture of this insect. Do you know what it is?


May 10th - My plants keep growing and took a photo of some worms or larvae that are/were on one of the containers. Do you know what it is?


May 16th - Made pizza, used my first ounce or so of Sweet Basil that I have growing indoors by the kitchen windowsill.


May 17th - Discovered a brown colored bird dug around my containers in search of seeds/worms and although my main plants(tomato, zucchini, eggplant) were not damaged, it did destroy my just sprouted Sweet Basil, Cornflower from Buzzy Seeds, and my tree seedling. So I wrapped chicken wire around the containers, but not on the top so the bird still was able to fly in through the top.

May 18th - I got off work early, drove to Lowe's to purchase bird netting. After shopping my car did not start. Called a tow truck, who towed me from the store to my house for just under US $100. Cut a piece of bird netting and threw it over my plants.

May 19th - Called out from work, jump started my car, and drove it to get fixed. It would need to stay overnight and be fixed the next mid-morning. Secured and properly arranged the bird netting around my plants with twist ties.

May 20th - Picked up my now fixed car mid-morning, just under $900 for repairs. Arrived 10 minutes late to work. Verified that the bird netting worked in keeping away the bird or birds. Watched the American Idol finale and afterwards Glee, one of my new must watch shows.



May 23rd - Movie day. Watched a documentary called Abel Raises Cain, then X-Men Origins: Wolverine, later Ready? Ok!

May 24th - Movie Day plus gardening. Watched Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, then The War, Later Superhero Movie. I also planted some new Buzzy Seeds. Basil seeds around my tomatoe plants and Wildflower Seeds for Butterfly Garden.

Basil, Tomatoes, and Eggplants oh my!

Basil... It's the one herb that I have grown successfully on the windowsill of the window by the kitchen every spring/summer. On one of the years I also tried cilantro, thyme, chives, parsley, dill, and marjoram to not so great success. One time I tried growing sunflowers. The seeds sprouted, but then I didn't know how to grow them in pots so they all died.

This year, end of March 2009 or so, I planted the basil seeds, Sweet Basil. On one pot I put 5 seeds and 4 sprouted and are growing. On a second pot I put 3 seeds and 2 sprouted and are growing.



Eggplant... Now sometime in 2008 I decided I would try to grow my first vegetable. I think it was June or July but I forget, it could have been the end of the 2008 year too or the beginning of 2009. Since I rent a house I decided it I would need to grow in a pot, in the event I needed to move I could take my plant with me.

So I purchased a big pot and potting soil and planted one seed in the middle of the pot. The vegetable I chose was Eggplant. The seed packet itself says Eggplant, Black Beauty. I figured if from one seed a plant sprouted then great, and if it did not then no big deal since I really would not know how to care for the plant and I may end up killing it. If my plants are outside I forget about them and then they die from not watering them. This happened to me with a flower plant I won at work in October 2008. Hmmm... I think I may have planted the Eggplant seed sometime after October 2008, since I realized that flower plant was dead when I went outside to plant the eggplant seed, oh well.

Anyways, the eggplant seed sprouted and started growing. It had tons of flowers. I read somewhere online to not over water the eggplant, so I made it a point to not water it. I would water it just at the end of each week or less. Then almost all of the flowers were gone and no eggplants were growing.

So maybe I should have watered it more often just without over watering it. The plant itself was still growing, so I started watering it more often just not drenching it. Sort of just enough so that it would have water to drink but not so much that it wouldn't be thirsty the next time I added water. Don't know if that makes sense, but whatever. About one to two weeks later it had new flowers, not as many as before, however this time one of the flowers turned into a tiiny little eggplant. Oh how exciting. Then about a week later 2 more eggplants started growing. So I have 3 tiny eggplants growing as of a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm just trying to not over or under water it. I also think there may be some kind of bug that is eating some of the leaves. I'll need to address that. On a website somewhere I read of a natural pest deterrent that calls to mix 1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil, then combine 2 teaspoons of that mixture and 1 cup of water. I also later learned that I could use a cage to encourage the plant to grow since I have it on a pot. So I did that last weekend, watered it, hopefully not too much. I checked and watered it yesterday and it looks like is adapting quickly to the cage and there are new flowers. So maybe that means more eggplants. That would just be awesome!!!



Tomatoes... A friend from work who says she has never had a green thumb decided to give growing her vegetable garden in her backyard. She planted all sorts of vegetables including zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, snap peas, and others that I can't remember right now. She chose to grow her vegetable garden from seeds. When she purchased the seeds she was told that 1 out of every 5 tomatoe seeds grow. So she put multiple seeds in each container she had. My multiple I mean tons. A couple weeks later she said that it looked like all of the seeds were growing and now had too many plants, so she asked me if I wanted a tomatoe plant. I said sure. So she gave me on of her containers that had a cluster of tomatoe plants growing. I separated them last weekend. So 33 was the total of tomatoe plants that were in the cluster. I read somewhere online after transaplanting them that tomatoe plants should be tranplanted when they are a certain size. Makes sense since the ones that were super tinny are dead now. I still have though about 18 plants. They are all separated. Now, I had gotten just 2 large pots in which I put 2 plants each. I also put a tomatoe cage in each. The other plants are in small pots. Now that I know that they need to be bigger before transplanting them.I'm goign to hold off transplanting the remaining ones until then. The tomatoes are the beefsteak kind.



Zucchini... I have 2 zucchini plants too from my work friend who also planted too many zucchini plants. These are individually separated. They are already a good size to transplant, so all I need now is to go get 2 big pots and some trellis like cages for these. I hope they grow good.


House plant... So aside from the houseplant that I have always had(that viney like one that just about everyone has), I got so excited having vegetables growing that I also got an indoor plant. It is a palm like looking plant. Don't know what kind since it had no name at the store(Lowe's) that I bought it from.


I am so excited. If all goes good I should be harvesting my own eggplants, tomatoes, and zucchini aside from my usual basil. I van't wait.

National Volunteer Week 2009

National Volunteer Week 2009 was this past week, Sunday, April 19, 2009 - Saturday, April 25, 2009.

I helped put together disaster preparedness kits. Helped for one hour. I put together about 100 kits. Wish I would have had time to put more together.

So what did you do?

If you are looking to volunteer, find something that you are passionate about and look for volunteer opportunities in those areas. I myself like volunteering for most anything.
If you are having trouble finding opportunities or figuring out where or what to volunteer for, go to http://www.volunteermatch.org/ it is a great resource that I just recently started using.

Happy Volunteering all!!

Childsplay Brief... Sunday, April 19, 2009

- Childsplay is a theatre company for kids, their website says, "Arizona's Professional Theatre for young Audiences and Families"
- I volunteered to help them stamp and pass out a book, Junie B., First grader: Shipwrecked.
- The book was given free of charge as the families came in to watch a preview of the play, The Neverending Story that is playing through May 17, 2009 at the Tempe Center for the Arts.
- The book that was given is one of three books of which the play Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells is based from.
- That play will be part of Childsplay's 2009-2010 Season. I believe it will run from Nov/Dec 2009. The play not the season :)
- After passing the books and the house being full, I was able to stay and watch the play that was showing, The Neverending Story.
- I have seen the movie, but never a play adaptation. It was great.
- This is the second play that I have seen from Childsplay.
- The first one was when the 2008-2009 season was to begin. October 19, 2009.
- It was actually a preview showing of their season and that night they previewed a play called Getting Near to Baby. It was also really good.

Not so brief, brief... Saturday, April 18, 2009

If you read my post, Brief... Friday, April 17, 2009 then you know I volunteered to help with the Phoenix Pride setup. The parade was on 4/18/09 with the festival on both Saturday and Sunday, 4/18-19/2009. I am kind of liking posting with bullets, so here's how the day went.

- I wanted to use public transportation to get to the parade
- Walked to the bus stop that's just around the corner, $1.25
- Valley Metro is the name of the local bus and light rail transit systems, picked up a transit book.
- Normally the fare for 1-ride is $1.25 and an All Day Pass is $2.50, however on this day the $1.25 got us an all day local pass. They call it Reduced Local Bus/Rail Fare.
- Got off the bus on a stop that is near the Arizona Center
- Walked a few blocks to the Phoenix Public Market to have breakfast
- Breakfast burrito and coffee
- I really like this market. Locally grown produce, meat, etc. It's all either organic or natural
- After breakfast, walked a couple of blocks down to the light rail stop, $1.25 for the ride as the bus pass not valid for the light rail, no special reduced rates for the light rail ride.
- Got off the light rail at the Indian School/Central stop and walked towards Steele Indian Park where the Parade would end and the festival would be held.
- After the parade, walked to the park for the festival. Free entry as I had volunteered the previous day.
- Walked the festival grounds once.
- Then headed back home. Same route just reversed. Walked to the light rail stop, got off at the downtown stop, walked to the bus stop, and got off at the stop around the corner from where I live then, walked home the remaining half block.
- All the walking and the sun, even though there was a cool breeze in the air, did me in.
- Took a nap that went all the way to the next day, Sunday morning.

Several posts

I have several posts that I have been wanting to get to, but just haven't found the time to just sit and write them out. So hopefully after this sort of just random post I'll get caught up. So in the meantime I'll just leave one this post a random photo. It's a Rhinoceros Iguana

Brief... Friday, April 17, 2009

- Took the day off, volunteered to help with Phoenix Pride setup
- I have never really tracked my volunteer hours or events, the only tracking I have are of those events in which I took a camera and took photos.
- So I enrolled at http://target.volunteermatch.org/ so I can start tracking,beginning the this event.
- It does not however interlace/link with http://www.volunteermatch.org/ so I am probably going to enroll there too.
- 2pm - 5:30pm was the volunteer time slot.
- Finished the tasks early, so was able to leave early, therefore arriving Early at Lux.
- Forgot to view the gallery at the coffee shop, immersed in the stories of co-workers who had also volunteered
- Late night movie was the plan, but the movie was a special engagement and the movies passes I have said not valid for special engagements
- Went to Applebee's for dinner, with a couple people... Yes finally using those coupons they had given me.
- Our waitress was nice, the manager was the same one as last time and still as weird as before
- This time although the service was fair, the steak that was ordered medium rare arrived medium well, actually it was almost well done. The coleslaw was dry. Moral of the story is. This Applebee's just sucks. if it is not the service then it is the food..
- After dinner, desert. 2 apple pies and a hot fudge sundae from McDonald's
- Afterwards watched the first half of Confessions of a Superhero on the PS3 via Hulu.
- Went to sleep at around 2am

Weekend brief... 4/11-12/09

Saturday, April 11, 2009

- Woke up, early enough (good thing right)
- Made coffee, had a cup
- A coupon for a free set of serving dishes from Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino, Aaron had
- Drove to Harrah's
- Picked up the free gift, Aaron did.
- Played slots for about 10 minutes
- Put the gift in the car
- Lunch at the buffet, $9.99
- Cheap price equals cheap buffet(didn't care much for it, can't compare to Vegas)
- More slots after lunch(2 cent Playboy themed slots are fun, fun)
- Drove back home
- Laundry, mail, etc...
- Later, movies at home
- Dinner (don't remember)
- Switched off all power strips and cell phones in my room, wanted to sleep in on Sunday...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

- Woke up late, 10:3ish am
- Made coffee, had it with soy milk, Silk brand, very vanilla kind...
- Laundry
- Played Wheel of Fortune on the PS3
- Lunch and a movie(The Spitfire Grill)
- More Laundry
- Picked up food at Fresh and Easy
- Watched The Celebrity Apprentice
- Prepared lunch for the week(this week will be short as taking Friday off)
- Dinner, was not really hungry so just grapes and a cupcake, ok 2 cupcakes, also from Fresh and Easy

just a post...

It's almost a month since I posted... have mostly been twittering , http://twitter.com/elkirbster So I thought I should post something... nothing really planned so I'll just ramble on... Yesterday's Hawaiian party at Pedro's for the celebration of Rocio's, Lorena's, and Alex's birthdays was really fun. Lots of food, drinking, music, dancing. Pride is coming up. I volunteered to help with setting up the day before. Can't wait to read about Amy's trip... Need to do the taxes, purge, clean, tidy, etc...

somehow this year...

The past couple of years I made it a point to participate in volunteer events and diversity events as well as to toke photos throughout the year of most of these events plus parties, gatherings, etc of other things I was part of... Somehow this year I haven't been able to focus to do this... I haven't yet participated in any volunteer events, even though I have had the opportunity. Diversity events I have attended have been more on the speakers/networking but no "actual" events. On the parties,gatherings, etc. I have skipped some and the couple I have attended no photos.... Like Zander from Drawn Together (Season 1, Episode 7)would say, "What is going on!" Is there a big twist to come?

Next week is my b-day... Maybe that's when I officially give a boost to what I like doing volunteering, diversity, photos of as much as possible.

I also want to keep up with blogging about the events I participate in. I think I also want to add or continue to put my own personal reviews of stuff. I have always like reviewing stuff, even if i'm not necessarily a subejct matter expert, so more of my opinion reviews. Last year throughout June and July I posted a series of Consumer Reports tips that came with an offer to subscribe to their magazine, but I think I'll just stick to my own opinion reviews.

I think I may also post random stuff. Things that do not necessarily have anything to do with the stuff(volunteering, parties, etc) I'm currently doing. Maybe recipes that I have tried/tested and the outcome, perhaps a random photo or photos, and/or something to do with crafts. We'll see what time allows... :)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend, and hope you have a good week.

Moviecube vs Redbox

Several weekends ago I wanted to rent a movie NOW! The fastest way to do that would have been to rent it from the PS3, but the rentals there start at $2.99, or from Amazon.com, but I don't know yet how to stream it the TV.

Then I remembered seeing the Redbox at several locations just down the street. After signing up at their site, I headed out. First a stop at the store to get popcorn. So I went in the store and there is this Moviecube so I figured it must be similar to the other one, so I just rented a movie through it. I get home and watch the movie. A couple hours later I checked that redbox had sent me a code for one free rental. Hell yeah! So I decided I would return the Moviecube one early. I get to the store where the Moviecube is and the screen shows it "clocking", and someone in the store said that the machine was being restarted. I went to the redbox, rented a movie and decided to return the movicube one the next day.

Next day comes and the movicube machine is in still "clocking", so I return the redbox one and for the movicube one I had to call the customer service so they could verify and then I returned it into a black drop box on the side of the machine.

I didn't want to write this much on this... anyways the point really is My first Movicube rental experience not so good. My first Redbox movie rental experience good.

I checked their websites today and it seems Moviecube has updated their site, they have a signup section now and took a page out of redbox's playbook by offering one free movie rental for signing up.

I wonder which one of these will end up being the winner, or is there room for two ala Blockbuster and Hollywood Video?

hmmm... maybe I should just sign up for netflix or the blockbuster online...

Ya'll have a good weekend...!!!

Best wishes, farewell, good luck...

Best wishes, farewell, good luck... to my co-workers that were let go today...

I won't say too much just that it was a gloomy day at work today. Hope this becomes an opportunity for better things to come.

Update... for prev post

Quick update for the prev post on the movie and dinner... so I ended up sending a complaint via their website.... several days later one of my roommates said someone from that place had called and that they would call back... So I got a call back this past week, I am guessing their guest relations, and the person apologized and wanted to do something to make up for it so that I would continue to go to that location. so.. she sent me 2 entree vouchers.... not sure when or if i'll use them. but meh wahtever I am over it...

Movie and Dinner... from Jan 1st

With my cousin, I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Jan 1st... loved the movie.. movies like this one make me want to read. Aside from video game magazines and celebrity magazines, I don't read a whole lot. Not because I don't want to, I just fall asleep after reading a few pages of any book. I have to really focus when I am reading 'cause my mind always wanders when I read something that reminds me of something else and then I loose track of what I was reading. then I have to start all over. Amistead Maupin's novels are the only ones that I can read and re-read without putting them down. :)

After the movie, we picked up Aaron and went to dinner. We went to an Applebee's on Baseline by 24th st. Their address is 2180 E. Baseline Road, Phoenix, AZ 85042.

Now I am listing their location, address found on their site, not so you can go to it, but so that you don't. So sure it was New Year's Day so those working on that day may not have wanted to be working, but it is no excuse to start slacking off. It was not packed, but obviously low on staff so we waited for a couple minutes while they cleaned a table to sit us down. Once we were seated, we browsed through their menu,sticky with food residue, as we waited for our waiter. It took a while before our waiter came by to introduce himself, Mark, and ask for out order.

We ordered our drinks, as I was not ready to order food just yet. I couldn't decide what I wanted. Another long wait and our drinks made it. Jerry and Aaron ordered and I asked for more time. He came by a few minutes later and I placed my order. Our appetizer was brought to us by a waitress, obviously not our waiter, and I asked her for individual plates(for the appetizer), extra lemons(they had given me a joke for lemon slice for my iced tea), and extra napkins. She brought them right away. Aaron and Jerry's orders came out. Jerry's was just fine. Aaron's looked like it had been siting for a bit, I'm sure it was so that they both came out at the same time since they were ordered at the same time. My order came a few minutes later.

So we were eating, chatting and then this fat woman comes and stands by our table and comments on Aaron's tea, "letting your tea get dark" or something like that, in an unpleasant sarcastic like tone, he had ordered hot tea. We were like, who the hell is this bitch. She then asks us how our meals were. We said fine. Then she left. We assumed after she left that she was the manager. Her approach wasn't very managerial like.

After we were done eating our check arrives, I decide to pay with my card. Mark takes my card and the check. He comes back a few minutes later, dropping off the receipts to be signed. So as I review the receipt I notice the amount is not what the original receipt said, and my card was not brought back.

I first figured he had given me the wrong receipts, but then I see that the last four of the card used for that were the ones on my card. I was like hell no motherfucker you did not just keep my card and charge me for someone else's food check.

So I get up to try and find a manager. I head towards the kitchen with receipts on hand. As I was going to enter the kitchen, and there is Mark, so I tell him you charged me for someone else's check and kept my card. He reaches for his shirt pocket and out comes his Applebee's card along with my card. As soon as i see it I aggressively take it out of his hand and demand to speak to his manager. He starts walking off in the opposite direction. Not sure what he said, but he was not apologetic, did not direct me towards a manager, nor did he try to explain what happened. So I head back towards our table. Aaron and Jerry assumed it was done. I said no we are waiting for the manager.

The manager, jackpot is was the fat woman that had come by earlier, walking several step behind Mark. I head towards the manager, explained what happened. She apologized and wanted my card to fix it. I was like hell no. So I said I'll go with you to see what you are doing. So she voided the other charge. I asked her for a void receipt. She said she could not give me one, so I asked her to sign and initial the original receipt, so I could keep it as reference/evidence that it was voided. She then processed the amount for my table. I signed it leaving no tip. She kept apologizing and asking me if there was anything else she could do. Obviously she was hinting at me asking to have the meal comped, but I am not that kind of person. The kitchen did nothing wrong, however if she had offered to comp the meal I probably would have accepted. She kept saying that it was an honest error. I didn't buy that. I can understand an honest error if he had given me my card with the wrong receipt, but he kept my card in his shirt pocket. That's a fucking different story.

So anyways, I may suggest to you that you do not go to this Applebee's, but if you do go beware of waiter Mark. He may be keeping cards "in and honest error" kind of way. Who knows how many cards he kept that night.

Now I am just watching my account every day to make sure the void goes through. Not going to go to that Applebee's location again. Let's hope this is a fluke and not the beginning of what my dining experiences will be this year.

Hope everyone's first movie and dinner experience in 2009 is a good one!!! :)

Welcome 2009!

Welcome 2009! Let's hope this year is a good year for everyone... So what's the first thing you did when you woke up? Did you party hardy last night? Did you wake up with a hangover, headache, a person sleeping next to you who's name you don't know?

First thing I did was go pee(tmi maybe). Then made a pot of coffee. Drank coffee as I wished a Happy New Year to my online friends. If I forgot you, then happy new year to you! :)

My mom called to wish happy new year. Back home they are getting together, like every year, for breakfast. I think she said it's menudo or posole this year. After breakfast is the loteria and piñatas. Wish I was there.

Then to pay bills. I'm usually ahead of the game and have all the bills for the month paid by the mid to end of the month previous to it. Not this time. All done now. Yay! Those of you who leave bills unpaid to the last minute or past their time... well I won't get into it, but for a short period my previous position included collecting on past due accounts, so I have heard just about every reason and excuse for not paying.

Anyways, hope your 2009 is a good one!

The photo on this post is from x-mas 2007 with family.