Laundry

Personally I have never really minded doing laundry, especially when it wasn't that far away from my room in one of the apartments I lived in. But now that I live in a hose where there are no laundry facilities, I am somewhat put out by the simple act of doing my laundry. For now I have to plan around my school schedule to have at least 2 hours free and to get to the laundry place itself before it get's too crowded. Which is a chore in and amongst itself, and therefore a major hassle!
The only good things about my having to do laundry outside the house is I can also do my grocery shopping, eat dinner and catch up on my home work or reading. As there is a grocery store next door to my laundry mat as well as some fast food joints and restaurants and plenty of places to sit and read. So it is not all that bad, but it is time consuming as you need to wait for everything to be finsihed

THANKSGIVING in the Bay Area

For a few days now I have been in the SF Bay Area, celebrating the Holiday with my friends and family. In fact for awhile now I have been celebrating Thanksgiving more than just once during the Holiday Season. As for the past few years we have been having two separate family Thanksgivings on Thanksgiving and the next day, Friday. One with the white or step side of the family, and another one with members from my Father's, or the black side of the family. Initially I enjoyed the
1st more traditional Thanksgiving with my step Mother, brother, step brother, his two kids, his wife, her grandfather, mother, step father and sometimes his two daughters, more than the 2nd Thanksgiving. Which takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and involves my aunt, her two daughters/my cousins, her new husband, and various family friends. But more and more I have come to enjoy the second Thanksgiving with my cousins, since my step sister in law just seems to be a really fake and superficial person, or is becoming so more and more. So much more in fact, that it has reached the point where I do not really trust anything she has to say, nor what she has to say to me. Especially after her young son repeated some stuff to me that my step sister-in-law her and her husband have been saying about me behind my back ( apparently for years). But such is the normal dysfunctional nature of the modern blended family I guess.


Still it is enough to make me have second thoughts about even joining that side of the family for Thanksgiving, even more so after I found out that Thanksgiving this year would take place in a restaurant instead of at someones house. Which just bummed the hell out of me, as Thanksgiving really should involve family and a home cooked meal. Plus I just didn't like the idea of paying for a meal that was in essence not all you can eat, as all Thanksgivings essentially are. But I ended up going to Thanksgiving with my family after all, mainly because my brother was freaking out about me not going and actually getting upset. And to be quite honest the food was not actually all that bad, and the evening as a whole was not as bad as I thought or imagined it would be. Though it definitely was a very short evening, as he had 5:30pm reservations, and were out of the restaurant by 8pm, which is kind of a record for us.

BLACK FRIDAY

How early is too early?


For years and years I use to work in retail, so I know firsthand all about Black Friday. The absolute biggest day or "Mother" of all retail consumerism that takes place directly after Thanksgiving, and in some cases only by a few hours after. As more and more stores are actually opening their doors to the public earlier and earlier, sometimes as early as 4am in some cases. All so customer can frantically bum rush the store and get their hands on one of maybe two Plasma TVs offered for a fraction of their normal price. Which if you ask me is just pure insanity! For Thanksgiving is one of the very few non commercial holidays the US celebrate or even has to begin with, and it really needs to stay that way! Forcing employees to cut their holiday celebrations with family short, just to go into work is totally unacceptable in my book. Just as it's unacceptable for some families to forgo Thanksgiving altogether just to wait in line all night for select Black Friday deals they might not even get in the first place because of limited quantities.


Because I live in LA and my family is from the Bay Area, I would fly just to spend Thanksgiving with the family. And because I worked in retail at the time I had to take the earliest flight back come Friday morning so I could finish an afternoon or evening shift, and that is not fair at all! All employees, no matter what position they hold within a company, deserve to be able to spend time with their respective families. They should not be forced to cut their Thanksgivings short just to return to start work, or better yet they should receive double time pay if they are made to come in before normal working hours. That way at least their sacrifice will not go unnoticed and they will be adequately compensated for their efforts. Also employees who are paid more will less likely be chosen to work such shifts, which is only fair. As people with seniority have already put in their time and should not be forced to have to work on such a day.

Shrimp & Mango Roll Shooters

All recipes posted here are a composite of random recipes found online, in various cookbooks, taken from family, friends, neighbors and dishes/creations I have tried and/or made myself. Any similarity to people's personal or unique family recipes is purely coincidental, and no one actually owns the rights to any food combinations if you think about it. No matter how unique. Food for thought?!



INGREDIENTS:

Makes 16 pieces

1 pound Shrimp (peeled, deveined, chopped)
2 1/2 tsp Corn Starch
1 1/3 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Scallions
1 1/3 oz Ginger (Minced Finely)
1 1/3 oz Bamboo Shoots (caned drained, chopped finely)
2 ea ripe mango (small dice)
1/2 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Kosher Salt
4 leaves Mint (cut into very thin slices)
16 spring roll skins (available in most supermarkets)
Canola Oil

Orange Teriyaki Sauce
8 oz Teriyaki sauce (store bought)
4 oz frozen orange concentrate (defrosted)
1 1/2 Tbsp orange zest
3 Tbsp corn starch + 3 Tbsp cold water (combine)

In a stainless sauce pot combine teriyaki sauce and orange concentrate and bring to a boil. Thicken with cornstarch mixture and add orange zest. Cool and set aside.

In an electric mixer, combine shrimp, 1 1/2 tsp corn starch, sesame oil, scallions, ginger, bamboo shoots and mix until gluten is visible (approximately 6-7 minutes on medium high speed). Remove from machine and fold in mint.

Combine 1 teaspoon corn starch with just enough water to make a thick paste. Set aside.

Lay out spring roll skin with a corner facing you and fill with 1/2 ounce of shrimp mixture. Place 3 cubes of mango on top of shrimp mixture, fold the left and right corners over the mixture then pick up the corner facing you and roll away from you (make sure to roll it as tight as you can get it). Seal with corn starch paste. Repeat step until mixture is finished. Make sure you cover the spring rolls to prevent from drying.

In a sauce pot fill halfway with canola oil and heat to 350 degrees. Place rolls and fry for approximately 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Place on paper towels.

Serve in shot glass with orange teriyaki sauce at the bottom.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

to one & all from Travel Whore!




Make sure to eat lots of Turkey and enjoy your time off with friends & family like I am doing right now. More Blogs to come when I return from my 2 Thanksgiving dinners in the Bay Area & once again Happy Thanksgiving! Save me some stuffing!

Precious...How depressing was that?

I was planning to see the movie Precious, just not as soon as I actually did. It seems I had several hours to kill upon my arrival in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, yet no one could actually pick me up until close to 8pm. So I decided to hang out in a local Berkeley Movie Theatre and see a movie or two, especially since I had free passes to 3 different movie theatre chains on me. I decided to see the longest film I could find at the time, which was Precious. I knew I was going to be in for a disturbing ride even before I saw the film, but it really was disturbing. Everyone on some level knows that there are horrible acts of abuse going on all around us on a daily basis, but we don't actually get confronted with just how monstrous some of these acts are. As we are not forced to see them face to face, as the film definitely does in very graphics detail. Which made a great deal of the film very hard to watch, especially when the film's main character is being repeatedly abused by her Mother and her Father.


For those of you who are not familiar with the film or the book PUSH, on which it is based. Precious is the story of Clarice Precious Jones, who is routinely verbally, emotionally and physically abused by her Mother. Sometimes the physical abuse is so intense that Precious is rendered unconscious. The fact that the abuse is perpetrated by her Mother, makes it all the more monstrous to behold. As a result of her abusive upbringing, Precious can barely read and write and has the self esteem of a cardboard box. She is also pregnant with her second child from her own biological Father! Her first child whose actual name was Mongoloid, was born with down syndrome as a direct result from being the product of incest.


I am not sure if the film and respective book were actually based on a true story or living person, but by the end of the film you really hope and pray that there is not. As I do not know anytime who could go through what Precious did and not be completely fucked up as a result! Though without spoiling the film or book for others who have not read it, Precious doesn't really escape anything in the end if you think about it ( I will leave it at that as not to spoil things).

New Moon...Maybe if I were a 12 year old girl I would have liked it more

Like a lot of people, both male and female I have actually read all of the Twilight Vampire Books. I didn't think they were amazing or anything like that, but I also didn't think they were pieces of shit either. In fact I rather liked the last book in the series, Breaking Dawn, and am looking forward to seeing that one on the big screen. While the latest silver screen version, New Moon, was less than stellar in my opinion. Although I am sure it will make millions of dollars, as I can see the film being highly entertaining to certain individuals. Especially 12 year old white girls, as that seems to the be the books core audience or demographic.

Crazy is as Crazy Does

While on the Streets of Berkeley I witnessed some crazy man litterally choke himself. As if he were two people inside his body and one of them was trying to kill the other. Then the man started to drool, and now he is passed out on a bench. I am going to try and get a picture of his craziness. Hopefully he won't try to kill me! He really looked psychotic choking himself and actually screaming out "NO," as if he was fighting an actual person for his life.

Times are Tough

There was a line at the local pawn shop which aside from being rather depressing in and of itself just shows you how tough these economic times really are. I assume that since I didn't see a lot of people with actual items in their hands, they were there to trade gold or something into cash. As you see ads for such things on TV and in the newspaper on a daily basis.

Dinner in WestWood

I am not in Westwood all that often and when I am, it's usually fun to eat in the one local dining establishments. Although I do not often choose BJ's to eat because I think the food is somewhat over priced for what it is, but I have to admit that I really do like their wedge salads. Which is essentially just a slice of Iceberg Lettuce, Blue Cheese Dressing & Crumble, chopped Onions, Tomatoes and Bacon Bits. Something so simple a child could make it, though their Blue Cheese Dressing is really, really good and one of my favorites. Aside from the salad I had a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich and thinly cut fries, which like I said was over priced. I would have preferred to have gone somewhere else, but the friends I was with kind of insisted we go there and I felt I owed them so I conceded. My stomach ended up paying for it later on, but that is just one of the down falls of getting on in years it seems. One can no longer eat as much as they once did.

I find this very disturbing

Lately I have noticed a lot of people on campus, in the streets, and especially on the bus carrying bibles around with them and even fervently reading from them (Thank God, they usually do this silently!). Which I find rather disturbing, for it makes me wonder. How disturbed or how unsure of a person do you have to be to need such daily or constant reassurance? I mean if you have a bad day or week, you just deal with it and move on, but if your so distraught that you have to constantly have the bible with you at all times, and need to read passages from it for comfort or just to get yourself through the day. Then there is something seriously wrong with you. If your personal or emotional life is so fraught with peril, stress or emotional trauma(s), then you are doing something wrong or something is wrong with you. Something that the bible is not going to magically fix! Still I see people every day clinging to their bibles as if it were a life vest and they were on the Titanic as it starts to sink into the ocean. It just makes you wonder what sort of demons are running through their head?!

Star Trek Experience in Hollywood

I haven't been to a Star Trek Convention or anything Star Trek for that matter since I was a little kid. But I recently decided to attend the Star Trek Experience in Hollywood this past weekend purely for the hell of it. Mainly because it was closing at the and of the month and I wanted to get pictures of myself in the Captains chair for my Facebook profile. So imagine my surprise when I realized that the supposed official bridge from the Next Generation's Enterprise was nothing but a cheap replica, as were most of the props and costume I surmise. Specifically constructed for such displays or tours, as I assume it goes from State to State, or Country to Country. Either way I was a little disappointed since I shelled out the money for me and a friend to go.


Still it got me out of the house and into the city on a Saturday, and I haven't been out for ages now. Partially because I am saving my money and partially because I have such a full load of classes that it's not possible for me to get out as much as I would like to. Plus I am just a little bit lazy when it comes to planning social events, at least sometimes as my moods changes in this regard...But I digress for if you are a true Star Trek fan, I think you will enjoy yourself. You probably wont learn anything new about Trek that you didn't already know, and the sets/props are nothing special, but it can be enjoyable. There are some pretty cool photo opportunities to partake of. Especially if you are willing to shell out over 30 bucks to get a couple of you on the bridge and being transported. But since I had my own camera on me, I took my own damn pictures myself and I can always fake the Transporter stuff in Photoshop later on.

Air & Style

When I was working at Limmerick Bill's Irish Pub while living in Innsbruck, Austria, I was never able to attend Air & Style. Which for those of you who do not know is an annual winter Snow Boarding Festival and competition where snowboarders from around the world compete and live music is performed. The reason I was never able to go before was because I worked with a bunch of Snow Board enthusiasts who ate, breathed and lived snow boarding 24/7. They literally moved to Austria just to snow board and get drunk all the time, nothing else! So they naturally requested to have time off during the festival and were given the days off Air & Style took place, forcing me to work and miss all three festivals that took place while I lived in Europe. Shortly after the festival moved to Munich, but it didn't do as well as in Innsbruck and eventually moved back.




Which is why this past winter I made it a point to travel all the way to Europe, just to attend Air & Style for the first time. Despite it having been years after having lived and worked in Europe. The bands playing the winter year I went were Mando Diao and Deichkind, which I have actually both seen before at Roskilde and Frequency respectively. I almost didn't make it because I didn't actually have a ticket, mainly because a (former) friend of mine waited too long to get one for me and they subsequently sold out. In fact our friendship ended partially because of Air & Style. To make a long story short I gave my friend money to get a ticket for me and he waited a week to try and get it and it sold out during the time he procrastinated. He then proceeded to lie to me about when he actually tried to get me a ticket, but I was able to verify the actual date he attempted to get me a ticket and it was a week later than he said. Which really, really pissed me off. Luckily I was able to buy one off of someone just before the event and attend the show, which was really, really cool, but also really really cold!




Although the Vodka I brought with me did help me stay warm to a certain degree, which was nice. As was being surrounded by crisp, clean whiteness as far as the eye could see. For Austria really is beautiful during the winter, and I really do miss the actual seasons and especially being able to have a white Christmas! The event lasted for several hours and usually ends close to midnight or earlier if the weather gets really bad, though this time it was a normal sort of winter I guess? Hey, how the hell should I know having been born and raised in the constant sunshine of California all my life?






I even bumped into some old friends and co workers that I have not seen in awhile which was really nice. Especially since not everyone knew that I was going to be there that winter, as it had been years since I was last in Austria during the winter. Sometime around 2003 to be exact as I spent most of the winter of 2004 in Les Deux Alpes France, which let me tell you was absolutely horrible, but that is a Blog for another time my friends. If you are a fan of snowboarding or winter sports, I would strongly suggest that you attend if you can.

A Worm in my Won Ton Soup!

I took a closer look at the two photos I took of my Won Ton Soup and I cannot see any worms in the photos, so it was most likely hidden underneath something. It's still rather nasty to think about!


Yesterday I took a friend out to lunch at his favorite Chinese restaurant in Burbank because it was his birthday awhile back, and I didn't have a gift for him at the time. So I gave him a card and said Lunch will be on me whenever he is free. He picked his favorite place to eat in Burbank and said the food was really good. Which didn't really matter to me as Chinese or most Asian food in general, is my favorite food on the planet! We ordered Won Ton Soup for two, Chicken Chow Fun and he had something I forget the name of, though it looked really, really good. Anyway after my first bowl of Won Ton Soup, which incidentally is my favorite soup on the world if done right, I noticed that there was a completely whole and intact worm floating in the broth. Actually I just about to eat it when I noticed it in my spoon.


I thought it was nasty, but bugs do not really freak me out. I just to collect Butterflies and insects as a kid. And I know for a fact that I have, without my knowledge, eaten much, much worse throughput the course of my life. Plus insects are pure protein and it would not have killed me. Still I think it grossed me out to a certain degree as I didn't really finish my meal with any sort of zeal like I normally would have. Of course I informed the staff that there was a worm in our soup and if they could please replace it, which they graciously did. I naturally assume that when the bill came they would have credited us for the soup or the comped the entire meal as most restaurants would have done. When the final bill did come, they didn't even credit us the soup! So I politely asked for them to remove it, and they actually started to argue about it saying they brought me a new one. But level heads prevailed I guess, as the meager $4.95 the soup costs was taken off our bill.


To add a little bit more insult to injury, when they had brought us our replacement soup, they initially were going to serve it in dirty bowls. Which the waiter had to take back and bring us new ones. As a whole I found the whole thing to be rather funny, since I really could have caused quite a stink or worse! Since I was actually taking pictures of the food for blogging purposes and could have gotten them into some real trouble. But it never crossed my mind to take any pictures of the soup with the worm in it to show the health department or even the people reading this. Though I am pretty sure I got some pictures of the soup before I actually tried any of it. So who knows, maybe I did manage to get a picture of the worm in the soup and just didn't know it at the time. Or worse the worm I saw, was not the only worm in my soup?

Guinness Soaked Beef Stew

All recipes posted here are a composite of random recipes found online, in various cookbooks, taken from family, friends, neighbors and dishes/creations I have tried and/or made myself. Any similarity to people's personal or unique family recipes is purely coincidental, and no one actually owns the rights to any food combinations if you think about it. No matter how unique. Food for thought?!






INGREDIENTS:



1 T olive oil
1 lb (or more) Stew Beef
1/4 cup flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 can (14.5 oz) Guinness beer ( or more for you drink as you cook)
2 carrots, cut into 1 - 2 inches pieces
2 parsnips, cut into 1 - 2 inch pieces
1 large Leek, White & Light Green parts sliced
1 t dried Thyme
1/2 t dried Marjoram/Oregano
1 Bay Leaf ( You will remove later)
10 Crimini mushrooms, cut in half
Mashed Potatoes (can be white, yellow or red, it's up to you)


Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pan. Put the Stew Beef in a plastic bag, add the flour & some salt & pepper then shake to coat the beef. Cook the beef in the hot pan until it's brown on all sides. Transfer the beef to a crock pot. Pour about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of the Guinness into the hot pan & bring to a boil to remove any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour over the beef in the crock pot.

Add the carrots, parsnips and leeks to the crock pot. Add the remaining Guinness, thyme, marjoram & bay leaf. Cover & turn the crock pot to low. Let cook 5 - 6 hours until the vegetables are tender & the meat is falling apart. Add the mushrooms & cook for 1 more hour. Taste pridically for seasoning & add salt & pepper to taste.

Posted some very old Blogs

Turns out I had started some blogs way back in 2006 over at my MySpace page when Is till actually used it on a regular basis. Long before Facebook took over, and never actually worked on or even continued. So I re posted them here and will actually update them in a few days. Which is why I suddenly have Blogs pre dating the actual sign in/up date for this Blog account in 2009. Either way enjoy them, though truthfully they really do not say anything of interest and are pretty much me just venting out my frustrations or getting excited about an upcoming trip.

Dream a Little Dream: Part 3

Last night I dreamed that me and a friend where in a Hotel, that kind of looked like my old dorms. In this Hotel you could enter a code for the elevator, which would then indicate if you were going to Heaven or to Hell. By indicating up or down after you entered the code. If you did this too many times, Police of some sorts would come to take you away. Which is what happened in my dream. Though we were trying to argue or reason our way out of it. Bizarre?

Haven't Blogged for Awhile

I am sorry that I have not blogged for awhile, but I have had a lot on my plate. Currently I am in finals for German, French and Japanese, as well as have three custom Fairy Tale/Children's books to Illustrate before Christmas. Actually I have to have them ready for the printed by the beginning of December so they will be printed and shipped to their respective clients in time for Christmas. I also promised two friends I would do some illustration work for them and I have been severely behind. So for the next month or so I think my updates and blogs will be sporadic. I did pre write a lot of stuff and it will automatically be posted at a later date, but I haven't spent as much time on these as I should have, nor have I really gone over them for content or spelling. So be warned my friends! And with that I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and very Merry Christmas!

Crazy is as Crazy does

This is something that attracted my attention for awhile now, but I forgot to write about it. This is or was the house owned by some random crazy guy I use to pass on my way to class in my neighborhood. He had all the windows of his house boarded up or obstructed, and a ton of crap inside and outside his house. Like a ton of random relics and pieces of junk everywhere you could see. Poles, boards, sticks, random bits and pieces of stuff from plastic slides to various parts of cars, vacuum cleaners, boxes, furniture bits. And to top it all off he had a huge banner facing the sidewalk telling everyone to overthrow the Government and elect him supreme emperor of the world as well as some random legal quote about property and the Governments right to intrude into ones living space or something to that effect. All in all the house and the various notices scream crazy-person! I actually saw him once posting something up, and he even looked crazy. He had an untrimmed beard, glasses and just a wild or crazed look about him as he quickly posted his latest rant and then darted back into his dungeonous abode.


Awhile after the above photo was taken, I believe he was forcibly evicted as there were all these official looking notices on his door and official looking tape, like the place was condemned or something. Shortly after I noticed all this, his house was mysteriously set on fire! And since I believe he was crazy, I assume he was the person who set the fire for getting kicked out of his own house. There was even a notice posted on the fence surrounding the house, asking if anyone had seen who had set the blaze on such and such a date. Which I recalled that I had actually passed the house before it was set on fire, and did not see anyone in or around the house. Though like I said, I would assume crazy-man set it for getting kicked out. A lot of people who get forcibly evicted from their home pretty much destroy it before they move out, which kind of makes sense. I mean until you actually leave, you do own it so you can do whatever you want with the place. Still this house and the person who resided in it, was a neighborhood curiosity, and I still would like to know the whole story. But since the house is now owned and being worked on by someone else, I guess I will never know.

Chop-Chop Chicken Lettuce Wrap

All recipes posted here are a composite of random recipes found online, in various cookbooks, taken from family, friends, neighbors and dishes/creations I have tried and/or made myself. Any similarity to people's personal or unique family recipes is purely coincidental, and no one actually owns the rights to any food combinations if you think about it. No matter how unique. Food for thought?!





INGEDIENTS:


2 chicken breasts, skinless and chopped
2 Tbsp Shallot (minced fine)
1 Tbsp Garlic (minced fine)
1 Tbsp Ginger (minced fine)
1/2 cup Zucchini (small dice)
1/2 cup Daikon (small dice)
1/4 cup Red Peppers (small dice)
3/4 cup Celery (small dice)
1/2 cup Carrot (small dice)
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped basil
8 oz Hoisin Sauce
3 Tbsp Bean Paste (chopped)
1 head Iceberg or Bibb lettuce (separate leaves the size of a soft taco shell, place into serving bowl)
6 oz almonds (chopped)
1/8 c scallions (minced fine)
16 pcs Soft White Bread
Canola Oil
Salt/Black Pepper

Method
Stack two pieces of soft white bread on top of each other and roll together with a rolling pin till compressed. Cut into 2in by 4in pieces. In a large sauce, pot fill halfway with canola oil and heat to 350 degrees.

Fry bread in oil, till golden brown (should puff). Dig out middle of bread to create bread boats. Set aside.

In a large sauté pan under medium high heat place 3 oz canola oil and cook bean paste for 30 seconds. Add shallot, ginger and garlic and sweat for 2 minutes (no color); next, add chicken and cook for approx. 3 minutes. Then, add zucchini, daikon, red peppers (reserve 1T each for garnish), celery, basil, and carrot. Sauté at high heat for 2-3 minutes. Next, add just enough hoisin sauce to coat the vegetables and chicken and continue to sauté. The mixture should still be dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

When guests want some, have them spoon mixture into bread boats and garnish with red pepper dice, scallions, almonds and wrap with lettuce. Place on serving platter.

Travel Tip: Number 4

Drunk Roommates, stupid holidays where everything is close, Library full of Homeless people. Swine Flu, Thanksgiving, Custom Fairy Tales, The Box movie review

I won my case!

I just got a letter in the mail from the Department of Labor Standards and Enforcement informing me that I won my case against Best Buy! I won every single one of the legal issues or California Labor Code violations/claims that I brought up, but I was not awarded the maximum amount in terms of monetary fines/penalties that I could have been awarded. For while I was able to prove that Best Buy did not pay me all of my wages at the time I was last employed, the judge thought I waited too long to file and therefor did not award me the 30 day maximum penalty. Which would have been over $2,500! I am actually a little bit upset about this as the statue of limitation for such a penalty fine is 3 years and I was within this time frame when I filed, so I should have gotten the full amount. I also did not get paid for all of the breaks I was denied or called off of, as there were at least 50 and I was only awarded 21. Though Best Buy will receive additional fines from the State for each 226.7 violation, which is really nice as I am pretty sure they are at least $100 to $1,000 a pop for each violation!


Still it is really nice to be vindicated after all this time in a court of law and I cannot wait to see the face of my old manager the next time I go into Best Buy. I also plan to mention that despite the fact that he lied in open court and committed perjury, he did not win! Although I am seriously considering filing an appeal as I think I should receive the additional late payment of final wages penalty fine, since I was within the 3 year statue of limitations. I also think I should get the penalties for all breaks and lunches not received and not just the 21 times I was awarded by the judge. For according to the criteria he used, I should have been awarded over for over 100 missed breaks.

Mardi Gras: Here I come!

In just a few short months I will be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, for the very first time in my entire life! This is something I have been meaning to do for years now and I have just never managed to get around to it. Like booking a hotel before they were all sold out or even bothering to find out when the exact date for Mardi Gras was. Since it falls on different days and months each year. One of the few US Holidays that actually has a floating date, like Easter and Thanksgiving. Though they always land on their corresponding days of the week.