Christmas Card Time

I am getting ready to head off to Krakow, Poland for trip number 9. It is the Christmas Season and I know there will be plenty outside of work to keep me occupied. Last Christmas I asked anyone who reads this blog if they wanted a Christmas Card from Poland. If they did, I tried my best to send one out. I have also done that with Postcards.

So here it goes again. If you are interested in receiving a Christmas Card or Postcard from yours truly from Krakow, Poland please post a comment and I will do my best to send you one or the other. If you are lucky, you might get both.

Please comment with the following information:
Name
Address
City, State Zip
email address.
Whether you want a Christmas Card or Postcard.

You information will not be posted for all to see as all comments are moderated.

Dead DVD

A few day ago I wanted to watch a movie and I got an error message and thought that the DVD was all messed up. Last night I tried to watch another movie and the error happened again. I tried a few more and realized that my DVD has died. It loads, but the read does not seem to work.

I guess I need to add a DVD player to my list of things I want.

What I want for Christmas.

If you are one of the 10-20 that frequent my blog, including family and friends you noticed a tab on the left listing all the item I want. Well, it is not their right now. I am currently working on updating the list as it has not been updated for over a year.

Check back later to see what I have on my list of "Things I want". I might even update the "In My Ipod" List.

Turducken

While surfing the internet this weekend, I came across this new little food. I am always trying to find something new to try for the holidays. Traditions are good, but sometimes you need to add something to the mix to change it up a bit. I think what I found this weekend would be a great thing to try out. It is called turducken.

Below found at Wikipedia:

A turducken ("TURkey-DUck-chiCKEN") is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. Some recipes call for the turkey to be stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling. It is also called a chuckey.

I know it is too late to get this for Thanksgiving, so I will have to wait until Christmas. If anyone has ever had one, please let me know as I have found a few different variations on the type of stuffing.

Check them out at: Joeys, BuyLouisiana.com, Turducken King there were many more out there.

Moon Bounce

While at my sisters for the Baptism reception we noticed that their neighbors had one of those moon bounce thingies. Nico's pop asked the neighbor if it was ok for us to do a little jumping on the moon bounce. It was fun, but it was very cold to be walking around without shoes on.

Godfather

Today was the day little Nico got Baptized. He had his special outfit and was Baptized at St Louis Catholic Church here in Memphis, TN.

Below is a photo on Me, Rina Maria and Nico.

Loofa

If you watch any TV at all, you have probably seen the PetSmart commercial where the little dog walks around with it little loofa toy. I have been trying to find it for my pups and until recently have not been able to find it. I was never sure whether it was at PetSmart or PetCo. I finally found it at PetSmart. To see the actual commercial go to PetSmart Movie.

To get your pup its own Loofa go to PetSmart. This toy has lasted longer than any other dog toy my pooches have used. Good luck finding one at a local store. They only had one and I grabbed it.

Apples in the air

It seems Apple has teamed up a little too late for me to take advantage of their new partnerships. It would have been nice to have this for the past year for all 8 trips to Poland.

Per the Dow Jones Newswire,

"Apple Teams Up With Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM & United
To Deliver IPod integration.

Apple entered agreements with six airlines to integrate its iPod digital-entertainment devices into in-flight entertainment systems. The Cupertino, Calif., computer and consumer electronics maker on Tuesday said the airlines will begin offering passengers seat connections that will power and charge iPods while allowing video content contained on the devices to be played on seat-back monitors. The connections will be available by mid-2007 on planes operated by Air France-KLM (AKH) (3112.FR), Continental Airlines Inc.(CAL), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Emirates Airlines(EA.YY), and United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp. (UAUA), Apple
said."

New England Eats

Last week I spent some time in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The good part is that I was able to eat in a few restaurants I would probably not find here in Memphis, TN.

So, on Wednesday November 1st I asked my sales rep to pick a restaurant that I would not find in Memphis, TN. He searched the hotel restaurant guide and was able to find one called The Yard. The food was actually pretty good. I have 2 steak filets with some lobster claws, lobster bruschetta, and a huge salad.

The next morning we started with some customer visit in Concord, NH to visit Concord Litho to tour their printing plant. It was a nice tour a great to be able to see the end result of some of our products. After walking around for a bit got us a little hungry so we stopped to get a bite to eat.

On our way to our next stop to Unisource in Southborough, MA we stopped by Uno Chicago Grill for lunch. I got a salad with Low Fat Blueberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette, which I must say was very good. I am usually a ranch or Italian dressing kind of guy, but not anymore. I also got a Chicago style pizza which was ok, but a little too greasy for me.

Once all the visits were over we headed to Legal Seafoods with a few customer we visited earlier. I had a salad with some raspberry vinaigrette, which was almost as good as the dressing at Uno Chicago Grill. I also got something I have been craving for over 2 years when I last visited the area. I am talking about a Lobster Roll. I had never had one before, but heard good things about it. It was very good, but not what I was expecting.

All in all dining experience in the New England area was great. Thanks to my sales rep to staying away from restaurants that are located here in Memphis, TN.

Voted

Today I headed down to the Polls and took my 5 minutes to vote. My location was at Temple Israel here in Memphis, TN. I walked in signed the paperwork grabbed the new RFID type card, headed to the small booth, inserted the card and voted. It took me about 5 minutes to vote, 10 if you include parking and walking into the place. The bad part about the booth is that there really isn't the privacy there once was when their was a curtain that surrounded you.

Either way, I voted and did my part. At least it is not like Peru. In Peru you are required to vote and get fined. If you are traveling you need to do the absentee ballot to avoid the fine. Of course, if everyone actually voted the outcome to most elections would be really interesting.

The reason I think many people don't vote in the US is because they do not want to be on the Jury Duty list. Take that away and more people will probably vote. Who doesn't hate jury duty. They should actually make those that do not vote be put on jury duty list.

I look forward to the day that we will be able to vote online. I am sure more people will vote if this were the case. Employers would ensure that you took a 15 min break and bring in some donuts just to make sure you vote.

Below are some photos of my booth.

"Vote or Die"

"Vote or Die", or at least that was P Diddy's promotion was a few years ago. Today is your chance to vote and make some sort of change. I plan to vote today after work, because I am not happy with a lot of decisions a lot of our elected officials make for us on a daily basis. If I had my way, I would run for some sort of office. Of course, I would start locally and then work my way up the chain.

I sure know I could do better than our friend Dr. Willie W. Herenton and do much better for the Great City of Memphis . Mayor elections are not happening today, so it is never too soon to start.

Make your own buttons at Image Chef.

Stern Polish Ad

I listen to Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio almost every morning, but never thought I would he anything in Polish. Well, today it happened. There was an ad for a show on one of his channel, which I will not mention as I know it will offend. The ad started by saying "jak die mas" which means "how are you?". The ad also ended by saying "dzienkuje" which means "thank you". I thought it was very cool that they used some Polish and Polish words that I actually knew.

Of course, not everyone uses the polish words the correct way. A co-worker uses the word "jak die mas" to describe many things. I won't go into the list as there are many. Feel free to comment on how you have seen Jim M. use the word "jak die mas".

I hope to see many comments as I know Jim M. has assisted in training over 120+ people.

No Smoking.

This past weekend I was on some customer visits in the New England area, Manchester, New Hampshire and Southborough, MA to be exact. One thing I notice was a sign I have seldom seen on a hotels front entrance. All Marriott Hotels are now entirely smoke free. I can't wait for all hotels to follow suit, especially the Holiday Inn in Krakow, Poland.

Surgery for Tiki

For those that do not know Tiki, she is the family dog. She is very much part of our family. We never thought we would be a family with a dog that lives sleeps inside. We so much became dog lover that we got Ramona.

Tiki the oldest of the 2 will be going to the vet tomorrow to get a what looks like a little tumor off her chest. Vet said is was nothing major, more like a cyst. Hope all goes well as I do not think my mom would be able to handle it if something ever happened to Tiki or Ramona for that matter.

Below is a nice shot of Tiki.

Things all cars should have.

After seeing a few reviews on some of the extra features on cars I decided to come up with my own list of things that should be standard on every vehicle. Not listed in any particular order are my choices for extras that really should be standard on every car.

So if you think anything else needs to be added feel free to comment.

AC/Heat
Heated Seats (for those in cold locations)
Cooling Seats (for those in the south)
4 wheel drive/All wheel drive
Air bags (front drive, passenger and side)
Drink holders that keep your beverages cool or warm
Drink Cooler in dash. (I saw that feature on a Dodge vehicle)
Blue Tooth Technology
AC Outlet (for special electronics)
GPS
Full size spare tire
100+ MPG

Trick or Treat

Yes, I dressed up for Halloween and it was the same outfit as last year with on addition to the costume. Zoom in on that belt. I try to add at least one article of clothing to the outfit every year. True it is not very original, but it sure saves on spending too much money every year.

Wonder what I can add next year.

Nico's First Halloween

Last night I went over to see Nico to see him in his Halloween costume. He was dressed up as a mini lobster. I know I probably had a death grip on him, but I have not gotten used to holding him 100% yet.