Where’s My Damn Answer?

My friend saw this picture and hmmmm, immediately thought of me. 

Look closely at what the woman is wearing as she heads into a Wal-Mart flea market somewhere in Alabama.  

I’m not sure if I should be offended or proud that my friend thought of me when she saw this clever, eco-friendly summer attire.  OR . . .  maybe the double-wide was thigh high in dirty laundry and all this smart redneck chick had to do to make this outfit work was cut out the skid marks.   Oh, I hope she cut out the skid marks.  Gah.

Now you know some enterprising young stylish girlfriend is going to take this idea and run with it.  Slap some sequins on there and call it fashion.  Next, we’ll see Redneck Barbie sporting a pair of sliced up BVD’s with rhinestones in the shape of a heart, right there on the little pee flap. 

I’m just saying, whoever does that, I thought of it first, so you owe me a slice of that pie . . . that whipped, peanut butter, mousse pie.  Wait.  I digress.  Cathy already made that pie for me.  Yummy.  So the stylish young girlfriend is going to have to come up with a different kind of pie.  Like cash pie. 

Tags: daily life, friends, humor, redneck clothing, underwear as a shirt, Walmart, white trash

My son Kyle showed me a site today that you have to check out if you’ve not seen it.  I had never heard of The Onion, but will be checking in regularly for a good laugh.  This site does the news and other TV features in a way you have never seen.  It looks pretty real, but as you listen, you realize it is a wonderful parody of real network news and news magazine shows.  Here is a cooking segment on the Dream Omelette - the recipe “came to the featured chef in a dream”.  I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I did. 

Chef Cooks ‘Dream Omelet’ From Recipe That Came To Him In A Dream

Karen

P.S. Also check out the segments on the “Californians Gather to Celebrate the Annual Wildfire Tradition” and “Cosmopolitan Institute Completes Decades-Long Study on How to Please Your Man”. 

Tags: Cosmopolitan, Dream Omelette, laughter, news humor, Omelette recipe, parody of the news, The Onion, Wildfires

A few weeks back, The Noble Pig did this AWESOME ode to Rosés.    Just a few days before I left Santa Clarita, I headed over to Loose Goose to pick up a few Central Coast lovelies to take with me - PRAYING TO GOD they would make it on my road trip.  (Well, what else is one supposed to drink while roughing it in the Continental Inn in Carlsbad, NM?)

The gang at the cellar of Loose Goose recommended this little gem:

The bouquet is crisp - smells of raspberry and a waft of spice or herbs of some sort so delicate you can barely tell it’s there…until you take that first sip.

This wine is not like those blush-y wines of the past.  The wine actually rolls around the mouth like crushed velvet, wrapped around cotton candy.  Not saying that it is sweet, on the contrary, this beautiful blend of Cabernet and Syrah is the perfect mix of crisp and honey sweet.

I actually failed to take a picture of the wine the 2nd night, in the glass - so you’ll just have to get a glimpse of this beautiful summer wine in the bottle, above.

Steven Asseo, owner and winemaker, has several decades artisanal winemaking experience with an education at L’Ecole Oenologique de Macon, in Burgundy, France.   According to his website ‘he “fell in love” with the unique terrior of west side Paso Robles’, after searching the world for the right home for L’Aventure Wines.

Check this out - an extremely reasonable drink for about $15 a bottle and ready to drink NOW. 

Tags: Burgundy, Cabernet/Syrah blend, France, L'Aventure, Loose Goose Wine Society, Paso Robles, Rose, Steven Asseo, summer wines, Winemaker

Dinner with the Girls Part 1

Dessert first

I had a Linda and Kristy and hubbies over for dinner Saturday night and I really wanted to try something fun and yummy.  Ok, I nailed it with this one WOW did I score points!! This was the by far the easiest and most amazing pie I have ever made in about 10 minutes.  I take no credit for this one at all as I found this kickass recipe on a great foodie blog called www.cocoaandcheese.blogspot.com.   I was cruising food gawker and my mouse instantly stopped scrolling when this one came up almost as if it had a mind of its own 

This is a no brainer

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

16 oz container of cool whip

1 Pre-made graham cracker crust - way easier than making your own. 

Chocolate syrup for garnish

In a large bowl mix top 3 ingredients first - then add in cool whip mix until well blended put in pie crust toss in fridge overnight or for at least a few hours.  Prior to serving garnish with chocolate syrup and enjoy.  I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing this was it could easily be described as Peanut Butter Mousse or as we discussed last night could be a great “adult” night in accessory.   

This is also one of those pies that you can get creative with - I would love to hear some suggestions as to what would you add to it??? 

Tags: dessert, food gawker, Peanut Butter Pie, www.cocoaandcheese.blogspot.com

After last night, I just need to write a bit about the overuse of this particular special word, and some other observations. We run a pretty clean site here, so I’ll try my best to talk about it without being offensive.

Last night I went to the Key Club with Carol to see Marty Casey play. Marty is an amazing performer who Carol first saw on Rock Star INXS, and has been following for quite some time (see his band Lovehammers’ site or this one for LA Guns). At this point, Marty has become the lead singer for LA Guns, a much more heavy metal band that has been around forever (Tracii Guns was originally part of Guns and Roses with Axel Rose). My hubby and oldest son (the college age one) went with us, and we also met Carol’s friend Julie, who photographs bands. It was a really fun evening, even if the music isn’t my first choice. LA guns was great - Marty is mesmerizing and Tracii is a killer guitarist. See below for a video of them. The other bands we saw were Stolen Hearts, Dogs Devine, Bang Tango, and saving the best for last, Faster Pussycat.

I gotta say, when you hear the f-word in almost every song from some of these bands, and in every sentence they speak - perhaps multiple times, it totally loses any value it had as a shocking differentiator. We heard songs like “Shut the F*@! Up”, and the totally different and original “Shut Up and F*@!” . A typical welcome speech was “Hey LA! Are you having a F*!?ing great time? F*$! yea, we are too! So let’s get this F*&?ing party started. Here’s a song about when you feel like you just want to say ‘F*&! you’ to someone. It’s called ‘F*%! You, I’m Fine’. It’s F*#!ing great!” At this point, I think they need a new word. Not sure what that might be, but I’m sure someone creative could come up with something new and truly shocking. (Just don’t do it on our site! )

Interestingly, despite what you might think, the music was pretty positive, as was the crowd. There were even some surprisingly pretty lyrics like “I want to wrap my wings around your heart” (Bang Tango). It was also great fun watching the people who follow these bands. We had a table upstairs (pretty good food, too), and the people next to us had to be relatives of someone in one of the bands, as they had to be at least in their 60’s. I’m sure some people might have thought I was one of those relatives too :-). Then there were the people who really love metal and glam, and who come out completely dressed for it. Since I have not been in that scene since the 80’s (and never really was even then), it looked to me so like they walked through a timewarp. I missed the memo on wearing black, I didn’t tease my hair enough, and hubby noticed he forgot to hang his doo-rag handkerchief off of his back pocket. Oh well. At least Kyle had his studded belt on.

Then there’s that small world thing. Here we are going to this random concert with a friend who likes Marty Casey and I find that my receptionist at the spa (MUCH younger than me) knows all these bands. She and her friend got tickets to go after hearing about it from ME. (I felt slightly hip for about five minutes after that.) Then, when Julie and I went to the bathroom, we met Karen, Kelly and Melissa, three college students Julie got to know at another Marty performance. Wierdly, the three of them go to college at SLO with my son, who spent the rest of the night hanging with them (much better for him!). The highlight for them was Marty coming into the crowd and singing with their little group for a while. I love how you can drop into a totally foreign milieu and find people connected to you from other parts of your life. Even in a town of several million people.

Last observation. I gotta give the last band, Faster Pussycat, props for working on a way to be more shocking than simply using that tired old F-word all the time. Pretty much every song they do is about F-ing in some way or place, and most use VERY colorful language. They seem to be working on a subject matter niche. As they were the headliners, I guess it is working for them. So, maybe we don’t need to help out with that new replacement word after all.

Rock On.

Karen

Tags: Bang Tango, Dogs Divine, F-word, Faster Pussycat, glam rock, Key Club, LA Guns, Lovehammers, Marty Casey, metal rock, rock and roll, small world, Stolen Hearts, Tracii Guns

Found this on Stumble Upon & loved it.

Compliments of:

 patrickmoberg.com

Tags: Michael Phelps, patrickmoberg.com, stumble upon.

A couple of days ago, Jody asked the Damn Question about heartbreak.  I just watched this video for P!nk’s new single called “So What!”  Talk about using your life for art!   I thought it was fun and timely with Jody’s question so I thought I’d share it.  I love P!nk. You may feel free to disagree with me. Music taste is entirely personal! (This MTV link has ads and continues to play more videos after this song is over.  Sorry I couldn’t find a stand alone version of the video–just hit pause after you are done watching to stop the player!)

Tags: Damn Question, Heartbreak, Pink, So What

So tomorrow morning I leave at 5 am to drive to Vegas.  I’m headed out there for one of the biggest fashion trade shows - MAGIC.  I’m a ball of nerves … anxiety, excitement, nervousness … you name them … I’ve got them.

Why am I nervous?  Well, this is the first time I’ve done this show on my own.  I did the February 2008 show with a rep and really, it wasn’t difficult to just roll in with a bag of jewels and set up shop.  This time, I’m doing the whole thing on my own.  I’ve got the design in my head … now I just need to get it to come together at the actual show.

I’ve heard horror stories about getting loaded in because you are dealing with the union there.  I paid for cart services to bring one load in and one load out … I hope that’s enough.

I’m hopeful that I will stand out from the crowd - but I’m also realistic … it could take me a few of these to really show that I’m around for the long haul with the buyers.  This year has been all about branding for us.  Yes, we’ve been making money too … and making a TON of connections … but this show means a lot to me.  It’s me standing on my own two feet giving it a go.

Tags: buyers, jewelry, Las Vegas, MAGIC, my little pretty, trade show

Recently I had my car in for service and today I received a message from the dealer calling to make sure I was happy with the service.  This was a very nice customer service touch until they got to the last part of the message.  “You may be contacted by Hyundai and the only grade acceptable for us is excellent–10’s on all questions. We hope you’ll give us that grade.”  Not we hope we met your expectations in a way that will allow you to give us that grade.  It was almost like emotional black mail–if we don’t get all 10’s it is your fault not ours. 

Now here is the thing,  I did have an excellent service experience.  My car was ready when promised and washed for me when I picked it up.  I will give them all 10’s if called because it was excellent service.  Still I’m annoyed at the way the message was worded.  Someone seriously needs to revise the calling script. (I know it is a script because I’ve gotten similar calls each time I take my car in.)

Isn’t this like going to the teacher and saying–listen I just want to get this straight between you and me–the only grade I find acceptable is an “A.”  Seems rather silly without, can you tell me what I could do to make sure that I get that A?  Doesn’t it?

It makes you feel not like they want to take care of you but that they will be in trouble with big brother parent company if they don’t get a perfect score.  No one is perfect all the time, I’d hate to have a job my employment success was determined in never getting less than that perfect score.

Just one of those things that happens in corporate America where someone gets an idea of how to improve customer service but as it is relayed to the troops somewhere along the line it doesn’t translate into true customer service–just another “script” that someone is following.    

 This reminds me of another conversation I had several months ago at the law firm where I work part time a couple of nights a week.  I work 5p-mid and there is no paralegal in the office after I leave till 5:30 a.m. in the morning. There are other options for getting work done as the firm has offices worldwide so often work can be picked up in another office after the evening crew leaves till that morning person gets in.  But a supervisor looked me in the face and told me I wasn’t allowed to tell the attorneys that I was leaving and there was no one in the office after me–even if they asked.  I asked, “Why?”  The supervisor told me it wasn’t good customer service.  “Oh and it is good customer service to lie to the attorney and say yeah there is someone in the office when there isn’t?”  She said we want to finesse it so they don’t feel abandoned.   I have been working in law firms for 25 years and know all about finessing things.  I said, “You mean we tell them that if they need help we will get them hooked up with New York or another office that has staff?”  She says, “No don’t tell them they are going to have to go to another office.”  I say, “Well the thing is there is no one here and I won’t pretend like there is.”   (I have worked at this firm for 19 years.  I won’t lie to people I’ve worked with and honestly I don’t care about telling this woman that what she is asking is stupid.  I used to manage this sort of work  flow.  I’m not being arrogant.  I just know that it isn’t customer service to raise people’s expectations and tell them help is available when it isn’t.  My business is growing and I’m definitely a short-timer there.)  The supervisor looked frustrated and confused as I refused to carry out her orders.  Because after all she was the supervisor and I was supposed to blindly do what she said whether it made sense or not.  Unfortunately for her I’m not built that way.  I knew there would be no repercussions to me as what she was asking was really stupid and I have a good reputation there all around.  I spoke up for the other staffers that don’t have the connections I have. 

So is it just me that sees the absurdity in all this?  Do you have examples of “customer service” ideas gone bad?  If so, I’d love to hear them.

xoxox

Carol

Tags: asking for grades, Customer Service, customer service grades, Hyundai, law firms, night crew

Karen got me started on Poke I had never tried it before she made this great appetizer for Jody’s going away party. WOW it was great.  Out of respect for Karen I decided to try my hand at it only different.  Here is my version.  The inspiration came over the weekend when my Brother and Nephew came home from a deep sea fishing trip out of San Diego on a great boat called the El Dorado where they scored big time.  In my fridge was a huge bag (one of many!!) of freshly filleted Albacore and it was screaming Poke Me Poke Me and who am I to refuse such a request.

So here is my Non Traditional Version

2 lbs Albacore or other sushi grade fish - Cubed

2 - Cucumbers - I peeled them both and used one in the actual recipe and the other to devour the Poke.  The one for the recipe I just cut into small pieces.  The other one I just cut into slices thick enough to hold the Poke.

1 - Onion - diced

3 Tablespoons - Picked Ginger (Minced)

1/4 to 1/2 cup - Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon  - Sesame oil

1/2  - Habanero chili - Minced

Juice of 1/2 Fresh Lemon

1 Teaspoon - Wasabi

Kosher Salt to taste

How you put it all together.

Cut Albacore into cubes and place in fridge

Combine all remaining ingredients and put in fridge for an hour.

Serve with cucumber slices or just a toothpick (for that matter a fork works great too!!)

I was cruising the internet as well and found a few other add on’s that you may want to consider:

Green onions

Macademia Nuts - Crushed

2 Tablespoons of Mayo for a creamier texture

Additional Serving option:  Crackers

Tags: Albacore, appetizer, deep sea fishing, El Dorado, Macademia Nuts, Poke Recipe, San Diego, Tuna