50th Anniversary

Last Sat. D and I went to Disneyland and bought 2fer tickets. I hadn't been since I worked there about ten years ago, and D and I had never been together. Plus, Disneyland is celebrating their 50th Anniversay so I thought it would be a good time to go. Here are some pictures of all of the "50's" that we saw throughout the park.

The Motivator

Who's that guy that you hear yelling whenever an American is about to start a downhill ski event in the Olympics? I guess his job is to pump the skiiers up, but D and I always start cracking up. He has a really gruff voice and yells things like "Kill it!" or "Come on [fill in the skiier's last name]...hammer it!" He does a good job of mixing it up. Maybe he has a notebook to keep track of new phrases to use. I want to see what he looks like, but they never show him.

Found a Job!

I have been searching for a job for about 1.5 months, and last week I landed a contract to permanent position at this company in Cypress. I am going to be in a contract positon for 2 weeks because they wanted me in there right away, but I should become a permanent employee in about 2 weeks. At least I got a verbal offer for the permanent position. God is good. Not only because I found a job, but also that He answered my prayer in terms of being at peace in which position I should take. My journey, while not too long, was very interesting.

I first went to an outplacement service called Right Mangement Solutions, and they helped with difficult decisions, such as; 1 or 2 page resume?, should you provide personal business cards?, and what to say during a 30 second "commercial". This helped me get into the right mind set. It was funny that the only parking they validated at this place in Irvine, was valet. And you are suppose to tip the valet guys! (Hello, you are unemployed!) Also I noticed there are a lot of wealthy people there.

I interviewed at many companies including, Disney, Taco Bell, Carl Karcher Enterprises, Coca-Cola, Beckman-Coulter, Black & Decker, Hines Horticulture, SM&A, ConAgra (Phone), & Mazda (Informational). The Disney one was interesting because you go to this "casting" area, where employees of all levels are interviewing. Taco Bell has a drive thru menu by the lobby of their building on the 2nd floor. Coca-Cola had a full on fountain drink area with slurpies in their kitchen area! Hines Horticulture is in a large nursery, that will soon be handed over to the Irvine company so they can make more homes. And Taco Bell and Coca-Cola employees get off at 1 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

At this company in Cypress, a recruiter called me and told me they had a contract opportunity and they wanted me to send my resume. Then they set me up for an interview on Wednesday, and I interviewed with 4 employees. However, they liked me so much they wanted to bring me on full time. But since someone was leaving next week, they wanted me to contract for 2 weeks because it takes them that long to do the paperwork. They make you take a physical & drug test. But I wanted to contract there for a month, and then decide where I would work depending on where I got offers from. However, they knew I was actively interviewing, so they told me we want to know if you are really interested because they didn't want me to work for a few weeks and then have to find someone else all over again once I left.

I was struggling in my decision to take this position or wait for another position that I had a first round interview with. This Cypress company offered good pay, title and was 2 miles from my house, however I thought that a large Fortune 500 company was calling my name. I remember when Abraham of the Old Testament sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. The servant thought of this character test. The woman who not only offers the servant water but also offers to water his camels as well, would be the woman for Isaac. In the end she was a relative of Abraham, which was good, menaing she was a believer, and the servant found the right wife. So I was thinking of a "test" that would show that God would show me that this position was the right one. Since I couldn't really think of a good one I prayed that God would let me know and give me peace. My wife asked me if I had peace about the decision and this other guy said peace was one of the 3 things to look in deciding if this was what the Lord wanted, along with being in line with the scriptures and that the circumstances presented that opportunity. Well in the end, I was able to talk with the CFO of the company the next day and he alleviated my fears of if this company was as profitable as the hiring manager led me to beleive. In addition after I said yes to coming in and contracting for this position, I found out that this Fortune 500 company mysteriously changed their minds. Also it was weird that before another Fortune 1000 company didn't hire me because supposedly 2 recruiters were claiming that they sent my resume into the company first. And the company was afraid of litigation. I was bummed, but was confident that it was not the right opportunity for me. L also mentioned that is it weird that I found a job only 2 miles away from the home that we bought 6 months ago.

Some people might think this is random, but I don't. God is soverign.

D-

Go Toby!

D & I are trying to catch up on our Winter Olympics watching this weekend. We are still on Wednesday's events and just saw Toby Dawson win bronze in the Freestyle Moguls. It's nice to see some Asian American (Korean) representation. His mom (who is white) is so cute...she's always jumping up and down in the stands and screaming.

V-Day

Look what D got me for Valentine's Day. This was actually a surprise! (D is not too good at keeping secrets.)

Here is what D made for dinner--salmon sandwiches. This wasn't a surprise, but it was tasty. Look at that tarragon!

I bought these pants for D, along with some choxie chocolate bars.

I tried making creme brulee from Trader Joe's but had a hard time melting the sugar. I need a blow torch! We also exchanged sappy cards. Pretty fun for a Tuesday.

The Loft Coincidence

D and I have been to The Loft together twice. The first was in Cerritos over a year ago and the second was in Cypress yesterday. Both times we saw the same guy from our church! How weird is that? We ordered an island fried chicken plate (a must, as L & L does not have it) and a regular teriyaki chicken bowl along with a spam musubi. I got D hooked on the plate lunches--cool.

On Sat. we hosted a "Torino dinner" for my fam. It was really just some Italian food from Trader Joe's or "Trader Giotto's," while watching a little Olympics. We should have people over more often because it motivates us to clean!

Hot Means HOT!

Our latest culinary adventure took place at Mike's Bar-B-Que. D ordered the pork rib dinner with beans and cole slaw ($10.24) and I had the brisket dinner with macaroni salad and collard greens. ($9.60). They also give you two pieces of white bread, which we toasted at home. I ordered the "hot" sauce, which was...hot. I don't think that even my sister in law would have to add tabasco. :) It was enough food for lunch the next day when I made some rice and corn to add. We used our trusty Entertainment Book coupon so we got my dinner for free! The meat was good, but I'm not sure I would go again without some sort of discount. The lunch plates seem like a pretty good deal, though. ($5.40-$7.59). I liked the macaroni salad--slightly soupy and sweet. They ran out of the potato salad, D's first choice. Also, this is probably better for take-out as there isn't too much ambience.

Mike's Bar-B-Que
11513 Knott Avenue
Cypress, CA 90630
(714) 799-6222

Are You Kidding Me?

Whenever something surprises me, I like to say "Are you kidding me?" in a really incredulous tone. Well, that's what I said when the newest Bachelor picked Moana. Moana (as in the Surfrider Hotel). ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Korean Stalkers

D and I are convinced (or at least I am) that we have Korean stalkers. Last Sunday, when we returned from church, there was a pamphlet with a post-it note stuck in our front door. The pamphlet was printed in Korean and the post-it note had Korean hand-writing on it. Then, this morning, we got a call from this guy who was speaking some sort of Asian language, which I am about 80% sure was Korean, and I just hung up because I didn't know what to say. Then, tonight, when we got home from watching the Super Bowl, I answered the phone and there was a woman speaking Korean (I think)again! This time I said, "I don't speak Korean, bye" and hung up. I'm not sure what to make of this, as we don't know any of our Asian neighbors, so how do they know where we live and our telephone number? Of course, they could be unrelated incidents, but I'm getting suspicious.

The Flying Tomato

This past weekend was spent eating Chinese food (to celebrate the new year!) and watching the X games. D got me hooked on watching the superpipe a couple of years back. My favorite snowboarder has got to be Shaun White, aka "The Flying Tomato", or "Senor Blanco". He is the coolest dork ever--straight kickin'! This year he won gold! Can't wait for the Winter Games...must make sure there is enough room on our Tivo before they start.