After a jam-packed, long overdue entry last time, today I want to talk about one thing: sushi. Many people who have never tried sushi cringe at the very thought. I admit I was a bit skeptical at first when my sister suggested that I go to the sushi bar with her. But I gave it a shot, and it turns out that I really like it! Sushi is a delicious blend of flavors and textures unlike any other type of food I’ve ever tried. I have two personal favorites: salmon, which has a wonderfully smooth texture and very little “fishy” flavor, and California rolls, which normally include cooked crab (or imitation crab), cucumber, seaweed, and sushi rice. Sushi is food as art. The appearance and presentation are just as important as the flavor, and many creations are quite beautiful. The word “sushi” actually refers to the type of sticky rice that are part of many “sushi” dishes. Yes, much of the fish is raw, but it is handled very carefully to keep it safe. Millions of people every day eat sushi with no ill effects. Some items are cooked, such as the California rolls and a special sweet egg dish called tamago. So if you’re one of the skeptics, I urge you to try it just once. Start with an order of California rolls and then start experimenting. If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I strongly recommend Midori Sushi in Irving. It was my first sushi experience, and it’s still the best sushi I’ve ever had. They also give you free miso soup (delicious!) as an appetizer and a sliced orange for dessert. You can find Midori Sushi at the corner of MacArthur and Northgate in Irving.
June News
Whew! We’ve had so much going on that I haven’t made time to update the blog in a while. My maternal grandmother was in the hospital for a few days last week, but I’m glad to say she’s now home recovering and feeling better. Jenny got a promotion at work! Starting sometime next month, she will be a project specialist for the onboarding group in the People dept. That means she’ll be working on a variety of special projects, such as organizing events, gathering and analyzing data, designing forms, etc. The onboarding group tries to make sure new employees at SWA get plugged in the culture and love the company from the beginning so that they stick around. I’m sure many of you saw the Wright Amendment compromise that Dallas, Fort Worth, DFW, American, and Southwest worked out recently. I’m actually quite happy with it. Sure, 8 years is a long time, but if American was going to sign off on it, we couldn’t get any less than 8. The agreement lets us keep 16 gates at Love, which is a huge plus, and allows immediate through-ticketing, which will also be a big help. I expect Congress to pass it this year. Vegas, here we come, after a stop in Albuquerque! =) I finished my economics class (number 11/13). The garden is getting very, very crowded, but we finally have 2 cucumbers! It’s schedule bidding time at work, and I think I’m going to bid midnights for next year (Feb 2007-Jan 2008). I’m not senior enough to get day shifts, so midnights are the only way to see my wife much when I’m working.
The End is Near!
I have a graduation date: Friday, December 8, in Corpus Christi. I registered for my final class today, Business Policy and Decision Making. I think it will be a very interesting class. It involves analyzing a business like a manager, finding the problems, and solving them. I’m scheduled to start it next month.
Jenny and I went camping last weekend at Cedar Hill State Park, which has somewhere around 400 campsites, all with water and electric hookups. We had a great time hiking, napping, relaxing, and being away from our day-to-day busyness. Holly came with us. She’s a pretty good camping dog, and she went on our hikes with us despite the heat. This will probably be our last camping trip for a while until it cools down a bit.
Our garden is doing well! We pulled our first zucchini today, and more are on the way. The cucumbers have many blooms, so we should start to see fruit soon. The birds like our tomatoes, and the pie plate that we hung to scare them off doesn’t seem to be scary enough. But we’re having a good time! I’ll try to post a picture soon.
Lunch, Dinner, and Breakfast
I’ve been working some midnight shifts lately. They are great for school purposes, but I’m still adjusting to the weirdness of the schedule. It changes your days in ways you might not think of. For instance, the first meal of the day is generally lunch, since I wake up around noon. The second is dinner, often with my wife. The last meal of my day is breakfast at work. This morning my shift ended at 7:00 AM, so I went down to the People Dept. and met Jenny as she was coming in to work. To make sure I brush my teeth at least twice a day, I might do it right before going to work, even though I’m going to be up for several more hours and haven’t even had breakfast yet. =)
I finally put the car in the shop. They said I changed the wrong sensor, so I guess I didn’t outsmart the man after all. But the light is off, and they did some other good work as well, so I can’t complain too much. My goal is to keep her running until we can get Jenny’s CRV paid off.
Recent Events
The Check Engine light is still on. I just exchanged the replacement sensor for another one, just in case it was a bad sensor. I have about 2 weeks left to get the problem fixed and the car inspected. In happier news, my brother-in-law Phillip graduated from college on Saturday and started his new job as a loan counselor/officer today. We’re very excited for him! We had a cookout at our house for Mother’s Day with Jenny’s family and mine. Friday night we saw Poseidon, which is pretty good despite the Titanic flashbacks it causes. Ironically, it reminded me that I want to go on another cruise. =) And finally, if you haven’t seen it, I reorganized my writing pages and added one for aviation essays in case you’re having trouble sleeping. Right now they’re all Word files, but I might convert them into HTML later. Enjoy!
Outsmarting the Man?
The Check Engine light in my car is on. After scanning the error code, AutoZone told me I had a bad oxygen sensor, which monitors the exhaust and tweaks the fuel-air mixture to make the engine burn fuel more efficiently. According to the Internet, the part should be $50-70, but I didn’t know how to install it. So I called a local Christian auto repair shop. Since they made a big deal out of being Christian, I hoped they would be honest with me. When I called for an estimate, they recommended an $86 diagnostic inspection (just in case the 10-year-old sensor hadn’t really failed). Then they told me the part cost about $240, and the labor would be $70-100. So in total, they wanted to charge me about $450 to install a part I could get for $50. I decided not to give them my business. Instead, I went back to AutoZone, bought the part for $50, and installed it myself, thanks to the Internet, prayer, and PB Blaster corrosion dissolver. It’s fun to stick it to the man. =) Unfortunately, the light is still on, but the AutoZone guy said it might take 300 miles of driving for the computer to realize that a new sensor is in place. Stay tuned…