Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Lunch

This is a pretty mundane post to follow up my last but I've decided to start posting more. The new house has a great kitchen and it has inspired me to cook more. Lunch today also did.

I had a Caribbean jerk chicken sandwich for lunch today and it S U C K E D. It was described as a Caribbean jerk chicken Sandwich with black beans and banana mustard on a multigrain bun. Sounds exotic and interesting right? Filled with all kinds of tangy spices and flavors? Sounds like it would add some zing to this engineer’s desk job? Transport him to the island of sun and reggae?
It was the biggest bun of suck I’ve ever had to eat.

The chicken was in big chunks, VERY cold (think ice cube cold) and barely covered with a kind of jerk sauce. By barely I mean I could only taste the sauce my dipping my finger into the drops that fell off the sandwich into my tray. This chicken made deli meat taste like filet mignon. In fact, I’d rather have eaten expired sliced ham.
The roll it was on was way too big, extra dry and bland beyond belief. It had the consistency more of a fabric and I think I remember hearing the sound of fabric ripping as I bit through each pitiful bite. The experience was like taking giant bites of a bready brick that tasted like sand.
The only interesting thing was the “banana mustard” which just tasted exactly like mashed bananas with no mustard. I was lucky enough to taste the banana mash once every 5 bites. Those tiny bursts of flavor were torture. They made me realize there was a world out there of tastes and warm food. I think the coldness of the sandwich made my tongue go numb, that or I had probably swallowed it along with all my taste buds upon starting this suck-wich.

I give it a 3 out of 10. It has 1 point because it was completely cooked and the bread was not rotten. It gets 2 points because I was no longer hungry after completing the sandwich.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Life

I decided a long time ago not to make this blog too personal. Well, there are some things in one's life that you just cannot hide, nor would you want to. They are wonderful things that have the power to change you, mold you and in a sense, redirect you. It's an amazing time for me and I thought I'd like to share.

So here are a few of them.
I married the love of my life two months ago. It was a beautiful day and it has quickly seated itself as one of my happiest memories. A simple thought back to that day and everything else pales. Strangely it comes to me only in bright and emotional bursts like only my most cherished memories do. They are full of wonderful flashes of family and friends, love and laughter, and of course my beautiful bride. I will hold on to them dearly and can't wait to add to them.

We are also about to buy a new house. It is our first house and we have seen it built from the ground up. It's been a long time but tomorrow we go to close on it. It's hard to believe it is almost ours! Especially for me because my family did not have alot of money growing up. I lived with my grandparents and various houses as a child. In fact, I clearly remember thinking I wanted to buy a "nice brick house with central air and heat". Well it has happened and to top it off, my wife and I get to start our lives together in it.

I also changed my job earlier in the year. I moved to a group that I thought I might be able to grow into better. There are transition issues as with anything but nothing too serious. It is challenging and interesting and somewhere where I could be allowed to fully pursue my technical interests.

I am not a religious man but I am spiritual, and I am thankful.