Gelatonous Black Balls

I was walking through the mall this morning after picking up the new iMac and became hungry. I walked by Chick-Fil-A and somehow made the decision to opt for something healthier for lunch. I decided I would just go home and find something in the fridge. As I made my way to the entrance of the mall I happened upon a kiosk. Simon’s Sushi. I picked out a plastic box of unagi rolls. The lady in line in front of me was handed a green tea smoothie thing. I said, “Ooooh, can I have one of those too?” The man whipped together the green tea concoction and handed it to me. It looked weird as there were dark spheres at the bottom of my cup. I shrugged it off, paid my bill and walked outside.

I took a sip from the cup through the huge straw and drew two soft black balls into my mouth (uhhh huh huh huh uhhh huh huh huh). I shrugged that off as well as I didn’t want to walk back into the mall. I figured I was getting a taste of Japanese Mall Kiosk Kulture. I later found out that I orded bubble tea and the chewy spheres are tapioca balls.

Bubble tea and unagi rolls
Mmmmm. Tapioca balls.

Work iMac

I bought an iMac for my work computer this morning. I paced back and forth in the living room this morning, trying to justify the expense. I sat down and created a spreadsheet to see my purchase options. I wanted to go the inexpensive route by buying the mid-range Mac mini and a used 17″ Apple Cinema Display on either eBay or Craigslist. I realized that after buying a Mac mini G4, monitor, mouse and keyboard, I could spend a little bit more and get a 17″ iMac G5 with twice as much disk space, built-in Bluetooth and Airport Extreme.

The salesperson at the Apple store sold me on the Bluetooth mouse and keyboard rig. It’s gorgeous!

iMac G5
iMac G5 with built-in iSight, Photo Booth and Front Row

iMac G5
Look, Ma – only one wire!

Elise and I cook differently

“What do you want me to make for dinner tonight?”

“How about I cook dinner tonight?”

Really?

“Yeah. What do you want?”

“Anything that doesn’t end in asserole.”

“Well, there goes 95% of my repertoire.”

Q-pon

I know I’m wrong, but I wanted to see if I have any fellow “kyew-pon” pronouncers.

I guess my mom pronounces it “kyew-pon” and I inherited the pronunciation. I just can’t bring myself to saying, “coo-pon”. It sounds too dainty. Damnit, my manly brain served me up the word dainty.

Day trading

I’ve kind of turned into a day trader. It’s a guilty pleasure. I’m not really day trading by definition but instead am breaking one of the key rules for successful investing: I’m watching my stock investments on a daily basis. I’m only doing this only because I’ve been making money again and that’s been exciting. I lost my ass in the dot-com fallout and up until somewhere in 2004, my portfolio was littered with ho-hum investments.

My parents did a cool little trick for me when I was young (and I will do the same as our child grows). I was paid a small commission for the A’s and B’s that I earned on my report card. My parents also matched and exponentially upped my earned commission and secretly put that money aside for me. Later they invested my Good Grade Earnings on my behalf in blue chips stocks.

When I “grew up”, I began watching my dollar as a taxed employee, consumer and investor. I realized that I would need money for things like a wife, retirement and eBay auctions. So I adopted a few very simple investment rules for myself: 1) Invest in companies that sell goods and/or services that you like. 2) Keep your portfolio managable (10-15 companies). 3) Don’t watch over your portfolio like a mother hen and 4) P/E is no longer what you once refered to as your “favorite class” in elementary school.

#1 is #1 because it’s the most important to me. I sold the likes of AOL and Pfizer and bought stock in companies that I like. Here’s mention of my 4th brightest shining star from the Motley Fool:

“Over the past year, you could have doubled your money in stocks as varied as Valero and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). What do a refiner and a consumer electronics company have in common? Not much, aside from exceptionally strong growth and a broad recognition of that growth from the market at large.”

Since growing up I’ve deposited our own earned money into our portfolio. If we receive cash as a gift, I invest it. Elise has been my lucky investment charm too. She hasn’t let on that she’s as interested in investing as I am, but she gave me three suggestions that have yielded gains over 27% in 2005.

I don’t know why I just wrote all of that. The fart jokes will resume momentarily.

Avocado dressing

Add poblano, chile powder and garlic

* 2 ¼ Cups olive or avocado oil
* ¾ Cup Dijon mustard
* ½ Cup white wine vinegar
* ¼ Cup fresh lime juice
* ¼ Cup cilantro, chopped
* ¼ tsp dried oregano leaves
* ½ tsp ground red pepper
* 6 (8 oz.) whole boneless chicken breasts, split in half
* 3 California Avocados, seeded and peeled
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1 ½ Gallons mixed salad greens, torn into bite size pieces

Always thinking

Josh: “So, you think I can catch Tony Soprano with this 2.5″ net?”

Elise: “Yeah, he’ll fit in there.”

The happy couple walks toward the checkout counter with a 94¢ net.

Josh holds the net out in front of him at arms length.

Josh: “If I followed this around for a month, would that be fish net stalking?”

Elise: “I love you.”

Veal Thymus Glands

Yours truly was recently approved to be an editor for Chef Moz. I will probably use that title for little more than to say that I’m a volunteer editor for Chef Moz.

I take that back. I’m going to use my newly acquired title as an excuse to take Elise to dinner at Cafe 909. I want to try the sweetbread. I’ll have Elise eat it too. It’s supposed to be high in vitamins and minerals and paying top dollar to eat highly perishable baby cow viscera is what cool volunteer Chef Moz editors do.