internet code .kp is north korea

Just a quick update: we got the whole quiz team in-place tonight and managed a best ever 8th of 52 teams and we actually won one of the two prize rounds of the evening. Our first ever win of any sort.

Maybe you'll get more tomorrow.

fire

Let's start with this afternoon and evening's events. L. was invited to the movies with a friend from school so we drove over and dropped her off before stopping at Trader Joe's to grab some basics and the Sunday night pizza fixings - this is where the World stopped. For some reason this afternoon resembled what we saw as folks got ready for the blizzard: the parking lot was a mess, the place was jammed, the customers were lost, and the lines were 8-10 deep for checkout. Now, I've often pointed out my distain for customers that refuse to bag their own groceries - they stand there watching the clerk as if some miracle was about to occur and the food might jump into bags. What we had today was a perfect storm or massive customer lines and staring fools. As I plopped myself in a line to wait patiently, I thought I'd made a grand decision because I'd been able to peer around an endcap and noted that I wasn't in slow guy's line (I thought I knew all the all clerks at my local...) We end up in line with a clerk who COULD not move slower when scanning one time at a time. There was no rebellious two-hand work, no vision that said "speed it up", no recognition that I was about to explode...nothing. I must say, in my defense, I didn't walked back to the dairy section and screaming "hurry the fuck up and back your own groceries!" at the top of my lungs. This situation was untenable, at best. As we finally got to the desk and I settled in for some quality bagging, I noted that our servicemember's name was, and I kid you not, Pyra, which I consider, per Webster's, as a feminine version of:

a pile or heap of wood or other combustible material

Trust me when I say that you will never come across a person bearing a name as unsuited as this. No flame, no fuel, no oxygen, the flue was closed, and any imaginable spark was non-existent. It was a truly stunning event.

I'd like to give you one last photo showing just how much snow we got here this winter. I took this shot after the thaw began; it looks like the driver simply abandoned his post when it got too deep:


I turned on some Olympics tonight and noted that they cut away from the two-man bobsleigh (round 3 or 4 runs) to show the last 30 seconds of the US v. Canada hockey game, which the US won 5-3. Granted, it's not a medal game but still - two-man sledding? Coverage is embarrassing.

Ah, there is good. Tonight was pizza night, and even though L has to decided on eating off the bat or coming home and rewarming, it went well. The kids and adults from North Park came over and we managed one huge meatlovers and one succulent veggie for the rest. It's amazing what sweet onions, mozerella, garlic, spinach, tomatoes, and nice cheese can be in the end. When we finished X looked at Corey and asked where the lovely, dark brownie were. Needless to say, they didn't arrive this night.

I'll let you go for the night...

t

here and there

It’s been awhile since I’ve linked to an article in the NYTimes but this one is just my speed. This is the kind of stuff that gives me hope for engaging dialogue and ideas in the media. Of course, the comments section (I read the first page) is almost as good as the article. I’ve been scanning the news of late with an eye out for pieces that L. can use/review for her post-Cold War history class in school. Between the Times, the New Yorker, The Economist, and The Atlantic, I think we can cover the current world, as well as, its state of affairs over the last 20+ years.

I’m also giving you an entry from an interesting Vblogger, j. smooth, at illdoctrine.com (also moving and using nildoctrine.com); I just came upon him via another blog and I quite like his ideas. This one deals with an NFL player and a little bit of historical reference and clarification.


I’ll be at my last mid-term tonight and then I can settle in for the second half of the quarter and getting to the meats and whatnot.

Hey.

claiming spaces

The kids are finally in school once again after missing seven days of class and eleven days of nothing-doing, overall. I’m not sure who was more punch-drunk from the blizzards: kids or cats. Lemon isn’t overly happy about piles of cold snow and ice underfoot; no worries, she’ll still kill when able. That's her outside on the snow this morning, pondering her kingdom...or queendom.

We got through last weekend and a Sunday dinner party with great fanfare. At some point between waking up that morning, and getting back from the The Lightning Thief with the kids, I contracted some bone-aching type of flu that was doused with a load of Tylenol and an early bedtime. It has somehow managed to hang around this week and I’ll sneak off to sleep early this evening.

There was an interesting bit on NPR this morning about how we’ve moved from the 'everybody help everybody' mentality that we enjoyed during last week’s strorms – when we all helped out neighbors in one way or another – to a 'batten down the hatches and take no bullshit' lifestyle. The most obvious battleground is parking space. Even out on The Hilltop there are only x number of street parking places that we've cleared for our houses. Unfortunately, those who don’t live on the street and are visiting need to park but they'd either have to find an opening at the dead end down the street or ask if there’s an available space from those that live here. It doesn’t take rocket science to sort out which house has cleared and ‘owns’ which spaces but apparently some visitors last week weren’t well versed in rocket science. While we were at the movie some blankedy-blank Audi driver 86'd our dug out plot of land. I thought, for a moment, they may have walked up the stairs and asked if they could park there for a few hours but I was imagining something that wasn’t possible. I eventually (four hours later) left them a note on their windscreen that let them know that courtesy sometimes helps and they should have asked. As expected, they eventually left but with no response or sorry pass along to us. From what I hear, the District streets are even worse with people blocking their spaces with chairs, ironing boards, and the occasional adolescent laid out on the ground holding the space until Mom gets back from the work.

My classes are going well as I wrap up mid-terms this week – nothing stunning to report aside from the massive chicken feast we had on Saturday night after we practiced fabricating chickens. We shared with the baking class and they provided dessert; all in the spirit of cooperation.

Here's a weird little icicle I came upon just off our front porch the other afternoon. Same shot in both; the flash changed the colors.

no dazzle. bedazzle.

I had a very nice birthday yesterday – well, aside from the shoveling part - and even that wasn’t so bad. Thanks to everyone for wishes, cards, and gifts.

When I got home from a half-day’s work I was treated to the theatre in our living room as a birthday gift from the long-time resident monkeys and the newest monkey. It was very entertaining and special; since it was only opening night of the production I don’t want to spoil it for anyone else until after the weekend. Mark your calendars.

The Eleven headed up to the Greek Taverna in McLean for dinner last night after we settled the kids in with food and a movie. We decided on the Taverna for two reasons: we love Greek food, and Caps’ owner Ted Leonsis (of Greek-American descent) says it’s the best Greek in the area. Good enough. We absolutely loaded up on appetizers and ate until we could eat no more. Even though the reviews on Yelp! are mixed, I can answer that issue posthaste: they do some authentic work there and they’re not trying to bedazzle you with overdone, Americanized Greek food. Everything we had was done well and we wouldn’t think twice about going back or sending anyone else there.

Our weather has stabilized for the weekend and I’ll finally be back in class tonight. I think I have a few mid-terms to be made up.

I’m carting all the kids to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Sunday morning. Being that it’s L’s favorite series of all-time, and she has some heft to compare it to, we’re quite worried that it won’t live up to book. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

Love to all.

t

let it snow; intrepid porch explorers

Well, it started slow but really picked up steam this morning about 9am with 30-40 mph winds and blasting snow. It'll take everyone awhile to dig out of this one.

dinner and a storm

Well, I had some beef that was going wanting after the last storm (not 'bad' wanting, just wanting) so I whipped up some burgers and homemade fries for the legion. L. wanted to know why I made the burgers so big - broiled on the cast iron behemoth - to which I replied, "I had that much beef mixed up and three burgers to make. Call it algebra...or geometry...or maths." I think it's always a fun challenge to see if the crew can get their mouths around the food.

The snow has finally started, after appearing to not really care for itself as a storm so much today, and is now trying to whip up its fury. The snow would be enough but the wind is allegedly going to wreak havoc on the area.

I'd thought of turnip soup for the adults but it's quickly turned into an idea closer to a big mushroom omelet; or, essentially, something easier. We'll see, won't we?

mr t's neighborhood

Here's an image from last Sunday from the NASA Earth Observatory that shows the coverage fo snow from the last storm. You can see a larger image, and the original, here. Pretty awesome. They've actually done a projection for what it will look like after tonight and tomorrow - I don't have the heart to look at it.

how do you say snow in russian?

For dorks like me this is a great slideshow especially since we live in the area and use the Metro all the time. I’ve often wondered about the progress of the system; how they sorted out where to run and when they opened the various lines and stations. I’m still amazed they didn’t build a line to Dulles International way back when. From what I understand, Dulles was built to handle the growing traffic, particularly international and long-haul continental, and opened in the early 1960s and was fully up with jumbos by 1970. Who thought to themselves, “You know what? Let’s wait until the entire area is overrun with population and then try to build a line through 25 miles of suburbs in 2010.” It’s really a horrible example of civil engineering…or thought engineering.

We’re supposed to get another 8” today, and 8” more tomorrow, before our newest and bestest storm friend finishes with us. This is getting a bit over the top.

Quiz night went well last night. We finished a bit higher than normal (8th of 43 teams) and hung a bit tougher with the legendary Naked Hookers, weekly winners and 2009 champions, as they tumbled to 3rd and only about 5 points ahead of us. X got the team prize for coming up with Lulu (sang the theme to The Man with the Golden Gun). (see foonote)

Last season, we (Caps followers, not us) got a quick lesson from our local Moscow hockey reporter on the correct pronunciations of the Russian players’ names, nicknames, and myriad other confusions. They all seem to love living here in D.C. and hanging out a Russia House but they put up with some serious name butchering. Here’s a follow-up that adds audio and an embarrassing correction on how to really pronounce Alexander Ovechkin’s last name.

Even though Corey has some broken bones in his foot, and I honestly do feel bad about that, the story that led up to the breaking of said bones at North Park Dr. is absolutely hilarious. I don't think a story has had a car full of adults laughing so hard for so long. I'll leave it to Kt to rely when she has time.

Footnote / update: I've been alerted, in no uncertain terms, that X actually came up with the Lulu answer and Kt merely made us stand firm on that answer. The original entry claimed that Kt had come up with Lulu. Believe me, it was mere moments after the the original posting before my ding-a-ling rang and I was chastised. It's now been fixed.

t

what?

let them eat cake

As the game was winding down after dinner last night, the brace of girls set-to on a cake from the greatest baking book in the World. L. had picked a chiffon cake - we had to borrow a bundt pan from down the street - and so off they went at about 7:45pm. By the time it was finished, cooled, and frosted we had a massive mess of cake and lemon frosting for the kids to snack on at about 10:15pm. Is that normal? I had a bite of L.'s and even though is was lovely it was way too sweet for me to even contemplate without a huge cup of coffee. Needless to say, a sugar rush drowned in coffee wouldn't be the best idea of the weekend.

All the kids are home from school, the Feds are shutdown so X is home, and I'm home because it's just pretty crappy driving out there. My company decided last week that if folks wanted to swap next week's Presidents' Day holiday to today - in just this event - that it wouldn't be a problem. I'll consider this my holiday weekend.

Here are some visions...

melted

I'm catching the last half of the Super Bowl (can I use that term? Will I be sued by the NFL?) while X and H. play a game of chess and L seems to be making frosting for the chiffon cake that's in the oven. The sport of the day, beyond this, was the Caps v. Pens game in D.C. It felt like a playoff game between two teams that don't much care for one another; it doesn't hurt that the two best players in hockey are meeting. It started out horribly as Crosby scored two early goals and the Caps trailed 4-1 near the end of the second period. Ovechkin came back with a hat trick - he's already scored the Caps first goal - and he scored the third and fourth to tie the game and send it to OT. He then provided the winning assist on a slap shot that Mike Knuble finished. Amazing stuff. The highlights are above. These guys were just hammering away it each other all game. Fantastic. That's 14 in-a-row for the Caps.

It took me about 1:45 to get the car dug out this morning and then X headed out to recover H. from his two-night sleepover; she made it there and back only getting stuck on our unplowed road about ten feee from my well-shoveled parking box.

The schools have already cancelled for tomorrow so my tuition for L. is being well used!

Nothing more to report from the homestead. Quiz night tomorrow.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

This is what we'd become by about 6pm when the power finally dropped. X warmed the leftover pizza from last night in a crepe pan over our fire, we pulled out Trivial Pursuit cards, and every one managed to survive. The power is back as of about 8pm, the kids (L. and G.) won the trivia battle, and it looks like we finished with about 23"-24" of total accumulation. X shoveled the steps after her long walk and I'll dig out the car before the Caps v. Pens game tomorrow.

t

Saturday, noon

It's a pretty good storm we have going here on The Hilltop. If you've been to the house then you have some reference for the front and back porches. That hump at the bottom of the stairs is our car. We're well stocked with food and firewood so there're no issues here. H. headed out for a sleepover last night knowing full well - as did the family - that he wouldn't be coming home anytime soon.

As I was filling out the grocery list at the store yesterday morning there was a man in front of me in line buying four cases of Coke and two gallons of wiper fluid. I think I understand the Coke but the wiper fluid is beyond me; what exactly does he expect to be using it for? Do you see my car? Wipers are the least of my worries.

The Caps won their 13th straight game last night - an ongoing club record - and have the Pens in D.C. tomorrow at noon. Being that Pittsburgh is playing in Montreal today I have no idea how they imagine they'll get into D.C. anytime today or tonight. As of now, Reagan and Dulles are completely shut down. I suspect there may be a delay in the start time, maybe 7pm, and fans will have to decide on watching the Super Bowl or heading to the game against our deepest rivals.

We have loads of books, magazines, a few DVDs, Netflix-on-demand, and we still have power out here. Updates to follow.

t

freaky old shows...and people.

We got back to quiz night last night and did better, point-wise, than normal but so did everyone else. My claims to fame are two-fold, as they would be if they are claims: first, I made X and Phil stick with the Faye Dunaway answer on the "who is this" picture round (it was a 50s or 60s black-and-white photo). I only claim stubbornness and not knowledge on that one. My second point was during the 'Life and Times of William Shatner' round when the question was something along the lines of "on this 1965 show that included blah blah and talking trees, William Shatner played a dancing onion." I immediately came up with H.R. Pufnstuf, to which they both looked at me as if I were radioactive; they'd never heard of it. Of course, what else in 1965 could have talking trees and dancing onions? Yep, I was solid gold.

Last Saturday night we had a bit of a D.C. blizzard and there was some wonder on whether or not I'd have class. We were scheduled to finish up soups with a shrimp bisque, New England clam chowder, and a consomme. In the end, only 7 of the 20 showed up and so we worked 10 lbs. of shrimp into two gallons of bisque and two gallons of chowder. Once we got that sorted we finished the other 4 lbs. of shrimp into scampi and a very light breaded shrimp. I was shrimped out at the end of the night but it was a great class - loads of room in the kitchen and the chef instructor seemed to really enjoy the time. We're moving into poultry and some butchering this week (this a one-quarter, eleven-week, classical techniques course that runs about 11 hours per week.)

Both gals in the house are knocked down with sickness. L is reading in her room and X is laid out on the other living room pillow area. Both will get doused with NyQuil and sent to bed any moment.

Love to all.

t

P.S. I suspect all will be home tomorrow as we have another 4-6 inches of snow in progress.

plotting

The kids headed out to school this morning, one by bike and one on foot, with stop #1 being the Metro bus at the bottom of our street. From there they go to the Metro and on to Vienna. The last step is catching the school’s bus that runs them from the metro station to the school’s front door. It was at the ultimate step that some confusion rained down; the two got separated at the end and L. wasn’t sure where the bus picked up the kids. She gave me a quick call and eventually made it to the bus safely but this is more a story about me than about her (or them).

There’s a small bus circuit the runs around Fairfax City (The CUE bus) and it’ll take you from the Metro to the school’s driveway; as long as you know its schedule and map. What I’d forgotten to do – unbelievably – was package up my normal, and overly detailed, guide material containing the bus map, time tables, a map of the bus shelter parking lot, and spare change for L. before the first day of school. (Yes, each item is highlighted and annotated.) X can vouch for my over-planning when it comes to journeys; but it’s good over-planning. The best example was when we met in Barcelona for a week and I showed up with a selection of restaurants, city maps, transit maps, country maps, transit maps, and other assorted items. One impressive bit – if I do say so myself – was our regional train ride from Barcelona to La Garriga for our night at Termes spa. We were catching our train from Placa Catalunya to La Garriga and I’d mapped out the line and times for departure…in laminated form. The stations in Spain – as with most of Europe – don’t necessarily have loads of English instructions laying about the place so you use your experience and trust the timetables even if you’re not sure what the train, or the announcements, say. Our train was leaving from track Red 3 at 3:41pm and arriving in La Garriga about 40 minutes later. We got to the track about five minutes early and when a train pulled in at 3:41, we boarded. I still remember us wondering if we’d done the right thing – what if we ended up Lisbon? – but we both knew it’d work out in the end; that's sort of our travel M.O. The next day we reversed the process from the small, single-track station in the country and simply boarded whatever train was passing through at our appointed time.

The reason I haven't told you this before is because it's not really a story.

chop, slice, score

Let me give you a quick story about filling out your cooking school knife/junk kit. You need a really good skimmer; you do loads of clarified butter and if you don't have a good skimmer you might as well go sit in the corner. You need a tourne knife because doing tourne potatoes is a skill that needs not only practice but good equipment. What else? Right, a good lemon reamer - I have a juicer at home but I'm not carrying that thing back and forth to class. I also picked up a French-built baller for doing Parisienne potatoes. The Parisienne cut is essentially doing a melon baller move; but, with raw potatoes they are an absolute bitch; my teammate and I sorted out angles, edge of table leverage, and cussing as we did our practice last week. Seemed to me that even though the angles will never change, a good, sharp baller would be solid gold. Oh, and I had to buy a new whisk since mine somehow disappeared last week. Along those lines, what I learned right quick from a guy on my team who works at a place in D.C. is this: tape your kit. Especially since we have 17 of us in the same kitchen with the same kit it's essential to be able to see and ID your stuff from distance. He'd white-taped his gear and I've now white-and-red taped my stuff - no issues from now on.

I have to take a second to throw in an Onion piece that is so very true. Here, go off and take a read. My favorite place when I was living out in Nevada was stocked with the coolest coffeemakers anywhere. The owner in Fallon always hired the most interesting crew and there was definitely one that fit the mold of "guys showing up to see her" barrista. (Actually, there were three or four over the years but one certainly stood out.) It's pretty funny to read this and not wonder at all about what the staff meeting was like when they came up with this idea. In fact, I never even knew her name. Is that misogynistic?

L. did her first day of school today and everything seems to have gone quite well. She reports that she's got only 8-10 kids in each class, her teachers are cool, and school isn't so bad - I can't ask for much more than that. After dropping her off, I wondered just how it is that I've been so lucky in life...that comes up often of late.

The funniest part of the day occurred while she was being "shadowed" by another student who came upon H. and stopped to introduce the two of them. H. immediately let her know that he already know, and in fact lived with, L. and had known her since they were four. I think the shadow thought it all a bit strange.

The Caps have won 8 straight (longest streak in a quarter century; and won 10 of 11) and look nearly invincible right now. Obviously, the playoffs are what count but they are gelling quite well right now and the (Spring) future looks bright.

L. and I, the 51, caught a very nice rendition of Rent at the Keegan over the weekend. If I can muster up the time for a review, I'll pass it along.

love to all.

t

a peep from a kitchen

I’m settling into my second week of culinary classes but still have a few fixes to implement: getting up earlier on Thursday and Friday mornings, using my Saturday afternoon dead-time (I have an 8-11:30am class and a 6-10:30pm class) to get a bit of work done, and sorting out travel. In case you’re wondering, I have class Thursday night (6-8:30pm) and Friday night (6-10:30pm) along with my Saturday courses. Last week we were working on knife cuts (yikes) and stocks, with mother sauces and soups on tap this weekend.

L. is settled into the house with her room in shape. We’ll probably try to paint the walls over the next few weeks in order to brighten it up. Honestly, the walls could have used a coat when we moved in a few years back. She has some sample card on the shelf and she and X will come up with a choice at some point.

We had a little scare on the school as they caught me out on paying for the semester up front. After some discussion between the headmaster, the finance person, and I, we managed to sort out a four-month plan that’ll be very tight for us but will work in the end. The third quarter starts on Wednesday so L.’s long(er) winter break will finally be over. She’s heading into D.C. this morning on the Metro to hit the museums again while the crowds are sparse this time of year.

Here’s my political input for the week: piss off, Ben Nelson. The senate election in Massachusetts has changed the landscape a bit – nothing I’m overly worried about in the long run – but at least with the Democrats having only 59 senators (or if they’d have had 61 before), ol’ ‘Dumbass’, Ben Nelson, can’t hold everyone in the country hostage to his whims. I cannot believe anyone would vote to re-elect him after his performance.

There was rumor of some snow today – and through the weekend – but it end up just spitting a bit this morning.

Maybe by Sunday you’ll get another update.

t

...has no grade-point average

We adults snuck out last evening and left (now) five children to their own devices. Actually, L. was watching the N. Park clan sleep and the boys were doing what monkey boys do at home.

Last night was the final night of the D.C. area restaurant week where a great number of chefs open their places to set-price, fixed menus that usually include three courses and wine for about $30-$40 per person. I guess it’s a chance to control prices whilst luring folks out to new restaurants they’ve never tried. I made us a reservation at Kora in Crystal City which is the new place run by our favorite chef/owner from Farrah Olivia. We talked about the results of this foray on the way home last night and I’ve considered the meal even more throughout today, and it’s only getting worse.

I have no idea what was the genesis behind the new place aside from him needing to close FO when the rent apparently skyrocketed at his Alexandria location. Kora is allegedly an Italian place but the set-price menu didn’t seem to offer what I might consider Italian fare – aside from tiramisu. It’s a bigger venue then FO but the design isn’t anything to write home about; certainly nothing like his last room. The wait staff that we encountered was clearly of the hourly sort, and by that I mean non-professional waiters. FO was full of the kind of waiter that knew the food, understand the menu, and could do more than ‘take orders’ and (maybe) come back. Our group was pretty amateur (the dessert order was lost) across the board. The food was below mediocre and that’s a pretty harsh thing for me to say. I had a seasonal seafood soup (salmon being the season) with bacon bits on top, a mushroom polenta for mains, and tiramisu for dessert. The soup seriously could have come from a carton with some cooked bacon pitched on top. The polenta was a horribly overcooked square that was rockhard on the outside and bit cold in the middle – I imagine someone ‘grilled’ it, but it’s a mystery to me. The mushrooms were a poorly sauteed and poorly seasoned collection chucked on top with a few cherry tomatoes halved around the plate. Dessert may have worked its way up to mediocre but I have a theory that says tiramisu is probably going to always be okay but rarely stunning – they met my theory dead-on. Both the WonderTwins opened with beet salad which at least got “it was good” reviews, and Corey had a lamb shank that he said may have been dead-and-gone for a very long time. I didn’t hear much on the other two desserts around the table but it wouldn’t be enough credit to move everything up to the “we’d go again” grade.

I just don’t get it. If he was going to move (forced to move) why not just re-open FO at the new place? Italian? His style doesn’t seem to even consider Italian as an option and now he’s opened a place (in which there is no way he was at the helm last night) that will not survive until summer, in my opinion. Considering our awe of his fool at Farrah Olivia, the great staff, and the lovely atmosphere it’s hard to believe it’s come to this. Even though the total was a reasonable $190 (w/tip and two bottles of wine) for four adults, Kora is an utter failure in my book. I’m pretty devastated by the whole thing. Word is that he’s looking to open up in the District and if it Farrah O. then I’ll be there, posthaste. If not, he’d have a hard time getting me in the door. For all my readers (!) that loved Farrah Olivia, as of now, it's a goner...

Ah, life.

We are back on for quiz night at the pub this evening. I’ll pass along results.

t

chop chop

Here’s a timely piece on culinary school (I start tomorrow night). What’s difficult to gauge, using my own hopes, is how hard it must be to pay for an education of any sort knowing that your job opportunities are limited, financially. As pointed out, there are loads of careers where you can just as easily work your way up through skill and practice but oftentimes that might entail starting even lower on the pay scale and spending years trying to get in the door. Of course, the paper doesn’t necessarily get you in any door, either, and that was made pretty clear at my orientation last week.

The massive difference for me is that I’m taking this on as a combination of my interests and a good dose of hope for down the road. I’m not paying anything for the time I’ll be spending learning the basic skills (which I don’t actually have right now) and my living expenses are covered as I continue to work in my career field. If I decide to give the food world a go in three years' time I won’t owe anyone anything, I’ll have my retirement pay and health insurance, and I can probably take a few steps without being overwhelmed. Those that are attending the full-time day program (I’ll be full-time nights) are going to be those who aren’t working and taking loans in order to pay for school and living expenses over the next three years. Coming out of a degree program with $60K in debt and falling into a world that pays you $25K per year is demented. When you break it down, what should be the norm – something like 12-15 months and <$10K in cost – would make much more sense. My friend, Todd, went to accelerated nursing school for 15 months and it ran about $25K – to be a nurse and to save lives. And here we’re talking about food and cooking? Hmm.

Regardless, my voyage begins and I’ve got a much more relaxed road ahead of me than most students – aside from not being home to cook three nights a week. If it goes pear shaped? The world will keep turning and I’ll still have money sitting around for other education, if I choose.

That's that. L. arrive tomorrow evening.