Time Slice

My boss took his team out to lunch today at the California Culinary Academy (click here for more info). We ate in the dinning room of the Polk Street building which was pretty cool to see. It looks like the room used to be a ballroom with a stage that has since been converted to working, training kitchen below and a theater style classroom above.The marquee at the reservation station.

As you walk up to the entrance on Polk street they have their own culinary walk of fame. Above is the star for Julia Child from 1999
Above: You can look directly into the different kitchens from the dinning room. Here you can see the students working on our dishes.

Below: As you look through the window into the kitchen they also have all of today’s dishes on display for you to visually enjoy. From bottom left to the right: croque monsieur, trout with butternut squash hash, ahi carpaccio, chicken and dumplings, smoked duck spring rolls, crab stuffed mushrooms with cheddar sauce, simple tapenade, gumbo ya ya, sausage stuffed pork chop, salmon and lobster wellington, spinach and feta gnocchi, mushroom risotto and beef prime rib. The appetizers were all about $5 and the entrees were around $12. Not bad for the quality of the food.

Above: Today’s Menu
Crab stuffed mushroom with Guinness cheddar cheese sauce
Salmon and Lobster Wellington
And an apple tart to finish it all off.

This past weekend Christine and I went to the Jersey Boys Play (click here for more info) in San Francisco. We checked into our hotel in Lafayette (about 20 minutes east of the city) and then headed into the city for a little shopping.

We stopped by BR (Banana Republic) and put my discount card to use. Christine found me some cute outfits even though I wasn’t too excited to be shopping. We then headed out to dinner at Isa’s over in the Marina.

The food was good as usual but they had changed the menu a bit and we were both in the mood for something more than all the fish on the menu. Of course I had my obligatory foie gras. They’ve set the bar for every other foie gras that I’ve tried and again they still rock! They cooked it just right and then served it over a vanilla brioche toast with quince on the side. One bite and the fireworks go off in your mouth……..enough about me and my foie gras.

The play was great. There were a lot of “f-bombs” but it’s about three guys from Jersey, what do you expect? The play flew by and then we had to walk back to the car. We had to park in the Sutter/Stockton Garage about 7 blocks from the theater and that meant we had to walk right through Union Square and enjoy all the Christmas lights. There is nothing more beautiful than just you and your wife being able to slowly walk through the decorations, holding hands and taking it all in. I love being married to my best friend!

This is the Christmas tree in the lobby of the Lafayette Park Hotel. Our room had a king bed and a fireplace, perfect for a cold night.
The Christmas tree in Union Square.
A few of the surrounding stores

On Saturday we hung out at the hotel until about 1:00 and then headed out to Chow’s (click here for more info) in Lafayette. They serve a great breakfast on the weekends and the place is packed.
I had their Eggs Benedict. They were as good as they looked.
Then on Sunday we took all the kids up to Elk Grove so Christine and Emily could attend cousin Lisa’s baby shower. We (the boys and my father-in-law) hung out at my Brother-in-laws house waiting for the party to end. While waiting, I couldn’t believe the signs they had posted for their speed bumps or Humps as they like to call them out here. So here is what I learned; If you hump over 15mph, you could be speed humping…….with that you could blow a rod or something so you have to be careful.
And if the sign wasn’t enough, they had this painted in the middle of the road. No wonder so many people have kids around here……You’re told to hump every time you drive down the street.

I'm about to take off from Columbus and this is what is on our wings….

This morning was early again, but it’s getting easier to wake up…..just in time to head home. Below is a picture of the Ohio State Capitol after a day of snow. It looks nice to see the city covered in a white blanket .After waking up and going out in 11 degree weather, we headed to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast.
Inside they had a huge fire going in the fireplace with real oak wood. It felt so good after being in such cold weather outside.
On the front porch they were selling rocking chairs and the big sellers are the Ohio State chairs seen below.

Today’s breakfast: Two eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy and grits.

After lunch I spent time in the call center listening to calls coming in from our customers. It’s neat being able to hear their questions and to see how their issues or questions are resolved.

After a long day at the studio we headed out around 7:00pm and went to dinner at Lindey’s. We wanted some good food but something that wasn’t fried or greasy. The restaurant is located in German Village, where the German immigrants lived since they settled Columbus. All the streets are coble stone and the houses are brick and have lots of character.

The Tuna Tartare
Spaghetti and Lobster with a spicy tomato sauce. It was pretty good.
For desert we headed across town to Jeni’s Ice Cream for a desert. I had two scoops of the Thai Chili. It was good but it got a little spicy the more I ate. I liked the Salty Caramel better. This is my last night in Columbus and I have to be up at 2:00am (Pacific time) to catch my flight…..Oh yeah, it’s supposed to snow again in the morning. We’ll see what time I finally get home.

I woke up (3:45 am) this morning and there was snow on the ground. It was nice to see, but boy were the roads slippery.
We headed down to the Waffle House (click here to see their site) on the way to the studio and I had the ham and cheese omlete with hashbrowns smothered, covered and chunked (see the picture below).
All this for only $5.95?
We finally made it to the studio in our mac-daddy 300M
After leaving work at 7:00 we headed out to Skyline Chili (click here to see their site), it’s a chili chain out of Cincinnati. The food isn’t too bad and the prices were good too.
They like to serve their chili over spaghetti, hot dogs or baked potatoes. Below is a regular 3-way (spaghetti, chili and cheese). I had mine dry, meaning they drain the water off the chili and spaghetti so you’re not swimming in spaghetti soup. The chili is made with chocolate and cinnamon. It’s an interesting taste, but good.
After dinner we drove over to the Easton Mall and walked around. We were right around the corner from the Limited Head Quarters and Victoria’s Secret Catalog division so we were able to see all their stores in the mall. Did you know that VS has an active wear store calls VSX?

The day started early again today, but we found a great place that perked us up after dinner. Jenni’s Ice Cream (click here). It blows any ice cream you’ve had, out of the water!
I started by tasting the Salty Caramel and then the Thai Chili, Queen City Cayenne, Vietnamese Hot and Sweet Cinnamon, and finally the Dark Cocoa Mint…..They were all so good. I finally went with a small scoop of the Salty Caramel and couldn’t have been happier.


After I returned to the hotel I had a chat session with the family while they were at my in-laws house. It was fun to see and hear everyone. It’s a little weird being 3 hours ahead, they’re ready for dinner and I’m ready for bed.
Below is what I found in a car parked next to me at work. I had to take a picture because words couldn’t describe the mess.
In the morning I was in our DC in Groveport. Here you can see the rows and rows of shoes, all waiting to be ordered.
Below are images from our 1,000,000 Sq Foot Order Fulfillment Center (OFC). They’ve shipped nearly 2 million items just since the day after Thanksgiving and there’s about 15 more days left for shipping so it will be getting busier and busier as the deadline gets closer.

This last image is one of two special buildings that hold perfumes and other liquids that might be flammable. If a fire breaks out, the doors automatically close and any fumes go into a special sealed room to contain the hazardous gases that could be created……..who knew?

So after waking up at 3:45 this morning and flying all day, I finally arrived in downtown Columbus. My room is overlooking the State Capitol, but I wasn’t around for along as I had to head into work.

In Grove Port, OH is one of our DC’s (distribution centers), the one that I’m working out of contains all of the shoes for one of our brands. The building is over 250,000 sq feet and the studio is all the way to the back of the building. It makes for a great work out.

We finally had time for dinner (8:00 pm) and we went for steak on our first night out. That’s it for today, I’ll post some more images after tomorrow.

A project that we’ve been working on for the past few months is shown below. We’ve been building a deck for Sis. Carter in our ward. It’s been a slow project but it’s looking good. Probably a couple more weekends and we’ll be done.

I wanted to get a bigger keyboard but the phone didn’t come with a camera….And if you’re reading this you know that I need a camera to keep this blog up. So I compromised and found one that had both, the Blackberry Pearl 8130.