A little behind

Yeah, it's been a while since we've/I've blogged.  We've actually been up to a lot since San Diego.

Two weekends ago Sasha came down.  That Friday afternoon my school had a Student Appreciation Event and there was a wing eating contest!  I decided to join.  It wasn't heat/spicy based, it was amount!  I didn't win...but I did have a good time and got some delicious (FREE) wings out of it.  A few of my classmates got pictures of me inhaling my hot wings...I will post when I get copies from them. :)

It was fun having Sasha here.  We went to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, checked out the cool exhibits, brain teasers and even saw an OMNIMAX movie called Born to Be Wild.  I think Sasha and Eric's favorite "exhibit" was the OMSI gift shop.  Next time you see one of them ask them about the cool plastic tubes...if you can't wait to ask them, click here to see what I'm talking about.  (This isn't too far off from what was going on in the gift shop.)

Here is a picture of us from the Chem-Lab at OMSI

San Diego - not in Portland, but still blog-worthy

Eric and I went to San Diego for Labor Day weekend.  We had to drive up to Seattle and fly out of Seatac because our tickets were booked before we moved down here. (On Tuesday we went up and down the coast in one day!)

Eric and Kinley enjoying the sunshine on the upper deck

We did a Harbor Tour and learned about the San Diego Bay.  Our tour guide was kind of a joke, but it was a pretty ride.

On the tour we saw some sea lions, boats that looked like humongous pieces from Battleship and a really long bridge.

I also like to nap after a big meal

Can't you just hear Sir Elton John singing?

After church on Sunday, some of us went to the Safari Park. 

This is a lion napping after his lunch...those people should've read the signs...I guess it's a good way to teach kids a lesson in obeying authority...








The Safari Park is very reminiscent of the Lion King - minus the murdering uncle, hyenas on nitrous oxide and awesome soundtrack...so maybe not so much like the Lion King

Anna and Eric at the be

On Monday we went to Oceanside.  It's a beach in San Diego.  The weather wasn't ideal, but you wouldn't be able to tell from these faces, would you?


Some of the group went in the water to boogie board despite the less than ideal conditions.  I on the other hand decided to stay on shore.
 

While we were down there we celebrated our nieces' 1st birthdays.  They are very cute little girls.  :) Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures from their birthday party. My bad.

It was fun to see the fam (especially the munchkins!)  and spend some time together.  We're looking forward to seeing everyone again at Christmas!

Goin' Wild!

Actually we went to the zoo, so the "wildness" was actually really controlled.  The zoo is only about 2 and a half miles away from our apartment, so we decided to take public transportation for the day, which was super convenient.

We saw a bunch of different animals including (but not limited to): black bears (which are best, anyone know that reference?), eagles, turtles (they had baby turtles who had just hatched a few days ago), HUGE sea lions, otters, giraffes, lions, zebras, elephants, HIPPOS! (I think the hippos at Woodland Park Zoo are lazier than the ones at the Oregon zoo.  The ones here were actually doing stuff like standing and swimming laps), and DINOSAURS!

They actually have an exhibit where they turn back time and you can walk with the dinosaurs.  Eric got a little too close...

Ok, so maybe I lied. there aren't any time machines at the Oregon Zoo, but they do have a Walking with Dinosaurs exhibit that we were too cheap to check out.  But we did snap a picture outside of the exhibit. 

After the Zoo we grabbed some lunch (we went to P.F. Chang's after being inspired by their demonstration at school).  And since it was so warm we took the street car to the local Splash Park.  It was a fun (and free) way to cool off a bit. 

On Sunday we golfed at Tri-Mountain Golf Course in Ridgefield, WA with our cousins Wade and Ryan.  It was fun.  Afterwards we headed to their house in Vancouver and had an awesome dinner made by Ryan's sister, Taylor.  She is quite the young chef.  Maybe I'll work for her one day! (unfortunately, I didn't take any photos on Sunday, my bad)

Week 2 at LCB

Last week we worked on some more cutting.  Here are a few pictures of what I'm working on.  I've got some work to do before my knife skills test.

Tourne and Demilunes

 

I must be eating at the wrong restaurants because I've never seen vegetables cut like this before.

Julienne, Paysenne and Lemon Crowns and Basket

Close up on the lemon crown and basket

P.F. Chang's also came and did a demonstration for us.  They showed us how their kitchen works and prepared a few dishes for us.  And yes, we got to sample some!  

We also learned more about Food Safety and Sanitation.  Chef  likes to remind us that we have the power to kill people with our food, but that we should avoid doing it cuz that's not cool. 

Fun Franco Family Weekend

Fridays have always been a favorite day of the week and I've always wondered how it could get any better, but it has!  Every Friday at Le Cordon Bleu (LBC) they have "Buffet Friday".  Buffet Friday consists of the Catering Class preparing multiple spreads of food during the week and serving it on Fridays.  After each spread is graded by the Chef it is a free for all.  We just grab a plate and load up!  All they ask in return is for us (students/staff/faculty) to fill out comment cards.  (Which I love doing anyway!)  Cool perk of being in food school!

Buffet Friday was just the beginning of an awesome weekend.  I know it's not a "Portland Adventure", but worth documenting.  The Franco Family had our First Annual Franco Family Golf Tournament.  We held it at Jade Greens.  It was so much fun.  Here is a Family Pic of all of the players.

Afterwards we went to Tito George's house to celebrate Nino's birthday.  (We miss you, Nino!)  There we handed out awards and raffle prizes.  It was exactly what I had envisioned (actually better than), and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Raffle and such

So today there was an all building BBQ. The fliers posted around said their would be "Free Prizes and Rent Certificates". Here is a list of some of the prizes that were raffled off:

- Free 1 visitor parking for a night in the garage.
- 10 Free faxes from the lobby.
- Free cup of coffee and a cookie at a nearby cafe.
- A jar of jam.

As for the Rent Certificates, I took this to mean they might raffle off 1 or 2 people to receive free rent for a month, which would be awesome. That was not the case. Rather they had $25 off rent coupons. Now this is still money, but when we moved in and the fliers I saw, all things led me to believe good prizes. I was sadly disappointed. Oh well, the food was good and it's not like I lost anything (except for some of my precious time).

Other things of note:

1) Fantasy Football is fast approaching and I have been doing a lot of thinking about players to target, possible trades to make, and it is getting me very excited for football season. First draft is a week from Saturday and the second is two weeks from Tuesday.

2) I had a very interesting round of golf the other day: 2 double bogeys, 6 bogeys, 3 pars, and 7 birdies. Total a 75. Good score, but when you have 7 birdies you really should have put up a note worthy score.

3) This coming weekend I will be partaking in a couple note worthy golf events. First, the 1st Annual Franco Family Golf Tournament @ Jade Greens. Carla has been planning this for a while and it should be a very fun event. Second, it has been about 2-3 years since Twan and I took on Pete Cac and Peter Graves, but Sunday we will be reuniting for an epic clash @ Riverbend.

First Week of School is Almost Over

Guy with Cravat

So, my first week of school is just about finished!  I'm really doing it! (going to baking school that is)

First day was good, your typical first day. Syllabus, rules...how to wear our uniforms!  Fortunately, there were some nice people helping us n00bs out with that stuff.  It's funny cuz both Eric and I wear ties every day.  Mine just happens to be called a cravat.  Kinda like the one this guy's wearing...but mine's plain white. And his looks kind of goofy; ours are supposed to make us look professional and to control the sweating. Gross, but a good idea.

Anyway, second day of school they trusted us with knives!!  Can you believe it?!  I couldn't.  We cut a lot of potatoes.  Now Eric and I have a lot of potatoes waiting to be consumed.  I found out that we're gonna learn how to be creative with all the product we end up taking home. 

My teacher, Chef Luke, is a funny guy.  Well, I think so anyway...I don't know what's up with some of the other students, but it's a tough crowd... I feel like I'm laughing too much, but I can't help it.  I was even called the "rambunctious" one of the group.  Me?  Who'da thought?  When I told Eric this, he said, "wow, you're teacher's got a good read on you."

Tourne Veggies

Today (4th day of school) was another Foundations class, so more cutting!  I've learned a lot from this class already, how to hold a knife properly, how to peel an onion the "Cordon Bleu/French" way, how to and not to Tourne a vegetable. (Meaning, I was shown how it was done...I just don't know how to do it myself yet.)  One day mine will look like these!*fingers crossed!*