I have been considering to take a "working" vacation over to Europe.  If I were to get a work visa, I could stay longer than a two week trip, and not have to worry so much about money.  I would really just need some spending money and enough to pay for the plane trip over there and that would be enough to get me going.

Before I hop on a plane and fly over there, I think that I should have a job lined up.  To me, that makes the most sense, and I could probably find a place that would hire me as something more than a server at a restaurant.

So, I have been looking for job listings online that pertain to my skills.  I have already applied to an ad that I found with a search for "translation company London".  Something like that would be neat as I could use the other language that I know for a change.

I guess I will have to keep looking for a job until I get one - though I hope it is soon as I would love to go there sooner as opposed to later.

Yes, you read it right: it is party time.  Well at least I will be at a party in the next half hour or so.  The reasoning behind this is I have been invited to a costume party, and I just couldn’t pass it up.  I mean, how often do adults get to dress up?

So, I have bought a Judy Jetson costume to wear to the party.  Yes, I have been a die-hard Jetson fan ever since I was a child.  Sure, that might date me a little bit, but I don’t care.

I have finally put on the costume and put on my makeup.  Damn, I look good.  I bet that there will not be another person dressed up as uniquely as I will.

So, I should go - the party awaits.  I just thought that I would try and be the center of the party - and I think that I will have a good chance.

Sometimes I feel that my life is too boring.  I mean, all I do is work, work, and work some more.  There is no excitement, and sometimes I wonder why I ever grew up - I had so much more fun when I was a kid.

But, truth be told, I don’t complain much.  In fact, after feeling the way I did, I decided that it was time to do something about it.  So, I took my hunt for adventure online, to see if I could find something that would make my life again.

I ended up at the Adventure Travel Portal - a site dedicated to exciting life adventures.  Browsing through the site, I found a couple of destinations that I would definitely like to see this year.

That’s right - I have made up my mind to travel this year and spice up my life a little bit.  After all my hard work, I deserve it.

I learned to bake from my mother. I learned to cook from my voice teacher. The most useful recipe I learned was how to utilize leftovers — before they grew fur.

The family had been missionaries, so I’m not sure if this was something she learned in Hawaii or if it was one of her Indian recipes, since she adored Indian food. I suspect the latter.

Curry Butter

Melt 1 lb butter in saucepan
Stir in 1-oz container curry powder (Or up to 2oz if you love the taste of curry).
Pour into sealable container and store in refrigerator.
(It should be quite strong-tasting, as it will be diluted by any sauce it’s added to.)

Uses
Add 1 T. Curry Butter to 1 c. standard white sauce for every 3-4 servings needed.
Stir meat and vegetable leftovers into sauce (Add frozen vegetables as needed)
Heat through.
Ladle heated mixture over rice or noodles.
Can also be used as a sauce over baked chicken. Experiment with other dishes.

For many years now, I really didn’t think of the effects on the world because of the power I use.  I mean, I just used power without thinking of the consequences of my actions.  It wasn’t until I had kids that I thought that I should make more responsible choices to ensure that they have a world to live in.

So I made energy-efficient choices like most people do by upgrading my appliances to newer ones.  I also changed all of the light bulbs in my house to compact florescent lights.  Though I thought I should get a pat on the back for my efforts, I still felt that I hadn’t done enough.

It was at that point that I decided to install a residential solar system to offset the carbon footprint that I was creating.  Sure, the system I purchased didn’t provide all the power I needed, but the power it did provide was environmentally friendly.

Next year, I will be adding more solar panels to my system and hopefully I will be able to power my house without having to depend on power from the grid.

Even though we had supper at 5 PM, I am feeling a bit hungry.  Besides, 7:30 PM isn’t too late to eat, right?

Well, I have decided that I want to order some pizza, but I don’t have any cash on me.  Same goes for my debit card, as there is maybe five dollars left in our bank account.  So, I have been looking in the phone book for a pizza company that offers credit card processing right at the door.

Thankfully, there seems to be quite a few of them.  But I thought that I should make sure before I called an made my order.

Turns out, that was the right thing to do as there were five that were having problems with their machines.  It would have sucked for them to show up at the door, and I would not be able to pay for them - maybe I could have had some free pizza (yeah, right).

But, I should go ask the wife what she wants and order - my stomach is telling me that I should hurry up.

My wife has always been a bit of a shy person.  Maybe shy isn’t the right word, self-conscious would be the right one.  You see, ever since we got married, I have wanted her to buy some sexy lingerie.  I thought that it would be great to see her in some…

But she would never look at any at the store.  She was too worried that someone we knew would see her and think that she wasn’t a proper person.  It was so bad that she wouldn’t even go buy anything but plain Jane bras for fear that someone might think that she wasn’t a proper woman.

I was about to give up, but then a buddy of mine suggested that we just order stuff like that online.  That way, no one would be able to "catch" her looking at those things in the store and she would have nothing to worry about.

So, I will be telling her tonight at supper - I hope she goes for my idea.

Sometimes my husband drives me crazy.  It is nothing major, it is just all the little things that he forgets to do, even when he was reminded to do it time after time.  One of the things he’s really good at forgetting to do is to take the garbage can out to the street to be picked up.  One time, we had our garbage sitting here for three weeks and the garbage can was overflowing before he remembered to take it out.

This is pretty harmless and actually rather amusing, but there are times when his forgetfulness actually costs us money.  For instance, last year he forgot to buy our exhibition tickets in advance and we ended up paying $40 more than we would have had to if he had just remembered.

It doesn’t help to get angry.  I have learned to take it with a grain of salt, as I know this is just how he is and he is probably not going to change.  I have decided that if it is something important I should just do it myself.  Then we are all happier.

I do trade on the stock market on a weekly basis.  Now, I haven’t ever become a day trader per se, but when my stock research comes up with winners, I make sure to invest.

Each weekend, I take the time to research stocks so that I can make an informed decision come Monday morning when the markets open.  I find that if I take the time to do my research each and every weekend, I tend to make better investment decisions.

In order to make this process easier, I am a member of some investment clubs that send out investment advice each weekend to their members.  I go through that information and collect some of my own before I go through my analysis.  Some people may think that what I do is boring, but I do love crunching numbers.

So far by following the system I have in place, the returns on my investment have skyrocketed.  Still, from time to time I pick a lemon, but usually, I find myself with a winner on my hands - that is what we want as investors, right?

When a friend of mine opened her first restaurant, I was not sure what the protocol was on giving her a congratulatory gift. I knew that I wanted to give her something, but I was not sure what. I decided to get her something that she could use in her business and thought that some commercial food storage units would be perfect.

I know that she was very particular to sanitation and cleanliness and she was also a very organized person. That is why I knew that food storage would be of utmost importance to her and I knew these containers would be the perfect gift and that she would really appreciate them and put them to good use.

There was one food storage unit that was for grated cheese, one for salad and one for marinating meat. I was right and she absolutely loved them. She loved them so much, in fact, that she went out and bought more. Now everything in her kitchen is stored in these bins and it is the cleanest and most organized kitchen you will ever find.