"Highly Paid Teachers"

I have all of the respect for teachers!! I taught high school for a year and a half. I got this from a teacher board and thought it was great!!

Aren't You All Sick Of Those Highly Paid Teachers? Their hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do... baby-sit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage. That is right. I would give them $3.00 dollars an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 AM to 4:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.

Now, how many do they teach in a day... maybe 30? So that's 19.5 X 30 =$585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. Let's see . . .. that's $585 x 180 = $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator must need batteries!)

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour. That would be $7 times 6-1/2 hours times 30 children times 180 days =$245,700.00 per year. Wait a minute, there is something wrong here!

There sure is, duh! (Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277 per day/30 students =$9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student.) Very inexpensive babysitter and they even educate your kids! Crazy!

The high cost of Wind...

Global warming is going to be the doom of us all! Maybe or maybe not, I guess they are finding more and more evidence of this each and every day so I say lets go and have a beer, watch the sun set, and listen to some great music! I guess the conversation is coming about because it has been extremely windy here over the past few weeks. Power outages, trees falling down, forest fires, and my shed is gone.

About one month ago on a Sunday, the winds really picked up to the point where it was becoming scary. Gusts over 70 miles per hour, sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph. YIKES is all I can say. About 3:30 that afternoon, my wife took a peak out of the back door and said, " UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, UT OH, we have a big mess"!

I asked what are you talking about and she said the shed is gone. And it was gone! The wind had lifted it off of the foundation, blown it to the neighbors fence, and crumpled it up like a beer can at a kegger on a Saturday night! I will attest to the fact that it was heavy! I had to take it apart and get ride of it my self! What a pain in the hind parts!

Granted, this old shed was well past her prime, being made of Aluminum with some steel support, but I was hoping to get one more year out of her. A similar replacement will cost about $300 and I will have to put it together my self. All I can think of is the next big wind storm! The one I really want is around the $1,500 mark (double yikes) and that is about the same amount of cash I am lacking right now. So I go on with no shed for the time being, hoping for the mother of all shed sales to happen very soon!!

In addition to all of this, I got a wonderful case of laryngitis. With the power out at the house for 4 days, and all of the right elements coming together, it has been a struggle to talk over the past month, but my co-workers have loved the break from my talking! It is almost 100% back.

HA!!

You know you have arrived when...

A co-worker came to me the other day and told me an interesting little story. She had gone to her daughters house where there was a new fish with the name, "Chef Jeff". She asked how this came about and was told this: We had purchased a fish from the local pet shop and could not decide on a name for the little one. We happened to be watching a segment on a local television station and saw Chef Jeff doing a cooking segment. So we decided to name the fish, "Chef Jeff".
I have finally made it to the big time!

Am dealing with laryngitis for the fist time in my life. I mean I really can barely even whisper. This really is a hard thing when you lively hood depends on verbal communication! I guess this came about from a fierce wind storm that whipped through here 2 weeks ago. We had forest fires, electricity was out for 4 days, and our shed literally blew away. Many others had it worse off than we did so can not really complain very much. It does stink not being able to talk!
I think my coworkers are enjoying this a little too much!

So that is about it for now. Try and have some fun and do not work so hard. Take a load off and enjoy an adult beverage or a soda if you wish. Go and cook something great!

Why would anyone want to be a chef?

Yes, I am trying to live up to my commitment to blog more for 2008! I will try to keep this going if at all possible. Eating has been ok for the week but not great. I guess the best thing is no fast food at all! Incorporating more vegetables and fruits is the biggest thing. We cleaned out the fridge and there is no more butter, cream, sugary and salty stuff. All of the best things. My wife asks why can't the things which are good for you taste like chocolate?? I have not exercised as much as I should. But have done some. Wednesday was a pretty good night. Will do a little something over the weekend.

I have come to the conclusion that I am just not a very interesting person with little valuable to actually offer or say. This does sound self defeating and a put down but that is the truth. I am not an articulate person. My aunt said she thought I would of been a world famous chef by now. These people are few and far between. The life of a chef is hard: The long hours and physical abuse we put our bodies through result in pain. The mental stress placed on a chef is just brutal and staggering. The tendency to lean on drugs and alcohol is tremendous most of the time. Divorce is rampant in the restaurant industry. Why would anyone want to be a chef?

It does get into your bones and blood and never escapes. Once bitten by this animal, you are destined to a life filled with so many of the for mentioned things. One chef I have really gained an appreciation for over the past few years is Anthony Bourdain. He is just like any other chef I have met; conceded, vain, outspoken, and a brat. I hate the fact that he smokes and is such a butt head but that is who he is. I actually have no idea if the man can actually cook, or I should say cook great or well.

But he is humorous to the core and have really enjoyed watching him on Top Chef and his travel show on the Travel Channel. If I had a better speaking voice, maybe I could of had more fame and fortune? I really think he is a good guy and is one person I would like to sit down with and have a chat some time. Even if he does come off as kind of a jerk.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to All!!

I tend not to make resolutions but this year, I am going to make a few, but instead of calling them resolutions, I will call them commitments. I will strive to commit to:
1. Blogging more often.
2. Eating healthier.
3. Exercising more often.
4. Making better use of my time, work and play.
5. Being a better husband to my wife! (This really is #1 on the list!)
I realize that most of that is cliche but this is what I am doing.

I started the year off today by sticking to my calorie count, exercising for 45 minutes, and had a great work day!

I may have never mentioned this here but Pink Floyd is my all time favorite band and musical act. Have a great appreciation for the musical and lyrical skills of David Gilmour! Do not get me wrong, Rodger Waters rocks also!! I first learned the joy of Pink Floyd at the age of 14 when I went to the "Midnight Movies" back in Richmond and saw The Wall for the first time. How many times I have seen this movie, there is no way to count. I did have the pleasure of seeing the group in 1987 in Providence, Rhode Island and would just about give my right nut to see them again! Probably not going to happen.

So my very first girlfriend wrote me a particular letter on a particular day, many years ago and concluded the letter with what I thought was the most clever quote. " Long you'll live and high you'll fly. Smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry. All you touch and all you see is all that life will ever be." I thought it was just the most wonderful thing I had ever heard and she did say she wrote it just for me. And not too long after, was listening to Dark Side of the Moon, and what did I hear??

I was devastated! But life goes on.

What exactly is a diet?

Ever since I was a small child, I have been on some type of diet. Dieting has just been a way of life and I have been a complete and total failure at "diets". Even today, there are people who ask me my opinion about Weight Watchers, The South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, and whatever the particular flavor of the moment is and I really have no feeling about these diets at all except they are a way for companies to take away our hard earned American dollars.. I guess "diet" is what ever nourishment you are supplying your body at a particular moment. This can be good and this can be bad. How can we make any sense of anything at all when it come down to being on a diet.

I am NOT the first person to say "diets" are a horrible idea. All a "diet" does is set us up for failure and thus begins the YoYo cycle. We start and lose weight. We stop and gain it all back plus more. We start again and lose weight. We stop and gain it all back again and so on. This is terrible for the body but what most people that have been on "diets" are used to.

What to do then? I am still trying to figure this stuff out but I have come up with a small idea. Instead of being on a "diet", why not try to eat better, exercise more, and just make better decisions. When we slip up, that is OK and we are right back into the saddle again. Depriving yourself of life's simple pleasures is a big mistake and one of the main reasons we fail each and every time.

I have put together a plan and I call it... "The One Page Guide to a Healthier You". That is right, everything you need to know is right on a one page document. You print out the one page in the form of a Word document and everything is right there for you reference as you start your way towards a healthier way of eating and living. One thing; I am not doing is blowing smoke up your hind parts! There are things you will have to do to make the plan effective and it will take some work on your part. If you can be honest with yourself, accept the fact that you will slip up from time to time and this is OK, and you are willing to make lasting changes in your life, to improve your over all health; this "One Page Guide to a Healthier You" may just work. If you are looking for a quick fix; this will NOT work for you. This is about make long lasting and permanent changes in your eating and exercise habits, making better choices to improve your overall health.

So how do I get "The One Page Guide to a Healthier You" and how much does it cost? Honestly, I am not out to make a dime off of this project. If you would like it, then you can email me, chefbland@yahoo.com, and I will send you back a copy with a smile. You will have to print it out yourself. Once again, realize that it will take some effort on your part to make this work for you. All I am trying to do is simplify an idea while making it realistic to follow. Most of this is common sense! I am probably not telling you things you already did not know or have not heard before.

Good Luck!

Time and Turkey

Can you believe Thanksgiving is here and gone and we are now moving on to the Christmas holiday? Where does the time go? I guess this time thing is all relative so thank you Albert for helping us to understand this whole relativity thing.

With that said, there is just not much time to blog. I wish I would blog more often! I am not very articulate and really not a writer so why even bother? I actually do this so little, why even bother some would say.

Many things have been going on the past few months. There is the new job which I absolutely love! It is the greatest job ever and love what I am doing so far. I am on the road quite a bit and have been on some pretty intensive training but everything so far is just awesome.

We have a new addition to our family, Mudgie the cockatiel (formerly Sushi). We have had her for a few months and she is a talker! Here is a sample of he avian vocabulary so far: "Pretty bird", "What ya doing?", "What ya doing Mudgie?", "Scratch your head", "Are you a chicken" ( and then she makes a clucking sound like a chicken), "Peek a boo", "here kitty kitty kitty", and there are other numerous phrases which we can not figure out so far. She also whistles the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show, over and over and over! She is a good bird but a pain in the rear parts. Yes, she is already spoiled!

I hope you had a most excellent turkey day! Me and my wife are trying to eat better so we went with a smaller and lighter holiday dinner than usual. We did have turkey but we also had roasted duck along with roasted red potatoes, steamed asparagus, and some nice dinner rolls. No butter, no gravy, salt was limited, and there was just a little lemon pie for dessert. Actually was really a great, simple meal!

Yes, I did say we are trying to eat better and exercise more. She is doing a better job than me so far! See, I am a food junkie and pretty much addicted to food. I sneak foods when I can, and pretty much just over eat. I am not really big into moving my fat butt around and that makes for a dangerous cocktail of fat around the belly with all of the problems of obesity which go along with all of this. I need to get moving!! NOW!

Will keep the progress of my efforts here, and hopefully a little more often!