Registered

Last night, within 20 minutes of the deadline, I registered to take the Foreign Service Exam. The deadline for the March test date was February 27th, 11pm Central Time. I was finishing up my essays around 8pm, Pacific Coast Time, when I realized I was about to miss the deadline. There were a bunch of additional questions that I either skipped or answered very poorly. I didn't realize before submitting my essays that I needed to provide contact info for someone who could very each one of my essays. I put Daniela as my contact for more than half of them, which I wouldn't have done if I had more time. I'm sure they will only call and verify my story if it's too unbelievable, which none of my stories were.

The State Department should email me back in the next few days and let me know if and when I can take the test. It's free to take, but canceling your test within 48 hours of its scheduled time carries a $45 penalty.

Vanessa's Visit

It's been a productive week with Tiffanie around, and a great weekend with Vanessa around.

The bakery's website designer, Tiffanie, is currently in Vegas. The last time she was here was when Joni and Curt got married -- about 5 years ago. It's amazing how much more professional websites look now than even just 5 years ago. Max, Daniela and I all agreed that the website had to change and Tiffanie's visit is allowing that to happen. Tiffanie came to the Richmar location on Friday and we were able to work together and agree on a new design for the site. A lot of the content has to change as well, but that will be an ongoing process. Tiffanie leaves on Tuesday so the new site will go live at some point before then. If you want to take a look at what we're throwing away, go to the site before tomorrow evening.

Daniela and I are currently writing the press releases/RSS feeds. You might wonder what a bakery in Las Vegas could possibly put into a press release, but you'd be surprised. We're working on short write-ups about 7.7.07, Ludacris' 30th birthday party (for which the bakery made cakes), Nelly's Apple Bottoms clothing company (for which the bakery made cakes), and a slew of other cakes for celebrities. We made a cake for Chuck Norris but it was probably ordered and provided through his hotel. I doubt Chuck Norris was even aware we made it. Too bad though. He seems to be trendy right now and that would probably get people to visit the site. Oh yeah, and Joni once got trapped in Mike Tyson's refrigerator but we're not turning that into anything right now.

Vanessa is also out here visiting for the weekend. She had business in Phoenix and decided to visit us before heading back to Boston. Yesterday Daniela and V went to the bakery and picked up like 15 different desserts so we could all do a taste testing together. 24 hours later all the cake is gone. Vanessa and I ranked all 10 slices of cake and came up with identical lists. We agreed that the Napoleon and the white cake with Bavarian filling were the best of the bunch. Daniela's list was the complete opposite of our lists with the two slices of chocolate cake at the top. We didn't rank the eclair, Tiramisu, or Snickers Cheesecake very highly, but the Cheesecake grew on me at the end. The Cheesecake was really good and fluffy but not very Snickers-ish. Max said that all the fillings sink to the bottom during cooking and he's not that happy with it either. Oh well. On the whole, everything from Freed's is great and Vanessa agreed. Completely unbiased.

We were going to go to the buffet at the Bellagio or Wynn, but postponed it until V visits again in about 2 weeks. Instead V and Daniela headed out to Red Rock to go hiking (I stayed behind to read about the IMF and finish my essays for the Foreign Service exam registration). We'll cook together tonight (V likes to cook and her blog, here, is dedicated to her culinary adventures) and play Cranium again. We played two games last night but I think I ruined it for everyone with my crappy attitude. Daniela's brother Max and I lost the first game and there are certain things that I just don't handle well. Losing at board games is one of them. I promised V and D that I would do my best to play with a better attitude tonight. We'll see.

My second accident

We don't have any snacks in the house. If Kevin were here, he would tell me that was a 'rookie mistake.' He'd be right to say so.

It's Monday and that means I'm not working. Normally, Daniela and I have Mondays and Tuesdays off, but she had to go in today since someone unexpectedly quit. That means that I'm home alone with no snacks, no car, and nothing to do. Thank G-d Daniela drove me out to the Lied Library at UNLV last night. Without books and my blog I might do something crazy like clean up the house.

My second week in Las Vegas was pretty good. My hands are all cut up and bruised which I didn't see coming. I had no idea working in a bakery would be so dangerous. I scraped my shin on the tailgate of a delivery truck, I have quite a few paper cuts on my hands from folding boxes, my knuckles are all dry and raw (I can't remember why), and I keep smashing my fingers between these tall metal racks when I'm loading and unloading the trucks.

I also managed to crash the bakery's biggest truck into the metal roof over the parking lot behind the Richmar store. The roof is supported by pillars and protects a single line of parked cars. It is 10 to 12 feet off the ground and not much more than sheet metal nailed together. I was pulling away from the curb, fully loaded with pastries and cakes, when I smashed into the thing in three separate places. I still don't understand how I did so much damage since I stopped the car as soon as I heard it hit. Anyway, Joni and Max didn't seem too upset about the damage so I think the whole thing has already been forgotten about. I freaked out when I heard the noise because I thought all of the racks inside of my truck had just fallen over. When I saw the roof I actually felt relieved. This picture isn't very good, but you can see how the edge of the roof has crumpled up. Eh. It happens.

Last weekend Daniela and I drove out to Red Rock. It's a federal park just outside of Las Vegas to the west. It cost us $5 to get in with our car and we spent a few hours hiking. While Las Vegas may be in the middle of the desert, there are a lot of beautiful parks close by. We've been to the Grand Canyon and Zion before, but I think additional visits would be a good idea. At the Red Rock visitor's center we saw a flier for the different passes you can buy from the Forestry Service. Unless I'm mistaken, there's some pass we can buy for $80 which gives us access to most of the parks in the US for a year. If I understood that flier correctly, we'll probably buy one soon and then spend some time camping this Spring.

I think Vanessa is coming out to visit this weekend. I'm not sure what Daniela has planned, but I expect it to be a crazy. See: wine and Scrabble.

200 Point Genius

Daniela and I spent 3 days in Ashland visiting her parents and stealing their furniture. The plan was to tow the furniture back to Vegas, and we even came close to getting a trailer hitch installed on the Hyundai. What derailed our plans was checking the Hyundai owner's manual and finding out that the car was incapable of towing that much weight (the U-Haul trailer was 850 pounds, but U-Haul required a car capable of pulling 2,000 pounds to ensure safe operation. Our car could pull 1,000 pounds and only when everyone in the car was behind it, pushing). So we packed up as much furniture as we could fit into the car and decided to buy the rest in Las Vegas.

The ride down was long. When I say "we were in the car for 14 hours," that doesn't really convey to you how long 14 hours in a car is. It's long. Really long. We left Ashland at 10:30am and got to Vegas by 12:30am the next day.

Here's a video of us before our asses fell asleep and we wanted to die:

Gas was surprisingly cheap. We left Ashland with a full tank of gas and only had to fill it back up twice. Once for $37 and again for $21. Had we rented a U-Haul truck (which gets 10 miles to the gallon) it would have cost us the GNP of Malta.

We had some car problems but powered through them. Maybe it was because we had the tires on the car changed before we left Ashland, but the car wouldn't stop shaking. I told Daniela not to worry about it when we were still close to Ashland (I thought the roads were just bad) but by the time we were at Sacramento it was clear something was wrong with the car. Much more worrisome was that the car kept losing engine power or something. I can't describe it well. At random intervals, it seemed like Daniela took her foot off the gas pedal when she hadn't, and the car would begin to slow down. Then, after about a second, it would power back on and the car would surge forward. This may have happened every 45 minutes or so. The only time it was a problem was when we were stopped at an intersection or traffic light. If we were stopped, the car would just die. Daniela was convinced that the car would die while we were going 80mph and that she would lose control of the car and kill us. Didn't happen.

Other than our car problems the trip was uneventful. We got in to Vegas around midnight and just crashed. OH! We stopped at a diner in Westley, California and there were those peg games on every table. I'm referring to that game where you have 15 holes and 14 pegs and you're supposed to leave one peg remaining by jumping over other pegs. The highest score you can get at that game is by leaving 8 pegs on the board without any further jumps possible. So I worked backwards to figure it out but solved it by the time I finished my biscuits and gravy. 200 Point Genius. Mark it, Dude.

Wild Turkeys!

So, like I said yesterday, Daniela and I left Las Vegas on the 31st for Oregon. We flew Allegiant which charges for all checked luggage and beverages. Not even water is free. The flight was 2 hours and we hit some turbulence coming into Medford, Oregon.

I've included a fabulous video of the two of us driving to the airport. I'll try to include videos in my postings so all of you back home don't forget what we look like.

Anywho, Daniela and I are in Ashland now and it's been snowing on and off all day long. We arrived last night at 6pm and Daniela's mom, Yvonne, picked us up. We met Daniela's dad at a Japanese restaurant in Ashland and got some Udon noodles before meeting her parents' new dog. I asked Daniela's mom who she plans on voting for and that evolved into a debate about politics. She likes Hillary, I like Obama, and the guy who was sitting behind us likes Mitt Romney. I thought it was hip that some random guy sitting behind us joined the conversation, but his timing was poor. His wife and he were finished eating, but we weren't. He stood up, came around to our table and began preaching about how capitalism made America what it is and how Mitt Romney is going to run the government like a business. While he was speaking, he spit a piece of whatever he had just had for dinner into my face, which was special. He was actually a very nice guy and had I not been eating, would have argued with him for the rest of the night. Spit in my face though. Couldn't forgive that. Also: Mitt Romney? Terrible.

Today D and I ran errands. Her parents own something like 6 cars and the one they're giving us for Las Vegas doesn't have a trailer hitch. Daniela reserved a U-Haul trailer for Sunday so we're still figuring out how much it's gonna cost to install a hitch and whether the car can even pull a trailer. They have a nice 2005 Jetta Wagon that Daniela and I want to borrow, but obviously her parents don't want to give us their awesome new car. We brought the hitch-less Hyundai to Medford for an inspection and went to the U-Haul rental place in town to ask questions about getting an installation. The guy there told us that a hitch is going to run about $280. Crap. If that's the case I think we should just buy furniture in Las Vegas, but Daniela really likes her old couch.

I guess that's about it. I'm here reading Yvonne's copy of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' and Daniela is out with her mom on another errand. Daniela's parents' new Border Collie, Marnie, is here with me, but I think it's still scared of me.