Golfing...Poorly

It was Friday afternoon and I was trying to finish up some computer modeling when the HR director sat down in my office. "Adam, do you play golf?" I respond, "No." He responds, "Good, I will sign you up for the contract's tournament this weekend." And that is how the weekend started.

After work, I followed my boss home and he let me borrow a set of his clubs. I would be taking his spot in the tournament. He had decided to spend the weekend playing with his 6 month old son who, on a side note, is adorable. After picking up the clubs, I immediately drove to Big 5 and purchased a pair of golfing shoes. I then drove directly to the driving range where I burned through 100 balls. Not a single one flew straight. FYI: It is impossible to teach yourself to play golf in one night.

Today, I played a 18 hole scramble tournament. Our team actually came in 1 under par. We even got to use 2 of my drives as playable balls. I ended up having a lot of fun! I will not lie, it was embarrassing to lose 3 balls to the same pond, but hey....it was my first time playing golf! The tournament was followed by a tasty dinner and a raffle. I didn't win anything. :( The momment I left dinner, I drove straight to the local golf course and got the card of the local pro. I will give him a call Monday and set up golf lessons ASAP. Next time, I will be prepared!

I am still cooking and eating well. However, none of the pictures are coming out well. But do check out my version of an egg mcmuffin:

Poison Oak...

Hi Followers!

I apologize for this post's tardiness. I have been dealing with an severe poison oak encounter. In fact, the rash is on my hands. It is quite difficult to even type. Here is the story so far:

Last weekend my parents visited me. We decided to spend the weekend in Sonoma. We did a little biking and wine tasting. It was an excellent weekend. I got a 40 mile ride in and my parents got to enjoy themselves at the wineries. Sonoma is a beautiful place. It reminded me of Tuscany which I visited at age ten. Sonoma brought back the memories of my brother and I running through the Italian vineyards at night trying to catch fireflies. While we were biking we took a quick break at a river. It took a little bush whacking to approach the river. I believe this is where I encountered the poison oak. The rash started as 2 small red bumps on my arm. They appeared on Wednesday. I didn't think much of them at first. On Friday the 2 bumps had become a giant red rash that is smeared all over my left arm. Today, I have a blisters on almost every part of my body. If you have the stomach for it, google poison oak rash. Yep, that is what it looks like! I spent Saturday volunteering my time to rebuild a fence. The hard labor only exasperated the problem. For the most part, I spent Sunday cleaning, washing clothes, and taking oatmeal baths (A known remedy.) . However, nothing seems to take the edge off the itch. I am seeing a doctor today. I am going to try and get a script for steroids to help clear it up.

Even with this disaster, work has been great. I will not talk about last week at the refinery too much. In summary, it was very exciting! Interesting and unexpected things are always happening. Furthermore, I have already managed to complete one of my projects and made a lot of headway on 2 others. I am already asking for more work.

Keep your fingers crossed for me! I want my skin back!

First Week of Work

Time for another blog post. I know you guys are upset that it has taken so long (Dave in particular). A lot has happen since my last post. My first week of work is behind me, my Dad came to visit me this weekend, and I made some incredible burgers last week.

Work is great! I am looking forward to everyday. The refinery is a really interesting place to work. There is always a lot of activity. My first week consisted mostly of safety training and Valero training videos. They were actually all very interesting. One of the videos even informed me that I am "not allowed to setup of an oil monopoly". As if I have the reasources to start a monoply. My boss is really great and my mentor has been very helpful. My boss gave me a book entitled "The Unwritten Laws of Engineering". I am diligently reading through it. It has a lot of helpful pointers!

The weekend was fun. It was great seeing my dad. I picked him up from Oakland International Airport at noon on Saturday. We headed over to Berkeley for lunch. We had a couple of tasty burgers at a diner in Downtown Berkeley (They did not compare to my burgers.) After that we did a hike in Tilden Regional Park which overlooks Berkeley. We were attempting to summit a small peak. We ended up off the trail and we had to bush whack through the majority of the hike up. However, we were rewarded with great views. We also managed to find an easier way back down. After the hike we went to the Athletics and Twins game curteosy of Valero. However, we got really bored and left earlier. This was a "father like son" moment. Both of us were just bored out of our minds and wanted to get the hell out of the stadium. It was interesting because I feel like my Dad and I have a lot in common but we often don't expess it. In this case we were both able to express how bored we get at baseball games. We headed over to SFO were he had booked a hotel room for the night. Before hitting the sack we ate at "Il Fornaio" in Burlingame. My Dad had been there before and recommended it. He was right, it was awesome. The atmosphere was wonderful. The dining area was in a large wooden room with massive windows that looked out at the street. I had ravioli stuffed with sausage and an pint of Anchor Steam(My new favorite beer). If you find yourself in Burlingame, I highly recommend Il Fornaio.

I made two burgers last week. I had lots of ground beef! The first patties were wrapped in bacon. I highly recommend cooking burgers this way. The bacon grease keeps the patties extremely moist. The second patties had jalapeno cream cheese in the middle of them. TRY THIS!!!! IT IS AWESOME!!!! Some pictures below. AR out...