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...