King Soopers

As some of you may know, the nearest grocery store to our condo is a place called King Soopers. Coincidentally, it is also in the uber-homosexual neighborhood. It's always an adventure shopping at this joint.

Here are some observations I have made while shopping at a dominantly gay grocery store (make note this is not me making fun of homosexuals, just making my homo-sexually dominated shopping experience as academic as possible):

1. An overwhelming population of gays still write checks.
2. They keep the Smirnoff Ice and Coors Light well-stocked 24/7
3. Lots of organics
4. Gay men will use a cart even if they only need 2 items.
5. Lesbians will use two baskets instead of using a cart.
6. The gay community is serious about saving their change. That coinstar machine is in use 24/7 with people in line.


Finally, while in the check-out today I needed to purchase a roll of quarters. When I told the obviously-gay line-checker (insert joke about gay person checking me out) I was told that I could only purchase a roll of quarters in cash, check, or debit/credit card. What else am I going to pay with? My pillaged pirates booty?

Always an experience shopping at Queen Soop......I mean King Soopers.

A Tale of Irony...

As we came back into town from a wonderful "Cracker Barrell" breakfast, we stopped at Starbucks for a late-morning post breakfast treat.

When we pulled in, there was this moderately clean cut guy sitting on a park bench dressed in a button down shirt, black jeans, and asics shoes-- for some reason I had bad feelings about this bloke. I told Tonya to go straight for the door and that I had a bad feeling about this guy.

AS SOON as I got out of the Jeep, he immediately asked me for cash. I replied, "Sorry, only carry plastic." He then responded with "How about a coffee then?" Again, I replied to this character, "Sorry, no."

Once inside, I pondered "what the heck just happened?" Tonya said, "you should have told him to get a job and buy your own five dollar Starbucks." I was blown away that a guy that was obviously not homeless, had the gall to not only ask me for cash but also for high-end trendy coffee.

Friday!

Today we learned soups and sauces and the key ingredients which include: flavoring, liquid, and an emulsifier. I feel just like Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina writing back to her dad and friends about how she learned to crack eggs and then moved on to sauces. I love that movie. Anyways, we made Hollandaise sauce, a vinegerette, and a Sabayon sauce. The only kind of emulsion we didn't make was a permanent such as mayonaise. Thankfully... yuck. I'll stick with miracle whip.

Our other classes included topics such as wealth management and the family office, and estate management. All quite interesting and learned some great "thinking outside the box" techniques.

It felt like vacation today because after being there for 18 hours yesterday, I didn't have to be in until 9. I didn't know what to do with myself this morning or which way was up. But...its weekend time with Charlie!

I survived...

18 hours of work, 9 course four hour dinner, 345 pieces of silver, 52 truffles, 12 guests, 4 servers, and my 2 feet hurting later... I survived the formal dinner. And now I am going to bed.

"The Reader"

Silver polishing... not the highlight of my day. But I had to include the fact that it isn't as bad as people make it out to be at least as long as you know what you're doing and have the proper silver polish. It's just an extra step.

What was interesting about my day was this afternoon-- Safety and Protection. Which, of course, sounds completely boring and I thought it was going to be. But in reality, there was a whole new world of things that I never thought of. I knew high profile principals such as movie stars, etc., would need security detail but never thought about how wealth in general requires much more attention even if the driver gets a flat tire on the way to school with the kids. Big problem if no plan in place because criminals would just love to kidnap the youngsters for ransom. Interesting stuff. Not to mention the things you need to know about estates regarding lighting, security fences, systems, and even defense mechanisms (a.k.a attack dogs... which apparently the magic number is 3 on that one). Apparently people that have been attacked by dogs have only less than a 10% chance of committing another crime (80-90% if arrested by police).

So needless to say, the movies "Bodyguard," "Bourne Identity" series and "Taken" were all brought up in conversation. We went through practical tools you can use to defend yourself and others such as pepper spray or OC, knives, handgun, baton, things you just purchased at the store such as Clorox... all very good helpers. I'm definitely feeling the need to take some hand to hand combat lessons and maybe even get my concealed handgun liscense if I'm going to be hanging around targets. You never know.

On another interesting note, the guy that came and spoke to us about all this not only has been in Private Security since 91, but also analyzes handwriting. He knew absolutely nothing about me but had me write "I like pepsi, but hate coke" and sign my name and he came up with the following:

• Confident
• Driven
• Realist Pessimist
• Keeps secrets well
• Has a two step process to getting to know people
• Less than a handful of people are really my friends (way more would consider me their friend but I would consider them an acquaintance)
• Detail-oriented: turns random details into a brick to build with
• Prefer for people to not know my agenda but prefer to know theirs (will always feel out the other person's physical and emotional state and adapt)
• I am Tonya first and Peterson I am still adjusting to
• I live in the here and now

You decide for yourself if you think he was right. I learned some of the techniques- My dad presses hard into the paper when he writes. I explained that it was because he has big hands and has to grip the pen hard. However, the handwriting analyzer asked me if he was driven... and, of course, the answer is yes. Interesting stuff.

Formal Dinner week...

This is the week of the formal dinner. According to some, it is stress week. I call it Week 6... mainly to encourage me to keep going on until week 8. This schedule is oh so brutal. I went to bed at 9 last night and slept all the way til 6 and had to rush to get to school by 6:30. Blah.

This morning we went and painfully picked out the flowers for the dinner and did floral arranging. I'll explain the painful part in a second. This afternoon though, we had another wine class which entailed the Bordeaux region of France as well as digestifs. It was quite fascinating to learn about port, scotch, and cognac processes. However, all the classes are kindof running together now. I started trying to remember the differences in wines and regions and I got a headache. Course, it could have been the 80 proof cognac I had just tried. Go figure.

Anyway, if you allow me to vent for just a second regarding the painful part. If you were to look at the operation of this week, you would think that these people have never done a formal dinner with students before in their life. They preach one thing and then act and do the complete opposite. Completely innerving! and this in every area. Not to mention, they teach such "high standards" and then their crazy flower teacher wants carnations in all the arrangements. Kill me now. Ok, done venting.

Coloradan Birthday Extravaganza!

Personality in words...

One of my personal favorite field trips so far occurred this morning. We went to the stationary store called "The Stationary Company." Apparently, the written word is coming back in style. It's just so impersonal to get an e-vite these days. It's heartwarming to get a personal note.

They had the most beautiful paper including 5 different sizes of personal stationary, business cards, calling cards, and books and books of different kinds of invitations. We learned about the different printing processes including engraving, embossing, and offset printing. We learned the differences in the occasion that you would use each size of stationary and where to write on it. I've been wanting to get some stationary for a long time but haven't had a permanent address to put on it so I'm still waiting on that but I am considering getting some nice non-addressed ones made. The absolute highlight though that I loved and just am dying to get is a glass pen. I saw one in St. Louis and had never seen one before but fell in love with it's artisan look. It turned up again in the store today and they were beautiful. They can come with different scented inks and they can write up to half a page before taking another dip. Quite impressive.

My birthday is tomorrow so you now know what to get me if you haven't already:) heehee. Speaking of my birthday, my parents were so sweet to send me flowers today. They were absolutely gorgeous. Mike and Sonia sent me a wonderful card with sweet money in it. Even the staff at Starkey signed a card for me.

After all the goodies of gifts around lunchtime, we went on another field trip to "The Brass Bed" which is a high end, amazing bedding, linen, furniture, & accessory store. Fanstatic Egyptian cotton. It's going to be hard to restrain from spending the 2,000 dollars to sleep like a princess on the softest, most comfortable sheets ever. But, I think I'll survive. Maybe one day. I will say one thing about them though- they are said to last 15 plus years. My hundred dollar ones from Macy's sure didn't last 3 months before they were all bally and uncomforable. Something to think about. Oh and they are washable and come in environmentally sensitive companies from Italy or Portugal.:)

Why did Jesus fold the napkin?

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection?

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.. She said, 'They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!' Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out ran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it.

The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished. Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished."

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because...

The folded napkin meant,

"I'm coming back."

-Compliments of my mother

Catch me on the Travel Channel!

The travel channel came today and filmed the mansion. So, if you are a Travel Channel watcher, be sure and look for the one in the white polo and khakis... wait, we're all in a white polo and khakis. Oh well, look hard:)

We learned all about dusting this morning. If you knew what I know now about your pillow, sheets, and couches, you would throw them all away and start over. I won't digust you with details.

I made omelettes today. 8 to be exact and did a pretty darn good job of it. This aftenoon we had our wine test over the Loire Valley, Alsace, and Germany. Then we moved on to a harder one (at least I thought it was harder to remember the grapes, etc) to the regions of Burgandy and the Rhone Valley- Charlie's favorites. I personally didn't enjoy them but I learned a lot about the different fermentation processes and how hearty the food has to be to stand up to some of the pinot noir reds. Brutal. I have two tips for non-wine drinkers who are aspiring to get invovled:

1. When at a wine tasting, never discuss the "legs" of the wine or smell the cork.
2. Stick with the Rieslings.

10 Interesting Facts...

Today I learned 10 valuable lessons:

1. Oriental Rugs take an ungodly amount of time to make and, therefore, an ungodly amount of money to pay for them.

2. Rugs from Home Depot can be hazardous to your health, literally.

3. Iranians who sell oriental rugs could be lineage of royalty.

4. Crab cakes are exceptionally fun to make and even better as the main course accompanied by fried corn and roasted potatoes.

5. Antique china patterns are just plain ugly and grandma-ish. No offense to those who have floral patterns.

6. Spain has 4 official languages: Catalan, Gallego, Valencian, and Euskera (not a form of spanish).

7. Spaniards do not wear shorts in public.

8. Never be late to a Japanese meeting.

9. There is no such thing as a bread plate in Spain. They put bread directly on the table.

10. Husbands who buy you Diet Dr Pepper and rent girly dance movies for you are gems.

Put some butter on it ya'll! ~Paula Dean

Transportation and Travel: We took a field trip to Aviation Services and was toured by a lady named Kris who apparently has flown mainly as a flight attendant with pretty much everybody including the famous, Paula Dean. Sonia, I thought you would like to know that tidbit:). We toured all the facilities and learned that pretty much if there was anythinig we needed to know in the future about private aviation, just call her. Didn't learn much else besides the fact that it averages 15,000 dollars a trip and commercial is always going to be cheaper. Oh and they do catering too. But what was neat was we got to see this:

I'm pretty sure you can eat off that floor. Speaking of eating and butter... as chef this week, I decided to take Charlie's advice and do Cornish Game Hens (which are completely adorable by the way even raw) for dinner seasoned with roasted garlic, butter, thyme, and salt and pepper accompanied by patty pan squash and sweet potatoes. Delicious! Paula Dean was right-- just put some butter on it.

Midterm

Just a weekend and Monday of midterms. Not much to report expect that we did fire safety yesterday. It was actually interesting. We learned about fires, the different kinds of extinguishers, systems, smoke detectors, sprinklers, and alarms. Today we have travel and transportation and more floral design.

It's week 5 and my body is sort of mad about this schedule I'm keeping. I'm pretty tired and a little on edge. Pray for me if you think of me for strength and perserverence.

I thought the pic was funny:)

Early Birthday Present....and Comedy Hour.

Although Tonya's birthday is actually this coming Saturday, she received her present a week early.....




And now some jokes...

In-between those happy snapshots...

"You never see the bad days in a photo album but it's those days that get us from one happy snapshot to the next."

Today was one of those bad days. I have no intention of lingering on the negative or completely depressing you, so I will suffice to say that there are inconsiderate people in the world, sometimes you are treated like a slave, and other times your entire 4 weeks of school will be erased from your computer with no explanation.

On the bright side, I had wine class today and I learned many new things about French and German wine. I learned that I love all German Rieslings, Vouvrey is the perfect hostess gift, and Chimon is watery. Maybe I should have had a few more sips... or glasses.

Bushes, Beds, and Brownie's...

Bushes:

Monday we had somewhat of a slow day and spent a lot of time out in the garden with a landcape designer. He pretty much is a plant nerd. My sister-in-law, Chelsea, would have loved this guy. He completely shredded the garden from top to bottom explaining all the things wrong with it which I guess is the best way to learn. I definitely don't know much about growing things but I was fascinated all the same.

Beds:

Yesterday, we actually had bed-making class. Yes, you know the thing you're mother taught you when you were less than five. You didn't know that there were much more sophisticated ways of making a bed, did you? Did you know that sheets can cost as much as 6,000 dollars? Did you also know that rich people have 3 sheets on their bed? Yeah, didn't know that one. A whole new world.

After bed making class, we have another wine and spirits class all afternoon which covered champagne and sparkling wine. It was so fascinating. Charlie and I went on a walk after school and I felt so smart to tell him all the history of Champagne and the Methode de Champenoise. Did you know that it started with French monks in the 1600s? You may have heard of one- Dom Perignon? Anyway, we had a tasting of 7 different sparkling wines and, of course, like all my expensive tastes, I liked the Champagne brut (which normally I don't like brut because its not sweet enough but apparently if it comes from France, it's awesome). Go figure. So, if you would like to know the entire history of Champagne or how to read labels or how to properly serve Champagne, feel free to contact me:). I have a test tomorrow and must be prepared...haha.

Brownies:

Today, we visited Cherry Creek Shopping center which is much like the Galleria in Dallas. Our field trip was to visit Neiman Marcus. Oh, Neiman's "I pay 500 dollars for a t-shirt" Marcus. But hey, we got a private tour before hours and took them Starkey's famous godiva brownies. We learned the ins and outs of all the men's tailored coat services, open cuffs, ordering buttons, belts, shoes, etc. and their shirts really are impressively soft. Then we went to the Fur department which was fantastic. Apparently, Neiman's will store your furs during the off season off site in a 20 degree facility and will condition the furs for you. Supposedly, if you take care of the furs correctly, they will outlast you and are as the salescleark, Doris, says "truly an investment." They had everything from shear mink, mink, lamb, silver tail fox, and even tiger. They really are actually gorgeous. One of the higher end ones cost 105,000 dollars. Wow. A house. Then we continued to tour the women's sections, bridal section, gift section, and then on to the custom jewelry counter which, of course, I nudge Charlie about the beautiful rubys and emeralds and diamonds they had...haha, like its going to help:).

After our brownie trip, we came back and made lunch and then set an entire formal dinner table to scale (meaning 1 inch from the edge, 24 inches between settings, etc.) with all the china and stemware. We then proceeded to practice mirrored service for 9 courses. My feet hurt from all the walking and bending over you have to do. We practiced English service, French Service, Russian Service, and, of course, American plated service. It is much fun but somewhat tiring as there are only 4 servers doing everything at the same time and takes twice as long as each of us has 3 people per server and only 2 hands.

Table Etiquette and Opera Fanciers...

So apparently I knew more about Table Etiquette than every student that has come through this class and I was outed at lunch yesterday. Chef Altoff pointed out to Ms. Starkey and Mrs. Bullock that I had prior etiquette training. It seems that they were impressed and somewhat shocked by it. Very strange. They didn't seem to think that it fit my personality. I was little offended but whatever.

After lunch we went over closet organization, fine china, and crystal inventory. How to clean it, store it, etc. Once that was over, we had to hang around, move furniture, and dress in our black and white waitor outfits and serve a group called "The Opera Fanciers." The Opera Fanciers are a group of middle aged to really old people who get together once a month and take turns singing opera. Picture a bunch of people showing up from casual jeans to nice dresses and just standing in a 100 year old living room singing opera with a piano. They were actually quite good but made for a 15 hour day. They bring snacks in plastic bags and we put them on platters and provide tea and coffee for their brief intermission at 8:00. Once gone, we moved all the furniture back. Quite humorous.

Look out Tom Cruise, looks who's making cocktails!

So, today we had our wine and spirits class part 1 which entailed the appertifs and mixology. It was a great blast because we actually busted out the cheese and crackers and made mix drinks and tried different fortified wines that are typical appertifs. By the time the 8 weeks is up, I'll have a basic certification in wine and spirits. So far, I can make a manhatten, martini, margarita, pimms cup, and serve other fortified wines. Maybe i can start keeping up with Charlie in knowledge:) not to mention I actually taught him something today!

Other than wine, we've taken a couple field trips this week which has been great to get out of the mansion. 13 hour days inside a hundred year old house gets quite gloomy especially when still recovering from food poisoning. We visited Butler's Rent which was the largest event rental company I have ever seen. The place just kept going and going. They had 10,000 of like everything and 10 loading trucks. It made Pendley look like a small shop.

This morning we learned about laundry including spot cleaning and sorting. So afterward, we actually went on a field trip and toured a dry cleaners to know the ends and outs of what a good dry cleaners should be like. Which by the way, dry cleaning is not dry. It's wet. Go figure. It was really fascinating. Yesterday, we learned the proper way to iron/press different kinds of clothes and linens. At the dry cleaners, we saw how the pros do the same thing that takes normally 20 minutes in seconds. Pretty sweet.

Other subjects we covered this week:

-Shoe Polishing

-Time Management

-Basic sewing (emergency care)

-Proper Bathroom cleaning

-Formal and Informal Place Settings

-Table Service Styles: French, Russian, English, and American

-Practice Mirrored Service for a formal dinner

Charles Peterson, Storm Tracker...

From the roof of Skye Condos, presents...

Food Poisoning 101...

The past week has been pretty crazy busy. Saturday, I went over to the mansion to work on some homework, do laundry, and have brunch with my fellow students. Since we are all stuck indoors for most of the week (meaning 12 hours a day or so), they wanted to go out. So, we went to this little place Mr. Jardine had been before and sat out in their garden. Really nice place. We had decided to do brunch. So me and one other girl decided to stick with the plan and the guys decided on the burgers. I ordered a chorizo borrito that was absolutely delicious. We went back to finish up the laundry and do homework until around 5 and I started feeling bad. It felt somewhat like I was getting another migraine which is normal for me and even though my homework wasn't perfect, I had to get out of there. An hour or two later, I figured out that it wasn't a migraine. It was food poisoning. I spent most of the night throwing up everything possible including probably parts of my stomach. I'm blogging right now to keep myself busy as I'm laying on the couch trying not to think about how bad my body hurts. So far, I've been able to keep down about 1 ounce of water. I keep trying to sip it. Its amazing how simple things become so hard when you're sick not to mention scared of having to run like a bat out of hell to the bathroom.

All that to say, I don't feel good. Please pray for me as my body deals with this. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do and going to the doctor wouldn't do any good unless it lingers for more than 3 days. Hydration supposedly is the key. Easier said than done. So, be careful when ordering eggs.

Thank you, Lord, for this amazing husband who is taking care of me. He has such a service heart and is there for me every step of the way.