From Texas To China With Love

I had a few good comments about cleaning the coils of the refrigerator and thought everytime I learn something new, I would add it to my blog. I sometimes feel really stupid not knowing these household tips, but you know, if I didn't know, maybe someone else didn't know either. If I can help a few people out, then it was well worth posting the entry.

Household tip #2 is to get your knives sharpened professionally. No matter if you have a gourmet brand, $5 Wally World, or garage sale pickup. You can cut yourself worse with a dull knife than a sharp knife. I don't know if that is true, but my husband always says that.

I enjoy watching (the keyword is watching) the Food Network. Especially the show Good Eats. Alton Brown goes into some scientific and historic detail when he is teaching a recipe. In one episode he was talking about the difference between honing a knife and sharpening a knife. Very eye-opening indeed.

Our set of knives are Henckel Pro-S. We've had them for about five years. My husband has been honing them and has asked me in the past to get them professional sharpened, but I never understood what the difference was between the two. Why get them sharpened when they were being honed or sharpened at home with one of those whetstones? (By the way, Scott would be horrified if he knew I actually have sharpened HIS knives with a whetstone. I'm not supposed to have a whetstone in the house or ever hone without adult supervision. Ha!) The show went into very detailed explanation of the two. They basically said get your knives professionaly sharpened regularly, use honing between knife sharpening visits.

I searched all around Austin and finally found a place on Burnet Road which sharpens all types of blades. When I told Scott the address, he wasn't surprised because it is in area where there are many thrift stores and businesses catering to people who need to have things repaired. He joked that the knife shapening place probably taught knife throwing classes.

I took in ALL my cooking knives. Including steak knives, meat scissors, a cheap $2 fillet knife, and a broken boning knife. I was so scared taking those things to the car. I put the knife blocks into a box because I was afraid of caring them individually in a bag and having a blade rip through and pierce my foot! I drove up and down Burnet Road trying to find this place. The address kept alluding me [litteraly a hole in the wall place], but I finally found it. I had to park in the back. I was so glad a brought the knives in a box because it was about a half a block walk. [ Not to mention what I would look like caring a handful of knives. Someone would have surely called the police stating there is a deranged woman walking around with knives] As I was walking past the warehouses in the back toward the knife place, I heard this log chopping sound. When I reached the back part of the building of the knife place, there was a group of people in the alley....taking a knife throwing class!! I busted out laughing!

They said it would take a few hours to get all the knives sharpened. When I came back to pick them up, I heard an even louder log chopping sound. They were teaching an ax throwing class!! I had to laugh even harder. I wanted to take a picture with my cell phone camera, but I thought I would distract them and cause an accident.

Anyway, they did an awesome job sharpening the knives. I was surprised they were able to create a pointed blade with the broken boning knife. This knife was expensive and somehow (probably faulty workmanship) it broke when Scott was cleaning a fish. This happened was many years ago. I was too lazy to figure out how to return it to Henckels. By the time I figured out how return it, the broken off piece of the blade had been discarded. So, they made it into a peeling knife. Wow, I wish all small knife handles felt that heavy.

The steak knives did a great job during my father's day steak luncheon. I thought the knife sharpener was going to destroy my serrated edge, but it didn't. I had already decided if they couldn't sharpen the steak knives, I was going to get rid of them. My dad was commenting how tender the steak was because the knife cut through it so easily. I told my dad about the knife sharpening service he began examining the blade. He looked at my step-mom and asked her to remind to get the address and phone number.

The total service for about 20 knives was about $45. That may be more than what you want to pay if you have bargain knives, but I tell you, it makes a world of difference. I have been chopping up a storm the last few weeks.

My husband thinks I am such a goofball [and he is probably right] because I keep telling everyone about getting my knives professionally sharpened. It really made a difference in needing to cook versus wanting to cook.

In the past three or four months I have been rather down because work has been really stressful. I've read several self-help books on happiness in the workplace which really haven't made a difference in my attitude.

On Thursday, My manager (The VP), came into my office to talk. Our company had announced major organization restructuring and she inherited another department which increased her headcount by about 40 people. So basically she will be running two organizations. I knew this was coming because she had warned me a few weeks ago. During our conversation she wanted to know how "I" was doing. I told her I was burned out from working so much overtime because I was responsible for two job roles and needed a long vacation. [A little background: I had asked for two week vacation in July about three weeks ago and she said no. This week, we had a new hire start who will be doing my old job.] My manager was really understanding and spent nearly 30 minutes telling me in a r-e-a-l-l-y nice and diplomatic way ...

{"I chose you to be my assistant because I have every confidence you can do it. I have been promoted and have chosen to bring you along for the ride. If you need relief with stress, go get professional help. You are the gatekeeper. People are going to go through you to get to me. If you are having trouble with this concept, then tough. You better accept it. If you need help figuring out how to filter the data coming from all directions, then go find a mentor, read a book, or take a class. Things will be rough for the next few months since you are still learning how to be an executive level administratorAND we are restructuring the organization. Things SHOULD get easier because you can start offloading some things to the new hire. We are going to hire more administrative help as the organization grows. YOU are going to be SENIOR administrator and naturally have to be a leader. I have faith you can be successful, but YOU have to make it happen. I am not going to and can't do it for you. I will support you if you need funds to go take classes or seminars. So, SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT!!" }

When she left my office I sat there silently replaying the conversation for about five minutes. As I said she didn't say any of this. I am totally interpreting what she said. She took the scenic route in explaining things, never raising her voice, drew diagrams of my responsibilities, etc. She was very positive and cheerful.

After analyzing the conversation I then realized what basically happened. SHE GAVE ME AN ASS CHEWING! WOW! As I said, she took 30 minutes to say this and it was such a nice way she handled it. Dang, I don't think I could have ever been that smooth and eloquent. I've never had anyone be so indirect in a direct way. I don't think I would have handled it that way since I am such a blunt and direct to the point person. I have a new respect for her as my manager and as a vice president. I can see why she has moved up the ladder so quickly.

It became very clear that I have to change my attitude. I should be relieved that someone has been hired to take over my old job. I also have to accept that working for an executive is going to be demanding. I can't regret leaving my old position because "I" chose and wanted to be her executive administrator. I just have to remember what IT was that I liked about the executive administrator job which made me want to ask to be permanently put into the position.

So, I am turning over a new leaf. Part of change came from the ass chewing, the other part came from reading Johnny's blog about his father. His father chose to excel at his profession even though he doesn't like doing it. I need to adopt that philosophy as well. To quote from Caddyshack "The world needs ditch diggers, too." So, if I were digging ditches as a profession, I may as well be the best ditch digger there ever was. Johnny, if you ever tell your dad you wrote a blog about him, tell him 'thank you' for me.

I am 35 years old and have never tried sushi...until today. I didn't realize the group I was with was going to a sushi place. They only told me they were going to lunch. By the time we got in the car about 1 mile from the office, there was no turning back when I found out what the main course was going to be.

Scott and another friend of mine have been trying to get me to taste sushi for years. All I would do decline and scrunch up my nose along with make ewwwww noises.

Too tell you the truth it wasn't that bad. Fortunately, I was with a group who KNOW sushi and they picked a really good sushi joint. It wasn't slimy and it didn't smell "fishy". I guess that is the difference between good and bad sushi.

It probably didn't hurt that I had 7 pair of eyes on me waiting to make fun of any negative facial expression I made. I dissapointed them and gave them a thumbs up after I carefully (rather messily) took my first bite of salmon on rice. Althought I still wasn't too sure what to think of the texture. Each of my co-workers began giving me technical advice on how to eat each item on the plate. I was a master by the end of the meal.

I received wonderful news from my friends in China. They received their daughter a few days ago. I realized they are staying an additional week to visit in Hong Kong. They said it was a trip of a lifetime so it was worth it to get there a few days early and stay an extra week.

A.

Little M.M. is doing great. She has become a giggling, affectionate baby. She's not used to being around men so she still prefers me over T. (and my back is killing me) but I can tell that soon she will be daddy's little girl.

China is just beautiful. It has such an incredibly rich culture and history and the art work is amazing and abundant. The people are friendly and curious. We keep getting the thumbs up sign from strangers and they come right up and stare at us. Now I'm wishing that I'd learned a little more in those Chinese language classes though. For example, they often point to our group of adoptive parents and then point to our noses. I think they're calling us "big nose." And the Chinese toilets make me really glad that I do yoga. ;>

- K


A.

We have had baby M.M.for 3 days now. She has really blossomed over the past few days, but there have been some rough spots. They gave her to us with a cold and she has been pretty seriously congested. She is also teething and has bed sores on her back from spending so much time on her back in the orphanage. She is very cute though and in the last day has started trying to roll over (she is almost there) and is starting to vocalize what sounds like words. She didn't smile at all her first day with us, but is warming up very quickly.

- T

I can't wait to meet M.M. K sent pictures of "meet your forever family day", but M.M. kept turning her head away when T. would try to get a pictures. Their son, C., who is 7 looked really amazed in the picture, "is this my sister?"

Our baby crows took their first flight and flew away. They were not alone, they have four adult crows helping them along. Could the four adult birds be mama, papa, grandma & grandpa? Maybe Aunt and Uncle?

I wasn't able to get a picture since the nest was too high up.

This had me thinking again about "working mom vs stay-at-home mom". Gosh! They grow up so fast! These birds were only in the nest for about three or four weeks.


Other News:

My friend and her family are in China picking up her daughter. She told me she wasn't taking a laptop or stopping into the business center. I'll have to be content waiting for her to update me when she gets back. She is taking 7 weeks off from work. She saved up all of her vacation and then received two weeks of incidental pay to cover her finances during her absence.

Her referral to TA time frame was about 3 weeks. Then a week to prepare and pack. Four weeks from referral to travel. That is pretty fast, right?