Pampered Chef

As a way to increase my funds I have recently become a Pampered Chef consultant.  So far, it's been helping me save money by cooking at home way more than I had been.

After about a month of talking with and meeting with my Director, Ruth, I decided I could totally handle what Pampered Chef had to offer.  I placed an order for my starter kit and 2 days later it was here!  I spent about an hour opening each box and checking out the recipe cards that came with each individual product.  I finally realized that I was excited to cook, although I still hate going to the grocery store.

My roommate decided to help me out with my first practice party.  About 5 of her friends came over and we made a pizza.  I had gone in with the idea that no one was going to buy anything but at the end of the night I sold over $200.  The only issue I had with the party was the minor dog fight under the table over a piece of cheese.

Last night was my first monthly meeting at Ruth's house in Belleville.  I was nervous and excited to meet other consultants and hear how everyone got started.  I was able to meet Susan, my Director's Director, and Dan, a fellow consultant.

Dan was an interesting guy, he started Pampered Chef 3 years ago in memory of his daughter who lost her battle with breast cancer.  He choose Pampered Chef since their number one charity is breast cancer awareness (all May you can buy Pink products).  At one of Dan's parties he only makes desserts and tries to make them healthy.

Now that I've met other Pampered Chef people I'm back to being pumped and ready to sell more.  I currently have 2 standing orders for a catalog party and would like a couple more before I submit.

Hopefully, this will be the start of a fun new career or at least a great new hobby.

The boys of summer are back

It's offically baseball season!  The sport I live for and one big reason I moved back to St. Louis is in full swing.  The Cardinals have had 2 series with the cubs and are tied 1-1 for the season.  Even better news was that the Cards swept the dis-Astros.  After moving back I have realized what the people of Houston don't understand, THERE IS NO RIVIALRY BETWEEN THE CARDS AND 'STROS.  The real rivalry in the Central Division is the Cards and Cubs, it goes back to the 1800s. 

Since the season has started I've been able to see 2 Pujols' grand slams!  One against the dis-astros and, the better one, against the cubbies.  New prospect Colby Rasmus looks to be coming around and will be a great outfielder for the Cards.  Even Khalil Greene is looking good with a couple homers. 

I now just need to get some tickets to support my Redbirds!

I get those St. Louis Blues…

Well the Blues season came to an end in a 4 game sweep courtesy of the Vancouver Canucks.  Overall the season was a complete surprise for Blues fans and NHL fans for that matter.  No one thought the Blues would finish 6th in the Western Conference. 

After the overtime loss in Game 4 in St. Louis the Blues shook the hands of their stronger opponents and then raised their sticks in tribute to the fans.  It was great to see them stay on the ice an extra minute or two to acknowledge the fans.  Now it's on to next season to see how far we can go, especially since our "kid line" now has playoff experience.

Cornhole Finals and updates

[caption id="attachment_128" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Andrew's Trip to tha Lou"][/caption]

Cornhole season 2 has officially come to an end.  Overall our team drastically improved between the seasons.  We went undefeated in Season 2 on to be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.  We went out of rotation and in turn lost 2-1.  It was not one of our finer moments as a team but I was happy with how the team did. 

Since cornhole is over, I now have another free night during the week.  Since the time change I'm going to start taking advantage of Fracis Park and taking Reily for walks at night. 

Andrew made it up to tha Lou last weekend and it was a busy weekend.  We did a mini pub crawl on Friday night around the Tower Grove area.  Went out in Soulard on Saturday night, caught a couple basketball games, a trip to Crown Candy, Ted Drews, Union Station and a South County dive bar.  It was a lot in a little time, I'm still recovering. 

I had happy hour with a friend that I went to grade school and high school together.  We had a lot to catch up on and cannot wait to go out again.  I was introduced to another South City bar, the Mack.  Great food, and by far a bar I prefer to go to more often. 

I went hiking in Castlewood Park, I hadn't even heard of this park before but it was huge.  There were tons of trails to hike and bike.  Definitely a place that I will be going back to and maybe taking Reily.

Medium Nasty Hoosiers Update

I have slacked on my cornhole updates so here it goes.  Our team is undefeated!  We have played four games in Season 2 and we are looking strong.  We only have 2 games left to play and I don't really see how we won't make it to the finals.  Prizes up for grabs is close to $500 in cash and prizes.  It's all very exciting. 

If you use the link in "cornhole" above you will be able to check out the standings.  They are usually updated on Monday's or Tuesday's.

St. Louis Blues

I went to my first St. Louis/Chicago rivalry game that I can remember.  It was great to be in that atmosphere.  I loved the chats to "Let's go Blues" changed ever so cleverly to "Blackhawks Suck." 

The game overall was great, the Blues score in their only goal towards the end of the second period.  They were on the power play and Brad Boyes was set up perfectly.  The crowd was very restless throughout the game as there were plenty of missed opportunities to score.

We went to another game Monday night.  It was the first time in 3 years that the New York Rangers came to town and they probably should of stayed in New York.  The game was a low scorer but the action was great.  The Blues played very physical.  Cam Janssen threw 56 punches in his one and only fight of the night.  The Blues went on to win 2-1.  Slowly the Blues are making their way out of the basement in the Standings.

Apple iPhone

Since I first saw the iPhone I knew I wanted one.  I waited almost a year after they first came out to purchase one, of course right before the 3G was available.  I had months of fun playing on the phone and getting to know how it worked.

Then out of the blue, the bottom of my touch screen froze.  I could not get the keyboard to pop up so I could text.  It was hard to move around any options even while in the phone mode.  I was very upset, I did not have an extra $200 laying around to go buy a new phone.  So after doing some research online I kept reading, go to the Apple store.

I made it to the Apple store after a week of all one word texting.  They were very helpful and told me that I needed to set a tech appointment and even tried to sqeeze me in on a Friday night.  I set up my tech appointment for Saturday morning and hoped for the best.  While I did have to wait while employees strolled in to work the service was good.  The tech guy came out, saw the problem and said we'll just trade out phones.  Of course I asked if I could get the new upgrade one, but sadly no.  Either way I had a brand new iPhone without having to pay a dime!

The cool thing about the iPhone was that every time I synched my phone it backed up all the information, including phone numbers.  I thought I was going to have to reinput all 100+ numbers.  Ah, the joys of Apple.