Investing Seminar by TD Ameritrade
Posted on August 13, 2011 by Ching under Money, Things to Do.
Brian and I survived a two-day seminar on stocks and options trading. I feel good and am now ready to gamble away our life savings.
Just kidding! LOL!
Let’s touch base in about three months when my Investools subscription expires. Hopefully, I’m at least $20K richer at that point.
The plan is to start small and then build up the bankroll. I doubt we’ll be millionaires by the time Brian hits 40, but maybe when I hit 40. 😉 Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Leave it up to us to attend a seminar on investing at a time of great economic uncertainty. What impeccable timing we have!
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Our 9th Wedding Anniversary
Posted on August 11, 2011 by Ching under Life, Things to Do.
Some couples celebrate their wedding anniversary by going away for the weekend. Not us. We’re taking a two-day investing seminar at Century II on Friday and Saturday. LOL. What nerds, right?
The plan for tomorrow night is to take Brian to Walt’s Sports Bar & Grill, the place where we met for the first time. Anyway, we’re not supposed to be eating out so I think we will just split something. We’re mostly just going for the sake of nostalgia. After that we’re going to go play poker, something that we are going to try to work back into our regular Friday schedule/rotation.
Brian made reservations at Ya Ya’s on Saturday night. That’s going to be our actual anniversary dinner. They’re supposed to have live music that night, but I’m not sure who is playing. I think we’re going to see Crazy, Stupid, Love afterward. Brian really wants to see Captain America or Cowboys and Aliens, but who wants to watch an action flick for their anniversary movie? LOL.
Brian was a little upset that I wouldn’t cancel my personal training appointment this weekend so that we could have our couples massage. But I won’t be able to exercise on Friday or Saturday. I didn’t want to miss three days in a row. I have to workout on Sunday! I told him that John Wilborn is going to out of town at the end of the month to celebrate his own wedding anniversary so we could do our couples massage then. It’s kind of sad that my workout schedule is taking precedence over my anniversary weekend, but I think this schedule works out way better. I may whine a lot during my personal training sessions, but I take my workouts seriously. =P
Finally, we’re going to go see The Script when they play at Hartman Arena next month. I’m super excited about that. So glad Brian agreed to take me. So I guess that’s it. That’s how we’re celebrating our wedding anniversary this year. Pretty low key, but the East Coast trip last month was pretty expensive and we’re still recovering from it.
For a recap of past anniversary celebrations, check out this note on our Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=164289633644062.
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Carolyn’s Thank You Card
Posted on August 10, 2011 by Ching under Babies.
This is too cute not to share. 🙂
Isn’t she the cutest ever? Thank you for the sweet “thank you” card, Care-Care! Sorry the tag reader won’t read all your other books to you. LOL!
P.S. This was too cute not to share. I hope you don’t mind my sharing it, Gina Ann. 🙂
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Celebrity Sightings
Posted on August 7, 2011 by Ching under Things to Do.
When Brian and I went to the pool tonight, we were disappointed to find people there. We usually prefer it when it’s just the two of us. Friday nights are the best because there’s never anyone at the pool and we can pretty much do whatever we want. Tonight, there were a few people when we got there. There were a couple of guys with two little kids and then there was this guy with two girls.
After a while, the two guys with the two little kids left so it was just the five of us at the pool — Brian and me, and the guy with the two women. I thought the guy looked really familiar. The three of them were speaking Spanish on and off, but I couldn’t help but overhear some of their conversation. The ladies kept calling him Jason, so I began to wonder if it was Chef Jason of Taste & See (formerly of Sabor).
I asked Brian if he thought the guy looked familiar. He agreed. I told him that I thought it might Chef Jason. We both agreed that he looked just like him. I was too embarrassed to ask, though. I didn’t want him to think that I was stalking him. Though he is a bit of a celebrity. At least in my book. He is like a food God. Everything he makes is delicious!
I remember eating his delicious dishes at Sabor three years ago. I kept going back. I think he’s actually partially responsible for making me fat. Him and Joe at Carrabba’s. And a few other restaurants in town. LOL. We used to eat out a lot.
This year I found out through Gina Ann that he’s doing cooking classes at Taste & See. A few months ago, he started serving lunch at the cooking school. If you’ve never been there, you have to try it! The food is amazing! Now is actually the best time to go because he’s doing a special on FourSquare. I wouldn’t have known about it, if it weren’t for Gina Ann.
Chef Jason also has a couple of cooking classes coming up. Brian and I are already registered for the sushi class, which is on Saturday, August 27. We also want to do the tapas class at the end of September. We haven’t signed up for that one yet, though. I’m really looking forward to learning how to make sushi so we can start making sushi for dinner. I’ve yet to meet a fat Japanese person so it can’t be that bad for you. =P
Speaking of celebrities, we also got to meet Marielkis Salazar of Univision Kansas. She is super nice! So nice, in fact, that I might start watching Univision Kansas from now on. I think it might help me improve my Spanish. LOL.
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Spanish Immersion – Street Spanish
Posted on August 7, 2011 by Ching under Tagalog.
Here are some Spanish colloquialisms that we picked up at the free Spanish immersion class yesterday at Spanish Horizons.
NOTE: I’m posting this for Paige because she couldn’t make it. She still donated school supplies, though. She’s just awesome like that. I brought in her stuff and let Brian bring my donation in so that he could participate in the free Spanish lesson.
| Phrases | |
|---|---|
| ¡Hola compa! | Hi pal! |
| ¿Qué onda? | What’s new? |
| ¿Qué tal? | How are things? |
| ¿Qué tal la fiesta? | How’s the party? |
| ¿Qué tal los chicos? | How are the boys? |
| ¿Cómo te ha ido? | How have you been? |
| ¡Oye! ¡Oiga! | Hey! |
| Te amo. | I love you. (romantic sense or deep love) |
| Te quiero. | I love you. (friendly sense) |
| ¡Qué guapo/a! | How good looking! |
| ¡Ojo! | Watch out! |
| ¿Te gusta…? | Do you like…? |
| Me gusta… | I like… |
| No me gusta… | I don’t like… |
| Déjeme en paz. | Leave me alone. |
| ¡Deje de molestarme! | Stop bothering me! (almost looks like “Stop molesting me!” – LOL) |
| ¡Basta ya! | Enough already! |
| Buena suerte. | Good luck. |
| ¿Cómo se dice…? | How do you say…? (this is a really useful phrase) |
| Words | |
|---|---|
| los chavos | the guys |
| fulano/a | unfamiliar guy/gal (someone you don’t know) |
| a toda madre | great, fantastic |
| chulo/a | cute, good looking |
| ‘mano, ‘manito | bro/brother, little brother |
| ‘mana, ‘manita | sis/sister, little sister |
| quizas | maybe |
| simón | oh yeah (variant of sà = yes) |
| porfa | please (from por favor) |
| mamacita | literally little mama; can be used with affection or referring to an appealing woman, but has a sexist connotation |
The word mamacita made me think of “Ay Papacito” by Alicia Villarreal. It’s one of the songs that we Zumba too in Amie and Gina Ann’s classes. We actually used it as our cool down song in Amie’s Zumba class this afternoon.
Speaking of Amie, she actually called me a mamacita today. I think she meant it as a compliment. At least, that’s the way I took it. 🙂
| Bad Words | |
|---|---|
| Because you know that this is really want you want to know… =P | |
| mierda | shit |
| cabrón | son of a bitch |
| pendejo | asshole |
| pinche | damn |
| culo | ass |
| perra | bitch |
| puta | whore (same in Tagalog) |
| chinga | fuck |
Vendla didn’t teach us the bad words. There were kids in the audience. They were listed on the handout though, for those who are curious and want to learn them. Brian promptly made fun of me over that last one because I go by Ching or Chingay and it’s only one letter off from the Spanish cuss word. I didn’t know this until yesterday, of course. Had I known, I would have picked a different nickname. Actually, my grandmother is the one who started the whole “Ching” thing when I was little. They all called me “Ching-Ching” in Tabuc. I don’t think anyone knew any better.
The only cuss word that I was familiar with already is puta because it is the same as the Tagalog word for whore. Suerte is also familiar because it means luck in Tagalog. Except, I think we spell it with a “W” like swerte. Gusto is similar in Tagalog as well. We say gusto ko for I like or gusto mo for you like. Guapo is the same in Tagalog but, as with the word for luck, I think we spell it with a “W” also like gwapo. The tagalog word for beautiful is maganda, but in Bisaya we always say gwapa. As much as Spanish has in common with Tagalog, it has even more in common with Bisaya.
I think that my ability to speak Tagalog and Bisaya has really helped me pick up Spanish a lot quicker. I expect to be pretty fluent in a couple more classes. I’m really looking forward to being able to hold Spanish conversations. Now I just need to find someone to practice with!
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