Learning to Kill Lincoln AND Read Financial Reports

It's been awhile since my  last update on the books I'm reading. So long that I have started and finished several books since then. So, I figured now is as good a time as any to give my thoughts on the books I'm reading and have read.

How to Read A Financial Report - By John Tracy
This one is about as boring and dry as it sounds. Not exactly the most entertaining read. But I learned quite a bit from the book. He explains things like accounts receivable, accounts payable, assets, liabilities, revenue, depreciation, and on and on. Things you would find on a -- you guessed it -- Financial Report. He goes into pretty deep detail on how to read correlations between the three different parts of the report that aren't spelled out in the report itself. The first half of the book was very interesting, but then he started getting into accounting best practices and things that I didn't care too much about. I still stuck with it to the end though and actually picked up some random nuggets that might come in handy someday.

Killing Lincoln - By Bill O'Reilly
The first book on history I have read outside of school-assigned reading probably ever! I actually enjoyed it though. It was a nice change of pace and I actually learned quite a bit about President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, the Civil War, and several other important figures around that time. My only complaint is that it got a little gruesome near the end. Mr. O'Reilly goes into a little too much gory detail, for my taste, of Lincoln's death and some of the other attempted murders surrounding his assassination (attempted murders that I never knew happened). I doubt that I will read it again anytime soon since war history isn't super high on my priority list. But overall it was a good book and I came away with a better understanding of a lot of things.

Outliers - By Malcolm Gladwell
This book was very interesting. It is definitely a thought-provoking book and a different look at how really successful people, outliers, reach their level of success. Mr. Gladwell really did his homework on some of the big names, successful cultures, and professional athletes/musicians and the reasons they succeeded; people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Bill Joy (founder of Sun Microsystems). Unlike the common "self-made man" viewpoint many American's embrace, Mr. Gladwell shows the many factors that went into the reasons that these men prospered. For instance, most of the big names in the computer industry were all born around the same time period (1955-1956). Being born at this time put them at the precise age when computers just started to take off to take advantage of them and get a head start on everyone. There are many more factors, but I won't get into them. It was definitely a philosophical book and made me think. I am sure I missed lot's of good stuff so it definitely has made it onto my "Books to Read Again" list.

Currently Reading
Be Skillful - I'm still working my way through this book in my devotions. It's going pretty slow because it references many passages of scripture and I have been looking them all up as I go. Using it as kind of a study aid. I have really been enjoying it though.
Quitter by John Acuff- I'm about half way through this book. It's an excellent read so far. The author is a funny guy and he has some excellent ideas on how to be a hard worker and work your dream job on the side while still keeping your day job to support you.
And of course my behemoth JavaScript book that I am working through. We will see when that gets finished, most likely it will be a few months!

Weekend Highlights

What I thought was going to be kind of a dull weekend actually turned out to be pretty eventful... or at least eventful enough to get its very own post. Which isn't saying a whole lot I suppose! Here are a few highlights of what I did.


JavaScript 
I started my Saturday off with some exhilarating JavaScript studying. I just bought this book (basically a textbook) on the JavaScript web-programming language. Other than being a highly-recommended, exhaustive resource of everything that has to do with the JavaScript language, it also helps hold the house down when it gets a windy -- the thing is huge, 1100 pages! And it isn't exactly light reading. Getting through this book is definitely going to be my new hobby for the next couple months. After my Sunday afternoon read I'm on page 29, yeah it's going to be awhile.

Oh and the reason for reading it? For one, I've always been interested in web programming and it's pretty similar to a few other programming languages I already know. Also, web-based apps/programs and websites is the direction I've shifted my focus for my little side-business (which really doesn't even exist yet) as well. So, the first step is to actually learn the tools to develop on the web, hence the book.


Meridian Speedway
Saturday night one my friends, Megan, got free tickets to the races at the local Meridian Speedway and invited me along. I had some reservations about how it was going to be, but it was actually quite a bit of fun. There were quite a few wrecks, which are always exciting -- one of the cars even went up and over the wall and broke through a couple of the signs surrounding the track. Thankfully, it was the only wall without fans on it, so no one was in danger, besides the driver of course.

It had been quite a few years since I had been to a circle track race. Honestly, I generally find circle track (or I guess oval would be the correct shape) races very boring...especially NASCAR where they go 200+ laps. That's probably why I haven't been in so long. But thankfully this weekend they were all pretty short aside from a few 40 and 50 lap races near the end. Plus, it was a great reason to get out of the house and do something with some friends.

The Cast Iron Skillet
I bought a cast iron skillet last summer. I figured, I'm a bachelor now. I've got my own place. I'm cooking for myself. Any self-respecting bachelor needs a cast iron skillet, right? Well, I guess not, because I didn't get very far. I think I cooked on it once or twice and it was a disaster. The food stuck like glue. The food turned black. The food tasted weird -- or maybe I just thought it did, who knows. I really don't know what I did wrong but I'm sure it was close to everything.

So, I'm not sure what has gotten into my lately -- I guess it's summer again? I don't know -- but I'm reviving the idea of a cast iron skillet. Saturday, I did some googling and found directions on how to correctly season your cast iron cookware. It all seemed to work okay. Sunday morning I attempted to cook some eggs and they didn't stick too bad, but they turned black, and maybe I'm weird but eating black eggs just doesn't seem like a great activity. It looks like I've got some more seasoning to do before I am an official Cast Iron Skillet-Wielding Bachelor!

Yes, I got lazy and couldn't think of any good pictures. Sorry for the wall of text! 

Chicken Bacon Salad

There isn't anything particularly special about my chicken salads but they are delicious. At times, I have even found myself craving them; something that strikes me as a bit odd, considering salads have only recently become a regularity in my diet.

Before I ever tried the low-carb diet my lunchtime meal was almost exclusively some kind of sandwich, be it tuna, lunchmeat, or my personal favorite, peanut butter... and yes, only peanut butter. But of course, bread is quite the carb carrier, with most pieces packing about 15-20g a slice. Naturally, it was the first thing I took a stab at eliminating from my diet since it comprised the majority of my carb intake.

That's when I discovered the beauty of the chicken salad; practically a carb-free meal, save whatever veggies are added. An entire head of green leaf lettuce has only 50 calories and 10g of carbs, half of which are from fiber. Non-starchy veggies are also generally low in carbs as well, offering vital nutrients and vitamins to our bodies.

Nowadays, chicken salads make up about 70% of my work lunches; the other portion coming from my weekly lunch with coworkers or from occasional leftovers. You may be thinking that much chicken salad isn't enough variety, but I rarely get tired of the same foods. I do try to mix it up a bit to keep it interesting by introducing different veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, olives)  and cheeses (parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella). I have also added salsa, occasionally, for a taco salad experience.

And of course I can't forget the bacon. I don't always add the bacon, but if I have some extra in the refrigerator I will toss it in. A piece of bacon definitely adds a delicious smoky flavor to the salad.

Tomorrow's lunch looks like this:

Ingredients

1 Slice Thick-cut Bacon

3/4 to 1 Cup cooked chicken, cubed

Small handful of Tomatoes, sliced

Small handful of Mozzarella

2 Tbsp of Ranch dressing

Mixed Greens

Yes, "small handful" is a scientific measurement. The beauty of a salad is the measurements really don't matter. There is plenty of room for experimentation and carelessness and it won't be noticed in the final product. The amount of lettuce really depends on how big of a salad you want.

I grilled my chicken on my George Foreman with onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, and ground pepper. Yummmm!

Directions

1. Add the meat to the bowl.

2. Add a layer of salad.

3. Add the veggies and cheese.

4. Drizzle the dressing.

5. Add a final layer of salad.

6. Secure the lid and give it a shake.

This is the best method of preparation I have found. I have experimented with the meat at the top of the salad but it ends up being difficult to get a good mixture of meat and lettuce in each bite. With the meat on bottom it's easier to get the meat from the bottom and combine it with the lettuce from the top. Sure, you're probably thinking I'm crazy, but this is the kind of stuff I ponder while eating my lunch. A good salad-to-meat ratio is important to me!

Oh, and the top layer of salad? It segregates the tasty dressing from the lid; preventing smearing that would just make inefficient use of the dressing.

Looking forward to eating this for lunch tomorrow!

Weekend Trip Home!

This past weekend I made the 5 hour trek back to my hometown, which is the Tri-cities, WA. I tend to still refer to it as "Home" when I'm in Boise and refer to Boise as "Home" when I'm in the Tri-cities, it's a very interesting phenomenon that first showed up in college. I'm not sure at what point in my life that will change, maybe when I have a family of my own? Who knows..but I can't see it happening anytime soon, that is for certain.

Homeward BoundBack to my weekend. I headed out early from work on Thursday and hit the road (I took Friday off). Generally, I am bored stiff on the familiar stretch of road between Boise and the Tri-Cities and feel like I'm accomplishing very little, until recently. I have discovered audio books, one of the greatest inventions ever, since I read as fast as a turtle -- I bet you didn't know turtles could read that fast, huh?! So far I think I've read...er listened... to four audio books and just finished another on this trip. For most of the way there and on my return trip I listened to Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly. It's not the type of book I generally read but it was a nice change of pace and made the time pass a bit quicker. And best of all it made me feel like I accomplished something on my drive other then spending $100 of my hard-earned cash on gas.

I arrived home just in time for dinner. My mom had prepared a wonderful meal of broccoli beef, green beans, and salad and for desert: fresh raspberries and strawberries from the garden. It was awesome, thanks mom!

I hoisted my car for the job...but safely of course. 

Project Knock Sensor
That same night I got started on the biggest project I have yet to undertake on my car, replacing the knock sensors. I would have done it in Boise months ago, but my dad has a tool collection that puts mine to shame. And looking back on the weekend, without his wisdom and tool selection I doubt I would have got it done in time for work on Monday. But thanks to his help and many hours of work I finally finished the job on Saturday morning with a few hours to spare before getting ready for my first wedding. More specifically, the first wedding that I have been a part of, I'm definitely still very unmarried!


Wedding
I was, in fact, an usher in Jared's wedding, a friend of mine from church and the older brother of my good buddy Phil. My suit even got itself tailored for this special occasion, something that has been needing to be done since I bought the darned thing. The wedding went great and I really enjoyed getting to dress up in my suit and escort people to their seats. Since Jared grew up in the church I grew up in, I knew almost everyone I seated, working the groom's side with Phil. 


It Gets Better

Dad, myself, Lucy (the big hairy one), and Chup

With being an integral part in a wedding and my baby (the car) running better than the first day I drove 'er home you'd think the weekend couldn't get better. But then there was Father's Day. Since I planned to head home Sunday morning, we started Father's Day on Saturday night, with dinner at Bob's Burgers and Brew! Definitely a new favorite of mine, I wish they had one in Boise, although I suppose we have our own excellent burger establishments as well. After a wonderful dinner we enjoyed an evening of just hanging out and then headed to bed early -- a new favorite pastime of mine now that I am an aging adult. Actually, I was trying to realign my sleeping schedule with Mountain time, yeah that's it!

Until Next Time...
Sunday morning brought bacon, eggs, and homemade waffles complete with 100% pure maple syrup (did I mention I love my mom?). Yum, home-cooked breakfast is the best! We did the whole Father's Day gift thing, sat around a bit more chatting and then I hit the road, back to real life; ending a fabulous weekend, accomplishing quite a bit, and seeing many of those I love... Good times!

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Recently, I finished reading this book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, by Seth Godin. It was an interesting and thought-provoking book and I highly recommend it to anyone. It is primarily focused on the business world but the ideas put forth can be applied to any organization, for profit or not. The premise is that you need to become a Linchpin, someone that isn't just another cog in a wheel that punches the clock, follows directions, and does the minimum to get the paycheck. The Linchpin takes chances, stands out from the rest of the workers, makes mistakes, learns from them, and works for himself, not just his boss. Linchpins see their employer as a customer that they can provide a service to and do so excellently.

Something that Mr. Godin talks about and has really stuck with me is the power in giving gifts. He explains a gift as a transaction where an imbalance is created. When we receive a gift from someone we generally don't hand them a wad of cash totaling the exact amount it cost them to buy the gift, assuming people actually carried cash still. We say "Thanks. I love it!" and then we either try to return the favor with a similarly valued gift, equalizing the scale, or choose to live on with the scale in our relationship off balance. Choosing the latter can do two things. One, it usually makes the giver feel good about having given a gift; and two, it causes you to want to find out why this person gave you a gift, bringing you closer to that person and creating a stronger relationship.

In our culture, it seems like the courteous thing to do is to return the favor of a gift with another gift. But this "favor" really defeats the purpose of the gift: to create an imbalance, bringing each other closer.

Seth says in the book, "If I sell you something, we exchange items of value. You give me money, I give you stuff, or a service. The deal is done. We're Even." This is a common transaction we make every day like purchasing groceries or paying for gas. We generally don't feel obligated to tip the gas pump an extra couple bucks because it did such a great job, especially these days! That would be a bit ridiculous since the gas pump gave us exactly the amount of gas we requested at the agreed upon price per gallon. We owe nothing to the gas pump.

On the flip side, we will tip the individual providing a service to us, like a waitress, based on the quality of service they provide. We tip extra to correct the imbalance that she created when going above and beyond what was required to serve our meal. Since we probably won't see her again and have no need of becoming closer to her, we feel the inherent need to correct the imbalance by providing a larger tip.  This makes her perfectly happy because that's how she makes her living. We leave the interaction feeling satisfied, she has her money, we are full and well serviced and will probably be back to the fine establishment. This inadvertently makes the owner happy because his restaurant will profit from our return business. All this happiness created by a simple gift that the waitress gave. She is a Linchpin and Linchpins generally do, and should, make more money because they offer more to an organization.

Learning about the power of giving gifts is just one of the things I learned from Mr. Godin's book. I didn't even scratch the surface of detail he goes into in his book on giving gifts and creating art for others to enjoy. And how doing this can not only bring happiness to others but to you as well. All I can say is read it and see for yourself. 

Books I'm Reading

From time to time I'd like to share what books I am in the process of reading. I'm not the quickest reader in the world so these posts may be few and far between. At the moment, I'm working my way through three different books. I know reading three books simultaneously may seem like it would be hard to absorb the information; that's what I thought. But I have been experimenting with it a bit and have chosen three books with vastly different subjects. I have found that it isn't difficult at all to read all three because they each speak to improving a different area of my life.

The Five Love Languages

The first is a shorter paperback book called The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition by Gary D. Chapman. So far, I have had a hard time putting it down; it is an excellent book and is fascinating to me. I really enjoy learning about how we, as people, think and respond to certain things. Mr. Chapman is a Christian author and counselor that tells some great stories of real-life relationships that he has been involved in that reinforce each of his five love languages. So far, I am through four of the five languages and have already learned so much about how I can improve my interactions with others. So far, I can say it would be a great read for anyone that wants to improve the health of their relationships with friends, family, spouse, or otherwise.

Be Skillful

The second book is another little book entitled Be Skillful by Warren W. Wiersbe. I am honestly not sure where I got this book. If one of you gave it to me then speak up because I'd love to know how it showed up on my bookshelf! The other day I was perusing my book collection and ran across it. The book is a guide to the book of Proverbs. It's kind of a commentary and book study guide on possibly my favorite book of the Bible. So, it of course caught my attention. I have only been reading it for a few days now, but am really enjoying the insight into Proverbs and guidance provided by Mr. Wiersbe. It has really revitalized my quiet time with God, which I haven't been as diligent at as I would like. I'm glad I found this little book and look forward to getting into it deeper.

Thou Shalt Prosper

The last book, that I'm nearly finished with, is Thou Shalt Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. This is the audio book in my lineup. Recently, I started buying audio books to listen to on my way to work, doing errands, or on road trips to visit family. I did this because I decided I was gleaning very little personal development by listening to the local radio stations. In fact, the opposite could be argued. So, I got some audio books. This book is my second audio book and so far I love audio books; something is just more relaxing about being able to listen to a book than have to read it. I won't say too much about the book because I don't want to spoil my review on it that will probably be very soon (I think I'm on the final chapter). But in a nutshell, the book explains the reasons that Jewish people tend to be more successful, wealthier, and happier than other business owners and leaders. He gives many Biblical examples for his reasonings and ideas, it has been very interesting.

Well, that's it, those are the three books I'm attempting to get through. My book list is growing much faster than I can keep up with, which is a little disheartening. But I am loving the books I'm reading and don't want to rush them! My book list will probably never be empty, but oh well, if it did end up empty then what would I do?! 

Student Life vs. Work Life

My Alma Mater - Washington State University

The other day I was chatting with one of my good friends, Rylan, about the differences between being a full-time student and a full-time professional. Having now personally experienced both areas, I decided I would share my thoughts. Besides, now that I have experienced the professional world for a year (officially this next Wednesday) I am practically an expert on the matter -- NOT -- but these are my thoughts either way. 

By full-time student I mean a normal college class load and by full-time professional I'm referring to a 40+ hour workweek. Obviously, everyone's college experience is unique, much like our lives, so I'm going to try and take into account the different variables but this can obviously be a tough comparison.

Living in the Lap of Luxury

I've spent a lot more time as a full-time student than as a professional so I'll start there. For parts of my student career  I had a part-time job, some of the time I was playing basketball (practically a part-time job in regards to the time commitment), but for a lot of my student life I didn't have either and just focused on my studies. As I recall, school didn't become any harder with additional responsibilities, there was just less room for fun and mindless activities. Keep in mind I was living at home for four of my collegiate years, so most of my cooking and cleaning was taken care of by my wonderful mom! Actually, come to think of it, my years at WSU, while living in the NuHouse, didn't require me to worry about meals or cleaning either. This provided quite a bit of free-time that I definitely took for granted.

Free Time

Before graduating, I remember looking forward to my career because not only would I be making money, but I'd have so much more free time. I am sad to say, I have not found this to be the case. Now, of course for Rylan, who is holding down a part-time job and going to school full-time, I can imagine he will find more free time in his life once graduated. But I'm focusing solely on the differences between full-time student and full-time professional (since that's what I have experienced), part-time jobs and other endeavors aside.

Now as an adult in the real world, my life is quite a bit different from when I was in school. For one, I don't have my meals prepared for me or my residence cleaned regularly, or at least I didn't for the first six months (I'll explain that another day). A lot of my evenings seem to get snatched up by making dinner, running errands, doing some cleaning, or completing some other tasks that seem to turn, what seemed like a long, free night, into an hour or two left over before bed.

These extra duties that I now have as a professional and didn't have in school definitely skew my comparison of the two lives. I think that, as far as free time goes, it may be a tie between the two lifestyles. Assuming I had my own place in school and had to provide for myself like I do now.

Structure

School is very much compartmentalized into relatively short terms where, to me, it feels kind of like a sprint to the end of the term. You are intensely focused on a specific topic/subject of study for those few months and then it's done, over, finished and you get your reward. Hopefully, a good grade for your hard work.

My Employer - Micron Technology

Work on the other hand, really has no end in sight. It's a marathon . This is just how real life is, I will work until I cannot work anymore, or at least that's my plan. I have come to accept that fact and while it can be kind of a depressing feeling to never have another summer break, I'm just fine with it, change is good and it feels good to think I'm all grown up, or at least on my way!

Mental Freedom

In school, I would always be anxious about the final projects in my courses. Even if there was a weekend where I had nothing due anytime soon, my mind was never completely free of the impending doom of the final project, or the next week's assignment that I could get started on, but really didn't need or want to. There was always that evil, little voice in the back of my head saying that I should get started, making it impossible for me to completely relax until the project was done and semester over.

Now, of course this can happen in professional work as well and it very well may get me in the future as I gain more responsibility and risk in my job. But, so far, I have avoided it and that is my goal going forward. On my weekends and evenings I have been able to completely relax mentally and not fret about any deadlines or projects at work. It has been great and has been a nice change from the constant cloud of deadlines I could never seem to shake during school. That I do not miss. 

And the Winner is...

Overall, both full-time student and full-time professional require commitment and lots of hard work. They are difficult in different ways. I have yet to have to take and pass a written test in my job, thank goodness. And in school you don't have to worry too much about teaching yourself the material, which is pretty much all I do at work. In the end, I'm a fan of the real world, sure I miss the friends I made and getting a different schedule every term (always loved picking my classes and getting my schedule), but making money and actually contributing to the world is so much better and more fulfilling!

New and Improved: Breakfast Casserole

I've made some major discoveries on the low-carb breakfast casserole front since I first shared my Sausage Breakfast Muffin recipe. For one, the little muffin papers I used in that recipe turned out to be a disaster. The egg ended up becoming one with the paper, making it a chore to remove the paper before eating the muffin.

The next experiment was ditching the muffin papers and just using about half of a can of cooking spray and that definitely did the trick, no stick whatsoever. But it was still a pain to pour the mixture into each of the twelve cups. Some of the muffins would consist of mostly cheese and others would have all the meat, it just wasn't a very good distribution of deliciousness.

Bye-Bye Muffins
[Cue "Great Idea" music] That's when I had the idea of put all the ingredients in a glass baking dish! It solved all my issues. The meat can be laid in the bottom of the dish and the other toppings can be layered evenly, creating a perfect ingredient distribution for each serving! Bonus, I really don't have to worry about sticking because the meat is greasy enough to get the job done, so no need for spray or muffin papers. And the best part is that it's just simpler to make and much easier to store in the fridge.

The only difference I have found between the muffin way and this way is that the muffins are crispier and firmer per serving. To me that isn't much of a deciding factor.

The base

Getting Creative
I've also been mixing it up on the meat side of the equation too, opting to go with bacon tonight and maybe even some ground beef in the future. This is my first time doing the bacon in full strips with the baking dish method; having crumbled it in the muffin method. Another fun experiment has been different veggie toppings. So far, I've tried green peppers (that was good) and onions (not my favorite). This week I went with some tomatoes, we will see how those are. I'd like to try some green onions in the future. Basically, anything you might put in an omelet should be good in this casserole.

The toppings, ready to go in the oven!

Dairy-free Experiment
Tonight, I also cut out the cheese and it didn't seem to make any difference in how the dish cooked. I have tried making it without cheese before and I personally don't have a preference either way. The reason I chose to forgo the cheese was because I'm avoiding dairy products this week as an experiment to see its affects on my allergies.

Allergy season is in full swing here in Boise so I'm trying to cut out wheat and dairy in an attempt to "skip over" my allergy season for the first time in my life without too much suffering. Of course, the allergy season is during my favorite time of the season, so that's a bummer. But so far, it hasn't been too bad, so I can't complain. I'd love to find the "cure" so every year I could minimize effects pollen generally has on me. As my good friend Phil likes to say, "You're like allergic to air".

Looking forward to trying one of these muffins out tomorrow morning!

Entertaining: Even I can do it

Lately, I have been trying to be a little more social. I'm trying to take some time and get to know those around me instead of focusing all my available energy on my side-business venture. So, over the last few weekends I have hosted a couple Barbeques at my place. Well, not exactly my place. As you may know, I have been house-sitting/renting a rather large residence from a co-worker of mine for the last six months. This place is huge, practically just built, and the best part: I can park sideways in the garage! Oh yeah and lawn care and house cleaning are included. It's a pretty great deal.

All Good Things Must Come to an End
The owners are moving back in December, meaning I have to move again. I've started to plan out what area I might like to move to; if June's speedy arrival is any indication, December will be here before I know it. I would like to move closer to the downtown area and a little bit closer to work. My commute now is only 20 minutes, so I can't complain. But it would still be nice to be a little closer to save on gas and if I wanted to come home for lunch it wouldn't be so far. Plus, I'm always trying to think of excuses to go downtown and it's much harder to justify my excuses when it's a good 20 minute drive down there and I'm about as cheap as they come. But anyways, more on my housing search in the future, back to the BBQing.

Becoming an Entertainer
Since my time in this beautiful house, seemingly built for entertaining guests (as you can tell in the picture), is fleeting I figured I should take advantage of it while I've "got" it and entertain. These last two get-togethers were actually the first time I hosted a dinner since living on my own. It definitely was outside my comfort zone to cook a meal for other people, assuming you count BBQing as cooking. I think BBQing is a good choice to foray into cooking for other people because most of the food can be prepared before hand and most of it is either ready-to-go from the store (like chips, condiments, buns, etc) or pretty easy to prepare (like slicing tomatoes and onions). The only difficult part is the actual BBQing of the meat and that just takes practice and experience, which I have very little, part of the reason it was a little outside my comfort zone.

Preparation
I actually had fun preparing everything; getting a little creative with the presentation of the toppings, putting the chips in bowls instead of bags, etc. I have begun to notice that the presentation of things seems to be pretty important to me. For burgers, I got Costco meat and did a pretty simple rub on both sides of onion powder, garlic powder, and generous amounts of Lawry's Seasoning Salt. For hot dogs, I got Hebrew Nationals, all Beef and Kosher! My dad loves them, as do I. The hot dogs tended to cook a bit faster than the burgers so I learned to throw the hot dogs on after the burgers had a few seconds to cook. Also, I learned the value of having a "sacrificial burger" to cut open to double check doneness when you think they are ready to come off the grill.

Overall, I think the BBQs turned out very well, despite my uneasiness. I definitely look forward to many many more dinner parties in my future.

My Randomness
Sorry, but when I thought of the word "entertain" my mind went on this completely random tangent and I had to share. The Entertainer is a favorite song of mine and one of the few songs I have memorized on the piano. I love all of Scott Joplin's ragtime piano music. When I was growing up, my mom would always play his Maple Leaf Rag and I still love that one.