Patty is back!

Patty came back home last Monday night.

Here was her first meal back in the States:

While we were waiting for Patty's luggage at the airport, I asked her what she wanted to eat and she suggested In-N-Out. That's exactly what I wanted as well!

I took Thursday and Friday off this week. We've been pretty much glued to the TV watching the Olympics every day.

For lunch on Friday, we went to Sakana Sushi (Glendale location). We've been going to Sakana for years. They have consistent food and are very generous with their slices of fish (the slices of fish for nigiri and sashimi are maybe 50% larger than most places).

We ordered an Agedashi Tofu ($4.99) and Sakana Special (served w/ miso soup and salad; $9.99). We added fried rice to the lunch for an additional $1.99. The soup and salad came out first, followed by the fried rice. The fried rice wasn't so good - kind of tasteless and mushy.

Next up was the Agedashi Tofu. This item was good although I prefer Kampai's version.

After a few minutes wait, the sushi came out. Here's a pic:

See the monster-sized slices of fish?!? This is nice because we can actually share one piece of nigiri (w/ each of us having one bite).

We were sooooo stuffed after this lunch!

This morning, I had my monthly Washington Street Foundation event. This month's event was our annual community service activity at St. Mary's Food Bank (St. Mary's is the world's first food bank - opening in 1967). We boxed up "Emergency Food Boxes", which are distributed free of charge to those in need. Here are some pics:

For dinner tonight, we went to Davang - one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants. We ordered the following:

• spring rolls (two for ~$2.75)
• lemongrass chicken (~$6.95)
• salt and pepper shrimp (~$6.95)
  

Here are the pics:

The spring rolls were good. The rice paper wrappers on them were still warm, meaning they were freshly made.

The lemongrass chicken was good, although I prefer Little's Saigon's version of this dish.

The salt and pepper shrimp was fantastic! I counted 15 large head-on shrimp. A serious bargain for only $6.95.

Including tax, our meal came out to only $16.75! (and we had leftovers)


Places mentioned:

In-N-Out
various locations

Sakana
20250 N. 59th Avenue
Glendale, AZ 85308

Davang Coffee Shop
4538 N 19th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85015

Top Chef: The Tour and ThunderCares Day

This morning I went to Phoenix Downtown Public Market to try to make the Top Chef Tour demonstration scheduled for 8:30am. Patty and I have watched the last few seasons of the show. The chefs scheduled for the Phoenix tour were Season 4 runner-up Richard Blaise and Season 2 contestant Betty Fraser. Richard was one of our favorites so I was excited to watch him cook.

I arrived at 7:45am and there was already a line of about 25 people (at 8:30am, there were probably over 100 people). I put my name on a waiting list and waited...in the sun. There was an announcement that the seating capacity was 34 people and that they would call people from the waiting list. Around 8:40am, they called a few names from the list (maybe 6 total). I was not one of them. Oh well. I probably could have made the 10:00am session (as they were rolling over the remaining wait-listed names), but I already had another commitment scheduled.

Betty and Richard were outside the trailer for a few minutes taking pictures and signing autographs. Here are a few pics:

I've seen three of the Top Chef contestants now. Patty and I spotted Season 2 runner-up Marcel Vigneron last year during a trip to Vegas.

My 10:00am commitment was a Thunderbird volunteer event called ThunderCares Day. Prior to the event, we were given a choice of volunteer opportunities. I ended up getting my first choice, which was volunteering for the Children’s Angel Foundation Thrift & Boutique.

All of the proceeds from this store benefit the infants, children, and young adults who are served through Hacienda HealthCare. Hacienda HealthCare, through its affiliates, Hacienda, and Los Niños Hospital, is the leading provider of specialized services for medically fragile and chronically ill infants, children and young adults in Arizona.

Our group was given a choice a duties, and I ended up volunteering to vacuum the store. I actually enjoy vacuuming (I vacuum our house at least once a week), so this fit perfectly! Others in the group helped out with sorting and cleaning the merchandise.

After lunch, most of us headed to Cherry Blossom Noodle Cafe for lunch. I enjoyed a bowl of udon soup, panko spanish mackerel, and green tea milk.


Places mentioned:

Children's Angel Foundation Thrift & Boutique
4648 N 16th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85016

Cherry Blossom Noodle Cafe
914 E. Camelback Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85014

Indoor rock climbing

For this month's Washington Street Foundation event, we went indoor rock climbing at Solid Rock Gym.

I've been a few times before...need to convince (or drag) Patty to try it sometime.

Along w/ getting a great work out, it's very fun!

Here's a mentor and mentee in action:

Disaster in Myanmar

Complete devastation in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis...
22,000+ people dead
40,000+ missing
1,000,000+ homeless

I did a bit of research and we decided to make donations to the following aid organizations:

• World Vision
• The American Red Cross
• UNICEF

In addition to the above, you can find a complete list of aid agencies via the following:
Aid agencies accepting Myanmar cyclone relief donations (from AP/Yahoo! News)

Thunderbird commencement and dinner with Steve Forbes, Craig and Barbara Barrett, and the President of Costa Rica!

Congratulations Spring 2008 Thunderbird graduates!

Today was commencement for the Spring term. As a staff member (and graduate) of the school, I volunteered for two Thunderbird events today.

The first was the commencement ceremony itself. It was held at the new Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa. Even though we only live about ten minutes away from the place, I've never been inside before. The hotel is much larger and nicer than it looks from the outside.

Here are a few pictures:

The second event, also at the Renaissance Glendale, was a Thunderbird Global Leadership Society dinner. It was an appreciation/fundraising dinner for the school's top donors. There were many high profile attendees, including the following special guests:

• Steve Forbes (CEO of Forbes Inc. and former presidential candidate)
  
• Dr. Craig Barrett (Chairman of Intel Corp...my former employer) and wife, Barbara Barrett (aka "Superwoman"...CEO, IR rated pilot, and now U.S. Ambassador to Finland...this woman is amazing!)
• Jose Maria Figueres (President of Costa Rica from 1994-1998)
  

The Barretts are huge advocates of Thunderbird. They are also chairing Campaign Thunderbird - the school's $65 million dollar capital campaign. To kickstart the campaign, they have made a $5 million dollar pledge.

I helped with check-in and registration and was able to enjoy the dinner afterwards. The dinner was decent (as good as hotel banquet food can be...). Here was the food served:

I was having dinner with Steve Forbes, the Barretts, and the former President of Costa Rica (among others)! Even though I didn't technically sit with them, I was in the same room. =) WOW!!! What an amazing opportunity!

I experienced a similar feeling when the Dalai Lama visited the school a while back and I attended his speech. Incidentally, Barbara Barrett was instrumental in coordinating that visit.

Thunderbird truly is an amazing place...

Ah - the benefits of working and volunteering at the #1 school in the world in International Business! =)