After work we went to dinner at El Loco Burrito. We have discovered a new food at Mexican restaurants. It is called tacos al pastor. It is pork cooked on a vertical rotisserie, sort of like the kind they use for gyro meat in a Greek restaurant. It is cooked with lots of good and savory spices and pineapple on top so the juices drip down and flavor and tenderize the meat. (Pineapple has a chemical in it that is a natural meat tenderizer.) It is served on a soft corn tortilla and garnished with chopped cilantro. Here is a link to a page that gives a little background, pictures, and a recipe. Excellent!

After dinner we went to the bookstore to buy three pocket dictionaries. The only dictionary we have in the house is a very heavy unabridged dictionary in the bookcase in the front room. Almost daily I hear a word I want to look up, but to get up and go to the front room usually is enough deterrent for me not to. So I want to have a pocket dictionary on the coffee table in the family room for when we are watching TV and movies. One at the computer desk for when I am doing homework, writing, etc. And another on my nightstand. I got three different dictionaries. I got a Merriam-Webster, a Microsoft Encarta (yes, a paperback dictionary from Microsoft!), and an American Heritage. They are only $5.00 each; I don't know why I went without for so long!

We are watching "The Surreal Life". It is similar to MTV's Real World, CBS' Big Brother, except that the eight people in the house are all B list celebrities. I wonder what made them sink to do the show? I guess when the money runs out, you still have to eat. Interesting.

My first night of school was fine. Not too much different than my days at Ashland U. The class size is a little bigger. I counted 42 people. The average Ashland class was about half that. The professor seemed to feel obligated to fill the full three hours, so he asked us to break into groups and see if we could figure out the GDP of the US; the world; and the country that we had decided on earlier to write a paper about (I picked Switzerland). About a five minute exercise? Nope. I think he let us talk for over 20 minutes. He did that with another question too, but I forget.

Our homework for next week is to write two to four pages about the country of our choice. Things like industry, per capita statistics, culture, etc. We will all talk about what we discovered next class. We also have to read the first two chapters of the text book.

DePaul has invested a lot in technology for the students. Each class has its own web site controlled by the professor. When papers are due, we go to the site and deposit them into an electronic drop box. The syllabus is at the site. The professor will put notes, slide shows, handouts, etc. on the website. Announcements will be at the website. You get the idea. Pretty neat.

As a DePaul student I also have access to a lot of premium databases. LexusNexis is the I can think of off the top of my head.


I don't normally get ga-ga over cars, but the new Cadillac (concept car?) that was shown at the Detroit Auto Show is just unbelievable. It just looks sexy and cool and fast. It looks like the Batmobile. Gimme gimme gimme!

I also really like the new Honda Element. It is kind of like a mini-Hummer. The seats and rubber floor are completely waterproof and is designed to be hosed down! The seats in the back fold up to the side leaving room enough for two six foot tall people to sleep. It is inexpensive too. The two wheel drive model starts at $16,100. It has good gas mileage too. I think I read something like 28 mpg.

I was reading an article the other day from a think tank of political analysts. They were discussing the price of gasoline. They said if everything goes perfectly, and Saddam Hussein is ousted from Iraq, the price of gas could drop to about $1.10 per gallon. If things go horribly wrong, and Saddam torches all of the wells in the Iraq oil fields as a last act of defiance if his life is threatened, the price of oil could go above $4.65 per gallon!! Yikes. Time to buy a Prius.

Someone told me they think my blog is entertaining. Cool! What a nice complement.