Brains Without Boxes!

Want to go Home for Dinner with Me?

I met my wife in Cooking school. She was standing next to a stove, working on some sort of concoction that sadly I don’t remember, when I came up to her and commented on her hand motions, or something corny along those lines.

Whatever it was, it worked, and she and I started to study together regularly. We both got our culinary arts degrees at the same time and we regularly used our culinary training to cook each other meals with personal touches. Despite what she says, she is a phenomenally better cook than me. I decided to go into a career in marketing and she became lead chef straight out of school at a local restaurant. Ironically, I got my degree in order to impress women, and it ended up I met someone during that challenge that cooks better than me. Life is funny that way I suppose. Regardless, she is beautiful, makes a great deal of money, and can cook a mean steak.

I tend to cook when we’re home since she spends all day cooking while out, but besides a few types of French cuisine, I’m not nearly as much of an expert as she. Hopefully she knows it too.

Technorati Tags: cooking school, culinary arts, learn to cook, train as a chef

Have you ever been to the Canadian Rockies? Have you ever taken a ski vacation that has allowed you to feel like a part of nature in a place that few people have travelled?

There is a lot to see and a lot to do in Canada, and this winter you should consider seeing it for yourself. Canadian Rockies vacations are something to write home about, and Canadian Rockies coach tours are also affordable, making the entire trip something you can do at a whim.

Family Time

But what makes these vacations so great is how pro-family they are. Ironically, it is trips to Disneyland and other areas that seem anti-family because the focus is on the rides and people, not family bonding. Canada vacation packages are all centered around things you and your family get to do together. Hiking, skiing, and other activities that are not mired in hype, but made popular solely because of what fantastic bonding experiences they are.

Canadian Vacations are one of those things that you never realize how much you’ll enjoy it until you do it. While the country itself may not get a lot of publicity, the word of mouth about their vacations manage to travel fairly quickly.

Technorati Tags: Canada, traveling, canadian vacation, vacation in canada

If you haven’t bought this year’s school supplies yet then you may be one of those people that is avoiding the task because it can seem a little bit daunting. How do you know what to get and what you probably don’t need?

Here are some basic shopping tips that you can follow to assist you in purchasing the right school supplies:

• Make a list of the basic things that you are fairly sure you’ll need. A backpack, a notebook, a binder with paper, computer paper for your printer, pens and pencils would be some of the common items that you don’t want to forget.
• Make a list of things that you might need but aren’t sure about. You can take the list to the first class with you and see if you actually need to purchase these things to complete the class.
• Go through your stuff to see if you have anything leftover from last year that you don’t need. Many people are so tired of school at the end of the semester that they just toss their backpack into a closet and forget about it. You may find that you can use some of the stuff that you were using then (including the backpack!)
• See if you can save money on any of the new purchases. Head to a discount school supply store or look at online sites offering cheap school supplies.
• Ask yourself if there is anything that you want but don’t need. If you have money leftover after buying what you need then you can get some of the more fun school supplies that are out there.

If you shop smart then you should be able to get all of the school supplies that you need without too much of a hassle.

Technorati Tags: school supplies, discount school supply

You have taken the plunge and launched a new business that sells wedding stationery and invitations. It is going along just fine but it hasn’t yet grown to the point where you are really turning a profit.

Here are some tips for improving your wedding announcements business so that it can grow:

• Increase the variety of your stationery. Don’t just offer classic white roses wedding invitations. Branch out into tiger lily wedding invitations and other types of designs.
• Expand on your product selection. In addition to increasing the variety of stationery that you offer, you might also want to start offering other items for sale in the store. There are a lot of things that people need at a wedding and you can probably provide some of them!
• Offer customized service. You shouldn’t just have a store that people can visit to select what they want. You should sit them down with a cup of tea or coffee and offer them a full consultation to assist them in choosing the right stationery. The more special they feel, the more money they spend.

These tips are specific to the wedding papers store but you could apply their basic principles to improving upon any type of business that you might seek to grow. Offering more and better products and services is always a good key to the growth of a business.

Technorati Tags: wedding stationery, white roses wedding invitations, tiger lily wedding invitations

The fifth season of the reality TV show Project Runway has begun and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed with the way that it is turning out so far. I think that the problem is that we all know what to expect from the show if we’ve seen the first four seasons. They need to turn it up a notch if they’re going to keep the attention of viewers.

For example, the first design challenge for the show is always to take untraditional materials and make a wearable outfit out of them. However, we’ve already seen the contestants released into a grocery store to get their materials. It’s boring. I want to see them released onto an industrial work site. I want to see what kind of dress can be made from crowd control ropes, temporary fencing and a jersey barrier!

The only thing that does seem to have been taken up a notch for this season is the personality of the contestants on the show. I suppose that is to be expected when you are watching reality television. However Project Runway was one of the few shows out there of its kind that didn’t involve a lot of drama between the contestants in the past. It focused more on the talent of the designers than on their strange personalities. That doesn’t seem to be true of season five and it’s a sad change to see happen to a good show.

Technorati Tags: crowd control ropes, jersey barrier, temporary fencing