It's not always about Lasagna!

You really have to wonder... Are there warning labels on the dashboards of these big oil tankers and cruise ships that read " This vehicle is intended for water use only, Do Not attempt to operate on any type of land mass." Just so you know, running into rocks is not the same as running the ship aground. Really, the Captain of the ship that ran aground in Italy said " I made a mistake when I hit the rocks but I ran it aground to keep from sinking.... No I was not going to fast." Quick thinking on his part, No really..... he actually saved a lot of lives. Just imagine how many more he could've saved if he wouldn't have hit the country of Italy in the first place.... 17!
Carnival did try to make things right though.... they offered every passenger a "settlement" of 11,000 euros, that's $14,534 U.S., in case you were trying to do the math. Oh, wait .... this just in...A N.Y. law firm is filing a class action suit against Carnival and Costa Concordia on behalf of "hundreds of passengers." That's right, the NY law firm of Napoli, Bern, Ripka, Shkolaik has stated they represent "hundreds" of passengers and for their "6" (six) that's SIX named plaintiffs they are seeking $10 million in Economic and Compensatory damages and a mere $450 million in Punitive damages and when it is all said and done each plaintiff will receive approximately 11,000 Euros or, yep, about $14,534.00 U.S. ten years form now after all of the appeals. Oh, and I almost forgot, the lawsuit also includes (2) John Does??? I'm thinking they must have long Italian names that the law firm can't spell so they filed against Carnival, Concordia, and (2) John Does not 3 or 4 just 2 (is that anything like 2 players to be named later?)
One passenger stated he and his wife "the nurse" would just like to be reimbursed the $6000.00 for their lost possessions and a little something extra cause they had to swim to shore and they helped calm people down.. one person even had blood on their face. I feel for them, I really do but last time you went on a trip did you pack $6000 worth of stuff??? What the hell did they take with them? Sounds like someone needs a new living room set.... Hey genius, take the 11,000 Euros it's more than $6000 U.S. You can get the living room set and have a little extra for a "Nice" cruise.
Don't even get me started on the Peruvian Crew member who filed a lawsuit Not in Peru, Not in Italy, but in Illinois!!! That's right, Illinois!! How in the...
As far as the Captain is concerned.. he faces charges of Manslaughter and Abandoning ship.
Remember, the Captain must go down with the ship you can't just simply leave the keys in the ignition, run screaming to a life boat and be the first one off the dingy. So much for women and children first, I guess nobody has ever really defined the "first" in that statement.... first to be saved, first to be left behind.

To those who lost their lives..... R.I.P.
To those who lived..... be thankful.
To the lawyers.... be ashamed.
To the Captain.... be honest.

ask, believe, receive.

Biggest Sale Ever! No.. Really, Ever!

It's absolute pure genius! And I ask you why they hired a new CEO when they could've hired me for probably less than half the amount! Seriously, after spending what has to be millions of dollars each year on an obsessive amount of ad campaigns it took someone from outside of the J.C.Penny organization to come up with the novel idea of just marking the price at 40% less than original and keeping it there! No more sales of the century, no more of our biggest sale of the year, even though we had our biggest sale of the year last week, this one is bigger! But if you wait a day... well that's Presidents day and we will have an even bigger sale. Anybody who has ever walked into a Jacque Panae with me over the course of the last ten plus years had heard me say.... "Why don't they just price everything at the lower price and save a ton of money by not having to spend so damn much on marketing all these damn sales." But hey we love sales,Don't We!!! I just saved $350 on this T.V. ... How much did you pay for it.... $1200 hhmmm.. Sounds to me like you spent $1200... yeah, but it was marked down from $1550!!! Would you have paid $1550? NO... Then you didn't save anything! YOU DON'T SAVE MONEY BY SPENDING IT!! Did the clerk hand you $350? NO. Did you come out ahead $350? NO. You spent $1200!!
Sales are a con job on the American Mentality. Companies like J.C. Penny's mark an inflated price on their goods then tell the consumer they will mark 20% off and we fall for it hook, line, and sinker!!!
My questions; How do you think our Economy would look if companies were only allowed to realize a 20% profit max? What would the price of consumer goods look like? We all know there is a 200 to 500% mark up on furniture and jewelry, apply the above.... how does the price look... or would they just add more middle men to drive the price up? A little something to think about.

Ask, Believe, Receive.

Coffee Talk

I have a question... when you grill a steak, be it rare, medium, or well done does anything about that piece of meat change aside from the flavor? How about Beer? What changes from a light beer to a dark beer? Color and taste. Does the alcohol content increase? Ahh depends on the ingredients and the amounts of certain ingredients. I know sugar content will increase the alcohol level. What's my point you ask? Sitting on the counter at work are two cans of coffee. In one can Folgers in the other.. fresh roasted/ground Columbian Supremo. Here's my question.... which one would you make? My co-workers will 99.9% of the time make Folgers. The comment I hear 99.9% of the time is.... I like my coffee, But I don't like my coffee to knock the hair off of my chest. My response... well... if you are making Folgers than you don't like good coffee or you just don't know what good coffee is.
Lesson one: When a green coffee bean is roasted and kept in bean form it becomes stale after 2 weeks. Lesson two: Once you grind the beans they become stale after 2 days, so when you buy Folger, Maxwell House or any other ground or whole bean coffee in a grocery store chances are it's stale.
Now all the roast signifies is Flavor... the darker the roast does not mean more caffiene. It means more flavor in my book.
All I ask of you is one thing... Don't tell me you're a coffee drinker and know what good coffee is when you're buying and drinking one of the many major store brands cause your coffee is stale and frankly you don't know what a good cup of coffee taste like. In case you wonder, I have a roaster and roast my own coffee and you can't get any fresher than that. Have a great day.