Quiet weekend

Not much going on this weekend as I am gearing up for a lot of travel. 

Just enjoyed some of the simple things, movies with the friends, hanging out at the new brewery, and poker night 

The boys let me join in, but I don't think I'll be invited back since I took all of their money :) 

San Fran business trip

Most people think me job just involves eating the trendiest, most delicious food there is, and this week that was very true. 

My fellow scientists and I went up to the heart of San Franscisco for two days of culinary trends training with our marketing partners.

The fun started Monday night, with a journey through downtown and little Italy in search of some good sushi 

Including journeying up a rather famous street. The sushi was okay, but what I really wanted was sitting in the window of the Italian bakeries 

The training was very interesting, talking about how to use culinary influence on our products. We had a very energetic French Chef as a teacher.

Who was cooking up some very delicious things for us

But the true highlight was Tuesday night.we were divided into teams and sent off to the posh and hip restaurants of SF. My team was sent to the upscale Boulavard. 

We enjoyed many fine things. Like truffle soup

Foie gras with sour dough bread

Quail from a local farm

Ravioli with sweet potatoes and more truffles 

And so much more. But we were told to focus on dessert so....we ordered all of them

For the $800 bill for 5 people, I really wasn't that impressed, which is sad. While everything was good...I was still hungry at the end of the meal. And what's the point of eating all those fine foods if your just going to grab something else afterward? 

The next day was right in my wheelhouse as we got to hit the kitchen and make prototypes. 

Since our marketers barely know how to cook or how ice cream is made, I got to be master chef. We made strawberry ice cream three ways. 1. Strawberry ice cream with an aged balsamic and fig sauce. 2. A moscato poached strawberry ice cream 3. A strawberry and lemon zest ice cream with olive oil soaked breadcrumbs 

Everyone loved them, and I got major brownie points with the marketers for my cooking skills and ingredient knowledge.

We also spent time learning to better describe what we are tasting, evaluating our competitors products, tasting trending ingredients, and more

It was probably the best training I've had, and it was good to work on our strenuous relationship with our marketers. I may have gained around 20 pounds in two days, but at least it was delicious.

More bunny pictures

He found a new favorite snack today. Love the brand loyalty. Luckily I know a place where I can find hundreds of them....

Weather?

This weird thing happened for two day in a row.

We had weather 

Including a huge storm that shook my apartment! 

I didn't move here for this!

Some rabbit pictures

Here are more pictures of little Hermes! He is growing fast! 

USA versus Mexico in the Rose Bowl

Looking at my list of things to do in California, I see I still haven't done some of the big things on the list. On Saturday, I got to knock one off the list: go to a sporting event in the Rose Bowl

You may notice I am very patriotic. This is because we went to see the US soccer team take on Mexico in a big playoff game. This a huge rivalry, and being in Southern California the crowd was about70% for Mexico. But we naturally we representing red white and blue

Unfortunately on the way to the game, we had a minor issue. We were Driving along one of the famous heavy-traffic LA freeways when we heard a loud think andsuddely  smelled burned rubber. Flat tire.

Luckily, we had an engineer along to figure out how to change it

We were back on the road in no time!

Anyway back to the game, the Rose Bowl itself is an amazing stadium. Not as good as penn state's, but still pretty co

We had good seats in the "America" section. We were completely surrounded by Mexican fans, but they were all good natured and fun. One girl helped us out by translating all the chants and taunts for us. Another offered me a sombrero to wear when the US was losing. 

The game was very exciting, going into  Overtime with Mexico scoring the winning goal right at the end. The stadium went crazy. 

Overall, a very fun and unique sporting experience! 

And on our way out, I noticed a familiar name on the list of Rose Bowl champions....

Hockey is back!!

Friday night marked the return of the Bakersfield Condors hockey team!!

I decided not to work for them this year because I'm plenty busy enough, but that didn't mean I was going to miss opening night of the new team! They moved up a league and are now right below major leagues. It was much better hockey then last year. 

And the condors won! I'm excited for a fun season. I'm sure I'll be attending a lot of the games. 

Long week

The end of the year is approaching which means the launching of new and renovated products is right around the corner for us! That also means...very long plant trials 

Monday was a particularly tough one that took us just over 16 hours. 

Luckily we were able to find a good reward, as a new micro brewery just opened up in town

Nothing like a mid-week happy hour on Wednesday to recharge everyone for the rest of this sucky week!