Oops, I Did It Again

Arn cooks... Arn burns!!!

Yup! The great iron chef (Iron Chef Tostado) does it again. Yes yes, he has burned so many things already in both Sterling and Oakwood apartment kitchens but the Sultan of Sunog does it again with his second culinary masterpiece...

"attempted pizza"

The instructions said "preheat oven, remove plastic and place in oven for 20 minutes". I preheated the oven, removed the plastic, placed the pizza in the oven and more than 20 minutes later, there laid in front of me the monstrosity that was Burnt Pizza. Joyce will kill me for desacrating a Red Baron 4 Cheese Pizza. Sha, She and Lei were all kind enough to grab a slice, take a bite (and it sounded like someone was eating chips) and tell me "No Arn, it's not THAT burnt"

Yeah right. Like the ocean is not THAT wet.

Besides, I'm sure the pizza will passed my test for burnt food -- grab a slice, use it to knock on your flatmate's door. It he/she answers, you're screwed.

As ironic as it sounds, I've never tripped the smoke alarm... ever. I guess I'm fast in opening windows. As always, I ask... "Bakit iba itsura sa box?"

ok ok ... all together now... "COZ YOU BURNED IT STUPID"

Oh, what's my first culinary masterpiece? Burnt rice... through a rice cooker!

"How can someone burn rice from a kitchen appliance that was designed never to burn rice?!?"

It's called talent. pure talent.

Of Customer Services

I dropped by the Guitar Center along Halsted to buy some light GHS guitar strings. The guy who assisted me was this long haired, unshaven rocker looking dude and he was like "yo dude, these strings kick serious ass, this will do you good." using a surfer accent. Think... Michaelangelo from the Ninja Turtles.

On my way home, I dropped by Best Buy to buy a spindle of CD-R's. The guy who assisted me was this curly haired, short, thin, pimples and a pair of glasses. I asked about which laptop brand is the best and he was like "hmmmm... the Dells are ok but beware of the Windows blue screen... you can actually opt to get some Satellites
for Toshiba then you can just upgrade the RAM so you can maximize the performance of the new Core 2 Duo processor" in a veeeeery geeky tone. I also dropped by the camera section and it was another long haired dude but this time in a ponytail and a goatee who was telling me more stuff about photography.

I hate to stereotype people but they really did belong to whatever job they had.

This morning, I called Northwest and asked about luggage details and this guy had the old low monotone pilot voice. Now that freaked me out.

By the way, you want a challenge? Try contacting NWA's customer service and ask something about the luggage you'll be "bringing". You dont need any account number of flight details... it's just a general inquiry. In my case I wanted to know how I can bring home my acoustic guitar.

Here's the number --> 1 800 692 6955. Call me up before you do this and I'll cook myself a batch of "Arn Burgers". I'll be done eating and you'll still be on the line :P. 2nd worst customer service ever. 1st is Best Buy (Sorry guys, but your customer service sucks)

Jaye and Arn

He welcomed her to his wacky wacky world.

He promised to make hers as wacky as possible.

Brave girl.

Now the days in the life of this wacko are shared with another future wacko...

http://jayeandarn.multiply.com/

sorry ladies, I'm taken...

sorry guys, I don't swing that way...

Chicago Botanic Garden

Chicago botanic garden, with its world-renowned plant collections and displays, is one of the US' most visited public gardens and a preeminent center for learning and scientific research. The 385-garden features.... oh just read it from their site --> http://www.chicagobotanic.org

It was my second time in this great place. It was the first with friends. My first visit there was part of my first great Chicago tour I named "Arn's Adventures" which was a huge success. The resulting book is in our living room probably under mom's coffee or dad's beer. I didn't have the luxury of people driving me around here and so I learned to move around via buses, trains and plenty of hiking. Anyways, this time I went there with Ria, Shawee and Gezelle. Ria was so kind to pick us up from Oakwood.

This was a huuuuuge garden... like Angelina Jolie's lips. Flowers, plants, fruits, trees, vegetables and everything else that grew from dirt. There are landscapes everywhere! Fountains, gazebos, benches, sculptures. Anywhere you look looks like a post card. The animals there were cool too! There were chipmunks, squirrels, fishes, ducks, insects and all sorts of birds. I saw a wedge of Swans too. I was kinda used to seeing swans with people on their back paddling. In one pond, Gezelle and I were taking pictures of this duck while a kid was throwing fruit loops at it. The fruit loops attracted these big fishes and one just came out from below and bit the duck's butt. I was laughing for a good 20 minutes like a seven year old. I went back to the duck and laughed at it...

"ahahaahahahaha kinagat sa pwet!".

I love my digital camera. I just recently shot my 10,000th picture with it (since the picture numbering has been reset back to 0). I really feel it is one of the best gadgets I had. Then comes Gezelle with her digital SLR camera. It was like I had a slingshot and she had an AK-47. A chipmunk ran by and her camera went rat-at-at-at-at-at with continuous pics. All clear and crisp. All properly zoomed. My camera went "bark" which went down in history as one of the lousiest sound effects you can have for a shutter release. The picture...well, there's this dot on the path that was supposed to be a squirrel but it looked like something that came from a dog. (kaya pala nag bark).
Here's a more detailed comparison.

Here's the duck from my cam

From Gezelle's cam. Parang grad pic!

ahahaahahahaha kinagat sa pwet!

After visiting the garden we dropped by one of my favorite stores in the world. Krispy Kremes!!! :D:D:D This was one of those stores where they actually made the donuts. They closed the only one in downtown I know and the others are just retailers. A devil appeared on my left shoulder and told me to forget about my diet. An angel appeared on my right shoulder and told me the same. Tapos nag apir sila.

We really enjoyed this day. For Ria, for driving us all the way there... a thank you so so so big.

...like Angelina Jolie's lips.

Thanks Ria, really.