Sue's new Food find "Super Tosada"

One of my favorite places to eat out is a crummy looking hole in the wall in Merced the produces great Mexican fast food. Mario's is just three blocks off the 99 freeway as it heads primarily East to West through Merced. This place has gone through several reincarnations. When we first moved to Merced it was a drive in. It was one of the many burger joints that people stopped at as they came through Merced before the freeway. It then took on the the flavor of a Chinese restaurant called 5 lucky coins. That didn't work. An Italian restaurant tried its best to no avail. Finally, this place hit the accord of the Mexican Michiocan fast food formula that is fairly common in Merced. It has the requisite photos of Cotia and even has a photo of a flood passing through this Mexican town deep in the heart of Mexico. Its greatest gift, In my opinion is that it has the best of this genre of food in Merced.

It has a complete stainless steel kitchen that serves up food 7 am to 11 pm every day. My usual favorite is a Chorizo and Egg burrito. On the side in the condiment side car are pickled carrots, a common condiment in Merced. There are also great red and green sauces that more than tickle your tongue. Its one of the places where you can eat with confidence. The food is good and safe.

Sue has found a dish that she likes at this place. Its called a super tosdada. For 5 dollars there is a friend plate sized flaky tortilla on to which they add a coating of beans, a pile of shredded chicken. Salsa and mexican style guacamole (Which Sue has omitted) sour cream and a couple of handfuls of mexican cheese. Most of the time this order makes two meals for her.

The dining room is poverty stricken so don't expect atmosphere. The crowd is always there. From soup eaters to rolled taco aficionados they line up and wait about 6 minutes for their order to be completed. The crowd is a great range of locals and drop in contractors and mechanics that stop in to order along the 99 route.

Follow the Director

I have found a way to use my Netflix subscription to follow the director of a series of movies.

Its a little similar to following a vintner or a wine brand as it follows through the years. With the same direction, different year or different actors produce slightly different outcomes.

I have choosen to follow the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu through the decade. The following his his biography as presented through netflix:

By the time director Alejandro González Iñárritu made his audacious feature film debut with 2000's Amores Perros (a Cannes Film Festival winner), he had been honing his craft for years -- first as a DJ (for which he credits his knowledge of pacing and storytelling), then as a writer and director of commercials, and finally, under the tutelage of Polish director Ludwik Margules.
Born Aug. 15, 1963, in Mexico City, Iñárritu followed the success of Amores Perros by contributing to September 11 and then pairing up with Amores Perros screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga again for the gritty 21 Grams (which earned Oscar nods for stars Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro).

In 2006, Babel -- the final part of the trilogy that began with Amores Perros and 21 Grams -- debuted, earning Oscar nods for a large number of cast and crew (including Iñárritu, Arriaga and actors Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi).

I understand that Heather's friend Michael also is a fan of this director.

My favorite film of his collection so far is his first... Amores Perros although Babel and 21 grams is right up there not far behind.

His films are not for the feight of heart. They are great stories and they are told without holding a punch. The first one, Amores Perros has some brutal images of dogs so bewarned. It is required for the story.

: ) Pat

Green Grow the Lilacs and so do the Blue

This lyric was one of Dad's songs he sung was I was growing up.

Every time I see lilacs I think of him singing the song.

Green grow the lilacs, all sparkling with dew

I'm lonely, my darling, since parting with you;

But by our next meeting I'll hope to prove true

And change the green lilacs to the Red, White and Blue.

I once had a sweetheart, but now I have none

She's gone and she's left me, I care not for one

Since she's gone and left me, contented I'll be,

For she loves another one better than me.^[3][4]

His version had the lilacs change to the Oregon Blue.

Lilacs are in bloom today in the Central Valley.

: ) Pat

Get Netflix through Your Wii

I thought Sue was going to have a cow!


I was talking to Linzi on the phone about how I hooked up my TV in the living room from the Wii to my Netflix account on my computer. "So now you can get netflix on your wii wii?

Seriously.. I don't have a TV hooked up to my office room that has the internet connection. I do have a wifi broadcast going throughout the house for the iphones and my kids Iphones as they visit. I had tried to set up the samsung blue ray to capture the netflix being channeled by my wifi and had been unsuccessful. The wii wifi was very easy to configure.

• Step one: request a wii disk from netflix. No charge here. It comes with your next order.
• Step two: put the disc into the wii. the wii disc label always faces away from the body of the machine.
• Step three: The wii will need to update its firmware from the disc. This may take a couple of times. Your specific netword (wifi) will show up. select it. and type in the password for the wifi network.
• Step four: Go to the netflix site and get the magic code for Wii. Go back to your wii and use its little screen to type in the code.
• Step five: The wii will turn its self off and then on again and if it all was entered properly... the red netflixs logo will show up on your wii menu. (Provided you still have the wii CD in it)
• Step Six: The wii will go to your netflix account and give you the option to choose what you want to watch from your instant que.

This looks much more complicated that it is.. so good luck you wii fanatics.. another reason to hit the A button!
: ) Pat

21 minus 17 equals 5

Yep this is math as it is today.

21 of us in our district took the retirement incentive package and our resignations are to be made public tonight. I am not there.. but I have found out from inside sources that our resignations saved some jobs in the district. Its the modern reality of new Human Resources Math.

21 teachers resigned and took the package. The district wanted to reduce its teaching corps by 17. This package allowed for the district to rethink its numbers. It will only need to make good on 5 layoffs from our permanent teacher group next year.

We knew that it was not going to be a one for one swap. Some teachers in some categories are going to be more expensive to replace. This way is really the way to make cuts without adding to the rancor and the heartache that layoffs often bring.

Here is a copy and paste with from the board approval background:

Background/Discussion The District has worked with Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS) to develop a supplementary retirement plan that would achieve budget savings and assist in reducing the impact of potential layoffs. The feasibility of the plan, defined in Board Resolution 7-09, is dependent upon sufficient plan participation to meet the District’s fiscal and operational objectives. The enrollment window for the PARS Supplementary Retirement Plan was February 18, 2010 through March 17, 2010. During that time, employees submitted their intent to retire documentation and application for participation in the PARS program. PARS received applications from 20 certificated teachers, 1 certificated administrator, 24 classified non-management employees and 3 classified management employees. While the application of one certificated administrator did not meet the threshold consistent with the District’s fiscal and operational objectives, the applications of the 47 other employees result in an estimated 3-year savings of $1.5 million dollars. The retirements rendered by certificated teachers reduces the need for certificated layoff from 15.7 FTE to 5.5 FTE. The savings take into account the replacement of retiring teachers by lower seniority teachers who were included in the district’s reduction in force. Alternatives/Identified Opposition: None.

Funding:

Recommendation:

The PARS Supplementary Retirement Plan is a cost to the district. Negotiations with the PARS administrator were successful in reducing the cost of the plan from 5.5% to 5% per employee supplemental plan. The cost of the program is approximately $20,000 per year, over a five year period.

The Superintendent recommends the Board of Trustees approve the enactment of the PARS Supplementary Retirement Plan consistent with Resolution No. 7-09 (passed on February 10, 2010).

So there it is.

: ) Pat

Sacramento for the Day

Thursday we took off to see Lindsay and Sean up in Sacramento. We had a great time at IKEa. It amazing what they can do with a little designing and some shopping systems.

We had lunch at their employee cafeteria that they open to the public. Its most famous for its meatballs. Sue was hooked by the shrimp salad. Linzi had the meatballs and I ordered the loin barbecue ribs. What a treat. The deserts are wonderful. Chocolate cake, a toffee torte and the apple cake/pie thingy. Like all good employees at the corporate cafeteria, we bussed our dishes.

The big purchase was a new comforter for Sue. It is a great place to get a very nice one for a very good price. They have such a diversity that you have to think about the weather inside your house before you buy one. How warm is your house when you go to sleep? The comforters are rated by relative warmth. Along with a comforter you need to get a duvet to go along. Sue has decided to give up her cheap "bed in a bag" for a new set and a new color scheme. Her new one is a brick orange. Tons of other "stuff" found their way into our shopping cart. It was a good experience and I am very glad that we do not live too near a an IKEA because we would be shopping there often. The Swedes have a great insight as to what needs to be for sale and for what price. IKEA is a Swedish company.

After that we headed to the Arden area Goodwill. Sue is happiest when she can snag a great buy in a goodwill. This one, although it has been somewhat shorten and diminished by newer ones that have taken its business, seems to have some very nice books and clothes that many of the others do not.

Linzi had been out to coast earlier in the week. She brought back some samples of some pretty outrageous cheeses from the area. As they say in Facebook...nom nom nom.

Have a great weekend
Pat

Tough Week at School

Negotiations were this week. All they had for us was reductions of the school calendar.. with lowering pay that goes with it. And/or across the board pay reductions. With a little of more jobs could be lost.

Our side wants to keep things the way they are with plans for a raise in about 3 years... may be 5. We want to keep the jobs.

At the table we cannot do much about keeping the jobs. They can RIF as much as they want. (Reduction in Force).

The librarians and the counselors and the foreign language teachers, the shop teachers and most of the teachers with less than 3 years of experience at our district were given notice this week. I tried to sit in on the ones that the teachers asked for help. The district denied us access to those meetings since they were not disciplinary in nature. We came into the meetings and were told that we were not allowed to be there.

One of my negotiation team members was in the group. He was offered a 40% job next year instead of his normal 100% job. He is an oldie and will probably retire instead.

It looks like French is a dieing languag in Merced. We have already mourned the passing of German. If this is race to the top somebody isn't getting it.

Overall I was pretty happy to see Friday come this week.

Friday night I put into the mail the resignation papers for this year. It was required to take part in the the retirement incentive program offered by the district to move the top end out of the salary schedules. All I am missing is my conversation with STRS. Linzi is looking into that on Monday.

: ) Pat