Today in Casper, I visited one of the top tourist spots. Well, it may not be for some people, but for me it is a must-see in Casper, WY. It is the Mongolian Grill. Here is the deal, for 9.99 you get a gigantic bowl and then go down what looks like a buffet line, putting whatever you want in. They have veggies, chicken, pork, beef, and some other random nasty looking stuff. Then, comes the noodles. The trick to the noodles is to use your hands(yes your hands) to stuff as many noodles as possible into your bowl. This is more of an art-form than just a task. With your enormous bowl overflowing with noodles and other fixings, you hit the sauce bar. They have a Mongolian sauce(not sure exactly what this is, but it seems like a staple to have, so what the heck right?), barbeque sauce, lemon butter sauce, ginger, curry, garlic, hot sauce etc. You scoop whatever you want onto your bowl, for whatever flavor you want.
Then comes the fun part. Two oriental(Mongolian I guess) looking guys take your bowl and dump it onto a very large round, hot stone. They use what can only be described as very long sticks, to push your food around slowly on this stone. They add water to cook the noodles and will add pretty much as much spicy sauce as you want. Once the food is cooked they do the coolest thing. They get your noodles and fixings into a big pile and then with the most amazing finess, push it into your bowl. My description doesn't even do this part justice, you just have to see it.
The large bowl is enough to feed a family of four (not kidding on this people) but they do let you take leftovers with you. The most amazing thing about this whole ordeal is that the "mongol" (translation: food from Mongolian Grill) tastes just as good or even better when it is cold. So, take home your leftovers and eat it for a while.
Somehow, the best Mongolian food in the entire world is in Casper, WY. It is one of the strange tragedies in history how that happened, but it is the truth. If you are ever driving by, or passing through, or know someone that is from there, it is worth the stop. Jeremy's ratings: 4 1/2 thumbs up. (Why not 5 you ask? Well, the after effects on my digestive tract from all the spices is better left not posted online, but you can let your imagination take it from there!)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Friends and family,
Kelly and I are spending this Christmas in Casper, WY. For me, things are a bit different, while im used to snow and cold, I am definately not used to the wind. Wyoming has crazy wind. We are having a really good time here and are just taking a few minutes before opening some Christmas Eve presents.
The McQuade family has a tradition to read a book called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" a classic story. For those of you who have never read this book, you should do it. It is fairly short, and very cute. Kelly's dad reads it out loud and everyone gets quite choked up. The author is Barbara Robinson.
I hope that all of you out there are having a good Christmas season and are getting to spend it with those you love. If not, I hope you are safe and that you can return to your loved ones soon. Merry Christmas!
Kelly and I are spending this Christmas in Casper, WY. For me, things are a bit different, while im used to snow and cold, I am definately not used to the wind. Wyoming has crazy wind. We are having a really good time here and are just taking a few minutes before opening some Christmas Eve presents.
The McQuade family has a tradition to read a book called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" a classic story. For those of you who have never read this book, you should do it. It is fairly short, and very cute. Kelly's dad reads it out loud and everyone gets quite choked up. The author is Barbara Robinson.
I hope that all of you out there are having a good Christmas season and are getting to spend it with those you love. If not, I hope you are safe and that you can return to your loved ones soon. Merry Christmas!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Black Friday
Hey everyone, Jeremy here again!
I am excited to see some people have seen our blog and taken our poll. I think that I am most excited to see that so far, the poll results have our baby being a girl! Hopefully word will spread about this blog and more people can vote for a girl!
So today is Black Friday. It is the day that most retail stores go into the "black" meaning that they have fulfilled their costs for the year and for the rest of the year, simply make profit. Being a sales rep for HP, I have the duty to go into my Best Buy store and work during this day. This is a little bit crazy! I admit that I have never been in the store as it first opens, when people are running all over each other to get the product they want and get in line to buy it. I will say however, that after this initial rush, some crazy stuff does happen!
Today, I got to the store at 8:30, 3 and 1/2 hours after the store opened. One might think that the crowds would have slowed down a bit in those hours, but you would be wrong. There were customers everywhere and all of the desparate to get help. While Best Buy does employ extra employees to cover the extra rush, it is never enough. I try my best to help customers find the products that they want and to answer their technology questions, but sometimes I get overwhelmed.
There are too many people and all of them expect help. I talked to a customer who wanted to know if any of a certain computer were in stock. I took the tag and was walking to a computer, on the way, I was approached, nay, attacked by a customer, demanding to know if we had any more of the "door-buster" monitors on sale. After trying to convince the customer that all the "door-busters" were long gone (and failing to convince) I took another step towards the computer and was asked by a customer for help on a router. I am not an expert on networking and so after trying to answer his questions (and failing) I finally got to a computer. While there, I was asked by another customer if a different computer was in stock. I looked both up and attempted to return to my original customer, being stopped every step along the way. I realize, that people do not want to wait for help, but mercilessly encroaching on my ability to help other customers, is really not the way to do it. This type of constant barrage of people continued well into the afternoon, with no one customer really pleased with the amount of service we are able to provide. I think that best way to describe it (for you MASH fans out there) would be "meatball sales" get them stable and get them out the door.
Also, for those of you who don't know "door-buster" means that they are the absolute best sales of the day and people are trying to bust the door down in order to get what they want. I think that is fairly self-explanatory, but for some customers, I think it escapes them. 6 or 7 hours after the store opens, I have customers coming up to me and asking me if we have the $99 monitor or the $379 computer left. I stare at them for a moment, wondering if they are serious, or just plain dumb. "No, I don't think we have any left," comes my reply. This is quite the understatement. There have been people camped out at Best Buy since Tuesday night (not an exaggeration) in order to get these deals and they are tagged for sale before the store opens. Now, if only one or two customers asked me about it, I could understand, but every other customer?? Is the word "door-buster" really not straight forward enough?
To sum up, I can say that while no single customer really hurt my feelings today or was really rude, I think it makes me sad for people as a whole. Hundreds of people storming Best Buy's all around the country, just to obtain a $400 computer that will be obsolete in 6 months, makes me well, a little disgusted with people in general.
I vow never to contribute to the madness! Never will you find me outside an electronics super store, selling my comfort and indeed my very soul, for a lousy computer. (At least not for a Toshiba notebook:)
I am excited to see some people have seen our blog and taken our poll. I think that I am most excited to see that so far, the poll results have our baby being a girl! Hopefully word will spread about this blog and more people can vote for a girl!
So today is Black Friday. It is the day that most retail stores go into the "black" meaning that they have fulfilled their costs for the year and for the rest of the year, simply make profit. Being a sales rep for HP, I have the duty to go into my Best Buy store and work during this day. This is a little bit crazy! I admit that I have never been in the store as it first opens, when people are running all over each other to get the product they want and get in line to buy it. I will say however, that after this initial rush, some crazy stuff does happen!
Today, I got to the store at 8:30, 3 and 1/2 hours after the store opened. One might think that the crowds would have slowed down a bit in those hours, but you would be wrong. There were customers everywhere and all of the desparate to get help. While Best Buy does employ extra employees to cover the extra rush, it is never enough. I try my best to help customers find the products that they want and to answer their technology questions, but sometimes I get overwhelmed.
There are too many people and all of them expect help. I talked to a customer who wanted to know if any of a certain computer were in stock. I took the tag and was walking to a computer, on the way, I was approached, nay, attacked by a customer, demanding to know if we had any more of the "door-buster" monitors on sale. After trying to convince the customer that all the "door-busters" were long gone (and failing to convince) I took another step towards the computer and was asked by a customer for help on a router. I am not an expert on networking and so after trying to answer his questions (and failing) I finally got to a computer. While there, I was asked by another customer if a different computer was in stock. I looked both up and attempted to return to my original customer, being stopped every step along the way. I realize, that people do not want to wait for help, but mercilessly encroaching on my ability to help other customers, is really not the way to do it. This type of constant barrage of people continued well into the afternoon, with no one customer really pleased with the amount of service we are able to provide. I think that best way to describe it (for you MASH fans out there) would be "meatball sales" get them stable and get them out the door.
Also, for those of you who don't know "door-buster" means that they are the absolute best sales of the day and people are trying to bust the door down in order to get what they want. I think that is fairly self-explanatory, but for some customers, I think it escapes them. 6 or 7 hours after the store opens, I have customers coming up to me and asking me if we have the $99 monitor or the $379 computer left. I stare at them for a moment, wondering if they are serious, or just plain dumb. "No, I don't think we have any left," comes my reply. This is quite the understatement. There have been people camped out at Best Buy since Tuesday night (not an exaggeration) in order to get these deals and they are tagged for sale before the store opens. Now, if only one or two customers asked me about it, I could understand, but every other customer?? Is the word "door-buster" really not straight forward enough?
To sum up, I can say that while no single customer really hurt my feelings today or was really rude, I think it makes me sad for people as a whole. Hundreds of people storming Best Buy's all around the country, just to obtain a $400 computer that will be obsolete in 6 months, makes me well, a little disgusted with people in general.
I vow never to contribute to the madness! Never will you find me outside an electronics super store, selling my comfort and indeed my very soul, for a lousy computer. (At least not for a Toshiba notebook:)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Welcome to our Blog
Hello everyone Jeremy here,
As Kelly and I start off on our lives together, we thought it would be an interesting experiment to start up a blog. It should be fun for us, and maybe it will be fun for you too. We will try to keep it updated as often as possible for your and our enjoyment. Both Kelly and I will be posting to this blog, so make sure to watch for the subtle differences. If someone posts "I miss my husband" or "my husband is awesome" or "isn't my man the best?", just remember that it isn't always Jeremy who is posting, try not to get confused!
So, to start out, here is the big news coming from the Schoonmakers, we are going to have a baby! Sometime in the summer, we will have a new and wonderful addition to our family. I think that it will be a girl, Kelly is under the delusion that it will be a boy. Poor girl. So, we are probably going to have a girl, and it will be fun. Kelly isn't loving the being sick part, but we are both excited to have a child.
That's all for now, I hope that you all will take some time every now and again and check us out. We will try to keep it interesting for you!
As Kelly and I start off on our lives together, we thought it would be an interesting experiment to start up a blog. It should be fun for us, and maybe it will be fun for you too. We will try to keep it updated as often as possible for your and our enjoyment. Both Kelly and I will be posting to this blog, so make sure to watch for the subtle differences. If someone posts "I miss my husband" or "my husband is awesome" or "isn't my man the best?", just remember that it isn't always Jeremy who is posting, try not to get confused!
So, to start out, here is the big news coming from the Schoonmakers, we are going to have a baby! Sometime in the summer, we will have a new and wonderful addition to our family. I think that it will be a girl, Kelly is under the delusion that it will be a boy. Poor girl. So, we are probably going to have a girl, and it will be fun. Kelly isn't loving the being sick part, but we are both excited to have a child.
That's all for now, I hope that you all will take some time every now and again and check us out. We will try to keep it interesting for you!
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