"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
I’m in the middle of writing about my trip to Phoenix. But seeing how it’ll be awhile before I finish that, I figured I’ll share one of the first fail moments of my trip with you guys.
So we didn’t get into Phoenix until late friday night/early saturday morning. After we finally got off our plane, we took the shuttle to the car rental center at PHX (which really looked like a terminal of its own). After about 5 minutes of paperwork, we hopped into our rental car, an orange Dodge Caliber and headed to the hotel. On the way out of the rental center, while I was trying to adjust the mirrors, I couldn’t find the adjustment to the side mirrors for the life of me. So I asked the garage attendant when I heading out. This is how our conversation went.
Me: (Trying not to sound like an idiot) Excuse me, are you familiar with the Dodge Caliber?? Do you know how to adjust the side mirrors?? Him: (Looked at me with a puzzled look) You just use your fingers. M: (With a look of shock) Oh. Wow. Like… manually?!? H: Ummm… Yeah. M: (Turned and looked at Enoch, trying not to laugh) Wow. I didn’t know they still make cars like this.
Seeing how it would be pointless to compare the Caliber with my TL, I decided to make a list of features that were missing in the 2008 Dodge Caliber that I rented compared to the 1994 Honda Accord that I had.
1. Power mirrors
2. Power door locks
3. Power windows
4. Rear window defogger
5. Cruise control
6. ABS
7. A head rest that doesn’t have a hole in the middle of it
8. An engine that doesn’t sound like a lawnmower
With that said, however, the Caliber (at least the base model) is very fuel efficient (supposedly 26mpg!!). I’ve been in Phoenix for almost 4 days now and I haven’t had to fill up once - and that’s with a 45 minute trip one way out to Ak-Chin and back!!!
We were talking about this on Sunday in the kitchen at CM. I had to see it for myself. WOW. I am at the office wishing I was playing GH (with Heidi, of course) now. =P
The new foodie has been mailed out and is in the store. It is, however, not online yet.
Here are the classes I’m volunteering for:
11/8 Asian Inspired Hors D’oeuvre for the Holidays
11/11 Elegant Holiday Appetizers
11/18 Holiday Hors D’oeuvre
11/21 Alaska King Crab Feast
11/23 Rebecca’s Holiday Table
12/3 Holiday dinner from Jeffrey’s
12/9 Fisherman’s Holiday Table
12/11 The Central Market Challenge
12/18 Happy Holidays from the Cooking School
Here are the classes that I’m taking:
11/16 Tuscan Homestyle Holiday
12/1 Italian Winter Feast
12/6 Spanish Tapas for Holiday Entertaining
12/16 McCormick & Schmick’s Holiday Dinner
Just thought I’d post this to share… This is an interesting video, I don’t know enough about the history of this to comment, and I will refrain from endorsing one candidate over another… Please view with a grain of salt…
January 6, 2009 
Posted in Observations 
1 Comment » 
