Lunch Bits – Edition 28

We went to Maggiano’s Little Italy, last Friday.  I was a sunny day when we talked about:

• The lunch menu: Caesar Salad, Calamari, Chicken and Spinach Manicotti’s, Stuffed Mushroom, Eggplant Parmesan, Linguini with clams, Lasagna, Tiramisu, and Crème Brûlée.
• Indonesian food.  Some of the ones I recommend are satay, bacang, and fried rice.
• Christmas Lights.  I put up some lights already, while co-worker’s neighborhood has gone all out, complete with giving out hot cocoa.  A list of neighborhood with Christmas lights is on OC Register.
• Chinese superstition of not stacking plates and eat off them.  Also, don’t stick chopsticks in a bowl of rice.
• Frying food outdoors, like in a garage, or the side yard.  Some home associations forbid this, as people complain about the smell.
• Housing prices.  In 2006 was the best time to sell and move out of California, like to North Carolina or Arizona.
• Where do we want to live when we retire.  Some like to stay in California.  Another suggested Las Vegas.  Retiring means avoiding income tax in a warm(er) climate.
• Drop in housing prices.  It means lowering property tax by appealing to County Tax Assessor office.
• Argentina’s Empanada.  Sounds good!
• The Big Three bailout.  Consensus is that American’s auto industry needs to be more competitive and their bailout is a waste.
• Federal Reserve.  Where money magically appears – they just print them!  Incidently, they’re not entirely government run
• Los Angeles air, especially in the 70’s, was the worse.
• Rockwell – the biggest company in America.  A government contractor in the 60’s and early 70’s.  They build rocket ships and military equipments.  They had a big presence in Downey.
• Hybrid and plug-in Cars.  GM made the EV1 cars, leased them to the public, and then recalled all of them.  GM pretty much killed the plug-in EV cars.  Chrysler has the new Volt, but at $40k, it’s just too expensive!  With stupid moves like that, no wonder GM runs out of money.
• Korea.  Between the north and south, they only have a cease-fire armistice to keep them from going to war again.  It’s also known Koreans don’t like the Japanese, and still hold a grudge.
• Gas prices.  It’s now at about the same price as it was in late 2003 and early 2004.
• SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card classification.  Class 2 is slower and acceptable for most point-and-shoot digital cameras.  Class 6 is currently the fastest one and it’s pretty cheap!

Tags: christmas, economy, food, gadget, gasoline, korea, lunch