Salad-n-Noodles: The Best of Both Worlds

Learning Spanish

I love cultures, I love the Spanish language, and I am loving Portuguese now. After listening to Portuguese, I feel that it's even "softer" than Spanish. I must have been a Latina in my previous life! Check out Yo Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil and you'll know what I mean. 

Anyways, as I was cleaning my old books and stuff, I discovered this little homework that I did when I was learning Spanish a few years ago. I even completed it with drawings! The homework was to create a shopping list and a menu for a party. Indeed, food is the glue for all cultures!! So here goes:

La Lista de Compras Para Fiesta Grande (the shopping list for the big party)

Voy a invitar mis amigos a la fiesta en fin de semana. Por esa razón, voy a cocinar una comida y proveer varios bebidas. El tema de la comida es "Este encontrase Qeste."  En el menú:

(basically this means: I'm going to invite my friends to a party this weekend. For this reason, I'm going to cook a meal and provide various drinks. The theme of the meal is "East meets West." And the menu:)

Primero: 

• sopa de miso
• ensalada con vinagreta de fruta pasión

Segundo:

• pollo cari rojo de Thai con piña
• barbacoa satay de pollo o de carne de res
• Verduras fritas agitala con honga cina

Postre:

• Helado
• Fruta fresca

Bebidas:

• vino blanco -- zinfandel, chardonnay
• vino tinto
• coke y 7-Up

And my instructor gave me a "¡Muy bien!" for this assignment! Ha ha... 

Menu 1

Shopping list 1

The Boss of You

The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business

Emira Mears

I picked up this book from the Piedmont Library last week and loved it. I love that it's easily accessible but still delivers the key information for running a small business. I love the light-hearted humors and quick tips in this book. 

I've been consulting on my own for about 2 years now. I can definitely identify with some of the challenges they talk about in the book. I love their advice of including your own salary in the budget first. No brainer, right? But when you are just starting out, you really don't make much money and it's so easy to just not think about paying yourself first. But this is not sustainable. And it makes your life miserable if you consistently don't make enough to cover all the expenses much less to have a little extra for yourself, say, to enjoy a luscious organic basil gelato on a hot summer day, or to take a vacation to give yourself a much needed break.

Although this book is written mainly for women business owners, I believe men will benefit from reading it as well. After all, good business advice that comes in easily digestible bite size is great for all.

If you are thinking about starting your own business or are just in the beginning of your self-employment journey, I strongly encourage you to read this book.