Entertainment

Posted on November 1, 2011

I was on my laptop checking messages a couple of days ago when all of a sudden, I saw the weather change from rain to snow. My brother ran right to the window to look at it. The snow was sticking right to the cold ground. We got about 2 inches by the time it stopped. I was thinking about bike riding to my mom’s restaurant but it was too cold and I knew that I would get soaking wet from the snow. I actually did bike ride 200 feet down the driveway but I turned around. Once I came inside, my sister was like “What are you doing?” Then I responded, “Well, I’m going to bike ride to the restaurant.” Then she said, “Jeremy, don’t be stupid.” My grandma did come by because my mom needed me for a birthday party that someone was having at the restaurant. I was bored there because I couldn’t use my laptop with all the party stuff on the table. I mostly just stood around. Once I got home, my brother asked me if he wanted to play in the snow with him. I said “Sure.” We played snowball fights for about an hour. He pretended to be a warrior and I was a wizard. I could disappear somewhere, which gave me 20 seconds to hide. He then pretended to be the king, who defeated me by throwing a single snowball to my chest.

Winter sure can be fun! I do miss it. The best part about it is the snowball fights and the forts. It can be a nuisance with all the mess we have to clean off the roads and the power outages. It doesn’t have to be all that bad though. We can always make the best of it somehow, especially if its a first snowfall.

Here’s a short video of it.

NARRATION: Hello, this is Jeremy Hirzel here. I’m currently right outside of my front yard right now. And as you can see, there’s actually snow on the ground, if you can believe that! Look at all that. All that snow on the ground. Let me just take you over here…and take a look. It’s not even Halloween yet, and it’s ALREADY snowing! That’s unusual. While I was driving, I mean, while I was riding with my grandma…to drop me off at the restaurant, I noticed some birds flying around in strange patterns. They were flying very close to the ground. I wish I had my cell phone turned on to record it, but I didn’t. Well, we were going very fast, so I wouldn’t have had the time to catch it unless I told my grandma to stop. Oh well. I’m trying to be careful when I’m walking. I wouldn’t want my siblings to see what I am doing. They are still asleep right now, which is good.

Is there anyone out there that got any more snow than I did? I know that north Jersey got a lot of snow, as well as New York and Connecticut.

Posted on October 25, 2011

I’m still here. I kind of got carried away on the second to last blog I made. However, there are still unsolved answers that I really need to know. Now, last night, I stached 4 cupcakes in a box and put them in my backpack. At around 12:30 am, when everyone was sound asleep, I snuck out, and I placed them in the edge of the forest in the backyard. I also took the trash, cut it with a knife, and I started taking stuff out of the bag and tossed the chicken fingers, rice, brocolli, and fries that nobody finished into the forest as well. Don’t worry, the trash isn’t stinky, it’s completely clean. It only had the leftover dinner and some of my brother’s lunch. I made sure I grabbed a new trash bag to put it in afterwards. I think I may be going too far with this, however, I still need to know what kinds of animals are taking this food. I told my grandma all about my depression, and when I told her about the cupcake thing that I am experimenting with, she told me that she had a raccoon one time and she she it grab a piece of food that she dropped on the porch. Usually they just take and run. They don’t stop to eat, because they do it in their living place. Raccoon carry rabies, so that’s one other reason why it’s not so great to randomly place food out for them. I did see some deer on my way home but I couldn’t suppose that they ate the cupcakes. Who knows, but I do know this, this feeding activity seems to only happen at night, because every morning, I see at least 2 of the 4 cupcakes gone. Sometimes, all 4 of them are gone, I guess it depends on how many of these animals take them. One interesting thing I would like to point out is this, 3 days ago I placed a cupcake on a tree branch, and it was still there this morning. I think it’s just going to rot away. I don’t think a deer is eating these cupcakes, otherwise it would have bitten into that one, since its head is higher than that branch. It may have been just be a pest animal that we don’t need. That’s my best guess. Once I know that, I’ll discontinue this.

Posted on October 25, 2011

What is competition anyways? Basically, it’s when there are other stores trying to promote or sell the same product. That product may be directly or indirectly sold to a potential customer. If there is a profit gained, then there is a profit that is lost for someone else. In my mom’s case, she has a cupcake shop. It may be the only store that sells baked goods out of all the other stores on the mall strip, however, her shop is not the only dessert attraction on the strip. There is also an ice cream shop next door to hers. She and her are great friends though. It always brings me smiles on my face every time he walks in and shouts “Hey, cupcake lady!” My mom kind of hates it when he does that, only because he can never call her by her real name. My mom doesn’t go over to his shop saying “Hi, ice cream man”. No! That’s just plain stupid. My mom doesn’t think she’s out to steal his profits. It’s kind of a good thing that there are 2 dessert shops because then, everyone has a choice. They can either buy cupcakes, or buy ice cream. In a way, having variety is exceptionally important, otherwise, the whole entire mall strip will go under. There is also a deli and an italian restaurant, which helps. I mean, who’s going to go out for dessert if they can’t go out for lunch? Most likely, if the customers were eating at home, they wouldn’t go out for dessert unless they were on the road to go somewhere. There is also a spa on the left side, but the prices are high, especially for the elderly people in the nearby retirement community. Times are tough, and the economy is tough, so that’s going to play a role in business.

A couple of weeks ago, the guy who runs the deli recently decided that he’s going to sell cakes at his shop. Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh! He can’t sell baked goods. He’s a deli. He’s only allowed to sell meats, sandwitches, and perhaps side dishes. He’s going against his contract. I mean, it’s one thing to sell pre-made cookies, but it’s a different story if he’s selling cakes. He says that his wife makes them from home. She can’t do that. All products must be made and sold at a commercial environment. The health inspectors would shut them down if they found out. As far as the the plan went, his wife claims that he’s been planning on selling cakes even before my mom started her shop. My mom doesn’t believe that. She thinks this was all a set up. My mom was thinking of suing them but she believes that they won’t get very far. They aren’t even that good. My mom tried them. She doesn’t really care anymore, competition is brutal nowadays. The italian restarant is selling gelaties, which is going against the ice cream shop. That’s why they never buy from each other. Actually, the ice cream owner doesn’t mind coming to my mom’s shop for some cupcakes, only because she does do him favors sometimes by drawing in birthday parties to his shop. Sometimes, they might want cupcakes and ice cream, and they’ll go to his shop for the party. Since there is an HDTV at his shop, that makes it perfect for entertainment purposes.

Overall, competition is good, in a way. You can’t take from it, but yet you can benefit from it. What kinds of experiences have you had as far as competition goes? What’s the best? What’s the worst?

Posted on October 11, 2011

I’m sure your parents have always told you to be careful when handling knives. Well, I wasn’t so careful when I was cleaning a mixing blade in the sink. There was a food particle stuck on the blade, and I started rubbing it with the rag, until suddenly, it ripped through the rag and stabbed into my finger. It felt like a vibrating senstation, not quite an “ouch”, but rather a tingling feeling. Then I was like, “Oh man, awww!” I noticed the blood seep onto the rag, and that’s when I had my grandma come over to hook me up with a bandage. My mom wasn’t at the shop during the time I got hurt because she had to take my brother to his friend’s place. My grandma told me that my mom had the same thing happen to her last week. In the future, she recommends that all the sharp objects are taken care of as soon as they are used, that way nothing gets dried up and stuck on the blade. If I have trouble cleaning it, I should simply just use a spoon to scrape it off. The new girl that she hired may end up cleaning that blade, and so far, she hasn’t gotton cut yet. So far, only my mom and I have cleaned it, so I’m really going to make sure that nobody else makes that same mistake.

Posted on October 2, 2011

Today was the day of the Columbus fair. My siblings took 300 cupcakes to the fair. We only sold half of them because of the rain but we still did okay nonetheless. The fair went from 1 until 4 pm. We actually sold out the rest of our cupcakes beforehand at the restaurant since my mom only made about 500. She only had 1 baker helping her and my grandma was busy getting everything busy at the fair. The day could have turned out better. She messed up on some of the baking aspects, and my mom was getting very streesed. My mom finished the cupcakes late for the fair, so that’s why the cupcakes didn’t sell as much since most of the people came to the fair early. My mom didn’t realize this would be so difficult. We normally close at 12 pm on Sundays but my mom stayed open longer for the people that came after the fair. We closed the shop around 2 pm since we sold out of our cupcakes but we opened back up at 4:30 pm once we returned the cupcakes that weren’t sold. Since our Grand Opening last Saturday, my mom has gladly stayed to bake until around 7 pm. Tonight, we didn’t leave until around 8 pm, and that was only because my mom wanted to finish the cupcakes that she didn’t put icing and filling into. She’ll store the 100 cupcakes that she didn’t sell on a shelf between 2 metal sheets to keep them fresh. Tommarrow, my mom plans on spending the whole day cleaning since Mondays and Tuesdays are her slow days. I don’t have classes tommarrow so I’ll probably be helping her out too, at least until my siblings leave school at 3 pm. After that, I can go home and go on my computer once again to relax.

Posted on August 22, 2011

I had a surgery done to get my 2 bottom wisdom teeth removed 3 days ago. I was put to sleep during the surgery. They put an anesthetic in my arm and I started to drift to sleep. I didn’t feel a thing. My jaws felt sore at the end though. I had some cotton things to help with the blood clot on the first day. I was only bleeding on the first 2 days. I also got an ice pack on my left cheek on the second day because it did get puffed up a little bit. I could barely eat, and this whole recovery process is absolutely horrible. It took me 30 minutes to swallow my oatmeal. I couldn’t chew at all. I had to swallow it whole.

On the third day, my mom asked me if I would like to go to the beach with her and my siblings. I agreed, only because she told me that the ocean water has healing properties and that may heal my bump inside my left cheek. I already got a headache just from going into the ocean for 20 minutes. My lower jaw was hurting at the end. I just got to relax until I get better. Nothing else is going to help. I probably won’t be going on another bike ride for several more days, maybe longer. It took my mom weeks to heal when she had all her wisdom teeth removed. However, she had all of 4 of hers removed. I on the other hand only had the bottom ones removed so it probably shouldn’t take as long. It depends on how my body reacts. My mom told me while I was coming home from the beach that nature is just doing its thing. I think that’s so stupid, but it’s true.

Currently, my bump on the inside of my left cheek is still preventing me from pushing down with my teeth, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it was a couple of days ago. That’s good for me, because I don’t want to keep going through this. This really sucks.
If you went through this experience, I would love to know. How long did it take you to recover? In the meantime, I would like to share a v-log explaining all this and more.