I’m currently in San Diego for the next 6 days, while I conduct a customer service crash training course to get the SD office fully self-sufficient. Being back in San Diego is kind of cool, actually. It’s cold (big difference from Puerto Rico) and rainy, which makes me realize that it’s actually winter. Any how, whenever I’m back in San Diego, I have a routine:

1. Drive my car really, really fast. I actually like driving and I don’t really have a car in Puerto Rico. Even when I do drive in Puerto Rico, it’s not fun because there are SO many shitty drivers in Puerto Rico. The 2-lane roads, are really only wide enough for one car, so you are constantly slamming on the brakes and swerving off the road to avoid head on collisions. So hauling ass on the 7-lane wide Interstate 5 in San Diego is fun when I’m in town.

2. Eat at Brueggers Bagels. Brueggers Bagels has the best bagels and flavored cream cheese and they make my favorite breakfast and lunch. An onion bagel with light veggie cream cheese and tomatos for breakfast and an Herby Turkey sandwich for lunch. Yum!!

3. Eat sushi. I’m a sushi freak. When Stefan and I lived in California, we would eat sushi 3 times a week (if not more). It really doesn’t make sense, but Puerto Rico does not have good sushi. The town we live in doesn’t even have a sushi restaurant. There is SO much good fish that could be caught and served in Puerto Rico, but Puerto Ricans prefer everything fried. Yuck. So, when I’m in Cali, I definately have to get my sushi fix.

4. Shop. Clothes shopping is another must, while I’m in San Diego. Finding stuff I like in Puerto Rico is few and far between, when it comes to clothes.

I just flew into San Diego from Puerto Rico and I had a two hour layover in the JFK, New York airport. Since I had some time to kill, I grabbed a bite to eat and a couple of magazines. Entrepreneur Magazine caught my eye with their cover story, “Young Millionaires – Secrets from 25 of America’s Best and Brightest”, so I picked it up and was reading it while waiting for my flight.

Some guy walks by and says, “I’m in that magazine”. I didn’t even look up. What a tool.

Any how, back to “Secret’s from 25 of America’s Best and Brightest”. It was interesting to see who Entrepreneur picked, but they certainly were not the “Best and Brightest” entrepreneurs/millionaires that I’ve ever met. It’s funny to me how old school print media tends to overlook “internet millionaires”. I know quite a few and they are ten years younger and ten times richer then the “Young Millionaires” picked by Entrepreneur Magazine. And you would never know they were rich, let alone very rich. Anyhow, the article was a good read and here are some inspiring quotes from the millionaires picked by Entrepreneur Magazine:

“Do something creative, but still in line with your product philosophy, to distinguish yourself to buyers.” – Kelly Flatley and Brendan Synnott of Bear Naked

“Use your youth to your advantage by introducing something new to the market.” – Herman Flores, Myles Kovacs and Haythem Haddad of DUB Publishing

“Raise the standard and you’ll find that you’ll never go out of style.” – Jim Wetzel and Lance Lawson of Jake

“Give your customers a voice, and they just might use it to spread the word about your business.” – Jacob Dehart and Jake Nickell of Threadless.com

“Stay focused and don’t lose focus of why you’re in business.” – Tim Vanderhook, Chris Vanderhook and Russell Vanderhook of Specific Media

“Chat up your new business every chance you get, as you never know where leads will come from.” – Megan Duckett of Sew What? Inc.

“Knowledgeable team members can help you grow your business to new heights.” – Brad Sugars of Action Coach

“No matter how fast your company grows, stay focused on keeping your product quality standards high.” – John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka of PopCap Games

“Don’t let a good thing pass you by. Seize the right opportunity, and you just might become the market leader.” – Nathan Jones of Xlear

“Just because you havn’t taken the cookie-cutter path to entrepreneurship doesn’t mean you can’t make your business a success.” – Devon Rifkin of The Great American Hanger Company

“Let your passion be the driving force in your business.” – Ryan Black, Ed Nichols and Jeremy Black of Sambazon

“When you fill a hole in the market with a quality product, customers will take notice.” – Amy Silovic of Tibi

“Surround yourself with entrepreneurial-minded employees and you’ll gain a creative, dedicated work force and a constant infusion of innovative ideas.” – Bob Shallenberger and John Cavanagh of Highland Homes

All good advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

I found quite a few good articles in Entrepreneur Magazine and although I’m not looking for new business inspiration (since I love my job/business), it’s always good to keep your mind open to new things that could spark new ideas.

I got back to San Diego yesterday and I’m going to be here for a while for work. The funny thing is that two people have already asked me, “Is it good to be home?!”. Um, helllllloooooo. I’m not home. My home is in Puerto Rico. And I can’t wait to go home…

Any how, my brother accidentally left the lights of my car on after he dropped me off at the airport (12 days ago), so my battery was VERY dead. We had to let the jumper cables sit on the battery for over 20 minutes before I could even start my car. LUCKLY it finally did turn over. I was worried since the lights had been on for so long that it may have killed it for good, which would have been a bummer since the battery was fairly new (and not cheap).

The office underwent some construction while I was gone and a couple of walls got knocked out, but unfortunately it’s not as big as I was hoping. From my calculations, we’re going to out grow this place in 6 months or less. So, I’m in the market to buy a warehouse/office in San Diego. One more thing to do…just what I need…

With the help of my brother, I dropped Kuta and Monkey off at the airport at 7:30am so they could catch their flight to Puerto Rico. I’ve been watching them all day (I love the internet!) and they are getting close to landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico! Yay! Here is their current location:

Stefan is driving to the airport right now to pick them up. I hope they are having an okay flight. I can’t wait until they are safe and sound in our new yard in Puerto Rico!

I’m back from PR and I’m exhausted. JetBlue had some sort of mechanical problem that caused my trip home to take 19 hours. Weeee. Then I slept for 2 hours and went on trial today from 8am – 5pm. Now I’m working from 6pm – 2am and then I’m back on trial at 8am to start all over again…I can’t wait until this week is over…blah.

As of 12pm today, it’s official, Stefan and I have closed on the house in Puerto Rico! Gee, it only took 9 months…

I’m super duper excited! Yay! My dad and I are heading down on Monday to get the ball rolling on finishing the house. The inside is unfinished, so we’ve got some work to do for sure…

The lovely town of Hell is located in Michigan (zip code of Hell, MI is 48169) and boasts a lively population of 266. Hmmm…Sort of sounds like Eternal Hell would be more fun…

According to wikipedia, there are two versions of how Hell got it’s name:

“The first holds that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, “So schön und hell!” – roughly translated as, “So beautiful and bright!” Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck.

The second holds that after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called, and replied, “I don’t care, you can name it Hell for all I care.” The name became official on October 13, 1841.”

You can also get married in Hell. Hey, why not…

If Hell has too many people for your taste (266 hillbillies!), you could always vacation in Hell for Certain, Kentucky, which is only “sparsly populated due to rough terrain”.

What is the drinking age in Costa Rica? As long as you can see over the counter and have a few bucks, you’re old enough to buy alcohol.

Although I always tell people that as long as you can see over the counter, you can buy beer in Costa Rica, it was still funny to see this little 8 year old girl buying two cans of Imperial beer at the supermercado. I snapped this picture last time Stefan and I were in Costa. And yes, we were buying Imperial too .

Here are a few picture of Rincon, Puerto Rico from the last time I went down there (December 2006, I think). Stefan and I met our friends Ricky and Lyndsay down there and we had a great time.

Here is Lyndsay, Ricky and I hiking down to a waterfall that we heard was pretty awesome.

Yep, the waterfall did turn out to be pretty awesome! If you look closely you can see Stefan, Ricky and Lyndsay climbing on the rocks (like Where’s Waldo)…

Here is a picture of Ricky and Lyndsay on top of The Goat House. The Goat House is a realllllly cool abandoned house that was formerly owned by a major drug dealer. When he got busted the government took the house, but never did anything with it. Now, it has no windows and it’s all tagged up inside and the locals go up there to sit on the roof, have a few cocktails and watch the sunset. It would be a perfect place for a cool photo shoot…

Here is the sunset from the roof of The Goat House.

Here is Stefan drinking what we believe to be the worlds smallest ron y Coke (rum and Coke). We laughed so hard when the waiter brought this over. Maybe you just had to be there….haha

Does this look safe to you?

If you answered “Sure, looks safe enough”, let me explain to you exactly what that is. That would be an electric shower head (what most cabinas in Costa Rica use for hot water) and those would be live wires running slightly above your head as you’re showering. Oh yes, and there is a piece of string “securely” holding the shower head above your head. After being shocked more then once by one of these mo’ fos, I no longer look to stay at cabinas that offer hot showers. You can actually feel the electricity in the water when you use these electric shower heads. Doesn’t that go against everything we’ve ever been taught about electricity and water? Oh, like the two don’t mix?! I think I’ll go swimming with a toaster….

The shower head above was at a cabina called Ocho Palmes in Mal Pais, Costa Rica. Which, by the way, I will never stay at again. Aside from being electricuted in the shower, they also have 12 roosters that sit right outside of your window and crow from 3am – 8am. By the time they stop crowing at 8am, it’s 90 degrees out and way to hot to sleep.