Happy Thanksgiving all.
Yesterday was a first for me. My first Thanksgiving meal. I cooked dinner for my boss (Patrick) & Wife (Violette) & Son Keith (Swiss Nationals), Sally & Ewen (UK Nationals), Michael (German), Anna (Czech?), and Rebecca (US). It was originally titled "Stranded European Thanksgiving" "Or what the hell is all the fuss about!?!" :-)
Many Kudos to Nicole who provided the recipes I used and Herbert the Turkey who valiantly sacrified his innerds for our benefit. And a special thanks to Patrick & Violette for providing the kitchen for cooking. A much more suitable location than my house.
Oh and a note to anyone who does this for the first time ... cooking a 20lbs bird takes 5 hours, not 3 like the recipe says ... and 2lbs/person is WAY too much for Europeans. We ate maybe 1/3 of the meat.
I will be posting photos from the event as soon as the people with digital cameras send me their pictures. I'll also post the recipes that Nicole gave me (and add my own comments as well)
It was YUMMY!
Damn Germantown cops. Nothing better to do. [sigh] I was coming into work tonight for the first of my 'night shift' days and a cop pulls me over. I was doing 40 in a 50 zone, nothing else. Couldn't figure it out. So anyways it turns out that my car hasn't been smogged! The dealer was supposed to take care of that when they sold me the car! And I forgot to change my address on the license. So all told $310 in tickets. The nice police officer suggested that I fight the emissions one since the dealer should have done it, but I'm stuck with the change of address. Oh well.
Ok, time to start working.
Laura gave me a really nice surprize today. She got me some Girhdeli(sp?) square chocolate covered expresso beans. Taste of home so to speak. Yuuummmm ...
She also came over for a lazy sunday afternoon. Spoiled only by my having to start the night shift at Midnight.
I talked to Ezekial last night. Feels wierd, but she was the last person I dated that I felt 'serious' about. Now that I've met Laura I felt better by talking to Ezekial. Kinda like getting permission to care about someone else. Stupid I know. But there it is.
I'm halfway looking forward to Turkey day. I think it'll be a blast to cook for everyone. But with my work schedule this week it is going to suck hard staying up all day to cook. Oh well. I think I'll start buying the food tomorrow and prepping the recipes.
I forgot a few things this morning ...
Well, the big one is that there was a really bad accident at work a few weeks ago. My friend Stefi had a 2L glass bottle "rupture" in her hands. A shard of glass sliced her chin open neccessitating 17 stitches. 3 cm left or right and the artery would have been cut. She's very lucky to be alive.
Kudos to Tam and Nainani who were there at the time and get her prompt medical attention and kept cool heads during a crisis. By the time I got there all was under control and only the clean-up & paperwork was left.
A big thank you to all my friends that night who let me talk to you and share my grief & worry.
Other than that, Aggie has had a few nasty events. My CD burner died a fast death and my main HD was making ominous 'clicking' sounds during boot up. So decided to replace them both. I splurged and got a very well reviewed DVD/CD burner combo.
Ok, bed time. Early night for me.
It's been a whirlwind month. I've noticed that punctuated equilibrium isn't just a evolutionary theory. It certainly pertains to life as well.
Since my last blog ... lets see. Had a Halloween party with some friends over. My friend Rebecca showed up early in her "Fuck Me NOW" outfit. No, we didn't. Get your mind out of the gutter! :-) But we had fun passing out candy to the kids. I was Harlequin and between the two of us I will not be surprized in the least if I get a letter from the local PTA board "requesting" that I not hand out candy next year.
Food was good (I made my salmon and asparagus dish). Beer was consumed. Fun was had by all.
My friend Jodie has dropped off the face of the planet. She's the Angel in the haloween photos. Not sure what has happened there. shrug. oh well.
Work is going well. I'm doing the Swing (4pm - 0030) shift. It's actually quite nice. Get to sleep in as long as I want. Get to do chores before work. And stay up late playing games. Unfortunately, next week I switch to night shift and my housemate takes swing. I think the switch is going to kill us. But we'll see. We're finally getting the liquid handling portion of the project going and by and large it's ok. Still behind, but we're catching up.
I met someone new. And it's a interesting experience. Laura is really cool. IT person, former army, cute. Also married (but seperated) and she has a 5 year old (really cute kid). We just 'clicked' when we first saw each other. The only other time in my life when that happened was with Ezekial. We're both really happy with each other. Waiting for the other shoe now ...
My refi seems to be going nowhere. This stupid credit report issue is holding up a lot of it. I'm thinking that I might just hold off and pay off the car loan instead. That'll save $200 a month right there.
Ok, time for me to go eat some food before work.