Touching Base

the last hours of 2008

I’m off with Jason and Bryan to go help bring in 2008. Time to celebrate the last few hours of 2007. I choose not to recollect all my thoughts about 2007. Besides getting a brand new kitchen and my Dad being in remission, this year hasn’t been all that great. When most of your life is stuck in traffic, being at work with people that you can’t stand really makes your day awful long.
There are so many prospects to look forward to in 2008:
A new job
possibly starting a family- a bambino-YIKES
just that along is good enough for me. anything that involves a new job with new people is great for me- SIgn me up!

Geek Cocktail

Growing up I always thought a geek was a brainiac or someone that was really smart at computers, math, science or technology. In my 20’s I started forming other thoughts that there are book geeks, Star Trek geeks, techie geeks, music geeks and other various categories, (there were still the computer geeks, math and science geeks). Well, in my 30’s I realized that a geek is anything you are really interested in that consumes a lot of time, energy and emotion. Depending on my day/week/month……… I can be a video game geek, a shopping geek (clothes, purses, shoes, lip gloss), celebrity smut magazine geek, cooking geek and/or internet geek.

So what kind of geek cocktail are you?

needs more than wants……..

These two items that I had asked for Christmas and have received will seem more of “want” items but after reading this you will realize that they are needs.
1. Pimsleur Conversational Taglog learning tutorial CD’s
2. Wireless Blue tooth head set
I have received the Pimsleur Tagalog (learning conversation Tagalog) through audio CD’s. This is a necessity for me to finally learn. I have been wanting to learn this language that my family is fluent in for over ten years. English was the only language growing up but my Mom and her siblings/parents have spoken it in everyday conversation. My Aunts/Uncles and some cousins are the only ones left that speak this beautiful language and I am not going to let it die with them. I want to speak it fluently, read it, sing it and write it. Learning this will be very fulfilling and I want to be able to speak it accurately while conversing and learning it through my relatives.
The other item that I received is a wireless bluetooth earpiece for my cell. I didn’t want it, I need to have it to drive and talk on my cell starting July 1st, 2008. The new law will enforce that all drivers must have this enabled while driving a motorized vehicle. Hands free is a great thing and I am surprised it has not been enforced before this upcoming year.
All in all, the two things that I needed, I have received. When you have a home and it’s filling up with goodies, there is no need to ask for things that you don’t really need. It’s to the point in my life where I really don’t want to ask for anything but there are so many things out there that I do want but once I analyze it, I realize that I don’t really want it after all. (It seems like too many words but it makes sense to me).

whipped into oblivion

Boiled 10 lbs of potatos, drained and put back into hot pot. Mashed with butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and milk. Mashed it lumpy by mixing in the butter, some sour cream, a lot of cream cheese and milk to make it light and airy. Then, put the hand mixer in and whipped it into oblivion. Pinch of salt and pinch of pepper to taste. How does it feel on the tongue?- smooth, creamy, no lumps, rich, buttery, full of flavor and oh so good. Szabo- you would have died (better than Boston Market).
This perfect potato confection was brought to Christmas and then enjoyed up to two days afterwards and then……. it was GONE!.

What December has brought……… so far, it’s only Christmas Eve……….

December 1st- my Aunt/Uncle’s 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. Held at the Veteran’s Hall in Lafayette, it was a grand party hosted by their 4 kids.
December 7th- Juli’s b-day party. By the time I got there at 10 pm, the party started at 8 pm- a lot of people were drunk and it’s a good thing that I brought 4 large pizzas from Little Ceasar’s. You can’t go wrong for $5 a piece. Steamy, hot, ooey, gooey cheese- YUM.
December 8th- woke up at Juli’s, helped clean up and went to lunch. We went to this all you can eat Japanese place called Mizu’s in Roseville. Mizu’s had Sushi, different traditional Japanese salads and some American salads, 2 diff kinds of soups, a hot section of Chinese and Japanese foods and a dessert station of fresh fruit and ice cream. I guess on Friday, Saturday and Sunday dinners they have their chocolate fondue station.
Finally, time to visit my friend Robin who had a stroke followed by an aneurism. I know she has been doing a lot better in a short amount of time. She was one of my bridesmaids and I have only seen her a couple of times since my wedding. I could write a whole journal on what she went through and how she’s recovering but that would take such a long time and bring back all my emotions in the conversation I had with her.
December 15th- Our neighborhood Christmas Party with friends- there were approx 40-45 people at one time. This year was served Potluck style. Jason and I had our signature bacon wrapped artichoke hearts, stuffed mushrooms- one meat and one veggie (I only had 1 pure veggie friend so I accommodated an appetizer for her), punch for kids, hot cider on the stove, a cheese fondue with bread only and a chocolate fondue served with cream puffs (YUM), pineapple chunks, mandarin wedges, marshmellos and powder coated brownie bites. My chocolate was semi sweet chocolate chips, melted down in a double boiler drizzled with heavy whipping cream and sprinkled with a couple of teaspoons of Kalua. It was rich, chocolately and very divine. People hovered the fondue area for quite a bit of time. Juli, Jennifer, Jaime, Derek, Bryan, Jason and I were the leftover people that called it a night. Jaime and Derek were not in a situation to drive. Good thing they stayed.
December 16th- the dreadful day of clean up. Luckily we had many friends that helped throughout the previous night, washing dishes and doing a load of dishes or two. So, Sunday was not that bad. In my old kitchen which was dingy, dirty and old, there was no motivation to getting it looking great. This time around- I wiped down all the countertops with hot soapy water, wiped down the range, wiped down the interior/exterior of both ovens, wiped down the microwave, put all the serveware away, put all the linens in the wash and here’s the kicker…………… I got down on my hands and knees with no knee pads and wiped down each individual 16×16 inch ceramic porcelain tile. This was hard labor, scrubbing, standing up to get more hot soapy water and back down on my knees scrubbing. The end result…….. a fabulous clean kitchen- pre-party!
December 18th- I gave my two week notice. My last day is January 4th. My company and crew including my boss were all shocked. I didn’t think my boss would grovel but he did a bit. I didnt think it would be that much of a shocker for all. Giving my notice was very liberating and it felt great. In a way, I was giving a silent middle finger and saying all the deragatory slang associated with that silent middle finger- HA HA HA HA HA. I have hated all aspects of my job since I transitioned into my promotion position since August 2006. But I have dealt with it long enough and it’s time to move on to bigger and better things.
December 22nd- my parents drive up from Henderson, Nevada to spend a few days with me. My Mom has been a tremendous help. She has assisted me in the last of my 9 presents that I needed to wrap. The glorious thing of keeping a gift bin with a journal is that throughout the year, I buy gifts so that when Christmas rolls around, I only spend a couple hundred on gifts. It’s a great way to be conservative during the month of December, especially since we dropped approx 38K into our kitchen. GEEZ
Finally, it’s December 24th- the only thing to do today is some loads of laundry, figure out the dinner for Christmas Eve, clean up the house a bit, go to 10 pm Mass with my Mom and Dad and relax. I even got to sleep in this morning. Woo hoo
I can’t wait to open presents tomorrow.