So, we have had a little excitement lately. Jay got a heads up a few weeks ago that his division was shutting down at HomeAway.  He was not overly concerned as they’d told him they were going to find places for him and his team, but of course the doubts do start coursing through ones head.

Anyway, he reached out to his network and put a few feelers out just to see what was out there.  During all this, I’m still trying to decide whether I stay at RIATA/White Glove or if I should just go ahead and move on.  At the time, the upheaval was almost more than I could stand, and I couldn’t envision myself making it past the first week, much less the first month.

Anyway, once I settled in here at White Glove, all was well and I’m more than pleased with my choice. Things were still weird about Jay, though, as he had no freakin’ idea what he’d be doing at HomeAway and what the duties would entail.

It ended up that he got an interview with a company called Volusion here in Austin.  The phone screen went well, and they brought him in for an interview.  He met with them for a couple of hours. 3 days goes by and all of a sudden they call him and offer for him, after a SINGLE interview.

Not only did they offer for him, but they offered for him with an extremely attractive title, salary, bonus plan and signing bonus.  Um…wow.

Needless to say he is very excited about the whole kit and caboodle, although he’s sad to leave HomeAway. It’s a great company and he was very fortunate to work for them, but he definitely feels this move is the right one!

Anyway– that’s what’s going on at our house!!!

Boy, what a great freakin’ weekend.
We got some extremely good news last night.

I can’t share what’s occurred for our family until Monday, but check back and I’ll fill you in!

With so much random shit going on lately, I almost wondered if my idyllic life had somehow gotten away from me. While many might call me a ‘control freak’ the reality is that I like to have order and consistency in my life– while still allowing for  spontaneity. The bullshit going on at my office combined with the bullshit going on at Jay’s office has just been a heinous clusterfuck of crap.

However, the last two days have been rather enlightening for me. First of all, the drama at Jay’s office finally came to fruition. He’s ‘safe’ and employed and things are fine. The drama at my job has turned out not to be drama at all. I’ve worked my ass off this last week, yet every night I’ve come home with good stories to tell, a sense of accomplishment, and a few pats on the back as well. What more could I ask? I love my life. And even when stuff is ‘bad’, the reality is it’s not that bad at all.

On another note– ya’ll come play Starcraft with me. It’s been fun as hell.

I’ve discovered something about myself, recently.

I can be a tactical freakin’ genius when I want to be. Let me explain.

My husband recently purchased a game called “StarCraft II”. This game is classified as an RTS, which means “Real Time Strategy”.  In my extensive gaming career, I’ve played a plethora of MMO’s, tried my hand at a few FPS games(First Person Shooters…the kinds most boys are playing on their x-box. Shit like, Call of Duty and stuff) but I’m really quite terribad at them, and messed around with a few other types of games.

Of all the games on the planet, RTS games held the least draw for me. As a matter of fact, I could have happily gone my own way without EVER playing an RTS game. I watched Jay play SC2 on his machine a little and was *not* interested in the slightest. My husband kept egging me on, “Just try the tutorial, babe!” “Come play with me, sugar!” “Sure would be awesome if you would just *try* this!!”

So, I took his ‘buddy code’ and installed the game.

Folks, let me just say this. I DREAMT about my next strategy all night last night. I moved my armies around, built destroyers, created giant THORS, and mined resources for my entire 8 hours of sleep. I won 6 games and lost 2 during that slumber, and woke up just mad as HELL that I had to go back to work.

My win/loss ratio isn’t great, but I’m getting better every time I play. As a matter of fact, Jay and I have become quite the team playing 2v2.

Truly, truly fun. Probably the most fun I’ve had in a game in a long time. It’s not just about the social aspect of the game (There’s little of that, to be honest), it’s about the STRATEGY.
If you play SC2—send me your battlenet info! Let’s play some 2’s!

Well, I went to bed last night both sad and relieved. Sad that my friends were all gone, and yet, also thankful that they were all gone.

This year we had a pretty small group, and that offered us a bit more flexibility as far as things to do. For a lot of years, we spent most of our time gaming during BiC party, (all days except Friday, that is). Because so many of us play different games now, we don’t get to spend the time gaming that we used to. This year, instead of just hanging out and talking (which we did a LOT of, mind you), we also played a few games and decided to rent a boat.

Folks, it’s Tuesday morning and I am still sore from the boating excursion on Sunday morning.

The boat rental thing was sort of spur of the moment, and yet I’m not sure I’ve ever had as much fun at BiC Party. I somehow managed to get Layna to go out on the tube with me (many laughs ensued). Praelor ended up being a fucking BEAST tubing, and trying to throw Erin off the damn tube was almost impossible.

Anyway, it’s back to work today, and this makes me a little sad.

To everyone who came out this year, I just wanted to say thanks. I had a great time, and certainly hope you did, too!

This week has been full of a bunch of random bits of WTF.

My company was acquired on Friday. Luckily, I’ve been retained. Employment is always good.  The acquisition, though, has brought about a plethora of ‘wtf’ moments through out my work day. It’s like walking into a new job for the first time, except that I wasn’t expecting to go to a new job. Anyway, many things to say about this, but it’s still too fresh and new to know what to say, so I shall remain quasi-mum.

Yeah…I never do ‘mum’ well.

Anyhoo.

There’s some other ‘stuff’ on the horizon that is looking mighty, mighty delicious. After doing a little research, I have decided this ‘stuff’ is a ‘must have’ in my life. I hope to find out more about said ‘stuff’ tomorrow. I can’t talk about it just yet, but I hope to be talking to EVERYONE about it shortly. It’s almost like this ‘stuff’ was created JUST FOR ME.

WTB Stuff. Wow.

Last night, while making my Herb Crusted Pork Loin, I realized something rather interesting.

The blender and the food processor, are not the same thing.

While most of you are now saying ‘Duh” to yourselves right now, I will have you know that it wasn’t until AFTER I tried to ‘process’ an entire bunch of cilantro, some lime zest, ginger and other misc. items together that it hit me I was using the wrong freakin’ piece of equipment. I own both a food processor and a blender, and it’s probably a good thing I did use the blender on accident- because I’m not sure I know how to work the food processor.

Additionally- somehow, I have misplaced the ‘zester’, at some point during my 7 year marriage. My husband is displeased about this, to say the VERY least, and has now insisted that we go to Sur La Table in order to replace said zester. I, however, am not convinced because that place is expensive and dangerous. There are entirely too many awesome MUST HAVES at Sur La Table. You should never go there. Trust me.

I also came to the realization last night that my meat thermometer was broken. It registers about 100 degrees, even if the meat is 400 degrees inside. I almost used a REAL thermometer but my husband was aghast at the idea. Wonder what my Grandmere would have said had she seen me shoving an electric thermometer in a pork roast. *snicker*

My pork loin was delicious, by the way. I highly recommend it.

Please, please do bad things to me!

Sorry I missed the write up last week. I didn’t even notice it until I started typing this weeks episode up. Oh well!

Sooooooooo…what’s been going on?

I’m glad you asked!

Lafayette & Jesus: Nothing could have been cuter than Layfayette being all gaga over Jesus. From the moment Jesus walks into Merlott’s the gals in my house were full of  “Awwwwww!”

After a few games of pool, much flirting, some cooking and a make out session in the car, Jesus and Lafayette end up at Lafayette’s place, where another make out session is prematurely interrupted by some vandals beating the shit out of our favorite cooks brand new ride. A fight ensues and as Jesus pulls Lafayette off the foolish redneck, he comes to realize that Lafayette’s a drug dealer. Apparently that’s a deal breaker and he asks to be taken to his car.

I’m hoping things will change here, because they might have been thecutest couple I’ve ever seen.

Jason: Jason goes on a quest to find the redneck girl, tracks her down, and then is surprised when she pretends she doesn’t know him. I know what this story line is all about, and it’s my least favorite. Unfortunately, if I talk about it, it’ll spoil the entire thing so I’ll just leave it at that. Also, Jason beating the shit out of that kid is just stupid.  I kinda wanted Jason to get his ass beat, but maybe that’s just me.

Sam and the crazy family:  Sam asks Tommy if his dad is beating him up and Tommy says no. Sam’s concerned about the scars on his body, and tells Tommy he’s going to HAVE to talk to him. Sam’s mom comes into Sam’s trailer and asks to speak with Tommy. She tells him he’s going to have to compete in the ‘circuits’ for money because that’s the only way the family can support themselves. She says that Sam is blood but not family and that Sam looks down his nose at them. Tommy agrees to do what his mom wants.

Arlene then mentions later to Sam that he’s full of shit for allowing a Pit Bull in the rental houses when she can’t even have a hamster. Sam realizes suddenly that the scars on Tommy are from dogfighting and he calls Andy to come down immediately. Andy says there are no dogfighting rings in Bon Temps but after pressure from Sam, tells him there are some rings in nearby parishes. Sam flies out of there like a bat out of hell, looking to rescue his brother.

Eric: Eric cracked me the hell up this week. His entire ‘flamboyantly gay’ persona he tried to play this week was hysterical. Surely the King doesn’t think for a SECOND that Eric is for real.  Eric’s flashbacks about his family’s deaths are telling, though– and one gets the idea that Eric thinks the king is the one who killed his family. My guess is it’s probably, but I don’t know for sure.

Anyway, Eric plays along with the kings wants, but we all know that he’s going along to save Pam. Further, we know that Eric won’t allow Sookie to get hurt. His whole “YOU MEAN NOTHING TO MEEEEEE!” just screamed of bullshit.  Eric and Sookie love scene, plox!!!

The King/Eric/Sookie/Tara/Crazy Vamp: The Crazy Vamp has Tara held captive. Sookie screams her whole ‘I GOTTA SAVE BILLLLL!’  drama that she hollers about in every episode. Eric continues to play by the kings rules. The King proposes to the Queen of Louisiana and she refuses. Eric almost beats the fuck out of her at the Kings request. The Queen agrees to marry the king.  The king says they will stay in her home for the day, and will go save Pam asap.  Tara beats the shit out of the crazy vampire and escapes his room (didn’t she learn she had to stake him through the heart or chop his head off and burn him?!?), and helps Sookie escape the kings house. Sookie goes to find Bill, and Tara runs into a very naked Alcide.  They go to grab the car or some such nonsense.  Sookie runs in and sees Bill in a bloody mess on the floor and then that bitch Lorena comes in and throws her into the wall and is about to bite her.
This week’s episode was pretty good– but the episode next week looks AWESOME!!!!!

My little recipe experience has opened my eyes to a few truths.

1. I don’t dislike cooking as much as I thought I did. As a matter of fact, the more I do it, the more I enjoy it. I can’t believe I’m about to utter these words, but the reality is that I think I might be…starting to… love it. It’s not just standing there cooking that I am enjoying, either. It’s the whole trying to find a great meal to prepare, trying to decide if my family is going to like it…and then seeing them smile or hearing them enjoy the food once they taste it. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some losers in the group, (the fam was not a fan of candy chicken– even though we make a recipe similiar to that. I’ll have to post it.)  but for the most part, everyone’s sort of enjoyed stepping out of the box and trying some new stuff.

2. It’s way more fun when Alea is with me in the kitchen. I find that I miss her helping me when she’s not around.  I don’t mind cooking by myself, but something about the kid chatting with me is just more fun.

I find myself scouring the internet for good recipes, rather than being on Facebook constantly.

I even started sort of dreaming up an AWESOME recipe site. A place for people to share/sort their favorite recipes. Where they could have a ‘recipe box’ of favorites.

The ideas are flowing– just gotta write it down for Jay to build.

So this shit was fucking FANTASTIC. My super picky BFF/Roommate liked it, my husband liked it, and Hunter loved it.

It was juicy, flavorful and delicious.

Were I to make any changes next time, I’d probably crush the cereal up a little better next time.

This is going to be a staple in our house to be sure.