Another glass of champagne please

554 posts... and not counting

It's the time of the year where we all make lists and start to review things with a sentimental yet scrutinizing eye.  Where have we come and where have we been?

As much as I'm not always the sentimental type, I've found myself doing a lot of reviewing lately - and as part of that, I've enjoyed rereading the past 553 posts on this blog.  At some I've cringed, at some I've laughed, at some I've cried, at many I've thought "why the heck am I sharing this anyhow?!".  This is post 554 today and I've decided to share some of that retrospect.

554 posts... and 3 years and 9 months.  Ironically the same amount of time one spends in high school from grades nine through twelve.  And not so ironically, the same kind of journey.  When I started the blog, I was just getting my writing legs back under me after years of inactivity.  I had picked a path on the crossroads of life and was looking to the future, trying to forget what was already behind me.  And I had no idea what was ahead.  (And not unlike the senior I once was and the ones I know today, I've gone through a big spurt of senioritis these past few months!)

Lots of similarities.  Then, I had owned my townhouse for thirteen months and was still unpacking boxes.  Now, I've owned my bungalow for thirteen months and I'm still unpacking boxes.  Then, I was single.  Now, I am single.  See, some things never change. 

Lots of differences.  Startling ones.  Luxe didn't exist - heck, it was 10 months away from us even having the first spark of an idea about it.  Some of the recurring characters were different.  A lot of the readers were too.

What am I aiming at here?  Well, things have changed.  I'm not enjoying this the way I once was.  In fact, I'm not enjoying it at all.  Blogging has become, if you will pardon the term, masturbatory.  I am not as inclined to share "personal" things about my life now that I can do that in a more "constrained" format on somewhere like Facebook and I don't want to talk about what I'm cooking for dinner or what I did at work.  I don't enjoy the disjointed nature of the meme's and quizzes although they have helped extend the life of the run.  And I most of all get irritated when I want to talk about something important to me and instead have to deal with sidetrack comments.

Post #555 will be my last.  I'll be shuttering this blog shortly after the new year.  If you are interested in my "personal" goings on, travels, etc. and know me, you can still follow that on Facebook and/or your own interactions with me.  And I suspect I will want to blog, albeit perhaps with a new look, different tone, and possibly with some different circumstances for comments enabled (we'll see)... so post #555 will have my new address where you can find me when this run goes away so we can continue the next installment.

Tagged... Christmas

My friend Paula tagged me for some holiday questions.  Since no one seems to want to discuss the heavy stuff (did I kill y'all with the Advent Conspiracy yesterday?), I'll do a day of light blogging.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay,here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!  Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Tag as many  people as you want to....Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? both... plus fabric, baskets, and any other creative option I can come up with
2. Real tree or Artificial?  artificial... allergic to the real thing
3. When do you put up the tree?  weekend after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down?  on or as close to the 6th of January as possible (Epiphany)
5. Do you like eggnog? love it... in fact, I'm digging my new eggnog custard pie recipe
6. Favorite gift received as a child?  my dollhouse from my grandparents... in fact, it sits on my mantel to this day (that's worthy of its own blog entry one day)
7. Hardest person to buy for?  I don't really think anyone I buy gifts for is hard
8. Easiest person to buy for? my grandfather (for his 90th birthday, he got nothing but supplies for his daily martinis from everyone)
9. Do you have a nativity scene? yes... and I'd like to acquire another one or two
10. Mail or email Christmas cards. neither... I prefer to NOT do cards at Christmas and instead try to reach out during the year to the important people in my life
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?  an ex-boyfriend bought me something he wanted for himself that he knew I hated (we had looked at it in the store) - selfish!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Miracle on 34th Street
13. When do you start shopping?   I shop year-round
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  um, maybe?  But only of the gift exchange variety
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  breakfast - spicy sausage/egg casserole and orange coffee cake
16   color lights on tree?  white
17. Favorite Christmas song?  bizarre, but I love Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols - was always my favorite to perform when I was in the Texas Girls' Choir
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? either... but staying home is so nice
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yep!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?   Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? commercialism, consumerism, consumption, confusion (anyone watch the Advent Conspiracy video yesterday?!)
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? my tree is ALL moons and stars (next year I'll do two trees so I can have a second one with family ornaments)
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? we usually don't do dinner  My mom tried some spaghetti/chicken casserole thing for a few years but I dislike it so I always tried to get out of eating!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year?  to spend quality time with the people I care about... and to give more of myself

Okay... I'm tagging a bunch of people so get to blogging:  Brandy, Emily, Pam, Kandice, Paulo, Jonni, Henry (Enrique), Molly, and anyone else who wants to play and post a link here....

Advent Conspiracy

Have you seen this?

Advent Conspiracy

Because you really really should.

Thoughts?  Because I'm really wanting to discuss the four points in this clip in a very bad way.... (tomorrow).

Who are you playing for?

I promised photos two weeks ago... so here is one to tease you.  A year to the week from when I started contracting the work on my house, I finally have the last room almost finished.

It's been a time of anniversaries and milestones lately. 

The house will probably NEVER be done.  My project wish list is so long and my budget so tight that it will always be slow going.  But slow and steady wins the race, not impulsive and frivolous.  I remind myself of that as often as I can although it does no good for how impatient I still seem to grow.

I want to reach the finish line already... but the line keeps moving, metaphorically. I've set off running for things I don't even want anymore.  So I adjust the goal and the direction changes.  I need a compass for how many times that has happened.  It reminds me something that a former leader of one of my past companies used to ask...

Who are you playing for?

Its a simple question really but one that has haunted me for the eleven years that have passed since I first heard that speech.  The gist is, we all go to work every day and strive for promotions or clients or raises.  We blindly go after items on a checklist (time for a new car, time for a house, time to get married, time to have kids, time for a new house, time for a new spouse) without much thought as to why we are really doing it and what type of personal fulfillment it is going to bring us.

When we first heard that speech (which was accompanied by the senior executive who was giving it crying on the podium as he delivered it), there was a bit of jest in regards to those words.  But the truth is, it's a scary question and one that so many of us try to avoid answering.

I've been pondering that one a lot the last few weeks as I reflect on my career, the businesses I co-own, what I want to get out of life, whether the things I own actually own me.  Who (or what) exactly am I playing for?

So yeah... that's had me a bit distracted.

When I'm distracted, I nest.  And I'm talking Martha Stewart level nesting.  I try to cook at least one meal a day at home (a far cry from the days when I did well to eat at home once a week and that was usually takeout).  I take on projects.  I clean.  I curl up on the sofa and watch movies.  I listen to CDS.

My nesting has driven me to a couple of culinary creations of late, one in particular that I'll share here.  (As a side note, I'm thinking of doing a more "domestic" blog or at least more entries of that nature in 2009... recipes, projects, gardening stuff, etc.  Thoughts?  Like it?  Hate it?  Want to see it on a separate blog?)  If you know much about me, I have a very difficult time following a recipe.  I always try to improve on it.  In my case, this isn't always a successful venture but I enjoy the trying part.

Yesterday in anticipation of a busy holiday season where I know I need to take food to at least three events I can think of (and probably more I'm mentally blocking), I decided to make up a batch of my sausage cheese balls.  Two batches actually.  I think everyone on the planet probably has this recipe (or has tried it at least).  1 lb of spicy pork sausage (raw), 10 oz of grated sharp cheddar cheese, and 3 cups of Bisquick.  Mix it all together, chill the dough, form into 1" balls, bake on cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Easy peasy and I'll admit that I make them as much for me as for anyone.  They freeze welll, defrost quickly, and almost taste BETTER when reheated.  Almost every late December/early January I end up making a couple meals of these when I'm too frazzled or tired to cook.

I needed to make an appetizer for a gathering last night so I decided to try something different.  Okay, I'll admit it... I was getting bored making little balls after I rounded 75 or so and I had a nice basket of fresh jalepeno peppers I'd picked up at the farmers market that morning.

So... I halved about 20 of them lengthwise and hollowed out (deseeded/cleaned) the insides.  And then I filled them with the raw dough mix.  And I laid them pepper-side down on a cookie sheet, sprinkled them with a liberal dose of sea salt and cajun seasoning mix, and then I baked them for about 12 minutes in the already hot oven at 400 degrees.  (I reheated them on the same cookie sheet before leaving and plating them warm so if you are going to go straight from oven to table, I'd give them 14 to 15 minutes.)

Now the thing I realized is missing is some kind of cool dip for them.  The peppers weren't too spicy once they were cleaned but there is still plenty of zing between the spicy sausage and the pepper itself.  So next time I'm going to take sour cream and whisk it with those same cajun spices to make a cooling dip to go with them.  And I'm really thinking that next time might be as soon as the next couple of weeks... these were SO darned good.

But first I've got to make Christmas cookies and fudge and all the other things I love.  And do more pie and bread baking.  And keep up with the cooking at home at least once a day (today was chocolate cherry french toast for breakfast before church).

And I need to figure out who I'm playing for.

Are you there blog, it's me Jennifer....

Okay, bad blog title.  Or Judy Blume would say so.  (As an aside, I'm reading the annual volume of Best American Non-Required Reading, one of my favorite reads.  Judy Blume wrote the foreword this year and commented on the number of Are You There XXX, It's Me YYY takeoffs... the one she finds most disturbing being Chelsea Handler's "Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea"... so I'm just saying....)

Anyway... I've been gone.  I know.  Just have had a lot to say and no words to say it with. 

So Tech is now defeated.  I have to say, I'm not one of those excessively gloating fans when we win so I don't do very well with folks who gloat excessively when we lose.  It's kind of painful.  Terry and I actually drove up for the game yesterday - it was fun to visit parties pre-game... but the fun ended quickly and by the middle of the second quarter, we were ready to leave.  We stuck it out long enough to see OU run for yet another touchdown on the way to the locker room.  Now depression sets in.  I somewhat equate it to having what you think you want within your sights or grasps and then losing it with no chance of gaining it back.  That's a feeling I know well (from business AND personal life) so I know how deep that pain runs.

My blah mood goes a bit beyond the game.  I had to start back on methotrexate for my RA at the beginning of the month and have been fighting a low-grade fever almost nightly ever since.  This past week I dealt with about three days of on and off nausea... I'm guessing burning the candle at both ends (three successive weekend trips for football - Lubbock then Alpine then Norman OK - with two business trips in between definitely didn't help my immune system either).

And then there is the dust and crud everywhere in my house.  I really had hoped to have things together by now but it took almost a month of dealing with the insurance company to figure out that YES, they would pay for a new roof (minus a $4,400 deductable) but they would NOT pay for any of the mold removal or redo of the room where we found it.  So it has been an expensive and messy month.  It looks like the roof will be done this week - and that the back room will finally be done this week as well.  What a mess - both for the dust everywhere in my house now (and tracked upon floors and stuff everywhere) as well as for the expense.  I'm ready for it to be OVER with already!

I'd love to have something more exciting to report and I know some of you enjoy my dramas a bit more than I do but I find them a bit exhausting, hence not having the blow-by-blow on here more regularly.

Next week, photos.  I swear!

Football weekend...

It's fall which means that football is an important part of my life right now... and even more this year with Texas Tech at 9-0 and in contention for a BCS game.  We've never been this good and it has been a joy to watch.  Like this last week?

Yeah, that will be a game I'll remember for a lifetime.

Hopefully this weekend we'll continue the streak... we're headed up to Lubbock today to watch Tech/OSU and whatever the outcome, half of us will be very pleased with our team of choice.  (Sorry Brandy, but I'm hoping that will be MY half....)

And I actually charged my camera battery so I might even take some photos.  Meanwhile, I'm off to pack....

Chili is for winners....

Those who know me well may know of my love for David Mamet (who ranks up there with Aaron Sorkin and Bret Easton Ellis as my "favorite voices" of the last couple of decades).  And one of my favorite Mamet lines comes from Glengarry Glen Ross.

This line (from the screenplay which later was a movie starring Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Ed Harris) used to get delivered frequently in meetings at the Evil Empire and became somewhat of a joke.

We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize?  Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

For some reason, the elections make me think of this because someone goes home President.  Someone goes home Vice-President.  And someone gets fired. 

So yeah, that line was echoing through my head yesterday as I waded through the sludge of post-election day emails and texts and blogs and Facebook comments.  But really, aren't we all winners?  I think so.

We had chili to watch election night... and I thought I'd share the version I made this week (partially so I can remember what I used this time and partially because I think I may have finally tweaked my recipe to perfection).  It's a great slow cooker recipe for the cold days ahead.

If you know me, I don't tend to cook well from recipes.  (Recipes are for "baking" where precise measurement is called for... but when "cooking" I prefer to cook to taste and touch so sometimes its hard for me to remember what I've done if I don't write it down!)

Jen's Winner Chili

4 slices thick cut bacon
1 large bell pepper (or 2 small - I used 1 green/1 red), finely chopped
1 purple onion, finely chopped (may substitute red if purple is not available)
chopped fresh oregano
chili seasoning packet (Jardines is good... but I used Cin Chili this time.  Most spice companies make these)
1 can tomato sauce (I like Hunts w/ garlic)
1 can/bottle of beer (I used an IPA this time but have also used porter or stout) - use 8 oz at beginning and reserve remainder
2 pounds ground chuck
sea salt
ground peppercorn
Cajun seasoning mix (Essence or any of the others on the market)

Fry bacon in pan until crisp.  Remove and crumble into small pieces.  Do not drain pan drippings.  Place crumbles in bottom of slow cooker.

Saute pepper, onion, and oregano in pan drippings until browned, adding chili seasoning packet in final moments.  Remove vegetable mixture and add to slow cooker.  Add tomato sauce and 8 oz of beer to slow cooker.  Stir thoroughly as ingredients are added.

Brown ground chuck in portions, adding liberal amounts of sea salt and peppercorn.  As each portion is browned and crumbled, add to slow cooker and stir.

Cook for 3 hours on high or 7 hours on low in covered slow cooker.  Open, stir, and taste.  At this point I usually add much more salt and pepper as well as a liberal dose of Cajun seasoning for "kick" (cayenne pepper also works).  If the chili seems dry, add some of the reserved beer.  Cook for one more hour on low.

Serve with Fritos, shredded cheddar, sour cream, and chopped onions.

You will note that my chili contains NO beans (I'm a Texas girl so that's how I like it) but if you don't know beans about chili and want to add them, I would recommend the red kidney beans, drained.

This recipe will serve 4 very hungry adults buffet style or 6 if portioned out.  It freezes well and can easily be doubled for a crowd.

The dawn of a new day...

... I can finally break my silence now that the elections are over.  I am usually angst-ridden around elections and always try to not be a mouthpiece for any party.  (Say what you want about democracy, I like the version where no one feels pushed or peer-pressured or bullied into voting a certain way.)

So here we are... the next four years await.  And I watch with cautious optimism.

Here are a few of my observations and thoughts....

* I hope that MY party (the Republican party) has learned its lesson about polarizing voters.  I became a swing voter this year, and not for the first time in my voting history.  I may have once upon a time donated my money and time to the party, but that has stopped until I see some tangible evidence that they are listening to us.  We are not all gun-toting Bible-thumping home-schooling clones.  We are not all wealthy.  Or white.  Or male.  Picking Sarah Palin to try to capture the female voter alienated me (and I suspect many others) and allowing the fundamentalists in the party to dictate the social planks of the party platform lost me.  They had better retool or risk going the way of the dinosaur (which, contrary to Palin's opinion did NOT exist in Biblical times).  I miss the days of the Republican party which was northern and abolishinist.  I miss the old Dixiecrats (who once ruled my home state) who brought levity to the party in the 1980s.  I'm tired of wealthy white men pushing an out-of-touch agenda.

* Yes, I voted for Obama.  And no, I won't be buying the t-shirt.  I'm still lukewarm about my vote, much like I was about pulling the lever for Clinton in '92/'96 and for Bush in '00/'04 (if only my picking skills worked so well in the Vegas sports books).  I'm an issues voter and as much as I really didn't find myself resonating with either candidate, I knew we needed a change.  And I do think he will do a fantastic job.

* Our president-elect had better get going on staffing a very qualified Cabinet.  We have a lot of issues to address and being a t-shirt inspiring celebrity isn't going to cut it.  I worry a bit that we are headed for four (or eight) years of the White House being filled with visiting Hollywood and media types and fashion designers.  I hope my president-elect (yes MY president-elect) proves me wrong.  And to a degree, we need to get past the issue of a "black president" (or a "female" or a "Catholic" or any other issue we have discussed in presidential political theory in the last 50 years).  He is an AMERICAN president.  That's what this is about.  So let's celebrate for a moment what this means for the history books - but then let's move past it and unite.

* I'm much more comfortable with a distribution of partisan positions throughout our government.  For this reason, I'm happy with a liberal in office to keep the Supreme Court balanced.  And as well, I'm happy that the Democrats didn't completely take control of the Senate.  Balance is good and it keeps us in check.

* The economy will turn around... we've seen this election effect before.  Already gas prices are below $2 in parts of Tarrant County.  I would predict that the markets will be up for the rest of the year and that spending will start to strengthen.  Its not rocket science... its a given in change years. 

* In local politics, I'm very happy to see some turnovers.  Change is good.  Wendy Davis is in, Kim Brimer is out.  We'll be getting a new physical plant for Parkland Hospital.  And Irving will now allow beer/wine sales (hooray for being able to pick up a six-pack by the office!).

* In other people's local politics, I'm nervously watching Proposition 8 in California and hoping that my dear friends retain the rights they've worked so hard for.  And I'm disappointed that on a day when we've shown our nation to be color blind that so many states are still not treating our gay friends as equals.

A lot to chew on.  I'm happy its over.  I'm ready for the next phase. 

So now we overcome our metaphorical election hangover and start cleaning up after the party.

Things are insane....

... nothing bad, just insane.

I've got a lot going on this past week or so - client-wise, house-wise, emotion-wise, etc.  I'm sorting it all out in my head and with a couple of friends who are good listeners. 

There is no doubt that I'll have some good stories eventually... and while things are a wee bit roller coaster-y inside my head, I have no doubt like any good ride, I'll be smiling and laughing at the end of it.

Nothing to report otherwise... but some potentially good stuff on the horizon so I'm pretty zen about the whole thing.

Wednesday/Thursday update

Okay, well I'd hoped to be a lot further along today than I am... but its not my fault, I swear.

On top of my week starting off on a crappy note, yesterday I had the figurative headache from hell... they discovered MOLD in my house.

*sigh*

That sound you hear is me screaming.

So all work had to stop on the house.  Things are torn up all over the place and basically I'm stopping anything involving "cleaning" and just working on decluttering/organizing for now (which is hard to do with an entire large living area completely emptied out into my kitchen/utility room/dining room).

It was all due to me deciding to wire for surround sound.  The contractors arrived around 10 am to tape to start painting (which needed to be done by Friday night as my new sectional was to arrive at 10 am on Saturday).  There are four covered outlet plates in the ceiling in the corners of the room - speaker wire.  They found the lead in and we decided to go ahead and extend the wiring to where I'll be putting my receivers and put HD wire in for what I'll eventually put in that room (my media room).  To run it seamlessly since there is no carpet in the room and that part is slab foundation (not pier & beam like the front of the house), they figured that taking the baseboards out would be the easy way to access the walls.

Baseboard #1 comes off... mold.  Baseboard #2 comes off... mold.  Mold all around the base of the room.  They pull the boards off around the door frame.  Mold goes up a couple of feet.  That is going to mean new walls and mold removal.

I already had a claim open from calling earlier that day about the roof/attic damage.  So we quickly walked the rest of the house and found that there may be other mold in the ceilings where the roof is leaking.  And possibly around the entire back (new addition) of the house due to brick/siding holes. 

So now I'm waiting for an adjuster to call me... alas, they (all the licensed adjusters in Texas) are all in South Texas dealing with hurricane claims so it may be a while.  So now furniture delivery is on hold, my contractors are gone, my back room is empty (and torn up), and I've got crap EVERYWHERE in my house.

I'm very thankful right now that I paid $550 extra to have a very large mold rider put on my insurance (just because you never know with new houses and I've had friends who've been burned there before) and I've also got "loss of use" coverage that (according to the guy who wrote the policy) will cover me having to live in a very decent hotel should I be displaced (which I've been told is very likely while they go through mold removal).  What I don't know yet is how extensive it will be.

Thank goodness for good friends.  Cindie is coming today and so hopefully we can get through the clutter mess and get the first Goodwill donation ready to go so I can use my guest room as a staging area.  And I'm looking forward to drinking some serious vino tonight.