Life Update

The major life update is that as of March 31st (happy birthday to me!!), I will be job-free. Not necessarily by choice, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I've been working remotely for almost the last two years for a company based out of Dallas. They hired a new president last year and she wants to have someone working out of the main office in Dallas and I did not want to move there. There were other factors involved with the decision, but that seemed to be the sticking point.

The whole process has been extremely stressful which is what led me to my latest bout of silence on the blog. This situation has made me realize that I tend to become rather hermit-y when things aren't going well. I guess I'm following that old saying, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all!" Meanwhile, my friends I see day-to-day have been getting an earful. And then another earful...

I think probably the worst part has been the uncertainty of everything for several weeks. There have been other sucky parts, but I'll keep that part to myself for now. I was so stressed about it that I eventually got SO sick!! I've never been so sick in my life. I laid in bed for five days straight. I only got out of bed because I had to do our monthly payroll. After which, I promptly climbed back in bed. Thank goodness for Edward, who insisted I go see the doctor. I had been assuming I had the flu and was afraid I had the dreaded swine flu! When I finally went to the doctor, she informed me that I had bronchitis. She then prescribed me two inhalers and some nasal spray and instructions on how long to use them. Now, two weeks later, I'm feeling much, much better.

So, that's the big update. And with the free time I'll have on my hands you may get posts a little more often about random stuff I'm doing around my apartment. Some stuff I'd like to get done while I'm not working:

• Eat through my pantry & freezer. This will give me the opportunity to try out different recipes and eat everything up!!
• De-clutter my apartment! Wow, I'm REALLY looking forward to this. I've already started taking boxes of stuff to give to the Goodwill.
  
• Stick to a budget. I've started making my budget. I'm not sure if I should post it on here because I'm not sure anyone would even care about the particulars. But, I was thinking about trying to make it like a game... LOL - as John put it, "a game with limited resources"!
• Exercise more. With no job, I should be able to exercise more, right?
• Floss more regularly. I just had my cleaning today and again I promised my hygienist Mary that I would be better about flossing. I need to start setting up better habits. Time to write it down, FLYlady-style...
• Take some trips. Already planning on going to Atlanta in June for Oasis and Williamsburg in July for Gulf Games. I am contemplating taking a road trip out there and just killing time for the month in between with friends along the East Coast. I just need to find someone to babysit my kitty for a month!
• Get caught up on my reading & Netflix queue. Not very "productive," but fun!
  
• Go to the beach. I'm gonna work on my tan some... and maybe get some reading done while I'm at it!
  

Anyway, you'll see random notes to myself too as I clear stuff out of the apartment. The blog is the perfect place to record stuff that I don't want to lose! And then you get to see it too! I'm mentioning this because I'm about to post a list of restaurants from a newspaper ad/article that I've had stuck to my fridge for a couple years. I'm ready to throw it out, but I want to make a list of the restaurants in case I ever want to know what was on there.

I have no idea how long it will take to find a new job, but I intend to make good use of my time off and enjoy it!

Gamex 2009

I'm at Gamex, one of the local game conventions and I'm sad to report that I am in my hotel room, posting a blog post about how lame and old I am. But really, I don't think it's so much that as all my fellow crazy-late-nighters aren't here. Edward & Seth didn't make it and I think those two are the two that manage to talk me into staying up late to play games.

I'm also contemplating checking out a day early. There really isn't much happening on Monday and I could save $100+ if I just go home to sleep late Sunday night. I'm seriously considering doing that. I usually have a roommate to split the cost of a room, but this time I'm flying solo. Too bad I don't have a roommate because they upgraded me when I got in and I have a bigger room with a sleeper couch and it would've been perfect to share with a roommate. Oh well, next time.

I'm running the Charades tournament tomorrow night. I'm not doing standard Charades-style, I'm doing a "fortune cookie" charades tournament. All the clues will be fortunes. I'm not sure how it will go over, but considering it was the first way I ever played charades, it's near and dear to my heart.

I brought shoes/clothes to exercise while I'm here. Let's see if that actually happens. It could. I haven't decided if I want to subject myself to a Power Grid tournament at 10 AM tomorrow morning. It will just depend on how I feel when I wake up.

I must be tired because I'm rambling about nothing! Oh, but I did win one first place ribbon for Ticket to Ride: The Card Game. I really love this game. It's my favorite out of all the TtRs!

Five and Dimes for 2008

First, I didn't hit 100 new-to-me games for the year like I was hoping to. But here is a list of the games I played more than five and ten!

The Big Dollar
277 plays - Race for the Galaxy - Still one of my favorite games, if not my favorite. It's just fun, fun, fun.

Dimes
30 - Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm
16 - Tichu - I really only play this at conventions
15 - Agricola
15 - Time's Up! - Still my favorite party game!
13 - Dominion
10 - Taboo
10 - Pandemic

Fives
9 - Time's Up! Title Recall
8 - Through the Ages
8 - Werewolf
7 - Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
6 - Brass - Definitely one of my favorite new games!!
6 - Cheeky Monkey
6 - Code 777
6 - Liar's Dice
6 - Password
6 - Unpublished Prototype
5 - Power Grid
5 - Tribune
5 - Yspahan


Games I expect to remain on my five and dimes for 2009?

Race for the Galaxy is an absolute... I'm already up to 12 plays. I also suspect that all my dimes will stay and probably most of my fives. Wow. Wait. Let me compare to my 2007 five and dimes. In 2007, I had 25 games listed on my five and dimes. There is a lot of overlap from 2007 to 2008 and I suspect that will continue in 2009.

Brass Online

One of my favorite games in the last year has been Brass, a game from Martin Wallace that came out during my trip to Essen in 2007. It was 50 Euros, so it seemed a little pricey at the time, but man, I'm kicking myself for not getting a copy. I really am a fan of that game.

A guy has posted a primitive website that has an AWESOME version of Brass. It's not pretty, but it works REALLY well and I think playing Brass by email is a great idea. This game can produce a lot of thought and this gives people the time to think out their moves!

I finished one game last week and it was great. And I'm totally looking to play some more. Here's the website:

http://brass.orderofthehammer.com/

Anyone interested? You just create a free account! If you know how to play, you can check out the format on the game I just started up called Craftybeans.

BGG.CON 2008 Day 1

OK - so it's now 4:36 AM and we're winding down Day 1 of BGG.CON 2008... I'm in the Rock Band room, chillin', trying to stay awake while I write this. I think I officially missed a day yesterday, but my goodness, there's just too much happening here. I've been having fun with the webcam, talking to people all over the con (when my aircard and the ustream.tv website will cooperate).

If you're bored at work tomorrow, make sure you tune in! I think I'm only "planning" on webcasting around noon (or whenever I get downstairs) and then later at 11 PM before the drawing. That's CST! And we'll do the midnight drawing and then later, Ca$h'n Guns Live and maybe Time's Up? I'm not sure how popular the Werewolf was last night. The website crapped out and probably dropped the feed before they finished. I have no idea.

So far, it's been a blast. I'm still not fully recovered and I've been talking all day and I'm starting to lose my voice. I really need to try to get some sleep and take it easy.

I only played one "real" game last night and that was After the Flood, the new Martin Wallace game. It was fun and I think that if you like Martin Wallace games, you'll probably enjoy this one. It's really tight with resources and you really need to manage everything, planning both your short-term and long-term goals. I definitely need to play it again to grasp a basic strategy fully. I played with Michael Weston (delta1119) and Janna. Janna schooled us! It was awesome!

Other than that, I think I just played Time's Up! and Title Recall. I got to see Davebo act out all the works of Mark Twain in 30 seconds - white washing a fence, cajoling someone else into doing the white washing, a trip down the Mississippi River, burning at the stake(?) and other stuff. If I do stream Time's Up! tomorrow night, I will do my best to get Davebo in that game. He's so good at the third round (AKA: the no-words round).

BGG Application for the iPhone

So I haven't caved and bought one of the fancy iPhones (not yet at least), but I did see the BoardGameGeek application created by Ryan Christianson (BGG ID: ryanch) for the iPhone tonight.

It's similar to MiniBGG in that you can search on BGG and download information as well as record plays. Click here to link to the Apple iTunes store if you're interested... the best part is that it's FREE!

Modern Long Distance Dating

Because my boyfriend lives across the country... Georgia, more specifically... We don't have the "typical" dates that people who live in the same city might have. It usually consists of late night chats when we can squeeze them in and silly text messages to say "hi" or some such.

What we've been doing lately is setting up "date nights," which usually go like this:
He comes home from work, eats something, takes a nap and then calls me so we can get caught up on each others' week and hang out. Last time, we played some Dominion on BSW (a German website where you can play all kinds of Euro games).

I'm waiting for him to call so we can commence with our date tonight and tonight it'll be a little different. I bought him a webcam from Amazon and had it shipped to his house. He hasn't yet opened the box and he doesn't know what's in it, so I hope that he actually likes it. I picked out one with good reviews (4.5 stars with 402 reviews), so I hope it installs nicely and doesn't give him any trouble. As much as I love our date nights, I think I'll like them even more if I can see his smile!

And really, webcams are quickly becoming the norm. I was chatting about this with my waxer and a customer in the salon overheard us and said, "Oh, are you going to talk to your child with it?" Apparently, her son is in Japan and she just shipped him a webcam so she can see him when they talk via Skype. She loves it.

In fact, Google has just released video chatting! I can't wait to try this tonight. I guess we'll find out!

Countdown to BGG.CON

Only nine more days until BGG.CON! I can't wait!!

I'm really excited because I know even MORE people from the SoCal area that are going and I get to see some of my favorite gamers that weekend! I can't wait! I'm going to have to stock up on sleep beforehand and sweet tea during the convention!

I'm going to bring my laptop with me and camera and I'm hoping to post pictures up on my Flickr account and maybe some videos up on YouTube while we're at the con... Just to keep everyone who isn't there in the loop somewhat while it's happening!

Live blogging from the event? Maybe!

City Race LA

I'm getting excited about City Race LA!! It's this Saturday and I'm signed up to run around with Chia, Travis and Ron! I have no idea if we'll win, but I'm ready to have some fun! I'll have a full report this weekend! I'm a little concerned because it's taking place in downtown LA and I'm not quite familiar with the area...

According to the website, we'll get a packet of clues that range from very easy to very difficult, along with a list of scavenger hunt items. The team that finishes in the three hour time frame with the highest score wins!

Day 2 aka: Independence Day

We went to Chris' house for the 4th and had a fun time. We ended up just gaming and munching all day, but it was nice because Shane came with her dad.

I was in the kitchen with Shane and she asked me how the weekend was going and I said, "It's going really well." (Might I add here that it's so cool to have a man singing in my shower!) OK, back to yesterday... Meanwhile, Athens was sitting in the dining room playing (arrrrrrr) Rrrrum and Pirates with the boys. She said something about how he seemed to be fitting right in with them and I said, "Yeah, it's so nice not to have to worry about him in social situations. Because I know if he doesn't know anyone, he'll start up a conversation and I'm never worried he's going to say the wrong thing because he's well-mannered." Shane agreed and said, "Yeah, that IS nice."

I was with Jason for 10 years and always felt (whether justified or not) like I needed to worry about him to make sure he was having a good time in social situations because he was introverted. I just always wanted to make sure he was having fun, partly for him and partly for me. If he wasn't having fun, chances are, we were going home early. And we didn't go out much to begin with, so... It's just nice to not have to worry about someone in that respect.

He had a blast meeting all of my friends there and then we went to House of Pies so I could have him taste the yumminess that is their pecan pie.

Today we're off to a big lunch with friends and some BBQ! I suspect we will be having fun and I HAVE TO remember to take some pictures today!!! Time is running out.

Mini BGG

I'm kinda geeky when it comes to games, but I'm not really a girl for all the minute details. I can be if it's something I am really interested in, but for the most part, I just lack the patience to chase down little details.

Case in point: MiniBGG

It's a streamlined website that takes all the essentials of BoardGameGeek.com and compresses it down for those of us using phones and just need to look up a quick fact or two. The awesome thing you can do with it is log your plays! You look up a game and then log your play from your phone. As someone who logs all her plays, this is awesome. No more keeping track of what I played on a little piece of paper so that I can transpose it to the website when I get home. If I remember and if I don't lose it!

The problem was this... You log in with your same user name and password at BGG. However, I could never get my password to work! I've known about MiniBGG.com for months, but could never figure it out and never took the time to go figure it out.

Thank you Valerie! She posted an article on BoardGameNews.com on how to get MiniBGG.com to work! And as a result, I logged all my plays in real time while at Oasis of Fun! It rocked!!!

Race for the Galaxy: Home Decor

My friends know me. They know what I'm enthusiastic about and even though I haven't been posting about it lately, I'm still crazy about Race for the Galaxy (192 plays since Christmas and hoping to greatly add to that this weekend!). My friend Seth sent a gift via Mike for my birthday and when I saw Mike pulling out a rolled up poster, I started screaming with joy and jumping up and down in circles because I knew it had to be a Race for the Galaxy poster! And it was!! So, a very public "THANK YOU SETH!" for my favorite poster in the world (at least for now...)!

So, I took it and got a cool black anodized custom frame made and hung it in my dining room so I can look at it whenever I want while playing games. Here's what it looks like...



And a step back...


Isn't that awesome?!?!
*happy dance*
OK, that's it for now...

Update from Dallas

It's been another week since I've been in Dallas and wow, I'm sore! Why? Because I took my first Krav Maga class. It's a style of fighting that the Israeli army uses. It's for close combat. I enjoyed the class quite a bit, but oh my, I'm so freaking sore!

Monday night I went to see the Sex and the City Movie. I liked it, hardly surprising considering I loved the show. One thing I always love about that show is that there's always some kernel of relationship truth in it. Something that is relate-able. In the movie, Carrie calls herself an "emotional cutter." I started dying laughing because I've been feeling like I've been an emotional cutter lately. Why? (Maybe I should rename this post to "Why?")

I got an email from 42 out of the blue last week and we've exchanged some emails since then. Mainly just catching up, but naturally I've been thinking about him and our relationship more. Sometimes it makes me sad and other times it just gets me thinking about the past. The last few weeks have been busy with dating in between work stuff, but I don't feel like going into all that. Especially since I've hardly written anything about dating stuffs since 42 & I broke up in March. I'll have to write an update on that sometime soon, I haven't quite decided about that just yet.

On Tuesday, I worked and then went to play games with the Dallas Gamers. I ended up playing Kingsburg, Rails of Europe and Race for the Galaxy. Man, I *still* really love that game!

I worked today and then spent the afternoon and evening playing poker! It was pretty fun. My table was good. There were a couple cool guys there and I was Nickname Girl. I nicknamed everyone at the table (whether or not they liked it or not). We had Golf Guy (who was quite the cutie), Fiance Guy (who got later renamed to Tat Guy at his request), New Guy, Quiet Guy, LA Guy, Oil Guy, and Tan Guy (who later was renamed to Raiser Guy because he kept raising all the pre-flops). I think I ended up down a bit for the trip, but I am definitely getting better. I felt like I was betting better and I'm trying to get better at reading people based on their actions. My problem is that I just go with my gut and not really with the logical assumptions. That is an area that I need work on.

Hello from Dallas

I've been in Dallas since Monday night. My first official day at work was Tuesday. I'm going to be here training until next Friday. This week I'm training with Robin, the current controller and next week, I'm in the office working with the manager of the consultants and various others I'm sure.

One thing I've been really excited about is the program that our consultants consult on. It's really freakin' cool. It's hard to describe how it works, mainly because I'm not really sure, but the power it holds is amazing. I can't wait to learn more about that!

Other than that, I went out for gaming last night and managed to squeeze in a game of Agricola, Race for the Galaxy and Jetzt Schlagt 13. One of the beautiful side effects of BGG.CON... When I showed up at the cafe where I knew there'd be gaming going on, I ran into Jeff, a fellow BGGer and someone that I met at my first BGG.CON. So, it was nice to see a familiar face and even nicer to see he had a copy of Agricola underneath his Louis XIV (not my favorite game at all).

He invited me over for games on Saturday, so my plan is to game. So much more fun than sitting in the hotel watching "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead" for the umpteenth time. Although total side note: I forgot Josh Charles is in that movie and damn, he is quite fetching in it!

And another side note: BGG is down for maintenance or something or the other. Boo. I wanted to finally log in all my game plays from Gamex and last night. Oh well. Tomorrow I guess...

Gulf Games Day #2

Since I worked a lot of the first day of Gulf Games, I half-heartedly tried to make-up for missing out on gaming by playing lots of games. I knew I'd never win "friendliest gamer" if I didn't do something! I ended up not playing *that* many games though, but I had a lot of fun!

The highlight of the day was actually the last part of the evening! Sandi, Frank's wife, led a small group of us in a game of Werewolf! Lately, whenever I've played, I'm actually moderating, so it was nice to actually participate. I also got to play with people I'd never played it with and let me tell you, Frank is good! Jon came out as the Seer first round and Frank also claimed to be the Seer and I was having a tough time trying to decide who to believe. It was tough! Frank was actually a werewolf, so I ultimately chose the right person to vote against!

What was really neat is that Sandi made viewers that have your "card" in them. That way, you don't have to look at a card, you peep inside the viewer to see what you are. There's no worry about other people seeing your card or anything! They were really neat! I am going to have to ask her how she made those and see if I can make some myself!

I played with lots of folks on Friday, which helped me catch up to Mary, who, as a first time Gulf Gamer, was blazing a trail playing with everyone she could! Lucky for me, she was gone most of the day at the Unclaimed Luggage store, so it gave me a chance to catch up a bit. Lucky for her, she found a brand new, super-cute, pink Nintendo DS for $60.

And, the moment that may have made all the difference in my quest to win "Friendliest Gamer," I got Jeff (who normally only ever plays 8 hour games) to play a quick, two player game of, what else? Race for the Galaxy! He already knew how to play, so we managed to crank out a game in about 20 minutes before he headed out for the World of Warcraft Guild Luncheon.

Gulf Games Day #1

I drove in from Mississippi after my visit with Carolyn last night. It's about a five hour drive, so I called my boss to find out if there was any update to the big project we were working on the week or so before I left for vacation. Long story short: I worked all night on Wednesday and all day Thursday. Obviously, I'm NOT using vacation time for today!

I finally took a shower and got dressed and ventured out into the real world around 6:30 and ran into Dale & co. They intercepted me for dinner and then we were off to Five Guys Burgers! 42 has told me SO much about Five Guys because they are based in Philly and he loves them, but we've never actually made it over to check it out when I've visited him the last couple times. I put about 8 toppings on my burger and it was tasty. I'd definitely try it again! The fries were really good, homemade and yummy.

After dinner, we had our welcome party. I didn't win Take it Easy at my table. There are a lot of newcomers, probably about half of whom I've already met at other cons. I'm already behind in the Friendliest Gamer contest for this Gulf Games, not sure if I can make up the deficit of being holed up in my room all day today.

Highlights of gaming tonight: We played Traumfabrik with five players and I won! With 100 points! It was quite exciting! We also played a couple games of Tichu and I over-called Jon many times during our game and broke him almost every time! It was awesome! I just kept getting the cards to do it. It was fun!

I might go to the Unclaimed Baggage store tomorrow, but considering I have to be ready to go in 5 1/2 hours, I'm not too sure I'll get up in time. I'm going to set my alarm and see how I feel in the morning!

OrcCon 2008 Recap

I made it through my weekend in potential convention hell at Strategicon/OrcCon this past weekend. I had a much better time than I have at previous Strategicons, which was NOT due to the hotel! The hotel space seemed a little better, but the parking was awful, the internet in my room never worked and there were no light blocking curtains (that I saw).

I did something that I've never done at a con ever before! I went to bed, both nights, at reasonable hours! On Friday, I only stayed up til 2 AM, then woke up at 8 AM and worked out with Ron at the gym for an hour+ and on Saturday night, I was only up til 3 AM which allowed me to get up at 9 AM on Sunday to be able to make it to the Power Grid tournament.

Power Grid tournament: I rarely, if ever, participate in the tournaments. The thought of getting stuck at a table with a bunch of people I don't wanna play with is tough. My desire to be competitive isn't enough to usually get over that hump. I think getting more sleep helped me be more tolerant of people too. But this time I decided to try the Power Grid tournament because I do enjoy playing the game.

Thirty people entered, so we had five tables of six players each. I ended up winning my table and so did Chris, so we ended up at the finals. The final table was a nail-biter to the end! Chris ended up coming in first, but I came in second! He built and powered 17 cities and I did 16, tying with Bruce, but I had more money in the tie-breaker. It was really fun! Plus, it was a "big" tournament, so the payout was more.

Race for the Galaxy tournament: I LOVE Race for the Galaxy. Instead of doing a separate post about it, I'll just say that I could play this game over and over (and I have!). In fact, with all my dealer dollars that I won in tournaments, I used it to buy a second copy of RftG because my cards are starting to get a little icky. The first time I played this game was on Christmas and since then I've logged 79 plays (conservatively) which puts me in the top 10 people playing it (who log their games on the Geek). I didn't win the tournament, but I did beat Chris, which ultimately is more important anyway! He seems to beat me about 75% of the time, so hopefully the tide is turning! Now I just have to get better at beating 42!

The Quarterly "One in a Million": I'm playing in the Power Grid tournament and a guy from the next table (playing some other game) leans in and says, "Did you used to work at Marie Callender's?" I did (a loooooong time ago), so I said, "Yes..." and I'm lookin' at him and his eyes look familiar and then I checked his name badge. I totally recognize his name! We hung out/dated for just a little while when I was 20! Shortly before I met my husband and got married. And here we are, twelve years later, running into each other at a gaming convention. How weird is that? When I knew him, he was in a band and was really into music stuff, so I never knew he was a geek at heart! I told him that had I known, perhaps the dating would've gone on longer! He lives really close to me, so we talked about gaming together sometime. He's married with two kids, so no potential re-kindling happening there!

The Food: I was so fortunate to not have to drive anywhere for food the entire length of the con! Erin and others went out and picked up food and for that I am grateful! I am often the food courier, so I know what a pain it can be and I want to say THANK YOU for the Tito's tacos, Chick-Fil-A, In-n-Out, Johnnie's pastrami, Dinah's fried chicken, Chinese food, and more I'm sure! Everything was yummy!!!!

Overall, this was a pretty decent con. I didn't play ANY Werewolf though!! But I did get sleep and my sleep schedule isn't all wacky, so that's a plus. I think I've finally adjusted to the format of the con. And I've lowered my expectations! Going to BGG.CON as my first gaming convention in 2006 ruined me forever as far as the local cons go.

Heading to OrcCon

I'm headed out to OrcCon/Strategicon for the weekend. I have a handful of posts that I've halfway written up and maybe will finish sometime this weekend! I've been busy with work and socializing and haven't put much time into the blog lately. With my trip coming up next weekend, I'm not sure when I'll have time!

I Do Not Run a Vegetarian-Friendly Household

The last time I visited 42, we stopped by his favorite hoagie shop to pick up, well, hoagies (of course), but more importantly, pepper shooters! He had extolled their virtues on the phone to me many a time, so I finally had the chance to try one! And they were good! A pepper shooter consists of a hunk of extra sharp provolone, wrapped with prosciutto, that's been stuffed into a cherry pepper. Even better, they also had they're special creation, the salamincini, which is basically the same idea: a hunk of extra sharp provolone, wrapped with salami, stuffed inside a peperoncini! I preferred those, but probably because of the flavor of the pepper more than anything.

One of the reasons we made the 30 minute trek to this hoagie shop was because they had these pepper shooters. 42 wants me to learn how to make them and make them for him! Ah, do I love a challenge! So on Saturday, I decided to try making them. I made both types and the soaked them in olive oil overnight. They're good, but they don't taste exactly like the ones I had when I visited him. I'm going to call the sandwich shop to see if I can get any more information from them on how to make them. Here's how they're looking...



The point is, I have some friends coming over tomorrow night to play Die Macher. I was going to offer them as snacks tomorrow night, then I remembered, OH WAIT, one of them's a vegetarian. So I guess I'll just warn him about the meat content.

This is the second time in the last month or so that I'd have to warn a vegetarian off of a seemingly innocuous dish! Who would expect pickled peppers to have meat in them? The last time was during Bakefest 2007, when we made the bacon chocolate chip cookies. I had my friend Gary (also a vegetarian) come by and I had to warn him about the bacon content in the cookies! Not a normal warning, I'm sure! :-)

Oh, and I've been meaning to post a picture of this because it's too good to not get a mention in the blog... For my New Year's Eve party, Shannon made a retro meat-tacular appetizer! The meat tree!!!

O Meat-Cheese Tree...

Isn't that amazing? When she walked in we were all amazed I took the picture with my tree in the background for sizing. That was a pretty tall tree, at least 7 ft tall! It was covered with cocktail wieners, hunks of cheddar and pepper jack cheese, pigs in a blanket, gherkin pickles, olives and I think that's it. It was delicious!! And talk about presentation! It was quite festive and was a huge hit!!

Meat & Cheese tree close-up

Working for the Weekend

I've never tried to make it seem any other way. My job used to be a pretty cushy one! This week has been crazy! With the promotion has come more work!! I'm hoping it's more of a transitional thing, but I can't be sure for a few months. Now I'm just working on the more money aspect... I apologize for not being in more contact with my friends. Work has been using more than its fair share of energy out of me!

However, I had recently been thinking that my job wasn't challenging enough. I guess this is the answer to my ponderings! It's been stressful, but I'm hoping it will be challenging, fun and a great learning experience. The CEO of the new parent company came out yesterday for a "town hall" meeting. It was pretty informative and the atmosphere they endorse is a good one. So far, my experience in dealing with several other people out-of-state is that the intent seems to be the actuality with regard to helpfulness, lack of politics and teamwork. It might turn out to be better than I had hoped!

That said, I have worked WAAAAAY too much this week, so I can't wait to escape from here this afternoon and run down to LAX to hop on a plane and visit with my sister and nephew this weekend! My nephew turns 8 next week, but he's having a birthday party on Sunday. I'm also going to a holiday party with my sister on Saturday night. I haven't been out to visit them in a while! It's supposed to be downright cold too. My sister called to warn me that the high for Sunday would be in the 20s!! I'm definitely taking the wool/fur coat and the long underwear! Not to mention, gloves, scarf and hat! It'll be nice for a change of pace. Speaking of, I need to run home at lunch and pack!

Game-wise, I borrowed Apples to Apples Jr. for the birthday party. Since it'll be 20 degrees outside, I doubt we'll be turning the kids loose outside!