OK, I'm in shock. My niece, the one living with me because she doesn't make enough money to live on her own, the extreemly brittle diabetic, that one... just announced that she is pregnant. I'd like to think that my sister (her mother) will step up and offer to help, but I can't help feeling like this baby is going to end up living with me too, sigh! And then there are the big problems with the fact that her doctor has allways said that with as brittle of a diabetic as she is she shouldn't have a baby and there is a very good chance that she won't be able to carry the baby to term. And yes, she was using birth control, and it still happened, sigh!

I got a new laptop, I've been eagerly awaiting it's arrival and today it came!! I started by connecting it to my wireless network, that went fine, it connected to the network just fine, but when I tried to connect to the intrernet, no go. An hour with comcast tech support and I still can't connect to the internet on the new computer, sigh! It should be easier then this shouldn't it?

you know how when you are reading a book you really like and you are getting towards the end and you want to hurry up and finish it because you want to know how it turns out, but you also want to take your time finishing it because you know you will miss the book when it is done, miss the characters you have become attached to, etc... I'm there now with a book called The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen.

I was going through some old e-mails today, partly because I was looking for an e-mail address, and partly because I thought I should do some deleting, as I have e-mail going back to early 2006. Going through the e-mails from the time period I was unemployed was interesting and somewhat painful. I Honestly had forgotten how depressed and desperate I had been feeling, not to mention how much I whined about it. It was also interesting looking back at the jobs I applied for, and it makes me even more glad with the job I have now, because it is so much more of better fit for me then most of the jobs I had interviewed for. Perhaps I didn't get those other jobs because I was meant to get this job, anyway, I'm glad now that I didn't get offered one of those other jobs. Perspective is an interesting thing.

Last night my book group had their planning meeting for the year, here are the books we will be reading for the next 11 months....

May 18st
American Gods
By Neil Gamian


June 15th
Promise Not to Tell
By Jennifer McMahon


July 20th
Garden Spells
By Sarah Addison Allen


August 17th
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
By Sherman Alexie


September 21st
Animal Farm
By George Orwell


October 19th, Monday 6:30
Bring your favorite children’s book


November 16th
Such a Pretty Fat
By Jen Lancaster


December – Christmas pary


January 18th
Poisonwood Bible
By Barbara Kingsolver


Febuary 15th
Fool
By Christopher Moore


March 22nd
Water for Elephants
By Sara Gruen


April 19th
Moloka’i
By Alan Brennert

I'm having some girl friends over tonight for an old movie party. We are going to watch Auntie Mame and The King and I. Personally I wanted to see Auntie Mame and Some Like it Hot, but we voted on the movies and King and I got more votes. Oh well. Anyway, it's supose to be a potluck, but unless people let me know what they are going to bring I allways have this need to overcompensate in case other poeple forget to bring anything or don't bring enough for everyone.

Here is what I have for the party
- toasted pita chips with hummas
- veggie tray with dip
- olive tapenade with slices of bread
- brie with crackers and slices of apples
- meat and cheese tray
- grapes
- hard cider
- cola
- Diet Dr. Pepper
- juice
- wine

here is what I know other people are brining
Beth - brownies
Kathryn - cupcakes
Jen - popcorn
Michelle ???
Maria ???
Sue ???
Colleen ???
Kim ???
Nicholette ???

I'm betting Kim and Maria will bring something to drink, Michelle will probabaly forget to bring anything and Colleen might too. Sue will bring something but it will be something vegan and possibly not interesting to us non vegans. Nicholette will probably bring something great.

Originaly this was going to be a party of 6 but it grew, and now I have to figure out how to make everyone comfortable in my little living room. I have seating for 4, and 4 nice big floor pillows. So what do you think, am I forgetting anything? I had the hardest time trying to decide what to make foodwise this time, usualy that is not so hard for me.

I've going to start toasting pita slices soon and cutting veggies.

I have been reminded that it's been a while since I posted. I don't know where the time goes, well yeah I do kind of, work is busy, volunteering on the crisis line and taking classes adds to that, and then there is facebook that I can update on my blackberry while sitting in a boreing class :-)

I'm loving my new job, it's fun, lots of different things to do, and even though I'm the new kid on the block it turns out that I have the most experience with grants and research administration, so it puts me in kind of an interesting position in that my coworkers are teaching me about the culture of my new institution, but they are also looking to me to provide them with education on research administration and particuarly federal grants. I am very happy with my work environment, it's so nice to work with people that are not trying to micromanage or act in passive agressive ways. And better yet, my fte has been increased so that I no longer have to stress about money, I'm doing just fine now, in fact to celebrate I decided to go shopping for a new couch. Ok, I'm not making as much as I was at my old postion, but my stress level is sooo much lower, I am sooo much happier, and 6 months of unemployment taught me that I can do without a lot. I may not be jetting off to Thailand tomorrow, but I can afford a nice spa afternoon at least once a month and I am fortunate enough to be in a job again where I have complete control of my schedule, which means I am never at work before 10AM.

Speaking of sap afternoons, a couple of weeks ago I went to an amazing spa called Terra Del Sol http://www.terradelsolspa.com/ God this place was so cool, I can hardly wait to go back. I had a hot stone massage. I've never done hot stone massage before, but I decided to try it and now I am a BIG fan. If you have never had one, but thought it was just about laying hot stones on you (which is what I thought), this is how it is done. first the oil you all up, then they place hot stones on each of your legs while they massage your back with oiled hot stones, and then they put the hot stones on your back while they massage your legs and so on... it feels amazing, the heat from the hot stones really penatrates, and I think you get so much more out of the massage.

Anyway, it's getting late so I should cut it off here, but I promise to be better at posting on a more regular basis :-)

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

My choice.
For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

* I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
* What I create will be just for you.
* It'll be done this calendar year.
* I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
* You have no clue what it's going to be.

The catch: You have to put this in your journal as well.

2008 was not a good year for me or most of my friends. In 2008 2 of my friends lost a parent, 3 of had parents diagnosed with cancer, one of my friends saw her father diagnosed with early onset dementia and then put into a nursing home after a series of strokes. My father was institutionalized after it was determined that he has probable Alzheimer's.
And if that wasn't enough, myself and 4 of my friends lost jobs this year. As such, early on I dubbed 2008 as the year of bad things happening to parents, and then later on added that it was also the year of the unemployed. I was constantly reminding my mom that she shouldn't take any chances, no climbing ladders, or or doing anything at all risky. Thankfully she made it through 2008 unscathed. 2008 also saw 2 of my friends get divorced, and saw me through a very painful knee surgery that ended up being an utter failure. Yeah, 2008 was not a good year.

I'm hopeful that 2009 will be all that 2008 wasn't, after all we will start the new year with a new president, one who is actually intelligent and a vice president that was not spawned in hell, that alone gives me hope. And in a spirit of hope I am dubbing 2009 as the year of renewed employment, and the year of love (for my lovelorn friends).

I hope 2009 is a year of hope and happieness for all of you, Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year's eve everyone. Have fun and stay safe :-)

I made Buche de Noel, or yule log for Christmas dinner dessert. It was my first attempt at making it, and though I did not take the time to decorate this very much I think it turned out pretty good, a nice finish to the Christmas meal.


I had a lot of fun making Christmas dinner today because we all chipped in. My mom made homade bread the day before, and I made cranberry sauce last night. Then today I made the stuffing, turkey breast and gravy. My sister made roasted vegetables, and my brother in law made mashed potaotes. Yes, we sometimes got in each others way, but thankfully my kitchen is big enough we could all work together without too much trouble, and we had a lot of fun doing it :-)



and in case you were interested, here is the recipe I used for the Buche de Noel:
Ingredients:
Cake:
2/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons water


Filling:
1/2 pint whipped cream
2 tablespoons icing (confectioners') sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon peperment extract

Icing:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups icing (confectioners') sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon peperment extract

Directions:
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan, and line with waxed paper. Grease waxed paper.
Mix flour, soda, and salt together.
Beat eggs in a small mixer bowl at high speed, until thick and light - about 5 minutes
Gradually add the sugar, and beat until thick.
Melt the chocolate and water together, and add to the egg mixture.
Fold in the dry ingredients, and mix gently but thoroughly.
Spread in prepared pan, and bake for 15 - 17 minutes, until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
Remove from oven and turn out immediately onto a tea towel that has been sprinkled generously with icing sugar.
Remove waxed paper, and trim of any crisp edges of the cake.
Begin at the narrow end, and roll up the cake and the tea towel together. Allow to cool

Filling:
Whip cream until soft peaks form. Stir in icing sugar, vanilla, peperment extract and whip until stiff.
Unroll the cake when cool, and spread the top with the whip cream.
Re-roll, without the towel.
Cut a thin slice off of each end of the roll, to make them even.

Icing:
Soften butter. Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth and of good spreading consistency.
Use the centres of the ends you sliced off the cake to make "bumps on the log": Use a little of the icing to affix the bump to the side of the cake - one on each side.
Ice the entire cake with the icing, including the ends and the bumps.
Run a fork along the icing so that it resembles tree bark.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, and decorate with holly or other Christmas decoration leaves.
Store in refrigerator.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and post a few of my snow pictures. If you don't live here, keep in mind that this is a place where they close the schools if it snows a inch or two, this is not a place equiped for snow of this volume, and having lived in the NW since 1983, I haver never seen this much snow here. We are at 11 inches and it's still snowing, just won't stop, sigh!








and for fun I'm adding a picture of my cat Sammy, watching the news

OK, yes, the snow is lovely, but I'm starting to get cabin feaver. So far the snow has caused 3 Christmas parties to be canceled, and 2 Christmas concerts that I was going to attend. I'm also a little worried that the weather might make it hard for my sister, who is flying in from D.C. on Monday. I think the weather will be better by then, but I'm concerned that the canceled fights now will be the cause for some delays on Monday. All of this snow is putting me in the mood to bake, which I am trying to resist, but maybe just some Christmas bread or something...

Oh well, the dog is loveing the snow, he gets out there and just rolls around in it.

Ok, the snow is pretty and all, but because of the icy conditions we had to cancel our book group Christmas party. It's annoying enough because I was really looking forward to it, but it's also annoying because I have been making all kinds of goodies for the party including fudge, toffee, and cookies. Very annoying!

OK, so I had a second interview today for a contract analyst position. I had interviews with 3 people. I think they all went well, in fact one of them was with someone I have worked with before, so that was nice. They are only interviewing 3 people for this position, and I feel really good about how things went today, however I will have to have one more interview with the dept administrator. That probably won't happen until after the first of the year though. Of course even though it went well it doesn't mean the job is mine, one of the other 2 people being interviewed could have more experience then me or something, sigh! Anyway, I'm glad that interview is over, I was a bit anxious about it.

And for the cuteness of it, here is a picture of my cat Sammy sleeping under the Christmas Tree.

I'm happy to say my Christmas tree is finaly decorated, well almost, I still have to find the tree topper and the tree skirt, also I have to find some of the Christmas stockings, but I'm glad the bulk of it is done!

I am really disgusted with the result of tonight's Amazing Race. A really good team that should have been in the final 3 got derailed tonight, and as a result they will not be in the final 3. Instead the frat boys, who are complete idiots and have made crazy mistakes through out the race, are the 3rd team. As a result I don't think the final leg is going to be very competative, the brother and sister team are far better then the other 2 teams and I am sure they will leave those 2 in the dust. At leas the race ends in Portland, which is going to be cool to see.

Damn annoying getting a cold just before I have to feed 14 people! Why couldn't I have gotten the cold next week, sighg!

Did you know Nov 18th is the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown mass suicide? Over 900 people were killed that day. I remember watching on the news, they showed them unloading the bodies when they brought them back to the states, it was this huge pile of body bags that just kept growing and growing. It seems beyond comprehension that people would be so devoted to a leader that they would willingly give their children poison and then kill then selves, though some did even worse. Not only did the followers in Jonestown die, but Jones also called followers living in Georgetown Ghana and told them they had to die as well. One follower in Georgetown killed her children with a butcher knife and then killed herself with the knife. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that Jones and his Peoples Temple started out as a good thing, trying to achieve racial equality, and provide services for low income people. It's amazing how far off kilter it went and how many people followed Jones as he descended into drug addled paranoia and megalomania.