The Holiday Hangover

Mr. Price and I have been hanging out and doing next-to-nothing for the past several days and it has been fantastic! We've run errands, gone to the theater and coffee shops, gone on lunch and dinner dates and have been generally connected at the hip. We did *finally* see the movie The Hangover - and it was hilarious. The pinnacle of each day has come along with the mailman delivering the day's supply of Christmas Cards... for which I have a mini-ritual-of-sorts for opening and hanging on the card curtain.

I've been completely off the communication grid for almost two weeks now! No email, no facebook, no anything-online... very limited phone (i keep leaving it upstairs and not checking it for days at a time). It's been one part weird and one part reprieve. However, i'm back to it this afternoon and enjoying it - glad to be catching up again.

Despite the fact that there has been little to NO partying in the line-up for me... i have been feeling progressively more and more hungover. However, with fewer weeks until delivery than innings in a baseball game - I'll just have to suck it up and deal. I am thrilled to report that in this morning's check-up I got some brilliant meds that should help with the seemingly never ending hangover (from the party I didn't get to enjoy) symptoms that continue to pile up. Even more good news: I'll get a cute little baby for my efforts ;)

One of the things I have done with Mr. Price is that we have set up our computers battleship-style and I've started sorting through the year's pictures(which is no simple undertaking). My hard drive is full, so I need to clear out a few more gigs before I can download the current pics on my camera. But as soon as I do, I'll get some pics on here of the recent holiday happenings. MAYBE I'll even do it before the year comes to a close!? Actually, on second thought, don't drink to that just yet -- unless, of course, it's hot chocolate. In which case... bottoms up, buttercup! I'm on my 4th cup today. Cheers.

Friday before

I finally got around to (or rather, realized I hadn't yet) updated the blog playlist to the christmas list. Better late than never!

Today is the last day in the office and I will soon start some serious Xmas shopping to make up for lost time (too many nights until 8pm at the office lately). YAY for Christmas being in full force. =)

Cookiethon 2009

I literally just asked mr price if he thought I should make a pound
cake. He had to ask if I was serious.

I was...

Cards

So, i feel like I took a bit of shortcut this year with the Xmas cards. Instead of taking real creative photo or taking my own original design to a printer as I've done in the past, a co-worker had a coupon and offered it to me AND to pick mine up when she got hers (!) which, on top of the deadline that this then imposed... Meant I'd actually get then done and in the mail (which I was starting to doubt I would accomplish).

But they are done and in the mail today, which is a good feeling. Especially after last year's christmas card debacle.

Sent from my iPhone

Snow, cont

In case you can't see the snow from the last picture, here is my view
right now- sitting T the dinning room table- looking out the back
door - watching snow fall and listening to Charlie Brown Christmas. To
complete the experience, I will now go make some chai. Happy Holidays
from Austin, TX

It's snowing!!

Yay! Yes, I recognize it is but a few tiny flurries, but even this
much is typically an every-other year occurance for us and so it is a
big deal.

Hometown Hero

Best post-game interview answer EVER!!

Reporter: And for those people, Vince, who questioned whether or not you could still play at this level in the NFL and be consistent... what is your answer to them? (to this question, i am recoiling, annoyed and kinda wanting to give the reporter a sharp elbow to the stomach, or maybe stomp on her toe)
Vince: (after half a pause, looks straight into the camera and with a giant grin) I love y'all, too! ha ha ha {turns and runs off to hug old friends on the other team)

I love Vince Young. After all these years, he's still an incredible player, full of determination, fun to watch and I just want to hug him! =)

I have never really liked Pro football, always felt like something about it just seems glitzy and over-done that doesn't fit the essense of 'football'; anyway, all my sports energy is poured into College Football. However, I think I might start watching and cheering for the Titans. It's just like the old days. Turns out, you can go home. =)

Right here, right now

These are the things on my mind right now on this lovey rainy morning where i've been so fortunate to work from my kitchen table (and yes, in my pajamas). When not on the VP's WW Town Hall meeting or plowing through emails and fielding urgent work calls to my cellie, i took a couple moments to peel an orange, watch the rain fall and listen to "Dear Mr. Fantasy" off the blog. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Here's what's on my mind:

1) Peeling oranges. Turns out, I love peeling oranges. seriously. always have. never really appreciated this until earlier this week when a co-worker seemingly went bonkers at seeing me peel an orange, belaboring how much she *hates* peeling oranges. Didn't know you could hate it; I enjoy it quite a bit. it's fun to punch my nail into the peel, it smells so good when that delicious orange oil squirts out and then the gratification of scratching off the bits of rind that remain... you get the picture

2) I had the funniest dream last night that keeps replaying scenes in my mind. Mainly that the shorty came along (which in the dream we knew exactly how early he'd arrived) but i realized that i couldn't remember what labor was like -- so that was good-- and he was okay, even if three months early - and then i was holding him and he was a sweet fluffy grey kitty. We were SO excited and SO in love with the little furry fella. =)

okay. that's all i got for now. happy friday, friends!

Talkin' Chai

Did I ever share how to make Chai from scratch? It is so super delicious; and I don't know if it is in spite of or because of the 5-8 minute effort over the stove that it is such a treat. I learned how from my wonderful Indian friends almost two years ago now.

Yesterday we went to Juanita and Frank's 70th Wedding Anniversary (you don't attend a "Platinum Anniversary" Celebration every day) -- more on that later -- and I think being around Juanita inspired me to make something with a little extra effort this morning. And OH was it worth it.

So here's how to make your own Chai at home as I learned it from Mita -and in the spirit of a Juanita recipe, I don't have exact measurements, just a general guide. Anyway, and all the best recipes seem to come that way:
-Start by measuring out your water to approximately how many glasses you intend to serve (for this example, I'll say two teacups) into a pan
-Boil this water along with:
-1-2 pods of cardamom, crushed to make sure the little black seeds come out and maybe a few of them are lightly crushed
-1-2 heavy sprinkles of cinnamon
-3-4 slices of fresh ginger - Mmmm (if no fresh ginger, go with 2-3 sprinkles of ground ginger if you must)
-2-4 cloves or about a 1/4 tsp of ground clove
-1-2 light sprinkles of nutmeg
(the more you make it, the more you'll be able to micro-adjust the spices to your liking)

Once this is boiling well, add a spoonful of loose black tea and stir. The length of time from now until the end will determine 1-how caffeinated and 2-how bitter your tea will be. the longer, the stronger. I usually let it go for about 1 minute or less.

If you are going to sweeten, you want to do this as close to the end as possible. So once it's boiled a little longer with the tea, add in your sugar and give it a couple swirls with a spoon. Because I'm already being fussy will making this lovely treat, I've only ever used turbinado (raw sugar), but I'm sure any sugar (oh, or even honey?!) would work. As an alternative, you can of course sweeten each cup after serving.

As soon as the sugar is dissolved, which isn't long-- or if no sugar, once you feel your tea has steeped long enough: you are ready for the final step.
-add milk (or half and half, which -surprise, surprise- is what I use) until it is a creamy carmel color.
-a dollop which might be ~1 teaspoon mexican vanilla (this is my modification since rarely have vanilla bean pods on hand and this adds lovely flavor. if you had a vanilla bean, you'd slice, scrape and boil with all the spices at the beginning)

this will temporarily cool off your water and it will quit boiling. a few seconds longer and you're done. let it heat back up until it is steaming and almost scalded, but don't let it boil again or your milk will separate.

remove from stove and strain either directly into heated tea cups (i have a lovely little 1/4 cup mesh strainer that works perfectly) or a pre-heated tea pot. I just swirl a little hot water in there first so it doesn't cool the tea too much.

Voila! You're done. Sniff, sip and enjoy. OH! and by the way.... your house is going to smell incredible for the next couple hours now.

Do me a favor? Let me know how it works out.

A Tale of Busting your Tail

Once upon a time, in a town not far away at all, there was a girl who worked very hard. Too hard, some might say (often even herself). But she continued to bust it, which often meant long days and sleepless nights, laden with stress.

"I'm tired of this crap!" she'd say. But it didn't matter, the work and the foul-ups that she had to handle, just kept coming.

Then one day that was another one of those 'the sky is falling' kind of days, the boss man had a meeting with her. "You can't let this fall through" he'd say, "you've got to make sure this happens, it is crucial for the business" and on and on. She took it like she always did. "I need you to bust your a$$ on this."

Okay, buddy, this was pushing it, she thought, and quickly jumped in with a pointed, yet light-hearted "Do you imply that I am not busing my a$$?!" He assured her he wasn't and carried on.

And then it happened: sandwiched in between rattling off reasons why this was so important and things she could do to make it better, he slid a folded piece of paper in front of her and said, "you deserve this." She was a bit confused and as she started looking at the paper he said: "but you can't tell anyone!"

It occurred to her that she might have just received something very valuable with that sheet of paper... But there hadn't been raises or promotions in so long, it was generally accepted that it was just a myth that they ever happened at all. Nonetheless, there it was, laying in front of her.

Though there was no time to slow down and appreciate her good news and affirmation that the results her work had been impactful to the overall business, that monkey of frustration that had been on her back just seemed to crawl off and sit politely at the corner of her cube.

And then her phone rang again...

The End.