Reflecting on the holiday weekend

I had a four day weekend (we were on forced furlough Friday) and I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. However, I fear I'd just turn into a sleepy blob with one more day.

Thanksgiving Day was good. I went to BIL's and had a shrimp boil. It's never a traditional turkey dinner at his house! I drank WAAAY too much wine. Felt miserable the next morning. It turns out I CAN get a wine hangover.

Friday I spent preparing for my family to come over on Saturday for our Thanksgiving dinner. I put the make ahead mashed potatoes in the crockpot, so I could just turn them on to warm in the morning, brined the turkey, prepped the celery/onions/broth for stuffing, etc. Less to do when my sisters arrived to prepare their dishes. I despise a crowded kitchen. My one sister is terrible, she aimlessly stands RIGHT in the way. If you aren't doing anything, move to the other side of the counter, please. I also snuck a LUSH bath in on Saturday night right before bed. Ahhhhh. I used a new Santa shaped bomb. I forget the name.

Saturday went ok. Middle sis was very quiet. Other sis brought their puppy and I had to lock the cats up. Ali has been constipated again, and was miserable. Didn't need a puppy chasing her. And the puppy is in cat-chase mode still. Sigh.

Today I spent decorating my new artificial tree for the deck and stringing the white-lit greenery across the front deck area. I put some wintery knick-knacks out around inside the house to give the inside a Christmasy feel, too. Far less stress that dealing with climbing and chewing cats.

This afternoon I spent doing homework. One big paper, three article summaries, and editing my small grant proposal left for this semester.

Hotlanta

I'm back from my conference in Atlanta and am loathing to get back into the daily routine of work. It is an exhausting conference, but I sqeezed in some fun. Here's the fun:

Thursday
Went to STRAITS restaurant in Atlanta, owned by Ludacris. I'm so hip. Not. It was very tasty and I met a new friend from DC.

Friday
Toured CNN. Awesome, awesome tour. Did not see Anderson Cooper, however saw many other CNN "celebs." Might have been on HLN, as I was interviewed, but I didn't have all afternoon to watch tv.

Saturday
Nookie Day! She's everything I'd hoped she'd be. :-) Mr. Nookie is also charming and yes, he's a hottie as many of you have noted. We went to lunch, walked Piedmont Park, and sipped some Starbuck's. They were great hosts! Best of all-there are pictures.

Tom Colicchio can kiss my butt

I don't even want to see if I spelled his name right. *harumph*

I decided I needed a game on the computer, but none of the Facebook ones are things I want to get sucked into. I want a game I can play for a day, leave for a week, and come back without it impacting my life whatsoever. So, for the low price of $6.99 I downloaded the Top Chef game.

I am on episode four and Tom keeps telling me my dishes are straight out of cooking school and don't wow him enough. Suck it, Tom.

Lots to update!

1. I broke down and bought Folgers coffee for work. Now I can throw cans of coffee at my coworkers like Carey does. I call it "Recession Coffee." My boss kind of looked at it with distaste (she's basically the other person that drinks from our pot) and said, "You really should have told me we needed coffee." She tried to be nice about it, but in her mind, she was saying, "YUCK!" At least I sprung for the darker roast. It's not bad.

2. I'm going to see Boo the last week of December. This makes me so happy! I get to meet her hubby and sweet little boy. I also hope to see her 747 that she breaks out after a few cocktails. Bonus: It will very likely be much warmer there.

3. We had to go to court yesterday for our neighbors. They are suing the original owners (John Deere house builders) re: a flooding basement (it's flooded numerous times). Original owners (well, husband is dead) are denying they knew of any water problems (wife is saying husband dealt with all that and she didn't know a thing...she's a liar) and say it's the builders fault if there are water issues (the builder should not have let them put their basement all the way in the ground...us and the other two neighbors built to deal with the high water table). It was weird. The lawyers were kind of grasping at straws. My favorite was when the defense asked Chris to tell them about the weather each year since we lived there. I wanted to say, "Consult an almanac, idiot."

4. I get to see (breifly) Nookie in two weekends. Yay! She's been on my wanna-peep-meet top five forever! Ok, I don't really have a list, but if I was asked, I bet I could come up with my top five. But don't ask, because I don't like choosing favorites. :-)

I'm giving out badges

People seem to wear certain acts on their sleeves like a badge. For example, "I don't do Facebook" or "I don't eat beef." They seem to take every chance to bring it up they can.

So, what do you seem to wear like a badge, or what annoys you about someone else?

I worry I use my "I'm in school" like a badge sometimes, but I use it as an excuse (albiet a valid one), not because it's a pride thing. Hell, around here I'm in the minority that I don't have a graduate degree of some sort and it's not something I like to bring up.

The President is Here

It's kind of exciting. President Obama has just landed in Madison and is off to Wright Middle School, a very diverse charter school, to interact with students, teachers and education leaders, then give an education speech.

6 ingredients

There are six essential ingredients to a good football game-watching experience, IMHO:

-Good company
-Comfort of seating
-Quality of tv
-Good food
-Good beer
-Good football

I watched the game yesterday at a local bar (the one on the river, MC) that was also holding a customer appreciation party as they are closing for the season.

Good company? Yep, Nolay kept me company and we had good laughs.
Comfort of seating? Meh.
Quality of tv? Yep-brand new HUGE tv and we sat right in front of it, unobstructed view.
Good food? Good AND FREE! BBQ pork, roasted chicken, brats, dips, salads, beans, chips, fried bar food, fresh fried blue gill, etc.
Good drinks? $1.50 taps until the taps ran dry...of some of our favorite beers that are usually $3-4 a pint.
Good football? Though we didn't win, it was a great game.

BONUS! We won a 12 pack of beer!