Journal

Work Celebrations, books, and house warming

So this past Tuesday, after work, I headed down to the Corporate offices for a special meeting. I thought we were probably be meeting there then heading down to Centro, for dinner. But instead we met with the VP of HR and the COO. It was interesting to say the least. Myself, Brandon, Deb, and Michelle, boss man (Proctor). It's kinda odd to sit down with people like that...but anyways, it was interesting to get a personal congratulation. It did feel good.

Walking away it was strange, but we went on to have a really nice dinner with Keith too. Mmm...baby cow...

We got our wedding books in on Friday. They look great. Just turning through the book brought the whole thing back to life... We did a great job...well...mostly Shannon. I still can't believe how easy it was.

I need to get the pictures and book up to Gramma...I'll probably be taking a day off this week to do that.

Saturday night, we headed over to the Jordan Creek Animal Hospital's Christmas Party at the Fire Creek Grill. It's always a a nice time to share with Shannon's co-workers. They are a nice group of people. Though I do feel a bit out of place, since basically they treat two animals, dogs and cats, and all the sub breeds and what not, doesn't mean much to me at all. To highlight what I liked, since it' still fresh in my mind. They had a garlic cream dressing, which was pretty good, very garlicy. The Steak de Burgo was quite good. A different take on in then others that I've had, but still very good.

We went on to the games. Shannon did much better this year then last, on guessing who bought what. Last year there was a theme, this year, not so much. Then they went on to another game. I was grouped up with a few other spouses and we were supposed to guess what the breeds they were. Shannon was on another team and she had to figure out the names of the animals (they were pets that were patients). My teammates were pretty good and we ended up in a tie with another group of spouses. Even the tie breaking questions, and the multi-dog questions...it finally came down to picking a harder breed of dog, and seeing who got it right and wrong. Our group got it wrong, so we ended up losing.

Afterwards we headed over to Chris and Holly's for their house warming party. It was a good time, Shannon played Ryan's Wii for a little bit, and I think I almost have her convinced that we should get one (when they become more readily available).

Anyways, We got there pretty late, and I think I was more tired then Shannon (stayed up late the night before and got up earlyish). So we headed home.

Green Tea and Honey

I've been on a tea kick lately. The last time was early college. I bought a ton of tea and kinda got tired of it, so I stopped. Leaving me with tons of tea.

More specifically, I've been on a green tea kick. It has some suspected health benefits that I kinda need and even if it doesn't, it still has a much gentler caffeine level then the soda that I've been drinking and it's probably better then the diet soda chemical concoction. Not to mention cheaper, since I have to spend a buck to get a soda from the machine, but the tea and the honey are free at my office.

I usually add a bit of honey, to make it a bit sweeter, but not too much.

Using a mac for a while...

So I've been using a mac for over 6 months now. The reason that I got it was Shannon needed something at home, cause our really only functioning computer was my work laptop. Oh there are 2 working computers downstairs (old w/ linux on them, haven't been turned on in about a year) and one that likes to fry video cards (my fault, mounted motherboard poorly), but when it comes down to it there really wasn't one for her to use.

If anyone wants those two old PCs (Pentium II and AMD K6-3 450), just let me know, I'll format 'em and they'll be yours.

So I have a few compliments and complaints about Apple and Macs. First off, the few problems that we've had with the Macbook have been frustrating, but Apple Support has been amazing. Hearing about family members and friends having to deal with Dell, Gateway, or others, it makes me glad we have what we have. We've had the random shutdown issue, the discolorization of the palm rests, the power not switching to battery when the cord is unplugged from the laptop, and the not going to stand by mode when the macbook is closed (which I think should be a setting, cause some people may want to leave it on, my work IBM laptop has this as a setting).

The Wireless can be janky sometimes, I'll connect and then For some random reason it'll loose the signal and it'll have to reconnect. Sometimes it can see the 802.11a wireless, most of the time it can't (though g is fine too).

Shannon's become very comfortable with it, and I rarely have to help her do things now. I've even got her using Thunderbird for email now.

Now that Open Office (Neo Office) is OSX native, it makes it much easier for me too. I just wish they'd hurry up and get Gimp (graphic editor) native too.

There are things about the software that can be annoying, which I think they should make it easier to do.

iPhoto. It should be easier to share the pictures, ratings and etc, with the other users on the system, and have it auto-update the permissions and all that when you add photos. Making a book has been easy as pie. As most of the people that we are giving them to, we're making books (hard cover) of our wedding and I hope the quality is good (especially for how pricey they are per book).

iTunes, should share it's music easily. Shannon should be able to have her own ratings to all the music and have access to it all to. So if we get her an iPod she can do all those things without messing with my ratings (which would be quite annoying to me).

iDVD. It's easy to make a movie, but the way that it compiles the movie and how many chapters it uses makes it incompatible with many of the DVD players we've come across. Windows, Chris and Holly's, Shannon's Parents...in fact the only one it's worked on that we've tried is our own. If we used less pictures, it wouldn't have been a problem. If they'd create a movie so that say, 10 or 20 pictures would fall into a chapter, that'd probably work smoother. Maybe it's that these DVD devices don't fall into spec, but whatever, it's problematic. I made a movie for one of the Director's here, for her trip to Africa, it took me about an hour, and that was the second time I had used the program (I had done it once before, just to figure out to see if I could do it). She actually ended up buying a mac.

Games...this is where I get depressed, and this is why I'll probably always have some sort of PC. The games that I want to play, come to the mac later, or never...It's depressing. But since I've been spending most of my gaming time playing Final Fantasy XII, it doesn't so much matter.

Printers. Setting up my networked laser printer was a gigantic pain in the ass. Finding a driver that would work with it AND the device I use to put it on my home network was a huge trouble. The color printer just wouldn't work across the network device (which isn't certified for mac use), but if you plug it in, it works great (can't so much plug in the laser printer, since it doesn't have a connection that goes to my macbook).

I've been long overdue in buying an upgrade to my personal copy of Macromedia Studio (now Adobe), and It'll work on the mac, but I was curious if I could get something that was opensource. The things I've seen so far have really really sucked...I mean just awful.

Like I've said on a few occasions, I may always have a PC, but I really think that the mac is my new base for the personal stuff (email, photos, etc).

Long Turkey Weekend...

So we headed over to Cedar Rapids to go to Thanksgiving. We stopped at Shannon's parents first, and brought them some cookies and chatted for a bit, and then headed over to my parents house for dinner. The crowd was in full effect, having 28 people in the house for dinner (one of my sister's family, my older brother's family, my brother and his wife, those who still live at home, my uncle and his family (minus one), Shannon and I and 3 other guests).

Dinner was great, turkey, ham, stuffing, many breads, fruits and vegetables. Homemade lefse. Mmmm...So we ate, and after dinner I played a game with my relatives while Shannon looked on. She wouldn't let me take a nap (which is my normal, after thanksgiving activity), but I understand why.

Afterwards we headed back to Shannon's parents to spend the rest of the holiday.

It was a good day. We drove back to Des Moines, and on our way back, after we filled up with gas in Newton, I accelerated to the speed that I've been going (about 7 over), and this car started riding my bumper, then went to pass, and just stayed right next to me. So I finally look over...and it's a state trouper in all his glory....

So I slowed down a bit.

No ticket for me, but it did make my heart go a bit.

So after he was gone, I then set it to be 4 over. That should be ok...I hope.

Anyways, Friday, Shannon went to work, and I was lazy at home. I played a whole lot of FFXII. Saturday was pretty much the same, except Shannon wouldn't let me play (after she woke up), so while she was setting up the Christmas stuff, I caught up on the last 4 episodes of the wire on HBO. She seems to enjoy doing it, so I'll let her. :) At least that's what I'm claiming.

Sunday we headed up to Ames to meet at Shannon's uncle's with the rest of her family to have a sort of reunion. It was actually kind of fun. One of her cousins is a 5th degree black belt (in what I'm not sure) and goes to China every year to train. He also brews his own beer and bottles his own wine. Certainly interesting. I had a good time. We went for a late lunch and Hickory Park (which was ok as normal) and on our way there, we saw Seth and Brianna walking along, so we called out to say hi. Certainly a strange coincidence...

The other strange one was that Shannon's Uncle used to live in the same neighborhood as my old boss (Tim) when I worked at the ISP up in Ames, and they knew each other. So...that was weird. I guess I've met him before.

Afterwards, we headed home, did some laundry, and finished off our wedding book and submitted it to get printed and then went to bed.

Great weekend, lots of family, lots of good food and lots of fun.

Thanksgiving...

After missing Thanksgiving last year (I got sick then, Shannon got sick so we stayed home and had chicken noodle soup), we're ready for it this year. I am looking forward to it.

We'll be stopping by Shannon's family's Thanksgiving and then headed on towards my Family's. In talking with my parents last night there will be 29 people. Yes. 29.

Should be a good time. I'll be making some cookies for both families (trying to get rid of the rest of the chips I have from the last time I made them).

Busy day, Happy Christmas to us and game night

So after staying up till around 3:AM playing Final Fantasy XII, I got up bright and early around the time that Shannon was leaving for work (a little before seven). So to start the day, since I thought I had a bit of time, I decided to play for a little bit longer, (9:AM), I headed upstairs to get ready for the day. After dealing with an issue, I actually got out the door.

I headed down to Hy-vee to pick up a few things for the cake that I was making (For Jen's birthday (a little bit late)). For the cake I made Perfect All American Chocolate Butter Cake frosted with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting with a light dusting of Dark chocolate.

I stopped by a coffee shop to pick up a coffee, since I was dragging a little bit and then headed home and started working on the cake. In the background, when I'm cooking (when Shannon's not home), I usually listen to music, but since I've been so behind on the TV that I watched, so I played it and listened to it (don't really need to see Bill Mahr's show), while I was mixing and baking.

It was interesting how it was made. Mixing cocoa with hot water, to release the chocolate flavor and make it stronger.

While the cake was baking, I cleaned up the kitchen, and started the dishwasher. Shannon got home and started to put the finishing touches on the house for having guests over.

I headed out to pick up a few things for the party (Including Templeton Rye, which is made in Iowa...I saw it on the news, and apparently so did a bunch of other people, cause it was out of stock at the Hy-vee (when I went earlier) the Hy-vee drug, but it I was able to get a bottle at Ingersoll Wine and Spirits, one of the last 3). While I was over there, I decided to go to IngerDahls to get some ground lamb to make meatloaf. They were out, which was upsetting, but I got some pork and ground chuck to make it instead, along with some ice cream for cake (one of the kinds of Breyers's that I checked has corn syrup in it, which is not the same as High Fructose Corn Syrup, but still). On my way out Shannon called and said that Renee had called and told her that there were Kitchen Aid Mixers on sale at K's Merchandise. And since K's is going out of business, they were selling it at 25% off.

So I headed home, we put the groceries away, and headed out to K's to check it out. It was very crowded. We found them (they only had black and white, in the kind I wanted), and we looked, we talked, we wandered, and then we decided that this, and the Ice Cream Attachment would be our Christmas present to ourselves. We were in a debate what were were going to do for Christmas, and it came out that Shannon wanted to try to be able to get me this anyways. So we did get it. Nice big one, that'll last us forever. With 100$ off, it made it quite the bargain. We looked around a bit more, saw some rugs, saw that they were hand made, started looking and even at 75% off, they were too expensive (75% off of $10,000, is still just to much). Shannon ended up getting a Christmas wreath. and we headed out. So between the mixer, the ice cream attachment, and the wreath, it came out to be less then the mixer would've been.

We headed back, had a few more finishing touches and I made the frosting. Frosted the cake (which I am getting halfway decent at, though I still have a long way to go) and then I dusted the cake with dark chocolate from Stam with the microplane grater that we had bought with some of the gift cards we had gotten for the wedding. I got done with a mere 25 minutes to spare before our party was going to start.

Game night went pretty well. Adam, Tiff and baby Savannah, Chris and Holly, Jen, Will, Courtie, Dave, and James. I played some Cosmic Encounter and some Dread Pirate with Will, Chris and Adam, While Shannon was over in the other room with the others playing Scene It and games of that type.

Around 1:AM, after only getting 4 hours at most of sleep, I started to get sleepy, so I headed upstairs to crash. Shannon finished up the game they were playing, and then headed upstairs.

So the cake...it was a little dryer then I like, but it sort of melted in your mouth. The frosting was very good. A combination of butter, cream cheese and Green and Black White Chocolate and a bit of lemon juice. Yummy.

Jen end up taking what was left of her cake home, in the handy dandy cake carrier.

Good long day, good cake, and lots of fun.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

So Shannon and I have decided to try to go High Fructose Corn Syrup free in our lives. Since it's in a whole lot of things, it'll be quite the struggle.

So far, Shannon's changed the yogurt that she buys, and we've become much more selective in the types of cereal that we buy. Since I'm already on the low sodium diet, and most processed food are out, it really eliminates the amount of things that it actually affects...

We'll see how it goes.

fun on a weekend...

So Saturday, my younger brother Joseph came up to visit...well he came up to get our old dishes and take them with them (to stock his place, when he moves out from my parent's roof. Two things stood out about this. First, He had his keys in his jacket pocket and when he bent over to put the dishes in his trunk, his keys and cellphone fell into the crate of dishes. He didn't notice, and then proceeded to lock himself out of his car when he closed his trunk. So $40 later (and quite a chunk of time) the lock smith was there and popped open his car and trunk. Easy enough. While in the car, Joseph pointed out these pictures that the photographer (the one that had done a family photo for us) had made for him. It was...well...basically him, posing in that sort of "Buddy" Christ pose. On the bottom of it, it has "Joseph would like to date you" and his cell phone number. I found it hilarious... Joseph hung out for the evening, we all played some video games, I made French toast, it was good. I altered my normal recipe a little bit with some sour cream (which adds a bit of richness to the flavor).

Sunday, Shannon and I headed downtown to see Annie at the Civic Center. We both enjoyed it. Very professional, the kids were great. The only complaint I really had was that at times, the orchestra was a bit louder then the people...so...that could be annoying.

We're looking forward to seeing Phantom (Feb 4, 2007) and buying tickets for Spamalot! This show will be playing around (a bit after) my 31st birthday.

Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

So because Chicken Alfredo Lasagna was something that Shannon was craving (Chef's Kitchen) I made a version of it.

I took the lasagna recipe from the side of the box, and replaced the beef or sausage with chicken (pan cooked with a bit of olive oil), cut into small pieces. And the marinara sauce with Alfredo.

It was almost completely white. there were a few pepper flakes in there (I still need to get white pepper), but it turned out really good and we have lots of leftovers! (mmm...lunches).

I did add a little more Alfredo sauce then I should have, so the pan almost over flowed (it actually did on the counter when I made the first cut into it).

I also used the lasagna server for the first time :)