Happy Wednesday

Hello Loyal Readers. I almost wrote down gentle readers, but decided that if I started comparing myself to Miss Manners, I'd have to stop swearing. And I'm just not up to that today.

It's been a bit since I updated this. I blame either the fact that too much has happened, or that I'm scared to death of what is going to happen and don't want to write about it because then it will seem real.

If things go as planned, and contingency plans don't interfere - the fella and I are buying a house. It was built February 17, 1910. If everything goes well, we're totally having a birthday party for the house. Consider yourselves invited. We are supposed to close October 1 - and I keep getting a sick-like feeling every time I think about it. The contingency plans scare me. They might be plan A), they might be plan D. There's too much in the air right now.

Work is work. Nuff said. I could bore you with stories about how I screamed when I saw a giant 8 ft long snake try to eat my co-worker, or with how we found multiple dead bodies on the second floor of an abandoned house, but I'd be slightly (just slightly mind you) exaggerating - also the bodies were mostly rats and birds, so don't overly freak out. I've decided I need to present a "Good Job" award at the next office party. My plan is to put the pictures of all the gross stuff my co-workers and I have seen while in the field into a picture frame and present it to someone. I've got more pictures of nasty toilets than pictures of nasty spiders.

Wedding planning still blows, and I still have a secret wish for the Vegas thing. Although, I have to say, I discovered the beauty that is Ebay. I bought the coolest hat. It has a brim, and feathers coming off the back of it in a spray, and a half veil. I fully plan on taking it with me when I go dress shopping and sending the "bridal consultants" into conniption fits.

In addition to the February party, I'm planning a Guy Fawkes Party this year. Any kind of invite that starts off with burning people in effigy and fireworks can't be overly bad. Right? Heck, I'm kind of a party planning fool. "Remember, Remember, the 5th of November!"

I'm also turning 30 this year. That's the first time I've written that, and boy - it just made me feel old. So I figure I should have a birthday party. My fella tells me I'm not allowed to plan it, and that he's going to do something. I sort-of threatened to invite a ton of people over and dress up as Death (It helps that sentence if you remember I'm a halloween baby) and set up the keg and stand over it with a sickle. I still think it would be fun.

Cheers.

B

Cooking adventures

Some good friends of mine had a baby two weeks ago. In celebration of said event, I decided to cook dinner for them and take it over. Nice, friendly thing to do, right? The fella and I discussed, found a day when we weren't too busy, and made plans for what to make. Well, I had a whole chicken in the freezer, so decided to do something with that.

I should add, when I moved in to my first apartment, my mom gave me a cookbook that she had put together in a three ring binder of recipes that the family makes and likes. One of these recipes in said book is "Coq a Vin". It looked delicious. It had chicken, mushrooms, red wine, and all kinds of other yummy stuff like garlic. Plus, you got to light things on fire. I was sold.

Well, I had to hack up a raw chicken. There's nothing quite like taking cold chicken carcass and cutting it into bits that you're planning on eating to gross you out. It's totally different cutting up a cooked chicken versus a raw one. If you've never had the experience, at least when it's cooked, it comes apart with out serious hacking, and has the texture of meat. It smells good too, like something you'd want to eat. Raw chicken has sinew, and bone, and feels like raw meat. I felt like a butcher. So I was already sort of revolted by the whole project when I started.

I don't know why I didn't expect it to be purple. I expected pretty looking chicken. In retrospect, of course it's purple. You stew everything in red wine. It didn't taste bad, I think it was just the process of cooking it that put me off. For all the world, it looked like something you'd see in a horror movie, complete with bloody looking bones sticking out of a pile of goo. I didn't take pictures of the final creation, but I'm attaching a video of the "Phwoosh" as the fella so aptly described it.

I have to admit, the fire part was cool. I was momentarily afraid our kitchen was going to catch on fire. Word to the wise, Brandy lights up easily and quickly when it's heated.




In other news, my sweater is 1/3 done! Keep your fingers crossed, maybe this one will actually fit...