Friday! No more quarantine!

It's Friday!!!

It's also the first day of the week I really feel normal again. And healthy. I had a sore throat on Sunday when I woke up for the Graffiti Run and powered through it. And then slept for most of Sunday as I mentioned in my blog earlier this week. Monday and Tuesday, powered through work cos I had things I needed to get done and slept long hours in the evening. Tuesday I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to meet up with friends figuring I'd order some wings some a spice sauce -- spice is good for clearing sinuses, right? After I left BW3, I went to get some serious meds. Wednesday I left work early because I finished my very time sensitive work for the week and figured this is dumb, I need rest, I need to recover. That is what sick time is for! Yesterday I was feeling much better... unfortunately not better enough to go to Zumba. Especially not when I had to spend an hour in traffic getting home! Ridiculous! So I was very bad this week with the working out... but I was sick. So leave me alone. I'm doing yoga tonight with a friend. Hot yoga! Sweat out the rest of my sicky toxins!

On Wednesday I did FINALLY cook the curry thing I'd been meaning to cook for about a week now...

How it's supposed to look - per the box.

How mine looked... Hmm.

It's actually pretty good. Cut up about 2.5 pounds of chicken into little chunks (I was supposed to cube it -- time consuming!!), a whole yellow onion into small chunks, two red bell peppers into chunks. I kind of browned the onions and chicken in the pot in oil but not really. I am so bad at doing that. I always add too much oil and then it gets hot and starts popping and I get scared and take it off the heat and use the heated up oil to brown things. It's really probably hilarious to watch. I eventually gave up on it and continued on, dumping in the rest of the chicken and onion and bell pepper. I worry more about browning red meat than poultry. Then I added six cups of water and brought it to a boil and then it simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. (I had a bag of little carrots to add but didn't -- it didn't seem like I had enough room in the pot for another veggie.) Then took it off the heat and broke up the curry mix into it and let them melt which turned it the brown color!

Grade for the curry sauce mix: B+. I'll buy it again. The first night it was really liquidy -- I probably should have added some flour or corn starch to the pot to thicken it but didn't want to deal with it. Actually as it cools though the sauce thickens up. It's thicker now than it was the first day. It's really handy and goes a long way. And is pretty tasty. I wish I could just make it myself because the sodium level on the boxed stuff is really high... But considering how much the entire pack makes, it's not terrible. Definitely not something I'll make every week. Is the curry I buy at Tokyo Bowl better? Yes. But you can't eat out every day!

The first night I made it we ate it over rice. Yum. Last night my boyfriend got creative and got out some of the leftover curry and some packs of ramen. Curry ramen noodles! Yum!

Yesterday was my holiday office party. We went ice skating and played broomball (senior manager went down!!!) and then had a raffle. I put in to win the CEO's courtside seats for a game, and an iPad... Didn't win a thing. They also raffled off, pulling from everyone's tickets, cash! Two $250, $500, and $1,000... Nope. No money for me. But it was all in good fun. Congrats to those who did win (grumble, grumble). I can't complain. When Chris and I went to his holiday office party, I won two free movie tickets from their raffle.

So now all of my chances to win a free iPad are gone for the season. Guess I should just buy one already. One black 32 gig iPad with retina display (just call it the iPad 4, Apple), coming up! Merry Christmas. To myself! This morning I was listening to my radio show on my drive to work and they were talking about a study that says women expect their partner to give them $480 worth of Christmas gifts. The formula is about 1% of the partner's annual salary. That is absolutely ridiculous. About a month ago Chris actually asked me, so you want an iPad, and I told him not to get one for me. Can he afford it? Yes, of course. Do I deserve it? Of course, I'm awesome! But that's way too much. He already has my love, he doesn't have to try to buy it.

All right, time to do some work. Then it's the weekend!!

Today -- lunch with my sister at Food truck Fridays! Yoga!
Then this weekend... Spa! Holiday book exchange with my book club! Pub crawl! Game night (maybe)! Dim sum! Ultimate Frisbee! Busy weekend.

So.... I'm not a millionaire.

Like many others today, I did not become a millionaire last night at 10:59pm EST when the Powerball lottery numbers were drawn for the $550M jackpot. Shocking. I know! The odds were so in my favor!

The odds, from Powerball's site:

	Powerball - Prizes and Odds
	Match Prize Odds + Jackpot 1 in 175,223,510.00 $1,000,000 1 in 5,153,632.65 + $10,000 1 in 648,975.96 $100 1 in 19,087.53 + $100 1 in 12,244.83 $7 1 in 360.14 + $7 1 in 706.43 + $4 1 in 110.81 $4 1 in 55.41 The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 31.85. The odds presented here are based on a $2 play (rounded to two decimal places). Why isn't the chance of winning $4 at 1 in 35? Click here for FAQ.

I knew the jackpot was pretty high so yesterday, when one of my coworkers came around and asked if I wanted to enter the pool with $10, I said sure why not. Eight of us went in so we ended up buying 40 tickets and guess what! None of them won anything!

But that's okay.. I'm rich in so many other ways. I don't need millions of dollars. I only wanted the money so how rich I am financially could match how rich I am spiritually, emotionally, etc. Well.... $550M, was really worth $320M net... then divided 8 ways.. $40M would have been a nice start to match how rich I am financially to how rich I am in every other way.

• I have my wonderful friends -- too many to name! They're funny, they're supportive, they keep me active.
• I have my wonderful family -- my parents have raised me to be someone they can be proud of and I can be proud of. They are always supportive. My sister is one of my best friends. My brother is my fellow adventurous spirit. And I cannot forget my siblings-in-law. The perfect matches for my siblings. Gotta love seeing those I love happy!
• I have my wonderful job -- working at a place I never imagined I'd work. For a professional sports team? Crazy! I still remember my thoughts when I saw the job opening when I was searching.  I was chatting with one of my best friends at the time on Yahoo Instant Messenger, and going through my job postings emails, and thought, wow they're hiring. Ha, they'd never hire me. And she said something that was very true - "They'll definitely never hire you if you don't apply." Truer words have never been said! You have to go for your dreams. You never know when you'll actually snare one. Every day is different... I never know who I'll run into in this building. I never know what swag I'll get! The organization culture is very close and friendly. My coworkers are all great and easy to talk to and easy to work with. And most importantly, I know I'm appreciated. And I appreciate that!
• I have my health. And I have a game plan to make that health even healthier!
• I have my kitty. My goofy kitty who is always nudging her face against my Kindle, annoying me because it's hard to read when she's bumping it, but it just means she wants my attention.
• And last. And very certainly not least. I have my boyfriend. My awesome awesome sweet boyfriend of 1 year, 2 months, and 13 days (no that's  not creepy... I just did the math right now, I don't wake up every day with that count updated in my head). Some days I cannot believe I met him and he fell in love with me. Me! He just gets me. And supports me. And surprises me. And makes me laugh. And I can't wait to continue our life together... even if he does leave his dirty socks on the floor. Not all the time. I think just when he wants to remind me he's human. Or when he wants to annoy me.

So there we go. A little belated "what I'm thankful for" post. Hey Thanksgiving was last week but it's still November! People on my Facebook are still posting their days of thanks posts every day. (Only two more days of that...)

Still... my cut of the $550M jackpot would have been nice to add to that list!

In other news.... one of my friends is taking his (hopefully!) last exam for the CPA certification tomorrow. We'll be partying it up with him tomorrow night in celebration now that he can end his studying quarantine! Chris is going to make a cheesecake for his parents who are getting back from China tomorrow evening. I am going to try a curry recipe using a sauce mix his parents gave us awhile ago. I'm hoping it turns out close to how the curry is at Tokyo Bowl in Clear Lake. We've been there a few times with his parents. So tasty!!

I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping. I need to buy a few things -- to Bed Bath & Beyond I will go! With coupons in hand! Then I need to see where Chris is on his shopping.

Got an interesting email last night from Pinterest: Texas Parenting Magazine invited you to start pinning to the board, Texas - Food and Recipes. I was very surprised and a little freaked out at first. It's like getting a parenting magazine in your mail. Or worse. Anything about menopause. Um, hello, last I checked, I don't have children -- I'm not interested in anything Parenting related!!! But I left the email marked as unread and came back to it this morning to check out the board: Texas food and recipes

Um. Yum. So I accepted the invitation. Don't read too much into things, it just means 1) I have lots of awesome food on my Pinterest board and 2) I'm in Texas.

I already have my first contribution to the board! I was pretty excited when I saw this pin: Crock Pot Cinnamon Almonds but when I clicked on it to see the original recipe, it doesn't say how long to cook them. Um that's a little important... So I did some searching of my own and pinned this one: Slow Cooker Cinnamon Almonds. With cooking level and time, yes! And the recipes are exactly the same, ha. So I will definitely be trying that recipe this holiday season! Expect updates when I do.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways

This weekend was totally Chris' moment to shine and prove how awesome he is and how lucky I am to have him! And not just once -- three times!

* Saturday -- So on Friday night, I picked up the packets for The Color Run for myself, Chris, and my sister, who was doing the colorful 5K with us. The Color Run, btw, was AWESOME! But more on that later. I also bought some Color Run merchandise so when I got home, I had four bags total. Popped on the overhead light, gathered up my bags, and headed upstairs for an evening in. Next morning, I head down to my car to run some errands and ... uh oooh, car won't start. That's right -- in that last sentence, I didn't type that I turned off the interior light. That's because I didn't. Left it on all night, ran the battery down. Went back up stairs, told Chris what was up, he handed over his keys to let me borrow his car for my errands and said we'd jump it later. So I went on about my errands and later that night, after a successful pub crawl, we decided to jump my car. Got everything hooked up, and I turn the key, and nothing. So I'm frustrated and thinking something else is wrong with my car but I can't imagine what and Chris says hold on, changes where the cable is hooked to ground and says try again. Boom. Ignition, engine starts. I hadn't hooked up the ground to a metal UNpainted part of the car. Way to save that damsel in distress, boyfriend of mine!

* Sunday -- On Sunday we did The Color Run. Had a blast! Now, you must keep in mind that 5K's are not my boyfriend's thing, or getting really dirty for the fun of it, and neither is waking up early. And the Color Run included all of that. And Chris was a total trooper about it and had a lot of fun. And we got some super cute pictures from it. Now do I expect him to do it again? Haha no. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 6. But hey. I'll take it. Brownie points for him!

* Monday -- Yesterday Chris was off because he's going to a board game convention later this week so decided to take the entire week off. Lucky! He had also extended the invite to me, because he registered for two spots, but it's not really my thing as much as it is some of his friends and also, I have my Over the Edge rappelling event this weekend -- no way in hell am I missing that! I also don't have that much vacation left. This week is also really busy at work. So since he had the day off I asked him to do some errands for me, which he did, without complaint:
Made dinner for me! Crockpot Monday!
Took the kitty to the vet for what I thought would be a quick follow up appointment. I took her to her annual exam about a month ago and they cleaned out her ears and gave me a cream for a minor ear infection she had, and also prescribed her pills for a thyroid issue she has now since she's an older kitty. They told me that I'd need to bring her in for a follow up in a few weeks so they could do blood work and make sure that the dosage of pills is right. Sometimes it takes a few tries. So Chris took her to the vet for me and when I got home, I saw the new pills, and new cream for her ears to clear up the infection the rest of the way .... and one thing I didn't expect on a mandatory follow up appointment. A $200 bill. Which I had not expected, so had not warned Chris about -- I told him the pills would cost about $10 which I'd pay him back for, or pay for dinner when it wasn't my turn or something. And he paid it! And didn't even mention it to me in complaint or anything. That's my boyfriend -- he's really not a complainer. Which is a great thing.

So. That's my weekend. Full of daily reminders of why I'm so lucky to have Chris in my life!

That's a Bingo!

Oh that's right, it's almost Bingo time!! So in honor of that, I treat you to a clip from one of my favorite scenes from Inglourious Basterds.

So a few weeks ago, one of my coworkers found out about a place in town that does Bingo every Thursday (this place, Houstonians, if you're interested) so she got together a small group of us to go tonight. Pretty excited! I love doing stuff with coworkers outside of work. It always amazes me how different people are out in their own element, outside of the office. I know I'm different.

A few days ago, my coworker who organized this (Megan) and another coworker who's going (Sonia) and I were talking about it and Megan asked if we were going to bring our significant others. I just laughed and shook my head and said, "No, I haven't even mentioned this to Chris. It's not his thing. I don't want to get The Face."

For those of you with a significant other, I think you know The Face I'm talking about. For those of you who have clue what I'm talking about, follow along. I think you'll understand very soon.

So that very night I'm hanging out with Chris at home and mentioned that after work on Thursday I would be home late because I was going to Bingo with some coworkers. Then I got it. The Face. So The Face is that look that guys get when you mention something, something that they'd never want to do. Every guy's Face is different, but for Chris it's always one eyebrow up and a quirk to his mouth. It's the look that says, 'Oh you know there's no way in hell I'm doing that.' There's shock and horror and pride in that look, pride because they KNOW they'd never do that sort of thing. But there's also a touch of fear in The Face... Fear that you will try to convince them to go. And they'll give in.

I also think the fear is there because they're afraid that they'll be convinced to go, and go, and LOVE it. 

So that's The Face. Tread carefully when you see it... But don't let it completely deter you! Sometimes they can be convinced to do things even if you get that look. It just takes a lot of work. And sometimes a few favors. And I know I like to pick my favors, and my fights, very very carefully.

So wish me luck tonight! I haven't played Bingo in awhile... And Megan was teasing Sonia and me earlier this week, that we wasted our luck on a raffle at work because we both won something, so yea. It's on. Bring it! Brought my A game. Got my game face on. And insert other cliche idioms here.