Christmas 5 for Five!

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! And to those who don't, happy Tuesday! Sorry everything's closed - you didn't need to shop though, did you? The stores will be more normal again starting tomorrow.

Good Christmas weekend! Busy Christmas weekend... It was my first time handling one with two families to take into consideration. I think I did okay with it... Some flaws. I'll work on them next year!

Friday I ended up taking the day off because I had to finish shopping and wrap up all the gifts -- except my own. Told the boyfriend I would wrap all of his stuff but not my own present. It's the principle of the matter, yea?

A Friday well spent! Seriously, when did I expect to do this stuff?

On Friday night the boyfriend and I met up with a friend of mine who moved away last year and her husband. They'd heard about the boyfriend but hadn't met him -- they moved away about a month before I started dating him. We went to Ninfa's on Navigation -- the original Ninfa's in Houston! And now the only Ninfa's in Houston... The other locations are now Maggie Rita's. It was so good. I love their queso. I love their fresh tortillas. I love their fresh tortillas rolled up and dipped in queso! My boyfriend ordered something I seriously have to try next time -- fajita burger. It's, you guessed it, fajita meat on a burger. Delicious!

I joked that they seated us in the perfect spot -- by the pun wall. Have I mentioned Chris loves puns? Like, almost unhealthily?

You read that right. Fleece Navidad!!

And then Chris and I spent a very romantic evening bagging his cards for his multiple expansions of Dominion so he can actually carry it with him and play it. Seriously, it has about 8 expansions! He got the newest one for Christmas from my sister and brother-in-law.

So many little baggies....

Saturday morning we drove down to my parents' house to meet up with my family for Christmas lunch and present exchange, and played some games with my parents and siblings.

Merry Christmas to my kitchen!!

That night we had a party to attend with some friends. I made my Funfetti dip and Chris made a cheesecake and we brought some presents for a white elephant gift exchange. Chris was feeling under the weather so my sister went with me. I've played white elephant gift exchanges with various house rules and I don't think the ones we did on Saturday is my favorite version.

1. #1 goes first, picks a gift. #2 can pick a new gift, or steal #1's. Pretty standard here.
2. After the third steal, so the fourth owner (not necessarily the fourth UNIQUE owner, just the fourth owner) the gift locks.
3. After the final person goes, #1 has another turn. All gifts unlock for them and they can swap presents with someone or keep what they have.

Here's where it gets different. The way I've played in the past the game stops there. But the way we played this weekend, #1 stole the present from someone at the end and they then had the chance to steal or keep what #1 had. So then it became a circle of stealing... Just different house rules than how I've ever played. I think of this more as a Dirty Santa? Just part of the fun!

We came back late afternoon on Sunday and yesterday we went down to Clear Lake to hang out with some of Chris' friends early in the afternoon and play board games. And then around 6 headed over to his uncle's house for a big family dinner. He actually just left again for Clear Lake for a big family gift exchange, that he found out about last night. I had to bow out... I feel bad but I had to. We originally planned to do nothing but hang around the house all day Christmas Day. I don't have presents for anyone so I would feel awkward just sitting and watching everyone open gifts but more so, I have such a busy week... no, month really, ahead of me at work I just need to take some time, the only time I have, to relax and breathe and just stop. Take a nap if I want! I already did all morning. :) Clean if I want! Organize some of the presents, out with the old in with the new. Read a book.  Make some cookies. Eat some cookies. Do some Wii Zumba. What does the rest of the day hold for me? No idea! After I finish blogging I'll find out!

No Sunday confessions for me this week. It's already Tuesday! I will do an update for the 5/Five though.

Last week's goals:
1. Finish up Christmas shopping.
2. Wrap up Christmas presents. 
3. Zumba once!
4. Do laundry.
5. Vacuum. 

Successful week! Even if I did have to look up if I made it to Zumba or not. I totally did. Not on the day I was originally expecting to, but it doesn't matter. I went!

New list!
1. Put away Christmas presents - new fan, new blender/processor, new pots and pans. 
2. Go to Zumba twice. 
3. Strip the bed and remake it with fresh sheets. 
4. Keep your schedule how it is now... open. Non chaotic. All I really have on it this week is exercising, a party on Saturday night with the single's group. Maybe get one more use out of a Groupon I bought at a hot yoga place. It's good for 10 sessions, it expires 12/31. I've been... once. Whatever. Hot yoga's a pain.
5. Just... make it through the next few days. I hate the end of the year at work -- SO MUCH to do!

And where am I on my long term goals?
1. Organize books and movies.
2. Put up wall art.
3. Go through clothes.
4. Go to Goodwill.
5. Buy fake book boxes for the table near the TV. Did this yesterday!! Combined errands with the boyfriend. He needed to go to Hobby Lobby sometime to get more craft bags that are sized right for his Dominion cards, I knew that Hobby Lobby had the book boxes I wanted. Bingo! Went to one in Clear Lake on the way to his friend's place. Go team!
6. Revisit the shoe cubby idea.
7. Figure out how to make Thai tea.
8. Measure table and hit up Target on 12/26 for clearance holiday table clothes. Actually did this already! I went to Target on Friday with a friend, before we had lunch, so I could buy gift wrapping. We were walking in the holiday tableware section and the cloth napkins and tablecloths were already on 50% so I just did it then. Didn't even need to measure the table - bought a round one that says the measurements and says the table would seat 4-6. Mine seats 4 so took a chance. Perfect fit! So now I don't have to go near Target the day after Christmas. YAY. I do need to go to some store before Saturday night though to get more tissue paper and one more thing for a white elephant gift.
9. Buy my iPad. Done!! Did this on Tuesday with the boyfriend on our way to dinner with his family.
10. Clean my car. Partially done... used a shop vac at my sister's house to vacuum out the floorboards and sides next to the driver and passenger seats. And while I was doing that... lo and behold, I found the phone I lost a month ago. That I already got replaced. Sigh.
11. Reorganize the pantry. Seriously. There's no rhyme or reason to the order it's in now.

Me, Myself, & I link up #2. And cookies!!

It's that time of the month again (no not THAT time of the month) - the Me, Myself, & I link up party. My second time doing this, I believe!


1. What was your favorite gift given to you as a child?
Let me paint the picture! It was 1991... I was 10 years old, sister was 13, brother was 15. We had banded together and asked for the Super Nintendo game system. It was all we wanted for Christmas! Christmas Eve we exchanged the family gifts, all good stuff, but no SNES. But that's okay, Santa had yet to come (and yes I think at this point I still believed in Santa - is that weird??) So Christmas morning comes, we get our Santa gift and still no SNES so we're all three a little bummed and then my dad's all, 'Hey, what's that behind the tree?' The end of this story would be terrible if it wasn't an SNES. Well it was! Man, my siblings and I played so much Super Mario World that Christmas break. And that next summer (I think) sooo much MarioKart.
There have been a lot of great presents over the years, but this was definitely the most memorable.

2. Christmas is almost here, what is that one Christmas song you could listen to on repeat?
Carol of the Bells and O Holy Night. Practically any version. I could also watch that video of the house lights synced with a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song constantly. 

3. What are a few of the items on your Christmas list this year?
New set of pots and pans, food processor, blender... It's a very kitcheny Christmas! Not a Kitschy Christmas. That's different. 

4. Do you and your family have any special holiday traditions?
We exchange family gifts on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning is all about Santa gifts! It's a little different as we get older... since Santa doesn't visit adults anymore. We're still figuring it out. But usually when we're around the tree exchanging presents, alcoholic beverages are involved. 

5. Which do you prefer: wrapping paper or gift bags? Why?
I love the look of wrapping paper and beautiful bows, but do enjoy the ease of gift bags. When you know what you're doing with tissue paper, you can make them look nice. All gift wrapping is really wasteful though... but I don't really care!

Let's see... what else is going on this week for me.

Oh, so no cookie swap party for me as it turns out. As usual, I way overbooked myself this week (seriously. I really need to work on that) and left no time to finish my Christmas shopping and gift wrapping. So I was looking at my schedule, workwise and lifewise, and realized I had one remaining day of vacation hanging out in my balance that I'd been saving for something or just wanting to rollover. I actually debated taking it off or not because I really wanted to go to the cookie party. I had my cookie picked out (holiday confetti cake batter cookies) and I had heard from a new commenter on my blog that the chocolate mint cloud cookies would totally work, since you're essentially making a meringue which bakes fine... AND she told me about a new cookie I should look for, and I totally did and will have to try out sometime (strawberry cake mix and cool whip cookies - yes I am a little obsessed with all the cookies I can make from cake mix! But hey, I had such success with the chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies, why stop there?)

But I had to. I have the day, I need to take it, I have so much to do. I would have been going crazy Friday night. I also need to take advantage of the fact that there's the long weekend and I get presents and see family and friends and I can just BREATHE... before the year end mess and January busy'ness hits me and hits me hard.

Maybe I'll just make some cookies tomorrow. I have having lunch with a friend who's on holiday break from law school and back in town. Maybe she'll make cookies with me! It all depends on where I am come lunch time with my private gift wrapping party.

This week I also bought my Christmas present to myself -- 4th generation black iPad with 64 gig. I LOVE IT. MERRY CHRISTMAS, SELF.

In case I don't have a chance to blog again in the next few days, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! And have a good weekend to those who don't!

Cookie swap prep

Just found out my department is doing a cookie swap on Friday. Hmmm.... Time to invade the Pinterest board o' sweets!

Holiday Confetti Cake Batter Cookies - it uses box cake mix, yay! I do like sprinkles...

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Cookies - tried and true, always turns out well, easy easy easy...

Dark Chocolate & Mint Chip Clouds - only egg whites and sugar? Doesn't seem like they'd stay together...

Funfetti Cake Cookies -  you can bake yogurt? Hmm. This IS from the same blog that brought us Funfetti dip...

Decisions, decisions...

Lights!

You know, everyone's all about this now...

But I'm still all about this from five years ago...

Why do I love these so much? I really don't know. Now I'm lurking all over the Gangham Style house's site, Listen to Our Lights, to see what else they've done.

By the way, this is another thing I do to usher in the holidays. Watch the TSO house lights show on Youtube. Reminds me of Christmas growing up. Dad would play Manheim Steamroller and Transiberian Orchestra CD's all day long. I think it annoyed the heck out of my brother and sister but I liked it. Though I do remember one year we all bought him new CD's so we could hear some new songs.

Happy Friday!!

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I've been looking forward to this weekend all year. I love this weekend, love the holidays! Love getting to spend time with the family. Too bad that it won't be the full family... my brother couldn't get off work and my sister-in-law has to work the rest of the weekend so it'll be Chris' first Thanksgiving with the Bosche family but not the full family. Maybe that'll be better... ease him in slowly? I've been told my family can be a little overwhelming.

So today is just lazy... Slept in a little, read a little, took a nap, started my overdue laundry. I'm working on making my chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies again. Chris is going to make a pumpkin cheesecake later. And then we're heading to his uncle's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Later tonight we're going to drive up to my sister's house and we'll have Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow.

Used my new kitchen toy - medium cookie scoop. It definitely makes the the cookies cuter.

My ingredients!

My tools! One of which has not been used

Now it's been used.

Cute little rounded cookies!

Here's the recipe I used, plus I add semi-sweet chips.

I have no idea what we're eating tonight but here is the menu for tomorrow. So much food.. yum. So many desserts! We even cut the food a little - we originally were going to have a ham.

Recipes to follow later... 

Turkey

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potato casserole

Green beans - I also add finely chopped bacon

Cranberries

Rolls

Cajun rice dressing

Gravy

Five cup salad

Cherry coke salad

Pumpkin pie

Pecan pie

Chocolate pie

And my cookies!

Chris and I are planning to bring some games with us to my sister's house. I'm thinking about introducing my sister and brother-in-law to Zombicide.

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!

Me, Myself, and I - link up party #1 (for me)

Holiday questions make me happy.

1. What are your top 5 favorite movies to watch during the Holidays?
I really only have two movies I watch almost every holiday season -- A Christmas Story. A classic. Thanks TBS! I watch this in bits and pieces, every Christmas Day when home with the family. "You'll shoot your eye out!" And Love Actually. For several years now, a friend and I usher in the holiday season by watching this movie "together". She lives in California, I live in Texas. We pop it into the DVD player at the same time, queue it up, and just enjoy the fluffy holiday good times. I usually add in hot chocolate to my viewing.

2. It’s the month of giving thanks, what are you most thankful for?
Family, family, family! I have the most amazing family. We're very close and get along. My sister is one of my best friends.
My parents. I know, yes they're part of my family, but they have their own spot. I owe so much to them, I really cannot express in words how much I am thankful for the parents I was blessed with. They raised me right. They offered me opportunities a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have... They put up with me when I was a bratty teenager. They've never let me give up on myself.

3. If there was a quote or verse to describe your life, what would it be?
"The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness."
 -Maya Angelou

4. Who in your family are you most alike?
Probably my sister. 

5. What is your favorite drink order at Starbucks?
I honestly don't go to Starbucks much when whenever I do, if I have a gift card or whatever, there are really only two things I order, depending on the season:
Hot Vanilla (when it's cold) - think hot chocolate, but vanilla. Steamed milk and vanilla and sugar. And that's it. Yum.
Passion Fruit Lemonade Tea, sweetened (for the other 350 days in the year when it's not cold here in Houston, TX) - I discovered this drink when I worked at Target years ago, and we have a Starbucks in the store. The grocery ETL brought venti's of this for everyone. Yum!

Maintain, don't gain!

At work, we're having a holiday challenge with our One Life Wellness program - Maintain, Don't Gain!

I did a weigh in on Thursday (Nov 15) and I'll do another weigh in at the end of the holidays, on January 3rd. If my weight is +/- 2 pounds of our November weight, congratulations! I didn't go crazy over the holidays and gain that average 5 pounds!

I am not putting my weight here. That is between me, the scale, and the One Life Wellness committee member who logged the weights in yesterday. 

I'm trying to be ambitious and am hoping to LOSE pounds over the holidays. I am not off to a good start though. I had McDonald's today. Mmm. So tasty, so bad for me.

So time to get my game plan together!

1. Plan out my meals for the week better -- bring my lunch more. Don't end up having no clue what I'm doing for lunch so I end up at the closest, and probably worst, place.
2. Exercise -- at the very least twice a week! I bought a Living Social deal for a Zumba place near me I want to start. I've looked at their membership pricing and it's really not too bad. Maybe I can check them out next Tuesday. Also soon, one of my good friends who is my workout buddy gets back from her Latin American cruise. Yes - workout buddies are the best. I need more of them. 
3. Take it easy with the holiday eating. Remember what you learned in the Healthy Holiday Eating class work held: at parties, survey the entire spread of food, THEN choose what to eat. Have a small plate. Put three things on the plate, then get AWAY from the food and eat. Eat sitting down, not standing up -- research actually shows you eat less if you do this. Odd huh?  Choose your treats wisely -- pass on the items you could have every day and indulge instead in the holiday-specific treats that your friends and family members really only make once a year.

That's pretty much my game plan. Very simple yet would go so far. It's a game plan I've had for awhile, I just have my good weeks with it... and my terrible ones. I have no plans tonight though. I'll probably just do a quick errand, make sure I have everything I need tomorrow to go Over The Edge with Special Olympics Texas (cannot believe that's tomorrow!!! I'm rappelling down a 22 story building!) and then maybe squeeze in a quick workout. Wii Zumba or since the weather is so cold, do a walk around the block. The only problem with the walking option is it gets dark so early now! I hate it! Maybe I'll just work with my resistance band some - found this playlist on Youtube that has a lot of Xertube resistance cord exercises that look easy to do while at home, watching TV.

Weekend Recap (AKA, Thank you Pinterest!)

Just a quick little weekend recap this morning.

The Game Night went awesome! Everyone who was invited except for one person was able to come and everyone who said they'd come, actually came -- amazing!! We played a lot of games, had a lot of laughs, drank a lot of beer and Chris and I still have so much beer in our fridge! And my food was a hit. Yaay. I am the hostess with the mostest. Ranch dip made with low fat yogurt? A hit. Ham & cheese roll ups? A yummy, so easy to make, hit! Pizza rolls? A delicious hit! But the big winner of the night was definitely my Funfetti dip. Oh my god. It is definitely something I can only make when I am going to be around a bunch of people who will help me eat it. Chris is no help, he doesn't really crave sweets and most of the time, sweets are too sweet for him. I wish I had that problem. But back to the Funfetti dip... It's so thick and creamy. It's like eating cake batter -- which it essentially is. It made a lot more than I thought it would. I ended up having to change bowls as I was mixing it. I ended up with about a cup and a half remaining, that is now in my fridge and being snacked on day by day. A cup and a half I can handle. About 6 cups I cannot. I don't want to just give myself diabetes. According to the recipe though, 1/4 cup of the dip is only 3 Weight Watcher points.

Not sure exactly what that means, never done Weight Watchers, but it sounds a lot better than just sitting down and eating frosting straight from the tub. Which I used to do in college -- it was my finals study snack. But that's basically what the Funfetti dip tastes like. Frosting. Yum.

Didn't have a chance to make the chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies again before the game night. So that means I didn't have a chance to test out my new cookie scoop. I figure I'll just hold onto the ingredients in my pantry for another two weeks and just make them for Thanksgiving. I really don't need anymore sweets at home -- not while I still have Funfetti cake batter deliciousness dip in my fridge.

The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing. Slept late on Saturday -- I woke up at 7am to feed my cat then went back to bed then woke up at 2. PM! I never do that anymore. Hung around the house then headed out with Chris to meet up with a friend for dinner at Les Givral's on Milam, then the three of us headed over to watch the home opener Rockets game against Portland. Great game, didn't get the win though. But it should be an interesting season with the brand new team.

Sunday was another lazy day. I woke up at my regular time though and then pretty much read the entire day. Went through about 6 issues of The Walking Dead. Ahh so good! So dark... Now I need to head to the library and pick up the next few issues and then I'll almost be caught up. Also read some more on J.K. Rowling's most recent book, The Casual Vacancy. It's an interesting read just... very slow going. If I didn't have about 3 other books I'm juggling I'm sure it would go a lot faster.

Finished off the weekend with dinner at House of Bowls with Chris in Chinatown then we swung by Jusgo to see if they had red bean popsicles. Something Chris has been wanting to buy and get me to try since he found out I like red bean, probably about a year ago. We were pretty freshly dating. They did have the red bean popsicles, and I stole some of Chris' when we got home. Yum. They also had...

MONSTER POMEGRANATES! Seriously, I bought one at HEB about a week ago and it was the size of a small apple. These things were all the size of grapefruits. That's Chris' hand for comparison. Here's the monster at home in my fruit bowl with some small Red Delicious apples for comparison:

Pomegranates are one thing I really love about this time of year. (I also love Cuties -- the little super-easy-to-peel tangerines. They just smell like Christmas to me.) But now I know I definitely have to buy them in Chinatown. I can't go back to little poms, I just can't!

Did a bit of Thanksgiving menu planning with my sister via email. I really do love this time of year. It's made even more interesting as I'm getting more into cooking. Going to make my green beans this year and the chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies, Chris is going to make his signature cheesecake... Most of the other food still is falling on my parents and my sister and brother-in-law to make. I'll have to do my share by helping to cook stuff that morning for the meal.

Halloween Weekend Recap

Time for me to throw in the obligatory, Happy early Halloween blog post!

Been a busy girl since my last post. I worked the Madonna concert on Wednesday and Thursday night -- how exhausting!! Great people watching though -- so many 80's style "material girls"! I definitely don't know how the other departments handle the work schedule of working events late into the night, night after night. Guest services, retail, scoreboard ops, probably so many other departments I'm missing, all of those departments are busy with the games and the concerts/events. Granted, they all aren't expected to come to work at 8:30am the next day after they leave the building at midnight, but it's still a rough schedule. I'll definitely stick to my 8:30-5:30 gig and occasionally "moonlight" with retail for extra cash and do the occasional informational shadowing shift with other departments to learn how they do what they do.

I did get my commission numbers from Madonna, this morning. The little bit of sleep dep last week? Well worth it. Money money money money! I will have my iPad soon. The only question is -- iPad 2, iPad 3, or the iPad 4? Chris is recommending the iPad 4, and when it comes to things like this he definitely knows better than I do, and it sounds like it's coming out just in time for the holiday season.

I was totally drained at work on Friday -- seriously, I could barely function just beyond the basic things I needed to do -- but I was able to get the work I had to do done and left a little early. Had enough time to go home and catch a quick nap before Chris came home and then we packed and we were off to Dallas for the weekend to stay with some of his friends for their annual Halloween party.

The Halloween party was a blast -- Chris and I were a little lazy this year and recycled our costumes from last year. He was a marionette, I was a flapper. We figured, hey, the Dallas people haven't seen these costumes in person, and they're damn cool, so yea, no shame. Recycle! We'll have to figure out epic costumes for next year though, don't think I can get away with being a flapper three years in a row. Which is almost too bad -- I love that costume. It lets me be sexy without being slutty and hey, isn't that what Halloween is all about?

But yes, I have big decisions to make this year. Couple costume? Make our own (yuhright on that for me, I am not that crafty), buy it, assemble something from thrift stores? Pirates, ninjas, Greek god and goddess? Only time will tell.

There were some great other costumes at the party -- Tony Stark, a Pokemon, Daria, Cookie Monster and a chocolate chip cookie, Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman. And we played board games, so many board games -- Dixit and Netrunner and Zombicide (so much Zombicide! I died -- had to take one for the team) and Mafia (okay not a board game, oh well) and Belfort and Innovation!

And we ate food, so much food! There were candy corn themed fruit and veggie trays -- pineapple (yellow), oranges (orange), sliced apples (white); yellow bell pepper (yellow), baby carrots (orange), ranch dip (white). There were mummy dogs -- wieners wrapped in crescent rolls with little mustard faces. There were cookies, so many cookies. There was guacamole with little chunks of feta mixed in -- how have I never thought of this before?? There was queso dip with Rotel -- yum, a favorite of mine. And there were Minion cupcakes, which were the cutest things ever. But you don't have to take my word for it, I'll let you decide for yourself:

See. Too cute. Orange poppyseed cupcakes with lemon icing and decorated Twinkies on top.

I was rather proud of myself that night, on my food intake. I ate several mummy dogs, one scoop of queso and guacamole and a handful of tortilla chips to go with both. And a pumpkin pie Jello shot, with alcohol-infused whipped cream on top. No cupcakes (....that night. I had two the next morning.). And I think that's about it... Oh and to drink, some Sailor Jerry's spiced rum and tropical flavored carbonated water. Yum! Very low cal. Go me. A nice start to the Holiday Season of Eating. Season's Gr'eatings?

This party got me excited about a game night that Chris and I are throwing this upcoming Friday -- more on that later!!