Random posting

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this. Or maybe I have and I'm becoming senile. Anyway, recently there was a reorganization at work, consequently I have been transferred, yet again, to a new department.
I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the one hand it's great to be in a new department because change is good. I embrace change because it stops me from growing roots, and we all know I don't like to have roots. It also means I get a new manager. I haven't always seen eye to eye with my current manager, though I do like him. I think I would do better in a department with more creative thinkers rather than process and policy driven people. So I'm looking forward to finding out who my new manager and team will be. The down side, however, is that when you keep getting shuffled to new departments you're always having to prove yourself. It's hard to get a good review when you're being compared with people who are already established in the department as high contributors, and you don't spend enough time with your manager for them to see your contributions.

Anyway, in all I feel very positive about this change. Keep your fingers crossed that I get a good manager :-)

5 days off work!

Brian and I took a vacation day last Wednesday, then the site was closed on Thursday and Friday for thanksgiving. You can imagine that after 5 days of not working I'm pretty hooked! Thanksgiving went very well. Brian's parents arrived around noon on Thursday and Brian and Joan helped me with prep work for the Turkey. The turkey came out really well. The ginger was very subtle and the rosemary made the most wonderful aroma. I added pine nuts to my sage and onion stuffing and it was awesome! Also, adding a little orange zest to the cranberry sauce worked out well. It gave it a little, well, zest I guess ;-)

Jenn and Ethan came over around 4pm. By then Joan and I were well into our second or maybe third bottle of wine. I especially like to cook when I have had a few glasses of wine, though my knife handling skills go downhill a little after two or three. I'm happy to report, though, that I still have all my fingers. Dinner was wonderful and not too much left over of the side items. There was quite a bit of turkey left over but the thing was 15lbs. No matter... I love turkey sandwiches.

Joan made white chocolate orange surprise for dessert. It was kind of a cake with an orange sauce and chocolate on it, and a strawberry to garnish. It tasted wonderful! By the time Jenn left the effects of too much wine and food had hit me and I was feeling rather nauseous and had a pounding head ache. That's what I get for over indulging. But it's only once a year so it was worth it.

The day after thanksgiving, which is the biggest retail day of the year, Brian and his dad went to watch the football game at a bar, and Joan and I braved the crowds at Kohl's. But we left because it was crazy packed. The queue to the registers went to the back of the store on both sides! I did a little xmas shopping for my family in England at less crowded places. That evening we went to dinner at the European Bistro in Pflugerville. I have been wanting to try it for quite some time. I'd definately go back. I had the beef wellington, which was pretty good, but I think next time I'll order the yaeger schnitzel.

We babysat Ethan Friday night, but we were all so tired that we ended up passing out around 11pm, despite Ethan wanting to stay up and watch TV. He passed out between me and Brian shortly after laying his head down ;-)

On Saturday we finished our xmas shopping for the England portion of the family and spent a lot of time in front of the telly.

On Sunday we did a 10 mile run with Jen. Brian's knee started to bother him, though and we finished the last two miles walking. Sunday was spent in front of the TV as well :-) Now we're back at work and I'm trying to get my head around what needs to be done prior to the next holiday!

Giving Thanks

Well, it's that time of year again. American Thanksgiving. This year is a little different, though. In years past we've gone to Brian's parents' house in Houston for both xmas and thanksgiving. This year, however, we're hosting thanksgiving at our house. We're bot very excited becaue not only do we get to celebrate with Brian's parents, but we also will have Jen and Ethan over. The last time I had thanksgiving with Jen, she told me she was pregnant! Obviously it's been too long since I had thanksgiving with her.

I invented a new recipe for the turkey, which includes Ginger, Garlic, and Rosemary, and will be basted with Woodchuck Apple Cider. We will have blue cheese mashed potatoes, roasted rosemary potatoes, steamed broccoli, glazed carrots, sage and onion stuffing, yorkshire puddings, bread rolls, and today I made home made cranberry sauce with brown sugar, honey, and orange zest. It came out well, I think. For dessert, Joan is making white chocolate orange surprise, and for appetizers she's making spinnach cookies! I love those!

This evening I will make another batch of my Bailey's cookies for Brian. I'm experimenting with a low fat butter to cut down on the unhealtyness of them. Though the other day we observed that my cookies were healthier than Brian's breakfast cereal... now he thinks it's ok to have cookies for breakfast (sigh).

So things to be thankful for:

• Brian - Every day is an adventure.
  
• Nikki and Onyx - Unconditional love. Need I say more?
  
• My family - They're so far away, and I miss them so much, but I'm so thankful that they are the way they are. Wouldn't change a single thing about any of them.
  
• My chosen family - my mum always said "you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family". My friends have become my family, and they are so important to me. So in a way, you can choose your family.
  
• My new family - They're wonderful! and I'm gaining a brother. It doesn't get much better than this.
  
• My health - I'm in excellent health. Every check up for the past 6 years has revealed low cholesterol, low blood pressure, low resting heart rate, and well within ideal weight range.
  
• My job - It had to go on the list simply because it affords me the means to do the things I enjoy in life. Without it, life would be much, much different. Though it has to be said that I work to live, not live to work. I find people who live to work sad.
  
• Austin - Aside from the fact that it's surrounded by Texas, it's an awesome place to live. Running trails, world-class restaurants, lakes, biking trails, diversity. This city has everything (except proximity to the ocean).
  

one last thing... Hi Wassim. Brian tells me you no longer need to ask him how his weekend was because you read all about it here. I'll be sure to post any embarassing stories for you ;-)

IT hurts!

Sunday was the perfect weather for a race. I think it got up to around 55 degrees, but we started the morning at a very chilly 45 degrees, very little humidity, and a nice stiff breeze. The Motive Bison Stampede half marathon is a wonderful race with many challanging hills. I like to run hills because it uses muscles that I don't ordinarily use on my runs, and it seems that the hills give me a little kick of energy. The race went well, at least until the 8th mile, where I became aware of some pain in my right knee. I ignored it for a few miles because to acknowledge it means it's real. At mile 10 I complained about it but continued at our current pace. At mile 11.5 I started to slow down slightly. I encouraged Brian to go ahead and keep up with Jen and I'd meet him at the finish, but he wouldn't leave me. The last mile felt like the longest mile of my life. The IT band in my right leg was hurting so bad that I could barely run. And of course, when you're in pain you tend to compensate with the other leg so eventually my left hip started to feel bad, too. Brian and I crossed the finish line in 2:02:41, which is actually more than 10 minutes faster than I did the race last year. I'm happy about my finish time, though I secretly wished I could have broken 2 hours.

A big contratulations goes out to Jen, though. She did break 2 hours! WAY TO GO JEN!

After the race I iced me knee and relaxed for a while before we headed to the mall and to pick up some things for thanksgiving. The rest of the day was spent watching telly and eating bailey's sugar cookies. MMMMMM!

Busy week

This past week has been pretty eventful. On Monday night I went out with the girls.
On Tuesday Brian had a soccer game and I went to Barbies where we drank wine and spent entirely too much time in the hot tub.
On Wednesday Brian had dinner with Kendra, whom he hasn't seen in ages, and I had dinner with Renee and several friends in celebration of Renee's birthday.
On Thursday Brian and I saw the sneak preview of the new Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire. I have to say that it was absolutely awesome. I was captivated. They did an awesome job of condensing the massive book in to a 2.5 hour movie and I didn't notice any glaring omissions, but that could also be because it's been a while since I read that book, and have read two more Harry Potter books since then.
Last night, Friday, we celebrated Jen's birthday. We went to Manuel's for dinner. There was a great turnout. After dinner we headed to Main Event and hung out at the bar for a while, then watched Jen and Aaron play Dance Dance Revolution. I'm awful at that game on account of my two left feet, but Jen and Aaron did a good job. The icing on the birthday cake, though, was the round of Laser Tag that we played. There were about 30 players and we were the blue team. It's hard to say how long a round of laser tag lasts, it seemed like 15 to 20 minutes. The blue team totally smoked the red team! GO BIG BLUE!
Today, Saturday, we are going to prepare ourselves for thanks giving, which is to be held at our house for the first time. Something funny that I have to share, though... This morning Brian got up at the crack of dawn and drove to San Antonio for autocross. About 8:30 he called me from San Antonio and asked me to check something on the web. It turns out that he went on the wrong day! HAHAHA! Hopefully not all is lost, though. Maybe he can go to the outlet mall and do some xmas shopping on his way back.
Tomorrow we are running a half marathon race called the Bison Stampede. It's a very hilly course and there is a competition for best water stop where each water stop team has a theme, and the runners vote on their favourite.

Meet the Weasleys

Many years ago Jen and I discovered that when we have had a few drinks our eyes kind of glass over lending itself to a very weasel-like expression. I think I was looking at myself in the mirror of a ladies' room at a bar upon first discovery. We immediately whipped out the camera and took a picture of my weasely look. It started a tradition that whenever Jen and I get together and one of us has a camera, we take a "weasely" shot. Sometimes we've been boozing, sometimes not. The results are always funny to us and nobody else. It's always been our little thing.

Last night we had girl's night at PF Chang's. We had the chef's table in the kitchen, wich I highly recommend as a one time thing. It was great to be back there, and it's a novelty, but honestly, it was a bit loud. Though I have to say we did a great job of drowning out the kitchen noise with our laughter. During the evening, Jen and I shared our weasely tradition with everyone and as we passed the camera around the table and captured everyone's weasely expressions we were rolling around with laughter. I imagine the wait staff thought we were nuts. Fortunately, at the chef's table, you don't cause much of a disturbance in the rest of the restaurant so we were free to act silly. Resulting from this, the gallery was born:
Meet the Weasleys

On a more serious note, though, I really had a great time with the girls. I think we all needed to spend some fun time together where our cares melt away. I can't speak for everyone, but for me it was mission accomplished.

More images from girl's night can be found here:
Girl's night at Chang's

Wurstfest pictures

Latest pictures can be found in the photo album. Here's a link to the Wurstfest album:
http://photos.brianandmandie.com/thumbnails.php?album=10

Check out the stain on Brian's shirt.... You can dress him up, but you can't take him out!

Winding down the weekend

It's been a pretty active weekend for Brian. Yesterday he played soccer in the afternoon. I framed my latest paintings and relocated some other paintings to make room for them. In the evening we went to Wurstfest, which is a ten day "salute to sausage" (their words, not mine), in New Braunfels, which is about an hour south of here. Mike, Tara, and Tiffeni went with us, which was perfect to only take one car. A small group of our friends were going and we made arrangements to meet them there. First order of business was the "Wurst Kebab", which consisted of 5 different kinds of sausage on a stick, and some beer. After much explaining where she was, and me not understanding, Jenny V came to find me in the main food court and took us back to the table where Aaron and Jenn's parents were sitting. Shortly thereafter, the rest of our friends showed up and hung out. We ate many more things that were bad for us, but oh so good! I got a Kartoffel Puffer, which is a potato pancake, and of course, Brian had to have Funnel Cake, which is best described as the stuff used to make doughnuts, but shot into the grease from a funnel, and then topped off with icing sugar. Not really my thing but Brian usually asks for them to leave a small area with no sugar just for me :-) (it's the little things he does that make him such a perfect [future] husband).

Thursday was an interesting evening. We went to dinner at the Iron Cactus downtown with several of Brian's co-workers, including an out of town guest, who was vising from Canada. It's not my first choice for good food, but it's a fun sample of Austin for out of towners because they serve Mexican food, have a great patio, and are right on 6th street. The chile rubbed pork tenderloin I had was mediocre, though I've tasted much worse. Wassim (sp?) let me eat all of the rasberries from his dessert, though, wich made me very happy! Many fun stories and a few margaritas later we made our way home.

In other news, Brian and I are doing well on patents. Brian has 11 and I have 10 that are being filed now! This year alone 9 of them went into File status! The patents we've gotten paid for so far have paid for our new bedroom furniture :-)

This morning Brian and I ran 13 miles on town lake. We did a 3 mile loop, then a 10 mile loop. The weather right now is unseasonably warm and humid. Today's high temperature in Austin is 88 degrees. It's November! Needless to say that the high temperature didn't do us any favors. This afternoon we're going to hang out with Ethan while his mum goes to an Ice Bats game. :-) I see some ice cream in his future ;-) (this is why he loves auntie and uncie so much - we bribe him with treats).

I've been thinking a lot about Ember lately. It's a year since his health started to decline. It's about this time last year when we found out about his condition. I can't believe it's been a year. I still can't believe he's really gone. Not a day goes by when I don't see his picture and run my hand over it. It's just amazing how the little buggers can get into your heart and stay there long after they're gone. I sure do miss him. I love Nik and Onyx with all my heart, but nothing will replace my Ember.
*sniff*

Bit of a lazy week

I've been a bit bone idle this week it seems. I didn't run on Monday because we rode bikes and wakeboarded, and we ran 10 miles the day before, so I gave myself permission to skip. On Tuesday I wanted to just laze about and watch House (very good TV show with Hugh Laurie), plus my body was aching from wakeboarding. Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to the gym in the morning as usual, and we actually did go for a run after work , then I went and got a massage. It was so relaxing. Just what I needed. My muscles have been really tight lately. Tonight I won't get to run because we are going to dinner with a work colleague of Brian's who is visiting from Canada.
I do plan to go to the gym as usual tomorrow, and of course dodance class in the evening, but that doesn't leave much time for running. I should get in a 13 mile run this weekend. I'm undecided on whether to do that on Saturday or Sunday. On the one hand I want to do it on Saturday because that might make me feel like less of a slacker for this week, but on the other, Brian has soccer on Saturday afternoon and I'm not sure if a 13 mile run is in the cards for him.

In other news, Jack, my office mate, and I have decorated our office. Instead of the awful flourescent lighting in our office, we've purchased a couple of hanging chandaliers. Nothing expensive, they're actually plastic and have coloured discs hanging down like mobiles. Mine's pink and Jack's is purple. I think we need one more because it's a bit dark. I also have my volkswagen beetle string of lights up, and my VW tiffany lamp on the desk (thanks to my former office mate of 5 years). I have hung the giant beach scene poster in front of my desk and a couple of scenic picures on the ceiling, so now I can just sit back in my chair and float away. Work can be very stressful at times... you have to create a work environment that can help you de-stress. All we need now is a fountain and some Japanese music. I think I'll go make myself some green tea.

Fun Day!

We live for the weekends. Let's face it, none of us really look forward to going to work every Monday after a fun weekend, so this weekend Brian and I decided to postpone the inevitable return to the daily grind and took a vacation day.

We got up late, ate breakfast, watched some TV and then went mountain biking on Walnut Creek. We had a great ride, lots of good hill work outs and I'm happy to report no cactus incidents. Afterwards, we ate lunch at home and then headed out for some afternoon wakeboarding with Mike, who had taken half a day off.
There was almost nobody on the lake and the water was really nice. Mike shortened the rope so that the wake would be thinner and Brian and I could more easily cross it. Brian actually landed on the down side of the wake, which is the goal, and he was amazed at how nice the landing is. I didn't manage it myself, but better luck next time. The water was not too cold, probably around 70 degrees or so, though I must confess to wearing my wet suit because I can't stand to be cold.
We think there will be a couple more opportunities to go out before the water is too cold, and Brian and I have several weeks of vacation to take.
For dinner we made chicken parmesan and watched short attention span TV, me with a glass of wine, and Brian with a whisky and coke.

What a great day off. Now we need to figure out when to go for our ski trip and where.

New art

Sunday was a day for creativity....

"First Kiss"

"Infinity"

"First Dance"

The lighting wasn't very good for these pictures, but I'll take more during daylight before I frame them. Notice that the female's gown has glass beads :-)

I LOVE to paint.

Dam good run

Today was Brian's first time to run the Longhorn Dam loop, which is 10.1 miles. We did pretty well. It wasn't my best 10 mile run by any means, but it nice to get it done and feel the sense of accomplishment. Our regular running group has dwindled to just a few and today everyone was otherwise busy so it was just me and Brian.

The weekend has been good so far. Tiff and I skipped our class last night because several of the girls couldn't make it and it's much more fun when we're all there. Instead we went to Mesa Rosa for happy hour and to celebrate Erin passing the State Bar exam. GO ERIN! Her cards have her name and "Attorney at Law". It's so official now! The pass rate for the Bar is quite low, but we knew she would do it. After Mesa Rosa we headed to the new bar at Parmer and McNeil, Little Woodrows. We were pleased to see that they had Brian's favourite beer, Stella Artios, and they also came in these awesome Stella glasses, so we hiested a couple of them to take home. Brian and Mike were pretty drunk by the time we all left. Tara drove all the way from her house to pick us up and drive us all home. So sweet of her.

On Saturday, it seems that Brian got "over served" because he was quite hung over. I called Tiff and we headed to the mall for some retail therapy. I got some great jeans from Gap, a skirt and two sweaters from Penney's, and a cashmir hoodie from Kohl's. When I arrived home, after stopping at the pet store to get cat food and ogle all the kittens up for adoption, Brian was feeling much better and was ready to go eat. We went to NXNW where Brian had his favourite burger and I had salad and chips. mmmmmmm. Americans think that's weird, but it's the perfect meal and no weirder than Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches (ick!).

Now we need to get to work on the rest of our plans for the day.

Trick or treat!

Last night was fun! I went to David's Bridal with Jenny V and the rest of the bridesmaids and we picked out our dresses. The first one she picked out was perfect! we all loved it and all looked fabulous in it. It's an awesome pink with a hue of champaign, and has a champaign sash at the waist. I LOVE IT.

Afterwards, I went home and Spiderman showed up to go trick or treating in my neighbourhood. We got a really good bag of swag! and Ethan was the sweetest and cutest spiderman I've ever seen. I felt like I would never get tired of hearing him say "twick or tweet!".

Everyone in the neighbourhood thought he was adorable. At one point we stopped at a house on Alvin High, and a car pulled up as we went to the door. A little girl all dressed in pink ran out of the car and yelled "awh! mommy! they're gonna get all my caaaandyyy!". I almost fell over laughing!

We went to about a dozen or so houses and ended the night by trick or treating uncie. You can see pictures of Spiderman here: Halloween Highlights '05