Tuesday, December 27, 2005

All Is Well

Well, Christmas came and went and we are so relieved! Christmas was a little overwhelming this year. First we really didn’t think that we would make it financially and be able to buy all our loved ones presents, but somehow the Lord provided and provided even more than we needed Him to. We were still able to get gifts for the family and have some money left in the bank for food and bills.

I volunteered this year to have Christmas Eve for my side of the family, my cousin who usually does it every year just had a baby, their 3rd and I knew that they definitely would not be in the mood to prepare for a party.

I prepared the whole menu and it was my first large dinner outside of a bar-b-q and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I stressed out all week, well… actually for weeks, and when the day came it was so freakin easy… no stress at all. The reason being is because I prepared everything the night before and all I had to do on Saturday was heat everything up and it was done. The only thing that took a long time was the ham, which we slow cooked for 6 hours and the mashed potatoes, which took a half an hour.

The menu consisted of, Warm Roasted Red Pepper Dip, Cream Cheese, Pesto & Sun Dried Tomato Torte, Ham, Roasted Asparagus with garlic and olive Oil, Green Beans with roasted Fennel & Onion, Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Cold Pasta Salad and Cranberry Bread. It was a very impressive and awesome spread we had. My sister spent a week making cookies and candy, she made chocolate covered pretzels, turtles, and chocolate covered dried apricots and much much more.

Not everyone I had expected to show up did, most of my cousins got that awful flu that was going on and had to sit Christmas Eve out but it was nice with the ones that did show up and I had room to invite my friend Steve over who had no place to go that night.

And with our belly’s all full from the night before and thinking that we could not possibly eat anymore, Gordon and I went to his mothers house in Victorville for Christmas Day and again, there we were in front of a huge meal. I lost some weight in the past month or two and I swear I think I gained it all back in just those two days. I have seriously never eaten that much I think in my life!

So all is well in the Flannery house and we are now waiting for the New Year to approach. Hopefully 2006 and will be better than 2005, I have to say that 2005 seriously sucked ass and I hope to never repeat it again.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

You can take this job and restaff it!

Well this came a lot sooner than expected but I got the job!

Yesterday, I went on an interview at Western United (where Jenn is currently working) and today I got an offer for that job. For those of you that don't know, I hate my job here at CS&O and have been trying to find a way out since a month after I started here. The biggest problem with that was that they were paying me a lot of money and the benefits were really nice.

With the new job I'll be making more money (yeah me!), be able to carpool with Jenn (yeah environment!), be able to get to work faster (yeah sleep!) and actually work at a job I want (yeah ... well just yeah!). My first task there is to reorganize and rewrite a lot of their help system and from what I saw this should be a slam dunk for me.

I'm so happy right now and can't wait to give my notice. I start the 9th of January (day after my b-day) and am trying to figure the best time to quit. Damn I'm excited!!!

Monday, December 05, 2005

Christmas dun threw up in our house

Our house is festively chaotic right now. Jenn and I had grand plans of starting to decorate on Saturday but Saturday turned into Sunday night. We got the big stuff where it should be and were deciding where to put the rest of the stuff and what else we need to get. I enjoy all this stuff a lot more once it's all set up.

The reason for the decorating delay was because Jennifer's sister and fiancé got a new apartment this weekend. Caleb (the fiancé btw) bent over backwards when we needed help moving into our place so the least I could do was get my unfit ass over there and help. I wasn't feeling good all day and moving really knocked a lot out of me.

I got to see Jason Falkner a couple of Fridays ago. For those in the unawares, Jason was the original guitarist for one of my favorite groups, Jellyfish. The show was awesome. I only recognized five of the songs he played and the ones I didn't know were pretty catchy. Hopefully he will put out a new album soon.

Jenn and I are getting excited about the holidays. We volunteered to host the Christmas Eve dinner for Jenn's family. We've been getting all sorts of crazy ideas for what to serve. I think we've settled on the traditional ham but we're going to cook it a little different. I'm really sad that I don't get to glaze it with a blowtorch though.

Hopefully I'll have some good news pretty soon but I don't want jinx it. And no that doesn't mean we might be pregnant. We may or we may not be, but thats not the news.