Thanksgiving prep

Well this is a little unorthodox in regards to class postings, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving I'm adding a little creativity to food preparation for the meal tomorrow. I'm spending the day with one of my best friends (Tanner and Donnie would kill me if I went with the singular there) and his family since mine are on the other side of the country, so I have to bring something to the meal. I love to cook but I wanted to mix things up. One of my only gripes about Thanksgiving is that people tend to stick to the same meals and the same menu year after year. Yes you need the turkey and the stuffing, but mix things up a bit! Add some spices or swap out ingredients, but do something different.

So, with that mindset, I opted to bring an appetizer for earlier in the day. I'm making baked brie with fresh berries, honey and muddled rosemary. I couldn't decide on the berries, so I bought raspberries and blackberries. I may combine them or I may make two separate baked bries (they are the smaller wheels of cheese, so not too much). I figure the cheese and fruit will compliment the main meal without being too heavy to spoil the fun. Plus it isn't something you normal find on Thanksgiving day, so I'm trying to keep things fresh.

Hope they turn out well!

If you like music, then read this...

So I'm going to put a shameless plug out there for my friend Sacha Sacket's new CD, Hermitage, that is coming out this week (on CD (www.sachasacket.com or on iTunes). The EP was written and recorded by Sacha at a secluded California mountain cabin. After touring and performing relentlessly, he retreated to the woods to spend time on introspection and recording this new EP.

“When you are on your own and haven’t seen anyone for more than a week, strange things rise to the surface,” says Sacket. “In some cases, issues you didn’t even know were there. You think about your life completely differently. I had surrounded myself with people so I could avoid listening to myself. Sometimes running away to some remote corner of the world is the only way to remember how to do that. Hermitage revolves around isolation and how that experience can transform you.”

Now, those of you that know me pretty well know that I don't recommend anything I don't truly enjoy. I love Sacha's music. Its thought provoking, haunting and beautiful. If you haven't listened to his stuff, PLEASE go to iTunes STAT! I should also mention he is a great guy and sexy as hell. :)

Unreliable blogger

I seem to struggle with this whole timely blogging thing. I go in spurts and then kinda forget about it. Luckily, one of my classes is requiring us to keep a blog journal for our class assignments. That means I'll be on this site more often and conversely it means more random musings.

I did have a thought today too. I've had chinese food a couple times in the past week and half (my ass is poor and its cheap grub), so I've accumulated a couple fortune cookies. Now I know you aren't technically supposed to tell anyone what your fortune was, but I don't think anyone reads this so I'm kinda bending that rule. According to my fortunes, I should be very happy soon:

• The skies above will rain success onto you.
• Happy events will take place in your home.
• A lifetime of happiness lies ahead of you.

It's no wonder that I like chinese food so much, I also leave there with positive reinforcement! The only ones I don't put much stock into are the ones from Panda Express. They are kinda lame and I've gotten repeats. That's just not cool.

**At 2:20 p.m., I just finished some Panda Express and my fortune: "Saturdays are good days for doing chores". Are you kidding me?! See their fortunes are lame!

Stimulus Soapbox

Soapbox time!

Is anyone else out there fed up with all the chatter about the stimulus bill and the petty political bickering? Well, I am! Seriously, it is going to take awhile before we see if it works or dooms us to perpetual debt. Why can't we just collectively take a breath and hope for the best? Yes, there is tons of unrelated spending in the bill, but there is also tons of beneficial programs and opportunities being created by the bill. We need to do something so why not get behind this and MAKE it work!

On a similar note, come on Mr. Obama, say something positive for a change. At very least, give us a little HOPE that your stimulus plan will work. If you show confidence, perhaps that will help the rest of America feel confident. All of the Republican whiners out there, stop it! If you have ways of doing things differently (not just complaining for the sake of complaining), then put those ideas out there! At least some of you colleagues (Bobby Jindal, Arlen Spector, Olympia Snowe, Charlie Crist, etc.) are making the best of the situation and adopting it to their respective constituents. Jindal says he is going to reject $100 million of the stimulus aimed at Louisiana because it would require changing all of the unemployment laws of the state. Instead of complaining about the whole bill, he is making a choice in how his state is going to deal with it. Kudos to all of them! All you Democrats, shut up already! Yes, your stimulus package passed, so quit gloating. It is very unbecoming of a party that just ran on a platform of "change".

Finally, consumers out there, you (and I) need to take some responsibility in this debacle. We have been living far outside our means and wracking up incredible amounts of debt. We created this mess by feeding the greed on Wall Street, the petty in-fighting in Washington, and the bulging bubble of the housing market. What can we do? Time to save some money, spend wisely, volunteer more and do business differently. Things will change, but we all have to do our part in the process.

Wolf Lovekeeper

See I told you I would be back in action in this wonderful world of blogging. My mind is all over the place these days. With craziness at work, loads of school work, reading books that make me think (another plug for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky), and a lack of television to numb me into non-thinking (I hate not having cable), I have just had a lot of time to think and contemplate. My personality won't allow me to simple focus on one thing, so I end up with a brain filled with thoughts and random chaos.

It is in those chaotic moments that I retreat to blogging, tooling around on facebook, or finding ridiculous websites to amuse me. There are some gems out there! The following are a few of the ones I've been entertained by lately:

1. Stripper Name - I love a simple thing like this site. Type in your name and you get your secret stripper name. I'd like to introduce myself as Wolf Lovekeeper. Sounds mysterious and rugged. I'm picturing a mountain man with a soft side. HEHEHE
2. Umbrella Today - This site is genius! It is a weather site that you simply type in your location and it tells you yes or no for an umbrella. No fluff, just YES or NO. Pure genius!!
   
3. Snopes - Okay this site isn't nearly as funny, but you can check out all the urban legends and myths floating around out there today. Everything from stuff about Obama's acceptance speech to typing your pin number backwards in an ATM to alert police about a robbery (which is false!) can be found on there. Lots of stuff to keep you occupied for awhile.
   
4. Fishy Cam - Another site of pure genius. Its a webcam of a fish tank live 24/7. Yes, it sounds boring but go on that site. I dare you! There is something trance-like watching fish. It is like having a pet without the mess or investment. Brilliant!!
   
5. Virtually Lost - Okay, this site wins for pure weirdness. The whole topic is being lost. Lost in love. Lost in life. Literally lost. Its a flash site with pictures and interactive weirdness. I was thoroughly entertained at work with this site because I simply wanted to see what would happen next. Check it out.
   
6. Fred - I laugh my ass off every time. I blame Ryan for this addiction. This is stupid but its why I love YouTube. "Going to the hot tub!"

Anyway, these are my latest diversions (a lot of which happen at work) and you should check them out. If you hate them, that's cool too. Let me know what some of your diversions are!!

Potato Chip Fairy

Evidently, I have inadvertently been remiss in my blog writing. I guess the spark wasn't there to write anything, but mainly I forgot about it. In any case, consider that remedied and I'm back on here.

Have you ever taken notice of those little occurrences in daily life that make you contemplate whether there is someone watching over your? I'm talking about those moments where you think "hmmm... that was TOO convenient, what's up with that?" moments. For instance, yesterday I had a moment. I was getting ready to have lunch and I had a serious craving for potato chips (yes, I know they are bad for you but I love them!). I didn't feel like walking down the street for a bag of chips, but all I had in my wallet was a 20 so I couldn't use a vending machine. I had resigned myself to having the soup sans chips when my backpack fell off the chair onto the floor. When I lifted the bag, a pile of change had fallen out of the front pocket onto the floor. WTF?!

Now I'm sure the skeptics out there will say it was simply coincidence, but I really believe there is more to it! Call it God, call it Fate or call it the Potato Chip Fairy, but something or someone was watching out for me and giving me a helping hand. I will say this, I love the feeling of believing there is still mystery in our world. We spend so much time trying to explain it away, but when those miraculous mysterious moments happen I truly feel infinite!

(I had to steal "I feel infinite" from the book I'm reading, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, because I'm in love with the book and it feels appropriate)