And this…
What Christmas means to me
Adrian plays The Fainting Goat
Elise and I left Austin for my parents’ house early in the afternoon on Friday. We got to Mom & Dad’s in time for dinner and then Elise and I headed out for Bellville to watch Adrian perform an accoustic set at The Fainting Goat, a New York-inspired cafe & bar. It’s a quaint little spot with fun foods and trendy beers. The service was sub-par but seeing some old friends and watching Adrian perform made it worth it.
Adrian pulls Josh on stage for “A Song About Bellville”
Chronic (What?!) cles of Narnia!
Download “Lazy Sunday” for free!
Bread winner
We went to a Christmas party last night that doubled as Cyndi’s surprise birthday party. Food and friends were great. Elise and I brought a crudite platter and I made two great sandwich spreads.
The evening progressed. Most people left after a few hours and there were but a few of us stragglers who loitered in Jenny’s kitchen. The topic of husbands, wives, raising children and working full-time was brought up. I bravely mentioned the concept of “bread winner”, which struck a few the wrong way and I had to dig myself out of a hole pretty quickly.
After the debate, Marc, Cyndi and Christine shared recent child rearing horror stories, most of which made me wish we had purchased a gently used German Shepherd instead of getting pregnant.
On the drive home Elise and I discussed how our lives are going to change beyond our imaginations when our baby is born. I’m a moody asshole who should probably be on anti-moody asshole medication. Elise is worried that I’ll become more of a MA after the baby is home, when we lose any and all concept of schedule and when our house eventually turns into wreck.
Who knows what will happen. That’s one of life’s little secrets.
Here’s another little secret: If you find yourself in a kitchen with pregnant women, don’t use the term “bread winner” unless you’re referencing a bake sale.
Christmas spreads
Rosemary & Roasted Garlic Chimichurri Emulsion – Roasted garlic, shallot, pine nuts, fresh spinach, basil, parsley, rosemary, lemon, extra virgin olive oil, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest, sea salt
Berry & Pepper Chutney Cream Cheese – Blackberry, dewberry, cranberry, chipotle, Jonagold apple, Bartlett pear, coriander, crushed chiles, yellow onion, vinegar, cream cheese
Videos from the days when I edited videos
My first job out of college was with LearnFREE.com, which later became Vidbook.com. We were a dot-com and we fell with the rest of them. When business was slow we either shopped eBay for radio controlled monster trucks or used our multimedia computers to edit videos.
I was digging through old CDs and found some outtakes:
(These videos are all encoded for Real Media [I’m sorry :-( ])
A great ad on The Apprentice
Randal “Not the Apprenti” Pinkett was hired on Thursday’s “The Apprentice”. It was the riveting season finale but my favorite part was seeing Jim Florentine wearing a Wednesday 13 shirt during his stand-up routine benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Awesome free advertising: Comedian Jim Florentine
wears a Wednesday 13 shirt on NBC’s “The Apprentice”
I e-mailed Matt to see if he knew of the free ad. He didn’t know about it but said, “Wow… we’ve really made it!”
Short-term goal turns into long-term goal
After three years of intense training, I earned my first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do on October 16, 1992. I went on a nine year voluntary TKD hiatus when I left the nest for college in August of 1994.
When I decided to return to the sport in 2003, I set a short-term goal for myself: Earn your second degree black belt. I will test for my second degree in four months. I’m not going to stop after that.
Long-term goal: I’m going to be the dad whose kid can say, “Oh yeah? Well, my dad can kick your dad’s ass”, and actually mean it.
Something I say that REALLY pisses me off
It could be a friendly store clerk, one of the company’s customers, my father-in-law, the cat, anyone. When the conversation is coming to an end I have made it a painfully annoying habit to say, “Okay, we’ll talk to you later!” The moment I begin hearing it roll out of my mouth I want to repeatedly stab pencils into my ears. “We’ll“? Who’s we? Me and my schizophrenic other self?
I don’t know when or why I started saying this but when I hear it again, we’re going postal.
Jesus just wants an Xbox 360 for his birthday
The weekend before last I got up early Saturday morning and was hell-bent on putting the Christmas lights on the house. The neighbors across the street were also putting up their lights. I was trying to untangle the netted icicle lights that are “easily draped over shrubs and bushes” and remembered the holiday joy that I felt this time last year. You know, the holiday joy that drives you to raise your fists to the heavens while standing atop your home and scream, “WHY THE **** DO I HAVE TO PUT UP THESE *** **** *********** LIGHTS AND ****** **** ***** ***** ****** *** ******** **** ***** ****** ***** ****** *** ****** ***** **** *********** *** ****** **** ****** **** DAMN **** **** **** **** ******** **** AGAIN!!!!”
I looked across the street and saw my neighbors with blueprints, a laser level and one of those surveying scopes and said, “To hell with it all!” These neighbors are the guys who won an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise a few years back for their Christmas decorating theme.
Elise is set on having Christmas decorations and lights outside as well as mulled spices on the stove this year. We went to Papa Noel to get our Christmas tree this evening. I thought it was going to be an in and out affair but my lovely wife had to find the tree. Immediately I reminded myself of Jeff’s recent tree buying experience and thought, “Shit… we’re going to be here ALL NIGHT.” Luckily Elise found her tree within half an hour and we got an official Papa Noel coffee mug to boot.
Mrs. Preggers lights the tree.
Bring on the egg nog.
Eggs in many baskets
Guess what I had for lunch today? Yeah. A bacon jalapeno cheeseburger.
DO NOT play this game if you have anything to do today. Or this one. This one either. Ever hit a penguin?
Healthy Breakfast Part II
For Elise: Egg white omelet with sauteed leeks, sweet pepper, bacon, spinach, cheddar cheese with a tomatillo, guajillo, garlic and coriander salsa and a San Diego tangerine from my sister, Terri‘s back yard.
For Josh: I had to one-up yesterday’s breakfast so today I made myself a jalapeno cheesburger topped with bacon and a fried egg. To make sure I was doing the healthy thing, I went the Atkins route and omitted the whole wheat pita bread.
An adult living by adult rules
I will preface this by letting you all know that I was recently inteviewed by a writer from one of those big pregnancy websites regarding cooking and eating healthily during pregnancy.
At last night’s Christmas party, Elise ate cheese and crackers and an assortment of fresh fruits. I ate breaded stuffed mushrooms, chicken quesadillas and miniature open faced roast beef sandwiches with greasy cheese.
Elise had long since left for work by the time I rolled out of bed this morning and knowing her, she had some fresh fruits and grains for breakfast. I made myself a jalapeno cheeseburger for breakfast. I put it on whole wheat pita bread because that was the healthy thing to do. For lunch a couple hours later I had half a bag of Fruit Bowl Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and a Shiner Bock.
My kid is going to love me.