I caught an interesting article on www.chron.com today (the Houston Chronicle website).  It was a slide show of different foods being sold at the Houston Rodeo.  After viewing that slide show I am fairly convinced that the whole City of Houston will collectively gain 5-10 lbs. over the next couple of weeks.  I mean, this stuff was pretty crazy.

First of all, the rodeo is undoubtedly being sponsored by Wesson Oil or Crisco Oil or one of those food oil companies.  Because almost everything is fried.  And not just fried, but "deep fried".  I guess that "deep fried" means it gets thrown into the Fry Daddy for a good long time so that it can soak up all that oil.

For example, chicken fried meatballs.  Okay, that doesn't sound too strange.  But how about deep fried mini cheeseburgers?  Or deep fried pickles?  Or deep fried pastry?  Deep fried potato chips served with either nacho fixings or chopped beef and cheese?  A fried bologna sandwhich??? My heart is having palpitations just reading about that stuff.  And here you thought that the ambulance teams that are at the rodeo on the side somewhere are there in case one of the rodeo participants is injured.  Aren't you silly!!  Those ambulance teams are obviously there to collect people having heart attacks from eating all that fried food!

Don't get me wrong - I love fried food.  In fact, I could probably eat just about anything if it has been fried or covered in chocolate.  Or fried and then covered in chocolate!  Come on, I know you are out there agreeing with me.  Personally I've just discovered fried green beans which are awesome (I've had them at TGIF).  And at Saltgrass, they have unbattered fried green beans (they are not deep fried - just dunked in very briefly) - those babies are amazing.  But I don't think the dietary recommendations to eat 3-5 servings (or whatever it is) of vegetables per day includes frying all those veggies.

I did find a recipe on www.allrecipes.com for steaming and then stir frying green beans.  I tried those at home and was really happy with how it turned out.  Only 60 calories per serving!  I ate every single green bean on my plate (and have I mentioned that I really don't like green beans - specifically not those french style beans out of a can - yuck!). 

So back to the rodeo.  Obviously their food vendors spend alot of time thinking up different kinds of food that they can fry.  I heard last year that fried butter (???) was added to the offerings.  That is just too bizarre.  I haven't been to the rodeo since I was a kid because I don't like country music, and I'm a member of PETA (which should be explanation enough).  But I just might have to venture out there this year to try some of this fried food.   But if I go, I'm taking my own ambulance team.

I have this friend that I have known for about two months.  His name is Norman, and I met him through a dating site.  Technically he's a FWB (you know, friends with benefits).  The benefits do vary actually.  He did help me set up my router and my wireless network at my house (because he's an IT guy for a living).  And he's about to help me set up my new TV in my bedroom (it was a TV/DVD combo on sale for $170 on Amazon - I couldn't resist - this will be the first time I have ever had a TV in my bedroom).  He also programmed the cable remote to turn the TV off and on. 

Of course there are other benefits as well, but I'm beginning to wonder if any of the benefits are worth it considering how f***ing irritating Norman is on a daily basis.  It's like he has a manual showing all of Jamie's buttons and where to push them.  This guy drives me absolutely crazy most of the time.  He's pushy - he challenges me at every turn - he's clingy - he's rude.  So much so that I just automatically revert to bitch mode whenever he is around!  I think most of my friends would agree that I'm generally a very quiet pleasant sort of person, but Norman thinks I am this raving lunatic because that's the only side he ever sees of me.  And yet somewhere, I keep having him over and he keeps coming around even though we are each driving each other up the wall.

Norman likes to lecture me on all my character flaws.  Like how my abrasive personality is going to result in me being all alone when I'm elderly with no friends or companions.  Of course I like to respond to him that I prefer being alone and that if I'm alone at age 65, so be it - I'll have my 15 cats to keep me company.  He just rolls his eyes then.

We had it out last night because I had the audacity to tell him that I didn't want him to spend the night.  The horror!!  See, he comes over for dinner at least once a week and yes, normally he does spend the night.  But I decided I wanted some quiet time last night and told him that he had to leave by 9:30.  Norman immediately went into full pout mode, walking around slamming doors and acting irritable.  When I called him on it, he totally denied that he was pouting and instead tried to turn the conversation around (as usual) and talk about my many character flaws.  I got tired of listening to him and told him he had to leave at 9:10.  Well, then he threw an even bigger fit and stomped around gathering his stuff and muttering that he was DONE with me.  So I figured that if he was DONE, I could be DONE too.

So I went to the closet and got the very pretty piece of lingerie that he got me for Valentine's Day.  And I folded it up and placed it into a bag where he was carrying some of his shit.  So Norman took some of his stuff out to his SUV, then came back inside to get the last bag.  And he looked inside and saw the lingerie.  Then he went into panic mode.  "Why is this in here?", he asked.  "Because I don't want it anymore", I replied.  "But I bought it for you", he said.  "And I don't want it", I replied again.  He took the lingerie out of the bag and placed it on the kitchen counter at which point I picked it up and started walking toward the trash can.

Norman then launched himself onto me and tried to stop me from reaching the trash can (have I mentioned that Norman is about my height but only weighs approx 130 lbs?).  I managed to reach the trash can and was able to throw the lingerie inside.  Suddenly Norman realized that I was serious about being DONE, and that I wasn't falling for his little act.  So he immediately backed off of his statements and said we had to talk and apologize to each other and so forth.

So we did talk and we apologize although I suggested that we take a 2 week break from one another.  I confirmed this in an email to him tonight at which point he sent me about 6 text messages againing dwelling on my character flaws.  Ridiculous.

We are only supposed to be friends, yet he is clearly trying to convince me that we can be more than friends (or more than FWB).  And I'm trying to convince him that we shouldn't even be friends because we bring out the worst in each other.  Sigh...  Isn't insanity where you keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result?  When it comes to Norman, I think I am definitely insane.

The United States is all about freedom.  About diversity.  About having the right to my own beliefs.  And if you don't agree with me, that's okay.  And if I don't agree with you, that's okay too.

We're a melting pot.  We welcome people from all over the world.  What does the poem say at the base of the Statue of Liberty?  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

And what are we guaranteed through the Bill of Rights?  Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, right to assemble and the right to petition.  The right to keep and bear arms. Protection from quartering of troops.  Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.  The right to due process.  The right to trial by jury.  Prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. 

The beauty of the US is that we don't all have to agree.  And we have the right to announce our dissent.  We have the right to pick our candidate of choice.  And if the other candidate wins, then we have the right to complain when we think he or she does something stupid.

We don't all have to be liberal.  And we don't all have to be conservative.  We can be Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians or anything else we choose to be.  We can be apathetic and sit on the sidelines or we can get involved and try to change the system.

That's the beauty of America.  There's no prescribed manner in which we have to act.  We aren't Communists or Socialists or even Capitalists.  We are Americans, and every American citizen gets to have their own thoughts and their own beliefs and the opportunity to live their life in the manner that works best for them.

And if you run into someone that believes the exact of opposite of you?  All you have to do is turn around and go the other direction.  Because we don't all have to act and think the same way!!

I love America.  I don't always agree with the American government or with our military decisions or with the political environment, but I still love America.  It's the greatest country in the world because it's a melting pot of all different types of people and all different systems of belief.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Today's observations and comments:

• What's up with Bob Costa's hair on the Olympic?  I don't remember his hair being that dark.  He must be coloring it.
• Someone please explain the scoring system for figure skating.  How come we can't see the score given by each country's judge now?
• Apolo Anton Ohno is still a cutie pie.
• My sleep pattern is all messed up thanks to the Olympics and my new friend Norman (who is a night owl).  My black circles under my eyes have black circles.  I came into work pretty early this morning (since I'm going to miss half a day on Thursday going to the dentist to get my latest crown), and I was so sleepy that I took a nap.  I just closed my door and grabbed my stuffed purple frog to use as a pillow (he is still in my office from Halloween) and laid down on the floor and slept for almost an hour.  Please don't tell my boss (although he admitted to me once that he crawled underneath his desk once and took a nap).
• I have adopted a new cat (well, sorta).  He is a gorgeous male Siamese that made friends with Neville and Hagrid the last couple of months.  Since my cats come in and out via the doggy dog, the Siamese cat decided to try it too.  He started sleeping in the house at night when it got so cold outside, so now I've been feeding him and calling him by name (Samwise - Sam for short).  He has made friends with my brother Mark and I although he still startles easily.  NO, I am not turning into a cat lady (I hope). 
• I went through some boxes last night while Norman was cleaning malware off of one of my computers and discovered that I still have tax returns back to 1987!!!  It was a very nostalgic moment although it was a little sad to see that my income has actually declined over the last decade.  I did bring in years 1987-2002 to shred today here at work. 
• I'm taking off this Friday so that I have time to work on my bunko menu.  My bunko theme is "A Chocolate Winter" because February is National Chocolate Month (no wonder I was born in February!).  I'm trying all new recipes because I like to torture myself that way.  I'm making homemade mini quiches, chicken turnovers, veggie pizza, mexi-italian salsa and feta olive dip.  Corina is bringing Mexican mole (which contains chocolate).  For dessert I'm making Oreo truffles, chocolate covered cherries, a salty/sweet cookie bar and decadent iced brownies.  Yes, I am available for catering. :-)  And no, none of this food is in line with my new eating plan (sigh).  I'll have to get back on that diet next week. 

Happy Fat Tuesday!  Eat a few paczkis and endulge!

I'm getting old.  Hell, I must be old already.  I went to the eye doctor today for my annual exam, and my left eye is no longer coping well with the astigmatism that has always been there.  This means that my distance vision has decreased (something I was already very aware of).  So I have to wear a torque contact in my left eye.  And yes, you guessed it, torque contacts are more expensive than regular contacts.  On a positive note, I still have 20/20 vision with my glasses which makes no sense considering my glasses were made at least a couple of prescriptions ago.

Maybe it's time to give up the contacts and just stick with glasses.  That would be a big savings on my vision budget (not that I really have a vision budget).  No more contact solution (which is ridiculously expensive) and no more paying for contacts every six months.  But that would really be caving in to Mother Nature, and I'm sure not ready to accept polyester pants and granny panties (which is what I assume you have to wear once you admit that you are old).

You have to admit it's expensive to fight Mother Nature.  I have a list of skin care products that I've gathered from various magazines that are all guaranteed to make your skin look fabulous (that whole Regenerist line through Olay primarily), and those babies are pricey.  I think the Microdermabrasion kit alone is $30+.  So far I've only purchased the Regenerist daily scrub which was a modest $5.40.  Now if I could only remember to use it every day.

That's the other thing - it takes time to fight the aging process.  You have to wash your face every night and use the scrub, then use a toner with salycic (spelling?) acid and then the night cream and the special eye cream.  Plus brush your teeth!  By the time I get ready to go to bed, I'm usually exhausted and have just about enough energy to turn out the light and turn on the fan much less engage in a 30 minute beauty routine in the bathroom. 

But I guess I'm going to have to force myself to engage in such a routine if I want to maintain my youthful good looks.  Not that I haven't already experienced a decline in my youthful looks, but at least I'm thankful that I have no crow's feet or major wrinkles on my face (see, being overweight does pay off!).  Of course, it's really fun to spend some time on a facial routine for a couple of days and then walk into work one morning and have someone tell me that I look really tired.  Why, thanks - you could have just walked up to me and told me that I looked like sh**, and it would have had the same result.

So tonight I'm heading to Walgreens to pick up some prescriptions, so I'll take a gander in the beauty aisle and see which Regenerist product I'd like to try this week.  Maybe I'll price the granny panties just in case.

I've decided that this is going to be my best year ever.  My birthdate is 2/10 and this year is 2010, so this is definitely going to be my year.  This year will be all about positive mental attitude, so I absolutely refuse to get pulled down by the annoyances of daily life.

And so far, so good.  2009 ended on a fairly positive note.  I won my fantasy football league (special thanks to Adrian Peterson with the Minnesota Vikings and Miles Austin with the Dallas Cowboy for making my victory possible).  I spent an enjoyable New Year's Eve with a new guy that I met in early December.  And I absolutely am not stressing about the fact that he didn't call me yesterday - if he doesn't have the sense to realize that I would be an amazing addition to his life, that's his loss. 

I still have Christmas presents to look forward to as I wasn't able to get together with many friends in December thanks to my surgery.  And thanks to my surgery and my modified diet the week of surgery, I have lost about 7 lbs which is always something to rejoice about.

I'm going to get healthier in 2010 too.  Even if I don't lose one ounce, I want to at least eat healthier food and try and cut out all the extra sugar that I tend to consume.  However, I will make an exception for bunko which I will be hosting in February.  The theme will be Friends and Chocolate since February is both National Friendship Month and National Chocolate Month.  Or maybe the theme could be "How to Gain New Friends and Keep Old Friends through the use of Chocolate".

I'm going to cancel my tanning membership in 2010 because tanning is very bad for my skin.  And I'm going to see a dermatologist to make sure my skin is okay after all that tanning in 2008 and 2009. 

I absolutely resolve to be a happier person in 2010.  Negative thoughts are like bunnies (or fruit flies maybe).  They just keep mulitplying and mulitplying and before long you don't even want to get off of the couch and do anything fun.  So I'm going to care less about what the world thinks about me and focus instead on my own happiness.

I know the song goes “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”, but to me “It’s beginning to look a lot like I’m ready for a stay in the loony bin” thanks to all the deadlines that have imposed themselves on my life.

December started just peachy with careful plans laid out for buying and wrapping gifts, making Christmas cards, baking cookies, etc.  And then a medical test on December 1 and the subsequent call from the doctor threw all those plans in disarray.  So now I’m preregistered for surgery on December 17^th (and already have a lovely plastic wrist band which does sorta look like a candy cane so at least it’s Christmas-themed).

Needless to say my Christmas plans got put into high gear.  I made a to-do list as soon as I found out the date of my surgery.  I have 85 things on my to-do list, and as of this morning I had accomplished 63 of those things (which is pretty good if I do say so myself).  I still have to finish making fleece throws for my accounting staff.  I still have two batches of cookies to make.  I think the sewing room is NOT going to get straightened nor are the Christmas lights going to be put outside.  But I did make all my Christmas cards by hand which was quite a task.  The inside of my house is completely decorated for Christmas.  And I have baked several dozen cookies already and I’ve already wrapped all my Christmas gifts.   My master bedroom closet and my pantry have been straightened.  I’ve gone grocery shopping and have planned out meals for the next two weeks while I’m laid out.  My recovery time is projected to be anywhere between 2-8 weeks as this surgery does involve a full incision.   Which means that I'll probably be doing alot of cross-stitching.

This would be a good point for me to say how thankful I am to work for WEST Engineering.  The people here are just amazing.  My boss has been completely supportive of my unexpected upcoming vacation.  And my accounting staff is just incredible.  Do you know they are planning out meals to bring me twice a week while I am out on medical leave!!!  I mean, who does that kind of stuff anymore?  Well, my staff does, I guess.  It’s really very touching, and I’m just so thankful to have been embraced with open arms by this group. 

In preparation for the extended stay at home, my step-brother has completely risen to the occasion and has helped me with my to-do list as best he can.  He even managed to set up a wireless network at home and set up my new laptop even though his computer skills are fairly limited.  I’m so bitchy with him sometime – I really need to resolve to treat him with the same love and concern that he shows me.

And on top of all this madness in my life, I’ve fallen in love.  Well, it is very early in the relationship, so for now I’ll just say that I’ve fallen in like.  I’ve been talking a guy named Mike who lives in Victoria for a couple of months now, and we finally made plans to meet this past weekend  (please don’t be mad, Ms. Conlan – I partially blew off bunko on Sunday because I spent half the day with Mike on Saturday).  I have such high hopes for this relationship – he seems as smitten with me as I do with him.  But part of me is so scared that I’m going to get hurt, so I guess that means that I just need to take things slow.

I am exhausted.

I have spent the entire week working on a report that has just about taxed my little brain to death.  Oh, this won’t be any problem, I thought to myself.  I’ll get this baby done in an afternoon or surely no longer than a day.  And so here I sit Thursday afternoon, and I just finished.  And I started working on it Monday morning.  Now granted, I was out of the office at an Advanced Excel seminar yesterday (and it’s a good thing too because I needed some of those tips from the seminar to finish up the report today).  So it took me 3 days to finish (not 4).  But still – there has to be a better way.  And you know what took me so long?  Getting all the information in a database format so that I could run pivot tables and subtotals and such.  Timberline Accounting Software really sucks when it comes to exporting reports into text files or into Excel.

So again, I am exhausted.  I have no energy.  The good news is that I’m taking the day off tomorrow, so I have a 3-day weekend.  The bad news is that I’m behind on my word count for the novel I’m writing in November.  Through today I should have about 20,000 words, and I believe I have around 17,000 words down on paper.  So that means I have some catching up to do this weekend.  Except that my brain is limp and listless.  So I’m going to be writing crap this weekend for sure.  Of course, most of what I’ve written already is probably crap.  So at least I’m being consistent, right?

I had my big date last night with the Aggie engineer.  First let me say that he was a complete sweetheart and a total gentleman.  He brought me a candle, chocolate and a card.  He held the door open for me.  He actually stood up when I returned to the table.  I just about fell over.  And because he is so wonderful, of course I have absolutely no interest in him.  None.  Zip.  Zero.  There was no chemistry at all.  Why, oh why, can’t I fall for one of the nice guys?  Why am I only attracted to guys that are (1) needy or (2) destined to treat me like crap?  I must have a defective gene somewhere.   Could someone please knock some sense into me?

My friend Rex called me the other night to tell me how “Paranormal Activity” ended (since we both bailed on it since we had motion sickness).  I was definitely disappointed with what he had to tell me – surely there’s more to it than the wife just throwing the husband across the room?  Like maybe she grew fangs and had the flames of hell flashing from her eyes?  I really need to stop watching and reading stuff like that especially considering I have two cats that like to scare the crap out of me in the middle of the night.  Maybe I need to watch a Disney movie instead.

P.S.  I am very excited to be taking homemade tamales home with me today.  And no, I really don't want to share any with you.  Sorry.

This was just not a good football weekend.  First the Aggies barely lost on Saturday, then the Texans barely lost on Sunday and then on top of it all I lost my fantasy football game.  That’s two losses for me which really sucks.  I’m still tied for first place, but still.  My players need to get their acts together!

I’m still working on my novel for NANOWRIMO, but my writing slowed down quite a bit this weekend.  I’m up to 16,831 words which is still ahead of schedule.  And just this morning I thought of an entire new section I can insert where I talk about the list that I created in January 2008 when Lance and I were breaking up, and we were going through the sale of our house.  Not exactly the most fun time in the world.  But I created this list that gave me focus (I believe I blogged about my list when I first started blogging).  Unfortunately I haven’t really focused on the list this year, so I’m not sure I have crossed anything off as complete in a while.  I need to find the darn journal book that contains my list so that I can maybe find something to complete by year-end.

So yesterday I attempted to watch “Paranormal Activity”.  That’s the hot movie right now that was shot in the same fashion as “Blair Witch Project”.  I should have known going in that I was going to have problems because I had problems with Blair Witch.  And sure enough, I was about 45 minutes into the movie and started getting really sick to my stomach.  Motion sickness, to be specific.  I just can’t handle that live action type of filming where the camera jumps around the entire time.  I had made it to the part in the movie where the couple goes out for the evening, and the camera is filming the Ouija board which starts moving by itself and then ultimately catches fire as it leaves some message there from hell (or so I imagine).  I felt so bad that I just got up and left the theater.  So I don’t know how it ends.  I’ll just have to rent the movie when it comes out on Red Box and go to the part where I stopped, and then hopefully my stomach can handle watching it until the end.  Of course, I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to watch this movie in my own house because I was getting pretty scared sitting there in the theater. 

Have I mentioned that I have a hot date this Wednesday night?  His name is Bruce, and he’s 54 years old.  He’s an Aggie (always a good thing) and is currently working as a mud engineer on a natural gas drilling rig in Louisiana.  He lives in Smithville which is 50 miles E/SE of Austin.  He’s very sweet, and I like talking to him on the phone.  He seems to pretty much have his life together and to be truthful about everything as much as I can tell.  He’s nothing like that guy from a few months ago that lied to me about everything.   So he’s getting off the rig tomorrow and driving home to Smithville.  Then he’ll drive back over to Katy Wednesday night where we are eating at Babin’s (god, I love their crawfish etoufee).  So I’ll let you know how that turns out.  And yes, I do supposedly have a crush on this geeky guy here at work, but I can tell that he will always be clueless.  Plus I can tell that Bruce will treat me like a princess while the geeky guy here at work won’t.  And being a princess sounds pretty good to me.

So I’m sitting here at work on Friday afternoon.  It’s 2:30 and I’m ready to go.  Except I can’t go until 5:00.  Well, probably 4:30.  I do tend to sneak out of here early on Fridays.  Especially since my boss tends to sneak out of here around 3:00. 

I have done a little bit of actual work today.  The financials are done for October already!  Yea!  It’s a definite record being done in only 6 days.  Since I finished early, I’ve spent a great part of today being unproductive I guess you would say.  Well, productive from my point of view, but not so much from the viewpoint of my employer.  But we’ll just make that our little secret. 

So what have I done today?  I order a chocolate basket online as a surprise for my department.  It’s a 7-tier stack of boxes full of lots of chocolate goodies.  I’m having it delivered mid-September as a surprise.  Well, of course it won’t be a surprise if someone finds out, so please don’t tell any of my employees.

And then I spent some time on www.thechildrensplace.com to order clothes for my great-nephews and my great niece for Christmas.  The site is running a special where you get 20% off if you spend at least $75 (you have to use a special code – go to www.wantnot.net to get the code).  So I budgeted to spend about $140 total on an outfit for 5 kids, and I spent $122, so I definitely stayed under budget. 

And then I spent quite a bit of time working on my Nanowrimo novel (title: Spicy, but Sweet).  As of last night I was up to 12,050 words.  It’s amazing the turns that this little novel has taken already.  I just jumped right in and started writing about some of the guys I have met online, and then I realized I needed some kind of mechanism to make everything flow.  So I decided that in the book I would start seeing a therapist and that would give me the excuse I needed to talk about past relationships.  And then I threw in recent trip to the Renaissance Festival with the nerdy guy from work on which I have a crush, and that pushed my novel into a brand new direction.  The whole tone of the novel is similar to Bridget Jones Diary – just a lot of commentary about what is happening in my life.  And since it seemed like I needed some kind of quest so that I could have some kind of conclusion, I decided that the whole novel would eventually revolve around my crush on the nerdy guy and the procession of that relationship.  So as my relationship actually does (or does not) progress in real life, I will write about it in the book.  So I wrote almost 2500 words today, and I’m up to 14,507 words.  Very cool.  I’m definitely ahead of where I need to be.  But I don’t want to take any time off – I need to keep writing while I still have some idea of what to write about.  And I imagine I will run into dry spells considering I have 35,493 more words to go.

Tomorrow is Anne Taylor’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Anne!  My blog is dedicated to you today. J

On Sunday I’m supposed to go see “Paranormal Activity” with my friend Rex.  I’m not sure why I feel like getting the crap scared out of me, but I do.  I might feel differently Sunday night when I’m too scared to turn out the lights.

I saw online today that Walmart is going to start running Black Friday specials early.  There will be specific specials each week leading up to Thanksgiving.  So check out www.walmart.com for the specials that start on November 7.  These are in-store specials, and it’s first come, first serve.  The store opens at 8:00 am tomorrow.  And no, I’m not getting paid for this endorsement, darn it.  I’m keeping my eyes open for a netbook that comes fully loaded with Windows 7 Premium (and not with the crappy starter version).

Have a happy weekend, everyone!