Roll

Tonight I attended my first ever Roller Derby match? bout? I think they're called bouts. Well anyway, my friend Angel had joined the Charlotte Roller Girls a while back and this was their first home event of the season. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was crazy! So many people! So much cheering!

Angel is the purple blur at the bottom of the picture there

Also, at the event were Angel's husband Will (who works at Trader Joe's with me), son Tyler and some of our other friends.

(My friend Chris and Tyler posing)


Who's ready for some Roller Derby?

and yes, that would be Will giving his own son bunny ears

Donate! It's Child's Play!

Hey there! Christmas is soon upon us and if you're like me, you'll do a fair bit of your shopping online. (I talked about this last year, but it's important enough to me to bring up again.)

One of my favorite things about Christmas shopping on Amazon.com is how easy they make donating to Child's Play Charity. Check it out!

Here's a basic overview of what Child's Play does: "With the help of hospital staff, we’ve set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, and movies. You can go to each hospital’s list and buy a toy, and that toy will be sent to the hospital. Some of these kids are in pretty bad shape. Imagine being stuck alone in a hospital over the holidays... Some of the stuff the hospital will give away for kids to keep, while other gifts (like consoles) will be kept by the hospital for patients to use throughout the year."

I've been blessed in my life with a job I enjoy (most of the time) that pays me enough to take care of my own needs and still have more left over to give away. Whether you want to think of it as tithing or just giving back, if you're thinking about making a donation this holiday season, please consider Child's Play.

All the hospitals affiliated with Child's Play have wish lists saved on amazon.com. Just looking at this year's list from Univ of Iowa Children's Hospital, there are items as simple as a $3 box of crayons, all the way up to a $300 Xbox, with lots of choices in between.

Ok, I'm done on my soap box.

I will soon return to my regularly scheduled programming... aka food pictures and random stories!

Decorate the Store

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Hopefully you spent the day with good food and good friends and family. Of course while you were feasting and relaxing, I was working... Woohoo! Don't feel bad though, there were multiple food deliveries throughout the day so I still ate my fill of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes and more turkey.

In one day we (the store's artist and myself) had to bring down all the Fall and Thanksgiving themed decorations at the store and change it over into "winter holiday" mode. Because calling it Christmas decorations may offend someone. And we can't offend anyone. Of course.

In all honesty I'd really been looking forward to getting this done. Not just because it's nice to have it all completed, but also because we kept our plans top secret from the rest of the store.



We even covered up the doors all day while we worked.

I wish now that we had taken "before" pictures so you could see what the store had looked like. We changed just about every display and decoration.

Ok, that's enough rambling, you really just want to see the pictures, don't you? I recommend clicking the actual picture if you want to see the details of each.

As you approach the store:



The first display:



The entry way:



The next display:



On top of the cooler case:





Display number... 3?



Next:



The corner that isn't quite finished:



The Demo Station:



Did I tell you my cracker assortment joke?



Wine displays:




Front office:



Front displays:





The last? display:




Ok, I maybe lost track, but I think that's all of them. Also, a couple of ends didn't have the product available yet, so there are still some pictures that I'll try and get up in the next week or so.

I think it was time well spent. What do you think?

Eat German nachos

While the rest of the working world dreads Mondays, I love them. Why? because Monday is my Friday!

Huh?

Since I work in a Grocery store, which is of course busiest over the weekend, I take my days off in the middle of the work week. My weekend is Tuesday/Wednesday.

It took me a little while to get used to, but now I love it! When I go out running errands I don't run into traffic or lines. When I go to movies, there's often only a handful of other people there. And last, but not least, The Flying Saucer has Monday night Pint night! With some 80 or so different beers on tap and all of them being $2.75, it's the perfect place to end a long week.

The fact that you can get food like this doesn't hurt:

What sort of heart stopping deliciousness is that?

It's a soft pretzel smothered in swiss cheese and sliced Usinger's bratwurst! (Before you freak out, I didn't eat the whole thing. I would like my heart to continue beating, thank you very much!) I ate just over half of it and it was delicious. Sort of the German equivalent of nachos, don't you think?

Make a mess

Ok, so I know I should set the good example at work. I know I should be neat and organized as I go. But sometimes it's just so satisfying to get on a roll and make a mess...

oops.

Bake

Aah fall weather... 72 and breezy. Ok, so maybe my definition of fall weather has changed a bit since moving to North Carolina. But believe me, if you lived here all summer, you'd be loving the drop to mid 70's too.

As much as I love the new cooler weather (and having bonfire plans for later tonight!) it has also deceived me; deceived me into thinking I can bake. For as long as I can remember my attempts at baking have gone slightly awry. I don't get it. Everything I bake turns out tasty, but the wrong consistency.

exhibit a:

These should be raspberry muffins. I either added too many raspberries or not enough something else. I can't tell. All I know is that they've completely fallen apart. Getting them out of their baking cups was quite the challenge.

This is the remnants of the 12th muffin. Disaster. What else can I say.

I guess I'll have to just stick to cooking. That I can do.

Stare

Chicken tacos at Salsaritas - $6
Sitting outside to eat lunch after a ridiculous morning at work... pretty darn awesome
Being started at through the table while you eat... kind of creepy

Oh pup pup. You're so bizarre. And adorable when you're begging for chicken taco.

explain why I don't blog more

I mean to post things. I really do. But then I have weeks like this where:

I work 12p to 10p, but really stay til 1245a to work on reorganizing the back room and we find out at the last minute that the first mate has to stay overnight with the register computer technician guy (So he's going to have worked 12p to 5a).

Go back in at 530a the next day to open, work till 11a. Go home and nap so I can go back in at 5p and close the office for the first mate who will likely be spending tomorrow passed out after his all nighter.

But no worries! I don't have to work Friday til 8a. In theory I'll sleep from about 11p to 7a tomorrow night. HA!

So sorry that sometimes I forget to blog. I'm kind of preoccupied with sleeping. or something like that. it's usually all a blur.

Snack

This is my new favorite snack food*:

Snyder's Hot Buffalo Wing pretzel bits mixed in with the Buttermilk Ranch bits. The Buffalo bits have a good flavor but not too much heat and the Ranch bits add a good contrast. You should probably try it. I blame Bret from work for getting me hooked on this combo in the first place.

*Yes I'm blogging about this at 830a because I'm also eating some at 830a. Don't judge me or my eating habits :D

laugh

As I meandered through the wild forest of the internets this afternoon I stumbled upon a post I somehow missed on one of my favorite "nerd" blogs. Chris Hardwick apparently ran Harry Potter SNAPS challenge. He was looking for the best Harry Potter insult/one liners. I didn't go through the full list, but his list of favorites was more than enough to have me laughing out loud. (Be warned some are definitely a bit inappropriate)

work all night

So back in July (07/08/09 to be exact) we cleaned the attic at work. My brilliant plan was to open, go home and nap, clean all night and then work the open shift the next day. HA! Me and napping are still in a fight over this one.

Anyway... I snapped this picture while I was trying to sleep by the front door so I'd for sure wake up when the morning crew arrived.

Instructions on the motorized cart at work - Why are on and off in quotes?

Go home

My mom melted a pack of gum and is trying to save it through refrigeration.

*Update - Apparently she loved doing this so much, the gum is now a permanent fixture in their refrigerator.

puppy nap

Back in July I played puppy parent again to my friend Clancy Bananas. We played a little, napped a little. Ate, and then napped again. It was a good weekend.

At one point I was sitting on the couch and Clancy was sleeping at the far end. I heard him squirming around and when I looked up this is what I saw:

He had wedged himself against the back of the couch and just kept napping.

He also has this weird habit of hiding from me when he thinks I'm about to leave him. If I changed clothes or put on shoes, he was no where to be found. Usually he was treating my coat closet like his own personal cave hide-out.

Post something

Believe it or not I have 5 draft posts just sitting there waiting... I meant to post something... I promise.

I've found that I'm only able to keep up with so many of these fancy schmancy "social networking" sites at once. And unfortunately the blog was the first to suffer. Blame twitter.

I would promise to do better, but I'd hate to lie to you. So I CAN promise that I will continue to periodically post things here that may or may not have already been posted to facebook or twitter.

buy shoes

Dog-sit

This is Clancy...

Clancy is the beagle I'm dog-sitting until Sunday. Although I may not want to give him back. He's a little bit crazy and a whole lot smarter than he wants you to think, but otherwise fairly awesome.

After spending the first 20-30 minutes doing "perimeter checks" where he literally ran circle around my house, checking each and every room dozens of time, he settled down into the window seat. I opened the window for him and he was done. set. not gonna move. Eventually he got distracted and came and napped with me on the couch.

Race

For those of you not living here in NAS-Carolina, today is the first of Charlotte's big races. The All-star race. Of course I have to support my guy...

What you probably can't tell is that not only am I wearing my Matt Kenseth t-shirt, but I'm also wearing my NASCAR scrub pants.

Feast

Last week my friend Dave bought a Smoker/Grill and each week we've been smoking various meat products.

This week was a whole chicken and some drumsticks...

As you can see there was quite a bit of carnage:

We ate so much food... you know that sigh you make when you've had your fill but you don't want to stop eating? I made that sound at least five or six times. I just couldn't stop. Hooray for food comas.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures of last week. The inaugural smoking was pork "picnic." I'm still not entirely sure what part of the pig that is, but I do konw that it was super tasty. Last week was also Chorizo sausages. Mmmmm pork products...

Make popsicles!

The backstory:
I think when Amy decides to buy me a gift she thinks secretly thinks* I'm 8 years old. That's totally ok though, because then I end up with awesome if slightly bizarre gifts... like rocket shaped popsicle molds.

I had totally lost track of these when I moved and was super excited to re-find them last week. So here's they are, loaded with Pomegranate Limeade. Now I just need to have the patience to wait 4 to 6 hours to taste test them.

*Clearly I am still 8 years old, notice the Eggo waffles and two different kinds of chicken nuggets in my freezer.

Awesome and Awesomer

Two Random things...

I see these boxes at work all the time... Aren't you glad that you don't live in Hicksville? Literally.

My friend Vanessa made me a knit hat with the Brewers logo on it!

When's the last time all you crafty people made me anything this cool? Huh? Huh?

The story behind this is that my friend from work, Dave, his wife, Vanessa, was recently laid off. In her free time now she's apparently been knitting up a storm. One day at the store he was on the phone with her and joked that she should knit me something. I suggested a Brewers hat. Less than a week later I was at their house for the inaugural use of Dave's new Smoker/Grill and there it was! My awesome new hat!

This is the race car that has become the biggest hinderance to me going to bed early. The guys who live down stairs have been working on it for a while now and when they run the engine the entire building shakes.

They actually aren't too bad about it, they've never been loud after 9pm. It's just unfortunate that I was trying to go to bed at 730 or 8 so I could work at 5am everyday.

Also, notice it's painted to match my favorite NASCAR driver. (Feel free to mock, but you can't live here without at least having a favorite to cheer for)

Matt Kenseth

aha!

I've been a Flowing Data fan for a while now, but I recently came across this on their site:


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I know that the whole financial mess we're in is more complicated than this, but it's a decent summary and easy to follow.

Friday night traffic is ridiculous no matter where you live.

After a certain age it should just be assumed that you don't need a straw.

speculate

So I spent most of my day running errands.. and then I saw this!

Blue bunny truck! Woohoo!

Also, while playing DVR catch up today I watched this new NBC show Kings. It wasn't too bad, although I'm not sure I'll record it every week. One of the things that grabbed my attention was that everyone in the government wore pins on their labels. Each one was fairly generic but then I spotted this one:


Does it look familiar? The Umbrella Corporation???!?!!?

Yes, I know, it's likely all a big coincidence. But if they found a way to tie it all together... I would definitely watch that show!

Aah... Guiness on St Patricks Day.

Free beer? For being so awesome?

bring the cheese and crackers!

It would be nice to pretend like this isn't the kind of thing that makes Wisconsin Wisconsin. But that would be a lie. I love my home state.

Woo! Gas station car wash! See you all thought you wanted me to blog more but you underestimated how boring my life is.

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Fresh air break at work. If smokers can take a break every two hours why can't I take ten minutes to sit in the sun after busting my butt? Got to love North Carolina springs. It's 75, sunny and there's a steady breeze :D

Today I enabled blogging by

Today I enabled blogging by text message. We'll see how it goes. I just might become a blogging fiend.

watch battlestar galactica

Oh Battlestar Galactica. Why can't I quit your addictive melodrama?

I've spent a large part of my day off catching up on tv that I'd recorded, but not yet watched. This included four episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I'm still not sure where they went wrong. How is this the same show I loved four years ago? The answer is that it's not. Which makes me a little bit sad. The show has lost it's way. Unfortunately for me, I'm still enough invested in it to need to see the final season. No matter how painful it's becoming with each passing episode.

Oh Battlestar Galactica. How I miss you.

Cake Wreck

I found this blog and immediately thought of Hath.

PSA: I've now lost over an hour of my day laughing out loud, scrolling through cake pictures. Just to warn you.

Round up the funny

Here's a couple of different videos that have been cracking me up lately.

a) Kitten's on a Roomba:



I especially love when, towards the end, the Roomba seems to be trying to buck them off by slamming into the cabinets.


b) Old Jews Telling Jokes (link):

(Not safe for work, due to a bad word or two)




c) Vaguely creepy children:



All this to sell some milk chocolate. It's time to start catching up on the cleverness Wisconsin.

Summarize

Some people continue to refuse to watch the Star Wars movies.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Their loss, our gain.