rantsandrecipes

When it comes to food I absolutely love this time of year. There's so much good food that I encounter, be it at my own house, my parents house, game night... its just all good. This Turkey Day I kinda went bake-happy in that it was my first attempt at home-made crust for pies. Turns out to make it well its something of an over night process cuz the dought has to settle before you roll it out, and by settle i mean mush together into a really large thick pancake and let it sit in the fridge over night. Anywho - both pie #1 and #2 were chocolate-chip pecan pies. Yes... you read right... there was chocolate in my pecans. Pretty simple really - standard pecan pie mix with a hand full of chocolatey bits mixed in. I did opt to modify the recipe a little... i know... i know... not suppose to change things when baking, exact measured science blah blah blah...the recipe said to mix all the pecan-filling ingredients into a bowl, mix it all around and pour it into the crust. Well i did mix them all up in the bowl.. but then i poured them into a skillet and warmed everything up so that the choclate started to melt a bit more and i was able to stir things around a bit so everything was a bit more cohesive - then it went into the crust (which btw was sprinkled with brown sugar). All and all i think they came out pretty good. I felt bad cuz the one i made for the game Steve couldn't have cuz of the chocolate, but otherwise i didnt' get any complaints. It was very sweet though, so people might have complaints down the line after visiting their dentist. lol. For turkey day i also made lemon square cheesecake - easiest dessert EVER lol... this round held better cuz i let them chill over night. And i also made some garlic salt tortilla chips. I wanted them salty cuz Suzy has been all about salt these days - but the garlic salt container kinda went out of control so they were a weeee bit too salty - well for most people... Suzy didn't really seemed phased by it lol.

For dinner there was turkey, stuffing, beans, baby onions, squash, cranberry, mashed potatoes and lasagna. Very good stuff, but dessert was still my favorite part. My pecan pie, the lemon squares, suzy's cookie pie (drool), apple pie, cupcakes (complete with purple frosting per demand of Mackenzie) and various cookies, oh and some carrot cake brownie things - which goes against my dessert beliefs. Desserty bits should not be combined with vegetables. They just shouldn't.

But overall the turkey week was excellent. I worked Wednesday which I wasnt' planning on but that ended around 1:30. And I didn't work on Monday so I got to stay up late and sleep in and just relax. The mini-vacation ended with me doing laundry in the pouring rain last night. LOL. Yay for clean socks!

Now back to work and a busy week at athat. i'm suppose to take Friday off but i don't know if that's still happening, kinda revolves around the boss man. But we have a shoot on Thursday and then another on Sunday and hopefully one the following week on Wednesday, and then another that following Saturday. So yay for being busy! lol.

Random Recipe:

Skillet - put in some olive oil, dime up some carrots and then break up a portion of cauliflower let that simmer for a bit - if you like things on the softer side, put on a cover for a bit - maybe 10 minutes - add in some garlic salt, a little parmasean cheese and simmer some more. When your close to being down just sprinkle a bit of bread crumb in and toss it around and add in some pepper. Serve.

So this past Monday was the final shoot for the calendar - so we're finally good to go on finishing all the months. So far I've finishing January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September. I'm leaving Ocotober and December to Felix and we're still working out how we want to deal with November. But we'll be done soon - and then its off to the printer and then we start taking orders - woot!

That same night we also did a shoot for one of Felix's coworkers - Andrea. She'll be added to the list of fem fatales to be displayed on the new website. She had never done anything like that before, so all things considered she did very very well. Yay for hot latinos! We have 4 other lovely ladies lined up to say cheese before the year ends so that should give us some good stuff to work with for the new site.

I've been trying to be very good about going to the gym - and being able to go at lunch time while my boss was away in China helped a lot. The other day I had finished my cardio work out and went in, showered and stepped into the dry sauna. its amazing what you can find in that gym - you just never know what your gonna walk in on. I found an Esquire magazine there on the bench with the top stating "sexiest pie maker ever" so naturally i had to see who it was. It was Mary Louise Parker dressed only in under garments baking in a kitchen looking incredibly hot. I opted to actually read the article and i'm actually gonna give this pie recipe a try - there's some little tricks in there that make it sound like she actually knows what she's doing. So we'll see. I have at least two pies lined up for the near future. One for Turkey Day (pie choice undecided), and one for game night the following day - for that I think i'm gonna go with Pecan. I'm in the mood to make a Lemon Meringue but we'll see if that's still the case when i'm actually baking lol.

I'm also psyched about the holidays being here cuz I'll actually get some time off from the day job. Love it like i do i could use a few mornings where I actually get to sleep in or some nights where I can stay up past midnight. So i'm very much looking forward to next Wednesday. Yes, Wednesday. And then even more time when xmas arrives. I think this is going to be a very interesting holiday... don't know why - just a gut feeling. Hmm.. i'm being called away from my desk - so i'm gonna go for now. Laters!

This morning started off great... i woke up, got myself together, got things in order at home - stepped outside and it was cool but not cold, the sun was out and it felt great. The bus arrived and I listed to some Meat Loaf on my commute into Central Square. I got to work and then everything fell to shit.

1. I get a phone call from my boss telling me the Work Visa for China has been denied and he is suppose to leave for China on Saturday. Something about forms missing and non-original signatures. Not let me be clear - I worked my ass off to get these forms in order and get everything all good to go so he could have this Visa in time. Everything went out, it was all original and somehow between the post office and the Chinese Embassy someone else fucked up the documentation? Not cool. So now i have to cash in one of my x-mas miracles, pull it out of my ass and make sure he still goes to China. Uggg.

2. During all of this I let a friend know whom I was suppose to meet for lunch that I'm having an emergency and that I think we should push it off to after work at 5. His response? "I'm tired of games, lies and drama, i have no more desire to meet with you and will be erasing you from my life." Umm... dude... your tiara's a little off center there... here let me straighten it for you, YA FUCKING CRAZY ASS DRAMA QUEEN. Seriously?! Cuz i'm having a stressful day at work and can't watch you eat your salad you decide that your time is too precious? Wow... and you wonder why you have relationship issues.

Ok... so there's only two but it's only been 2 hours so i think that's pretty fair. Lordy. So let's flip to something a little more enjoyable - FOOD! This past weekend i made a feast on saturday for Halloween (see below) and last night i tried something new.

LAST NIGHT
Breaded chicken (via rolled crackers) with some herbs.
Lightly friend potatoes with red peppers and onions. (for frank)
French fries. (for felix)
Grilled cauliflower, red peppers and herbs sprinkled with the remaining bread crumb (for me and ray)
Grilled asapargus with a strawberry puree (for me, ray and felix)

I thought the chicken was over done, but the other three liked it. The cauliflower came out really good i thought, i gave soem to frank as well cuz i made so much of it. He called his a $20 plate. LOL.I think he's on drugs.

FEAST
Baked Ham - instead of just putting it on the oven nice and whole, I actually sliced it up first... put some maple syrup and brown sugar on the glass, then put the ham down - most of em flat - the drizzled more syrup on them and sugar and then covered in foil. Baked that for a good hour.
Grill Carrots - sliced up whole carrots and grilled them in olive oil mixed with red peppers and added brown sugar.
Corn-off-the-cob - yes off... i boiled the ears, then cut off the kernels threw them in a skillet with an ounce of butter and some white sugar, just until the butter melted completely.
T&C Rolls - some croissant rolls in the tube... rolled em out, the rolled em up with a slide of sandwhich meat turkey and half a slice of american cheese
Blueberry pie - nuff said. Though i did add sugar and cinnamon to the top of the crust prior to throwing it in the oven.

So there ya go food fans.

There are some days when the inchoerent chatter from the guy behind me sounds like a few gazillion chalk boards being scratched by a combination of fingernails, rusty nails and maybe a fork or two from Joe. Don't get me wrong he seems ok - but the voice just hits that small (well maybe not that small) waveband that makes my brain want to ooze out of the ears. And this twat who works with him isn't much better. Anywho... how are you doing? lol... I'm crazed... its such a good thing I don't really have any hair left to lose cuz it would so be gone after this week. LOL. Just high levels of craziness and everything is rush rush rush! But I guess that happens from time to time. I do my best just to roll with it and not stress about it but when its going on all day even I have my limits. Thankfully tomorrow is friday which means I get to lose myself in some good old heroic demon killing. MWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.... So as an update we completed round two of the calendar shoot on Sunday. It went really well - I'd probably say better than the last cuz it didn't have any superior christian high and mighties telling me what they couldnt' do. (i'm irish, we hold grudges, whaddaya want?). This shoot was another three models, and one of them was actually straight. We didn't realize it till he told us he was being dropped off by his girlfriend to which both me and Felix went "what? GIRLfriend?... huh..." He was cool though - he did really well especially considering how nervous he was. LOL. Tonight will be round three. Sunday consisted of May-Spring, September-Fashion Week and December-Xmas. Tonight will be March-St Patty's, April-Easter and November-Thanksgiving. The biggest challenge for this one is definitely Turkey Day... in an effort to bring in props I'm actually making a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, rolls and an apple pie. So needless to say it'll be an interesting shoot lol.

And speaking of food, I've implemented some major changes in the diet as of late. As of Monday i've taken pasta and rice out of the menu for dinner and lunch. I'm focusing on Chiken and/or Fish and veggies. So i went got a lotta stuff in the produce section on Sunday and have been serving up cooked veggie sides in addition to Salads. I don't think Felix is thrilled since his idea of veggies is french fries... and frank has cooked his own spaghetti in protest lol... but Raymond has been very good about it and he and I are the ones i'm mainly concerned about healthwise. Frank could stand to be much more attentive with his diet, but its like changing a behavior pattern when your dealing with an old school italian's diet. Its gotta be gradual. Anywho, its a work in progress.

Last night consisted of baked haddock for frank and raymond (they only eat white... please no comments) and sword fish for me and felix (we prefer higher degrees of taste), some grilled red peppers and carrots, green beans and corn off the cob (yes, off the cob - they prefer it boiled then cut off the cob... i just assume keep it on and keep it neat but whatever lol).

Ok... time to get back to work... side note: annoying cube banter STILL GOING!!!! gRRRRR...

So our phone died... or more accurately our phone line died. No dial tone. Now let me take care of that first thought - yes the bill is paid. So first we tried a different phone. Nada. Then we tried a different outlet or two. Nada. So i called got online with Comcast to ask them to send someone out - so naturally i had to go thru the whole rigamarole of them confirming my identity and then telling me step by step what they wanted me to do. So here's my question, if your providing me service which i'm paying for btw, why am I doing the work?! Even better was how the conversation went... "Ok Thomas, find a pin or the head of a sharp pencil and click the reset button on the modem." "umm ok... wait.. the internet is working fine - you think i should still do this?" "Sure..." "ya see that wasn't very convincing." "I'm with you on this Thomas." ::click:: The click being me closing out the conversation and flipping off the monitor. Really?! "I'm with you on this?" With me on what - doing something that makes it sound like you have no friggin clue what your talking about? Thanks I'll just call and demand a field agent. Sigh. The concern is that maybe the roofers did something while tearing apart and replacing the roof. But I'd think if that was the case the internet and the tv would have been affected as well cuz its all bundled. Anywho... the call has been made and hopefully a field agent will get out there sometime before the end of the week. It doesnt' afftect me that much, but it does affect Raymond. I mean how is the man suppose to go about making me money if he can't call up the people he needs to call without burning away all our minutes on the cell phone contract lol. Unlimited texting? yes... unlimited calling? hell naw.

Well this week is another one of crazy busy stuff. We rescheduled shoot #2 for the calendar on sunday night which i was very thankful for given the oh so lovely weather that was filling the skies and the streets. We're gonna try again this coming weekend. And then have two more after that. In the mean time we're working on ironing out the revamp of the website and launching our marketing plan to bring in the females.

CALLING ALL VAGINAS! Kidding... mostly.... well if i wanted to make the straight boys jealous then no, i mean it! lol. Seriously though - if you know of some goyls out there that need/want some newly shot pics then nows the time. We' need to up the supply of estrogen before we can put samples on the site so we're just doing a minimum cover charge for the hole deal. (hmm.. did i miss a W there? oops).

Ok... now back to our regularly scheduled day to day chaos.

Side note: Yellow rice mixed with diced grilled potatoe plus some cubes of cheese = yummy goodness.

Bye bye electricity. That's right people - the explosion that took place in Medford square today, causing massive electrical fires that shot the manhole covers 25 feet up into the air took our power for our beloved homestead. I left this morning with light and alarm clocks and Raymond woke up to a cold void of nothingness. No tv, no computer, no coffee maker, no stove, no phone, no stereo. Fun fun fun. It should be coming back on today, just that no one knows when. Yay for chaos.

Last night was much more entertaining and that's what we're gonna focus on right now. I took the boys to see FAME in the movie theatre on Tremont Street right near Emerson. One of my favorite theatres (if you ignore the fact that trying to find a parking spot sucks). But we ventured in, got the tickets and took our seats making the grand total for the audience 12 people. Just the way i like it. At least that way if a cell phone goes off you know exactly who it is, and who to fling the popcorn at. The movie was great... so much amazing singing and dancing - i wanted to go dancing afterwards - but lord knows if i got too inspired and tried to do a split then I wouldnt' be sitting here at work today. LOL. Whenever we leave the movies Raymond always has to use the restroom... I think its some kinda of psychosomatic ritual. Well he and Felix and Frank all went in... and came out with reports of two people having sex in one of the stalls. Woo hoo! LOL... we started to elave and then it hit me! So I ran back and went into the men's room... I couldn't tell much but from what they described it was two guys... so i just slipped a business card under the stall. Figure if they are that adventurous then they'd be comfortable with some fun exhibitionism and maybe i can squeeze a few bills out of em.

So now i have to go home and see what i can scrounge up for treats for tonights game. Its weird... it doesn't really feel like a friday... something about it just feels off, i'm not as excited as I usually am. But whatever... no treats with no electricity... this should prove interesting. I'll report back on monday with what I managed to come up with.

Ok... first off I have to apologize for the long span of time between now and the last entry. To say i've been busy is one hell of an understatement. So where did we leave off... last wednesday night me and Felix had a shoot for a new lad in town, and he wanted pictures for his b/f's birthday. What we didn't realize was that the birthday was the following day. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH. So we managed to get the lad 10 pictures within 24 hours (which considering we both worked a full day on thursday, getting 10 pictures in about 3 hours? Not too shabby). Thankfully the boy had 0% body fat, no acne, and knew how to pose like nobodies business.

Friday was game night. As a surprise for the Game Master himself - and old highschool-gaming buddy - Mr. Matthew Bennet everyones favorite Maine Power Ranger. Hadn't seen him in a god's age (yes i spelled that correctly). The boy hasn't changed much though, thankfully. Still goofy and blond and funny as all get out. It was really cool to see him. I was a mess that night... totally wiped out from the week and couldnt' keep my eyes open to save my life - even with a hot blond power ranger sitting next to me. Went home that night and crashed.

Saturday we continued edits from Wednesday's shoot. We initially had 2 business meetings that day, but one got pushed off a week, and the other pushed to Sunday. Caught up on a little tv.. and then headed into town for a 6:30 shoot. The longest shoot we've done by far. We started at 6:30 and got picked up at the studio to go home at 1am. This was our first female shoot, she was trying to get back into the modeling industry after having two kids. She was in amazing shape... an amazon goddess actually. Legs and breasts for days and enough hair to pretty much do anything you want with it (yay for extensions!). This shoot entailed a lot of makeup and hair, so Daniel was there to help us with that. And this girl came prepared... 18 pairs of shoes!!!! We had so many different outfits and all of them great. We went crazy that night, backdops, windows, props, fog machine - everything. It was a blast... and we even took some of her and her cousin together (we'll refrain from mentioning how much they weren't wearing).

Sunday morning I woke up at 9 and had to get some shopping done for props for that nights shoot, and then I was gonna go to breakfast with Mike - but that got slightly delayed by another door-side visit from the Jesus Crispies. Now as I've said before I totally respect people's personal choice when it comes to religion - we all find our way to what we believe for ourselves - one of the blessings and curses of free will for this lovely human race we belong to. But when people play the part of the door to door salesmen, trying to get me to buy their way of life and faith - telling me I'll fall into damnation if I don't, that doesn't go over well, but I was very polite. They asked if I follow the bible... I said no, and they were shocked since its the book fo all books... I just mentioned that the bible is one of many books, and that there are many more that are older and that one book can't decide the fate of all mankind (I refrained on mentioned that the bibles been selectively edited 14 times since its inception). They mentioned the sign of war and the economy and asked what i thought of Armaggedon. I told them I thought the movie was fun, that Bruce Willis was pretty hot in it and that I own it on DVD. They didn't seem to enjoy my humor. Three times they reminded me to keep an open mind. I finally couldn't stop myself and broke out laughing when they were getting ready to leave and said... "sir... i'm a gay witch - you dont' get more open minded." Again, not a fan of my answers, so they left... i think they were praying on the way out.

Sunday evening started around 5:30 - we met up with another model we're using for the calendar to discuss what he'd be doing, any concerns he had ,etc. What we didn't know was that he already was part of an agency, but he assured us that there would be no problem working for us. I'll agree to that after i see the existing contract. LOL. Then we went for a quick dinner at Unos then onto the shoot. The three months being covered were June, August and February. The three models were Mike, Bobby and John. Mike and Bobby were absolutely fantastic. They brought all the necessary clothes and accessories asked of them and more. And were more than willing to put it all out there for the project. My favorite was February - we focused on Valentines day... we had them strip down to nothing and then have a V-day bear in front of their privates and then kinda surround them in chocolates. It was a blast.

The other two days of this week have been kind of a blur. Tonight we'll be focusing on editing Saturday night's shoot and getting reading for the second calendar shoot for this Sunday. No rest for the wicked!! lol.

Oh and I have a surprise for the boys for tomorrow night - they just don't know it since they never actually read my blog. LOL.

I know it sounds weird... but I was just down in Disney World for a conference from Saturday to very early Wednesday morning... with no one to enjoy any of the fun with. It was a business thing... where there were workshops where i learned nothing, got to listen to a lot of women rant and rave how their bosses are so stressful and so demanding and how their technology is so far behind blah blah blah blah... there were two instances where I just left the workshop. I mean... I wasn't learning anything and the only thing keeping me awake was the nasty smell of the purple hair dye coming the 240 year old woman sitting in front of me. Thanks... I'll just go enjoy the solitude of the hotel room and order some room service thanks. I was staying in a great hotel.. the Disney Swan. Huge! But close to absolutely NOTHING. It cost $50 just to go in one direction to down town orlando. Thanks... I think I'll skip that.

Needless to say i'm very happy to be home. I landed yesterday around 2:00 and after the limo driver (yes, I had limo service, how wild is that?!) too the most bizarre round about route to get to my home, I unpacked and took a much needed nap. After that I made some quick dinner for me and Felix before we headed into town to the studio for a shoot. It was fun... it was a rather "edgy" and "dirty" shoot (as the model requested) as a gift to his boyfriend for his birthday. Very sweet actually. And very hot lol... we'll probably use him for our 2010 calendar. lol.

So here's the following 10 days.
Today: Finish work, then meet for a potential client at 5:15 in davis for coffee, then head home, make dinner, edit 7 shots for mr. bday boy's boyfriend and email them out. then finally watch a few hours of tv.

Friday: finish work, head home, edit a few more shots, and game.

Saturday: 8am continue editing, then head into two for a 1pm coffee session with two of the calendar models to discuss content and wardrobe. go back home, eat, some tele and then back in at 7 for a shoot.

Sunday: more morning editing, and set up next batch of online ads,possibly go visit the parents, and then back into town for a 7pm shoot - the first of the cleandar shoots.

Monday: Work... then Heroes... then editing.

Tuesday: Work... then class.

Wednesday: Work, then a quick dinner followed by an 8pm shoot - personal pics.

Thursday: Work, then a quick dinner followed by an 8pm shoot - cd release pics.

Friday: Work, then game?

Saturday: Morning and afternoon editing and then a 7pm Shoot - #2 for the calendar project.

So ya... thank god the camera has a rechargable battery. LOL.

So I always try and have some level of variety with the nightly dinners. I'm not a fan of repetition which is odd since I love structure and pattern and predictability. LOL. Anywho when it comes to cooking I always try and mix it up, even if its just little things like a variation in seasoning and what have you. So last night apparently I scored high on the RFF Chart (Raymond, Frank, Felix).

I matted a glass baking dish with just a smidge of olive oil... then i wrapped thin sliced chicken breasts in slices of deli-meat-turkey - it ended up being two slices per breast. put them into the glass dish and then lightly smeared them with some ranch dressing - then into the oven baking for about 40 minutes. Not too shabby actually might be worth a try for ya'll. I think i also threw in some pepper as well. In addition to that I made some chicken seasoned rice - at as it was sitting at the end i threw in a few cubes of mozzerella cheese and stired it up. And I made potatoes, onions and red peppers. I was out of balsamic so the peppers didn't have the flavoring i enjoy, but they came out ok all the same.

So I have the game tomorrow night and the car picks me up at 12:30 for the airport on Saturday. Now in my head I know I have enough time from when I'll wake up on Saturday to pack before the car arrives, but I dont' think i can wait that long. The anal retentive side of me (which lets face it covers about 90% of the sides of me) wont' be content unless i'm packed before i go to sleep on Friday night. But since there is work, followed by game the amount of time I'll have to pack is pretty much next to nothing. So I essentially have to pack tonight to be ready for saturday - but of course we are having company tonight. So ya... my anal rentention is getting the best of me. But I'll manage. I'll probably sneak away after dinner tonight since I usually finish first or second, and then leave Raymond to deal with our company while I pack upstairs lol. Had to do laundry last night so i'd have enough socks for this trip lol - and of course 30 minutes prior to me going to down to the laundromat to start the wash it got robbed lol. Yay Medford! 

Not sure what i'm gonna do for sweet-treats for Friday yet. But I have a new idea... just need to see how well it goes i spose. While I"m away the boys are gonna have to go do grocery shopping. So i'm giving them a limited budget - we'll see how well they do. lol. The real question is will they actually put forth the energy to cook dinner, or will Raymond and Frank starve until like 11:00 and then eat cereal while Felix orders from the sub shop or goes and grabs some Chipolte. Guess we'll find out.

Work is getting very interesting, more and more people seem to be leaving which makes me a little nervous but it hasn't directly affected my department quite yet. Here's hoping it stays that way cuz I really like the people that I work with. Not necessarily the agro-chatt-people who sit behind me, but they ain't part of my department.

Ok... speaking of work, I should go do some. Later! 

You heard right mouse fans... I'm heading back to Disney World. But this time its for business. I leave Saturday afternoon and come back on Wednesday. Course I don't really know anyone that's going so I can't really see myself enjoying the parks - not really something i care to do by my lonesome. I'm hoping to maybe catchup with an MI friend from there, but I just read she's out auditioning so I'm not even sure if she's in the state at present so we'll see. I'm not even sure what i'm suppose to learn from this conference but I'm sure I'll make use of it somehow. LOL.

This past weekend wasn't all that productive. I was feeling a bit out of it for parts of it - stomach was not feeling up to being my friend. But Sunday night I was feeling back to at least 70% and some of the boys were feeling chilly so I decided to make a twist on some comfort food. I made a thing of rice... and then cooked up some chicken strips with some seasoning... meshed it all together, thru in some balls of mozzerella and baked it all in a pie crust. The crust came out a little dry but i kinda liked it. We got caught up on our tons of tv that weekend as well. One of the bonuses of not wanting to do anything cept relax and try and feel better. LOL.

Me and Felix go some more details for our calendar project for the photography biz. We have 11 of the 12 models we need for the shoots, one more to go. here's hoping... And one of our goals for 2010 is to expand the services to the other gender. There seems to be a potential for that clientel so we'll see how it pans out.

Work is a bit quieter this week, nothing too crazy - but part of that is cuz people are away. I got awarded for handling some of the chaos from the past few weeks so that was nice. What else to report... oh! Yes, the front and the back porch roofs are leeking - we already talked to the landlord about and she'll be sending  a roofer to fix it soon, but storms like last night don't really go over well with rotting roof tops as it turns out. LOL.

Ok... back to work. Later kids.

Ok... lets start off with rant#1. When your friend wakes up to you fucking him up the ass, you pin him down and beat the shit out of him while continuing to fuck him - that makes you a rapist in my book. This happened to a really close friend of mind this week, and if i ever get the pleasure of meeting this asshole in person i'm going to invert his face with a crow bar. NO ONE has the right to violate another person's body like that and then beat them into submission just so you can shoot your load while feeling all powerful and in control. You are committing rape. There is no question, there's no excuse, there's nothing that person could say that would make me go "oh... well ok in that case i understand". Nothing. I found this out the morning after and as anyone who reads my facebook updates knows I was a wee tad pissed. Still am. The rapist is actually friends with me on facebook, and i'm gonna keep it that way so i'll know if he's ever visiting my area... so i can go pay him a visit. I've encountered theft, burglary, alchohol and drug abuse, being held at knife point, racism, sexual harrassment... but nothing hit me quite as hard as this. To violate a person... not their things, nothing their beliefs, not their security... but to truly violate their own body like that? Forgive and forget is so not even an option.

Ahem.... moving on... turns out we have to have the roof of our backporch replaced. Yes, replaced, not repaired. Frank took a look and its pretty much wrought thru and thru - so we let the landlord know and she had a guy come by... and that was the last we heard of it like a fortnight ago. lol Its nothing major right now, a few drops here and there during serious rain storms, but I would like to get it fixed before the snow starts falling.

We celebrated the final harvest on Tuesday. That was nice - Frank made a great Italian feast with meatballs and manicotti and eggplant parm, and i made a blueberry pie for dessert. Not my best one, but the pie plate was empty all the same. After eating we played a game of Apples vs Apples... love that game. And it had nothing to do with the fact that I won. Again. Heh.

This week was a pretty big tv week. Monday was the start of Heroes. Love that show. But i'm a huge comic book-heroic type fan so that's pretty much a given. We also watched the pilot for Modern Family... it was pretty damn funny. The Lion King part killed me. And last night we watched the season premiere of Grey's. What a tear jerker that show it... i was a mess by the end. LOL.

Work has been insane - thus the lacking in blogging sorry about that. I think next week will be better but i'm not gonna make any promises just yet. I've had more meetings and reviews and more reviews of meetings than what's humanly possible this week, but its friday and tonight i get to kill things so i'm happy. :: claps hands ::

This weekend we have a shoot on Sunday for a friend. He'll be using the shots for promo flyers for his tatoo biz, an we have the calendar coming closer and closer. We need to secure 2 more models and we'll be good to go. In the mean time I have to find a way to secure time slots for 4 other clients - and i'm going on a business trip next saturday thru wednesday which doesn't really help with studio time but we'll manage.

Not sure what i'll be baking for tonight - totally forgot to do it last night but shouldnt' be too much of an issue, just means no nap before the game. Dinner will be ritz-breaded chicken - i've really grown to like the crunchy style of that. Maybe some homemade potatoe chips (inspired from Top Chef this week) and maybe a small yellow rice dish with some veggies... or some fried zuccini.

Ok... that's all folks - have a great weekend! 

Who needs wrinkles and joint pain when you have a youngin living with you to remind you just how old you really are. LOL. Now don't get me wrong having a youthful mexcian muppet in the house has its bonuses - we get valuable spanish translations for tv programs, unexpected bursts of excitment when various ads for pokemon come on the screen, great stories of pyscho-cranky-customers from the great world of retail, and fun stories of late night drinking and dancing just to name a few. But within 5 days time this lad managed to make me feel older than dirt. LOL. "Who is Clark Gable?" "Donna Summer... she was from the 70s right?" "A Trapper-Keeper? Whats that?" Sigh... atleast with Frank i get to feel on the younger side a bit... but with Felix... lordy... at this rate i'm gonna start asking him for my walking stick.
Now on the other side of things... that boy sleeps like no bodies business. I'm pretty sure he could sleep from Friday till Thursday if he could get away with doing it. Maybe the occassional cigarette break followed by 10 sips of a coke can before putting it on his bureau for 3 months... but he can just sleep and sleep and sleep. I think its a generation thing. Nikki does it do at game night. AT GAME NIGHT!!!! I mean i've dosed during the game when i'm really tired - but that's closer to like 2 or 3am... not 11:01pm and out like a light. Did we sleep that much 10 years ago? I don't recall sleeping that much. LOL. Lets see 10 years ago... I was working for Linkage Inc in Lexington while working the radio during the weekends up in New Hampshire... 106.3 WHOB (said in the radio voice). I'd work fridays from 9 to 5, then go home, nap for 3 hours, shower and then work from 12-6am. I was still living at home then... when did we game, was it Thursday nights? Monday nights? I honestly can't recall. LOL. But sleep wasn't really in teh cards that much. I also had more energy back then lol... my energy these days kinda ebbs and flows... sometimes its decent... sometimes i'm downright exhausted - like when i work a crazy day in cambridge and then go into town for a shoot that runs from 9-12. Yawn. But all in the name of paying the bills and building a business right? Right! lol.

This weekend was a lot of editing for a great shoot last week. Mike will make a helluva model if he can make the right connections. We're showing him the results of said shoot tonight. So saturday and sunday were lots and lots of edits... i think we ended up producing 70 shots or so from the shoot? Which btw is a pretty large number of shots to do edits on. Ray and Frank watched far too much football - granted it coulda been all of 2 games for all i know. Nothing too wild for the food though I did experiment with a new desert.

Sugar cookies mixed witha  few squirts of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup prior to baking. I had to bake them a little longer than usual due to the moisture and had to let them sit longer as well so thinks solidified a bit more. but they came out half decent. A bit stickier than what i'm used to by the container of them was empty by the next morning so they couldn't be all bad.

Well Sam has at least... wedding girl has now officially become Mrs. Doctor. Damned if i can remember what the cute hubby's last name is. He's a head case...errr... I mean head doctor though so atleast she gets to say that she married a doctor. lol. But now that she has returned I only have to take care of 8 or so people. LOL. Its also pretty quiet cuz most of the people are traveling and today is the company service day. Ya know where you go and sort out food for the shelters or weed public gardens... i have people out and about in various countries so i wasn't all that comfortable leaving the area. There was stuff to do inhouse but they finished it in like and hour. Hmmm... so what else could a gay lad like myself do to ensure that i provide service of some sort... hmmm.

This weekend should be nice. Its friday... friday means GAME. And i desperately need that after this crazy week. The goodies for the boys were made last night so i just have to cook dinner for myself. I'm thinking of doing some ritz-breaded chicken wrapped in a strip or two of bacon. And maybe some cheesey yellow rice with red peppers. Saturday will be all about the editing of our latest shoot. We need to have them finished for a Monday night viewing so there won't be any rest for the wicked this weekend. Sunday will be feast... i've already had multiple requests to bake a blueberry pie. Felix wanted the pecan pie but i'll probably save that for the next feast. And that pretty much sums out the totality of the weeknd - though there is likely to be ample amounts of tv-cathing-up.

Relationships seem to be a big thing for me right now. So many people i know are at turning points with theres. I have some that are on the brink of breaking up, I have others that are just starting, others that have come back together after being apart, some where one is moving in with the other, and some who have finally become comfortable with being themself to realize they don't need another to be complete. I mean these things happen all the time, it just feels like an unusual amount of big changes was brought to my attention as of late. I always feel like i got the best draw on that one. Me and Ray were weird in that it wasnt' something we had to work for. I mean I think our first real fight was 2 years into the relationship? lol [Sidenote: never use the word 'rape' when trying to explain to your significant other that your too tired to have sex.] And clearly we've had our moments throughout - he wanted to show up separately for the wedding and i wasn't about to trust him to be on time. That sorta stuff. lol. But I hear all these stories of monumental changes filled with drama and wonder 'what did i do along the way to manage to avoid all this?' But hey - i'm happy for it. I'm not sure I have much experience to think back on when people ask me for advise about these sorta things, but that doesnt' stop them from asking. LOL.

Hmmm... kinda realizing i'm in a babbling chatty mood today, I think its a combination of today being GAME night, a lil too much coffee, and a day of semi-relaxation as far as work goes. LOL. Ok... time to get back to said work - sides I still have to reorganize which models are posing with whom for which month for the calendar project.

happy Friday

This has been such a long ass week... and yet its only Tuesday... how is that possible? lol... First let me apologize for my daily entries going to shit - work has been overwhelmingly busy to the point where i can't even put in a fucking facebook status until 3 hours into being here. Too much to do I gues. It'll be better when Sam returns from getting herself married, but until then the chaos shall rule.

So while i was trying to hack into my bosses blackberry to modifying the call forwarding mechanism so that she'd be able to get her calls while in Japan  one of my coworkers - chuck - came and started chatting. I asked him how his long weekend was since he had taken off Monday. He said it was ok, he was watching a house for a friend while said friend went and spent the weekend down in Ptown. mmmhmm. (side note: Chuck - totally straight, married, father of 1, blah blah blah) And that while he was watching the house he also had to look after his friends chickens. [pause] yes... chickens. In Malden no less. Sadly there was one death but over all he thought he did pretty good. At this point another one of our coworkers joined the frey and as they were departing i said "you know i should get credit for being good" "what do you mean" "well come one... your 'friend', ptown... nother word for male chickens?" it took em a few seconds but the image of Cock finally made it into their brains and they went walking away moaning in disgust. hehe. I love my job.

Last night we had a photoshoot... a friend of a former client/friend/and resident makeup artist - Ricky. His friend Mike wants to get into the modeling industry and needed portfolio pics so we were happy to give him his first shoot. It went pretty well... I think we have a new record for most number of shots taken in a shoot. It was a late one too - 9 to midnight. Finally got home and of course i had a bit of insomnia. So to say i'm a lil tired today is a bit of an understatement. And having all this crazy work? So not helping. LOL. But whatever. Totally worth it for the shoot, he had a great body and we'll be able to give him some exposure in the 2010 Calendar project.

Dinner... not sure what i'm gonna do tonight. We're just about out of olive oil so i'll have to make do with some salad dressing cooking and bake up the chicken me thinks. We'll see though. Might do a mix of spice and bland (bland for yours truly and spicey for the rest of the crew). I'm in the mood to bake a pie... but i'm trying to be good with the eating of the foods and pie will not be good. LOL. So my solution is to post pone till the weekend. LOL. Ooo and i think its time for brownsugar carrots tonight... haven't made those in a while.

Ok, time to stop rambling and finish this chaos for the day.

Well ok... i don't think he technically qualified as a midget but he was really really short... like top of his head was beneath my shoulder kinda short... we were on the escalator going up in the T stop... he was walking up the escalator and ended up tripping, he put his hands out - reflex i spose - and one hand grabbed the side rail, the other momentarily applied pressure to my left ass cheek. LOL He was very apologetic and really.. I was offended, i mean he was kinda cute.

That was the end of my work day... which was 10.5 hours of total fucking insanity. Sam is on vacation... something about going to get married or some such... so I'm covering from here and everything went crazy yesterday in part because we had Monday off. So everyone was scrambling and trying to get everything down, we had people visiting from europe - so there were tons of presentations and meetings and blah blah blah... totally coulda used a drink last night. LOL.

The weekend wasn't nearly as stressful. We had a mix of tv (finished season 6 of Buffy... "Bored now." hehe) and did some house cleaning, grocery shopping and cooking. Monday was Mike and Suzy's BBQ - frank was able to come with us but felix had to work. It was nice... got to see a few people i hadn't seen in just shy of forever. I made peanut butter and white chocolate mini cookies and some peanutbutter fudge. The only real stressful part of the weekend was Monday when i had to drive felix back to work cuz he left my keys there. On the way there a dumbass twat decided that going from the right lane on broadway to the far left-only turn lane without looking was ok... i barely manuevered out of the way followed by and abrupt stop, some honking and some gracefully placed fingers. We made out way into the Northend, picked up the keys and then on the back out when we hit the rotary by sullivan square... some fucking asshole who was on my left decided it was perfectly safe to take a right while in the left lane... cut me off - barely avoided that and if i wasn't so shocked i'da raced him down and cut him off - but it wasn't my exit and i was still convincing my heart to go back to beating. Oh and my theory was given yet more support... it was indeed a minivan. Grrrrr.

Besides that little travel my weekend was great. LOL. Now if i can just make it thru this week in one piece. We revamped the site but we still have two more models to add... and we have a new shoot set for next monday with an incredibly hot lad who is looking to break into the modeling industry... so with any luck i'll be able to say "i shot him when". lol. But for now i'll settle with making it to friday night in one piece lol.

Yes... you read right... we were attacked by a basil snatcher. Somone actually went into our backyard - which means going thru  a gate or thru a prickly bush to get to, and cut out over half our basil plant sometime last night! How fucked up is that?! Tomatoes? fine... Beans? untouched... Cucumbers? Nah... just the Basil plant. I mean dude if you really wanna make that pesto just ask for some, but don't break into a persons yard and chop up the hard work they put into it all summer. Not cool. I know it wasn't the neighbor, cuz she always asks if she ever needs anything, sides she's way too old to be hopping that metal fence that separates the yards lol. So some stranger... maybe one of though crazy brazilian drunks the roam the streets though "ooo free weed!" and just gave it a tug - dunno. But again i say...not cool. Hmmm... just got a text now from frank... apparently the neighbor saw a dire skunk roaming around our backyard yesterday... so its possible that the herb wasn't so much snatched as it was munched... but munch or snatch either way its gone. Sigh.
 
"Release the cats! Take it down! Put those claws to use! Frank... toss those tomatoes into the blender then get it up to the tub... the cats are gonna probably need to soak for a bit lol."

So yesterday i was surfing the network websites looking at the fall schedules for my tv shows... ok i like tv waaaaay too much. LOL I had to make a list of shows, times, dates, networks, blah blah blah and then see what collided with what - thank all the demons on this earth that someone had the genius to create DVR. LOL So in all i think we have like 18 shows on our 'to be recorded list'... like i said, we like tv. Keeps us out of trouble and off the streets... also keeps us from spending way too much money at blockbuster. LOL.  Lots of sci fi stuff this fall so i'm excited about that, and lots of new medical shows, though i don't think we'll be able to see all of them. One more week of True Blood - definitely the best show of the summer.

Did another version of the well accepted ritz-crumb-chicken last night, some different spices... also chopped up some pepper and onion and simmered them in balsamic-v  and later sifted them out of the balsamic and mixed em in with yellow rice, and added pepper.

Ok... i should find some work to do now... lol... later kids!

It was more like a "holy hell that hurts" monday. I woke up and apparently i got my back beaten with a sledge hammer while asleep and no one told me cuz it was in agony. I mean walking took some seriously painful effort.
I managed to shower and get dressed but walking down those stairs? Oh my dear gods!!!! So i couldn't imagine what ti would be like to have to go up and down the stairs at the t stops lol. So i stayed home for the day, mostly just lying in bed reading, switching between comic books and the Mists of Avalon - good book but a bit wordy to read non-stop. Sides, i like pictures. lol. The boys were downstairs working and Frank did his crazy cleaning thing (mops all the floors in like 8 nano seconds, its silly crazy). By nightfall i was doing ok, still tense and there's still some pain but i can walk without biting my lip in agony. We all watched some tele and got caught up on some season finales, and the lastest True Blood - LOVE THAT SHOW!!! And I cooked dinner - which apparently scored big with that evening's diners (see below).

This weekend was nice (at least until i went to sleep on sunday) - Saturday was hurricane madness weather. Rain and winds going crazy. I liked it... kinda locked us in and gave us an excuse to have a tv day. LOL. I don't even remember what we watched, but it was a lot. There was some dinner to be had as well... oh yes the Fish - i'll include that as well down under recipes. Sunday was a visit to the family - where my father managed to scare Raymond half to death but sneaking a live lobster up in front of his face without him noticing till it was too late... that high pitched squeel you heard around 6:00 that night? Ya, that was my beloved husband. He also relocated himself from kitchen to living room in a matter of miliseconds lol. Naturally after that yelp Mackenzie wasn't about to go near that lobster. LOL Needless to say Lobster was eaten that night.... my favorite meal! And I got to take an extra tail home, which i had for breakfast during the morning of agony (for that the pain was worth it lol).

So recipes....

FRESH FISH!!!!!
Whenever i cook fish i usually buy two kinds, one pack of sword fish and one pack of flounder. The darkie and the italian can't stand anything outside of white fish (borrrrring) and I prefer something with more taste. Sides, swordfish is usually cheaper. So Saturday dinner consisted of...
Baked flounder - pulled off the skin, dragged it thru olive oil, then breaded both sides and seasoned with pepper and lemon - baked at 350 for 40 minutes.
Grilled sword fish - in skillet for about 20 minutes, 10 for each side - watch the oil, don't want too much, but you don't want it to burn off either, cuz the sword fish gets burnt easily. Some lemon-pepper for that as well.
Veggies were grilled - seasoned red and green peppers with once diced potatoe, some bread and some yellow rice.
**apparently double breading the flounder was a big hit**

FRIED CHICKEN!!!
Last night was another experiement of cracker-breading. Since I didn't get to enjoy my eats last time due to oral issues i was inclined to try again... now i couldnt' find the same crackers (maybe they got taken off the shelves for too many reports of breaking teeth, but i opted for the original ritz instead).

So i oiled up the breasts (heh), and then matted them with smashed ritz-cracker-crumb, tossed em in an oiled skillet and away we go - added some pasta, and some grilled veggies to boot. Also made the homemade tomatoe sauce (such a difference using fresh tomatoes). The chicken got rave reviews... frank wanted to go and sell it on the corner. LOL Now I haven't worked the corner in a few years now... oh. Umm... hmm. Ya.

Cracker-crumb-mix: one bag of ritz, smash and roll in a produce bag, add in pepper, salt and garlic powder, mix around in bag before pouring onto plate to mat the chicken.

Ok... enough talk about food, time to go eat! 

First of all let me just say thank the holy hells its friday... what a week. But game night is here and committing acts of bloody vengence upon evil wrong doers always makes me feel better. Today was also "Admin Lunch Meeting day". Its a lunch we do every other week at a local pub... where me and the goyls go bitch and rant and eat and they drink. LOL. Fun is had by all. Well when we first started going there I noticed there was one of the cleaners - the guys who'd pick up the dishes and clean the tables and what not... and right away it hit me. BLAM! I've had sex with him! That's what i like to refer to as one of those special tee hee moments. He walked by and gave me the "he looks familiar, but i can't figure out why" look. I think he eventually figured it out cuz he goes out of his way to avoid eye contact now. Heh - guess he doesn't want to tell the girlfriend about some of his unique enjoyments lol.  We used to have all sorts of those moments when we'd go into Boston... Raymond would be like "hmm... i've been in this building before... OH! Ya I had sex here!" lol... i found it hysterial... someone asked me "does it bother you he's slept around so much?" and i just laughed and said "i was always taught that practice makes perfect..." But the tee-hee moments really do crack me up... that happened in the gym a while back... I saw someone whom I work with, his eyes went wide and he immediately turned towards the locker and refused to take his underwear off. LOL Sometimes it happens when i see someone look at me like "i know that tattoo... where have i seen it before?" followed by the moment of recognition. LOL I can tell ya this much, it probably wasn't from facebook. LOL.
Well my stomach is full... and i did an early morning work out today so I'm very sleepy lol. Gonna have to take a nap when I get home be thinks, probably before I do and cook dinner for tonight. Not sure what i'm gonna make... i wanna make some crunchy chicken but the tooth that got operated on is still pretty tender so we'll see.

Ok... so report your tee-hee moments and don't hold back on me.

"Pliars..... drill.... saudering iron... " Welcome to the dentist. Yesterday had one major moment - Root Canal!!!! Yay for deep oral drilling... and yes i mean with an actual drill. My teeth are an ongoing challenge in my life - my epilepsy meds while managing my brain fine do me no favors in the oral department. The same medicine the holds back my natural tendency to do the neurological cha-cha in my sleep also errodes the enamel on my teeth. So infection, errosion, deterioration are all words I've become all too familiar with when visiting the dentist. I had to get a root canal done and as luck would have it it was on the tooth that broke, which actually made it easier for the dentist to access the canals properly. The whoel thing took about 3 hours, 2.5 of which included having a giant rubber mouth guard on - not terribly painful really but my god is that process uncomfortable. After it was all done, my insurance decimated for the year and still having to write out a check for way too much money I got in my zip car and felt like i had been in a fist fight. I drove myself home and crashed on the couch. I downed some advil cuz there was more pain after the fact than during now that the injected meds were wearing off.

I wasnt' in the mood for a good healthy meal really... but i did muster up enough energy to cook dinner for the lot of us. I had a few hours of couch potato-ness to revive so by 7:00 i was good to go for cooking. I needed comfort food so I made myself a grilled cheese sandwhich and a can of tomato soup with some basil.

For the other three smucks I made baked chicken breast, potatoes and veggies and some angel hair pasta.
The chicken breast was apparently a hit... since i wasn't eating it i took the liberty of using ingredients that i can't really stomach lol. The breasts were splashed with hot sauce, sprikled with seasoned salt, and then sprinkled a lot of crushed onion - baked for 25 minutes. The potatoes I grilled in olive oil till all the exposed sides had browned and crisp'd just a bit, then added chopped red pepper and chopped snow peas and with a splash of balsamic vinegar (the peppers really absorb the flavoring) and a bit of the seasoning salt and some cayenne pepper.

We finally got ourselves caught up on Hawthorne - a summer medical hit with Jeda Pinkett-Smith. Really good show, not the same flow as ER but still very good. And we watched TrueBlood... omg I love that show! 

Sigh... and now the obnoxiously loud guy who sits behind me is on the phone again... i'm still trying to figure out why he thinks speaking way louder will somehow make his english better. Sigh. I've got a two hour meeting to run in a bit and i'm in no mood to do it. I just wanna go home and go back to bed. LOL.

Atleast its almost Friday... I need this week to be done... I need Game... I need sleep... and I need my mouth to feel normal again. On the upside we'll be revamping the website this week, so feel free to pay a visit on Monday.

Alright folks... later!