Merry Christmas

Ineffably showed me this Sketchy Santas blog a few weeks ago. This is my favorite of all of the posts... so enjoy and have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Not to pat myself of the back or anything....

I tell certain people in my life that there are two things I do well... the first of which is cooking/baking. The second, well, some people know, and other people know. This weekend, in preparation for the rapidly approaching Christmas Day, I baked, and baked and baked. I decided for a few select friends/co-workers, I would do baked goods for this Christmas. I had a pretty ambitious list of items to bake this year. My list included:

1. Bread and Raspberry Butter

2. Gingerbread cookies

3. Spritz cookies

All of these were relatively new items in my baking skill set. Well, bread isn't... I've baked bread before. Not so much recently, but I have and my loaves usually end up looking funny, but they taste fucking fantastic. Anyhow, I decided to try these new items as well.

So... for the spritz cookies, I bought Wilton's Cookie Pro Ultra II Cookie Press. And if you've never seen or used a cookie press, I highly recommend you do it and do it now! I got the recipe from an old roommate of mine, and can I tell you I loved it! It is so easy and aside from the occasional mutant cookie, it is beautiful and simple and easy and awesome!



I had the most amazing day of baking, and here is what I came up with!



Merry Christmas all y'all!!!

Totally random West Wing find....

I was looking for a picture of Donna Moss and C.J. Cregg for a totally amazing post today, and I came across this I Hate Andie blog. Now, I'll admit, I haven't even ready anything she has posted really, but I did find this one entry with these most adorable little caricatures of the cast from the West Wing.



So this is my West Wing entry for this week...enjoy!

God! I just love her

Mmmmmmmm......

Thank you Village Baker, thank you!

Sign me up!

A few pictures from Puerto Rico

I finally understand the phrase "taking your life into your own hands..."

I got back from my amazing trip to Puerto Rico a couple of days ago. I haven't been able to blog since I got home because I think my soul died a little when I stepped off the plane into the sub-freezing degree weather of Salt Lake City. And while I was in Puerto Rico, for just a few days, it was an amazing trip. A friend who travels there frequently told me that Puerto Rico was the ugliest of the Caribbean islands. Well, you know what, I'll take it. Compared to Salt Lake at the moment, it is fucking paradise wrapped in heavenly something or other.

The island reminded me of Miami in a lot of ways. Beaches, palm trees, bars on windows, concrete buildings, just to name a few. And I am sure over the next few days as I readjust to life among the frozen chosen of Utah, I will blog more about it. But for now, I want to talk about the driving situation down there...

Below, I have a somewhat crude diagram of traffic patterns down in the Isla Del Encanto ...



It seems to me that for every one lane painted on the road, it is customary to try and squeeze 1 1/2 or 2 lines of traffic in that one lane. Blinkers, there are merely painted on the cars for decorative effect, much like Lightning McQueen's headlights in Cars. And cutting people off in traffic (especially on the freeway) is considered an art. Also, pretty much every car I saw there had dents and scrapes on the fenders and along side of the cars, with more than just the occasional missing side view mirror. So, as best as I can figure, driving in Puerto Rico feels more than just a little like, what I can only imagine, playing Russian Roulette feels like.

Another fun fact was the parking situation. As you can see from the photo below, sidewalks double as a parking strip down there.



For all it's craziness, I had an amazing time. I loved it! It would be an adjustment, having to always shave my entire body and pluck my eyebrows (both cultural things for men down there I was told), but I think I could totally adjust and live down there!

Paradise Found!!!

On the left, we have the balls-freezing weather of good ole Salt Lake City, Utah. And on the right, we have the oh-my-god-it's-so-fucking-fantasicly-warm-beautiful weather of San Juan, Puerto Rico!



So, in less than 24 hours from this very minute, I will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am pretty sure that when I do have to come home next week, I will die from the sudden drop of like 60 degrees in temperature, but you know what? For those few wonderful days in between, I'll be livin' and lovin' in the sand and surf of the Caribbean!



For those of you who know me, I so need this. My outlook on life has totally matched the shitty weather hear in Salt Lake City. I'm still working on the goals I put forth in this post. I wish I could say I have been more successful at accomplishing these goals. I don't think I'm totally failing, but I'm not succeeding either. So, this little mini-vacation should do me a shit-load of good (the good kind of shit-load). I'm excited to go, you can probably imagine how I'm bouncing off the god-damned walls today. Just need to make it through a few more hours if work and then I'll be taking the red-eye to JFK and on to SJU.

Oh, and even better, I've been told the guys in Puerto Rico (the ones of the gay persuasion) love, love, love blond hair and blue eyes! Now, I'm technically of the light brown hair type, but I've been told by a reliable source that I will pass. And I'm also so excited to see my friend who I am going down there to see. He's down there going to school. And I know it's hard on him being away from his family, but honestly.... he lives in my idea of paradise! And to make things even better, another good friend just happens to going to be in PR for work while I'm there. Hopefully I'll have some good stories and pictures to share when I get back. Until then, hasta luego!!!

This is "us" time....

I just had yet another incident in the bathroom. Good god people! Standing at the urinal in the men's restroom IS NOT THE APPROPRIATE TIME OR PLACE FOR A CONVERSATION! Seriously, it is "us" gestures from chest in the classic "I" motion to penis time, "us" time I say. It is not the time to discuss work projects. It is not the time to discuss "how are you" topics. Don't ask about my family. Don't ask about my day. Just don't fucking talk, period! Why do some people not get that?

So, to solve this problem of people with no god damned bathroom etiquette, I put forth the following... staff each men's restroom (I don't know if women have this problem, and I don't spend time in women's restrooms, so I don't give a shit to be honest)with a librarian ghost. You know the one from Ghostbusters? She can stand there doing whatever it is she does, and when those bathroom talkers begin to talk, she can politely do the "shhhhh" that she (or he) is so good at. Then if they repeat the offense (and yes, it is an offense), she can give them a second, somewhat more stern and empathic "SHHHH!!!"



And then, if the offender continues to talk in the bathroom... she (again, or he) can give them the "bwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" And promptly kill them and send their wretched soul to hell, where it belongs!