Random Crap in Life…

I love a nice, quiet Christmas. I think I’m pretty lucky to be born in a family where we don’t really care for gifts. I don’t have to fight the crowds at the mall trying to find gifts for each family member. I also don’t have to travel during the holidays. Well, the fact that my family is from a different culture helps a bit.

We had dinner with Mike and Gina. Gina cooked prime rib. I think the last time I had prime rib was more than 11 years ago. I made roasted vegetables with pearl onions, carrots, parsnips, and rutabagas. I found that sage is too strong for roasted veggies; so, I only used thyme and rosemary this time. It turned out so good. But I was more happy with the Brussels sprouts with caramelized onions that I made. I may sound like a dork, but I have never made more beautiful caramelized onions! The key is not to stir (well, I stirred it once). It was such a fluke. I was busy washing and chopping the Brussels sprouts. And for dessert, we had cranberry chocolate tart (with crytalized ginger and creamy Mascapone cheese….mmm). It was the most easy dessert I have ever made.

After dinner, we watched Stardust, a very cute, funny fantasy movie. Even though, it was a very predictable movie, I really liked it. You know, a young man tries to win the heart of a woman he loves by venturing into a magical forbidden land to retrieve a fallen star, and he’s not the only one who’s seeking the star…blah, blah, blah. I remember that Devon went to see Stardust when it was in the theater and really liked it. So, I’ve always thought that it must be a science fiction movie …but, noooo…. it’s such a girlie movie.

It’s snowing here!

So, I’ve been really bad. It has been a whole month since I updated my blog. My manager even asked me when I would write something new. Apparently, he’s reading it. So, I will have to say nice things about work. Actually, I have no bad things to say about work, nothing at all. I like where I work for a change! We had our office Christmas party on the 13th. It was a pot luck. I was going to make a cranberry chocolate torte. But the Christmas party was on a Thursday, and I don’t have time to bake on weekdays; so, I bought a raspberry chocolate cake instead. I remember telling a couple of people in my group that I was going to buy a cake instead because I don’t have time to bake. But my manager still thought I baked the cake, so, he got a slice of the cake and told me it was really good, and it looked professional. When I told him it was store-bought, he felt gypped. Haha. Well, it was a lot funnier at the time. The Christmas party was really fun. One of our project manager brought a Karaoke to the party. At first, I thought, ‘OMG, this is going to be a torture. I don’t sing!’ We were randomly selected into groups. Each group had 4 people. Our group sang ‘My Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’. One of our senior developers was in another group and his group sang, ‘Whip It’. His group was so into it. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life!

Nothing interesting really happened in the last month, just same old stuff… dead mice, live mice (yes, there are live ones, too), rain, work, and the commute. About the rain, there was that storm we had. I think we had 12″ of rain. We ended up with 2 feet of water in our crawlspace because someone destroyed our trench by driving their SUV over it. One of our friends parked her car behind the gym she went to, and somehow it got flooded, and her car was completely under water when she came out. The roads in various places throughout the county were also destroyed.

My commute is getting better. I will have a vanpool in the morning since there are enough of us going on the 7:05 ferry. My vanpool is almost the highlight of my day. (The best part of my day is when I actually get home ) I have intelligent and interesting people to talk with, and sometimes we play Scrabble. Although, we have to come up with a new name. It’s not going to be the ‘chick van’ anymore, but it’s still going to have some of the same people. It’s not going to be all chicks anymore.

Well, this weekend is coming to an end. We had Mike and Gina over for dinner. I made Indian food. I had our intern go grocery shopping. He got paneer and garam masala for me from the Indian grocery store he always go to. (And our other intern went home to Hawaii for the holidays. He’s going to come back with Kona coffee and Macadamia nuts for me.) I made Rogan Josh, Aloo Gobi, and Saag Paneer (my favorite!). Well, here are some pictures…although, I need to work on my photographic skills.