So the big portion of the meat for the OMGWTFBBQ was placed this past Monday… it arrived yesterday without any sort of warning. So grumpy apartment manager because she “had to” move it into my apartment.
Could not imagine why the bugger was so big and heavy until I opened it and saw one of the items inside. Instead of how I had previously ordered it once before in the past, this time it seems like they just took a cleaver to the animal and sent me the whole damn thing. This is going to be even MORE interesting now…
The good news? Lil’ Dude will have his own special stuff I ordered up… and if not then I’ve got me some grubbin’ food for me :P

This weekend is doing test runs on certain things… and if they do not succeed then they are going to be kaboshed from the menu. So everyone hope things go well tomorrow in the kitchen :P


Milady and I will be trying out a new restaurant that opened up at Garden Walk, here in Anaheim, tonight… Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. It definitely sounds intriguing to us… and figured it was time to check it out. Even utilized the restaurant’s online reservation system to make our reservations. It’s pretty nice to see various places doing this now. ^_^
And I’m sure we will have something up soon afterward about our experience there…


More fun-filled excitement in the office… new hire is not going to be getting trained by me to take my accounts. Nope!!! I am keeping them and the new hire is going to be assisting with the FL account. Now this should be interesting… O_o

At least I know I can start filing all of these files again in my cabinets… it was rather annoying having all of these files scattered around my desk not really knowing what was going to happen next. *sigh*


Aside from cooking this weekend, hoping to get more time in on the WotLK beta… I am planning on rolling my third Death Knight this weekend. This one will be Horde as it will allow me to traverse Azeroth without too many issues plus I’ll have my mount already ^_^
Must get more screencaps for folks who are interested in seeing what’s up an coming. I do have some screenshots of me kicking the crap out of some seals… and no… I didn’t start it. They attacked me first… :P
And must try to work on leveling my guy up so I can start exploring beyond the starting areas ^_^


and that is all for now… I need to finish clearing all of this crap off of my desk and try to finish my day somewhat on time ^_~

Seriously… people have been asking me for a while now what I wanted on my birthday. I didn’t know… but it seems everyone pooled their money and whatnot and gave me a 5.8 earthquake for my birthday.

You guys… aren’t you sweet. Could have done without the scary lesbian from CalTech though… O_o

It was a fun ride. I kept my arms, hands, legs, feet, and head inside the ride vehicle the entire time… and it definitely had a surprise ending. Who knew that this thing was would be different from the previous rides I’ve been on? Start off small (*yawn*)… slowly grew… and *POW!!!* hit you with a rolling punch that was not expected.
Quick… someone patent that fucker… it’s quite possibly an e-ticket ride ^_~


and now… back to work… :P

First of all… those who are reading this who are not into World of Warcraft, anything of that nature will be posted after a “page jump” so as to not torture everyone or no one… what you view beyond the jump is entirely up to you.

So let’s get down to business shall we? There is an annual event I hold every year that I try to impress the taste buds of folks in attendance. Hopefully this year will be no exception. We are scaling back dramatically in regards to the amount of money I’m pouring out. Last year was the extreme of that and we all know how that ended O_o
Only one item is questionable at this point in time… but I’m hoping for the best on that. Really I am… and found out that the local butchers at the megamarts won’t help me to dress the meat :P
This year I am hoping to take the focus off of the “weird” proteins and maybe open the minds a bit to other types of foods that might look like one thing and then taste like something completely different.
For you drinkers and non-drinkers out there… I will ask that you be ready for a shot of something though… if all goes well, this will be one that folks walk away from saying that this was really good food without the whole “oh my god I just ate bull balls… and it’s penis?!?!?!”…

Once everything is complete… and the event has passed I shall post up the listing of foods served… and for those curious enough, I’ll give you recipes and/or links of where to find what I did. I do have to thank Richard from “Top Chef” this past season for lighting my fire for being the Willy Wonka of food again.
And yes… there will be one vegetarian dish served that has gotten rave reviews from the carnivores I’ve served it to. So if that says anything, I’m doing SOMETHING right… just not totally sure what though.

And there we go… the invites were sent out quite a while ago… and those coming, you know who you are. Those not attending… sorry, but i was wanting to limit the crowds this year in order to lower my costs associated with this event. As stated before, this event has shown itself to become more and more expensive with each passing year. Last year we topped out at nearly $1500… and that was what I spent. This is not including whatever donations were made… so now you can see why I’m more than happy to cut back on the costs of things. I’m thinking I’ll probably be hitting about half of that, if not under.


Work, oh were are thou work? Oh… you became a stress-filled cesspool again? I’m sorry… what? You’re dragging me in with you too? Bastards!!!!
In less than one month I have had a co-worker take over one of my accounts and in such a short period of time destroy anything and everything associated with that account. I spent the latter half of the week trying to figure out what was going on… to find out of certain receivers had had production orders issued against them… and to find out exactly what I had on-hand in terms of components and finished goods for this client. She had just a bit over three weeks to muck it up… and I’ll probably be trying to fix all of that damage for quite a while.
Anyway, she got her ass canned on Friday… a total shock to her apparently even though we all saw the writing on the wall. When I have to come in and rescue an account because of your mishandling of it, then you are not fit to stay there. I gave you all the tools needed… and I was just one office over if there were questions. But no questions were asked… and none of the tools provided to her were even used. *head, desk, repeat*

So my life has gone from somewhat calm with being part of a 3-person team handling the largest account within our company… to being torn between that account (I have an entire week’s worth of paperwork that I’m entering into reports this weekend from home) and dealing with the clusterfuck of this other account.
The good news? The head honcho has already said that they are going to hire someone else into that position. Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling that I’m going to be stuck with this client after the screw-up of the former co-worker. I have that kind of rapport I guess. When someone screws up an account so badly, I am the guy that typically gets to deal with clean-up and repair whatever relationship is left with the client.

And no… I am not paid overtime for anything I do outside or inside the office. I’m paid the same amount every week no matter how many hours I work… bastards…


and now… the part for those who aren’t gamers to tune out on… Wrath of the Lich King beta stuff…
(more…)

Some stuff went down today and I’m going to be sitting down over the next few weeks to seriously ponder a lot of stuff…
the annual gatherings… I am seriously thinking that this is the last event I’ll be doing in a few weeks. A lot of things go into these events and I’m not sure I have what it takes to do it anymore.

various journals and/or “social networking” sites… do I give a flying fuck about them anymore? Probably not… and it’s not like folks give a rats ass one way or another about me on there too. Remember? I’m just the asshole who’s mean to anyone and everyone.
Only journal that would stay would be this one… and that would be minimal in postings. What is there left to say that I haven’t said before? Nothing…

everything else… yeah… not really caring too much about anyone or anything anymore. Just sick and tired of everything and ready to bury myself in my place and let as few as possible into my inner circle. I go to work… I come home long enough to sleep and then repeat the process. That is it… my life…
And then there are those with whom what was once a commonality is no longer… or not as strong mutually. Personally, I don’t give a fuck about this and that… and not about to subject myself to listening/reading about all the time. And if that is the only commonality then why bother anymore?


so there it is… me putting my shit out there and now it’s time to disappear back into my corner of the world and ponder a lot of stuff over the next few weeks.

Comments turned off on this post… my journal… my choice…

Hello, it’s me, Milady… Yup, doing that weird guest post that happens once in a… Well you get the idea.

This is a gist of our foray up to Santa Barbara, territory I had never been to or at least that I could ever recall. We went to the Natural History Museum, where we found only certain rooms were air conditioned, but fun nonetheless. Then after visiting with Niekon and Cache’s uncle and his family, we went to the Stow House. It was really interesting to see an old house with rich history. Niekon was most enamored with the kitchen. Fascinating that the dining room rug reflects exactly where the chairs were moved in and out for all those years. For those Bay Area people, Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park was named after the patriarch of the family who had helped design said park. We then traipsed around SB’s downtown area as it was too late to go see much else museum or zoo wise. After sniffing out a bar and having a few, we met up with the uncle and family again for dinner at a pub. It was a good day. I must say that the girl behind the bar was quite generous with the Jack Daniels.

But let’s get to the review of the subject line, shall we?

The drive was uneventful. That was good because it meant no traffic jams and the like. The only surprise was a rather steep drive downwards and the realization of having to repeat the same road in reverse. We made a stop in Carpinteria on the recommendation from Niekon’s uncle to break our fast at the Cajun Kitchen, where Niekon was very impressed with the mom and pop feel of the layout, even though there are now six locations to choose from.

The menu was a nice size with many items one would not expect from other eateries for breakfast–blackened salmon, catfish or snapper; pork chops and apple honey pork sausage. All of these items were offered on the side as well. A nice perk to try some of the items without having to inquire or resorting to ordering the complete meal.

Niekon got his favorite meal of chorizo and eggs with hash browns and whole wheat toast. As he was intrigued by the variety of sides, he opted for the lemon chicken sausage as a side.

Cache ordered the two eggs (perplexed as Niekon would say or in the King’s Euphorium, scrambled), with pork link sausage, hash browns and a biscuit. He also ordered a side of biscuits and gravy which caused the waitress to remark, “That’s a lot of food.” I told her that he was a growing boy.

As for moi, I went for the two eggs (smiling or sunny side up if you prefer) with the apple honey pork sausage, home fries and corn bread. On the lighter side, I also ordered a bowl of fruit. Fruit is always nice on a warm day. Quite refreshing.

The fruit and bicuits and gravy arrived first. It was a nice little bowl of fruit that included the usual melon, grapes with diced up orange as well. Not everyone includes orange in their fruit bowl.

Not having been to the South and therefore my culinary palate deprived of such wonderment from the homeland, the biscuits and gravy were like heaven. The gravy was thick and full of flavor. The gravy caused all country gravies we have had in the past to pale in comparison. There were none of the sausage chunks as in other gravies but those were unneeded. It almost seems now that the others have put those chunks in to be the gravy flavoring but to little avail. It is a difficult thought to swallow knowing that we will have to suffer with other gravies until we come back to this one or find one better.

Our breakfast arrived just a few minutes after our “appetizers” and there was a slight scramble to find enough room on the table for the breakfasts and sides. The portions themselves were quite nice and generous, though not overly much. It reminded me of portions my mom would serve.

Niekon was very happy to see that his scrambled eggs were chock full of chorizo goodness. But he didn’t attack that first, he went for the lemon chicken sausage. The hot dog sized sausage was butterflied and nicely cooked. Though the serving was a single link (as the portion seemed to be for the sides). it was still enough to taste and share. The sausage was mild with a wonderful lemon aroma. It was quite tasty. Niekon believes that lemon grass was used to infuse the lemon goodness and not actual lemons. Niekon got a small kick from the lemon flavor that missed Cache and I.

The sausage we seemed to enjoy most though was the apple honey pork sausage. The apple was in the forefront but the overall flavor was delicious. A definite must again. I know it made Niekon want to ask (but didn’t) where they got their sausage from or was it made there.

Breakfast was quite nice. Coffee refills were offered regularly and no one forgotten. The hot tea drinking folks should be warned though. You are charged by the tea bag used. I can’t blame them as I am sure many tea bags would walk out the door otherwise. For me I only needed one as I placed my tea bag into the tea pot to use all the water at once opposed to just in the cup, thus making one use another tea bag because you should NEVER reuse a tea bag.

All in all, this is a place we would definitely come back to. The prices were reasonable, the service friendly and the food superb.

For those that caught that Twitter I kicked out the other day… I have some serious issues with some of the folks who I ride the bus with.

1) if you are talking on your cellphone, there are amazing technological advances in cellphones that does not require you to shout into the phone. Difficulty in hearing whomever you are talking to will not be corrected by you shouting for the entire bus to hear your conversation.
And really… seriously… we don’t give a flying fuck about your conversation. But we will get rather pissed at you as you are attempting to be covert and talk shit about other people who are on the bus with you.

2) smells are an important part of the world around us… and most of us prefer pleasant smells. What we do not like are smells that make us gag because they are so atrocious. For example, maybe popping in a breath mint will help to mask that smell of death emanating from your mouth in the morning… at least long enough to allow me to get the fuck off of the bus before I blow chunks right then and there.
Then again, I spent yesterday evening dissecting forty cloves of garlic (four bulbs) for some roasted potatoes and my hands still have that smell of garlic all over them. Not a bad thing… but it definitely works to put the back of one’s hand up to one’s nose to help mask that funky smell emanating from the maw of the person next to you. Ahhh… sweet sweet garlic… never leave me ^_^

3) if you are ever going to hop on the bus… do not just randomly start shouting on the bus. Seriously… this is not cool and the rest of us will not only ignore you… but will later ridicule you online.
So yesterday I’m heading home after a long day… the gal hops on one stop past Beach and spouts something in Spanish. I have no clue what she’s spouting but some of the other riders are looking at her oddly and ignoring her. A bit further down we gain another rider and she spouts off again in Spanish… the riders are definitely unsure of what the fuck is going on.
Another rider joins the party… and now she’s spouting in English… “for God so loved the world…”
*sigh*
Really? You’re going to start shouting scripture on the bus? Because I know we all want to hear your ramblings… and because I feel like being the evil bastard that we all know I can be. ^_^
So I guess she’s trying to get to State College… we’re on Chapman heading eastbound. State College should be no problem, right? Driver pulled the ultimate winning move. He tells her that she’s going to have to get on the northbound Harbor bus to get to State College… and to think I was going to tell her we had passed it a few stops back… O_o
Bus driver FTW!!! Sadly it dumped her off at the stop that I was getting off at. Quickly cross the street and hope she gets caught by the signal and can’t cross over. I don’t need to deal with her antics any further… she tries to cross then realizes that there are red lights and cars moving towards her. She steps back onto the sidewalk… though I would have gotten a good laugh out of that one getting a little pinball action on Chapman…


For those slightly out of the loop in terms of video games, there is a new “game” coming out in September called Spore and it is the next step in the evolution of the “sim” gameplay. This time you start with the simple building blocks of life… one-cell organisms and you grow from there. Eventually you will have evolved to a certain point where you will have a creature to call your own that will populate some planet somewhere in the universe and continue to evolve and eventually take off across the universe to take over other planets.
What was released this week was the Spore Creature Creator that allows folks to literally fuck around with different things and create whatever the fuck they feel like creating based upon the available tools within the “game”. Below is actually my second attempt with the full version… I made several other types of creatures on the demo version but nothing this extravagant. Once your creature has been created you can actually have it do various poses… dance… and certain emotes. Eventually within the game you will be able to have a lot more options but this is just to get your feet wet in the world of Spore and eagerly awaiting launch day of 7 September (the current release date but this seems to be bouncing all over the place).



So today I wanted to get back into cooking mode in order to prepare for the upcoming OMGWTFBBQ. Hit up the local grocery store and definitely shocked the crap out of the deli section and the meat section with my requests…

Deli section: one pound of provolone cheese… unsliced. I wanted a block of the cheese.
Meat section: two pounds of beef fat… just beef fat. The guy at the counter was unsure and ended up having actually ask the butcher. Sure enough I got my two pounds of beef fat… and the guy was trying to find the sticker/UPC code for charging me for it. Again the butcher said it’s no charge… ^_~

Today’s meal was a late lunch for Milady and Cache… what is known as the Badabing Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Red onions… grape tomatoes… Portabello mushrooms… thyme butter… grated provolone and Monterey jack… and sourdough bread. Milady loved her sandwich… and for Cache I had to replace the roasted veg with pastrami.

Later this week I’ll be working on some different dishes… along with some attempts at items that are going to be for the OMGWTFBBQ. Let’s see how well I can pull this crap off ^_~

Poolside Wii Fit journal… follow the antics of Niekon and whomever else from the dynamic trio as they try to produce some sort of results in fitness using the Wii Fit. This will also be a motivator for me at least to keep up with my workouts since it would seem that people might be wanting to follow along with how I’m progressing. I know my goals are small, but my goal is more to tone up than anything else.

For those on LJ, let me know if you are interested in me setting this up as an LJ feed…

This one is either going to be completely ignored (like most of the video posts) OR you are all going to say how much you hate me now :P



More after the jump

So apparently Anderson Cooper made a fool of himself a few weeks ago during a broadcast by mispronouncing the name of the Nintendo Wii… it’s only been out for eighteen months now O_o

But then a group of folks over at CNN actually got Anderson a Wii and the Wii Fit for his birthday that happened recently… and he was about as clueless as one could be. And could it be he was actually scared of the Wii Fit’s balance board? I feel sorry for the balance board… he didn’t even take off those hard Italian leather shoes in order to step on the balance board. O_O


In other news…
I was scanning around this morning trying to track down a Wii Fit… and for some sad reason the Nintendo website listed out Wal-Mart as a location that sold the Wii Fit. So stupidly I clicked it over and checked to see if there were any stores locally that had it “in stock” as of some horrible hour this morning. Sure enough the store near work allegedly had some.
A co-worker drove me over… he and I were cracking jokes the entire time about feeling unclean even approaching the store in his Prius.
We went into the store… and headed immediately to the Electronics Department… I knew what I was looking for pretty much. Didn’t see it so I asked an employee in that department and she mentioned that it was sold out already. So I grab co-worker to head out… then WM employee stops me and asked if I was really wanting one.
No… I was just asking for the fuck of it. Of course I actually want one… O_o

Another employee heads into a back room and comes back with a sealed case… containing two Wii Fit’s. He hands one to the original employee who rings it up for me… and I walk out of the store with Wii Fit in one hand and the receipt in the other. I was happy… complete…

Milady says I now need to be detoxed to remove the taint of THE EVIL from my person… but I fought back and got her something that matches her bad habit hobby… so :P

now off to finish out my day so I can head home and try not to get mugged on the bus on the ride home ^_~

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