In 9 innings and beyond?

Saw this pic on Facebook today and had to laugh:

Tonight I'm on pins and needles waiting to see what happens in the Cards-'Stros game and Braves-Phillies matchup.  Could we have a one game playoff or could my team be headed to the post season or could my team be packing up tomorrow and getting ready for winter?  I guess we'll find out in a few hours.

I, myself, probably will not be watching the game since Broccoli says I jinx the team and cause them to lose when I either watch it or attend one, but I'll be rooting for them while watching episodes of Restaurant Impossible on Food Network.

LET'S GO CARDS!!!!

The Next Bobby Flay

I got a text from my brother this afternoon that read this:

So I wrapped boneless chicken breasts in bacon.  Seasoned with ginger and hot sauce then marinated with italian dressing overnight.  Pan seared then roasted in the oven with red peppers.  Then I reduced some white wine with butter and garlic salt and dressed angel hair noodles with that.  That's right. Your bro reduced wine and made a sauce.  :)

He also sent me this pic just to rub it in:

Besides being highly impressed,  my initial thought was, geez, I should hire him to cook for me.  All I had tonight for dinner was sauteed veggies in a rice vinegar glaze and some grapes.  Obviously not the dinner of champs here but after a long day at work, its about all I could muster up with the little bit of energy I had left.  Of course it didn't help that my stove and oven didn't work all weekend either due to circuit breaker issues and couldn't plan ahead with a few pre-cooked weeknight meals.

Also, you can bet that when he comes over for our next edition of Sibling Saturday this upcoming weekend, I'm putting his butt in the kitchen to whip me up something delicious.

A new chapter

A few days before I started my new position, this email was sent by my new employer to my email and all of my co-workers:

It is my pleasure to announce the following additions to our Team:

Lindsay will be joining us on September 12^th; filling the open Staff Accountant position.

We are excited and confident that Lindsay will bring her expertise in accounting and enthusiasm to the accounting department.

New Sales Rep (NSR) has accepted the position as the new Midwest Representative for Really Awesome Shoes. NSR lives in Chicago and will come to the St. Louis office Thursday to meet everyone and pickup her samples.

Join us in welcoming Lindsay and sales rep to their new roles!

And from that, I was accepted into my new position.  I can say it's definitely been a crazy two weeks but I am slowly adjusting to the new job.  It's a big change from the business and industry I came from but I think eventually everything will click.  I have become more comfortable in some of my responsibilities and I even got my key to the office this Friday. (I hope this means I'm a keeper!)  I got through an inventory on Friday and this week is month-end (eeeek!).  Ultimately, I need to stay positive and remember I can handle just about anything thrown my way.  (Broccoli has been drilling this into my head since we've been together, guess I should really listen to him now, it may really come in handy.)

Perhaps the coolest thing so far was after work on Tuesday when Coco and I decided to go to dinner and hit the mall.   While browsing one of the stores, I found numerous styles of one of our brands and more specifically one of the brands I do all of the Accounting for.  I became a giddy little school girl and had to take a pic with my phone to send out.  (Yeah, my friends think I'm quite silly!)

In any case, I'm starting to get into my groove and hopeful that things continue to move forward and look up.

Moving on

So my last day at work went fairly well.  There were tears but there were also promises to meet up for lunch in the next couple of weeks.  My new position is literally down the street from my old place and I have told everyone that just because I'm not in the same building we can still all hang out from time to time.  Coco, of course took my leaving the hardest.  We became good friends because of the job and experienced a lot of stuff over the past 6 years on both a personal and professional level.  She came into work Friday with a little note saying thanks for being my friend all these years and these for me --

I, of course, had a card written out for her too saying thanks for putting up with me and getting me through everything life has thrown at me.  I was also going to pick up flowers for her, but I knew she was supposed to head out of town after work to catch her son's college soccer game so I put that off until a later date.

Broccoli met me for lunch on Friday and tried his best to deal with my roller coaster of emotions.  He offered support and encouragement for my new position (yes, I am a bit scared!) and understood why I was crying about leaving the old place (cue, Memories please) and overall eased my mind.

After work I decided to finish out this job the same way I started it 6 years ago.  I went to my Mom and Michael's for dinner with them.  Back then we went to Chevy's for Mexican.  This time, I wanted to change it up a bit so I decided to on Chinese from one of my favorite hometown spots.  I had a good time catching up with them and mostly tried to de-stress from my two long weeks of training everyone on every little duty and job detail in my head.

Saturday was the second edition of Sibling Saturday 2011.  I met my Bro at his apartment and we spent some time catching up and just hanging out.  We also went into town to pick up some much needed apartment essentials for Ryan and his room mates and then grocery shopped so we could make dinner for my Dad.  Ryan and I thought it would be fun to surprise Dad with a visit and dinner.  And Dad was surprised when he came home from work and found both Ryan and I camped out in kitchen creating a masterpiece.
Our creation --

Our version of Moo Goo Gai Pan

 

 

 

And here is Bro enjoying our delicious meal --

Today I've spent my day just trying to prep for my first day tomorrow.  I have my clothes ironed, my paperwork organized and my lunch packed.  I am excited and nervous but overall I'm ready for 9 am.  Transportation turned out to be quite an interesting industry, I can only imagine what shoes and the fashion world will be like.  :)

Simple vs. Real

This was sent to me the other day and I thought it was the perfect thing to post today.

A Simple Friend has never seen you cry.
A Real Friend has shoulders soggy from your tears.

A Simple Friend doesn't know your parent's first names.
A Real Friend has their phone numbers in the address book.

A Simple Friend brings a bottle of wine to your party.
A Real Friend comes early to help you cook and stays late to help you clean.

A Simple Friend hates it when you call after he or she has gone to bed.
A Real Friend asks you why you took so long to call.

A Simple Friend seeks to talk with you about their problems.
A Real Friend seeks to help you with your problems.

A Simple Friend wonders about your romantic history.
A Real Friend could blackmail you with it.

A Simple Friend, when visiting, acts like a guest.
A Real Friend opens your refrigerator and helps herself.

A Simple Friend thinks the friendship is over when you have an argument.
A Real Friend knows that it's not a friendship until after you've had a fight.

A Simple Friend expects you to always be there for them.
A Real Friend expects to always be there for you and for you to know that they are.

Today is my last day at work and I can say, I consider quite a few of my current co-workers my friends, but ultimately I know who my Real Friends are here and who I will continue to remain friends with as I move on to a new phase in my life.  They are the few people that in spite of my attitude or tears or days that I didn't have much time to catch up and chat because of my workload, still cared and still wanted to help make things better.  These are the same people who encouraged me to move forward and make myself happy even if it meant I couldn't see them and spend time with them every single day.


I work closely with two of my closest, dearest best friends.  They are two of the most amazing people you could ever meet.  They have provided me with an infinite amount of support and have helped me through some of the hardest days of my life.  To them I am eternally grateful.  Leaving my position was a piece of cake, leaving them is proving to be a bit harder.  Yet, I know, we will always be Real Friends.

The Final Countdown....

Thanks to the helpfulness of one of my co-workers, this song by Europe has been stuck in my head ALL DAY LONG!  He started his morning by asking if I was ready for my last 4 days in the office and proceeded to sing part of the song to me.  Of course, me being the music lover I am, started singing the rest of it and now that's the only song stuck in this head.  As I was training my replacements, I'm humming it to myself.  As I'm doing data entry to help Coco, I'm humming it to myself.  As I go to lunch and try to chill out and enjoy the early fall-like weather, I'm singing to myself.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

I hope tomorrow someone has another good bye tune for me...something has to get this out of my head!

Almost like the real thing

Broccoli would probably completely disagree with me, but I found a great alternative to a hamburger.  I've been making turkey burgers rather than using ground beef for the last year or so and finally on my last grocery shopping trip, I decided to try something different.
So, let me introduce my newest food adventure --

To me, they taste like a regular burger.  I may even go as far as to say that they are better than a regular burger because I wasn't left feeling stuffed or like I had just clogged my arteries with all sorts of fat.  In any case, I just heated them in my new Paula Deen skillet and then made a burger like normal.  Of course, Broccoli would tell you that the only reason why it tasted like a beef burger to me is due to the fact that I pile my regular burgers with so many "extras" (lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions) that I never really taste the meat anyway.  I did the same thing with my Boca burger.  :)
Now I'm ready to test out some other Boca products -- who knows what kind of yummy lunches or quick dinners I can whip up with their veggie burgers, crumbles or chik'n patties.  It's amazing how many more foods I am now willing to try and prepare when I know calorie counts and other valuable nutritional info.

Note:  I have not been paid by Boca in anyway for this post.  But, if you happen to know someone there, would you tell them how much I love these burgers and have them donate a few boxes to me?!?  Thanks!  :)

Sucked in

It's a 3 day weekend and I've already spent my Saturday running errands and cleaning up my apartment.  While I was at the gym this morning, I was flipping through my favorite channels and happened to find a marathon on Bravo.  Of course, I got sucked in and I've decided that since its a gloomy day here in the Lou, I'm going to spend the rest of my day chilling at home and being entertained by:

It's definitely a train wreck, but so fun to watch.

Hope you're enjoying your Labor Day weekend!