The role of a friend

"A single rose can be my garden....a single friend, my world." -- Leo Buscaglia

This quote sums up my last 36 hours.  While I don't feel like I need to expand, I, at least, needed to post this for myself today.  I have been awake all night long, but pure adrenaline, my role at work and the satisfaction knowing I was able to help someone who needed me the most will get me through the this day.

It's true, a single friend can make someone's world.

Round 2!!!!

I stopped dancing around my living room for a few minutes for this post.

How cool is it to see the Blues knock off the Sharks in game 5 of the first round of the playoffs?!? 

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Simply the coolest!! 
Plus the 2 goals in 45 seconds!  Woo hoo!  This is the team we've been waiting for!!

Antti Niemi wasn't the easiest to beat in net, but the Blues definitely proved they wanted the win tonight!

Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Congrats to my St. Louis Blues!!

All In

Where were you on Black Friday?

The day the United States government ended the Poker Boom?

ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE is the story of the worldwide poker boom that started in the underground clubs of New York City and went on to be played at homes and casinos all around the globe. How did poker become the battleground for personal freedom and the fight for adults to choose how they spend their time and money? The film explains how poker has become the target of politicians who have cut off the ability for millions to play and for many to make a living. 
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE tells the exciting story of poker's renaissance in the first decade of the new millennium, from a game once played only by grandparents and teenagers unable to get a date on Friday night to a nationally televised sport played by millions, and watched by millions more. An activity so hip that even Matt Damon, George Clooney, and Leonardo DiCaprio have a regular game. Played in casinos, basements, on line, in college dorms or at charity events, poker is everywhere. The films explains the "tipping story" to the events and people that came together to make poker so popular that you could see it being played on twelve television networks a week.
This documentary weaves the quest for the American Dream, the ability to take risks, and the celebration of entrepreneurship with a game that began with con men on riverboats and ended up being played by presidents. Poker has become a metaphor for making it big quick, and though millions play it, poker seems unable to escape it's cinematic image of something done by people on the outside of society.
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE tells the story of how poker has come to be a part of mainstream culture while also exploring how poker satisfies our desire to play, win, and shape our identities as individuals. 
ALL IN — THE POKER MOVIE the definitive story of poker. 


 Source:  All-In: The Poker Movie

Super, super geeked out right now!!  Earlier this month I won tickets on Twitter for the St. Louis screening of All In: The Poker Movie tonight and along with viewing the movie, I also get to attend a Q and A with Radio Talk show host Paul Harris and this fella:

Source

Recognize that guy?  It's STL poker player Dennis Phillips who finished 3rd in the 2008 World Series of Poker Final Table.
After a jumbled text message filled with my excitement and a reply of "What???" my awesome Bro agreed to accompany me to the screening.  He has never played an ounce of poker in his life and probably doesn't understand my love of the game, but he agreed to be my guest for the evening.  Who knows, maybe he'll become my new poker buddy after tonight's event.

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Work Potluck

We're having our Spring Potluck tomorrow and I have debated with myself for weeks about what I was going to make.  It's the first "company event" I'm participating in and I didn't want to look like a big dork, plus I wanted to make something springy and light also. 
I researched FoodNetwork.com and found a perfect lunch dish from Giada De Laurentiis to use as my inspiration since I can't seem to ever follow recipes to a "T."

Here's what her Penne with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes looks like:

Source: Food Network

And here's a picture of my creation, Grape Tomato and Asparagus Rigatoni & Rotini:

Pardon the smartphone camera pic.  It was the easiest way to snap a photo.  And I'm sure if I had a food stylist, my dish would look as great as Giada's.  I am pleased with the flavor and tweaked the original recipe by adding Sunburst tomatoes and a homemade Italian dressing/marinade to the pasta. 

Keep your fingers crossed that I have Spring Potluck success!

As Ben Franklin would say,

"The only two things certain in life are death and taxes."

Personally, I'm happy tomorrow is Tax Day.  (Yep, I'm sick like that.  Of course, like the super organized, highly prepared girl I am, my returns were submitted way back in January...seems so long ago!)  But really, I have answered tax questions from a multitude of friends, family and former co-workers for 12 weeks and prepared oodles of returns that this day could not come soon enough for me. 
Everyone hears Accountant and automatically assumes I know the Tax Code by heart.  Contrary to popular belief, while I don't mind doing taxes (another crazy sickness), I'm not an IRS encyclopedia.  I was tested a few times this tax season but I think I would have made my tax professor from college proud of everything I retained (less the fact that many of the limitations and deduction amounts change nearly every year).

With tax season behind me, it's now time to focus on the important stuff again...getting ready for summer!  Definitely hitting the gym hard (harder I should say) over the next few weeks (or so I hope!) so that when swimsuit season rolls around, I'm actually ready.  My diet plan is back in full swing and I've got the determination to lose the 5 or so pounds I've picked up since the first of the year.

Another Sunday, another great Cardinals win!

Great sports weekend here in the STL!  Blues and Cardinals won on Saturday in grand fashion and the Cards finished off the Cubbies series today with a huge win 10-3.  (My man Yadi hit a 3 run homer!  Yeah!!)
Here are a few pics from my seats....nothing special, but it was cool sitting in the luxury suite hanging with JP and his wife, B.Dill and a few others from our company and the industry.

Getting the field ready for action

Westbrook and Molina walking in to the dugout after warm-ups

Yadi up to bat -- right before the HR

Seriously...how can you get tired of looking at this awesome skyline?!?

Such a fun day and a great game and I'm so lucky I was invited!

As you can tell, I've started nicknames for my new group of friends/co-workers.  They've given me a nickname as well....Rick James.  Yep, as in "Super Freak" Rick James.  It's funny how it all came about and I giggle every time I hear it.  I actually may bust out into the song one day too, it's just that funny to me.  And no, I'm not nicknamed that because I look like him.  LOL

Opening Day 2012!

Not the greatest Opening Day in St. Louis for the Cardinals.  They lost horribly to our rivals the Chicago Cubs and the festivities were delayed due to a massive rain around ceremony and game time, but the game was played and St. Louis was abuzz.  These pics are from my view today....the lunchroom at work.  How cool is that?!?

To top it off, I get to go to the game on Sunday with a few of my fantastic co-workers and sit in a luxury box.  Yep, I'm awesome like that!  :)

Btw, see the blue fountain in the bottom of pic 1, yeah, the water in the fountains at Kiener Plaza was turned blue for our St. Louis Blues.  It's been a toss up here Blues/Cards, usually it's red for Opening Day but home games have seemed to overlap a bit.  Ironically both teams have lost the last two days.  They both need to turn it around...we're a Championship city afterall (or hoping to be in hockey anyway!).

Mark your calendars

Things to do in the 'Lou this weekend:

- Blues are playing at home tonight (Game 1 of the playoffs baby!  We're bleeding blue!)
- Cardinals Opening Day is tomorrow!!  (show me your RED!!!!)
- Blues play game 2 of the 1st round of the playoffs on Saturday night  (Let's Go Blues!)
- Big NRA National Convention the next 4 days (we're not known as one of the most dangerous cities for nothing!  At least some of us are taking the constitutional route with our gun collections!)
- Go! St. Louis Marathon on Sunday  (I'll stick to my 10-12 miles on the elliptical for now, thank you very much!)
- WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's St. Louis started Thursday and ends on April 23rd (Still too chicken myself to throw around any real money to play in one of these events, but it's definitely exciting considering how far Dennis Phillips went winning here and taking on the Main Event in 2008.)

And this chick is going back to college with her Bro on Saturday for week 1 of our continuing ed class we registered for.  Bro is worried that he won't be prepared without a notebook.  I've assured him I've got plenty of paper and extra pens.  I think he's more excited than I am for this and I'm pretty stoked.

So much to do....so little time!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny left me a present today!  And can I tell you this is the best Easter present this year.  Super pumped for tonight's Season 2 premiere of....

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'Chopped All-Stars' Is Back

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Food Network's top-rated hit Chopped All-Stars returns for a second season filled with fan-favorite chefs, unexpected ingredients, and fierce competition for a $50,000 prize for charity on Sunday, April 8^th at 9pm ET/PT.  In each of the five themed episodes, hosted by Ted Allen, four specially selected chefs are challenged to create three masterful courses from ingredients in the mystery basket, ranging from beef tendon and crawfish, to black beans with queso fresco and chicken feet. Chopped All-Stars kicks off with Iron Chefs battling in the Chopped kitchen, followed by competitions between Food Network/Cooking Channel show hosts, Food Network Star finalists and Chopped judges. A rotating roster of top-notch judges will decide who gets "chopped" each week, leading up to a final showdown between the four episode winners on Sunday, May 6^th at 9pm ET/PT, where the $50,000 grand prize to the winner's charity of choice will be awarded.

"Chopped All-Stars proved to be a huge success in its first season, and season two really takes the challenge to another level, even pitting Iron Chef against Iron Chef and putting Chopped judges to the test," said Bob Tuschman, General Manager and Senior Vice President Programming, Food Network. "Food Network viewers can look forward to some incredible creativity and entertainment in the Chopped kitchen – all for a good cause."

Episodes include:

Part 1, "Iron Chefs Do Battle" Premieres Sunday, April 8th at 9pm ET/PT 
Competitors: Iron Chefs Cat Cora, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces and Michael Symon
Judges: Scott Conant, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 2, "Prime Time vs. Day Time" Premieres Sunday, April 15th at 9pm ET/PT 
Competitors: Show hosts Keegan Gerhard (Food Network Challenge), Jeffrey Saad (United Tastes of America, Cooking Channel), Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Party) and Marcela Valladolid (Mexican Made Easy)
Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 3, "Food Network Star Contestants" Premieres Sunday, April 22nd at 9pm ET/PT 
Competitors: Food Network Star Season Seven Finalists Justin Balmes, Penny Davidi, Vic "Vegas" Moea and Chris Nirschel
Judges: Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez

Part 4, "Judge Remix" Premieres Sunday, April 29th at 9pm ET/PT 
Competitors: Chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Santos
Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 5, "Grand Finale" Premieres Sunday, May 6th at 9pm ET/PT 
Competitors: Prior episode winners
Judges: Anne Burrell, Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez

Chopped premiered in January 2009 and consistently ranks as one of Food Network's highest-rated primetime series.  Hosted by Ted Allen, the fast-paced competition series challenges four chefs to turn mystery basket ingredients into an impressive three-course meal.  After each course, one contestant gets "chopped" until the last chef standing claims victory. 
Emmy Award winner Ted Allen is the host of Chopped and the author of the upcoming cookbook "In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks" debuting in May, 2012, and an earlier book, "The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes," both from Clarkson-Potter.  Allen also has been a contributing writer to Esquire magazine since 1996. Previously, he was the food and wine specialist on the groundbreaking Bravo series Queer Eye, a judge on Food Network's Iron Chef America and a judge on Bravo's Top Chef.
Chopped and Chopped All-Stars are produced by Notional Entertainment.

SOURCE: Food Network

I haven't pegged my favorite yet, but I'm super excited to watch the Iron Chefs compete tonight and equally jazzed for the basket ingredients!  And in the words of Ted Allen, "Who's dish will be on the chopping block?"

Couldn't have planned it better

I was off of work yesterday for Good Friday, but didn't realize it until late last Friday.  I already had this Saturday filled with appointments and rather than rescheduling them to spread things out a bit, I decided to run my normal weekend errands on Friday and keep Saturday as it was.
My plan was to get up this morning and hit the gym for my 2 hour weekend warrior workout and clean up and change at the gym before my 9 am appointment but by the time I got moving, I only had about an hour and 15 minutes to spare (this included getting ready and drive time).  I didn't want to cut into my much needed workout so I improvised at home and did my core routine and got ready for my appointment.
The cool thing is that my gym is literally across the street from the office I was visiting, so I had the bright idea to pack my gym clothes so I could workout in between that and my hair appointment at 1 pm. The salon is right down the street from the gym so I actually was going to save time and valuable gas by staying out that direction.  After my appointment, I hustled over to the gym, changed clothes, started my IPod and I was off to the races.  About half-way through while I was weight-lifting, I see a head pop in front of me.  Coco, who is never one for a weekend workout at the gym, stopped in this morning and decided to workout as well.  We've been hit or miss working out together after work the last few months with both of our schedules so it was fun to be able to catch up today.  It also made an hour on the elliptical fly by!
We finished our workouts, I got cleaned up and ready (again!) for my hair appointment and we made preliminary plans for the week ahead.  We also talked about making these Saturday workouts more of a regular thing, that is if I stop going to the gym at my usual 6 am on the weekends. (If I have weekend company at the gym, I just might switch things up.)

As for my hair appointment, I'm loving the updated color for summer.  My highlights were spruced up and my stylist trimmed up my ends to bring back the sleekness.  She also straightened my hair better than I can ever get it (crazy wavy hair and no patience!).  Usually I'm not one for taking self pics in my car, but I had to today.  So here you go:

I felt like a million bucks with the new 'do and taking care of everything else on this afternoon's agenda.

Month-end & Office Shenanigans

I forgot that most companies try to close their month-end within a few days after the last day of the month instead of closing November in mid-February.  (Oh yeah, it's true!)
Today was a 12 hour day and I'm halfway closed in both of my companies, this with the help of my boss who has been very understanding.  We did find some time for some office shenanigans though as we tricked one of the other Sales Accountant into believing that our Logistics Coordinator destroyed our boss' office when in fact the the building crew was just repairing his desk.  (Bear with me, I'm trying to think of nicknames for all of my new peeps. Haven't come up with good ones yet!)

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard working at month-end.  Hopefully we'll have everything finished tomorrow and we'll be able to start the month of April.  Crazy, it's April and the start of (Championship!!) baseball season is right around the corner!  (Woohoo!)