I really am working for "the man"

We have a new-ish boss. She's making ripples, changing things, focusing on "moving the dial", making us deal with more damn spreadsheets, and basically making life more than a little uncomfortable. She's worked with us for a long time and I do like her a lot. BUT...after my annual review yesterday, I know she had something to do with the fact that my bonus was small, raise was small and my ego is much smaller than it should be.

I worked my ASS off last year. I was out of the office and pounding the pavement to make sure I blasted my sales goal out of the water and barely have anything to show for it aside from habitual migraines and a few thousand dollars. I worked harder than I should have. The German blood coursing through my veins tells me to work my fingers to the bone to make 2007 better and just suck it up. But my shattered ego tells me to say a big FUCK YOU very much and skate by like the rest of the world.

I don't normally complain about things, but this just pisses me off because I feel severely under-appreciated right now. Lame.

Sorry for the negative post. I'm sure I'll be happy KT soon enough. Right now I'm just not me.

Naughty din dins

Yes, this is ribs and fried zucchini. Les asked if I was feeling okay after serving a dinner like this! I don't know what got into me yesterday, but I had a hankering for ribs and something fried. I put together a moist (not dry,not wet, but moist) rub and cooked some pork ribs. They turned out perfectly tender.

I sliced two zucchini squash lengthwise, laid some sliced fontina on one zucchini strip and topped it with another piece of zucchini. Then I dipped in egg and coated with seasoned flour and then fried the heck out of it. This is a modified version of something that Michael Chiarello
did a while back on his show.
I dressed up some standard cornbread mix with a can of creamed corn and a can of sweet corn. I totally pulled a Paula Deen and buttered the top as soon as it came out of the oven.

Talk about naughty and going against my KT grain....it was worth it though.

Amgen Tour of California - Stage 3

Amgen is a biotech company that specialized in cancer research. They are the sponsors of the Tour de California. This is a 700 mile road race that started in San Francisco and will end in Long Beach. San Jose hosted the finish line for stage 3 - they started very early this morning in Stockton and rode in around 3:30 p.m. It's not very often that world-class cyclist like Levi Leipheimer come into town so Huggy and I perched ourselves in the middle of stage 3.

Jens Voight
Jens Voigt (GER) came across the finish line first. Of all the pictures I took, I think his came out the best. I had my camera on the continuous setting with a one second delay, but these guys were riding so fast, they were past me in about one second! I captured really great photos of their support vehicles though:D

San Jose's finest were on patrol on their own bikes as well as their horses. I love the horses, so I got as many photos as they would put up with. It was a fun day.

Here is a link to the rest of the pictures.

what the Carter's did for Valentine's Day

Hubby and I decided to make dinner together tonight as we did for our anniversary. This means much more to us than going out because it's special and more personal. Anyone can sign a check at the end of a meal, but when you cook together you're sharing time and effort with each other. That is much more special in my mind.

We made chicken roulades, sauteed spinach and potatoes fondantes. These are old standbys that are so easy but always turn out satisfying. We stuffed the chicken with prosciutto and fontina and parmesean cheeses. Fontina is one of those versatile cheeses that you can use for most anything. I especially like it on a grilled cheese with ham. Yum. The potatoes turned out nice and crispy on the outside. I love that.

For desert, I found a recipe in the latest Martha Stewart magazine. I don't remember the name because I promptly threw it out in disgust after I was done with it. We were to make chocolate pâte à choux cookies with cream filling. They were supposed to be similar to a cream puff, but not really. Although it was fun attempting this dessert, it did not turn out as it should have. While following the "stir vigorously" prompt of the recipe, I added the eggs too early and the curdled. We stayed the course and finished the job. They were edible, but not fantastic like they should have been. It was fun, though, to see Les piping pâte à choux onto the cookie sheet though!

San Jose Museum of Art

We met our friends Trish and Andy for brunch today at Lowry's Irish Coffee Shop. This is my very favorite place for coffee. On the days I have time, I stop by for a latte and veggie bagel before heading to work; that is just one block away.

Trish and Andy are two very special people that have bold characters and definitely stand out from the crowd. They don't look bold, but their personalities are strong and both have a comic delivery that makes you chuckle for days after you've talked to them.

Andy is Les' oldest friend from England. They grew up in the same small town, ended up going to the same university and ultimately moving to the Bay Area at the same time...all the while the other didn't know. They just bumped into each other while out one night. Kindred spirits, they are.

Trish is Andy's fiance and she's a lawyer. She's extremely smart and has a matter-of-fact way about her. I like her a lot and think she and Andy are completely meant for each other.

Anyway, enough about them. After lunch, we decided to walk around downtown San Jose. We ended up at the San Jose Museum of Art and went in for the M.C. Escher exhibit. This was mind-bending Op Art. I enjoy the weird, abstract kind of art. I think my favorite was, Rippled Surface. Les liked Puddle the best.

Due to copyright laws, I cannot post pictures of either of these works, I think I might be channelling Sheri and her moral values through me right now because I never would have had a problem with that until she mentioned how vehemently against it she is, but you can view them on The Official M.C. Escher website.

We walked around some more and talked about how San Jose needs more parking. They are building four high-rise condo buildings that have made accommodation for more retail and restaurant space, but no mention of anymore parking structures. Parking is already a problem, I hope they rectify that. It will end up being like San Francisco if they don't put in some parking plans. And we all know how irritating it is to find parking in The City.

Now I'm thinking of taking a nap. Yep, it's definitely nap time:)

workouts and work

Welp, this week was a total loss when it comes to workouts. I did a time trial on the trainer for 1/2 hr on Monday night to establish my LT on the bike...but it hardly counts as a realy workout. That was it. I had other workouts planned but real work just about blew me right over the edge and I almost had a nervous breakdown because of it.

Because I am in sales, I have a sales goal to meet. Because of this sales goal, I have a hard time saying no to clients when they ask me to visit them. Because of this out-of-office-visit-with-clients-to-keep-the-relationship-going time, my other work backed up. Because of this work back-up, my brain feels like it wants to blow out of my head. I like things to be closed and tidy and that was just not happening for me.

We have a new boss and she is changing a lot of things. Making us maintain more spreadsheets and focus on littler details. I'm sure in the long run, this will be good because data is power when used properly. But for someone with barely any spare time, it's a nightmare to meet the deadlines of what she's asking for with these piddly, little, stupid-ass worksheets!

A long-time client has put a bid out for other bank business and gave me a seriously unrealistic deadline as well. They gave me this request for proposal (RFP)on Tuesday and is due next Tuesday! For crying out lout people! Give me a break, throw me a damn bone, let me catch my breath! So, I finished the RFP on Friday at 7pm and turned it over to my coworker so he can present the report to the client.

While on my way to a client call on Tuesday, I got in an accident. I was making a left turn into a nose-in parking spot and some guy hit me from behind because he was following too closely and not paying attention to my blinker. I was all shaken up but still went to my client meeting.

I was out of the office three of the five days last week on client calls, so you can imagine what kind of bottleneck that created in my workload. We have no assistants to turn the "little stuff" over to. I'm in charge of all of it and it's the reason I almost needed a one of those stylish/modern straight/white jackets with the silver buckles;)

Now it's the weekend and I swear all I want to do is sleep. I'm going to try very hard to make that happen.

Serenity Now!

so the Feds found me

It was fairly uneventful as well. The Federal Investigator met me at my office and I saw his badge - it was very heavy and very official. He asked me a lot of questions about my past relationship with my ex. He's in the Navy and applying for some kind of top secret clearance but no other details than that. He kept asking me questions about my ex in the present tense. I kept reminding him that I've not talked to him in over seven years and felt uncomfortable answering questions about my ex's character because I just don't know him anymore.

The interview reminded me of the INS interview the best hubby and I went through when he was applying for his green card....Questions like this:
Have you ever or do you plan to engage in drug dealing?
Have you ever or are you now engaging in prostitution?
Do you plan to plot any terrorist acts against the US? Something like that anyway....
And it just made me wonder if anyone actually answers 'yes' to any of these questions.

Weird. That is all. I told ya - uneventful and yawn-inducing.