Happy Thanksgiving!

For those of you who celebrate it, I hope you are having a great day! Our Thanksgiving is quiet today - it's just the two of us and the cat.

Over the years Thanksgiving has taken many different celebratory forms for me. Growing up, we would travel to various family members' houses for the holiday. We would rotate the hosting duties between my grandmother and my mom's 4 siblings, so each year it was in a different place. I have very fond memories of playing with my cousins (20 in all), eating at one of the "kids tables", listening to all the women in the kitchen and the boys/men yelling at the football games. We were a loud and rowdy clan and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Unfortunately, as we got older, we got more spread out - cousins married and moved off, everyone got busy and those family Thanksgivings aren't really feasible anymore. Nowadays we make due with family reunions every other year. We are still loud and rowdy and its always nice to see everyone and catch up.

In the last years, I have shared Thanksgiving with friends & their families, immediate family members (all or a few), thousands of football fans (Go Cowboys!) and even by myself. I've come to realize that even though I miss those crazy crowds of family, I still can enjoy the day whatever I'm doing and whoever I'm with. It really is a day of thanks and family - even if it means sharing conversations with that family over the phone. The day also brings me joy thru good food and football! (and naps.hehe)

So, for our little feast - we had a delicious Texas'own Greenberg Turkey, mashed yukon gold potatoes (or pure as my Italian calls it), green beans, and rolls. The smoked turkey was DELICIOUS - it's all good and fine to bake your own but believe me, these turkeys are so good and so convenient. No stuffing or cranberries this year but thats ok - everything else was so good, who missed it??

To end the meal, Stefano made his mother's almond torte which was really good. He did a great job on it, and it was his first attempt! (though I must admit, I did miss my pecan pie, but dont tell stef hehe) After that, I napped off and on and watched the Cowboy game (and only drooled a little bit over Troy Aikman and those cute football players in the tight pants). Stef was busy watching some French movie on my laptop. That's my Italian! lol

All in all - it has been a nice stressfree day. Now I am off to make another familial call - hopefully my mom will answer so we can talk football. The game is going great! hehe

More later..

1 Reason to love Texas

I am well aware of the fact that there are many negative things about living in Dallas. As in all towns, Dallas has its pros and cons. Having grown up here - it is home to me so I love it; however, I can also see why one used to less populated/congested areas with prettier landcapes might hate it. With that being said, even those haters would be hard pressed to argue against one of the BEST reasons to live in the Dallas area.

Be it TexMex or real Mexican or heck, just Latin food - it doesnt matter. Its ALL GOOD. We may not be in the NYC league of restaurants but we do know good Mexican & Latin American food. Ahhhh our dinner was so good. And drinks... nothing beats a good happy hour Swirl (frozen margarita and frozen Sangria "swirled") and Strawberry margarita. WOOHOOO

Don't mean to make ya'll too jealous but I just had to share.

More later...

Buzz Words

For the 10+ years I've had a "career" I've worked in the non-profit field which definitely a unique work environment. This new job is the first time I've "dipped my toes" into corporate America and it has been an education. In a future post I may spend more time comparing the two, but for now, I am going to concentrate on one difference that is most obvious to me as an outsider. Buzz words.

From the first day I was there, I would hear various words/phrases over and over again in the course of every conversation and meeting. What the heck are they talking about? What the heck does that mean? Why didn't I learn this in college? lol

It was then that I finally understood the meaning of buzz words to the full extent of definition. This linguistic "skill" is not used merely to make you sound and look more sophisticated or professional. It is not urban legend - the words and phrases are actually ingrained and mired in the crazy mesh of companies. And these suckers just fly out of mouths in normal conversation and with the ease that I have to admire, if not laugh at (in my head of course). Is it only a very Corporate America thing? Do European corporations use this linguistic style? I'd be interested to know.

Since I feel knowledge is meant to be shared, I will now commence in listing the most common (and my favorite) "buzz words" should you somehow find yourself immersed in Corporate America.

Here we go ...ahem...

1. Drive (and derivitives such as driver, driving, etc) - "in charge of; managing." Such as - Al is driving the project; Stacy, you drive this event.

2. Circle Back - "follow up; touch base with." Such as - I wanted to circle back with you and apologize for that email I sent; Did David circle back with you concerning the new program launch?

3. Push Back - "lean on, follow up but with more pressure" used when someone doesn't agree with the answer given. Such as - when a boss confronted with the fact that one of his guys backed out at the last minute from a VERY important committment - Let me push back at Ed and see if his reasons for not going remain the same.

4. Solving for - this one seems obvious - Such as - We are solving for the customer. We are solving for efficiency of resources.

5. Bandwidth - "amount of 'resources' available" - resources usually meaning employees. Such as - The program launches in a month, call customer service to make sure they have the bandwidth.

There are a couple more that stick out but I am becoming so used to hearing them, I forget what they are! (plus this post is already long and prolly boring)

More later..



PS - Lets all pray for and send good thoughts for my friend's funny dog Haley. (I swear I've heard her say "I love you.") She had surgery today and hopefully all is well. We love her!

A picture's worth a thousand words...

Have I told you how much lurrve I feel for these two very Italian creations? They are for sure two of the most important contributions Italians have given the world... sigh ok maybe not. BUT the greatness that is Nutella spread over the yumminess that is the Pandoro.. well it is heaven on my tastebuds and in my tummy.

I have been sick this week with allergies/cold, whatever - sinus hell is what I call it - and made a special trip to the "outside" in search of these specific items. The Pandoro and Panettone are two very traditional Christmas "dolci" that have become very popular here in the States. (as have all things Italian lately) Pandoro is my favorite since I don't really like raisins very much (they are in the Panettone) . I hear there are all different varieties of each but I've yet to see them. Hmmm... what a good reason to spend the holidays in Italy! Anyway, the one pictured above is more of a "Pandorino" because it is small. I was disappointed the powdered sugar wasn't included but I had some in the pantry which worked. Spread Nutella ALLLLL over it and eat. Oh my ... that is heaven. Isn't it cute? Hopefully you can find it in your neck of the woods - if you have a World Market, Central Market or Whole Foods around, chances are they will have it.

That my friends is the highlight of my weekend. sad no? basically I've been blowing my nose and feeling sorry for myself pretty much both days. Also, we've been discussing "future" things alot this weekend which makes me a little depressed. what to do? where to move? sell the house? keep the house? Probably not the best time for serious discussions (being sick and all) but time waits for no man and some things must be discussed. Thankfully, I had my vicks vapor rub, alka seltzer cold/cough, big jar of nutella (with spoon or finger, whichever was closest) and my pandorino. Medicines of the gods =)

More later...


PS - I am so excited about the "Great International City Swap" Shelley is hosting. You have until the 15th to sign up!

Culinary & West Texas Adventures

To end the week, Friday we had a "team" lunch at a sushi restaurant nearby. Now, I've never had sushi, mainly because Asian food is not my favorite and I am always afraid of fishy fish.
So, I was stretching my culinary palate from the gitgo. Because of my lack of experience in the sushi realm, I relied on others to help me choose. First, I looked up the different types of rolls and then relayed them to my boss for ordering. She and another coworker are sushi pros and were ordering all kinds of things. We started with edamame - which were very good! (Stef and I will need to eat those at home) And thinking I was off to a good start, we anxiously awaited for our sushi... totally unprepared for this (see pic). I'm sorry its a little blurry - thats ALOT of sushi. I've never seen so many rolls in my life.lol Needless to say, 3 of us couldn't eat all of that (especially since I stuck mainly to the vegetarian rolls). I can't say sushi my favorite but I ate it and didn't hate it. =)

Then it was a mad dash home to get ready for our trip to West Texas. I cannot stress this point hard enough... but Texas is BIG. It is so big that if you drive 6+ hours in most directions (except of course north/northeast) you will simply find yourself in another part of the state. And so, leaving an hour later than anticipated, we hit the road for our 6 hr adventure...which actually took 7+ hours.lol Road work sucks.

Though much of our trip was in the dark, I must say that between the flat area I call home, and the desert our friends call home - the landscape is really nice. Lots of fall color (dark=no pics) - kind of a cross between southwest mesas and the texas hill country. It was our friend D.'s 40th birthday on Saturday and we had a really nice visit. His wife and I gave him a hard time all weekend for being sooo old - since we are "so young". ok so not so young, but not 40! We spent the weekend siteseeing and laughing (and had some good margaritas too!). I didn't take alot of landscape pics because honestly, its just flat land full of dirt and tumbleweeds (real ones!).

A couple of new things I learned about West Texas:

1. It has sand dunes. Those suckers are tall and the sand is soft as silk.
2. It has its own Stonehenge (who knew?!)
3. It has alot of oil - ok, so I knew that one, but I learned alot about the pumping of it, equipment used to get it, and the "manufacturing" of it; all of which I had no clue about before.
4. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, just wander into the "grass"(grass=dirt) as it is FULL of barb-wiry sticker things that HURT like hell and don't detach themselves easily. ahem... or so I've heard.
5. 40 candles on a cake, when blown out, make ALOT of smoke. hehe




Monahans Sandhills; Stonehenge replica; oil pump thingys; the elusive Jackalope (this is an urban legend, not real, but we had stef going for bit); cacti; candle smoke (hehe)

And these pictures, I just like - they say "TEXAS" to me.



It was a short trip but well worth the drive. Thanks to K & D for a lovely time, of hanging out with good friends and lots of laughs. We were happy to share that landmark birthday with you two.

More later...

And the saying goes..

"If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait a few minutes and it will change." I cannot TELL you how true this statement is. lol

On Halloween, I woke up to humid, warm 70 temps (man the air was heavy) and when I left my house I had a clear cloudless blue sky. I heard a rumor there was a cold front coming in later in the afternoon but didn't think much about it. That is until I saw this:

Now I know this picture sucks because it is from my cell phone but let me clarify a few things. Do you see the top grayish/blue part - looks smooth? That is blue sky (never get good color with a cell). Can you see the HUGE AND I MEAN HUGE wall of clouds underneath that? Though it doesn't look like it here - that is the front and it was a creepy site. It stretched in a full semi-circle around me (I was going east).

I don't think I have ever seen that kind of distinct change in weather. It looked like gray mountains surrounding us. Was weird. Needless to say, the cold did not get here at 5:00pm - oh no, it was cold by 9:00am! And I mean chilly! (for Texas anyway) it's been in the 40s at night and barely 60s during the day. It's great! Other than that, Halloween was uneventful. We have a ton of kids in our neighborhood so our door was busy.

Now, for a shameless teaser... we are going to West Texas for a friends 40th birthday this weekend. So I should have lots of fun and pics to share with you. Come back and check it out! hehehe

More later...