Seattle is Nice

I'm in Seattle.

I've never stayed overnight here before - I've always just flown through.

It's pretty nice - I had dinner at Anthony's on the sound last night.  http://www.anthonys.com/home.html

The food was o.k. - but I've had better.

The thing that I loved about the night was...it was a "school" night and I went out.

I didn't stay in.

I made a point to see the pier and have dinner at a locally recommended restaurant.

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

I'm trying to break out of the "it's a week night, I don't want to stay out late (aka 9pm!)" mode.

Baby steps!

Team Building Texas Style!

I started a new job - a fact which I'm sure all my non-existent readers are aware.

And during the second week of this job there was a conference, a kick off meeting for the new year.

And I was invited, I stayed at the Houstonian - which by the way is NOT as nice a its reputation would lead you to believe - I've stayed at nicer hotels in Switzerland, Spain, Austria etc...

But it was nice to be included and able to stay with everyone else so I could "bond" with the team.

Anyway, during this conference there were team building activities that we could participate in, and I picked Golf with a Gun.

Only in Texas would shooting be considered an acceptable activity to bring co-workers closer together, fostering better work relationships.

Here I am working on my working relationship with my co-workers...

We shot 50 rounds, I'd never shot a shotgun before so I was quite surprised at the kick when I pulled the trigger.  I ended up with a bruise on my shoulder from the kick.  Who knew shooting was such an active sport.

Anyway, out of 50 shots I hit 7.  Well, that's what the rifle range guy and the others on my team said.  I think they fudged the numbers.  I think I only actually hit 5.  But I'll take it, it meant that I was 3rd from bottom - 18 out of 20.

Even if I only hit 5 then I wouldn't have been last - I would have been19th out of 20.  Not bad for my first time shooting.

Go Team Building!!! 

Crazy Eye

My humungous puppy has crazy eye.

I was making cookies on New Year's Eve and I reached down to pet Gracie Jane and this is what the end result was:

 Flour on the nose...I didn't mean to do it but it was very funny!

I mean look at her!  She's trying to "see" the flour on her nose and it gave her crazy eye!

When I made my cookies from scratch I used my new Anthropologie measuring cups.

They are so cute!

This was my crazy eye dog at the end of the night - now she has crazy tongue!
 

Crazy eye and CRAZY Tongue!  How can you keep from smiling?!

Doggie School SUCKS!

We are going through our second session of Doggie School.

I picked a different one closer to our house this time.

And the woman keeps persecuting me.

"Your giving her too many treats."

"Use the SWEEPING hand signal to release."

"Put her in front of you, not beside you."

Well isn't that good advice - have the dog in front of you at all times facing you.

That should make for interesting walks don't you think?

So of course I said "Having her in front of me all the time doesn't make sense and is not useful in the real world.  She needs to be beside me." Dumbass (that was said silently in my head).

And what does she say to me?!  We'll learn that later, much later.

O.K....

That makes sense.

NOT!

So I teach my dog to always get in my way now, then teach her to stand beside me later?  That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Maybe that works if you only show your dog in a ring?

Gracie already has the basics down - what I need is knowledge on how to motivate her to walk more than 100 yards at a time.  And I told the bitch that when I signed up.

I don't need her to direct me on what side I should walk my dog - I'll walk her on whatever fuckin side I want.  It's not a crime to walk her on the right instead of the left.

And I don't need a reason to do so aside from the fact that I prefer it and I'm not changing it after 5 months of teaching her to stay on my right.

I'm not going to use a sweeping hand signal to release my dog from a command, I'm not going to keep her in front of me all the time, and I'm not going to stop giving her teeny, tiny treats as much as I want.  The treats are literally smaller than my pinky fingernail.

Gracie weighs over 60lbs.  I don't think she can even really taste the treats they're so small.  They sure as hell aren't going to make her fat or fill her up.

I'm so irritated.

That woman can kiss my ass or give me back my money.

I have A LOT of catching up to do!

I'm not keeping up with the life commentary like I should be.

I'm sucking at it quite frankly right now.

I'm going to work on it and here is my first attempt to catch you up...

===========================================

First I've started my new job - so far so good.  I really like it, but there's this one thing that happened...

I was invited to the 2011 kick off conference and during dinner, before the awards ceremony, I got a little freaked out.

They said Grace before dinner.

Yes I said Grace.

And while the guy was saying Grace, I did the expected.  I clasped my hands and bowed my head, but I had these frantic thoughts rolling through my mind...

Is he serious?  Grace?!

Oh Lord, he is serious....

That guy is really saying Grace...a real Grace...

One that is asking God to help specific people - not just a generic Grace for a good year...

Isn't this illegal?!  Can we be fined for this?  Or sued?

Lord knows someone in this group will most likely complain and sue...

Oh wait - it's a private company - I think they can do this....

Oh, Amen.

The girl next to me, who is also new, cut her eyes my way and asked me if I was religious.

I said not really, then she asked me if this was common in America (she's not from here), I said nope.

And we left it at that.

Interesting.

====================================

Second.

Gracie is going to daycare.

Yep - daycare.  She needed more human interaction with me back at work and the dog walker, well lets just say I don't think Gracie was getting what I was paying for.  I'm not sure they were even coming in to walk her.

So doggie daycare.

So far so good, she seems to like it, and lord knows they adore her.

Everyone seems to adore Gracie - she's such a lovable, klutzy, puppy!

I need to take a new photo of her - she's getting really, really, big.

======================================

Third.

I've been having some really weird dreams.  I'm not really remembering them all but there's one that's burned into my mind...

I was a man, a King.

Blond hair, blue eyes, with one of those pointy beards like back in the middle ages.  And I had two brothers.

Identical.  We were triplets.

One brother knew he was my brother, the other one had been taken at birth (how cheezy right?!) and we were trying to convince him that he was a King too.

We had all been separated at birth and given to different people to raise because the "evil" uncle, minister, whatever, wanted to kill us so he could stay in power.

We (one brother and I) knew who we were but the third had been "lost" and we had just found him.

I guess looking just like the two of us wasn't enough because we were having problems convincing him we were brothers.

Then I showed him the crown that was crusted over with barnacle looking growths that were stone in my dream.  There were really pretty, delicate, blue birds and pearls on the points of the crown.

And for some reason the crown convinced him what we were saying was true.

Oh, and we were immortal.

Cool dream huh?

==================================

I'm trying to remember the other things I wanted to blog about, but of course I've forgotten them.

I'm starting to get back on a regular schedule so I should be back to blogging more often soon.

And exercising (fingers crossed).

And cooking healthier food.

And keeping up with my friends.

And....well you get the idea,

It usually takes me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things when I make an international move.

It's pretty disruptive.

Anyhoo - bear with me there will be more to come!

The Universal Whisky Experience

Guess what I got for Christmas...

Tickets to go here!

http://universalwhiskyexperience.com/

I can't wait!  Who knew that there would be an actual conference for whisky drinkers.

I wonder if there is a conference for coffee drinkers?

Hmmmm, something to ponder...

I looked and I saw conferences for the industry but nothing really for drinkers.

But I did see this article:

http://www.newsroom.heart.org/index.php?s=43&item=973

One more thing coffee is good for...your heart!

Beef - it's what America is cooking...

Can I just say I love the smell of beef cooking in the crockpot?!

It smells better than any old candle you can burn.

I'm cooking a brisket and it smells super yummy!!!

I start work tomorrow at my new job - I'm excited but I'm still playing the lottery.

It's up to 290 million.

The cash value after taxes will be somewhere around 105 million (I'm conservative when I estimate).

Invested at 5% the annual income would be about 5.2 million before taxes.

Which would be a monthly income of about 300k.

I can live off that...can you?

=====================UPDATE=============================

Mega Millions was increased to 330 million due to sales over New Years.

Let us calculate our monthly income...

And by "us" and "our" I mean "me" and "my".

Yeah, that's right...I'm greedy.

And selfish.

I will not be one of those people who win big and then turn up broke in 3 years.

I know the secret.

The secret is:  DO NOT TOUCH THE PRINCIPLE.

Let me say that one more time for those who didn't understand...

DO NOT TOUCH THE PRINCIPLE.


Spend only the income generated from the interest.

That way you won't end up on Oprah crying about how broke you are after spending all the money you won.

So let us continue on with the calculations...

Cash value of 330 million after taxes is approximately 118 million

Invested - 5% annually:  about 6 million before taxes.

Monthly income after taxes:  about 350k

This is a very conservative estimate.

I'm buying tickets...

Stella Sola Houston - Great Place to Eat!

I just wanted to give these guys their own post...

http://www.stellasolahouston.com/

Just in case someone Googled it and just so happened to stumble upon my blog.

If you did just stumble then GO EAT HERE!

My husband and I went a few days ago and throughly enjoyed it.

The food was excellent, the service outstanding.

And the martini's were very well made.

It wasn't food crack but we will most definitely be back.

Glass Wall Restaurant Houston

My husband and I went out to eat a few days ago to a new restaurant.

Well, new to us...

It's in the Heights, very close to where we live, the Glass Wall.

http://www.glasswalltherestaurant.com/GW_Site/home.html

The food was excellent but the manager was an ASS.

If you know me you know I LOVE single malt whiskey.

Well this place had a decent selection so when the manager seated us and handed us the wine list I asked if he has a list of his single malts.

And this is what he said..."No, 38% of my business is wine, the other is only 1%"

Well fuck you very much.

He couldn't just say; "I'm sorry but no?!"

What an asshole!

I wanted to leave.  Maybe he thought my husband and I were a middle class couple splurging and decided to get on his high pompous ass horse.

That sounds kinda weird - high pompous ass horse.

But he was - a pompous ass.

We are middle class, but right now our view of food prices are serious fucked up.

I mean we just spent the last 6 years in London and Dubai.  Two of the most expensive cities in the world.

Let's put it into perspective - it cost us $100 US for two people to eat at Friday's in Dubai.  And more than that in London.

Without alcohol.

Anyway the food was good, the waitstaff were great, and the manager, well he was a huge ass.  So I don't think we'll be back.  I prefer the Stella Sola right across the street.  Great food, great service and the manager didn't give me shit about having a single malt list.

http://www.stellasolahouston.com/