Bruno

Oh my effin' god. I don't care that some critics have been giving it so-so reviews. Bruno is HYSTERICAL. Go see it :-)

Bruno - Red Band Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Layoffs

Well today ended up being the day. When you combine in the layoffs that happened today with the handful of people who took the early retirement package that the organization had been offering, we ended up losing about 10% of our workforce.

I'm feeling really conflicted about the whole thing. Lots of stuff I won't write about online. But I'm feeling a little unsettled. More people in my direct area of the organization were impacted than I had anticipated, which was tough. And more reorganization of the work unit (not layoffs, just changes in structure) are coming shortly. It could turn out to be pretty great if things go in one direction there, pretty crap if they go in another.

For now, I'm going to just keep doing what I do, being the rock star overachiever that my boss knows and loves. I'm grateful to have him on my side because he is an important ally, but gratefulness doesn't pay the bills, you know what I mean?

In any event, fuck it all anyway, because tomorrow Gary comes home from his trip to Rwanda. And that, my friends, is way more important than any work bullshit that might be running through my mind at the moment. Can I get an Amen?

Moan-Worthy

So with Gary gone on a business trip for the past week, I've pretty much been nutritionally subsisting on chips and hummus, pizza, salads, and veggie burgers.

But last night I was feeling culinary, so I did some grocery shopping and busted out some of my cooking know-how.

And the result?

Delicious!

Spinach-Basil-Roasted Garlic Pesto

Start out by making the pesto sauce. Chop the top off of one head of garlic. Place in a small glass baking dish with about 1 cup of veggie broth, a drizzle of olive oil, and smother the top of the garlic with oregano and a little dill. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 425 for one hour. Let cool.

Next, in your food processor, blend a quarter cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of grated parmesan cheese, an entire 4-oz package of fresh basil, about one-quarter to one-third of a package of spinach, and a handful of cherry tomatoes. Blend until it's a nice smooth consistency, and salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze the roasted garlic into the food processor and give it one last whirl to work that in. Mmmmmmmmmmm, it's looking good already, huh?



From here on out, you could toss this pesto with any kind of pasta you'd like, or use it as a pizza base. But here's what I decided to do:

Onions, peppers, (soy) sausage, and potato gnocchi!

I browned up some soy sausage, the kind that comes in the Jimmy Dean-like tube. While that was cooking, I diced up some red and green peppers and some onion, and added that in with a good helping of black pepper. Cooked long enough for the onions to start to caramelize but not so long that the peppers got mushy.



Next, I boiled some frozen potato gnocchi. When that was done, I mixed together the potato gnocchi, the sausage and veggies, and the pesto sauce. I liberally added more olive oil and grated parmesan cheese. Then, at the very end, I mixed in more spinach so that it would just start to wilt.

For some final color, when plating I added some diced cherry tomatoes and dusted again with a bit of parmesan cheese.

Voila!

SATC - Huh What?

Sometimes I think that there's a definite inverse relationship between the amount of actual cerebral, intellectual work I have to do here at work and/or at school, and the type of mindless entertainment crap that I'll willingly sit through at home.

Case in point. Right now things are taking off for me here at work in an exponential way. I am being challenged more than I ever have, taking on more and more responsibilities, and stretching myself to achieve objectives I before could not have imagined. (Shame there isn't a raise to go along with all of that! But given the layoffs around here, I'm honestly satisfied with having solid employment and a great benefits package.)

Additionally, I'm now well into my second semester of grad school.

All of this culminated last night when I got home from a challenging work-day and spent three-and-a-half hours sitting at my dining room table working on a take-home accounting exam.

By the time 9:30 rolled around, I was so numb and exhausted that I barely had the will to make myself a salad and a small bowl of pasta for dinner.

And what did I do for the rest of the night? I spent two hours flipping back and forth from the Food Network to E and MTV for news about the death of Michael Jackson. But here's the kicker. After all of that, from 11:30pm - 1:30am I sat on the couch watching the friggin Sex and the City movie. SATC! I never even liked the show! WTF!? And I was stone cold sober!

Like I said, I suspect there is some kind of inverse relationship thing going on here. And if that's the case, I'd better watch out. Two more semesters of school and I might find myself sitting on the couch some Saturday night, drooling all over myself like a special child while giggling to the sounds of a Sandra Bullock rom-com.

Thriller night, indeed, Mr. Jackson.