1. The chicken was awesome and (in keeping with RealSimple tradition) very easy and DELICIOUS. The boys were very happy.

2. I dig those fucking SteamFresh things. I’ve probably eaten more vegetables in the last year because of those bags than I have in the last five years.

3. That might be a slight exaggeration but probably not by much, unless you’re counting vegetables on pizza.

4. I didn’t use the olive oil called for in the breading recipe because I use pre-minced garlic that has a smidge of olive oil in it. Turns out the olive oil was totally not missed.

5. Beer is AMAZING.

I’m also apparently having some blog issues with regard to commenting. I thought it was maybe the theme, so I changed the theme and then ran into a whole other bunch of problems so I’ve resorted to IntenseDebate as a temporary solution. I do like that you can use your twitter login to comment so I’m hoping it works out until I have time to poke at the bugs going on here.

Spouse and I are both set up on XboxLive (yay for prepaid cards on sale) so I’m looking forward to LOTS more BandHero.

In unrelated and totally lame news, I bought a scarf today that matches my rainboots. I’m embracing my lame. I’m also considering dying my hair a pinkish blonde, just for the hell of it. That would also, incidentally, match my rainboots although that’s not my main motivation.

I am INORDINATELY excited to find out that other people hate noise-canceling earbuds. I LIKE being able to hear ambient noise. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me from being mugged or hit by cars. While there are definitely times when it’s good to block everything out, I’ve found I can do that by using my attention span/imagination which makes it unnecessary to render myself nearly deaf. Yay brains!

Something I’m not excited about: finding a dentist. I haven’t been to the dentist since we moved to Colorado and I’m working up one hell of a cavity on one of my right molars. I hate the dentist. HATE.

Best news of the week: Colorado FINALLY got around to sending me state certification as an EMT-B (I’ve had national certification since the fall). That means I can finally look for a medical job!

Supernatural was back this week and although I’m only halfway through the ep, I’m stoked. I missed the massive amounts of sarcasm and creepy/scary (not to mention hawt). Mercy is on a par with the sarcasm but balances it out with more humor (and laugh out loud, at that). This weekend’s movie lineup includes: Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row, The Informant, Tenure, The Princess and the Frog and Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, we are random. I may also do a Yg + Spouse recap of Twilight/New Moon because we cracked me up.

I’ve been reading Finch but I’m not gonna lie, the CONSTANT use of. Fragments. Is Really. Annoying. Probably it’s supposed to convey. Speech pattern. Or tone. Mostly. It makes me want to throw. My fucking Kindle across the room. So I keep putting it down. Listening to Oryx and Crake on my ride home from work each day and it just reminds me how much I love Margaret Atwood. The listen is a refresh before I start In The Year of the Flood (ALSO very excited about).

That pretty much sums up all the immediate stuff. I’m going to do a yoga post before the weekend is out (shocking, I know) but for now I’m going back to my chocolate chip cookies and delicious Coors Light. Shut up, I like it. I don’t critique YOUR beer.

Got a notice from Verizon last week that I was due for a phone upgrade. I LOVE my LG ENV2. Love it. This is the phone that, not even two weeks ago, survived three hours in the freezing slush of the work parking lot and possibly being run over by a coworker. LOVE that phone. So I wasn’t really inclined to change when I had a perfectly acceptable and functional phone, right up until a friend mentioned that she kept her really good phone as a backup and upgraded to a new gadgetier phone. That planted the seed. Then I made the trip to the local Verizon dealer to scope out the offerings. The only thing really catching my eye was Droid.

The store didn’t have either droid model in stock (Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris) so I went home and checked out gizmodo and cnet and the usual suspects about the two models. I know people love the iPhone and, no lie, it’s a sweet device, but AT&T provides absolute shit service up here – so much that the tourists CONSTANTLY bitch about it. Not only that but it’s not exactly CHEAP.

I got to mess with the display models at the store and while the Droid has some really nice bennies, the slide out keyboard frankly feels cheap. Like plasticky might-break-if-you-drop-the-phone cheap. The Eris doesn’t have the same battery life but it comes with an 8 gig micro card and is upgradeable. It’s also got Google with voice search and sweet market apps and frankly, the keyboard didn’t mean that much to me – especially because it felt like a crap feature. So. Droid Eris.

Dudes, I LOVE THIS PHONE. I spent a ridiculous amount of time finding and discarding apps, customizing the look, and setting up all my contacts with Google so that I can access my rss feed, my twitter account, my gmail, and pretty much everything I love on this phone. I’ve got Pandora, a great calendar (which is shareable) and this AMAZING app called Ringdroid. Ringdroid lets you take any audio file and customize a ringtone from it. It is THE BALLS. I now have a ringtone that says “I swear to god I’m going to PISTOLWHIP the next asshole who says SHENANIGANS!”

LOVE.

So pretty much all my free time has been sucked up with searching for neat shit on my phone and tweaking my apps. It’s sad. I know.

I’m also a good chunk of the way through Middlemarch, thanks to audible.com. I bought the audiobook because I couldn’t bear reading it and it’s turned out to be surprisingly good. I’m leaning toward the test of a good book being it’s ability to show interesting parallels between its time and now ( whenever “its time and now” happen to be). Also (unsurprisingly) it’s full of great social commentary. So there you are. Go classics!

Last night we had a homemade mini-pizza party with post-apocalyptic virus film chaser. It was kind of fantastic.

In TV news:

Mercy knocked it out of THE PARK this week. I’m always surprised by how much I enjoy this show and that they’re willing to be (sometimes) shockingly honest while at the same time (sometimes) screamingly funny. I laugh out loud during every episode and I also see something that makes me think. I love that. One of our friends who was a career nurse ALSO has great things to say about it and that seems to be a rare thing in med-drama circles.

I’ve been working early shifts which generally means going to bed early, but our DVR was otherwise occupied on Thursday and wouldn’t record The Mentalist. I wanted to go to sleep but it was all Cho, all the time and I just couldn’t pass it up. The writers do such a great job on that show – I knew whodunnit as soon as the culprit was introduced but I DIDN’T CARE because they did such awesome character stuff.

Chuck continues to be awesome. Kristin Kreuk is 1000% less annoying than when she was on Smallville and I’m digging the new team dynamic. Having Superman aboard isn’t hurting things one bit.

Castle is consistent and engaging. I found out during the Superbowl that it’s a local-friend fave as well.

I haven’t caught up on all my Thursday and Friday shows yet.

Work is good! It looks like I’ll continue on mornings/days full time. I’ve been enjoying my tasks and team work so I’ve got zero complaints. Life in general is pretty kick ass.

1. Closing shift – virtually no traffic on the way there or on the way home. My only complication in life is people who don’t know how to drive in the snow and/or mountains. Takeaway: if you can’t, DON’T.

2. Glee! I love Glee.

3. Criminal Minds! I love Criminal Minds. The last couple of episodes have been crazy intense. Such a good show.

4. Mercy! It was back tonight after a hiatus and I am surprised by how much I MISSED it. I have a hard time describing for people why I like it so much but all of the characters are messed up in their own way and no matter what happens on the show, I feel GOOD when I’m watching it.

5. I don’t work until 1pm tomorrow which means AMBIEN.

Both pumpkin tortes are done (one for us, one for the club), the cranberry sauce is finished, and my apple pie is smelling delicious in the oven.

All that remains is, in a few hours, to brine the turkey and tear up bread for stuffing. That and clean the house. Heh. I’ve actually kept on top of the dishes as I was cooking so there hasn’t been TOO much damage done.

This year I’m thankful for good friends over long distances, new friends we enjoy sharing our home with, our family, our health and our jobs. Moving all this way could have been terribly lonely and, while it’s been lonely at times, we’ve got great folks who make up our ‘extended’ family – some of whom we’ve never even met. My life would be a very different thing were it not for the internet. I’m thankful for those who’ve chosen to share their pocket of it with me.

Tonight I may start the torte or cranberry sauce – I haven’t made up my mind.

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Dexter was great last night! The Trinity twists just keep coming. Also, WTF with his wife!? That cannot end well.

Californication. OMG. Rick Springfield. I can’t even COUNT the number of times I laughed out loud watching this episode. Not only that, I laughed JUST as hard tonight when Husband watched the recording. That’s a damn funny show. Not sure what the point is supposed to be but it’s damn funny.

Monday:

Castle continues to be an excellent blend of funny, mystery, crime procedural. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is key, and I frequently laugh out loud at some point during the show. Good clean fun. Two words tonight: DeNiro impression.

House was a little convoluted tonight, what with him jerry-rigging his staff. Cameron was always kind of preachy and they decided to re-emphasize that. Yay for appearances of the former team!

Lie to Me- I’ve been watching this hit and miss. Tonight’s ep was good but I don’t feel compelled to record it. It joins Cold Case in my ‘by the wayside’ list.

Tuesday:

NCIS is consistent! I’m always surprised to find out it’s the “number one show” on TV because it seems like I don’t know anyone who watches it. It’s been good and (of late) heavier on the procedural/lighter on the relationships. The Tim-centric ep last week was great. Unfortunately they’re planning an Abby crossover with a Steampunk bar in L.A. the week of Thanksgiving, so I guess I’ll have to watch at least one more NCIS:LA episode.

Sons of Anarchy! Last week, like WHOA. I actually got all teared up at the end of the episode and they SO win the TV prize for best use of a Patty Griffin song (Mary, if you care). That show is my biggest surprise this season, in terms of just HOW GOOD it is.

V. Jury’s still out.

Wednesday:

Mercy, Glee, Criminal Minds. All excellent, all the time. CM was especially creepy last week. *shudder*

Thursday:

Dear Networks,

Could you please not schedule EVERY GOOD SHOW on Thursday? What about Mondays! Or Tuesdays? ANYTHING?

Grey’s Anatomy, having been on my Bubble List since the premiere, took a turn for the good last week. If Izzy got hit by a bus, I wouldn’t be upset. Other than that, it was all good IntenseChristinaDoctorStuff. Moar, pleeze and IT’S ABOUT TIME.

Supernatural. I’m not even sure what TV show could make fun of their fan base this much and get MORE love because of it. So. Funny. The guys imitating Sam and Dean voice was HYSTERICAL. I’m not sure how they kept doing it with a straight face.  It was a nice break-it-up on the intensity front, but also a really nice check-yourself moment for the boys at the end. P.S. I loved the outtakes w/end credits. Go Kripke!

The Mentalist was FANTASTIC. Love the way they finally brought the group together and HOW CUTE IS GRACE. I also love the creepy/demanding side of the normally joking and (carefully) carefree Jane. That duality is what keeps me watching.

FlashForward is interesting but I’m not sure if I miss an episode that I care. For example, missed an ep 2 weeks ago, watched last week, no marked difference in my interest level.

Bones. Okay, it’s NEVER going to happen but I want Booth/Brennan NOW. Booth was so awesome and I loved the return of his old shrink! This is one of those shows that does a great job of making the story equal parts crime procedural and relationships.

Friday:

White Collar has become my new fave crime procedural (behind Castle but tied with The Mentalist). It has the added bonus of holding Husband’s interest, unlike the two aforementioned shows. Great cast chemistry, fun ‘caper’ feel to every episode.

Medium had a seriously weird episode last week and, per usual, the actors who play the kids were incredible. The fact that everyone in the cast is so fantastic is why I keep watching this show.  Incidentally, the guy who plays Joe is SO UNDERRATED. His performances are consistently believable and understated and pretty much prop up the rest of the show. Love him.

Right. So looking at this list, I spend almost as much time watching TV during the week as I do working my bar shifts. Clearly I need to start teaching yoga classes again STAT.

Tomorrow’s agenda also includes making my very first homemade cranberry sauce, which I’m pretty excited about.

On the plus side, there was an Ulta location RIGHT near where I had to drop the Husband so I was able to replenish my Pur Minerals foundation/powder and finally restock my supply of Lincoln Park After Dark and Lincoln Park After Midnight. Then I got a sandwich and camped out in the Barnes and Noble with my kindle.

Mercy was back on tonight! I really really heart this show such that, like Castle, I can totally ignore when they do some preposterous shit because the show is written well and the casts have such good chemistry that I just. don’t. care. I love Mercy.

In book news, I’ve slightly abandoned The Woman in White for Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson. Possibly winter is a better time for Wilkie Collins and 19th century gothic fiction and based on the near 60 degree temps today, it is NOT winter – at least not yet. Technically I’m well-enough stocked on my kindle that I don’t need books for at least a couple of months, at the rate I’m going.

Because I can’t leave well enough alone, I’ve also got a plan to paint the upstairs bathroom tomorrow. I know.