Oh yeah ladies, this is all mine

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Originally uploaded by kckellner.

Eat you heart out - this is my hunk a hunk a burning love . . .

Tiki Time

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Originally uploaded by kckellner.

You know you wanted this - a picture of the tiki costume. This is the best shot of the tiki part, but unfortunately its missing the straw with the orange slice which doubled as a walking stick! Elvis photos are next!

Happiness is a Friday (now a Saturday)

I can't believe (and I am so happy) that the work week is finally over. Even though I have some serious work to do over the weekend, I also have some serious fun to have at Rob and Jenn's Halloween Bash and lunch with Kevin and Chrissie and Sunday dinner at El Gaucho's.

Josh had his Halloween party at work on Friday afternoon. While he was robbed of best costume, we won the pumpkin carving contest (pics later) and got some more cool Halloween decorations (again, pics later).

Saturday morning, sitting at the computer surfing the web and getting caught up on emails with Melo in my lap (she spell checks for me) and Josh getting creamed at his new favorite computer came, something-or-other Nova, its a good day.

Erica - wish you were here to go the Halloween party or shopping and Pride and Prejudice next weekend!! I miss you tons!

Summing Up

Let's see, been a while. Why is it so much easier to think up the blog in my head (where I am amazing writer, full of wonderful prose worthy of awards) than to blog - must be too much time on a computer at work. And cable . . . good thing we're getting rid of that soon.

Anyways, parents have left, work sucks (gee, something new and exciting there), we've got Artie while Kevin and Chrissie are on their first family trip, we're starting the process of the bathroom remodel (more later, still waiting for a tub) and today is Jenn's birthday. We're headed out for a girls night so here's to hoping I have some energy for work tomorrow since there's a crap-load to be done. And fun of fun, its review time, which always brings about the best office dynamics. Don't you just love the passive aggressive partner/boss who loves to give you the compliment that really seems like it should be a compliment, but makes you feel like you just graduated in your chosen profession and have no experience when in reality you are very experienced and have read his or her work/projects which are none too great, stilted, and overblown. I LOVE that, really I do. Now I am all for good editing (everyone can use that), but nit picking because you fancy yourself a brillant writer and not recognizing that frankly, different people write in different ways makes me think, just go f*&(ing right it yourself. (Especially when a client likes it just fine . . . . )

So screw it, its Saturday and time to pretend I have a wonderfully rewarding job that is both fulfilling and socially important such that I can actually enjoy a weekend day without the gut wrenching thought of 'I have to do that,' or 'how am I going to do that.' Maybe I will go carve some pumpkins or something!!

Muchos Gracias, SP

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Originally uploaded by kckellner.

These are the cute little origami items my SP sent me - the kimono is terribly clever!! Thanks, SP!

The best potato and leek soup

Here's the recipe - it had to wait til the morning since we all needed to let the arteries unclog. Actually, although the recipe may sound heavy, the soup is very yummy and not heavy tasting. Thanks again Jenn-all credit goes to her for this recipe.

Potato & Leek Soup:

Ingredients

6-8 slices of bacon
1-2 leeks, white parts only, chopped
2 shallots or 1 medium onion, chopped
1 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cans chicken broth (4 cups)
2 cups hot water
4 medium potatoes, cubed
2/3 cup to 1 cup cream
salt & pepper to taste
nutmeg (optional)
sharp cheese to grate on top (also optional, but really good).

Start by throwing the raw bacon in a cast iron pot on the stove top. Over medium-high heat, cook bacon and while its cooking, add the leeks and shallots. Cook until the shallots and leeks are golden and the bacon is cooked (but not burned), then pour off as much of the bacon grease as you can.

Cut up the stick o' butter and add it to pot with the leeks, shallots & bacon. Melt the butter and then stir in the flour and cook for about 2 minutes until mixture is mixed well and thick. Then add the chicken broth, 2 cups at a time (or 1 can at a time), mixing as you add it. (Option here - I used only 4 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups water as noted in ingredients above; you can use all chicken broth (replacing the water), I just only had 2 cans in the pantry when I made this last night!).

Once the broth and water are all mixed in, add the cubed potatoes. Then stir in 2/3 to 1 cup cream (depending on your artery quotient!), and salt and pepper to taste. You can also add a dash of nutmeg for spice.

Stir everything, then put this in the oven at 325 for about an hour, or until the potatoes are soft. Puree the mixture, but not too much. (Like Jenn, I used our hand
held shake blender thingy).

Serve with grated sharp cheese on top and warm bread or rolls. Very yummy, and a fair (but not too much) amount of left overs. If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes!

Testing . . .

Jenn's wonderful leek & potato soup recipe is in the works and we're starving. It smells really good, but we'll have to see if I got it right. Too bad we're all starved and we started dinner a tad late, but oh well! I'll post the recipe and any tips I learn along the way soon. Needless to say, this ain't no weightwatchers recipe to be sure. But at least I did pour off the bacon grease before adding the butter, right?

Well, we needed a yummy dinner after rounding up the first few bits of my Halloween costume. I really hope it turns out good - it is a cool idea, but I am going to have to invoke some sewing skills I am not sure I have. I can't take credit for the idea though - I found it on line in an effort to find an idea. No pics for in progress- this is top secret. Jenn and Rob's Halloween bash is right around the corner and this year, there's a catwalk for costumes, so its all out!! I can't wait!!

Ahh, Serenity

We saw Serenity last night, and it was SUCH a great movie. Neither Josh or I were big Firefly fans, the SciFi show Serenity was drawn from, but we both really liked the movie. I had seen a few episodes, and the Serenity plot line had a lot in common with my all-time, SciFi fav FarScape, rag-tag band of folks, joined together outrunning big bad evil empire. Since the two shows, I think, overlapped on SciFi, we never really adopted Firefly since Erin and Crichton were our focus (go FarScape - come on full length feature movie, bring back D'Argo, Zan, Pilot, even Rygel and Scorpius!!) Serenity's special effects were really good (although Heather and Colin like to sit close the screen, so that took some getting used to), and I would change one thing in terms of the story, being I don't like a high body count and I am a sucker for the ultrahappy ending. I saw one review that said Serenity was the new StarWars (only in the way that since the new series blew so much, the original StarWars fans need something to love), and someone also said that if Harrison Ford's Hans Solo had his own movie, this would be it (That I can believe-In the words of Lani, Mal is a tasty man morsel.)