Well this poses to be the most uneventful birthday to date, and I've had a few......

I've been off of work for a week with the hugely popular, world renown H1N1! Go Me!

I'm behind in my studies, but at least my temperature is finally normal. At one point it was pushing 103......

Bob had to work this evening and since I'm not 100% he isn't coming over after work. So much for celebrating our 6th anniversary.

He is coming over tomorrow and at that point, I hope to partake in the traditional part of my birthday...... Scotch at my father's gravesite. You see we shared the same birthday... along with his mother. So she'll be there, but not a Scotch drinker. She was more of a Pink Catawba-totaler. The new GM at Bob's work called a meeting tomorrow at bloody 3 o'clock.  So...........  colour me self indulgent

I know there are some gifts in my future, but tomorrow looks sad. Oh wait...... 'Dirty Sally' is on TVLand.

Thanks for the cupcake Giggles aka judylyn432000 !!!

*points* .... and I made my ownself a birthday icon.

Work Sucks.... nothing new there.

School is moving a bit better... not quite as painful.
I got a much better grade on the most recent quiz, but I'm scheduled for a full blown exam on Tuesday.
EEeeeek!

So to counter my first school exam fear... I've scheduled a much needed first colonoscopy on Monday.
Tuesday don't seem so scary now!

Can you say... scared shitless?


Soooo... what do I want for my birthday?
I mean aside from a new job and a new place to live and all my school expenses paid for.

Hello, my name is Judy and I'll be your server tonight.....

Both elevators broke at the Mother House and some Sisters that live on the 3rd & 4th floors that use canes, walkers and scooters couldn't make it down to the dining room. Then there was the 2nd floor infirmary that gets a whole hot cart of food for every meal.

Some Sisters were trying to call in their food order while others passed off their meal desire to one that could handle the marble staircases. More ambulatory nuns as well as kitchen staff were running food everywhere. At one point, I was the only one cooking (Pasta Primavera and fresh wilted spinach in olive oil for 65), whilst others were throwing cold tuna sandwiches and bowls of soup on trays (meatless Wednesday) together to be delivered hither and yon.

The nutritionist that Sister Conchetta hired is an idiot.  Yes, I know I am repeating myself.... the woman is still an idiot.  She is writing the menus and has never done this before and she is getting big bucks (aka the kitchen's 2009 raise) to perform a task she can't comprehend.  Yesterday she had brother Tom make Almond Flan..... for 95.  Yes, ninety-five sticky sugar and egg filled ramekins that took the greater portion of the day to create..... then knifed onto a plate to make ninety-five sticky plates. The recipe is called 'Easy Lo-Fat Flan' and it is a very easy recipe.... for 8, but not 80.   Clueless... moronic....

Shut up, Judy........

School and my brain aren't clicking.  The words are too big, and my brain is to cluttered with other stuff. I got a C on my first quiz.  I'm hoping that my second assignment will redeem my grade point average a bit.
Light a candle for me kiddies.......

Lock down in T- 48 hours.....  Welcome to Pittsburgh and the G-20...
ummm.. you can't get there from here!

This is my longest posting dry spell ever. 

Work doth suck.
I love the people I work with and for the most part love the Sisters I work for, but the (much wanted) merger has made things downright unpleasant and 'un-Christian.'  I need not.. since I haven't posted in so long, but the new mantra from the governing board is.. "Oh, we don't do that anymore."

School has my little brain in a vice.  Studying nutrition is drier than I'd imagined.  Presently we are reading about: Digestion, Absorption and Transport.  Unfortunately this title makes me think of Festus and his knowledge of how a gun works and actually right now I kinda feel like Festus.  Too many 'bigilty' werds that'z a makin' m'hair change ta the color'a ol Doc Adams.

Ruby and the new kitty, Galen are the bestest of friend and play vigorously.  Galen often wear a lot of dog spit!

AND.... a mere moment of boasting...  I have been a member since babylon5contest's conception but this is my very first gold/first place!





plus a couple others...








Now...... off to 'Nuns R Us' for a day of cooking madness....

I was reminded today that I hadn't finished posting my gastronomical excursion in Louisiana. What set me off, as I pulled cash from my wallet to pay for the repairs on my hearing aids... what?...was a business card that was handed out the first dinner in NOLA. These were acquired when wulfie44  dragged a man from the street in a chicken suit into the Oceana Grill. Poor schmuck and 20 howling women..... he happily gave out cards to the lil' fried chicken shack he was promoting. I'm certain we made his day. We used the back of the cards to figure out what we owed on our bill. Mine was $23 and some change, btw.

Sunday night we were still reeling from our experience at Antoine's... for a number of reasons. So the great and powerful comanches_woman ordered pizza and home_smokey, missm_1974 (edit:) & wisecrackin' misskitty55  and I took one for the team and made a booze run in a torrental downpour. We continued the birthday celebrating for
judylyn432000  and Marilyn aka Dillon with a ( FABULOUS ) cake that was(edit:)from Gambino's by the unusually thin... *wink* Brenda... who probably has a nickname, but I can't remember it. Some of the gals were buggering out on Monday, so on Monday morning, we had to hit the famous Cafe Du Monde for some serious coffee and unbelievable beignets. Man I could go for some o'that right about now!!! The group split up to play for the day, and a few of us wandered the French Market. We visited a lovely book store and the informative clerk suggested a few places for lunch, but shorty there afterward the group spit again so it was up to gsobsess , missm_1974 and myself to venture into one of the referred establishments. OMG.....Coop's had more eclectic ambiance than anywhere we'd been... IMHO. The Bloody Marys along made me glad our bathrooms were equipped with a bidet.... My rabbit and sausage Jambalya, with it's complex flavors were made of awesome. It is one of the house specialties. Even though it had obviously simmered to meld the flavors... they weren't muddy and the shrimp and Tasso ham were easily distinguished. ...am drooling now...

Dinner was a different bill-o-fare at Tony Moran's and since I was still tasting lunch's Jambalya(in my mind), I opted for a Caesar salad. Since this was still NOLA, I opted to have my salad tweaked with fried oysters. It was a great addition and something I'd never see... here in the north. This place was a bit pricey and missm_1974, who also opted for something small, got exactly that. The Shrimp and Eggplant Napoleon was cute to look at and for my mind, very creative flavor and presentation wise, but boy was it small...or maybe I should say teeny tiny and tasty.

Now that I've made myself hungry... and it is well after lunchtime, I think I'll have some lunch.  It'll be dull compared to NOLA!

We were not seated at Deanie's until 9 o'clock. (someone correct me if I am wrong) There was no way in hell or New Orleans that a walk-in party of 20....on a Saturday night, was gonna be seated together so we were split into a few groups.
I shared my late night bite with the adorable judylyn432000 , the equally adorable rachazar and misskitty55  aka 17F(an inside joke)

The place was jumpin' and the Frozen Hurricane that I'd purchased down the street.. to kill some time and fill my belly... killed my belly. I decided to just have a Coke to settle the raging tide in my gut. The waitress brought up some spicy boiled redskin potatoes to munch on while we waited for our food. They were delightful! Since it was late, I opted for just an appetizer of fried crawfish tails with creole tartar sauce. Holy Chow! The portion was HUGE and indescribably delicious! Little judylyn432000 foolishly ordered a shrimp Po-boy which was wonderful, so I was told, but was also longer than her arm. *snicker*

The next morning was the jewel in the crown of New Orleans, jazz brunch at Antoine's. Check out the party rooms! Ours was the Proteus Room, which was right by the wine cellar. The food wasn't cheap.... or even reasonable, but my meal was orgasmic!!! Yes I had a Bloody Mary to start the day off right, but what I ordered rocked my taste bud's sox.... if my tongue actually wore one.

First I had Bisque d'ecrevisses/crevettes aka crawfish bisque and it was buttery, full-bodied and divine, and very reminiscent of my days as an apprentice chef here in the Burgh. (No violetteapot109 , I shan't mention it's name) Once again, I chose an appetizer for my main course. I can, and have made omelettes and Hollandaise sauce and I've also have made the item I had as my entrée, but I don't fiddle around with good crabmeat much; cost prohibitive. Chair de crabes ravigote....*drools* I am aware of the price of this type of crabmeat and the amount I was served in this dish was remarkably healthy.... size wise. Healthy, it is not... tossed with the incredibly rich, complex and somewhat heavyravigote sauce or as we used to call it back in my ol' restaurant dayz....'ravaged goat'. Dessert was amazing and nothing I would have ordered, but we were celebrating 2 birthdays, so they produced a large festive (especially on fire)Baked Alaska.  Twas very splashy, none the less!

Okay... I'm tired now.... too many links and no drinks....
Will post more later.....

Haven't posted for sometime.... It took me a good week to recover from the sensory overload of New Orleans.
The food was all in all pretty wonderful, and the company was awesome!

Right outta the gate, I had to try a "handmade" vodka from the bar at the hotel. It is called Titoand is from Austin TX. It was kind of earthy and not as smooth as I like. Of course after that one it didn't matter what the vodka tasted like, the bartender having made the half price drink well worth it!

The first evening we had dinner at a casual place called Oceana Grill. I had a Cajun platter... touristy, but true to form, everything looked alike, but was quite tasty. I then switched to Bloody Mary's making my intestines sing.

On the first morning I had a lovely breakfast in the hotel's court yard, *sigh* with mmtaeldra , home_smokey and meri_mkfan . The biscuits.... OMG.... the biscuits were like heaven..... light, fluffy and buttery. *drools* No alcohol at breakfast.... *shakes head at self*

Lunch on Saturday was on the Natchez The company was better than the food. I enjoyed vodka tonics with a luncheon of fried chicken and other NOLA buffet-type foods. The bread pudding was.. well... awful.... but sitting with my Wurst stistahz dodgebound and gsobsess made it easier... to talk instead of eat it!

Late, late, late was dinner at Deanie's.  I tried holding off my hunger..... since there was a goodly wait.. for a table of over 20.... I meandered to the far corner and purchased myself a frozen hurricane.  Seemed like a good thing to do and with each drink you get a free shooter.  Mine was a B 52... heh... I think.....

OMGoodnes... look at the time..... off to work and more later!

It was one week ago today that I had the most fabulous memorable meal of my life at Antoine's. The food wasn't the only reason it was memorable..... *giggle* SHOUT OUT....... OMG!