Blue Cheese Chicken Burgers

Since I didn't have class or straight-up studying to do tonight, I opted to cook myself dinner. Since I am trying to be really good about what I am eating, I consulted my food bible, the Weight Watchers app. I have to say, I was pretty proud of these six point burgers, that are meant to emulate chicken wings. I did burn them a bit using my brand new grill pan, but they were still moist and delicious, and had a Cajun flair to them.

Totally unrelated, I found Manischewitz Mandelins (aka soup nuts) at the store today. They are quite yummy and low in points. Yay for me! Also picked up a copy of Shape magazine to give myself some added motivation.

With doing all of this, I am down 4.8 since January 23rd. Woot!

Feeling Accomplished

I had had it with work mentally today, so instead, I decided to organize my desk. I am pretty please with the results. I guess overtime + midterms = Stephanie needs to clean.

Anyways, here is the finished product, and now you know where I spend 40 hours every week.

It's been a long while...

So, I just had an epiphany that I should really start using my blog again. My laptop went down on me in December, and I guess work has take the priority. Work, work, work. Who would have ever thought I would become a workaholic. But alas, that is what I am.

I've also been looking at advancing in my career. How best to do that you might ask? Well, the answer seems to be pointing me towards Business School. Right now, I am seeing if I have the stomach for it. Take an Intro to Business class at the College of San Mateo, a local JC that seems to fit my needs for the moment. Side note: It is amazing to me how some things never change. I have been out of college 5 years, and I thought students would be on their laptops in class, professors would email you their lectures if done on a PowerPoint. But no, write furiously, and don't listen to what I have to say. Just write, write, write. Seems counterproductive to me, but what do I know. I only have my BA, and am apparently, a glutton for punishment. Thank goodness I am on the semester system, I don't think I could handle quarters at the moment.

In another avenue to keep myself busy, I have started attending Toastmasters with Erica to try and up my public speaking game. Occassionally, I have been known to stutter, and not be able to completely construct what I want to say in a way that makes sense to the listener. So alas, I am going to better myself by doing this.

Trying not to overprogram myself, but I feel like I need to do some things so I don't become a complete hermit. Maybe a workout class a couple of days a week is next. We shall see.

I'm also trying to be serious about weight loss. I want to be at my goal by my 30th birthday. Which still seems far off, but clearly is not. I will have to get it in gear. I've been doing this since the beginning of this month, and have already lost 4, and am feeling rather productive about it.

As for everything else, I am taking it a step at a time, and hopefully this blog will kind of help me a little bit on my journey, so I am not internalizing it all the time.

I guess I won't be flying into Johnstown...

So, I officially booked my trip for my annual grandmother vacation October 15-20th. Yay! I enjoy the time to relax and not worry about much else other than spending some quality time with family.

I thought I might fly into Johnstown until I saw this article in the Post. The WASHINGTON POST.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/09/demint_calls_for_an_end_to_mur.html

My mom's quote was quite classic and of a quality caliber...

"Good to know that Johnstown is ready for attack. You know that if any disaster happens that Cambria and Somerset are ground zero. History tells you that."

Where the heck have I been?

Well, I guess it has been a while since I blogged about anything of substance. I am finally in my new apartment, but it won't be properly furnished in the way that I want it for a while yet. But I suppose that is okay. I have also been promoted at work, but that was at the beginning of May, and I don't think that is a newsflash to anybody. And, most importantly, I can confidently say that the stupid non-person I had been blogging about is no longer a factor. Ahhh... freedom.

As for everything else... I was in LA last weekend visiting Rachel and hitting up the Death Cab for Cutie concert. Not a group I would normally see... but heck, I enjoy live music, so when the opportunity came up, I jumped on it.

But as for everything else, I think I am back in the swing of things at work, and more importantly, I am able to get done everything I need to without totally being overwhelmed on the homefront.

So all is going well for now, I think once I get this apartment completely under control, I will feel a lot better :-)

I met J.T. Snow!

He had a signing in downtown Palo Alto tonight and here is a picture of us together. Awwwwww!

And of course, here is a picture of Hannah and I for good measure.

Home Again, Home Again...

Back from Pennsylvania. Had a lot of fun catching up with family and what not. However, I am completely exhausted and I have to go to work in the morning. Boo. I am going to attempt to get myself through work tomorrow and then it is back to packing. I have a little over a week to pack for the new apartment. Eeek!

So, as my last blog post suggested, my cousin, Dan, got married over the weekend. I am officially the "next in line" to get married. Dan chided me on this several times this weekend (I am younger than him by 3 weeks). I said, well, you are going to have to wait a very long while for that to happen, since I can barely seem to hold onto interest with a guy, let alone marry one.

I was also able to spend time with the Rullo posse. A little time up at Lake Stoneycreek (it was freezing!) and hitting some of the usual haunts around J-town are always entertaining. Of course, a lot of it is just taking Anneli's picture at any given opportunity.

It is time's like these that reminds me how important my family is and really how much I love them. We tend to get so busy with our day-to-day lives that we forget about what is important. You always think that you will get to it, and then you never do, and six years have gone by. I haven't seen some of my family in that long and that was brought to my attention this weekend. So, I am going to make a bigger effort to be a more aware family member, and not always pretend that just because I live out here in California, that I am not part of something bigger than my parents and siblings.

On the grandfather update... Papa Molloy is at his home still... so that is a very good thing. Mom says he looks gaunt and doesn't recognize anyone. An interesting tidbit, the only way the staff at the facility can get him to eat is if the window is on his right. This is the position that he would always sit in the kitchen at the house. So maybe that has something to do with it. I was unable to see it for myself, even though I want to. When the family is all together, especially with Anneli involved, it makes this all much, much more difficult. I just hope for the sake of my grandmother, aunts, and mother that at some point we will be able to find peace with the fact that this was the way it was suppose to happen. But to look at him, and see the man who he used to be, and expect him to be that way is beyond painful.