'Tis The Season to Be Thankful

You know, I am absolutely guilty of forgetting the spirit of this coming holiday. I mean, the intended spirit is contained within the name itself. However, as I was walking into my building for work, I was reminded of something.

As a side-reading adventure, here's how my train of thought went (be warned, I have a roundabout way of thinking, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph). I've edited it to be more readable, since most of my thoughts aren't so succinct:

"Wow, it's almost the end of the month.
"Heck, it's almost the end of the year.
"That means I'm about 30 and a half.
"I remember when a friend of mine would celebrate her half-birthday, which happens to be a day before my actual birthday. (She would get half of a birthday card, by the way)
"I remember when I almost had an awful birthday when I turned 24.
Okay, you are now caught up on my train of thought.

I did almost have an awful birthday, but fortunately for me, A and I were engaged by this point. My roommate at the time (who is a really awesome guy, and this is in no way intended to slight him in the least) happened to have his birthday the day before mine. It fell on a Friday, so he decided to have a party the following Saturday, my birthday. However, I never told him that this was the case, so he can't be faulted for not knowing.

People started to come over, well-wishes were given to my roommate, and the party started. By this point, I had resigned myself to be as humble, helpful, and host...ful(?) as possible. People suffer far greater things than forgotten birthdays, and I was already wonderfully blessed to have Jesus, an amazing church family, and a sweet then-fiance (who was there celebrating my birthday). She had decided to make me this Lemon-glazed Lemon Cake from scratch, and while it was cooling, many of the people who had come to see my roommate were sitting around the living room watching as he opened the presents they had gotten him. I was doing my best to be (or at least look) cheerful, but I must have been doing a poor job, because at some point, A turned to me, motioned to my friends in the kitchen, and said, "You know, I invited your friends. They are here for you." Our church is wonderful, and so it's not uncommon to share the same friends (in fact, it would be strange if you didn't share at least some). I had, therefore, assumed they were invited to come see my roommate.

In that instant, I realized that I have amazing friends and an even more amazing (now-) wife. When we all sang happy birthday, A and the others were singing to me, too. Only a love that originates with Jesus can turn something sad into something so joyful.

So, to all my friends who came on my account, I am very thankful for you.

And to my darling wife, who fills my life every day with joy, I am especially thankful for you!

Sushi for Dessert?!

Thursdays are our usual date night.

Dash goes to Doggie Funland every Thursday for the entire work day, which means that when we pick him up, he's completely exhausted. This is efficacious, since it means that Ashley and I get an entire evening of peace. We can watch an entire movie without being interrupted by random barking at neighbors walking by. We can eat a meal without whining or begging. We can play a board game without a Kong being dropped in our laps (with the implication being that we should fill it with a treat).

Thursdays are our date night.

Some time ago, A and I came up with a list of date night activities that we can pull from when we want to do something a little different. There's things like bowling night, roller skating and wearing as much neon as possible, doing a simple science experiment together, etc. The one we chose this time was based upon a YouTube show we both like called Nerdy Nummies. It's a cooking show started by a girl who makes nerdy/geeky themed treats, and we were inspired by a particular video she did where she made sushi cupcakes.

I should note, that these are not fish-flavored, nor do they contain any fish (well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get to that in a minute). They are matcha cupcakes with white buttercream frosting. The idea is to make them as flat as possible, so that when you frost them and put coconut on top to look like rice, they have the general shape of a sushi roll. Then you top them with a candy treats of your choice (like Swedish Fish -- see not real fish, but they do contain fish of a sort), and voila! Sushi cupcakes.

You are also supposed to use black wrappers (to look like nori), but we couldn't find any at our local store, so I just picked gold, since it looked cool. You'll just have to pretend it has a normal nori-like outside. Oh well!

The recipe we used was meant for several mini-cupcakes, so when we filled a normal, 12-piece tray with the entirety of the batter, the cups were pretty full. They rose beautifully, but like I said, it's important to keep the flat-topped shape so it looks more like sushi. If the cupcakes end up a little too domed, you can just cut the top off, and not wanting to waste anything, we made what we affectionately call "Shrek-aroons."

All in all, it was a really fun date night, and after making late-night deliveries of these treats to two sets of friends who live nearby, we settled in and called the endeavor a success!

So, to my dear wife who is game to try out an unusual recipe with her strange husband -- here's to you!

The Terminal Part 2

 The Terminal story continues....

Techie Dude finally verifies that I am, in fact, me by calling the other office line and I answer.  That's it.

We then spend 45 minutes trying to reprogram The Terminal to latch onto my work Wifi, with Techie Dude telling me to punch certain buttons and me trying not to sigh quite so loudly into the phone (I loathe all things technological that falls to me to attempt to fix.  I hereby abdicate this part of my job description.)

The Terminal doesn't like this.  It decides to spontaneously reboot 3 times.

Finally, we get to the last of the last of the information I need to input into The Terminal: the Wifi password.  I spend several minutes typing the letters and numbers from the keypad like I used to text on my old cellphone...punch the 1 one time for a, two times for b, 3 times for c, and simultaneously punch four buttons while humming the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandee to make it a capital letter. Our password has a '$' in it.  This is apparently a problem.

I get put on hold.

To sum up, The Terminal is not equipped to have the '$.'  I now have only one option - I must change the router password and every computer terminal and device using the Wifi to a password with no '$'s in it.  Instead, I thank everyone for their time and hang up.

I then take a 5 minute walk to get some fresh air.

After venting to M about the situation, he texts the one thing that I laughed at all day:

"We all know that $ is too hard for money machines. - - "

Yes, yes we do.

The Terminal Part 1

I have thought for a while about doing a blog post, but besides my Mom getting her purse stolen/lost and also her getting into a fender bender last weekend, I have had only work-related nonsense to report.  (She's fine, by the way and I finally got the chance to see inside the police station, so...field trip!)

Onto the work-related nonsense.

We are getting a new credit card machine at work.  Unfortunately, this means that we also have to get a new credit card processing company, which required me to fill out more paperwork than when M and I signed the closing documents on our house.  In triplicate.

We have also had a few snafus (I did not actually know how to properly spell 'snafu') including, but not limited to being misquoted pricing on 3 separate occasions and mis-sending the credit card processing machine, a.k.a. The Terminal, to the wrong place.

The Terminal finally arrives.  I spend 30 minutes talking with Terminal Dude #2 (Terminal Dude#1 may or may not have blacked out after our last conversation, hence the #2) and we set up the machine.  Wrong.  We set it up wrong- it was supposed to run off of Wifi.   In the meantime, The Terminal sits ashamedly on the floor, since I have to steal the fax line out of our printer to get it to work.

All that to lead in to this morning's convo with Terminal Dude #3 (who has miraculously not blacked out from our last conversation) and Terminal Techie Dude.

He tries to 'verify' that I am, in fact, working for my organization by sending me a text message to my cell phone.  I think this is weird and I tell him so.  He tries to verify current information about me from this, which is completely unsuccessful.

Techie Dude: "What is your full name?"

I tell him.

Techie Dude: "That's not the name we have on file.  Perhaps a different last name?"

I tell him my maiden name.

Techie Dude: "What is your current home address?"

Me: "Why do you need to know that for a credit card machine that's for my work?"

Techie Dude: "It's just protocol.  Visa and Mastercard use this as a security check."

I give him my address.

Techie Dude:  "That's not the address we have on file."

Me: "I have lived at that address for 2 1/2 years. Where are you getting this information?  It seems old."

Techie Dude: "It's not - it's from 2013.  We get this from Homeland Security, credit card companies and the Social Security Administration.

Me: "Well, I changed my name over 6 years ago when I got married."

At this point, I am frustrated, but also curious as to why a database from Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration was given to a credit card processing company.  Also, it also causes me to wonder about how the Office of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration does not have any information regarding my current name, address or marital status.

I am almost impressed at this level of incompetence.

After processing all of this, I realize...

I am practically invisible and off the grid.

Cool.