Tomato paste-- check.

I do not have a ong weekend, and we get no time for easter, so I think that I have nothing between now and memorial day.

That is far too long between holidays.

Ooh, I just invited some (possibly semi-, but still) vegetarians over for dinner. Maybe I'll make chili!

Tonight I had Italian out for dinner, which was yum, but more money than expected. Which is what happens when you order a million things.

And yet? I really want Korean food.

OMG, this picture of the world's smallest man with the world's tallest man is just freaky: [link]

He Pingping of China holds the hand of Sultan Kosen of Turkey as they attend the Guinness World Records Roadshow, on January 14, 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey. He, standing at 73 cm (2 feet 5 inch), and Kosen, at 246.5 cm (8 feet 1 inch), are both in the Guinness World Records for their statures.

Oh, yeah, we just discovered hominy in chili and it is serious nom. It's the right texture for chili and everything just absorbs all the spicy deliciousness. The SO always makes a big batch that we intend to freeze, but we never do because it's so good we have to just eat it all up.

We make ours with ground bison, natch. And super hot. Because we've been living in the southwest a long time now.

Oh, yeah, and the only major deviation we have in our recipe is that we bring to a boil first, then reduce to a simmer. You can simmer it all day and it just keeps getting better. Then we add the canned beans with their liquid late in the process, so they don't get too mushy.

Do you guys have a long weekend this weekend? We have no holidays between New Year and Easter, it's so wrong.

I do for the first time in live ever, and it's fucking my shit up.

I cannot believe how crazy fucking swamped we've been - we're two weeks into the year and it feels like we've been going full steam for two months already. And it's not getting better any time soon.

Oh, except, maybe a little better. After a long and kind of strange late night IM chat with my boss last night (the kind that started with her pinging me at 11 pm and asking "can I ask you a question and have you be completely frank in your answer" oy) I may have convinced my boss to put our senior people on a two-day-a-week work from home policy. That would be huge for me, from a mental health standpoint as much as workload. Fingers crossed.

Also she managed to get budget to fully fund my Blackberry, which will be an extra $50 a month in my pocket. (Right now they pay the data plan but not the phone; technically the policy is they only fund it at all for people at VP level and above, unless you travel like 80%.)

Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not coping particularly well right now so makes a big difference to me.

Until a few years ago, we were in the same boat (not getting time off between New Years and Memorial Day). Now, they give us Presidents Day off.

I probably won't be getting any PTO between now and then, either, since my boss is out with a broken ankle until about that time (she can't put any weight at all on it for six weeks, had to get pins put in and everything).

If the scheduling of my surgery works out, I'll probably be out for at least half of April. I was just going to take 1 1/2 weeks disability for the surgery, but a friend and former co-worker was telling me that it's easier to schedule too much short-term disability and then come back early than it is to get more if something happens. Also, she told me to relax a bit and take my time coming back. She has a point, so I'll probably schedule a month and then maybe come back after 15-20 days if nothing goes wrong.

That seems like a reasonable way to tackle it, Kathy. We should get together sometime before then.

My veggie chili recipe, since we're sharing:

3-4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large eggplant, diced
3-4 red, yellow, or orange peppers, diced
Other firm squash, diced (optional)
3 medium/large onions, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup chili powder
Lots of cumin (maybe 8 tbsp?)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1-2 tsp oregano
Cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 15-oz can red kidney beans, drained
1 15-oz can black beans, drained
A handful of barley (optional)

Heat the oil in a big pot. Add onions and garlic. Add everything else except cilantro, more or less in order. Simmer 1-3 hours. (Or overnight in a slow cooker.) Stir in cilantro just before serving,

The flavor profile is Cincinnati-style, so it's meant to be served over spaghetti & topped with cheddar cheese.

[eta the cinnamon!]

Those do sound like good things going forward, brenda. Little things make a big difference sometimes. And the work from home is a big thing, if it goes through. Working from home totally rocks it, especially if you have the work ethic and accountability setup for it.

I have a long weekend! AND! It's actually a weekend. The SO is at the music store right now because the boss there is off at NAMM for the weekend. So he's canceled lessons for Saturday. D. will still be working covering the sales floor, but not teaching. And then the school is closed Monday.

So I perform at church Saturday night, have to decide if I'm going to church Sunday morning (I'm thinking not, massive drama at that church at the moment.) but am utterly off otherwise until Tuesday.

And then we have a huge winter storm warning that will give us three major storms with snowfall from Tuesday through Saturday. At our elevation it may be mostly rain. But if we end up getting stuck, it'll be another week off. I think we'll get in Tuesday, but probably not Wednesday.