Why I have to eat vegetable soup all week

My weight lose efforts are beginning to pay off. As of Saturday morning I had lost about 15 pounds. I’m still not going to blow away in the wind but the pants are getting a little baggy. I am happy with my progress and fully understand that weight management is a long term lifestyle decision in which I control my own destiny. I am also realistic about my love affair with good food and wine and happy to eat carrot sticks for the next week to make up for last Saturday night’s feeding frenzy. Tell me if you think it's worth a week of rabbit food.

Along with our friends Dave and Tawnya Senior, we gathered at our friends Beth and Bob Herman’s home for a food and wine extravaganza. We had gotten together a couple of weeks earlier to work out the details of the meal and each couple agreed to provide 2 courses with wine pairings. As with most events with this group there was some food creep and we ended up with 8 courses not including the appetizer, sorbet or frozen grape palette cleansers. Here's what the kitchen looked like before the frenzy began.

One of the highlights of the evening was seeing three men in the kitchen together doing their fair share.

Here’s the basic run down, minus the soup course which I forgot to photograph. It was shame because Beth out did herself with a cold corn with a fancy French name and it was beautifully topped with drops of cream shaped into little hearts.

Course 2 was scallops with chorizo and sautéed fennel and tomato.

Course 3 - Cuban Surf and Turf. A blackened pork loin medallion topped with a grilled prawn on a bed of lime couscous.

Course 4 – Grilled duck tossed with rocket and candied pecans in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Course 5 – Homemade fettuccini with wild mushroom ragout.

Course 6 – Beef fillet topped with brandied cream sauce served with bacon wrapped asparagus bundles and oven roasted tomatoes.

Course 7 – Cheesecake

Course 8 – White chocolate tiramisu.

The final dessert almost got forgotten, which is why it got globbed on to the plates with the cheesecake. We had a glass to Champaign to start the evening off at 6 p.m. and a glass of wine with each course. It was sometime after 10 by the time we started on desserts and nobody was fussing with presentation after 8 glasses of wine!

A Camel Race

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up but I have two more occupations to add to the “Definitely Not” list – Camel Jockey and Video Editor. The following clip will remove any doubts you may have on either occupation. The short movie has been pieced together from video shot by both Dave and I. The footage was not all from the same race. Hence – I’m not a camel at the start line but on one that crosses the finish line. I just wanted you to get a feel for what happens during a camel race.

The most dangerous part is being a handler at the starting line. The riders are up top and as long as they hang on. Handlers expereince more injuries than riders in this sport. This year's race only had one incidnet that required the team of medics that are on hand. One rider lost her balance in the back stretch and took a flying dismount. There were no serious injuries; she just had the wind knocked out of her.

CAMELS, CAMELS and more CAMELS

Frequent visitors to this blog are aware of my fascination with camels. This weekend provided me with a camel experience that I’ll never forget. I rode a camel in a race!

The annual Lion’s Club Camel Cup sponsored by Imparja Television was held Saturday July11, 2009. Yours truly volunteered to work as a camel handler and got the chance to ride in two races. It was a long hot DUSTY day that I won't forget as long as I live.

The super secret place my dear husband works (aka - Joint Defense Facility at Pine Gap or JDFPG) is a sponsor of the event and provides many of the volunteers needed to run the event which draws over 5000 spectators. Last year, Dave choose not to bring the email home to me because he knew I’d want to help out as a camel handler and he didn’t think it would be safe. He swears that he has “injury warning alarm” that goes off in his head when he encounters a dangerous situation. He has very few scars and his only trip to an Emergency Room was to pick me up. The Shaw’s may have that gene but I’m pretty sure that the Waggoner clan missed out on that little piece of DNA.

This year I had spies funnel the information to me and I signed up to be a camel handler and have the official Cameleer shirt to prove it. It was a wild and crazy experience but also quite educational. Here are a few of the dromedary tidbits I learned.

• Camel feet are bigger than a dinner plate. They aren’t hooves; the soles of their feet are much more like dog paws with lots of calluses and have two toe nails on the front.

• Camels have about the same mental capacity of a smart dog with the temperament of a snotty cat. You can’t make a camel do anything it doesn’t want to do.
  

• The back legs of camels have limited kicking ability; however their front legs are lethal. They can kick directly to the front and then do a big round-house sweep and take out everyone and anything in a 2 to 3 yard area.

• Camels have opposable jaws. Since they can completely off set their jaws a bridal and bit are useless. To control the big buggers, their noses are pierced with a plastic peg. The pegs are permanent and a sting is used to attached a lead rope to the camel.

• Camel saddles were not built for comfort of the rider. Most saddles are built for two passengers. When racing, the jockey sits in the back seat (on the left side of the picture). You ride on the back side of the hump with a bit a cushion for your butt. Those metal bars will leave bruises in some rather personal areas.

• Contrary to what you may have heard, camels don’t spit. They are ruminants and when angered or agitated, they projectile vomit directly out of their rumens. It comes out fast and hard in alarming large quantity and smells REALLY bad.
  

Come back tomorrow for photo and video Camel Racing.

My Spare Time

Those who know me won’t be surprised by the fact that I recently stumbled my way into a great job.

I had finished a couple of large consulting projects and didn’t have any work on the radar. I was getting a bit bored and had read the help wanted ads in the local newspaper. I had seen a temporary part-time filing position. I know a couple of people that work there and had heard it was a fun place to work. I didn’t bother to apply - just pondered the idea. A couple of weeks later, I was at the Saturday morning vegetable market and I bumped into a friend who works at a small non-profit organization. I mentioned that I was bored and had thought about applying for the filing job. She said that they hadn't filled the position and she’d check on the status and let me know.

On Wednesday morning she called and asked me when I wanted to start. I asked that we meet to discuss what the job would entail, the pay rate, hours, etc; and when she had time on her calendar to meet. She replied “Would you prefer before or after lunch today?” I admitted that since it was 10:30 a.m. and I hadn’t been to the shower yet, after lunch would be best.

Because I’m me, I took along a copy of my resume to an interview for the filing job. I went to the meeting and we were chatting about the filing and organizational work they needed done. I presented my resume and mentioned that I had some experience beyond filing that might be useful to the organization. She began reading my resume and ask “You can actually did all this stuff?” Her next action was to yell out the door to the CEO who was passing by and announced "Hey Boss – Bad news is that we still need someone to help out with the filing. Good news is that I’ve found the answer to our communications problems!”

I am now the editorial liaison for the organization. It’s a brand new position created that Wednesday afternoon. I tried for the title of Communications Goddess, but when they said I’d have to work full time to be a goddess I settled for Editorial Liaison, because I liked the idea of working 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with an hour lunch.