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Going out on a limb here, and totally endorsing the new album by Chris Daughtry. It’s really, really stinkin’ good. Better than I thought a rock CD by an American Idol castoff could ever be.

So it’s been a long time since I’ve made a blog post with any substance. I’m going to attempt that today.

Life is, decent. Things are just kind of chugging along. With the except of some monetary things, it’s just the same stuff, different day. I have been doing freelance work making television commercials, that’s paying handsomely (and consequently paid for my Playstation3 that I was lucky enough to get on opening day… without having to camp in front of a store).

Speaking of the PS3… all fanboi-ism aside, it really is a nice machine. Is it worth the $800 (had to buy it in a bundle with an extra controller and three games) I paid for it? Yeah, I think so. But you also have to remember I never had a PS2, and only had an XBOX for about a month before it got stolen… so I am completely new to how advanced gaming consoles have become. I’m totally digging on the fact that while I’m playing Madden ‘07, real-time-real-life sports scores scroll along the bottom of my screen. I’m ecstatic about always being able to play Madden or Tiger Woods against a real life human being through the power of the internet. And always being a few seconds away from 40 man deathmatch action in Resistance is more than enough to write home to mom about. I’m not even going to get into how insane Blu-Ray movies look on my HDTV either… let’s just say it’s ridiculous.

Sure, it had it’s launch issues… thankfully none of the hardware buggy-ness affected me. But don’t let the fanboi’s of the other systems fool you… ALL new system launches are imperfect.

On to other non-gaming issues:

Thanksgiving was actually very, very good this year. Ryanne and I went to my parents house on Wednesday and stayed overnight to help with cooking in the morning. This was the first year that the whole family met at my parents house instead of normally meeting at my Aunt’s house… so we wanted to do a really good job. So we did a lot of new “twists” with the normal Thanksgiving food, using some gourmet recipes to rock out some pretty standard dishes. We made a couple drunken grilled turkey breasts (to go along with the standard fare of roast turkey), a really good stuffing recipe that included fresh apples and celery, and twice baked mashed potatoes with cheese, scallions, sour cream and french fried onions. We also made a mulled/spiced wine recipe my parents got from some winery in Myrtle Beach that turned out awesome. Ryanne made her strawberry pretzel salad to go along with the standard pumpkin and cherry pies, and that was also a huge hit.

Speaking of cooking…

I’ve got to share this, Wednesday night I made of one of the best pork dishes I’ve ever cooked in my life… check this out:

It’s a pan-seared boneless pork chop with roasted fresh cherry tomatoes, onions, basil, garlic, olive oil, and a splash of balsamic vinegar, then topped off with a healthy dose of feta cheese. I served this up with a side of mashed potatoes… I wish I would have had a nice salad or something to go with it, because I really felt like it was missing a nice vegetable side dish. Unfortunately Ryanne does not like asparagus or brussel sprouts, because I think one of those two would have paired up really nicely. If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know and I’ll be happy to share, or just come over to our house for dinner sometime, because this has officially become THE go-to meal for entertaining people for dinner, it is absolutely delicious and had a very impressive presentation.

Work:
Work is going well actually. My job has become very defined, and I have been able to cut my work week down to a healthy 40-48 hours a week, as opposed to the anywhere between 50-70 hours a week I was averaging just about six months ago. We’ve had an awesome volunteer step up and take some of the work I was truthfully not very good at, off my plate, letting me focus solely on video production and the weekend service. We are actually in the middle of a pretty exciting time here, lots of things are on the verge of coming to fruition that I’ve been waiting for, for a long time… so I’m very excited.

Ryanne is still looking for a new job. Hopefully something will come along soon there. As soon as she finds something that can at least replace my income from HSD, I will be finally quitting that job and putting it behind me for good. Working full-time at CedarCreek, having a (surprisingly) good run with freelance work, and trying to leverage the junk HSD has me doing has turned out to be a little much. Plus Ryanne is really wanting to get back into some of the things that make her happy (working with special needs).

This weekend is going to be an absolute marathon though when it comes to work. Tonight I have a wedding, tomorrow I have another wedding in the early afternoon, then services. Sunday I have more services, then our annual business meeting, then new community. Ryanne made the joke that we might as well pack a bag, bring the dog and camp out here for the weekend. She’s not far off… heck, there are two showers here, and the couches in Mark’s office are pretty stinkin’ comfortable. Wouldn’t be the first time I spent the night here.

Sports:
Let’s start with fantasy sports. I am above .500 in all four of the fantasy football leagues I’m in this year. First place in one, barely in second place in two, and struggling to make playoffs in Sam’s league. I think so long as I can make the playoffs in Sam’s league, I should be able to finish at-worst, in third. I’m expecting to win at least two leagues… and a second place and third place finish in the other two shouldn’t be too tall of an order. I’m lucky enough to have the rookie phenom Marques Colston in all of my leagues, and due to Yahoo’s wacky system, I’m actually able to either play him as a TE or WR week in and week out, which gives me a lot of flexibility. I was able to pull off some shrewd trades in one league, which even got me Frank Gore and Chad Johnson, both of which have really caught fire the last few weeks.

My Lions are downright horrible. Other than cheering for whomever the Lions are playing every week, I’m having a lot of fun watching the Saints and Chargers this year. I really think there is a good possibility for those two teams to see each other in the Super Bowl, unless of course Dallas is really as good as ESPN wants them to be.

The Pistons, after a rough start, are beginning to remember who they are, and are playing quite well. Last nights win over Miami was HUGE. Then again, the Easter Conference is just AWFUL this year, so it really won’t take much to get past it.

Television:
Undoubtedly, Monday’s fall finale of Prison Break was one of the best hours of television I can remember in recent history. Only to have Heroes come on right afterwards and be almost as good. All in all, this is one of the best seasons of television I can remember, and we don’t even have 24 or American Idol yet! Thanks in large part to DVR and networks showing their programs online, I’m able to watch a few more shows than I normally would have been able to fit into my schedule, this year I’m really into: Prison Break, Heroes, Studio 60, Justice (which got unfairly cancelled), What About Brian, Jericho, Vanished, Friday Night Lights, SVU, Lost, CSI:NY, My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. Yeah, that’s a lot… but I make it work, and the rest of my life doesn’t suffer. I think out of all of that, Lost, Prison Break, Studio 60, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, Jericho and Friday Night Lights are the only “MUST-SEE TV” in my schedule though, all those shows, i think, are really, really good.

That’s all I got, I hope it was enough to keep everyone happy