Results of the cookie bakeoff: 1st place, "double chocolate [something] cookies," 2nd place, "magic bars" (almost made these), 3rd place, "oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip" (or something to that effect). No placing for me. I was robbed, I tell ya!

I think what really pissed me off is that the 2nd place cookies weren't even made by the entrant - his wife made them. Bull-sheeeyat. If you're going to enter the contest, at least bake it yourself. I wouldn't be surprised if the winner's wife made his, since they were way too perfect to be made by a straight guy. (Sorry dudes, but from past experience I've found guys just can't make a perfect looking cookie. Usually they're all lumpy and weird shaped.)

For me, the batch I made this time around still wasn't quite as good as I wanted it. I reduced the flour as I thought the original "oh crap, the contest isn't until next week" ones were too dry. However, my oven decided to stage a mutiny and pretty much destroyed one of the sheets - totally burnt on the bottom. (No, I didn't enter those in the contest.) I learned that if you try to bake more than one cookie sheet at a time, it completely burns the bottom rack and undercooks the top. Having a bum thermostat doesn't help, either - and constantly checking the hanging thermometer in there makes for inconsistent cooking. (Might help if we actually replaced the light bulb in the oven, too.)

Next year I might have to resort to bribery. This losing streak is starting to become embarrassing.

I have 3/4 of the gifts I'm giving for Christmas all ready to go… the one bogey, of course, is my dear old dad, who is probably one of the worst people to buy any sort of gift for. Why? Because he doesn't need anything! Seriously, the man probably owns 9,000 pieces of clothing that we've bought for him over the past 20+ years, and he wears the same 3 pieces over and over. Okay, more like 5 pieces. He has every sort of motorcycle, airplane, or bicycle-related knicknack around. He has 6 motorcycles and thus has everything related to Vincents, Nortons, or BMWs available - think T-shirts, framed prints, etc. etc. Oh yeah, and he already has 3 cameras, a "chi-pod" (Shanghai market version of an iPod), practically the entire Performance catalog collection, 5 million framed photos of Kristine, Mom, and/or I, and god knows what else. In short, he has everything.

My mom called me and told me he pointed out some headlamp thing at REI that he wants, so I hope it's somewhat decent as I can't of anything else to give him. I'm also a little worried about Kristine & Adam's "together" present, as it's framed and I think if I ship it, it's going to break. Hmm…

Anyway… less than a week from now, I'll be en route to Mormonland… uh, I mean Utah. It'll be the first Christmas I've spent without Kristine, which will be a little weird, but then again this is my first Christmas not in Connecticut… which makes me a little , since that means I won't be at our family friends' Christmas day dinner, which I've been at ever since I can remember.

Alrighty, enough reminiscing. Back to work.

A day late, but Happy St. Lucia Day! (Or God Luciadagen!)

Not exactly what I had in mind. (That cat's like, "WTF?!")

Here's a better image. I was always the one on the left, as the oldest daughter gets to play the part.

Every Christmas season, my office holds a "cookie bakeoff" contest… which is extremely fun, as generally we get to have our choice of bringing some of the other contestants' cookies home after the "judging." (Last year was a total cop-out, though - I made some seriously delicious chocolate mint cookies, and didn't even make the top 3. The winner was boring and not even festive. Harumph!)

Okay, so Friday afternoon I get a reminder e-mail from the organizer that we need to RSVP by COB. Somehow, I had it stuck in my mind that the contest was this Monday, when in fact it's actually NEXT Monday. Sunday evening I panic and realize I haven't even picked out a recipe, go online, find something that looks decent, and bake a batch.

Monday morning I check my calendar and realize that the contest wasn't for another week. As a result, I was stuck with about 30 white chocolate chip cookies for no one. If I wanted to use the recipe next week, I couldn't put them in the office kitchen as a free-for-all, as that would spoil the "surprise," so I stuck them in the freezer and decided to bring them home for my roommates to gorge themselves on.

I made the mistake of telling my co-worker Gary about the batch and letting him take as many as he pleased… little did I know that over the course of a day, he'd eat 22 of them. No joke. I went to get the container at the end of the day, and 8 sad little cookies were left. I wasn't mad, but more at the fact that he ate that many and was still alive. (And yes, he admitted to eating that many and proclaimed, "No dinner for me tonight.")

So that's my "D'OH!" moment of the week. Who wants some cookies? :stupid:

Oh, and P.S. The company Christmas party is being held here this year - how freaking cool is that?!

I'll try to make this brief, as I have a bunch of use cases to write up for… well, I can't tell you what since I'll get killed by the DoD if I do, but either way they're time consuming.

Yesterday was the first snowfall of the season down here in the DC area. When I was a little kid growing up in New England, any snow was great because it usually meant at least a delayed school day or cancellation. There was also sledding and skiing to look forward to on weekends. However. Now that I'm all grown up (ha!), snow means having to deal with moronic drivers.

Down here in "NoVa," the annual accumulation of snowfall averages to about 16.6 inches, whereas in Hartford, it's around 49 inches. Basically, I'm used to a lot worse. The low frequency of snow plus the large amount of imported Southerners and West Coasters equals horrific driving conditions when it actually DOES snow… due to the drivers, not the weather.

Around here, as soon as a flake falls from the sky, people freak out. Yesterday's commute to work was NOT fun. At that point in time, it had only just started snowing and wasn't sticking to anything that was above 32 degrees. Snow not sticking on warm road = no accumulation, no ice - just water… you know, the stuff that drops from the sky while it's raining. However, everyone on 66 decided this was just too dangerous and felt the need to go 25 mph. It actually could have been a lot worse - a co-worker driving in from MD had a 3 hour commute yesterday. Yikes.

Going home was a little different. Cass got the day off, as I had to stay late at work and it was down to 25 degrees and still snowing… so I found myself doing my least favorite chore: shopping at the mall. Sadly, I wasn't able to find the perfect gift for my mother OR father (hey, if you're reading this, please drop some hints as to what you want… I can't face the humility of gift cards), but walked out with some new stuff for my own wardrobe. Oops.

(That reminds me - I'm looking forward to the day that this "tunic top" fashion goes out of style - what is this crap? I look like I'm wearing a freaking maternity shirt - clearly not the intention when I'm out at bars/clubs.)

Heading home, the roads were a bit slushier, but not nearly enough to cause any real alarm to my Yankee self. I've got to say, though - Arlington County, the whole purpose of snow maintenance is to plow, THEN salt. Not just "salt salt salt."