7 Quick Takes #10

Number 10: ALL THE RANDOM!!!

1. Most important: ALL of Chris' labs were in the normal ranges. Thank God. He was so excited and happy. The doctor even said he was proud of him, and to keep doing whatever he was doing because it was working. All the hard work paid off, and some of the restrictions have loosened up. He can even have a cheat day once a month.


2. Here's a free tip. Don't EVER allow your dough to rise in the preheated oven. It's TOO hot. You will start to bake your dough. Yup, last night while making pizza dough, I had the "brilliant" idea to throw the dough in the preheated oven to rise. FAIL. I had to scramble to make another batch of dough before Chris got home. Usually I put it near our wood stove to rise, but the past few days have been warm, so I haven't lit it. If you're curious, we use Bobby Flay's recipe, but use half whole wheat flour/half white flour. And I don't pull out my mixer for this, I mix and knead by hand. Faster and easier.

3. Are you ready for some football? lol

I'm not a football person, and neither is Chris, but we're going to a Super Bowl party on Sunday at one of my oldest friends' house. She bought it in September, and it's pretty close to me, but with life and all of that stuff, I haven't been over to see it and we haven't seen each other since...I don't know when. We talk all of the time, but I guess we're too lazy to drive the five miles to see the other. Ha! :) It'll be nice to get out and socialize, since we rarely do. I guess that since the Ravens beat the Patriots, I should root for the 49ers?

4. I've been invited to speak at a conference affiliated with my former workplace's industry by one of my clients. And then I was sort of outed to my former employer via conference call. Heh. It should be interesting, but it's definitely an honor and an awesome opportunity to put myself out there. However, the conference isn't until May. I'm a bit nervous about seeing people who made my life a living hell, but on the other hand, it will be very sweet for them to see that they didn't ruin my life, not to mention, I'm a lot thinner, ha.

5. I'm going to take back my comments about making a Wikipedia page. I made the page and it was really easy--once I figured out that I could "edit" an existing page, copy the code, and change it with my client's information. All I had to do was find someone who had a page similar to how I wanted my client's page to look. Done! Well, it's waiting for approval. My client suggested that this could be a lucrative part of my business, for others. Even though that goes against Wikipedia's code of ethics...but they aren't paying my mortgage either.



6. A business. Yeah, I might start one. I think I mentioned that before, but I'm stalling, even though it will probably have more "pull" than just me, freelancing. I have to think of a name and I don't like anything yet. I don't want it to be too stuffy or too goofy, be just my name, or refer to something about my work that pigeon holes me. Suggestions?

7. Speaking of my mortgage--the strangest thing happened. I had been thinking about calling the bank to see if we could refinance. The rates are going down, and although we have a good rate already, why not try to save some money? Then I lost my job and worried that we wouldn't be approved. Last week I got something from the woman who did our mortgage (newsletter thing) and I thought about calling her just to see if there was anything we could do. Tuesday night she called our house, unsolicited. She wanted to tell us about how the bank offering existing mortgage customers lower rates. They want to keep their mortgage customers, they were doing this without making people go through the refinance process. No credit checks, no income verification, no appraisal. A $750 fee to cover the paperwork (refinances can cost more than that) and we'll be saving $175 a month! I joked with Chris that things are getting easier for me to really not go back to work. He told me not to get any ideas. We'll see. ;-)

Don't forget to visit Jen over at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes! Have a great weekend!