ahhh....

I finally had a day off, a real day off where I wasn't on-call or going into work for meetings.  For the first time in two weeks, I had a day off!  I can't even tell you how badly I need a rest.  Most of you reading are also going through the same things right now--stressing over whether you will get that call in time and what you are going to do if you don't.  I have those stresses and I have a multitude of job stresses also.  In addition to the on-call (an infuriating two weeks in September), I also have the long hours every day as a result of a huge go live project.  The second phase, and considered by the organization to be the 'Big Bang' go live, starts again on Tuesday.  If that was not enough my boss as asked me to attend several more classes and those are held in Alpharetta, GA and Dallas, TX.  Six classes totalling 4-6 weeks of training away from home between September and the end of the year.  I haven't booked any of them yet because I am wondering about a referral.  I feel like I can't move on with anything until I know for sure one way or another.  I know a lot of others are in the same type of purgatory so I hate to complain so much about it. 

Anyway, I finally had a day off yesterday.  Not only that, I have a three day weekend!  I decided to spend Friday cooking with my mom.  We prepared a Vietnamese feast that truly rivaled some of the authentic Vietnamese foods I have tried.  We made a Thai cucumber salad, pork spring rolls (with the sticky rice paper wraps), dipping sauce with fish sauce (yes, fish sauce.  I was so proud of my mom for making that one since she hates fish and is put out by the way fish sauce is prepared).  I made beef pho and I was going to make a banana-tapioca-coconut treat but I ran out of steam.  I made the pho from recipe.  I know there are prepared mixes out there, but I was living independently as an adult before I realized there are cake mixes or pancake mixes.  I have always done things the old fashioned way.  All I can say is that my house smells incredible!  The anise seed released a perfume in my house--ahh, it smells so good!  I'm waiting for my mom to send me pictures of me preparing the food, but I do have pictures of the final result.  Enjoy! Hehe, I love this last picture of my mom holding the cooked piece of ginger.  It was truly a big piece, but I think the angle of the camera distorts it a bit.  I was able to buy all but two ingredients at my local Marsh store.  For the rice paper and anise seed I had to go to one of the Asian grocery stores in town.  I was pretty impressed that everything was so easy to find.