I think I have found the worst chocolate souffle recipe on the Intarweb.

Tyler volunteered to head cook for communal dinner this week. He actually wanted to do it last week, over here at Krikitt Downs, but I was heading out of town, so pushed him back to this week.

Now, Tyler is a great guy. We all love him very much. He's just always late.

And for me, Miss "Adjust your clocks back fifteen minutes, because I'm not going to be on time", to say that, it's saying something.

Doyle suggested I stay at work until I received the call from Tyler, "Hey, I'm in your driveway. Are you home?" before actually heading home. I had learned, however, from Elina that making the tortillas first, and storing them in a warmed oven works very, very well, so I went home early to make tortillas.

6:30, I'm the only one home.

6:35, I'm still the only one there.

6:40, did I go to the wrong place?

6:45, crickets

6:50, yay! Heather shows up! Whoo!

7:00, we're the only ones here. The tortillas are started.

7:10, are we both in the wrong place? At least the tortillas are about a third of the way done.

7:15, oh, thank goodness. Doyle, Chookie, Martha, Warren and Vinny all show up. Wine for all! And times for bets. The over-under on Tyler showing up is 7:23.

He shows up at 7:21, with all the dinner ingredients, just as Paul and Beth show up, too. It's a mad fest to get all the food cooked. We managed to be ready for eating at 8:00. WhoO!

The meal was delicious, with Kris having to bring his own food, as the chicken part of the fajitas were not Kris-friendly. Oddly enough, it was actually Beth who rejected the salmon for chicken.

At the end of the meal, the group played poker with each of the two chips each person had worth $100,000. Each hand five of the six hands would push all in, and the winner crushing the remaining person in the next hand. And the game would start again. Eventually Beth asked what was for dessert, and I bribed her with chocolate souffle to stay for an hour, when it would be done. She agreed and I started the souffle.

The tragic part of my souffle making is that I lost the last recipe I had. It was from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (10th edition?), and a ridiculously easy recipe. So, I surfed for another recipe (since the one in the Joy of Cooking is actually a fluffly chocolate brick, kid you not), and settled on one that didn't use more eggs than I had when doubled.

Nine people were around when I made the offer, so I doubled the recipe and started cooking. I took my laptop into the kitchen to view the recipe, only to discover than not only was I cooking the worst chocolate souffle recipe ever, but I had set my laptop in a pile of guacamole.

Joy.

Of cooking, of course.

I need to start keeping track of these. Although they often entertain me, there are times like now that they just annoy me.

On the phone today while ordering lunch to pickup (ignoring the health effects of eating at one's desk, blah blah blah), the woman on the other line asked, "What can I get for you, sir?" Yes, using the honoric is great, but using the wrong gender is annoying.

Last Friday, I introduced myself to Henry, a new (but returning after a year's hiatus, as required by the by-laws) board member of the UPA. After saying hello, and shaking my hand and hearing my name, he paused and looked up. "Oh," he continued, "I thought you were a guy."

I can almost understand Henry's bias to assuming I'm a guy (Joe Seidler did the same thing), they're my parents generation and assume tech people are male. But the phone thing, that keeps getting more and more annoying.

I commented to Doyle, "There's a woman's voice. Then there's a low woman's voice, all sexy and all. And then there's a high male voice that isn't attractive to anyone." (Apologies to any guy who fits that description, I'm sure you don't read this site, because I don't personally know any male with a high annoying, unattractive voice.)

Doyle responded, "I think the default is to assume man."

Yeah. That. Because only men can talk, right?

Note to self: when you say happy birthday to a software product more often than you wish happy birthday to your family, either your priorities are wrong, or you're really really paranoid about your family's privacy.

Advice? Claim it's the latter and pat yourself on the back.

Last night, we had eight people playing poker, just like last year, at the annual UPA board meeting. We had a mini game on Friday night, but I can't say I was particularly interested in that game, as I had to leave. I'm noticing that when I care and can stay in a game, I do fairly well. If I have to leave, or am distracted, man, I might as well hand $20 to the person to my left.

Joshua, David Raflo (who moved to National Masters Director), Ricky (new board member), Tommy, Paige, Jeff Dunbar, and Adam (new National Open director) were there playing, too. Mike Payne, the biggest advocate for nightly poker, was absent, trying to catch up on his sleep (averaging all of 4 hours a night for the last 4 months -/+). When I walked in, I made some comment to someone that he didn't want to sit to the left of Joshua, because that put him in a powerful position, so we drew cards to specify what order we'd sit in. I drew to sit third, but switched to sit fourth to sit left of Joshua. He commented that I just put him in a powerseat, but well, entertainment is more important than the $20 I'd be gambling.

Besides, I hadn't lost to him yet when I've cared.

After four hands, David was excited he was still in the game. Last year, he was out in four hands, so five was an accomplishment.

Ricky spent the evening writing entertaining Notes-to-Self about everyone's game style. Jeff received a "Jeff is chicken" early in the evening, only to have a post-script of "which isn't always bad." later appended after he had a brilliant fold.

I can't say I've figured out the style of these guys. I went down to very few chips fairly quickly, and hovered as the short stack for more than half the game. I wasn't the first out, as Joshua called a hand that probability screamed he should fold, and went out first. David was second, followed a while later by Paige.

Just as Paige left for the night, Adam pushed all in with a pair of twos. He had a short stack (yet more than I), but hadn't played a hand in two hours. Jeff called, and turned over an ace and three. As Joshua, who was now dealing to keep himself entertained and engaged in the game, threw the burn card after the flop, we all jumped at the color of the back of the card: red. We were playing with the blue deck.

Joshua grabbed the red card, handed it to David to shuffle, burned another card, and turned over the next card. Lots of discussion ensued, but it was nothing compared to the uproar when the last card turned matched threes for Jeff, and Adam was out.

Loud voices, discussions, what do to? Jeff initially offered to split the pot with Adam, since he lost on the last card. I immediately shut that offer down, because I had not only put in the big blind (and as the short stack, that was a painful amount), but I had also bet in the first round, so I was losing out. And as short stack, that would have been the difference between going out in fifth, and being in the money.

After Adam pushed all the chips in a huff and stood up to leave (also in a huff), we decided that a redo was the correct solution, and everyone removed the chips and we played on.

The ironic part of the whole situation was that the last burn card was also a three. So, Adam would have lost even if we had kept the red card.

Adam went out shortly after that. I missed a chance to take Ricky out later, but did double up on Tommy a few hands later with an A-2 diamond hand that flushed on the turn. Ricky went out a bit later, and with three of us left, the hands were quick.

I adopted the strategy of pushing all in after the flop if I had anything remotely good. After few all-ins, Jeff went all in, expecting me to call. At that point, I had an 3-8 hand, I folded, but Tommy called. Jeff exclaimed, "Kitt! You were supposed to call and Tommy was supposed to fold!" Tommy won with a flush on the river, putting me into a payoff position, and Jeff out.

We played a few hands, with my worst being calling Tommy when I had a pair of twos. I didn't have enough chips to bully him, and I lost a good deal of chips before I bailed.

I went all in for the final hand with an A-something hand (4?). Tommy called and turned over a 10-K. The flop was an 8, 10 and A, but I knew better than to be excited. Sure, I had top pair, but two cards were coming. The river was a K and I was out.

Out, but still up. I was up $30 for the night (after my $20 buy-in was returned), $25 for the weekend, and around $80 total for my board games.

Heh.

When I was in Los Angeles, I decided I wanted to buy a house. Actually, I had wanted to buy a house since high school, and not being able to buy a house was a constant, dull ache in my heart. At some point when I was living in L.A., however, I decided I was going to buy a house, the high housing prices be damned, and I was going to do it soon.

So I made a budget decision. That decision was to live on one third of my salary, pay taxes with one third of my salary (well before I had any good tax deductions), and save the last third of my salary. The decision required some sacrifices.

I moved out of my single apartment and into a room at Kelly Johnson's house. It made a longer commute, but reduced my monthly rent from $800 to $350. I was already maxed out on my 401k (I'm a huge fan of 401k programs, regardless of employer matching), so that was 15% down. I set up an auto-investment program, putting $1000 a month in investments with no effort. Any bonus or increase in pay was immediately funneled into investments. Taxes were automatic. The living expenses were more difficult.

Rent was included in living expenses, as was gas, insurance, car repairs, food, movies, and books. I would have said "clothes," too, but at the time, I didn't really buy clothes, so those expenses were negligible. Well, maybe cleats and sports bras, but that's about it.

Two years later, I had enough money for a downpayment on a house. Because of circumstances, I bought a condo (story there, one I'll tell at some point when I've run out of other stories), instead of a house, but I bought a place to live. Instead of just a downpayment, I also had 25% of the purchase price, with funds leftover for repairs.

It worked well. As I ponder the list of things I'd like to purchase or have done to the house, I'm inspired to do it again. It's not a new year's resolution, more of a guideline. It means, in contrast to the end of last year, I now pause before I pull out the credit card. Can I get this at the library? Could I borrow it from a friend? Do I really need this?

Since I'm trying to get rid of stuff, this'll help ensure I don't bring in as much as I send out.