All in the family

Before we get started, a bit of seriousness (maybe...):

I am sitting here, broken-hearted, as I am typing up this blog entry. I must spill my guts and talk about an event that happened yesterday that left me dumbstruck and devastated. It hurt me so much that I had to stop what I was doing for a few minutes to let reality set in. I'm in so much pain that it may take me several days, or even weeks, to fully recover. I thought I would have you in my life, but fates intervened, and now you're gone. My heart aches, my body hurts, and I gotta say, it really sucks. When it became official, and I knew that you and I were not to be, I felt like I got punched in the stomach and had my foot run over by a truck. Why, oh why, did you have to tease me like that? I wish you had never come into my life!

It'll take some time, and maybe some beers, but eventually I'll get over the fact that I will not get the Heat-Cavs first round playoff match that I had hoped for!

(All that above was for your Emmy consideration :P)

No thanks to the Bulls' inability to beat the New Jersey Nets, the Heat get to play the Bulls in the first round, while the Cleveland Cavs draw an undermanned--a horrible understatement, by the way--Wizards team. The only way I'll get my dream Heat-Cavs matchup is if they play each other in the Eastern Conference Finals, and I don't want that, only because that means one of the two teams will make it to the NBA Finals. Yeah, I kinda don't like either team.

There, I feel better already.

Some family-related quick-hitters (hence the title of this blog entry!):

- I swear my sister has some sort of karmic powers. If I do or say something negative to her, something will happen to me due to negative karma. Case in point: one time, she hit her elbow on one of our dining room chairs. I laughed hysterically, only to hit my elbow against a wall. Screw the "Jim Rome karma"; that has nothing on my sister's karma.

- I must remind myself to not cook turkey burgers for my mom ever again. I undercooked her burger ever so slightly--we're talking one nano-millimeter of pink in the patty--and she nearly flipped out. She proceeded to throw her patty back on the stove for a few minutes more. As if that wasn't enough, she then filleted the patty (cutting it in half along the edge of the meat), and proceeded to nuke the two smaller patties into oblivion. The two halves were charred, and about as tasty as shoe leather!

Now I understand that most people don't like their burgers undercooked, and ground meat should really be cooked thoroughly, to minimize the risk of illness; I like to slightly under cook my burgers, though, just leaving them barely pink inside the patty (~ medium well, I'd say). It keeps the burger juicy, and the patty gets warm enough to reduce the risk of getting sick. At the same time, I don't have a problem with people ordering their burgers well done. But badly overcooking your hamburger? Beef jerky would think that my mom's hamburger was too dry.

- I've lots to do this weekend with the family. There's a birthday party on Saturday, featuring a BBQ. There's a breakfast brunch on Sunday morning. To top it all off, there is my mom's 60th birthday Sunday night. By Monday morning, I expect to be visiting Tarzana Medical Center, getting my stomach pumped.

Au revoir!