Christmas and all that

I've been up since 4AM and for some reason am not the least bit fatigued. First off let me just say that I adore scallops. While most people were pigging out on turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, I abandoned the traditional Christmas dinner for my own unique twist-sirloin steak cooked medium (something I pulled off with Ramsay-esque perfection) and roasted sea scallops. My landlady almost wanted to stay home on the 24th when she saw the scallops. I was glad that I was able to pull them off especially since it seems that there pans are not non-stick however I was able to pull off that nice golden brown sear and have them nice and medium on the inside. Normally I would have done mushrooms with a red wine vinegar reduction but I decided to pass on that. Scallops aren't something I get very often and I decided that I would treat myself since the last time I had consumed them was in the summer. Working on Christmas...sort of felt like any other work day to me, just with a lot less customers. Seriously, I don't know why we needed three cashiers in the morning but I'm not in charge of making the schedule. Donna decided to give us a little treat and gave us all a free slice of pizza. Now normally I would have jumped at the chance for that but my mind was on one thing: Pancakes. I love pancakes. When I was working out five times a week with Aaron I would make myself a batch of about eight chocolate chip pancakes (big ones) and finish them down with a big glass of chocolate milk and still maintained my 147 pound figure. I've probably had them once in the past year and I really wanted some today. However, whoever did the scheduling decided that there needed to be more people doing nothing at the fuel desk than there needed to be waitresses doing actual work in the dinning room. One waitress and the poor restaurant manager had to help serving tables. Pancakes would have to wait for another day... Presents were opened as soon as I got home. The usual clothing was appreciated and the Muhammad Ali calendar from my sister was a nice touch (I thought it was either a Family Guy or South Park calendar) but I must say that top prize went to my mother who gave me a creme brulee torch with 4 ramekins. The landlords will be gone all next week...should be an interesting time to play with my newest toy. I think that now that I'm not there, I actually do miss those family get-togethers that use to drive me nuts. I miss the food, the people and I hope that next year I will be able to make it home instead of working at Flying J. Sorry, Double-Time-And a half...you're nice but, you're not worth it