Happy Nurses Week?

So, May 6th marked the beginning of Nurses Week.

Two years ago, the hospital I work for decided to give each of the nurses 5 "I Care" points. What is an "I Care" point you ask? It's an employee award recognition system at our hospital that other staff or patients can dole out to each other for good work. Once you've tallied up a certain number of points, you can exchange them for prizes at our hospital.

I have no problem with the "I care" program, because I think it is a nice way to recognize your co-workers, but I find the hospital giving each nurse an automatic 5 point for nurses week rather...lazy. And Rude. Especially since 5 points can literally only get you a ballpoint pen. Not even one of those clicky pens (I know my fellow nurses out there know exactly what I'm talking about~how annoying is it to get pen stains on your scrub pockets because you didn't feel like re-capping your regular pen???)

Anyways, last year the hospital redeemed itself by giving all the nurses these cute Chinese take-out boxes filled with tea and candles and stuff. The idea was to promote relaxation which I can totally agree with! No beef with the relaxation take-out box for nurses week.

This year, the hospital has sunk to a new low....

Instead of nurses week, they have decided to change it to "Hospital Employees Week". That is bull. Doctors get their own day, social workers, medical assistants, radiology techs. Why not the largest workforce in the hospital??? Now, I have no problem with just having a day and not an entire week, but come on! This is insulting. Everyone loves nurses, right?

Give us our own day, darn it!

Or deal with this lady!

Friday Fun Fact

Cinco de Mayo occurred earlier this week. Like St. Patrick's Day, is an excuse for Americans to party. Evidently, this is not even a widely celebrated holiday in Mexico! I have absolutely no problem or judgement for this, but thought it would be good to make it a Friday Fun Fact.

Cinco de Mayo is thought by many to be Mexican Independence Day. Actually, the true Mexican Independence Day is celebrated on September 16th and is the patriotic equivalent to our July 4th.

Cinco de Mayo was the day of the unlikely defeat of the French troops at the Battle of Puebla (the Mexican troops were outnumbered 2 to 1!) It was also the last time that an army from another continent invaded the Americas.

I think that is as good a reason as any to throw back a couple of Coronas and celebrate!!!

Happy Friday Everybody!

Burque Babes & Bullies

The Mr. and I have two pit bulls: CoCo and LuLu. Before we got our older one (CoCo) I knew nothing about pit bulls other than they were always in the headlines, attacking people and generally creating havoc. I also thought they were dogs that tough gang members had for "pets".

Little did I know that our future household member would be a sweet, lazy lap dog that loves everyone she meets and is gentle with our small niece and nephew.

I know that there has been a lot of bad press surrounding pit bulls and I would like to address some of that at a later post, but right now I want to tell everyone about the Burque Babes and Bullies.

This is a group of ladies that promotes the positive and rewarding aspects of the breed and works to dispel some of their myths. All the money they raise goes to a group here in town called Responsibly Adopting Albuquerque's Pit bulls (RAAP).

How do they raise money? By selling T-shirts with the BBB logo, having fundraisers, and promoting their pin-up style calendar! The calendar is really tasteful and cute, and helps to promote the idea that these dogs aren't just for guys that want to seem tough.

BTW, my girls and I will be featured in the 2010 calendar~I'll keep you posted! :)

Bridal Shower Gift-Part Two

OK, here's gift #2 from the weekend of bridal shower attendance!

I came up with this idea years and years ago and it's a nice gift to give a couple about to get married. Whether or not we've actually been brides ourselves, we know how hectic it can be to pull off a wedding. Between all the commotion and chaos, it's easy to lose sight of the reason for the celebration in the first place!

I like to give the bride a "Date Night" that she can share with her future husband to help them reconnect before their "I Do's".

I like to include a bottle of wine, some microwave popcorn, candy, and a gift card to Blockbuster so they can just spend a night on the couch, watching movies together. This can be altered in any way to reflect the likes of the couple involved. I also have given gift cards to a restaurant and theater in an envelope for a "Date Night" present as well!

Bridal Shower Gift-Part One

I was lucky enough to be invited to two bridal showers this past weekend and wanted to share a couple of gift ideas with everyone!

My go-to gift lately has been this first one: A Wedding Day Survival Kit!

I am fully aware that both my camera and my picture-taking skills are EXTREMELY poor, but you all get the idea here, right?

(I found these cute houndstooth tissues after the original picture was taken. Cool, huh? The tissues, obviously NOT the picture!)

Inside each kit, I like to include things that a busy bride might need on the big day: hair spray, chocolate, hand cream, a granola bar, mouthwash, deodorant, gum, lip gloss or chap stick, clear nail polish, Kleenex, and my little piece de resistance, a little bottle of tequila complete with some lime salt to make it a little better going down! Put it all together in a cute make-up bag and you have yourself a fun and different gift to give your friend at her bridal shower!

It's kind-of a gag gift, but my friends have confessed to actually using it on their wedding day and being quite glad to have it!

Man Chili!

We love chili in our house! Tex-Mex, Red, Green, whatever!

I usually like to make chili when it's really cold outside, but it has already significantly warmed up here in New Mexico. I was craving some chili, though, and this recipe is just too darn easy!

Do the onion, garlic and oil thing at the bottom of a pan...

Add a package of ground turkey meat (Even though we're using turkey, this meal is still manly, just trust me in this one!)

An entire 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, including the juice!

Who is my little helper in the kitchen? That is one of my sweet pit bulls, LuLu. Whenever I am cooking, she is always there to help out, making sure anything that hits the ground is promptly taken care of.

Rinsed 12 oz cans of pinto beans and corn

Add some salt and cayenne pepper to taste (you know what you like!) I find the packaged chili or taco seasonings to be rather salty myself.

And for the not-so-secret man ingredient?

Beer! Not chicken broth, not water. Beer. Any beer you like! This is what turns an ordinary chili into a man chili. Hooray for beer!

Let simmer on the stove for about 30 minutes or so, I'm not an expert on this. Just long enough for everything to get hot, and for all the alcohol to burn off.

Mmmmm....man chili!

Now for my favorite part: chili decorations! I like fresh cilantro, avocado, and a little bit of plain Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream), but use your imagination here folks! Cheese, onions, tortilla chips, jalapenos, whatever!

Enjoy! :)

Friday Fun Fact

I have tried my hardest to not put my political two cents in my blog thus far...But I think it has become unavoidable. I just have to make some commentary here. Sorry to anyone reading this who is in love with our President, I know there are lots and lots of you.

Last week, there was a low flying plane over NYC. It ended up being one of the President's planes. Over New York City. A city that had been victim to the worst terrorist attack on American soil. A terrorist attack that involved PLANES! As you can imagine, people were freaked.

At first, the President's people said they didn't know anything about it, but quickly realized that that made them look like a bunch of idiots, as they are required to know where the plane is at all times in case of an emergency and the President needs to be on board. (The President was in Washington while this was taking place.)

Then, it was a "training flight" that had already been paid for, so they had to do it.

Finally, it was decided that this this training session should turn into a Photo-Op situation: "Air Force One flying over Ground Zero". How touching. I wonder how much that cost all of us? Couldn't this have just been "Photo-shopped"? Wouldn't it have been nice if the mayor of NYC had at least been notified? (Mayor Bloomberg was evidently furious!)

Within all this mess, I was able to come up with a fun fact for you all! Did you know that Air Force One is only able to hold that title when the President is on board? At all other times, it is only considered "one of the President's planes". The same holds true for the presidential helicopter which becomes "Marine One" while the President is on board. "Air Force Two" refers to any plane that is carrying our vice-President (but not the President, of course, because then it would be Air Force One!) I didn't know that until the other day when the Mr. told me. Pretty cool, if you ask me!

Happy Friday Everyone!