Seven to three, three to eleven… eleven to seven. Sounds like a normal series of shifts for a 24 hour business. Up until this week, that is pretty much what we at the Circle K had grown too. Now, my schedule, in fact all our schedules are rather topsy terby. Instead of going in for my normal third shift tonight, I get to work 5 hours or the second shift; 4 pm to 9 pm. Then I have the privilege of going in tomorrow morning at 8 am and working all day until 4 pm. After that craziness, I go back to third shift for the rest of the week. Does this sound like a bit of a rant to you? Well it is. I am mean come on! Working the third shift is bad enough as it is. I work in the middle of the night, and then as a result, it becomes very difficult for me to a a sense of normality durning my off time. Sure, the work load is awesome compared to the stress of a gazillion customers during second shift, but not having what would be considered a normal day off really gets to me. So when you take that into account, and then through into the mix two days of an odd ball schedule, that makes for a very unhappy camper. I really hope that this is just a one week deal, because if my boss expects me to do this week in and week out, she might have to start looking for a new clerk.

Moving along, I have been working on my website a lot, and will be ready to launch www.DANIELVINING.com Version 8.0 soon. I am working with my hosting provider Lunarpages on a couple issues at the moment. I have a spiffy WordPress.org template from Skinpress that I want to use, and I am excited to start tinkering with it.

I am also working on my other side project, CoverCast. It will be a site dedicated to cover songs found on the video sharing website YouTube.com. I am a big fan of cover songs, and I look forward to sharing these videos with you through this project. If you have a song you would like to submit to this project, email the YouTube link to me. dcvining@gmail.com

One of the other big things in my life at the moment is L3 Vertex. I applied in the beginning of August, and was interviewed two weeks ago. I still haven’t heard back from them as of yet, so I will be contacting them at the beginning of the week to get a status update on where I stand. Cross your fingers for me guys.

Well that is about it for now. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching. Comments and discussion are always welcome.

They are small, tasty, fattening little treats that are commonly seen as appetizers at parties or in the lunch boxes of construction workers.  I love the little burgers.  I know they are not healthy, and sometimes they do make me sick to my stomach.  They are cheap and easy to combine into thousands of recipes (The search terms “vienna sausage recipes” produces over 81,000 results.).  They are vienna sausages.  What are they?  What are they?  Why are they the red-headed step child of the luncheon meat category?

From Wikipedia.com query “vienna sausage”:

A vienna sausage is a kind of wiener. The word wiener means Viennese inGerman.

In many European countries any pre-cooked and sometimes smoked wieners bought fresh from supermarkets,delicatessens and butcher shops are calledvienna sausage. Wieners sold as vienna sausage in Europe have a taste and texture very much like North Americanhot dogs or frankfurters but are usually longer and somewhat thinner, with a very light, edible casing. European vienna sausage served hot in a long bun with condiments is often called a hot dog, harking not to the wiener itself, but to the long sandwich as a whole.

In North America the term vienna sausage has most often come to mean only smaller and much shorter smoked and canned wieners, rather thanhot dogs. North American vienna sausage is made from meat such aschicken, beef, turkey and pork (or blends thereof) finely ground to a paste consistency and mixed with salt and spices, notably mustard, then stuffed into a long casing, sometimes smoked and always thoroughly cooked, after which the casings are removed as with hot dogs. The sausages are then cut into short segments for canning and further cooked.

As with any sausage, the ingredients, preparation, size and taste can vary widely by both manufacturer and region of sale.

Anyone that knows me also knows that the classic American Hot Dog is my favorite food.  Behind that, comes another cheap, low class junk food… Top Ramen.  I have eaten ramen noodles in hundreds of ways, but my favorite combination is the addition of a can of vienna sausages and maybe a smidge of mustard completed with a glass of Mountain Dew or chocolate milk.  Mmmm good.

Why is it that this food is the the bastard of the other luncheon meats?  Probably because unlike some meats, like salami for example, vienna sausages are not meticulously blended with the best cuts of meat and seasoning before being aged to perfection. No, not vienna sausages.  They are a hodge podge of chicken, beef and pork.  Smashed together and pressed into a sausage shape.  Add the gelatin and the small fact that they perhaps one of the most unhealthy meats to choose from, and you get the outcast of the group.  Still, blue collar workers, the lower class, and phony socialites all embrace this little treat as a part of their lunches and appetizers for their parties.  I too, will continue to enjoy these tasty morsels; now at a more educated, select occasional pace.

Here are a couple more Vienna Sausage links for your enjoyment:

Throwback of the House: Uncool Vienna-Sausage Shortcake — http://bit.ly/11yO0W

wiseGEEK: What are Vienna Sausages? — http://bit.ly/YretL

My brand of choice, Armor Star — http://bit.ly/rUtVC

I Eat Out of Cans « Tangelos — http://bit.ly/oCSG9

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