..... sweeping generalizations stemming from my experiences and imagination .....
Warning: contains much that is apocryphal - or at least wildly inaccurate.
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
I went to the Fancy Food Show yesterday. I go every year and have a lot of fun. I'm one of "those" people who fill up on samples and free stuff to take home. This year was no exception. I came home with 500ml boxes of coconut water (yum), a big bag of salt water taffy, and various little samples of chocolates and salt.
Some of my favorite areas to visit at Fancy Food Show are the cheese aisles. I can't get enough runny, stinky cheese. I also like the olives and the BBQ truck.
One company who I've seen a the food show on more than one occasion is Pelican Bay.
I wonder if they sell a lot of products in Northern California. When they decided to name their business after the city in Florida where they're from, did they think they would ever grow large enough to sell their products to those of us who associate the name Pelican Bay with quite a different enterprise? If Pelican Bay State Prison had a gift shop, would it be appropriate to sell Pelican Bay Honey Dew Mint Melonade Mix or Delicious Alligator Swamp Cake?
My friend Cliff once said "I base my diet on that of the Sasquatch. I eat what's available."
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a vegetarian. However, if you know me you also know that I love vegetables, I probably eat more vegetables, pulses and beans, grains, etc. than I do meat, and I'm not afraid to try new food. There are some foods in which I would rather go the vegetarian / vegan route for (for example I prefer hot chocolate made from soy milk rather than regular milk) but if I'm craving a steak (not that often, mind you) I'm gonna have a big honkin' steak. If I want a cheeseburger, I'm not gonna settle for Burger King. I'm going to Bills or Tower Burger.
There's a gal in my office who has decided to go vegetarian. She seems to be doing a pretty good job of staying away from eating things with faces. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't want to do it. But that's just me.
At lunch today she was asking another coworker and me about alternative meat products, other than Tofurky. We told her about Veat, Seiten, Quorn, etc. I always liked Veat. I liked the way it cooked up, and how when torn up it would break like chicken nuggets. It made for good "meat-on-a-stick" dishes for bar-b-ques. Then I told her the about the grossest and most yucky fake meat product, ever: Field Roast.
I told her the following story.
A long time ago I worked for Whole Foods Market. Overall it was an OK place to work, and my story has nothing to do with WFM itself, except for the fact it used to be home to some strange customers. I suppose it is still home to strange customers except now all the customers have money but back when I worked there, gosh, a decade ago, there was still a good amount of "fringe" who would frequent the aisles. So I was working at the Food Hole in the Prepared Foods department (trying to fancy up the deli by calling it Prepared Foods). We had just gotten in a bunch of some new product called Field Roast and were supposed to promote it. Oh my gosh, it was so gross. It tasted like shoe, like shoe that had been walking around Haight St (but upper and lower) all day long, shoe and Bob's Big Boy Season Salt. I hated Field Roast. We had these nasty-ass Field Roast Quesadillas we had to sell. Some woman came up to me and asked me for something in the deli case (sorry, prepared foods case) that was substantial and vegetarian. I gave her a Field Roast Quesadilla. She thanked me and walked away. About 5 minutes later she came marching back to me. I was helping another customer at the time. She pushed the other customer aside, ripped open the Field Roast Quesadilla I had just sold her and then threw it in my face while screaming "I told you I didn't want meat." I was so shocked all I could do was point at the Field Roast shelf talker (grocery-speak for 'sign') and said "I didn't. It's made out of beans." She got a horrified and embarassed look on her face, turned around and ran away. I never saw her again.
I'm going to the Fancy Food Show next week. Maybe I'll try Field Roast again. They are always there with little pieces of their "meat" on toothpicks. Maybe my tastes have changed and I'll like it now. I doubt it, but the company is still around, their products are still sold at WFM and other places. Someone must like them. I'll try it and get back to you.
I slept really horribly last night. I feel like I didn't fall asleep until at least 3am. I probably fell asleep earlier, but I tossed and turned all night. I woke up feeling particularly sleepy and unwilling to leave my pillow and blankie. I had to go to work today so alas, I got my fat ass out of bed and went about my normal routine, a little more slowly than usual, but still, my normal routine.
When I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room, the very first coherent thought to swirl around my head and make its way out of my mouth was
"Pauly, you are not allowed to love my new purse."
Pauly is The Girl's cat. Pauly is a big white cat who is a little stupid. He's very sweet and loves to cuddle, but his walnut sized brain isn't quite fully charged.
The Cat loves sweat, and things that contain sweat. If I wear a pair of shoes all day long on a hot day, then take them off as soon as I get home, the cat will be all over them and the next thing I know, he'll either be biting it a little while kneading it with his paws, or his head will be shoved deep down in the shoe. He does the same thing to The Girl's and The Boy's stuffed animals. When that happens we say "Kids, Pauly is loving your (Hello Kitty, stinky shoe, cow pillow, shirt you wore yesterday) again. Make him stop."
This morning Pauly was trying entice my new purse into his poly amorous lifestyle. I was going to have none of it. Pauly is not allowed to love my new purse.
So one day I was playing around on the computer and thought I'd look around a bit to see whatever became of Queen Bee TV.
Queen Bee (Here real name was Rebecca) was the host of a public access TV show I used to watch every Monday at 9:30pm, without fail.
Hubby worked a bijillion hours a week and I often found myself searching for interesting stuff on TV after The Girl went to bed (The Boy wasn't around yet). Queen Bee wore a bee costume and bee antennae. She had long blond hair and red lipstick. In the first episode I saw of hers, Queen Bee was eating mayonnaise from a jar and talking about apical dominance. Subsequent shows included Ms. Queen Bee explaining the thoughts and feelings of her unused cooking implements (pots, pans, spoons, etc.), how to make Blair Witch Project themed Christmas presents and the most disturbing, bathtub theater where she would make puppets out of paper bags and act out little plays using her bathtub as the stage and the shower curtain as the theater curtain. I truly loved her show. Then there was some bru-ha-ha at the local public access station and a lot of the shows I watched on that channel dwindled away. Along with Queen Bee TV there was Bevornia, voted Best Public Access TV Show Including Vikings, and a whole host of others I would watch here and there.
While searching for her, and only finding the picture I have posted above, I found this site. A big selection of super-cute bags from Portland.
Queen Bee Creations, the company is called. I super love most of the bags on this site.
This year for Christmas my mom asked me what I wanted. I sent her a link to my favorite bag on the site. In turn she sent me a gift certificate.
With the gift certificate from my mom, plus some other Christmas money I was given, I was able to purchase this bag. Made of recycled wool. I got the small size version of this bag and I'm glad I did because it's super big. I betcha I could fit 2 bottles of wine in it, along with my regular purse items. I can certainly fit my netbook inside, which will come in handy when I go back to school the end of this month.
I also got this hip pack.
It's only about 6 inches wide and 4 inches tall. Hubby hates it. He says it's the equivalent of wearing mom jeans. I think he's wrong. I think it'll come in handy when I go to the Fancy Food Show in 2 weeks. I hate carrying around a big purse at the food show.
So, Thanks Mom. I love my new bag(s). And Queen Bee, I miss you.
One of my gifts for Christmas this year was a box of Spicy Spices from Penzy's.
Last night we decided to have a little taste test with the spices, or at least some of them.
See, the gift box came with 8 different spices, but we only used three on the chicken; Vindaloo, Hot Curry Powder and 4/S. We didn't use Northwest Fire, Galena BBQ Rub or Hot Chili Powder because when I put them away after I got them they were put on a different shelf than the others. I totally forgot about them. We also didn't use Chipotle because I don't like smokey flavored things, or the crushed red pepper. We use crushed red pepper in cooking all the time. We know what it tastes like. I added the crushed red pepper jar into the regular mix of condiments and spices. It'll get used soon enough.
We took some chicken drumsticks, gave each of them identifying slashes in their skin so we would know which is which. We also reserved a few drumsticks, cooking them with only salt, pepper and thyme, because I knew the kiddies would eat those if they hated the others.
Chicken, pre-roasting
The verdict - The Girl thought the Vindaloo and the Curry were too spicy and made me eat them. She LOVED the 4/S flavor, giving it the very high compliment of "if I had school tomorrow I would ask for it to be in my lunch." Hubby loved the 4/S as well. He didn't like the consistency of the Curry or Vindaloo spices, but the flavor was good. I attribute that to Chef's Error (mine) of adding too much spice. Perhaps it would have been yummier if cooked a different way, say put in some flour and deep fried? I liked the Curry spice the best. A little squeeze of lime on the chicken made it even yummier. The Boy, not having a good nap yesterday licked a few pieces of the Salt, Pepper and Thyme chicken, decided he didn't like it and had plain kiefer and cutie tangerines for dinner. Right after he finished he told me he wanted a cuddle and a song. I excused myself from the spicy chicken taste test, wrapped The Boy up in a blankie, and sang him his favorite Tom Waits' song, Little Trip to Heaven.
The next thing I knew, The Boy was asleep.
The Girl and Hubby put away dinner, I put The Boy to bed then followed suit shortly thereafter.
Dream I had this morning. I was riding the shuttle that takes me from my office to EMB. When I got off the shuttle I was informed that I was no longer allowed to ride it anymore because I had corrected someone's grammar a little too loudly and offended the wrong person.
My Philosophy on Gift Giving and Receiving It's OK to re-use wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and gift bags - It's the responsible thing to do in this day and age; it saves a bit of money, it helps the planet by not using extra or unnecessary resources, and gosh darn it, some ribbons and bows are too pretty not to use again. It's OK to make gifts for your loved ones, rather than buying something - it shows creativity, ingenuity, thoughtfulness. Imagine receiving a gift knowing that the person who made it for you was thinking of you the whole time the gift was being made. Gosh, that just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. It's OK to give cash or gift cards instead of a gift - sometimes one just doesn't know what to get someone. Maybe the recipient wants a very specialized item and rather than buying the wrong one, sometimes it's best to send a gift card for the store where the item is sold. When I was in the 2nd grade I got a bra from an aunt. I would much rather have gotten $5. It's OK to re-gift - this one is a bit tricky. It is OK to re-gift but one must take care to not give the gift back to the person who gave it to you (duh), and one must take care not to re-gift an item to someone in front of the person who originally gave you the gift. Gifts are supposed to make people feel good. Re-gifting is fine, if done with care. It's OK to put the gift receipt in the box with the gift - sometimes you don't need an espresso machine from Williams Sonoma, but you really could use a new knife. The gift-giver should recognize this and gracefully accept that a new knife from Williams Sonoma is just as lovely as a new espresso machine. Your gift of an espresso machine gave the recipient the means to buy a new knife. Every time that person uses the knife you will be remembered with fondness. It's OK to use a gift in a manner the giver hadn't thought of - for example, one year for Christmas I received a cutting board. I didn't need a cutting board, but I liked the design, so I used it as a flat surface on top of my microwave so I could have a nice place to put my condiments that I use frequently. I've had it now for about 10 years. I still use it, and when I see it I think of the people who gave it to me. It's OK to get some benefit out of the gift you give - for example, I have to buy a specific dollar amount of scrip every year for The Girl's school. It's OK to buy Starbucks gift cards and use those as gifts, and get credit for scrip. Another example is credit card points. I admit it, I bought some of the gifts I gave with my AMEX points. The gifts I gave were exactly the same things I would have gotten from a store, I just used alternate means of paying for them. Let's face it. Everyone who has ever given someone stuff from Bath and Body Works has taken advantage of their buy one, get one policy, am I right? It's OK to have a gift sent directly from the website from which it is bought - Sometimes going to the store, picking out a gift, taking it home and wrapping it, then sending it out takes more time than a lot of us have, plus it costs a bit more money to pay for shipping to your house then shipping to the recipient. Sure, sometimes the wrapping isn't as exciting or pretty, but everyone loves getting packages in the mail so the 'ding dong' of the doorbell sort of makes up for the fact that it doesn't have a pretty red bow.
With All that Said, There are Some Things to Remember Know when to stop recycling - If the paper is torn, if the paper has creases so formed that it won't fold any other way, if there is tape on the paper from past holidays that you can't remove, it's time to get rid of the paper. It's done its job. It's time to recycle it. If the gift bag has tears, if it has an old card attached to it with the "to/from" already filled out with the last recipient's information, tear it off or don't use the bag. Don't scratch it out. Don't use an Easter or Happy Birthday bag for Christmas, make sure the bag is holiday appropriate. If you're putting money or a gift card in an envelope, make sure the envelope is in good shape and don't use an envelope that has the return address for PG&E in the top left corner and try to cover it up with a Santa sticker. If you're giving a gift certificate that came from a book of certificates, make sure you take off all the perforated bits. Don't know what to get someone? This is an easy one. If you spend even a little bit of time with the person to whom you're giving a gift, all you have to do is pay attention. It's easy to make simple leaps of logic that will usually work out. Someone works downtown probably makes frequent trips to Starbucks, in which case a SBUX card would be a welcome gift. Most women would love a gift certificate for a mani/pedi. A lot of conversations turn to food. Pay attention to where someone had a meal they liked and get them a gift card for that restaurant. It doesn't have to pay for the whole meal.If you know someone drives 60 miles each way to work every day, a gift card to Chevron will be very much appreciated. Pay attention to what you gave them last year. For three Christmasses in a row I received a new pie pan from the same person. They're nice pie pans but three years in a row? Don't cherry pick stuff from the gift basket you got from a client at work, wrap the stuff in pieces of discarded tissue paper, throw it into a ripped gift bag and call it Christmas.
We all know that people re-gift and re-use. It's not a big deal. What is a big deal is how the gift is given. The care you put into the packaging shows how you feel about the person you're giving the gift to. Most people are happy with thoughtful gifts.
The thought and care taken is way more important than the gift itself. The thought and care surrounding the gift is what people will remember and cherish more than the gift itself.
I did my very first guest blogging ever. My friend Anika asked me to write a story about Santa. Here's what I sent her.
Hope you like it.
Be sure to check out her blogs here and here.
In May of 2004, on the first night of hula class with Na Lei Hulu, Kumu said something that I think about often. I don't remember his exact words but he said, to a packed room that is now maybe a quarter of the size it was then, that if we stick it out, if we stay dancing with this group of people, we will become great friends with some of them, and the rest, although we may not be super close, we will feel a great connection to.
When one dances hula, one dances with the music, not to the music, and definitely not at the music. When we dance hula we will be, at least when class is in session, wearing our emotions on our sleeves. Doing this at least once a week for the last 6 years, one can't help but feel a connection to other people in the class. And it's true, there are some people in the class I have become great friends with, and I do feel a great connection with the rest of them.
Even with this connection I don't really know some of the people I dance with. I know their names. I know their pa'u. I know them by their skill. I may know if they are married or have kids. I may know where they live or what they do for a living. The fact remains, however, there are things about some of my hula siblings about which I know nothing, or at least not a whole lot.
Case in point, my hula sister Sue. I really like Sue. She's nice. She's fun to talk to. She's a beautiful dancer. I wish I knew her better. The other day I came across her website, and I have to say, I was totally blown away. You need to check out her site. She paints the most beautiful pictures of flowers, seeds, roots, shells, leaves, etc. They are so amazing and beautiful. My favorite is on this page. It's the one in the right hand column, third one down. You should check it out.
When Hubby and I moved into our home about 13 years ago it was right before Christmas. My mother-in-law gave us some ornaments for the tree and an old nativity set. We put it up every year. Every year it looks a bit more weathered and it gets a little bit more broken, but we love it. MIL sometimes offers to replace bits and pieces of it, but we always turn her down.
We love our three-legged sheep, some of whom have had their eyes rubbed off over time. We love our handless angel. We love that we have to prop up the baby Jesus in his little wooden bassinet on Joseph's knee. And mostly, we love that the sheppard is missing both hands, an arm and a leg. The leg isn't missing, however. Every year we tape it on, because for some reason super-glue won't "take". This year I found it at the bottom of our Christmas box and put it next to the sheppard. The Boy was playing with the set yesterday making the wisemen kiss, making the cow attack the donkey. I tried to get it on video but he stopped. Here's what he did do . . . .
We got our Christmas Tree yesterday. Yay! I love bringing up The Christmas Box from downstairs and going through it, greeting all of our ornaments we haven't seen in a year, putting up our Nativity Scene, untangling the lights.
We usually go to Home Depot to get our tree because it's cheaper than going to a Christmas Tree lot. This year we went to "Gu's Christmas Tree Lot" on Moraga at Great Highway. They're a small tree lot in the Outer Sunset run by local surfers. Hubby's website wrote a little piece on them. A nice group of people selling trees and giving a portion of their earnings to the SFPCA.
The kids had fun running through the lot and picking out trees. The Girl's criteria for a good tree was that it had to be taller than her. The Boy's criteria was that it had to be shorter than him. We compromised and got the one I liked.
We took it home and decorated it.
We even strung popcorn this year. We had never done that before. It was fun.
This weekend I accomplished two things on my list.
#30 bake 2 parsnip cakes - one for me and one for Tina.
I know it seems I'm a little obsessed with this guy, but I really enjoy reading One Hungry Chef and trying out his recipes. A few months before my last birthday I found this recipe for a parsnip cake. It sounded interesting and the pictures on this guy's blog made the cake look really yummy. I don't have any trouble with the cooking recipes from this guy. Cooking isn't an exact science and it's a lot more forgiving if you mess up. If you mess up, what you're making will probably still taste yummy, just not exactly how the recipe dictates. With baking however, one mistake could cost you the whole dessert. I was a bit concerned about this recipe because it's written in metrics. To convert the recipe to American measurements I used the site Convert-Me. I think the site served me well because the cake was pretty good. I'm such a dork, though. The cake in the picture in Mr. Hungry Chef's blog is really little. I thought the recipe was for a small cake. I doubled the recipe to compensate. I ended up making two rounds, two dozen cupcakes and half a dozen mini loafs. And to top off my dorky-ness, I didn't have any cake pans I wanted to part with so I baked Tina's cake in a pie tin. The Boy, having just learned to open the utility ladder himself, helped himself to all the broken cupcakes that didn't come out of the pan in one piece. The rest of them went to the Santa Breakfast, Bake and Craft Sale at The Girl's school on Sunday morning. The cake itself was good. It wasn't "oh my gosh, this cake is so freakin' fantastic that to eat a bite of any other cake in the world would be to betray this piece of cake in front of me" good, but it was good. I had fun with the candied fennel. I'd never candied anything before - a big pile of candied fennel looks just like shark fin soup, btw.
I gave the cake to Tina yesterday.
And the rest of the parsnip cake, plus some rockin' gingerbread The Girl made went to the bakesale.
I did one other thing on my list this weekend.
#39 - buy a blood pressure monitor
not too exciting, just nice to cross something off the list
Does anyone equate Thanksgiving with Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians anymore? In my opinion, not really. Sure, we all know the Thanksgiving story, but that's not really why we gather on the 3rd Thursday of every November.
Thanksgiving has evolved into something different. It's turned into a day to be thankful for what you have, spend the day with your family and watch football. We eat a lot, drink a lot and generally have a good time. Every family has their own special traditions but, everyone across the country is pretty much doing the same thing.
I like Thanksgiving because it doesn't matter your religion, class, personal beliefs, sexual orientation, your heritage or any of the many other differences we might have; as Americans we have this day in common, and the cool part is, you don't have to be American to partake in it. Everyone is invited to celebrate, you just have to show up.
I got an email today from someone. I'm sure a few of my readers got the same email. I like what he said: "...I wish to greet you all here, and to wish you and your families and your special people the happiest of times this Thanksgiving. I, like many of our friends never grew up with the Thanksgiving spirit as it was so uniquely American. Over all these years it has become for me a very special occasion as it embodies the true goodness and generosity of the human spirit, uncomplicated by religion, politics, or the other divisive aspects of society. It is a time for the human touch, and it is a very good thing. So, with that in mind, I want to wish you all a most special and reflective Thanksgiving. It would be trite in the extreme to suggest that you look around you and appreciate what you have and revel in it. Life doesn't work like that. We all have problems and issues to deal with. Less trite, perhaps, would be to suggest that you enjoy this great holiday with your precious loved ones and look forward to the next one. That's what we are doing, and that's for sure. "
So put on your eating pants and your baggy shirt with the empire waist and grab a fork. It's turkey time.
I accomplished #60 from my list yesterday and #89 today.
#89 - Go through the drafts of blog posts I've made and either post them or delete them.Go through the drafts of blog posts I've made and either post them or delete them.
I culled a bunch of started but go-nowhere posts, and finished one that's been haunting me since September. There are no longer any unfinished posts on my blog. Yay.
#60 Get rid of yucky chipped dishes and replace
For my birthday 6 weeks ago I got a gift card from Bed Bath and Beyond.Last week one of The Girl's friends had dinner at our house. As I was setting the table I noticed we didn't have enough of the same kind of dishes for everyone to have the same kind of dish. My family's talent for not breaking dishes in our old porcelain sink is not well cultivated. The dishes I bought when we moved into our house almost 13 years ago have been broken, chipped, cracked. We needed some new everyday dishes. A friend of mine got wind of me going to BBB yesterday and said she had some coupons I could use. Boy did she. She handed me a stack of coupons that was seriously, at least 50 coupons deep. She told me that even though BBB has expiration dates on their coupons they'll still honor them and you can use as many coupons as you have items. With my gift card and the coupons, I bought $68 dollars worth of dishes and spent only . . . . .(wait for it) . . . . .$5.41. Sweet.
Quite some time ago I came across a blog called MerMag. The author posted about a project she made for one of her kids. I LOVED the idea.
I sent the post to my dad, made him read it and then instructed him to go to home depot to buy the supplies listed exactly as Ms. MerMag had described. Having the kind of dad I have (a good one), he bought the required wood and cut squares for me according to Ms. MerMag's instructions.
For my son's birthday, my dad sent me about 100 freshly cut tiles from home depot. I bought some red, blue and yellow paint, took painters tape and made beautiful straight lines on the diagonal of the squares and got to painting.
It took me almost a year to finish (partly because life is busy and partly because I'm lazy), but I'm finished.
So here they are. Don't look too closely or compare them to Ms. MerMag's, because her squares are painted way better.
My boy isn't too into making geometric shapes but he likes when I arrange the tiles to create a road that he can drive his little toy cars down. He also likes to stack the tiles and knock them down but his favorite thing to do is throw them across the room or at the cat.
My Dad and My Son in My Sister's Garage taken July 2009.
This afternoon I had to go to the restaurant on the bottom floor of my building and pay for a cheese platter for some thing-thing being held at my office today.
As it's 4pm, the restaurant was not yet open for dinner. Only the bar was open.
This is the interaction I had with a salty bartender and a drunk patron.
Salty Bartender: Can I help you young lady?
Me: Hi, I need to pay for a catering order that was delivered to my office earlier today. Salty Bartender goes to the register to look for my ticket and comes back.
Salty Bartender: That'll be $40 bananas.
Me: Sorry sir, I don't have any bananas, will you take clams? Salty Bartender chuckles, winks at me and takes my credit card. Drunk Patron: Hey, I didn't know they sold banans here.
This morning I woke up with a bit of a tickle in my throat. I couldn't stop coughing.
Hubby and I set our own alarms. Mine was about to go off in a minute or so; his had yet to chime, beep or bakawk! I decided to make my way to the couch and finish my morning hitting-snooze-for-the-next-20-minutes routine.
I don't remember my dream during the last "snooze session" but as my alarm rang for the last time I woke up and said aloud "Stop being so creepy, Jim Carrey."
I wonder what that was all about.
This morning Hubby and I took the Kiddies to Ocean Beach.
It was a really beautiful morning, but that was not the reason for our 9am stroll.
According to the Ocean Beach Bulletin, massive amounts of (probably) moon jellies had washed ashore. We had to see it. It was pretty cool. The largest jellies were about a foot in diameter. At some spots, the concentration was so rich the beach looked like it had been paved with jelly cobblestones.
The Boy has taken a liking to crawling into my bed and then wiggling all the way down to the foot and yelling "I'm in a hole." Last week he did just that but instead of yelling his new favorite refrain he fell asleep. Hubby and The Girl spent a good 15 minutes looking for him one afternoon only to find him in his hole snoring away.
This new fascination with blankets, along with The Girl teaching him about cocoons and butterflies, has turned into a new game. He likes to be wrapped up in a burrito cocoon. Hearing him giggle from inside is too cute.
And yes, I made this blanket. A few years ago I started to crochet a blanket using up all the yarn I had left over from other projects. Turns out I didn't have enough yarn to complete the blanket so I went out and bought some yarn to finish it. Funny part (except for Hubby who didn't think it was funny) I had as much yarn left over this project as I did to start with. Comfy blanket, though.
Conversation this morning -
Coworker H - Andrea Andrea, it's Coworker N's birthday today. We have to do something for her.
Me - OK
Coworker H - We can go to (the restaurant in our building's complex) and get a cake and have some bubbles.
Me - OK
We feel bad that we forgot her birthday. I especially feel like a jerk-face because just over a month ago she remembered mine and took me out to lunch.
Coworker H goes to the restaurant, grabs a yummy cake, throws some bubbles in the fridge. She then sends out an email to a few people on our team and floor letting them know that we'll be having a mini celebration at 3pm.
At 3pm, Coworker K tells Coworker N to come into the bar (yes my office has a bar) because someone brought in some puppies that she just had to see. Right on cue she runs into the bar where 10 of us break into a lovely version of Happy Birthday and present her with yummy cake and sparkling wine.
While we're having cake and enjoying some bubbles, she tells us that our source for finding out when her birthday is incorrect and her birthday isn't until next week. We all felt stupid but enjoyed the cake and bubbly anyway.
Coworker N appreciated the thought, ate her cake and enjoyed her little mini party, even though we lied to her about the puppies.
Hahahahaha.
At least we got to have a nice little 1/2 hour of not working, and drinking bubbles, and maybe we'll get to do it again next week when her real birthday rolls around.
Welcome now my friends to the show that never ends
StatCounter
Nice Pictures - Where'd you steal them from?
Some of the pictures in my blog were taken by a photographer called Julie Michele. Some of the pictures were either taken by me or someone I know. Some of the pictures were ripped right from the internet, mostly from google image searches from photographers to whom I may or may not give credit.
