My boss had a meeting today and as soon as she got back to our building she told me to go home. She was going to send one email, water her plants and then she was splitting too. I had just finished something that I really wanted to get through and not leave for two weeks so the timing was perfect.
I’m so glad to be off from work. We’re going to make oyster stew for dinner to celebrate.
I got to work this morning and there was a bottle of adult egg nog on my desk. I have no idea if it tastes like ass or like angels singing, but who cares. There was a bottle of booze on my desk this morning.
We’re having our end of the year holiday party today at work. We’re abuzz with cooking, decorating, and all the associated happy hoo-ha.
Someone who used to work here full time is back for a meeting and is staying for lunch. We used to get on quite well. Lately when I see her she asks about The Niece and then tunes me out. To the outside observer I’m sure it seems like she’s interested but I can tell she could give a sh*t what I say. So, my thought is why pretend? I’m never going to give a long-winded answer. I usually tend towards a short and funny tale and then I move on because I don’t ever want to be one of those people who will not shut up about the children in her life. Yawn.
This may be overly dramatic but I have become a placeholder for this person. I’m the only one in my unit who gets to work before 9 and so this former co-worker had to speak to me because I was the only one here but I know she’d rather talk to the actual parent in our group. I’ll bet the contents of my wallet that she won’t have the I could give a sh*t look on her face when they sit together at lunch and chat.
I’m so glad I grew up and ended up right back in high school.
At least the garlic mashed potatoes cooking away in the crock pot smell delicious.
The Niece’s parents are out of town this weekend and I have to go pick her up from school in just a little while. My mother is going to babysit Lil’ Elvis since there’s the rule that all children who spend the night at my house must be 3 and potty-trained. I don’t mind an occasional diaper but it’s not my idea of fun to have to deal with one first thing in the morning.
I really have no idea what’s on tap for the weekend. I know we have to go pick out a Christmas tree. I’m not sure if The Niece has ever done that, but I do know she’ll get to ride in the front seat of the truck. And that’s huge. Don’t worry, we can turn off the airbag. The big worry is me stuffing my fat ass into the tiny jump seat. I may end up stuck in the cab of the truck for the weekend. I’m sure the better-half and The Niece will bring me a blanket and a cup of cocoa.
I was recently shown this picture of a POW flag flying at Guantanamo.
Yesterday when I got home from work there was a notice from FedEx stuck to the door. Oh happy day, our new phones had arrived. I raced into the house and called the better-half to let him know that we had to get over to the Fed Ex place to pick up our phones. We ordered them on November 21st so we’ve been waiting for this day for awhile.
We’re now the proud owners of Blackberry Storms and it’s like we just jumped 20 years into the future from our old free Nokias that did nothing except make and receive calls. When we got home and were able to open the phone boxes, silence fell and then we spent the next several minutes saying things like “cool”, “oh wow”, “I love this phone”. Yep, we just walked into the 21st century. It’s nice here.
When I was a wee lass I had the habit of not pronouncing words correctly. I suppose you could chalk it up to baby talk. One of the things I used to love to eat and still consider a top comfort food choice was Chicklin and Dumplins.
Yesterday was grey and I was chained to my laptop. I emailed the better-half and suggested that we do two fun things last night (yes, he was sitting in the next room but I still emailed him). One was to have a fire in the fireplace and the other was to make Chicklin and Dumplins. He was game. We consulted a few recipes on how to make the chicken soup portion of the dish and ultimately I sauteed onions, garlic, carrots, celery, tiny turnips from our garden, and a potato. The better-half chopped up a chicken breast, dipped it into flour and cooked it in a sauce pan. Then he put all that chickeny goodness into my pot (that sounds sort of dirty doesn’t it). He used some wine to deglaze the pan and then cooked it for awhile to make a rich gravy which he also put into my pot. To all of this we added boxed chicken broth, some of our homemade broth from the freezer and topped it all off with some tap water. We needed plenty of broth to cook those dumplings.
Then we consulted James Beard for the dumpling recipe and I have to tell you the chicklin and dumplin was amazing. I’ve just finished my paper and as I haven’t eaten since breakfast, I’m headed downstairs to eat the leftovers. I’m not sure what excites me more knowing the paper is complete or what I’m about to eat.
The better-half sent me a link to Zombie Haiku.
We also got this album today in an Amazon shipment. I’m having a hard time sitting still.
I’m finished with classes for the semester. There’s still that massive paper to write, but I’m done with classes. Two more to go.
I just found out that a very good friend’s father died today. He’d been in the hospital for a little over 5 months this year and then finally got to go home right before Thanksgiving. He wasn’t in hospice so there’s a bit of shock that he died but when you consider how bad things had been this year it wasn’t totally a shocker. Still how great is it that he got to go home for a hugemongous family event and then got to die at home? Not a bad way to go.
I’ve been fending off a cold all week. Thank heavens for the Neti Pot. I know there’s something wrong with me but I love seeing the chunks come out into the sink.
I’ve been observing training this week. Today as I was listening to the trainer I realized this is why I love training so much. I’ve missed it–do I want to get back on the road again and never be at home? No. I do not want to do that. The positive on that is I get to eat at places like Tippy’s Taco for lunch.
I heard from a classmate today that she’s also having a problem writing her cultural analysis. She says she’s afraid it’s too much like a soap opera and not enough like an academic paper. I told her that I’ve been fretting about being whiny and soap opera-y and so have procrastinated so much that I’ll be a whimpering mess this weekend as I churn out the paper. Must take a step back and get me out of the analysis.
We started watching Bleak House over the weekend. We got through one DVD. There are three. My take on it is that I remember why I haven’t read much Charles Dickens (I know, I know, bad English major). So much of what he wrote was serialized and while the story is rich with fascinating details I just want the point. So, we really like the BBC production but every time a new episode starts I start hollering about the pacing. Then I shut my pie-hole and watch another episode.
I have begun working on my second and final paper and it’s a painful process because my work on it makes it abundantly clear that I need to get the heck out of my place of employment (POE). My paper is a cultural analysis of my POE and while most times when one of these is commissioned by an organization the organization says, “Whoa, look at all our dirty laundry. We’d better make some changes.” Instead I’m saying look at our dirty laundry, no wonder I’m miserable. And misery makes me want to cook.
I started a batch of granola but realized I needed coconut. A quick call to the better-half means he’ll bring some home since he was going to stop by the store later today anyway.
I’ve already made a batch of falafel nuts. And now I’m moving on to a batch of these tasty sounding nuts.
