Interesting morning so far at the new office. I walked in and could not find my desk. Murphy's Law. Finally found it and thankfully my network connection worked. I could hear some people talking and one of them was having network issues and the two others had the wrong phone line setup....so they were getting each others calls. Another person is off in the corner and the AC has been turned off in that area for some reason. She she is sweating.

Thankfully the only real issue I have is the light panel above my desk. It is sooo bright that I think I will have a tan by the time I leave today. Something will need to be done about that, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut until the bigger issues are taken care of :)

As I was unpacking, I realized I have an enormous amount of junk. I took inventory:

2 stands of Christmas lights
3 mugs
Picture of Greg & Calvin
Picture of Calvin & Abby
1 fortune from a forture cookie
Various business cards plus my own
1 desk lamp (which I don't need due to the fact my cube must have been used as a tanning booth before I moved in)
2 light bulbs for desk lamp, one of which I think is burned out
tape
stapler
earphones
hair clip
Kleenex
Box of rubber bands
Lip balm
Nail file
Orange scented lotion
3 buttons
2 needles and various thread
Far Side desk calendar
Key chain
5 magnets
a rock (don't ask)
2 glue sticks
1/2 of an eraser
Exato knife
2 eucalyptus leaves (don't ask)
6 highlighter pens
2 pink
2 light blue
1 green
1 purple
3 post-it note pads
1 staple remover
1 liquid paper pen
2 Sharpies
5 pencils
22 pens:
1 orange
1 pink
1 baby blue
2 red
2 green
8 blue or black
Themed pens:
1 snowman
1 santa
2 Easter (1 egg & 1 rabbit)
1 giraffe
1 Chococat
1 Jack Skellington

Phew! That's it. Well, there is other stuff, but it's all work kind of stuff that makes no sense to you all. I could open a store and sell pens. And the funny thing is, I don't use pens ~ I use pencils. I just like pencils better. So I have this overabundance of pens I never use and only 5 pencils that are not even close to being as interesting as my pen collection.

issues of the pumpkin variety

My pumpkins are green.

They look like watermelons.

Are they supposed to look like watermelons?

I think not.

The ones I planted a few years ago were orange from the begining. There was one that did start to turn orange....only I discovered that was because it was dying!

I looked around on a few websites to see about colors of pumpkins and I saw this.

Did you see that big ole green one? Not a good sign. I want orange ones.

These are 3 of mine. I have 6 total:

Mr. Big. From the name I guess you can tell this is the biggest one I have.

This one has no name yet.

Meet Scar. He gets his name from that scar he has. Looks like stitches to me. I've always wondered how pumpkins get those marks on them. As you can see, the vines have sharp little thorns on them. The thorny vines rub on the young pumpkins and leave those marks. Now you can tell people that when you shop for pumpkins. Maybe they will be impressed.....or maybe they will just think you have too much time on your hands.

Anyway, not a speck of orange on them! Hummmm. Well, if they never turn orange, I guess green will have to do. During my web search, I did find a recipe for "Green Pumpkin Pie" so I guess I could make that. I can just see Greg making the "eeewww!" face. He does not like pumpkin pie (*Pumpkin Pie!). I can just imagine the thought of a green pumpkin pie would make him shudder.

Oh, and the other thing I read was if you plant them too early and leave them on the vine past harvest time (120 days), they will start to rot inside. So if they are ready October 1st and and I leave them on the vine for 31 more days.....I'll be screwed.

* I'm 99.9% sure only Laura and Greg will get this.

I got this bright idea a while back to start another blog that was solely for crafts and photos.....a crafty blog. Of course, that was before I knew about all the changes at work. Now I have no idea if I will ever do anything with it. Aside from not having time to update a second blog, I have not been good about creating anything. It's not that I don't want to....I just can't get "in the mood" to create once I am home from work. All I want to do is sit and veg watching Food Network. Watching people cook requires very little in the way of thinking.

However....maybe if I had a craft room that looked like this, I would be more inspired. Seriously, if that were my craft room, I'd want to be in there even when I wasn't crafting! It's so pretty. I have craft room envy.....big time.

Memories

Have you ever been somewhere and you suddenly are hit with a memory so vivid you are taken right back to that place in time? It doesn't happen to me a lot, but every once in a while stuff like this just hits me.

I was driving along in the area I grew up in and it happened. I remembered when I was about 11 riding in my Mom's tuna boat of a car on the way to K-Mart. There was hardly anyone on the road with us and it was hot. Fallen leaves from the eucalyptus trees rustled and blew around on the road behind the only car that was ahead of us.

That's it. The whole memory. But it was as clear as a bell.

I actually got a little confused for a second ~ the memory had made me forget where I was going.

I can't tell you how many times I have driven down that road.....100's.....and never had that memory. But something about the day and the conditions...just a few cars on the road....it was just like it was 29 years ago.

One of my bosses paged me and said she had found this chat conversation between us in a very old file. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Obviously, I'm MsOkt.

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MsOkt pages: So I was thinking our department should have a Hawaiian day....
MsOkt pages: It would be kind of fun...we all could wear Hawaiian shirts and stuff
Velma pages: It could be fun...I admit this was the kind of thing that made me run screaming in high school...
MsOkt pages: Oh...
MsOkt pages: Well maybe not then. Don't want you to run from us.
MsOkt pages: How about naked day then?
MsOkt senses that Velma LAUGHS
Velma pages: you must be bored up there!
MsOkt pages: If we have naked day, I bet everyone will be here
MsOkt senses that Velma laughs and says: All the guys will come, but the women will stay home
MsOkt pages: Hey! We could email all our customers with bad debts and let them know about naked day and I bet they would all come in and pay. Kinda like the cops do with convicts.
MsOkt pages: We could have *Natasha and *Dana work the desk that day
MsOkt senses that Velma laughs so hard she is hurting herself
MsOkt pages: we could email campus and might get more signups...
MsOkt senses that Velma LAUGHS that we are still on this subject!
Velma pages: it's a thought though :)

* Our 2 best looking employees

Suspend Michael Vick

Express your feelings about Michael Vick's horrible behavior to the Atlanta Falcons management at the link below.

Email Atlanta Falcons

Feel free to use this letter:

Mr. Roger Goodell,

I was appalled to hear of the neglect and abuse of dogs discovered on Michael Vick's property. News sources reported that law enforcement officials found 70 dogs on his Surry County, Virginia, property along with paraphernalia commonly associated with dogfighting. I hope that you take Vick's indictment seriously.

Please suspend Vick immediately. Show the world that the NFL has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to cruelty to animals by football players.

**Update: I was watching ESPN and Emmitt Smith made a statement saying that Michael Vick is being targeted by the Feds unfairly.

"He's the biggest fish in the whole doggone pond so they're putting the squeeze on him to get to everyone else," said Smith.

Well DUH!

Look, if you are in the spotlight, you have to understand that there is a downside to that. If you do something wrong, they will make an example of you. That's just the way things go. People of all ages look up to people football players and it's not a good example to set. The Feds should go after him to show what he has done is wrong and there are consequences. This is part of the fame. AND, for Emmitt to say they that are going after him to get bigger fish....does he really think they do not do that with "regular" people? Come on Emmitt, start living in the real world. They do that no matter who you are.

What is it?

What is it?
Originally uploaded by photo kitten.

Back for now.

Is any one still reading me? Have I lost all my readers....or should I say...reader? My only faithful reader is Mike, I think ~ thanks, Mike!

Had to have some time away. Not sure how long I'll stick around tho. My work load is heavy and things are changing dramatically around here. As you may recall, my department has merged with another departement and we will be moving to their building next week. It's exactly like getting a new job.....that you were not looking for.

We will have all new people around us, all new rules and all new mucky mucks to answer to. We're going from having very few rules in a casual style office, to big rules in a very corporate style office. I've gone from never having meetings, to having two meetings a week starting this week. So nothing is the same, except for the actual work I do....and it sounds like that is about to change, too. The group I work with is merging with another group and I think we will be expected to absorb some of their workload. So lots more to do. And I'm an old dog in many ways.....I don't like to learn new tricks. But I'll have to. And I'll have to appear excited about it. Notice I say "appear"...meaning I'll have to fake being interested. It's just, what I already do, which seems to be a complete mystery to people other than the few I work with, is already a lot of work. So adding more to it in a new environment just isn't something I'm not looking forward to. I was pretty positive about this when they first told us about it because I saw it as an opportunity for making my work life better. But the more we move towards it, the more I see that casual to corporate is not such a fun prospect.

But as always, you can't really judge it until it actually happens. So maybe it won't be so bad....trying not to roll my eyes here.

Anyway, I will try and post if I feel like it, but once we are over there, me and my little work space will be more exposed to the masses and I'm thinking that blogging won't be something I want people to see me doing. Plus, my supervisor is being moved from an office to a cube, so she will be somewhere close ~ perhaps right next to me! I am rolling my eyes now.

I don't usually blog on the weekend or at night, so I may not be around very much after next week. We'll see tho.


All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

Farmers Market

Greg took me to a farmers market recently and, my goodness, the stands were just loaded with fruits and veggies. Not to mention flowers galore. I got plums, peaches, stawberries, green beans, mangos, bell peppers, cucumbers....an much more. Of everything, the peaches were the very best. I've never had good fresh peaches from the grocery store. They're always tasteless. But these were sooo good. The plums were also very good. So sweet a juicy.

So this weekend, search online for farmers markets in your area and head out and see what you find! Maybe some plums and peaches to make the crisp below :)


Plum and Peach Crisp Recipe

From 101cookbooks.com

Fruit:
1 pound ripe peaches
1 pound ripe plums
1/4 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoons arrowroot (or cornstarch)
a scant 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)

Crisp:
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
big pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup yogurt

Special equipment: 8x8 square baking dish or equivalent

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.

Cut the peaches and plums into bite-sized, 1-inch pieces. I cut relatively chubby slices and then cut them again in quarters or thirds. Place the chopped fruit in a medium-sized bowl.

In a separate small bowl whisk together the 1/4 cup sugar and the arrowroot. Sprinkle over the fruit, toss gently (but well), add the orange blossom water (optional), toss again, and transfer the fruit to an 8-inch square baking dish (or your favorite equivalent-sized, deep-sided, solid-bottomed tart pan).

To make the topping combine the oats, flour, and sugar together in a medium bowl. Stir in the butter, and then the yogurt and mix until everything comes together in a dough-like texture. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the plum and peach mixture.

Place the baking dish in the oven, middle rack, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the topping is golden.

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Have a good weekend everyone!