From the Garden to the Table

First of all, can I just say that these days, every time I open up my freezer to get a frozen pizza out, I have this irrational fear that Jamie Oliver is going pop up behind me and yell something sufficiently British...like, "Why are you eating this bloody garbage!?"

Now that that's out of the way...

Today I went to the pits of hell Wal*Mart to get a RX filled. They told me it would be about 15 minutes, so I wandered around for awhile (always a dangerous thing!). I ended up in the garden center and was overtaken by a fit of insanity the idea that I should buy some food plants. So I did. I bought two different tomato plants (with cute names)...one of which said it would do well as a container plant. I also bought a little basil plant. If this goes as I'm expecting, I will be 3 for 3 on killing basil plants.

Anyhoo, in case you're wondering, no, I don't eat tomatoes per se. But I do like salsa and creamy tomato basil soup. I also had the following experience while choosing soil...

Me: Ooh, look! Organic garden soil. That's the ticket!
Organic Soil: Pick me! Pick me!
Me: Well, I don't see why not. It's organic and it's garden soil. And I'm planting things that grow in a garden. I'll take two bags!

(Later the same evening)

Me: La la la...I'm planting things...la la la.
Organic Soil: I'm happy to be at your service (heh heh heh)
Me: What do you mean "NOT FOR USE IN CONTAINERS?!!"
Organic Soil: Sucker! Oh, and take a look at this "We recommend that you use garden gloves while using this product" (heh heh heh)

So the bottom line is, I've probably just given myself and all three plants a death sentence.

Spinning My Wheels

Ever have those days when you feel like you've been incredibly busy all day, but can't point to anything that you've accomplished? That's what my life has been like in the past few days. It has gotten to the point that I've been met in the parking lot a couple of times by people asking me questions/wanting to discuss work. I'm going to have to find a better escape route, I guess.

I'm going to also have to try to find a better lunchtime hiding place. Apparently eating lunch at my desk is too obvious. Here's a tip. If you stalk someone and find them with a mouth full of food during a regular lunchish time of day, just keep walking. They might be taking their lunch break. Maybe I can start eating my lunch in the lactation room. Nobody will think to look for me there.

Other than that, though, I think we're getting better at delegating the new stuff out, so that gives me hope that one day things won't be so hectic.

In other news, I started playing Halo 3 again after taking a break for several months. It is with great shame that I admit that I now suck at Halo 3. My rank is already dropping, partially because I've gotten used to the controller configuration for Left 4 Dead 2 and that configuration is totally different than the H3 buttons. I try to melee people and end up throwing grenades. You can imagine how that turns out. My own teammates try to kill me now. I won't stop until I get better though. I'm obsessive. I can't help it.

Happy Easter

I pray that you all are experiencing the joy and peace of Easter.



(I love Amena Brown. Her delivery is fantastic.)

A Grievance Aired

The other day, a FB friend posted a picture of a great many little tiny DYED ducklings. Everyone was supposed to tell her how cute they were because she bought them as DOOR PRIZES for her child's party. Seriously? I mean really? I wanted to shake her until her eyes rolled around in her head. How irresponsible. I really hate the seasonal animal gift giving thing-- even if the animal is bought for one's own family. Why would someone assume that their guests want to be saddled with the responsibility of pet ownership? Especially the ownership of a duck. Of all the idiotic things to do.

So here's my plea...please, please, please don't give into the "oh how cute, I should buy that for little Johnny for Easter!" syndrome. Cute grows up.

Good Friday to You

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings...
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

I Kept Expecting Dwight Schrute to Show Up

What a day! First of all, there was a whole lot of crazy drama that I won't even go into here, but it was sort of like going back to preschool except with adults.

Then we had a meeting that went absolutely NOT the way we had planned. It was sort of like the people on the other end of the line wadded up all of the hard work we've been doing in the past few months and threw it back in our faces.

That prompted my boss to throw his pen across the room when the meeting was over. Which was really funny, actually, because usually it's the other boss that throws things and makes holes in the drywall at work. This guy is usually pretty mild mannered. We proceeded to make fun of him for it the rest of the day. He will not live it down.

And then we had another meeting in a conference room that overlooks the parking lot. We saw a person who works on our floor go out to his/her car and sit for a long time. Apparently this is a common occurrence, so one of the bosses went down to clandestinely investigate while we all watched the show. He pretended he was on the phone (agitated hand motions and all) whilst inching closer and closer to the car. They think that this person goes down and drinks several times a day and were trying to witness it. Funny stuff. Sadly, he couldn't see anything. Too bad we didn't have any binoculars.