Doggie Day at Work

Today was the official 'Take Your Dog to Work' day!  Annie was very excited -- up early and ready to go.  Her bag was packed with doggie jerky, a pink collapsible water dish and poo baggies.  Other necessities included a comfy bed and good doggie manners.  After all, the workplace is supposed to be civilized.

The face says it all -- the @#$% phone just won't stop ringing today.

I agree with Annie -- it's too hard to work when there are birds and deer to watch from the window.

So, all in all, 'Take Your Dog to Work Day' was a success.  It was nice to work WITH a dog instead of working LIKE a dog.  Maybe Annie can persuade the powers-that-be to do this more often...

The Office First Aid Kit

Can you tell what kind of week it has been? Work can be stressful enough, but mix all the normal craziness up with ugly politics, stir in a heaping helping of uncertainty… and voila! Suddenly the collective blood pressure of the office is enough to launch the space shuttle. Time to break out the Office First Aid Kit – chocolate with a diet Coke chaser.


You know, this really could be a million dollar idea. Just think of it – first aid kits featuring comfort foods. Band aids? Check! Ointment? Check! Chicken noodle soup? Check and double check! Perhaps the kits could be arranged by ailment instead. Nausea? Saltines and 7up. Sore throat? Hot lemonade with honey. In-laws? Devil’s food cake.

So what kind of first aid kit could fix what’s going on at work? My mom would know. She was a first-class first aid foodie. If anyone in the neighborhood was sick or afflicted, Mom was there with the perfect meal to make everyone feel better. Honestly, her spaghetti could cause world peace. Hey, maybe that’s what I should do! Spaghetti for the local warring political factions, followed by, what else, angel food cake. Of course, there would be chocolates and diet Coke for all.

Yep, a food first aid kit. It is a million dollar idea, so kindly keep your hands off of it. If the politics don’t cool down, I will be unemployed and in need of that kind of cash. But in the meantime, the office first aid essentials can be found in the bottom drawer of my desk – help yourself.

Laundry

What grows faster than the laundry pile?  No, really...what does?  Kudzu?  Blackberry vines?  Kids?  Well, since the pile grows so fast, doing a load or two of laundry every day is the modus operandi.  And it is so nice to have helpers when it comes to folding hot, straight-from-the-dryer towels...

Seriously, I only turned my back for a second before these two "helpers" were right there.  Gee, thanks.

Girl Scout Cookies

What do you get when you combine one office full of cookie-loving women with one cookie-selling Girl Scout?  You get exactly what you ordered!  Honestly, it was just like a holiday today when our office cookie order was delivered.

So this was my order.  Samoas because can't go wrong with the perennial favorite.  The lemon cremes are so good that really I can't be trusted with more than one box.  The berry cookies, as demonstrated by the open top, were delicious.

Yep, it was a holiday -- right there at my desk.

Resolution Time

Well, whaddya know…’tis the season once again for making those pesky New Year’s resolutions.

Growing up, Mom would encourage me to set out some goals for the year. Good grades, a clean room, and no fighting with my brothers constituted the usual and customary list. I was usually pretty good at keeping those resolutions, too – right up to January 3rd. As an adult, my annual resolutions have nearly always included losing weight and exercising more. And I do great – right up to January 3rd. Oh well. I just do resolutions my way. In honor of my fine make-it-and-break-it resolution tradition, enjoy these…

Happy New Year's resolutions, everybody!

String Me Along...

What’s your favorite part of the holiday season? Fudge? Greeting cards? Scotch tape? Personally, I’m a sucker for Christmas lights. Whether the light strings are dangled from the eaves, draped across the shrubs, or twisted around the trees – the colors, variety and wattage are just amazing.



My love of Christmas lights began way, way back when I was a kid. The whole famn damily would pile into the old Dodge station wagon for a drive around the neighborhoods to look at the lights. The snow diffused the colors into big pools of holiday Technicolor while the icicles magnified the lights’ brightness. Combine the sights with treacherously slick roads and no seat belt laws and there’s a ride to remember!


Dad was a sucker for Christmas lights, too, even though they almost killed him…


According to family legend, on one fine January clearance sale day, Dad found the best price EVER on Christmas lights. He bought every single box and stashed them away in anticipation of the best EVER light display. Months later, he opened all those boxes only to discover they were not the string-to-string variety. After considering the extension cord complications, Dad decided to splice all the lights together into one big, long, giant string. He worked along methodically, carefully splicing one string to another, holding the bare wire ends in his mouth as he went. It was at one such critical molar-clenching moment that one of my brothers (who shall remain anonymous) decided to plug in the lights.


Snap! Crackle! Pop! Not in the good cereal kind of way either. More like the electrocution kind of way. The current surged through Dad’s molars and knocked him off his feet. My guilty brother quickly unplugged the lights while the innocent brother checked to see if Dad was dead. After Dad was able to sit up again, both boys asked if he could do that again…


So two root canals later, it really was an awesome light display.


Enjoy all of your favorites this holiday season and please remember to plug in carefully!

Ditto Dining

Have you ever been a Ditto Diner?  You know what that is – eating at the same place twice in the same day.  Ditto dining doesn’t happen often, but in my rural and restaurant-restricted corner of the world, it is always a possibility.  So last week, I was a Ditto Diner.

After a morning clinic away from the office, my co-workers and I enjoyed lunch at a favorite local place known for it’s mouth-watering menu.  Personally, I like the half-salads.  They have only half the greens but a full-salad amount of tasty toppings.  After all, lettuce can’t hold a candle to bacon…  That being said, the half Cobb salad with honey-mustard dressing was very yummy indeed.  Please see Exhibit A.

At the end of the workday, my husband and I arrived home at the same time.  I was tired and he was hungry.  Round one of Rock-Paper-Scissors determined that we were eating out rather than subsisting on cold cereal.  Round two determined he was choosing the restaurant.  And thus I became a Ditto Diner.  In and of itself, that’s not bad.  I just didn’t want to be a Ditto Diner with the same waitress.  Awkward!

While the half-salads are not to be missed, neither is breakfast.  And what is better for dinner than breakfast?  I recommend the French toast.  It comes with a little cup of fluffy butter, assorted fruity syrups, and good ol’ fashioned warm maple syrup.  Please see Exhibit B.

If you can, please try to be a Ditto Diner soon.  It is a full-filling experience.

Two items of note:  The diet Coke was simply a calorie neutralizer.  You will also notice bacon in both exhibits.  In my defense, I only ate the salad bacon.  The dog ate the entire amount of ditto dining bacon as a reward for not chewing up the car interior while she waited for her humans.