Weblog 260
February 6, 2011~ 12:00 am
On Friday, like most places in Pittsburgh, our office had a SUPER BOWL PARTY and I ate up a storm. (*The ever style-conscious Donna even had a FOOTBALL Crock Pot, can you believe it! LOL!!!)
Note the bi-colored nail polish... she doesn't miss a trick, that one. Brooks-- who headed up the gala, fretted constantly about his inability to get black plastic table coverings along with the yellow. All they had at the party store was navy blue. (I 'spose most places sold OUT of the black about 2 weeks ago, what with all the Super Bowl going's on...) but WE KNEW it was supposed to be black, and that's what counts. Here's the two of us enjoying ourselves before the actual GORGING began.
(Notice, people: I AM SMILING A FULL SMILE. Viva la dentures!) Here's some of our chow, laid out nice and pretty.
Those small bags of Frito's and the round dish with taco fixin's was Brooks' contribution to the Friday food chain. (You can just make out the edge of his crock pot in which a tasty, spicy ground meat was heating. You simply crumbled the chips a bit, threw in a bit of this, a bit of that, added some HOT SAUCE to the concoction, mix it up with a fork and eat it RIGHT OUT OF THE BAG......a personal-sized 'taco-in-a-bag'. ) I loved those. And HERE is the pot of Frisch's broasted chicken I brought.....
simmering away, breading perfectly seasoned, nice and crunchy with the tenderest meat inside. I didn't eat even one piece. Chicken (or chewing any larger pieces of meat) is still an impossible challenge at this point. I think I'm weeks away from that-- but I'll DO IT eventually, and that will be splendid. (Dang. Just looking at that makes me drool.)
Heres's Dan and Tom, surveying the scene as we were setting up. (Food makes everyone happy, doesn't it?)
(There's nothing alcoholic in those cups, btw. We ALWAYS look 'up' like this. LOL!) Of course, having said that......
would a SOBER man
get THIS EXCITED over BARBEQUE SAUCE???? It does make you wonder, except- you have to know Dan. That guy jokes constantly.
Joe- in the background there, looks like he's having some second thoughts about whatever Dan's just said about the that particular brand of condiment...
(perhaps he wanted KRAFT.)
One thing's for certain......(he's stuffing his gob hole like a chipmunk.... look at those cheeks! No one goes hungry the Friday before the Super Bowl.) Sadly, all the techs in the back lab already planned their own festivities for Friday and arranged to go OUT TO LUNCH together, so there were fewer of us partying on home turf. The planning committee wasn't fast enough so those turkeys flew the coop at midday while we feasted.
After things settled down and it was all over except the burps, I walked around snapping a few pictures of the place. Here's my ever jammed cube. (I never realize how cluttered it truly is until I take a picture. Wow. LOL!!!
Photos of grandkids, a bunny rag doll, a shark cookie jar that plays the theme from Jaws when you open it..... on and on. OH. Those manilla folders.....they are work-- (just in case you thought you'd stumbled into Stephen King's "Needful Things".)
The cube just beside mine is for co-worker Gavin, who was absent. He's on a mission trip to Haiti till Monday and he's the 'go-to guy' with boxes of returned items, new product, returned product... there's always cartons stacked along the wall about which he'll exclaim, "LOOK at this place! How do I get so many packages?"
So.......
I had the idea to REALLY make him feel welcomed home. We took all the empty boxes from Fedex that day and added them to his usual hodge-podge
just to see the look on his face when he comes in on Monday. It's piled partition high, and I wish we'd gotten MORE. WELCOME BACK, BIG GUY!
Then I stolled into my bosses' office. (That's Joyce of the 'REMARKABLY GREEN THUMB'.)
By the way, due to size constraints, I've cropped out of the picture a green-covered book called 'Wicked Plants'. She gave it to me to read and it's all about deadly, dangerous poisonous every day garden plants. Perhaps we should have hired an official 'taster' for our food. One never knows.....(there's a variety of ways to 'go postal' on your co-workers.)
This UNBELIEVABLE orchid (which she started from a dessicated-looking STICK) has been blooming constantly for almost 2 years.
Ain't it GORGEOUS?? Here's the gal close up.
They're so pretty they take my breath away every time I walk in there. The entire front wall of her office is window. Besides being naturally talented with growing things, that space is a veritable greenhouse, and gets the best light on earth.
Two other things I wanted to share with you, is that on Friday when we visited Holly, Gary and the grandkids- (which was the same day as the Super Bowl party) my newly dentured mouth was pretty fatigued after chomping all day, and one piece of pizza was all I could manage. But Kay had helped her mom bake homemade cookies that afternoon and was anxious for me to try one. I told her they looked yummy --but maybe just a little too crunchy for me. I said, "Some other time, Kay. Gram's gums are just too tired tonight" -and thanked her profusely.
When I got home that night and was searching in my purse for my nail-clipper, there... in a Ziploc baggie, was stashed a COOKIE! Made me so happy! On Saturday I was telling Wayne about it and he said, "That was Bill. While you were in the kitchen, he came into the living room and was frantically looking around for your purse. "Where's Gram's purse?" he asked, "I need to find it. I want to give her a cookie for later." Apparently, my sweetie grandson thought my gums might feel up to it later on... I love that kind of thing. Makes me glow all over to see that kind of sweetness in my grandchildren. (It also makes me feel very loved.)
Secondly, Wayne and I tried a new restaurant on Saturday evening called, 'Opa'- just up the road from me and specializing in Greek cuisine. For the first time in 3 weeks, Saturday I ate the whole meal and my gums hurt NOT A BIT!! I had a feta and tomato omelet with homefries, a cup of wonderful THICK potato soup with fresh fried bacon bits on top, and whole wheat toast. I was ECSTATIC. First, to have found another tasty place to eat, and second that it was pain-free at last. I WAS CHEWING LIKE A CAMEL! Here I am at 3 weeks post extractions
--grinning! (and sporting my dangle Super Bowl Steeler black and gold earrings. GO STEELERS!! Don't know why I look so greasy, but I sure do.) Tomorrow I'll be dining with mum at Assisted Living and then watching the game with her in her room. I've packed up a celebration box for us: a bag of Snyder's Cheese corn puffs and a bottle of Jerry Garcia's Holiday Red Unwine (non-alcoholic) -unopened since 1996, and two long-stemmed wine glasses as well. We'll whoop and holler and cheer them on. The 'olds' will be rockin' I have a feeling-- and me WITH THEM! GO STEELERS!!! Bring home number SEVEN! (From my lips to God's ears I fervently hope.) RAH RAH RAH (and all that jazz.
February 7, 2011~ 4:45 am
Well, it's a 'sad day in Mudville' here today, as the old narrative poem goes. The Steelers came up short and yes, the Packers deserved to win. They played like lightning yesterday. I watched nearly all of the first half at Assisted Living with mum, but I honestly had a sinking feeling from the opening coin toss....superstition perhaps, but somehow I already knew how things were going to play out. We looked so bad during those first two quarters, I simply couldn't stay and watch the rest. (I don't get FOX on my TV here at home, and knew I was sparing myself some agony.) They began to rally afterward, as I could see from glancing at the news on my computer, but it never really came together for them. I must say I was impressed by the Packer team. They seem to come out of nowhere to make those fast tackles and get their first 3 touchdowns on the board-- they flew like raptors!
The bottle of 'Unwine' I took with me to visit mum had a CORK in it. Couldn't open it. LOL!!! (Another omen- "there'll be no celebration tonight!") I amused myself -and took my mind off the game, by creating another blog. This one I hope to add to every day. It's an ongoing children's story called The Witch, The Tooth, And The Dragon I'm hoping my grandchildren (or anybody's grandchildren) can enjoy reading.
Nothing left to do now but get dressed and pull myself drag-butt back into work to face the misery of my coworkers, especially the guys, about this football loss. (Some of them take this so to heart, it'll put a damper on their week for sure.) Oh well......there's always next year. We have a great team, a young and talented coach.... we may get that number seven yet.
February 11, 2011~ 4:40 am
I got my new blog's formatting worked out! After tweaking and picking at it for four days, I'm finally satisfied. (I didn't want a 'comment feature' or 'archives' to automatically generate-- and the spacing between lines kept shifting from being viewed in different browsers, but all that's resolved now: each chapter can be chosen from the side panel. No one will stumble into the story in the middle of it: before I tweaked away, the latest entry was always on the top page. (I despise those pre-set Blogger templates with a passion).....NOW I can continue with the really fun stuff, which is creating new stories, and my head is jam-packed with a running narrative about that feisty little witch. LOL!!
The weekend is just on the horizon, and the weather is supposed to improve and pull us out of this severe cold, so life is good. IT'S FRIIIIIDAY thank goodness. After a week of 'meetings, meetings, meetings', and aggravations with formatting and such on my own time, the good stuff's finally comin' and none too soon. Enjoy your weekends!
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
On Friday, like most places in Pittsburgh, our office had a SUPER BOWL PARTY and I ate up a storm. (*The ever style-conscious Donna even had a FOOTBALL Crock Pot, can you believe it! LOL!!!)
Note the bi-colored nail polish... she doesn't miss a trick, that one. Brooks-- who headed up the gala, fretted constantly about his inability to get black plastic table coverings along with the yellow. All they had at the party store was navy blue. (I 'spose most places sold OUT of the black about 2 weeks ago, what with all the Super Bowl going's on...) but WE KNEW it was supposed to be black, and that's what counts. Here's the two of us enjoying ourselves before the actual GORGING began.
(Notice, people: I AM SMILING A FULL SMILE. Viva la dentures!) Here's some of our chow, laid out nice and pretty.
Those small bags of Frito's and the round dish with taco fixin's was Brooks' contribution to the Friday food chain. (You can just make out the edge of his crock pot in which a tasty, spicy ground meat was heating. You simply crumbled the chips a bit, threw in a bit of this, a bit of that, added some HOT SAUCE to the concoction, mix it up with a fork and eat it RIGHT OUT OF THE BAG......a personal-sized 'taco-in-a-bag'. ) I loved those. And HERE is the pot of Frisch's broasted chicken I brought.....
simmering away, breading perfectly seasoned, nice and crunchy with the tenderest meat inside. I didn't eat even one piece. Chicken (or chewing any larger pieces of meat) is still an impossible challenge at this point. I think I'm weeks away from that-- but I'll DO IT eventually, and that will be splendid. (Dang. Just looking at that makes me drool.)
Heres's Dan and Tom, surveying the scene as we were setting up. (Food makes everyone happy, doesn't it?)
(There's nothing alcoholic in those cups, btw. We ALWAYS look 'up' like this. LOL!) Of course, having said that......
would a SOBER man
get THIS EXCITED over BARBEQUE SAUCE???? It does make you wonder, except- you have to know Dan. That guy jokes constantly.
Joe- in the background there, looks like he's having some second thoughts about whatever Dan's just said about the that particular brand of condiment...
One thing's for certain......(he's stuffing his gob hole like a chipmunk.... look at those cheeks! No one goes hungry the Friday before the Super Bowl.) Sadly, all the techs in the back lab already planned their own festivities for Friday and arranged to go OUT TO LUNCH together, so there were fewer of us partying on home turf. The planning committee wasn't fast enough so those turkeys flew the coop at midday while we feasted.
After things settled down and it was all over except the burps, I walked around snapping a few pictures of the place. Here's my ever jammed cube. (I never realize how cluttered it truly is until I take a picture. Wow. LOL!!!
Photos of grandkids, a bunny rag doll, a shark cookie jar that plays the theme from Jaws when you open it..... on and on. OH. Those manilla folders.....they are work-- (just in case you thought you'd stumbled into Stephen King's "Needful Things".)
The cube just beside mine is for co-worker Gavin, who was absent. He's on a mission trip to Haiti till Monday and he's the 'go-to guy' with boxes of returned items, new product, returned product... there's always cartons stacked along the wall about which he'll exclaim, "LOOK at this place! How do I get so many packages?"
So.......
I had the idea to REALLY make him feel welcomed home. We took all the empty boxes from Fedex that day and added them to his usual hodge-podge
just to see the look on his face when he comes in on Monday. It's piled partition high, and I wish we'd gotten MORE. WELCOME BACK, BIG GUY!
Then I stolled into my bosses' office. (That's Joyce of the 'REMARKABLY GREEN THUMB'.)
By the way, due to size constraints, I've cropped out of the picture a green-covered book called 'Wicked Plants'. She gave it to me to read and it's all about deadly, dangerous poisonous every day garden plants. Perhaps we should have hired an official 'taster' for our food. One never knows.....(there's a variety of ways to 'go postal' on your co-workers.)
This UNBELIEVABLE orchid (which she started from a dessicated-looking STICK) has been blooming constantly for almost 2 years.
Ain't it GORGEOUS?? Here's the gal close up.
They're so pretty they take my breath away every time I walk in there. The entire front wall of her office is window. Besides being naturally talented with growing things, that space is a veritable greenhouse, and gets the best light on earth.
Two other things I wanted to share with you, is that on Friday when we visited Holly, Gary and the grandkids- (which was the same day as the Super Bowl party) my newly dentured mouth was pretty fatigued after chomping all day, and one piece of pizza was all I could manage. But Kay had helped her mom bake homemade cookies that afternoon and was anxious for me to try one. I told her they looked yummy --but maybe just a little too crunchy for me. I said, "Some other time, Kay. Gram's gums are just too tired tonight" -and thanked her profusely.
When I got home that night and was searching in my purse for my nail-clipper, there... in a Ziploc baggie, was stashed a COOKIE! Made me so happy! On Saturday I was telling Wayne about it and he said, "That was Bill. While you were in the kitchen, he came into the living room and was frantically looking around for your purse. "Where's Gram's purse?" he asked, "I need to find it. I want to give her a cookie for later." Apparently, my sweetie grandson thought my gums might feel up to it later on... I love that kind of thing. Makes me glow all over to see that kind of sweetness in my grandchildren. (It also makes me feel very loved.)
Secondly, Wayne and I tried a new restaurant on Saturday evening called, 'Opa'- just up the road from me and specializing in Greek cuisine. For the first time in 3 weeks, Saturday I ate the whole meal and my gums hurt NOT A BIT!! I had a feta and tomato omelet with homefries, a cup of wonderful THICK potato soup with fresh fried bacon bits on top, and whole wheat toast. I was ECSTATIC. First, to have found another tasty place to eat, and second that it was pain-free at last. I WAS CHEWING LIKE A CAMEL! Here I am at 3 weeks post extractions
--grinning! (and sporting my dangle Super Bowl Steeler black and gold earrings. GO STEELERS!! Don't know why I look so greasy, but I sure do.) Tomorrow I'll be dining with mum at Assisted Living and then watching the game with her in her room. I've packed up a celebration box for us: a bag of Snyder's Cheese corn puffs and a bottle of Jerry Garcia's Holiday Red Unwine (non-alcoholic) -unopened since 1996, and two long-stemmed wine glasses as well. We'll whoop and holler and cheer them on. The 'olds' will be rockin' I have a feeling-- and me WITH THEM! GO STEELERS!!! Bring home number SEVEN! (From my lips to God's ears I fervently hope.) RAH RAH RAH (and all that jazz.
February 7, 2011~ 4:45 am
Well, it's a 'sad day in Mudville' here today, as the old narrative poem goes. The Steelers came up short and yes, the Packers deserved to win. They played like lightning yesterday. I watched nearly all of the first half at Assisted Living with mum, but I honestly had a sinking feeling from the opening coin toss....superstition perhaps, but somehow I already knew how things were going to play out. We looked so bad during those first two quarters, I simply couldn't stay and watch the rest. (I don't get FOX on my TV here at home, and knew I was sparing myself some agony.) They began to rally afterward, as I could see from glancing at the news on my computer, but it never really came together for them. I must say I was impressed by the Packer team. They seem to come out of nowhere to make those fast tackles and get their first 3 touchdowns on the board-- they flew like raptors!
The bottle of 'Unwine' I took with me to visit mum had a CORK in it. Couldn't open it. LOL!!! (Another omen- "there'll be no celebration tonight!") I amused myself -and took my mind off the game, by creating another blog. This one I hope to add to every day. It's an ongoing children's story called The Witch, The Tooth, And The Dragon I'm hoping my grandchildren (or anybody's grandchildren) can enjoy reading.
Nothing left to do now but get dressed and pull myself drag-butt back into work to face the misery of my coworkers, especially the guys, about this football loss. (Some of them take this so to heart, it'll put a damper on their week for sure.) Oh well......there's always next year. We have a great team, a young and talented coach.... we may get that number seven yet.
February 11, 2011~ 4:40 am
I got my new blog's formatting worked out! After tweaking and picking at it for four days, I'm finally satisfied. (I didn't want a 'comment feature' or 'archives' to automatically generate-- and the spacing between lines kept shifting from being viewed in different browsers, but all that's resolved now: each chapter can be chosen from the side panel. No one will stumble into the story in the middle of it: before I tweaked away, the latest entry was always on the top page. (I despise those pre-set Blogger templates with a passion).....NOW I can continue with the really fun stuff, which is creating new stories, and my head is jam-packed with a running narrative about that feisty little witch. LOL!!
The weekend is just on the horizon, and the weather is supposed to improve and pull us out of this severe cold, so life is good. IT'S FRIIIIIDAY thank goodness. After a week of 'meetings, meetings, meetings', and aggravations with formatting and such on my own time, the good stuff's finally comin' and none too soon. Enjoy your weekends!
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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