Workplace Changes

There is a new regime moving into our office. We've been sent a memo (with pictures) about how our workspace should look.



Here is part of the memo:

Remove all items from the cube walls
Only 3 personal items on your desk (you may put a personal item on the cube wall)
At the end of the day, everything on your desk top should be put away.....I mean Everything...including the stapler! Your Computer, phone and 3 personal items should be the only items left out.

So I began the task of depersonalizing my desk. Sorry, Mom & Dad--it's between you and the tissues and, with allergy season in high gear, the tissues win. Sorry Sis! Your picture or the desk-top fan. Uhhhh...ever hear of hot flashes?

I was cleaning out my desk and found a brand new, still in the package regulation baseball. Please don't ask me why I have a brand new, still in the package, regulation baseball in my desk drawer--I DON'T KNOW!

One of my co-workers has a six year old son, so I gave it to her. He insisted on writing me a note. In very deliberate, first grade printing. It reads:

Thank You
for the
baseball
from
James

Is that just too cute?

I'd hang it on the wall, but I foolishly opted to put a calendar up. Oh! Well!

Allergy Season

Who loves Clariton D? I love Clariton D!

My fall allergies set in on Saturday. It started with dry throat, so I drank a large soda at the movie. (Have you ever seen a large soda at the movies? And I made it all the way thru without having to go to the bathroom!)

Then I went to Virginia's for book group and my nose started running. Then I started sneezing. By last nite, my chest was feeling congested.

I picked up Clariton D on my way to work this morning. Wow! I feel so much better!

Just Too Funny!

The good people at roflrazz had a contest to create the best Kanye West photo. This is the winner...


see more Lol Celebs

Goodness! Will I go to Hell for finding this sooo funny?

Defining Moments

I just looked up arrogant, crude, boorish SOB and guess what I found? A picture of Kanye West!

I then I looked up graciousness and found a picture of Beyonce'!

What was I doing, watching the MTV Musice Video Awards anyway? And why do they keep inviting Kanye West?

And for the record, Taylor Swift would not have been my choice, but I didn't vote. Being a single lady, I think Beyonce's video was fab! And I can't discount my girl Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You.

Up & At 'em

Okay...the day started with grim conversation. Dad handed me his "To Do" list of things when he can no longer take care of himself or Mom by either illness, mental capacity, or death. Six thirty in the morning over coffee--not really what I wanted to hear!

It's Mom's last few days in the nursing home, so I've decided to make cookies and take to the nursing staff. More Jam Thumbprints, but I've never met anyone who would say no to them. After all, there's three sticks of butter in the recipe!

It seems that Mom is insisting I have a little birthday celebration at the nursing home this afternoon and it is driving Dad crazy! He is a list maker and keeps asking me for suggestions. Now he's making me crazy!

I have one goal for the day--a pedicure. My feet need comfort!

Birthday Blues

I've had a hard time celebrating my birthday since I turned 30. I cried all day that day. So since that time, I've tried to stay busy and not think about it. And then, in 2001, it became impossible to celebrate.

How can you think about trivialities and birthdays on the day the world changed? Innocence was lost. Thousands of people died. Our culture was changed.

I stopped celebrating on my birthday. I will celebrate before or after, just not on the day. And I have found that I am not the only one. I've met three other people who share my birthday who do the same thing...celebrate another day.

My family has recognized that fact, but it still upsets my mother. She wrote me a letter a few years ago in which she told me that, while it was a very dark day in American history, September 11, 1958 was one of the happiest days of her life.

As I've cried on almost every birthday for the past 20 something years, I cry today but for an entirely different reason. I cry for the loss of innocence, the loss of lives, the changed landscape. I cry for families facing the day without loved ones who died eight years ago in the towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. I cry for families facing the day without loved ones who have died on foreign battlefields since that day. I cry for the leaders of our country and others who must lead in times of turmoil. And I cry because, while September 11 may represent one of the happiest times in my mother's life, 9/11 is a very sad day for all of us.

Back In The Kitchen

I've been cooking again! Yeah! I love cooking! I hate cleaning up, that is something for another day.

I was inspired by the winner of The Next Food Network Star this week because she made one of my favorite foods...salmon patties...on her show $10 for Dinner. She made 12 patties from I can of salmon.

I am a strong proponent of canned salmon because it is still wild salmon. And very inexpensive to cook.

Melissa with the french last name added things to her salmon that I had never tried. She used baked potato for a filler and added mayo. I generally use saltines for filler and I've never used mayo. And I like to throw in a little dill, but instead she added bacon. And she added parmesan to the bread crumbs.

So I tried it her way. The potato and mayo made for a much lighter pattie, but I missed the intense flavor of the salmon. (It was great, however, for re-warming the next day, the scent of fish did not permeate the building). The bacon was pretty much wasted. I think the next time I make salmon patties, I'll add the mayo and maybe the potato, but will return to adding dill. But the parm in the bread crumbs I will definitely give two thumbs up!

As if the salmon patties weren't decadent enough, I fried a pan of okra to go with the salmon and mixed up a little cole slaw.

Perfect Fried Okra

2 c sliced okra
1/2 c white corn meal
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt

Place okra in a bowl and toss with corn meal and salt. Place half the oil in an iron skillet on medium high heat. When oil is hot, add half the okra. Stir often to keep the okra from burning. Place on paper towel lined dish when golden brown. Repeat. Salt while hot from skillet.

I could eat this stuff like popcorn!

You can see Melissa's recipe here.