Post Easter Apocalypse - Tuesday 4/14/2009

Peaches had two too many chocolate bunnies in the house after Easter, so she brought them in to meet their fate at the hands of a bunch of women who have been really working way too hard for the past six months.



Jens deals with the bunny.

Harshly.



We stage a scene from a classic movie! Do you know which one?




Maybe these added effects will help...?



This one may be a little harder to get without the theme music.

Dum-dum. Dum-dum. Dum-dum dum-dum dum-dum!

CSI: Toluca Lake - Wednesday 3/11/2009

What the heck happened to OneL's mini-fridge overnight!?

Let's consider the evidence, shall we?



Indentation of some sort in the frost-laded freezer compartment. It's about six inches long, and rounded as if a cylinder was resting there. What could make that distinctive mark?

Cat?

No. Not enough toes.

Gun?

No. Too narrow.

Thermonuclear device?

I don't think so, but the idea will haunt me throughout the investigation.



Further inspection draws my eye to the brown liquid in the bottom of the refrigerator compartment and on top of the filing cabinet upon which it rests. Same liquid is splashed on the interior door.

Dried blood?

A fingerful rules this out. Blood's salty. This is sweet.

I snort some. No effect beyond a sticky burning sensation.

Will need to resort to brute intelligence to determine the type of substance. No time to wait for lab results. A life could be at stake.

What's that? A cylinder rests strangely akimbo in the door! Could it be connected with the indentation in the frost?!?

Cue process music! Darken the lights! Take a swab! Measure it. Measure it twice! Scrunch up forehead. Purse lips.

!?!!?!?!?!?!?!

I think I have the answer!


This Diet Coke, bottled in only a few dozen plants in North America, apparently exploded when the liquid inside froze. Took the whole bottom of the can out and blew open the refrigerator door.

Luckily this happened after work hours, so no one was hurt.

Or were they?

It's 7:00 a.m. No one else is here yet. Was anyone injured? Or worse yet...killed!?!?!?!?!

Will make it my mission to grill everyone regarding her possible involvement upon her arrival.

Making coffee.

Setting up interrogation lamp and unpacking Girl Scout Cookies, which will function as a much better incentive than a carrot with this crowd.

I am on it folks.

Weens's Flowers - Wednesday 2/11/2008

Someone sent Weens a bouquet of tulips.

Who, Weens?

Who?

Please Pick Cherries - Tuesday 1/27/2009

This might be a good time to mention that my Canon A590, which I am willing to carry around in my backpack, is on the fritz. I don't want to carry my Nikon D80 around in a jumble with my notebooks everyday, so the last few shots have been taken on my new Samsung cell phone. T-Mobile has made downloading and accessing them very easy.

It doesn't take fabulous photos. It's only 1.3 megabytes. Then again, my first digital camera only had 1.5.

Actually the staticky look of this shot, taken through the screen of the window in front of my desk is expressive of the condition inside my head. The tree guys showed up around 7 a.m. and were still at it when I fled the office at 3:00 p.m.

It's not the trimming that is causing the fuzz in my brain, it's the incessant loud gnashing whir of the garbage-truck sized wood chipper that's been going non-stop all day.

Also, this morning I came within arm's length of being the 6th car in a 5-car pile-up coming around the big curve from the 14 to the southbound 5.

So I would have really preferred it if this nice gentleman had been using that cherry picker for its stated purpose!

Belated Christmas Tea - Friday 1/8/2009

It's hard for me to believe that this was actually so long ago, probably because I was out of it for the next four days with a nasty cold.

We didn't have our Christmas tea before the holidays because I and another coworker were snowed in. Then the boss announced after we came back that there isn't enough money for us to go to tea. This was a terrible mistake, morale-wise.

But Weens came up with the idea of doing our own little tea along with the delayed Secret Santa exchange! So she went to Porto's for pastries and I brought in some of my teacups and my big happy Chatsford teapot (famous in tea circles, dontcha know?) and we had a very nice little gathering.



Weens' Christmas Queen presided over it all!


Cause I know you want a better look. These things are filled with guava, coconut, currents, almond paste, cherries, pears, etc. MMM.

The only dark note was that two people had Jens' name in the Secret Santa exchange and no one had OneL's! And I think it's my fault! Because after the holidays I'd forgotten and Jens told me I had her and she had me, which I had reason to believe.

So wrong. My fault for not remembering. And believe me, OneL is the person to whom this stuff matters the most. She dealt, but it was too bad.

I received some cool techno music from Jens.

The Anti-Bacterial Question - Wednesday 1/7/2009

Last night, Kitty and I talked about the over use of anti-bacterial products these days. I think she was relieved to hear that although I do have a bit of a mania about clearing and wiping off my kitchen counters before bed, I don't routinely swab them with microbe-annihilating potions.

But then I had to admit to her that I use them at work. The hand- and dish-soaps are provided by the office, and I recently added the Purell to my desk.

This is due to the nasty habit we have in this office of passing around colds. Yesterday, 4 of my 7 coworkers were either working sick or out sick.

To avoid the thrill of this particular merry-go-round, I started using my own glass, bowl, plate, cups and silverware rather than share the communal stock a couple of years ago.

When I started here, I was kind of excited at the thought of an all-female office. I just assumed that would mean that everyone would do her own dishes, wipe her own exploded soup off the insides of the microwave, scrape her own burnt cheese off the bottom of the toaster oven.

Not so, my friends.

But at least I was made aware of and made to release that sexist little nugget.

I started using my own private utensils because I was fed up with always carting other people's clean dishes back to the little kitchen area. And if they want to leave a bowl soaking until smelly creatures colonize it's surface, it's not my problem.

The water we have to wash dishes in doesn't get very hot, so I want to just limit myself to my own personal germies, thank you very much. I even have my own (nice clean) dishtowel so I don't have to leave my dishes in the drain rack (which is in the same room as the toilet...don't get me started on what The Today Show would say about that!)

Every year at some point a cold (or two) gets shuffled around the office, bolstering my separatist inclinations. When one person is out sick, it's almost a given that I or another coworker will have to go to her desk and work on her computer or get her USB drive to work from. I unabashedly wipe everything at her desk down with those Kirkland anti-bacterial wipes.

I'll admit that it's doing a number on my hands, drying them out a bit more than usual even for this time of year.



Other than that, I think I'm handling the situation quite rationally.

Von's Comes Through - Thursday 12/11/2008

One-L had a death in the family earlier this week. I thought she was coming in today, so I stopped by Von's before work to pick up some simple flowers to put on her desk.

They had these, which really seemed perfect. The person who passed was like a brother to her; they'd grown up together.



This is the back of the arrangement. It's great that early risers like myself can find decent flowers at all hours of the morning.

They wouldn't, however, sell me the rum for the rum balls. It was before six in the morning and the registers won't allow them to sell alcohol until after 8 a.m. I told the cashier that although I understood completely, I was going to cook with it, not drink it.

"Do people still make rum balls?" she asked when I told her my plan. "My sister used to make rum balls. I haven't had those in years."

I told her I'm going to use a recipe I found online. Emerile Lagasse's.

As I left she said, "I'd like to be your friend!"

It's odd. Since I started feeling like my writer-self, I seem to be having even better interactions with people on all levels.

Ready to Rum-ball ! - Tuesday 12/9/2008

It's common knowledge around our office that Mommalisa is well-versed in mixology. She's also a good cook. So of course, I asked her advice in choosing rum to make rum balls with. I may as well get something that will be useable in a mixed drink because there will be leftovers.

Well! Advice was not enough! She brought in three rums for a taste testing. We did it in the front office. The one on the left is a sipping rum...nice, but probaby too nice to pour into a bowl full of flour and sugar.

Peachy, our boss, came into the office as I was testing about a teaspoonful of the Captain Morgan's. "I see the stress is taking it's toll," she laughed.

She went past into the next room to get a reference book. "Thanks for not firing us!" I called after her. I turned to Mommalisa, "If she comes back with a camera, we'll know she's been looking for an opportunity to downsize."

Later, I was talking to Peachy and mixed around a couple of simple consonents. "I'm perfectly able to drink before noom," I assured her.

I'm going to remind myself of days like this one when I am frustrated with this job.

The Corporate Card - Thursday 12/4/2008

I have a corporate card!

Well, anyway, a corporate generic holiday seasons greeting card that everyone in the office signs, which gets mailed to our clients. It reminds me how important I am in the grand scheme of things.

When, in my dewy youth, I envisioned signing this many autographs in a row there was a bookstore involved, and a small but eager line of people with eyes aglow.

And a title page, dammit.

If the universe grants the realization of this vision, I vow that all my autographs will be legible.

Unlike Jens, the office manager, whose signatures on the last few cards imply that a person named Gerbil Horvanian works here.

Now We're Cookin' - Wednesday 11/26/2008

I worked from home today to avoid the pre-holiday drive time traffic. I love getting up, making a pot of tea, and going to work on the other end of the house.

Clients were typically demanding as the people they work with put pressure upon them to tie things up before the long holiday. But I was mentally prepared for it, and I didn't have a commute behind me or ahead of me.

On my lunch break I made hot artichoke dip and tried a new recipe for cranberry sauce. It sounds unbelievable, but here it is:

Brandied Cranberry Sauce

16 oz. cranberries
2 cups sugar (I might do a half cup less next time, I adjusted for 12 oz. of berries)
1/3 cup brandy (I forgot to reduce the amount)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse cranberries. Place them in a cooking vessel. Add the sugar. Cover, and put in the oven for an hour. (No additional liquid, just the water from rinsing.)

When you take the cranberries out of the oven, pour the brandy over the top. Stir or don't...I saw recipes that advised both methods. I poured them from Pyrex to this serving dish and then added the brandy, which mostly evaporated.

Miss Smarty Returns - Wednesday 11/19/2008

As much as I adore traveling, I'm actually kind of happy to be back at my desk. Probably because I work very independently and I'm well suited to my job. I like setting my priorities for the day after I check my e-mail, even though I know new things will arrive during the day that will knock them askew.

When I'm at work I do, indeed, feel like Miss Smarty. (Thanks to OneL for the gift of the mug, some years ago.)

Rabbit Ears - Monday 8/11/2008

What can I say? I'm back at work. The Olympics are on in the background.

Soon these rabbit ears will be replaced with an analog converter box.

I'm ready.

From the Stairs - Wednesday 8/6/2008

Looking out the window next to the double doors that lead into the building where I work.

Work has been really hard this week. Too much of it.

In & Out - Wednesday 7/16/2008

6:27 a.m.

The way into work is clear.



3:34 p.m.

The way out of work.

Also clear.

Although this is clearly not a high-traffic area, it's pretty hard to lurk here.

P.S. Apologies to any Southern Californians who were hoping for commentary on the fabulous In-N-Out Burger.

Fruitful Morning - Tuesday 7/15/2008

I stood here framing a couple of shots of these--I think they're maybe an uncultivated kind of date?--until a squirrel up there pitched a fit.

It suddenly began racing around up there, chirping and chattering and rustling the fronds. Then it jumped to a neighboring tree, in a huff!


The fruit, after having been run over by a car.

I Love New York Chocolates - Thursday 6/27/2008

+

Peachy stopped by with some goodies she plundered in NYC. She's still on vacation, but brought us these and souvenir magnetic bottle openers.

Mmm. Chocolate.

Belated Birthday Lunch - Wednesday 6/25/2008

Yes, it was six months and 9 days late, but I've never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Our boss took us to lunch to celebrate the birthdays of Gifted, Weens and me.

We decided to try out this newish place, The Granville, in Burbank that Gifted had been to a few times. Really good food, especially the herbed sweet potato fries.

Their "quick service" plan for lunches doesn't work very well for large groups like ours (9 people.) In a place like this, which isn't inexpensive for lunch, you expect table service. We had to stand in line at the cash register and place our orders, take a number to a table, and then have it delivered without much finesse or accuracy.

I can't imagine it saves them enough in server wages as it costs them in customer satisfaction.

I'd go back in a smaller group, or for happy hour--which is how Gifted had been there before.

I had yummy pepita-encrusted trout.

Rrrrowrr! - Friday 5/30/2008

Per Peaches (my boss), "The days of the shoe box diorama are over."

This is her daughter's creation, and the whole thing is about 2 1/2 x 3 feet! There are some pretty scary volcanoes in the background.



LittleVee reports that this dino only has one eye because he lost the other one in a fight.

You should see the other guy!

Coincidentally, Hydra sent me this apparently serious take on dinosaurs put forth by one Christian ministry: Pterosaurs: An Introduction. It's a amazing. They seem to have been created to cover up Adam and Eve's nasty bits!



For some reason, these keychains, sent to us by the other owner of the company--who works and lives in Massachusetts--struck my fancy on the way to Peaches' office to snag the dino shots. I'm using a blue hibiscus patterned version right now.


This one's for The Last Noel!

A little investigative reporting reveals this sad news: The men's room at Andrew's (fka Sittons) is stained-glass free! I went around the outside of the building to check it out, and there's no window at ALL in the men's room, which from this p.o.v. would be to the right of the stained glass window.

If there had been one, I would have seriously considered going inside again to get a shot with the light behind it.

I'm Gonna Get Ya, Sucka! - Friday 3/28/2008

Yeah, by Friday of a busy week, it's true: I'm down to photographing my sugary treats.

Actually, I just wondered if anyone else saw this as a creature with a wide open screaming mouth at first glance. Upon closer inspection, I see that it's a beak on a bird.

Maybe it's just been a loooong week.

Guess what? Apparently, if you hold this against your tongue, it will leave a temporary tattoo! I haven't tried it myself. In fact, I haven't even tried the sucker. I left it there on my desktop calender.

Did I mention it was a long week?

Pacific Airmotive Corp. - Monday 3/17/2008

When I see these old industrial sites, I always think about all the lives lived inside. So far I haven't found a whole lot on the web about Pacific Airmotive. What a great business name though, huh?

They were apparently a vibrant part of Burbank's now-dwindling aerospace industry.