Stove neighbor and I are playing email tag. She emailed me back to say not to call her because she lost her voice. And, could I come before 9 a.m. Well, I could have if I’d gotten the email before 8:30 when I was already working. Now I’ve emailed her back to see if noon would be ok. If it’s not, I’m already partially screwed up because I left my clothes and stuff for TVLand at home in anticipation of looking at the stove after work and I’d have to go back that way and get them anyways. I need a klonopin or a margarita.
Good morning! Happy Hump Day!
Chicken Spaghetti is good stuff. I like to make it with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. I make it a little differently, though. I saute the peppers and onions with some diced celery and sliced mushrooms, and add a can of diced tomatoes. Then mix it all up and bake it like Pioneer Woman said. Mmm.
We found out that our [del]Christmas[/del] Holiday party will be a huge deal this year, in a large venue. The music will be provided by the band Kansas! (As well as two other performers.) It sounds like fun! Last year was an open bar, nice dinner and a DJ, but since we’ve been bought by a huge corporation, I doubt it will be like that this year. We’ll see.
It was fun to go to my old office yesterday, even though the meeting was dull, dull, dull. I got to see all my old friends! It’s been about two years. I never have reason to go over there.
Better get to work…
Mmm, that Chicken Spaghetti looks deeeeelishis. I am going to have to mention that to FriendLady and DogDad and have them make something resembling it. 
It’s great to have a husband and a friend who are fabulous cooks when one cannot even boil noodles properly without supervision.
Blurf. My workplace has three - count them, three - Climate Control Venty Air Blowy Thingies right over my [del]workpod[/del] cubicle. We had frost & freeze warnings last night. And the air conditioner at work is still on, and blowing straight down my neck.
I expect come December, when they turn the heat on, I’ll be coming to work in sleeveless shirts and turning on my desk fan so I don’t melt at my computer. :rolleyes:
It’s another I-don’t-really-want-to-be-at-work kind of day. Woo.
We do the casual days for United Way here too. It’s the biggest event in terms of $$ raised. The management time out thing was just a new event this year to try to raise more. Aside from the organizer, everyone else thought it was disturbing and creepy. Hopefully it won’t be making a repeat appearance next year.
Last night I made the pumpkin sausage pastathat I’ve mentioned before and took a picture. Oh and since I don’t think I posted it yesterday, here’s a picture of the apple turnover/tart/whatever. What would apples in a phyllo crust like that be called? A turnover really should be pastry dough, right? And a tart should be in a tart pan. So I’m at a loss for what to call that thing. An apple pocket? Whatever.
I think it’s still a turnover.
doggio, hope you feel better soon.
Woo! I still have internet!
It snowed a little last night. I’m crazy for hoping it’ll snow more, right? We’re off wandering around for a little in a few minutes. I’m going to spend most of my next couple of weeks thinking about being in my inlaws hot tub, with a glass of wine, and someone else watching the baby. It’s a great fantasy. I’m enjoying it.
Bumba, maybe you’d be willing to take the work on as a subcontractor? I’ll pay you… ummmm… okay, fine, I can’t pay you anything but you’ll have my eternal gratitude. 
grumble grumble Stupid old mainframe systems. Grrrr.
swampus, if gas wasn’t so expensive and if I hadn’t already booked all my vacation time, you just might have found a hungry Muppet on your doorstep begging for some collards.
DogMom, I feel your pain. We have a schizophrenic thermostat at the office. Monday it was boiling hot, yesterday it was so cold that I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, and now it’s back to boiling hot. Dressing for the office has become as complicated as dressing for a walk in Halifax (where their motto is “if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes” and standard apparel should include a tank top, a light shirt, a sweater, a windbreaker and an umbrella). Eeesh.
Feel better soon, doggio!
taxi, I’d probably call it a turnover. Anything that involves saucy fruit filling in a pastry/dough/whatever wrapping counts as a turnover in my books… though I try not to spend too much time pondering the proper names for food, since it wastes precious time that could be spent eating instead.
Countdown to NYC continues… just 5 days to go.
It looks yummy. It looks and sounds kind of like a galette to me. Though the ones I’ve seen were closer to being round, they’re pretty freeform, and I’ve seen them made with a variety of crusts. They can be open or covered on top. And galette’s a French-sounding word and is therefore automatically more culinarily elegant.
Okay, everybody gird yourselves for a mini rant that is too insignificant for the pit. Ahem…
WTF is wrong with everybody at PR workplace??? Huh?? Is your pre-occupation with the state of the world and your own pitiful life so all-consuming that you cannot possibly return a polite inquiry with return civility??? Hmmmm? I am not asking you to put on a Mary Tyler Moore happy face, but you could at least refrain from extruding your own personal brand of venom. kaithnxbai. 
I am actually considering early retirement this morning.
taxi, yep, I think turnover is the best description for your desert.
li-li, it snowed??? :eek: It’s only October!
dogmom, I also share. We have the world’s worst heating/cooling system. We all have shawls to wrap around ourselves when frozen.
The chicken spaghetti looks nummy!
Glad it was nothing serious with Mum, boofae.
That’s all I gots.
Tupug
That is all.
Oooh, that makes it sound so fancy! I like it!
But I’m glad it’s ok to call it a turnover too.
We’re freezing in our office this week too. But we don’t have the schizophrenic thermostat. Ours only ever varies between frickin’ freezing and just about warm enough. It’d be one thing if that were an attempt to save money or save the environment or whatever, but it’s that way during the summer when they’re having to run the AC constantly to achieve frickin’ freezing so I don’t know what the deal is.
Sorry everyone’s grumpy pugs. I think maybe it’s 'cause we’re all so cold! 
<– That’s us freezing. Maybe we could all join **LiLi **in that hot tub! Then we’d look like this: :o Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. 
Not you guys, taxi! It’s my RL cow orkers. But I like the way you think. ::Now where’d I put my bathing costume?::
Puggy, snow in mid/late October isn’t totally unknown up here in the frozen northlands (first frost usually comes around this time of year too). Last night was the first snow of the year, though it was really just small flurries that melted before they hit the ground… in Barrie, which is just an hour drive north of the city, got about 1cm (~1/2") last night.
We’ll get our first real snowfall within the month, I’d say. They’re calling for a cold and snowy winter this year. 
BooFey, Wifey and I have a system that works for us; we leave messages on the bathroom mirrors. No, we don’t write on the mirrors themselves, we each have a needle stuck into the bottom of the mirror frame such that a note can be slid in behind.
Just a suggestion.
ReBo, your variation on chicken spaghetti sounds yummy. Since I think it’s going to make it into the regular rotation, I’ll keep that’n in mind.
I feel your pain re: the air vents in the office, DogMom. We used to fashion divertors out of cardboard and tape them up over the vents to send the cold air elsewhere. Then Maintenance would come along and huffily tear them down and tell us not to do that. We did it anyway. One has to amuse oneself some how in Corporate Land.
Mahna Mahna, Would I have to come to Toronto for this ‘opportunity’?
I must confess; every time I see your name, my brain insists on reading it as Mahi Mahi.
‘bathing costume’ Puggy? We don’t wear no sissy ‘bathing costumes’ in our hot tub. 
Well, bumba dear, I wish to spare li-li and muppet a fright due to my less than youthful matronly figure, so to speak.
It snowed here on the 10th. First snow of the year! It’s long gone, but it was nice while it lasted. More will arrive. I’m hoping for lots of it. It did the same thing last year, snowed early and then didn’t again for a few weeks.
waves hi to mumperland.
Waves hi to mumpers reading, but not posting.
Well, I have a picture of North Carolina snow that I took last week. I’ll post it tonight.
I need to go back up to the mountains so I can make it snow. Behold, I am Snow-Bringer, causer of frozen precipitation in the NC Appalachians!
Went to Target last night, and the exit fee was a very reasonable $16.23 for a wallet and a pack of printer paper.
Tried to help a stranded person in the parking lot. They were making the universal “HELP!” sign - forlornly standing near their car with the hood up and jumper cables in-hand. Not a good way to be at 9:45 PM.
Hooked 'em up, and they turn the key. click-click
click-click
click-click
click-click
I tell her it sounds like her starter’s the problem, rather than the battery, and she admitted that it had been acting up. :smack: Well… if you had a stickshift, we might be able to try the old hippie standby - ignition on, in gear, clutch in, get the car rolling, release the clutch and cross fingers that it works, but she had an automatic, so she was well and truly stuck. At least she’d already been on the phone to someone so she had a way home.
Bumba, let me see if the budget includes travel expenses. peeks Hmmm… looks like we could cover the cost of hitchhiking here, but that’s about it.
Accomodations will be located under my desk (there’s a sleeping bag there, in case it’s one of the days our thermostat picks the “arctic blast” setting) and meals will have to be obtained by foraging for abandoned leftovers from lunch meetings.
Salary, as previously discussed, will consist of my everlasting gratitude, but if results can be produced ahead of schedule, we could consider a one-time performance 5% bonus over and above your regular salary.
So, waddaya say?
(on that note, I’m getting the hell out of here and taking my work home to finish… it feels like a sauna and I’ve stripped down to as few layers as I could possibly wear and still keep my job)
Hi.
I’ve been to Ashtabula with a stove in tow and now I’m back here in TVLand. Hooray! It’s alot of driving. I’m hoping that it will be naptime soon.