Happy Birthday, Spencer!

Today is my buddy’s birthday. Spencer is turning the big three – o. We wanted to throw a surprise party for him, but he caught onto it and had a fit . He doesn’t like anyone making a fuss over him, so I guess we have to respect that. Its just that it can be hard to tell if people just say that of if they really mean it. But Spencer really did wig out for like, two days, about it, so I think he was serious this time. But we will still be celebrating with him later tonight.

Happy Birthday, Spencer!

Valentines Hearts

valentines-hearts

Valentines candies that say how us single-and-not-really-dating-anyone people feel about celebrating a holiday for people in love. And we are not. So this holiday is like, a waste of time. Except that tomorrow I can buy up a big stash of good candies on sale for less than half price! There’s always a silver lining!

Yummy Banana Nut Muffins

Betty Crocker makes a great banana nut muffin mix. All you have to do is stir in a couple of eggs and then add some oil and water. Thirty minutes later you have baked deliciously moist warm muffins waiting for the little slab of butter and a cup of hot tea.

I like to add real bananas to the mix before baking, so I try to keep one or two ripe bananas on hand most of the week. It can be challenging to find bananas in varying stages of ripeness. At the Food Lion grocery store near my house, they get a shipment of bananas once a week and they are bright green. They ripen naturally in the store, but they all ripen on the same schedule, so the bananas you buy are either not ripe enough or too ripe all at the same time. So I only buy two bananas at a time at Food Lion.

But Kroger is a few miles further from my house and they seem to get banana shipment three times every week. So you can buy individual bananas in varying stages of ripeness. If I happen to be at Kroger, I’ll buy two very green bananas, two almost ripe bananas and then one that is ready to eat. That way they will continue to ripen after I get them home and not all spoil within just a couple of days.

Bring on the Spring!

The southern groundhog weather expert, General Beauregard Lee, did not see his shadow today. It’s a good thin he is in Atlanta, because at home the day was rainy and miserable, although warm. It’s almost like we are already having Spring, rather than waiting 6 weeks for the official first day of Spring.

We were fortunate to have a very mild Winter, with only a few days of snow flurries and it never really amounting to much. Everything wet has been rain, which is much better for me than snow and ice. Even so, I am tired of the short days, early darkness and  needing a coat for even the shortest dash from the house. Bring on Spring! We are ready!

Playing Solitaire for Stress Relief

Do you remember when computers first came out and all the Windows-based computers had preloaded games n them, like Canfield and Minesweep?

I used to play the Canfield game for about 5 minutes every afternoon when I needed a mental health break. My boss would go ballistic if she came into my office and saw me playing solitaire. She would scream about cheating the company by wasting time playing games.

I would put up with her rants for a while, but honestly she wasted 10 times more time than I ever did. That bitch would take smoke breaks every hour or two, write poems to her boyfriend, and make long personal calls – all on company time.

I think that people are entitled to a short break during the day, whether you are stupid enough to stand outside in the cold and puff on a cigarette or choose to stay at your desk – still available to take phone calls and answer questions – and play a 5 minute solitaire game on the computer to help clear your mind and take away some of the stress from your day.

Who IS this Cee Lo Green Dude?

There is this singer who shows up every once in a while on the cable music pop channels and on some awards shows. He is like the black Elton John with crazy costumes and nothing but nonsense music.

Where the heck did this crazy dude come from? Is he British? I don’t like his songs at all and his crazy costumes and clothing makes me cringe. Why do people like that make so much money and get all this publicity? Do people really like weirdos like this?

Facebook Frustrations

This is the second year that I’ve had a Facebook account and I’m getting frustrated with it. I know most people like to complain about the changes being made to the program itself. They complain about the new looks and new features, saying that Facebook staffers are meddling with something that is already good. I think most of those people are just old fuddies who don’t like change – for the sake of not liking change.

But my frustration is from the people who are on there using it. When I started out with my account I had about 80 friends. These were people that I know in real life and most of what I said on Facebook was a close match to what I would say to these people to their face.

Somehow over the past two years my friends list has grown to almost 500 people and I have to admit that there are a lot of people on there that I do not know personally. They are more like friends of friends and maybe i will meet some of them one day.

But these people who are friends of friends can be a strange bunch of people. They spout off about all kinds of things that I do not agree with, on every subject from religion to politics to bashing celebrities. I worry that these people who say such extreme things might be reflecting on me, even though I do not agree with a lot of what they say. I am seriously considering deleting a lot of these people who are not really friends and who do not reflect my own values.

Happy New Year!

Last night we partied downtown and welcomed 2012 in style! There was a free concert on the riverfront and there was a short fireworks show. Ever single bar and restaurant was jam packed with people. Thankfully the weather was pleasant and there were no problems with drunks getting into fights. Everyone seemed to be in a happy mood and we all had a lot of fun.

Busy Holidays

I am so exhausted and so busy at work. We have the week off after Christmas but we also have all the end of quarter and end of year things that have to be done before January 1. I don’t see how I can get it all done and still take the time off from work after Christmas.

PLEASE don’t make me come in over the Christmas break! I can’t bear it – the only thing keeping me going this month is the thought of one whole glorious week to sleep late and relax with family and friends. The holidays are a lot of stress and a lot of work, but we need some time to relax and enjoy the time, too.