I Have A Lot Of Friends At Work. I Just Don't Know Their Names

I've worked at the mall Customer Service desk for almost 10 months.  During that time I've become friendly with quite a few people...security guards, housekeepers, and fellow mall employees as well as frequent shoppers and mall walkers.

Some of them wave or say hello as they walk by, and a few stop to chat.  If they work in the mall, chances are they wear a name tag and I've been able to figure out who's who.  The rest are just nameless friendly people.

There's one pair of mall walkers who I've figured out are avid sports fans.  Their shirts change with the seasons (Cardinals in the spring and summer, Rams during football season, Mizzou for basketball), and some other college teams that I assume have special meaning.  We've had several short discussions, mainly about sports, but it's more like a walk and talk as they're passing by.

Today one of group members came up carrying a large nylon bag.  They'd received it at a baseball game and thought I might like it.  Inside were a few promotional trinkets and a souvenir soda cup.  Even though the things were only worth a couple of dollars, I was touched they'd think of me.

We talked for about five minutes, then they continued on their walk.

New Computer Virus

This IS a bad one! If you receive an e-mail entitled "Badtimes," DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. Do not open it. This one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the stripes on all of your credit cards.

If the message is opened in a Windows environment, it will rewrite your backup files, changing all your active verbs to passive tense and incorporating undetectable misspellings that grossly change the interpretations of key sentences. It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your DVD, and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD you attempt to play!

It will re-calibrate your refrigerator's temperature settings so that all your ice cream melts and your milk curdles, and it programs your phone autodial to only call your mother-in-law.

It will leave the toilet seat up and your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank. It will drink all your beer and soda. It will leave dirty socks on the coffee table when you are expecting company. Its radioactive emissions will cause toe jam and bellybutton fuzz to migrate to your armpits. It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine, all while dating your current boyfriend/girlfriend behind your back and billing their hotel rendezvous to your credit card.

It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, but it will replace your luncheon meat with Spam. It will molecularly rearrange your cologne or perfume, causing it to smell like dill pickles. It will give you Dutch Elm Disease, Tinea, and cause you to run with scissors and throw things.

This virus is both insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to experience. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE!!! The survival of human life on earth as we know it is at stake!

Seedy

This year I decided to try growing tomato plants from seed.

The process started last year, when I saved some of the seeds from an heirloom purple tomato a neighbor gave us.  I found out that seed saving is a long, drawn out process.  First you squeeze the seeds into a container and cover them with water, then let them sit for a couple of days until they ferment and the top of the water gets moldy (which means the "goo" around the seeds has broken down). Next you rinse them and let them dry for several more days. After all that, they go in a plastic bag and get stored in a cool, dry place

I usually put tomato plants in the garden around Mother's Day. The Websites I consulted told me I should start the seeds 6-8 weeks before then, so at the beginning of April I began the process. I filled small pots with planting mix, added several seeds to each, and watered them well. Then I put the pots on a meat tray and slid everything into a plastic produce bag to keep the humidity in. The mini-greenhouse went on the east-facing window seat in the kitchen, where I overwinter my plants.

The pampered seeds germinated right on schedule, but haven't exactly thrived. I water them when they get dry, and turn the pots so all the seedlings have equal access to the sun. Four weeks later, they're barely getting their first set of real leaves. At this rate, it will be July before they're ready to go outside.

Today I was putting some scraps into the compost pile, and looked over at the garden area. There are some impressive-sized weeds that I need to pull and a layer of small rocks that have worked their way to the surface. And two volunteer tomatoes:

Despite the lack of attention, they seem to be doing just fine. Maybe I'll bring the coddled ones outside and let them get some advice from their wild brethren.

Savory Smoothie

According to Dictionary.com a smoothie is "a thick beverage of fruit pureed in a blender with ice and milk, yogurt, or juice".  Fruits tend to be sweeter than vegetables, so that would assume smoothies should be sweet.  But why couldn't a smoothie be savory?  Today I performed an experiment and made a vegetable smoothie.

It all started with a head of cauliflower.  One of my projects this morning was to cut off the florets and blanch them for crudités (because I think they taste better that way).  I usually just toss the core in the stock bag, but today I took a good look at it.  It didn't seem any different than the stems of the florets, which I eat all the time.  I decided to try cooking it and see what happened, then eat the results of my test for lunch.

I chopped up the cauliflower, but there wasn't quite enough for a whole meal, so I dug around in the vegetable drawer to see what else I could find...a small carrot, a quarter of a red onion and a couple of stalks of celery.  I threw everything in a pan, added water to cover and a beef bouillon cube for flavor, and put the pan on the stove.

When the vegetables were done, I whizzed them into a puree with my immersion blender and added a cup of yogurt.  If I'd put the mixture into a bowl I probably could have called it soup, but instead I poured it into a cup and drank it.  Not bad at all!

100 Foods To Eat Before You Die

There's a cute Facebook quiz making the rounds called 100 Foods To Eat Before You Die. According to the author, most people have tried about 20 of the 100 items.  I find that amazing; I've eaten almost three fourths of them.

I've struck through the ones that I can cross off my culinary bucket list.   How about you?  Where do you stand?

Abalone
Absinthe
Alligator
Baba Ghanoush
Bagel and lox
Baklava
Barbecue ribs
Bellini
Bird’s Nest Soup
Biscuits and gravy
Black Pudding (made from cooked blood)
Black Truffle
Borscht (Ukrainian soup made from beetroot)
Calamari
Carp
Caviar
Cheese fondue
Chicken and waffles
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chile Relleno
Chitterlings/Chitlins
Churros
Clam Chowder
Cognac
Crabcake
Crickets
Currywurst
Dandelion wine
Dulce de leche
Durian (southeast Asian fruit notorious for its ordor)
Eel
Eggs benedict
Fish Tacos
Foie Gras
Fresh Spring Rolls
Fried Catfish
Fried Green Tomatoes
Fried Plaintain
Frito Pie
Frog’s Legs
Fugu (pufferfish)
Funnel Cake
Gazpacho
Goat
Goat’s milk
Goulash
Gumbo
Haggis
Head Cheese
Heirloom Tomatoes
Honeycomb
Hostess Fruit Pie
Huevos Rancheros
Jerk Chicken
Kangaroo
Key Lime Pie
Kobe Beef
Lassi (Indian yogurt drink)
Lobster
Mimosa
Moon Pie
Morel Mushrooms
Nettle Tea
Octopus
Oxtail Soup
Paella
Paneer (a cheese)
Pastrami on Rye
Pavlova (meringue cake)
Phaal (curry dish)
Philly Cheesesteak
Pho
Pineapple and cottage cheese
Pistachio Ice Cream
Po’ boy
Pocky
Polenta
Prickly Pear
Rabbit Stew
Raw Oysters
Root Beer Float
S’mores
Sauerkraut
Sea Urchin
Shark
Snail
Snake
Soft Shell Crab
Som Tam (spicy salad made from shredded unripened papaya)
Spaetzle (German dumpling or noodle)
Spam
Squirrel
Steak Tartare
Sweet Potato Fries
Sweetbreads
Tom Yum
Umeboshi (pickled ume fruits common in Japan, similar to a plum)
Venison
Wasabi Peas
Zucchini Flowers

Who's The Parent?

I've had a smartphone for more than a year. In that time I've downloaded quite a few apps, but the only one I've paid for is the full version of Words With Friends, because it went on sale and the price was right.

Last week I got a text message telling me I was subscribed to a Fun Facts service for $9.99 a month. That night I called our carrier to find out what was going on. After navigating through the automated phone maze I was connected with a real person, and found out I'd actually been charged!

I tried to find out how someone could do that without my permission.  The representative gave me a sketchy answer, then told me I could put a purchase blocker on my number that would keep it from happening again.  Sounded good to me, but I had to giggle when I realized that I'd signed up for "Parental Controls".

So if I do decide to purchase anything from a third-party site, do I have to ask my own permission?

Thinking Positively

This afternoon I was swapping out the decorations in my bedroom, because I have too much to display at one time.  Some of it is "official" art--things I've bought at home decor stores or art shows. Others are mementos from places we've been, or items the kids made that I've hung on to.

 Today as I was taking a picture off the wall, I stopped and took a good look at a small card, entitled The Optimist Creed, that's been stuck in the bottom of the frame for years. The words of the creed were inspiring:

Promise Yourself-

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. 

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet. 

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them. 

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. 

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. 

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. 

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. 

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. 

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. 

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

There was no author listed on the card. I like to attribute things correctly, but usually don't have luck finding the information online.  This time, though, I hit the jackpot. A Google search led me to the Website of Optimist International, an international service club organization which is "dedicated to 'Bringing Out the Best in Kids'".  The tenets of their Creed help develop optimism as a way of life.

Cleanin' Out The Closet

When I got to work today I learned that the mall office had decided to clean out a closet close to the Customer Service desk.  Our desk uses part of the closet, but the majority of the stuff in there belongs to other departments. It doesn't look like it's been straightened up for years.

I watched my boss move our things to another area, and then the maintenance department loaded up a flatbed and filled a large tilt truck with things they wanted to keep. When they were done there was still a lot of stuff left.  I asked what was going to happen to it (because I HATE to see things go to the landfill!). Nobody could give me a straight answer.

I knew there was a rack on the wall of the closet that held old Security shirts, and volunteered to take them to a thrift store so they wouldn’t get thrown away.  My boss filled four trash bags with the shirts, along with a couple of windbreakers and some holiday ties. It was time for my break, but I thought I'd take the bags to my car first, making two trips with two bags each trip.

One problem---the Customer Service desk isn’t close to where I'd parked my car.

The bags weren’t heavy (maybe about 20 pounds each), but by time I walked up a flight of stairs, past a half-dozen stores, down a hall to get to the parking garage, then up another flight-and-a-half to get to the level where my car was I was breathing heavily and my shoulders were on fire.

I was a wide load on the stairs. At one point I had to turn sideways to let a man pass in the other direction. Walking down the mall corridor wasn't a problem, nor was the parking garage steps.  The second trip I knew what I was in for. This time I didn’t have a problem getting upstairs, but got stuck behind some slow-walking women on the way out.  I tried holding the bags in different ways, so both my biceps and triceps got a workout.

After I put the bags in the car I didn't bother locking the doors; if someone needed a large quantity of shirts that badly they were welcome to them. By time I got home and ate dinner it was too late to take the bags to the store tonight, so they'll get to ride back to work with me and I'll drop them off tomorrow on the way home.

Don't Bug Me

This afternoon when I opened the mailbox to retrieve the mail I had an unpleasant surprise.  Ants. Thousands of them. They were on top, under, and in between the things the letter carrier had delivered.

When I grabbed the mail from the box, the ants on top of the stack dashed for cover.  A few started up my arm; I gave an involuntary 'eek' and whacked the stack on the ground to dislodge any ants that might still be on it.  Some ran off and made it to safety.  The rest?  Squashed.

I brought the mail in and checked to make sure it didn't have any ant survivors before I laid the pile on the countertop.  It was dinner time for the cats, but they could wait. I grabbed a rag and a pitcher of water, then went outside to clean the mailbox.  This is what it looked like:

All that black in the corners?  Ants.

Why were they in there?  I don't know.  The last time I retrieved things from the mailbox was Friday.  There were no bugs then, and I'm sure Hubby Tony would have said something if there had been any problems on Saturday.  In the end, it didn't matter why they were there; they could NOT stay!  It felt cruel, but I poured water onto the floor of the mailbox, then used a wet rag to wash the stragglers off the sides and top.

Several hours later I went out to check on the box.  Although there weren't any ants inside, there was a steady ant line up the wooden post from the grass, which disappeared into a crevice halfway up.  I wanted to discourage them from taking up residence in the mailbox again, so I threw some red pepper flakes in the back of the box.

I hope the natural deterrent is enough, but you can bet I'll check before I stick my hand in there the next few days.

God's Paint Brush

This was the view from my deck just after sunrise the other morning (photo taken with low-quality cell phone camera):