Halloween in the Office
Woman in the Middle | October 30, 2016Youngest Daughter was expressing disappointment that her office doesn’t do costumes on Halloween. I had already bought her an office appropriate Halloween shirt, because I figured that would be the case. But it got me to thinking about the various offices I have worked in over the years and what was done for Halloween.
Most places I worked didn’t do much, except maybe have a potluck. I would put on a Halloween pin and call it good.
The wildest place was my very first job. We didn’t dress up in costumes, but we did have a pumpkin decorating contest. Each section would vie to have the most unexpected and elaborate pumpkin display. To give you an idea, one year my section painted various size pumpkins as the planets and hung the entire pumpkin solar system from the ceiling. There was a pumpkin Elvis one year, and a snowman made from white pumpkins. People from all over our 13 story building would come by to see the displays. Not a lot of work got done that day, but we looked forward to it all year.
I did have one work place that allowed costumes. It wasn’t official so we had to wait each year until a day or two before for the word to come down from on high that appropriate costumes would be allowed. It was fun, but also a little awkward as costumes can sometimes be a bit difficult to manage in a typical work setting. I went as a witch one year, but after that I just threw on a Halloween t-shirt and some sort of hat or headband.
What do you do (or what did you do) for Halloween at your work place?
Hubby and I from a couple of Halloweens ago.
Random Musings October 29th, 2016
Woman in the Middle | October 29, 2016At some point I gave my email address to Better Homes and Gardens and they now like to send me emails. The latest one was a little too absurd to ignore. It was titled “Quick and Easy Holiday Guest Room Decor.” I like decorating for holidays, maybe even more than the average person. But if I were having holiday guests stay over, they would just have to deal with seeing the holiday decor in the rest of the house. The guest room (if I had one) would not be done up just for them!
Since fall has arrived, I decided to make chili and cornbread for dinner. That is definitely one meal that needs a certain kind of weather. No way would I make chili when it is 115 degrees outside!
When we go to bed, the kittens retire to their cat condo with their nightly meal of delicious canned cat food. Lumos has decided lately to run the length of the house and flop down on the carpet in the dining room just as soon as I get the cat food ready and turn to pick him up. I know he isn’t running to try to get away as he offers no resistance to being picked up once I reach the dining room where he is lolling around on the carpet. I finally decided he just wants me to get a few extra steps in before I go to bed.
Right now, in what we like to call “fall weather,” my back sliding glass door is open. I can hear a bird of prey (Hubby would know what it is, I don’t) calling. It is a weird, lonely sound I associate with cowboys riding across hot desert landscapes during a spaghetti western, not with me sitting in my house, typing at my computer. But it is a beautiful sound all the same and one I never really heard before I moved to this house.
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and stay safe if you are doing any Halloween partying!
Another Technology Glitch
Woman in the Middle | October 27, 2016What can I say – technology is not my friend. Oh sure, I mange to publish this blog and I recently mastered taking a screen shot on my computer and saving it, but a technology wiz I am not.
In spite of this, I have manged to use and enjoy my Fitbit with few problem. I don’t use any of the fancy features, I just clip it on and check it every once in a while to make sure I am getting a decent amount of steps in.
I was quite distressed on Monday when it told me at the end of the day I had walked less than 3000 steps. Oh no! What a slug I was that day. Then, at the end of the next day I found the same thing – another sub 3000 step day. I had even walked around Target and done a little housework. Usually I just have to got to the bathroom a few times and do some housework and I can get 5000 steps in on any given day.
But yesterday was the worst. I looked at my Fitbit about 8 pm and it said I only had 1771 steps. Good grief! I decided that my concerns about the upcoming election must have have made me a slug, sitting at the computer all day. Well, it was time to get this craziness under control! I dragged Hubby off for a walk and we synchronized our Fitbits before we went, just to make sure my Fitbit was working OK. We already know that the walk we took is about 1300 steps. But when we got back my Fitbit said I had only walked 77 steps! Ah ha! My Fitbit wasn’t working right!
Oh, wait….there was a tiny little flame next to that number…it was calories, not steps….I had been looking at the calories burned screen all week! As for my steps, they were fine, especially since I took that little walk!
Once again, Technology scores while the dumb human at least got an extra walk in!
A Baking Tradition Separated by an Ocean
Woman in the Middle | October 25, 2016I enjoy watching the Great British Baking Show on my local PBS station. After the latest contest was won, they did some further episodes, “master classes” they called them, to show the viewers how to make the various delightful goodies they made on the show. You know how they say Americans and British are two peoples, separated by a common language? Well, I think we are separated by a shared baking history as well. Half the time I have no idea what they are talking about!
First, they bake, sort of, by the metric system. They still use teaspoons and tablespoons, for some reason, but then they measure all the other ingredients by weight in grams, So that means every home baker needs a little electronic scale to weigh everything. How annoying is that?
Second, many of the things they bake are from other European countries or are “traditional” British goodies that are rarely made over here. At least I have never seen them.
Finally. there are the ingredients. What the heck is liquid glucose? Or gelatin leaves? Or strong flour, which different from plain flour? Or how about castor sugar? IT is all so confusing, but still fun to watch. I will never be making any of the baked goods, anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter if they use the metric system and a bunch of ingredients I have never heard of!
BOOM!
Woman in the Middle | October 24, 2016The great (not) weather predictions in our newspaper said we had a 20% change of rain yesterday. In the world of So Cal, even when we aren’t having a drought, 20% usually means we aren’t going to get any rain. Well, that was an incorrect assumption! We got rain yesterday evening and and again this morning. Lots of wet, glorious rain! I turned off my sprinklers and did a happy dance!
But, what was surprising, is the rain came with thunder and lightening. Lots of thunder and lightening. It started about five and went on until 11 pm or so. Then the rain returned this morning about 6:45 and with it the thunder and lightening. This is very unusual for my area. We just don’t get thunder and lightening very often and. if we do, it certainly does not last for hours and hours.
It is at times like this we are grateful Honey is hard of hearing. Even when the house shook with thunder that was very near by, she just looked up a little sleepily from her bed and then conked right back out. Who cares if we feel like we are one of the pins in a cosmic bowling game? Honey was unconcerned.
The same could not be said for Nox and Lumos. They had never experienced such a thing before in their short lives. Unfortunately, Nox was in my lap when the first big house rattling BOOM happened. Both he and Lumos went running around in a panic. But, with the springboard for the panicked run being my legs, I got to feel all 20 toes dig in as he launched himself off my lap. Oh well, no blood was drawn!
The two youngsters got used to the thunder soon enough and settled back down. This morning it is dark and wet, a sight we have not seen in sometime. It is so wonderful we are getting a good soaking right now. I hope this lessons the fire danger.
Random Musings October 22, 2016
Woman in the Middle | October 22, 2016You Tube is just evil. You watch one little BBC documentary on something about the royal family and next thing you know they are offering you castles and jewels and stately homes and scandals….Oh my! I have been so immersed in everything British I am surprised I haven’t started talking with an accent.
Rolling Stone magazine had an article about climate change affecting weather in a recent issue. It started off by discussing some recent events that the author believed were caused or made worse by climate change. It mentioned the Blue Cut Fire which was that nasty one I told you about that just exploded from nothing to horrific in a nano second. It was about 30 minutes from my house. Then it mentioned the two hurricanes that bore down on Hawaii recently, just as we arrived there. I was amused, amazed, and appalled all at once that somehow me and mine had been so close to so many of the things they mentioned.
Once my girls got out of high school, all of those various choir, drama and band performances disappeared from my life. This holiday season, however, is shaping up to be just like old times. Eldest Daughter is practicing in a small praise choir at church that will be performing in a few weeks. Youngest Daughter is starting back up in bell choir (also at church), which will be performing around Christmas time. I am looking forward to getting to see the girls do their musical thing once again.
Another Warm Saturday
Woman in the Middle | October 21, 2016I have come to the sad conclusion that I will be sweating every Saturday until the election. The weather is just not cooperating and insists on being hot on the weekends. The whole family is grimly looking ahead to tomorrow and another round of asking people to vote for me in the heat. I really appreciate them doing that for me.
I remember back in June when it stayed cool right through the middle of that month, when we usually have warmer weather beginning at the first of that month. I predicted then that our summer would last a little longer, to make up for it, and I have been proven both a weather witch and unhappily prophetic. Sigh…..
On the up side, the girls are carving pumpkins tonight and we are watching Rocky Horror Picture Show. So it should be a fun night.
What do you have planned for this weekend?
Whoosh!
Woman in the Middle | October 19, 2016The Santa Ana wind came whooshing in in the middle of the night last night. As usual, it is blowing gale force winds and it is trash day, so trash and trash cans are going every which way!
I gave a history talk in the big city next door this morning, with my partner in (history) crime, Steve. As also was usual, the minute I crossed the river between the cities, the wind went from a gale to a light breeze, or maybe a medium breeze at times. I was able to live wind free for a few hours, until I got back on my side of the river again and, whoosh!
When I got home, I opened my car door, jumped out, struggled to push the door closed, and then put my head down and pushed through the wind to the front door of the house. I realized how nice it had been to get a little break from the wind. But I am back in Windy City now and I can hear the wind a blowing.
I have a nail by the front door and I usually hang something appropriate to the season on it. Right now it is a Halloween plaque. But the Santa Ana wind bangs anything hanging there around so Hubby kindly took my plaque down this morning and set it inside, safe from the wind. If the plaque is up you can hear it banging away on the side of the house. But I was still hearing the occasion banging sounds and I couldn’t figure out what they were, other than they sounded like wood was involved. I finally got up to investigate. You can never be too careful in the wind! It might have been part of the roof or something. Instead, it was my neighbor, moving some firewood. The “banging” sound I was hearing was him dropping an arm load of firewood into a wheelbarrow. Mystery noise solved, and it wasn’t even a problem!
All Smoke, No Mirrors
Woman in the Middle | October 18, 2016Back when I worked in the city hall of the big city next door, if the fire alarms went off we would have to exit the building using the stairs, cross a parking lot and a major street, and reassemble in our designated area in a nearby park. The fire department would arrive in their hook and ladder trucks, and then, about 20 minutes later, after the all clear was given, we would shuffle back to our desks. Many times this whole event was triggered by a bag of microwave popcorn, left in a microwave until it burned and set off the nearby smoke detectors. It finally resulted in a memo coming down from on high, banning microwave popcorn from the building.
I remembered all of that last night when I tried to make myself some popcorn and inadvertently set the microwave for way too long. I heard a final pop and walked over to find the microwave timer still had over 11 minutes on it! Oh no! It was only supposed to be in the microwave for 1 minutes and 45 seconds! Goodness knows how long I set the timer for.
I opened the microwave and smoke billowed out. I closed it immediately and then turned on the fan over the stove. I then opened it again, grabbed the smoke bomb of a bag and, trailing smoke, went straight for the sliding glass door. Eldest said “Is that really necessary?” I finally got the door open and tossed the bag outside. Eldest answered her own questions with an “I guess so.”
I am happy to report that microwaving the second bag went much more smoothly, But a hint of something that smelled like cigarette smoke hung in the air for the rest of the evening. No wild animal touched the bag on the patio overnight. No surprise there. I am sure it didn’t smell appetizing at all!
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