char-ming pumpkins

As much of a humbug as I am about Fall, there are a two things that the season brings that I really like: Affy Tappels and pumpkin seeds.

Affy Tapples are just, well, awesome. 'Nuff said.

And I really have come to enjoy everything about pumpkins, Jack-O-Lantern's, and the seeds they produce. The girls and I picked out two healthy looking pumpkins at the pile outside of the Jewel a quaint little patch near our home. Both girls gave much thought to, and drew up their designs. After busting the blade of my favorite serrated little carving tool, I had to go old school and carve the pumpkins with a big 'ol slasher movie worthy knife large blade from the butcher's block. I was quite happy with they way they turned out:



E's is the vampire, K's is the Frankenstein. (How much do I love the bolts?...too much. It's kind of pathetic how happy the bolt effect makes me *sigh*)

I love pumpkin seeds, I've been thinking about them for weeks. So, today, I was freakishly giddy with anticipation kind of looking forward to making and eating them. I have a trusted method and way of seasoning them just right with garlic salt. I decided to keep the seeds divided into their respective batches to see if maybe one pumpkin had better tasting seeds than the other. I was quite pleased with the yield of seeds, especially from the vampire, Frank...less so, but enough. This story is building folks, so stay with me. I put in the bountiful seeds from the vampire, set the timer, and went about my business. Soon, too soon, I began to smell what can only be described as, well, burnt pumpkin seeds....why?...why you ask?...

Let's take a step back and see if you recall what happened to me last February when I tried to make blueberry muffins the morning after I made some steaks. Here's something to refresh your memory. Yes, yes, dear readers...I broiled the everloving goodness out of a tray full of seeds. I am soooo mad at myself.

The bright side is that the Frankenpumpkin yield, albeit small in comparison, to the charred pile of crispy remains was properly baked and turned out quite tasty. However, they are almost gone, so I think I'm going to head back over to the patch and pick myself up another pumpkin...I think we need a wolfman to round out the lot.

timber

One of the trees in our backyard had to come down. It was half dead, dropped super huge scary branches with every storm, and recently sprouted a very disturbing wall of mushrooms up its trunk. It was very old, and seeing it come down was a little sad. Here it is in its full glory:



Here it is after all of the major branches were removed. (also after Tony spent many hours balancing precariously with at chainsaw on the highest of branches...I had to stop watching after a while, as it gave me that vertigo stomach flutter and I was watching from inside my kitchen.):



Here it is falling. (I was quite pleased that I was able to get this picture):




Here's a close-up of the fallen trunk. Tom took it. I think it is a beautiful picture:




The only thing you are missing, dear readers, is an awesome picture of my brother-in-law standing atop the trunk, holding a chainsaw, and wearing a saucy pair of assless chaps (yes with pants underneath). I took the picture and he made me promise that it wouldn't wind up on the interweb. I am true to my word, so you will have to have to do without that image.

hat day

Because I neither want to jinx nor get ahead of myself, I'm not going to write about my interesting job interview which included 5 multiple choice quizzes and writing a semi-psychotic story about a penguin. Instead, I shall post pictures of people in hats.

It was "hat day" at the girls' school. Here's how they celebrated:




I jokingly lamented in the comments on my former co-worker Arnie's blog that I never received a Jellyvision hat. This came in the mail...Just in time for "hat day."



Okay, one more person wearing a baseball hat.




You're welcome, Laura.

look what just arrived from amazon.com

It's a Roo-in-the-Box!!!!!!!!!!

job envy

As I've mentioned, the blogs of some of my former co-workers, as well as this one, are peppered with disappointment about no longer working at Jellyvision due to them scaling down for their latest project. Arnie, who still works there, just wrote about how the rest of us were feeling on his blog as well.

I went to the Jellyvision website for "old times sake" and when you click on "Jobs" you get this. On the menu bar on the very top, Click on "Our Deal" then "Jobs"

See??? This is why we miss it there.

to whom do i give the cheesy coffee mug? (updated)

Being the fancy free freelancer that I am, I don't have a boss in the traditional sense.

But the fact that it's Boss' Day made me wonder how many bosses I've had.

I guess my first job was babysitting for the Gilberts when I was twelve. They were good bosses- good cookies in the jar, three really well behaved kids, and $3 an hour was awesome pay for 1984.

Kids R Us (wish I could type the R backwards) was my next job, in 1986. I worked in the boys' department. My boss was Joe...something. He was nice. It was a fun job because of my co-workers. Tom Allen got me the job, and I subsequently got Kaz hired and a bunch of other Egg people eventually worked there too. The highlights of that job were making long and funny closing announcements on the PA, playing practical jokes w/Kaz, and eventually being allowed to write the schedule for my dept. so I worked whenever I wanted. Lowlights were cleaning out the boys dressing rooms (people can be such slobs!) and vacuuming around clothing fixtures.

Sugar Creek Golf Course was next in 1990. I was a starter. My boss was Gary, he was very laid back and cool. However, I thought this position would just entail taking reservations for tee times and announcing when people were supposed to tee off. I actually thought it would be a low pressure job and I'd be able to read or do crossword puzzles. Noooooo. I got to field calls from people yelling at me because I gave away THEIR tee time, people insisting that if they just came at ten o'clock on a Saturday without a reservation, I should be able to "squeeze them in" and "Don't you know who I am? I'm Dr. So and So and Gary always...blah blah blah." Highlights were that it was actually nice working with my parents and well, I met Tom there, so it was a VERY significant job. And I think our boss Gary came to the wedding.

In 1991, I started working at St. Mary of Celle in the Extended Day Care. That was a great job and my boss was Debbie, who became my very good friend (she was at my wedding too). This job did a ton to prepare me for being a teacher as well as a parent. The hours were great, 3-6 p.m. and I got to know some really great kids and their families.

I got an additional job in 1992- Crown Books. Ugh, that place was the worst! I can't remember the chick's name that was the manager, but she was awful, on top of being Kaz's ex-boyfriend's current live-in girlfriend. Awkward. She hated me, and the place was a messy hole in the wall. Thank God it was only for the Christmas season.

In 1993, Kaz got me a job at Waldenbooks. Jenny, my boss, was nitpicky and lacked people skills, but she ran a nice store. I loved working there-seeing all of the new books come in and helping people find interesting stuff. I spent waaaaaaaay too much money there though. I also loved working with Kaz again, we had so much fun.

In 1995 I started teaching at St. Mary of Celle. Jack Jahoda was no longer able to teach his sixth grade class due to his bone marrow transplant. Ruth Ann, the principal (a boss whom I don't have enough energy to write about) offered me the job teaching them for the last quarter of the year. It was strange coming into a class like that, but luckily, since I was still working at extended Day and I coached Jr. High cheerleading, I knew many of the students and their families. I taught fifth grade the following year and eighth grade until 2001. 2001-2004 I taught either part time Social Studies or my current events class. I loved teaching there, not just because I could pretty much write my own ticket, but those kids were great and the faculty was so much fun and I met my friend Jen. :)

Around 1998-2000 I taught night and summer school at Morton West and East. I have no recollection of what that guy's name was that ran those programs. Hmmm... nope- no recollection what so ever. He didn't do much but hire me, and then I just did my thing with very little supervision. I remember a lot of apathy, a few knife wounds, and a handful of kids who I think might actually have learned a thing or two.

Jellyvision from December to July of this year was the best job I had outside of the classroom. My bosses at Jellyvision were great-the smartest, funniest, most creative bosses I've ever worked for, without a doubt.

I have yet to meet my webshots editor or this Gonaget.com gig I'm starting tomorrow. Maybe I'll just have "virtual" bosses from here on out. Ooh but if I do freelance copywriting work for CNet, Kari will be my boss. She'd get a #1 Boss mug, for sure.

Why does it feel like I'm missing a job in there somewhere?

Because I did.- Rand McNally 1997. It was a pretty fun and easy retail map sellin' gig I had for the summer and into the school year. I can't remember my bosses' names though. They were nice guys, but the best part of that job was meeting my friend Ruth Margaret. Working with her was a lot like working with Kaz, she was really funny and smart and made the job more enjoyable.

little miss sunshine

We saw Little Miss Sunshine Saturday night (thanks Laura). It was too good to condense down into a haiku. Or maybe I'm too lazy to count syllables. At any rate, great movie. Steve Carrel was so good. He gave this incredibly understated performance. All the performances were great, actually. All the characters' flaws and strengths were portrayed with so much honesty and depth through sheer acting more so than through the dialog or plot. It was quirky, sad, sweet, disturbing and funny all at the same time. It also contains one of the funniest dance sequences that I have ever seen, I and I will never again hear Rick James' Superfreak without thinking of this movie.

if jason voorhees did math

10/13/2006

1+0+1+3+2+0+0+6= 13

oooooooooooh!

hey tannerinos

Fine, my anonymous comment poster...
Here:


Are you happy now???

post in which she defends her vocabulary

Two people, who shall remain nameless, accused me of making up a word yesterday.

I related the following story to them:

I visited a chiropractor whom I have never seen before because my regular doctor was unavailable, and I had to bring Jack along. She barely looked at me when we first walked in because she was staring oddly at Jack. She said, "Whoa! He looks so much like my son." "Really?" I replied. "No. Seriously, you have to see this," she said. She then showed me a picture of him. Scary, I tell you. They could have been twins, it was so freaky. Jack has kind of an odd hair color, a mix of blonde and red and his was exactly the same...his eyes, skin tone, facial expression- totally the same. Plus, he was wearing a sweatshirt that Jack had worn the day before! Jack has a doppleganger!

This is the point in the story that both people said, "HUH? a what?!"
"You know, an exact double...evil twin... doppleganger," I replied.
"You made that word up," they both asserted.

All I have to say is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppleganger

(Unfortunately, there really should be an umlaut over the 'a' but I have no idea how to enable that cool little doohickey on my keyboard. I love a good umlaut)

So, there you go.

Anyway, Jack was really pretty good during my adjustment....with the exception of when I was laying on my back, putting myself in that zen zone I have to get into before she cracks my neck, because it still kind of freaks me out a little. I always picture a hunter grabbing a wounded deer by it's antlers and abruptly twisting to break its neck- yeah I know I'm twisted- can't help it...but I digress. So I'm all ready and the doctor says, "Um, hold on, someone wants to give you something." I open my eyes, and there's Jack holding a fist full of raisins over my face. "Mama," he says, as he proceeds to stuff them in my mouth. It was hysterical.

Anyway, all I'm saying is 'doppleganger' is a word, and Jack has one...

as, apparently, do I:


See? All I'm missing is the the 22-25% of gorgeous and it's uncanny. Using this technology, you can see which celebrity of the opposite sex you look like as well. I was Ashton Kutcher... also minus the 25% of gorgeous.

in the headlines

The stories aren't that interesting but these phrases are intriguing on their own:

botulism-contaminated carrot juice

the third rail of Nascar

4-year-old on no fly list

and my favorite

Streisand F-bomb

three films I have seen...quite diverse in their natures...here are my reviews

...in haiku




rats undercover
playing both sides of the law
the acting was great









selfish people cheat
honest but depressing view
zach braff has talent








kutcher and lawrence
lots of funny one-liners
not the worst kid's film

moon

If you are reading this on Friday. Look up tonight.

october is beginning swimmingly

So in my last post, I mentioned that I was feeling that something was going to go wrong. I attributed this feeling to the simple fact that it is October, and... well... October is the worst month ever. In retrospect, I think I was just experiencing a little ESP.

Last night, during an insane thunderstorm, we lost our power. A ridiculous amount of rain was falling and the pumps which keep my basement from becoming a wading pool require electricity. What resulted was a flurry of running around with flashlights in otherwise pitch darkness, moving all of our stuff (me tripping and falling over most of it), bailing the patio, a lot of mopping, and constructing intricate towel paths to channel the streams of water seeping into the house from...wait for it...THREE different places- toward a drain which itself was filling rapidly, all until around 1 a.m.

It could have been much worse. We could have been asleep, or Tom could have been out of town. Nothing of importance got damaged. Man, I'm just saying it was stressful, and there's still a lot of clean-up to do. And unfortunately, I still have that impending feeling in my stomach that something bad is going to happen. We've already covered 'darkness' 'hail' and 'flood.' I guess I'll keep my eyes open for locusts and the other eight plagues.

wake me up when october ends... or, "today she chooses to whine"

It's October. I have always disliked the month of October. It depresses me. It gets cold, and everything dies. Sure, the colors are beautiful sometimes, but I cannot look at them without thinking that it just means, they're on their way out - the last hurrah before their brown, wet, gray, inevitable end. "Nothing gold can stay" right? I can't explain it, but for as long as I can remember October has just given me a sick feeling, like everything is about to go wrong. I would just rather blink and go from green leafy trees to seeing snow covered bare branches. Snowy branches make me happy and hopeful for some reason-I wish I could explain why. So, how do I skip Fall?

On an unrelated topic, I miss my job. On the blog of one of my former co-workers (where I lurk because, even though everyone was very nice to me, I feel like I was too much of a dorky mom outsider to keep in touch with the 'cool' kids) she expresses how, she too, misses the place and that it kinda hurts that they kept some people around, but not her. She was an amazing writer, but she's doubting herself and wondering if she did something wrong. To quote her: "I feel like the kid who wasn't asked to play and I want to play more than anything." Plus, one of the writers who was kept on has a blog devoted to the job, so I get to lurk there and see pictures of the place and people and be all wistful and jealous. I'm such a case. It was just such a cool place to work, with all these amazingly talented and funny people, and it was my first experience outside of a classroom. I call it my first "big girl job" because teaching was just sort of second nature, plus I taught in the place where I felt so comfortable. SMC was more like a home and family as opposed to a job.

I know all the "other side of the coin" stuff- I had a great experience, I need to focus more on the house and the kids, I was part of a really cool project that turned out awesome, my resume looks good and well-rounded, door shuts/window opens, all that stuff. But it's October today, and I choose to wallow for a little bit.

*wallow*

There