Happy Halloween

Some pictures from my office today.




First prize - Hillary Clinton






The wicked witch who won 2nd prize.



Publications department.



Our department which was turned into a haunted house. It's actually pitch black with glow-in-the dark spiderwebs.



If you want to see what I looked like, click here. (The husband did my hair and eyes) I was the Guardian of the Haunted House.

Spooked up Thursday

I usually abhor going into the office on Thursdays but today was unusually pleasant. Infact, I have to admit that it was even fun.

The Halloween committee has organized a Halloween Spooktacular Extravanganza. What does that mean? It means there are contests and contests and more...
Best costume, best Halloween decorated department/cubicle.. etc... The prize? Winners gets a "leave work at 3 o'clock" pass.
And my department has decided to go all out for it! I mean.. seriously.. ALL. Out.
We have transformed our entire section of 6 cubicles into a haunted cave. Ceilings and windows were draped with black plastic table cloth, and the sides of the cubicles were made to look like a wall of glow-in-the-dark ghosts using screen-setting wallpaper. There is a huge black spiderweb at the end of the hallway with purple lights, and spiders hanging from the ceiling. Cubicles and my fake plant will be covered in glow-in-the-dark spiderwebs. We made a special door to the entrance to our cave. It is totally dark inside.
My scandinavian colleague will be in-charge of legally downloading some spooky music.

I know we are so going to win this.
I may have to go into the office next Wednesday afterall! If I do, I'll bring Jason's gargoyles to guard our entrance, and I am thinking of bringing some dry ice.

But I need a costume now. I know the other two girls are going all out with their $100 + costumes.
My sweet husband came home from work today with a witches hat, white hair spray and a black cape without making a huge dent in our wallets.
Once again, he reads my mind.

Renaissance fair

Here are some photos from the Renaissance Faire last weekend. I won't blog about it since Jason already did.



Click on it for captions and a bigger view

Pink on Purpose

Our company has a sanctioned charity event this week to raise funds and awareness for the Breast Cancer Awareness month. The "Pink" committee decided we should have a Bake Sale in the lobby of our building and asked for volunteers to take on various roles for the success of this event.

I could not decide whether to volunteer to make posters, tent signs, pack the bake goods or do the lapel ribbons. So I ended up contributing to the Bake Goods pile.
This weekend, I obsessively made over two hundred cookies. Again, I made the same mistake of being overzealous and attempted to make something that I have not tried before. I saw the recipe for peanut butter pinwheel cookies and I wanted to substitute the chocolate in the recipe for something pink. So I melted some pink wafer candy, spread it as a second layer and attempted to roll the pastry to make the pinwheel effect. BUT the candy hardened before I could roll the dough and it made the outer layer fall to pieces. The result.. you guessed it... I created some really artsy fartsy pinwheels instead. I had seriously thought of just going ahead and submitting them to the Pink committee at work. But I decided not to. Some people are scared of artsy fartsy things. They were really delicious tho. Jason and I both ate probably more than twenty cookies in one day.

Plan B.. I used a different recipe that called for cream cheese instead. The pinwheels looked slightly better but they were still not all identical. Won't work.

So Plan C... I used the same recipe, but instead of making pinwheels, I just rolled them out and drew a pink ribbon using the same melted pink candy. Boring but safe.
But me being me, I had to do something else to zest it up. So I printed some pink ribbons on a card, cut it up and tied a ribbon to each cookie bag.

300 cookies later and sore feet and a sore back, and a tummy full of discarded cookies that did not pass the QA test, I finally sent an email to the Pink committee informing them I'll contribute 40 cookie bags (80 cookies)

Ok, I am going to sleep now.


*Update :
The Pink Committee Head asked me where I bought these cookies. I said "my kitchen" :) .They loved it and want to do the same for all the other baked goods.
I've just emailed her the template of the cardboard label topper and I volunteered to go shopping to buy a few hundreds of these plastic bags for the event.
Feels good to have a purpose! I think I'm going into business some day! :)

And try your luck for a free camera here :
http://www.5minutesformom.com/2440/casio/#comment-420058

Boooed

Remember us being "Booed" last year? Well, I was wondering if that's gonna happen again this year. This morning, I found a Boo bag on our front door!
I think I know who booed us.

Well, I'll get busy now and put together a Boo bag and boo three neighbors before time runs out. I'm running out of ideas!! If you think of something cute that I can put in a boo bag, let me know!

Happy Birthday, Carlton!

We celebrated Carlton's 87th birthday at his favorite Fish restaurant, and got him a sugar-free cake that actually tastes pretty good!

Happy Birthday, Carlton!!

Losing the wisdom

Removing the wisdom tooth this time round was more difficult than the last one. When I got the other wisdom tooth removed about 3 years ago, it was simple and straightforward. This time, the tooth was in a bad angle so the oral surgeon had to use a saw-like machine to break the tooth up and also remove part of the bone. Good thing they only told me about having to remove the bone AFTER the surgery or else I would have freaked out by all that hammering and sawing.
I was put on local anesthetics and Nitrous oxide (laughing gas). If you have ever wondered if laughing gas actually makes you laugh, No it doesnt. It just makes you really really drowsy. Thank God! I have no intention of laughing while my tooth was being yanked out. I had a scary experience of the first sniff of nitrous oxide as it gave me palpitations, trembling hands and I felt the room spinning, so the nurse turned it down to a lower setting.
After what seemed like forever, I finally heard the doctor say "Ok, I'm sewing you up now". And then they switched over to a tank of oxygen to wake me up.
I was glad I had my mom-in-law to drive me home as I was still feeling drowsy from the nitrous oxide. She stayed and cooked dinner at our place. By the time the novocaine wore off, I was in pretty bad shape. God, I didnt remember it hurting this much! And the bleeding did not stop. It took some time for the other pain killers to kick in.

The doctor actually called up that night to check if everything was alright. I thought that was pretty good service! But ofcourse I was in no condition to talk.

The husband was really sweet and brought me ice packs every 20 minutes. The next day he worked from home and blended stuff for me to eat and made sure I did not faint from all the medication.

The swelling came up the next day and now I am looking like a puffer fish. It is hard to even close my mouth. So yes, I look stupid and in pain. I am trying to lay off the narcotics (the good kind) because it makes me nauseous. I think the pain has reached a bearable level.

For breakfast, I made some yummy banana/watermelon/ginger smoothie. Yesterday, Jason made me some parsley/ginger/apple smoothie. My lunch was a spinach/carrot smoothie. Yes, I am turning into a blender Queen.
Now I have this craving for KFC! Ever wondered what fried chicken would taste like in a blender?

A letter to my sis-in-law's dog

Dear Chelsea,

I hope you have adapted to your new home. Have you gotten a chance to meet Champ, Bandit, Bingo and Poppy yet? I'm sure you will all have a blast up there in Dog Heaven and I know you will be in good hands. Bingo and Champ will share their bread with you. Bandit may be a little protective with his blankie but I'm sure he wouldn't mind letting you sniff it. Poppy would love having someone chase frogs with her. Maybe you can teach Poppy how to fetch sticks and balls. She was never really good at it. I know for sure that a sweet natured dog like you will make plenty of friends. Just make sure they don't give you any chocolate.

You are missed by everyone who knows you here.

The moose and the cat

Trouble and his new best friend

Trouble : " But I wish he would stop staring at me "

Snaked under

Nothing interesting happening lately.
Except that I saw big fat long black snake in the middle of the road as I was driving into our neighborhood this afternoon. I thought it was part of a tire or something. I drove by it slowly to get a better look and the snake moved.
I checked my mirrors to make sure that the snake did not swing himself under my car when I drove over it and I saw it slid away into the driveway of one of the houses under construction.