People always wonder how the cute, playful black cat Tatanka could be a bad cat......
It might have something to do with the fact that I spent hours making gingerbread cookies; cutting them out in heart shapes; swearing everytime they didn't turn out right; baking them; cooling them; icing them; and then carefully putting them away in the pantry until the night of my party only to discover that the black cat had opened the pantry, climbed inside and took big bites out of each separate cookie. The black cat later got sick from eating said cookies and had a yucky poop two inches from his litter box...because he apparently couldn't make those additional two inches to poop INSIDE the litterbox...

Drew and I had the awesome opportunity to see all 6 of the Brandenburg Concertos performed by the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra with some guest artists when an acquaintance couldn't use their subscription tickets.

It was our first visit to the symphony hall . We we were curious because everyone has told us it's a "must see" building, but from the outside it doesn't look particularly interesting. The inside does have a clean fresh look - bright and airy - and designed so that it will stand time. I don't think you can look at the symphony hall and say, oh, yes, this is so reminescent of the cheesy architecture from the such and such decade. We had terrific seats in the center of the bacony with nice leg room. I was pleased.

The music was good. It's not the PSO or CSO, but I'm still happy to live in a city with a quality orchestra that plays in a hall 5 minutes down the road from me. Now, is there a classical ballet troupe in town?

I am disappointed at the ticket prices at the BSO, but it turns out that I was spoiled by the PSO. They had this section called the Family Circle. They were basically nosebleed seats and the seats were big long wooden benches that you crowded into. But you could get a clear view of the symphony, the sound was fine and the tickets cost $15. BSO tickets cost $30 for the cheapest seats. Boo. But I like the symphony enough that I'll scrape up the money a few times a year to go see them.

Yeah for Snow!

Yeah for trucks with rear wheel drive!

I love the slip n slide fun of a snowy wintery day in a rear wheel drive!


Time to get sandbags for the truck, grumble, grumble...

The woman in the cubicle behind me thinks she's the shit. She has to think she's the shit to have disgruntled phone conversations about work laced with my favorite 4-letter words openly on the phone. Loudly and with her door open. Basically, from her conversations it appears that everyone here is an idiot but her. After six months of working with her, I've learned that she offers you jovial smiles and jokes to your face but spits on your name and work behind your back. I have to work with her. I offer very little about myself to her. But I'm sure she's found something about me to spit on. She's tremendously good at what she does, but I find it difficult to respect her.

Supervisor can hardly look me in the eye today. Didn't say hello or greet me. That makes me nervous. Maybe I should think of a reason to go talk to him about the program so I can reassure myself that the program will be moving forward and I'll still have a job.

A few fun highlights of the holiday...

1. Being at my family's home without (e:drew) so I can be as loud and obnoxious with my family as I want to be without offending or embarassing the husband.

2. Not having to do anything.

3. Great time with family on Thanksgiving Day and decorating the Xmas tree on the day after.

4. I sleep really well. It's so dark and quiet where my parents live...unlike where I live...where Ricky is always outside hollering during the hours through which most people sleep.


A few un-fun highlights of the holiday....

1. The silence that followed my statement of, " Next year at Thanksgiving..." Oh, yeah, there's won't be a next year.

2. The last year decorating the Xmas tree at my family's home. Next year, there won't be a childhood home anymore...

3. The sideways figure eight pattern the turbo prop made while it was in process of landing Good god, I thought we were going to crash! I think everyone on the plane thought we were going to crash. And I have to ride the same plane back to Detroit! Don't ride turbo prop planes...seriously, it's miserable. I don't know how I'm going to convince myself to get back on one to fly back to Detroit.

Reading the posts, it sounds like everyone had a great holiday! Cheers to all!

My mom will be in town for her birthday and I usually like to take her out for dinner...any suggestions for a moderately priced nice place to take a mom for a birthday dinner?!

It seems I've become a bit of a joke around the office. Everyone likes to make fun of my headphones that I wear at my desk so I can quietly listen to my music.

It makes me annoyed. I wouldn't feel compelled to wear my headphones constantly if they hadn't moved me from my office into a cubicle.

I listen to my music on headphones because....

I'm pretty sure that no one else wants to rock out with me to the christian praise music that I listen to (I do listen to more than that btw).
I don't want to listen to the music that the people play in the offices behind me....80s cheesemetal and some jazzy bluesy clarinet crap
I don't want to listen to one of the women in an office behind me cackle-laugh all day long.
I don't want to isten to the same woman bitch about her supervisor and co-workers loudly all day long to any one who will listen.
I don't want to listen to the guy in adjoined cubicle harangue and berate his fiancee like a child.
I also don't want to listen to the same guy talk about sports ad nauseum on the phone.

So say what you want...but I'm a lot happier with my head phones on.

(e:changeisgood)'s mention of office parties was an unpleasant walk down the memory lane of my previous job. My previous job was in and of itself stressfull. I oversaw a lot of staff and clients and I was on call 24-7. To add to the joy of working there, we had mandatory office parties.

When I was a mere program manager, I was simply mandated to attend the office parties and mandated to pressure, twist arm, and make threats of various natures to get my staff to attend. I had to tell my staff who worked two jobs, went to school and had spouses and children that they must attend the party. Management is throwing a party for the staff, and darn't,they will show up with gratitude and appreciate it!

When I became program director, it got even better. I was mandated to mandate my program managers to attend and to pressure/bully their staff in attending. I also had to cook for the events and buy gifts for the chinese auction. Ok, so I hate the name Chinese auction, that alone pissed me off. I tried to get people to call it a ticket auction, but it never caught on...and I have to cook? What?

I'm a great cook. I love to cook. But I get stressed out cooking for work events. You know that people are judging your food, judging you and no one wants to be left with a bowlful of whatever they brought as indication that their food sucked. For one event, I made my sticky caramel rolls...usually very yummy. In my haste, I did something wrong half way through. I stomped my feet, pouted and started over. Then when I was rolling out the dough, I couldn't get it to roll out right...Drew walked into the kitchen to find me pounding the ball of dough on the counter with tears streaming down my face in complete frustration. I did manage to finish them, but they turned out crappy and no one ate them. So from then on, I refused to cook for events.

Toront was one of the reasons I agreed to move to Buffalo and it certainly fulfilled all of my expectations.
Friday night we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel where we were greeted with warm gooey cookies. What a welcome! We also took advantage of the indoor pool and shoved small children aside to ride the water slide which did not measure up to the expectations (e:drew) had fed me. But that's not why we visited Toronto.
First stop of the day, Chinatown:



More specifically, Bright Pearl Restaurant for Dim Sum. It was my first dim sum experience and in my haste I settled for steamed dumplings when I should have held out for more fried dough concoctions such as the fried dough stuffed with red bean paste pictured on the bottom. Drew had the fried squid on the right and we both had the sticky rice with pork wrapped in a leaf on the left.



We wandered around looking for lucky cats to add to the lucky cat collection, but no luck...



but we did enjoy the sights....



And I also found my favorite fruit from south asia...rambutan....



We visited the largest mall in the area. I'm not a shopper but it was an incredible view of consumerist culture....



We stopped by India Land to celebrate Diwali. India land was only two blocks long, not much to see, and the celebrations weren't hopping when we got there, so off to other things...

We wandered around some more. Drew had an improv workshop and by the end I was exhausted and ready to go home.



(e:Leetee) asked for impressions from a first time visitor. The public transportation system was incredible. The city was clean. People were really polite and really helpful. There was a whole range of accents outside of what I think of as the Canadian accent so I was a little intrigued. I didn't see a lot of historical sights, buildings, homes, streets, everything looked really modern, but maybe I didn't see those areas. Restaurants were everywhere. I swear I saw a sushi restaurant on every corner. I thought that was kind of funny. It seemed more expensive than Chicago, but less expensive than New York. So even though I really liked it, we probably won't be living in Toronto any time soon. But all in all, can't wait to visit again.