Sunday, September 30, 2012

Thoughts of the Week

1)  I have a favourite pair of comfy pants and a favourite comfy shirt that I wear around the house.  I bought them from different stores at different times.  They both developed holes this week.  :-(  What is up with that?  *sulks*

2)  On Thursday I was exposed to undercooked chicken, courtesy of a catered lunch at my workplace.  Among the other dishes, there were cubes of meat that had obviously been cooked on kebab skewers.  I took four.  Because I'm kind of paranoid about food that I haven't prepared myself, I cut them in half before I ate them.  The last one was red inside.  Not pink, not ambiguous - full-on raw.  Then I couldn't remember if I'd checked all of the other pieces.  I felt a little nauseated and nervous.  So did the people around me, who'd been merrily eating away without a care in the world until that moment.  I Googled "salmonella" and found that it normally has an incubation period of 6 - 72 hours.  I am now at hour 73!  And I'm fine!  Take that, salmonella.

3)  I've been doing a lot of hiring at work recently; I've filled three positions in the past month.  In one of my latest interviews, one of the candidates had worked for a fancy retail store with a three-syllable name.  She consistently mispronounced the name of the store throughout the interview.  Wow.  Just, wow.  Well, that was an easy way to eliminate a candidate.  (And yes, English was her first language.)

4)  Relative to my husband and parents, I would describe myself politically as a left-leaning moderate.  However, the limits of my leftiness have been tested recently by our free, promotional subscription to the Toronto Star, Toronto's lefty daily newspaper.  Every year or two they drop it off on our doorstep for a couple of months gratis, and then they call and try to talk us into a continued subscription.  Ha!  Not happening.  I just can't get with their point of view.  For example, they wrote  an article about a "Pumpkin Parade" that's a tradition in a neighbourhood park.  It used to be that people would show up with jack-o-lanterns to display, everyone would admire them, and in the morning city workers would show up to remove all the pumpkins from the park.  The city says they will no longer pay for the clean-up.  The citizens are pouting.  Hey, I have an idea: clean up your own mess!  Everyone who wants to contribute a pumpkin can write their name on it with a marker, and in the morning they're responsible for returning to the park to dispose of their pumpkin. Remember kids: it's your job to clean up your own toys!  Are you guys with me on this?

5)  I don't know who curates the contributions to The Meta Picture, but a lot of them really tickle my funny bone.  Like this one.  Or this one.  And this one.  Have fun!

9 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

If the clothes are just worn around the house, do the holes matter?

I often pronounce words wrong, even ones I know well. I just have a mental block with some words. Our interior designer in the States was called Tana, but I found it impossible to pronounce her name. Wow, that's worrying isn't it?

Jameil said...

1) How rude! Get it together, clothes!
2) Yay!
3) You didn't ever figure out how to pronounce the name of your employer??? Further, no one ever corrected you???
4) Agreed. It's surprising the city ever paid for this.

DarcKnyt said...

All right, I'll have you know you just caused me to waste 45 pages worth of time on that Metapicture site! Curse you, time-sucking Internet! CUUUUURRRSE YOUUUUUUU!

Jenski said...

I'll have to add Metapictures to the list that includes Suri's Burn Book and McKayla Is Not Impressed. Thanks for that. :-)

Good luck finding comfy clothes replacements!

Granny Annie said...

How does clothing "develop" holes? Did you tear them or snag them on something? Did they wear out at the knees and elbows? Perhaps moths got into your closet? Did you accidentally pour acid on them? Inquiring minds want to know.

By the way...you say To-MAW-toe and I say Tomato:)

Lynn said...

Sometimes those holey clothes are the most comfy for around the house. :)

Sparkling Red said...

LL Cool Joe: The shirt will be fine for a while yet, but I think the pants are on their last legs, so to speak.
I use mnemonic devices to help me to remember how to pronounce difficult names. Like my cousin just married a guy whose last name ends in -stein. So does it rhyme with "keen" or "wine"? I remember by thinking that he's a "lean, mean, -stein".

Jameil: I have to say that these pants gave me years of faithful service. They had a good life. The shirt, on the other hand, was just cheap (but so cute!).

DarcKnyt: Yup, Metapicture is the site I'm most likely to get sucked into past my bedtime.

Jenski: I am definitely going to check out those two sites you mentioned.

Granny Annie: The pants wore through at the butt. The shirt developed a random small hole at a random location. For the shirt, I suspect that there was a flaw in the thread that it was woven from.
To get specific: I say Swarovski and she said Swarvoski.

Lynn: Indeed. I have one T-shirt that is almost 20 years old that I still wear around the house. It has a couple of little holes in it, but it's still good.

G. B. Miller said...

I had an applicant once back when I was working in the private sector, who got eliminated right off the bat when he misspelled the name of the town that his previous job was in.

DarcsFalcon said...

Well, I suppose on the bright side, holey clothes means SHOPPING! LOL I've heard that's supposed to be a really fun sport for ladies. ;)

Next time I make chicken, I'll give you a call, because you know how to kick salmonella's ass, and that way I won't have any worries. I think there's a peanut butter manufacturer that might be looking for someone with your talents. :D

Glad to hear you're doing well, Spark, that always makes me happy. L( *hugs*