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Showing posts from December, 2012

A Thank-You Note to Snow & Mummy's Confections

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firstsnow Dear Snow, A more lovely, festive visage there isn't, than your pristine glittering white blanket draped over everything.  It's been several years since I've had a good visit from you. Last year you made a brief appearance that was quickly forgotten. Today you settled in for an extended stay! Because of you, the first thing Isaac begged to do was go outside!! He rushed into my bedroom, opened my window shade and exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! It snowed! I saw it first!" (Wink). "Can I put my snow pants on and go outside?" Isaac asked  to go outside??  For a moment I thought I was in the Twilight Zone. But snow, since most of his winter memories are from Southern Arizona, you are exotic and exciting. So I got up, grabbed Shiloh and we all shuffled downstairs. I bundled Isaac up in his snow pants, jacket, boots and gloves then dashed out to revel in your glory.  My dear friend, whom I haven't seen since August (whence I started my day job) tex

Christmas Wrap-Up

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wrap-up How was everyone's Christmas? Ours was a joyous success. Ben even surprised me with three Calphalon pieces - a panini pan with weight, a three-quart saute pan, and a five-quart sauce pot! I got him a book about the Higgs Boson particle. A bestie gave me some money to buy Ben a bottle of his favorite alcohol; I covered the balance. I spent just under two hours at Target last Friday on Santa Detail. The piece de resistance of Shiloh's gifts is this Fisher Price Pizza Table: The MOST awesome feature (in this OCD neatnik's humble opinion) is that the center is hollow and all the little pieces can be stored inside, transforming it to a toddler table: This is not Shiloh... There was one  left on the shelf, and nary a price to be found. My spending limit for this item was $69.99. I hunted down an associate. He was actually pleasant, given that the store was swimming with patrons in the same boat as I. He brought his nifty scanner gun and blasted the read-ray at the

Hump Day Blurb - Whittling Down Lists, Tragedy, Christmas BreakfastConfection

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Pretty Happy Hump Day... It's less than a week until the regularly scheduled Christmas celebration! Because of a generous gift certificate to Barnes and Noble from a VP at work, combined with an e-mailed 20% off one item coupon from Barnes & Noble, I crossed an item from each Ben's and Isaac's lists. Two down! One great thing about being on a limited budget AND not wanting to equate the genuine sentiment of the season with gobs and gobs of presents is - I won't have to spend an inordinate amount of time amongst the shopping masses! Woo-hoo!  I should be able to accomplish all shopping in the next few days easily because of the shopping center close to work . CharlotteBacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Rachel Davino, 29; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay,7; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6; Dawn Hochsprung, 47; Madeleine Hsu,6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; James Mattioli, 6; GraceMcDonnell, 7; Anne Marie Murphy, 52; Emilie Parker,

Holiday Party and Scrumptious Bites

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My Yule Angel - how awesome is she? Tis the season, and with the season comes company holiday parties. Since I'm fond of my coworkers, I figured I'd enjoy myself, but didn't expect to have the rockin' good time I had - which was why I told Ben that I would pick the kids up from Jess's by 6:00.  The party was from 3:00 - 7:00; I'm done at 2:00. I didn't know how to get to the party's location and asked my charming coworker if I could follow her. She said was leaving at 2:00 but had to make some stops. Fine with me. First we stopped at the Post Office down the street to mail the holiday cards (whose design I chose and greeting I wrote) for the smaller of the two divisions housed in our facility .  We then motored on to Cumbies (Cumberland Farms for those of you not local) so I could cash in the $30 scratch ticket I picked out an allotment of pre-scratched winners one of the higher-ups was doling out as gifts. Our next stop was to a UPS drop

Hump Day Blurb - Amalgam

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Happy Hump Day! These past days have been an interesting mix of irritation and inspiration... I've hit my threshold with the second job thing. I'm distraught over the $40 missing from my drawer I mentioned last Wednesday, even though they are going to dock my pay for it. But this past Saturday I didn't run the report that closed out my drawer before the next cashier took the register. Granted, it was only a couple of minutes into my assessing my register whence I realized my transgression - and the other cashier had only completed less than ten transactions. They pulled the report and were able to accurately balance the drawers. But still, I'm now wearing a metaphorical "DUNDERHEAD" sandwich board. Also since then, my constant companion, paranoia, keeps whispering in my mind's ear that the owner is thoroughly disappointed with my performance and is looking for a graceful way to let me go. I would just love to resign and return to my much more pleasant

Today's Confection

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I can't believe that it's the eleventh AND I've shared only ONE confection with you! Amazing how time can zoom bye at times. Today's Confection is my quintessential (and favorite!) Christmas cookie - The Peanut Blossom. For me there's nothing so delectable as the flavor marriage between chocolate and peanut butter. The delight of these particular peanut butter cookies is heightened by the exclusion of an otherwise standard cookie ingredient - flour. Just peanut butter, sugar and eggs! Peanut Blossoms Mmmm...Tasty widdle gems 2 c smooth peanut butter 1 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 48+ unwrapped Hershey's Kisses (48 for the cookies; "+" for you to snack on) To Make: Put all ingredients (minus the Kisses, of course!) in a bowl and mix until completely incorporated. Pour some sugar into another bowl. Scoop dough with a 1/2 tbsp, form into balls then roll them in the sugar until they appear lightly dusted by snow. Bake at 350 for twelve minute

Hump Day Blurb

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find this image here Greetings and salutations! How's everyones week passing? Things around here could have been better - but they definitely could have been WAY worse - so I guess it's been on an even keel. Last night at work, the owner of the store had a "sit-down" with me regarding a last Tuesday. I conducted a transaction where I charged a customer two times. It took a while but I vaguely recollected the occurrence. I entered the incorrect total into the credit card machine and thought I'd been able to cancel the transaction before it went through. I interpreted the read-out on the credit card machine that transaction was cancelled; I called the supervisor on duty over for a look and she agreed with me. Then I guess I couldn't run her card again and she gave me another one. I put the correct total on that and she left. Long story short - the incorrect transaction actually went through; she had to come back in for a refund, and my drawer ended up b