I'm SO Freaking Out

Tonight, I found a tick on my body. And it was hard to pull off. And I am TOTALLY freaking out. Ticks in December? That is just wrong. I will not put it in print, but if you want a laugh, call me and ask me about the tick bite.

Public Works Breakfast

Some of you may've already heard about the Public Works breakfast. My second week of work - or was it the first - the Public Works division directors made breakfast for the 300+ Public Works staff! (Mom's reaction, "Mary Pat, do they know you can't cook?")

The guys cooked the bacon and sausage the day before, thank goodness. They cooked 45 lbs. of bacon! The entire building smelled like bacon, which is really not a bad thing.

The next day, we got there at 4:30 a.m. (Yes, 4:30 a.m., but we did get to leave early that day!) We made pancakes, eggs and grits, and also warmed the bacon and sausage.

My boss, Missy, and Sara mixed the pancake batter with a drill and paint stirrer attachment. (It was clean!)

The guys have a great pancake batter machine. The best way I can describe it is as a pancake batter I.V. with a pouring hose.

Some of us worked it better than others.

Turns out my strong point was flipping pancakes, once I learned WHEN to flip them. There is a fine line between ready to flip and not so much.

Robert S. was in charge of the grits, and they were GREAT! They say the last guy who did it had some problems - his grits were so sticky they could've used them to seal leaks in the roof.


Breakfast was served from 7 to 9 a.m.

This was just a dress rehearsal - our department also does the cooking for the Mayor's Breast Cancer Breakfast in October. Get your tickets now, folks - it'll be quite a show!

Merry Christmas from Winnie and I

It's looking like the annual "Sisters and Dogs" Christmas card isn't meant to be this year, but enjoy this fabulous shot of Winnie waiting for Santa.

I'm Baaccccck!

Whew! Thanksgiving - the new job - Mom's surgery. Somehow we've survived, but are running woefully behind on everything!

Christmas. We're scaling back in the interest of our time and sanity. We have a very ssmall real tree, and the bottle tree is lit. We may even have to replace the annual Christmas card with the dogs with a new tradition - a Christmas e-mail with pictures of the dogs!

Mom is doing quite well after her November rotator cuff surgery. She is doing physical therapy now and will be able to take off the sling for Christmas! She is VERY tired of doing things with one arm, but is glad to be back at work and in a routine - a one-armed routine, but a routine nonetheless.

LOVING the new job. I'm on a learning curve, but this one seems gentler than the one I experienced in Lexington County. Going from goverment from a non-profit was quite a shock, but government to government isn't such a drastic change. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being eight minutes from home (and other stuff, too) and have made good use of both my extra 45 minutes in the morning and the ability to actually run errands during lunch.

You'll love this. The Public Works division heads - that includes me - are cooking breakfast for the 300+ members of the Public Works staff tomorrow. FULL breakfast - eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and pancakes. I have to be there at 4:30 a.m. for my assigned duty - eggs. Even though I only cook about five things, one of which is Hamburger Helper lasagne, I think I can handle the eggs.

TRASHformations has been busy since Thanksgiving. Three special event sales and lots of Internet orders. Last sale is tomorrow, thank goodness.

Now that we're almost caught up - I DO still have to post T-giving pictures - hopefully I'll be able to post on a regular basis again!