Six cent Christmas Present

My parents gave me $100 for Christmas. I had not really intended on using it at all...and technically I didn't because it is still in an envelope...somewhere. After I went running, I decided to go to Sears because I really need some boots, and I have looked mostly everywhere else. I see the coats when I walk in, and I remember how I have been wanting a wool coat. I find the perfect one. They were 50% off, I couldn't help myself. Then on the way back to the shoe department, I stop and look at belts. I really need a new belt too. I picked out a nice black leather belt. It was 40% off. I didn't find any boots I liked, so I walked around the store some more, tried a few things on for fun, and saw a coworker. I was getting a little bored, so I figured I might as well go check out. I made the cashier put my coat in one of those hangy bags...only because he offered. The total came to.....$100.06!!! score! Then i realized I could consider it a Christmas present from my parents. I spent six cents on myself today. Now I just need to deposit that money into my account.

First Week of September

It's been a busy month so far. I have done so much in September so far. Let's make a list!

1. Omi and Applebees on my birthday
2. Smokey Bones with Natalie for my birthday
3. Lugnuts game
   
4. Breakfast at Real Food Cafe with family
5. Lunch the same day at BDubs and watched the State game with Troy
6. Parents took me to Chili's for my birthday dinner Sunday
7. Shopping with Mom
   
8. Hung out on the boat with Kim and Chris and the Redneck Yacht Club
9. Party at Seaman's
10. A little time to relax!
    

And that was just the first 7 days of the month... This week I've been working a lot. I have to get everything done before I leave for Colorado very early Sunday morning. Yesterday I spent 10 hours at work with only a 2o minute lunch. I don't know why I do this to myself sometimes...

Now it's shower time. Going to Bdubs again tonight. $0.50 boneless wings here I come!!!

year 24 or something

Apparently they have karaoke at Applebee's on Tuesday nights. Who knew!

Everyone at work made my day wonderful. Then seeing friends I haven't seen it in a long time made it even better.

Thank you.

Candybar Brownies

I took a basic recipe for brownies (found inside the Baker's unsweetened chocolate box), and added some stuff to it, and maybe even made it a little healthier (if you don't add in the extra twix bars)...

4 (1oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
1/4 c. butter
2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (not imitation)
1 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. quick oats
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 (1 oz.) square semisweet chocloate chopped
1 Twix candybar chopped


Melt chocolate and butter in microwave on medium heat until melted. Mix in sugar, applesauce, and eggs. Add flour and oats. Mix. Add walnuts, chocolate and twix and mix. Other candybars coule be added, all I had on hand was twix. Pour into tin foil lined and greased pan and bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

All The Small Things

It may be a song title, (Blink-182) but today it is the title of my post. The small things, correction, ALL the small things, are what makes the difference between a good and bad day. Sometimes I can be quite pessimistic, especially at work, but I try not to be. Usually it depends on the mood of people around me and the level of stress I bring upon myself. Anyways, I got to thinking about this because of what someone said to me at work today. It was simply, "You made my day." How did I do this? Well I didn't go about planning to make this person's day. On Tuesday I ordered some new Tygon tubing to use for filling our carboys with water and other various tasks around the lab. I did it myself because I knew if I left it up to one of the managers it would never happen. I submitted the purchase request Tuesday. Today it arrived. WOW! So I go yelling through the lab, "Dolores, we got our tubing!" Then I go and hook it up to the faucets and cut it to the correct length and stuff like that. Now we have tubing that doesn't have mold growing inside it... woo hoo. A little later on Dolores informed me that I made her day and how excited she was for the new tubing. I was pretty happy I could do that... Really, it's not every day I get the opportunity to do that. I said something that I thought made sense at the time, "You have to be excited about the little things or you will never be excited about the big things," but the more I think of it, it's not exactly true. Maybe for some people it is, but here is a new and improved version I like a little better: "You have to be excited about the little things because there won't always be big things to be excited about, but when they come you will know how to be excited. It's well worth the wait." So that's the deep thought I had today at work...

And other small things to be excited about:

1. Potluck lunch for Melinda's birthday! YUMMY
2. Finishing the word jumble in two minutes. It's a good start to pretty much any day really.
3. Rearranging the cabinets under the bench so I have some leg room when I am working! Exciting!
4. Dre telling me my hair looks good the way I wore it today. (no work: no brush, with headband)
5. Hopefully finding an answer to a problem I've been testing with Listeria for the past month and a half. It's always the last thing you can think of. yeah yeah yeah.
6. A hug from LeeAnn. (and I don't normally like hugs or close human contact)
7. Being sore from running last night.
8. Working till 4:45. I know I'm a dork, I don't get paid overtime, but I occasionally like working past 3:30. Definitely depends on the day though. I've been working a lot of unpaid overtime lately, and some days I just want to be home.
9. Giving my cat a Wisker Lickin's Dreamy Duo cat treat. He loves them (and me).
10. (I had to have ten, it's a good list number) Coming home to eat a gooey brownie!
    

I'm thinking maybe I will update my blog more often. Who knows...

Disappointment: Where is the food?

Four times a year at Neogen we have a "Hallway Meeting" that is mandatory for everyone to attend. Basically it's over 200 people packed into a gymnasium, fed lunch, and forced to listen to how awesome our company is (a good waste of an hour if you ask me). In the past they have gotten subs or pizza or lasagna or something similar to that. Similar meaning good food, or at least food. Yesterday we were a little late getting there. Everyone else had their food and was sitting down. I was just worried about getting a seat, but then I saw the salad and garlic bread, so I took a small portion in anticipation for the actual main dish and found a seat. Then I realized that was it. We got salad and garlic bread for lunch. I kept asking, "where is the food," but no one had an answer. The president of the company started his little speach thing, and I again realized this was all we were getting to eat. Had I known, I would have piled on the garlic bread... Then I saw the small chunk of chicken in my salad. Yup. Complete meal right there. Soggy ceasar salad with soggy croutons and a small chunk of chicken. The salad was soggy enough to be made in the morning and tasted like nothing. I ate two or three bites. For starters, I hadn't taken much at all because i really don't like salad and I was anticipating additional food to be served. Really, the stuff on my plate is what animals eat, and I eat animals.

So I was very disappointed, and maybe even a little mad. I was very much regretting my decision to go to this mandatory meeting. On the way back (yes I had to drive 3 miles to this meeting) I told Luisa that I might have to stop somewhere and pick up lunch. I didn't do it, but I really should have because I was in a bad mood the rest of the day.

I wasn't the only one disappointed. Everyone I talked to was. That made it better.

Fun at Work?

Sometimes you have to do little things to make work more interesting...and brighten peoples day at the same time. Yesterday the maintenance guys were fixing a ballast at work and they had a few of the lights shut off so they wouldn't get electrocuted. They didn't tell anyone what they were doing though, they just shut the lights off. So obviously people walking through a pitch dark hallway are going to have the desire to turn the light on to aide there travel through the hallway. Someone turns the light on, someone else freaks out, and so on. So, I have this GENIOUS idea to put tape over the light switches. And what do I write on the blue lab tape??? "Do not turn me on!" It made my day a little better, and I'm sure others' too.

Tail Pipes

Well, part of the tailpipe after the muffler fell off today. In the middle of the intersection of Lake Lansing and Abbott. Now there is nothing to hold the muffler up. I think I may end up needing at least a new muffler and tail pipe with brackets to hold it up. At most a whole new exhaust system. I spent a good half hour under my car today trying to rig up something to hold up the muffler so it won't drag, but I don't really have the tools to do it. It's kinda just resting on the shocks like it has been for the last few days before the pipe fell off.

It's only Thursday?

It's been a long week. For starters, I have been working an extra hour or so every day for the last two weeks which is pretty exhausting, especially when I only eat a granola bar in that 9-10 hours I am at work.

Monday after work I hung out with my brothers. Troy drive to Central and picked up Stephen to come down here. I took them out to dinner, then Stephen had to head back to Central with the car. Troy had the car for the week he was home. Troy and I hung out playing video games and stuff till midnight. Then we woke up at 4 am to get to the airport. I drove him to the airport and then came home, took a shower, got dressed, took a short nap, and went to work. I was super tired all day. It was pretty noticeable too. Oh well. I couldn't really catch up on sleep that night because we had dinner at Martha's and I didn't get home till after 10...then I had to watch American Idol. I don't know why I say I had to, because I didn't. I watch it occasionally so I can talk about it at work the next day. It makes for some pretty good conversations. I decided to skip the shower and go for the oily look at work Wednesday. Meh, I don't care.

And now it's Thursday night and I have yet to make up that lost sleep. I heard somewhere that you can't really make up sleep, but I still think I can. Personally it helps me. Definitely won't make up the sleep tonight because of The Office.

This was a pretty pointless post. I should have slept instead...but the news is on, and I like to know what's going on in the world.

Beef Jerky

When I was younger, my mom would occasionally treat us to beef jerky from the meat market in Lowell. It was the best stuff I'd ever had, and rightfully so, cost $13 a pound. They were pretty good sized chunks of beef, and it probably was only a once a year type thing when we got it. I guess it just depended on mom's mood when she went to Gary's. Well, I love all their meat and it was time to go get some more for the freezer. I just wanted ground beef and brats this time. I took the trip into Lowell with my mom. She wanted to get some parsnips for our roast, and I wanted BEEF! Well, Gary's is still what you would consider an old fashioned meat market. They only take cash and checks. I had seven dollars, so my mom said she would buy the meat for me! Sweet! I love the smell of that place too, all that meat. So I get my ground beef and my brats then go to the register and mom says to Aaron, "you can put two smaller pieces of jerky in there too." I was excited, I hadn't had their jerky in probably six years. And as always, it was amazing! I have never had better beef jerky in my life.

Twelve Thousand Dollars

Today I got a gift. A twelve thousand dollar gift. What did I get? I would have loved a car. I would love to have my student loans paid off. I would even go for cash. What did I get? I got an AquaMax 4000! If I don't say what it does it would probably sound much cooler, so I will leave you with that. Oh, and it's for my job. I would rather have Neogen give me a car though...even if this saves me time at work occasionally.

Box of Chocolates

My boss got me a box of chocolates for Christmas. Hershey's Pot of Gold, to be exact. That night I drove to Lowell to celebrate Christmas with my family. I opened the chocolates when I got home and counted 12 of them. Two of each kind. I let my parents and brothers have one each, and I had the rest. I wanted at least one of each... Then I put the box back with my stuff, I don't know why. I should have just thrown it away. Good thing I didn't throw it away because I was cleaning up some stuff this weekend and I found that box. It seemed a little on the heavy side, so I peeked under the piece of cardboard only to find another 12 delicious chocolates! I was so delighted to find them.

I was going to title this post with that famous Tom Hanks quote from Forrest Gump. You know the one...Then I realized life is not a box of Hershey's Pot of Gold chocolates. In the Pot of Gold life, you always know what you're going to get. Hershey has taken the guesswork out of life. What an idea!

New Experiences

I know I'm lame, but yesterday I had a new experience. Valvoline Instant Oil Change. Yesterday was my first time going to one of those quickie places. Last time I got it done at the shop because I had to get some other work done on it, and before that my brother did it. It was an interesting experience. I stayed in the car and they did their job and then let me know I may need a new battery soon, which I kinda knew from the way my car has been starting. Then I drove away. The best part of it was the Speedy Rewards I got. 1000 points for an oil change, sweet deal! I just recently became a participant in the Speedy Rewards program. The two most convenient (and only) stations between my house and work are Speedways, so I figured I better get all I can from them... anyways, my car seems happier now, aside from the extensive rear end and muffler damage... now I just need to go to Discount Tire soon and get two new tires put on. Then I will be all set.

I like it when I make food and upon being tasted by other people I am asked if I had a recipe. HaHa what's a recipe? Basicly I made lasagna without the lasagna noodles. I used whole wheat penne because that, and elbow macaroni, is all I have on hand at the moment since I refuse to go shopping. I made a basic pasta sauce. A very simple one. I had about a half pound of ground beef leftover in the freezer that I browned up. Add some water and a couple long squirts of tomato paste and a can of tomato sauce. Then some spices. Pretty much all I had in the cupboard except pumpkin pie spice. Well, not really... And you gotta have the ricotta. I figured a half a tub would be good, so I added an egg and some parmesan. Not the grated stuff, the shredded. Some salt and more cheese. Never can have too much cheese if you ask me. And then the simple layering process begins. Mix the pasta in with the sauce. I probably cooked up 1/3 of the box of penne. Put half in pan. I used a glass pan maybe 6X8 or something close to it. Cover with all of ricotta and some more shredded mozarella cheese. then pour on the rest of the pasta and sauce. Cover with an unhealthy dose of cheese and bake. 350 F is always safe, but don't ask me how long I cooked if for...I changed tv channels in the middle, so I forget how long it was in there, but basicly you want the eggs to cook in the ricotta and the cheese on top to be deliciously melted. If it doesn't taste good, spice it up a little...or add more cheese. Recipe works well with sausage or no meat at all. It lacks flavor and heartiness without meat, but sometimes you just don't have it on hand... as for the tomato sauce, everyone should always have this in their pantry. It's a very versatile ingredient. It goes with everything. You could make enchiladas, lasagne, chili, goulash and basicly anything with pasta, meat or veggies... just add things you think would taste good then add some spice. Add some molasses and liquid smoke for a barbeque type sauce. Anything goes. I just don't recomment fruit.

Tomorrow is Friday, and for that I am grateful. The week went by faster than I thought. And I have some amazing leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Policies

Neogen has a safety glasses policy. The policy is that when you are in the lab you need to wear safety glasses. Now, these could be those lab goggles required for chem labs, safety glasses you would wear in a manufacturing environment, or plain old prescription eyeglasses. Some people have it lucky and can just wear their glasses as they normally do, so the policy doesn't really apply to them. I would go get some, but I don't have vision insurance... It's the one thing Neogen doesn't provide ironicly. So, I'm stuck wearing safety glasses 8 hours a day. Now, there are penalties for not wearing the glasses including forced time off work (sounds good to me) and something in your permanent record.

Today, I put my eyes at jeopardy. My eyes were vulnerable to all conditions in that lab for eight hours. I decided not to wear my safety glasses. It was a fun day. I didn't get those red marks on my nose, and I didn't have to forget to take them off and look stupid while I'm eating lunch.

No one said anything about me not wearing glasses at all that day, and I gained a sense of pride. It was a good day.