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.