This will be a short post. Just wanted to let you know about this link for {36 Soups} that take right around a half hour (that 'soups' thing back there is linked to the page...dunno why it's not showing up). That's right up my alley--plus many of the ingredients appear to be frozen or come in cans so I also appreciate that.
Last night Doug and Rae had us over for ham dinner (delish--complete with twice-baked potatoes & asparagus)...and Dance Dance Revolution...so much DDR that Trisha commented, as she left her place by the fire and departed the premises, "It smells like a locker room in here!" The scene she was surveying as she delivered this judgment included her shirtless fiancee, adam, and nate stripped down to his long underwear (also sans shirt). The evening ended with nate and rae and me dance dancing and singing along to "I Saw The Sign".
20 February 2008
18 February 2008
Presidents' Day, or so I'm told.
At home, this was a rad holiday. There was pie involved. Perhaps I can convince Ceara to bake a pie. 'Course, we've all vowed to fuel our bodies more and weigh them down with less copious amounts of lard and alcohol. So, maybe no pie. Perhaps we can come up with some presidential entree for Nate to prepare this evening. Don't worry, blogreaders, there are hours before we make dinner...it is 4:48 and preparation will likely not begin until 9:05 pm, so your suggestions are welcome.
I've dispatched Monday with a minimum of project-based work, merely answering the phone when it rang and billing myself as a hero for "filling schedules" by getting Nate & Doug in because they have the day off school. This hero bit is, of course, a load. Especially since Nate was late for his appointment and I for work by about 20 minutes this morning. If they didn't know I was leaving soon I'm quite sure...nah, that's the thing, they wouldn't contemplate firing me because critical thinking is a hot commodity in the letter-formatting, paper-jam freeing world of my miscellaneous job. That's probably part of the problem: my job title & the activities described thereunder have absolutely nothing to do with the services I actually perform.
Oh well, the grand accomplishment of today was being cheeky enough to call 2 patients by their first names as a familiarity-laden closer, as in, "Hey thanks, Mike, we'll see you next week." I think this is the funniest thing ever. I have adopted a 'phone voice' that even the nearest and dearest don't recognize when they ring me at the office. Recently, however, I've realized that this quasi-receptionist gig is actually a form of theater. People have begun pointing out to me (especially since the arrival of our headsets ((which barely cling to the top of my tiny round monkey ear))) that people on the other end of the phone can't see me smiling OR gesturing. But Perky Tegan knows that people can sense that kind of fantastic customer service through the phone and that her coworkers get great pleasure out of watching this Theatre of the Desk. On the other hand Perky Tegan is notorious for promising "extra mile" feats that real Tegan finds it difficult to follow through on. Also, she sometimes finds it difficult to suppress facial contortions in response to distressing skull density in some cases. On the whole I think this is both a wonderful coping mechanism and excellent preparation for future interactions with The Public.
Let it be said of Tegan, she tries hard, but really not so very hard.
I've dispatched Monday with a minimum of project-based work, merely answering the phone when it rang and billing myself as a hero for "filling schedules" by getting Nate & Doug in because they have the day off school. This hero bit is, of course, a load. Especially since Nate was late for his appointment and I for work by about 20 minutes this morning. If they didn't know I was leaving soon I'm quite sure...nah, that's the thing, they wouldn't contemplate firing me because critical thinking is a hot commodity in the letter-formatting, paper-jam freeing world of my miscellaneous job. That's probably part of the problem: my job title & the activities described thereunder have absolutely nothing to do with the services I actually perform.
Oh well, the grand accomplishment of today was being cheeky enough to call 2 patients by their first names as a familiarity-laden closer, as in, "Hey thanks, Mike, we'll see you next week." I think this is the funniest thing ever. I have adopted a 'phone voice' that even the nearest and dearest don't recognize when they ring me at the office. Recently, however, I've realized that this quasi-receptionist gig is actually a form of theater. People have begun pointing out to me (especially since the arrival of our headsets ((which barely cling to the top of my tiny round monkey ear))) that people on the other end of the phone can't see me smiling OR gesturing. But Perky Tegan knows that people can sense that kind of fantastic customer service through the phone and that her coworkers get great pleasure out of watching this Theatre of the Desk. On the other hand Perky Tegan is notorious for promising "extra mile" feats that real Tegan finds it difficult to follow through on. Also, she sometimes finds it difficult to suppress facial contortions in response to distressing skull density in some cases. On the whole I think this is both a wonderful coping mechanism and excellent preparation for future interactions with The Public.
Let it be said of Tegan, she tries hard, but really not so very hard.
01 February 2008
Well, well, well...
Today is Give Kids A Smile. That means we'll close our office in the afternoon to participate in the joyful chaos of taking x-rays, cleaning and filling the teeth of about 80 kids whose families don't have dental insurance or can't afford to take them to a dds regularly. This event is way fun--we have someone dress up in the "Sweet Bear" (the dental health bear) costume and parade about the office and there are people all over the place chatting, drinking coffee, etc. Good times.
This will be a very random update as I don't have anything particularly focused to share, but decided I should write SOMEthing! At Ceara's eye appointment last week, the docs told her that the active infection in her eye appears to be gone and she can step down the eye drop regimen to 4 times during the day and once at night. Mom was here for a bit and she and Ceara made several trips to Ikea to spend Christmas money on furniture. Nate stepped in when he saw mom using only a screwdriver to assemble the first set of drawers they bought...and from then on, it was Nate and the drill against the Ikea furniture. Her room is now quite spiffy and I can cease making comments about its 'crack house' feel. Here are a couple pictures of the proceedings. That's Ceara dabbing at the latest dose of eyedrops to try to avoid the second degree burns that could result from collateral eyedrop on skin. And the second is the end result of the quizzical looks in the first picture.
Also while Mom was visitin', Nate arranged a birfday celebration for me. When I was in high school, my senior year English teacher took us to the community college to see a poet named Robert Bly give a talk. He is a fantastic poet. He lives in Minneapolis!
For my birthday a could of years ago, Mom me tickets for my birthday and Nate and I went to see Roberty Bly and his long-time friend, Donald Hall (then poet laureate of the U.S) talk about their friendship and the letters they have exchanged throughout the years. They edit even each other's work through the mail.
[I promise this will all link up in the end--bear with me!] So our friend, Adam, is in a fantastic singing group, Cantus, started at St. Olaf that went professional after graduation. Last year, they collaborated with Robert Bly for a concert that was a combination of poetry reading and singing. Wow.
And this year Nate noticed that the new Guthrie Theater (picture published in a previous post for anyone who's curious) is home to a production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. He immediately conspired with mi madre to attend this event, as Robert Bly was the translator. One of Bly's most famous works is Iron John, a book about the men's movement. He met Mark Rylant, the actor who plays Gynt, at a men's retreat in England in 1998 and mentioned the idea that became this production of Peer Gynt. Anyway, I hadn't been to the "new" Guthrie yet. Ceara thought it was her birthday, too, because she has long been a fan of this particular Ibsen play and was, at one time, thinking of directing it for a senior project. I think all were agreed that one of the coolest features of the show was the stage that was enabled to move like waves! Here is a picture of us in our finery, in the dining room, after the play. Good times were had by all.
Well, that's it for today. I will try to write again soon.
This will be a very random update as I don't have anything particularly focused to share, but decided I should write SOMEthing! At Ceara's eye appointment last week, the docs told her that the active infection in her eye appears to be gone and she can step down the eye drop regimen to 4 times during the day and once at night. Mom was here for a bit and she and Ceara made several trips to Ikea to spend Christmas money on furniture. Nate stepped in when he saw mom using only a screwdriver to assemble the first set of drawers they bought...and from then on, it was Nate and the drill against the Ikea furniture. Her room is now quite spiffy and I can cease making comments about its 'crack house' feel. Here are a couple pictures of the proceedings. That's Ceara dabbing at the latest dose of eyedrops to try to avoid the second degree burns that could result from collateral eyedrop on skin. And the second is the end result of the quizzical looks in the first picture.
Also while Mom was visitin', Nate arranged a birfday celebration for me. When I was in high school, my senior year English teacher took us to the community college to see a poet named Robert Bly give a talk. He is a fantastic poet. He lives in Minneapolis!
For my birthday a could of years ago, Mom me tickets for my birthday and Nate and I went to see Roberty Bly and his long-time friend, Donald Hall (then poet laureate of the U.S) talk about their friendship and the letters they have exchanged throughout the years. They edit even each other's work through the mail.
[I promise this will all link up in the end--bear with me!] So our friend, Adam, is in a fantastic singing group, Cantus, started at St. Olaf that went professional after graduation. Last year, they collaborated with Robert Bly for a concert that was a combination of poetry reading and singing. Wow.
And this year Nate noticed that the new Guthrie Theater (picture published in a previous post for anyone who's curious) is home to a production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. He immediately conspired with mi madre to attend this event, as Robert Bly was the translator. One of Bly's most famous works is Iron John, a book about the men's movement. He met Mark Rylant, the actor who plays Gynt, at a men's retreat in England in 1998 and mentioned the idea that became this production of Peer Gynt. Anyway, I hadn't been to the "new" Guthrie yet. Ceara thought it was her birthday, too, because she has long been a fan of this particular Ibsen play and was, at one time, thinking of directing it for a senior project. I think all were agreed that one of the coolest features of the show was the stage that was enabled to move like waves! Here is a picture of us in our finery, in the dining room, after the play. Good times were had by all.
Well, that's it for today. I will try to write again soon.
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