Sometimes You Need Snacks to Break Up the Monotony

I completely forgot to mention that last Friday we had a snack day at work. It was truly a glorious occasion although I don't think as many people participated in this spring snack day as they do when we have it at Christmastime.

Where I work, we don't get all the government holidays off and in fact don't have one holiday between New Year's and Memorial Day. That's a long stretch without a free day off and so I had suggested to our department admin that we should have a snack day in March to break up the monotony of the day in and day out work and also to boost our moral. I mean, let's face it, folks get cranky during a five month span with no holiday. As luck would have it, last Friday was also the birthday of one of the upper managers so we basically just pretended like it was a big celebration of his birthday, but really it was just an excuse to eat and have some fun at work.

I made buffalo chicken dip and corn dip as well as some chocolate chip cookie bars, all of which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Meri brought some Pico made by her eldest daughter and it was delicious and hot! We had an assortment of cakes, cookies, dips, cheese balls, fruit and various and sundry other items including some of the best doughnuts I've had since the sad demise of Mr. Donut. The doughnuts were from some local place in Athens and were scrumdillyumptious! The spring snack day really put everyone in a good mood and lifted our spirits and now, perhaps, we will be able to make it through the next couple of months until we have a holiday.

In other news, mine and my dad's vacation plans are coming along nicely, or at least I think they are. In addition to going to a taping of the Ellen Show, we were also contacted about volunteering at the Tour of California bike race which is the primary reason I picked California for our vacation this year. I had signed us up a while back and quite honestly had kind of forgotten about it until we received an email this week. The bad part is that all volunteers are required to attend a meeting ahead of their race day assignment and since we don't live in California, that won't really work for us. the volunteer organizer for the mountain stage (for which we were contacted about volunteering) told us that he would see what he could do for us in regards to working out the logistics of not being in town for the mandatory meeting. I'm hoping it all works out and that we are able to get a really great assignment on race day. 

My dad has also booked us a fun adventure zip-lining through the Redwoods which is going to be so much fun! We are also planning and outing to a Giants baseball game which I will pay for with my health points at work so we won't actually have to pay for the tickets, which is super nice. I just need about 70 or so more points to get the seats I want and I should have those by the end of the weekend. It's shaping up to be a great vacation!

When I got home from work today my neighbor Jeff told me that my next door neighbor's house was broken in to - that would be Charlie's house. Apparently it happened on Monday, March 11. I can only assume the burglars didn't break into my place because of the ferocious dog known as The Tide. Charlie has an alarm system that went off and so the thieves only got away with two laptops which is more than they should have taken, but better than it could have been. Thankfully Charlie wasn't injured (he was not at home) and there was no damage to his home. There's never a dull moment around here, people!

I don't have much planned for the upcoming weekend - we are slated to have very cold weather on the first weekend of spring. I had planned on mowing the lawn for the first time but since it's going to be so cold, that will have to wait until another day. Next week I hope to have a review or two for you (that's like a mini-poem). In the meantime, I hope everyone has a nice weekend and stays warm!