Back in the Saddle Again

 



PERFORMANCE METRIC DASHBOARD*

Yes, its true- I have managed to gain meaningful employment! Although the exact parameters of the job are to be determined, I will once again be working with the Bay Area office of the KIPP charter schools and no longer have to try to think of crafty wording on my cover letter that might peak the interest of a potential employer.  So here's to a slam dunk in at least one category of the performance metric dashboard, which is really too bad because soon it will be Friday and I will in fact have sh*t to do....

*graphic supplied by Microsoft Clip Art and text art courtesy of Microsoft Paint 




Problematic Produce

Do you feel confident that you could identify all of the above types of salad greens?  If so, could you then describe the flavor qualities of each and rank them on a scale of preferability (readers from Central Texas Specialty Growers excluded)?  Although I myself am an avid salad eater, I have usually been pretty amiable to whatever type of green the chef feels is most appropriate and haven't spent too much time pondering the desirability of each.  As we approach the date of the luncheon I am planning, I have learned that not only are there people in this world with more refined salad palates than mine, but the answer to the question "do you have any special dietary restrictions that we should be aware of when planning our luncheon menu?" can get quite specific.  Here is a response from one guest:

Hi Lindsay.

Patty cannot tolerate anything very spicy. She also doesn’t care for “mixed greens” in a salad, she prefers romaine or spinach but that is much less of a problem. I think Bill is pretty open.

Thank you for checking!
Cynthia

Cynthia Wilson
Assistant to Patty Davis

It frightens one to think about what type of greens could end up in your salad without the intervention of personal assistants, doesn't it?

Stay Tuned...

Hello faithful blog readers!  We have to apologize for our lack of writing lately, but we have been a bit busy.  I have found a contract position planning a fundraising event for the Bay Area office of KIPP charter schools, which has been very stressful, time consuming, and sometimes hilarious as I deal with lots of demanding personalities.  Here's an excerpt of a Monday morning email I received:

I mailed my invitations yesterday except for "Sally's." I told someone that she can't come but somehow her name was still on the list. Also, fyi, there were two sets of handwriting on the invitations, one was really nice the other looked like a child's, was that intentional? If not, you might want to check your staff/volunteers' handwriting before you have them address invitations. If it was intentional, that's another story.

Pretty standard stuff.

In addition to dealing with the random impulses of rich 70 year-olds, we have been doing quite a bit of traveling around our new home state.  While California is not as big as Texas (actual size comparison, pictured right), it is still quite a big state...  more posts to come on some of those travels in the very near future, I promise.

 

So, please stay tuned in as we work to post some new adventures of your two favorite traveling Texans!

 

Hidden Food Foe

Beware health-conscious eaters!  There is a new danger lurking in the refrigerated aisles of your local Whole Foods. For shoppers mindful to nutritional content, there are certain food items that are considered generally safe: fruit, vegetables, lean meats, yogurt, whole grains, etc.   Other food items are filled with danger: "homemade" baked goods, ice cream, breakfast sausages, cream-based sauces- you get the picture.  But don't be lulled into this type of thinking- you must always be alert, lest you fall into a similar fat-filled trap as I did last week.  

Probiotics, Greek yogurt, healthy bacteria- all the health rage, right? Wrong! Inside of this little Greek Gods yogurt container promising calcium, protein, and healthy intestinal flora was almost half the DV of saturated fat!  wtf?!?  And in a product that is purporting to be a healthy snack.  Appalling.  I really almost puked as I read the label on the back of my just-empty cup.  This completely negated all healthy choices that I had made for that day- for the week that matter.  And it didn't even taste like pizza!

 

Greek God? Not with this in your diet. I can assure you that this is not what Adonis was eating as he was working on this six pack.

Performance Update: New Activity Alert

A surprising number of our readers have expressed interest in receiving continued updates regarding my progress toward my weekly performance metrics.  I am sorry to say that unless a spreadsheet master (aka Jared) starts updating my numbers in Excel, you are not going to be seeing a chart each week.  So from now on, I will just be adding anecdotal updates and tagging any posts detailing activities that would count toward achieving said goals under "performance metrics." 

So, here's the first update:  I have a new activity that I feel is productive in two of my performance categories(Apartment Organizing and Physical Activity): gardening! 

We have a small garden behind our apartment complex that has over the past weeks/months/years turned into a frightening and dangerous jungle world.  I have spent the last week or so trying to make the garden a place that is accessible to humans and can be entered without fear of impalement by the various thorns and branches jutting out into the walkway. 

For those of you who know me well, you know that I cannot accomplish any task without creating a few enemies along the way. Please meet Enemy #1:

The dreaded thornea shitheadius (its real Latin name, I swear). I have no fewer than 3 splinters in each finger from this little branch of fun, despite the fact that I was wearing gloves the whole time. Not only is this little guy thorny, but he has very deep roots. It also apparently haunts the local forests because this picture was taken in a national park nearby.  We are not friends.

Never one to let my enemies hold me down, I dominated that little branch and have turned our garden into a happy urban retreat.  The fact that no one will probably ever use this area since we have a huge park across the street is insignificant. The point is that one must triumph overall enemies, big or small.