A Very Good Evening

Porkchop had Tuesday off, and I knew that she was going to make dinner, but I didn't realize it would be so elaborate. We recently received the latest Everyday Food (laugh if you will over us receiving a Martha Stewart recipe publication, but it usually contains great recipes), and Porkchop made one of the dinners in it. Yum!

So, when I arrived home from work, I found this beautiful floral arrangement in the living room:


I'm of course familiar with the birds of paradise, but what's this flower?

If you know, do tell. I see them a lot, but I can never remember the name.

Back to the food. Porkchop made garlic-thyme marinated chicken, potatoes, and asparagus with a honey-mustard vinaigrette. Everything was grilled and super-delicious! I can't say enough good things about the dinner. Also note that some of the potatoes were purple - we haven't had those since Madison! Thanks, Trader Joe's!


Along with the potatoes, Porkchop also picked up what I think is my very favorite sliced cheese. I know...pre-sliced cheese can actually be good? This particular cheese is an aged cheddar - made either in Wisconsin or Canada. At Schnuck's, it costs nearly $8.00, but when Trader Joe's has it, it's under $4.00. What a bargain....seriously, it's really good cheese. Maybe I'll take a picture of it later.

Oh, also, Porkchop picked up supplies for a cobb salad tonight. Following the suggestion in Everyday Food, Porkchop grilled extra chicken and saved it for the salad. The salad also has avocado and feta cheese in it. Mmmmmmm....I'll be sure to document it.

After dinner, we went to see Thank You for Smoking, which I've been waiting to see for a few months. I enjoyed it, and the Nick Naylor character reminded me of one of our friends.

Last night, our friend Suzi came over and spent the evening with me. I think it was supposed to be a dinner date, but I had to eat right when I got home from work. Leftover tomato-basil bisque and a cheese sandwich (using the cheese described previously). I also threw together some banana bread, but I was very embarrassed by the results! It was burnt to a crisp on the outside and mushy in the middle! Argh!! I don't know if it's the oven or the loaf pan, or the fact that I added a cup of chocolate chips. Oh well, I only made it to get rid of some really ripe bananas. However, I don't trust our oven yet...I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature calibration is off.

Once again, I must put off my restaurant reviews. Maybe if work is slow this afternoon...

I don't want to go into the details of my work situation because it's, well, depressing. I thought I left the admin assistant junk behind in Madison! I hate admin assistant positions, but at least the pay is okay. Anyway, the company and the people aren't so bad, except the executive assistant is really starting to grate on my nerves.

Here's an example of what said assistant does:
We've been trying to find the USB receiver for a remote - it's a remote that advances slides and can be used on any computer. We found the remote in a conference room, but we can't find the receiver. The previous admin assistant supposedly kept both pieces in her desk, which is now my desk. I've looked high and low for the USB receiver - I've found the instructions, but no receiver. Upon the executive assistant's insistence yesterday, I looked again....surprisingly enough, no receiver. So, yesterday afternoon, we were both in a conference room helping prepare for a meeting. She left. I finished what I was doing and ran into her on my way back to my desk. She was carrying a photo disk adapter that I keep in my desk. She has seen this adapter before and has even asked what it does (to which I explained its function). Anyway, she asked, "Is this it?" - referring to the receiver. No, I said, that's a photo disk adapter.

The point of all of this is that, even though I reassured her yesterday that I could not find the USB receiver, she came upstairs and scrounged through my desk. I realize that I'm a temp, and that it's not really "my desk," but come on, I think that I: 1) can be trusted to verify whether or not a certain object is in my desk, and 2) deserve the respect and privacy accorded to other employees. This executive assistant once told me that she hates it when people move things around on her desk; well, I hate people routing through my desk drawers! That's where I keep my dark chocolate stash, after all!

Just one more thing about this executive assistant. I was put off on the very first day when she said, "I hate stupid, and I hate it when people ask a lot of questions." To which I replied, "Well, I'll probably be asking you a lot of questions." To which she back-pedaled and said, "Well, I don't mind a lot of questions, I just hate it when people ask the same question twice."

It really irritates me when people say things like, "I hate stupid," because that usually signifies stupidity itself. Perhaps this is perfectly illustrated by the USB receiver/photo disk adapter incident. She had asked me multiple times what the photo disk adapter was, yet she couldn't quite get it into her head that it would not be able to act as a USB receiver for the remote control. I wish I could take some satisfaction knowing that she must have really hated herself at that moment, but I don't because she's someone who is convinced that she is the smartest cookie in the building.