I am now a homeowner. See how my suit of armor (Sir Chutney of Yorkshire Pudding, thankyouverymuch) stares in awe. Why yes, Sir Chutney, that is the key to my brand-new (to me) house.

So I survived my lunch with the CEO. Here is the extent of my sparkling, witty conversation:

Director: "and this is Stephanie Scott, who does all of our accounting and helped us get all of our banking needs taken care of"
CEO (nodding, smiling): "It's nice to meet you."
Me: "It's nice to meet you too."

At least the food was good. It turns out that Indian food catered for VIPs is very different and very much tastier than Indian food sold from the dingy little store down the street from my office.

I couldn't resist - this one was just too cool:

You are a neurotransmitter. You believe in the
good-naturedness of man's biology and soul.
You're happy, everyone's happy, and no one will
ever take that away from you. Or else you'll
make them go insane.


Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

My company recently started a non-profit organization called the Whole Planet Foundation. To make a long story short, I am handling the accounting for this organization, and therefore have been invited to a small lunch meeting today to meet the Director of an organization we are partnering with from Bangladesh. The CEO and CFO of my company will be at this lunch. Aside from me, the next lowest level person there will be a VP of Finance. There will be a total of only about 10 people there. To put it mildly, I am terrified. Aside from everything else, I know they are catering Indian food. I don't like curry, so I'm going to have to stick to hummus and samosas and hope no one notices. I'm afraid I will say something stupid, or trip over my heels (I only wear heels about once a year), or spill a drink on myself, or even worse, on someone else. I'm afraid of looking like I'm sucking up, and I'm also afraid of being completely quiet and forgettable. I almost wish I hadn't been invited. I keep telling myself that no one at the lunch will consider meeting me a momentous occasion, so why should I feel that way about them? But somehow it isn't working.

Overheard at HEB, in the cleaning aisle. A distraught woman to her husband, fifteen feet away:

"but I can't remember what glistening snow smells like!"

Here is an email I received from B this morning:

I have asked my office neighbor Matt to take me out back and shoot me if I ever consider buying another house.

I think that about sums up the way we've been feeling lately. I know it is ridiculous, and we have every reason in the world to be infinitely grateful for our lives, but sometimes its hard to get past the immediate stress. However, in the last year or so, I think Jill and her constant celebrating have become my conscious. These days, whenever I start complaining, a little voice starts nagging me to find something to celebrate instead. So, I celebrate the fact that I am lucky enough to be worrying about flaky contractors and obnoxious mortgage brokers who call me 'honey', rather than worrying about where I will sleep tonight.

I just realized that I forgot to link to one of my all-time favorite sites. I think it might be the only site that I have continuously visited for more than five years. I periodically forget about it for months at a time, but I always come back. I'm very ashamed that I forgot about it.

I took Chloe to see Harry Potter today. In my opinion, it is far better than the other three movies. Chloe's mom thanked me profusely when I dropped her off, and so I felt a little guilty because I wanted to see the movie just as much as Chloe.

Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom, golden in the green grass,
This life can be.
Common as a dandelion-blossom, beautiful in the green grass, not beautiful
Because common, beautiful because beautiful;
Noble because common, because free.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

If you have a bread maker, you should jump up and head to the grocery store RIGHT NOW and buy some of this. Actually, I think you can use it without a bread maker, but I wouldn't have the slightest idea how.

And yes, I just might start every post from now on with poetry. Isn't it a nice way to start a post?

I have discovered poetry! Always before, I thought poetry was stupid. It was too much work, and it wasn't fun to read. I had never lost myself in a poem like I do in books, and I thought it wasn't possible. But now I have read Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay and I have had somewhat of an epiphany. Who knew poetry could be so very beautiful? I suddenly understand - poetry is like distilled prose. It's can have all of the beauty and imagery and magic of prose without any of the mundane parts.

The problem is that my epiphany so far extends to only one poet. I'm afraid if I read anything else, it will be just as boring and hard and unmoving as always. Anyone have any suggestions?

Renascence

All I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked another way,
And saw three islands in a bay.
So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine,
Straight around till I was come
Back to where I'd started from;
And all I saw from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood.
Over these things I could not see;
These were the things that bounded me;

Click here for the rest

On Tuesday night, I dragged B to see Harry and the Potters play on the Lamar pedestrian bridge. I think it might have been the funniest things I have ever seen in my life - I only wish I could have gotten better pictures. The band members dress up like English schoolboys. The two front members both claim to be Harry Potter and the drummer says he is Ron Weasley. They stayed in character for the entire show. All of the songs are HP themed, too. I got a t-shirt that says "Voldemort can't stop the rock!"

Lest you think I'm the only person nerdy enough to go to something like this, I have to mention that there was quite a crowd. Even the Severely Inked Vegan showed up and hung around looking shady. I highly recommend. (recommend the band, I mean, not hanging around looking shady)

I am addicted to a drink called kombucha. It's a drink made by combining tea, sugar, and a "kombucha mushroom" (which is actually a colony of yeast and bacteria) and letting it ferment for several days. Sounds disgusting, yes? It is, at first. It smells and tastes a little like vinegar and tends to have sediment. People make all kinds of insane claims for this stuff. According to many people, there isn't anything that a daily dose of kombucha won't fix - including cancer, AIDS, and thinning hair. However, I have to admit that it makes me feel better when I drink it. Also, after a bottle or two, you start to crave the taste and the acidity of it. I'm not crazy enough to make the stuff myself, so I buy this brand, which is incredible. The only problem is that it is very hard to find. Many people at my work drink the stuff, so when we get a shipment in downstairs, it goes within a few hours. Including my store, I went to six different natural foods stores last week looking for it.

I suppose this hasn't been very persuasive, but if you get a chance, try it. I promise, it's good stuff. It will make you immortal.

This made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. It also reminded me of another really funny article here. Mimi Smartypants always has the best links.

I dressed up as Elton John for Halloween, but I did not win our office costume contest:


Hannibal the Cannibal did. He even had one of the facilities guys strap him to a dolly and wheel him around.

We also had a new person at work start on Halloween, which might not have been the best idea. Our office is rather unique at any time, but I got the impression that her former coworkers didn't take Halloween quite so seriously. Her eyes got very wide when we took her by to meet the internal audit team and found that they had all coordinated and dressed up for the 80's prom, and even hung streamers and a disco ball in their area. She was also amazed at how seriously the marketing department takes pumpkin-carving...

Chloe loved my costume glasses and wore them most of the time I was with her today, but I got some funny looks from teachers - I guess I'm not supposed to encourage this type of dress. Personally, I think she was showing great originality. When another kid yelled that she looked stupid, she told me that he was just "jealous because he couldn't pull it off." Have I mentioned how much I like this kid?