Food For Thought: Today's Lunch. A Simple Salad.

So here's today's lunch offering: A simple salad.

That's my usual lunch some 80% of the time. This lunch is not much different. There's some baby spring greens, mango, cucumbers, baby peppers and fresh strawberries. I even sprinkled a few chopped maple roasted walnuts on top. Good stuff.

Oh and today, I took a ride on the wild side: I had a little macaroni salad.

I picked that up last week from the local supermarket. I was cleaning out the refrigerator last night and there was a little left in the container. It's only two or three forkfuls, but hey, I'm working on not wasting food.

Today's salad is small. On purpose. Why? Because I have such a hard time finishing it up. Most times, I make a big salad in the mornings. I get all excited about getting my raw produce for the day. But there have been a few times that I haven't been able to eat my whole salad. I would have as much as a third to a half of it left over.  And when I do, I tend to save it for the next day. But I can count about 5 times in the last couple of years that I just threw it out.

I don't like when that happens. Yes, it's only been a handful of times that it happened. The amount is negligible really. But I buy mostly organic produce, and it gets expensive at times.

So I offer to share with people. Of course I hear the screams of "Girl, ain't nobody trying to eat no salad!" 

I can understand that!

But these days, if I feel my salad is too big, or that I'm not really in the mood for it, there's someone near me, in a cubicle diagonally across from mine, who is a vegetarian.  We'll  just call him Bob.

"Bob, you wanna share my salad?"

"Sure," he says.

I did the same thing yesterday. We were looking at his meal of green beans and some type of navy beans. Now the last time he cracked open his lunch, it smelled so good that us ladies had him dialing up his wife immediately and getting her to relay the recipe. But this day, it looked like he had put his lunch together himself...

He had what he had and a little of my salad and he was all good. And I was too! 

So now, I can share my salad with someone, and it doesn't go to waste. I give it to him before I even touch it and he gets some and gives it back, only if he wants it. At least nothing goes to waste.

It's a small thing. But it means a lot for me.

Seed sown. (And you know how I feel about seed, fruit, trees, and roots).

I get creative when I sow seed. It ain't always about money. No. That would drive me batty. And it gives me opportunity to work on my selflessness.

This is on my mind because I am constantly thinking about sowing. I once told someone that if I could sow HOURLY, I would.  And I like to be creative. Sowing could be a nice compliment and other intangibles. Or even sharing my lunch with someone.

I was talking about this with a couple of folks. We were talking about my sister, who I think is the most compassionate person on the planet. I was telling them that unlike her, I have to work on it. I guess it helps being some kin to her. I have to work on it, but she has always been that way. I am just now getting to the point now that it's just my automatic. And that's what I want.

And sometimes it starts with today's lunch... the sharing of a simple salad.

Quote of the Week

Friday Freestyles... The Top Cop Edition

It's FRIDAY!!!

It's a beautiful day. No RAIN!

And it's Pay Day.

Lord help me. Ya'll better HOPE I get some work done today. Really.

But I am totally ecstatic today because yesterday our very first African-American female Attorney General Loretta Lynch was elected!

GLORY!

Bout time... they were trying to hold that ALL the way up. But Obama talked about them Republicans so bad that they had to stop hatin' and just do the doggone thing!!

She is a Delta... I did a oooop-oooop just for her to a couple of Deltas. And this is a sin since I am not a Delta. They didn't go off on me, lol. But I know not to do it again!

But it made me happy just to see someone who looks like me become the "Top Cop" of these here United States of America. She just inspired a whole bunch of young girls to believe that they could do the same.

Now... that's the REAL problem, isn't it?

You know I'm telling the truth.

And the truth shall set you free.

Amen. Congrats to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch. I know you will do great things in your short tenure. Make us proud!

I have had a pretty quiet week.  Yesterday,  I went to another agency for some training. I won't say what type, but I pulled some photos off the internet.

Like I said, those are photos off the web. I would probably get hemmed up for taking pictures at the place where I went. But you get the picture. They have some... interesting instruments out here. You can literally find equipment that can do ANYTHING these days. Wow.

The agency we trained at was WONDERFUL. It was almost like someone snatched me out the hood and took me to a wonderful all inclusive luxury resort down in the Caribbean somewhere. It always amazes me how nice some workplaces are. I make sure to take it all in. And I hope to go back. A coworker and I were over there for only half a day, but I tell you... It was a GOOD thang. Oh my!

My workplace isn't as nice and shiny. Heck, you can just throw me in a mudhole and I'd make it work. As long as you give me my check every two weeks, then GLORY. I will be thankful for my little mudhole! (lol, you know I'm working on my gratitude game).

Song of the Week.   I came across an interesting video. It made me sad and happy at the same time.

Flying Lotus featuring Kendrick Lamar "Never Catch Me"



Now that was original. I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. So I did both.

I will be checking out more Flying Lotus.

The weekend is upon me and I don't know much about what I will be doing. Monique and Isaiah Washington have a new movie coming out called Blackbird.

I may go check that out.

I'm going to church. And I will be doing a few chores. I may do my chores tomorrow, as it will be a rainy day. But today is nice. Heck, I may leave early.

We will see.

All  I know is that I am going to have a great week. On purpose.

I hope you do too!

Welcome to Sharbucks!!!

So...

I have drank more coffee in the last couple of months than I have drank in the last 10 years.

That's because my cubicle is in a new area.

The cubicle right across from me contains our bootleg  Star.bucks.

But we call it SHARUCKS!

That's a play on my cubicle mate's name.

And I worked on that sign one Sunday evening. (You didn't know I could do that bootleg graffiti, did you?)  I got tired of cleaning up, so I put on some music, pulled out some markers and a piece of cardboard, and made the sign. We'd been talking about it for awhile, you see.

It was all very therapeutic.

Anyway, back to Sharbucks. It's our coffee shop.

Here's our coffee stand.

There's coffee, tea, and there's that bizarre foo-foo special type of coffee  in the bottom drawer. I never look in there, so I'm not sure what's in there.

How 'bout I look in there and see?

Goodness. What in the world? Pumpkin coffee. Hazelnut cappuccino. Peppermint coffee. Espresso cappuccino.

*ladylee closes bottom foo-foo coffee drawer*

Uh, yes. That's for the special people. Sharbucks has a little something for everybody.

Here's our Sharbucks coffee station.

Nice, but simple. You see we have some Clorox wipes. Can't be getting sick fooling with folks.  We keep Sharbucks clean.

We have our far east therapy thing going on.

While you enjoy your coffee, you can enjoy the nice plant and water fountain. You can barely hear the sound of the water flowing over the rocks, but you can pretend...

There's beautifully framed African art work.

That's Lady M's artwork. She's a nice Caucasian coworker, but she is my "African-American" friend since she spent a couple of years in the motherland. So this is authentic African art she brought back.

Munch on roasted peanuts while you have your coffee.

And  there's some type of butterscotch syrup if you really want to get fancy.

You know, the first time I saw that bottle, I thought... Oh my, who done brought a bottle of liquor up in here??

Ha ha.


There's the sugar, stirrer, and creamer station.

Oh, and there's candy.  People LOVE the candy. I caught a chocolate sale around Easter, so the chocolate goes pretty fast. I tend to mix the contents up every other day to bring the chocolate up out the bottom.

Like I said, I have drank more coffee in the past couple of months than I have drank in the last 10 years.

That might sound like a lot, but it's not. I average maybe 2 or 5 cups of coffee a year. Coffee has always been a rarity. But it's too much. So I've gone and bought some tea.

Turmeric root, lemon, hibiscus, and dandelion root. I keep some of that in my desk since it's not labeled.

It's all good, but that roasted dandelion root tea tastes like some bark straight off somebody's tree. The turmeric root tea isn't as harsh, but for each of those, I have to soften it up with a lemon zinger tea bag.

All that matters is that it's good for me. I can deal with the tree bark taste. That dandelion root tea... all I gotta say is that my kidney ducts are SQUEAKY clean. Wow.

So I have no more than one, maybe two cups of coffee a week. My goal is one cup. And that's going well.

It's a nice little spot. It's our morale builder. Lady M, the namesake of Sharbucks, says it just warms her heart that everyone donates to Sharbucks. If the sugar is low, someone brings sugar. If  the coffee is low, people bring coffee. And so on, and so on.

I myself walked up in here with a whole case of coffee from my best friend LadyTee. She copped it from her cousin. My first question was "Is it hot!?  Did ya'll steal this?"  She looked at me crazy. She had 3 cases and there was no way they were going to drink it.

I had to ask. I would feel bad rolling up in Sharbucks with "hot coffee."

We are bootleg, though. I'm just saying. 

So it's a nice little place. All we need is a barista.

Not sure we can do that. Self-serve will have to do for now.

And that's fine by me.

I hear someone is saying we are too noisy. I'm not sure what that's about, as the cubicle area is usually pretty quiet.

It almost makes me want to stand up and holler "STOP HATING! Can't we have something good for our morale. DANG!"

But I will compose myself. For now.

We will try to be more... quiet.

Whatever that means.

As for now, we'll enjoy our bootleg Star.bucks.

Wordless Wednesday: LadyLee's Favorite Things

Friday Freestyles...Brunch Edition

Man...

I have been sitting at work sick as a DOG. I don't know what's up. I have a migraine and a fever.   I had some indigestion. All I had was a lettuce pear smoothie. Maybe the juice, which was beet based, I used in my smoothie was going bad. I don't know. I've been sipping water and eating away on orange slices.

I wanted to blink my eyes and be at home. Or I wanted to go somewhere and hurl. You can't do that at work. It will be all over the building. That is fodder for gossip. Fodder for stretched-out embellished gossip. Yes it is.

All I know is that it's too bright up in the cubicle area. I wish I could've casually turned off the lights. But I think that would've upset the other folks in the cubicle area. I could've gone home. But I turned my timesheet in already. And it's a pain trying to adjust it.

I passed out at my desk a couple of times. I remember dreaming strange dreams. I have to remember to take my earbuds out when I nap. It's not good to be listening to talk shows while napping. NO.

I feel better now. A concerned Lady M gave me some extra strength tylenol. That helped the headache. I still feel like hurling. And I still have that fever. I am going home and going STRAIGHT to bed after work. I need to run errands but that will have to wait. 

So.. I need to put up the pics of my sister Kentucky's brunch. It has been in draft all week. I have worked on it here and there. So here you go:

Look at the lovely napkins.

Just like last time, I asked my sister if I could take one of the napkins home.  She said no.  I should've just stolen one. But stealing something from my sister... that wouldn't be nice. Not nice at all.

So in the living room on the coffee table, there were pretty fruit cups!

One of those glasses was empty.  Whoever ate it could've waited until everyone had arrived. But once I tasted it, I could understand. Not only does it look good, it was good. I don't know where my sister gets such fresh fruit, but it was good.

There were cucumber tomato salad cups.

As you can see, one is missing. And I understand that too. I myself smashed two of those. I wanted a third.

Little quiches!

I told my sister I wanted some eggs. She doesn't scramble eggs well. I do. I told her I would. But she ignored me. And that's fine. And these little quiches were very tasty.

Pancakes!

Wait...  I took that picture too early, before she added the french toast.

That's awesome. Yes it is.

Fried Chicken! Sausage and bacon!

Not sure what was up with the burnt pieces. But I think The Cowgirl Cre likes it like that. I'm not sure. I thought I heard a whole gleeful conversation about this. I could be mistaken.

Salmon Croquettes!

I taught my sister how to make salmon croquettes. And she does a great job!

And where there's salmon, there's gotta be biscuits.

I was down for the fruit jams. Especially the strawberry jam. Yummy.

And there were grits:

That's from the last brunch. I forgot to take a pic.  But she used the same crockpot and bowls, lol.

Now check this out the desserts: an interesting take on strawberry shortcake.

That was beautiful. And it was good, too. I could've eaten two of those. We were all digging those.

Banana Pudding!!!

Oh see,now. That looked too pretty to eat.   And I didn't have any at the brunch. But when I picked her up the next day, I told her to bring some out to the car. She put it in some tupperware. That was very good. And it had pineapples in it. I'm not sure where she picked up on the idea of putting pineapples in banana pudding, but it worked out well. That was tasty!

And we can't forget the beverages.  Sweet tea and fresh squeezed lemonade. And some of the blackberry liqueur left over from last time.

I took the remainder of the lemonade home. Kentucky found a empty plastic jug and made it happen. I made it last, too.

And here's my sister's birthday gift to me. She keeps forgetting to give it to me.

She seems to think I will be having a brunch of my own. And now she's trying to stock me up on nice serving gear. I would like to have a brunch. But my place isn't big enough. And I suck at entertaining folks. So that's not going down. That all seems a bit stressful.

Ah yes, it was a nice brunch. She does a great job. I wonder when she will announce the next one.

Until next time!

(And yes we are looking forward to it!)

Ten Thursday Thoughts

Time for a few thoughts...

1. I am NOT happy that the 2016 presidential race has begun. Commercials are already starting up. Sigh. So I have to deal with my brain being bombarded with this nonsense for the next 1.5 years. Ugh.

2. I went to Whole Foods last night.  I eat way to much perishable stuff. I would love to be like some folk and go to the grocery store every two weeks. But right now, once a week will  do.

3.  Traffic has been horrific in the ATL for the past few days. I need to leave 10 minutes earlier for work. And lots of new skyscraper condos are going up around my job. This means I have to sit and wait while a random cement truck moves out of the way. Sigh.

4. I need to drink more water! I need to get back up to my 3/4ths gallon per day!

5.  Work is a bit slow and boring right now. I am sharing some equipment with someone else, and it is affording me an opportunity to work on my patience skills (and I do need to work on that. Harder).

6. Lunch today: a huge salad and a side order of blackened shrimp. I wish I would've taken a picture.. I have the 'itis now after eating what felt like 1/2 pound of baby green lettuces.

7. Aunt Flo showed  up today. 10 days early. I have NO idea what that's about. O_o. Maybe it's the seasons changing. I don't know. We will see how I feel next week. Maybe I should write this stuff down somewhere and track it.  Man.  I hope this doesn't mean I am about to go through "The change".  (Yes this is all TMI).

8. I need a nap. Especially with the cool and dreary weather in the ATL. I should be at home.  In my bed. Dozing on and off as I watch Maury... or Jerry Springer.

9. Some cat chewed one of the earbuds wires of my wireless headphones.  I looked into the eyes of both Callie and Mitch and I couldn't tell who did it. I think it was Mitch, as he likes to chew on the ear pieces of my eyeglasses. So I can't fuss at them. I will learn to put my $89 headphones up before I go to bed. Sigh.

10. I already bought another pair of headphones. They were $62. They are not as nice as the $89 headphones. Same brand, one level down. I will treat these new ones like they cost $89, though. Believe that.

Wordless Wednesdays: Typical Lunches

Friday Freestyles

It's Friday!

And that means it is Freestyle Time! That's me typing whatever is on my mind at the very moment.

Well I know one thing that's on my mind. It is Pay-Day. Which means you better HOPE I get something done today. Because my mind is on my money and my money is on my mind.

And my mind right now is on this delicious cup of tea I currently dranking:

And it's a great cup of tea. It is tumeric tea. And it's a bit harsh, so I had to throw a lemon tea bag over in there.

Now, I have some dandelion root tea. But goodness gracious, it sure does tweak my kidneys. Sends me to the bathroom all day long. You can rest assured my kidney ducts are squeaky clean after drinking a single cup of dandelion tea.

And I'm drinking tea because I've been drinking too much coffee. It's all because of where I am sitting now...

Yes. The cubicle across the aisle from my own is our own bootleg Starb.ucks. And it's a doozy!

More on that next week.

It's been a bit HOT here in the ATL. It's been in the 80s.  I refuse to turn on my air conditioner until May. And the weather might fall back down into the low 30s again before it's said and done. You never know with the ATL.

And oh... today is opening season for the Atlanta Br.aves. Phooey.

This means I have to find another way into my neighborhood. Phooey!!

LOL

Oh well.

Song of the Week. I love some Kendrick Lamar. His new video is out. King Kunta!! (Warning: language)



That is about as happy as the CD gets.  The rest of the songs wind down some long introspective dark back roads. And that's fine by me.

My sister Kentucky is having a brunch tomorrow.  Hmm Hmm good. I cannot WAIT to get some good
pictures. That chick is  having salmon and grits  and fried chicken and waffles.

And I said... uh.. You gonna have some fruit and vegetables?

She said yes. Thank goodness.

So stay tuned!

Happy 1st Birthday Sister Callie Jo!

So...

Sister Callie has officially lost her kitten status. She is 1 years old. She is officially a CAT.

I miss when she was a real kitten... A 0.5 pound little bundle of energy that I got for free down in Middle Georgia. A true country cat.

She was so sweet when she was a kitten. Correction: when she was a kitten that was asleep.

I remember when she was spayed, and I remember the awful e-collar she had to wear. 

For some odd reason, she REALLY liked that collar. Just odd.


Callie has freakishly long legs now.

Bored kitty with freakishly long legs.

Enjoy your day, Callie Jo... I know you will get your sleep on.

(Man oh man... I wish I could stretch out on the floor like that... right now.  Right this very moment.  At work. My new boss wouldn't know what to do! LOL)

I am NOT doing anything special for Sister Callie. Maybe I will give her a couple of  kitty treats.  Yeah, I will do that.

Happy Birthday Sister Callie Jo!!