Another Fun-Filled Weekend...

Soon to be newlyweds, Jeannie and Tom (they're very relaxed) came down for the weekend. Went to Alioto's for dinner on Friday night. Not my fav, service sucked. I wasn't figuring it would be an award-winning meal anyway. Since it wasn't snowing on Saturday...or raining, for that matter, Faarpit-Poppy wanted to spit roast a hunk-o-meat; so that's what we did.

Here's Pitmaster-Poppy with a basting brush made from our rosemary:



We made Silence of the Leg-o-Lamb. This recipe came from Alton Brown. Pretty much a boneless leg of lamb that you rub a paste of Dijon, garlic, mint, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper all over it and then truss it up.

Baste:



Lambert:



With that we made a salad of mixed greens w/goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, cherry tomatoes and a fresh raspberry vinaigrette. Also roasted red and yellow potatoes.



Faarpit:



Jeannie and Jax:



This morning I made eggs and Poppy's house-cured and smoked bacon for the gang. Check out this egg...TWINS!



So tomorrow is the start of the Executive Admins taking a 4 hour tour of duty at the reception desk. Nobody is happy about it but we gotta do what we can to keep the place going and keep us getting paychecks. Although I did joke on Friday that once our janitors, Harvey and Minh retire, all the Exec Admins will have to take a rotation emptying garbage and cleaning the bathrooms. Sounds far-fetched, but given what's gone on here the last week, I'm not so sure.

Co-worker-Friend-and-Family-Laurie and I came to the realization that we just might drop some pounds delivering the mail. Lots of trips up and down the stairs. See, another plus to being a Middle-Aged-Mailgirl! Oh, and bonus for me, starting tomorrow I get to gas up all the government vehicles. I kind of wonder how being away from my desk and secretarial duties is going to fly?

Time to go watch the sun set!

Have a good week!

Kecky's Kurb Art...

This edition will be devoted to Kecky's Kurb Art. While it's not really Kurb Art, I was parked next to the Kurb. I'm going to call this the Texture Series:

I call this one Mitt-En (That's how you say it when you're from Brooklyn, right Renee?):



Indiglo:



Neoprene:



I will leave you with Driving Dirty Piggy:



Have a great weekend; I know I will!

Have I mentioned I'm grateful I have a job?

Well, I am. Laurie and I are the new mail people at work. That's right and here is the code we'll live by:

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

AWESOME! I think I'll make it my new tattoo!

Anyhow, Laurie and I are sharing that job. Laurie gets to do a lot more fun stuff too! So, in the last few days, we've learned how to work the postage machine and how to go to the backdoor of the post office and get all of the Trust's mail. My new friend, Willie-The-Postal-Worker showed us how to take the certified labels off the mail basket and put them in the correct cubby. Don't even think about putting it in the wrong cubby either!

I sat at the front desk and answered the phones yesterday for a while. Then a co-worker came up and wanted to check out a government vehicle...only I'd not been trained on that one. Lucky for me, I'm resourceful and figured it out!

Also learned how to open and close up the office. Not an easy task for a dyslexic and let me tell you why...The lock on the front door is backward so they marked it with "off" and "on". Turn the key one way to lock it; not sure if that means the "on" or "off" position; ditto to unlock it. I'm thinking of changing it to "L" for lock and "U" for unlock. I know, you're dazzled by my common sense. Bet someone with a masters couldn't come up with that one, in fact, I bet someone with a masters is the one that wrote the "on" and "off" on the lock!

Oh, I also get to walk around the first floor of the office at night to make sure the windows are closed so raper-man doesn't' get in.

Okay, off to work!

Deer in the headlights...

Here's what I looked like all day at work yesterday...



Tried out my new/old brotform too. See the holes in the bread? That's a really good thing. Sensei John told me why, I just don't remember.





Meeko-The-Freako-Deaf-Jam-Cat has decided she'd like to spend some time with us in the house instead of the garage:



Pretty sweet for an 18 year-old deaf cat!

More fun today...

If life deals you lemons, make lemonade; if it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys

And that's what were gonna do! Since Laurie and I don't really know what's coming our way at work, we've got to take the positive road and hope for the best. We'll see how it goes.

Rest of the weekend was good. After we dropped off K-n-K at the airport, Poppy and I headed to Seester's house to get the little dog. Couldn't have been a better easy-going day. Seester, Shoppy-Poppy and I went to Kohl's. I for some business casual slacks and Socky-Poppy for, well, some socks. Seester didn't have anything in mind, but managed to find some very good deals.

Here's some Kecky's Kurb Art that I found along our weekend travels with K-n-K. I call this one Artsie-Fartsie-Ball:



Icky Minkey:



Peleton of Horseys:



Shoppy-Poppy has been busy in her spending chair. Here's our new rug for the landing:



We also have braided "treads" for the stairs, but we can't seem to get the color scheme the way we want. I think we'll be sending those back.

Later.

Brotform...

Well, yesterday was one of the crappiest work days I've ever had. We had layoffs. Co-Worker-Friend-Family-Member-Laurie and my work life will be changing to accommodate two of these layoffs. I am very sad but remain thankful I still have a job.

Look what Aunt Kathy brought me from MomJean:



It's a German bread basket called a Brotform. I'm sure this will bring my bread making to a new level.

Let's check in with A Day In The Life Of Dad! Before the day turned to crap yesterday, I took Hard-Of-Hearing-Dad to get his hearing aids. He's a new man and said he could kick himself for not doing this years ago.



This technology is amazing...he truly is Steve Austin, the Bionic Man!

The other day, I went rock hunting for our garden. Pretty...



My new obsession:



I have no idea where this is gonna go, but Fatass has big dreams of getting out on the ocean come springtime after she's dropped a few more lbs!

Hard to see it, but we woke up to snow on the Marin Headlands!!



Depression-Era-Poppy took this picture. It's like everything she touches ends up with a sepia tone. Weird.

Bye.

The Aunt-N-Uncle Have Arrived!

Depression-Era-Poppy's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ken are in town from DC. Conference-Ken works for Cisco and is here learning about I-don't-know-what, but I'm sure it has something to do with technology...let's just call it Magic. Union-Square-Kathy has done a little shopping and is catching up on all her computer stuff. In fact, she's sending me all kinds of yummy recipes that will be showing up sometime soon here on Kucina di Kecky!

We met them last night in North Beach at Gino-n-Carlo's. G-n-C's has been there for a thousand years, just like everything else in North Beach. I hadn't been there since the fabulous-hair'd 80's. I don't think it has changed much, other than the place isn't filled with cigarette smoke anymore. So we had a glass of wine and then moved over to Sotto Mare's for the dinna!

Sand-Dab-Poppy and I will definitely go back there! Old school and friendly. Food was excellent. Sand-Dab-Poppy, Kathy and Ken all had the...well...sand dabs. I had the special which was a Round Nose Sole. A bottom crawler that was to die for. Well, actually, I guess it died for me. In fact, I'm going to finish it for lunch.

Turns out our waitress lived in Pacifica for a time (right behind the SamTrans bus depot in Linda Mar) and we thought we knew people in common, but turns out we didn't but still a fun conversation.

After that, we caught cabs and called it a night!

K-n-K will be done with the conference tomorrow and will then move over to spend a fabulous-fun-filled weekend at Kasa Kecky's. Sure hope this rain stops cause Pioneer-Poppy wanted to have a far and throw a hunk of meat on the spit-roaster.

Speaking of Magic, Techno-Poppy has been at her Google Earth class since yesterday. She is so excited about all the things she'll be able to do with these new applications. Her job is about to get really exciting. I'm not sure why but it has something to do with the Magic. She was trying to esplain to me last night what she was learning but then my eyes rolled in back of my head so she stopped. BUBBLES!

Here she is yesterday at her class with her laptop having lunch...



Guess that's it.

Later!

My day of bloodletting...

Yesterday, co-worker-Mollie and I had an office warming. I brought Peets and she baked scones. Check out my office warming gifts...

A real live rubber band ball from Co-Worker-Friend-Family-Member-Laurie!



And from Co-Worker-Friend-Drea:



BINDER CLIPS!! How much better can my working life be? Not much!

Yesterday, Financial-Poppy and I went to have physical exams for two additional life insurance policies. This way, if either one of us kicks off, the other can stay in the house without much $$$ trouble. Peace of mind, I say! We parked the car and Halitosis-Poppy wanted to stop into Walgreens for some gum cause she'd just ate a piece of cheese. I was all about getting to the appointment cause I figured there would be paperwork so I went on ahead.

I go into the office and the gal takes me in right away. What I quickly deduce is that the gal is a new nurse. I'm not sure if you recall, but I've got bad veins when it comes to bloodletting and I can just about pass out if I detect incompetence or a lack of confidence in the bloodletter. I asked the gal if she was the one who would be performing all the tests and she said "Yes." I let her know that I'm a fainter with the blood thing and I have crappy veins. I tell her to save her trouble, angst and me from passing out, she should just go ahead and get The-Blood-Of-Kelly from my hand. She had a weird look on her face and said "Um, okay." First beads of sweat are now forming on my forehead and upper lip.

Moving on...the exam consists of three blood pressure readings; you know I've got that white-coat hypertension (I know, I'm a wreck when it comes to medical stuff) so when I go to the doctors, my BP is always elevated. But since they changed my meds, I've been doing great. My readings were 125/80, 130/70 and 120/80. Then I gave them a wee-wee sample in a cup. Always fun, especially if my aim is spot on. Then an EKG, which I assume was normal.

By this time, the other very experienced nurse had come in and was helping the less experienced nurse. This made me feel better. I asked if the EKG looked okay. She said she couldn't really say, but she knew I wasn't having a heart attack.

Now the moment I'd been dreading; the bloodletting. I was already laying down on the table so I stayed put. My back is starting to sweat and I'm feeling very tired. Less-Experienced-Nurse started prepping all the bottles and needle stuff. The More-Experienced-Nurse started telling her about the veins in the hand and how you have to go above the hand away from the end of the trunk of the vein.

As I'm writing this, I have to sit down cause I'm getting light headed.

So Less-Experienced-Nurse starts working on my right hand. She gets the needle in, but More-Experience-Nurse says "Uh oh, she's really slow to bleed." I'm starting to sweat more now. Then More-Experienced-Nurse takes over and says something about letting gravity do the work, so she tries to take my hand and move it down off the table...Oopsie, the needle slipped out. Now my tummy is starting to hurt.

While I could still speak, I did reassure LE-Nurse that it's me, not her and that I was sorry she had to start her day this way.

Then ME-Nurse goes over to my left hand and proclaims "There's a juicy one over here!" She asks LE-Nurse if she'd like to try again. She replies "No, that's okay, I'd rather watch." Whew! Time for the second bloodletting...She nailed it and the blood started to flow. Well, I'm really ready to go night-night so I tell them "I'm feeling a little light headed." ME-Nurse says "I'm just about done. Breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth to a count of 5 and keep doing it." I'm doing this, but it's just making it all worse. I'm now sweating profusely and my glasses are fogging up.

I ask for a glass of water; LE-Nurse goes out to the water cooler, comes back in and says there are no cups. ME-Nurse said "Oh, right, we just ran out." I can barely talk and suggest I might use and wee-wee cup, preferably a clean one. I get my water but now I have to lay there for an eternity until my BP comes back to normal. After the second bloodletting, ME-Nurse took my BP and it was a 95/50 or something close to death. So not fun...



As you all know, yesterday was Valentines Day. Usually on Valentines Day and our anniversary, Hallmark-Holiday-Poppy and I will celebrate with nice dinner at home of Ribeye steak, veg and a really nice bottle of wine. Since starting the low-carb gig, just about every night is a special dinner so that didn't sound appealing. Also, we had been so immersed in project land and having Dad over the weekend, we'd not given much thought to VD.

After the bloodletting and we returned to the office, I sent Decision-Maker-Poppy an email asking her if we should do something special for VD. Her reply was "Should we? Sushi?" After all, Depression-Era-Poppy and I have Groupons for Osaka Sushi. Why we can save $25 on our dinna! Given the traumatic experience I just had, I needed a reward and this just sounded so good...

Here's Jalopy-Poppy driving Miss. Fainty to the dinna. Isn't it weird how when I take Depression-Era-Poppy's picture it looks like...well...like it was taken in the Depression era?



Chow!

Busy Weekend...

It's also a Dad weekend. This weekend was the big deck project weekend. Depression-Era-Poppy wanted to line the underside of the deck with galvanized metal sheets. This would make it so when it rains, the water from the deck will run off the edge of the deck and keep the underside of the deck dry. That way, we can put some stuff we don't want to get wet, like fire wood, grills and in time a small deep freeze under there. Not just that, but the galvanized metal sheets reminds Daddy-Pappy of her Grandfather's implement shed.

Here's the progress so far:







And the finished project:



Here's the most interesting thing about it; when they started on Saturday, Motion-Sickness-Poppy started feeling a little queasy (well more than a little queasy). This lasted all day. Yesterday, same thing, only Dramamine-Dad started feeling the same way. I figured it was from looking up constantly and the reflection of the corrugated metal had some sort of wavy movement. They both felt better once the project was done, but we all went to bed around 8:30. Weird!

Dad took a little break:



I planted a garden in the backyard:



We'll have arugula, lime thyme, thyme, sage, mint, kale and a cabbage. Meant to get two kale, but the cabbage looks just like kale. I like cabbage.

I added more succulents and grasses to the front yard too:



I know, unless you're me, you probably can't tell the difference from the pics last weekend.

Put in a new toilet seat, finally!



Handy-Person-Poppy put in a paper towel dispenser and a hand lotion dispenser. How cool are these?





I also oiled all the butcher block in the kitchen.

Made some bread too; here's the little blob bench resting:



This was my best effort yet! Of course, Food-Critic-Poppy said "Can I say something?" I said, "Not if it's bad." Do you think that would stop her? Nope, she said "It's a little rubbery." I said "But it tastes good, Goddamn-It!" Gave some to my Other-Food-Critic-Dad. He said "I hate it; I can't get the taste out of my mouth!" So I gave him a turnip and that made it all better.

Say, how about some Kecky's Kurb Art?

I call this Raggedy-I-Don't-Know-What:



Happy Valentines Day!

Moving day has come and gone...

Here are some pics of the process...

Cube removal:



Eleven years of cube dirt. I can tell you I've eaten many raisins, wasabi peas, pumpkin seeds and Bing cherries.



My new spot:





I'm not going to show you my old spot with Mollie's stuff in it cause after they took the cube out, the office became very large. I'm very happy with my space though and I know Mollie is very happy with hers.

So, today is the first day of BK approved business casual dress. My business casual shoes came yesterday:



I love them!

Here I am sporting the new look:



So there you go...After 11 years in the same cube-office, it's a whole new world for me!

Have a great weekend!