Thankful Thursday

It seems only fitting that I post both of these at the same time.

I had done up a TT for last week, when I was in San Antonio*

(Wait, what?)
But instead of scheduling it to automatically post, I just left it as a draft.

Whoops.

So, here keep reading for today's Thankful Thursday post and check back through the archives for the post that should of been posted last week.

Today, I am thankful for the temperature being above -18 degrees C.

That's right folks, it has been a week of highs that couldn't seem to break through the negative double digits. It's been cold, to say the least.

But today, the last glorious Thankful Thursday of November, we have reached -1. And that's not even going to be the high. Nosirree! We're going to come above the freezing mark.

Yay!

I am also thankful today for my warm, wool coat, my olympic mittens and my mommy-made scarf.

All have done their job to keep  me warm this morning! (and every morning since the snow began to fall)

Elsie P

PS - For all of my American Friends, Happy Thanksgiving!!

Baking

Have I lamented on here about my inability to make my brownie recipe work?

I have this WICKED brownie recipe that I've been making for the last 10 years and my mother's been making it for at least three times as long.

It.is.divine.

But it doesn't seem to work here in the Prairies.

Maybe it's the weather?

Maybe it's the altitude?

Maybe it's the ingredients?

I don't know.

What I do know, is that I have finally

FINALLY

found a recipe that works.

And guess where it came from?

My head. 

Ha! 

So, I will test it once more tomorrow and if it stands up, I'll post it here.

Elsie P

PS - How do you like your brownies? I want mine like thick, fudgy cake. Yum.

I love you, man!

A few months ago, 

I was getting ready to take a two week trip

eastward to visit some friends, some family and grace a wedding with my presence. In preparation for this trip, I wanted to make sure that I emptied all the garbage in my apartment. Since it was summer, any garbage related stinkiness would be further amplified by heat. There is nothing worse than coming home to a super stinky household! 

So, as I checked off the last item on my "To-Do" list,

I was feeling good.

I had an hour 'til I had to leave for the airport.

I took my garbage down to the dumpster in the parkade,

tossed it in and made my way back in to the building.

I needed to go pick up a few things that I wanted to have for the flight.

As I heard the door shut behind me, my mind two steps ahead of my feet,

I had a sinking feeling.

Where were my car keys?

I checked my pockets, tore apart my purse, and more frantically asked,

Where are my car keys!?

I went back out to the dumpster to see if I'd dropped them out there.

As I replayed the events of my disposing of the garbage, I realized what had happened.

I had my car keys hanging off my finger.

On the same hand that was carrying my garbage.

I had tossed said garbage in to the dumpster all at once.

(I normally put one thing in at a time while holding up the lid)

And as my stomach did back flips, I realized I was going to have to get in to the dumpster.

I was already dressed in my cute flying outfit, complete with heels, and was not able to get up on to the dumpster to look inside.

On the surface, I couldnt see anything.

I checked my phone.

Cab was 45 minutes away.

Shit.

After frantically doing a surface search, I finally realized I was effed.

I called Greg, my maintenance guy.

"Hi Greg, it's Elsie from 305 calling. Are you in the building today?

Oh, you're not onsite?

Well, yes. I have a little problem.

I think I tossed my keys in the dumpster.

And they're my car keys.

And I am going on vacation today.

In an hour. "

His response was, "I'm on my way. "

I love that man.

So as I am waiting for my knight in stained blue coveralls to arrive, I call my mother nad nearly break down in to tears over my stupidity and the fact htat it's going to cost me a few hundred dollars to replace the keys and the key fob. As I am stifling sobs in to the phone, I see the BFI truck pull up to empty the dumpster.

Hyperventilating ensues.

I head out to the garage and tell the adorable BFI worker that I am reasonably certain my keys are in that dumpster.

He looked at me and said "SO??"

I started to cry.

At that moment, Greg walked up, dangling my keys from his hand.

Apparently, he knew BFI was scheduled to come

-- it was a Tuesday -- so he rushed over,

blocked the driveway, makin it impossible to dump the dumpster until he'd finished tossing it.

I don't know how he found them but I was so grateful.

And in a rush.

So I called over my shoulder that I owed him a case of beer

He said he liked Corona.

I bought him a case and left it outside his door before I caught a plane eastward.

Elsie P

PS - That's just one great Greg story....

Somedays you're the slugger ....

Somedays I really wonder what the people I work with think of me.

I often have ideas that would vastly improve my process

But not necessarily impact everyone else I work with.

So sometimes, I wonder what the people I work with

Think I do all day

and whether they actually understand

what it is I do all day.

Lemme give you the brief run down:

I work in the Oil and Gas industry, for a private company.

Our company has a software that enables other

Oil and Gas companies to manage their fleets

of Natural Gas Compressors.

It also helps them to optimize their

individual compressors.

A large part of my role is entering the data from the field

in order to allow our clients to manage and optimize

their assets.

I enter a lot of reports.

Upwards of 1000 a month.

Usually about 600 in the first 10 days of the month.

I have an intimate relationship with that area of our system.

AND yet, when I come up with ideas, requests, etc

to improve my process

making my job easier

saving time

improving productivity
maximizing my time
showcasing my abilities.
And they are ignored.
Why?
Because they don't benefit the masses.
But what they don't realize, is that I do as much work
in one are of our software
as the masses.

Elsie P

PS - Seems that this is the bad week for people and the enjoyment level of their jobs!! 

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to the third Thankful Thursday.

Today, I have a number of things to be thankful for.

But we'll focus on one or two.

These guys. I work with them.

There are a few missing

there are a few that have moved on to new roles

in new companies

but all in all, these guys are great.

I had a phone call from my sister last night

She was un-enthused about her coworkers.

While, maybe on or two of them.

And it made me realize how thankful I am to have these guys.

This is the Galaxie Diner.

It's on my walk to work.

I stopped in there for breakfast the other day with

two of the guys I work with.

Did I mention it was 7am?

And still dark?

And an hour before they'd have to be downtown for work?

And I didn't even have to buy??

This is why I am thankful for those guys.

Elsie P

PS - There's a story that goes along with that first picture.

I'll post it next week when I dig up more photos.



Director at Large

At the risk of waving my political flag, 

I have an exciting announcement to make.

Yours truly has been elected 

(as of last night)

to be the newest Director at Large

for the Constituency Association of the riding I live in.

What does that mean? 

Well, it means that I take the constituents and the party members

within our riding, 

to election ready mode. 

Right now, the election looks like it will be called later than sooner.

Which is great news for us. 

So, I will be meeting once a month with my other Executive Board members 

(goodness I love titles)

and will have more to report as this venture moves along.

Elsie P 

PS - Don't ask what party; I'm not ready to disclose yet!

C'est L'halloween!

I was never good at conjugating French verbs.

I wanted that to say it was Halloween.

Instead, (I think) it says it is Halloween?

Help me out here!!

The funny thing about Halloween is how great it is for the adults

 -- with no children --

when it falls on a Sunday.

Why you ask?

Well, mostly because you an stretch it out for a whoooooole weekend.

For example, my girlfriend Kendall celebrated her 23rd birthday on Friday.

We went to the bar.

(That's another story.)

It was an odd mix of folks in costumes and folks not in costumes.

That was the 29th.

Two days before Halloween.

*    *    *    *    *

Three older British men at the bar were eyeballing the "Girl Guide"

in front of me (who in turn was nervously glancing at me for reassurance) asking if she needed some help procuring any new badges. Once that joke wore off, they turned to me,

not in costume,

and asked what I came dressed as.

I looked myself up ad down and starrd back with a look of

"Isnt it obvious?"

"Um, hot?" I responded, much to their delight.

"Well played!!" came the answer.

*    *    *    *    *

Sunday morning when I went for a walk down thru our bar district, en route to Starbucks.

It looked as though a Hallowen bomb had gone off.

There was a long, red glove here.

A cape there.

A nurse shoe across the street.

Wonder woman's on-top underwear was draped over a fence

and the piece du resistance was defintely

a condom

packed with candy

and tied off at the top.

Happy Halloween.

Elsie P

PS - when did you dress up?

You're lucky I'm your Ex.

I suppose that title could be taken a few ways.

One being, I'm so bat $#%! crazy you're glad you're rid of me.

That's not the way I mean it today though.

Or any day.

I'm not bat $#%! crazy.

Am I?

I digress.

So, little known fact

(I may not have blogged about the dissolution of my relationship)

I own a house with my Ex, MC Jammie Pants.

No, he's not a rapper

or a DJ.

It's an inside joke.

Anyway, JP and I split in April

but we still own the house we bought together.

He lives in it.

In July, we had a wicked hail storm that caused lots of damage

to lots of peoples cars.

And, apparently, to our house.

Little did I know, JP had filed a claim through our home insurance.

Thus resulted in an investigation,

an assessment,

a decision,

and a cheque being issued.

Again, UNBEKNOWNST to me.

So imagine my shock and surprise

my elation and delight

the heart rate increase I felt

when I opened a letter from my insurance company

and saw a cheque.

A big cheque.

With my name on it.

In the amount of

$6894.06

When I picked myself up off the floor, I began to leaf through the information attached.

"Dear Elsie and JP,"

Blah blah blah

"...claim from hailstorm dated..."

blah blah blah

"..has been assessed..."

blah blah blah

"...cheque enclosed..."

blah blah blah

"...notify us when work is complete."

blah.

Well darn!

I had really, really, REALLY hoped that this was going to be one of those days where the Monopoly scenario comes true...

The day that I land on the Community Chest square,

drawing a card that reads:

"Bank error in your favor! Collect $6894.06!"

Today, sadly, was not that day.

Elsie P

PS - The reason JP is lucky he has ME for an ex

is because I immediately called him and left him a message.

I also texted him to tell him I urgently needed to speak with him.

When he called back, mere minutes later, I told him about the cheque.

Because it was made out to Elsie AND JP

(as opposed to Elsie OR JP)

it had to go in to an account that bears both our names.

Luckily, we have such an account.

(courtesy of this smarty pants that occasionally thinks two steps ahead)

And I have access to that account through my bank card.

(The one I didn't lose.)

And I deposited said cheque this AM

Without just cashing it and pocketing the money.

Like some people's exes would have done.

Because that thought didn't even cross my mind.

(more than once)

Trick or Treat!

In case you were living in a hole

and didn't know

this weekend was Halloween.

And lots of funny things happened this weekend.

Let's work backwards based on what's freshest in my mind.

Last night, as I was leaving my mum and dad's place after our weekly dinner and Amazing Race evening,

the trick-or-treaters were out in full swing.

As my mum walked me to my car, a threesome of

terrifying twelve year olds left the neighbour's house

and headed across the lawn to our front door.

Right.

Through.

The Garden.

While we were standing

RIGHT THERE.

I mean, c'mon kids!

So of course, mum let's them know that she doesn't want them cutting through the garden!

Please.

As they headed to the door mum also told them that

Uhhh, we're not trick or treating this year.

And away they went on their merry way.

Until they got to the grass between our house and the next neighbour.

Where they promptly mocked my mother by saying,

"Don't walk thruuuuuuu!"

"We have to go ARRRRRROOOOOOUUUND"

To which my mother whispered in my ear

"I EFFING hate kids!"

Hilarious.

Elsie P

PS - I censored the full on F Bomb mum actually dropped....