Spring crop

The spring crop of figs on our tree are finally perfectly ripe. I've been eagerly awaiting this for at least a couple of months now. Yesterday I picked and ate an enormous amount of them. And then for dinner Mr X and I grilled some. I found this recipe online:

Grilled Figs with Rosemary and Honey (Serves two)

6 fresh, whole figs, trimmed and halved

1 Tbsp. honey2 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Grill the figs over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once midway through.
Divide between two plates. Drizzle one Tbsp. of honey over each plate of figs, then top each with a 1/2 Tbsp. of the chopped rosemary.

It was a surprisingly delicious success at our house. I would make it every night if I could. But I'm holding off so I can have enough ready for next weekend's big idea: Fig Pie.

D3 Picture

This is a picture of my new nephew. I copied it off my SIL's blog so you all could see. I love the chin especially.

New Arrival!

As of yesterday at 10:30 AM I became an aunt for the 18th time. It's another little boy - weighing in at 7 lbs and 1 oz. Congrats to my undoubtedly exhausted SIL and brother on their new addition.

Silly Policies

My employer changed it's sick leave policy last year. The old policy was to allow unlimited sick time. If you were sick, you were to stay home and get better. I thought it was a surprisingly generous policy. But of course a few people always have to ruin a good thing for everybody else by abusing the magnanimous rules . Naturally my company was forced to alter the rules. Now everybody gets 1 week of 'personal leave'. This can be used for whatever reason, including sick time. I think this is an awful policy because people want to horde their personal leave for more enjoyable usage so they come into work and spread their illnesses around to everybody else. (A MAJOR pet peeve of mine.) To make matters worse, my company also offers a bonus at the end of the year to those employees who don't use ANY of their personal leave: $500. That just makes it so much more unlikely that a person will stay home when sickly because they know it'll cost them $500. The result is that my office is a veritable cesspool of highly unpleasant germs and viruses. Which was why I spent the entire weekend laid up nursing a rather nasty bug.

**But of course I managed to get myself into work in order to save my precious sick leave for something more fulfilling than being sick.**

Another year come and gone.

Today was my birthday. It started out a little sketchy but ended up being very enjoyable. I had to get up and go to work (the blah part). But Mr X swooped into my work and whisked me away for a pleasant lunch. Throughout my day all sorts of friends and family called or wrote to wish me well on my special day so I was feeling very much remembered and loved and that's really what makes a birthday wonderful. A niece and a nephew even called to sing the birthday song to me. I came home to these beautiful flowers from Mr X:

Then Mr X took me out to a Turkish restaurant for dinner, where I tried something (I can't remember what it was called) I've never heard of before. It was delicious. Then we came back and wandered the neighborhood, admiring the immaculate and interesting houses we'll never be able to afford. When the sun began to set we headed home and Mr X put the finishing touches on my cake while we watched the sun set from our patio.

My cake was an angel food cake with mixed berries and whipped cream. It was just what I wanted. I was serenaded with the birthday song one more time by Mr X.

Mr X particularly liked a gift given to me by my mother. Birds of North America. He immediately grabbed the book and began looking for chickens.

I received several lovely gifts today. But you should be warned about one of them. This one:

Don't be surprised if YOU get a fresh brick of homemade cheese for your birthday this year.

Enemies

It seems to me that everywhere anybody works, they have an 'work enemy' of sorts. Someone that just sucks the pleasantness out of work entirely. At the mere mention of this person's name, you instinctively bristle. I've found that everywhere I've worked there's ALWAYS one person who, more than anybody else, drives me batty. Note: this 'work enemy' designation does not apply in any way whatsoever to those coworkers who simply irritate and baffle. It has to be someone who is both obnoxious AND poses a serious impediment to accomplishing your work as planned. This person often generates copious amounts of unnecessary work and headaches for you.

I just met my new 'work enemy' today. We were introduced and less than one minute after words started pouring from her mouth, I knew. She will be the bane of my work existence. I was so sorry to have made her acquaintance this soon at my new place of employment. The thing that stinks is that she's leaps and bounds more feisty and pushy than I am. She's 'full of piss and vinegar' because she thinks she knows everything - including how to do my job. I tend to be timid and reserved at work because I never think I know anything - including how to do my job. I guess I've got my work cut out for me in more ways than one. Awesome.