Monday, December 21, 2009

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

Good morning everyone. I'm late to the meeting but I've got a good excuse. I caught a bad cold and have spent the last three days sleeping! Unfortunately this puts your internal body clock in a tailspin and last night I found myself unable to sleep and crocheting at 2 a.m.

Wouldn't you just love to dive into the buffet this morning?



It's beautiful, isn't it? Unfortunately I can't take any credit and even more unfortunate, it's all gone! That's the spread that neighbor Jackie put out for her cookie exchange. As usual, lots of delicious and unusual things including cheese and macadamia nut morsels that you'd skewer with a chunk of pineapple. So yummy!

I apologize for teasing you with that image because all I've got for you today is a lame buffet of my own making.

It's a cold pizza and chocolate fudge buffet.


Buffet item No. 1 - Cold Pizza


Buffet item No. 2 - Chocolate Walnut Fudge

Feel free to enjoy either or BOTH.

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Until recently my blog has not been bothered by comment spam. But a short time ago one of my blog posts became a dumping ground for the most ridiculous spam imaginable. I've been deleting this stuff daily and one of my posts in particular was a major target and I was forced to simply save that entry as a draft (unpublished) in order to stop the spam.

How about you? Have you been having comment spam issues? I don't want to return to that annoying word verification but if this continues I'll have no choice.

DEATH TO THE COMMENT SPAM!!!!

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Somehow I managed to avoid the impulse to buy one of those $40 cake pans but I fell prey to something I've always wanted, a cupcake stand.



Isn't this a cute one?

I'm not a big cupcake maker but who could resist the opportunity to bake some up and display them in this cutie?

It's fun because the spiral is bouncy, although I wouldn't want my cupcakes flying off into space.

The best part? It was the only one left in the store and it was marked down to $5. Hooray for sales.

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When my kids were little I did craft shows in order to raise a little more money for Christmas and other special treats. My sewing machine and I hummed along daily creating all kinds of Christmas ornaments and dolls. There were always body parts laying everywhere. The table would be covered with muslin arms and legs.

This Christmas I'm creating a signature ornament for gift giving to my friends. It's a penguin and therefore there are penguin body parts laying around.



The kids are accustomed to this sight and it's no longer traumatic.

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You are officially invited to attend Corn Drop 2009. Neighbor Betty wants you all to join in the fun.

What's a Corn Drop, you ask? Betty and her family are transplanted Long Islanders who for many years missed the excitement of the ball drop in Times Square in New York. Having adopted the midwestern can-do, make-do spirit they created a midwestern version called the Corn Drop.

At midnight a 6 foot tall ear of corn, fashioned from yellow and green Christmas lights drop from a 30-foot pole.


Corn, ready for dropping.

There's a huge countdown clock and DJ music. It's awesome!


Dancing in the snow during the countdown!

Unfortunately I'm unable to provide a live feed so you can join in the fun on New Year's morning.


Countdown - 2008

For years we've been wanting David Letterman's mom to attend the festivities. So if anyone knows Dave's producer OR his mom, let me know and we'll provide a limo or a tractor to pick her up in Indiana and transport her to the party.

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OK, I'm turning the meeting over to you. Anything we need to discuss?



15 comments:

Millicent said...

Good morning, glad you are feeling better from your cold (or at least well enough for the Monday a.m. meeting). I love the corn drop - sounds like lots of fun. Merry Christmas!

chocolatechic said...

I will be baking cookies today, and watching the finally of Survivor that I DVR'd last night.

So sorry that you have a cold, and I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for that cold piece of pizza, it was delicious!

Bella Della said...

Hey there.
I wanted to let you know that I am having trouble with the spam too. I actually just deleted one from my comments and it's been happening a lot lately. I hate to turn the word verification back on but I might have to.

We also have a virus on our computer at home and I suspect my blog or visiting others has something to do with it.


Good luch with yours!

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, colds are the worst! Take lots of Vitamin C, there's this great stuff called Emergen-C that you can get. It seriously kicks a cold's butt!

Yes on the spam. My blog ended up on the local news a couple of weeks ago (my brother recently confessed to the murder he was accused of and jailed for) and since then - and many, many more than normal visits to my blog AND spam comments. Thank God WordPress does such a great job at catching those - so far, none have made it to light of day. Total pain to deal with, though, isn't it?

The corn drop sounds like a hoot - 12/31 is my birthday - so I always appreciate it when folks get creative and whoop it up! :)

LDF said...

I LOVE both items on the buffet table this morning! Truth be told, I just finished a piece of cold pizza for lunch ... but always have room for more. We just finished getting about 100 Christmas hampers for needy seniors out the door, the last big work project for 2009, so now I'm ready to think about Christmas at my house. Hope your cold disappears soon!

Mary said...

Thanks for the fudge. And thanks for the invitation to the corn drop. Since Betty doesn't care, we just might be over before midnight. Have you gone by the decorated house off Anderson. We had to take a detour to get home. My brother said it took him an hour and a half to get thru the line.

I love the cup cake holder. I can see it as a Christmas ornament display too. Think it would be gorgeous.

Have a very merry Christmas.

Lisa D. said...

I don't see any reason to apologize for cold pizza and chocolate fudge. Both are perfectly good breakfast options in my house!
I love that cupcake holder, especially the $5 price tag, and I love, love, love the Corn Drop! What a great idea, and a fantastic corn cob!

horse loving lineman's wife said...

I love cold pizza and the PENGUINS!!

life in red shoes said...

Just as I say I haven't had a spam problem....
And I think the corn drop sounds like a lot more fun than that Time Square hullaballoo.
The ornaments are darling, and the cold...not so cute:(

Mary Rex said...

The penguins are darling. The tiny little crocheted purse that you made for Ms. Penguin is especially cute.
I received my very own package of cuteness from you this weekend, and I just love the stuff. Beautiful workmanship. My niece is going to love her jump-roping snowman. Thanks bunches.
I am glad to hear that your cold is on the way out. Sleep is the best thing, and lots of hot soup...and maybe then a hot toddy or two;)

StitchinByTheLake said...

I started having spam problems a couple of weeks ago, but just on older posts. In fact, they were mostly in September for some reason. And if you believe those spam messages I could be a millionaire just as easy as pie. They weren't nasty, which I was happy about, but they were annoying. So I enabled the word verification for a while. Later I'll take that off again and see if they've magically disappeared. blessings, marlene

Vee said...

Not having a lot of trouble with spammers...knock on wood...but enough so that all comments that come in after a week are emailed to me for approval. That helps a lot. And I'd do the word verification immediately if I had to.

Looking forward to the countdown...and that fudge looks yummy.

Hope you're feeling a lot better today. I just took some cold medication stuff because I thought some of my guests looked suspect tonight. Ha!

Jenni said...

I'm glad you're feeling better! The penguins are adorable, and I don't think I could have refused that cupcake stand at just $5.

Unknown said...

Not sure if you check this account anymore...do you know what brand that cupcake stand was?

Unknown said...

Not sure if you check this account anymore...do you know what brand that cupcake stand was?