OK, so, I went to the teleconference. Joy of joys, of course, as all teleconferences are, only this one’s better: it’s a video conference! And it’s being held in the Personnel department’s video-conference room, which means I get to shuffle off to the side while the tanned ones focus the camera on themselves. As if anybody’s looking? Is anybody looking at the tanned ones? I think not, but I got a look, just ’cause of the hair, no doubt, and because I wasn’t wearing my name-badge. Or maybe it was because they weren’t included in the primary conference, but had to watch from afar. Sigh.
In any event, I left just when the tanned ones were starting to feel most comfortable: that’d be the point at which the consultant who was to have evaluated certain pieces of the organization’s workings said that she “just wanted the staff to have that spark that they had when they first started working here, you know…?” That was enough for me, so I bailed in time to get home to actually, maybe, knit or something? Something which wouldn’t involve my soul being drained out my ears. This is so much the reason I left the corporate world – well, that and the severance package.
But still: bread. Some day, a bakery. A vegan bakery, just because 1) I’m already mostly there, so what’s the difference, 2) honey’s expensive and doesn’t really add all that much to the bread, and 3) have you ever been to a dairy? Eew.
Unfortunately, I was just told that I could spend $100,000 re-doing my kitchen if I wanted to. But that I should probably expect to spend about $20K on it, especially because if you touch the kitchen, you have to upgrade the circuits, and if we touch the circuits, we’ve got to upgrade the circuit box because it’s in a closet, which isn’t allowed, and it doesn’t have enough circuits in it anyway. So, California, thanks a bunch for the extra $4K of mine you just spent. But don’t worry – I’m a consultant currently working for the state. I’ll get it back, and then some, because I know that you won’t take my advice, and I’ll need to hang around for that much longer. Sigh.
What does this have to do with bread? Well, ever tried baking in an oven which heats up whatever’s on the stove, just ’cause you’re baking? Not heat, as in stuff gets warm: HEAT as in you slap a pot on the burner & it boils after a while, just ’cause the oven doesn’t quite insulate right. So, because you like to cook/eat you decide to replace the stupid oven. With maybe one that works? And, since you’re there, you decide that it’d be a good idea to use the boxed-in space beside the dishwasher, which is now just empty and inaccessible, which means you need to revamp the whole layout. Which means at least $20K. Oy.
So, as I’m not baking much bread these days, much less eating it, I’ll be knitting for a while.
There are many fine things in this life, roasted beets being one of them. A soupçon of huile d ‘ olive, a sprinkle of sea salt, a few choice twigs of rosemary, and you’ve got yourself a simple culinary paradise. Add chevré or some arugula, and you’re, well, golden, if that’s what kind of beet you used. But if it’s not…
