Random Thoughts

---This may quite possibly be the ugliest car I've ever seen. Right up there with the Element, Aztek and Pacer. I saw one in the parking lot at work, and I actually stopped to look at it. No, I really don't care what its gas mileage is, or how many green or consumer-friendly features it might have. I looked back at my bug-spattered 10-year old gas-slurping Chevy truck with the 'Pray For Our Troops' sticker on the tailgate. And I wanted to blow it a kiss.

---Yes, I'm being an obstinate throwback when it comes to looking around for a vehicle to eventually replace my truck. Because I don't want to. Nanner nanner. If GM could come up with something slightly smaller than my truck, something that looks just like my truck (OK, maybe with some updated lines), something that wouldn't make me ashamed to be seen in it, and that has a heated steering wheel and gets 40mpg, then I might muster some feeling.

---I was pushing my shopping cart through Meijer's with no small amount of pride this morning. Yep, it was piled high with honeydew melon, bananas, strawberries, apricots, dark leafy greens, Cheerios, high-fiber tortillas, bok choy, mushrooms... Oh yeah, I felt quite justified in smugly smiling at the man behind me with a dozen bottles of neon-colored Power-Ade in his cart.

---Did I mention the Ball-Park hot dogs in my cart? Because at the same time I've been considering that I ought to start coming up with some meatless entrees for the week, life at home has been a careening, out-of-control red meat wagon. Sirloin-cheddar burgers Thursday and Friday, pot roast Saturday (very nice Lone Oak dinner-concert, thank you Scott & Ann), rib-eye steaks on Sunday. And today: Wurst salad. I had to look up a recipe to see what was in it. What are traditional ingredients? Can I eat it after 11am? I don't believe I've ever even had it before. Possibly in 2003 in Germany. Finally, I said to hell with all the various recipes, I'm going to start mixing stuff. With disturbing suddenness, hot dog-pickle-onion-vinegar-mustard was just THE THING.

---At least I bought white turkey hot dogs and not regular franks or sausages. Hey, they were on sale, and fat free. Almost begged me to buy them. We're just not even going to think about the sodium content of the salad. I'll cram a pile of dark leafy greens in my face tonight at dinner to balance it out.

---Oh yeah, and I wonder where the old cholesterol is going to dial in after this little festival of meat *counts 10 days until yearly physical*.

---In some ways it's good to know some things never change. However, this morning as we observed three first shifters hunched over a copy of the schedule, trying to figure out where the hell they were supposed to work, it's obvious some things really ought to change. It seems a first-shifter, notorious for finagling ways to get rid of the few days she actually does clock in, engineered a complicated *5-WAY* trade so that she could get today off. And didn't write any of it on the schedule, and didn't bother to contact the poor girl on the bottom of this pile, who now was faced with working an area of the Microbiology department for which she had absolutely no training. This woman has gotten away with more call-ins, meanderings away from her department, laziness and byzantine schedule changes than anyone for the last TWO DECADES.

---Oh, and caramelizing onions DOES work in the slow cooker. I got a chance to try it Memorial Day weekend when I had three glorious days off to mess around and get stuff done at home. It took 15 hours on low, takes more butter than I would normally care to use, and they're not quite as good as when done in a pan on the stovetop, but it gets the job done with minimal interaction.

---I flipped the page on a calendar at work last night to June, and there was a gorgeous painting of Conquistador Isle in the Grand Canyon. Made me get all nostalgic for our raft trip exactly 2 years ago.