the stinky stogie~

Last night ... I'm laying in bed ... TRYING to shut the brain down and all I could do was think about Dan K. ~ the husband of a former boss of mine, from a job I had at a supper club back in the 80's. 

Now Dan and I did not hit it off ~ I know... hard to believe; because I usually can get along with just about everyone I've ever met ... but there was just something about Dan that made me despise the guy.  Maybe it was this:

When I was first hired on the job as a prep cook ~ who came in during the day and made up salads, bread, dressings, croutons, soup, all the goodies that went on the salad bar, etc...  I also had to do a little cleaning before starting the kitchen work. 

My cleaning duties included vacuuming the dining room and bar lounge area and cleaning the bathrooms.  I know... disgusting... having to clean the dirty bathrooms ... then go into the kitchen and cook.  (after my incident with Dan though ... that changed).

Dan had it out for me right from the beginning.  At first, it was testing my trustworthiness.  You see, I had a key to the place and was always the first one there in the morning.  Now... I know Dan was always the last one there at night to lock up the place.  Besides being the boss' husband he was also the night time bartender.  I also knew that whenever there were tips left on the tables, the waitresses at night also retrieved them when they were cleaning up.  So there wasn't any money just laying around.  Or at least there shouldn't of been ... and there wasn't ... until Dan got there in the morning about a half hour to an hour behind me. 

I could walk past an area that I hadn't gotten to yet with my cleaning ~ a spot I had already gone past with a quick look over and all of a sudden there would be a dollar or two tucked under an ashtray, or laying on the floor.  I knew darn well that Dan had put it there to see what I would do with it.  I always did the same thing ... every time ... I would pick it up and lay it on the end of the bar where Dan always sat in the morning sipping on his orange juice ( I think it was really an OJ & vodka), smoking his stinky cigar and I'd say, "I found some tip money from last night and it's laying on the end of the bar." ... or something on that line.  Anyhooooooo.... I always turned the money over and never pocketed it.

Until ... 

I got so sick and tired of Dan's little game.  Oh it started out with just a dollar or two, then it was a ten or a five, on occasion a twenty dollar bill.  This went on for a good month.  The guy was nuts ...  YET ... I still turned in the money.

One morning ~ same thing ... only this time his wife (my boss ~ she always made it well know... she was the boss and Dan was just her husband and a hired bartender) was also sitting there with him while he was smoking the stinky stogie.  I walked past a table that I had already cleaned ... and there is a hundred dollar bill tucked under the ashtray... just peeking out so I could see that it was a hundred. 

I picked up that hundred dollar bill ... walked over by Dan and Madeline ... and said, "It's about time!  I was waiting for you to finally recognize my good work and leave me a big tip."  I pocketed the hundred dollar bill right there in front of the both of them. 

As I walked back to the kitchen to start my cooking job, I could hear Dan bitching because I took his money and Madeline was rolling in laughter.   Miraculously, the money laying around quit ... but ... did I open a can of whoop ass or what?

Apparently,  Dan didn't like that I did that to him ... in front of his wife.

~~ I know... this is a long winded post ... go get your coffee cup refilled ~~~ I'll wait.

You're back .... great! Thanks for sticking with me.

The continuing story:

After the money incident ~ Dan started to leave something else lay around.  It was his stinking stogie of a cigar. 

Every morning ... when I'd go to clean the men's bathroom ~ there it would be ... laying in the bottom of the urinal.  And, I ~ with my rubber gloved hand ~ would pick it out and put it in the garbage can. 

Oh MY GOD ... I wanted to puke!  I let him pull that stinky cigar in the urinal on me for a week ... then I blew!!  I just waited ... I knew one of these morning ~ Madeline would be sitting there at the bar with him and then I would go into action. 

Finally ... she came in early with him. 

They were both sitting there sipping the OJ and I came out of that bathroom with the stinky urine soaked stogie in my hand and I walked right over to Dan and put it right into his glass.   At the same time, I was telling Madeline I quit, I was done being treated like this and I was out of there.

Before I could get to the door ~  some negotiation was being done.

I got a substantial raise.  I became a full time day cook ... a cleaning lady was hired after Dan became the 'cleaning boy' for a couple weeks. 

Dan and I kept our distance ... but he did show me a little bit more respect ... but just a little though ... I'll share another story about that later. 

Also, one of my negotiations  ... Dan stayed out of my kitchen!


Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

playin' with fondant ~

Two post in one day ... I know!!  I can't believe it either!!

I was playing around with some fondant and made some cupcake toppers for Halloween.  Just thought I'd share.

little ghosts

eyes of Newt ... who was Newt??  I always thought a newt was a salamander

my fav ... Witches fingers ~ appetizing

lil Pumpkins for the lil Munchkins

Rat Heads ... 

I don't know what's up with my camera because they aren't blue ... they're a disgusting gray shade

 Tomorrow I'll be baking up some red velvet cupcakes to frost and top. 

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

up & runnin' again~

Finally, our power is back on ~ after three days.  You just don't realize how much you love it until you don't have it. 

We had a big windstorm go through ~ thankfully, we didn't sustain too much damage to the place.

The boat canopy and truck window didn't handle it too well ~ nor some of the trees in our yard.

Yes... that's snow on the ground! It's was just a dusting and melted off already ~ I'm so not ready for a snowy winter yet.

You should of seen me jump when the wind blew that 33 gallon can and bird feeder off the deck and they went rolling down the stairs.  The can was full of soda pop cans ~ which blew all over the yard.  What a racket and mess!

Ahhh... the joy of listening to things that go bump in the night.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

awesome pumpkin carvings~

These are from a shared email from my niece Jess ~  I wish I could take credit for them ... but whoever the artist was that did them ... WOW!

Go get your carving knife sharpened ... 'tis the season!

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel





 

Got my eye on you Who let me outta here? Would you open this zipper? Rough day Barack Obama Please don't pull on that tab Say 'aaaahhhhh'! Predator pumpkin Motorized Medusa It's alive!! Native American portrait Brainiac Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Unlocking a vision Foods with moods Biting his tongue David Letterman The fear inside

feeling scrappy~

I was feeling a little scrappy ... so decided to do up a few pages.

Sara & Don's wedding

the cake ... baked and frosted by my sister Darla ... I made the sugar flowers ~ closer details on some of the flowers shown below ( I know I've posted some of these before ... but ... you know me ... I repeat myself ... I repeat myself )  It's just that this was the first time I ever made these things ... and I was so happy with the outcome. 

My Bunch ... upper left -  daughter Sara and her hubby Don ... bottom left -  daughter Staci and her hubby Paul ... upper right - me & hubby Slim  ... bottom right - son Sam and his girl Ashley

~~~

Did you watch the Packer/Viking game?  What did you think of the 'lambeau limp' as Cher so affectionately called it?  lol  ......  AWESOME OUTCOME!!!

~~~

My younger brother got his buck during the bow hunt ... Way 2 go Eric! 

To be fair ... I figured I better put a picture of my other brothers on here too.  lol  I can't start a sibling rivalry.

this is my older brother Randy

and my older older brother (Darla's twin) ... Doug

~~~~
Three years ago ... another very important man in my life was called Home to Heaven ...  and I really, really miss him.

my Dad

~~~
Hungry for a salad?  Check out Mom's French Dressing at my cooking blog.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

sam update~

Thank you to EVERYONE with your best wishes and concerns for Sam.  He came home and is feeling better ... thanks to some strong narcotics and TLC from Momma. 

He told me he's going to take the organ donor sticker off his drivers license because he's running out of organs!

He was very fortunate ~ but the infection was already into his large intestines and a part of that also had to be removed along with his appendix.   He was a lucky guy ... for sure!

Now I just gotta try to get some weight back on him.  Since his gall bladder surgery in March up until his appendectomy yesterday ~ he went from 185 lbs. down to 165 lbs.  That's a 20 pound loss without even trying.  

I don't want anything to go wrong with me and my health; but geeze... I wish I could lose 20 pounds in that amount of time ................ without trying.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

appendectomy~

Yesterday was not a good day at our place.  My son, Sam, came home from work off of 3rd shift complaining of lower stomach pains, which kept getting worse.  A trip into the ER and then an hour drive to another hospital ... a LONG wait at the hospital because of emergency surgeries there.  Sam had to have his appendix removed.

I really was quite shocked by this.  He just had his gallbladder removed in March.  He's 21 years old ~ I guess it's quite hereditary.  But I thought they checked out your appendix at the same time of gallbladder surgery.  I guess I was wrong.  Poor kid ... he was so miserable ... I really felt sorry for him.

He should be released from the hospital some time this afternoon if everything goes okay.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

critters~

We live in the woods and are blessed to see many animals in our area, such as the bear, coyote, wolf, rabbits, bobcats, skunks, fisher.  We have trail cameras that we put out in our woods on occasion ~ which are wonderful because we are able to see what animals are in our woods and catch the animals in there natural habitat.  We don't get those frightened deer in the headlight shots, instead we get pictures like these.

Just thought I'd share :)

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel