Just returned from a dinner party at J and J's house. J (male)'s wife is in town from Sweden, and though I have met her before, we had never spent any time together. She was lovely, of course. We had wheat berry somethingorother with mushrooms that she had managed to smuggle through customs by skirting a beagle in baggage claim. There was also quinoa and a salad with tomatoes, and as per usual a cheese course for dessert. We had Van Duzer Pinot Gris, which matched perfectly with my food and the cod that everybody else had. After that we had Velvet Devil Merlot from Washington state and Petite Petit (syrah and verdot). Not having had enough to drink, we went down to the Three Penny Taproom after for a nightcap. Everything was fabulous and I could not be happier.
The week has been mostly good. We took Wyatt to the vet on Monday and found out that he gained ten pounds this winter, which is a gigantic bummer, but since I have already gotten back into the habit of taking them on long walks again on a regular basis, I am trying not to worry.
The weather has been relentlessly cold, which was bad enough without the Nor'easter that we're in for tomorrow. They're saying six to twelve inches, and I just don't know how to face that.
The BH now has two jobs, both of which he is pretty excited about. My job is still going very well. So I get a call from my sister the other day, and she mentions that she and my brother in law are looking at a property in their neighborhood outside of Chicago. As an investment. You know, something that they would say, rent out, to a young and struggling couple who could not possibly afford to buy. It has three bedrooms and a fenced yard.
Yeah.
So I'm trying not to think too hard about that at the moment, because both of us would be much better off sticking here for a year or so in order to put it on our respective resumes.
Other than that, it's pretty much business as usual. I went to Burlington with my friend A the other day, did a whole lot of thrift store shopping and ate at Pennycluse again, which I loved. I have been getting out more often for a beer here and there, and in general tired but happy. Looking forward to some potential travel for rock shows (J. Roddy has residencies in both D.C and NYC next month), and hoping to hit Chicago for the 4th of July. Trying to figure out where Athens can fit in this summer, too. All in all, things are good.

I had a weird bout of some kind of flu-ish thing. I spent all day Saturday in bed, unable even to take a sip of water because I was too nauseated. Then I felt a bit better and went to pick the BH up from work. Spent an hour on the couch, felt crappy again, went back up to bed. Got up to take some ibuprofen, slugged back two and a glass of water, and the next thing I knew I was staring into his face and he was yelling my name at me.
What the hell is he yelling about? God damn, he is so loud. My head hurts. What the hell is that thing above my head. Oh, that's the towel rack. The one on the bathroom door. Oh shit, I'm on the floor.
All of those things went through my head before I was finally able to focus on his face and grumble.
"Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"I don't know." My voice did not sound like me. I could barely get the words out. "I am going to-"
I gagged and never finished the sentence. He had to drag me up off the floor and help me crawl to the toilet. I threw up. I was sweating a lot, my head was on fire, and I felt completely disconnected from my body. I sat on the floor in the bathroom for several minutes while the BH ran around frantically. I heard him dialing the phone. I was waiting for the sound of an ambulance pulling up outside, my head pounding, dreading the idea of all the noise and the bright lights. He came back upstairs. I pulled a washcloth off of the sink, ran it under cold water, and then started wiping my face and neck. He picked me up off the floor and dragged me to the guest bed. The rest of the night was fairly blurry, but I didn't go to the hospital.He fetched juice and ginger ale from the gas station and jumped awake every time I turned over, making sure I was okay. I was achy and feverish and I felt crappy, but the worst was over. The next day I mostly just slept and watched TV. He said later that when passed out he caught me and set me on the floor and my eyes were wide open but I wasn't responding and he thought I had dropped dead. Poor thing. I am such a drama queen. Who knew? The rest of the week was mostly work and work and sleep and work. He got sick on Friday, stayed home from work on Saturday, and finally felt better on Sunday. This stomach bug has been ravaging the Local Grocery. Every day we have been understaffed.
Other than that things have been great on the work front. I am still constantly busy, but starting to feel comfortable with most of my tasks, and getting things organized so that hopefully one day soon I will know what an average day looks like.
Saturday night was the Super Full Moon. Closer to the earth than it's been in something like twenty years. I talked the BH into joining me for a 10pm run up to Morse Farm to take some pictures. They turned out okay, but not stellar. I still don't quite have the night photography down.



Sunday the BH and I went to Burlington. We ate breakfast at Pennycluse. I had French toast made from oat bread with a tangerine curd topping. He had meat with a side of meat. After that we went down to the lakefront and walked around in the sun for a bit. it was nearly fifty degrees, a virtual heatwave by our recent standards, and not a cloud in the sky. I took a bunch of pictures.






After we went shopping to find a case for the BH's iPh0ne, and I got some new jeans and a couple other much-needed clothing items.
Yesterday we went to a wine show all day in Essex. It started snowing about halfway there, and it looked like it was going to be ugly. We had packed extra clothes and things because the forecast was calling for a largish storm and we thought we might get stranded for awhile. This was the first wine show I have been to where I actually got to choose the wines that will be carried at the LG. It was, as usual, enjoyable but not easy. I must have tasted seventy or eighty wines. By the end my mouth was ravaged and I couldn't wait for dinner. We stopped at the Alchemist, where I for once did not partake of any fabulous house-brewed beer. I just couldn't do it. It started snowing again about halfway through dinner, and by the time we headed home it was really coming down, sleety and gross. We burned quite a few layers from our snow tires getting up the hill.
Today I started by getting blood drawn at the doctor's office first thing, followed by more photography (the snow was a gorgeous blanket on everything and Plainfield is particularly scenic, so as long as I was there I thought I ought to shoot some),




followed by half a day of work and then a trip to the dog park. It started snowing there just as the sun was going down, beautiful, light, movie set flakes that don't seem real. It was like standing in a snow globe. No camera at the time, unfortunately, but it's probably just as well. The boys and i ran around for an hour or so, and they got to play with lots of other dogs. Now we're all a bit knackered and waiting for a call to pick the BH up from work. I hope he calls soon.

It was perfect: Five shelves, each four feet in length, full of polished wine bottles in perfect lines. I walked away, feeling a sense of accomplishment (also hunger and dire thirst, since it had taken me an entire day to reset this display and I had forgotten to eat or drink). I went in search of A, my friend in IT and the only person who had been available to help me with this project, so that I could finally address the other things I needed to accomplish.
When I found him, he asked brightly "What's up?"
"I was just looking for you."
"That's funny, I was just looking for you! What do you need?"
"I have to print out shelf tags for that st-"
There was a sound. It started with a faint tinkling, and then very quickly crescendoed into a full-fledged, glass shattering crash. We both made our way immediately to what remained of my wine display. It seems that we hadn't quite hooked the third shelf all the way into the wall, and consequently it had warped, collapsing onto the shelf below it and sending over a hundred bottles of wine crashing to the cement floor.
It was magnificent. There was a wave of wine rushing in every direction, and a sea of broken glass. Fortunately about ten of my co-workers rushed to my aid, including the GM and the heads of Marketing and Accounting. It was cleaned up pretty quickly, and everyone made sure to tell me their story about when something similar had happened to them, and assure me that it could have been much worse. All things considered it wasn't actually that bad, but my shame and horror will likely be lasting. I am actually really proud of myself for not bursting into tears.
On that note, it's time to get dressed for work. Fingers crossed for a better day today.

Shit My Dad Says.

"This hearing aid only works when you put it in a certain place- which is your ass, I think."

Today was my only day off this week. I had just worked six in a row, which due to the LG's status as a Union Shop means that I actually got paid time and a half for the entire day yesterday. (High five!)
I had a hair appointment at nine-thirty this morning, and it started snowing yesterday at two in the afternoon and has yet to stop. When I woke up at eight, I called the salon and the message on their machine said that they knew that some people would need to reschedule due to weather, and so to leave a message and they would call back. I left a message saying that I was coming, but that I was checking to make sure that my stylist was going to make it. I left my number and, not hearing from them by ten after nine, I walked down there. I arrived to find the owner of the salon at the desk, and she looked down at the appointment book in front of her.
"Hiiiiii. You must be heybartender. Sheila won't be in today."

I can't bear to finish quoting her, because I am still a bit pissed about it. Long story short they had not checked the messages and she had just gotten there a minute before I had. I don't know why the hell she couldn't check her machine by phone, or why they wouldn't have known (since everybody else did) that this was going to be a nearly two foot snowfall. Anyway, I was already downtown, so I went and got coffee and a breakfast sandwich at the only place that was open. It was almost completely without flavor, and the music went from bad (David Gray) to worse (Cat Stevens), and I left very quickly and rather grumpily. The snow was blowing so hard that taking pictures was nearly impossible. The cold wasn't bad, it was the fact that my lens kept getting wet and the snow was stinging the tiny potion of my face that was exposed. So, I stopped off at Rivendell, my local used bookstore, and picked up a copy of Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing along the Borderlands.
Eventually the b.h. came to meet me, and we also met up with my friends A and D. This was slightly cheering, and I was convinced to go over to another friend's house to watch and learn while they screenprinted some merch for their band. This was how I spent the rest of the day. I actually wanted to go home, because I was still kind of grumpy and felt like I was being a bit of a stick in the mud, but the weather was just too daunting. In the end I had a good time, and when the weather cleared I met the b.h. at the grocery store and we walked home together. Now I am on the couch with Wyatt's head in my lap and all is right with the world.
The best part? I am not dreading going to work tomorrow. Not at all.

I got the job, and it has been balls (ovaries?) to the wall ever since. I just finished my last photography class, which was terrific. I now feel like I can use my camera in any situation with at least some degree of competence. Hopefully I will find some time to take more pictures in the near future. Got myself a shiny new tripod now, too.
So the whole job thing was ridiculous until the bitter end, and now the person who was a douche about it is pretending like nothing ever happened. Thankfully, I am pretty much on my own now, so no matter. I have already gotten a free bottle of wine ("sample"). This is good news. I will be sure to share it with some co-workers after I have had a glass. Or two.
What else? Oh yes, it is still snowing more than once a week, and it is still below zero. I guess this is what the landlord meant last year when he said we hadn't really seen a Vermont winter. I don't mind, really, except that I am dying to get out and take some pictures. We learned night photography and I am eager to try it out.
Yep, another boring post. Sorry. I promise to try to be more interesting soon.

Well, there went another week. I have changed my schedule for the duration of my six-week photography class, and now I am working Mondays at 8 am rather than Wednesdays at one pm. You can see how this might throw a person off.
I took today off because I will not be needed. I will not be needed because we have extra staff. We have extra staff because there has been an offer made on the cheese buyer's job, and the person to whom the job was offered is pussyfooting around about it now. Honestly, it is quite infuriating. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that this person applied for both the wine and the cheese buyer positions, and now has been offered a job and has decided that they want the other. Why apply for a job you don't want? I suppose to insure that you get one of them. But to demand to be given a job in which you have very little background after having been offered an equal position doing something you're actually qualified for is ridiculous. This is a person who did not know that Marlborough was a region, rather than a wine. Common knowledge? No, but if you expect to be handed a position that places you in charge of half a million dollars annual sales, and to grow those sales, you ought to at least have passing familiarity with the product.

Enter Oddfellows Local 151.

This person, the person who is the only other person who can possibly get what is very obviously supposed to be My Job, has worked in the LG for five years. As such, this person has seniority. Seniority is big with the OFL151. But according to the contract, the more senior person is only to be given a position unless the less senior person is more qualified. Ahem. So the person is taking it to the Union. I shall bore you no further, but suffice to say I am through with this person and have no desire to spend six hours standing next to them today doing my old job rather than the job I should rightly have been awarded by now. I have no idea when this will end, but I am taking three days off in hopes that when I return it will all be over. The one thing that would be nice about this person taking what is so obviously supposed to be My Job (are you getting a vibe here?) is that this person would no longer be working with the rest of us in the department, most of whom would rather stick forks in our eyes than be subjected to one more moment of this person's passive aggression or banal observations on the everyday activities of the LG.
But, since I am not talking about it, let's move on, shall we?
I have been reading A Damsel in Distress by Wodehouse, and last night I started Eastward to Tartary by Robert Kaplan. I have been going to sleep to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on audiobook, narrated by Derek Jacobi. After that I think I will resort to listening to the new Mark Twain autobiography, since the book is very large and very heavy and therefore going very slowly. I read The Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England and was puzzled as to why it got such terrific press. I really disliked the narrator, and only kept reading it because I kept hoping it would get better. It didn't. I finished another Maisie Dobbs novel, and solicited ideas via faceb00k for my next audio adventure. I believe I have settled on Paul Theroux on the recommendation of my good friend A, but as I said, Mark Twain is likely next in line.
I have spend an inordinate amount of time reading about the current revolutions spreading through the Middle East. I can't help but feel that this is world changing stuff and that at some point, many years from now, I am going to look back at this time with total disbelief at how quickly it happened and how disconnected the people around me seemed to be while it was happening. Sometimes I hate the bubble here, though it is conveniently safe.
In other news, I was at the LG on Saturday and there were repeated announcements on the P.A. system asking that "the customer with the Ford somethingorother, license plate blah blah blah, please move your car. You are blocking the handicapped spaces and you will be towed." I remarked to Sven that the person was possibly deaf, because there were so many announcements and no response. It turns out that the police were called, and when they ran the plate they found out that the person who belonged to the vehicle was in fact deaf, and also 81 years old and nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, our crap local paper is now a pay site, so I haven't followed up on the story. I do hope she is okay.
My plan is to spend a couple hours cleaning house and then get outside somewhere with the dogs today. It will not be above fifteen degrees, so that rather limits our options, but there will be hiking. Since I have three days off in a row, the b.h. and I have decided to make a day trip this week, probably to New Hampshire, just to get out of town for a minute. I am still hoping for a phone call and a job offer in the meantime, but I am not holding my breath.

I guess I'm officially one of those once a week bloggers. Crap.
Hopefully That will be over soon. The Local Grocery has been very busy lately, and I have had various ailments causing me to be extraordinarily lazy.
I have also, however, been spending the bulk of my free time taking pictures and doing photographer-type things. So please bear with me.

We went to the most lovely dinner party on Saturday night.
My friends J1 and J2 are roommates, and they both have culinary training. He is still at the Culinary Institute, while she graduated in 1996 and then came back to finish a BA last fall, which is how we met. His wife and family are in Sweden, while she is a single lady who is very likely too intimidating for most of the men around here.
He cooked most of the meal, assisted by another friend, A, who I did not know well before that night and now absolutely cannot wait to spend more time with. SHe is hilarious.
Dinner consisted of a venison stew (with venison provided by the last guest, a boy named S on whom J2 has wasted far too much time), kale with mushrooms that J1 smuggled back from Sweden (I made him promise not to tell me where he'd stashed them at customs), a beet and goat cheese salad, a radish salad with sumac, roasted sweet potatoes and celeriac, and mashed potatoes. He also made, special for me (the only vegetarian) a quinoa dish with two kinds of mushrooms.
We started with a Monastrell, followed it with a Chilean Syrah (which was perfect for both mushrooms and venison), and moved on to a Reserva Tempranillo. This doesn't sound as bad when I don't mention the pre-dinner cocktails (the BH and I had beer, but martinis were available) or the fact that we wound up having a very pricey bottle of J2's Cabernet Sauvignon with dessert.
Dessert consisted of a Stilton, Lazy Lady's Lady in Blue cheese, and Green Mountain's Boucher Blue, as well as a soft goat cheese and a soft cow's milk cheese.
J1 also brought out a kumquat marmalade that he had made and a large bowl of nuts.

The weather was atrocious, and honestly, after working all day and a brief shopping stint with my transvestite friend, the last thing I wanted was to leave the house. Bad enough that I had to park the car at the bottom of our hill, but walking to J & J's and then walking home after was not something I was looking forward to. Luckily I am not one to cancel plans, because it would have been our loss had we not braved the journey. (Actually, come to think of it, I need to go find somebody's grandchild so I can tell them without exaggeration how I walked uphill, both ways, in the snow.) The dining room at their place has several windows, which provided a great view of the surprise thunderstorm that happened just after we'd finished eating (I use the term "finished" loosely, of course). It was beautiful and amazing, and I was sorry not to have brought my camera. The next day my friend C told me that he had been working at the Local Restaurant when it happened, and that everyone- customers and staff alike, had gone outside to look at it. We eventually went outside ourselves, standing on the covered porch in our jackets and staring in disbelief.

So I mentioned this S fellow. J2 did not mention to me that he would be attending. Not that it would have kept me home, mind you, but I was surprised because she and I had had many, many conversations about what a complete douche he was after he had repeatedly blown her off when they were dating last year. She met the BH and I at the front door of their building, and just as I was about to go into the apartment she hissed over her shoulder that he was inside, and told me to "be nice." Heh.
So I went inside, and while I was taking off my boots I heard J1 ask S

"What do you do?"

"Federal Law Enforcement," he replied, sticking out his hand (which was attached to the kind of over-developed arm you expect to find on an insecure man who spends most of his time at a gym). I smirked to myself.

Later, J2 asked me to guess what she had done that morning.

"I don't know... went running in the snow? Went to the gym?"

"No, I flew a helicopter over Boston." S looked stricken. This is obviously a man who cannot bear to be outdone by a woman, and he clearly was.

It turns out J2 is going to go back into the army to become a pilot.

"Cool!" was my response.

She loved being in the military, and despite the obvious danger, I would like to see her do something she loves. She went on to tell us about the lesson she had taken, and that she would be taking a test this week in upstate New York to see if the military would take her. S remained quiet the whole time, and I thought of a quote that somebody once told me, which I believe was originally said about Marlene Deitrich: "She's more woman than you'll ever have, and more man than you'll ever be." I know the latter half of that statement to be true, now I only hope that J2 also keeps the former true as well.

I would like to recommend sparked.com to everyone. It is a site dedicated to micro volunteering. It's very easy to use, and you can use your particular skill set to help people in just a few minutes whenever you have a chance. So far I have already done like, four or five things, and I am SO lazy. Most of them have only taken fifteen minutes or less.

Customer of the day- and I swear to you that I am not kidding, nor am I in any way exaggerating- was a woman walking through the store wearing a sign around her neck that read
I Love You But
I Don't Want A Hug. Please Don't Touch Me."

In other news, a man came to pick up a special order from the meat department. It was around a hundred dollars' worth of quail, and when N brought it out, the man said, with no irony whatsoever
"Oooh, my cat's going to be so excited."

In related news, I heard on the radio today that they are adding 13 more beds to the nearby Nervous Hospital, along with more staff. I'm thinking they may need a few more than that.

Just came back from a hike in the woods behind our house with the BH and dogs. I took along my camera, which did rather well despite the -1 degree temperature. These aren't perfect, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Here are a few pictures.

In case anyone was wondering if the customers were the biggest problem at my job, here is your answer:
Our manager, who is smart and patient and calm and generally a delightful person, has had complaints lodged against him this week by three employees. Two were offended by his use of the term "pow wow" to describe meetings that he is forced to have with the entire kitchen staff (because they are all constantly complaining and do not like the kitchen manager) because it is supposedly racist; while one actually went to the HR guy to complain of his use of signing off correspondence with the word "Cheers." One example of this was a note which he wrote and put in everyone's mailboxes along with a small treat after the very busy holiday season:

Dear (Staff Member's Name),
Thanks for all of your hard work last week. We had record sales and the store looked great. Customer service was fantastic and I really appreciate everything blah blah blah.
Cheers,
(Beleaguered Manager)

Seriously. These people should try working for a fucking living. None of them would last five minutes in a restaurant environment.

The weekend was busy at the Local Grocery. We also had dinner at P and M's house, where the BH finally met some people that he feels comfortable with. It was a lovely time, and we stayed much later than usual despite his having to be at work at 6am. I also found out that P and I are applying for the same job at the LG. I feel fairly certain that I am the most qualified candidate for the position, and I am not sure why P would even apply, but whatever. I think our friendship will survive regardless. The position is Wine Buyer, and it has more hours and more pay per hour than my current position, so please cross your fingers for me. I enjoy my current job well enough, but I am growing a bit bored of it, honestly.
I went to the dentist again on Monday. The bottom left quadrant is now completed, and I have a temporary wax cover on the lower right problem child tooth. I couldn't get an appointment to actually fix said tooth until the 9th of February, after which it will be an additional two weeks before the permanent cap is molded. I would complain, but it could be much, much worse, so I think I won't.
Photography class is going very well. I feel good about the (borrowed) money I've spent already, having learned something in each of the two classes that has vastly improved both my understanding of my camera and my abilities with it. At some point I will surely post some pictures. This is not that point.
In other news, the b.h. has been cooking up a storm, and being broke has kept us at home most nights eating well and going to bed early. I feel pretty good considering how cold it's been. (Did I mention seventeen below? Yes- Monday morning. Seventeen below. And my fourteen-year-old car started right up.) Now it's eleven degrees and feels perfectly balmy. My parents are dying for us to visit them in Florida, but lack of funds has me betting we won't get there before March. We'll see.

Another day, another dental incident.
I got a call first thing Wednesday morning from the dentist's office. The receptionist told me she could fit me in at 4:30, but I said I would have to leave town at five (for my new photography class- woo hoo!), and so could we make it four instead? She said she already had somebody booked at four, but then mumbled something about "whoever gets here first." Stupid? Yes. But I showed up at ten til and got right in. The dentist said that he was going to make a new cap thingie, and I told him maybe we should try one more time with the current one. It is, after all, made of gold and cost several hundred dollars. And since I don't have to pay for a new one, he will be taking a loss. So he agreed and put it back on. I have an appointment on Monday to fix the bottom left side anyway, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

I went to my new photography class with J. It was great. The instructor looks like a guy I miss terribly from Athens. I have already learned a few things. I am thrilled.

So I got home, had a beer, ate some dinner - complete with croutons on my salad thanks to my newly repaired teeth - and hit the couch to watch teevee with the BH. And then, halfway through my ice cream, it happened again. Shit.

I went to the dentist on Monday last. I am waiting for my next (third in a series of what I hope will only be three) gold partial cap thing to be made, and then next Monday I will go have it put on. I am trying to look at this process not as an enormous expense, but rather as a savings account that I secretly carry around with me. (Gl3nn B3ck tells me that the value of gold is skyrocketing, after all, on his commercials for the gold company as well as on his slobbering, angry "news" show, so it must be true).
So after work the other day, I went over to A and D's to watch a movie. I finally got a tin of toffee that I had been meaning to pick up from her since Christmas. And then on Sunday, I came home from work and, while standing in the doorway taking off my boots, popped a piece of said toffee into my mouth. Some of the toffee had not set properly, and this piece was one of those. It was not hard but not soft- a sticky in-between that called to mind a Sugar-Daddy pop, for those of you old enough and American enough to remember. So I took off my boots, went upstairs, and then, losing the patience that is requires to allow the melting of said toffee, bit into it heartily. When I pried apart my jaws, the two gold partial cap thingies that I had had put on in November stayed with the toffee, leaving me momentarily confused and eventually a bit sore. Luckily, I realized what was happening before I actually swallowed the toffee, as I shudder to think of the options that I would have been presented with otherwise.
I left a message with the dentist and was given an appointment yesterday at 4:15.
Eating was unpleasant but not impossible (I still have a temporary wax cover on the back left side, and the right having a large, temperature-sensitive hole meant that I tried to stick to soft and lukewarm foods until then), and I got through the day without incident.
I waited half an hour or so when I got there, and then there was some trouble with the front cap thingie, but I was home but a quarter to six. And then, at nine-thirty, while eating a sandwich, I lost one of them again.

Sigh.

It's going to be a long day off.

The Kitchen Manager came up to me at the LG while I was talking to my friend Nate.

"Sthorry to interrupt you guys," he lisped, but I thought you'd want to sthee this."

From his pocket he pulled a plastic bag of the quart-sized Zipl0ck variety. He reached into it and pulled out a wad of kitchen towels. Nate and I looked at each other.

"This came back with our laundry for the kitchen," he said, unrolling the towels to reveal a pair of small men's tighty whitey underwear.

"What the hell- is that guy doing our towels at home or what?!"

"I don't know. I'm going to sthee what they have to sthay about thisth."

Gross, gross, gross. I don't wash my underthings with my kitchen towels at home, and I certainly don't expect that the food service towels I use at work will be washed with such items, either.

In other news, Sven was vexed yet again by an unanswerable customer. I was "fluffing" the wine stacks (which basically means taking bottles out of the boxes on the bottom to fill up the top box, thus creating the illusion of a full display)when he approached me and said exasperatedly

"Did you hear that? One of 'those people' (the rich, mindless liberals, yuppies, egomaniacs, or any combination thereof, which make up the bulk of our customer base at the LG) just came up and I asked her if I could help her find anything, and she said she was looking for Parmesan. I showed her where it was, and she goes That's not from Italy, it's organic!"

"What did you say?"

"What could I say? I just said OKAY, and walked away. These people, they're just- aaargh!"

I think Sven needs a blog.

It has been snowing steadily all day, possibly since last night. I was due in at the LG at one p.m., but I called at noon to see how busy it was. There was no way for me to drive there, and I wouldn't mind walking if they actually needed me, but I would hate to trudge all the way there and find out that there are no customers and not much work to be done. Which was exactly the case, so I took the day off.
The BH and I trudged down the hill to the other grocery instead. We got a couple bags of supplies and then hunkered down with books and movies. Sometimes bad weather is a good thing.

The BH has been sick for the past few days. Today he woke up feeling mostly better except for a bad case of cabin fever, so I decided we would drive up to the Northeast Kingdom for a pizza. We have both been very disappointed at not having seen a moose yet, and a co-worker mentioned that the best way to find one was just to drive around up there, so we figured we'd kill two birds with one stone.

The day was sunny and beautiful, which made for a terrific drive. It was too cold to actually get out in it, but we managed to snap a few pictures out of the car windows.



If you look closely, you will see that the farmers on our tractor crossing signs have jaunty little hats.



I can't for the life of me figure out what happened to this tree...



We stopped for lunch at Parker Pie (I will refrain from posting pictures of our pizzas and beer), and then drove around aimlessly and took pictures.



This is the kind of thing I would really like to spend more time doing. Cabin Fever? Cured. Now I'm looking forward to photography class so I can learn how to do this properly.

Oddfellows Local 151 is experiencing a shakeup.
There has been a Very Big Issue which I have avoided discussing because it's pretty hard to talk about without giving too much away. Suffice to say that an employee has been terminated for stealing, and there are differing views as to said employee's guilt or innocence, and it has caused quite a huge rift between members of the Local Grocery Staff.
I volunteered to be present for the entire arbitration process, serving as a note taker for the Union Rep who was representing the Terminated Employee. As such, I have access to more information than the rest of the members of the Oddfellows Local 151, and as far as I can tell I am not at liberty to share all of the details. Because of this, I have had to sit by and listen to other members of the OL151 blather on incoherently, misrepresenting facts and basically accusing Management and other employee/union members of everything from vindictive lying to outright fascism. So essentially, the Local Grocery has developed it's own Tea Party.
I have tried to remain fairly neutral, and in some cases I have attempted to point out errors and holes in the arguments brought forth by said Tea Partiers, to no avail. I have argued for civility, and for reason, and my arguments are mostly falling on deaf ears. In true TP fashion, they keep shouting louder and never listen to anything anyone else has to say, even people who know more than they do.

It has been ugly.

The holidays were an eternity.

And finally, after the meeting on my birthday, the President of Oddfellows Local 151 stepped down. I have not spoken to this person yet, but I understand that their exit was marked by a tirade against our Representative from the National Union. This is interesting to me because when I spoke to the Former President on many, many occasions previously, arguing for more neutrality and suggesting that our Rep was stoking the fires of discontent unnecessarily, the FP told me in no uncertain terms that I was wrong and that they fully backed both the Rep and the LG Tea Partiers. I have no idea what will happen now. I have been asked by both an officer of OL151 and a Store Manager to run for president. I will do no such thing, of course, having no idea how the union really works and no real sense of the history of relations between Management and the Union beyond the past year.
I will, however, do everything I can to make sure that the next President is not bi-polar.