Sarah's Book Club

Finally started to read something. Reversible Errors by Scott Turow. It is a legal thriller dealing with the death penalty. I haven't gotten too far, I think 15 pages, but this could be interesting. I'll let you know.

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Today is the eve of All Hallows. In the Catholic Church's celebration of All Saints and All Souls Day. When we celebrate and recoginize the Saints of the church and the family and friends who have died. It can be a difficult time for those who have recently lost someone. But it is a time to reflect and remember and it can be good. This weekend I will be thinking especially of my brother Paul.

It's quiet here at work....in the newsroom it's business as usual for the most part, minus the boss being gone and many of the other bosses being out too. In the other parts of the media general campus there are people happily dressed up in various costumes...we are scrooges here in the newsroom, plus its hard to interview people dressed up ya know?

The IT department put on a haunted house. It was pretty scary actually. It was me, Cherie-who's-so-scary and Dave who laughs out loud when he is scared. It started with me in the back and by the end Dave was cowering behind me. I don't think anything got done in that department today.

Went out to lunch with Dave and boyfriend Britt at La Terisita (the restaurant you could feed a family of 4 for $4.) Ok so I exaggerate a little, but not by much. It was hard to come back to work. I just wanted to go outside and play. It is sooo nice here in Florida today. The sun is shining and it is about 80. Perfect ghouling weather.

Not sure what we are doing tonight. Hopefully something fun.

Happy Halloween to all my friends!

"Japanese adults cuddle furry toys"

Ok. And I thought American's were a little wacky. For example, the fact that Jerry Springer is still on TV, reality TV is a hit and our obsession with big cars, namely enormous SUVs. But after reading the article listed below, I have to worry about the Japanese. Adults who have taken to cuddling with stuffed animals? And lots of them are doing it too. Click on the link below to get a good laugh.

Yahoo! News - Japanese adults cuddle furry toys

Fish Fry

My lovely hubby brought home a bucket of mackerel from his fishing trip yesterday. Should be very yummy. Although we have so much of it he could open a small fish restaurant. Unfortunately he has gem class tonight so I won't be eating any since it isn't prepared (cut up enough) for me to cook it. I'll cook fish, but I'll leave the other stuff to anyone who wants to do it.

So do you like fish and if so what's your fav.? I'll be liken the mackerel for the next few days. :-)

Wheew!

My yearly self-eval and follow-up with the bosses finished up today. It went well I think. I am happy it's over. It is always stressful ya know?

I've got Louis Armstrong's It's a Wonderful World stuck in my head today. What's stuck in your head?

Good Read

Dad excorcised the demons out of the power supply (replaced the fried thing) and my computer is good as new. Yeah!

Finished The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks last night. I enjoyed it. It was typical Sparks, romance, mushiness but this time with a twist of a mystery. It was pretty exciting at times. I enjoy his descriptiveness. And I enjoyed the main character's relationship with her great danek, he had great personality. I am not sure what I reading next. I have lots of stuff to read, not sure what I will pick up. Who knows what'll be next. I did add a new CD that I have been into all weekend. It's a compilation disk by friend and co-worker Dave Simanoff titled Skiptember/Skiptober. It chronicles the past 2 months of his life. If you want a copy...you gotta ask him..:-) It's pretty darn good though. Just in case he happens to be reading this, I'm not to sure since he doesn't comment much anymore.. :-( Still going through Daily Dave withdrawl!

It's Monday Again?

Wow. Weekends sure do go fast don't they? It's Friday afternoon and you have the windows down in your car and your listening to some great music and you are excited about starting the weekend. Then, it's Saturday night and then Sunday night. And here it is Monday morning the next thing you know. It just amazes me sometimes.

Ever had your computer smoke? Ok folks, this is the second time my computer has. I took it over to my dad because it seemed to be having electrical problems (I don't even mess with anything electrical and since it's his specialialty...) he plugs it in and zzzz! sparks fly and there's black smoke pouring out of the back. The power supply conked out. I am just happy the computer is ok. Oh yeah, and that my dad didn't lose his eyebrows! I am beginning to wonder if my computer may need to have its demons excorcised. :-)

Ok, too funny NOT to share

Dean of the business news department of the Tampa Tribune, Jerry Stockfisch, brought in 4 wooden planes to be launched off the fourth floor balcony. Now they are doing construction to the building and they have the area by the railing taped off and some of the tiles pulled up. We climb over the tape, and go right up to the railing, a place we know we shouldn't be, but we do. Then, the four planes are launched to our great delight. We are reveling in how cool we think we are when we turn around only to see the Publisher of the paper standing there giving a tour. Totally busted!

It was sooo funny! But we are still sad because our friend Jerry is moving to Tally. We'll miss him.

Funny Phrase

Ok, here's a great web site what was suggested by fellow Biz Staffer Cherie Jacobs. It's called The word spy. Here's one of my favorite phrases of the moment.

The Word Spy - butt call

New Listing

I've add Hatch Magazine to the distractions section. Jon Horowitz is a former editor/writer for the Wall Street Journal. He launched this web site that is aimed at 20 somethings. Take a look, it can be fun.

Top O' the Mornin' To Ye

Just wanted to say hi to every one. I have found myself without much to say. Just wanted to I am thankful for all my wonderful family and friends that I have. Thankful for being alive, thankful I am employed (I don't think that everyday) and thankful to be healthy. What other things are people thankful for?

I love Fall in Florida

I love this time of the year in Florida. The bright blue skys, a temperate temperature and the comfortable evenings. I love driving down the road with my windows opened with the music cranked. I love having the windows open at home (haven't got there yet because we are only on one side of the building and there is not cross ventilation and it gets warm easily) but I am sure it is soon to happen. Kinda puts a spring in your step. Writing about it makes me smile.

I saw babies everywhere...

There were babies EVERYWHERE in the newsroom yesterday it seemed. There were 4 tiny ones making their way through the place. And boy were they cute, so were the girls.

We were talking about weird baby names because of this and there was an article in the Trib's features section about the strange names people are giving their kids these days. Included where L'oreal, Celica and Buckshoot. Skippy Simanoff and I decided you should have your parental rights taken away if you say that naming your kid after a car is a good idea.

I have always been a fan of old, traditional names. I have one, Sarah, yes it is at the top of popularity for little girls these days, but it has been around since the time of Abraham. There is a history with these old names, people in your family before have had them. Looking back at my mother's side of her family, her name, Anne, is the most common women's name. There were prob. at least 100 Anne Kinder's (her maiden name) since 1600. And I think that is cool. It gives you a sense of history, of place. I don't know, maybe I am old-fashioned and missing some point of giving your child a name that you think is unique. But I don't think so and I'm OK with being labeled old-fashioned in this case. Just not labeled old. :-)

The Granny

I am sad that I finished the last Agnes Browne book, the Granny, last night. The books were great. The four books spanned the life a Agnes with great detail and fun. There are so many things right with this series, I am so lucky that I picked up The Young Wan at work and decided to read it. They are short and easy, but full of life, action and humor.

On to the Gurdian by Nicholas Sparks. I am expecting some mushy stuff since he is known for that, but this one is supposed to be a suspense novel. I shall find out soon enough.

Excited

Me, my hubby, parents and yes, Grandma will be going to the Sarah Brightman concert in January! I got prime tickets Friday from an Internet pre-sale. The concert hasn't officially been annouced even. And yes, while it is in Lakeland, 2 hours isn't that far to drive. I am excited. I really enjoy her recent albumn Harem. Lots of middle eastern influences. I am so excited!

Book Review

Kitchen Confidential was an interesting read. Anthony (Tony) Bourdain has certainly lived quite the interesting life. He learned to love food from his family visits to France and decided he was going to be a cook/chef. He worked his way up from dishwasher in a seafood chef on the East coast and started working up the line, going to the CIA (no not the Central Intelligence Agency but rather the Cullinary Institute of America when at the time it was a hard place to get into and it meant a lot.

He then started his run at many east coast, mainly New York restaurants, as he says, he helped many restaraunts that were on their way down go out of business. Along the way he works at and for some illustreous restaurants (the famed Rainbow Room - which sounded like a an big assembly line to me) and working for a man he calls BigFoot who taught him a lot and even some members of what he would consider the mob.

The man had a really bad drug problem and discovered he wasn't going to make it, live, if he didn't fix himself. Towards the end there is a great chapter about when he is asked by Las Halles (the restaurant he is head chef in NY) to go and help the Tokoyo restaurant become more French. His experience with the truely local food there is great. He didn't want to leave in the end.

There are points when he can get tiring and boisterous. You can see his potential and there are so many times he screwed it up for himself. But then you do come away with respect for anyone who chooses to cook as their calling. It is hard work. Most work 6 days, long days too. You always work the holidays, always standing, often in the extreme hot and you could harm yourself in many ways just by doing the job you set out to do. Then there is the language barriers because so many of the cooks in our country are not from here. And it's not the Europeans usually, but from Spanish speaking countries in our hemisphere so he reminds you it is essential to speak Spanish.

After reading this there are few delusions that being a cook is a hard job, not like the jobs the perky people have on the Food Network where they don't get dirty, have everything prepped for them and don't have to answer to a crowded restaurant
audience that is very particular.

Anyone who thinks they might want to do this as a job should read this, it's an eye-opener.

Finished another

Finished Kitchen Confidential last night. Will have my thoughts on it later. Basically, the man is damn crazy and anyone who professionally cooks is too. (Sorry Laura, you know it's true more than anyone.)

Strippin' the night away!

Started stripping the paint off the piano bench last night. It's going OK. And with the weather so lovely it was nice to be outside. Strippin' will continue tonight.

Tasty Lunch

I had a pleasant lunch with some colleagues today, from the design desk at the paper. We walked downtown to Shalimar, an Indian restaurant. My new mantra, you don't know if you will like something unless you try it. And I am glad I did!

What was really cool is that there was a buffet so I could try a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I had some vegetable soup (very tasty and smooth), a spinach and cottage cheese mixture that was wonderful (even though I am not a big spinach fan), buttered chicken (YUM!) beef curry (spicy), a turkey dish with a tiny grain that was spicy too (good), and a vegetable thing that was fried (not my favorite). To finish it off was a mango desert, kinda like a thick jello, more creamy and with something crunchy in it (not sure what). The best part was the bread, the naan. It was so warm, and soft and scrumptious! I would have loved to take some with me.

Thanks to Pat Kane of Mr. Doodles Dog's fame for suggesting it. I would def. return. Next time Skippy must come too!

Red Sox or Cubs?

Ok guys, I always am rooting for the under dogs it seems (except for the Bucs last year) and this baseball playoffs have got me in a bind. If the Sox win the series with the Yankees and the Cubs finish of the dang Marlins, there will be a World Series with 2 teams I would LOVE to see win. I mean come on. I am leaning toward the Cubs cause of the goat curse thing, cause it's weird, but then there is intense pressure from a certain friend who happens to be from Massachusetts and is a die-hard Sox fan. What does one do?
Maybe I am ahead of myself, the Sox could lose and so could the Cubs. But the prospects are mind boggling!

Quote - Unquote

Quote for the Day:

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
Renee Descartes
French Philospopher

Raised by a pack of French poodles..?

Ok, this whole Jessica Simpson thing is really funny to me, I can't help but stop and watching it when it's on. Here's MSN's take.
Raised by a pack of French poodles

Great Show

If you get the chance, there's a great show on the Discovery Channel called We Built This City. And yes, they use that song from StarShip as the opening music. It's a series about the development of different large cities around the world. Watched London and Paris last night until Midnight and then taped New York. There's history about how the cities were started and goes on to talk about the the challenges the cities went through including problems with the geography and how they deal with it, disease, and the infrastructure that they came to have. It may sound dry, but actually it is really interesting and presented very well.

Sharing

In case you don't get the Tampa Tribune I wanted to share my friend and co-worker, Cherie Jacobs article about working at Busch Garden's Howl o" Scream.

Go to TBO.com and scroll down to the bottom. There's a picture of her being "scarey." You can read the article she wrote or listen to her talk about it. All in all it's a good time. :-)

Congrats!

I wanted to send out a BIG congratulations of one of my most favorite cousins Dave Becker and his soon-to-be wife Kim up in the Fort as I remember him calling the town. That Ft. Wayne, Ind., to those unfamiliar with Indiana.

They are getting married today and we are so happy for them! We wish we could be there but Mom and Dad brought our happy wishes with them.

Tune it in!

I have added Radio.Free.Tampa to the But Seriously..section. Meet a guy who has something to say about just about everyone including the Tampa Bay area. Tune it in to get the real scoop!

You can find it here!

Welcome Aboard!

Stop the presses! My sister and her hubby have set up a blog from Jacksonville, Fla. (yes, it suprised me too that they not only have computers there, there is Internet service!)

Check out the insane world of the K_C's here!
You will also be able to keep up with them because they are now listed under the Cool People section!

The Terminator?

So the guy is an action movie star and so now he is the new gov. for the largest state in the union? This is one of the times that I am happy to be living in Florida :-)

The media should be happy, lots of sound bytes.

Thank heavens!

Came across this article today that says beer DOES NOT make you fat and in fact may help women lose weight. Yeah!!! You can read the story here.

Tired

Dumb me stayed up and watched the Bucs on Monday night football. They started so well and then it all fell apart. In a few ways I am OK with it. I think Tony Dungy is a nice guy and did so much for the Bucs and then Gruden came in and just had to make some minor adjustments and BAM, there'a s Super Bowl. Sad cause I don't like to see the Bucs lose.

Aaron: I am happy to see your Red Sox won. I still want a Cubs/Sox World Series. That would be cool.

I think there will be coffee in my future today.

Take a look!

I took a look at St. Matthew's web site (my church) and noticed they have photos of the animal blessings. I am in a photo, if you go to page 2 I am in the third photo. If you look just past the dog closest to the center I am there with a light blue sweater on and light brown capris pants. You can find the photos here. Of course there are the photos of the llamas! Oh, the guy with the green robes on and the long hair is our pastor Father John. He's our hippy, motorcycle-riding priest. (He's really cool actually.) The older gent. in the white robe is decon Bernie. He's really cool too, complete with an earring.

Wonderful Weekend

Had a great weekend. Fri. night I spent the evening with the hubby. We had a nice dinner, watched a little TV and then went for a great drive. We drove down to Pass-a-Grille Beach, and walked on the beach. The we drove all the way back up the beach through Clearwater Beach with the windows wide open listening to the first 2 Cranberries CDs.

Saturday I worked of course and then we hung out and had dinner with some good friends. Then it was home to watch the end of the very exciting USF Bulls vs. Louisville football game.

Sunday went to church, there was the blessing of the animals because it was the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, he was known to care for animals and thus is the Patron Saint of Animals and the Environment. At the blessing there were four llamas. Yes, I typed that, llamas. To go along with the usual dogs, cats and birds. Then went with my dad to Home Depot (a favorite place of his) and got the materials to strip the paint off the piano bench. I am starting small first. This is my first paint stripping try. Then had a yummy dinner with my parents, which before Mom kicked my butt and Dads butt as usual in a game of Scrabble, one day I will win!
Still reading Kitchen Confidential. It is interesting. The guy is a hoot. About 1/2 the book to go.

Insurance Hurts My Brain

Just got back from a company meeting about health insurance. I have such a pit in my stomach. It brings it to reality that I don't know how I can ever afford to start a family. I can barely afford the coverage now for me and my husband. And we are rarely sick. A baby? Oye! How do people afford this?

Miss ya Dave

Wanted to say that the Daily Dave will be missed. He was the inspiration for Sarah Says and I'm sure for many others. It was a highlight to read your musings daily. And your haiku's are/were second to none. I'm sorry to see your site go away. :-(

Correction

Sarah Says has a policy of correcting mistakes or mistatements,which since I don't always re-read what I type, it can be often. So I strive to the highest blogging standards and thus I have to correct an earlier post.

Pat Kane did not make the yummy Barfi (Indian (as in the country) fudge) that I sampled this morning. She bought it. And I also misspelled Barfi.

Quote and Question of the Day

"Always be kinder than necessary."
- James M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

Question of the Day:
Q. What's the weirdest thing you ever ate?

A. I have eaten frog legs. And then today I had a wonderful concotion called Barfee. It's Indian Fudge. Pat Kane from Mr. Doodle Dog's fame made it. It is actually sweetend condensed milk in pretty colors (red, white and green, the colors of the Indian Flag I suppose) or as I noted to her I kind of looks like candy watermelon. It was yummy, just a bad name.

The Chisellers Was Great

Finished reading the The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll. Another fun read. Agnes Brownes 7 kids are growing up and making good, for the most part and Agnes finds love. One more of the series to go, The Granny. I will be getting that one from my mom shortly.

In the meantime I am reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. He has the show on the Food Network where he travels around the world to out of the way places and eats sometimes cool and sometimes gross things.
The book is a look into the food industries culture. My sister, who is if you don't know, is a chef at a 5-diamond resort in North Florida and lent me the book. I like his conversational style so far and he is brash. I know I am going to find out somethings about the industry that I may not want to know, but I'm forging ahead with it.