Time slips away again!

It never ceases to amaze me how time slips by. I've actually tried to write a couple times this past week, but just didn't feel up to it. Monday afternoon, I came down with a bug/flu, and it really took it out of me for a couple days.

On a larger scale, I noticed the date today (6/12) and realized that I have been dating my current wonderful girlfriend for 12 years. I just can't believe it. It seems like yesterday we were talking about getting married and on our honeymoon. Now we've got a wonderful 2 year old, and are planning on celebrating our 10th anniversary next weekend.

In an unrelated side-note, those of you who know me, know that I love to cook. Tonight, Gail made a delicious Strawberry Shortcake, and I helped prepare the strawberries. I had heard on a cooking show about a quick and easy way to core your strawberries. First, to explain why coring is necessary, the inner white core of the strawberry is basically flavorless, and so by leaving it in the berry, it basically dilutes the flavor. However, if you've ever worked with strawberries, you know that they break down very quickly after slicing, and are generally a delicate fruit. The easiest way to core them is to use a large star frosting tip. Pull the leaves off, then gently insert the point of the tip into the top (where the leaves were) end of the strawberry. You may have to gently rock it back and forth or slightly twist it to get it in. After inserting it, give it a twist and remove it. If you did it properly, they complete hull of the strawberry should pop out.

Tadpoles and Moon Sand

We had a fun time today. Friday night, Daniel experienced his first stomach flu, and was miserable. The poor little guy couldn't even keep a sip of water down. Thankfully, after he went to sleep, he had a pretty good night. Because of that, we decided to lay low today, even though he seemed fine. We figured it would be better to do that than for Gail and/or myself to risk spreading it around the church family.

After lunch, we braved the overcast weather and took a trip to the local park, where I got to watch Daniel play on the slides, and marvel at how much bigger he is than the last time I was able to go there with him (which was about a year ago!)

When we finished on the swings and slides, we went for a walk around the pond, and Daniel got to see tadpoles, and even a fish (not sure what kind). However, the fun part of the day was when we got to make moon sand. If you've got kids, you've probably noticed this stuff next to the Play Dough in the toy section. It's basically wet sand that you can mold and play with. I looked it up and found a recipe. It's very complex:

1 part water
2 parts cornstarch
4 parts play sand (You can add food coloring to color the sand different colors, or Crayola sells colored sand.)

Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and water, then add the sand a cup at a time.

I'm not sure how the end result compares with the actual moon sand product. I think my proportions may have been off a little, and our sand was pretty damp to start with, but the nice thing is, it's pretty forgiving, and after it dries out, you can "recharge" it with a few tablespoons of water.

Any of you with kids (or kids at heart) need to make this recipe, especially if you've never played with cornstarch and water. When you mix it, you must do it by hand to really appreciate what's going on. Slowly move your hand, and it's liquid; move it faster and it's a thick paste; slap it or squeeze it, and it feels solid. We (allright, I) had a lot of fun just playing with the cornstarch and water, but when you add the sand, it retains similar characteristics.

Anyhow, that was our day, and so far no one else seems to have come down with the flu, so we're pretty thankful.

Snakes and random things

We went for our evening walk today after I got back from work, and I had a chance to see something I'd never seen before - a milksnake. It was just a young one, and he was sunning himself on the road. Somehow, he had been missed by all traffic, so I encouraged him off the road. Daniel was interested, but since the snake didn't feel like moving all that much, I don't think he really understood that it was alive. He identified it right away, which surprised me, as I don't think we have too many books with pictures of snakes, but he seemed to know what it was!

I've been discouraged the past couple days. It started on Friday, when I got an email from my supervisor, indicating our group was going to have a meeting on Wednesday. Judging from the tone of the email, I (accurately) surmised that it wasn't a chance to thank us for a job well done.

However, even with that, I was not prepared for what followed. There were a couple valid complaints that I had already identified and was working on. Apparently, she felt that she didn't have quite enough to totally demoralize us just with her own complaints, so she collected feedback from other people in the office, weeded out anything that was remotely good or complementary, and made sure we heard in stark detail every negative thing (justified or not) that had been said about us.

Talk about demoralizing. In one brief meeting (that felt much longer than it acutally was) I went from respecting my supervisor and enjoying my job to feeling sick to my stomach when I think about going back to work. I don't think I've ever been closer to walking out on a job than I have been since that meeting.

The worst part is, now I feel like I can't trust anyone at work, because I have had no negative feedback from any person, but apparently, there are people who have a problem with my work, and don't mind talking about it behind my back but smile and act like a friend to my face.

Well, I apologize for whining and complaining like this. I hope your week has been better!