A post in which I enjoy birthday gifts

Alan finally cleaned out his in-box today, which allowed me to get some stuff done.  I got the little write-offs back, and (finally) got the reports back from one of the agencies.  That let me get my reconciliations done, although the reports were somewhat screwed up, so I had to keep sending inquiries to find out what in the world they are doing.

It was food day at work, so I skipped breakfast because I figured we would be eating all day, and although it took a while for them to start putting the food out we pretty much did.  It was also not department-wide today, so the selection wasn't quite as varied and the spread not as impressive as usual.  I made Pat's cheese ball at Larney's request, and it went over well, as usual.  It seems kind of sad that Pat is gone, and is remembered by a cheese ball, but I try to give credit still, although a lot of folks think that's my recipe now.  I didn't dwell because I didn't want to get broody about it. 

After work I had errands to run, as per usual.  I didn't have any milk and was low on cream.  I also didn't know what I would have for supper.  Since I had a Whole Foods gift card the boys gave me for my birthday, I decided to stop in there instead of going to Publix, and maybe get myself a treat from the hot bar. 

I got in and it was a little sad.  I love going there, but knowing that I wouldn't see Vince in there anymore bothered me more than I thought it would.  He is such a sweet man.  But I ran into Jeff in the bakery and that helped.  I do like him, and he's always nice to me.  I picked up some soda.  I try to drink cane sugar soda instead of the commercial kind, which is sweetened with HFCS - yuck - it really grosses me out to think about that being in my food, although I know it is.  I like the store brand, but it has gone up in price, and they cut one of my favorite flavors - the orange cream.  I wandered over to the cheese section, because they have a great one, but then remembered that I had four pounds of varying goat cheese in the fridge that Rob and Jo Ann had given me last week.  I went through the hot bar, but nothing was really knocking me down, even though I was hungry. 

In the end, I picked up some Quorn Chik'n Tenders, which are delicious and can be used in so many different ways.  I don't buy a lot of them, because they're expensive, and they have a terrible petro-load (they are imported, frozen, from the UK), but it will be ficken pie weather soon, and I wanted to have some in the freezer.  I got some brussels sprouts and some sugar snap peas (which are a fast favorite now), and picked up one of their incomparable almond croissants, which I always get if they have any left.  That done, I loaded the car and tried to beat the rain home.  I did, although it was damp and a bit drippy outside.

I opened some of the goat cheese (this one a harder one flavored with sage) and made some cheese toast on the sourdough bread Mom sent home with me yesterday.  I got out my new wok, and stir fried up some sugar snap peas.  The wok worked great, and I was just as pleased with it as I was with the first pan I bought from that set, but the peas were too big, not that sweet, and kind of mealy.  I think they had been allowed to get too big before they were picked.  I won't get the 365 brand of those again.  I did try an experiment though, where I steamed them in the microwave first, without buying them in the special 'steam in' bag.  As I thought, it worked just as well - I just cut a little slit in the bag.  So I won't be paying the premium for special bags for my frozen veggies in future.

So I put a load of laundry in, and settled in with peas and cheese toast to eat supper, and finished off with one of that lovely almond croissant.  So I used birthday gifts from three different people for supper tonight.