Oct
31
acquiring new tastes
Filed under holidays, food at 8:05 pm | 4 Comments
This being Halloween, I figured I should share something about candy.
I find it encouraging that I am still learning about new foods at my age. A few months ago, a co-worker of mine shared a portion of his Baby Ruth candy bar with me.
I never thought I liked them for some reason, but I was immediately won over. My only recollection of Baby Ruth candy bars growing up was the reference in the movie Goonies (a movie I loved). I don’t generally enjoy a lot of chocolate, especially when nouget gets added to the mix. However, the nut flavor is very strong, and for that I’m a sucker.
It’s too early to give it an exact ranking among my favorite bars, but I certainly put it in that group, along with Butterfinger, Twix (is that a candy bar, per se?), and Snickers.
As I polish off a mini-Baby Ruth tonight, I send out my thanks to Brian for pushing me to expand my food horizons.
Oct
31
What’s in a name?
Filed under mundane, work at 7:18 pm | 2 Comments
While working at Gospelcom I was one of 4 people named “Brian” in our internet department, putting the Brian domination right around 25% of all people in that department. (I felt bad lowering that percentage when I left.)
At my new place of employment it seems the Brian theme is continuing. There are at least 5 Brians in my immediate area. I don’t have a good grasp of where that lies percentage-wise.
When being introduced to people, the response is generally a comment about “not another Brian,” or the fact that I am part of the ever-growing Michigan contingent. I wear both labels proudly.
Oct
28
rhubarb, pumpkins, and dreams
Filed under food, mundane, seasons at 8:53 pm | 2 Comments
Here are a few random thoughts to round out the week.
Thought #1: I’ve often dreamed of owning a house and paying someone to do all the yard work. Life would be so carefree without having the lawn mowing hanging over your head all week. Well, I realized today I’ve achieved that dream, and it’s nothing like I anticipated. We still own our house in G.R. and get to pay someone to do all the yard work. The problem is we’re not there to enjoy it. Hmmm. Did I mention we’re trying to sell our house?
Thought #2: I’ve heard it said you know you have a good grasp of a foreign language when you start dreaming in that language. A year of German at Calvin was enough to convince me that something like that’s possible. I don’t always remember my dreams, but this morning I woke up remembering dreaming in Perl and PHP. I’m not sure what that means, other than the weekend came just in time.
Thought #3: Rachel and I both have a green thumb gene somewhere in our families (e.g., her Dekker grandparents, my Grandma Vugteveen). However, 
we’re fairly certain that gene skipped over us. We have a very difficult time keeping any plants alive, let alone anything one might consider a garden. Rhubarb seems to be something that grows in spite of us, and for that we’re thankful. We have some rhubarb we transplanted from my Grandma Vugteveen that has now moved with us three times, and it keeps on growing. I tell you all that only to share that Rachel was able to find enough time to bake a rhubarb pie this week. Delicious.
Thought #4: I enjoy the season of fall. I’m pleased that Virginia has this season, too. 
The trees (and there are a ton of them around here) have
been turning colors very gradually over the last several weeks. This is a picture in the neighborhood where we’re currently living. I also enjoy pumpkin-flavored things, such as a Pumpkin 
Spice Latte at Starbucks. Mmmm. Speaking of pumpkins, Lori (my sister-in-law) carved up this jack-o-lantern in about 2 minutes. (She’s good at art stuff.)