Not Your Average Butcher

Fast Fact: The average butcher has 7.3 fingers. Actually, I made that up, but I have all 10 of my fingers, so that's saying something... or is it?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

I Am So Smart: SMRT

Yeah, um... I'm boring!

It's not that I've forgotten about my blog, or grown tired of it, it's just my utter lack of interesting things to say! Am doing the school thing, still working at the BGC and spending the rest of my time just relaxing and trying to forget about school and work!

Anyway, for the first time in my three long years at the golf club, I have finally (although indirectly) made it on the Wall of Shame. Hey, can I help it that I'm not in the habit of saying or doing really dumb things while I'm at work??? Anyway, I was (trying to) train one of the new waitresses and I asked her to prepare some tea for me. Apparently, this woman had never made tea before, because she didn't know to take the tea bag out of the envelope before she poured boiling water over it. I told that little anecdote to one person and suddenly everyone knew and it was put on the Wall of Shame. Anyway, she's no longer with us because she was FIRED. I put 'fired' in caps because that is the first time I ever hear of a waitress getting fired at the BGC. Actually, they've let two waitresses go this fall. I just don't understand it, because it's such an easy job! Well, it's easy if you can understand english and/or french... which is more than I can say for some...

On a completely unrelated note, I got to ride in a Toyota Prius yesterday! I'm telling you, those hybrid cars are pretty cool, it was like being in a spaceship! And the woman that owns it was telling me that she fills up on gas only half of the amount she used to. Now that's smart. So why are there still so many people purchasing SUVs? , what with the ridiculous gas prices? And think of the environment, people! Parenthetically: sorry for the mini-rant. I have to be ecological now that I'm a tree-hugging environMENTAL scientist!

Oh yeah, and I start my new job at school this coming Monday!

Monday, September 19, 2005

FORE!

The golf tournament that we were all looking forward to for so long is already finished! How sad! In any case, no matter how much practise I had put in, there was nothing that could have prepared me for the rotten weather we got. Although it was supposed to pour rain, it didn't really start until after we finished playing, but it drizzled off and on all afternoon. And the course had become a lake. So we were not allowed to drive the carts off of the paths and we ended up trudging through endless puddles and we all ended up with soaking feet. And us girls, we ended up with pants wet almost up to the knees! Anyhow, we discovered pretty quickly that the ball does not go far when it's been raining! In the rough, it's hard to hit it properly because it sinks into the heavy, wet grass. And you have to get it off the ground because you can't count on the ball to roll. It won't roll in wet grass! However, it was still fun and we all had a good time!


Mike, Nancy, Kim and Dave: At the first tee, before we got soaked!


Nothing's more fun than driving a golf cart!

After drying off and warming up, it was time for dinner! We had some really good steaks cooked on the grill with baked potatoes, veggies, sour cream and pepper sauce. So yummy! There were also door prizes for all of the employees and Mike ended up with two because his coworker didn't want his! Finally, the night ended with a raffle, where there were a bunch of really nice prizes. I was the only lucky one at our table to win a prize, though. I was the third-to-last person to be drawn so there were slim-pickings by the time I got up there. But I did end up with a $50 gift card for Golf Town! Yay me! I think it'll go toward a new driver...

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Wine and Roses - But Not in the Least Romantic

Before I go into my ramble, I just wanted to advise all you faithful readers that I have enabled word verification for my comments. Now, if ever you want to leave a comment, you'll have to retype a set of letters shown on the screen, just to verify that you are a real person and not a computer program leaving spam. I hope you don't mind this minor inconvenience and continue to leave fun and insightful comments here. And to anyone reading that has a blog, I'd recommend you do the same thing.

Last night, while working at a banquet at the BGC, I managed to make a dining room with over 100 people in it stop talking and stare at me. How'd I do it? Simple really, I just dropped a metal tray with 8 plastic lids on it on the ground! I wasn't very embarrased, it could have been much worse: there could have been food on that tray! Anyway, all in all, the evening was rather successful, the organizers gave each of the waitresses a bottle of chardonnay and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon as a thank-you! Boy, would I love to receive a bottle of wine for every tray I drop!

I just got home from the movie theatre, Mike and I went to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose. They say it's based on a true story, but you know how 'true event' movies are; they're so sensationalized ("sensationalized" was Mike's word. Such a good descriptive word, I decided to use it) that there's likely to be very little resemblance to the actual event(s). But don't let that discourage you from seeing the movie! It was very well done; pretty jumpy, very creepy music and it was quite disturbing. For anyone who enjoys a good thriller, this is a good one. And as a testament to the movie, once it had finished and the credits started rolling, the theatre was completely silent. No one spoke as they got out of their seats and started shuffling toward the door. People only started talking as they neared the exit! So strange...

Thursday, September 08, 2005

All I Need is Time

My first week of school is done. And oh, what a week it was! As of now, I'm preparing myself to be stressed out for the next 8 months or so. It's gonna be a lot of work. Am already working on assignment #1 and beginning research for an upcoming presentation.

A bit of good news is that I got a new job! It just kinda fell in my lap... the department administrator sent out an e-mail to all of the grad students saying she was looking for a new assistant and anyone interested should e-mail her back. So I did (what harm could it do?). Ten minutes later she e-mailed me back saying the job was mine (never has it been so simple!), I just had to get authorized by Financial Aid and Awards since it's part of the work study program at Concordia. I was a little worried that I might not get authorized since priority is given to non-dependents and/or low-income students. But in the end, I worried for nothing and I got authorized! I still don't know much about the job, though, I'm still waiting to get more details about it. It'll be nice to be able to work and go to school all in the same place, though. It'll save me a lot of running around!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

A Big Night for Parties

Congratulations to Stuart and Adalia... They Got Engaged!!!


I stopped by the surprise engagement party for a bit last night, just long enough to give the future man-and-wife-to-be congratulatory hugs and to snap a few pics. Best wishes to the two of them!

The rest of the evening was spent at Mike's end-of-season soccer BBQ... good food, good drinks, good fun!

Thursday, September 01, 2005

HELLO My Name is Pineapple Coconut

It's back to work at the BGC. On my first day back I witnessed three waitresses about ready to kill someone and another waitress in tears. Can't say I was shocked, though. When my reaction should have been "Oh no, what happened?!", it was actually more along the lines of "Not again." I think it's utterly ridiculous that bawling waitresses is a regular occurence. Some of the people we have to serve are just that bad. The worst part is that a lot of the rest of the staff think the waitresses are just a bunch of wimpy little girls who burst into tears if someone frowns in our general direction. Truth is, you have to be pretty tough to deal with some of these people and we take a lot of crap. Anyway, there were a bunch of excited waitresses the other day when Chef went outside and gave the people a load of trouble for making a waitress cry... Chef can be a pretty cool guy when he wants to be!

Well, I haven't had any trouble since I've returned. But it's only been 2 days, hopefully I can remain trouble-free!

On a completely different note, yesterday's rain was ridiculous. Suppose I shouldn't complain, though, Montreal isn't currently 2m deep in Gulf water. The butt end of Katrina wasn't too hard on us. Anyway, by the time I got to work yesterday morning, I was soaked up to the thighs from the rain. Guess I should have brought more than just an umbrella! Well, that's why good to wear a uniform for work, I was able to change out of my soaking clothes and stick them in the dryer. Going home I was relatively dry with the exception of my still-sopping shoes!