Fall Festival

I organized a "fall festival" at work last week to help improve the moral in our office last week.  (Helped mine a little until I got kicked by the Dumass management team.)

Anyway, I found a super easy recipe to share with you.  The muffins do come out moist even without oil & eggs, they are good for you, and they taste really good (which is the main thing).

Easy Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 18 cupcakes

 Ingredients: 

1 box (18.25 oz) spice cake mix (can substitute yellow, white, carrot, or chocolate cake mix)
1-15oz can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup water

Add-ins: About 1/2 - 1 cup (total) of chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, and/or dried cranberries (optional)

Directions: 

1. Mix first three ingredients in a large bowl until well blended. (Use a mixer – it’s much easier)
2. Stire in the add-ins if used.
3. Place into lined muffins pan and fill a little more than 3/4 of the way full.
4. Sprinkle a little streusal on top of each muffin if desired.
4. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 20 - 25 minutes.

Streusal Topping (optional)

1/4 cup flour
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
Mix together with fingers or pastry cutter until it looks like coarse crumbs.


Recipe notes:

This is a common receipe on the internet.  I saw some that didn't use the water, but I recommend it.  I saw others recommended applesauce instead of water - I'm going to try that some time.  Some recipes bake the muffins at 350 degrees, others at 400.  I baked mine at 400 and it still took 25 minutes.

I used cranberries in 6 of my muffins, they didn't rise as high but they were good to eat.

Spice cake mix can be hard to find.  If you use a yellow or white cake mix you may want to add the following spices with the cake mix in step one:  

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

I saw a box of Butter Pecan cake mix that I bet would be an excellent substitute for the spice cake.

These muffins are a little uninteresting on top (some might consider them ugly) so you may want to add a little powdered suger to the tops of the cooled muffins, or powdered sugar mixed with a little cocoa, or a cream cheese icing, but I prefer a streusel topping.  You can add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the topping recipe if desired and/or 1/4 cup chopped nuts.

I saw some recipes that added oats, or shredded apples, or whatever struck their fancy, so experiment with the recipe if you like.  Bananas were on sale this week so I bought 2 bunches on different days but they all seem to be ripening at the same time.  I wonder if this recipe would work with mashed bananas?

Welcome to My Pity Party

I'm still upset about the way I was treated at the Dumass Corporation.  My brain rejects the idea that I'm over-reacting.  How do I work at a place that doesn't give a fig about hard work and rewards kiss-assery? 

I'm good at work, but I can't kiss up to management to save my job. 

Not many people will come to a pity party.

They never promised you a rose garden

I don't know what to do. 

1. Quit my job at the Dumass Corparation now,
2. Wait to quit until I find another job, or
3. Stay and be a number 1 pain in their backside for a few more months.  (I'm good at everything I do so I'm sure I could be an extraordinarily irritating PIA.)

I won't go into details in case someone at the Dumass Corporation should happen to stumble upon this blog and recognize him/her self and I haven't completely ruled out # 2 or # 3 yet, but they've really ticked me off.   I've already written my resignation letter, but it needs a little polishing before I mail it.  To say the least, it may be slightly rude.

Somebody asked me today how I could be so calm about it.  How do I explain that I'm so mad I can't sleep.  I can't read.  I can't even watch TV.   If I stop being calm ... I quit.  I'm not ruling that out, mind you, but by the time you get to be my age you've learned to be a little cautious.   Timing is everything whether you're baking a cake or telling management at the Dumass Corporation where to go.

Tell me something.  Why do managers go out of their way to make themselves such jackasses? 

Are there any managers out there who would be willing to answer that question? 
Well, don't bother.  You're a manager, therefore, you're a liar.  It's in your contract.  The jackass contract.

Make a plan

One of my friends and his wife are expecting twins in December. They needed to plan that better. It's bad enough being a twin and only getting half a birthday present and half a Christmas present, but if you're a twin and born a week or two before Christmas, well, the kids will be lucky to get half a present for both birthday and Christmas combined.

Iwanta

I want a chocolate chip oatmeal raisin peanut butter cookie.
But ...
I don't have any chocolate chips and I'm out of peanut butter

And then they turned out the lights

TV lost one of its favorite mothers Saturday when Barbara Billingsly died.  Today it lost one of its greatest dads when Tom Bosley died at the age of 83.  Mr. Bosley played Howard Cunningham on Happy Days for 11 years.

Johnny Sheffield who played Boy in the 1940's Tarzan films with Johnny Weismuller. I saw the movies (over and over) on TV so that sort of makes him a TV child star even though by the time I saw them he was no longer a child.

And then they turned off the lights at the Liberace museum because of low attendance.  Liberace was known for several things besides his musical talent and excessive opulence was one of them.   

And then they turned out the lights and said good-night.  "Good night," she whispered softly, "Sweet dreams."

Knowledge: Is it the key or the lock?

I like to learn new things.  How to do things.  How to say things.  How things work.  How to work things.

The more I learn the more I learn that I need to learn more.

What I like to learn and what I need to learn changes from year to year.   When I'm lucky, the need and want are the same things.

"What brought this up?" you may well ask and I'm glad you did because it leads into the purpose of the post: I discovered some learning websites to explore and share with you. 

Self Made Scholar, your gateway to Free Online Education.  Jamie's site is an excellent resource for life-long learners.  Read the articles and explore Free Classes, Free Libraries, and Self Education Resources.  You're bound to learn something.

You know one of my favorite words is Free, but I'm not opposed to paying for learning opportunities.

1. Educators deserve to make money. 
2. Traditional on-site courses with instructor and peer interactions offer more than just "book learning".   

The second blog to learn more about is eduFire.   Their courses aren't free, but they range from relatively inexpensive to pretty darn cheap.  The eduFire site is less than 2 years old and I don't know much about it, but here's what I've learned from what I've read today.

• Their goal is to revolutionize education.
• Courses are "live" with real instructors.
• Instructors offer the classes they want to teach and set their own tutition (I saw classes from $5 - $50 a session).
• Some courses are one-on-one.
• There's an on-line forum to allow tutors and students to communicate with each other.
• They're having some growing pains, but appear to be working them out.

When's the last time you got something free from the government?  Free (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) is a resource site for "federally supported teaching and learning resources" for grades K through 12.   There are a bunch of learning opportunities here.

Knowledge: Is it the key or the lock?  You tell me.

Good night, Mrs. Cleaver.

I just read that June Cleaver (aka Barbara Billingsly, aaka mother of Wally and the Beav) died today at the age of 94.  MSN had two pictures with the article: one of Ms. Billingsly as June Cleaver and another picture of a lovely old lady that made me exclaim, "My goodness, she's aged a lot since I last saw her on TV! I don't even recognize her." 

On second look, I don't think it was her at all.  I think it's a picture of Gloria Stuart who died in September at the age of 100.  I doubt if Ms. Billingsly would appreciate my mistaking her for a woman of 100.

I'm not sure exactly why MSN placed a picture of Gloria Stuart so prominently in an article about Barbara Billingsly unless it was to lead the reader to their gallery of other celebrities who died in 2010. 

Free at Last

The Chilean miners have been freed from their underground prison more than 2 months ahead of schedule.  Thank God, a caring worldwide community, modern technology, and the tenacity and strength of the miners themselves.

 It just goes to show what can be accomplished when people work together instead of fighting each other.  I'm not naming names, but you know who you are.

All in all it was a good day.

I bought a new computer today.  And a new monitor.  And a new vacuum sweeper.   So I had left over pizza for lunch and leftover chocolate birthday cake with peppermint icing.

Today is my birthday

10/10/10 - that's my birthday this year.  It's suppose to be a lucky number because it's binary for 42 which is supposed to mean something profound. Or so I've been told.  Frankly, at my age I'm lucky just to be able to get out of bed in the morning.

In My Opinion - Rehashed

I have strong opinions.  I've been around the block a few times and I've been observant.  So I think what I think because I'm right.   Just in case nobody noticed the last time I expressed these opinions I'm telling you again.  It will give you something to talk about at dinner tonight.

Food:
I bought one of those new "gourmet" (read more expensive) frozen dinner for two the other night.  The package said it contained two 1 1/2 cup servings, but it only contained 11 oz.  No matter how you measure it that does not equal 3 cups which is 24 ounces by American measurement.  I'm not sure what measurement the food companies are using now days.  Lilliputian?  Surely this is being monitored by some government agency.  I fear they may not know how to add or multiply and thus haven't discovered these discrepancies.  Or possibly they think the American public are too stupid to notice. Too jaded, too "used to it", too tired to complain, maybe, but most of us aren't that stupid.

Business:
I recently saw some news on TV and read more on-line that have driven me to once again bring up the fact that executives that EXPECT multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses while firing good workers and denying them pay raises are morally and ethically bankrupt and such mind-think is socially and economically reprehensible.  The American workforce is being held hostage by these money-grubby, self-indulgent, self-important (add your own expletive).  Possibly they think the American workers are too stupid to notice. Too jaded, too "used to it", too tired to complain, maybe, but most of us aren't that stupid.  And most of us are complaining.  What we need now is action. 

Television:

Why do they call "reality shows" reality shows?  There's very little real about them.  This is a definition of reality television from Wikipedia: "Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors."  The key word there is "purportedly" (as the Wikipedia article goes on to explain (See? It's not just my opinion).  Many of these "reality shows" are scripted, edited, re-shot, and otherwise manipulated.  Many of the "ordinary" people are want-a-be actors.  And excuse me, but professional actors are "ordinary".  They may have a talent for acting, but can they do what us "ordinary" people do at our jobs every day for a whole lot less money?  Some of us save lives, protect lives, make lives more comfortable for others, protect the environment, clean the environment, teach others, bless others.  There's nothing ordinary about most of us.


That's just a few of my opinions.  Most of them I keep to myself.  Most of the time. 

Some of them.  Some of the time.

Happy Birthday

to my brother who is almost as old as his older sister but a lot older than me.

It's raining

Of course it's raining.
It's the first day of my vacation.
We have had a record-setting drought for the past month, but today, the first day of my vacation, it's raining.

I apologize to all the farmers in Indiana for not taking my vacation sooner.