A brunch and some project support

We’re having a brunch at the office tomorrow for a coworker’s birthday. Casseroles involving potatoes and sausage and cheese, bagels and cream cheese from Einstein’s, yogurt and fresh fruit … mmm. This should be good.

‘Course then I have to go downtown right after work for the freelance gig, for 2-3 hours. It’s nice to do something different, and it’s good that I’ll earn a little more money. But dang it, I just don’t feel like it! I want to play on Zazzle. (Oh well — I’ll be looking at other languages, and that’s always a bit cool. Hopefully it’s still a European language, those I can at least figure out how to pronounce, not that that’s even necessary for the kind of checks I’ll be making.)

And I refilled my Starbucks card, which now has 5 stars on it – so I can add syrup and soy milk to a plain latte for no charge. Woot.

Skimpy portions at McD’s, and freelance training

Is it just for me, or has McDonald’s been seriously skimping on the expensive ice cream and coffee drinks lately? The last time I got a mocha, it was like they had left double or triple the necessary room for whipped cream, but didn’t put any whipped cream in and didn’t bother to fill the drink the rest of the way. It was like somebody took a couple chugs before handing it to me. And today I got an Oreo Flurry, and it was literally no more than two-thirds full! I mean, I pay almost $3 for this thing and the lady hands it to me half empty, and it’s a small cup to begin with! (I could go to the grocery and get a whole tub of cookies ‘n cream for $2 this week!)

(Note to self: ice cream is good, but don’t buy it at McDonald’s. Coffee drinks are good, but less good at McDonald’s and you can now get them cheaper at Starbucks for a better drink, thanks to your 5-star Starbucks card. Use it.)

Anyway, I had that training this afternoon. Not surprisingly, it was mostly a PowerPoint explaining the different types of files we’d work on – some are checking fully translated files against glossaries, some are formatting the files to be sent back to clients so they’re not full of colored fonts and hidden text, some are running a pretranslator and checking it for discrepancies with the original (because we all know translation programs are not quite perfect yet), and stuff.

Also not surprisingly, my contact was wrong about the time it would take. She said 2:30-4:00. It went 2:30-5:00. Agh, well that’s one more hour at least. Sounds like they’ll want me to go in on Thursday, too.

Oh, and they gave me a free copy of Adobe Acrobat. So, as much as .pdfs can be edited, I can them edit.

http://www.zazzle.com/spiral_galaxies_ngc_2207_and_ic_2163_poster-228694179333575165?dim=32.0000×16.0000in&width=32.0000&height=16.0000&size=large&print_width=32.0000&print_height=16.0000&media=basic_poster_dye&rf=238756925549500114 of

A burrito worth $2?

If you’ve never tried an Amy’s burrito, oh my word, go get a Black Bean burrito right now. I never would have thought a frozen burrito could be worth … well, that much, but this is absolutely ridiculous. It is perfection in a burrito wrapping.

Ok, I will grant that I got mine on sale, 40% off, which makes it more worth it. Still, I think it would be worth full price now and then.

Besides, I never would have thought a factory-made, frozen pizza could be worth $6 or more, but that was before I met Home Run Inn. Oh chère Sausage Supreme, you are the light of my life. The pizza-eating part of it, anyway. And I guess it’s more like “the most worthy flavor of the pizza-eating part of my life,” since pizza is more about tasty deliciousness than, ah, luminescence. But I think you know what I mean, chère Sausage Supreme. You are wonderful.

Point being, Amy’s Black Bean burritos are pretty awesome, and you should go eat one so you can understand. If I could make a burrito that tastes like this, I might actually bother making a burrito instead of buying frozen ones.

An untraditional staff meeting locale

Yesterday, we held our weekly staff meeting at Red Robin.

I’d never been there before; they make a pretty good burger! And they seem to think so, too, charging $9 and up for a burger and fries. On the lunch menu. Ppphtt. Charge me two bucks less and forget the ‘bottomless’ in ‘bottomless fries.’ But the company paid (only fair, since I pretty much had to go – I mean, staff meeting, I have to contribute), so it was ok.

Except we were all practically dozing off back at the office. Too much beef. We made coffee.

Now that the company paid, though, I kind of wish I had tried either the (more expensive) teriyaki or the (also more expensive) Jamaican Jerk burger, though. Would’ve been tasty and unique, instead of just tasty.

Next time?

Not-so-fiery Fire Bowl

Teriyaki is an amazing flavor, done right. (This comes from someone whose primary experience of teriyaki derives from frozen dinners.) I always forget how delicious a bowl of teriyaki stir-fry chicken is when I haven’t had one for a while.

Fire Bowl Café, where we went for a coworker’s birthday lunch, did an okay job of ‘Asian-American stir-fry bowl’, and they even let me sub in rice noodles for the rice, but it just didn’t taste like teriyaki. Plus it was a little bland, though hot sauce fixed that (after which any trace of teriyaki-ness was gone, but that ship sailed from a different port anyway, I think). To be fair, I used tofu instead of chicken, but I don’t think it should have made that much difference.

…Should have just gotten the veggie spring rolls. I’m addicted to spring rolls/egg rolls/etc.