Right about this time each year coworkers around the nation spend a week or two planning for the politically correctly labeled "Holiday" Party potluck style. I try to do my part and cooperate with the powers that be (the party planners). I volunteer to bring something, go with the flow and not cause problems. However, there are always those that for some reason there are always a few "participants" that either don't know or don't care about the proper potluck etiquette. Here we go:

1. If you participate, bring enough to serve the amount of people attending. Don't offer to bring chicken wings, knowing there will be about 20 hungry folks showing up and you show up with 6 wing dings for you and your office boo. Also, If you decide to bring something like, ohh I don't know, Brownies, don't eat half of them the night before and show up with a serving for 2. Comethafuckonman!

2. Either participate or don't. If you don't want to cook that's cool. This isn't a competition. We all get it. Some of us can't cook and some just don't want to put in the time. But damnit DO NOT sign up to bring Mustard. If you bring A condiment you must bring all of them. And wtf would you bring mustard to a Holiday Party for anyways? Did you expect to eat a pretzel or hot dog? Common Sense ...

3. For those that don't want to cook or chip in a few bucks, don't show up and grab a plate like someone owes you somethin. If you decide to donate money, keep your parking garage machine dollar coins to yourself. Stop playin!


4. If you don't eat meat, pork, beef, whatever, just relax. With 20 plus people bringing something I'm sure there will be something for you to eat. There is no need for you to squat out or hover over the foods you can eat and give people ugly looks for coming near.

5. Everyone cannot donate money. Again, if you can't cook, pick something up. But geeze, do something! It's a POTLUCK!

6. You and your fam, boo, whoever may like it extra spicy, extra salty, extra diabetically *ding* bland at home but keep in mind that you should cook for the group and not your own likings. Be sensitive to your coworker's ability to tolerate the extras.

7. This is the last one. Please know that if you appear to be filthy, you will be placed on the X list. Nuff said ..

Happy Holidays and eat well my friends!

I am the first to admit that I am not the biggest Oprah fan. Don't get me wrong, I like her and all but I'm surely not one of her devoted followers that hangs on her every word. I do not record her shows or spin offs and watch them when I get home (I only do that for Y&R lol). While I don't run around spreading HER word (I swear that's how it feels sometimes when people talk about her good deeds), I do have respect for her work over the years.

So I write this entry because I appreciate her ability to openly discuss her issues with weight. In the past few months, three folks I know have had some form of weight loss surgery. All three have at some point admitted that they lead into their decision with the fact that they just don't feel like putting in the effort to drop the weight the old school way, by incorporating will power and making life long changes to their eating habits and exercising. They chose the clip and snip road. I'm not totally against weight loss surgery, I just have an issue with those that refuse to try.

Oprah has been in our faces about her struggles with her weight for years. After hearing every horror, success, and failure story regarding others and their experience with gastric bypass, lap band et al, I am more than happy to hear a regular tale of someone who just simply fell off the wagon, has realized their error and is disappointed in the results. Who knows, Oprah may decided to go under the knife one day after all of this. Hell, maybe she has and we just don't know it for sure. Either way, she has been up front about it, has not, to our knowledge, lied or mislead us to believe that she is fine with her situation or had success without the help of others. She even admits that she was on a liquid diet for months to achieve this:






















Also, looking at her upcoming cover with the svelt Oprah next to her larger framed self, I don't think she looks that bad. No she isn't all buffed up but frame wise she doesn't look bad. What is more of a concern, which always should be, is the state of her overall health.

Hmmmm ...

After work last week I decided to go ahead and renew my membership with COSTCO.  There weren't many people in the store so I figured I'd browse around for a while.  My coworker turned me on to dried mangos and so started my search.  While rolling up and down the aisle looking for mangos, I casually strolled through the aisle with feminine care items.  A man approached me followed by a young lady.  He asked me to help him and the young lady understand which type of products she should use.  My first reaction was to cover my back and look around for either cameras or a surprise attack.  Don't ask me why but I get like that sometimes, especially when I'm out alone.  But I provided the best advice I could.  I'm not sure if this chick was his daughter, niece or something else but it was one of the strangest requests I've ever experienced.  I'm used to the "ma'am do you work here?" questions but this was a different situation.  The young lady didn't seem to have a clue what she should be doing and her "associate" was just as clueless.  I would not have been comfortable with that situation when I was her age, especially with a man. I hope everything worked out for the little young miss.