Skipping oh-yeah-yet-again because, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is another one of these lovely double Buffista events: it's both Daniel C. Jensen's birthday as well as Jilli VoiceOfReason's anniversary.

Happy birthday, Danie!

Happy anniversary, VoiceOfReasons!

With lots of wishes for a great day and a wonderful year!

Oh, and of course, a great Halloween to all those who have one!

Oh, and in a completely different post: Burrell, you and yours are very much in my thoughts for several days now.

I hope you are as well as you could be under the circumstances. I wish I could be nearer and have the opportunity to even try and make some things easier, even if only in technical aspects.

GIVE ME GOOD KARAOKE SONGS.

Pretty much any of Billy Joel's or Elton John's hits, on the grounds that everyone knows them well enough to sing along so if you get lost no one will notice.

Happy Anniversary, House of Reason!

You are so kind, Nilly. I am okay today, mostly I'm just tired, but I am hoping to catch some energy from visiting the kids at school.

Happy birthday, Daniel!

And happy anniversary to the Reason household!

Happy Anniversary to Jilli and the Adorable One!

I generically gothed it up for the walk to work, but an office-mate brought her old Snow White costume, so now I am a wide-eyed innocent. I just wish I had a few fake birds from the craft store that I could wire to my fingers and shoulders.

Jesse, good stuff definitely happened here.

an office-mate brought her old Snow White costume, so now I am a wide-eyed innocent.

Pictures, please.

ION, I am about to watch the BTVS episode "Halloween" while I eat lunch. And then maybe "Fear, Itself" tonight. Because Buffy.

Whatcha got in your basket? Weapons!

That's good stuff alright.

OMG, those brownies are making my head explode. Not in a migraine way, but in a "how does all that fit in there???" way. I brought 4 to work, knowing one goes to my cubemate. Then another co-worker walked by:

"Those look scrumptious."
"Are you?"
"No, I'm not"
[eyebrow raise]
"Okay, maybe I am."
"Oh, would you like a brownie?"
[enthusiastic nods]

Why try be subtle? Because his cubemate just yelled over the wall "Hey, ita! Do you have more treats?" He did look a bit sheepish when he saw he was getting the last one, but I certainly don't need to eat two of those in a work day.

The woman who was trying to pot luck a pie out of me wrinkled her nose when I told her it was a whole wheat crust. Why do you wrinkle your nose at the food you're begging someone to make from scratch for you? Unfortunately she asked the guy who had described it as "artisanal", and he was complimentary about it, with the addition of "and no post-dessert sleepiness!"

I'm not sure when my dietary regimen turned into feeding co-workers, but hey! It's been a while since I did this, and I do need to learn recipes anew.

Speaking of which, I've seen some interesting recommendations to use oatmeal for thickening--if it's a slow soup, add old-fashioned oats, and if it's a fast-cooking soup, add the instant sort, and they will dissipate but thicken. Sounds interesting--I will certainly worship at the altar of the oat if I cannot be with the wheat.

The oat flour seems to have had more effect after the soup cooled. I'll have to re-evaluate consistency on reheating, but I have a metric shitload of mushroom soup now.

How do you guys freeze large volumes of soup? I use 1-2 portion sized tupperware (that came to 4 with this recipe) and freeze 2/3 of it immediately, and keep 1/3 in one container in the fridge to eat in the short term. But broth I freeze bagged in ziplocks, 2 cups per bag.

I've passed some interesting costumes (one guy from Gilligan's island), and a lot of people in exercise clothes. HELLO. We have rules that say if your normal work clothes don't show it, your costume shouldn't. Which means no guys in shorts, and no women in short shorts. But some area around here is clearly doing a sports team thing--I suspect volleyball from the kneepads in evidence.

One of the big wigs came by in a really nifty costume. I'm not sure if/why "businessman in a storm" is a thing, but he looked great. He had coat hangers in his jacket and tie to flare them behind him, gel swooping his hair, and fake leaves attached to random places on his front. Two thumbs up.

I almost dressed as a Winchester this morning, but decided I can do that anytime, and I should leverage the annual opportunity to wear my Batlogo shirt instead. At Countrywide Halloween meant everyone came dressed as a business casual employee. This being the place that mandated no bare legs on women at all, we really needed the outlet. That was the only place I decorated my desk, which I did sullenly at the behest of the Fun Team (srsly???) and crafted an exceptional coconut tree for our tropical forest (yeah, I know) and we took second place to the guys who made their cubes into a Whack A Mole game (with giant mallet). But we had to listen to jungle animal WAVs playing all day.

Unsurprisingly, Countrywide loved to hand money to its employees for every little event. I think we got $200 each for placing.