notes from the office
So, blah blah blah, my appetite, didn’t used to eat, am eating now. Yeah yeah.
ANYWAY. There are new vending machines at work. And by new, I don’t mean all shiny and fancy because these machines are not especially shiny or fancy, but I digress.
The soda machine does not interest me, really. I think there have been two or three times I’ve wanted a Coke since October. But the snack machine has, upon occasion, held my interest.
And my decision making process is intricate.
Do I, does one, want Fritos at 4:00? I don’t think so. With Fritos come the need for a beverage and bearing in mind the train ride, one might choose to forgo a beverage at 4pm.
Other choices on the salty side:
Friday's Quesadilla Chips - I cannot even begin to imagine what these might be like. Let me know if you want (REALLY WANT) me to buy a bag and give you a report. Or, feel free to leave a comment if you've eaten these.
Trail mix - available with and without yogurt coating. IMO trail mix is not something to eat at one's desk. All that dipping into the bag for one nut at a time and licking the salt off one's fingers doesn't, to my mind, translate well into the working environment. Though I am not disparaging trail mix per se. Am I over-thinking much?
Kellogg's Fruit Snacks - first of all, I think it should be "fruit snacks" as I don't really believe there is any fruit in these AT ALL. Secondly, I'm thinking that eating these involves picking them out of my teeth after I'm done and I can just picture me picking them out of my teeth when the Editor In Chief walks in - OKAY?
Dipsy Doodles - I don't know what Dipsy Doodles are. I am aware of them being a snack from, what? the fifties? An antique snack. Salty, yes? She note above regarding salty snacking at 4pm. Aren't they the same as Fritos?
Animal Crackers - from time to time I buy those little boxes (with the string handles) of animal crackers and tuck them into my boy's lunches to be cute. We will not comment on the fact that my boys are OLD and that I still pack them lunches. Suffice to say that I do this and they eat them and two of my boys have a combined total weight of well under two hundred pounds. (That doesn't seem right: Middle is 5'7" and weighs 100 pounds and Youngest is 5'2" and weighs 90 pounds. There. That is impressive.) Have I strayed? My point is, cute though they may be, I don't think animal crackers taste very good. They're called CRACKERS not COOKIES and I assume there is a REASON for this.
Rice Krispie (sp?) Treats - I like these. I've never purchased one, but I might. Sweet without the cloying heaviness of a candy bar, these can only be problematic if you eat more than one and sustain roof-of-the-mouth damage. Which is highly likely.
Chuckles - another treat from the retro shelf. I don't think I've eaten a Chuckle in 20 or 30 years and while they do tend to stick in one's teeth they come in five or six to a package. One could eat three and save the rest. Is there a black one? I'd love it if there was.
Big Texas Cinnamon Bun - yes, that's right. A cinnamon bun as big as all of Texas. I'm sure it is supposed to be microwaved, and there are two microwaves in the kitchen, but heavens to Betsy (yes, I said that) it is BIG. Glazed with sugar. Sticky, I'm guessing.
There are Pop Tarts too - but I don't know what flavor. They seem to be somewhat popular as I can occasionally smell someone toasting one as I walk by.
There is gum (must check to see if it more expensive than gum at the store) and mints (good to know, sometimes you just NEED a mint) and a couple of candy bars on offer. I will report that eating an entire Milky Way at 4pm is a bit of a downer. As in: sugar crash at about 4:40.
I think it would be handy if they also had cough drops in that machine. People do get sick during the work-day and I know there have been times when I could make use of a cough drop.
People are very inventive with their snacks - for a while I caught the scent of microwaved popcorn nearly every day at 4:00. Some toast bread at lunch time to have with soup from home and lots of people bring leftovers for their lunches. Of course this requires utensils and containers and planning and I have not managed any of it. The kitchen is only sparsely equipped as the company went green a while back. No paper cups or plates, no plastic utensils, no napkins. I admire this but it can be annoying.
There is a cabinet full of mugs for coffee (I'll have to write a post about the new coffee machine) and a dishwasher. Little fairies come, at night, and put the mugs in the dishwasher, a luxury to be sure, but the mugs themselves are a mystery to me. It's possible there was a Mug Drive of sorts as each and every one of them is a reject from an employee's home. Kittens and rainbows, Over The Hill and cartoon characters abound. My boss is fond of peppermint tea in his meetings and I cringe at the sight of him going off with a cup that says You're My Special Hunny Bunny.
Just another thing to put on my list....
ANYWAY. There are new vending machines at work. And by new, I don’t mean all shiny and fancy because these machines are not especially shiny or fancy, but I digress.
The soda machine does not interest me, really. I think there have been two or three times I’ve wanted a Coke since October. But the snack machine has, upon occasion, held my interest.
And my decision making process is intricate.
Do I, does one, want Fritos at 4:00? I don’t think so. With Fritos come the need for a beverage and bearing in mind the train ride, one might choose to forgo a beverage at 4pm.
Other choices on the salty side:
Friday's Quesadilla Chips - I cannot even begin to imagine what these might be like. Let me know if you want (REALLY WANT) me to buy a bag and give you a report. Or, feel free to leave a comment if you've eaten these.
Trail mix - available with and without yogurt coating. IMO trail mix is not something to eat at one's desk. All that dipping into the bag for one nut at a time and licking the salt off one's fingers doesn't, to my mind, translate well into the working environment. Though I am not disparaging trail mix per se. Am I over-thinking much?
Kellogg's Fruit Snacks - first of all, I think it should be "fruit snacks" as I don't really believe there is any fruit in these AT ALL. Secondly, I'm thinking that eating these involves picking them out of my teeth after I'm done and I can just picture me picking them out of my teeth when the Editor In Chief walks in - OKAY?
Dipsy Doodles - I don't know what Dipsy Doodles are. I am aware of them being a snack from, what? the fifties? An antique snack. Salty, yes? She note above regarding salty snacking at 4pm. Aren't they the same as Fritos?
Animal Crackers - from time to time I buy those little boxes (with the string handles) of animal crackers and tuck them into my boy's lunches to be cute. We will not comment on the fact that my boys are OLD and that I still pack them lunches. Suffice to say that I do this and they eat them and two of my boys have a combined total weight of well under two hundred pounds. (That doesn't seem right: Middle is 5'7" and weighs 100 pounds and Youngest is 5'2" and weighs 90 pounds. There. That is impressive.) Have I strayed? My point is, cute though they may be, I don't think animal crackers taste very good. They're called CRACKERS not COOKIES and I assume there is a REASON for this.
Rice Krispie (sp?) Treats - I like these. I've never purchased one, but I might. Sweet without the cloying heaviness of a candy bar, these can only be problematic if you eat more than one and sustain roof-of-the-mouth damage. Which is highly likely.
Chuckles - another treat from the retro shelf. I don't think I've eaten a Chuckle in 20 or 30 years and while they do tend to stick in one's teeth they come in five or six to a package. One could eat three and save the rest. Is there a black one? I'd love it if there was.
Big Texas Cinnamon Bun - yes, that's right. A cinnamon bun as big as all of Texas. I'm sure it is supposed to be microwaved, and there are two microwaves in the kitchen, but heavens to Betsy (yes, I said that) it is BIG. Glazed with sugar. Sticky, I'm guessing.
There are Pop Tarts too - but I don't know what flavor. They seem to be somewhat popular as I can occasionally smell someone toasting one as I walk by.
There is gum (must check to see if it more expensive than gum at the store) and mints (good to know, sometimes you just NEED a mint) and a couple of candy bars on offer. I will report that eating an entire Milky Way at 4pm is a bit of a downer. As in: sugar crash at about 4:40.
I think it would be handy if they also had cough drops in that machine. People do get sick during the work-day and I know there have been times when I could make use of a cough drop.
People are very inventive with their snacks - for a while I caught the scent of microwaved popcorn nearly every day at 4:00. Some toast bread at lunch time to have with soup from home and lots of people bring leftovers for their lunches. Of course this requires utensils and containers and planning and I have not managed any of it. The kitchen is only sparsely equipped as the company went green a while back. No paper cups or plates, no plastic utensils, no napkins. I admire this but it can be annoying.
There is a cabinet full of mugs for coffee (I'll have to write a post about the new coffee machine) and a dishwasher. Little fairies come, at night, and put the mugs in the dishwasher, a luxury to be sure, but the mugs themselves are a mystery to me. It's possible there was a Mug Drive of sorts as each and every one of them is a reject from an employee's home. Kittens and rainbows, Over The Hill and cartoon characters abound. My boss is fond of peppermint tea in his meetings and I cringe at the sight of him going off with a cup that says You're My Special Hunny Bunny.
Just another thing to put on my list....
Comments
I think tut-tut is thinking of Bugles, which I used to buy when they had a lower fat, oven baked version.
And I have never in my life seen a Big Texas Cinnamon Bun. It must be an export item.
The junk can stay in the machine forever. Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies tempt me every time.
The snack machines are on another floor, and hold nothing of interest to me, so I stock up every few weeks at the grocery store with the following:
1) Raw nuts - usually almonds and walnuts, because I feel I'm getting some health benefit as well as hunger satiation. They have to be FRESH, though, so I buy them in bulk at the fancy store.
2) Dark Chocolate - 70%+, in nice large-ish disc shapes, not the tiny chips.
3) Sweet Potato chips - for when I need that salty fix
4) Cookies, of course
5) Tea - I keep several kinds of tea bags and loose tea at work, and an electric kettle at my desk. Several folks make use of the kettle, which is an added bonus.
It does require planning ahead, but then when I have a snack emergency, I'm prepared!
I advise against eating the quesadilla chips.
My husband goes to work (12 hr days, sometimes no lunch break) with what I call The Snack Wagon. He usually takes a banana, an apple, an orange, Nutri-grain bars, cookies (if they are baked by me).
He's pretty good at staying away from the junk machine.
back in the day when I had a vending machine option - I chose Hawkins Cheesies. only on my night shift. that was how I monitored my intake.
i'm all for carrot sticks. but they're loud.
I used to get pretzels, or those crackers with pb in them. or i would bring nuts. almonds at 4pm are yummy : )
when i worked in an office, we had the same collection of coffee mugs. Then a cool client for whom I did a lot of work gave us these awesome mugs with their logo on them. Perfect size, right heft, nice handle, pretty color. Everyone fought to get their favorite. And when the office closed, I stole a few and brought them home where they are my favorite here. All this to say: for the next holiday, get your boss his own mug. A dignified one. Maybe a travel one that will keep his tea hot. He will appreciate it no end, even if he didn't think of it himself.
I have a rabbit cup that would really make you cringe were you to see your boss trotting off with it. It's 100's of bunnies - er - doing what bunnies do, in all sorts of positions. That thing needs to find a different place to live. My parents keep using it when they visit, and I keep forgetting to tell them "LOOK at that cup! Those bunnies aren't really wrestling!"
My dad (a doctor) always has a banana when he's feeling a little hungry. He says they are packed with good stuff AND they make you feel full more effectively than most things of that size.
I make hers and mine's and sometimes Mr. Pom if there's something I know he'll eat. Included are grapes, 100 cal snack packs, pretzels, sometimes a yogurt. We're very big on snacks.
Quesadilla Chips??
Dipsy Doodles??
Pop Tarts??
What are we talking about?
♪ If it gets you, you'll be singin' it
And we'll bet you, you'll be swingin' it ♫
It's the snickers bar that gets me every time. Quite healthy, too, with all those peanuts.
jbhat
Hey, it's true. I read it in a book by Linda Sunshine.
Also, my oldest is 13 and he's 5' 11". I think he needs to eat fewer snacks. No more Dipsy Doodles for him!
We have a snack machine at work that we all aptly call the crap machine.
I buy pop tarts occiasionally at work, which is wierd because when I bought a box at the store and brought them home they sat in the pantry for months.
I bake alot of muffins to take to work, everybody likes them. 2 dozen will last about a week.
We have little bags of cheetos in the crap machine. I like them but then everything I make has orange dust on it. Did you know that you can buy those cheap nasty boxes of mac & cheese, throw the mac in a jar, for later, and sprinkle the powdered cheese on popcorn? Its really good but, well, same orange dust problem!
I ALWAYS have some type of chocolate near my desk at work. I am a HOLIC. I also take dried fruits, mostly cranberries, to work with me. The girl scouts and boy scouts are always selling us stuff. One lucky kid sold us $125 worth of popcorn. I hardly have to mention the Bagel Lady. She does well at our shop about once a week. Plus, a friend of the store usually drops by selling her homemade jerky. Her lemon pepper jerky is the best!!!!!
I'm in more danger of gaining weight at work than I am at home.
Should I tell you about the ice cream store a block down?
The coffee mug comments here totally crack me up.
We personalize coffee mugs where I work. Or we order them in with company logos painted on them (we set up the artwork). Besides the ones we do, and the samples our vendors send us, we probably have about 300 different ones in the store. I could use a different one everyday and never use the same one twice. Yet, I use one that's cobalt blue glass with the words "now that's cool" etched on it. When I use it, it's usually for coffee and Baileys.
Here's a great story. When the new bank opened up 2 doors down, they brought us 6 coffee cups filled with pens, memo pads, AND JELY BEANS!!! I thanked them graciously and when they left...I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF!!! Oddly enough, nobody else ever knew about the jelly beans. There's only 4 of us that work there.
We have a heat press in the shop. We use it to press ink (text and graphics into brass, aluminum and plastics. Tomorrow, the bosses are away and Floyd and I are useing the heat press to make quesadillas!
I just roasted the chicken breasts!
OK, I'll shut up for now...
And the pointy ones that went on fingertips were Bugles. And I could eat my weight in Cheez-Its, if you really want to know.
We go through great huge blocks of cheddar cheese at my office. With crackers, on bread toasted in the oven. There used to be a lot more variety when we were stocking up the tug boats weekly. Oh, the wonderful pizzas that were created in that tiny galley!
These days, there is always some sort of snack in my desk drawer. Cereal bars, chocolate, if I'm thoughtful, almonds, black licorice. We bring treats for each other, too. Today my co-worker gifted me with a large box of Glosette Raisins. JUST IN TIME, too.
Fun post, bb!
ErinH
What about those really hard oat bars that break into a kazillion pieces when they fall into the tray?