Come On People!

We're hiring for a position at work and I have been getting resumes all day ( I know the e needs a little thingy, but I don't know where the key is on my computer, so don't judge me). My first observation was how good it feels to be on the interviewer end, rather than the person being interviewed. It's actually quite exciting to be interviewing. Like playing a slot machine... never sure what you're gonna get. It's going to be hard to fill too, because unless it's the jackpot, the person will never live up to the person in the position before them *tear*. But people have to move on.
So, I am getting in these resumes and I am telling you, I am appalled. I mean, I just finished job hunting and all that crap last year, and yeah, it's a pain in the ass. Having to write a cover letter and adjust your resume and all that is not something that anyone enjoys. However, it is a necessary evil. I got emails today that just listed jobs on the email, no heading, no "sincerely" so and so. Just like, here's my work history. Period. No fricken name sometimes!
I am wondering when people stopped showing respect to people in writing. I still come from the background that when writing business related correspondence, you use the proper form. You use Mr. and Ms., and you close a letter with something respectable. I'm just disgusted. I totally understand if you didn't get an education and you just don't know these things. That is one thing. It is a whole other thing to be a person who holds a degree higher than high school and not know how to write a resume and cover letter. Even if you never learned, LOOK IT UP! I mean, come on. I know these are desperate times for many people but it doesn't mean that chivalry has to be thrown right out the window. It's like showing up for an interview in sweatpants. It shows no professionalism or motivation. I can't but help judging capability by the way a person presents themselves. Anyway, I just felt like venting. Things used to be respectable for crying out loud.

Put Music Stores On The Endangered List

I was downtown catching a movie yesterday and I decided to pop into the Virgin Mega store to see if there were any cheap dvds top buy. When I got down there, I saw their "going out of business" signs everywhere. For whatever reason, this really crushed me. Granted, there are still some really authentic record stores that are still left in Denver, like Wax Trax and Twist and Shout. But, it still upset me to see this huge music store going out of business. It just really bothers me to think about how generations below me will never know what it is like to go into a music store and speak with some pierced punk rocker about what the latest great band is. It isn't the death of a business, but the impending doom of an entire music culture. That is what really baffles me. However, I get that it is cheaper and easier to get everything online. I mean, for someone who feels so sad about this, I haven't bought a CD in a music store in years. So, I too am part of the problem. But it still bothers me none the less.

On a lighter note, I was the COOLEST person in the grocery store yesterday. So, I went to the store wearing my ratty, "CBGB" sweatshirt (which is a club that used to be open in New York City that most great bands either got their start or played there at one point). I was standing in line at the check out counter and there were like 10 people behind me. The guy directly behind me was like, "nice sweatshirt!" and struck up a conversation about CBGBs with me. Then the cashier joined in the discussion and we were talking about music and this club. Then the cashier got to the bottle of balsamic vinegar that I was buying and of course it didn't have a price on it. So she has to do a price check, and I was like, I am so sorry to hold all of you up. We continued our talk about how awesome my sweatshirt was for what seemed like 10 minutes until the old man with the balsamic finally came back. He said to the cashier, "You're not going to believe this, but this balsamic is 15 dollars!!!!" and the cashier was like, "Oh my gosh are you serious???" and then she looked at me and I was like, "Yeah, it's imported from Modena, Italy, they gotta charge you something for that...." She looked at me all baffled and was like, "so you still want to buy it?" and I was like, "I saw how much it was when I pulled it off the shelf... I just forgot the exact price. I use this with a lot of food and the cheap stuff doesn't taste nearly as good."
Then, the guy behind me was like, "Wow. A cool punk rocker chick who buys imported balsamic....that's so cool". The lady finished ringing me up, I paid, and then she did this....subtly nodding her head, she looked and me and said very softly, "Stay cool." and I just thought to myself, wow, I am like the rock star of the grocery store right now because of my ratty sweatshirt and my ridiculously expensive balsamic vinegar. It was awesome.

The Case Of The Chicken Wings

Anyone who knows me well can agree that I can be a little bit random at times... in many different areas. So when I presented my latest mystery to my friends, I prefaced it by saying, "OK, this is a weird, 'Kate' thing" and they all went, "Oh jeez, here we go." Although, I think they are were all secretly excited to hear my latest quandary.
It all started about a week ago in the middle of the night. Don't ask me why, but for whatever reason, I was roused from my slumber at around 2AM with a question about chicken wings. I actually woke up and thought this, exactly, "Why are chicken drum sticks so much bigger than those little tiny drum sticks when you are eating chicken wings? Oh my G-d what the hell am I eating? And why have I never thought of this? if you actually made a chicken drum stick into a fried buffalo chicken wing it would be about 3 or 4 times the size of the ones we eat!!! and why isn't anyone else wondering this same thing??" So, I jump awake, have this bizarre thought, and proceed to fall back into a blissful, undisturbed slumber.
However, in the morning I actually remember this question and review it in my mind to make sure there isn't an obvious answer that I am missing. I decide that it is a legitimate question and set out on a quest to find some answers. Keep in mind that I have never cooked chicken wings myself- I am totally ignorant to all things chicken wings except that I eat them now and then.

The first victims are some guys that I go to play poker with one night. I ask them my question of why are the drumsticks of chicken wings so much smaller than normal chicken drumsticks. The guys all look perplexed, and a little startled (as I was) to realize that there really is a concerning size difference. One of the guys says he knows why. Because they are made from chickens that are younger- that chickens are slaughtered at all different ages. The dude tells me that I am eating baby chickens. I'm a little appalled, but don't get too worked up because I am not so sure I believe him. First of all, he was a young guy named "Bob". You never meet a young guy named Bob. It always comes from Robert, and these days young dudes go by Rob, ya know? so strike one. Second, I don't know Bob. How do I know if he is wise in the ways of chicken? So, two strikes equals limited credibility.

Next day, some friends and I are at a bar and I ask the same question. Again, I get baffled looks all around. I can't believe that no one knows the answer and no one has thought about this. So another friend says that he once read a recipe for chicken wings and that it told him to take the actual wing and push the meat up to make it into a "drumstick" looking type thing. I don't remember the exact feeling involved, but basically, I didn't believe him. Plus, it seemed like a physiological impossibility, so there went that theory.

Finally, I went with my friend to her Mom's house for dinner and I introduced my dilemma. My friend explains that chicken drumsticks aren't as large as I think they are in my mind, and that the wing drum sticks and regular drumsticks are the same size. While she is telling the story, she is obviously taking too much time to explain her theory which indicates only one thing- she's making it up. So I discredit her immediately.

So with no answers I truck on, undeterred and determined to find an answer. So, I do what any person does these days. I Google it. But I still don't find the answer. Then, I look at images of raw chicken wings and I found my answer, which I will explain to you good people. I now present to you exhibit A:

If you look at the anatomy of a chicken wing- and we're talking a normal size, non-baby chicken wing, there are three sections. There is the little pointy tip that no one eats, so imagine that gone. Now, that just leaves the two other sections, and if you separate those, you have your chicken wings! The top half is rounded on the top and it resembles a chicken drumstick. But it's not a chicken drumstick! it is merely a top of a wing masquerading as a drumstick. And of course there is the other section which is the "wing" looking part of the wing. Mystery solved. It really makes you wonder after asking all of these people and no one knows-how can so many of us eat stuff that we don't know what it is or where it came from? Anyway, I feel like Nancy Drew. If this were a Nancy Drew novel it would be entitled, "Nancy Drew and the case of the shrinking drumstick".

Case Closed.

A Very Important Announcement!

I took little miss Isabelle to the vet yesterday and she went from 10.7 pounds to 8.7 pounds! She lost 1/5th of her body weight in 9 months!
The moral of this story is this- all of you people out there that ridiculed my dog for being a little heavy, this is the official announcement. She is no longer fat. A medical professional says so. So nicknames previously used like, "the little sausage", "line backer", "little pig", etc are no longer accurate or appropriate. We are working on her infomercial... if only she had some before and after pants...