October 21, 2002 - 5:25 p.m.

a lot of semi-interesting things have happened in the past few days. the most important one is that my cha-cha records arrived today. i'm now listening to my favorite of the bunch, tea for two cha cha. i can't believe how good it is and how i lived without it for so long.

simon is getting an a+ in house husbandry. after i gave him a haircut on saturday morning, he mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors, scrubbed the toilet, bathtub and sink, swept up all the other rooms, did a few loads of laundry and made three (!) meals at once so we could eat one and have the rest ready for later in the week. he repeated his efforts today, so there's fresh dhal and jasmine rice on the stove for me while he's at work.

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at work, we have the following employees:

TECHNICAL DEPT
peter mullins
peter craigie
paul harms
paul mcneil

MARKETING COORDINATOR
paul gilliard

DATA/COMMS DEPT
peter brown
ursula mclean

MISCELLANEOUS MANAGERS
russell smith
david smith

a quiz:
if you received phone calls for the following people A-G, who would you transfer them to?

A)paul
B)paul in the technical department
C)peter harms
D)ursula brown
E)paul smith
F)peter
G)paul or peter in technical

these are all real calls i received last week. most of the time, the callers don't know what department they need. let me also mention that we have two reps named matt, two named scott and two named darren. the real fun begins when the faxes come through. i can't help but bust into the giggles.

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simon and i went to david jones (a department store) to return a $38 kitchen timer simon wanted but i nixed. because we couldn't find the receipt, they wouldn't even give us store credit. we had to purchase something for the same price or more on the same day. it was like watching "supermarket sweep" or whatever that game show is called.

we ended up with more canisters, a much more practical choice. they're beautiful glass cylindrical ones with brushed stainless-steel lids. we filled them all with lentils, split peas and rice and put the on the shelf we weren't using in the kitchen. now they hide the ugly stuff and make for a really beautiful display. who knew that lentils could improve your kitchen?