Mild Amusement

At this point, the "sensuous life" bit has been thrown around enough that it deserves its own series. The first post was, understandably, about defining the sensuous life , and the second was all about a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to rename mac and cheese (to "pasta a la fromage"). Basically, we just like adding a touch of pinkies-up to our lives. It's neither hard to do nor ridiculously expensive, but it always adds some hilarity into our lives. In this particular episode of the Sensuous Life, I'd like to discuss cheese platters. You see, one of the very first documented instances of the Sensuous Life was when we decided we wanted a cheese platter as part of our dinner. We sliced up a couple of cheeses from Costco, arranged them on a plate, mixed in a few fruits, and enjoyed the heck out of eating it for dinner. Every now and then, we mix in some cold cuts to go with it, so we often refer to these plates as " charcuterie boards." Strictly spea...

As you can probably tell by the recent titles, Friendsgiving was all sorts of fun. We had juice boxes , and the food got high marks from little kids . You can just imagine how much laughter was involved with all of that. Still, those were mostly funny things that happened on the day of the event. Today's post involves a little bit of fun that won't be going away anytime soon. I mentioned before that one of the munchkins was at the age where she was learning new words. She was quick about learning them, too, often repeating things that she had just heard. I know lots of friends of mine who have kids have warned me that their kids repeat anything and everything, but this was my first time seeing it play out in real time. Sure, I've seen kids at the daycare say things that I was certain came from their parents, but this was the first time I'd seen the action up close and personal. We realized this almost immediately after she repeated the word "juice" a minut...

Last time, I described the thought process behind the beverage selection for Friendsgiving  (there were juice boxes). That led to quite a bit of hilarity around the juice boxes, but the juice was not the only item on the menu that led to some full-on laughter. No, the other food managed to make an impression, too. More importantly, it managed to make an impression on the munchkins that were involved with Friendsgiving. I mentioned last time that one of those munchkins was a precocious fourteen month old. I know it's common for parents to gush about their child's accomplishments and potential, but this particular child impressed both the Mild Wife and me by picking up on words and incorporating them into her vocabulary very quickly. She was clamoring for juice a few minutes after walking in the door, and she'd never even heard the word or had the contents before. Like I said, she was a quick study. The really amusing part, though, came after she tasted the food. While s...

A little while ago, the Mild Wife and I decided to host some friends for a Thanksgiving celebration (a " Friendsgiving ," if you will). We figured we'd play it straight for this particular outing, so we offered to make the turkey. Still, other folks were inevitably going to ask what they should bring, so we let them pick something that reminded them of home cooking. Basically, it was more of an excuse to sit, talk, eat, and be merry than an expectation that they bring their culinary A game . This, however, led to a discussion about what to pair the turkey with. We had lots of options, and everyone loves a good side dish at Thanksgiving. Heck, some people care only for the side dishes. So, we put a bit more thought into what else we were going to make that day. We did ultimately settle on a few items that were a hit (including the infamous cheesecake ), but the bit that really led to some laughter the beverage selection. You see, we had a combination of folks at the p...

Coffee is an interesting beverage to me. I actually went most of my life without drinking it, so I don't have a long history with it. Still, in the few short years that it has been a thing in my life, it's led to some interesting, and therefore amusing, stories. This happens to be one of them. I should probably start by mentioning that I mostly started drinking coffee around the time that the Mild Wife and I got together. The reason was fairly simple: she likes it, so we had more of it around. Prior to that, I used to mostly drink water, tea, juice, or the occasional soda. Still, the Mild Wife enjoys her coffee, so we started having more of it together. In theory, this should've been simple, but it led to quite a few laughs. The first amusing bit was me trying to learn how to make the coffee. You see, I wasn't familiar with the whole world of coffee, so trying to internalize what filters, pour over drippers , and mocha pots do was a bit of a struggle at first. If h...

Growing up, watching television was never really a huge part of my day. Sure, I watched television like other kids did, but I never felt like I had to watch a particular show or that I needed to get lots and lots of screen time. I don't know if I could explain why to you, either. We watched a bit of television before dinner, and then we had to do our homework, but after the work was done, I just never quite went back to the television. I got my fill early on, and I was good. That habit has generally translated over to my adult life, so on a day-to-day basis, I probably watch something like thirty minutes of television. It's not really television, either, but one of the streaming services instead (specifically, Netflix). In fact, I usually get my fill of Netflix while doing the dishes or ironing a shirt, because I am stationary at that point and I prefer a bit of entertainment to pass the time. The Mild Wife and I also have a habit of watching Netflix, though, interestingly e...

At work, I help out with the university recruiting efforts. As I like to joke, it's a self-defense effort to make sure that the coworkers around me know what they're doing. I'm a worker bee, so it's not like I am in a position to hire or fire people. So, I do the next best thing if I want to make life easy on myself at work: I try to help identify talented people as entry-level employees and interns. I figure if any percentage of them stick around, my work life is bound to get better. The only reason I mention this is that this means I sometimes attend recruiting conferences. If you want to hire students, you go to the events that draw them in big numbers. There are a few of those every year, and I happened to be at one a few weeks ago. And as it just so happens, a particular moment stood out as flat out hilarious. You see, we are not the only company that attends these conferences. Part of the reason why so many students attend some of these conferences is that ...