Tag Archives: work

February 8, 2011 · 1:48 pm

Updates and things

Well, so much for the grand Superbowl Pre-week that I had planned. I currently have two cookbooks and a watch to review that I didn’t have a chance to write about last week.

What happened?

My husband wound up in the hospital with pancreatitis and pneumonia. He spent three days there on a clear liquid diet with an IV stuck in his arm. Thankfully he’s home now, and okay, but it interrupted my work week and now I have a TON of catching up to do.

 However, I did learn that hospital food is good.  I had some excellent General Tso’s Chicken from the cafeteria for lunch one day that was better than the stuff I order from Hunan of Stow. And I also ordered in a room service “guest” meal one night. For $5 I wound up with meat lasagna, grilled vegetables (zucchini, squash, mushrooms and onions), a salad with ranch dressing, a roll with butter, plus a piece of cherry pie and some vanilla ice cream. Oink. Leave it to me to find tasty food even in a hospital.

So, coming up this week I have a bunch of book reviews and some pre-Valentine’s Day posts, along with multiple updates on my kittens and some other stuff. It’s going to be crazy!

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December 30, 2010 · 1:44 pm

A quick update and New Years’ wishes

I’ve been relaxing a bit this week, catching up on my reading piles, and preparing to launch my the newest feature of this blog: book reviews! I’ve been promising them for a while, and they will be appearing next week sometime.

If you’d like to see what I’m reading and reviewing, there will be a section in the sidebar on the right.

In other news, I’ve come up with yet another book idea (yes, this makes three) and just have to find the motivation and time to work on it. Hopefully, next year I’ll have a chance. :-) That sounds weird, doesn’t it?

There’s plenty of other things that I’m working on and everything will be posted here sooner rather than later. I have three restaurants to review for the Examiner, Indians history columns to write for Deep Left Field, and more blog posts on Crazy Mandy Talks Sports, once the Browns stop irritating me.

In the meantime, here a few cute kitten pictures to end the year with…

The kittens are 4 months old today! As you can see, Osiris and Horus are at that weird “teenage kitten” stage where their ears are too big for their heads and their heads are too small for their bodies.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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December 13, 2010 · 12:21 pm

Snowed in

I used to love the snow when I was a kid. I remember putting on my giant purple snowsuit and boots and running out into the front yard to build defective-looking snowmen. I learned early on to never throw snowballs at my dad while he was shoveling, because he’d fling a shovelfull of snow at me. :-)

Unfortunately, the second I learned how to drive, I started hating the snow. The first month I had my license, I managed to get my car stuck in the street outside my parents house not once, but twice. When I was in college it wasn’t a big deal, mostly due to the fact that it didn’t really snow in Ashland. That and I lived in a dorm all four years and just walked everywhere.

Once I graduated and got a job, I really hated the snow. I had a hard enough time waking up enough to drive in the mornings, let alone drive defensively in a foot of wet, slushy, Lake Effect white stuff.

Now that I get to work from home, I look out the window at everyone trying to drive around in our unplowed parking lot and think, “HA HA! I don’t have to go out there!” It kinda makes my day.

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November 17, 2010 · 7:28 pm

Random updates and things of that nature

I know I promised some sort of organizational tip today, but I’m in the middle of a very busy (crazy!) week and haven’t really had a chance to think about it. So that might be delayed until next week.

But I do have some updates and announcements and things pertaining to my writing world. I’m starting a new blog pertaining to sports. It’s going to focus more on my opinions and less on actual play-by-play. After all, everyone knows that I have plenty of opinions! I’m not sure what to call it yet, since the best title that I came up with is already taken. Maybe “Crazy Mandy Talks Sports?” I don’t know. Any suggestions?

I have a million other ideas and projects in the works, and a bunch of reviews to post on my Cleveland Restaurants Examiner site. Basically, just a TON of things and huge to-do list.

I’m sorry this post is so boring, but I just feel the need to blab about all of my deadlines to relieve some of the stress!

Posts coming soon to this blog:

  • How I slowly became a football fan
  • Tomorrow awesome beef stew (food post!)
  • What I want for Christmas (but won’t get)
  • My thoughts on eBooks VS real books
  • A history of video games – my personal perspective

Things coming soon to the Examiner:

  • Review of Angelo’s Diner
  • Review of Tequila Pancho’s
  • Review of Five Guys Burgers and Fries (first in a series of burger joints)
  • Info on next week’s Winterfest on Public Square

Now, I need a break. I’ve been on my computer for five hours straight!

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October 25, 2010 · 9:13 pm

More random thoughts

It’s been exactly a week that I’ve been full-time freelance, and I just completed my most productive day yet. I’m FINALLY organized, and have a nice list of assignments to complete. One of them involves something new that I’m  working on for my Examiner column: something I’m tentatively calling “The Great Burger Experiment.” I’m going to eat at (almost) every local restaurant that specializes in hamburgers. My first was Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which I ate at last Friday. My review will be up in a few days.

Other than that, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November. Rather than writing a novel, I’m breaking the rules a bit and hoping to  finally get some work done on a non-fiction book that I’ve been pondering. The subject is Gettysburg, and that’s all I’m saying on that, until I manage to at least complete the outline!

I know I promised that I wouldn’t write any more about my kittens, so I’ll keep this short and quick: Osirus wound up getting stuck under the fridge yesterday. It took Josh and one of his friends to pull her out. Poor cat. She’s fine, but I was a bit shaken up.

‘Til next time…

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August 19, 2010 · 8:50 pm

On writing

When I was in college I took a class called Advanced Composition. My first assignment was to read Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life” and write a paper in response to it. My paper started out with the basics: I wrote my first short story at age 7; went to my first writing workshop at 12 (a summer-long playwriting workshop at the Cleveland Playhouse); participated in the Power of the Pen essay competition at 13 (and didn’t win squat); blah blah blah… The gist of it is, writing for me is like breathing. It’s just something I do.

Since I have minimal drawing skills and a very weird imagination, if I weren’t a writer, I probably would’ve turned to crime or something. :-)

Seriously though,  it makes my day when I get a bit of recognition. Like when this happens: Original Steaks and Hoagies (the restaurant I reveiwed last month for the Examiner) put a link to my review on the home page of their website. Check it out here. It’s the little things and small accomplishments that make my day.

I figured out long ago that writing fiction isn’t for me. I’ve tried to write short stories (actually, I’m not fond of reading them, let alone writing them) and it’s just something I can’t do. My attempts at fiction stand out like personalised number plates in a parking lot. Not particularly good, not horribly bad – just different! 

I’m more of a non-fiction/memoir/news story/article/blog person. I’ve been writing for over 20 years (that sounds scary, until I realize that I’m only 31 and am some sort of weirdo “prodigy” or something), and I’ve only recently been able to admit that to myself. Imagine what I’ll be writing 20 years from now!

 (We’ll probably all be “wrtng n txt spk” by then.)

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June 14, 2010 · 8:48 pm

Off to Iowa….

Before tomorrow’s 12-hour journey to Iowa, here’s what (little) I’ve been working on:

I am now publishing articles through Associated Content (now owned by Yahoo) here is a link to my profile and what I’ve written there.

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June 7, 2010 · 9:27 pm

A quick update…

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth – I’ve just been BUSY. There are plenty of updates to come, articles that need to be written, etc, so I will be posting links like crazy in the next few days. Be prepared!

In the meantime, here’s a review to keep you satisfied: Pad Thai Restaurant in Hudson, posted on AltOhio.com.

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May 3, 2010 · 9:58 pm

Al, my “work pet”

Before you read the title of this post and start thinking that I’m insane, last summer there were two Canadian Geese that hung around the building that I work in. I (or one of my co-workers) would feed them daily, so they just wandered around the area. One of them even stood outside my boss’ office one day and honked at him in search of food. I named them “Al” and “Timmy.” They vanished last September, and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of them until last week.

I have no idea if it is the same goose or not, but I’ve convinced myself that it is. After all, when I go outside to feed him, he doesn’t fly away – he actually moves closer to where I’m standing, almost like he recognizes me. It more than likely isn’t the same one, since any goose that is getting fed will move towards the source of the food, but humor me anyway.

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