"We are a large busines......"

I can see ash clouds! I’ve never seen ash clouds from a volcano before! There is still a chance it could be pollution, but we ruled out rain. I’m going with ash clouds because that makes all of the happenings a bit more exciting. I’m just so thankful I am not flying this weekend….or this past week. It would be miserable trying to deal with all of the delays/cancellations and the numerous other unhappy travelers.

Today is a pink day for me. The guys start singing the pink panther theme song whenever I walk by. I am wearing my fuzzy pink jacket, my new pink scarf (a birthday present from Doris), and my pink watch (a birthday present from Mom). The color just makes me so happy it is hard to give up. I’m also sure it brightens everyone’s day that has to look at me. How could pink not do that? It is just a happy color. I wanted to prove that it is a happy color so I looked up the meaning of pink. Bright pinks can encourage action and confidence and it has been used in prisons to decrease erratic behavior. In Japan, pink has a masculine association because of the pink blooming cherry trees representing the young Japanese warriors who have fallen in battle. Pink also encourages friendliness and discourages ill-will. Overall, I think pink is a fantastic color and I’ll slowly convince everyone here that I am right. If you want to read the entire profile of pink, or any other color, click HERE.

The warehouse guy introduced me to the typical Dutch candies for kids (according to him, anyways). They are little white mice and snails. The mice are made of this stretchy sweet stuff that I really like the texture of. The snails are made of the same, but have a gummy “shell” on their back. The snails are cute because they even have the little snail eyes/lumps on their heads like real snails! I don’t know why they made the mice white; I think they should have chosen a polar bear or something. I’m not a fan of mice ever; even as candy they’re less appetizing just because of their shape.

I received my ISO 9000 book in the mail today. I figured I better get read up on the latest ISO 9001:2008 standards that they want to implement here. It’s a nice 730 pages and very much like a text book but with a pretty pearl on the front. I guess that helps make the book a little less painful . It is a neat initiative that goes along with Total Quality Management. It is similar to 6 Sigma and other TQM systems. Companies who have these certifications are supposed to be able to better serve their customers due to their highly systemized operations and the clarity they are in place. I’m sure you get out of it what you put into it, like most things, so hopefully we can do it right and it will be very beneficial!

This past week I have been cooking for myself and I haven’t keeled over dead yet. I figure that is a good thing. I saw tuna steaks at our local grocer and I LOVE tuna steaks so I thought I would buy one and see how I did. I really like my tuna steaks rare (as tuna should be served) but I don’t know how much I trust grocery stores and myself to handle and serve raw fish. I seared it on both sides, well a little longer than the traditional searing but it was still raw in the middle. It was quite tasty too! I read that tuna pairs well with Asian spices so I dipped it in our sweet chili sauce that we have here and I was very happy with the outcome! I will definitely have to do it again next time I find tuna at the grocery store.

There was just a forward sent around the office of a copy of an actual quote from a vendor to another office. In the fine print it states “We are a large business and not a minority or woman owned business.” This company is based in San Francisco. We are all getting a laugh that a company actually put this on their quote. They, too, are ISO certified. I hope we don’t end up with things like that in our fine print after this process!