Sushi: Man did we eat a ton of raw fishies!

Yesterday my coworkers and I ate a few gross tons of raw fish as we bade farewell to our good friend, Tammy.

Tammy as some of you might know if my absolute favorite co-worker in the IT dept [and a great friend.] She’s, well, a girl; smart, funny, strong, don’t you dare look her in the eyes kinda person (what a book of mine calls a grenade type personality) and she smells nice. Well, nicer than us ugly bastard guys anyways. I really tried hard not to stand behind her and Hannibal Lecter smell her hair as I think she might have found that creepy…

…anyways it really sucks to not have her in the office. Now Mark and I will actually have to like talk and stuff. Our Tammy filter is no more.

But I have some cool keepsakes for watching her house and doggies. One, the most boringest snow globe in the world (from Texas) and a painted horses mug from South Dakota. And then there’s that lock of hair I snipped once and a few choice pieces of delicates from one of her dresser drawers. Lalalalasniiiiifffff! sniifffff! ahhhhhhhhhhh!

(That was done purely for Mark and Tammy’s enjoyment if they ever find this blog)

Anyways, the server girl at the all you can eat Sushi place we went to barely managed to escape delivering our food without losing fingers. She’d set the plate of assorted raw fishies and WHACK! 5 pairs of chopsticks would strike the plate at the same time as we all quickly devoured what landed on the table. She was so nervous at our Super Fast English People Chopstick Attack o’ Splintery Death™ that she later just tossed the platter on the table, which landed empty as we snatched tastey raw fishy bits in midair. I’ve went twice to this place but all later agreed no one ate more than we did this time around. $30 and 200lbs of raw little Nemos ingested later, we left gorged and waddling. Man, the fish farts alone were wonders to behold and as God himself intended, shared around the office; a fact and experience I made sure people at work knew of and could experience; hey what can I say I’m a sharer.

I think we all tried to take in Tammy’s last day in the department and hold onto it as much as we can (I made a mold). Dammit, I might just have to talk to Mark now! Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!

A few hours later we hit the bar at the end of work to have a going away party for the Tamsta. The T-girl. T-woman. Tama-lama-dingdong…

Dammit, I might just have to talk to Mark now! Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!

…there were quite a few people from the company to send her off with a little alcohol, randy stories, rememberences and some munchies. Mark looked at Tammy and I with disgust (a common occurance I assure you) as we munched on some food. Sure just a few hours ago we overstuffed ourselves on raw fish but hey, NACHOS!

We left well into the night (10pm) and hugged goodbye. A group hug at first (Mark luved it, that bitch hahahaha) and then the individual hugs. No Mark and I did not hug individual style (hold my pocket) but alas, we might have to now as there is no Tammy to hug. We see the T off next week and then Mark and I have to mark our territories off again in the IT dept with profuse amounts of urine spraying. In short, another typical day in the IT dept sans the T-ster.

The next day as I was out and about shopping I actually looked at a Baja Fresh restaraunt and thought about nabbing some fish tacos. Yep, sure I had a veritable shitload of fish still somewhere gently travelling down my intestinal coil but hey, fish tacos are good, dagnabbit. (I opted for beer and chili at the house later instead.) The Universe was pleased.

Speaking of beer, I found a cool deal at the local dollar stores today, GINGER BEER. All natural, haven’t had it since I was a kid - Ginger freaking Beer. Like Root Beer but with Ginger sans the root Root. Hansen’s all natural no preservatives, caffeine or sodium lightly carbonated soda. Ahhh… memories. Refreshing, subtle and 50 cents a pop pop.

Ginger Beer is good but not a Tammy replacement.

I’m almost done with a great book she recommended called Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It’s a great story, one of religion, tragedy (those two never go together) and a unique perspective on life and the struggle to survive. I’d like to tell you a decent synapsis but you see I’ve also been reading the Microsoft Windows XP Professional MCSE book and have been getting a tad confused as both “stories” merge in my fwagile wittle head.

OKOK, I’ll try it anyways.

Pi Patel, a god loving Windows XP Systems Administrator and the son of a zoo-keeper, has a fervent love for setting up XP based networks but also practices Linux and Christianity. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their network servers emigrate from India to North America aboard a VPN connection. Alas the ship sinks and the servers crash - and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions his backup tapes, a hyena, an orangutang, a wounded zebra and a 400lb donut eating incompetant Windows NT administrator that wheezes when he breaths, even sitting in a chair. Soon the incompetant NT administrator has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the NT admin (Wheezy) find their way to land? Can Pi’s fear, knowledge and cunning keep him alive until he he can do that system restore?

Go freaking look at The synopsis of Life of Pi on Google but mine is better, I assure you. And read the book. It’s the only real justification for tearing down the rain forests…

Peace. Is not a Tammy replacement either. Accept no substitutes. Or toots in general.

Godspeed Girl! The IT dept just got a whole lotta uglier…

Dammit, I might just have to talk to Mark now! Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!

A wise man once said that the thing he most regrets in life is not checking his parachute before he jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Actually it was more like he shrieked, screamed and flailed his arms alot before he hit the ground with a sickening thud. Then there was the bounce followed shortly thereafter with a less sickening thud, his body being a tad more tender and less solid/structurally sound than it was prior to the first meet and greet with land.

The one thing free-falling people have over us who have never had the pleasure is a unique perspective of the Universe. That of an arm-flailing, little girl shreiking fleshy hacky-sack full of nice fragile little organs that oddly enough cease to function when mushed all together due to a sudden stoppage. What happens when all that kinetic energy suddenly has nowhere to go?

Take a ketchup packet. Toss it on the floor and step on it. HARD.

Sure it’s a mess but if one looks at the pattern all that bodily fluid and mushed organ… er… ketchup makes it’s like watching art be suddenly created out of nothingness. Magic.

Oooh, and look is that a spleen? Cool!

Yesterday I became a man. No, I didn’t have naughty carnal time with a lady/man/gopher (for the first time) but what I did do is see Joss Whedon’s much anticipated movie, Serenity. And I loved it. And the goph… uh, I really really liked it. I won’t bore you with the background of this movie and why it was an agonizing wait for us brown-coats, aka Firefly fans. If you don’t know this movie was based on a great but short-lived sci-fi show called Firefly that was cancelled but thanks to such a loyal fan base (YAY US!) and fantastic DVD sales our beloved show, director and cast got a movie; Serenity.

You can’t stop the signal. Boo-$%#@ing YA!

Browncoats rock. (Not gonna explain it; you’re either a part of the wonder or you’re not.)

If you’re confused and like great sci-fi buy the DVD complete series Firefly (avg price 35-40 bucks) then either go see the movie or if you’re a slacker and Serenity is no longer playing in theatres, get it when it’s on DVD. It’s never too late to be a brown-coat, people!

You can’t stop the signal.