Sarcasm with a side of optimism.

Happy Halloween!

We have a competition at work where the CEO dispenses pumpkin seeds in late August and the great pumpkin growing contest begins! Basically, the person who grows the largest (heaviest) pumpkin wins, and gets $5/lb as the reward. Last year, my boss won with a 65lb pumpkin. This year, he didn't fare as well and a guy from IT brought in a 271 lb monster that he grew at home somehow! They put it on display in the lobby so everyone could see it.

Yesterday, we all gathered in the parking lot to watch the pumpkin hoisted up by a crane and dropped at a height of 3 stories. It was surreal to watch this giant pumpkin fall, and when it hit the pavement, there was a very satisfying *splat* along with exclamations of all sorts from the crowd! Everyone asked how messy the result was, but the truth is, the pumpkin-gunk is attached to the walls of the pumpkin, so to clean it up, you really just pick up the shattered pieces of the shell.

Today wasn't as fun. For starters, neither of my cars were cooperating this morning. Hello dead batteries! Craig took care of me and jumped the car, and changed the battery during lunch. I was so grateful. I was stuck at work until 8:30pm today, and I was the last person there. How scary is that? Craig to the rescue again! He came by when I was done to make sure I got home safely. Not to be overly paranoid or anything, but there was an incident a couple of weeks ago where one of our female employees was leaving the building, and a giant van was parked extremely close to her car. Very suspicious given that the parking lot was mostly empty. She went back in, and came out with a male coworker who asked the van to move. The van left, but the woman noticed that it was following her for several miles after the left the office park. That's not cool.

I had my pepper spray and cell phone with me.

posted by v @ 9:33 PM