Guest sign maker: Second Sam does hot coconuts

WARNING: There's a long, sort of boring story before you get to the actual explanation of the sign. Hang in there, dear readers, it will be good. I promise. (Just look how excited Second Sam is to hold her sign and her hot coconut. Just look.)



Life was hard around the office for awhile. A couple impromptu meetings were held to deliver some bad news. This made everyone sad. Sad is bad (you know this because it rhymes). I made a joke to the other directors one day that staff were about to have PTSD every time an impromptu meeting was called...and that we should call another meeting sometime but have root beer floats waiting for staff (instead of bad news). A couple directors took me seriously. (And I'm not complaining here. It was a good idea...I mean...since it includes FREE ICE CREAM, and all.)

And behold, one afternoon an all-page was sent out calling a meeting...and when we appeared...ice cream (regular, low fat, and dairy free) and Thomas Kemper Root Beer and Orange Cream soda! Huzzah!

Now the dairy-free was no nasty rice cream...no. It was Coconut Bliss. (And if you need dairy-free ice cream...get thee some of this stuff. It's yummy. Even for people who loves them some dairy, like yours truly. You see, Coconut Bliss gets its creaminess from coconut milk...not beans or rice. And let that, readers, be a lesson to you. If you're making DESSERT, think sweet things, like fruit. Not beans. Just sayin.)

So. We ate and drank floats. It was good. But it's all beside the point. The point is this: there were left overs. The freezer was (and is) full of ice cream (regular, low fat, and dairy free). And, Second Sam was in the mood for a creamy coffee beverage one afternoon. HUZZAH, said Second Sam, (insert cartoon light bulb over her curly haired head), I will use the Coconut Bliss in my coffee to make a creamy beverage.

And the hot coconut was born.

Now, if you've been paying attention at all, dear readers, you'll know that it doesn't take much to entertain (and, in fact, EXCITE) us TIMWAS models. And this Hot Coconut experience is no different. Second Sam was in love (♥) with her newly discovered hot coconut recipe, and she wanted to share that love with the office.



Second Sam IMed me (I live in the front of the office, Second Sam lives in the back with the rest the crew...in a land called Cubeland, where all the walls don't quite meet the ceiling BUT there are windows) to tell me of her new found drink concoction. She was so excited. A creamy and sweet beverage for someone who is dairy (and soy) free. Good times. Plus, we had all the ingredients right here in the office.


She typed (excitedly) that she was so excited about her hot coconuts that she was considering putting on a bikini and standing on the side of the rode with a sign saying "HOT COCONUTS HERE" offering the beverages (and the joy) to passersby.

And the TIMWAS sign was born. Actually, it's a little funny: I said, Okay. Make me one. And Second Sam thought I meant make the sign, but really I meant make me the drink. Luckily we got it sorted out, and she ended up making both. (See photo above, where Second Sam is putting the special ingredients into my lime mug.)

Note that Jules likes hers cold. NBD. We can accommodate that.


Note that Stephen just happened to walk in while the crazy was happening in the kitchen. He's holding the sign because that's what dedicated TIMWAS models do: they see a sign, and they immediately hold it and pose for a photo. That's just how they role. (I have trained them well.) Note that Stephen did not actually consume a hot coconut beverage. Oh well.

everything's better with sprinkles

it's true. Take, for example, a recent journey to Spotted Cow Cream and Bean, a local coffee/gelato shop up here in Snohomish County.

I ordered a caramel macchiato (not the real kind of macchiato, the Starbucks kind..with loads of sugar and a ridiculous amount of ingredients, but sometimes you need a treat, okay?) and noticed, as I was waiting patiently for my drink to be created by the barista, a shaker of sprinkles (jimmies, to be precise) and I might have asked if she could put some sprinkles on my drink. Of course, she said (cuz she aimed to please) and then she brought over another jar of sprinkles (not jimmies, to be precise*) and I got to CHOOSE between the two.

I picked the little round ones. They melt to make a colorful display, and they're crunchy, not soft like a jimmy. Look how happy I am:

and how sad Jules is Cools is without sprinkles:

And Fourth Sam too. So sad. So sprinkle-less.

*more information than you actually wanted to know. Okay. So. I have always called the elongated sprinkles jimmies. They're really the best choice for donuts. And cupcakes. They're big and hearty. So I was wondering if the little round guys had their own name too, and becuase I love a factually accurate blog posting, I wikied the term sprinkles. WATCH out. Loads of information exists. Check it out here. I think that the correct answer here is that the little round guys (as displayed in the first photo, above) are called nonpareils in American English and French. And, as I mentioned, they are crunchy and wonderful. Jimmies are soft and wonderful, thus blending better with the texture of, say, a donut. It's all about what's UNDER the sprinkles, ya'll.

Also, I am the proud bearer of this new piece of information: in England they call jimmies hundreds-and-thousands. That's pretty great, if a bit long to say.

sammy d gets a computer

Sometimes you need a new computer. AND, sometimes you are having a bad day. SO! You go to Costco and buy that new computer. Yesterday was such a day for Sammy D.

She and Jules is Cools shot right out to Costco to pick up that laptop she'd been drooling/agonizing over. (buying your own computer is a big deal, ya'll. it's right up there with a matching bedroom set and/or a minivan in its "you are now an adult" in-your-face symbolic realism.)

That realism isn't fazing her in this picture, though. We took a couple shots, but this one had the actual enthusiasm we were going for in the photo shoot. Her eyes are wide with excitement; the feeling of faster internet surfing is butt-on-the-edge-of-your-seat palpable. Plus, she's pointing. Even better.



Jules is Cools looks great with the new laptop, if I do say so myself. And I do. Note the recycled/reused TIMWAS sign--made from the box in which the laptop arrived. We're green here. Oh yes we are.

I'm showing off the interesting feature of the laptop--namely the decorative design on the lid. It's circles and stuff. I wasn't sure how I should feel about such decoration on such a machine. I mean, the imac tried with the colored computers, right? and that seemed like more of a miss than a hit.

Maybe machines aren't supposed to be FUN. Maybe they're just supposed to be sleek, and shiny, like my stainless steel toaster (yes, I have a stainless steel toaster.) Maybe. I'm no industrial designer, here, people. Just a girl holding another girl's laptop, asking that girl to love her. Or something like that.

guest sign maker: Jules is cools

Jules is cools went on a cruise. A one-day cruise (insert edited Gilligan's Island theme song here). From Vancouver (the real one, in British Columbia, where all the vowels are long and the money is funny) to Seattle. With her girls.

And she was sweet enough to conjure up a sign for TIMWAS. Yes, here she is, on her cruise. She's sitting by the pool. No big deal.

And here she is with her girls, still by the pool. (I'm thinking that when the cruise is only one day long, you have to get as much pool time as possible. But I don't know for sure; I've never been on a one day cruise.)

See, the deal is this: sometimes the cruise ships have to be "repositioned" from Seattle to Vancouver or vice versa...and the cruise ships let you come on and play one day cruise for a few bucks. You sip mojitos (as seen above) and eat quesadillas (ditto) and lay by the pool (unless it's raining, which is usually is).

But first you take a shuttle up to Vancouver...that's a bus to us normal folks. Unless you're Jules is cools. And then you're SO COOLS that you take a limo up to Vancouver.

So there you have it. One day TIMWAS cruise. Thanks guest sign maker Jules.

(yep, that rhymed. Aww, Yeah.)

PS. I should note. More photos and witty commentary about both this one-day cruise and other critical information can now be found here.

office puppy

There's a new sheriff in town. And his name is Chaka. He's a Chinook. And he visits almost every afternoon. He is currently four months old, and is (according to his dad) a bit of a drama queen. I think he's real cute, if a bit mouthy (he's all oral-fixation at present).

He's all legs and paws and wiggle right now too, what with being a puppy and all. But the best part about him is that he pads around the office dragging his back feet ever-so-slightly. He's a shuffler. You can hear him coming on the very compact carpet. Shuff-shuff-jingle-shuff-shuff-jingle. It's pretty great. Also, when I see him, I give him a play bow, and he jumps up a little and wiggles over to me. The wiggling is full-bodied, and he often runs into the edge of the door frame on his way into my office. He doesn't notice that he runs into things. He's growing rapidly and this is just a part of his life. This is also pretty great.

Secretly, I think my yellow dog is an almost-Chinook. Very similar characteristics, including size, looks, and temperament. Gentle, even temperament; incredibly loyal, almost barkless. Health problems: excessive shyness, seizures. Check, check, and check. Emotionally sensitive. Check. Double coat with either seasonal or almost constant shedding. CHECK (on the constant). My yellow dog has dropped ears, which apparently, Chaka didn't get. They are "preferred" in the breed. But. Chaka's ears are completely dexterous; he can pin them all the way back so he's aerodynamic. So he's got that.



Here's Jules with the puppy. Note how serious he looks. His forehead is even squinched a little. Serious serious. Jules is not so serious. She's pretending that she doesn't have so much work to do. As am I. We're pretending the country isn't in the biggest recession in twenty years and the federal government didn't just release an enormous stimulus package that's putting 3.3 million dollars into our agency that we have to spend in 24 months without really hiring more people. NBD.

We're not thinking about that at all. We're thinking about how the puppy is cute, and how we're taking a photo with the puppy, and how the puppy had a play date with another office dawg in the field across the parking lot from our office and is now a stinky sweaty puppy because he hasn't grown in his undercoat yet. And how, after this photo op, we're going to have to wash the stinky off our hands. But in a few months, this won't be an issue at all. And we'll have all the photo ops we want, without the washing.

Although Jules is a bit of a hand-washing freak. So she'll still be washing. But cupcake, not her. She has a yellow dog, and if she had to wash every time she touched him, her hands would be scaly and peeling at all times. And that's just not a good way to live.