A Day's Work

Cubicle life is its own special hell. I know many of you work in cubicles, and trust me when I say that I feel your pain. I did it, for three years in one place as a proofreader, and what really got to me was the absolutely mind-numbing monotony of it. Every day, five days a week, up at 6 a.m., at work by 7:30 a.m., breaks at the same time, lunch at the same time, same people, same documents to be proofed over and over and over (for real--we would read the EXACT SAME document in different file formats 20 or 30 times). It was dispiriting. My dad once came up to see where I worked and as we were leaving he said, "I would kill myself if I had to work at a place like that." Thanks, Dad. We can't all be fighter pilots. But it paid the bills, which is really all you can say about cubicle jobs most of the time.

And not to rub it in for those of you still working in cubicles*, but my life is most assuredly not monotonous anymore. If variety is the spice of life, then my life is en fuego.

So let me present yesterday's work. With pictures!

First, while it was still cool in the morning, I canned beef broth made the day before.

Mmm, beefy goodness.

That one on the left has tomatoes in it. I didn't have quite enough broth to fill the fourth quart, and the MiL suggested filling in the remaining space with tomatoes. Isn't she the clever one? Though there was some dubious separation in that jar and a lot of gross-looking gunk ended up on the bottom, so we'll see how that turned out when I open it sometime in January.

Next, I finally painted the chicken coop.

Home smelly home

Please note the ultra-clever name I not only thought of all by myself (look at me, all bi-lingual!), but was nerdy enough to paint above the door. I crack myself up.

Hey, you take your entertainment where you can out here.

After that, it was time to break a machine.

Meet Grasshole's evil little friend

Yeah, I busted the push mower. There was smoke, and something dripping out of the exhaust. It wasn't pretty. It may be dead. And the lawn is only half-mowed. Little bastard.

There was also some chicken tending, cooking, harvesting . . . Well, you get the idea. I didn't take pictures of it all. Use your imaginations.

Have a nice day!

* Would it help if I told you I still edit boring documents? If you would like to know about the decentralization of Kenya's health management system, I'm your girl. The papers may be boring, but the paycheck is not, so if any of you nice people who send me those papers (and paychecks) are reading this, please, continue to send me as many as you would like (especially paychecks).