Work Stuff

In my working career, I’ve had a lot of different cubicles and offices. In a few cases, it was because I changed jobs or employers, but I’ve moved a surprising amount of times while holding the same position. In fact, in my current role, I’ve been in four different offices.

Some people keep their workplace unencumbered by anything personal. Me? Not so much. While I have grown or shrunk my items based on the size of my office, I’ve dragged some of these items through over a dozen spaces. Here is a tour of some of my office items:

• I have a glass bowl (small fishbowl) half filled with sand. This sand was taken from the beach that I lived by when I was in high school (for those in Southern California – Avenue C). In the bowl is a little paper umbrella (like you would get from a tropical drink) and a mini surfboard (originally intended to be a refrigerator magnet).
• Pictures of the family – I have quite a few of my boys, one with my wife in it and one with me, my dad and Ohio State Football great Archie Griffin.
• 2 Dilbert cartoons – I once heard that a sign of an unengaged employee is one with lots of Dilbert cartoons in his office. I think that is just a sign of someone who can recognize the sometimes unfathomable logic of the workplace.
• Priorities – The only “motivational” thing I will allow in my office. It has a picture of a young child and the quote “A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” This helps remind me of why I am at work.
• Pictures of places – When I have a bigger office, I have more of these but I always keep a picture of Catalina Island that I took as a teenager and a beach picture of St. Maarten that I took as an adult
• Ohio State items – A picture of Ohio Stadium (where my beloved Buckeyes play football), a plastic Buckeye helmet, an actual Buckeye nut and a picture of an Ohio State player intercepting a football while a Michigan player falls with the caption “Losing – When your best just isn’t good enough!”
• Management sayings – Well, maybe not actual management ones – “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits” and ” The beatings will continue until morale improves”.

Chris’s Incredible Italian Turkey Meatloaf

A slice of this meatloaf would improve morale!

I decided to make this because I wanted to use up oats we had. Unfortunately it doesn’t use much.

Mix the meat, onion and oats.

Prep the sauce.

This is a great tasting meatloaf and by baking in a wider dish gives more surface to crisp up.