Kitchen Dangers

I was sitting in my kitchen this morning, sipping my cup of coffee, looking at all the things I will miss when I sell this house, and I got to thinking; "What is the most dangerous thing in a kitchen?" You would automatically say knives, or the cleaning supplies under the sink, or maybe even the stove since you could burn your self or it could explode during the night and your house would go up like the forth of July ( yes, I have a gas stove/oven), but I thank the most dangerous thing in a kitchen is the crock pot.

This simple, unassuming kitchen appliance is supposed to save you time by cooking a meal while you are out. That's actually quite a convenience. But what if you have a home office like I do ? On these cold mornings I might put a pork roast, some apricots, some bbq sauce, tomatoes, some onions and maybe a little garlic in the crock pot and put it on low for a full day of simmering knowing that in the evening I will have pulled pork I can serve my family. I get up at 7a.m. to get it started. By 9a.m. it is starting to smell like something is cooking, and I am looking at the banana I am eating for breakfast and thinking, " this should really be oatmeal with lots of brown sugar." By 11 a.m. the kitchen is starting to smell wonderful, and I am rooting around in the bread drawer for toast. My one o'clock it's diet be damned. The house smells like delicious food but I know I can't open the crock pot until at least five o'clock, so I open every other cupboard, drawer, and hiding place in the house, gobbling whatever I can find. By the time the pork roast is ready, I look at feel like Petunia Pig after an all night binge. However, since I have been smelling pork all day, I have to force down a pulled pork sandwich on a soft roll..... it's almost cannibalistic!

I think, while I am packing up the kitchen, I will leave the crock pot behind. Let someone else's butt get gigantic !

Grandmas Don't Tweet !

There are a lot of changes going on in my life right now. My financial planner has again insisted that I put my family home, which my grandparent's built over 85 years ago, and which my late-husband and I purchased from my dad when the kids were small, up for sale. I can't afford the upkeep on such an old home, I don't really need the space although it is not all that big ( 3 bed 2 bath), and I guess I should listen to my financial guy, but it is so very sad not to mention that it is the worst real estate market since the dawn of time. The house will list on November 11 and I am currently packing boxes of stuff since the real estate agents told me not to have any personal things out -- photos, paintings, etc. I am nearly paralyzed with sadness at the end of each day.

Add to that the fact that the printing/publishing industry ( my industry ) is dying. Thanks to electronic media, people are just not buying printed books... which means my clients are ordering less and less. I simply cannot make ends meet and keep two kids in college.... which is something I will not compromise on. My kids' education is the first and foremost important part of my life, even if I end up living in a box.

I have been looking for job opportunities and have been really surprised by the ageism out there in the corporate world. I am 49-years-old and almost everyone says if I don't find another job before I turn 50, I may as well give up ! I today talked to an old client who used to work for a very well-known retail kitchen store that actually started in Sonoma, and he said that a few years ago they laid off everyone over fifty from the corporate office to bring in, as he puts it, "self-important 35-year-olds." I am finding that everyone hiring thinks that if you don't tweet or twitter, you aren't "with it" enough for a job. What happened to knowing your customer ? Let's say you are a well known, very high-end kitchen store. Is someone going to come in to your store because they got a tweet from Kim Kardashian saying she bought a $1,000.00 espresso maker at your store ? Somehow I seriously doubt it. Who is shopping at your store is people who have always shopped there, who know the quality, and who have the money to pay for the items. This is not just the dot comers. It is also the older retired people who have saved their money, know the value of quality, and are willing to spend to get that quality and company name. Is today's bride going to register at a store that is known for quality, or is she going to go on a bridal registry web site and electronically register for her bridal wants and needs? It is the bride's mother ( probably my age or older ) who is going to insist that the bride actually go in to a few well-known, name brand stores and personally select things for their registry, because her friends, and grandma's friends who will all be invited to the wedding are not all that comfortable purchasing gifts over the Internet, and will want to go in to a store that they know and feel comfortable in, look at what the bride has chosen, and make a purchase with an actual human being. Customer service, baby, that's what it's still all about. Mom and grandma don't want to tweet and twitter. They don't want to go on face book to learn about their daughter's registry. They want to shop at a real store, talk to a real human, and walk out feeling happy with their purchase.
Bonus if they get to talk to someone their age ! WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA.