Peonies

Peonies make me happy. Almost as much as lilacs.

I treated myself today and got a bunch of peonies to keep me company at the office. By 5 pm I was almost drunk on the fragrance of summer.

When I was in grade twelve, I was on the Grad Committee and, along with my friend Jenny, charged with decorating the barn-like room (albeit on a lovely golf course) which housed our grad reception.

Since our budget was modest to say the least, we decided to go wandering around the neighbourhoods of our lovely little town of Okotoks looking for peonies in people’s gardens. Then we’d knock on their doors and ask them if they would kindly donate their peonies to the Class of 1995.

I can’t believe I actually did that. I’d totally forgotten about it until I started writing this.

What’s more, would you believe that I still have a vase at my parent’s house which holds five papery-thin dried out old peonies from that grad ceremony thirteen years ago?

I’m sure that tomorrow all I’ll be able to think about is my grade twelve grad. How funny. And what a long way we’ve come.

Warning: J-J-Jenga prankster on the loose

Boy do I ever work with a bunch of wise guys.

When I got into the office this morning, I very nearly created a big mess. This is the trap that was waiting for me at my desk:

Oh guys you are sooooo funny.

I guess it could have been worse – that’s only one box of Jenga blocks.

Why do we have Jenga at the office? Well today after work we’re having our monthly TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) get-together where we… well, get together… and have a couple of team-building beverages. We try to have a theme each time. Back in October we did a pumpkin carving competition, once we had a poker tournament and another time, we played Wii.

This time, it’s a Jenga showdown.

So to get ready for it, some of us were having a pre-game practice on my desk yesterday:

Oops.

I think Cisco needs to work on those Jenga skills.

Oh GREAT. Now I have that song in my head.

And I’m going to make you suffer with me:

“Jenga, Jenga, J-J-J-Jenga. You take a block from the bottom and you put it on top, you take a block from the middle and you put it on top. That’s how you build the tower; you just don’t stop. You keep building that tower putting blocks on top. It teeters and it totters, but you don’t give up; it weebles and it wobbles, but you build it on up. You take a block from the bottom and you put it on top, you take a block from the middle and you put it on top, till someone knocks it over, and that’s when you stop, but you can start all over putting blocks on top.”