Isn't it amazing . . .

what you learn about your friendship years after it's begun? No love lost, of course. :)

And, because it's going to be day full of odd blog stuff, I'm just going to add it all to this post.

- Finally got to explain to my husband what the deal with the "I can smell your brains" joke that flies around my family is about. You can see it here. Of course, I think I like Mitten's second animation better, but this one is all about getting the family joke.

- Went to see the Greensboro Symphony last night and ran into an old co-worker from Guilford Tech. She thought I'd gotten married after I left the college. Um, I was married three months after I began working at the college and I stayed almost 5 years after that. Weird.

Aside from that, the symphony did something really funny: they opened with the national anthem. Yep, they had Alma Adams (State Representative in NC) "conduct" the orchestra. I honestly had to hold myself back from yelling, "Play Ball!" at the end of it. It was so odd that we asked the symphony's executive director about it later. Yep, they open and close the season with it. Last time I checked, the symphony wasn't a sporting event, but maybe I'm missing something.

Otherwise, I was unimpressed. I've been told it was technically good, and maybe I'm a loyal WSSO musical elitist, but this one put me to sleep. Literally. Our seats didn't even make it easy to watch the musicians being musicians (I tend to prefer the mezzanine, you know).

- Had dinner with the boss and her husband prior to the symphony last night. I think they're great.

Nevertheless, dinner was awesome. We went to Saffron, a wonderful little Indian place in Greensboro off of Westover. I had the Shrimp Jalfrazie and loved it. Evidently, they understand that people who order shrimp anything don't just want two or three shrimp. Yep, I had more than 10 fairly large shrimp and it was great. They've got a sister restaurant in Winston, and I've never been, but given what I think about Saffron, I'll be visiting Nawab soon.

- I completely concur with Beth on this one. I just don't think crap from your employer motivates employees. What the first commenter says about the post isn't the same thing that we're discussing here. Yep, $150 at a restaurant is not the same as $150 in cash, but it's much better than a $150 cut glass paperweight.

People don't care about paperweights or certificates or a chance to be called up on stage in front of everyone or a little trinket. It may be fleeting to hand over the $150 in cash or gift certificate, but it's definitely better than the alternatives. (I'm speaking from experience here: I got so much of this junk in K-12 school - have I mentioned that I'm from a family of overachievers? - that I've ditched almost all of it, even the trophies.)

My old accounting firm boss and their HR director ought to learn this one. I feel bad for the people who got those stupid paperweight award things because I couldn't talk them out of it. Oh well.