Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Things I Never Thought I'd Write in an Email to my Boss

"Can we have a pinata? Please? Everyone loves pinatas."

It's a long story.

It started this summer, when I started asking the Boss, "Hey, when's the company picnic?"

"What do you mean? There is no company picnic."

"Come on, it's summer. We've hired some new people. We've got a whopping staff of six people now. What better way to welcome them!" Then the Boss would kind of run away, or give me a look to suggest the conversation was over.

But once every two weeks or so I would ask, "So, when's the company picnic?"

One day the Boss asked, "And just where would we have this company picnic?"

"I was thinking your house."

"My house?! Oh no."

"Oh. Are there liability issues or something."

"No. There are issues to my sanity."

And so the summer went and by the early Fall I gave up and figured I had been defeated.

So I was surprised in general when the Boss said last week, "We're going to have a staff meeting and I'm going to ask you to come in for the last five minutes." Okay, this was kinda weird in and of itself. So the "staff" which I guess does not include me, is meeting in the Conference Room and then after 40 minutes or so the Boss motions for me to come in. I took the seat avaliable which happened to be at the head of the conference table. I wondered if I was about to get voted off the island. Here is what happened:

Boss: Since Nancy kept asking for a company picnic, I have decided to invite you all to my home the afternoon of Friday the Xth for a Fall Party.

Cupcake: Really?

Boss: Yes.

Cupcake: Really?

Boss: And the will be seasonal activites and games planned by Nancy.

Cupcake: What??!! Really?

Boss: Yes. I, of course, have the power to veto. We have to do something while we're drinking.

Cupcake: Is it a sleepover?

Boss: Don't push your luck.

I was later informed by a colleague, "I've been in the finance industry for 30 years and that's the first time I've ever heard the question "Is it a sleep over?" in a conference meeting."

This raises two major issues I need help with, pronto: what the hell am I supposed to do with these people and where can I find an easy, seasonal pupmpkin cupcake recipie?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://southernfood.about.com/od/pumpkins/r/bl40104c.htm

I made these pumpkin cupcakes for my housewarming party a few weeks ago and they were a hit! Goes great with the cream cheese frosting. I used pecans in the batter. Yum.

Anonymous said...

How about bobbing for apples? Hey Nancy it's Sharon. I've checked your blog three times today. I also emailed you. Thanks for the shout-out!

dangermama said...

easy, easy pumpking cupcake recipe

can of pumpkin (15-16 oz)
box of spice cake cake mix
ingredients needed for spice cake mix

mix ingredients as directed on box of mix, add pumpkin, bake as directed.... use cream cheese frosting (I like to heat it up and then drizzle it on top) and you can garnish with candy corn or those candy corn pumpkins

if you want pumpkin muffins, just mix the pumpkin and the cake mix (dont add other ingredients like water, eggs, etc), bake at 325 for ~20 minutes.... yummmy - these are snatched up so fast

Jamie Carin and Claudio Romano said...

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/flavorsoffall/pumpkin.htm

this webpage has four bazillion pumpkin recipes...

As for activities..I definitely agree on bobbing for apples. Also you can get pumpkins and either carve them or just deocrate them (with markers or paint).

How about a costume contest?

You can get some ghost stories out of that Brooklyn Library of yours...

You can do a Pollyana gift thing...

Anonymous said...

Cuppie, have you forgotten the all-important recipe and party planning mecca known as BHG.com???

For cakes

For parties

Look around. It's a veritable party portal.

Cupcake Queen said...

Never...never forget Martha Stewart in a case like this....here's a link to her pumpkin cupcakes: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe3882

good thing that i have my own office...otherwise people might think I'm strange for laughing so hard at my computer screen. u r priceless!

Cupcake said...

Thanks guys, you're brilliant. I think I'll test out one of the pumpkin cupcake recipies this weekend. I'll need to use one without nuts since someone in the office is allergic.

Bobbing for apples is the first thing I suggested to the Boss. "No," he said. Pumpkin carving is in. I am also going to creating a "Know you Colleagues Trivia Game", kind of like the famous Boys vs. Girls Jeopardy game played on Friends. Because apparently, I have a lot of free time. Bizzy has suggested Croquet and Bocci. I'll have to see if the Boss owns Bocci.

Other than that, it's time for me to hit up the Internet for seasonal party games that are not too humiliating to play in front of your boss and will not garner scornful looks from two Germans. There's a fun Google search in the making.