Update

Maybe you've noticed that this blog has been noticably bare for the past week?

Well, since Famous George has been on vacation, there's been no need for us to choose Barb's lunch for her.


But the real reason is that I'm going back to school.


So long office, I'll still try to update, just from my remote location.

Thursday

There's no Barb today, either.
To placate all of you, here's a picture of Oz with a shake weight and the mailman.




Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 24th.

We're back to the series of Barb's kids picking her lunch. Today' her son Joey's choice is featured.

Unfortunately, I'm not friends with him on facebook, so this was the best I could do. Errrr. Conveniently, it does feature all of Barb's kids, which I guess isn't too bad.

So yeah.

Today's lunch is a cheesteak hoagie.

Picked by: Joey

The Rating:

4.5/5 Opas- This was deemed "an old college standby" because this used to be one of those 'big deal foods' for Barb back in the day. It's probably not all that much healthier than the regular cheesesteak, but it does come with tomato and lettuce. The roll was soft, the cheese was cheesy and all over it was much better than any other cheesesteak option. Delicious and filling!





Tuesday, August 23rd.

It's a special day today. A sad, sad (but special) day. It's the Biz's last day at work until Thanksgiving break. Or you know, whenever she decides to work again. Because it was her last day, we has an icecream cake, which is now sitting in the office freezer next to the Patron.

Oh yeah, and an Earthquake. Which resulted in no damage to anyone, but we were all a little freaked out. Esther started screaming "Hide your kids! Hide your wife!" and Barb ended up getting in her car and driving away. The rest of us just chilled out in the parking lot, which actually was terrible because it was about a million degrees outside and there's no shade. But, no harm done, I guess.

Barb's Lunch today was: A flatbread pizza and ten buffalo wings!
Chosen by: Liz, in honor of her last day.

The Rating:
Wings- 3/5 Opa's
Pizza- 2.5/5 Opa's

Not the greatest of days. Although the wings were pretty crispy (and served with a weakness!) they came with sauce on the side and just couldn't compare with Screwball's wings from down the road. Good amoung of celery though. The flatbread pizza was a total lie-- it should be called the roll pizza since it came on a steak roll. A little tough to chew and not so great. But, it knocked two items off the list. Ehh.


Oh, I guess since you're all insisting, you can have some pictures to celebrate Liz's graduation/last day.

A very dissappointing Monday.

Another day.






............................no Barb today either.

Friday?

Barb is notably absent from the office today.



Here are some pictures of pigs wearing rainboots instead.

Thursday, August 18th

Since Barb's older daughter picked lunch yesterday, it's only fair that her other daughter picks too.
I'm probably going to have an easier time name spelling today.

This is Barb's other daughter, Steff.

She picked something a little lighter than the pasta with pesto for Barb. Which is sort of a blessing, because she's been eating really heavy for the past few choices.

Today's lunch: The crispy chicken salad
Picked by: Steff

The Rating:
4.25/5 Opas. (Getting fancy with the rating...oooh....aaaah)
Crispy chicken salad....a relief. Because Barbw was still recovering from that huge serving of pasta from yesterday, she was glad to have the salad. The salad was fresh and all of the veggies were crunchy. It was served with a breadstick, a.k.a. a 'weakness'. Which prompted the question, how many weaknii do they make in a day?
 A great choice, but as they say around the office.... "You don't make friends with salad!"

Wednesday, August 17. Guest lunch

We have a guest picking lunch today. I'm not talking about the wizard's really stylish nail salon owner clients that are in the office today. (They probably don't eat food. Just air and magic style fluff.)

It's Barb's own daughter, Sami. Now usually, I'm not good at spelling nicknames and since this isn't her facebook name, I'm going to just pray that this is the way that Barb spelled it on the email she sent me with the picture of lunch today. But if it's not....I'm really sorry, please don't stop reading my blog because I've offended your name-spelling sensibilities.


She's an intern at Vanity Fair. Which means she's cooler than me. You know what, everyone is though. I mean, I use the word 'hip' to describe the 'kids these days.' Anyways, she and Barb used to get Georges' food way back when so she picked her favorite. Or so I've been told.

Chicken Pesto with Penne
Picked by: Sami (Barb's daughter, for those of you who skimmed the opening paragraphs.

The Rating-
4.5/5 Opa's. Barb had Sami pick lunch today before she went abroad and it would be too expensive to talk to her. That was her reasoning anyway. I don't know, I just rewrite this stuff. Well, Sami picked her ol' Georges standby. It's way too much for one person to eat and it's sort of heavy, but it's delicious. There's a ton of grilled chicken in a pesto sauce which is pretty well seasoned.

Tuesday, August 17th

Oh, Georgie. It's only been two days and you already picked something that nobody even knew was on the menu. And it was delicious, and it was a great choice. Hell, I might even order it. And tearing me away from my diet of veggies and taco specials is a pretty difficult task.

The Blackened Chicken Personal Pizza

Picked by: Georgie

Is that the new Pence jersey I see? Why yes. It is.



The Rating:
4/5 Opa's- a solid rating. While this menu item was really unexpected, it didn't quite live up to the name. This was browned chicken, not blackened chicken. Full of zesty chicken strips, red peppers and other veggies, it was a really good choice, and not too heavy as far as a specialty pizza goes.

Check this out!

Coming Soon!

ETC theater presents "Getting the Knack" through the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

1979. I just graduated High School. No Job. No Future. No Girl. Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Gasoline shot up to 86 cents a gallon and Disco Sucked. It seemed hopeless, until I opened the album that changed my life, killed Disco, and ushered in the 80s.

Tickets are available here: http://ticketing.theatrealliance.org/sites/livearts/details.aspx?id=19894

September 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the Shubin Theater

(corner of 4th and Bainbridge, Philadelphia PA)

Why should you come and see it?

Oh, because Todd wrote it, Emily directed it and Georgie, Esther, Oz and I are in it.

Hmmmmm.

New People!

New people! Oh my gosh, this is so exciting for me. Now, they're not replacing Vicki, who used to sit across from me, so my desk is still lonely, but it's still jazzy. I know this is probably bad, but on the upside, now that Vicki's gone, I can use her chair as a footrest. I do love a good footrest.

So now, I bring you an update of the cast of characters.

Ginger- New in sales, she's now the second office vegetarian. That's a pretty high veggie-only population in such a tiny office. Despite not eating any meat, she's a huge hunting enthusiasts, especially for polar bears and pandas. She's friends with Ashley and appartantley frequents Fox and the Hound as well. No word on a favorite George's item yet.

This is not the right Ginger.

This is.

Georgie: The newest salesman in the game (he came in about two hours after Ginger), he drives the same kind of car my mom had when I was seven. As a rule, his girlfriends want to beat me up, and he is a champion dodgeball player. He eats his eggs over awesome and does the best Don Corleone impression....ever. His acting coach, Justin Gambone, thinks he's the only real threat to Nathan Lane's success, and he also is a fan of tiny cats. His favorite item: The Zep.

Monday, August 16th.

The Phillies game was great.......it was awesome...... it was grawesome. Well, the game and the party bus are far behind us at this point, so I'll go back to posting the lunches without any mention of office funtimes. Because you're all jealous, I know.

Just kidding. You know me guys, I gotta put these pictures up. They're just wasting away otherwise.

Lunch, by the way, getting back to reality, was a chicken parm hoagie. Which is apparently different than the sandwich version. Different rolls, homies, that's what makes it seperate sandwiches. The sandwich comes on a kaiser. The hoagie comes on a long roll. DUH that makes them so obviously better.

Picked by: Ginger

That's Ginger. That is also the sandwich. I'll explain.

THE RATING-

Today was a pretty high Opa kind of day. 4/5 Opa's which is actually pretty normal for Barb, but it was highly praised. Much better than the chicken parm sandwich, the hoagie/grinder used grilled chicken instead of the fried chicken used on the kaiser roll version.The cheese was generous and it was smothered in sauce--nay--gravy. Also, they toasted the roll, which is a favorite thing.

But who is Ginger? Oh, I'll get to that. She's new. She's one of the two new people who started today. The other's Georgie. I'll talk about them more next post.

Friday, August 12th

It's a big day today, so there wasn't any individual ordering. So no post about Barb today! Check back on Monday.

It's a special day for three reasons:
1. It's Esther's birthday this weekend so we're celebrating today
2. Vicki is retiring. Actually, she's just going to college.  Anyhow, it's her last day.
3. We're all going to a Phillies game tonight. Aaaaaand we're going on a party bus. Oz's party bus to be exact.

Instead of George's menu food, we got Franzone's pizza and a french fry bar. (A french fry bar, for those of you who aren't fortunate enough to experience one consists of cheese, gravy and marinara sauce.)

Franzone's is deliciously awesome pizza. With a swirl of tangy sweet tomato sauce on the outside, it's got a great balance of thin crust, cheese and sauce. The sauce is controversial. You either love this stuff, or you hate it. That's because it's sweeter than the usual tomato sauce. Sounds gross? Wrong. It's the ultimate pizza in the Bridgeport/Philadelphia/Norristown/King of Prussia area. So good in fact, that it got commended in the best pizza of Philadelphia.

Mmmmhhhhmmm.

Esther's desk all dressed up for some birthday fun.

Everybody's in their Phillies gear, ready for the game. I only could get Liz and Esther to stand for a picture though.

Jay came by. Here he is eating in the randomest of places. He pretends like he didn't know I was taking this picture but he's totally cheesing.

Sheila made cupcakes for the party. Funfetti with Phillies P's. You can see all of us getting ready to sing.

She got all of the candles. (In two tries)

It's Vicki's last day, so she's reading her retirement card. Which is probably aimed at 70 year old men who've worked their entire lives. Not a problem. She got  for plenty of well wishes and one wish for failure (from Krick. Not really, but that's what Todd said.)

Esther's newest birthday present. It shoots 35 rounds out of a clip and comes with two clips. It's can shoot while it's reloading and is awesomely powerful. My one-shot nerf zip gun is looking pretty puny now.

Thursday, August 12th

Thursday! So I'm not too late on this one. Everyone was in the office today and it's only two days until Vicki goes to college :(.

Today, Barb ate meatballs in a dish and sauteed veggies.
Picked by: Krick

The Rating
4.5/5 Opa's- because it was great, but Barb doesn't like handing out Opa's too easily.
This is one of Krick's favorites for lunch, and she seemed to order the way Oz does; get Barb what you'd get yourself. The veggies score a 5 themselves. Mushrooms, peppers, zuchinni, broccoli and squash all grilled in olive oil, spices and cheese on a bed of spinach, they're all cooked without being too soggy and fresh tasting. They're cheesy without being greasy or overdone. The meatballs, an office favorite, are really tender and well seasoned. There were too many of them to eat at one time, though.

Wednesday

Yes, I know. It's Wednesday and I'm posting this on Friday.
I was really busy for the past two days and work has been hectic. Don't judge me.


Wednesday's lunch was: the plain calzone
Selected by: Sheila

The Rating
4/5 Opa's
Sheila picked lunch today because she knew Barb was working late and would need something big enough to last until later. The calzone was really big and cheesy-- full of mozzarella and ricotta cheese. The gravy (I was instructed to say gravy. Barb said real Italians say 'gravy' not 'sauce'. I wouldn't know, I'm not.) came on the side. It was really hearty and wonderful. It also was pretty good reheated. Unfortunately, while Barb was reheating the calzone a call came in and she had to take it, leaving the calzone to bake in the toaster oven. Luckily, someone pulled it out before it reached briquette status.

August 09, 2011 (Tuesday)

It's raining cats and dogs around these parts, ladies and gents, so there isn't much for me to look at out the window today. Except for people running to their cars under umbrellas/their work papers/ nothing. It's as if no matter how you'd regularly run, you'll run dorkier if you're trying to get to your car in the rain. Heck, I bet that Olymic runners would end up looking vaguely like a cartoon character if they needed to get from the door of their office to their cars. That's just how it works.

Today's lunch: Veal Parm Sandwich
Picked by: Oz! (Duhn) The BOUN-TY-HUNTER! (Duhn Duhhhh)



The Rating
Today, lunch was picked by Oz, who doesn't eat Georges' food. This was really his choice of eating through Barb vicariously. The roll was toasted and golden brown, but the veal left a little to be desired. Fatty and hard to chew, it was pitiful compared with the blueberry pie we had this morning. Not a triumph, George.

2.5/5 Opa's.

You'll get them next time, bud.

Special Alert

Dear (famous) George,
Thank you so much for always being there for our office. Could you tell that we're almost out of snacks? Of course you could. That's probably why you made us this delicious pie that's buttery and crumbly and awesome. Thank you for making us such a nice blueberry pie. We can tell that it was a labor of love, because you made it yourself, not Vorath or one of the pizza guys. And it was hand-delivered. We're all om-nom-nomming so happily. You're the tops, man.

Sincerely,
The Office.

Crumbly buttery topping on the top. Graham crackers on the bottom (I presume) and super yummy blueberry filling on the inside. It was homemade, too. I love homemade stuff. Ashley and Cheese are hand modeling, so you can get the full effect. (Cheese used to be a hand model. Actually.)

Oooohf. That was awesome.

Tuesday, August 09

Annie is back from her vacation! She's pretty tan, but if you see her, please allege that looking at her is giving you snow blindness. Because watching her insist "I'm tan! I'm tanner than anyone here! I was down the shore and I got tan!" is actually probably one of the most amusing things since Krick's desk got turned upside down (side story, totally unrelated).

Today's Lunch: Grilled cheese with tomato and chicken soup
Picked by: Annie



The Rating
4/5 Opa's.

The sandwich, besides being a 'special' today is also on the menu. This is a rare occasion, because Barb isn't allowed to order any of the specials while she's on this menu-quest. The grilled cheese sandwich (with tomato, to make it "healthy") was delicious-- and despite Vicki's insistence that grilled cheese isn't good if it's a special that day, it actually was crispy and cheesy. It was definitely the strongest player in today's lunch. The soup wasn't as good. While it had big chunks of carrots and chicken, the broth was a little bland. Who wants to have to salt their soup? Not Barb, that's who.

Finish it or You're Fired Friday

The day was coming. It had to. Even the animals knew, as the birds clustered closer together on a telephone wire and the stray pets ran for higher ground. It was finish it or you're fired Friday and Nick got to pick lunch. Only one thing could have happened:

Munchy. Bucket.
Picked by: Nick

Onion rings, jalapeno poppers, fried mushrooms, french fries, mozzarella sticks all thrown together with a side of E-Z cheese and cocktail sauce. And Barb had to finish it all (or was fired).

The Rating
Good, but not anything Barb would have ordered for herself. It was good reheated later in the day and individually pretty tasty, but gigantic.

4/5 Opa's- maybe more if Barb was a fried food lover.

What? How did this happen?

Apparently, this blog has been lumped in with the religious blogs on the blogger mainpage.

As religious an experience as Barb eating lunch is, I'm not quite sure that's right. This is about food and an office.

Just a thought.

Food. Religion. Not Barb, though.

As promised, Ashley's fridgefood.

And the moral of story, children, is that you shouldn't leave more than a week of lunches in the fridge and then go on vacation. Because then your coworkers will take out other ridiculous things out of the fridge and put them on your desk too. (The food was all really hers). Enjoy Ohio, Ashley, this is waiting for you to deal with.

:)

Thursday, August 04th.

The Wizard, people. He's the magical accountant who lives in the back office with Cheese. Well, alright, neither of them really live there, I just like to think that. He's rarely ever here for lunch. The wizard is a an enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery. Here are some things that I know about the wizard:
-He doesn't eat meat.
-His name.
-He's our accountant.


Things that I don't know about him.
-Where does he go when he mysteriously disappears?
-Does he have a cat? Is it magic too?
-Does the Wiz have a lady? or children?
-Does he know Harry Potter?

So, if you couldn't tell, he picked Barb's lunch today.

Penne Alfredo
Picked by: His wonderfulness, the Wiz. (He didn't order himself lunch, though.)


By popular demand (alright. one person pointed this out to me, but I don't take criticism very lightly. I take your suggestions, really!) here is a picture of Barb actually eating her lunch. See? It's a nice creamy pasta dish with a delicious weakness. Emily and her salad are also in the frame. Sheila's ham hoagie is in the picture too. Alas, no Sheila though.


THE RATING
3.75/5 Opa's

The pasta was picked by out vegetarian, Howard. There was no meat or veggies, just sauce and pasta. There was a ton of pasta, almost a pound, and the dish itsself was hot. The sauce wasn't too thick, but there was a lot of it. The dish probably could have served three people. On it's own, it gets the 3.75, but if there was chicken and a few veggies it probably could have ranked a 4 or 4.5.



In other news, we're cleaning out the fridge, and Nick just threw a spumoni at my desk that knocked over my water and drenched my poor baby computer and Vicki's too. This computer is less then a month old, come on, show a little mercy. Well, it seems okay, so I won't worry, but if something bad happens to this laptop I'm going to flip.

Things we found in the fridge:
-Moldy bagels
-Chicken fingers that I tried to blame on Vicki
-Purple Drank
-Half n' half. Two different cartons of.
-A spumoni that no one will claim.
-Three different half-eaten salads in random tupperware containers.
- Two Gino giants from Sheila's birthday
-Ice Cream from milkshake day
-A week and a half of barely-eaten lunches that are all definatley Ashley's that are now waiting for her to come back from her family trip to Ohio. Of course, she blamed them on Krick. Pictures to follow, promise.

Wednesday, August 03.

Excitement!! There's finally a real picture of the food Barb actually ate! I'm so happy I could explode into a giant confetti and sparkles cloud. I'm so genuinely tickled at this prospect that I used three whole exclamation points in the last paragraph. Three.whole.exclamation points, people. That's like three more than I ever would have used on a regular day.

Not even Cheese spilling meatballs on the rug can ruin this day.

Today's lunch: A Barbecue chicken pizza and onion rings!
Chosen by: Liz (who never eats George's food because she's on a health food kick. She said if she ate at George's, this is what she would order.)




This is an actual picture! I didn't have to....ahem...."borrow" this one from any foodie dorks. Wait, I take pictures of food and put them on my blog. Does that make me *gulp* a foodie dork too? Oh no.

The Rating:
A legitimate 4.5/5 Opa's.

From Barb:The pizza was the perfect size for one person and the onion rings were soooooooo good.  I haven’t order onion rings since I was about 12 years old and they were better than I remember! 4.5 Opas (I am not sure how you spell it). Also, the pizza came in the cutest little tiny pizza box.


Updates, for those who really scour the blog with their eyes 'n stuff.
-Emily has informed me that her favorite George's item is not actually salad. It's the Santa Fe burrito.
-Famous George has apparently gotten a haircut. It's very slick.

Tuesday, August 02.

What did Barb eat when I wasn't here?

Sandwiches. She ate more sandwiches. I'm really hoping that she doesn't pick sandwiches again for a while. I really am not liking this sandwich pattern.

The Filet o' chicken Sandwich
Chosen by: Emily- she was the closest when Krick took the the lunch orders. (Tuesday is Esther's day off)


The sandwich may or may not have looked like this. I really don't know.

THE RATING

3.5/5 Opa's
 She chose the Filet Grilled Chicken sandwich which I didn’t even realize was on the menu! It looked beautiful  - the combination of the red peppers, green broccoli rabe and white mozzarella cheese.  The Rabe was a little spicy – but overall the sandwich was pretty good.

Check this out.

Hi there everybody! Sorry that I'm so late (Tuesday will come later, be patient), I was at a funeral. It seems that now that I'm trying to be at the office more often that I just keep being pulled away.

Funerals just suck. Really. But, I did get to see a large chunk of my family and that's a pretty good thing. Well, anyhoo. I saw my cousin-in-law (is that cousin-in-law? what is the word for the awesome lady who's married to my cousin) yesterday, and she's agreed to feature whatseatingbarb on her blog!

She's highly talented and really creative. She makes all sorts of stuff (for sale!) that I have no idea how to make. Like clothing. She gardens and cooks too. She's like the Martha Stewart of the hip happening 20-something set.

You can find her at: http://domesticduck.wordpress.com/

She's selling this pattern from this cuh-ute sock monkey.
Which she designed.

She made that skirt! and the garden too, I think.