What constitutes gossip? I am curious. Is the def. stuff you wouldn't say in the subject's presence?

Pretty much. This was when I thought many of us were being too negative at work. Of course, that has only escalated since.

Also, please to send me any veggie or seafood slow cooker recipes, Ms. Walker?

None for now, but hopefully soon once I start with the new vegetarian slow cooker cookbook I got for Christmas. The favorites file has plenty of veggie recipes so I'll include you in the next batch, along with Lee, Scrappy, Jilli, PC, DJ, ita, flea, Kathy, Aurelia, insent.

If I've missed anyone so far, let me know.

My employee emailed me to say he had to step out to go to church for Ash Wednesday.

When I went out at lunch, I did a hard WTF?!? double-take at a woman with ashes on her forehead.

I think that *officially* marks the moment I became a lapsed Catholic.

I did my utter best not to do a double-take at an ashed woman here at work. But I did have to remind myself what was going on. While I was basically familiar with the concept it wasn't anything I'd seen until relatively recently.

I'm screwed. I need to get a gift for my FiL and MiL for this weekend--we're doing a belated Christmas at their house. But I have NO IDEA what to get them. My ideas--earrings for MiL and GPS for FiL are out because MiL doesn't wear earrings and FiL got a GPS for Christmas from MiL.

I really have NO CLUE. Most years, we get them something big--like a nice gas grill or deck furniture. But this year, they don't need anything and they don't have hobbies per se. Why did I wait until the last minute?

Hey, javachick, is this your girl at Clio? [link]

My boss gave me a new Grainger catalog. I'm so excited - I haven't looked through one of those in decades....

Nora, YES!

ETA: Cashmere, do they like movies? I gave Steve a Roku and a gift certificate for Netflix (he is on the austerity plan right now and is going without cable...)

Speaking of cooking, can I make some kind of cream sauce with whole milk, not cream? To hold together cooked chicken, broccoli, and pasta?

I think many Buffistas need an autonomous blimp. Perhaps it could be altered to randomly drop cat treats as it flies though your apartment or house.

Excellent, I figured out who her husband is. [link] (I love the internet and how small the Boston food scene is) But I haven't figured out anything about his new place! Heh. I am very, very nosy.

Jesse, you can make a bechemel sauce, you do a roux with fat (butter) and flour and then add milk and bring to a boil. You'd have to look up the right proportions though. I suck at monkeying around with those.