the march of cakes

This office is more food-oriented than any workplace I have ever seen (well, except for the bakery I worked at one summer, whose raison d'etre was food) We have two waffle irons in the kitchen, and there seems to be no reason required to fire those babies up. We had a study break last Friday with waffles slathered in rhubarb jam and whipped cream, and more are planned for this Friday. I opened a cupboard in the kitchen yesterday afternoon and discovered about 20 boxes of waffle mix. We are always prepared.

Furthermore, it is an unspoken requirement that you bring cake on your birthday, and those are coming fast and furious this week. Mine is tomorrow, so I decided to team up with another woman whose birthday was yesterday so we don't all become comatose from the daily doses of sugar.

This is all in addition to the joys of the cafeteria upstairs. It's no wonder that one of my co-workers has a little lunchtime food-song. Right around 11:45, he starts humming, "matur, matur, maaaatur", and then at 11:55, the stampede begins and the office clears out. If you get to the lunchline at 12:30, the goodies are all gone. The whole 8-floor building is a punctual bunch, but when there is creamy asparagus soup, grilled salmon with onion sauce, and fresh salad to be had, it makes sense.

Daily boat sighting: Yesterday J and I got some great container ship loading views when we were at the washing-machine repair shop in search of a door hinge. This morning it was the usual suspects- the teaching ship Sæbjörn, the sea rescue boats, and Magni, always Magni.