Well, it looks like we got caught. Normally, we try to update our web site with a few new stories just after the first Council meeting of the month.  We weren't able to do it this month.  Enough things on enough other projects seemed to turn brown and crumble so as to throw off our update this month.

Because of this, we are running our update for October late (or our update for November early.)

OK, you caught us again.  Instead of doing two updates for the two months of October and November, we're doing only one.  But, I still came up with two columns.  We're just running them both at the same time--sort of like a twofer.

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My birthday is in late October. I don’t expect anyone to remember this or to plan around it, but something along these lines happened a couple of weeks ago.

It was at the end of the workday. City Hall had just officially closed, and one of the five ladies who works here and I were the last ones there for the day. She said:

"Brian, can I tell something?"

"Is it bad?"

"We flipped a coin, and I lost, so I’m suppose to tell you something."

"OK."

"Do you remember the chocolate mousse that you brought for Christmas last year?"

I nodded.

Then, with a quickened delivery, "Well, we all got food poisoning from it, so we don’t want you bring it for your birthday. Do you remember last year when we all got sick? We didn’t mention it before, but we all got sick from it. I’ve never been that sick in my life. I spent two days laying on the bathroom floor, next to the toilet. I got sick and Karen got sick and Diane got sick."

"How do you know it was the chocolate mousse?"

"Diane’s doctor said so."

The next day, I said to Diane, "So, you were at your doctor’s and you described your symptoms to him, then he asked, ‘By the way, did anyone serve you chocolate mousse?’"

"No, he asked if anyone served any raw eggs. Chocolate mousse is made from raw eggs."

"There were deviled eggs there, too," I pointed out.

Donna said, "Judy is the only one that didn’t get sick, and she didn’t eat any of your mousse except for early in the day. If you ate it by the end of the day, you got sick."

"We closed at noon that day."

I remember last December. It was back when no matter what kind of sickness you had, there was always someone there to say, "Well, it’s goin’ around, you know." I had the flu the week before as did our little boy. My wife’s family came to town for Xmas, and all of them got sick. None of them had any of the mousse, however.

As it happened, I made a second chocolate mousse pie at about the same time as the one that I brought to City Hall.  There was about half left, so I put it in the freezer, down in our basement.  I had the idea of getting it out someday.  I don't think I'd get sick from it, but it's probably freezer burned or some such thing anyway, so I'm  probably better off just tossing it.

Anyway, there won’t be any chocolate mousse pie at City Hall on my birthday. Maybe I’ll bring soup.

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Something else is going to happen late this month. I’m going to have my car painted. I’ve been growing increasingly concerned about being known for its currently deteriorating paint job.

It probably isn’t a good idea to repaint a 15-year old car, but I’m afraid I suffer from a combination of sentiment and selective cheapness.  Selective cheapness is when you are willing to spend more than you should on something that you already have rather than spend more to find something better.  That term may not make sense now, but give it a few years.  Some night in the future, you'll be watching Lou Dobbs on CNN's Moneyline, and he'll refer it to it as the latest new statistic for tracking the economy.  

Anyway, the car is a 1987 Olds Delta 88. It was my dad’s last car and I like it, so I have held on to it. 

By this time next month, I’m hoping I won’t be so easily picked out in traffic as I am now.

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Bosses' Day occurred last week.  I had forgotten that it was coming up.  I received a gift bag.  It had four bottles of wine in it.  

Admittedly, I'm not a big wine drinker, but I think the gift may have been intended as being more medicinal than social.

For example, at the beginning of this column, I mentioned that a number of things seemed to "turn brown and crumble" in the last few weeks.  After receiving the wine and each time after something new crumbled, I would hear one of the ladies say, "Did you just hear a cork pop?"