The landlord here at Hammock HQ holds a fun fire drill a couple of times a year. Fun? Sure, they even provide ice cream. Here’s a set of photos that proves how fun it is to have a Hammock fire drill.

Because I’ve been talking about it for the past four months, it’s no secret that I ran the Country Music 1/2 Marathon this weekend. Besides the sweet medal I took home (I came this close to wearing it to work todayﾑyeah, I’m glad I didn’t either), here’s what I took away from the experience:
･ Everyone I work withﾑboth clients and coworkersﾑare super nice as they all wished me good luck.
･ John Lavey, who finished in 1:39, can run faster than I can, information to keep in mind if he’s ever mad at me.
･ Nashville is hilly. Like, really hilly. Ouch.
･ Despite the hills and the overwhelming oh-my-goodness-when-will-this-end feeling, it was great hearing coworkers like Emily McMackin and other fans scream “GO LENA!!” at mile 12.
Overall, it was a great experience. I can’t wait until next year! Who wants to join me??

Inspired by a recent CNN.com article, we decided to conduct our own poll here at Hammock of the worst songs of all time.
Barbara M. had several nominations, and said, “The 70s was the decade of bad music. That’s why I listened only to jazz and fusion.” The songs that drove her away from the radio were:

“Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band
“When Will I See You Again” by Three Degrees
“Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady” by the Commodores
“Copacabana” by Barry Manilow
“Baby I’m a Want You” by Bread
“Escape, the Pi紡 Colada Song” by Rupert Holmes
“Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” by Cher
“You’re Having My Baby” by Paul Anka

Bill:

“Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” is certainly close to the worst in my memory.
I have a special thing for “The Tennessee Waltz.” I hear it played in all sorts of romantic settings, like a wedding reception recently, and it always puzzles meﾐﾐthat is a cheating song, people! Why play it when youﾕve just gotten married?

Rex had a tie:

“Feelings (Nothing more than feelings)” vs. “Achy-Breaky Heart.”

Allison:

Barbara voted for my top pick, “Escape, the Pi紡 Colada Song.” The absolute worst song. Also, “We Built This City,” by Jefferson Starship. They had some ok songs, but this was the lowest point for them.

Lynne:

“Seasons in the Sun.”
“We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons
Out of time…”
What a stinky song.

Megan:

I have several suggestions, including everything ever uttered by Britney Spears, and Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine.” Also, “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys, “Macarena” by Los del R弛 and “Come Dancing” by the Kinks (which Barbara M. and Bill have admitted they like).

A 4″ grass frog is visiting the Hammock office today. He will star on a television show next week. Jamie Roberts is his press agent.

The question went round recently, What are you giving up for Lent? Turned out a lot of Hammockfolk do make sacrifices for the 40 day period (not including Sundays, which may be why it seems longer) that comprise Lent. Here’s their list:

Bill: I was responsible for posting this, and as you can see by the date of this post, I haven’t decided to give up procrastination. Lent wasn’t a major part of my family tradition, so I’ve never given anything up. I’ve sometimes tried to add things, though – figuring if Lent is a time to get right spiritually, maybe I should do something that I wasn’t doing, like regularly going to church or eating dark-green leafy vegetables. Kind of like a New Year’s Resolution do-over. Rarely successful, too. My wife has decided to give up TV – she did this on another Lent and made it about 6 months longer before the tube got her again. I wonder if the fact she bought a TiVo right before Lent takes away some of the spiritual purity of her decision?

Jamie: I’m giving up chocolate, as well as a little bit of sleep. I’ve promised to get up a half-hour earlier in the morning. I failed miserably at last year’s pledge to get up an hour earlier, so this year I made the crucial adjustment. The toughest fast I’ve ever had was the year I gave up bread. I never would have made it on Atkins.

Barbara Mathieson: Sometimes I give things up; sometimes, not. Last year I tried to give us cursing, but didn’t leave the house before the first word flew out of my mouth. My big push this year is to stay calm and not freak out about stuff. I’ll try to keep that in mind for Lent. I stayed pretty tense and high strung throughout most of February.

Megan: I was raised Catholic, so every year my mom would make me give up stuff for Lent. I always tried to give up homework, but since she wouldn’t let me get away with that I ended up going without video games or television-the things a kid really needs. But now that I’m not Catholic anymore, I guess you could say I’ve given up Lent for Lent?

Laura: I’m giving up butter. Trust me, it’s going to be really, really hard. Nothing makes a dish taste better than real butter. I will probably use this time to also explore my Chinese cookbook, which does not seem to focus on butter in quite the same way that Southern cooking does.

Lynne: I announced to Dave this morning that I’m giving up Cokes/Dr. Peppers for Lent, so I guess I’ll go ahead and commit to this.

Lisa: I would like to give up cokes…more specifically cokes with artificial sweetners.

Emily: I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give up coffee, but I am trying to give up putting sugar and cream in my coffee.

Rex: I am going to give up putting sugar and cream in Emily’s coffee also.

The Feb 25, 2006, edition of the Wall Street Journal, had an article called “Who’s Going to Want Grandma’s Hoard of Antique Gnomes?” Well, apparently none of grandma’s grandchildren will, according to the article. So we asked Hammockfolk what was taking up room in their attic and if they had any plans for it?

Lena: When I was younger, I used to collect trolls. I have about 100. Any takers?

Bill: Since we already have pretty much all our folks’ stuff, it’s up to us to sell them on eBay. Collections – broadly defined as things we have a fair number of – include crosscut saws, plow horse harnesses, various kinds of glassware, canning jars, aprons, and rubber ducks. My goal is to have it all labeled before I die.

Megan: Lately it seems that I am collecting Macintosh computers and stray cats (the latter is not so much by choice).

Julia: I collect old glass items. When I was in high school, my best friend’s mother sparked my interest in Depression Glass and I purchased quite a few pieces. They are all pale green, in the Princess pattern, made by the Hocking Glass Company from 1931 to 1935. I also inherited two Carnival Glass vases and two Cobalt Blue glass vases that were my grandmother’s and great grandmother’s. One of the Cobalt Blue vases is my oldest piece. When my grandmother was a young girl, she remembered her mother having it. My grandmother was born in 1888.

None of it is very valuable, but I really love it all. It looks beautiful in my lighted bookcases and the inherited pieces are priceless to me. My daughter is sentimental and may well keep a few pieces, but I imagine some of it may end up on Ebay someday.

Shannon: I collect manger scenes, smaller ones mostly which I display only at Christmas. My favorites are a wool one from Brazil, a hand-carved wooden one from Zimbabwe, and one where different dog breeds represent those present at the manger (black lab is Joseph, yellow lab is Mary, German Shepherd is an angel, etc).

A weird coincidence is that my mother-in-law collects them too. We both started our collections long before we met. Since she has three boys who could care less about Christmas decorations, guess I’ll be inheriting her manger scenes.

Patrick R: I collect fountain pens. That’s it, just pens. Lorraine collects stamps. Our family members don’t collect anything as far was we know.

My grandmother did have a small collection of beanie babies before she died. One year she was convinced that someone had broken into her home and had taken them, sometime around Thanksgiving. She even had the police come by and filled out a report. She was living in Indianapolis, and we were in Tennessee so my folks were kind of worried but were also a bit incredulous. She was well know for her absent mindedness. We visited her for Christmas as we had done every year since relocating to Gallatin. Dad handed her a package that none of us recognized which she opened with excitement. She didn’t recognize it either. Lo and behold, when she removed the paper and opened the box, 4 little beanie babies were looking up at her. That burglar had broken back into her apartment and put the beanies in a gift box under her tree!

John: Not a collector. Used to collect baseball cards.

Allison: About 10 years ago, I started collecting antique French Limoges plates, the really old, truly authentic ones. Didn’t get very far as most are expensive. I have 4, so that probably doesn’t qualify as a “collection”. My great grandfather was friends with Artus Van Briggle, an artist who did a lot of pottery and ceramics. He had many of his original works, which then went to my grandfather, and are now with my father. I am looking forward to receiving these pieces, as they are really nice and most would carry a pretty hefty price tag.

My mother collects chicken and rooster themed items. I’m not looking forward to receiving any of that. I see a yard sale in the distant future.

Summer: My current favorite thing to collect is etiquette books. I have about 14 books in my collection right now, the oldest of which was published in 1884. It’s great to read back and see how much things have changed. And as you might guess, they books on proper etiquette have gotten thinner through the years.
Cole and I also collect coins. This is something my grandafther got me interested in when I was young. He’d have me keeping my eyes open for, say, a 1955 nickel minted in Denver, and as soon as one of us would find it, he’d give me another assignment.

Natalie: When my in-laws die, the amount of collectibles they have is too overwhelming to explain. I’m not sure they even know what they have hoarded at their home over the past 30 years. Then the glass shop has junk from when Jason’s great-great-grandfather owned it. It ranges from sports collectibles to fishing lures, dolls, antiques, duck decoys, photos, tools. You name it they have it. They are the world’s best hoarders. As a result, I’ve forbidden Jason to collect anything.

Emily: Anytime someone brings me flowers, I dry them and put them in vases. So I guess you could say that I collect dead flowers. I also collect postcards, strawberry-themed stuff for my kitchen and beach-themed stuff for my bathroom. My mom collects angel figurines, and my grandmother collects hummingbird stuff.

Laura: I collect the Metropolitan Museum’s sterling silver snowflake ornaments. I have 14 of them, going back to 1992. I recently discovered the series started the year I was born, so I’ve set up an eBay search to help me find older ones. Of course, the older ones are even more expensive!

I’m not sure if you would call this “collecting” since there’s no defined parameters for a set, but I have about 80 cookbooks and am always on the lookout for more. I actually use individual books throughout the collection fairly frequently.

That’s pretty much it. When you say “collection,” I hear, “something that needs dusting.”

Jamie: I collect fireman Christmas ornaments.
Not a surprise for those who know me.

Barbara: I tried collecting stuff (bird figurines, bird Christmas ornaments or pennies) in the past, but I lost interest. I still have my vinyl LPs. I also have a few pieces of golden oak furniture from the turn of the last century. Over the past few years, Ive become a minimalist. When you get older, stuff just doesnt seem to matter, especially when you have to clean out a dead parents house. My mom never threw anything away, and she had about a six months supply of toilet paper, cereal, canned goods, etc., always on hand. Shes been dead 2 1/2 years, and we just used the last light bulb from her stash.

From Rex:

On Tuesday, I spent an hour chatting with host Anita Campbell on her radio show, Small Business Trends. The show is now posted online.

Here’s what we talked about:

Looks like we are finally getting our first panic-in-the-grocery-stores storm this evening. The weather wonks are comparing conditions to a storm almost exactly three years ago, which started with rain after morning rushhour, then quickly became a disaster when the temps plummeted in a couple of hours and left everything coated thickly with ice. Then it started snowing. When people finally got home, they had to stay for several days, and find ways to amuse themselves.

So we decided to see how Hammockfolk like to spend a snowy weekend, and here’s what they said:

Megan Goodchild: When I was growing up (in Chicago – where we rarely stayed home because of “snow days”), us kids would make snow tunnels at recess and then race through them. But now that I’m a grown up (and a big baby about driving in bad weather,) I like to stay home and let my cats outside to play in the snow. If the snowflakes are big enough they try to eat them before they hit their fur.

Emily McMackin: I’m a little bit of a wimp when it comes to cold weather, so I prefer to curl up in my electric blanket, drink hot chocolate and watch my favorite chick flick!

Barbara Mathieson: Leave work when that first snowflake makes an appearance. Make a pot of hot tea and read. Walk in the snow with Neyland. Build a snowman and make snow angels. When I was a child, my mother would make snow ice cream for us. I think she added milk, sugar and vanilla to lots of snow. How it stayed frozen I don’t know, but it was very good. I still remember the taste.

Barbara Greenfield: Sledding! I will definitely send you pics tomorrow if I can go! The weather is also a perfect excuse to stay in for a movie marathon.

Laura Creekmore: Far and away my favorite thing to do on a snowy day is go sledding. I grew up in a little town in Tennessee where everything shut down for an inch of snow, and some of my favorite childhood memories are when my dad came home from work early and we all sledded down the hill on our street, down the driveway and into the woods in our yard until it was so dark we finally had to go in. Of course you didn’t feel the cold.

My second-favorite thing to do (believe it or not) is go to the grocery store. I always loved to be at my dad’s store the day before a big snow was predicted. Busy days are the most fun times to work at a grocery store…how fast can you get folks out the door? Everyone is excited about the snow (at least in the South, where it comes so rarely) and so it’s fun to be around a lot of folks who are all focused on “surviving” through their day or two of being snowed in.

Bill Hudgins: I’ve always loved going out side to listen to it snow, especially at night. The soft hiss of flakes is a sound like no other. We have a big pasture back of our house with a creek running past it into Old Hickory Lake, so it’s fun to tramp down to watch the ducks and geese ignore the weather entirely. Making comfort food – pancakes, waffles, soup, chili – and watching TV or movies complete the day. We used to build snowmen, but now I’d rather read old Calvin and Hobbes strips about snowmen – they had the right idea.

Susie Garland: My daughter, Emma, and I have a tradition of going on night walks after a good snow.

I don’t share the devotion some of my colleagues have to the TV series ‘Lost’ (for some reason, I have a problem with TV series that develop complex and interweaving subplotlines that require constant attention, which may explain why ‘The A Team’ and ‘The Three Stooges’ were my all-time favorite shows).

But it is almost impossible here to ignore ‘Lost’ completely, and even I know a bit about it, having never watched an episode. Like Hurley – how come he still looks like he just finished a month of pie eating contests?

Well, now I know:

In September, Hammock Publishing made a pledge to help the folks at Louisiana Cookin’, a New Orleans-based magazine heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. One of our efforts to help culminated in a CD of all the magazine’s mouth-watering recipes from 2005. New subscribers receive the CD as a bonus with their first issue.

And what a bonus. Louisiana Cookin‘s crawfish jambalaya, creole pralines and zydeco grit cakes will make you say goodbye New Year’s resolutions and hello Mardi Gras!

To subscribe to Louisiana Cookin’, visit www.louisianacookin.com