My silly birthday celebration ideas tend to get passed at work.

We decorated Florent's decor-free desk with Play-doh sculptures in his honor. There was a time when he borrowed other co-workers' desk decor to seem more like a "real employee." Florent took a framed baby picture and pretended it was his child. Happy Birthday Florent! You get your own desk sculptures.

There's a theory that he's actually a robot from France. This should explain all the robot sculptures.

Some sculptures were better than others.

It's great how much happiness $2 worth* of Play-doh can bring.

*Note: Play-doh was 75% off after Valentine's Day.

That thing on the tofu robot that looks kinda like an anatomical heart is actually a habanero. You do remember Florent eating habaneros, don't you?

I'm Number 2. I'm Number 2. Roussos takes 2nd.

My design took 2nd place in the company-wide T-shirt design contest.

The Shepard Fairey inspired design beat out 33 other designs to lose to a "I heart twins" dual tap kegerator design. Yep, it's that kind of company.

I managed to get the President/COO Jason Roussos to pose in an Obama-like manner looking hopeful and up and to the left and traced his image in illustrator. Man, that was a lot of work. First place gets their design printed on shirts for the entire company and $250. Second place gets a pack of Hanes Beefy-Ts and 2 Ken's Tacos. This, unfortunately, was my idea. Had I known, I would have said second place wins $500 and a week's vacation.

Roussos is a real character - in a good way. He's pretty hilarous and a good sport. He agreed to get the shirt printed because he wants to have a shirt of himself and I get one, too. I wonder if I can get it printed on a dress. Perhaps this can be my first foray into fashion design. Roussos screenprinted apparel. I like it.

Here's what happened the last time I won second.

Last Friday aka the day before Tasty Up Trailer Tour, I went to a Franklin Barbecue during lunch. Yes, I'm still vegetarian. No, I'm not crazy, and no, I didn't eat. I just had a Sweet Leaf half and half and enjoyed the company.

             

Why did I go? Because I had to. It was my boss' last day at the company and it was camaraderie. In the same way that guys will often need an activity to hang out and talk. I knew I needed to go to Franklin Barbecue Trailer Lunch, and that afternoon I was one of the guys.

As a second-hand barbecue eater, I thought the food was great. I heard lots of satisfied grunts and was happy to see that no one put down their food until they were finished.

I looked around and took pictures. The grounds are decorated to look like a 1950s trailer park complete with tiki string lights and retro tulip chairs. I spied some pink flamingos, a lawn gnome, and the best speaker housing I've ever seen.

Later after some more Franklin BBQ research I discovered that they serve Tempeh Frito Pie. I didn't see this on the chalkboard menu, but I wasn't really looking. This means I can go with my coworkers and eat something next time. Sadly, it will be without Brian. I hope Franklin's tempeh Frito pie is as tasty as Billy's on Burnet's veggie Frito pie.

Brian Wulfe left to start his own company where he'll be managing online advertising for small business. Congratulations to him. I am so proud of him.

Brian is a leader with great business sense and common sense, someone who would really listen and cared about our lives. He plays well with others and after a slew of terrible managers, his outstanding leadership will be missed. His leaving is both a huge loss for appliances and a huge win for himself.

The next few months will be hard.

My heart is heavy.

One of our work Twitter followers, @shortorder, suggested we make Guinness Gasm cupcakes for Movember, to get everyone excited for an especially hairy month. The Guinness Gasm is a chocolate Guinness cupcake with a Bailey's Irish creme frosting. Irish cupcake heaven, if you ask me. Check out the recipe at SF Food Wars.

Over the weekend, Christine (pictured above) baked mini cupcakes and made the icing while I cut out a bunch of tiny moustaches and hot glued them to toothpicks. We figured tiny cupcakes would let us feed the masses.

This post really should have gone out 2 months ago, sorry if any of your Movember festivities proved lacking without the Guinness Gasm. I'm pretty sure they're also tasty in months that don't end in "ovember."

I made some extra paper mustaches for co-workers who had trouble growing their own.