Thinking About Lunch

Our office is rather loosely organized. There is no real "boss" per se; though most of us secretly suspect that The Mister is the boss. He has unique skills, some might say legendary skills, of negotiating - whether with humans or machinery. Pretty much each one of us in the office at some point or another has turned to him in frustration, with a computer that won't do what it ought, or a printer, or a vehicle or any other type of machine; he looks at it, ponders for a moment, pushes a button or just engages in the function that the frustrated operator just tried (or sometimes, legend has it, he just waves his hand over the malfunctioning item), and voila! - it works perfectly. He can do this with people, as well. If one of us is overly frustrated with some detail that has gone wrong - "how hard can it be to do it right the first time?!" - he applies reason and compassion and thinking the best of folks to the situation, and soon the frustrated person is calm. But I'm talking about lunch, and so I digress.

The point I am trying to make is that we all set our own schedules; everyone has work to do, and various deadlines, but each of us pretty much decides what hours to keep. The First Cousin and I, however, always manage to be around the office when it's time to go to lunch. It's our favorite part of the day. So when I read this ominous headline in the AZ Republic today, it gave me pause:

Workers fat, overstressed, survey says

I did read the article; here are a couple of paragraphs:

Will your boss start telling you to eat your vegetables, go to bed at a decent hour and chill out?

Arizona employees are overweight and overstressed, according to a statewide survey of 3,500 workers released Monday by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona.

Yikes! Are they talking about me? They didn't say what weight guidelines they used to determine who was fat and who was not; and they seemed to use number of hours of sleep to determine who was stressed. But I hope the health community (or insurers) aren't trying to shut down our favorite time of day; or alternatively, make us wallow in guilt unless we abstain from all mexican food. But I found the loophole; it is only the EMPLOYEES in Arizona that are fat and stressed; in our office we are all bosses, not employees. Whew, that was close.

Should we try Joe's Farm Grill today or Oregano's? They both have their grand openings today:

Joe's Farm Grill

The restaurant will sell burgers, chicken, pizza and more cooked on an open flame grill. The restaurant at 3000 E. Ray Road in the Agritopia community will use organic food grown on the family's Agritopia farm for cooking, Johnston said.

"I think people want to eat healthier," he said. "If you start to examine the trends they want their flavor, but they want it as wholesome as they can."

Joe's Farm Grill is in the Johnston family's old home. Two years ago, Johnston said, he and his wife moved to a new home in Agritopia. His parents and his youngest brother, and his family, also live in Agritopia.

"I'm a person who really thinks that proximity of family and friends is a big deal," he said.

Oregano's Pizza Bistro

Gilbert's Oregano's will be the company's eighth in Arizona. There won't be much different about the Gilbert pizzeria, owner Mark Russell said.

"We're trying to make sure our formula is transferred properly," Russell said.

While not much will change, the Gilbert Oregano's will be the second to have a separate take-out kitchen. But that won't open until around Nov. 1. An outdoor dining area will connect it to the restaurant at 328 N. Gilbert Road.

"All of our locations currently, we experience a huge take-out volume - waiting up to two and three hours for pizzas sometimes," Russell said. "We're trying to think ahead this time."

Tough choice.