I think I have another entry with that same title. Not sure. I’ll have to look. Anyway, my suite mate didn’t make it out yesterday. They just weren’t able to get him on a flight. So this morning we hung out for a bit. He was told that there is a flight on Saturday for him to get out of here. I still don’t know what kind of emergency he has back at home. I offered help again, but he seems to have everything under control.
Work was work. The meeting before the meeting was today, so I had to make and remake the slides for the director. And make them again. Strangely enough, the final draft looked amazingly like the original draft I produced. That man drives me nuts. I got a lot done with the packages that I’ve got going.
We had a visitor today. I can’t remember what his name was but he used to work here last year. As a matter of fact, he was trained by my buddy Andy who lives in St Louis, and he just left Boston where he worked with my friend Shane. Small world again. We all went to the steakhouse and had steaks and baked potatoes. I was hoping we weren’t going to walk to the Sugar Shack, because I had left my coat in my suite and it was starting to get chilly. After dinner I got my coat because I was going to walk to singing practice.
I’m glad that I joined that singing group just so I can get to know more people outside of work. There’s a fifth person in our quartet now. There’s me, Jim, Steve, Pastor James, and the new guy. I’m going to have to find out his name. This Sunday is Communion Sunday and we’re going to sing Amazing Grace. For some reason the hymnal we use only had four verses and the one I miss is the verse that starts, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years…” I think that verse really “closes” the whole song and I don’t know why it’s missing.
When I went to my suite after dinner to get my coat, all of Mike’s stuff was gone. I guess he got a flight today. So after practice, I went to the office and took care of some stuff and then booked it back to my suite. I moved all of my stuff to Mike’s room and gave the room a quick cleaning. I don’t know when Dustin is planning on moving in, but I didn’t want him to get a jump on Mike’s side of the suite. I think I told you all that the side closer to the door is colder than Mike’s side (my side now).
I don’t know Dustin’s number but I’ll call him tomorrow to find out when he’s planning on moving in.
I can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day of February. That’s too cool! An entire month gone. A whole month closer to getting out of here. But who’s counting?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Overwhelmed
I am getting swamped at work. As I’m sure most of you have read in the news, a LOT of businesses are coming to Boston and the surrounding areas now. A LOT. And it’s not as easy as just packing up your stuff and moving to Bev-er-leeee (Hills, that is). And each one of those businesses comes here and needs… Stuff. Or people – or the services that people we have provide. So I, and others in my offices, are super busy. I could probably spend 20 hours a day at work, but I’m not falling into that habit. With so many businesses coming here, my company needs to have one or two more guys here doing this work.
So every other day or so I list all of the packages that I’m working on and I prioritize them. And I have my boss buy in on my list. Sometimes she re arranges numbers three, four, or five, but normally I’m right on. So if someone gets their panties in a twist because I’m not getting to their package fast enough, they can take it up with the boss… Our priorities are the big picture – not each and every little picture.
And today I was in the middle of what was on top of my list and one of the other supervisors in the directorate re-tasked me to work on one of his projects. Something that I had never worked on before and I had NO idea what the heck I was supposed to do. This stuff was WAY out of my lane. But my boss wasn’t around, so I started doing the best that I could. This was going to take me DAYS to complete.
Later on my boss came by and asked me a question about what I *supposed* to be doing and I asked her if she knew I was re-tasked and... all hack broke loose. She stomped off and went into the other room and there were some loud, uptight whispers going on! And a couple of, “Oh! NO!” Kinds of comments. My buddy told me, “Man, you really threw a sh!t grenade in there.” Making a long story short – it’s not my project any more. Remember my rule number 8? “If you think someone is lazy, they are. If you think they are sloughing work off on you, they are. If you think it’s their job, it is. If they can get you to do it one time, you have just set precedence.”
It really meant a lot to me that my boss stuck up for me and put that work on the section that is supposed to be doing it. Everyone that’s been there a while says that it’s been a long time since we’ve had the number of requests that I’m working now. I’ve got plenty to do on my own.
Enough of that… It was a nice day today. Another beautiful day. I didn’t get to go outside as much because of the amount of packages I’ve got going across my desk. I left work around nine this evening and hung out with some of the guys I know at the coffee house. Most of the talk centered around handguns. Some of these guys are avid collectors. Chris and I sat around and wished we could have heard what happened in our office when my boss flexed her authority. We know who wears that pants in that office.
And that wraps up my day. Time to git.
So every other day or so I list all of the packages that I’m working on and I prioritize them. And I have my boss buy in on my list. Sometimes she re arranges numbers three, four, or five, but normally I’m right on. So if someone gets their panties in a twist because I’m not getting to their package fast enough, they can take it up with the boss… Our priorities are the big picture – not each and every little picture.
And today I was in the middle of what was on top of my list and one of the other supervisors in the directorate re-tasked me to work on one of his projects. Something that I had never worked on before and I had NO idea what the heck I was supposed to do. This stuff was WAY out of my lane. But my boss wasn’t around, so I started doing the best that I could. This was going to take me DAYS to complete.
Later on my boss came by and asked me a question about what I *supposed* to be doing and I asked her if she knew I was re-tasked and... all hack broke loose. She stomped off and went into the other room and there were some loud, uptight whispers going on! And a couple of, “Oh! NO!” Kinds of comments. My buddy told me, “Man, you really threw a sh!t grenade in there.” Making a long story short – it’s not my project any more. Remember my rule number 8? “If you think someone is lazy, they are. If you think they are sloughing work off on you, they are. If you think it’s their job, it is. If they can get you to do it one time, you have just set precedence.”
It really meant a lot to me that my boss stuck up for me and put that work on the section that is supposed to be doing it. Everyone that’s been there a while says that it’s been a long time since we’ve had the number of requests that I’m working now. I’ve got plenty to do on my own.
Enough of that… It was a nice day today. Another beautiful day. I didn’t get to go outside as much because of the amount of packages I’ve got going across my desk. I left work around nine this evening and hung out with some of the guys I know at the coffee house. Most of the talk centered around handguns. Some of these guys are avid collectors. Chris and I sat around and wished we could have heard what happened in our office when my boss flexed her authority. We know who wears that pants in that office.
And that wraps up my day. Time to git.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Replacements
My suitemate, Mike, was surprised about a week ago when his replacement showed up a month early. It was totally out of the blue, and about a week and a half after Mike started training someone else because he hadn’t heard anything about his replacement. Mike’s wife is due with baby number three at the end of April, so Mike’s been trying to get out of here a little early. No big deal, right? Wrong! He put in to leave two weeks after the arrival of his replacement, but for some reason they denied his request and was going to make him wait an extra week. And this was after he got a letter from his boss saying that he would be able to leave on his requested date. It’s all political b.s.
Anyway, Mike told me last night that he has some sort of family emergency and is leaving as soon as possible. I didn’t dig to find out what the emergency was, but if he needed any help that I would do whatever I could to help. I slept in a little bit this morning since I was at work so late last night (this morning) and Mike came in and told me that he’s leaving early Thursday morning for Kansas and home from there. It’s too bad that it takes a family emergency to get out of here. So tomorrow night I’ll move my stuff into Mike’s room (it’s better than mine) and Dustin will move in.
And speaking of replacements, I found out who my replacement is! Her name is Jennifer and she’s from (get this) the REAL Boston. I e-mailed her and she wrote back and I gave her a call. She’s done this kind of thing before and it a little familiar with the area. I told her that she wouldn’t be coming to Boston, but would more than likely go straight to Kissimmee and replace me there. She was a little disappointed because she was here in 05-06 and was down in Kissimmee. Oh well! She also told me that she was planning on being here around July 19th. And that puts my departure about a week after that. I really wouldn’t mind it if she got here a month early like my suitemate’s replacement. Even a week early would be nice.
A couple of weeks ago I bought new pajama pants. They are really nice flannel pants and they are nice and warm which was really needed because of the cold night air. And son-of-a-gun if the seam in the crotch didn’t come all unraveled. That really ticked me off. I have a sewing kit around here somewhere… I just have to dig the stupid thing out. Brand new pajamas. Of course I don’t have the receipt either.
The weather was nice and warm again today. The snow is starting to melt off of the mountains. But at night it really gets cold. And it has been windy for the past two days. Some of the guys that I met that grew up here said that, starting in mid-march, they have what is known as “120 days of wind”. I guess that means that it will be windy all spring. We’ll have to see.
But now that I know my replacement’s scheduled arrival date, I’ll have to adjust my countdown calendar. I don’t want to say that I’m counting. But I am.
Anyway, Mike told me last night that he has some sort of family emergency and is leaving as soon as possible. I didn’t dig to find out what the emergency was, but if he needed any help that I would do whatever I could to help. I slept in a little bit this morning since I was at work so late last night (this morning) and Mike came in and told me that he’s leaving early Thursday morning for Kansas and home from there. It’s too bad that it takes a family emergency to get out of here. So tomorrow night I’ll move my stuff into Mike’s room (it’s better than mine) and Dustin will move in.
And speaking of replacements, I found out who my replacement is! Her name is Jennifer and she’s from (get this) the REAL Boston. I e-mailed her and she wrote back and I gave her a call. She’s done this kind of thing before and it a little familiar with the area. I told her that she wouldn’t be coming to Boston, but would more than likely go straight to Kissimmee and replace me there. She was a little disappointed because she was here in 05-06 and was down in Kissimmee. Oh well! She also told me that she was planning on being here around July 19th. And that puts my departure about a week after that. I really wouldn’t mind it if she got here a month early like my suitemate’s replacement. Even a week early would be nice.
A couple of weeks ago I bought new pajama pants. They are really nice flannel pants and they are nice and warm which was really needed because of the cold night air. And son-of-a-gun if the seam in the crotch didn’t come all unraveled. That really ticked me off. I have a sewing kit around here somewhere… I just have to dig the stupid thing out. Brand new pajamas. Of course I don’t have the receipt either.
The weather was nice and warm again today. The snow is starting to melt off of the mountains. But at night it really gets cold. And it has been windy for the past two days. Some of the guys that I met that grew up here said that, starting in mid-march, they have what is known as “120 days of wind”. I guess that means that it will be windy all spring. We’ll have to see.
But now that I know my replacement’s scheduled arrival date, I’ll have to adjust my countdown calendar. I don’t want to say that I’m counting. But I am.
It was warm…
Today! When I stepped out of my suite this morning, I was surprised at how warm it was! I didn’t have to take my jacket to work, nor was it needed when we went to lunch. And all of our plumbing issues are over (thank goodness). I waited until the last minute to take a shower and I had lots of hot water. Our water here is HIGHLY chlorinated and for a few hours after wards I can smell the chlorine on my hands. It smells like pool water (not the kiddie pool).
We have a big bottle of Frank’s Chicken Wing Sauce in our office. So when we went to OJays for lunch, I brought it with us. I got the chicken cheesesteak sandwich and put the Frank’s sauce on it. It was really good, but while I was eating, I spilled a big glop of chicken and sauce on the front of my shirt. Great. Though, when it dried, it kind of blended in. Weird.
My internet works again in my room. That’s a plus. Though I don’t notice a difference in speed of service. I’m not too thrilled with paying $70 a month for the internet being as slow as it is. I’ll probably downgrade to the “silver” package next month. Especially if I have to leave in the middle of my contract for Kissimmee.
I’m going to join a male quartet at church. Tonight we sang the “When the trumpet of the Lord” song and we sounded really good. We practiced another song… but it needs some work. I think we’re going to sing at this Sunday’s service. And a prayer breakfast that’s coming up. That’s if all of our schedules work out.
My VTC with Malaysia went extra special long tonight. About what? I have no idea. For some reason, I can’t seem to remember the last 45 minutes. It’s like my brain was erased or something. And it’s almost ten after two now. I’m going to get some sleep.
We have a big bottle of Frank’s Chicken Wing Sauce in our office. So when we went to OJays for lunch, I brought it with us. I got the chicken cheesesteak sandwich and put the Frank’s sauce on it. It was really good, but while I was eating, I spilled a big glop of chicken and sauce on the front of my shirt. Great. Though, when it dried, it kind of blended in. Weird.
My internet works again in my room. That’s a plus. Though I don’t notice a difference in speed of service. I’m not too thrilled with paying $70 a month for the internet being as slow as it is. I’ll probably downgrade to the “silver” package next month. Especially if I have to leave in the middle of my contract for Kissimmee.
I’m going to join a male quartet at church. Tonight we sang the “When the trumpet of the Lord” song and we sounded really good. We practiced another song… but it needs some work. I think we’re going to sing at this Sunday’s service. And a prayer breakfast that’s coming up. That’s if all of our schedules work out.
My VTC with Malaysia went extra special long tonight. About what? I have no idea. For some reason, I can’t seem to remember the last 45 minutes. It’s like my brain was erased or something. And it’s almost ten after two now. I’m going to get some sleep.
Monday, February 23, 2009
It’s Raining, It’s…
(Was) Pouring cats and dogs this morning. Crazy rain. The kind of rain where everyone runs to get in from the rain, but deep down you know it’s pointless to run because you’re going to be soaking anyway when you get inside. When I woke up, I thought something was weird, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was the sound of the rain on the roof. But it wasn’t too bad when I went out to shower and clean up.
At work I was getting ready to start raiding some of the care packages that we’ve received over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t want to walk to get some lunch, and I didn’t think the pizza delivery guy was going to deliver pizzas on his moped. And just as I settled my mind on having a lunch of Chips Ahoy, Chicken-in-a-biscuit, and some Gatorade, Joey came upstairs and said that the rain had stopped. So we all went to eat at Koehle’s (Coe-lees) for lunch. You really can’t go wrong with Koehle’s grilled cheese sandwiches.
Today was a good day at work. Chuck and the director were out for a big chunk of the day and I can contribute the amount of work I can get done with the fact that they were NOT in the office. How can it be that we all get more work done when he’s gone? Maybe that’s a management secret. I need to be gone more in order for my subordinates to get more work done. I wonder if my being involved as much as I am at work actually inhibits productivity…
Chip was supposed to leave for Kissimmee this morning. However, he rolled into the office around eleven. Bad weather and they couldn’t land. So he was stuck with us for little while longer. We got to talk to him about what we will be doing in Kissimmee. The offices aren’t built yet and our accommodations aren’t ready, just as we were told. And we are indeed supposed to start moving down the first week of April. But even if the accommodations aren’t as nice as what we have here, I’m looking forward to working down there with for Chip and Spencer (Chip’s director).
I met Spencer a couple of weeks ago and he’s a lot more personable than our director. I hope it’s not ‘the grass is greener’ syndrome.
And speaking of green, my blanket is green (Elvis) and I’m tired. So, good night.
At work I was getting ready to start raiding some of the care packages that we’ve received over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t want to walk to get some lunch, and I didn’t think the pizza delivery guy was going to deliver pizzas on his moped. And just as I settled my mind on having a lunch of Chips Ahoy, Chicken-in-a-biscuit, and some Gatorade, Joey came upstairs and said that the rain had stopped. So we all went to eat at Koehle’s (Coe-lees) for lunch. You really can’t go wrong with Koehle’s grilled cheese sandwiches.
Today was a good day at work. Chuck and the director were out for a big chunk of the day and I can contribute the amount of work I can get done with the fact that they were NOT in the office. How can it be that we all get more work done when he’s gone? Maybe that’s a management secret. I need to be gone more in order for my subordinates to get more work done. I wonder if my being involved as much as I am at work actually inhibits productivity…
Chip was supposed to leave for Kissimmee this morning. However, he rolled into the office around eleven. Bad weather and they couldn’t land. So he was stuck with us for little while longer. We got to talk to him about what we will be doing in Kissimmee. The offices aren’t built yet and our accommodations aren’t ready, just as we were told. And we are indeed supposed to start moving down the first week of April. But even if the accommodations aren’t as nice as what we have here, I’m looking forward to working down there with for Chip and Spencer (Chip’s director).
I met Spencer a couple of weeks ago and he’s a lot more personable than our director. I hope it’s not ‘the grass is greener’ syndrome.
And speaking of green, my blanket is green (Elvis) and I’m tired. So, good night.
Sunday, February 22
Now I’m mad again. This morning I went to the internet shop and bought another month of internet. This time, I purchased the “Gold” package which promised faster service. So when I got back to my room, I plugged everything in and it did seem to be faster. That’s when I posted my entry for last night. But now I have nothing. I remember having to make two or three trips last time to get my service straightened up. I hope I don’t have to do that again.
It was a hectic morning. Our plumbing is out. The series of suites next to ours had a busted sewer line. I guess it was a lot worse than originally thought. The ground is all dug up and there are pipes laid out everywhere. But since we are ‘downstream’ from the problem, our water is out also. So this morning, everyone from our building had to walk to use the bathrooms. Not fun.
After I came back from the internet store, I went and got brunch to take to the office. Brunch is pretty good, but when I got the office, our director was pinging about some report that came out last night and had all kinds of problems with it. So I had to go dig out the supporting documentation that showed that our directorate was right and I have no idea where the faulty report came from. So my brunch was cold by the time I had a chance to eat it.
Work was okay. Sundays are straighten up and clean up days. One of the things that we do is take all the chairs and stuff out in the hallway and sweep and mop the floors and wipe everything down. Since our building actually a building-inside-of-a-building we get a lot of dust. I would figure that with everything we have that we would have a better filter system. But I guess not. There are no windows in our building at all. None. No fresh air and no sunshine. And no staring out the windows and daydreaming.
There’s also the threat that when one person gets sick that everyone gets sick. Everyone says that within’ the first month or two, everyone gets the Boston Crud. So far I seem to have avoided it. There’s always a big campaign to wash hands and use hand sanitizers. I hope I don’t get sick. I really, really don’t want to get sick.
Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that I saw Billy Blanks, the Tae Bo guru. He was in town and stopped by our company to meet some folks. Just like lots of other celebrities “he’s a lot shorter than he looks on TV”. He seemed nice enough and talked to everyone who wanted to talk to him. Chris and Joey went and got their pictures taken with him. I was busy with everything else, so I didn’t get my picture taken. Later on, Billy was at one of the local gyms and filmed a class with a bunch of people, and anyone who wanted to could go to the gym and be on TV. I don’t know if anyone I know actually went.
It rained pretty much all day. Drizzled really. I hope that means that we’ll have a really green spring here. Someone said that this area used to be almost all vineyards 20-25 years ago. I would have liked to have seen that. This area used to be well known for its wine and brandy. Hmmm. I don’t know about that. It would be nice if it was known for that now.
So anyway, I’m going to read now. Hopefully in the morning, the internet will be working again. Then I’ll post this entry. I’ve been gone 38 days.
It was a hectic morning. Our plumbing is out. The series of suites next to ours had a busted sewer line. I guess it was a lot worse than originally thought. The ground is all dug up and there are pipes laid out everywhere. But since we are ‘downstream’ from the problem, our water is out also. So this morning, everyone from our building had to walk to use the bathrooms. Not fun.
After I came back from the internet store, I went and got brunch to take to the office. Brunch is pretty good, but when I got the office, our director was pinging about some report that came out last night and had all kinds of problems with it. So I had to go dig out the supporting documentation that showed that our directorate was right and I have no idea where the faulty report came from. So my brunch was cold by the time I had a chance to eat it.
Work was okay. Sundays are straighten up and clean up days. One of the things that we do is take all the chairs and stuff out in the hallway and sweep and mop the floors and wipe everything down. Since our building actually a building-inside-of-a-building we get a lot of dust. I would figure that with everything we have that we would have a better filter system. But I guess not. There are no windows in our building at all. None. No fresh air and no sunshine. And no staring out the windows and daydreaming.
There’s also the threat that when one person gets sick that everyone gets sick. Everyone says that within’ the first month or two, everyone gets the Boston Crud. So far I seem to have avoided it. There’s always a big campaign to wash hands and use hand sanitizers. I hope I don’t get sick. I really, really don’t want to get sick.
Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that I saw Billy Blanks, the Tae Bo guru. He was in town and stopped by our company to meet some folks. Just like lots of other celebrities “he’s a lot shorter than he looks on TV”. He seemed nice enough and talked to everyone who wanted to talk to him. Chris and Joey went and got their pictures taken with him. I was busy with everything else, so I didn’t get my picture taken. Later on, Billy was at one of the local gyms and filmed a class with a bunch of people, and anyone who wanted to could go to the gym and be on TV. I don’t know if anyone I know actually went.
It rained pretty much all day. Drizzled really. I hope that means that we’ll have a really green spring here. Someone said that this area used to be almost all vineyards 20-25 years ago. I would have liked to have seen that. This area used to be well known for its wine and brandy. Hmmm. I don’t know about that. It would be nice if it was known for that now.
So anyway, I’m going to read now. Hopefully in the morning, the internet will be working again. Then I’ll post this entry. I’ve been gone 38 days.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21
Today went as well as it could, I guess. I went into work a little early to get a jump on the Corporate headquarters super briefing. How my position got conned into heading this thing up is beyond me. It was my predecessor, who didn’t have enough to do; but I’ll be glad to get rid of it. Sometime around one in the morning we get our draft power point slides sent to us. Of course we don’t get them until we come in (that’s why I went in early).
So I print out this 75 page behemoth and go through each page trying to find the points that apply to the Boston office. Then I give it to the director, who goes through it. He comes up with 100 hundred questions that I have to track the answers down on. I have to visit sales, production, training, and all the other divisions that have the answers to the questions that our boss’s boss might ask. And the people I ask have better things to do than be bothered by me. No kidding, though, it takes me hours and hours to find the answers. It is not my favorite. Around four in the afternoon the final draft of the slides gets published and I have to look for the changes (in the 75 or so pages) and that usually triggers a few more questions. Then I have to print three copies for the big-wigs before we pre-brief one of our vice presidents. After that, we have our VTC which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes today. Somebody, help me!
I didn’t eat dinner and now I’m starving. I have some granola bars and crackers that I’ll eat later.
So I come back to my suite and try to log onto the computer only to find out that my internet service has expired. So I’m mad now. We pay for our internet month by month, and we actually have to go to the internet store to pay for the service. It’s not like we can pay over the internet, and I guess there’s no “heads up”. You’ve got to keep track of the months yourself. So there’s not going to be any post tonight. I’m writing this now and I’ll post it whenever I get a chance to buy another month.
The high point of my day was calling home and talking to Sara, Becca and Liam. Liam learned how to write his name and he sounded so excited when he told me. We also talked about camping. Rebecca told me all about her lunch and climbing the big rock at the park. Sara is going to have her first formal observation at school this week. We didn’t get to talk too long. It seems that we are having problems with our phones. I remember having problems when I was gone in 04-05, but it was never this bad.
And I’m totally drained. Good night.
So I print out this 75 page behemoth and go through each page trying to find the points that apply to the Boston office. Then I give it to the director, who goes through it. He comes up with 100 hundred questions that I have to track the answers down on. I have to visit sales, production, training, and all the other divisions that have the answers to the questions that our boss’s boss might ask. And the people I ask have better things to do than be bothered by me. No kidding, though, it takes me hours and hours to find the answers. It is not my favorite. Around four in the afternoon the final draft of the slides gets published and I have to look for the changes (in the 75 or so pages) and that usually triggers a few more questions. Then I have to print three copies for the big-wigs before we pre-brief one of our vice presidents. After that, we have our VTC which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes today. Somebody, help me!
I didn’t eat dinner and now I’m starving. I have some granola bars and crackers that I’ll eat later.
So I come back to my suite and try to log onto the computer only to find out that my internet service has expired. So I’m mad now. We pay for our internet month by month, and we actually have to go to the internet store to pay for the service. It’s not like we can pay over the internet, and I guess there’s no “heads up”. You’ve got to keep track of the months yourself. So there’s not going to be any post tonight. I’m writing this now and I’ll post it whenever I get a chance to buy another month.
The high point of my day was calling home and talking to Sara, Becca and Liam. Liam learned how to write his name and he sounded so excited when he told me. We also talked about camping. Rebecca told me all about her lunch and climbing the big rock at the park. Sara is going to have her first formal observation at school this week. We didn’t get to talk too long. It seems that we are having problems with our phones. I remember having problems when I was gone in 04-05, but it was never this bad.
And I’m totally drained. Good night.
Friday, February 20, 2009
No Snow
When I woke up, the snow had melted. Almost all of it. After the snowstorm we had last night, I just couldn’t believe it. It was warm and sunny and if I hadn’t seen it snow yesterday, I wouldn’t have believed it at all.
It was a pretty boring day. The director has reverted back into his “checked out” mode. So he was quiet in his office. My boss was busy with Chip for most of the day, so she was pretty busy with him instead of me. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Chip since he was busy with my boss. I found out why the director was in such a foul mood a few days ago. I can't say it here, but it seems pretty immature.
Howard is working in Memphis for a month or so. And with him and Phillip gone, the office is much more enjoyable. Chris moved his desk to where Howard used to sit and I took Chris’ desk. My old desk was right be the door, so everyone that came in had to stop and say ‘hi’. And while that was nice of them, it was very distracting. I also used to have to field all of the “can you tell me who…” kinds of questions. I don’t mind helping people, but sometimes it was a real pain being interrupted and having to find where I was with whatever it was that I was working on.
The new woman who works with us, Ashley (Phillip’s replacement) is the kind of person who talks to herself while she works. She is aware that she does it, but isn’t aware when she’s doing it. It’s kind of funny because since she’s new, she’s always talking herself through whatever she’s doing.
We learned today that the Memphis office will be closing soon. Everyone is curious to see what the company is going to do since we do a lot of business through there. I’m sure we’ll have to ramp up production in Alabama or Kansas, but that’s going to put us through some big growing pains. There’s word that we might set up a new shop in a different city. Who knows?
Since it was Friday we went to the Sugar Shack and had our steak night there. I also had a bowl of chili. And now I wish I hadn’t. Everyone went to get coffee but me. It’s not a real coffee house. It’s more like a coffee shack. But they do have good coffee. I stayed late at work tonight to finish moving my desk and setting my stuff up. I have my busy Saturday tomorrow. Wish me luck.
It was a pretty boring day. The director has reverted back into his “checked out” mode. So he was quiet in his office. My boss was busy with Chip for most of the day, so she was pretty busy with him instead of me. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Chip since he was busy with my boss. I found out why the director was in such a foul mood a few days ago. I can't say it here, but it seems pretty immature.
Howard is working in Memphis for a month or so. And with him and Phillip gone, the office is much more enjoyable. Chris moved his desk to where Howard used to sit and I took Chris’ desk. My old desk was right be the door, so everyone that came in had to stop and say ‘hi’. And while that was nice of them, it was very distracting. I also used to have to field all of the “can you tell me who…” kinds of questions. I don’t mind helping people, but sometimes it was a real pain being interrupted and having to find where I was with whatever it was that I was working on.
The new woman who works with us, Ashley (Phillip’s replacement) is the kind of person who talks to herself while she works. She is aware that she does it, but isn’t aware when she’s doing it. It’s kind of funny because since she’s new, she’s always talking herself through whatever she’s doing.
We learned today that the Memphis office will be closing soon. Everyone is curious to see what the company is going to do since we do a lot of business through there. I’m sure we’ll have to ramp up production in Alabama or Kansas, but that’s going to put us through some big growing pains. There’s word that we might set up a new shop in a different city. Who knows?
Since it was Friday we went to the Sugar Shack and had our steak night there. I also had a bowl of chili. And now I wish I hadn’t. Everyone went to get coffee but me. It’s not a real coffee house. It’s more like a coffee shack. But they do have good coffee. I stayed late at work tonight to finish moving my desk and setting my stuff up. I have my busy Saturday tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
It’s Beginning to Look (Part 2)
Same as last Thursday… IT’S SNOWING!!! Big fat flakes. Last night we looked at the weather report and it said snow and rain mixed with snow. But our meteorologist has been wrong so much. And wouldn’t you know it, it rained all day. But as soon as the sun went down it turned into snow. And the temperature plummeted. So the snow is sticking to everything.
Work was… blah. I got in an argument with Brock and we both got stupid. I felt like a dumb-arse when it was over. Neither of us were right and we apologized afterwards. So there are no hard feelings.
One of the office managers from Kissimmee came up to see us today. His name is Chip, and he came to visit and see the scope of our operations and how we could best be integrated into their division. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him too much today, but tomorrow I should. I also need to get the address that we’re going to use down there so I can mail some of my stuff down there. I don’t want to drag my stuff all over airports and all that again.
A few of us went to get coffee tonight. It was pretty cold walking in the snow. I didn’t stay late because I’m pretty tired. I didn’t want to get all hyped up on coffee and not be able to sleep again tonight. I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t sleep well last night. So I had one cup of decaff and I’m ready to crash.
‘Night.
Work was… blah. I got in an argument with Brock and we both got stupid. I felt like a dumb-arse when it was over. Neither of us were right and we apologized afterwards. So there are no hard feelings.
One of the office managers from Kissimmee came up to see us today. His name is Chip, and he came to visit and see the scope of our operations and how we could best be integrated into their division. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him too much today, but tomorrow I should. I also need to get the address that we’re going to use down there so I can mail some of my stuff down there. I don’t want to drag my stuff all over airports and all that again.
A few of us went to get coffee tonight. It was pretty cold walking in the snow. I didn’t stay late because I’m pretty tired. I didn’t want to get all hyped up on coffee and not be able to sleep again tonight. I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t sleep well last night. So I had one cup of decaff and I’m ready to crash.
‘Night.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Much Better
Today was much better. Our director chilled out and was back to his normal don’t-really-care-what’s-going-on self. Which was very good. And I didn’t really get all that much done today. I was all wrapped up with some of our engineers and their requirements for one of my packages. They gave me a proposal that said something like “we need between [this number] and [that number] of either [some of these] or [some of those].” Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. You tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you. They come back with, “well, we don’t know exactly what they are called or what they can do, so we don’t know how many to ask for. But we need them.” I was floored. I wanted to yell, “I’m not the engineer. YOU ARE! How am I supposed to know what the heck you need!!!”
Chris was back at work today. So it was good to have someone to talk to. He told some funny stories of things that happened at the conference. He also really appreciated the chance to get out of the office for two and a half weeks. And speaking of getting out of the office, it looks like the transfer to Kissimmee is a 90% sure thing. Gary is flying down to Kissimmee tomorrow to ensure that those of us that have to go have accommodations and office space. He should be back on Saturday.
The concept (as it stands now) is that Joey and I will go down to Kissimmee in early April and make sure that everything else is ready for the rest of the folks getting transferred. So it looks like I’ll have six or seven weeks left here in Boston.
We have a saying here that goes, “An 80% percent solution is perfect”; though sometimes 70% is perfect also. I can’t remember who is credited with the quote, but it goes along with the saying, “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a great plan next week.” A lot of what we do it 70 to 80% work, and it’s kind of frustrating. Not that I’m an anal perfectionist (though I can be sometimes), but I get the feeling that sometimes we’re going off half-cocked. One thing that I can say for sure is that we’re not suffering from “Paralysis though analysis” syndrome.
The weather today was nice. It was in the 40s again and so hazy that we could hardly see the mountains. We got Italian food again… “Wop Wednesday” is what they call it. They don’t have a clever term for Soul Food Sunday yet. It started raining tonight, and tomorrow it’s supposed to turn into snow and then snow mixed with rain/sleet. That’s going to be totally sucktastic.
I’m getting my Newsweek magazines finally delivered here. I got three issues within five day’s time. They are hugely popular in the office. I think each magazine is getting read five or six times. It’s a great gift from Mommom and Poppop.
Sara and Katrina both told me that Rebecca was spending the night at Katrina’s house. I hope that they are having a lot of fun with all of the animals and doing girl stuff. Liam’s probably having a good time at home being the only kid.
Time to wrap it up and hit the sack. Talk to you all later.
Chris was back at work today. So it was good to have someone to talk to. He told some funny stories of things that happened at the conference. He also really appreciated the chance to get out of the office for two and a half weeks. And speaking of getting out of the office, it looks like the transfer to Kissimmee is a 90% sure thing. Gary is flying down to Kissimmee tomorrow to ensure that those of us that have to go have accommodations and office space. He should be back on Saturday.
The concept (as it stands now) is that Joey and I will go down to Kissimmee in early April and make sure that everything else is ready for the rest of the folks getting transferred. So it looks like I’ll have six or seven weeks left here in Boston.
We have a saying here that goes, “An 80% percent solution is perfect”; though sometimes 70% is perfect also. I can’t remember who is credited with the quote, but it goes along with the saying, “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a great plan next week.” A lot of what we do it 70 to 80% work, and it’s kind of frustrating. Not that I’m an anal perfectionist (though I can be sometimes), but I get the feeling that sometimes we’re going off half-cocked. One thing that I can say for sure is that we’re not suffering from “Paralysis though analysis” syndrome.
The weather today was nice. It was in the 40s again and so hazy that we could hardly see the mountains. We got Italian food again… “Wop Wednesday” is what they call it. They don’t have a clever term for Soul Food Sunday yet. It started raining tonight, and tomorrow it’s supposed to turn into snow and then snow mixed with rain/sleet. That’s going to be totally sucktastic.
I’m getting my Newsweek magazines finally delivered here. I got three issues within five day’s time. They are hugely popular in the office. I think each magazine is getting read five or six times. It’s a great gift from Mommom and Poppop.
Sara and Katrina both told me that Rebecca was spending the night at Katrina’s house. I hope that they are having a lot of fun with all of the animals and doing girl stuff. Liam’s probably having a good time at home being the only kid.
Time to wrap it up and hit the sack. Talk to you all later.
No late night VTC!!!
It's some holiday in Malaysia. I'm going to have to look it up. No one knew what it was, and I wasn't going to argue.
What was up with today? Remember when I said that my director came back from the conference and jumped right back into work? Also, remember how I said that he never really cared for most of what we did? And that he only wanted to be briefed right before going to a meeting? Well today he must have had a bad batch of Wheaties for breakfast because he was all in our stuff. What a pain in the butt. He was walking around being all gruff and barking at everyone. I think he either got his butt chewed about something, and he couldn’t quite blame any one person (besides himself), or he just wanted everyone to remember that he was the #1 rooster in the hen house. Whatever.
Thankfully, I got out of there by going to church tonight. The place that I’ve been going on Tuesday is pretty laid back. The preacher is a good ol’ boy from Western Tennessee. I like him a lot. And after that I had to go to the airport to pick up Chris from the airport. Traffic was a real pain and the airlines were disorganized. I didn’t complain, because at least I wasn’t in the office. Chris told me all about his side of the story of what happened at the conference. As most of us expected, it didn’t all go as smooth as the director and Chuck made it sound. But of all of the divisions that were there, at least our stuff was better than the Indiana office or the Connecticut office.
It was a sunny and warm day again. Expect for the shady areas, all of the snow is gone. And we have a lot of mud everywhere. When I was out walking today I met some guy named Alex. And somehow, we found out that we have a mutual friend – Bruce. It was one of those weird moments when I said something about Bruce, and Alex said that he knew a guy named Bruce and told a funny story about him. And I couldn’t believe it! I said, “do you mean Bruce Xxxxx?” and Alex looked at me like I was crazy and – yep – it’s the same darn guy. I haven’t seen Bruce in four or five years. Haven’t talked to him either, but I’m going to have to look up his e-mail address. I think Doc still keeps in touch with him. So I got an instant buddy this afternoon. Alex works in the jail around the way, so I’m going to try to get a tour of it sometime.
I have to call it early tonight. We got back from the airport late, but I wanted to get my day down in ones and zeros. Good night.
What was up with today? Remember when I said that my director came back from the conference and jumped right back into work? Also, remember how I said that he never really cared for most of what we did? And that he only wanted to be briefed right before going to a meeting? Well today he must have had a bad batch of Wheaties for breakfast because he was all in our stuff. What a pain in the butt. He was walking around being all gruff and barking at everyone. I think he either got his butt chewed about something, and he couldn’t quite blame any one person (besides himself), or he just wanted everyone to remember that he was the #1 rooster in the hen house. Whatever.
Thankfully, I got out of there by going to church tonight. The place that I’ve been going on Tuesday is pretty laid back. The preacher is a good ol’ boy from Western Tennessee. I like him a lot. And after that I had to go to the airport to pick up Chris from the airport. Traffic was a real pain and the airlines were disorganized. I didn’t complain, because at least I wasn’t in the office. Chris told me all about his side of the story of what happened at the conference. As most of us expected, it didn’t all go as smooth as the director and Chuck made it sound. But of all of the divisions that were there, at least our stuff was better than the Indiana office or the Connecticut office.
It was a sunny and warm day again. Expect for the shady areas, all of the snow is gone. And we have a lot of mud everywhere. When I was out walking today I met some guy named Alex. And somehow, we found out that we have a mutual friend – Bruce. It was one of those weird moments when I said something about Bruce, and Alex said that he knew a guy named Bruce and told a funny story about him. And I couldn’t believe it! I said, “do you mean Bruce Xxxxx?” and Alex looked at me like I was crazy and – yep – it’s the same darn guy. I haven’t seen Bruce in four or five years. Haven’t talked to him either, but I’m going to have to look up his e-mail address. I think Doc still keeps in touch with him. So I got an instant buddy this afternoon. Alex works in the jail around the way, so I’m going to try to get a tour of it sometime.
I have to call it early tonight. We got back from the airport late, but I wanted to get my day down in ones and zeros. Good night.
Monday, February 16, 2009
I Didn't Know...
That today was President's Day. I was on the phone to our company's main office and the phone just rang and rang. So I tried another number and it also rang and rang. I was getting kind of frustrated. What time do those clowns come into work? Then it dawned on me that it was a holiday and no one was going to be there all day. And as it turns out it was kind of a peaceful day in the office without the head office calling and asking questions.
It was a really nice day today. Since it was just a little bit boring, I took off for an hour and took a walk after lunch. The temperature was probably in the low to mid forties, the sun was shining, and we actually had songbirds singing. It felt like spring is right around the corner.
The snow has almost all melted. It just came to me. The word I was thinking about the other day. Sublimation is the word for when a solid (like ice or snow) turns into a gas (or water vapor) while skipping the state of liquid. Man, that was bothering me.
Today is Phillip's last day. His flight is early in the morning and then Ashley, his replacement is all by herself. Joey is in Alabama for a couple of days, but when he comes back, he'll be able to help Ashley out. We had a going away dinner for Phillip. It was not very memorable.
Speaking of Alabama, there is a guy from Alabama that we hear brief almost every day. He is almost impossible to understand. "Werehids on furhids, sir!" That's how he sounds. Between him and the two V.P.s from Bahston, I don't know who is harder to understand.
I was able to get through two times on the phone today. I had a good conversation with Rebecca, she sounded kind of sad. That made me feel sad also. Liam wasn't very talkative, but it sounded like he was having a good time at Baba and Granddad's house.
I looked at my countdown calendar today. I've been here for 31 days. That's one month down and five more to go. That also equals about 17%. One month over... Wow. So much has happened in one month.
I'm going to sign off now and try to write some letters. With a pen and a piece of paper. Go figure.
And, YES, I did know that Katrina is only 31...
It was a really nice day today. Since it was just a little bit boring, I took off for an hour and took a walk after lunch. The temperature was probably in the low to mid forties, the sun was shining, and we actually had songbirds singing. It felt like spring is right around the corner.
The snow has almost all melted. It just came to me. The word I was thinking about the other day. Sublimation is the word for when a solid (like ice or snow) turns into a gas (or water vapor) while skipping the state of liquid. Man, that was bothering me.
Today is Phillip's last day. His flight is early in the morning and then Ashley, his replacement is all by herself. Joey is in Alabama for a couple of days, but when he comes back, he'll be able to help Ashley out. We had a going away dinner for Phillip. It was not very memorable.
Speaking of Alabama, there is a guy from Alabama that we hear brief almost every day. He is almost impossible to understand. "Werehids on furhids, sir!" That's how he sounds. Between him and the two V.P.s from Bahston, I don't know who is harder to understand.
I was able to get through two times on the phone today. I had a good conversation with Rebecca, she sounded kind of sad. That made me feel sad also. Liam wasn't very talkative, but it sounded like he was having a good time at Baba and Granddad's house.
I looked at my countdown calendar today. I've been here for 31 days. That's one month down and five more to go. That also equals about 17%. One month over... Wow. So much has happened in one month.
I'm going to sign off now and try to write some letters. With a pen and a piece of paper. Go figure.
And, YES, I did know that Katrina is only 31...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday
Today wasn’t my favorite. One of the packages that I sent up for staffing was all dorked up. It was a matter of not paying attention and some corrections that I made on one copy wasn’t transferred to the other accompanying documentation. Thankfully, it was caught by the director rather than it going up to the VP’s office. So I got a butt chewing. Not a big one, certainly not in the top 50% of butt chewings I’ve ever received. But still. I like to think that I do a good job. I think my boss got a bigger butt chewing for not double checking the new guy’s (that’s me) work. Oops. Sorry, boss.
So now I’m feeling paranoid about all the products that I’m putting out. I’m probably spending more time re-checking my work than I am doing the work. I hate feeling like this.
I didn’t go to church today. I’m feeling kind of guilty about that. I talked with Sara and the kids aren’t doing so well. Sara thinks that they are missing me too much. I hate feeling like this also. I tried to call Sara for over 45 minutes tonight and I couldn’t get through. And instead of going to church, I tried to e-mail a couple of pictures of me over here. The first two pictures took 35 minutes to load on yahoo. The internet is just that slow here. I can’t e-mail them at work, because thumbdrives are forbidden due to the proprietary ownership of the company’s business. So I can’t bring them in to download onto my work computer.
I figured out how to change the settings on my camera to the lowest setting and that seemed to help a little bit. I’ve tried the online picture resize, but that still requires internet bandwidth. Resizing that way took forever also.
So Liam is regressing mentally and physically. He’s peeing his pants, talking like a baby, and has developed an awful temper. And Rebecca is having the occasional emotional breakdown as well. I spoke to Becca and Liam earlier. I miss them pretty bad.
I miss Sara also. Valentine’s Day here was hollow for everyone. There were lots of cards from elementary school kids, there was lots and lots of candy, but it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not with the ones you love.
And Katrina turned 32. Hee hee!
So tonight I’m going to look for other resize programs that I might be able to use to send pictures to the kids. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to find something else that works.
Good night everyone.
So now I’m feeling paranoid about all the products that I’m putting out. I’m probably spending more time re-checking my work than I am doing the work. I hate feeling like this.
I didn’t go to church today. I’m feeling kind of guilty about that. I talked with Sara and the kids aren’t doing so well. Sara thinks that they are missing me too much. I hate feeling like this also. I tried to call Sara for over 45 minutes tonight and I couldn’t get through. And instead of going to church, I tried to e-mail a couple of pictures of me over here. The first two pictures took 35 minutes to load on yahoo. The internet is just that slow here. I can’t e-mail them at work, because thumbdrives are forbidden due to the proprietary ownership of the company’s business. So I can’t bring them in to download onto my work computer.
I figured out how to change the settings on my camera to the lowest setting and that seemed to help a little bit. I’ve tried the online picture resize, but that still requires internet bandwidth. Resizing that way took forever also.
So Liam is regressing mentally and physically. He’s peeing his pants, talking like a baby, and has developed an awful temper. And Rebecca is having the occasional emotional breakdown as well. I spoke to Becca and Liam earlier. I miss them pretty bad.
I miss Sara also. Valentine’s Day here was hollow for everyone. There were lots of cards from elementary school kids, there was lots and lots of candy, but it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not with the ones you love.
And Katrina turned 32. Hee hee!
So tonight I’m going to look for other resize programs that I might be able to use to send pictures to the kids. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to find something else that works.
Good night everyone.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Sunshine On My Shoulders...
This morning I went for a walk with Chuck and Sandy. It was more like a hike. An eight mile hike.
When I stepped outside of my suite this morning, I was blinded by the sun and the glare off of the snow. Holy cow. I staggered back into my suite and looked for my sunglasses. Afterwards, I walked over to the office to meet Chuck and Sandy.
It was really warm. Almost shorts and sweatshirt weather. And our walk took us all over - by the airport and by some nearby villages. It was really wet and muddy. I should have worn work boots and not running shoes. We were being very careful where we were walking, but eventually I wasn't watching where I was going and *ploosh* my right foot went into a puddle. I was so mad.
But it wasn't as muddy as it could have been. There's a fancy word that escapes me right now of when water bypasses its liquid form and goes straight to gas. The air is so dry here that as we were walking, we could see steam coming off of the snow.
Boston is just as flat as Dover. We walked over eight miles and there was only one "hill". And it was only as big as the boat ramp at Silver Lake. And that's kind of funny considering that we're completely surrounded by mountains.
After lunch and a shower, I went back into work and there was a huge mountain of work waiting for me. And that kept me busy for the rest of the afternoon. Next time I do that walk, I'll certainly wear my hiking boots. My toe joints are bothering me big time. I haven't felt that in quite a while. It certainly didn't help that were tip-toeing and jumping around puddles for two hours. This afternoon was a mad house at the office. You know how sometimes there seems to be a revolving door with people constantly coming in and out, that was today.
Tonight was movie night at work. We watched Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood. I enjoyed it as much the second time as I did the first time. But then again, I usually don't have a problem watching the same movie twice. Sara and I saw it a few days before I left and we both liked it.
Tonight there is a coffee shop somewhere around there, that I haven't been to yet, that a few of us are going tonight after work.
That's it for today. Talk to you all later.
When I stepped outside of my suite this morning, I was blinded by the sun and the glare off of the snow. Holy cow. I staggered back into my suite and looked for my sunglasses. Afterwards, I walked over to the office to meet Chuck and Sandy.
It was really warm. Almost shorts and sweatshirt weather. And our walk took us all over - by the airport and by some nearby villages. It was really wet and muddy. I should have worn work boots and not running shoes. We were being very careful where we were walking, but eventually I wasn't watching where I was going and *ploosh* my right foot went into a puddle. I was so mad.
But it wasn't as muddy as it could have been. There's a fancy word that escapes me right now of when water bypasses its liquid form and goes straight to gas. The air is so dry here that as we were walking, we could see steam coming off of the snow.
Boston is just as flat as Dover. We walked over eight miles and there was only one "hill". And it was only as big as the boat ramp at Silver Lake. And that's kind of funny considering that we're completely surrounded by mountains.
After lunch and a shower, I went back into work and there was a huge mountain of work waiting for me. And that kept me busy for the rest of the afternoon. Next time I do that walk, I'll certainly wear my hiking boots. My toe joints are bothering me big time. I haven't felt that in quite a while. It certainly didn't help that were tip-toeing and jumping around puddles for two hours. This afternoon was a mad house at the office. You know how sometimes there seems to be a revolving door with people constantly coming in and out, that was today.
Tonight was movie night at work. We watched Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood. I enjoyed it as much the second time as I did the first time. But then again, I usually don't have a problem watching the same movie twice. Sara and I saw it a few days before I left and we both liked it.
Tonight there is a coffee shop somewhere around there, that I haven't been to yet, that a few of us are going tonight after work.
That's it for today. Talk to you all later.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday night is steak night
And we had some really good steaks tonight. And corn on the cob with baked potatoes. And Pralines and ice cream for dessert. MS Word is really clever. I just typed in “desert” and somehow, the program knew that I meant “dessert”.
Well, two days ago the director and two others got back from the conference. It’s really thrown off how things have gone for the past two weeks. Most of us were wondering how much of an active role in day to day operations he was going to play. Everyone knows that he’s going to be retiring in a few weeks and he didn’t play that big role in what we do before we left. Since everything went so well in his absence, I thought he’d just sit back and go with the status quo.
But that is not the case. He’s running around, finding out what everyone has done, and inserting himself in everyone’s bee’s wax. Good for him, you know? He’s still on the payroll, he can work just like everyone else. I need to move desks. I’m in the director’s line of sight and when he wants something done, he looks up and sees me and tells me to do it. We call it “line of sight tasking”. At least if I was around the corner, then maybe I could ignore him while he yelled and he’d call someone elses name. I wouldn’t have a problem saying, “Hey Phil! The boss wants you.”
Our internet quit working last night. Someone today said that our internet is all satellite based internet and that snow (or too much snow) disrupts the signal. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it didn’t come back on ‘till sometime this afternoon. We’ve got five or six inches of snow on the ground. And like they say, “A little snow hides a multitude of sins.” Something like that. As we were driving around to the steak place, the country side looked beautiful. It was too bad that we couldn’t see the mountains...
I was able to stay up late and read last night until early morning and I didn’t wake up until almost eleven! And by that time, the snow had stopped, but the skies were still gray. I didn’t think that Phillip’s replacement was going to make it in today. Phillip and Joey went to the airport to pick her up and she did indeed arrive. Her name is Ashley and this is her first trip here. I met her briefly tonight right before I left the office.
I’m still really, really busy at work. I’ve got eight projects - all in different stages of completion. But what I try to do at the end of the day is get done what I can get done and get everything at the point where I can’t do anything else until someone else gets back with me. And then I make a list of my projects and whatever the next step is and what I’m waiting on. And in the morning, I check things off of my list when the stuff I’m owed come rolling in.
So tonight I’m just sittin’ here drinking my bottled water and having a boring ol’ time by myself. I’m going to read my book ‘till I fall asleep. ‘Nite.
Well, two days ago the director and two others got back from the conference. It’s really thrown off how things have gone for the past two weeks. Most of us were wondering how much of an active role in day to day operations he was going to play. Everyone knows that he’s going to be retiring in a few weeks and he didn’t play that big role in what we do before we left. Since everything went so well in his absence, I thought he’d just sit back and go with the status quo.
But that is not the case. He’s running around, finding out what everyone has done, and inserting himself in everyone’s bee’s wax. Good for him, you know? He’s still on the payroll, he can work just like everyone else. I need to move desks. I’m in the director’s line of sight and when he wants something done, he looks up and sees me and tells me to do it. We call it “line of sight tasking”. At least if I was around the corner, then maybe I could ignore him while he yelled and he’d call someone elses name. I wouldn’t have a problem saying, “Hey Phil! The boss wants you.”
Our internet quit working last night. Someone today said that our internet is all satellite based internet and that snow (or too much snow) disrupts the signal. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it didn’t come back on ‘till sometime this afternoon. We’ve got five or six inches of snow on the ground. And like they say, “A little snow hides a multitude of sins.” Something like that. As we were driving around to the steak place, the country side looked beautiful. It was too bad that we couldn’t see the mountains...
I was able to stay up late and read last night until early morning and I didn’t wake up until almost eleven! And by that time, the snow had stopped, but the skies were still gray. I didn’t think that Phillip’s replacement was going to make it in today. Phillip and Joey went to the airport to pick her up and she did indeed arrive. Her name is Ashley and this is her first trip here. I met her briefly tonight right before I left the office.
I’m still really, really busy at work. I’ve got eight projects - all in different stages of completion. But what I try to do at the end of the day is get done what I can get done and get everything at the point where I can’t do anything else until someone else gets back with me. And then I make a list of my projects and whatever the next step is and what I’m waiting on. And in the morning, I check things off of my list when the stuff I’m owed come rolling in.
So tonight I’m just sittin’ here drinking my bottled water and having a boring ol’ time by myself. I’m going to read my book ‘till I fall asleep. ‘Nite.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
It’s Beginning to Look A Lot
Like Christmas!!! It’s snowing here and it’s truly beautiful. It rained all day yesterday that didn’t help with the bad news. And it was cold. It was still snowing today, though it was just a drizzle. So about an hour after dinner Harold came in and said it was snowing. I thought it was maybe flurries or hardly snowing. But when I left the office and stepped outside, there were huge, beautiful clumps of snow falling so hard and fast I could hear the snow hitting the ground. I went to my room and got my camera and got some nice shots.
Near our building there are a couple of flagpoles that are lit up at night, and I got some good shots of the snow and the flagpoles in the lights. If it doesn’t take hours to upload, I’ll try to get some e-mailed off.
I hope that my boss back in Delaware is trying to find out whether or not I can get an exception to go and teach when I get back. I don’t have high hopes. And I’ve kind of gone straight to the acceptance stage. I looked on line for jobs. Strange though… I there are not as many jobs as there was three years ago when I was looking for a job. Maybe I’ll just leave it up to the company to send me where they think I should go. I sent Sara some screen shots of states around the US that we talked about. There’s a whole lot of nothing going on. However, Illinois looks good. There will always be jobs for me there. And we like Illinois.
Tomorrow is a half day. We have the morning off, so I’m going to try to sleep for as long as I can. The weird thing with having the first half off is that we stay late anyway. Harold is supposed to leave tomorrow. If the weather is bad, he’ll stick around until the weather clears. Phillip’s replacement (Ashley) is supposed to be here tomorrow also. I hope it clears up for a little while so Harold can leave and Ashley can get here.
I’m going to sign off now and mess with my camera. Talk to you later.
Near our building there are a couple of flagpoles that are lit up at night, and I got some good shots of the snow and the flagpoles in the lights. If it doesn’t take hours to upload, I’ll try to get some e-mailed off.
I hope that my boss back in Delaware is trying to find out whether or not I can get an exception to go and teach when I get back. I don’t have high hopes. And I’ve kind of gone straight to the acceptance stage. I looked on line for jobs. Strange though… I there are not as many jobs as there was three years ago when I was looking for a job. Maybe I’ll just leave it up to the company to send me where they think I should go. I sent Sara some screen shots of states around the US that we talked about. There’s a whole lot of nothing going on. However, Illinois looks good. There will always be jobs for me there. And we like Illinois.
Tomorrow is a half day. We have the morning off, so I’m going to try to sleep for as long as I can. The weird thing with having the first half off is that we stay late anyway. Harold is supposed to leave tomorrow. If the weather is bad, he’ll stick around until the weather clears. Phillip’s replacement (Ashley) is supposed to be here tomorrow also. I hope it clears up for a little while so Harold can leave and Ashley can get here.
I’m going to sign off now and mess with my camera. Talk to you later.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Bad News
There's a 99% chance that the teaching thing is NOT going to happen.
I'm so mad I can't see straight.
Crazy Glue
Tonight's VTC with Malaysia wasn't so bad. It only lasted an hour.
I had a busy day with our transportation department. They requested a bunch of stuff, but they never got back with me. They were acting like it was so important. Their world was just going to fall apart. So when I tried to get back with them, they had all left for the day. They didn't respond to two e-mails and when I called they were gone. So now, it's no longer a priority for me. I hate to be crappy about it, but I have other issues on my plate.
I missed dinner tonight and I'm hungry and grumpy. I'm thinking about digging through the office fridge to look for someone's leftovers. But that's rude and I'd hate to look forward to some leftovers only to find that someone beat me to it. Which reminds me of Sara. If I don't specifically say, "I'm going to take this spaghetti into work tomorrow!", I'm probably not going to get it. As a matter of fact, if I don't take it in that next day, I'll lose my claim to the left over spaghetti. If it wasn't important enough for me to take it after I said I was going to take it, then it's fair game. I better hide it in the fridge out in the garage.
A friend back home sent me an e-mail today about a job being advertized back in Delaware that the company is looking to fill. I'm not 100% qualified for it, but what the heck? If no one else applies for it, maybe I'll get it. Or maybe I'll be just more qualified than any another applicant. So I tossed my hat in the ring. If the boss can wait until I get back to fill it, maybe I'll get it. So while I was waiting for my VTC to start, I looked at houses on-line that I liked in the area. We'll be transferring this summer anyway.
The women in our office have the air conditioner cranked up today. I'm not usually one to complain about the cold, but, dang! I'm freezing today.
I need to remember to buy some crazy glue tomorrow. And speaking of crazy, it's crazy that I'm still up. Good night.
I had a busy day with our transportation department. They requested a bunch of stuff, but they never got back with me. They were acting like it was so important. Their world was just going to fall apart. So when I tried to get back with them, they had all left for the day. They didn't respond to two e-mails and when I called they were gone. So now, it's no longer a priority for me. I hate to be crappy about it, but I have other issues on my plate.
I missed dinner tonight and I'm hungry and grumpy. I'm thinking about digging through the office fridge to look for someone's leftovers. But that's rude and I'd hate to look forward to some leftovers only to find that someone beat me to it. Which reminds me of Sara. If I don't specifically say, "I'm going to take this spaghetti into work tomorrow!", I'm probably not going to get it. As a matter of fact, if I don't take it in that next day, I'll lose my claim to the left over spaghetti. If it wasn't important enough for me to take it after I said I was going to take it, then it's fair game. I better hide it in the fridge out in the garage.
A friend back home sent me an e-mail today about a job being advertized back in Delaware that the company is looking to fill. I'm not 100% qualified for it, but what the heck? If no one else applies for it, maybe I'll get it. Or maybe I'll be just more qualified than any another applicant. So I tossed my hat in the ring. If the boss can wait until I get back to fill it, maybe I'll get it. So while I was waiting for my VTC to start, I looked at houses on-line that I liked in the area. We'll be transferring this summer anyway.
The women in our office have the air conditioner cranked up today. I'm not usually one to complain about the cold, but, dang! I'm freezing today.
I need to remember to buy some crazy glue tomorrow. And speaking of crazy, it's crazy that I'm still up. Good night.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Rock Superstar
It was another busy day. I successfully got another package out for staffing, and I’ve got another that I think will go out tomorrow. What I’ve found out was that as soon as the other agencies in the company look at the packages it releases a ton of questions. “What does this mean? What does that mean?” We all speak English, what do you THINK it means? I’m certainly putting my business degree to work. Marketing doesn’t talk to sales. Sales doesn’t talk to the engineers. Engineers don’t talk to anyone, or they only say that it can’t be done. Accounting has conniptions about the budget. Customers don’t know who to talk to. Hell, I don’t know where to begin half the time.
I only want to do a good job so people quit bothering me. Of course I want to do a good job for the sake of doing a good job and make our customers happy, but I just want to be able to do my job.
I meant to get to the post office today to send a box of unnecessary stuff home. That didn’t happen. I just need to go right after lunch and do it, I guess. If I get back to the office I’ll get caught up in work.
The people who went to the conference should be coming back soon. Not that I know what’s going on, we’ll have to get used to more people in the office. But we have two people leaving soon. Mr. Negativity sits diagonally from me and his replacement comes in tomorrow. His real name is Phillip, and I can’t wait for him to leave. I am so sick and tired of him always saying something negative about every-freaking-thing. I’ve talked to him about it, but he says he’s negative because “it sucks here”. Whatever. He’s a volunteer just like everyone else. Howard sits right across from me. He’s going to Memphis for a month or so because we have a huge shipment moving through Memphis and he’s going to be our expediter at that site. Howard doesn’t like me because I don’t like the TV on while we work. I give a rat’s rear end. I think he’s lazy. He might be very good at what he does… I just have no idea what it is.
As I’ve been thinking about writing this blog, I’ve also been thinking about writing a book. I don’t know what kind of book I’d want to write. But I read somewhere about an author that had a goal of writing one page a day. Every day. Just one page. And for the other 22 hours of the day he did whatever else he wanted to. Usually it was working around the house and thinking about what he was going to write the next day. So every day, when he sat down, he pretty much already knew what he was going to write. If he didn’t get everything he wanted down on that one page, then he got to think about it for another day as he thought about what he was going to write the next day. I’m sure he took note on his thoughts and stuff… He knew how his story began and how he thought it was going to end, but all of the stuff in the middle was unknown until he got to it. Sometimes his books ended the way he thought they would… sometimes they did not. Sometimes the characters in his books took on lives of their own and ‘hijacked’ the plot. I thought that concept was kind of funny/cool/intriguing.
I think I could do that. That’s not too far off from what I’m doing now. I don’t know what I’d want to write about. And I wonder what one standard Microsoft Word page equals in Book pages. I think it’s a real pain to get a book published. And even harder to make money from it. But at the end of one year, have a 365 page novel. But like Mr. G used to say, “If you want to be a writer, you have to write.” That’s the hard part. I think.
That’s all I have for today. My brain hurts.
I only want to do a good job so people quit bothering me. Of course I want to do a good job for the sake of doing a good job and make our customers happy, but I just want to be able to do my job.
I meant to get to the post office today to send a box of unnecessary stuff home. That didn’t happen. I just need to go right after lunch and do it, I guess. If I get back to the office I’ll get caught up in work.
The people who went to the conference should be coming back soon. Not that I know what’s going on, we’ll have to get used to more people in the office. But we have two people leaving soon. Mr. Negativity sits diagonally from me and his replacement comes in tomorrow. His real name is Phillip, and I can’t wait for him to leave. I am so sick and tired of him always saying something negative about every-freaking-thing. I’ve talked to him about it, but he says he’s negative because “it sucks here”. Whatever. He’s a volunteer just like everyone else. Howard sits right across from me. He’s going to Memphis for a month or so because we have a huge shipment moving through Memphis and he’s going to be our expediter at that site. Howard doesn’t like me because I don’t like the TV on while we work. I give a rat’s rear end. I think he’s lazy. He might be very good at what he does… I just have no idea what it is.
As I’ve been thinking about writing this blog, I’ve also been thinking about writing a book. I don’t know what kind of book I’d want to write. But I read somewhere about an author that had a goal of writing one page a day. Every day. Just one page. And for the other 22 hours of the day he did whatever else he wanted to. Usually it was working around the house and thinking about what he was going to write the next day. So every day, when he sat down, he pretty much already knew what he was going to write. If he didn’t get everything he wanted down on that one page, then he got to think about it for another day as he thought about what he was going to write the next day. I’m sure he took note on his thoughts and stuff… He knew how his story began and how he thought it was going to end, but all of the stuff in the middle was unknown until he got to it. Sometimes his books ended the way he thought they would… sometimes they did not. Sometimes the characters in his books took on lives of their own and ‘hijacked’ the plot. I thought that concept was kind of funny/cool/intriguing.
I think I could do that. That’s not too far off from what I’m doing now. I don’t know what I’d want to write about. And I wonder what one standard Microsoft Word page equals in Book pages. I think it’s a real pain to get a book published. And even harder to make money from it. But at the end of one year, have a 365 page novel. But like Mr. G used to say, “If you want to be a writer, you have to write.” That’s the hard part. I think.
That’s all I have for today. My brain hurts.
Sunday
I like Sundays here. It’s kind of like a half day, everyone comes in later than normal. Right around lunch time. That gives people a chance to go to church; even though I go to church at seven at night. The whole place is kind of laid back. At least at my level. My boss still runs around like crazy, but I think that she’s a hard-core workaholic. I say that like it’s a good thing, because she’s very smart and knows everything about everything. I’m glad that she’s not going to become the director when our director retires, because I like having her in the position to focus on what I’m doing rather than having broader responsibilities.
I was able to get one hot project done today. Though it’s not complete, it still needs to be staffed and packaged, the hard part is finished and at this point it’s a matter of poking and prodding rather than collecting, correcting, and corroborating. I worked hard to come up with those three “C” words in a row. I have five more in the pipe that I’m working on and I should get another shot out tomorrow. Then it’s routing, releasing, and… I’ll have to think of another “R” word that applies to Part 2 to the process.
I talked to Sara and the kids today. They adopted a cat from the SPCA section at PetSmart. The kids told me all about it. I think the cat is probably experiencing attention overload right about now. Give the cat a couple of weekdays to explore and settle in to the house without kids around and she’ll chill out. Liam said he wants a dog. We’ll have to see about that. Maybe when we move we will get a house that has a fenced in yard to let the dog run around in. And if I can get a job where I’m not away from home for months at a time… that would certainly help taking care of a dog.
At the coffee shop tonight, I talked to a man who went to college in London back in the late 70s/early 80s. He told a story about one summer he took “The Magic Bus” with some friends from London, across the channel, to Amsterdam (and from there, he went all over Europe). I couldn’t believe there was a real bus/bus company called “The Magic Bus”. Just like the song by The Who. I thought the song was about a drug experience, not about some guy who just wants to buy the bus off of the driver so he can visit his girlfriend. That’s dumb. I wish I never looked at the lyrics.
Speaking of lyrics and songs, we sang “I’m In The Lord’s Army” at church today. It was kind of funny. At first people didn’t want to sing it. We all sounded kind of droan-y, but at the end, we were all singing with gusto (Yes, Sir!). The preacher somehow tied it into the Hebrews following (marching) Moses out of Egypt. I can’t really explain it very well, but he did a great job with the song and the message.
And this is the scene in the movie where I sign off for the day, I go to bed, and the camera fades…
I was able to get one hot project done today. Though it’s not complete, it still needs to be staffed and packaged, the hard part is finished and at this point it’s a matter of poking and prodding rather than collecting, correcting, and corroborating. I worked hard to come up with those three “C” words in a row. I have five more in the pipe that I’m working on and I should get another shot out tomorrow. Then it’s routing, releasing, and… I’ll have to think of another “R” word that applies to Part 2 to the process.
I talked to Sara and the kids today. They adopted a cat from the SPCA section at PetSmart. The kids told me all about it. I think the cat is probably experiencing attention overload right about now. Give the cat a couple of weekdays to explore and settle in to the house without kids around and she’ll chill out. Liam said he wants a dog. We’ll have to see about that. Maybe when we move we will get a house that has a fenced in yard to let the dog run around in. And if I can get a job where I’m not away from home for months at a time… that would certainly help taking care of a dog.
At the coffee shop tonight, I talked to a man who went to college in London back in the late 70s/early 80s. He told a story about one summer he took “The Magic Bus” with some friends from London, across the channel, to Amsterdam (and from there, he went all over Europe). I couldn’t believe there was a real bus/bus company called “The Magic Bus”. Just like the song by The Who. I thought the song was about a drug experience, not about some guy who just wants to buy the bus off of the driver so he can visit his girlfriend. That’s dumb. I wish I never looked at the lyrics.
Speaking of lyrics and songs, we sang “I’m In The Lord’s Army” at church today. It was kind of funny. At first people didn’t want to sing it. We all sounded kind of droan-y, but at the end, we were all singing with gusto (Yes, Sir!). The preacher somehow tied it into the Hebrews following (marching) Moses out of Egypt. I can’t really explain it very well, but he did a great job with the song and the message.
And this is the scene in the movie where I sign off for the day, I go to bed, and the camera fades…
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sa-tur-daaayyy!
In the park. Must-av been the forth of Juh-ly. My day wasn’t exactly a day in the park though. From the instant I got in, to when I finally left, it was a madhouse. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was actually fun and time really flew by. I learned a lot about other sections within the company that I had no idea about. As it turns out, my predecessor was… a little under employed, so this position picked up a couple of extra duties in order to keep her busier. Taking care of this every other Saturday super-meeting was one of them. As much as I dislike this extra duty, it is a learning experience about the entire ‘enterprise’. Big-picture enterprise-company cradle-to-grave kind of stuff. But if I go to the Kissimmee office I certainly wouldn’t miss this duty. I don’t know who’d take over, and I really could not care less.
Two of our vice-presidents are self-proclaimed Mass-holes and they speak with thick Bahston accents. So listening to them at the meeting is funny. And don’t get them stahted on college hahkey.
You all know I live near the airport and our suites are in the take off path. Why, oh why, do people who live here have car alarms? I can hear the alarms go off almost every time a plane take off.
After work I went to get some coffee and tried to read the paper. But I ended up hanging out with some guys who’ve been here for a while. And we were all sitting around shooting the breeze and talking about where we’re from, and one guy is from Nashville, TN and was in a movie called “The Blue Collar Comedy Tour – The Movie”. He’s the ‘stink bait dude’ from the Bass Pro Shop part of the movie. He wasn’t bragging about it, someone else in the group noticed him. So I’m going to have to find the movie to actually see him. He has a speaking role in the movie and he told a couple of stories about the comedians in the movie and what nice people they were.
I called Sara and the kids. They were on the way to see a movie, and either it was the mall or the phones, but we got cut off and I couldn’t get though again. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Hey! It’s tomorrow already. SO I can cross off February 7th off of my calendar! That’s one less day here!
Two of our vice-presidents are self-proclaimed Mass-holes and they speak with thick Bahston accents. So listening to them at the meeting is funny. And don’t get them stahted on college hahkey.
You all know I live near the airport and our suites are in the take off path. Why, oh why, do people who live here have car alarms? I can hear the alarms go off almost every time a plane take off.
After work I went to get some coffee and tried to read the paper. But I ended up hanging out with some guys who’ve been here for a while. And we were all sitting around shooting the breeze and talking about where we’re from, and one guy is from Nashville, TN and was in a movie called “The Blue Collar Comedy Tour – The Movie”. He’s the ‘stink bait dude’ from the Bass Pro Shop part of the movie. He wasn’t bragging about it, someone else in the group noticed him. So I’m going to have to find the movie to actually see him. He has a speaking role in the movie and he told a couple of stories about the comedians in the movie and what nice people they were.
I called Sara and the kids. They were on the way to see a movie, and either it was the mall or the phones, but we got cut off and I couldn’t get though again. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Hey! It’s tomorrow already. SO I can cross off February 7th off of my calendar! That’s one less day here!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ho-hum
The air was really clear today. No clouds and the view of the mountains was incredible. The snow glimmered in the sun, but it was really cold. As the sun was setting the snow on the mountains to the east glowed pale orange with light purple streaks. I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. Since it was Friday night, we all went out for steaks and baked potatoes and pecan pie. It was pretty good.
I had embarrassing moment today. There was one cup of coffee left and I got it. Then on the way back to my desk I spilled it everywhere. I was so mad.
And I forgot my gloves this morning and my hands were really cold when we were outside. That’s not as funny as Joey coming into work yesterday wearing different shoes on his feet. And then he spilled his milk and his OJ at breakfast. We all had to laugh at his misfortune. He took it really well.
Tomorrow is my “every other Saturday” Saturday. If it’s like the Saturday before last, I won’t get any real work done, seeing as how I have to prepare for the 2.5 hour Video Conference in the afternoon. Maybe it won’t be so bad since our director is away at the conference and our part will be done by the deputy director.
Mike, my suitemate, is working some awful hours. He is standing in for his boss for a few weeks. He gets into work around six in the morning, and I don’t know when he gets off, but he’s asleep when I get back to our suite. I hardly see him (not that is a bad thing). It’s like having a phantom housemate.
That’s about it for my day. There’s not a lot to say. Talk to you all later.
I had embarrassing moment today. There was one cup of coffee left and I got it. Then on the way back to my desk I spilled it everywhere. I was so mad.
And I forgot my gloves this morning and my hands were really cold when we were outside. That’s not as funny as Joey coming into work yesterday wearing different shoes on his feet. And then he spilled his milk and his OJ at breakfast. We all had to laugh at his misfortune. He took it really well.
Tomorrow is my “every other Saturday” Saturday. If it’s like the Saturday before last, I won’t get any real work done, seeing as how I have to prepare for the 2.5 hour Video Conference in the afternoon. Maybe it won’t be so bad since our director is away at the conference and our part will be done by the deputy director.
Mike, my suitemate, is working some awful hours. He is standing in for his boss for a few weeks. He gets into work around six in the morning, and I don’t know when he gets off, but he’s asleep when I get back to our suite. I hardly see him (not that is a bad thing). It’s like having a phantom housemate.
That’s about it for my day. There’s not a lot to say. Talk to you all later.
Had a good day.
Today was a good day. A productive day. Starting off… I slept like a rock last night. I’ve been remembering to use my mouthguard because I’m grinding my teeth again. But I slept well and didn’t wake up once, which is a minor miracle because we live near the darn airport.
So I rolled into work and made a pot of coffee. Ever since Ski left last week, there’s only one other person who drinks coffee besides me. Our coffee isn’t all that good and I’m waiting for someone to mail some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to us. WaWa coffee would be good also. Maxwell house does the trick, but isn’t that good. I headed to the VPs office to check the status on one of my projects. The info packet I took to the VPs office last night had somehow disappeared in the night. That kind of sucks… I checked with the mail room and they didn’t have it. What? Did it just evaporate? I decided to wait a few hours to see if it turned up.
I went back to my office and started on my “how to” packet for future customers. I still can’t believe the haphazard way my predecessor worked. My boss came by to see how things were and she seemed kind of impressed with the how-to packet. I have ulterior motives for creating the packet. If I can front-load my clients/customers will everything they are going to need, then the product that they give me should be better put together and the dividends will be paid with less work later on in the project. We’ll have to see if that works. It’s also the first step in putting my continuity binder together for my successor.
For lunch we went to Oh-Jays for chicken cheese steaks. The line was long and the wait was longer. They had the slowest, dumbest guy on the grill today. What a buffoon. Oh well, I guess he can’t do anything else.
After lunch I checked on the ‘lost’ packet that I looked for in the morning and it was still lost. So I headed back to my office to print everything out again and put it all together. The only real problem was that we’re supposed to use the original cover letter in the packet, but the original is lost so I had to use a copy.
Whatever… I turned the second copy in and had to get ready for an appointment for my first meeting with my first real clients. Everything I’ve done up until now has been taking care of my predecessor’s old customers. When my clients finally arrived, I was surprised at how much I’ve picked up in the last two weeks. It helped that they were new clients and had never done this kind of thing before, but listening to me talk, I sounded like a pro. * slight bow *
Gary decided that for dinner we should all go to a new place. New to me anyway. It’s a BBQ place called The Sugar Shack. I don’t know about you, but that name kills me. It was a 20 minute walk to get there, but they had really good BBQ spare ribs and bratwurst. The ribs were tender and the brats were spicy. Wow! I’m glad that place wasn’t closer or we’d probably eat there a lot more. We could see the mountains really well as we were walking to the sugar shack, and with the fresh snow they all were beautiful.
After work I headed over to the apartments where the certified internal auditors live and they were having another bonfire. I met some new people that live around here and I also got to hang out with some people that work in my company that I never see in the offices. There was a big Nordic guy from Minnesota there and he told a couple of Ole and Sven jokes and a couple of Ole and Lena jokes. They were all goaners, but it fit in with the mood. I stayed until maybe 11.30 and figured I had to get back to my suite and get some sleep.
But before I crash I wanted to write about my day. I’m kind of proud that I’ve written every day so far. I didn’t know if I would make it this far. I hope that whoever is reading this is enjoying it. And it’s time for me to turn on my electric blanket and brush my teeth and get to bed. Good night.
So I rolled into work and made a pot of coffee. Ever since Ski left last week, there’s only one other person who drinks coffee besides me. Our coffee isn’t all that good and I’m waiting for someone to mail some Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to us. WaWa coffee would be good also. Maxwell house does the trick, but isn’t that good. I headed to the VPs office to check the status on one of my projects. The info packet I took to the VPs office last night had somehow disappeared in the night. That kind of sucks… I checked with the mail room and they didn’t have it. What? Did it just evaporate? I decided to wait a few hours to see if it turned up.
I went back to my office and started on my “how to” packet for future customers. I still can’t believe the haphazard way my predecessor worked. My boss came by to see how things were and she seemed kind of impressed with the how-to packet. I have ulterior motives for creating the packet. If I can front-load my clients/customers will everything they are going to need, then the product that they give me should be better put together and the dividends will be paid with less work later on in the project. We’ll have to see if that works. It’s also the first step in putting my continuity binder together for my successor.
For lunch we went to Oh-Jays for chicken cheese steaks. The line was long and the wait was longer. They had the slowest, dumbest guy on the grill today. What a buffoon. Oh well, I guess he can’t do anything else.
After lunch I checked on the ‘lost’ packet that I looked for in the morning and it was still lost. So I headed back to my office to print everything out again and put it all together. The only real problem was that we’re supposed to use the original cover letter in the packet, but the original is lost so I had to use a copy.
Whatever… I turned the second copy in and had to get ready for an appointment for my first meeting with my first real clients. Everything I’ve done up until now has been taking care of my predecessor’s old customers. When my clients finally arrived, I was surprised at how much I’ve picked up in the last two weeks. It helped that they were new clients and had never done this kind of thing before, but listening to me talk, I sounded like a pro. * slight bow *
Gary decided that for dinner we should all go to a new place. New to me anyway. It’s a BBQ place called The Sugar Shack. I don’t know about you, but that name kills me. It was a 20 minute walk to get there, but they had really good BBQ spare ribs and bratwurst. The ribs were tender and the brats were spicy. Wow! I’m glad that place wasn’t closer or we’d probably eat there a lot more. We could see the mountains really well as we were walking to the sugar shack, and with the fresh snow they all were beautiful.
After work I headed over to the apartments where the certified internal auditors live and they were having another bonfire. I met some new people that live around here and I also got to hang out with some people that work in my company that I never see in the offices. There was a big Nordic guy from Minnesota there and he told a couple of Ole and Sven jokes and a couple of Ole and Lena jokes. They were all goaners, but it fit in with the mood. I stayed until maybe 11.30 and figured I had to get back to my suite and get some sleep.
But before I crash I wanted to write about my day. I’m kind of proud that I’ve written every day so far. I didn’t know if I would make it this far. I hope that whoever is reading this is enjoying it. And it’s time for me to turn on my electric blanket and brush my teeth and get to bed. Good night.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Half day…
Though my half day didn’t count since I was up so late last night. I was up until four in the morning. A little after four actually. So I meander into the office around noon and everyone’s gone. Dang. I forgot that it was Wop Wednesday and everyone went to Oh-Jays. So I made a pot of coffee and ate an energy bar.
When I woke up, it was gray and raining. Raining pretty hard. I shouldn’t complain because I don’t have a long walk to the office, but I left my jacket at the office last night (this morning) when I left. So I was just a bit soggy when I got to work. My day was pretty routine. Nothing exiting happened. Sea Monkeys are still swimming. My sister sent an old advertisement about Sea Monkeys. It’s the ad we used to find in comic books back in the 70s and 80s.
The advertisement says “SO EAGER TO PLEASE, THEY CAN EVEN BE TRAINED TO PERFORM TRICKS!”. Yeah! Let’s train our Sea Monkeys. All they do is swim and procreate!
At dinner time, Joey came in and told us all that it was snowing pretty hard! So we all bundled up to head downstairs and go eat. I went to get my camera, but it was too gray and there was rain in the snow. It had been warm enough over the past few days that none of the snow stuck to anything but the cars. But it was kind of pretty for a while.
And when I got back to the office I checked my e-mail and found out that Sara and the kids were off due to snow. Ahhh!!! A nice, relaxing day with the kids while the snow falls. Wrong! When I called Sara at the house, the kids were hooting and hollering wanting to go out and play in the half inch of snow on the ground. Didn’t sound like much relaxin’ was going on.
Rebecca and Liam were really fun to talk to. Rebecca was so exited about her ricekrispytreatsanditissnowing andI’mgoingtoputonmysnowpantsandplayoutside… Liam was a bit more subdued but sang a nice version of Happy Birthday to me.
And now I’m listing to The Kleptones “A Night at the Hip-Hopera” which is a mash-up of Queen, hip-hop, and movie clips and the music of Queen. It’s fun to listen to but I like Yoshimi Battles better.
Tomorrow is laundry day and I have to mail out Sara’s package. I need to find out where the post office is… But that’s a job for tomorrow, and that brings today to a close.
When I woke up, it was gray and raining. Raining pretty hard. I shouldn’t complain because I don’t have a long walk to the office, but I left my jacket at the office last night (this morning) when I left. So I was just a bit soggy when I got to work. My day was pretty routine. Nothing exiting happened. Sea Monkeys are still swimming. My sister sent an old advertisement about Sea Monkeys. It’s the ad we used to find in comic books back in the 70s and 80s.
The advertisement says “SO EAGER TO PLEASE, THEY CAN EVEN BE TRAINED TO PERFORM TRICKS!”. Yeah! Let’s train our Sea Monkeys. All they do is swim and procreate!
At dinner time, Joey came in and told us all that it was snowing pretty hard! So we all bundled up to head downstairs and go eat. I went to get my camera, but it was too gray and there was rain in the snow. It had been warm enough over the past few days that none of the snow stuck to anything but the cars. But it was kind of pretty for a while.
And when I got back to the office I checked my e-mail and found out that Sara and the kids were off due to snow. Ahhh!!! A nice, relaxing day with the kids while the snow falls. Wrong! When I called Sara at the house, the kids were hooting and hollering wanting to go out and play in the half inch of snow on the ground. Didn’t sound like much relaxin’ was going on.
Rebecca and Liam were really fun to talk to. Rebecca was so exited about her ricekrispytreatsanditissnowing andI’mgoingtoputonmysnowpantsandplayoutside… Liam was a bit more subdued but sang a nice version of Happy Birthday to me.
And now I’m listing to The Kleptones “A Night at the Hip-Hopera” which is a mash-up of Queen, hip-hop, and movie clips and the music of Queen. It’s fun to listen to but I like Yoshimi Battles better.
Tomorrow is laundry day and I have to mail out Sara’s package. I need to find out where the post office is… But that’s a job for tomorrow, and that brings today to a close.
Long Tuesday
It wasn’t that bad… really. Though it is twenty minutes after two in the morning. Out Video TeleConference (VTC) ran over an hour and a half long with the Malaysians. See, we have to be nice to them and not just talk business. So when they want to talk, we have to want to talk. Even though we want to go to bed. But I’m a little wired on strong coffee that someone made this afternoon. Thanks, Trad. Good coffee.
It’s still raining here. I remembered to bring my coat this morning, but we didn’t need it when we all went to lunch. But we did need it on the way back. And on the way back, I ran into my old buddy Mark (who was my neighbor in Memphis). He’s a physical therapist doing some work here with a temp agency. Go figure. He’s digging it because he’s working only nine hours a day and only five or six days a week. Lucky #@#$&(.
But in life we all make choices and his choices lead him to be a physical therapist. And me? My choices are walking in mud, walking in puddles, or walking on gravel with rocks the size of your fist. Thank goodness we don’t have moon dust to live with.
I took an hour and a half break this evening to take a mind break at one of the gazebos on the campus. There’s an older guy there that I’ve seen before and I stuck up a conversation. His name is Kevin and he used to live in Brazil. Kevin met his wife in Brazil, and his father-in-law is a descendant of American confederates who left the Confederacy after the Civil War. The FIL remembers his great-great-grandmother (who was alive back during the war of Northern Aggression) only speaking English. And every time the FIL comes to the states to visit, the first thing he does is go somewhere to get a biscuit. He loved his great-great grandmother’s biscuits and real American biscuits remind him of her. I thought that was a really neat story.
I remember reading something about the American migration after the Civil War in Mental_Floss a month or two ago. Kevin said that the American population in Brazil has pretty much been assimilated into the Brazilian culture. Though there is a famous cemetery, where a bunch of Georgians are buried, near where he used to live that President Carter visited back in the 70s.
And it’s time to rack out. One more journal entry and another day is over. Good night.
It’s still raining here. I remembered to bring my coat this morning, but we didn’t need it when we all went to lunch. But we did need it on the way back. And on the way back, I ran into my old buddy Mark (who was my neighbor in Memphis). He’s a physical therapist doing some work here with a temp agency. Go figure. He’s digging it because he’s working only nine hours a day and only five or six days a week. Lucky #@#$&(.
But in life we all make choices and his choices lead him to be a physical therapist. And me? My choices are walking in mud, walking in puddles, or walking on gravel with rocks the size of your fist. Thank goodness we don’t have moon dust to live with.
I took an hour and a half break this evening to take a mind break at one of the gazebos on the campus. There’s an older guy there that I’ve seen before and I stuck up a conversation. His name is Kevin and he used to live in Brazil. Kevin met his wife in Brazil, and his father-in-law is a descendant of American confederates who left the Confederacy after the Civil War. The FIL remembers his great-great-grandmother (who was alive back during the war of Northern Aggression) only speaking English. And every time the FIL comes to the states to visit, the first thing he does is go somewhere to get a biscuit. He loved his great-great grandmother’s biscuits and real American biscuits remind him of her. I thought that was a really neat story.
I remember reading something about the American migration after the Civil War in Mental_Floss a month or two ago. Kevin said that the American population in Brazil has pretty much been assimilated into the Brazilian culture. Though there is a famous cemetery, where a bunch of Georgians are buried, near where he used to live that President Carter visited back in the 70s.
And it’s time to rack out. One more journal entry and another day is over. Good night.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Dixie Chicks Day
Today was a football game. For those of us that didn't bother to watch the Superbowl last night, it was on TV pretty much all day. I didn't really care much for either team. Because there are a couple of Steelers fans in the office, it would have been fun if the Cardinals would have won just to rub it in. However, we had to listen to the Steelers fans yap, yap, yap all day long. And since it's a re-run, the network was able to trim the game down to a manageable three hours.
I've also been able to dig around though all of the historical documents this evening in order to pick up the loose ends that were left when my predecessor left. Most everything we have is saved on the internet in our "portal". I'm not a big fan of the filing system that my predecessor used. For all I know, it was the same system that she inherited when she got here. I might change it up if I have a chance. But if it's too much of a PITA, I'll just use it and leave it for my successor.
I have a package that's 50% ready to ship home. I came with too much stuff. The generic/recommended packing list that was provided certainly erred on the side of caution. I brought a lot of stuff that I just didn't need and I honestly don't think I'll use the entire I'm here. Plus, I picked up enough stuff while I was in Memphis to make up for everything I could mail home. Right now, I have a bunch of this stuff crammed under my bed, but I don't want to wait until the last minute to mail it out like I did last time (but if I wait until the last minute then it'll only take a minute).
The weather got kind of cold and drizzly this afternoon. Nobody was expecting it and no one had jackets when we went out. It's been an unseasonably warm winter. There hasn't been the kind of rain or snow that the farmers have been needed for the crops this upcoming summer. We're going to need more rain if we want the wheat to grow. As you can imagine, there's been a big push for wheat here over the last couple of years.
Today I had my computer speakers plugged into my iPod. I was listening to the Dixie Chicks really, really quiet I just wanted some background noise to accompany the hum of the air conditioner. Someone finally heard what I was listening to and said, "Hey! That's the Dixie Chicks!" ***Commence Bashing*** A few of the guys (and one female) all jumped on the "We hate them because they hate Bush!" bandwagon. And that wagon took off at high speed. Eventually, they all burnt out and walked away
patting themselves on the back for being good Americans. It would have been good to video tape the whole thing. I don't know what exactly the DC said about Bush, but the funny thing was NEITHER DID THEY. I asked them repeatedly to tell me what was said about President Bush. They told me stuff like, "It was bad and un-American" and "They were badmouthing the Presdient." I asked them if they didn't know what was said, why did they hate the DC so much? Was it the music? Then I asked if they were hating because someone (Rush?) told them too. That got them going again. I really don't care what they think. I was just having fun playing devil's advocate. ***End Bash***
I've since looked up the quote that got everyone spun up. Ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Natalie Maines said, "We don't want this war, this violence; and, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." I can see her point and the point of the folks in my office. You can badmouth the policies, but don't badmouth the President. In her defense. She did issue an apology. I don't think my office got that memo.
It has been a busy day. I've passed the 10% mark on my time! It'll be time to go before you know it. Woo-WOO!!!
I've also been able to dig around though all of the historical documents this evening in order to pick up the loose ends that were left when my predecessor left. Most everything we have is saved on the internet in our "portal". I'm not a big fan of the filing system that my predecessor used. For all I know, it was the same system that she inherited when she got here. I might change it up if I have a chance. But if it's too much of a PITA, I'll just use it and leave it for my successor.
I have a package that's 50% ready to ship home. I came with too much stuff. The generic/recommended packing list that was provided certainly erred on the side of caution. I brought a lot of stuff that I just didn't need and I honestly don't think I'll use the entire I'm here. Plus, I picked up enough stuff while I was in Memphis to make up for everything I could mail home. Right now, I have a bunch of this stuff crammed under my bed, but I don't want to wait until the last minute to mail it out like I did last time (but if I wait until the last minute then it'll only take a minute).
The weather got kind of cold and drizzly this afternoon. Nobody was expecting it and no one had jackets when we went out. It's been an unseasonably warm winter. There hasn't been the kind of rain or snow that the farmers have been needed for the crops this upcoming summer. We're going to need more rain if we want the wheat to grow. As you can imagine, there's been a big push for wheat here over the last couple of years.
Today I had my computer speakers plugged into my iPod. I was listening to the Dixie Chicks really, really quiet I just wanted some background noise to accompany the hum of the air conditioner. Someone finally heard what I was listening to and said, "Hey! That's the Dixie Chicks!" ***Commence Bashing*** A few of the guys (and one female) all jumped on the "We hate them because they hate Bush!" bandwagon. And that wagon took off at high speed. Eventually, they all burnt out and walked away
patting themselves on the back for being good Americans. It would have been good to video tape the whole thing. I don't know what exactly the DC said about Bush, but the funny thing was NEITHER DID THEY. I asked them repeatedly to tell me what was said about President Bush. They told me stuff like, "It was bad and un-American" and "They were badmouthing the Presdient." I asked them if they didn't know what was said, why did they hate the DC so much? Was it the music? Then I asked if they were hating because someone (Rush?) told them too. That got them going again. I really don't care what they think. I was just having fun playing devil's advocate. ***End Bash***
I've since looked up the quote that got everyone spun up. Ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Natalie Maines said, "We don't want this war, this violence; and, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." I can see her point and the point of the folks in my office. You can badmouth the policies, but don't badmouth the President. In her defense. She did issue an apology. I don't think my office got that memo.
It has been a busy day. I've passed the 10% mark on my time! It'll be time to go before you know it. Woo-WOO!!!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Lessons I’ve Learned So Far At Work
1. The most important thing to remember as a staff guy is to “maintain the appearance of progress”.
2. If you see something you want in the store, buy it right then and there. It will be gone later. And you will be mad.
3. Don’t store your Rip-its in the fridge. Keep them in your desk drawer.
4. Don’t respond to any e-mail requesting information right away. The requestor will think that you have nothing to do and ask you to do more stuff. 88% of the time, they can find the answer themselves.
5. Don’t respond to any e-mail the first time it’s sent. If it’s really important, they’ll send it twice. (This rule is over ridden by the Boss).
6. If you leave early, other people get mad. If you leave early under the auspices of “Taking that big pile of cardboard down to the recycle green-thing” then it’s okay not to come back.
7. Some people like to watch sports at work. Any kind of sports. Disconnecting the audio line from the TV in the office really gets people spun up. Plug it back in when no one is looking and act just as surprised as everyone else when the sound comes back on.
8. If you think someone is lazy, they are. If you think they are sloughing work off on you, they are. If you think it’s their job, it is. If they can get you to do it one time, you have just set precedence.
9. If you think that someone doesn’t know what you’re talking about, keep talking about it. If they didn’t get it the first time, there is a 96% chance that they’ll never get it.
10. The 100 pound box of “lightweight conduit” still weighs 100 pounds.
11. Keep an extra jacket in your desk. When you leave, put the extra jacket on the back of your chair. People will think you’re working late somewhere else in the building.
12. You’ll never get everything done. Leave the office at a reasonable hour. Work is like juggling, but some balls are glass and some balls are rubber. The trick to looking good is “never drop the glass balls”.
13. If you have to WAG (Wild @ss Guess) a number, make sure it’s divisible by four. You can always divide that number by four and say that it’s “Per Quarter”.
14. If you accidentally give a number that’s not divisible by four, the remainder are “back ups” for units that fail.
15. The security guard really doesn’t have anything better to do.
2. If you see something you want in the store, buy it right then and there. It will be gone later. And you will be mad.
3. Don’t store your Rip-its in the fridge. Keep them in your desk drawer.
4. Don’t respond to any e-mail requesting information right away. The requestor will think that you have nothing to do and ask you to do more stuff. 88% of the time, they can find the answer themselves.
5. Don’t respond to any e-mail the first time it’s sent. If it’s really important, they’ll send it twice. (This rule is over ridden by the Boss).
6. If you leave early, other people get mad. If you leave early under the auspices of “Taking that big pile of cardboard down to the recycle green-thing” then it’s okay not to come back.
7. Some people like to watch sports at work. Any kind of sports. Disconnecting the audio line from the TV in the office really gets people spun up. Plug it back in when no one is looking and act just as surprised as everyone else when the sound comes back on.
8. If you think someone is lazy, they are. If you think they are sloughing work off on you, they are. If you think it’s their job, it is. If they can get you to do it one time, you have just set precedence.
9. If you think that someone doesn’t know what you’re talking about, keep talking about it. If they didn’t get it the first time, there is a 96% chance that they’ll never get it.
10. The 100 pound box of “lightweight conduit” still weighs 100 pounds.
11. Keep an extra jacket in your desk. When you leave, put the extra jacket on the back of your chair. People will think you’re working late somewhere else in the building.
12. You’ll never get everything done. Leave the office at a reasonable hour. Work is like juggling, but some balls are glass and some balls are rubber. The trick to looking good is “never drop the glass balls”.
13. If you have to WAG (Wild @ss Guess) a number, make sure it’s divisible by four. You can always divide that number by four and say that it’s “Per Quarter”.
14. If you accidentally give a number that’s not divisible by four, the remainder are “back ups” for units that fail.
15. The security guard really doesn’t have anything better to do.
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