CafeChatNoir

Much better day at work today, not nearly as frazzling as last week was - even left the office ON TIME!! New guy has jumped into the queue feet first and seems to be doing OK so far - even if he’s only taking a few calls a day, it still makes a difference.

Gently voiced my frustrations with the appliance people over the coordination issues on this project - I think I got my point across without being awful. Windows Media Player 10 is being less hateful today as well, which is helping.

Not going to be a late night for this chick - despite lots of sleep this weekend, I am still beat tonight. However, a good dose of clarity & enlightenment that resulted from a much too late night is worth it. Here’s hoping I don’t squander what I’ve learned.

It’s probably a good thing this headline didn’t come around on Saturday night:
Grinchy Thief Steals Salvation Army Kettle

Onward & upward.

Is just about 3 feet away.

If you want to disappoint me with words or deeds, get in line. This is apparently the week to do it. I have pretty much no faith left in humanity at this point.

I am *this* close to canceling the order for the kitchen, my computer has been rendered damn near useless thanks to Bill Gates and his POS WMP10, I’m getting hangup calls on my cell phone and I’ve spent a good hour and a half just trying to get a DVD to play up here in the office, and it would seem that just isn’t going to happen.

At the rate things are going, I fully expect that the next news headline I see will be something along the lines of “Salvation Army bell ringer mugged & money for the poor stolen.”

That a dog, if it is standing in just the right place in the bathroom, and is wagging it’s tail quite enthusiastically, can unroll a good amount of toilet paper onto the floor and never realize what they have done.

But I reserve the right to be annoyed anyway. :) You just don’t leave your coworkers hanging, and it happened twice today. Doesn’t matter that it’s not a “real” workday, if someone else’s departure depends on your arrival, dammit, you get there on time! When my relief arrived, I jumped up and dashed out the door with a cheery, “See Ya!” before she could ask for anything. I feel guilty about that, though, as it’s just as bad in it’s own way.

My queue ended up having no calls - a good thing, since I am still very fried from the week, and I fear I would have greeted anyone that did call with, “And what the hell do YOU want?!”

Still managed to meet my brother on time - we managed to get seated for lunch immediately, which almost never happens - apparently there weren’t many groups of 2 out today. Only got 1 present, something Mom had specifically requested last night - she was worried we wouldn’t be able to find it. Found it within 5 minutes of walking into Macy’s. :-D

I know folks that headed out at 5-freaking-30 this morning to shop. People think my brother & I are insane for going out on Black Friday, but we’re definitely not that insane. It’s more of a social event for us - a chance to walk & talk & eat & window shop & get ideas for the holiday. A fun tradition if nothing else.

Got home to discover the dog had escaped the basement. Whatever excitement went on between her & the cats was done by the time I got home, as she came galloping down the stairs very happy to see me. (Usually if she is on a tear with the felines, she is so tunnel visioned that you could drop an anvil on her head & she wouldn’t notice you.) Checked out all parties, everyone seems to be injury free, though the cats were NOT amused at the turn of events.

And the person that was supposed to show up at 1 PM so I can leave is now late.

OK, NOW I am pissed.

Coworker on other queue is working from home today. No problem with that. However, there is a call for her software, waiting to be picked up, and she is nowhere to be found. She’s not on IM, obviously NOT watching her queue, and her cell phone number has changed and she didn’t bother to update the office, so we have no way of contacting her.

It’s shit like this that results in managers being against telecommuting.

God, I wish I could have slept in this morning, but instead, I’m at work. Upside of working when the rest of the office is closed - no traffic, and very easy to get a good parking space. But, I’m still a bit pissy & resentful over it. Yes, I realize this makes me a small & petty person, but damn, I worked the last 2 holidays, too.

I mean, really - just because my status is “single with cats” doesn’t mean I don’t have a life or things to do outside the office!! (OK, I don’t have much of a life or many things to do outside the office, but I still would have liked to sleep in.)

3 hours, 5 minutes to go, but who’s counting? :)

At least it’s just a half-day.

A lovely Thanksgiving yet again at Mom’s house. Everything even made it to the table before we sat down!

This year’s dessert was cream puffs from Trader Joes. OMG, soooooooooo good. Definitely a keeper for other holiday meals.

Eve was very well behaved, did roll in something a bit gawdawful outside towards the end of the evening, but is much better now. Mom, ever thinking & resourceful, gave her a spritz of Arpege body spray when she couldn’t find the bottle of actual “icky dog smell be-gone” that she thought she had. As she said, “the woman at the fragrance counter said this is what they use in France rather than bathing or deodorant, and considering the dog doesn’t bathe or use deodorant…” More than anything, she’s just aired out, though she does smell faintly of French perfume.

Eve & Moxley are getting on fairly well, she still pretty much ignores him, but he isn’t being near as much of a pest as he was in the beginning.

Best get to bed soon, work in the morning & shopping in the afternoon. At least work doesn’t start til 9, and here’s hoping there’s enough people off work that traffic won’t be too bad.

Mother is the most beautiful word in the English language, according to a survey of non-English speakers.

Scroll to the end, they’ve got reader contributions as well - I loved the first one:
My favourite word at the moment is Friday, followed closely by Annual and Leave.
Mandy , Derbyshire, UK

…
And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.”

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and can spend it with loved ones and good food. :)

- Much love from the Group W Bench…

Considering how what should have been an easy 3 day week kicked my ass up, down and sideways the way it did, I’m kinda surprised I can form sentences. (Of course, I may read this in a day or so and realize that I really can’t…)

I love Thanksgiving. Can’t wait to get over to Mom’s tomorrow. I always find it interesting how everyone has their “traditional” foods, and it doesn’t matter exactly what that food is, but it HAS to be the same every year for it to be “right”, and it’s very weird to have Thanksgiving with another family. The worst was when I was in 6th grade & we lived overseas. Mom went to Thailand for the holiday to meet up with my Dad (Navy), so my brother & I stayed with another family. The food was great, and I got a killer biscuit recipe out of it, but it just wasn’t the same. At least other Thanksgivings, there has been one at home, and then the other wherever I ended up being.

For my family, the “right” food is:
turkey
stuffing (Stove Top)
mashed potatoes (instant)
veggies (frozen)
rolls (the little squishy square ones)
sweet pickles & black olives
jello salad (I have absolutely no idea what it is, as it’s my brother’s fav so he eats it)
edit Jellied Cranberry sauce. From the can. (My brother again.)

Pies tend to be hit or miss, as we often don’t have the room for them by the end of the evening, but it’s usually pumpkin with a LARGE container of Cool Whip to dump on top.

There have been some minor changes over the years, such as the turkey - mom has gone to getting a decent sized turkey breast instead of a whole turkey, cooks in it the microwave rather than having it get sawdust dry in the oven, and this year, she’s brining it first.

The vegetable tends to be different every year, but that is mainly because I think it tends to be ignored anyway.

The gravy has evolved to the ready to go jars that have no lumps. That stuff is SO much better than trying to do it from scratch, because when you’re under pressure to get gravy made, you can put a whole BOX of cornstarch in it, and it will NOT thicken up. Any other day, it would work fine…

One year, she didn’t put out the sweet pickles. It was a full on calamity in my eyes, as I am the one that usually eats most of them. :)

Then there was the year Mom & I attempted scratch mashed potatoes. Complete unmitigated disaster. (I did learn - warm the milk before putting it in the potatoes. Hot potatoes + Cold Milk = Cement) Thank god for the box of instant in reserve. We haven’t tried that again, as my brother would kill us all - as it was, he was threatening revolt that we would even consider changing the potatoes. (I think we’d best not tell him of the change w/the turkey this year.)

Given the not so much from scratch nature of the food, my grandfather used to say, “Sharon (my mom) must be cooking, there’s 4 pots of water boiling on the stove!”

But if it were any other way, it wouldn’t be our Thanksgiving. :)

Denver Biscuits
(recipe from Mrs Judy Ferrell, Nov 1984)

3 pkgs Dry Yeast
1 quart Milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening (corn oil can be substituted)
7 to 8 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast in small amount of warm water.

Scald milk and let cook to lukewarm,

Add yeast, sugar, and shortening.

Add 4-5 cups of flour, until it is the consistency of pancake batter.

Let rise until double in size.

Stir, and add baking powder, baking soda & salt. Add enough flour (2-3 cups) to make it the look/feel of soft biscuit dough.

Roll out (roughly 1 inch thick) on floured board, and cut out biscuits.

Put on greased cookie sheet and cook at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

Can be frozen after baking.

I am also very thankful that I got the dog out for a walk before it started pouring rain.

Yeah, there’s some other stuff to be thankful for, too, but my brain is so fried, the sleeping in thing is really the only one I can focus on right now… Oh, yes, I am thankful that I had the foresight to snag a 6 pack of beer when I went to the grocery for my salad bar lunch, so I wouldn’t have to wait in line after work. Mmmmmmmm, beer.

A real honest to god 8 hour day today, with a full hour for lunch and left on time. Could have been early except that our clients are commie-pinko-anti-family-time-workaholic-bastards that kept calling us… Seriously - whatever happened to the last day before a holiday being the “clean up your desk and catch up on your filing and stuff” day?

I was still draggin tail big time this morning when I got in, and decided to pull the call count from yesterday to see if it had really been busy or just my imagination cause we were shorthanded. Nope - we had ONE HUNDRED incoming calls yesterday. Trust me, that’s an insane amount for a holiday week. Your truly closed 36 out of the 88 that got closed for the day.

I did manage to make it through today without accidentally blowing up any client databases, which is good, but I appear to have managed to accidentally blow out some data from a clients system…hazard of being my last call of the day when I am so fried. Fortunately, she didn’t seem terribly peeved in her email, especially since the original problem was fixed. I did feel REALLY bad, and left her a voice mail telling her to call me direct on Monday if she needs any help getting the stuff back in the system… (At least it wasn’t much, but damn, we’re supposed to *help*…)

I’ve got Eve while is off at his sister’s place - she stays in the basement during the day when I’m not here, and I am pretty sure the cats were sitting on the other side of the door all day and taunting her, as the second I let her out, it was all about “where are the kitties?! WHERE!???!” She’s now happily giving a lobotomy to her stuffed toy. Thank god she doesn’t actually eat the stuffing, just pulls it all out and leaves it everywhere.

I should probably do something about dinner here at some point, but that will involve actually moving, and I’m not so sure I want to do that…

In at 8, out at 7, and no lunch makes for a very tired person. Wow, I hope today is better than yesterday was!!

Topped off yesterday with a client bitching about some perceived shortfall in the design of the software, wanted so badly to say, “And what the fuck do you expect me to do about it?!? Oh, wait, I’ll conjure up new code out of my ass for you!”, but instead it came out more of a “Well, I can’t speak to design considerations, but I will see if anyone else has voiced the same concerns.”

Here’s hoping today all our clients leave town!!!! :-D

I think I need to go scream now.

Housework is in full swing, kitchen is already a good halfway done, which is always the worst - the rest should be fairly painless. The African Violet & Ivy are still alive on the kitchen table (I figured they’d be dead by now), and the table has been kept clear for near a month now. I’m quite pleased with that. Now I just need to do the same with the dining room table.

Did have to run out for more cat litter. One of those items best not left for another day.

Decided it was a good time for a break when I got back. Was thinking of doing a late lunch next and then getting back to things, but I’d rather just get all this done.

Please mark the date and time - I have just consciously picked housework over procrastination. It’s not the first time, but it’s not exactly a common occurance, either. :)

I’ve been up since 9, and should be getting some things done about the house, but I’ve got some motivational issues this morning, so I am on cup of coffee #3 instead.

33 days til Christmas and too late to schedule vacation and just leave town for it all. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas - I really do - it just seems to highlight everything that is lacking in my life.

When I was married, it was when my ex best displayed what an insensitive lout he was. He wouldn’t help with anything because it wasn’t “his idea”… Yes dear, it was all my idea to get incredibly ill the afternoon of Christmas Eve when my family is coming for dinner just so I can force you to vacuum, while I lay down and try & make the room stop spinning. (Yes, I should have thrown him out on his ass that day, but hindsight is always 20-20, isn’t it?)

I can’t say it’s been much better since then, just…different. Another year, nothing really to show for it. Can’t convince my family I honestly don’t want or need anything for Christmas - at least not anything money can buy. Trying desperately to keep more “stuff” from coming into the house if there isn’t at least one other thing going out at the same time. Have really, REALLY wanted to spend Christmas Eve at my place, alone, with just some peace, quiet, decorations, pretty music & a glass of wine, but no dice on that.

So, unfortunately, I am just not looking forward to the holidays again.

I’ve been trying to get a list together of everything I need to get done tomorrow. It’s an alarmingly long list…

I know that once I just get going on it, it won’t take any time at all, but damn, I am just so smushed by life this evening, it makes me tired to even contemplate it. I’m starting to wonder - how early is just too early to go to bed on a Saturday night??

Yeah, the ol’ homestead has been neglected the past couple weeks to put it mildly.

I hate when my life gets so out of whack like it is now. It’s been all about work and sleep the past couple weeks and that’s just not healthy to begin with. What makes it worse is that I get so flattened when life gets all one-sided like it is - getting things back in order is damn hard. That’ll make tomorrow fun day…

http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/news/stories/20041119/localnews/1619041.html

Happy Birthday gromitcu!!!

OK, so I finally saw the intro to Monday Night Football that has so many knickers in a twist. That is what everyone is so upset about?

(If you missed it and are wondering what the fuss is about, you can see it at ifilm.com)

I AM SOOOOOOO GLAD IT’S FRIDAY!!! (And yes, I AM shouting!)

OOooooh, lots o’ drama in the office! The aging sweet potato queen put in her two weeks notice yesterday. She’s been threatening to do it for a good 6 months now, so it wasn’t exactly a shocker. Where it got interesting is that apparently, she is not coming back at all. IE, they came and took her computer away today.

I’d say this leaves us in a bind, but well, as three of the second line folks told Mgr B (who runs second/back line) - it just gives everyone more time to work their own calls instead of hers. Mgr B was madly making calls to all the offsite second line folks today making sure everyone was OK, not looking at burnout, etc. (Yeah, it sounds like a knee-jerk reaction, but she really is always keeping tabs on that with everybody, this last turn of events just gave it a bit more urgency.)

I popped into Mgr B’s office this afternoon and told her that word gets around quick, and with all the upheaval - how was SHE doing?!? She’s still kinda stressed cause she’s worried about all of us, and also is worried that we think they’re not trying hard enough to bring in new people. I told her that everyone knows they’re doing their best to get someone in who will not only be able to do the job, but will be able to do it for a long time! Better off some short term crunch than just getting in bodies that won’t work out. She said she’d been meaning to pull me into her office today too to make sure I was doing OK - told her I’m doing fine, no worries - she took the opportunity to tell me I was doing a great job, which is always nice to hear.

Also checked in w/Mgr A - she said she had her meltdown two days ago and was doing much better now. :) Said that if I see the door closed AND the lights off, and know she hasn’t left for the day, THEN to worry, LOL.

So, at full staff, we’ve got 10 people. We’re down to 7 bodies. 5 good bodies. It should be interesting, but I think it will be OK.

OK, I think I’m breathing again.

Spent a couple hours here and managed to figure out 5 calls - amazing what some peace & quiet can do for you.

I feel so bad for the new guy. I am sure he’ll be fine, but putting him with me on his second real day working was not a good idea. Even when I try really hard to slow down, I still go too fast to easily follow what I’m doing. And it’s just weird for me to have someone sitting there watching me work. At least the stuff I figured out tonight I can explain to him tomorrow if he sits w/me again. (Very difficult to figure stuff out when someone is watching. Cause I want to explain what I’m doing but at the same time, saying, “I’m thinking really hard right now” really doesn’t quite cut it.)

I hate this feeling that my life revolves only around work & sleep. I know it’s just temporary, but it drives me nuts. (Especially given that I worked skeleton crew for the last two holidays specifically so I wouldn’t have to work the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m stuck working it anyway.)

Oh, and according to personprice.com, I’m worth $2,119,281.93. Where’s my check, dammit?!

Can I just say what a TOTAL SHIT WEEK this has been?

I know, there are folks with more important jobs, that work longer hours, but this is all about me right now.

The past couple weeks have gone something like this: Work 8-10 hours at my job, then turn around and spend 2 hours in with tech support trying to figure out why the POS add-on module to our software keeps breaking. (The POS part should be clue #1…)

Then come home, feed the cats, feed myself some freezer to microwave concoction, check email and go to bed. Basically, the life I never, ever wanted to have.

Tuesday, we had a new person start. At one point, we were down to 4 people actually working. Yesterday I spent all day cleaning up what I couldn’t finish Tuesday because we were too busy. Today, I discover that POS add-on trouble has been resolved for the time being - WOOHOO - maybe going home on time tonight!!

Then my boss asks if the new guy can sit with me…

I’m not so sure that went so well. All I managed to do was scare the crap out of him***, and he just seriously slowed me down. It is interesting to me how much of what I do is totally second nature at this point - to the point where I already know what data I need to figure it out, am writing up the scripts as I talk to folks and all that good stuff. Having to stop and explain that to someone slows things down SO MUCH.

So, this evening, I’m working here at home getting all this stuff finished up that I couldn’t finish today because I was too busy having to explain what I was doing to someone else to actually be able to DO IT.

***Not intentionally. I go really fast, which is hard to follow and tends to unnerve people, and we didn’t get a single softball call all damn day.