Thursday, February 25. 2010
Ear Ramp Mall
And nothing much happened today. Old Boss was in meeting with customers all day so he wasn't even around. I'm expecting more ... things to happen tomorrow. Old Boss, New Boss, and their boss (they both have the same boss) are all supposed to be in the office tomorrow. They'll probably get together in various combinations (Ooh - math problem. If there are three people total and you must have at least two to have a conversation, how many possible combinations are there? The answer is four: AB, AC, BC, ABC. I just can't leave a math problem unsolved.). There's a slight chance I'll get dragged into some of those conversations (Follow-up question: What if there are four people? Answer: 11; AB, AC, BC, ABC, AD, BD, CD, ABD, ACD, BCD, ABCD. Final exam: What's the general form for this formula given n total people and at least two are necessary for a conversation?). Regardless of how it goes down, I'm real curious to see what happens. There's still a chance I could get screwed but I don't think that'll happen. I mean, unless Boss's Boss comes up with some reasoning from way out in left field.
I did get in quite the long conversation with the pharmacy late this afternoon. The company just changed providers - or, at least, the way things are done. I was expecting there would be problems. I had a refill we needed to pick up. Sue said she could stop on the way home and get it because she usually gets out before me. By 4:00 I had a voicemail from her at my desk saying there was an issue. I called her back and she told me that the pharmacy wanted $800 for this refill and that she didn't get it. I said that was the right call because it should have been more like $50 and not eight hundred freakin' dollars! After I got the details from her, I called the pharmacy to get the story and they told me the same thing Sue did. So I called the new prescription folks.
I don't know what the dude's problem was but the guy that answered the phone sounded kind of retarded. Turns out, yep - he's retarded. We talked for a good little bit and he screwed up a couple of things. For instance, he told me my maximum yearly out-of-pocket was just over $32,000. I said that sounded a mite high and he said something about that's what the computer was telling him.
Next up on the list was HR. I told the lady the story and she actually laughed when I got to the part about $32,000 because it was just ridiculous. She called the prescription people and conference called us all together. I told my story a third time to the new (non-retarded) prescription lady. The first thing she wanted to look into was the $32,000 because, I assume, that was the most ridiculous. Turns out, the retard from early was, in fact, reading the wrong line. That's how much prescription coverage I've consumed in total. I'm not real sure how you get those confused but the retard figured it out. Once that was solved the lady then looked to the $800 issue. That one she couldn't help with. Basically she said it was flat-out $800. By the time we were done it was nearly 5:00 and my doc had already split for the day. He was the next one to call to have the "Is there a cheaper generic drug as a replacement?" conversation. I left a message and will certainly be following up on this tomorrow. But, I mean, it's not like I've got to drop thirty-two grand - so that's something.
By the way, the if there are n people and at least two are necessary for a conversation, then there are [(2^n) - n - 1] possible combinations.
I did get in quite the long conversation with the pharmacy late this afternoon. The company just changed providers - or, at least, the way things are done. I was expecting there would be problems. I had a refill we needed to pick up. Sue said she could stop on the way home and get it because she usually gets out before me. By 4:00 I had a voicemail from her at my desk saying there was an issue. I called her back and she told me that the pharmacy wanted $800 for this refill and that she didn't get it. I said that was the right call because it should have been more like $50 and not eight hundred freakin' dollars! After I got the details from her, I called the pharmacy to get the story and they told me the same thing Sue did. So I called the new prescription folks.
I don't know what the dude's problem was but the guy that answered the phone sounded kind of retarded. Turns out, yep - he's retarded. We talked for a good little bit and he screwed up a couple of things. For instance, he told me my maximum yearly out-of-pocket was just over $32,000. I said that sounded a mite high and he said something about that's what the computer was telling him.
Next up on the list was HR. I told the lady the story and she actually laughed when I got to the part about $32,000 because it was just ridiculous. She called the prescription people and conference called us all together. I told my story a third time to the new (non-retarded) prescription lady. The first thing she wanted to look into was the $32,000 because, I assume, that was the most ridiculous. Turns out, the retard from early was, in fact, reading the wrong line. That's how much prescription coverage I've consumed in total. I'm not real sure how you get those confused but the retard figured it out. Once that was solved the lady then looked to the $800 issue. That one she couldn't help with. Basically she said it was flat-out $800. By the time we were done it was nearly 5:00 and my doc had already split for the day. He was the next one to call to have the "Is there a cheaper generic drug as a replacement?" conversation. I left a message and will certainly be following up on this tomorrow. But, I mean, it's not like I've got to drop thirty-two grand - so that's something.
By the way, the if there are n people and at least two are necessary for a conversation, then there are [(2^n) - n - 1] possible combinations.
Wednesday, February 24. 2010
Combined Crash
So I quit my job today. Sort of. One of them anyway. You know, if everything gets sorted out. Soooo, not really "quitting" then. But it's a snappy opening.
I went to talk to The Boss yesterday about the staffing issue. I felt we had a deal that I would come over to Big Important Program in mid-March part-time then come over full-time in April. Then I heard, not from The Boss, that the plan was instead to draft me full-time starting next Monday. I figured it was worth a chat to find out what was going on and to voice my concern over the plan. He and I talked for maybe 10 minutes. What didn't dawn on me until 10 minutes after I left was that he and I were seeing things differently. Where I thought we had a deal in place and, barring any unusual circumstances, that's the way it would be he was acting more like I was making a request and he'd see what he could do to fulfill it.
This morning I had a regularly scheduled meeting with The Boss and we talked about the staffing thing again. No - I wasn't going to let it go. Anyway, I told him it occurred to me that I saw it as a deal and he saw it as a request. He said that didn't sound too far off. A bit more chatting and it came down to him saying that I was still going to get pulled to BIP on Monday. Probably. He hadn't really been involved too much but it was likely. I said I'd still like to stick to original deal and that I still did think of it as an agreement between us. I didn't get dramatic or anything.
I thought about it off and on all day. Then, of course, I started thinking about all the slights - real or imagined - over the last three years. I then reined it in and thought that I should get a handle on it. What it came down to is that The Boss and I have different personalities. I think I'm limited in how good a score I can get in my reviews because what he sees as a deficiency I see as a core piece of who I am and am not going to change. We have come to an impasse.
I went to talk to New Boss and said I was thinking of transferring to his group. More talking. He said he'd be glad to have me move over. Then we talked about how to break it to (he would become) Old Boss. I didn't want to cause a lot of drama or make my life harder in the long run so it was important to handle it right ... or at least well enough. When I went to talk to Old Boss I said that New Boss has a position open that I think would be better for my career given where I want to be in a few years. I did not start a fight or use it as an excuse to bring up every minor slight. I just said I was doing it to advance my career.
Old Boss and New Boss have to talk it out and they both have to go talk to their boss. There's plenty of chance for things to change. Not to mention the fact that there is plenty of opportunity for things to screwed up. But I think it'll all get sorted out.
I went to talk to The Boss yesterday about the staffing issue. I felt we had a deal that I would come over to Big Important Program in mid-March part-time then come over full-time in April. Then I heard, not from The Boss, that the plan was instead to draft me full-time starting next Monday. I figured it was worth a chat to find out what was going on and to voice my concern over the plan. He and I talked for maybe 10 minutes. What didn't dawn on me until 10 minutes after I left was that he and I were seeing things differently. Where I thought we had a deal in place and, barring any unusual circumstances, that's the way it would be he was acting more like I was making a request and he'd see what he could do to fulfill it.
This morning I had a regularly scheduled meeting with The Boss and we talked about the staffing thing again. No - I wasn't going to let it go. Anyway, I told him it occurred to me that I saw it as a deal and he saw it as a request. He said that didn't sound too far off. A bit more chatting and it came down to him saying that I was still going to get pulled to BIP on Monday. Probably. He hadn't really been involved too much but it was likely. I said I'd still like to stick to original deal and that I still did think of it as an agreement between us. I didn't get dramatic or anything.
I thought about it off and on all day. Then, of course, I started thinking about all the slights - real or imagined - over the last three years. I then reined it in and thought that I should get a handle on it. What it came down to is that The Boss and I have different personalities. I think I'm limited in how good a score I can get in my reviews because what he sees as a deficiency I see as a core piece of who I am and am not going to change. We have come to an impasse.
I went to talk to New Boss and said I was thinking of transferring to his group. More talking. He said he'd be glad to have me move over. Then we talked about how to break it to (he would become) Old Boss. I didn't want to cause a lot of drama or make my life harder in the long run so it was important to handle it right ... or at least well enough. When I went to talk to Old Boss I said that New Boss has a position open that I think would be better for my career given where I want to be in a few years. I did not start a fight or use it as an excuse to bring up every minor slight. I just said I was doing it to advance my career.
Old Boss and New Boss have to talk it out and they both have to go talk to their boss. There's plenty of chance for things to change. Not to mention the fact that there is plenty of opportunity for things to screwed up. But I think it'll all get sorted out.
Monday, February 22. 2010
Liquor Store Institution
Turns I may still have to resort to the nuclear option with The Boss. About 4:00 this afternoon, Jack stopped by and asked to talk. He said that there was a plan in the works to yank me from the project I'm currently on and move me back to Big Important Project (BIP). Now a couple of weeks ago I heard there was some discussion about when to pull me back. I went to talk to The Boss about it and said that Current Project (CP) is going to have a couple of good-sized milestones in mid-March. Also, The Boss didn't have enough work to go around several months ago and CP was good enough to take me on. I told him that I didn't feel right just leaving them high and dry with, at best, one week's notice. So, instead, I said why not shift things a bit and I would move over to BIP half-time in mid-March and full time on the first of April. I told him that would get CP over the hump and would give CP plenty of time to find a replacement. Being as BIP didn't actually need me, they just needed a warm body (technically many warm bodies - but this is my story not theirs) to work the program, I figured this would work out OK for everyone. After a bit of discussion, The Boss agreed.
So Jack comes to me this afternoon to talk about how we're going to divvy up the work on BIP. After a half-hour discussion on how different tasks would be allocated when I came over, I asked about the plan to draft me. Jack told me that the plan was to draft me full-time next week. I said that The Boss and I had a deal in place. I did mention that there was an escape clause in the deal if some expected paperwork showed up early. I said "Did the paperwork show up early?" Jack said no. I told him that I didn't think our timelines aligned. Jack said he was still pretty sure I was getting drafted Monday. Then I asked if The Boss was intending to tell me this before Monday. Jack wasn't sure about that.
By the time we finished up with all that, The Boss was gone for the day. I went to talk to New Boss and let him know the newest gossip. I also told him I really didn't think it was right. In fact, I asked if he had any openings. I told him I wasn't quite ready to make the jump but if The Boss doesn't hold up his end of the deal then I probably will. It's not a huge change and the paperwork will go through pretty quickly. The trick is going to be pulling it off without pissing anyone off too much. I'll still see The Boss around regularly and may even do some work for him - though he wouldn't actually be my supervisor.
So first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to see if I can catch The Boss have a chat with him. If he backs out of the deal then I'm going to jump ship. Sort of.
So Jack comes to me this afternoon to talk about how we're going to divvy up the work on BIP. After a half-hour discussion on how different tasks would be allocated when I came over, I asked about the plan to draft me. Jack told me that the plan was to draft me full-time next week. I said that The Boss and I had a deal in place. I did mention that there was an escape clause in the deal if some expected paperwork showed up early. I said "Did the paperwork show up early?" Jack said no. I told him that I didn't think our timelines aligned. Jack said he was still pretty sure I was getting drafted Monday. Then I asked if The Boss was intending to tell me this before Monday. Jack wasn't sure about that.
By the time we finished up with all that, The Boss was gone for the day. I went to talk to New Boss and let him know the newest gossip. I also told him I really didn't think it was right. In fact, I asked if he had any openings. I told him I wasn't quite ready to make the jump but if The Boss doesn't hold up his end of the deal then I probably will. It's not a huge change and the paperwork will go through pretty quickly. The trick is going to be pulling it off without pissing anyone off too much. I'll still see The Boss around regularly and may even do some work for him - though he wouldn't actually be my supervisor.
So first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to see if I can catch The Boss have a chat with him. If he backs out of the deal then I'm going to jump ship. Sort of.
Sunday, February 21. 2010
Have A Pleat
Thursday I had a guy try to call me out at work. In public. I mentioned this to Sue when I got home and her first reaction was "And he's still alive?" I said "Wellllll, we're not done with this yet."
Let's call this guy Dudley. So Dudley sends out an email Thursday naming names on how all the guys who should be watching the various budgets have seriously dropped the ball. This is a big deal accusation. Ranks just below saying a CFO has cooked the books a bit. I took this affront to my integrity personally. But I didn't do anything about it.
See, Dudley has a real problem with "prioritization". Every mother-humping thing he sends is always marked highest priority and if you take more than two hours to respond to his email then he's damned well going to be calling and IMing you over it. "Did you see my email?" "Have you responded to my email yet?" "Can we talk about this right now?" I understand that things pop up and you have to take care of them. I have serious doubts that everything he does is so high priority that I have to drop everything I'm doing and go take care of it. I'm basing that opinion on a couple of things. First, when I ask questions like "Hey, I was planning on leaving in ten minutes. Can this wait until tomorrow morning?" then the answer is almost always "Sure. No problem." Second, when he has a week to work on something but doesn't give me a call until thirty minutes before it's due then it doesn't seem like he made it his highest priority. And if I do actually stop what I'm doing to deal with his drama, he doesn't answer the phone, reply to IMs, or respond to email. I'm not thinking he really means it to be "ultra-high priority."
Anyway, New Program Manager (NPM) sends a reply to everyone that says if you haven't responded to Dudley's email by the end of the day then on Friday you'd have a serious one-on-one with NPM. Dudley's email came out right before lunch and NPM responded maybe three hours later. I'm guessing Dudley made a phone call to NPM telling him about the "extraordinarily important" email he just sent out. Probably asked NPM to make sure everyone replied.
The thing is though, Dudley's original email wasn't covering anything for which he was responsible. He was (mostly) being a busybody and getting up in everyone's shit. But the worst part, for me anyway, was that the data wasn't right. Yeah, he called me out in public and the data was wrong. So I lit into him. Explained why his data was bad. I may have went into a bit too much detail what with the screen shots where the part he screwed up was circled in bright red. There may have been some comments about how my budgets are fine and how maybe he should make a call to me to ask first. I'm, like, 80% certain I deleted the part where I said his mom should have carried through on drowning him instead of punking out at the last minute. Or maybe that was just something I was thinking but never actually wrote. Yeah, probably that.
Actually, I copied New Boss on the email (since I figured there was a chance I was really starting some shit) and later he told me it actually sounded very professional. Apparently I write better when I'm pretty pissed off.
Let's call this guy Dudley. So Dudley sends out an email Thursday naming names on how all the guys who should be watching the various budgets have seriously dropped the ball. This is a big deal accusation. Ranks just below saying a CFO has cooked the books a bit. I took this affront to my integrity personally. But I didn't do anything about it.
See, Dudley has a real problem with "prioritization". Every mother-humping thing he sends is always marked highest priority and if you take more than two hours to respond to his email then he's damned well going to be calling and IMing you over it. "Did you see my email?" "Have you responded to my email yet?" "Can we talk about this right now?" I understand that things pop up and you have to take care of them. I have serious doubts that everything he does is so high priority that I have to drop everything I'm doing and go take care of it. I'm basing that opinion on a couple of things. First, when I ask questions like "Hey, I was planning on leaving in ten minutes. Can this wait until tomorrow morning?" then the answer is almost always "Sure. No problem." Second, when he has a week to work on something but doesn't give me a call until thirty minutes before it's due then it doesn't seem like he made it his highest priority. And if I do actually stop what I'm doing to deal with his drama, he doesn't answer the phone, reply to IMs, or respond to email. I'm not thinking he really means it to be "ultra-high priority."
Anyway, New Program Manager (NPM) sends a reply to everyone that says if you haven't responded to Dudley's email by the end of the day then on Friday you'd have a serious one-on-one with NPM. Dudley's email came out right before lunch and NPM responded maybe three hours later. I'm guessing Dudley made a phone call to NPM telling him about the "extraordinarily important" email he just sent out. Probably asked NPM to make sure everyone replied.
The thing is though, Dudley's original email wasn't covering anything for which he was responsible. He was (mostly) being a busybody and getting up in everyone's shit. But the worst part, for me anyway, was that the data wasn't right. Yeah, he called me out in public and the data was wrong. So I lit into him. Explained why his data was bad. I may have went into a bit too much detail what with the screen shots where the part he screwed up was circled in bright red. There may have been some comments about how my budgets are fine and how maybe he should make a call to me to ask first. I'm, like, 80% certain I deleted the part where I said his mom should have carried through on drowning him instead of punking out at the last minute. Or maybe that was just something I was thinking but never actually wrote. Yeah, probably that.
Actually, I copied New Boss on the email (since I figured there was a chance I was really starting some shit) and later he told me it actually sounded very professional. Apparently I write better when I'm pretty pissed off.
Wednesday, February 17. 2010
Paneled Possibly
We turned in our first test in class last night. The prof said that we should get them back next week (probably) but that he'd upload the answers after class. I only ended up spending a couple of hours on the thing and had a nagging feeling that I'd made a stupid mistake or two. While waiting for class to start I overheard several people talking about it. I heard a lot of "pretty hard" comments and even one "oh, I guess I spent ten to twelve hours on it." I was surprised. I mean, I can understand that you don't have much / any experience with math. But all you have to do is follow the directions as laid out in the notes and the slides. Most of the problems are the exact same questions asked in the homework (and worked out in class) only with different numbers. Just do the same thing but put the other numbers in there and bingo, you're done. How the hell can that take 12 hours?
But I still had that nagging feeling that I'd made a stupid mistake. Especially after hearing everyone else thinking the test was really something (in fairness, I didn't hear from the two people I know were math majors, which probably would have been a more appropriate sample). This morning I downloaded the answers the Prof put up. I matched every one of his solutions. I should get a 100% (or arbitrarily close to it if they dock me a couple of points for style or the order I went in or something).
There was one where I almost got pissed off. It was a probability question and the answer I got was 96.7%. The Prof got the same answer. OK, so we agree that far. However, it was also multiple choice. Options included "virtually impossible", "virtually certain", "81%", "5.2%", "not enough info given", and "none of the above". I selected "none of the above". The Prof said "virtually certain". Whoa whoa whoa. "Virtually certain" means better than 99% and at least three nines (e.g. 99.9%) would be a lot better. But he did say that if you worked it out correctly and got the right answer he would take "none of the above." So I can't really argue. Other than to bitch at him and say he's using the words wrong.
I was feeling pretty smart about the whole thing until Sue reminded of an incident from this past weekend:
Sunday morning, about 4:00 am, Sue got up to use the bathroom. She shut the door and turned on the light. I woke up a minute later and noticed the light on under the door. Then, because I'm retarded when I first wake up, I actually thought to myself "Crap. I forgot what I'm supposed to do next." Yes, I was so damned stupid that after waking up in the middle of the night I actually forgot what came after that. I laid there for a minute trying to remember what the next bit was supposed to be. Then, honest to God, I thought "Well, crap. I'll just roll over and try to go back to sleep. Maybe I'll remember what I'm supposed to do later." When I woke up a few hours later I realized that I was too stupid to remember the steps "(1) Wake up in the middle of the night ... (2) Go back to sleep." Babies and dogs can figure that much out. Oh they still have problems with that whole "don't poop on yourself" conundrum - but they know to lay down and close your freaking eyes.
But I still had that nagging feeling that I'd made a stupid mistake. Especially after hearing everyone else thinking the test was really something (in fairness, I didn't hear from the two people I know were math majors, which probably would have been a more appropriate sample). This morning I downloaded the answers the Prof put up. I matched every one of his solutions. I should get a 100% (or arbitrarily close to it if they dock me a couple of points for style or the order I went in or something).
There was one where I almost got pissed off. It was a probability question and the answer I got was 96.7%. The Prof got the same answer. OK, so we agree that far. However, it was also multiple choice. Options included "virtually impossible", "virtually certain", "81%", "5.2%", "not enough info given", and "none of the above". I selected "none of the above". The Prof said "virtually certain". Whoa whoa whoa. "Virtually certain" means better than 99% and at least three nines (e.g. 99.9%) would be a lot better. But he did say that if you worked it out correctly and got the right answer he would take "none of the above." So I can't really argue. Other than to bitch at him and say he's using the words wrong.
I was feeling pretty smart about the whole thing until Sue reminded of an incident from this past weekend:
Sunday morning, about 4:00 am, Sue got up to use the bathroom. She shut the door and turned on the light. I woke up a minute later and noticed the light on under the door. Then, because I'm retarded when I first wake up, I actually thought to myself "Crap. I forgot what I'm supposed to do next." Yes, I was so damned stupid that after waking up in the middle of the night I actually forgot what came after that. I laid there for a minute trying to remember what the next bit was supposed to be. Then, honest to God, I thought "Well, crap. I'll just roll over and try to go back to sleep. Maybe I'll remember what I'm supposed to do later." When I woke up a few hours later I realized that I was too stupid to remember the steps "(1) Wake up in the middle of the night ... (2) Go back to sleep." Babies and dogs can figure that much out. Oh they still have problems with that whole "don't poop on yourself" conundrum - but they know to lay down and close your freaking eyes.
Monday, February 15. 2010
Cruising Scalpel
The snow they were calling for didn't really show up. Oh, sure, it snowed three or four times today but not one flake stuck. By the fifth snowfall though, the sun had gone down and at least a tenth of an inch stuck. They were calling for upwards of two inches and we barely got enough to see. I think that may piss me off more than if we got snowed under. I mean, at least then we carpooled for a reason. What happened today though was just a snow-tease.
Shit, I need to go buy a truck.
Other than that, pretty typical Monday. Meaning I was too busy to do, well, anything that didn't need to be handled right this minute. With one exception. During my normal Monday morning meeting I got a strange craving and decided I needed to do something about it. See, I don't know why, but I seriously needed me some ramen noodles. The ones in a cup - not the bricks that are ten for a buck. Unfortunately, this craving hit me about 9:30 this morning which was a bit early for lunch. And I had another hour and a half of a meeting to get through. Once the meeting was over though I jumped in the Defiant and headed over to Target.
As I'm wandering the soup aisle at Target I start to get pissed off at them. Our Target is incredibly bad at re-stocking. Not long after we moved here, we found that Target stocked some frozen chicken pad thai that is really good. We bought several bags. Turns out when we bought the six bags over a couple weeks we completely cleared them out. They didn't re-stock the pad thai for months. I was reviewing all this as I was searching for my ramen. Especially when I couldn't find the ramen. Then when I couldn't even find the place ramen would go (i.e. the empty ramen shelf) I started to get pissed at them for thinking they were too good to stock ramen. Who the hell does Target think they are not stocking freaking ramen! Oh, wait, there it is. Just on the very bottom shelf. Of course, they only had one flavor (chicken) and only ever had the one flavor. But that was OK, because I was probably going to buy chicken flavor anyway.
I got back to the office and made my cup o' ramen and it was good. I have no idea why it struck. I haven't had ramen in ages. We weren't talking about ramen recently. I hadn't read or seen anything about ramen. Just all of a sudden in the middle of a meeting I was running all I could think was "I seriously need me some f'in ramen! I'm going to Target when we're done here. Better get several cups in case I also want it tomorrow. Why the hell do I want ramen so much all of a sudden? ... Man, I don't know but I really need some f'in ramen."
Shit, I need to go buy a truck.
Other than that, pretty typical Monday. Meaning I was too busy to do, well, anything that didn't need to be handled right this minute. With one exception. During my normal Monday morning meeting I got a strange craving and decided I needed to do something about it. See, I don't know why, but I seriously needed me some ramen noodles. The ones in a cup - not the bricks that are ten for a buck. Unfortunately, this craving hit me about 9:30 this morning which was a bit early for lunch. And I had another hour and a half of a meeting to get through. Once the meeting was over though I jumped in the Defiant and headed over to Target.
As I'm wandering the soup aisle at Target I start to get pissed off at them. Our Target is incredibly bad at re-stocking. Not long after we moved here, we found that Target stocked some frozen chicken pad thai that is really good. We bought several bags. Turns out when we bought the six bags over a couple weeks we completely cleared them out. They didn't re-stock the pad thai for months. I was reviewing all this as I was searching for my ramen. Especially when I couldn't find the ramen. Then when I couldn't even find the place ramen would go (i.e. the empty ramen shelf) I started to get pissed at them for thinking they were too good to stock ramen. Who the hell does Target think they are not stocking freaking ramen! Oh, wait, there it is. Just on the very bottom shelf. Of course, they only had one flavor (chicken) and only ever had the one flavor. But that was OK, because I was probably going to buy chicken flavor anyway.
I got back to the office and made my cup o' ramen and it was good. I have no idea why it struck. I haven't had ramen in ages. We weren't talking about ramen recently. I hadn't read or seen anything about ramen. Just all of a sudden in the middle of a meeting I was running all I could think was "I seriously need me some f'in ramen! I'm going to Target when we're done here. Better get several cups in case I also want it tomorrow. Why the hell do I want ramen so much all of a sudden? ... Man, I don't know but I really need some f'in ramen."
Sunday, February 14. 2010
Slam Rifle
Winter is getting really damned old. It snows every Monday. It has done this for so long now that I can't even remember the last time I was able to take Leroy out at the beginning of the week. I have an especial hatred for this because Mondays are always my long day at work. Lot of crap goes down on Mondays. But we carpool so I have to run Sue to work then pick her up after. We also have to coordinate our schedules. I can't very just say "You know what, I'll pick you up sometime between 4:00 and 6:00. Probably. And I'm not going to be able to tell you any more about it until I'm actually on the way. So plan your day so that you can leave with ten minutes notice any time after 4:00." OK, technically, I could say that but even I think that sounds like grade-A asshole.
Really though, does it have to snow every freaking Monday? Ugh.
Anyway, Friday we got to take off about noon (yeah, we had to carpool again because they were calling for more snow and they hadn't really cleared up the bit from earlier in the week). We decided that it would be nice to grab lunch on the way home then we could eat lunch together at the house. Discussing it over email, we decided to head over to the Mediterranean restaurant on the way home. We get there, make our order, and wait. And wait. And wait. There were only two other tables in there so the place wasn't exactly jumping. A couple of semi-attractive women come in. They looked like a couple of secretaries coming in to pick up the office's order. I guess they knew the cook or something because they said something about "same as last week" and he mentioned something about just calling them when their order was up. Thing is - it took him a long time to get through all that. Like, ten minutes. And while he was chatting up the chicks, he was not making my order. As the girls were heading out, I turned to Sue and said "I soooo wanted to shout 'Hey, quit flirting and make my fucking gyro!'". She said I should behave. I said "I could have went with 'Hey, quit flirting and make my fucking gyro, cocksucker!'". She said "Man, you get crabby when you get hungry."
Really though, does it have to snow every freaking Monday? Ugh.
Anyway, Friday we got to take off about noon (yeah, we had to carpool again because they were calling for more snow and they hadn't really cleared up the bit from earlier in the week). We decided that it would be nice to grab lunch on the way home then we could eat lunch together at the house. Discussing it over email, we decided to head over to the Mediterranean restaurant on the way home. We get there, make our order, and wait. And wait. And wait. There were only two other tables in there so the place wasn't exactly jumping. A couple of semi-attractive women come in. They looked like a couple of secretaries coming in to pick up the office's order. I guess they knew the cook or something because they said something about "same as last week" and he mentioned something about just calling them when their order was up. Thing is - it took him a long time to get through all that. Like, ten minutes. And while he was chatting up the chicks, he was not making my order. As the girls were heading out, I turned to Sue and said "I soooo wanted to shout 'Hey, quit flirting and make my fucking gyro!'". She said I should behave. I said "I could have went with 'Hey, quit flirting and make my fucking gyro, cocksucker!'". She said "Man, you get crabby when you get hungry."
