35 posts tagged “workin”

Here I am at work, back to the grind, blissfully not in Dallas. Sure, there's a pile of to-do's for Monday, although not as bad as one would think. All of this plus the fact that I am only working 3 days this week :)

My semi-scientific study on Facebook has entered the realm of combinations now -- I was first Single, and then nothing, then I was Interested, and now I'm Single and Interested. We shall see if the choads come out. Or perhaps my pic is not choad-bait, so I may put up one of my dominatrix ones.

Speaking of the black corset, I may have more than one occasion to wear it coming up soon! First, I'm going to Vegas. Yes, again. Look, I end up going 2 or 3 times a year so this isn't news to anyone, but this time it's for a bachelorette party and I seriously suspect there will be at least one evening of pleasant debauchery. However, the corset requires someone to tuck and yank and squish for me, as it straps in the back, so we shall see. The second occasion will be for the Seattle local bachelorette party, which will be at a bulesque show in West Seattle. The dress code is "lingere, pyjamas, or to the 9's". I will have to seriously regulate my alcohol intake that evening, though, because I am diving with Q the next morning. First time diving since September of last year, so it's kinda a big deal. I think we'll start small with Cove 2 and if I get more adventurous we can plan a Keystone trip.

But meanwhile I sit here, running code and planning an agenda for a meeting on Wednesday -- for tomorrow I'm going to be mommy at the Zoo :) I am so glad to be home...

On my table (the lounge-table, not to be confused with the coffee, end, side, dinner, or desk tables) there was a "Dallas is awesome" type magazine with a very shiny picture of Jessica Simpson talking about how Dallas has its own color of blonde.

Boy howdy.

Actually, I shouldn't say that. I went to the Nasher Art Museum and saw Picassos, I stayed in the same hotel Queen Elizabeth II stayed in, there were many tall buildings with presumably many amenities. I had a lovely time showing off my brains in front of nearly 600 people. So yay for me.

But I am so very done with Dallas. I am home now, after a slight respite in Cap Hill, I am home with my mommy (who was dogsitting) and the SC. I have unpacked the kilt (pleats finished), set up laundry, showered, changed into comfies, and did my required bitching and moaning.

Travelling for work is not like travelling for fun -- I missed my home, my boy, my dogs, my man, my friends. I had my every base need accounted for except human company, and I wasn't willing to settle for the sort of interim company that appears (usually alcohol induced) at these sorts of things.

I drank too much last night, for me. In comparison with those around me, though, I was practically white ribbon -- whilst I packed it in and headed to my room at 11ish and proceeded to drunk dial a bit, some of my fellow corporate types stayed in the bar until 3am. This is not unusual but some of my fellow PRESENTERS were in that bar until then as well, and that takes some doing. I thankfully suffered no hangover this morning (it was more of a circumstances than quantity thing -- white wine + very little dinner + hot and humid + social pressure = fast acting tipsiness) but was a Very Tired Corporate Girl.

I still managed to present rather well (I thought) -- some humor, some statistics, that sort of thing. I had people asking me how to bribe my team and I suggested small unmarked bills in brown paper sacks. Oh, and coffee.

I'm now rummaging through tickets for work and watching a movie, the kilt awaits once that is done. I really don't like business travel -- enforced fun (such as last night) rarely ends well -- but at least I have tonight to myself.

Oh, and I made another bet with A -- apparently some sort of alternative fuel company -- specifics TBD. Can't buck tradition.

Here I sit in room 1803 of the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas. It is quite easily 600 square feet of old furniture (nice old furniture) and amenities I will probably not use (e.g., a real dining table... not to be confused with the lounge-area table... or the coffee table... or the desk).

It has been quite the journey.

First, my flight took off in a timely fashion, but when we got close to Dallas, thunderstorms had apparently closed down the airport. When you are in a very large plane with very many people and only one hour’s worth of reserve fuel, this is bad. They rerouted us to San Antonio.

Where, as we deplaned, they told us they had no idea how long it would be. Thank the everything that I had carried on my bags.

G was there, he had a corporate credit card, and said he had one more spot in the car he was renting. I said “dibs” and off we went – like right then. Four and a half hours later we arrived in Dallas.

It was a lovely little drive, peppered with occasional greenery and Hooters-esque food establishments. We stopped once for food and once for more urgent matters but in all I can safely say the following:

• The 35 N and NE is a lovely highway
• The new homes in that area start “from the low 90’s” – I thought this was a typo
• There is more greenery than you would expect
• Texas is very flat
• When it rains, it pours, and you can't see the road

By 8pm, me, my technology hardware, my clothes, and the kilt arrived at the hotel, where all but me were dumped in the room and off I went to a nice lil' mexican restaurant with my newfound comrades. I ate something wonderful (beef enchiladas, I think) and had a margarita that was 90% alcohol and 10% sugar. (We ditched the Gilly's event -- complete with mechanical bull -- and I'm satisfied with that).

The gym at the Adolphus has 2 elliptical machines, both of which were occupied at 6am (dammit) so my ass was on the stair-stepper.  The rest of today has been meetings, presentations, breakout sessions, and me skipping one of those to play with the kilt and take a break from the assorted 500 people who are here. They're all nice... but it's a bit much. And besides, I'll be going to Enforced Fun with them all tonight to an art museum. So... yeah, yay for breaks. 

I spent the Entire Day in Training. That's how it felt. From 8:30 to about 4pm, I attended Princples of Leadership. I learned how to motivate. I learned how to include. I learned how to collaborate. I also had to ignore everything else I had to do.

Thanks to the modeling clay they provide as a stress reliever I learned how to sculpt calla lillies and roses. This is useful because I intend to make a Bridal Shower cake soon and wanted to get my technique down. I got many compliments on the output so yay for that.

Speaking of which: the Kilt is going well. It's just the part of it that doesn't engender itself to updates. "I did pleats 14-17 last night", for example, doesn't say much. There are 33 pleats. Expect them to be done in another week or so. It takes about 20 minutes, start to finish, to properly measure, pin, and sew one pleat, because of the tapering. So -- yeah, not exciting in terms of blogsphere, but eminently satisfying. You will be happy to learn that said pleats 14-17 were done to a mix of Disturbed (Land of Confusion), the Flobots (Handlebars, and Rise), New Order (Regret), and Soundgarden (Spoonman, The Day I Tried to Live). I also learned that beeswax is a tricky thing: excellent when used sparingly, annoying (and will knot your thread like dreadlocks in a summertime afro) when you use too much. Also, it takes 20 minutes per pleat when you, I don't know, completely unstitch one because it wasn't good enough (yes, I did. That would be the fourth. But you do this with other things-- quilts, etc. I remember one time I was making a blouse and pretty much tore it apart because I didn't think it was 'finished' enough...)

I am so proud of myself, though. I said no to spending money on something that I wanted, but didn't want enough to give up other things. There was a ticket available for Corteo, the new Seattle Cirque show, and it was the foo-foo VIP cool seats version, and it was, $200. Man, I thought a while about that. $200 is bank, to be sure, but it's Cirque and it would be with GH and one life to live and all that. But I said no, because that $200 is either destined for Vegas or Mexico. TravelGrrl needs her smack. What I really need is to just get off my now narrowing ass and win the lottery. But it doesn't seem to be happening. Ergo, the self-analysis and restraint.

That coughing sound you hear (to the restraint) is some of my dearest friends. Who know me better.

Today I worked from home, because I needed to get work done and the SC's teachers needed a break. He has since discovered that School of Mom is tougher than his normal school. He has baked bread, done 2 loads of laundry, done 'work packets' (e.g., letter and word tracing and writing -- there were 12), and had 2 each 1/2 hour lego intervals, plus an hour nap. Thanks to cruddy weather recess was miniature golf, in the house.

Why the bread? I can make good STURDY white bread, the kind you can soak up a bunch of custard with and make a rockin' french toast; but the puffy, fluffy white french bread of heretofore store bought reality has evaded me. In my quest to make everything from scratch I am re-attempting this. I must say, thus far the results look good: loaves are rising happily, things smell right and have the right texture. I'm waiting for the oven to get hot enough to finally bake said loaves.

This also breeds the question of what to do: in a scant 2 hours I will be childless, workless, and I've already worked out for the day. And I will have access to homemade fresh french bread. And a case of wine that arrived today (thank you, Desert Wind Winery; thank you, Alixito, whose man-attraction necessitated me finding out about the membership in the first place). I think I'm skipping dinner, to be on the safe side. I do have all that chicken soup, though...

PS -- the bread recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, Rustic White Bread. I have tried 3 of her recipes so far and I am indeed smitten with the products of her kitchen. P-Ade and the SC and I tried the Ratatouille and it was very good.

I'll let you know on the bread.

I got tired of people calling Thumper a "he" because she had a rockin' blue collar. Now she is sporting a pink and purple, argyle-and-plaid one.

Naturally, this is exactly the sort of impulse, non-relevant, non-important purchase I'm trying to avoid these days. I did manage to get out of a fabric store that was having a huge clearance with NOTHING purchased, and I also managed to only buy the things I intended (except the collar) at Target the other day. (I have new gym shoes. They too have pink).

To the extent that I wish to continue being a "good girl" I am drinking the starbucks coffee my work provides. This means, however, that I am at the mercy of people who make coffee and/or people who don't make coffee. To wit: I went to get coffee, and found about 2 tbsp of coffee in the pot.

I realize this is a very difficult proposition. Even I had Fear of Making Coffee for several years and had to power through. And office coffee is very difficult to make. First, you have to remove the old filter and coffee grounds. Careful-- when you tip it into the wastebasket that's, you know, *right there*, you may get an airborne ground on your hand or something. I also understand how separating one filter from the pile of 100, just above the coffee machine, can be stressful, and not to mention the mind-numbing terror of opening the prepackaged ground coffee packet. With it's pre-notched cut at the top. The relatively easy job of getting said pre-ground coffee into said filter (once you've established its proper position in the basket) sets you up for the near-instant paralysis of thought and action when it comes to, you know, putting the pot under the basket, and turning the machine on. So I get it -- scary stuff.

Don't worry about it, though: this good girl made coffee. Go on, have a cup.

Now that my team is expanding (5 heads that report to me, although technically I have one open head and well anyways the point is if I had the actual people I'm supposed to I'd have one of the bigger sub-teams in my group) my boss is encouraging me to do things like quit working weekends and late nights, and to code less. That worked really well, for about 2 weeks.

As you can imagine BTCo has a nice legal team that I consort with seasonally. Not for my own transgressions -- I'm as squeaky clean as someone can be, in that arena -- but for perceived other ones. More like contracting stuff -- what is the likelihood we're going to get in trouble if we put X or Y or Z in a contract.

Because the nature of that data is so sensitive, and further because it is highly likely that I need to know the background of the situation in order to make the data pull relevant (more info == more accurate pulls), the only person I get to trust this to is: ME. This is not my choice, this is usually mandated by the Shoveler. ("I need You to handle this" is how it comes down). Were it up to  me I know I could trust at least 2 of my geeks with this and probably a third. You would do well to assume that when these come down it also means they are needed tout de suite.

It's flattering, to be sure. I'm One Of The Guys, I'm In The Know, I'm... pulling data on nights and weekends again.

But not this weekend! This weekend I am Going Away again, with GH, to an island. I am going to ride with a bunch of motorheads and stay overnight on an organic, small-independent-businesswoman farm AND hear extemporaneous poetry. And I'm going to do it... without my laptop.

Today, I have one employee out on sick leave, another on sick leave, another on vacation. So I'm pretty much it, plus my new gal, who is a rock star but you don't treat your rock stars to stress.

Boo!

The SC and I have returned from a trip to Whistler, where we discovered making snowmen requires exactly the sort of snow they don't have right now in Whistler.

That's ok, he got to pose with a gold medal. As soon as I get my little cardthingy from P-Ade for my phone I can post a picture.

He also got to truck around in new dino-boots, announce his engagement to Doug and Ali's daughter River (well, when she's growd up and a woman, you see, they're gonna get married, but she has to be big first and he has to be big first. Doug's response was that when the SC is older they can discuss it over a beer), exercise his ability to test his mother's patience in the presence of others (asserting how we are a big boy -- and then finding out things continue to not change with an audience), play videogames with the guys (his father's son, indeed), watch movies, show off his stormtrooper outfit, and eat ice cream. All in all I think he was amazingly well behaved, considering that he had 2 new people to 'perform' for and all of the new interesting shiny at hand.

Mom (me, myself, and I) got to sleep in until 8am one day (heaven!), drink more than she should have (but there was wine and my back hurt and... I have no will power), try a new Bread Thing recipe with alternative gluten-free flours (worked!), discover she can't do math when tired (sorry Christine, you did not in fact have a 400 point accumulation that one game), and learn that she can't time a dinner to save her life.

Whistler was a good experience-- renting a house with 3 other 'couples' -- I put that in single quotes because I was there with the SC -- is chancy but this was a cool crowd and the house was big enough to hide-for-privacy if you needed it. The kitchen was adequate and the beds were comfortable and the company was pleasant and diverting. The village was styled in 'alpine village by Disney' and the shops were fascinating -- I got dW a t-shirt that labeled him the "Dogfather", the SC a dinosaur hoodie, myself a cowl-neck bamboo shirt (soft!), a token shirt for X and a lil' something for the GH. Booty achieved, I have some CDN $$ that is more valuable than USD, which is weird to me. Ali picked up a penny (Cdn) while we were there and said, "To think that 2 years ago these were less than an American one, you'd disregard them as 'nothing'. Now they're worth more". The humor got decidedly base late at night which was fun -- playing footsie and the "who farted" gag working only as long as it needed to before we went on to discuss more serious matters, such as, if Person A got a Draw 2 then could they play a Draw 2 to Person B, who would then Draw 4? 

Thanks to the time change my clock (internal) is all messed up. I'm going to bed at 9:30 but it will actually be 8:30, since my back pain has returned-- the last 2 weeks of Chiro didn't help much and so back to the doctor I go -- it's a good thing I don't have to work tomorrow.

Oh, by the bye -- yes I worked on vacation. No, it wasn't more than about 2 hours (total). Yes, I caught copious amounts of shit for it. I didn't, however, get blue hands once this trip. Oh, once they went kinda white but my gloves were wet and it was freezing, yo!