Please don’t ever feel like you have to share anything you’re not comfortable posting. I was just curious, that’s all.
Oh, yeah, your onboarding stuff should include an employee handbook, or at least a list of rules (“do wear this; don’t do that” type of stuff). Benefits such as free or reduced meals should be explicitly outlined in the material provided.
ETA someone drag me offa Amazon; they have tie-dye cotton kerchiefs, and I hafta cover my hair for work already anyways, and they’re so colorful!!!1!
ETA II: I’m so weak. The purple one is already in my cart.
… and the blue-fading-to-green paisley one.
And the utterly psychedelic rainbow one that looks like a unicorn took LSD and then burped.
They can wait 'till I get paid. But until then … { drool } WANT!! WANT ON MY SKULL NOW!!
I worked at a Pizza Hut in Los Alamos for 6 months in the early 80’s at the same time not-yet-Mr. Legend was working at the national labs there. He was getting electrical engineering money, and I was getting something like $1.75 an hour plus tips. Then the contract he was working on got cancelled and we had to live on my wages for a month while we figured out what we were going to do. My manager somehow made an extra pizza “by mistake” every night I worked and sent it home with me. When I worked day shift, oops! There was somehow extra food from the buffet. Bless that manager for taking pity on me (but I couldn’t even look at pizza by the time we moved).
My maternal grandmother never had a cellphone, but if she had, I can totally picture her doing this.
Mazatlan
Just for shiggles, I looked up flights. Minimum 2 stops and an overnight stay. I’m in awe of those who would travel so far for an eclipse, but I am not one of them. And I do know of people who are traveling from Switzerland for the eclipse.
My dad is getting better and the medical team is searching for a place for him, either another part of the hospital (outside ICU), or in a rehabilitation facility.
No more heart monitor, the laxatives are working, and he even walked around the room. He’s still got a ways to go, and he’ll be on blood thinners for months, but he’s slowly bouncing back.
The sun is shining - our balcony is on the east side of this north-bound ship and even with the darkening curtains drawn, it’s pretty bright in here around 7am. We get our passports back today (they took them just before we boarded.) There are a couple of lectures we want to attend but not much else.
Did I mention that early in the trip, we were in the lounge where they did Bingo? Did I mention how obnoxious the hosts were? We found out later it cost a minimum of $39 to play!! Yoiks!
One thing I never understood about cruises is having art auctions. It just seems like a weird thing to do, yet every ship I’ve been on has them. And while some of the art is appealing to me, the cost, plus shipping, is not. And then there’s the Thomas Kinkaide stuff. No offense if you like his stuff but UGH < SHUDDER > and BARF! Yeah, it doesn’t appeal.
Close to the end and we’re both ready to be home. Not entirely dreading the flight from Buenos Aires, but less excited about the MIA-DCA flight, except that it gets us home, more or less. We’ll take Metro to Branch Ave and Daughter will pick us up there. Then home. Whew!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 40 Amurrkin and mostly clear (whatever that means) out with a predicted high of < snerk > 69! < snerk > and mostly N.O.S. for the day. High sloth to include general overall uselessness, nappage, and day drinkin’ is the plan of the day. Due to all the talk of pizza, sup shall be majik intartoobz pizza and sallit. I blame y’all for that.
Miss Owl we all miss Ruble. Hard to believe it’s been almost four years!
Nellie sorry about your niece’s doggo.
Dicey yay on the good news about your dad!
JtC of course your mom brags on what a good daughter you are.
shoe fortunately OYKW and I are both grumpy old men, so we’ve grown to kinda tolerate each other when we just have to. Netflix and chill at da cave is not a pearl clutchin’ moment as it involves two grumpy old men in recliners dozin’ off with the occasional fartfest. The romance is strong here!
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
It’s 46F and misting outside. The forecast says we’ll have rain off and on during the morning, becoming partly cloudy later in the morning with a high of 56F. It’s just typical, more typical PNW mid-winter weather.
OW, I still miss Ruble too.
Nellie, I’m sorry to read about the niece’s dog. What a wonderful program and what wonderful people for taking in three dogs at once. Multiple dogs are very hard work, even if they’re trained.
dicey, I’m glad there has been improvement with your Dad.
I, too, belong to the “Husband won’t go to the doctor and won’t take care of himself Club”. It’s not a club I wanted to join, and it is frustrating. But, as JtC said, “in sickness and in health”. It only becomes worse as we age. He turned 60 last September, is more overweight than ever, and struggles with some of the lightest activities.
FCM, I hope your travels home are uneventful and smooth. After a time, I, too, am ready for my own home, bathroom, and bed.
Work was crazy; another project came my way, and we’re learning a big records management project is even bigger than people realized. There is much more to the story, but it’s long and boring, and I don’t want to type it out. Let’s just say people failed to take the training, and now they have to start over because they left out important steps. There is more to shipping records to archives than boxing and sending and they didn’t take that into account.
I will probably have to work late today again. Oh well, more comp or credit hours racked up, which I’ll have to take at some point.
I also have two pairs of Brooks shoes. They do seem the most comfortable.
Okay, need to get on with the day, or at least finish my coffee. I’ve been up two hours already, so this is going to feel like a really long day.
Just back from a presentation on Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party 1914-17. It was an amazing and tragic story that seems to be mostly ignored according to the historian who did the talk. It further convince me that early Antarctic explorers were very brave and just a bit insane! Fascinating stuff.
We’re in the Explorer’s Lounge awaiting a presentation on da Vinci’s art. And after lunch, there’s one on the Drake Passage. We’s learnin’ stuff!
And we have our passports back, locked in the safe. The weather is definitely milder, and the sun helps. It’s a pleasant day at sea.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s 13c/55f with no predicted change today, and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “It’s fucking black over Bill’s mother’s” so must be looking at some other bit of sky since it’s blue out here with a fair bit of puffy white stuff floating around.
I have had a long and dreary day, got some kind of crud again so I am not feeling up to much. I should have taken my laptop home yesterday so I could have worked from home today but instead I trudged to campus and have spent the day avoiding any kind of responsibility since my brain is incapable of making decisions.
It’s an hour and a half until hometime unless I declare myself unfit and slope off early I’ve already had to cancel tomorrow’s gym classes because I don’t think I’ll be up to it, and will probably have a day at home doing pretty much nothing instead.
Today is off to a good start. My self-care quest continues, I used the 1-2-3 method to get out of bed this morning (you count to three and then get up. That’s it. It’s supposed to fend off rationalizations.) That gave me time to change into warm workout clothes before I got my kid ready for school, which in turn enabled me to get out the door early for a brisk walk. I did that while listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast about the tech bro cult of AI - really enlightening stuff. The weather didn’t seem too bad except for a biting cold wind, but I made it home in one piece. I then continued my new habit of writing down the things I look forward to today. I guess this is sort of like intention setting but I kind of hate the productivity spin on that – I just wanted to have reasons to get through the day.
I am trying to negotiate with my husband on letting me give my son his magnet cubes after school today rather than waiting a whole, agonizing month for his birthday. I send him “begging face” emoji, so we’ll see. (Edit: Success!)
I’m getting my morning work tea ready. I have a meeting with my boss in 20 minutes, which should be productive and enlightening, and it will be nice to touch base with her.
Some as yet to be determined amount of work will happen, but I will feel good doing it. I really have it made.
That sounds… a lot like ADHD. Would be very disconcerting to have that suddenly start happening, though. I’ve often thought that as I age out of whatever age men find women sexually desirable, it would be a soft landing for me because I never defined my worth by my appearance. But brains, that’s a different story. I cherish my brains. But you’re right, we all end up there eventually. I’m working on accepting that before I even get there.
I cannot even imagine having to make those kinds of decisions for my husband. My condolences.
My husband will at least walk with me, but he makes zero effort to exercise unless I drag him out of the house. I’m not claiming to be perfect, but I’m at least always working at it. His one saving grace is his incredibly healthy diet, on account of him being allergic to so many things that are found in processed food. He eats mostly beans and vegetables, sometimes arranged in horrifying combinations.
You just get cooler and cooler! I have a good friend trying to get out of his law career and studying to become an archivist. He’s obsessed with obscure music things. It seems like a pretty cool gig.
There is a special school nearish here for gifted kids that heavily features twice exceptional kids (giftedness + neurodevelopmental disorder or learning disability.) It’s expensive but it has a great reputation. We’ve always got that in our back pocket, though coming up with the money won’t be easy. He’s been an expensive kid from jump. One of the reasons we stopped at one. (As an aside, one thing I am learning is that giftedness usually comes hand-in-hand with some kind of challenge - the prevalence of autism and ADHD in gifted kids is very high. So a lot of these schools have to manage both an incredible intellect and whatever challenges come with that.)
That’s a shame!
A long, long time ago I had a barista style job at a Mediterranean restaurant. The owner was a bastard, but oh my god the food. I’ve never had a shawarma sandwich that good since, and I live in an area that is heavily populated with the best Middle Eastern food you could ask for.
I am fascinated by crazy adventurers. I recently fell down a rabbit hole on the Mt. Everest disaster of (I think) 1997. I’ve read a few Krakauer books. I would never in a million years do what they do, but I’m very happy to learn about it.
Greetings from L.A. It is sunny with a predicted high of 66. Yesterday we had drinks and lunch at the beach. I waded in the Gulf of Mexico and bought a Pink Pony sweatshirt. Today we are going to Publix!
Morning all. Had the itichies and scratchies last night in bed again, until I put on my pajama bottoms (my normal sleeping attire is nekkid as the day I was born). And for some reason that worked and I got 8 solid hours of sleep in. Need to do a little shopping and then the usual swimming (can I do a mile for the third time in a week? The world wonders). It’s supposed to get to 65F today, which is April weather in February, but I’m sure not arguing.
nellie, that dog had a life when they might not had much of one and Hiss!! Boo! (Not Our Boo) at the penny-saving school.
shoe, a nice bit of multi-tasking there…and I doubt your the only employee who has done so. And a cute penguin. And pics of the kerchiefs when you get them!
FCM, I missed my chance to tour Montevideo/Buenos Aires, hope they are nice. And if you are hungry when you arrive at the Buenos Aires Airport, I suggest McDonalds; not just for the ‘I’m going home’ flaver, but the hamburger menu is quite a bit different than the usual US offerings (in a good way, IMHO).
And yeah, I never knew why Art auctions are held on ships either (I guess they must be popular or they wouldn’t go to the bother). And $40 for Bingo!?!? Geez, I’d rather lose money at the Casino instead of that.
Coppertone, hope the job goes well for you.
Dicey, good news about your dad, hopefully we will have news on Real Fish’s dad sometime soon.
Taters, archiving is always a pain and sounds like some folks are making it even tougher; hang in there.
boo fae, hope you feel better soon.
Spicey, never heard of the 1-2-3 method but I guess I do something similar to get myself started in the morning. Of course my usual start to the morning is to pee and then turn the computer on and still reading the MMP for awhile before doing anything, but I am at least consistent.
Take care all, need to 1-2-3 and head to Kroger then break my fast.
You left off the “{{hugs}}” part. You know what a long hug or a big hug is. A “monster” [whatever] is one that’s especially big / powerful, or heartfelt. ISTM Both truefish and Dad need the best hugs I/we can muster.
Hooray for that. Having help is so important as things get worse.
In the case of my late wife, she was self-sufficient at least as to ADLs until the last month or two. As long as I was ensuring food, clean clothes, meds, and such were always available she could get through a day or three unassisted. UNtl she couldn’t and then it was quick.
Here’s a question I’ve had for you for awhile, but this snip plus my fresh issues serves as a good intro. …
You’ve mentioned before finding lots of older food in the fridge or freezer while he complains “there’s nothing to eat in there”.
I can certainly understand him not recalling that you made e.g. individual quiches or whatever yesterday. So him having no idea specifically what’s in the fridge makes sense. Hell, I was that way with HL’s occasional cooking and the various restaurant leftovers we’d carted home in the last few days. Just not details I cared to retain.
Where I become a bit confused is that I’d expect him to be able (and willing) to go to the fridge, start at the top, and read the labels on stuff until he recognizes something he wants to eat / is willing to eat. But that seems not to happen.
If it’s not too irritating / painful to discuss, what does happen when he sticks his head in the fridge now? What used to happen?
Now that’s some cool insider info. Who knew?! Thanks for sharing; it really is interesting, I’m not being sarcastic.
Yaay you!! this one sounds like it’s real, unlike the last couple. Fingers & such crossed for you!!
When I was irking we spent a lot of nights at a hotel at DFW inside the airport parking structure. You walked from the terminal through the parking structure to the hotel; it was that close-in. These layovers usually coincided with a dawn patrol departure the next day and although the hotel offered a very nice breakfast, we were often airborne before it opened at IIRC 7am.
The go-to alternative was a McDs just inside the security checkpoint that opened at 0430 when the checkpoint did. Many of those very early mornings started with an Egg McMuffin meal (so includes a coffee & a hashbrown patty), plus an extra Egg McMuffin. They’re not very filling if you can’t / don’t eat the bread. The plus is they’re easy to eat without the bread.
It was quick, hot, reasonably nutritiously virtuous, and reasonably tasty. And by the standards of food while traveling, quite cheap. A win, albeit a utilitarian win, all around.
Anyhow, last week during my busy move-out I stopped by the local McD’s early for quick breakfast and ordered that familiar meal for nostalgia’s sake. Turned out to be a Not-Happy meal; not at all happy.
Between the unfamiliar and vexing ordering kiosk, the fact the eggs were cooked to rubbery, the ham had been encheapened another several notches and was very chewy but flavorless, the coffee sucked much worse than I remembered, and the bill came to $14 and change, I was somewhere between appalled and disgusted. But ref the recent thread about fast-food interiors being designed to be off-putting, I can vouch that the new remodeling certainly works well for that.
Color me “never again”.
Or it’s one of those guys (99% probably a guy) we’ve had threads and threads about who has very severe food issues and refuses to move beyond eating like a 4yo. I’m not sure which is worse: that order as a joke, or that order as a serious preference / self-imposed necessity.
Yaay!! A long road, but getting started on it is often the hardest part.
Retail therapy as boredom reliever. They’re happy to provide lots of therapeutic options. Especially those that are high dollars per cubic inch so the ship doesn’t need to carry much volume of product. Even better if you in effect order it on board and its drop-shipped 'to your home from a shoreside warehouse.
It, like the jewelry store(s), also provides a way for the ship to reabsorb any casino winnings. Lots of folks are almost eager to give those winnings back, exchanging e.g. 500 useful dollars for 1 useless Kincade (no “i”) “masterpiece”.
I know some avid cruisers from my condo days whose interior décor, jewelry, and much of their clothing was bought aboard some ship or other. They love to tell stories of how this or that was “free” because they won a few bux at the casino that night. OTOH, for folks’ with savings and/or pensions enough, but who struggle to convince themselves to spend on fripperies, this can be a convenient psychological dodge to get them over that hump. Whatever floats their boat (heh!).
Yaay! one of the better newses of the day. You go girl!
Which means getting him yet more and different presents in a month. Hope future Spicy will be happy w that.
Just to be clear, she decided, admittedly with my gentle counsel. My role was to execute her decisions if/when she could not execute them for herself. And to help ensure the medical folks were doing what she wanted and doing it well.
That doesn’t make it any easier, but I think it makes it better. Although if we had gotten into a condition where she was too out of it to execute her decisions, I’d still have been faced with the agonizing choice: “Kill her today, or wait until tomorrow?” It’d be real easy to kick that can down the road longer than the patient wanted / would have wanted. That’s the trap.
Mornin’ all. Lazy morning here. Avoided overeating and overdrinking yesterday, went to bed eary-ish, slept 10h (Yaaay!!), awoke a bit after sunrise on a solidly gray day where it had been raining overnight but had since stopped. Sheveled then wandered to shoreside breakfast where I’ve lingered for about 3 hours now.
The gray has cleared out enough that now we’re in semi-sun, plus of course the perpetual warmth here at 18 degrees above the equator. A sailboat regatta is happening offshore with about a dozen biggish sailboats. No great wind and the sea is about like at home, 18" swells.
I did OD on sun yesterday, but the early returns are not too bad: it should absorb OK, not peel. Must be careful the remaining days. Might go for a hike, zipline, or horseback ride today. This is a nice resort hotel, but in hindsight it’s not in the partytown area. I might have been happier there. Then again, taxis are a thing.
Here is the collection of pix so far. One of me with my new haircut / beardcut from Tue at home, and the rest from Sint Maarten up through this morning. No curation, so there’s probably some stinkers in there. LSL @ Sint Maarten - Google Drive.
Well, we already got him his official birthday presents. So this will be a bonus.
The truth is I am really trying to look for things that will excite him so we can strengthen our bond. He connects so easily with his Dad, I feel like it takes more effort from me, so if I can get a little boost by giving him an exciting toy to play with me, I’ll take it.
I have always been impatient about giving and receiving gifts - they don’t even have to be my gifts, if Spouse Weasel receives a present from someone else, I’m chomping at the bit for him to open it. He teases me about it a lot.
Your pizza place would make the good drive thru list.
It sounds like your manager had seen hard times before and wanted to make them not-so-hard for you. S/he was a good one.
The Pubic Sto’ for the win! If you decide to pick up some takeout while you’re out, they have good fried chicken and mojo pork.
I’m glad that your dad is improving dicey.
Feel better soonest BooFae!
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, towels / grocery bags in the dryer, jeans in the wash and fixing to do KP / houseirk. Regular Friday type chores.
It is supposed to be in the sixties this afternoon, so after I finish up chores, I may take the bike for a spin and / or take the small beast to the dog park.
one is already in my cart.
I’ve already had to cancel tomorrow’s gym classes because I don’t think I’ll be up to it, and will probably have a day at home doing pretty much nothing instead.
