Festivus (Uno's annual holidayish type discussions)

[Unorthodox]

Kristmas Kitchen Kalamity Kavalcade this weekend. 

2 batches sugar cookie dough finished. 
Items for the rest bought.

English Toffee has become a staple. 
Going to possibly attempt a new peanut brittle and a random recipe from the pile grandma was throwing away. 

We split this over 2 weekends this year, and it was SO MUCH nicer to deal with. 

Our english toffee was a horrible mix this year. 

2 batches failed, 1 did ok, one was great. 

The failures taught me there IS a difference between brands of butter.  I have to watch that in the future. 
I wasn't ever able to find the item I wanted to test with peanut brittle. 
I did a random recipe from grandma's pile...
"Soft cookies", which had sour cream instead of milk, and generally odd otherwise. 
They were rather meh as the recipe stood.  It was clearly missing something.  Mom seems to think they were heavily frosted or even iced, but I turned them into snickerdoodles, rolling them in cinnamon/sugar then topping with more while hot, and people LOVED them.  However, the real gem for me is they'll make a fantastic base for me to experiment with pumpkin in the future.  (my pumpkin cookie experiments have been getting less and less erratic results every year.)   

Slightly altered method on my famous mix. 

hEt's extended family party tonight.  This has become fairly miserable since her parents died.  Her siblings are both out of state this year as well, so we'll be in a corner alone somewhere. 

[Unorthodox]

So, survived hEt's family party. 

I don't think I got into the nastiness surrounding the circle (what I've renamed pithenge) project here as I was making a real effort to be positive about the entire thing. 

We hired hEt's cousin.  He was starting up his own landscaping company, and I knew immediately this was one of those projects someone could take pics of and put in a portfolio.  Even if we didn't want the water feature he kept trying to hard sell us on (what he wanted to specialize in, fake rivers/waterfalls are all the rage here, I find them idiotic in the desert). 

His bid was a little more expensive than competing bids, but we figured helping out family was worth it. 

He blew that budget before the stones were set, which is why the boys and I ended up doing the path of death and all finish work ourselves.  (sod, decorative rock, etc)  I called him out for his rather horrid business side at the time, but he did genuinely good work otherwise.  Just his billing and rates were ludicrous.  I mentioned competing bids, and going rates for this work at the time.  Anyhow, it ended about as well as essentially firing a guy can end, which is to say, not great. 


Shockingly, the business is not going well.  He wants to come install an automatic sprinkler system now.  I want him nowhere near my house again, frankly.  As if I wasn't already uncomfortable enough at the party.

[Geo]

If you let them enter with a toe only, the rest will follow...

[E_T]

not if you cut off the foot...

[Rusty Edge]

I'd say you handled the home project complication well, Uno. You gave him an opportunity. When he couldn't complete the project within budget, you took over. That's fair. Not like you sued him, bashed him on youtube, or forbid him from using the pictures of your project in his portfolio.

The way I figure it, a lawn sprinkler system would only bring back your slugs. I have a lawn sprinkler system, but it's more trouble than it's worth. I haven't tried to use it in years. Well, it wouldn't work now, but that's a story. At any rate, you're trying to work with nature, there in the desert. It's not about him, it's the fact that you have neither need nor desire for such a lawn. At least, that's how I'd frame it.

[Unorthodox]

A sprinkler system is in the cards down the road, when I don't have ample slave labor kids at home to take care of it, but its fairly far down the priority list. 

It's even more complicated than I write above.  He's wanting to do it 'for free' by using 'extra parts' from a big development he's putting in somewhere else.  This is...look, I don't want him fudging books at all, this is sure way to fail, but I certainly want to be no party to it.  So, I've got ethical stakes here. 


Speaking of ethical challenges, Festivus at work today.  I've now got 35 folks from 20 organizations involved.  The rules of just putting on a simple business lunch are becoming problematic the bigger this gets.  I can manage this year.  When it gets bigger next year, I'll be up against limits and not technically allowed to ask the other companies to pitch in.  The way around that is to turn it into something else, but that means a more formal setting and me having to do a presentation. 

[Rusty Edge]

Speaking of ethical challenges, Festivus at work today.  I've now got 35 folks from 20 organizations involved.  The rules of just putting on a simple business lunch are becoming problematic the bigger this gets.  I can manage this year.  When it gets bigger next year, I'll be up against limits and not technically allowed to ask the other companies to pitch in.  The way around that is to turn it into something else, but that means a more formal setting and me having to do a presentation.

I'll be looking forward to a Festivus Circus story next year.

[Unorthodox]

I'll be looking forward to a Festivus Circus story next year.

Many former co-workers think it's a hilarious concept.  I was once a most notorious hermit. 

[Geo]

I suggest a well-trained secretary/assistant in the art of Aerofestivus.
I'm surprised it didn't already come as one of the perks of your posirion? 😉

[Unorthodox]

Indy is 10 years old...he decided this year the tree makes a great cat perch and has now broken about a dozen branches.  I'm just duct taping hoping it makes it through the holiday.  Baffled why the sudden change in attitude toward the tree. 

Quiet Solstice last night.  hEt and I's anniversary.  Unfortunately plans for celebrating at the fire pit got snowed out. 

3 family gatherings left to survive, but we're hosting 2 of them, so not bad.  Only Monday/Tuesday off work. 

[E_T]

Happy Yule Everyone!!

[Unorthodox]

.   .    .    . 

Turkey day at my parents went fairly smooth.  Just the normal level of disapproval. 

I have a legitimate excuse to miss out on my brother's Christmas show at the church this year, but my parents are quite upset I'll be missing it. 

Work Festivus...I had to put on the damn presentation and bring it formal...I know this is oxymoronic as I have more people over to my place on Halloween, but this made me so nervous to the point of being sick I actually ended up in the hospital after, with the stress triggering another gallbladder attack.  12 hours into the attack, they were prepping me for surgery when things suddenly freed up.   

This year's winter holiday is completely fubar. 

hEt, Kyle, and myself are working Christmas eve, which makes Christmas morning difficult (Kyle and hEt both night shifters)  Christmas Eve breakfast with my family cancelled as a result.  Christmas Morning breakfast with hEt's family cancelled. 


Black Friday was extremely civilized and relaxed.  We didn't hit any big stores, just little specialty shops on actual friday morning.  No crowds, no fuss. 

[E_T]

.   .    .    . 

Turkey day at my parents went fairly smooth.  Just the normal level of disapproval. 

Hey, for one, you (and yours) don't deserve that, not in the least bit.  Karma is a castiron b*tch and they will eventually get theirs.  I just hope that they learn from it when it happens...
Happy Festivus!!

I have a legitimate excuse to miss out on my brother's Christmas show at the church this year, but my parents are quite upset I'll be missing it. 

Work Festivus...I had to put on the damn presentation and bring it formal...I know this is oxymoronic as I have more people over to my place on Halloween, but this made me so nervous to the point of being sick I actually ended up in the hospital after, with the stress triggering another gallbladder attack.  12 hours into the attack, they were prepping me for surgery when things suddenly freed up.   

Stress can be a killer, be careful and hope you don't have to play ringleader much  (I'm assuming that whatever it was, was similar to that, although you can definitely give us a better analogy...)

This year's winter holiday is completely fubar. 

hEt, Kyle, and myself are working Christmas eve, which makes Christmas morning difficult (Kyle and hEt both night shifters)  Christmas Eve breakfast with my family cancelled as a result.  Christmas Morning breakfast with hEt's family cancelled. 

Ouch, just hope it doesn't happen in the following years.  Maybe you can move it to New Years (maybe a modified thing, although the thing with the Boss's family is likely not able to be adjusted for).  Hmm, How long until the others are starting work?

Black Friday was extremely civilized and relaxed.  We didn't hit any big stores, just little specialty shops on actual Friday morning.  No crowds, no fuss.

Anything planned for Cyber Monday?
Everyone, Have a Happy Festivus and may the New Year be bright!!

[Unorthodox]

Anything planned for Cyber Monday?
Everyone, Have a Happy Festivus and may the New Year be bright!!

A good 80% of Xmas is already done online. 

Not specifically Xmas, but a TV upgrade coming Thursday.  Yeah, it's a last year's model bargain bin typical black friday thing.  A DUMB TV of all things in this day and age, but the Apple TV runs things anyway, and I don't need any smart features.  The dust of rennovation caused our main tv to go to hell back when, and we've been on literally the cheapest 55" I could find since on the main TV (day after xmas sale).  This will also allow me to dump a rear projection monstrosity in the basement as we shift TVs around. 


Work....

I am probably one of a handful of actual experts in my field.  Most people just go through the motions, and really, that's all that's needed 90% of the time.  This company is a little more clueless than normal at a corporate level, as in I literally have had to fight tooth and nail for all the support, and convinced corporate to actually procure basic software.  As in, I'VE WRITTEN SOFTWARE for this, and have been offered jobs by all the companies that sale the software when they come to train as there's a few things I do that make things really easy and always insist the software is modified to accomplish them. 

Anyway, 4 years ago I made the pitch to come up with a department for this specialty, buy software, etc in prep for the eventual Govt oversight audit.  Well, they wanted to run things in Virginia, and while I was offered the job, moving wasn't in the cards.  That audit happened in Oct.  My site passed.  Others, not so much.  Virginia utterly failed on all fronts. 

Well, I switched supervisors again around July, and she got looking at my resume and has made a huge deal over my 20+ years expertise in both the system and my field, and folks back east took notice, so you know who can fix this problem?  Uno. 

The thing that stresses me is not so much the presentation, it's the knowledge that we are in no way prepared for the re-audit coming the 20th.  We have the systems in place, but there are some people who lack the basic discipline.  Given that I really, really, really don't like people in general and do all I can to avoid awkward situations and confrontation, putting me in charge of confronting 800 people on why they are sucking isn't exactly an ideal situation for me. 

The flip side is it IS being recognized at work, and I'm trying to take it as opportunity for growth.  I was just given their highest recognition award, which is more or less an entire annual Halloween budget. 

Meanwhile, I'm fighting a different department back east on a parallel discipline I've picked up responsibility for locally, and they are making it difficult on purpose.  Considering no one in the company has utilized this discipline in the way we are trying, and I'm really good on the fly, this gets frustrating. 

I created a code to run some calculations and sent the results in a spreadsheet that included the codes in it.  Got back saying how I'd done it all wrong.  Their supervisor meanwhile asked how the hell I'd come up with a better code than they use as after checking it my answers were actually correct and break things out a lot further than what they were using.  (this is another thing they should REALLY buy the software to do this instead of everyone creating ad hoc excel sheets.)

[E_T]

Wow, more later, as It's really late for me now...