Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Stupid selfish immature children I work with.....

Well, here I am at work, twiddling my fingers again. I work with a bunch of spoiled brats. We have 5 scientists currently in our lab. 5. We don't go through a lot of consumable supplies but there are some we need to have here everyday. Like liquid nitrogen. Which comes in these giant huge tanks that will normally last us for about 3-4 weeks. And you have to go to the tank itself to get any. I purposely always order us two tanks so we should always have a spare about in case someone needs a lot of it for an experiment. It's one thing we can't really just drive to the other lab and pick up. Do you think any of them can be bothered to order a replacement tank when they finish one? Or even tell me, with the full knowledge that I can order it online and don't mind doing so for them? Yes, you guessed it, we're completely out. And I've got a rush project (aren't they all?) that needs it. And I get to be the one to call the VP and tell him that I won't be able to start it until probably Monday, possibly Friday afternoon. Oh, and this is my last Friday off for the summer with summer hours. And I've certainly put in my hours to deserve it! All because I work with a bunch of selfish children.

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

So I go hunting to find the culprit... who tells me, yeah, he used the last of it over a week ago but wasn't worried since he wouldn't need any more for atleast a month so he hadn't done anything about it...

*must resist urge to throttle co-worker*
*must resist urge to throttle co-worker*
*must resist urge to throttle co-worker*
*must resist urge to throttle co-worker*

Okay, I think I have it under control now...

Can you tell this has been happening a lot lately at work? Our admin characterized it exactly right in calling them selfish children. They'll look out for themselves and only themselves and expect their supplies to magically be there when they need them. Never mind the fact that we're each responsible for replacement ordering when using up anything. Or the fact I've made it quite clear I don't mind doing the ordering for anyone who wants since I'm the only one trained on the internet-ordering system. I even keep a logbook on my desk. All they have to do is come and write it in the book and I'll order it.

Okay, rant over...

Other than that life is good. We're still trying to figure out if we're going to make the New York Ren. Faire this year, we're running out of weekends to do it! We have confirmed plans for the Lakewood one (with real jousting! :) ) and tentative plans for the Pennsylvannia one. We really haven't done many of them this summer, but we have done a lot of gaming instead. And my skin with it's lack of sunburns is grateful too. You'd think a parasol and 40 sunscreen would be enough, but you'd be wrong. Oh well, it's a choice. And I choose not to get sunburns if I can help it, but if there's nothing else I can do (dressing in full cover in 35C heat is NOT an option) then I have to decide if I'm willing to simply not go out. And I'm not. I like to get out and enjoy summer while I can since I spend so much of it inside at work.

So that's my final thought for this post,
Go outside and enjoy life!

Monday, August 23, 2004

What a wonderful weekend!

We spent yesterday in the city just hanging out with a friend (Hi Hayden!), talking and enjoying the beautiful weather. It was one of the most relaxing weekends I’ve had in a looooooong time. It was nice to not have to be anywhere at a specific time or do anything we didn’t want to do. The end of summer is coming, so Idon’t know how many more of them we’ll get. My last long weekend for summer hours is coming up (boo!) and so far we have no specific plans for it. I’m thinking if the forecast is decent, I’ll keep it that way. If not we’ll try to organize a game or two, and have fun doing that. We ran a LONG module on Saturday (12 hours, ouch!) and had a great time. All the more so when it started to pour down rain and we realized we couldn’t have done much outside anyways. It still amazes me the ferocity of some of the storms we get here. I know it shouldn’t, but it does. And this one didn’t come off the ocean, it came from upstate. I did get some cross-stitch done but didn’t photograph it. That’ll come soon though.

My parents came for a visit the weekend before and we had a really good visit. They stayed at the Wading River State Park Campground, and it was really nice. We toured eastern Suffolk County, which we have never made the time to do before. I’m going to have to take time to go hit the farmstands for more peaches this weekend! There is such a difference between the two ends of the islands, it’s like going to a different place altogether. I knew intellectually there were farms out east of here but hadn’t realized how dramatic the change was. I loved it and am now wondering just how long a commute I could handle… hmmm… unfortunately the answer I keep coming up with is not long enough!

My best friend in highschool, Mikey Butcher, is now a daddy for the second time. Little Lauren Elizabeth arrived on the 21st of August. She and mom are both doing well. Welcome to the world little one!

Thanks James for the Anniversary wishes, and same to you guys for last week! Three years... guess I really DO need to get my butt in gear on that cross-stitch. I'll post a photo soon at www.xvart.com/xsprojects.html but for now, know it's past the 1/4 complete stage!

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Another emergency project! Not again!

As if life isn't hectic enough already. I'm working a lot of overtime on a big project at work (#$!%!#$!#$%$^%!#$! FDA, why do they always want lots of rush stuff in the summer?) My parents are arriving for a visit on Friday, which I'm really excited about but have a lot of things I'd like to do to my place before they arrive. And then, at 4:30 last night, I got handed another emergency project with even higher priority than the 'current big emergency'. Fun, huh? The only reason I have time for this is I'm waiting for one of the 'big strong guys' I work with (notice that's in quotes!) to arrive so I can get them to change over some tubing connections I don't have the shoulder strength for. Yea! No big plans for the weekend as I'm not sure what my parents will want to do. I assume the usual trip into the city (New York City) which should be interesting as the security is getting tighter and tighter. I noticed last time we were there that I don't even really consciously notice the police/National Guardsmen with automatic rifles anymore. I don't think I like that. I don't feel particularly unsafe going into the city, but on the otherhand, I don't plan to tempt fate and will stay happily out here on Long Island during the Republican National Convention. Better safe than sorry as they say. On that note, I think I hear Scott, so I should run.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

First Post

Well, here I am sitting at work bored to death waiting for Brian to come pick me up. The stupid #@%#!#@ instrument has gone down, again. I'm floating around online looking for something to do when I think to check out my friend Mike's blog (mmirage.blogspot.com). And decide I can do that, and maybe it will help family feel more connected to our lives if they can see the day to day stuff we do. It's our wedding anniversary and we've made plans to go out tonight so he's driven me to Inwood so he can have the car for the day. So now I'm stuck, and his cellphone is off. Oh, well! Life has been busy for us lately. Work is insanely busy, as usual for the summer, but we just had a new drug approved last week, so I guess it's all worthwhile. We're still gaming most weekends as much as we can. Brian's working on a few new mod ideas so we'll see where they go. Back to the grind for me, I guess!