Kevin's Watch

Mazel tov, Cag!

NICU? That's an acronym no new parent likes to hear. Glad her stay there was brief. When you catch your breath (we're not holding ours), tell the story if you are willing to share it.

Yay Cag! Congrats! NICU is scary and depressing, but very glad to hear baby and Mama are home safe!

We are moved in. Saturday was a tornado of frustration, but we're here. I have boxes towering over my head, stacked neatly in every corner. I'm procrastinating unpacking because I'm reveling in being able to do whatever I want and not be judged for anything.

Having been at college all week, I am now a qualified Suicide Risk Management trainer....yay.


Downside to that is trying to convince my colleagues who I will be teaching the policy to to actually take it seriously as a work tool, and not just "something" they have to have a refresher training session on every year.

Well done, Mrs Cag!! and congrats to you Cagliostro.

Jenn, next time: hot pink. and we want pictures. It's not like you haven't done butt shots before.

Congratulations to Cagliostro and his wife!

Congrats, Cag, Carla and big brother!

And congrats to Jaz! I totally understand your desire to "pee in all the corners" of a new place that's totally yours.

Sooo, I finally got to see the orthopedist today. As expected, he gave me a shot at the base of my thumb, and said I should see some improvement by Friday. I've got a follow-up appointment for December (on my birthday, in fact) -- here's hoping the problem totally goes away in the interim. If it's still a problem by then, I might have to have surgery. He says it's minor surgery, and okay, I'm sure it is, but -- it's my right hand. (Yes, I'm right handed.)

Thanks for the info on the blog posts, you guys. I'm mystified as to the cause. I'll see if there's any technical info or a place to ask help questions.

Mazel Tov, Carla, Cag, and big brother!
Y'all get some sleep whenever you can.

aliantha wrote:
Sooo, I finally got to see the orthopedist today. As expected, he gave me a shot at the base of my thumb, and said I should see some improvement by Friday. I've got a follow-up appointment for December (on my birthday, in fact) -- here's hoping the problem totally goes away in the interim. If it's still a problem by then, I might have to have surgery. He says it's minor surgery, and okay, I'm sure it is, but -- it's my right hand. (Yes, I'm right handed.)

I have for most of my life been someone that hates doctors and tends to ignore issues until they go away or become life-threatening. I'd like to adopt more of a 'fix it instead of live with it' attitude, and that part of me wants to tell you that you should get surgery. But I probably wouldn't follow my own advice, and I don't want to be a hypocrite.

In completely unrelated news, something in the bottom of my foot went snap, crackle, pop (I think that's the official medical term) earlier today, and I am hoping it feels better tomorrow, or this is really going to be a long week.

Sorus -- Rest assured, if the nice doc says I need surgery, I will get the surgery. I just hope it doesn't come to that. Hope your foot feels better! (Ice, elevation, rest, ibuprofen. )

CAG!!!! I wants me some pictures of my new niece!

Sorus, I didn't feel you were being cranky with me. I thought you were just your normal funny self. I have to admit. I told Jacob about that exchange today when he called me. He was laughing his butt off too and told me to tell you that even though he talked to you earlier today to please tell you he misses you.

Anyway, today was busy and I was tired and had a rough morning. I had a later shift than usual and did not change my alarm and when I woke up I turned it off and figured I would sleep for another half an hour. I ended up having an extremely vivid weird dream and woke up an hour before having to start my shift so I had to rush to get ready and it was hard because I was oddly discombobulated from the extra sleep and the weird dream. (See the dreaming thread if you are interested in the details of my nocturnal brain movie).

On other work notes. Derek has me closing almost every shift now and gave me some bullshit song and dance about how "Manny wants him to work a midshift" and so that makes me have to close. He just doesn't like closing. End of statement. Oddly though, I prefer closing so it's not that big of a deal to me and even though a part of me wants to call him out on it just to call him out, although then again, I kinda don't care. On recovery tonight I thought Bryce was gonna have a heart attack on the spot more than once. He was all blown away when I claimed aisle one and the binder section to recover myself. He went off on how he had never had a manager participate in the recovery other than walk their work. Then he almost keeled over again when I said I was done with the first aisle and asked Russell to walk it for me and then yet again when I finished binders and asked Christina to walk that section for me. I ended up giving yet another "We are a TEAM" speech and I don't care how other managers roll but I like to take a part in the team's job since we are all in this together yadda yadda yadda. Then I high fived everyone and had to teach Mike the trick of perfect high fives. In case you don't know it's to look at the other person's elbow NOT their hand. Sounds weird I know but works every time.

Anyway, enough blathering... lurves you all.

Eh, it was intended as humor, it just lacked a bit of... self-preservation is a good enough word. Ye gods, I need a vacation.

Sorus wrote:I nearly lost composure when a customer (tourist, heavy accent) asked if we sold Stick-On Crow. This gave me an interesting image, but I had no idea what he was talking about. "Stick-On Crow, Stick-On Crow." (Elaborate and completely unhelpful gestures.)

Turned out he wanted Velcro.

Are you sure he wanted velcro? Maybe it was a Wickan accent.


CONGRATULATIONS CAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats Cag!! (Good date, the 30th )

Phantasm wrote:Having been at college all week, I am now a qualified Suicide Risk Management trainer....yay.


Downside to that is trying to convince my colleagues who I will be teaching the policy to to actually take it seriously as a work tool, and not just "something" they have to have a refresher training session on every year.

good luck - we take the course every year and i can tell you it is a drag. of course the video for medical emergencies is the worst. we sleep through it every year. at least the suicide vid provides gruesome pics and BOC's "don't fear the reaper"?!?!

sgt.null wrote:

Phantasm wrote:Having been at college all week, I am now a qualified Suicide Risk Management trainer....yay.

Downside to that is trying to convince my colleagues who I will be teaching the policy to to actually take it seriously as a work tool, and not just "something" they have to have a refresher training session on every year.

good luck - we take the course every year and i can tell you it is a drag. of course the video for medical emergencies is the worst. we sleep through it every year. at least the suicide vid provides gruesome pics and BOC's "don't fear the reaper"?!?!

I always enjoy my sexual harrassment training. I think I am a competent sexual harrasser now.

I'm so sorry. I totally suck, Sorus. I can't seem to get, "You and I getting high in the summertime, hanging on the beach soaking in the sunshine" out of my head. Oops, now it's replaced with Angels. Crap. AUGH! NO! I thought it and now it's the sexy DJ song. Kill me now.

I also can't believe how butt hurt Derek was about Kin being promoted. I realized he was being serious when I thought he was kidding. He ACTUALLY thought Manny was going to give HIM the job. Like Manny would promote him after all the hotline calls about him. Let alone promote him from a department manager, skip assistant manager, straight to store manager. He was grousing about how he had been running the whole store this whole time and Kin was getting all the credit! And he was SERIOUS!!!! I know I can be self delusional but that's ridiculous. I am now and have been for the past few hours, simply blown away by the amount of arrogance it takes for that much self delusion. It's staggering me with the magnitude required. I myself was overjoyed with Manny's announcement today as you know since I started the impromptu clapping which startled the customers and made Manny grin and join in. I am not so thrilled with finding out that we are in fact getting Sal as soon as the guy Manny hired is in the system. Bleagh. On other notes though, I had a great conversation with Kin about some stuff and Kin is doing the schedule from here on out so, Sorus, you should have no problem getting time off as requested.

On other notes, I have been volunteered by Kin to represent the OD copy centers at a big fat convention coming up later this month. I will be co-commandeering a booth at the Moscone Center with the national head of the Business Services Department. He will apparently be calling me tomorrow to talk to me about what he wants from me etc. This could be fun and an interesting chance to make friends with people in high places AND get word out about services offered not only to Moscone people but also a large faction of corporations many of which are operating out of the SF area. This is the first time they have paired a copy center manager for this type of soliciting so I am a total guinea pig. In the past they had one of the HQ people do it. I'm kinda nervous and excited at the same time.

Also, Manny was very impressed with how great the copy center looks and that made me happy. We have worked hard to get it in shape and I am very proud of it at this point. Also he said to me when he was looking around, "I think Kin is a good choice for this store, a good fit." and looked at me for confirmation. He pretty much used the exact words I said to Lori when she was in. I looked him in the eye and said, "I think you made a perfect choice. Everyone respects him, everyone likes working with him and he has all the skills and a great attitude that we need here. I am very very happy about this and I KNOW you made the right decision." He said, "I needed to test him for a while and he's done really well." and I said, "Yes, so let us keep him for a while before you go putting him in another store." Manny laughed and said, "Yeah, I think that's probably for the best too." Kin lives in SF so I am thinking that Manny might be rethinking the yanking of the store manager every time there is an opening outside. I did tell Lori that one of this store's big issues was that although it has great potential the constant moving out of the store manager and the constant readjustment to a new manager was part of what was keeping this store down and that just a bit of stability would make all the difference in the world. I'm sure she told Manny that. OH and I closed last night and apparently Manny told Kin it looked like the recovery was a lot better than usual. I think I need a show called, "The Closer" HAHAHAHAHAHAA!

Last and final work story of the day. I started my bid to put bumper stoppers on all the peg hook displays in the store. The bumper stoppers keep the hanging items from sliding back so the displays look full and inviting. They also help keep the displays nice and speed up recovery at the end of the night. I got several sections done in the side of the store closest to the copy center and Russell asked what I was doing. I told him and he told me I was awesome then asked when I was going to get to aisle four which is the pen aisle since that aisle is a nightmare to keep looking clean and neat. I said I wasn't sure. When I finished the section I was working on, I went in the back and got a big bag of the stoppers that I had gotten from another store and was walking back out to put up some more and Russell was bringing some stuff into the back and I told him, "Ok punk rock, I'll be in aisle four if you need me for anything." He looked at me, grinned big and grabbed both my shoulders and said, "Jenn, I love you. You are truly awesome." I laughed and said, "I know." Then I managed to get five sections done in that aisle before I went home. I got a good amount done storewide so far. Caitlin has about another hour left of organizing in the copy closet so she can have that time when I get in tomorrow but then I am on peg hooks the rest of the day. I want to have the entire store done before our big visit in just over a week. Also, just as I was finishing with the typewriter ribbons and calculator ink section, Derek came up to talk to me and looked a bit surprised and said, "Wow, that really does look a whole lot better." I told him, "I know and it will cut recovery time significantly down and recovery effort significantly down and the store will look better for longer without us having to pull hanging merchandise back up after it's been rattled back from SUV's driving too fast in the parking garage directly overhead. He couldn't help but agree with me. Then as I was leaving and he was getting ready to lock the door behind me he said, "You know you have an extra cashier tomorrow for closing so if you wanted to have them help you with the peg hooks that might be a good idea." I said, "Ok cool. I'll see how it goes tomorrow." I kinda feel a bit vindicated because when I was talking about doing this with Kin over a week ago in the office, Derek was in there and he pretty much pooh poohed my insistence on doing this, thinking it unimportant but now that he has seen what a difference it makes on the overall look of the store he's all about it.

WAIT!!! Sorus??? Where did your post about the awful OD music go???

wayfriend wrote: I always enjoy my sexual harrassment training. I think I am a competent sexual harrasser now.

--A

i believe i only have one c/o at work today because the captain can not schedule people.

bathroom is complete and complete - looks great! kitchen is next, if the price we get from this guy is good.

the ot i will be getting is needed for new glasses for bath julie and me. same frames/new lenses. getting a little blinder every year.

gearing up for the gnr concert nov 4th. have rebought [appetite, illusion II, democracy, lies and the covers thing] real excited if you can't tell.

also trying to fit in a trip to waco to see Coz play.

My thumb is better, yay! It's back to just popping when I bend it. This is light years better than either straining to bend it and nothing happens, or screaming when it does bend. Here's hoping for a continued recovery....

We have protestors outside our building today. Looks like it might be spillover from Occupy Washington. They must be aiming at another tenant in the building -- the signs say something about "no more drone manufacturing". Still, exciting times...