Twist of Lemon

Look what my guy got me for our anniversary [13 years and counting]!

I woke up out of sorts on Friday. By the time I had reached work my mood had deepened into what Melvin calls “The Mean Reds” which pretty much sums it up. Despite my simmering anger, work went pretty well on Friday. We even had a lunch out at Sarna’s Grill as a going away party for one of the supervisors. I wouldn’t recommend the location. The food was decent, if you like Sysco food. I really prefer dishes with some uniqueness to them. I had the chicken roulade, which I chose partially for the sherry rosemary butter sauce. Unfortunately the sauce was scant, the meat was fairly dry and the stuffing was heavy on the spinach and light on the mushroom. The appetizers that we had were alright, but the pot stickers tasted bland, and they seemed like they were just nuked. I am hoping to avoid this eatery in the future, but it appears that it is a favorite for business functions with people from the plant, so I’ll just have to hope they are few and far between.

Brian’s Dad was in town Friday and Saturday, due to a medical emergency for one of Brian’s family members. All we knew was he was going to be getting into town at about 20:00. So Brian and I watched the newest Torchwood, and then I took a nap. Well when Brian spoke to his Dad later that night  they decided they would get together on Saturday. Brian left me to sleep, so I didn’t wake up on my own until 22:00. And I was pissed off to have lost most of my Friday night.

Saturday I woke up to Brian’s cell phone ringing, it was his Dad, turned out his relative didn’t need surgery after all, so Brian went to have breakfast with him before he turned around back for North Dakota. I decided it would be a good idea to go looking for ways to organize our stuff in a usable fashion in our bathroom and tiny clothes closet. Really I shouldn’t have bothered, as I still was in the same bad mood from Friday. You’ll never guess where I went to spend my weekend time, and improve my bad mood, yeah right, IKEA! It went about how you would expect. I didn’t kill anyone. It was close though. I then made my way over to St. Paul and the Science Museum. Rachel M had asked if anyone wanted to go to see the Omnifest movies. I was up to see the Amazon movie at the Omni theater. I got to the museum earlier than we had planned to meet, and it was just as well as all the shows until 18:00 were sold out. So I called Rachel and told her not to bother driving in, and I hoofed it back to my car and drove back to Minnetonka. I went to the Ridgedale library to return my books and look for more, which was also a bust since they have zilch for choices at that library. So I came home for a nice long argument with Brian and a depressive sleep. What a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday went a bit better. Brian and I did some cleaning up around the cell -akem- I mean apartment. We then went out shopping for a medicine cabinet for the bathroom, and some groceries. Mission accomplished. And no one killed [I held Brian back]. Melvin had called me on Saturday and invited me to go to the Wild hockey game on Sunday. It was great to see Mel. For me, she is the solution to the Mad Reds. The Wild won 3-2 against the Colorado Avalanche, and I had a wonderful time. Except for the dicks seated behind us that had to spill beer on me while screaming about a missed goal.

So I am thinking today that I should be posting more on the blog here, and I am wondering what to post about.  There is always work, but there isn’t always a lot of exciting things to talk about on that topic.  When I started this site I had the idea that I would post some book reviews and some recipes as well.  Well I figure I might just as well post reviews of books and stuff in blog form.  Besides reading a lot, what else do I like to do I wondered, how about eat.  I like to eat and I have sort of made it a goal to try new restaurants at lunchtime.  So be prepared for reviews of restaurants in the NE Minneapolis area.  Just so anyone who actually reads this knows what to expect, well in general-like.  BTW thanks to Sue, Mary, Rachel and Fran for reading and keeping in touch!  Y’all are wonderful!  Oh and be prepared for more getting to know you posts [aka Answer Me Damnit!].

OK kids, you know I work in the food industry. And really you don’t always want to know how your food is made. Now don’t get me wrong, every place I have worked has done a great job at food safety and quality. But tonight I saw [for the second time, but I just had to have Brain watch it] the production of hotdogs on How Its Made. It looked like something out of a 1950s horror movie. Two words sum it up I guess: Meat Batter.

Did you ever watch the cartoon “The Superfriends” when you were younger? I just have the TV on for background noise right now, and Boomerang is a good channel for noise. That is how I find myself watching a rerun of what has to be the cheesiest show I ever watched as a child. Well excluding the Sid and Marty Kroft shows. I even remember _liking_ the Superfriends! Well age brings wisdom and all that.

Friday Brian and I raced over to the notary once I got off work. We had to get some title documents finished in case we get an offer on the house. It turns out the notary was a gal I used to work with at the bank in Fargo! We had a nice chat while we were signing various documents. Then we went over to see the Star Gate gals and watch the new straight to video SG1 movie. I must say I found myself strangely engrossed in the show. Saturday Brain and I went over the the Ridgedale library and got ourselves library cards. I figured I better not buy books while we are in such cramped quarters, so I better have access to the library! Sunday we didn’t do much, I basically spent the day watching two seasons of the Britcom “Solo” staring Felicity Kendall that originally aired in 1981 to 1982.

Today I spent most of the day trying to organize my office. There are piles of documents everywhere, and I finally got maintenance to drill out the lock of the locked filing cabinet to which no one in the building seemed to have a key. And what did I find, but old files from about eight years ago. Well those got tossed in a box to be hauled away, and now I have a file cabinet to organize form scratch, and that I can use to transfer what files I mean to keep from the last QA manager. Good thing my office is so large, there is so much crap being stored in it.

…you’re in for it now! Had a very long day today. I started at 7:30 and my day ended at 19:00. I think I understand more today than I did yesterday. I know I have more to do tomorrow than I did yesterday. My boss came to the plant to meet with me this morning, the result? More for me to read, more to learn and a lot of advice on how to move forward on many changes, while not making too many waves. Should be an easy tightrope to walk, don’tcha think?

I feel like I cannot catch a break this week.  I never realized just how much time even a small commute takes out of your day.  I got home today, fed the cats, and relaxed for what seemed to be maybe a half an hour.  Brian and I caught up for a bit and suddenly it is 19:00!  That is when I took a little “nap” and suddlenly I wake up at 22:30.  No wonder my parents never wanted to do anything after work when i was a kid!

Work is going well for me, but there is a lot to do and I am just in the prioritization phase of things.  My work calendar is filling up very quickly, time is just slipping through my fingers.

VERY occasionally Microsoft gets something right, this is one of those times.

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Making room for a bunch of crap seems to have been the theme of my week.  Even though we only moved what we thought we needed into this apartment, we still ended up with a bunch of crap to organize.  Saturday Brian and I went over to our friend Ken’s place to pick up the remainder of Brian’s belongings.  Brian had been staying there during the school year while I was in Rochester.  Ken had just gotten back from a business trip, so we took him and his son William out to eat so we could catch up a bit.  I can’t tell you how much i enjoyed hanging out with William [who is six] and a lot of fun.  I got to thumb wrestle, make faces, and play pinball with the little guy.  Then we came home, I took one look at all the boxes, and decided it was time to nap.  Until 2100.  Then I watched Britcoms.  Today we finally got Brain’s drafting desk fully assembled.  We also sorted through all the boxes of clothes to determine which we would keep here and which we would pack right back up and drop off at my folk’s basement.  So after bringing four totes of clothes out to Maple Grove, and playing with our puppy for a couple of hours, we stopped off at Target on the way home.  Time for pre-fab furniture and low tech storage units!

Sorry for the lame update, but Rachel made me do it!

Well it looks as if it has been awhile since I posted. But then again it has been an eventful week. So where to start? I guess I will go along chronologically. Skip ahead if I bore you.

Monday - Showed up at 0720 [20 minute commute] for my 0800 start. Hmmm great, now I get to sit in my car for forty minutes in the ghetto! Luckily I saw the plant manager [PM] coming into the building, and he was kind enough to let me in. The PM then gave me my company cell phone, sans phone charger or access to voice mail. He said he would get a hold of the cell company to get me a charger. I then met with the Regulatory Manager [RM] at 0800 to start my training. In my office. My HUGE office, which is easily the size of the living room in the apartment Brain and I are currently occupying. I do have a nice working computer, quite the change from my last position where the computer would take 30 seconds to register a command. But I don’t have access yet to the programs I need to be trained on, like for inventory management, or customer complaints. So I have to log an issue with the online help desk. Oh and I cannot even log into that tool. So I call the IT number and ask for them to give me a log on, which the assure me they are in process of doing. I also get to meet some of my staff for the first time, and see the lab in detail. Yeah lots of changes to be made, lots of changes [to the lab itself, not the staff, they seem great]. Oh and lunch was at Elsie’s.

[OK this is taking too long, this is day two of me trying to get this all down...time to shorten it up]

Tuesday - On my own for the first four hours or so of the day as RM is in meetings. I decided to go down to the lab and get a feeling for the workload and what all goes on for testing in the lab. Four hours flew by and I went out to eat at, you guessed it, Elsie’s. Came back to spend more time talking with the RM about what quality programs are already in place [few] and what quality programs need to be implemented [many]. Discovered I had no access to voice mail on my cell phone or my land line. Land line still gives name of last QA manager. Found locked file cabinet in office.

Wednesday - Met with RM and went over programs on the computer for customer complaints, discussed new product introductions and product changes and my part in the process. Discussed HACCP plan for the plant. Went to lunch at Elsie’s and was late for the plant supervisor’s meeting the PM wanted me to attend [but forgot to send me an e-vite to]. Learned a lot more about the hurdles to go through for a plant with a union workforce. Cell charger comes in. Called cell company about access to voice mail.

Thursday - Call cell company again about phone and finally given the right number to call to get access to voice mail. Spend more time in the lab discovering what goes on. My safety training is canceled due to outside visitors who need attention. Lunch with PM and discussion of some of my plans for the lab, my staff, general QA programs. Seems well received. Lunch was at Gabby’s saloon. Back to the plant and more training with RM. Come home. Pile snake and her cage into car. Go to donate her to the Herpetological society. Get Brain a drafting desk at Utrecht. Stop at Ridgedale for food at the Macy’s Lakeshore restaurant [good food ok service], go to Byerly’s to get some needed food in the house. Come home, talk to Mel, Mom and Fran. Crash.

Friday - Learn more stuff. Find out I cannot access IT help desk because I am not in payroll as of yet [Eeek!]. Listen and learn a lot. Eat at the Breakaway in Robinsdale. Come back to work, learn more. RM leaves for home, I check out happienings in the lab. Stay and help out a bit. Keep hearing from employees how the last QA manager would never have been helping, let alone at 4:30 on a Friday. Come home and crash from 1700 to 2300. Up for an hour to eat, go back to sleep.

Saturday - Go out to the folks in Maple Grove to spend time with the puppy while they are at the caucuses. Get there at 0930, cuddle and watch TV with Merc. End up napping with the puppy. Stay until 1900. Go to Super Target for food and other necessities. Get home at 2100. Some jerk parked in my assigned underground parking spot. Call apartment office and leave message. about parking. Just before going to bed get a call from the folks, something is wrong with Mercury, seems his anal glands might be impacted.

Sunday - Brain and I get up at 0830 and head out to the folks to help with Mercury. Anal gland on his right side very impacted and cannot be expressed by us. Call Mary to get ahold of her sister Julie [our new Vet.]. Emergency trip down to Richfield to get Merc checked out while the office is open. Not much Julie can do, though she tries, so Merc is on antibiotics and pain meds until the swelling goes down. Drive him back out to Maple Grove. Drive back to the apartment, someone still parked in my spot. Go over to the [now open] office and complain about the parking. Get another temp spot to park. Start to unpack kitchen at 1400. Get call that parking space is now open. Finish unpacking kitchen at 1730. Sit down to finish this post.

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