Fri-yay

ei34

So glad we made it.  What a week.  Anyone have nice weekend plans?

ei34

The Northern Lights were visible by us last night, it was so special to see.

Having a welcome back dinner for my parents who return from their long vacation this evening.  We’ve all missed them a lot. I’m baking an apple pie tonight and focaccia bread tomorrow for that gathering. Possibly pumpkin picking on Sunday after church. And it’s a long weekend, schools are closed Monday for Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day, I’m going to reorganize my coat closet on Monday ahead of the fall/winter gear- it’s been in the 40s/50s here, which I love, but the cold weather gear needs an rehaul now that it’s more than just a sweater for each of us in daily rotation. 

banana468

We missed the lights!  I'm bummed!   I was focused on a 5th grader who insists that no homework until Columbus Day means he didn't need to study for the spelling tests he's been failing. 

I fell asleep in the 9th inning but am pleased the Yankees won and will now start to hope for a Subway series.

Weekend will be busy.  We've got soccer, scouts, a sports physical for Chiquita and Monday I have a belated birthday party for Chiquito taking kids bowling and to Olive Garden. 

CharmedPam

I didn’t even know about the northern lights until it was too late! Apparently you can only see them through a camera lens though? I did end up going to the winery and it wasn’t the winery I was thinking of and turned out to be ok.  Although I was tired!
No plans tonight, but tomorrow is a busy day with historical house tours during the day and then a drive around haunted house viewing with friends at night. Sunday I hope S and I can do something fall or halloweeney. 

@banana468, those salads and breadsticks though! Yum!

VarunaTT

Mmmm, @ei34, I loooove both making and eating focaccia.  I still remember the first time I made it, I had to call my exFIL.  I asked, Is the dough supposed to feel like this?!?!  He laughed and said yes, and that he thought the same thing the first time he made it.  And you get to punch it and poke it!! I love the artsy focaccia, but for myself I just like sea salt and maybe some rosemary on it.

My work bestie is coming over tonight.  She has been put in the position I used to be in.  She texted me yesterday and said she's already started to having some of the same issues I did. I feel bad for her; I'm also glad to be out of that place.  I miss the $$ and her, but otherwise, this new job has been so much better for my professional mental health, it's unreal.

Tomorrow I get my brows/lip and maybe chin threaded and a lash lift.  Then I'm going to see a friend for some sort of Halloween decorating thing.  I don't really know/understand what we're doing, but I know what to bring and that's enough.  I'll see Mom too.  Have some movies to watch.  Should be pretty chill, but it'll be good to see some people and get out of the house.

MyNameIsNot

No northern lights here; we're too far south. 

I'm trying to wrap up a few work things and get out of here around lunch. Apple pie sounds amazing! There's an orchard on our way to the town we stay in; we might have to stop off and grab one of their pies this afternoon. It's apple butter season too, right? 

This is one of my favorite weekends of the year. We'll bum around the little town and hit a brewery or cafe this afternoon and then get some BBQ. Tomorrow will be a day hike and then I got a costco pot pie to heat up for dinner. Sunday we'll do a short hike and then the local wineries. It's actually cooled off a tad here, so it should be really nice. 

Casadena

@MyNameIsNot that sounds like a perfect weekend!

Didn't catch the lights here but my mom sent some cool pics from Iowa. I had book club last night and it was a blast. I think a member is getting kicked out due to some aggressive and hateful comments around LGBTQ issues. Although I didn't hear it first hand, i'm on board with the decision. The rest of the group is fantastic. 

H is out tonight with friends so i think i'm going to take the boys out for dinner. Pumpkin patch with friends tomorrow, pilates, pumpkin carving, park on Sunday. Anyone have tips for keep the squirrels away from our pumpkins? I bought 2 bif ones for the porch and it took them 3 days to gnaw through them both. 

levioosa

@casadena, could you make a cayenne pepper spray and spray the pumpkins with it?

@ei34 what a cool picture! We are too far south. =( 

@mynameisnot that sounds like a fantastic weekend. 

Not sure what my weekend will hold. I am ready for the end of the day though. Grandpa is supposed to come home today. Otherwise, SSDD. 

short+sassy

@ei34, what a cool picture!  I feel like the Northern Lights are usually only visible in very northern areas like Iceland and Alaska.  But this is the second time in recent years I've heard of it happening in the continental US.

I'm feeling a lot better today!  I'm also determined to only work a half-day, today.  That's what my Fridays are supposed to be, but it's been 3 months since I've been able to do that.  Work has tempered down to a dull roar and nothing is urgent.

I tried my first ever apple cider doughnut at Dunkin' yesterday.  When I visited MA years ago it was in mid Sept., everyone told me I had to try an apple cider doughnut.  But I couldn't find one!  Any time I saw a place that sold them, they were already out for the day.  After all that hoopla, I was disappointed.  It's a good and interesting flavor that I liked but too sugary tasting, even for a doughnut.  I will reserve judgement and hope to come across one at a cute, little bakery someday instead of from a mass chain.

Good news in conjunction with Amazon Prime Day.  I re-took my measurements so I would know what clothing sizes to get.  I'm 3" smaller in my waist and 2" smaller in my hips than I was three months ago.  With a few exceptions, I am now back in regular sizes instead of plus sizes!

Exceptions for some of those companies where a XXXL is more like a US size10.  C'mon, lmao!

MNNEBride

Northern lights were beautiful last night.  It's the second time this year I've seen them although there have been several events.  I'd only seen them once before many years ago.  Definitely a great year!

This weekend we have plans for digging up a flower bed along the side of our house/garage.  I have tulip bulbs and 3 peony roots to plant.  Also want to clean up the hanging pots and other plantings outside.  We are expecting a hard freeze next week.

I grilled dinner last night but had a fire in my gas grill.  Not just a flare!  After turning off the gas and shutting the lid didn't take care of it, I tried my spray bottle of water.  Nope.  Ended up getting the fire blanket I keep in the kitchen and smothering it while spraying with water.  Scary!  Needless to say our pork chops were toasty and I dumped them.  I'll need to clean up the grill before using it again.  Fortunately, flames didn't spread to our house or new deck, but I'm still feeling some fiberglass in my hands from the blanket.

banana468

I feel like Apple Cider donuts are definitely best at local places.  There's a farm near me that makes their own and a cider mill in Mystic that makes them (along with multiple types of hard cider and regular cider).  Those are definitely sweet but not to the point that it's overdone unless someone dips them in a ton of cinnamon sugar. 

short+sassy

banana468 said:

I feel like Apple Cider donuts are definitely best at local places.  There's a farm near me that makes their own and a cider mill in Mystic that makes them (along with multiple types of hard cider and regular cider).  Those are definitely sweet but not to the point that it's overdone unless someone dips them in a ton of cinnamon sugar. 

I would love to go to an apple orchard or cider mill that has fresh apple cider, preferably hard cider, lol.  And a REAL apple cider doughnut to try.

But alas, I've never lived anywhere near such a place.  Out of curiosity, I Googled CA because they're such an agricultural dynamo.  #5 state for apple production, but the closest counties were a few hours away from where I lived.  The 1-4 states are much more north.  Apparently, it gives CA an advantage at the beginning of apple season because their season starts at least 3 weeks earlier than everybody else's.  Washington is #1.  New York is #2.  

When my H and I were in Seattle before our Alaska cruise, there was an apple cider place in Pike's market.  They had about 8 different flavors and "pour your own" free samples for all of them.  I took full advantage and must have spent 20 minutes narrowing down my choices.  Tough call between apple-pear and apple-cherry, but I ultimately bought a cup of apple-cherry.

CharmedPam

Is Illinois an OK state for good apple cider donuts? I’ve tried many apple cider and pumpkin donuts and nothing has really impressed me so I’d say no?

charlotte989875

So here’s the story of the new job:
The week or so after I accepted the offer I found out the manager who hired me was fired. That’s never a good sign because it’s pretty hard to fire people here, but the person replacing her had interviewed me and I like her so I figured it would be okay. 

Well I had lunch with her the week before I started and learned there were some performances issues on the team (big gaps in skills between what they should be doing and what they were doing), there were also inconsistencies in job grades, no one had expectations or objectives set, and the previous director never had 1:1s with her team (who now all report to me). 

Day 1, hour 1 on the job and my manager tells me the manager I have on the team has an open HR complaint filed against him by one of my other direct reports. HR substantiates the complaint (mainly because he admitted he did it). I also learn he along with others on the team applied for a higher level manager job on my team. Next week my manager delivers the results to him and tells him we strongly recommend he take some of our learning courses and try and build some self-awareness when engaging with colleagues. He doubles down and basically says he didn’t mean it the way people were taking it even though he admitted he did it. And that he was just not going to talk to anyone anymore. And that he wasn’t interested in the courses. Fine. 

THEN this guys team handles requests from other people in a related department; he has someone out on PTO, someone else involved in a org wide system conversion. I specifically ask him to do something that is in his job description and part of his responsibilities. He originally says yes but then later emails me to say he disagrees and he’s not going to. 

This is all on top of the fact that we might not actually be doing part of our job that is vital to remaining in compliance with regulators. I just… ugh. 

banana468

Ugh @charlotte989875.  Does he directly report to you?  This guy sounds like he's trying to come up with ways to be terminated with his arrogance.  

charlotte989875

banana468 said:

Ugh @charlotte989875.  Does he directly report to you?  This guy sounds like he's trying to come up with ways to be terminated with his arrogance.  

He sure does! 

Our HRBP said to me “well at least he’s putting it in an email, that makes it a lot easier for us”. 

levioosa

What a shit show @charlotte989875. All of the margaritas your way. Sounds like you guys are already probably documenting, documenting, documenting to build a case against him. Gotta love the (usually male) whining argument of "it's not my fault people are sensitive to the things I say and I guess I just can't say anyyyyythinggg." Seems like refusing to take courses as part of an action plan for improvement would be subordination too. 

levioosa

I'm glad the fire didn't spread! @MNNEBride how scary! 

short+sassy

@charlotte989875, oof!  Challenging!  It's hard whenever there are difficult people you have to work with.  Plus it sounds like a lot of assessments for the whole team to aid people in leveling up from where they are to where they need to be.

I'm annoyed I've had to train one person who doesn't have the right skills for the job.

banana468

charlotte989875 said:

banana468 said:

Ugh @charlotte989875.  Does he directly report to you?  This guy sounds like he's trying to come up with ways to be terminated with his arrogance.  

He sure does! 

Our HRBP said to me “well at least he’s putting it in an email, that makes it a lot easier for us”. 

One of the things that Chiquita's GS troop leader drills into the girls is "It's not what you say but how you say it."  If it's documented that what you said was problematic it doesn't matter what your intent was.  If management is telling you that what you said was problematic, here's an offer for a course to remedy the way you interact with others (read: this is a sign that you are attempting to remedy the problem in good faith that you are working to improve your rapport with your colleagues and manager).  If you deliberately turn down that offer the answer is that you are not taking steps to fix what is a documented issue.  It's the human interaction equivalent of auditing the manufacturer I work for for an issue we admit to doing and we say that we fully intend not to actually work on a corrective action. 

And then to be told what to do and not do it?  I think I'd be working the HR team as you are to come up with some swift solutions if the answer is that you as a manager aren't able to manage people.  Someone putting their insubordination in writing would be met with a lot of paperwork to sign and a documented PIP with benchmarks to hit like mandating those courses if I could get the backing of my HR team.  I'm glad my two direct reports don't pull that .


On a completely random afternoon note - I was on the phone w/ the office for Chiquita's infusions to change her appointment and while talking, a black bear just sauntered through my backyard!! 

short+sassy

@banana468, So cool!  The only wildlife I see around my backyard is possums and raccoons.  There's a possum that hangs out on our fence in the morning.  Right near where my H smokes.  It scares him all the time, lol.  The possum doesn't do anything to be scary.  It's just my H isn't expecting to glance around and see little, black eyes looking at him.

banana468

short+sassy said:

@banana468, So cool!  The only wildlife I see around my backyard is possums and raccoons.  There's a possum that hangs out on our fence in the morning.  Right near where my H smokes.  It scares him all the time, lol.  The possum doesn't do anything to be scary.  It's just my H isn't expecting to glance around and see little, black eyes looking at him.

I've seen family of deer and turkeys before and in the winter there are bunny footprints in the snow.  There's also the standard squirrels and owls that love the oak trees and I've definitely spied an opossum.

While camping in town last month a family of raccoons at our bananas (foolish we left them out) and there's a local family of coyotes that don't usually go in our yard but enjoy the downtown. 

ei34

Oof @charlotte989875 what a dumpster fire. Document all you can, he sounds ridiculous  

Not a fan of wildlife in the yard. I draw a hard line at bunnies lol.  And one of my favorite fall activities is eating a fresh apple cider donut! They’re really good here. 

levioosa

My grandparents live in the mountains and we've seen deer (around their house) and in their backyard we've seen black bears, bobcats, a mountain lion one time, and racoons and opossums. Needless to say, the predators are cool, but I prefer the non-lethal visitors. lol.