74 thoughts on “May 6, 2015: Introspection”

  1. Offering my misfortune for your amusement.
    Oculto is even worse now that I know how bad it is. I'm debating whether or not to apologize to the friend I gave one to this weekend.
    However, I'm far too cheap to throw away beer (or "beer," as the case may be) for which I've paid money and hasn't officially gone bad. I even powered through the case+ that was frozen this winter in the garage. Half had lost pressurization, the other half had weird precipitate.
    It seems I'm not very good at Beer.

    1. Once-frozen beer=> Open each prepared to drain-pour. Also: still works for brats, other cooking.

      1. Ugh. If it's not palatable enough to drink, it's not gonna be a plus in food....

          1. Whoa, hey now, those were meat's. I just provided better context for drinking them.

            1. True story, wife wanted me to make her a margarita last night. Didn't do it because no lime. But I really wanted to try out the beer-a-rita. (Also, no beer. Used my last can to boil brats on Sunday.)

          2. I asked my buddy about 'em last night (he's been bartending for the past 15 years) and he concurs that they're pretty good.
            I'm stopping to get some limeade on the way home.

            1. I'm definitely thinking about swinging into the liquor store on my way home now.

              1. I've decided they're gonna be the official adult beverage of the caucus/house warming arty my place in a few weeks

    2. I saw Oculto at the store last night (Picking up limes!) almost bought it just to see what all the "fuss" was about.

  2. On the topic of learning from mistakes: I have a tip for cookie bakers. Over the weekend, I mixed up some dough for oatmeal-M&M-chocolate chip cookies and baked a few to have after dinner. I was quite pleased with the outcome. I was planning to let the dough chill in the fridge for a couple days and then bake the rest when I had more time.

    Yesterday, my parents were spending the day with the boys and my dad thought he would help out by baking the rest of the cookies. He checked with me about oven temperature and baking time, so I can't really complain. But somehow his cookies ended up overbaked. They weren't burnt, but they were probably in there a couple minutes too long. The difference in flavor is striking, and not for the better. Of course the boys don't care, but I'm sorry to have used all that butter and sugar on something that's frankly pedestrian at best.

    1. I was just wondering about that--we're still available. I'm thinking we could get there around 9:30 or 10. (Fine by me if you arrive a bit later, but if I don't get the boys out of the house by a certain time, they start climbing the walls.) Need to be back home by noon at the latest because in-laws visiting and because peperoncino's nap.

    2. I was going to check in on this, too. I could probably maybe make it for a few hours in the morning, but another day would be better for us. Unfortunately, that better time would be something in late June (June 20th?).

  4. So... my mom got laid off. Not a happy situation like RPZ's parent's layoff. No severance, etc. In fact, they offered her a 15-hour/week, 9-mo/year position (down from her full time, full year position), and told her that if she rejected that offer it meant she was quitting her employment. Despite the fact that she specifically expressed a desire to continue in her position or a reasonably similar position, they take the view that she quit.

    Also, she's been working as a youth minister, for more than 9 years at this position, and more than that overall. She has a masters in religious education. She has decades of teaching experience before that. There were two positions before, they've gone down to one (plus that part time thing). They decided to retain a younger male without as much experience and education (but presumably comparable pay). Plus they've treated her awfully as they've dismissed her, refusing to return e-mails or answer questions, etc.

    I've referred her to an employment attorney (Thanks CoC!). I really hope they say she has a good case...

    1. So do I.
      So much about employment law can be summed up, "It's not illegal for your boss to be an a**hole." Sorry to hear the news Philo.

      1. It should be illegal for bosses to be a**holes. (Yeah, I understand all the problems with that approach... Still.)

        1. Doesn't she work for a...church? A**hole treatment should not be tolerated.

          1. They have a document called "Justice In Employment" that applies to the whole diocese and is apparently presented as being good for employees. I've read relevant parts of the document. It appears to be entirely about shifting responsibility from the diocese to individual parishes, and from churches to employees. Like most employer policies, it's really about screwing over employees.

              1. I don't know. MN has some laws about church employment being "noncovered" but I'm not sure if that affects employee eligibility or just the tax burden of the employer.

              2. I assume that's why they claimed she quit, rather than being let go, but I don't know much about labor law.

                1. I may or may not be familiar with a case in California where the employee ran out his/her FMLA (health issues that may have been mental health issues), quit, then filed for unemployment back-dated to cover all of the unpaid FMLA time, claiming that his/her supervisor had caused the illness via stress (even though the illness preceded working for said supervisor). And won the appeal.

                  so, at least in one state, I'd say that access to unemployment benefits is rather expansive.

        2. But this isn't the first I've heard of questionable employment handling, with mother-in-law being a parochial school teacher for quite a while. I take what I hear with a grain of salt, but we've heard plenty...and where there's smoke...

    2. Sad that what I presume is a church or some sort of religious institution would treat a youth minister (or anyone else) that way. Hope things work out for her.

      1. Yeah, the church part of it makes it quite difficult to take. But, ya know, the Minneapolis/St. Paul diocese has some... issues. I'll stop there.

    3. your mom was a pretty awesome substitute teacher if I recall. Probably my second favorite after Mr. Pratt. Hope things look up soon

      1. Mr. Pratt! I remember that guy. He was very entertaining.

        I never had my mom as a teacher. But reports have always been good, as they were of her performance in this job too. The landing on her feet part, I'm confident about. But I still want to see her former employer "corrected".

    4. Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that, especially since it's your mom. Like the others said, it's disappointing that a church is being so mean, and that it happened at all. Here's hoping for the best moving forward.

    5. Sorry to hear this, especially after going through a difficult and somewhat contentious separation from a previous employer myself. For my part I did consult an employment attorney, but in the end decided that pursuing action was not likely in my overall best interest. Hindsight certainly validates that, but at the time it was a gut-wrenching decision. Best wishes for your mom.

  7. Since Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz gave Buxton a two-day breather on April 23-24, baseball’s No. 1 prospect was hitting .415 in his past 41 at-bats, reaching base at a .479 clip and slugging a ridiculous .805.

    That includes a two-run, walk-off homer in a 2-0 win Monday night.

    “All right, let’s say it’s six weeks later,” Ryan said, “ and he’s pounding it like he has been for the last two weeks. Then he’s starting to force our hand.”

    1. So Buxton is just another baby who can't play everyday. Gotta have time off two weeks into the season? Toughen up, squirt!

        1. I was going for stribbie commenter, but all the words are spelled correctly. That's the difference between Souhan and Maurersux69.

    2. Even though things are going well as compared to expectations for Molly so far. This just validates my baseless preference for M16.

      1. I think it's worked out better this way. If Molly wasn't managing the Twins, I doubt he'd be on the coaching staff or anything other than a roving instructor. This way, we have M16 managing the best prospects in Chattanooga and Molitor managing the Twins. If Molitor can't bring about a change in a couple seasons, then M16 will be ready to manage at the majors when all the best prospects are ready to produce at that level. If M16 was managing the Twins now, we wouldn't have Molly as well.

    3. I hope that wasn't totally serious. It would be completely messed up to force him to hit .400 for two months before promoting him.

      1. Maybe Ryan means that if he does that well for two months then the Twins just have to trade Hicks and install Buxton in center permanently.

  8. Speaking of institutional issues handling sexual assault, and I think we were at least obliquely, how about my least favorite franchise in all of professional sports? Isiah is gonna deny any culpability. Good hire, James Dolan. #leanintogether

  9. Holy wow ... Bryce Harper hit home runs in his first three at-bats today.

    2. Before today, he was in the top 9% in WAR of anyone who has ever played MLB.

    3. This is his fourth year in the league, and he's still the fourth youngest person playing in the National League.

      1. He is just over a year older than Byron Buxton and six months older than Miguel Sano.

      2. What I love about him is reading all the old school types who hate him because he didn't pay his dues and doesn't know his place. Every time I read something like that, it makes me root for him a little more.

          1. Right. Like Mickey Mantle (debuted at 19, played in 96 games; full-time starter at 20), Junior (127 games at 19), etc. Scrubini Fixation.

  10. Messi just scored to put Barcelona up 1-0 on Bayern Munich. Neuer had been the only thing keeping it nil-nil.

      1. What he did to Boateng, who's a world class defender, was just ridiculous. I might post the video later.

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