Company party is tomorrow. Gotta finish up all the name tags. And place holders. And coroporate communications. Oh yeah, and I have to come up with a Christmas mix since the band we hired can't fit in the room we rented because so many people RSVPed this year. Did I mention I'm emceeing as well?
Hope I remember to drink.
for reasons not worth going into, I went into the rabbit hole this morning looking at Larry Bird's rookie season. Did you know that the Celtics signed M.L. Carr as a free agent the summer of 1979 and were compelled to work a compensation trade with Detroit as a result? They sent Bob McAdoo and got two 1980 1st-Round picks in return. Those picks turned into the 1st and 13th picks. After the 1979-80 season, they then traded those picks to G.S. for Robert Parish and a 1st Round pick in the same draft (Kevin McHale).
So, by trade tree principles, the C's traded Bob McAdoo (age 28, i.e., still a great scorer, but increasingly injury-prone and about to fall off a career cliff to be an off-the-bench guy) and the rights to Joe Barely Cares and Rickey Brown for ML Carr, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale.
Red Auerbach is regretting his contract with the devil, though.
We're hosting festivus this year, and it's also a house warming ish party. Lots more people than I expected are coming. Have I mentioned that we live in a small house? Keg purchased, pork cooked, and aluminum pole installed.
The woman who runs our events at work failed to order enough food to feed the crowd at our staff party, so we made sure that won't happen at the slaughterhouse.
I've got a bunch of kid conflicts with the work Christmas party this year. Was told that ceo considers attendance akin to dedication to job. Looks like I'll be attending solo.
I've never had a legit work Christmas party. Potlucks during the workday do not count.
I've never had one either. Sheenie's company had its first one ever let night, so now I know what I've been missing.
Only had two at my first professional job. First time I became intoxicated was at one, which isn't a good idea. I mean, it felt amazing but let's just say that it blurred the professional chain of command lines. The company was a shit show anyway but looking back I'm pretty embarrassed.
That is a really unfortunate situation. We don't even have a work Christmas party and that is fine by me. Sometimes managers will use some of the "morale" budget to take folks out to lunch this time of year, but it's usually during regular business hours.
When I worked in the office before it moved to Omerha and I became a telecommuter, we had 2-3 days of "Festival of Gluttony" where people signed up to bring in food. Sampler's paradise
at first glance, this piece seems really meaty analysis. But the more you dig into it, it falls apart. Shreds.
Really weak sauce.
On a work trip to San Antonio (long ago), a bunch of us went over into one of the questionable districts for lunch.
We pull into this joint with smoke pouring out of the back - dubious construction (I'm guessing not Swiss) - but our host said fear naught.
We walk in and the first thing I encounter is a guy with a scissors looking at my tie - it's quickly removed as I see a wall covered with the bottom-half of ties.
Paper plates, napkins, plastic forks, and awesome bar-B-Q is how this story ends. And cole slaw.
Phil, are you working on a FMD post?
Or did your term run out?
(If so, you can keep running with it.)
Apparently the schedule is you post one in his place, then 45 minutes later he'll show up, post his own, then angrily disavow yours. 😉
Which is why I'm hoping to not step on his toes.
Well, Bloody Mary doesn't show up until you say her name into the mirror, so...
My term ran out.
Wifi-enabled outlets are cool
My wife outfitted a big chunk of our house with those about a year ago. I was pretty skeptical that it would be something worth having, but in the end I'd agree, they're pretty cool. We've got a smart lock for the door to the garage, too, which was a useful addition, since we would just skip locking the door most days when we left, so this way it locks itself when we leave, and unlocks when we pull into the driveway.
Of course, that didn't stop someone from breaking in this week, but at least that door is locked now....
I've picked up three (returned one -- faulty) which we've put in downstairs as "security" lights on lamps, and I found a ridiculously cheap set of four on eBay as well. The WiOn app is pretty slick, as are the options for various timers.
I tried to get a web-enabled sprinkler control when we had it installed, but the local company didn't have enough experience with them. Would have been nice to be able to switch it off from my desk when rain is in the forecast.
We run ours mostly through SmartThings, though we have a few that don't work with that system and use iDevices for those. I would be strongly against having a second app for just a few things, except one of those few things is a wifi enabled meat thermometer system, with three probes, including one that can measure the temp inside a smoker. Pretty sweet.
Trey played a couple jr hi baseball games this week. On Tuesday, he was 1-for-2 with a walk as the BCS Ravens won 14-5. Trey also played second base and threw out a runner at first base. On Thursday, he was 2-for-3 with an RBI and got his first chance to pitch. He only got 1 out and gave up 4 runs, but it was mostly soft hits and bad defense. He did walk 2 batters. He also played second base and tagged a runner out on a pickoff play. BCS won 12-4.
3-for-5 with a walk and an RBI! That's a good day in anyone's book.
You may or may not have noticed, but "Winter Wonderland" did not and will not appear today. It will most likely be back Monday unless the snow that's predicted for tomorrow becomes a storm, in which case I may have more time and it may come back sooner.
Isn't every day in December-March in SoDak a day in Winter Wonderland?
Mute swans, Eurasian coots in the Limmat, also Red-necked grebes on Lake Zurich.
22:
Horrible news out of Venezuela this morning, where #mntwins RHP Yorman Landa has died in a car accident. He was 22.