Thanksgiving Weekend

We did the Thanskgiving Day meal over at Adam's parents' house as planned. We also did the "secret Santa" arrangements as planned. Since I highly doubt anyone involved (except Adam) reads this, I think it's safe to reveal that I picked his mom. I think I'm pretty much done shopping for her already. She was easy :) I'm not really planning on getting too many other people actual gifts, but we'll see how things go. I've got my letter pretty much typed out and I bought cute snowman paper yesterday while we were out shopping. The meal itself was good, as usually. Slightly non-traditional (lasagna), but good. I couldn't find my Lactaid before we left so we stopped at Wal-Mart on the way. Turns out it was hidden way in the back of one of the cupboards so now I have lots of it. I still maintain his older sister was glaring at me throughout the entire meal (she was sitting across from me) but Adam says she's just crabby all the time. Hmmm. I don't know. It was also kind of odd when his mother and younger sister kept asking what the rest of my family was doing for Thanksgiving. I guess they'd find it strange that we don't really talk to each other much, but I just gave them as much information as I had and sat there feeling stupid. *sigh* Oh well.

On Friday we had our own Thanksgiving shindig here at our house. I made cornish hens with cornbread stuffing, broccolini (baby broccoli) with lemon and garlic, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and champagne. Ok, I didn't make the champagne, but you get the idea. Pictures of the scrumptous meal can be found in my photobucket album. After making all of that I posed the idea of having Christmas here instead of at Adam's parents' house. His mom said she'd think about it, but I'm not holding my breath. That's ok though. Less hassle for me.

Saturday was our shopping day since neither of us was insane enough to go out and try and do anything on Friday. We got ornaments for the tree and garland for outside on the balcony. We bought and returned two stars before we found one that wasn't too tall or too stupid looking. Overall I think the tree looks pretty good. I might be biased though because I decorated it... It's a good thing Adam got the garland and lights up outside yesterday because it's been raining all day today. I was going to try and get a picture of them after they went on at dusk (we got a timer...) but I think I'll postpone that until it's less wet out.

Overall it was a relaxing and productive weekend.

Christmas Tree

Just a quick post here to say that we got the tree up on Friday, decorated it last night. Here's a picture:



And here's our special ornament for this year:

Yeah, I know. Cheesy.

TV

I have a lot of free times these days. That of which isn’t spent eating or messing around on the computer is generally spent watching tv. I’ve kind of gotten into a pattern. Most days I get home around 5 and watch re-runs of “7th Heaven” on ABC Family. Then at 6 I switch over to “Good Eats” on the Food Network followed by “Wheel of Fortune” at 6:30. I’m going to win that prize one of these days. I can just feel it. On Mondays I watch the new episode of “7th Heaven” on the WB and then by 8 I’m usually wiped out enough to go lay down in bed. On Tuesday we’re generally at the gym or doing other things. There’s nothing good on Tuesdays anyway. Same goes for Wednesdays. I started the season watching Martha Stewart’s version of “The Apprentice” but I very quickly lost interest. I still check it out every once in a while, but I usually end up watching the Food Network. On Thursday there’s Donald’s “Apprentice” which I watch weekly as a devoted fan. I’m rooting for Alla. :) Friday’s are pretty boring because it seems that the television programmers decided to put every horrible show on Friday. The weekends are up in the air most times. I watch a lot of “In the Kitchen” on, once again, the Food Network. Sometimes there’s a good movie on, but most times I get so bored I go and do something else. Sunday offers football and, later in the evening, “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and “Desperate Housewives.”

I watch way too much tv and should really try to scale it back. It’s not as though my life revolves around it though. I am going to have to tape the special 2 hour long “Apprentice” on Thursday though because we’ll be over at Adam’s parents’ house…

Winter

Well so far winter sucks. And it isn’t even really winter yet. Last week Wednesday it snowed and rained and the temperature was just right so the roads froze over into a sheet of ice. Luckily for me, my body decided to give me a migraine headache that day so I spent my time in bed. There were something like 200 accidents on highway 41 in the couple of counties nearby. People just don’t know how to drive in this kind of weather. I have many pet peeves as I am generally annoyed about something all the time. One of my main ones around this time of year is horrible driving skills and etiquette. Last week I had to drive up to the casino in Green Bay for my IMA meeting. It was raining and dark and generally icky out. I was driving about the speed limit, leaving plenty of space between myself and the car in front of me. I just hate when you’re following a car and their tires kick all kinds of crap up on your windshield. So, a car passes me and then cuts me off, eliminating that cushion I had created. This pissed me off. I wasn’t leaving space there so he could move over. I was leaving space because that’s what you do when it’s crappy outside and you have no desire to end up with your front end smooshed into the back end of someone else. Driving in snow and ice isn’t really that complicated. You just have to be extra cautious and especially aware of the other drivers around you. People always drive too fast and that is what causes most of the accidents on highways during the winter season. I guess these people haven’t heard of “leaving a little early to give yourself some extra time to get places safely.” I am confident in my ability to drive in snow. I just doubt that ability in the other drivers on the road.

It snowed again last night and was still snowing this morning as I left for work. This is most snow in November we’ve gotten in 5 years. I’m not too thrilled with it. I had to brush a good inch or two off of my car this morning. It never fails that as I’m brushing a pile off the top of the car a gust of wind blows the whole thing back at me, dousing me in snow. It’s so annoying. The drive in to work wasn’t too bad. The snow was just beginning to get gloppy on the roads. I left about 45 minutes earlier than I usually do. But not because of the snow. I figured the earlier I got here this morning, the sooner I could leave. Traffic wasn’t too bad and there were only about 2 people who were apparently in a great hurry and rudely rushed by, endangering the lives of everyone else in the vicinity. *sigh* It’s going to be a long winter.

Christmas Gift Ideas

So this whole gift exchange thing with Adam’s family… I have to come up with some ideas of what I want for Christmas by Thursday. This is difficult for me. I’ve never been one to ask other people to get me things. I don’t know if it’s my independent streak or if it’s something else. I am just not very comfortable asking other people for things. I even feel bad about eating food in the house that I know Adam bought. I know it’s completely ridiculous. We alternate weeks, taking turns as to who pays when we go grocery shopping. It’s generally pretty equal this way. I still feel weird though, eating stuff on weeks when I know he paid. I guess it’s just something I’ll have to get over. Anyway, back to the gift exchange. Adam tells me to just put down places I could use gift cards for. I don’t know. Gift cards are en vogue these days and all, but I just think it takes the fun both out of choosing the gift and getting the gift. Plus then you know exactly how much the person spent on you. The problem is I don’t know what else to ask for. I don’t need anything and I don’t know what I want. I don’t want to ask for stupid things that I don’t need just because I have to put something down on that piece of paper. Does anyone have any ideas of what I might want to ask for? Leave me a comment if you’ve got suggestions. I’m struggling with this whole thing. Just one of the many reasons I dislike the last two months of each year…

My Problem (ok, one of them...)

There are times when I’ll think of something I really want to write about and post here. The problem is that by the time I get in front of a computer, I’ve completely forgotten what it is I wanted to write. I’ve come up with a solution. I think. I’m trying to write down the subjects I want to touch on in my little notebook and then write about them later on. We’ll see how well this works.

DB vs DC

I hate holidays. If for nothing else, I hate them because it means the few days leading up to them are the longest days at work ever. This is because all of the people who have been here for a few years have earned enough days of vacation to leave about a week and a half before the actual holiday. I think most of my office has off for the entire month of December. Me, being a humble employee with less than one year of service, does not have this luxury. So I sit here, in my cube, in the deafening silence. Today wasn’t so bad. I had stuff to do and also had a meeting about the new profit sharing plan they’re implementing, so that took up some time. Tomorrow also shouldn’t be too horrible. Residual stuff to do from today. It’s Wednesday that is going to be absolutely terrible. My manager is off as is her manager. Actually, her manager is off all week. I am guessing there will be about 5 people here on Wednesday. And by that time I will have pretty much nothing to do. The middle of the month tends to drag because not much is happening in my world. I’m not looking forward to it.

Now about this new profit sharing thing here at work… Formerly they had a defined benefit pension plan. With my vast accounting knowledge, I can tell you that these kinds of plans are a pain in the butt. But actuaries like them a lot because they keep them employed, coming up with complicated formulas and pulling numbers out of the air and all. The company finally decided that it was time to change. This was not particularly a big surprise to me. DB plans are kind of like the original version Nintendo. Or maybe even the Atari. They’re old news. What’s big and hot are the DC, Defined Contribution, plans. Otherwise known as your 401(k). These are much easier to manage and a lot of the responsibility is put on the employee rather than on the employer. Of course, the employer is still responsible for ensuring that the money they say they’re putting aside for the employees is really there (there have been quite a few debacles around that subject lately), but there are no funky formulas and the company isn’t the one putting up all the cash. Pretty nice deal for their side, eh? Understandably, this is causing a bit of a ruckus among employees who have been with the company for a while but not long enough to be grandfathered under the old plan. This doesn’t affect me as I’ve been here less than a year. I am not even vested in the pension plan and will therefore not even be included in the people who will have their service years frozen.

I’ve digressed. My original plan was to talk about the new profit sharing program. Now, when I worked as an intern over at Presto Products, I was very familiar with their profit sharing program. Heck, I did all the payout estimates and booked the accrual each month for three years. I knew what elements were measured and what the payout percent would be for each level attained. I must say, they had a pretty good program. If the company did well, employees could get quite the bonus. This bonus was in the form of a check sent out in February. Cash. Moola. That employees could spend right away on whatever they wanted. Good deal. Now, this new “profit sharing” plan that Bemis has come up with is different. This incentive will come in the form of contributions to the accounts you have elected for your 401(k) to go to. You can’t touch this money until you retire. It’s based on % growth of EPS year to year. At a minimum, everyone will earn 2% (of your wages, that is.) At a maximum, 5%. I don’t know. It’s not smart to complain about “free” money, but it seems like we’re getting a bum deal somehow. I know Americans in general really need to learn how to save and it’s good that the company is trying to help secure comfortable retirements for their employees. I guess it’s not fair to compare one company to another, but it just seems like something is off. Maybe I came into this company with too much knowledge about what kind of benefits other people get…

In any case, I’ve bumped my 401(k) contribution up to 8% to get the maximum company match starting January 1st. That’s another point I could grumble about (they contribute, at max, 2.5%) but I won’t. I can’t complain too much or I might get in trouble. :)

I'm going to asphyxiate myself with my phone cord

It’s amazing that phones with cords still exist. Sometimes I would kill for a cordless phone at my desk at work. Over the past week or so, my phone cord has become a knotted mass of plastic. When I pick up the receiver to answer, the entire base of the phone scoots along my desk after it. I have to lean my neck down in order to talk into the phone at a distance where the person on the other end can hear me. It’s just ridiculous. So today I took action. I took the receiver off the base and dangled it over the edge of the desk. I watched it twist and turn for a few minutes. It didn’t get all the knots out, but it’s a vast improvement. Unfortunately I’m certain this is just a temporary fix. Stupid phones.

Not much has been going on lately. Can you tell? I’ll be up in Green Bay this evening for the joint IMA meeting. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night. If I get too bored, I suppose I could just sneak out and go to the casino that is next door. Heh. Adam is left to his own devices this evening, as he has the night off and I’ll be out. Tomorrow and Thursday I’ll be working up in New London on the fixed asset inventory I think I mentioned before. It should be interesting. The Plant Manager has assured me it will definitely be a painful experience. And he wasn’t joking. Between tonight and two days breathing in ink fumes, I should have one heck of a headache for the remainder of the week. Yay! Good thing nothing of much importance is going on. The monthly executive meeting is this Friday, so I’m looking forward to the free food that generally accompanies it. One of the perks of working at the corporate office I guess.

I bought Christmas cards yesterday while shopping at Shopko. I haven’t started working on a letter at all, but perhaps I’ll get on that this weekend. It’s still relatively early, so I’m not too concerned. I do like to get mine out early though. That way people who forgot I existed still have the chance to reciprocate the card before the time has come and gone. Aren’t I nice? Since my twice in a row computer hard-drive meltdowns, I have been backing my hard-drive up every couple of weeks. This means my address file should be safe. Of course, if anyone reading this knows for a fact that I don’t have your address or the address I’ve got is wrong, let me know. I don’t really plan to send out a “give me your address” e-mail at all. I figure if someone moved and didn’t bother to tell me, they don’t deserve a card. So there.

Now some random blogging about stuff in the news that caught my attention:

* As it has made national headlines, I’m sure most of you have heard about Steven Avery and Teresa Halbach. I just find it kind of fishy that this guy is released from prison in 2003 after it is found that he didn’t really rape someone and then he goes and (most likely) murders this woman, hides her car and possessions, and burns her body. It seems kind of suspicious to me. His previous conviction was overturned due to DNA evidence that proved it wasn’t him. This additional testing only came at the insistence of a group called the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which is associated with the University of Wisconsin Law School. Now, it’s not that I’m doubting the reliability of DNA evidence. It just seems odd that he is almost certainly responsible for this new crime. When he was released from prison 2 years ago, he appeared all over the news saying he had no hard feelings for the DA or the courts for their mistake. He is currently in the process of suing for wrongful imprisonment or something. Then he goes and does something like this? But apparently the whole family is kind of shady. They own an auto yard in Mishicot or thereabouts and even most of the neighbors are wary to talk about them on camera. He has been formally charged of the crime this afternoon after being held for a gun violation. It should be interesting to see how this plays out. His brother is already crying out that he’s been framed by the local police who apparently have it out for the entire family. But it has also been reported that some of the family loyalty is waning with all the evidence that is being released to the pubic.

* Last week an 18-year-old was elected mayor of a small town out in Michigan. He beat out the incumbent by something like 2 votes. And some people say their vote doesn’t count? Granted, this particular town only has 8,200 residents. It should be interesting to see if he shows up in more “important” races down the line or if this first taste of political action kills his desire to lead.

* They’re going to raise postage by 2 cents on January 8, 2006. Oh no! Thank goodness it doesn’t take effect until AFTER Christmas cards are sent. That increase could send some people into bankruptcy.

* The Advance Titan is the newspaper associated with the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. I know a few people who are still on staff there and all I can say is that I’m embarrassed for them. The paper has been degraded to such low quality journalism that it isn’t even funny. Add to that the joke that is the comments section on their website and you have a perfect display of how colleges have been forced to admit just about anyone in order to make ends meet. I actually know the EIC, and although I can believe that he is doing some of the things he’s doing, it doesn’t seem like it would be good move, career-wise. He can’t just go and delete everything he wrote here when he decides to finally graduate and get a “real” job. I continue to read the online version every week because, let’s face it, who can resist a train wreck? What I’d really like to know though is where the faculty is in all of this. I know the paper is not associated with the journalism department, but perhaps they should be. It pains me to be associated with this level of moronism. But then again, if you think the AT is bad, you should check out Life and Liberty News, “UW-Oshkosh's #1 Source for Political Commentary,” (aka UWO’s right-winged newspaper wannabe.) It really is quite amusing and possibly worse journalism than the AT.

PCD

Ok, a couple different things I want to touch on in this post.

First of all, I broke down and bought an actual CD this past week. Normally I'd do the "borrowing from other people illegally" thing, but I decided to do the right thing on this one. It's the Pussycat Dolls. I'm not sure exactly what possessed me to go ahead and purchase this CD, but I'm kind of glad that I did. Now, the Pussycat Dolls appear to be the lead singer and then four or five backup ladies who dance around in their underwear, thrusting their hips, acting like hookers, asking whether you want your girlfriend to be a freak like they are. Surprisingly, very few of the songs on their CD are anything like their "Don'tcha" hit. There are a few tracks that even have a blues kind of mood. The lead singer, Michelle, actually has quite a powerful and amazing voice. Sometimes she sounds like Natalie Cole, sometimes like Christina Aguilera. If you can ignore one or two of the songs, the CD itself is pretty decent.

Secondly, we went and got a Christmas tree this past Thursday. It is sitting in the box in the second bedroom and will probably stay there until after Thanksgiving. It's a 7 foot Alleghany Pine or Fir or something. Fake of course. (I think the "it's in a box" thing should have given that away.) It's a cute tree. Hopefully it will fluff appropriately after being de-boxed.

As of now, it looks like we'll be going over to Adam's parents' house on Thanksgiving evening, after Adam is done at work. They're not quite sure what they'll be doing yet. It all depends on how his mother feels - she had shoulder surgery this past week and is hopped up on drugs. Adam works again the day after Thanksgiving, but not until 5pm, so we plan to have a quasi-Thanksgiving thing here in the morning or early afternoon. We saw this good looking recipe on Food Network yesterday morning for cornish hens with cornbread stuffing, so we're going to give that a try.

I admit it, I'm totally addicted to the Food Network. I recently got one of Rachel Ray (i.e. the lady who does 30 minute meals)'s cook books and made her pretzel coated chicken this afternoon. Yum-O! LoL.

Anyway, for Christmas, apparently it's a tradition to do a "secret Santa" deal with his family, so I'm included this year. It should be interesting. I'm not real big into the Christmas/holiday thing, so we'll see how well I handle this.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to go to the gym (or do Tae Bo here at home) everyday. I went alone on Friday and we went together on Saturday morning. Including Tuesday, I figure I did about 5.5 or 6 miles this week. *sigh* I need to be more motivated.

Anyway, I've spent the day cooking and cleaning up after myself interspersed with episodes of "Sex and the City" and some football. I can't believe the Vikings pulled another field goal out of nowhere to win. So awesome...

Blogging about a blog

As I was perusing some other blogs on the blogspot domain, I came across a blog from an 8th grade teacher in Ohio. She posts questions and her students respond in the comments section. One of the questions posted asked whether you’d rather be a jock or a nerd. I found most of the responses laughable and filled with pathetic grammatical and spelling mistakes. 8th graders are typing these answers? What is the world coming to? Perhaps I was just an extraordinarily articulate 13-year-old.

One of the responses that made me laugh out loud was this one (with some liberties taken to correct spelling):

“I would rather be a jock because jocks play sports. Nerds read and do home work all the time and don't have fun. Jocks can become a famous athlete someday. Nerds could become the president. And for some reason everybody hates the president.”

Everybody doesn’t hate the president because he’s a nerd. Everybody hates the president because he’s an IDIOT with seemingly little or no knowledge of how to run the country. And there are absolutely no famous athletes that everybody hates…no…course not… And what about Arnold? He’s more of a jock than a nerd. And that guy from Minnesota…the wrestler who was governor for awhile. Politicians aren’t always the ones with the brains. ‘Tis a shame.

It just amazed me how alike most of the answers were. The kids who wanted to be a jock stated that by being the jock one could: 1) be popular, 2) play sports and thereby get a hot body, 3) get the chicks, 4) be famous. They didn’t want to be a nerd because nerds: 1) are losers, 2) get picked on, 3) have no life and sit at home doing homework all day and all night. The kids who went the other way and opted for the nerdish way of life said that nerds: 1) get better grades and therefore can get into college more easily, 2) are nicer than jocks. They didn’t want to be jocks because jocks: 1) are jerks, and 2) are stupid. Now, it looks like the jocks have a better argument going on here, which I find disheartening since the jocks are the ones who are supposed to be stupid…

I’m am, without a doubt, a nerd. I really don’t remember sitting at home doing homework all night. Then again, I never did homework at any time. I got picked on, but not necessarily because of my nerd status. I think it was more my fat status that prompted that. But I think there’s something to be said for the attractiveness of intelligence. There are plenty of people out there perfectly willing to look past a hideous outside in order to extort the smarts underneath. It’s amazing what people will do to get someone else to do their homework. In any case, I found this particular posting especially interesting. Full of stereotypes and generally bad for society, but interesting nonetheless.

These children are our future (jocks and nerds.)

The Blue Screen of Death

I’ve been slacking on this blogging thing. Sometimes it’s like days go by and I don’t even notice. Last week was pretty uneventful. Adam worked every night so I was left alone to my own devices most of the time. I went to the gym alone on Thursday, which was ok. It was kind of busy, but I did about 40 minutes on the treadmill, liking the incline feature. Adam had Saturday off so we went out to a bar for the first time in a long time. We slept in on Saturday morning, something else that hadn’t happened for quite some time. We took some time to go shopping, but didn’t really end up buying too much. He watched the Badger game (or at least as much of that as he could – apparently they got their butts kicked) and some Ultimate Fight thing later on in the evening while I took a nap and tried to alleviate my headache. He worked again on Sunday so that left me to watch the Vikings win and the Packers lose. All is right with the world. When he got home we went bowling (which had been the original intention on Friday.) I was able to prove that I do, indeed, really suck at the game. I bowled 60 or 70 something, 91, 47. Just pathetic. I did beat Adam on the second game though. Not quite sure how that happened. In any case, we stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and called it a night after watching (most of) Desperate Housewives.

Today has been a long day. And it’s not even over yet. I planned to take the trash down to the dumpsters this morning on my way to work. On the way down the stairs, the handle on the paper bag in which I had stashed the old newspapers and cardboard boxes decided to rip off and the whole thing went tumbling down the stairs, spewing newspaper et al all down the stairs. I should have taken that as a sign… When I got to work, I turned on my computer and surveyed the mess that is my desk. As soon as I logged in and the startup scripts started running, I got the “blue screen of death.” Now, this had also happened last Friday, at which point I called the IT helpdesk and someone came down and looked at it. Apparently they forgot the part where they’re supposed to FIX it. *sigh* So, right away at 7:30 I called the helpdesk again. Got a different person and told him the lowdown. He said he’d inform the person I’d worked with on Friday what was going on when she came in (around 8:30.) Ok. Fine. I putzed around for a bit trying to find something to do that didn’t involve a computer. Hard to do these days. I decided to finally get rid of a bunch of file folders from 2004 that have been sitting on my desk since…well…2004. That done, I sat and waited. And waited some more. As 9:00 rolled around, I gave the consultant from Friday a call to her direct line. I got her voicemail (shocking, I know) and left her a message. Time ticked by with no response. Around 9:30, I called the helpdesk again and got a third person. I told her what was going on and she said she’d ask the other two how things were going and they’d get back to me. Sure. As I grew more bored, I decided to go offer my assistance to anyone who might need some (non-computerized) help. The first person I asked was Sue, the receptionist. Rather than give me any work, she decided to call the head honcho up in the IT department and get to the bottom of this whole thing. HH tells Sue that first IT person (from Friday) will call me. So I head back to my desk and wait for the phone to ring. And wait some more. Finally my manager is just as frustrated as I am so SHE calls the helpdesk. Surprisingly (or perhaps coincidentally) she gets the person I had worked with on Friday. Said IT person claims she didn’t know that no one had come down yet. Uhm, yeah. Ok then. I think the helpdesk needs to work on their communication skills. So, at about 10:45 I finally get someone to come down and look at my computer. It progressed throughout the morning to bluescreening as the login scripts started to bluescreening before I even logged on, to bluescreening about a minute after startup. I actually got a read an email once! Anyway, when the IT person got down here, it let me log in and gave her no problems while she read error logs, did diagnosis crap, downloaded and installed drivers. Pfft, I don’t know. I’m no IT person. I regained possession of my computer a little after 11. It appears to be working for now, but I’m not holding my breath that I’ve seen the last of the evil blue screen. I’m just hoping it doesn’t take 3 ½ hours to get it working the next time. You’d think the fact that I wasted that much time waiting around would have made the day go faster. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to work that way.

Not quite sure what the plans are for tonight. Adam has off, so we’ll be going to the gym for awhile. After that things are pretty much up in the air.

The coming weeks don’t look too exciting either. Next week I have the IMA meeting up in Green Bay. It’s a joint meeting with another chapter so I’m hoping the meal collections aren’t too messed up. The meal choices leave a bit to be desired: shrimp scampi or filet mignon. I’m probably going to go with the filet mignon in the hopes that it comes with side dishes that are more appetizing than the shrimp. Adam tells me to eat at McDonalds on the way there and then bring the filet mignon home for him. We’ll see. I’ll be up in New London two or three times this month since I have to do a fixed asset inventory. I’m pretty sure 95% of the stuff on the current list is nonexistent, but I still have to wander the plant looking for it. *sigh* Other than that, not a lot is going on. It looks like Adam will be working both Thanksgiving and the day after. I’ll most likely be cooking a chicken on one of those days since I dislike turkey and I’ll have a lot of spare time.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got. I plan to start working on an “end of the year” letter at some point. That should be fun, given the reactions I got to the one I sent last year. Heh.