Secrets Revealed

Okay, my two regular readers know the truth about my "bosses" and "co-worker," but I think it might be time to come clean and change my format. And I'll tell you why. I want to be able to tell you all about my bosses, and I mean all. For example, Boss 2 only has six teeth, and she just got the sixth one, like three days ago. Now, if you think of my boss like your boss, you know, all grown up and whatever, and not as the Most Adorable Toddler Ever, you might wonder about the six teeth. So under the old format, that is a story I would leave out. But I don't want to leave it out. So I'm telling you now:

Boss 1 and Pete are the same person.
Boss 2 and Lulu are the same person.
Co-Worker and Husbandguy are the same person.
The Temps are grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, etc.
From now on, while I love my job as a domestic executive, I'm just The Mom. And this is my world. 'kay?

A Summer Project

Someone gave me this a hundred years ago, and it's been out in my garage, which gets incredibly hot in the summertime, for a very long time so who knows if it will still work. Husbandguy found it yesterday and I showed it to Boss 1 (who, you'll remember, is in the office with us all day during the summer) and she thought we should do it. She'd never seen one before. I hope it works. She'll think it's pretty cool, I bet, if it does. We started yesterday. This was the first step.

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Back to the Main Office

Boss 1's daytime office is a part-year thing. In the summer, she works out of the main office, which Boss 2 and I are really looking forward to.

She accomplished so much at her daytime office this past year. We are really proud of her. I just hope she's not bored at this office all summer. When she's around, though, we seem to do more - more offsite meetings, teambuilding activities, etc. - so hopefully she won't be.

Today is her last day at her daytime office so Mr. Co-Worker took her out for a special breakfast. I'm trying to think of something special to do when she gets back from her daytime office this afternoon. If only I knew how to make eggrolls...

Passive Aggressive Present

I bet you don't get presents for your annual review. You might get a raise or a bonus or a hat with your company logo or something cheesy like that, but I bet you don't get presents, from your wish list, from everyone. We do. It's cool.

So, a couple of our temps went on vacation recently, before Boss 2's annual review, and before they left, they dropped off a box at the office and said something passive aggressive like "[Mommy's Nintendo] can put that together...if she wants to..."

Duh! "If she wants to..."? When have I not torn into a box that says "Some Assembly Required" on the outside? And they knew that! "If she wants to..."! Jeez! They could have just said,"This has to be put together. Would you do it?" I would have said, "Try and stop me!"

I know passive aggressive when I see it. I should! I'm the queen. Everyone here is... Boss 1, Mr. Co-Worker... Well, Boss 2 isn't, but I bet she will be eventually. Jeez, people! Just say what you mean!!

(Note to Self: investigate hats with company logo...)

Fun Time

Boss 2's annual review was a rollicking success! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Boss 1 had a few of her people over to help celebrate, and a bunch of our temps were there. Some of them we hadn't seen in a very long time so it was nice. Boss 2 enjoyed herself a lot. She can be funny in crowds sometimes, but she wasn't yesterday. She really seemed to be in her element. It was cool. I love annual reviews (you know that already).

Workin' Off Site

One of the things I like best about my job is that sometimes I get to work off site with people from Boss 1's daytime office. It's just volunteer/helping-out stuff, but it is really rewarding. When I worked in Big Bank Land, I didn't have the time (or the freedom, really) to do stuff like that. I think that there was some program where you could take 1/2 hour a week for volunteer work or something, but none of the local bosses seemed to know about it and they're the ones who mattered.

This morning, Boss 2 and I went and stuffed folders, which is something I would not have enjoyed in Big Bank Land. I loved it this morning! Also, if we, as volunteers, help with a little research here and there, Boss 1's daytime office gets free stuff! I'm all for that!

Boss 1 likes to work from our office during the summer. It will be Super Nice having her around, but I'm going to miss her daytime office (I bet she will too after a while). We'll have to plan a bunch of off-site stuff with temps this summer...

Tomato Update

All three of the tomato plants already have buds, which totally surprised us. It seemed kind of soon, and they really don't seem that much bigger than they were when we planted them.

Maybe Boss 1 was on to something with all that selling the tomatoes talk...

Contest Winner

Boss 1 won a contest at her daytime office. They had a little fair and everyone who participated got to take part in one of those guess-how-many-in-the-jar games, and she apparently came the closest! I never win those kinds of things. She's so cool!!

Boss 1's Plans for the Tomatoes

Boss 1 has high hopes for the tomato plants this year. I also think she really likes the farmers' market. The other day she suggested that we should sell the extra tomatoes we get from our plants this year. I know she was thinking of taking them to the farmers' market and setting up shop (I don't think she really gets how that works). I didn't want to squash her enthusiasm so I just said that I thought that sounded like an interesting idea and I couldn't wait to see if we got enough tomatoes to do that. It's more likely that we'll give the extras to the temps...

Just Like Him

So yesterday, remember, I was sick. I was miserable. All I wanted to do was be still and rest. Remember too that Mr. Co-Worker was doing my work, dealing with Boss 1 and Boss 2, generally being a champ... In the morning anyway...

You should have seen how quickly I had to get over being sick when he realized around lunchtime that he might also be getting whatever it was that we had. Did he push through? Fight the good fight so that I could get the rest I needed? Of course not! "Ohhhh... This sucks... I hurt everywhere... Ohhhh..." Then he went to rest for five minutes, and when he got up two-and-a-half hours later because I asked him to, guess what he did! He rested some more in a different spot!

Know what he's doing now? Resting! Know what I'm doing? Working. Know what he'll do all day? Rest. Know what I'll do all day? Work.

Poor Mr. Co-Worker. It must be miserable to be sick. I wouldn't know. I'm not allowed to be!

Gross

Last night, Boss 1 and I got sick. We both threw up but not at the same time. Apparently Boss 2 was really sick the other day when I flaked out on VW and we caught it. Boss 1 is feeling better, but I still feel really crappy and Mr. Co-Worker is having to do all my work. He's being really nice about it.

Anyway, that's why you're not getting a real post today. Although I think I may have a Pete Says that is ready to go. I'll put that up.

Tomatoes 2007

Every year, Boss 1 likes to grow a tomato plant out in front of the office. This year, she had decided not to do it, but when she was at the farmers market this past weekend, she found a good deal on a 3-pack of plants, probably because it is getting late in the season to start tomatoes. She brought them back to the office and had me help her plant them. Usually, she just gets a few tomatoes before something tragic happens to her plant (heat, not enough water, too much fertilizer [Mr. Co-Worker!], etc.), but since she's got three plants this year and we've learned lessons from years gone by, we have high hopes for 10 (?), maybe, nice red tomatoes... We'll see. I'll update you...

Initiative

Recently, I was out to eat with my bosses and Mr. Co-Worker and a friend of ours and her bosses. We happened to be at a fast food place because Boss 1 really likes that stuff. The people behind the counter were taking forever getting the people in front of us taken care of. We were there 20 minutes, and we didn't move up in line at all. The one order that did get completed in that time was wrong. After about ten minutes, I was done waiting. It wasn't like that was the only place to eat. But I didn't say anything because I am always the one who has to say something. No one else ever says, "This sucks! Let's get out of here!" I didn't expect that any of the bosses would speak up. That's not what they do. I thought, though, that co-worker or our friend might take the initiative and suggest we go somewhere else. I can't believe they would have been fine waiting two hours for a cheeseburger (which is what would have happened if we'd stayed there)! Did they really think everyone else wanted to be there so bad that we'd be upset if they suggested we go somewhere else? Come on! But I gave them a chance. In fact, I gave them 10 more minutes before I said, "Let's go somewhere else." And here's the thing: I could see on their faces that they were relieved that I suggested it! So why didn't they say something?! Why does it always have to be my idea? Jeez, people!

Grass

I wrote this when I got back from vacation, but it didn't get posted. Since I don't have anything interesting to write about, I guess I'll post it today...

Our office is in this little house with a yard and everything, and since the company owns the building and doesn't "have the funds" for landscape service, we have to maintain the lawn ourselves. While we were away on vacation, there was an unexpected frost that killed everything colorful on the property, but apparently frost is good for grass or something because the lawn is more than 8 inches long! Mr. Co-Worker usually does the yard work because, well, he's the man, but he went on vacation with me, and since he's only part-time and not here all day long, the grass just keeps growing and growing. It looks like Mr. Co-Worker will be working Saturday morning. If I remind Boss 1, who gets really nervous about snakes even though she's never seen one outside a zoo or aquarium, that snakes like to hide in long grass, she'll insist that he get it mowed before it rains tomorrow. Is that too sneaky? It needs to be mowed! I'd do it, but I hurt myself trying to start the mower the last time I tried...

Mmmm... Ice Cream...

Yesterday, Mr. Co-Worker suggested that we go out for ice cream, and Boss 1 thought that was a great idea so we did. I got strawberry cheesecake flavor. I've had cheesecake ice cream before but that was always cheesecake flavored ice cream with fruit swirled through it. This was different. It had big chunks of cheesecake all through the ice cream, which I think was just vanilla flavored with strawberry swirls. I shared mine with Boss 2, but she didn't get any of the cheesecake chunks (shhhh! don't tell her!). It was soooo good.

Off-Site Meeting (part 2)

Boss 1's daytime office had their off-site meeting last Friday. It was an educational team-building sort of thing. The whole thing was outdoors, and it was chilly (it was 90º two days before!) and misting, but it held off really raining until it was time to leave.

I was with a little group that included Boss 1 and some of her daytime co-workers. On the bus ride there, you could tell everyone was psyched to be out of the office for the day. When we got there, we started by having lunch first, which I think was a good idea because then we didn't have to worry about stopping to eat. The facility had the whole day planned out for us. When they were listing all the things we had to do, I didn't think it sounded like we had quite enough time. We were supposed to be back at the office by 2:00 because Boss 1 and her co-workers had an afternoon appointment, but they wound up missing that. Nobody seemed to really mind.

We had a good time, though. There were several agricultural exhibits that included planting and care of livestock (of all things!). And we took a tour of the facility. Then we were helping with harvesting when it started to really rain and we had to run back to the buses.

The bus ride home was less chaotic than the ride there, and it still seemed to take forever. I'm glad I wasn't driving! When we got back, Boss 1 cut out early and came back to the office with me. Boss 2 had had a temp helping her, and it looked like they'd had a quiet day so that was nice.

Off-site meetings are sure exhausting! But the change of pace was nice.

Recipe for Success

Mr. Co-Worker teases me. He says I never follow recipes. He is kind of right. I always seem to change something, add or substitute ingredients, change the cooking method, etc. I used to say that I always follow a recipe the first time, but I stopped saying that after he proved me wrong a bunch of times.

But yesterday I made oatmeal raisin cookie bars as a thank you for some other people who do work for Boss 1, and today I got all excited because I thought I had followed the recipe. The original recipe was for drop cookies, but it had an alternative cookie-bar option. So I called him at his other job and said, "Hey! I followed a recipe!" and he said, "Except for the pan size..." Darn it! He was right. I had changed the pan size! The original cookie-bar recipe only made 16 bars, which wasn't enough so I made thinner bars in a bigger pan. Come on! That shouldn't count. Right?

So help me out: you tell me I followed the recipe and I'll make him read this and then he can roll his eyes and say that I follow a recipe once every decade or something snotty like that.

But I did! Right? I followed the recipe.

Right?

Promoted!

Not me. I haven't been promoted. I don't think I can get much higher up here.

It's Boss 1. She found out yesterday that she has mastered all the skills in her current level of swimming (remember? personal enrichment?) and has been promoted to the next level. That took no time at all! She's pretty proud of herself. We'll have to have a little celebration, I think.

Magic Music

Sometimes Boss 2 needs a siesta, but she doesn't believe she does so she resists laying down. One of our temps put together this great CD of relaxing music, sort of lullaby-y stuff. If Boss 2 plays that, she's asleep in minutes. The CD has about 20 songs on it, I think, but Boss 2 has never heard past song 3 (which is too bad because song 17 is a great song, one of my favorites). The CD is almost magical, really!

The temp also made Boss 1 a CD; it has chicken songs on it. Boss 1 loves listening to it, but it doesn't put her to sleep. It's just silly fun.

We have a lot of Silly Fun at my job (the best job ever - remember?). Add that to the list of why this job is better than my other jobs.

Working the Weekend

We had a crazy weekend! We had a bunch of meetings scheduled, starting Friday evening. Some of it was team-building stuff that was fun so I guess it could have been worse. At least they weren't conference calls!

Friday was the first team-building meeting. The place where Boss 1 has her swimming lessons has a night once a month or so where you can just come and use the pool. Boss 1 had me sign us all up. So Boss 1, Boss 2, Mr. Co-Worker, and I all went together (we carpooled!) and spent an hour and a half just hanging out in the pool. Has your work ever done that? It was really nice and kind of relaxing. I hadn't been swimming for years! And Boss 2, who had only ever been swimming once, was a little nervous at first but wound up having a great time.

Then on Saturday, we had an exhibition downtown. That didn't turn out to be what we were expecting. It was more just a festival, but it was really fun, and again, we all went together. Int he afternoon, Boss 1 had a meeting with some folks from her daytime office. The Saturday things overlapped, but we made it to both with time for lunch in between.

Then Sunday Boss 1 and I had an appointment with one of our temps. That one was catered!

Whew! We were all super busy. Did you ever think you'd be waiting for Monday morning so you could take a break?