![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
As mentioned, the office is winding down. Now that we've shipped JanFeb to the printer, it only remains to receive their final proofs on Monday, dispatch back with corrections, proof those on Tuesday, and Bob's yer uncle. The boss leaves on Wednesday morning for back-to-back family holiday visits out of town and does not return until Jan 1. Since we have so much edit and production work in the can, I've convinced him there is no work for his employees to do and we should close the office from the 24th until the 4th. Yaaaaayyy!
The annual Christmas lunch will be on Monday, just the three of us. I've got my gift for Dem done and need to pick up the usual assortment of good teas I give the boss every year for his gift, and wrap them up. Will do tomorrow. Got a tip from a tea expert I met recently that Rishi or Numi brands, found at Whole Foods, offer the best black teas to suit Boss's taste.
I put a feeler out to the silent partner about bonuses this year. If you recall, I was angered and dismayed to find out last year that the other partner pubs gave THEIR people bonuses and we did not get any. Partner quietly reported back to me that, though this has been a difficult year for all, they are indeed doing some little bit for their people this year, and that he would say so to our boss. I'm putting out a memo to boss today to request them, with the idea that if I don't ask he may use it as an excuse not to put forth. We'll see what happens. I mean, the usual $25 BevMo gift card is appreciated and better than a stick in the eye, but what the people really want is good old cash.
I have bro, Mom, and BIL yet to finish for gifts but am otherwise done, wrapped and or shipped as needed. I dunno what I'm going to do yet with all of the time off ahead of me, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll be too broke to do much if the boss does not come across, what with Christmas expenses and all, but have plenty of home entertainments if it comes down to that.
- Mood:
wondering
I had just the Sunday shift this past week (expected holiday traffic and slight periods of madness but all in cheerful vein), and two event nights this week, and I'm now done with bookstore for a while. With the office also quiet, it's looking like an amazingly relaxing few weeks lie ahead.
As to the two event nights, the first was for a book called Paying the Toll, about the Golden Gate bridge, and the special District created by the governments around these parts to get it built, run and maintain it. Written by a public policy specialist, first as her PhD thesis ("believe me, though you can get it at the UC library, you do NOT want to read it") and then in this book form, it's an excellent history of getting our beloved bridge up, and the shenanigans of the District agency ever since.
The author arrived from frozen MI where she is teaching currently at UMich, about a half hour before her event, bringing the books with her. Apparently bookstore was unable to get decent terms from UPenn Press which published the thing, and asked the author to bring copies on Consignment. She gave off the impression that she felt a bit unloved by that.
I smoothed that over and bought her a cup of coffee and settled her down in the café. Note of Coincidence: her name is Louise and she's about 6'1" tall. As I told her, one of my 3 best friends is a Louise of about 6'2". I am destined to know goddess-like women named Louise, sez Fate.
About 30 people came to hear her read and ask questions. She was very pleased and seemed surprised by this turnout, though I thought that considering this is our beloved bridge and of close concern to the whole neighborhood, it should not have been a surprise that interested parties came. A nervous, breathy speaker (which was curious to me in a university prof/lecturer), she nonetheless delivered juicy goods on the Bridge District, firing up the crowd to no little extent. In the end, they urged bookstore to have her back again so they could go tell all friends and media to attend, promised to call the local papers and radio hosts on her behalf, and just generally started a minor grassroots campaign for her book.
I mentioned it was published by UPenn Press; that was because she couldn't shop it around here and find joy. Also, after sending comp copies to the Bridge District Board of bigwigs, she heard no reply and the book got mighty hushed up. Guess they didn't like the muck she raked, grin. Also, she had tried to get local papers and radio media interested in the book but with no luck. Hard to tell if this spoke of Powerful Agency Putting on the Brakes to it, or Naive Ivory Toweran not knowing how to promote a book. If the crowd that night has their way, local media shall be calling her up posthaste.
The second and final reading event was last night, a darkly funny anthology edited by Michele Clark and the son of George Plimpton called The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays. Though I've only read a few of the stories already, they are good ripe stuff. Michele is a Marin county native, which was fortunate as the only people in attendance on the event were her friends and family. I put that down to it being a week before Christmas and all who might normally attend are out panicking about the shopping and baking or something. Her F&F did her proud though, since we sold about 40 copies to them.
Nice event, wrapped early. I distributed my gift bottles of wine and holiday cards about to appropriate colleagues since this was my last shift before Christmas, and headed home.
As to the two event nights, the first was for a book called Paying the Toll, about the Golden Gate bridge, and the special District created by the governments around these parts to get it built, run and maintain it. Written by a public policy specialist, first as her PhD thesis ("believe me, though you can get it at the UC library, you do NOT want to read it") and then in this book form, it's an excellent history of getting our beloved bridge up, and the shenanigans of the District agency ever since.
The author arrived from frozen MI where she is teaching currently at UMich, about a half hour before her event, bringing the books with her. Apparently bookstore was unable to get decent terms from UPenn Press which published the thing, and asked the author to bring copies on Consignment. She gave off the impression that she felt a bit unloved by that.
I smoothed that over and bought her a cup of coffee and settled her down in the café. Note of Coincidence: her name is Louise and she's about 6'1" tall. As I told her, one of my 3 best friends is a Louise of about 6'2". I am destined to know goddess-like women named Louise, sez Fate.
About 30 people came to hear her read and ask questions. She was very pleased and seemed surprised by this turnout, though I thought that considering this is our beloved bridge and of close concern to the whole neighborhood, it should not have been a surprise that interested parties came. A nervous, breathy speaker (which was curious to me in a university prof/lecturer), she nonetheless delivered juicy goods on the Bridge District, firing up the crowd to no little extent. In the end, they urged bookstore to have her back again so they could go tell all friends and media to attend, promised to call the local papers and radio hosts on her behalf, and just generally started a minor grassroots campaign for her book.
I mentioned it was published by UPenn Press; that was because she couldn't shop it around here and find joy. Also, after sending comp copies to the Bridge District Board of bigwigs, she heard no reply and the book got mighty hushed up. Guess they didn't like the muck she raked, grin. Also, she had tried to get local papers and radio media interested in the book but with no luck. Hard to tell if this spoke of Powerful Agency Putting on the Brakes to it, or Naive Ivory Toweran not knowing how to promote a book. If the crowd that night has their way, local media shall be calling her up posthaste.
The second and final reading event was last night, a darkly funny anthology edited by Michele Clark and the son of George Plimpton called The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays. Though I've only read a few of the stories already, they are good ripe stuff. Michele is a Marin county native, which was fortunate as the only people in attendance on the event were her friends and family. I put that down to it being a week before Christmas and all who might normally attend are out panicking about the shopping and baking or something. Her F&F did her proud though, since we sold about 40 copies to them.
Nice event, wrapped early. I distributed my gift bottles of wine and holiday cards about to appropriate colleagues since this was my last shift before Christmas, and headed home.
- Mood:
cheerful
The girls came over for dinner on Friday night, and the house and I breathed a sigh of happiness at the company. L brought a magnum of delicious Gewurz from Lazy Creek that she bought years ago (vintage date was 2002) on a tasting day, and we're so glad we caught it just in time; it had turned a deep golden color and was on the cusp of being too old. It was fantastic with a cheese mixture she'd also brought from her company's catered holiday party. The caterer had mixed ricotta and other mild cheese with dried fruits; delicate and rich and decadent.
We talked and nibbled for ages (JRo was late from work, and then rain and traffic delayed her further). We didn't tell her about the crab cakes we finished before she got there [evil grin].
I served them quiche filled with chunks of crab meat and bits of tarragon, and a spinach salad with more of the crab, mandarin oranges, and slivered almonds. Over dinner the discussion turned to holiday music, which I was playing on the little iPod stereo. Weezy said that iTunes was giving away a nice sampler of 20 holiday songs; great tip and I downloaded it yesterday. She started us on a discussion of holiday favorites with a neat set of questions:
--what is your favorite holiday song? (Carol of the Bells is mine; others chose White Christmas, and The Christmas Song)
--who is your favorite performer of holiday music? (I like Bing of course, Mitch Miller, Johnny Mathis)
--what holiday song do you normally dislike but when sung by this one artist, it appeals? (Blue Christmas as performed by Elvis Presley, which I cannot listen to this year)
--what is your favorite "guilty pleasure" holiday song (i.e., the rest of the world may scoff, but you love it)? (I like Do They Know it's Christmas)
--what holiday movie is your favorite? (I said White Christmas; Bonnie's is Christmas in Connecticut; L likes the Santa Clause)
--what movie do you like that is not a "traditional" holiday movie? (mine were Love, Actually and While You Were Sleeping; Weezy voted for the two Die Hard movies and JRo for Harry Potters)
Fun questions. They stayed late, we finished the magnum and moved on to coffee with our Harvey Wallbanger cake which Weezy brought because I told her at Thanksgiving that I wanted one for Christmas. Nice to have it early!
We talked and nibbled for ages (JRo was late from work, and then rain and traffic delayed her further). We didn't tell her about the crab cakes we finished before she got there [evil grin].
I served them quiche filled with chunks of crab meat and bits of tarragon, and a spinach salad with more of the crab, mandarin oranges, and slivered almonds. Over dinner the discussion turned to holiday music, which I was playing on the little iPod stereo. Weezy said that iTunes was giving away a nice sampler of 20 holiday songs; great tip and I downloaded it yesterday. She started us on a discussion of holiday favorites with a neat set of questions:
--what is your favorite holiday song? (Carol of the Bells is mine; others chose White Christmas, and The Christmas Song)
--who is your favorite performer of holiday music? (I like Bing of course, Mitch Miller, Johnny Mathis)
--what holiday song do you normally dislike but when sung by this one artist, it appeals? (Blue Christmas as performed by Elvis Presley, which I cannot listen to this year)
--what is your favorite "guilty pleasure" holiday song (i.e., the rest of the world may scoff, but you love it)? (I like Do They Know it's Christmas)
--what holiday movie is your favorite? (I said White Christmas; Bonnie's is Christmas in Connecticut; L likes the Santa Clause)
--what movie do you like that is not a "traditional" holiday movie? (mine were Love, Actually and While You Were Sleeping; Weezy voted for the two Die Hard movies and JRo for Harry Potters)
Fun questions. They stayed late, we finished the magnum and moved on to coffee with our Harvey Wallbanger cake which Weezy brought because I told her at Thanksgiving that I wanted one for Christmas. Nice to have it early!
- Mood: cheerful
Thursday improved the moment I left the office, and kept on improving. Stopping at home for wine and sundries to take to Sis for dinner, I found in the mail a beautiful letter from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. My friend Lori had made a donation on behalf of the little dawg, to further their research efforts. I was immensely touched by the thoughtfulness of her gift, and hung the letter on the wall with my Christmas cards so that I might be comforted and inspired by it for a while.
The WCN greeted me at the door in a cowboy-themed Santa hat, also wearing giant Christmas stockings as boots. They were in the middle of decorating their tree, so we hung about watching the BIL fight with the lights and sipping wine and watching the antics of the WCN, then repaired upstairs for dinner. Sis had roasted some chicken, parsnips, turnips, carrots and potatoes, and I showed her how to make a basic cheesy cream sauce to toss with them for casserole results. The WCN stirred for me while I added ingredients. It was delicious comfort food.
The Little President, at not quite five months, is trying to walk before he crawls. We can see his gung-ho spirit emerging in much of what he does these days, and it's a hoot. His parents will just have to eat this kid's dust ere long. He's gotten all chatty, too. The word "mama" has come out first, natch, and the rest is still all his own language for the moment, but he chatters away freely, with facial expressions to match, clearly expecting us to understand perfectly. Since his elder brother has long since become coherent, my "toddler" is a bit rusty and I'll have to refresh.
The WCN presented me with a Seuss-esque goofy holiday hat to wear, but it was too big and wouldn't stay on. Can't say I minded that. :D
The WCN greeted me at the door in a cowboy-themed Santa hat, also wearing giant Christmas stockings as boots. They were in the middle of decorating their tree, so we hung about watching the BIL fight with the lights and sipping wine and watching the antics of the WCN, then repaired upstairs for dinner. Sis had roasted some chicken, parsnips, turnips, carrots and potatoes, and I showed her how to make a basic cheesy cream sauce to toss with them for casserole results. The WCN stirred for me while I added ingredients. It was delicious comfort food.
The Little President, at not quite five months, is trying to walk before he crawls. We can see his gung-ho spirit emerging in much of what he does these days, and it's a hoot. His parents will just have to eat this kid's dust ere long. He's gotten all chatty, too. The word "mama" has come out first, natch, and the rest is still all his own language for the moment, but he chatters away freely, with facial expressions to match, clearly expecting us to understand perfectly. Since his elder brother has long since become coherent, my "toddler" is a bit rusty and I'll have to refresh.
The WCN presented me with a Seuss-esque goofy holiday hat to wear, but it was too big and wouldn't stay on. Can't say I minded that. :D
- Mood: cheerful
The boss is an infamous curmudgeon, and when I first started working for him several years ago, was a pretty rough customer to work with. He's so infamous that people wondered why I'd dare to do it. He had strange control-freak obsessions with the goofiest small things, combined with a laissez-faire attitude over some actually important matters of workflow, production organization, and running a business cost-effectively and efficiently. It took the first two years just to build up some trust in him that I can manage things and he should just get himself out in the field more often, which is what he thrives on.
I've had a great deal of success in smoothing things out by degrees over the years, cleaning up our act and generally making his life easier, and the business work better. His grumpier aspects and uneven temper have eased as a result, and we tootle along pretty well on a daily basis. He's still quite the character, with odd social skills, strange and often inappropriate ways of expressing himself or asking for information or trying to communicate with the world.
There are times, though (and oh yeah, this week IS one of them) when he flares up and is just unlivable. I can only guess at what might be the cause or pressures, by listening in around here, because he never talks about these things. My best guess about this week's flare-up are family issues (his wife's mom died last week and there are a number of memorials taking him out of town), and the downturn in our business (I keep hearing him on the phone with his accountant about end of the year financial mumbo jumbo, and I know I've just handed him a bad Jan/Feb issue since I had to cut 40 pages we couldn't afford).
He needs to suck it up and get over it, whatever it is. D and I are just ready to kill him. He's been picking on us over stupid crap all week, and whenever we fight back, which usually makes him back off, he just gets louder and worse. ARGH!
The latest one? It's MY fault that he's been wasting his time digging up and typesetting information to fill two pages of Calendar in the JF issue, and we only have one page of space left for Calendar. It's MY fault, in spite of the detailed email memo I sent him on Monday, the marked-up page proofs I showed him on Tuesday, the lunch discussion yesterday plotting how we'd use the last four pages, and the other handwritten detailed memo of space available which is sitting out on the proofs table today. He just continued hunting out and setting up more and more Calendar type, until I asked him today what he's going to cut. He hit the roof; yelled at me for about half an hour. I told him he was nuts; pointed out all memos. He countered with, why hadn't I been more "in his face" that he only had one page left. I riposted with, didn't he ever read a damn thing I sent him? ARGH again! pointless, pointless nonsense; he's truly driving me nuts with this behavior. I've been outside chain-smoking half the afternoon to reduce the stress. So it's mutual--he's trying to kill me, too.
I'm shipping him out in the field tomorrow morning so we can get this layout work wound up without him screaming over our shoulders. And it'll be okay with me if these photo shoots keep him out the whole day; then I wouldn't have to see him again until Monday, when he has hopefully calmed the hell down. Ho, ho, ho, merry whatever.
I've had a great deal of success in smoothing things out by degrees over the years, cleaning up our act and generally making his life easier, and the business work better. His grumpier aspects and uneven temper have eased as a result, and we tootle along pretty well on a daily basis. He's still quite the character, with odd social skills, strange and often inappropriate ways of expressing himself or asking for information or trying to communicate with the world.
There are times, though (and oh yeah, this week IS one of them) when he flares up and is just unlivable. I can only guess at what might be the cause or pressures, by listening in around here, because he never talks about these things. My best guess about this week's flare-up are family issues (his wife's mom died last week and there are a number of memorials taking him out of town), and the downturn in our business (I keep hearing him on the phone with his accountant about end of the year financial mumbo jumbo, and I know I've just handed him a bad Jan/Feb issue since I had to cut 40 pages we couldn't afford).
He needs to suck it up and get over it, whatever it is. D and I are just ready to kill him. He's been picking on us over stupid crap all week, and whenever we fight back, which usually makes him back off, he just gets louder and worse. ARGH!
The latest one? It's MY fault that he's been wasting his time digging up and typesetting information to fill two pages of Calendar in the JF issue, and we only have one page of space left for Calendar. It's MY fault, in spite of the detailed email memo I sent him on Monday, the marked-up page proofs I showed him on Tuesday, the lunch discussion yesterday plotting how we'd use the last four pages, and the other handwritten detailed memo of space available which is sitting out on the proofs table today. He just continued hunting out and setting up more and more Calendar type, until I asked him today what he's going to cut. He hit the roof; yelled at me for about half an hour. I told him he was nuts; pointed out all memos. He countered with, why hadn't I been more "in his face" that he only had one page left. I riposted with, didn't he ever read a damn thing I sent him? ARGH again! pointless, pointless nonsense; he's truly driving me nuts with this behavior. I've been outside chain-smoking half the afternoon to reduce the stress. So it's mutual--he's trying to kill me, too.
I'm shipping him out in the field tomorrow morning so we can get this layout work wound up without him screaming over our shoulders. And it'll be okay with me if these photo shoots keep him out the whole day; then I wouldn't have to see him again until Monday, when he has hopefully calmed the hell down. Ho, ho, ho, merry whatever.
- Mood:
aggravated
I own just one pair of long underwear. I mean, come on, I live in temperate NorCal, where winter temp extremes are normally 30s nighttime, 40s to 50s daytime. The only difference from day to day is whether we have fog, rain, or sun. This is not winter as I remember it (mostly un-fondly) from days as a child in the Midwest. I'm often quipping that the four seasons here are flood, mud, fire, and earthquake.
Nature has decided to hand us a touch of that Midwest stuff this week. We woke Monday morning to snow on our little 900-ft peaks around the Bay Area, and frost at sea level. Temps in the 20s nights and mornings this week, peaking in the 30s during the day. I can feel the grapevines shivering. My trusty ancient house heater coughs steadily through the night instead of kicking off and on at intervals. I've thrown extra blankets on the bed. And finally located the longjohns in a bottom drawer of a spare dresser, underneath old Halloween costumes.
I have 10 pair of silly, dressy, matched to my outfits kinda gloves. They're not working out so well as actual hand-warming performers. Ditto the socks--the only warm ones I have are the fuzzy, bright, decorative pairs my Sis puts in my Christmas stocking each year. So I'm wearing them, but they don't match my outfit, and you KNOW how anal I am about that.
This nonsense is slated to go on for a few more days. I may have to locate and purchase a second set of the warm underthings --I wonder if stores here even carry them, or if I'll have to mail order?
Nature has decided to hand us a touch of that Midwest stuff this week. We woke Monday morning to snow on our little 900-ft peaks around the Bay Area, and frost at sea level. Temps in the 20s nights and mornings this week, peaking in the 30s during the day. I can feel the grapevines shivering. My trusty ancient house heater coughs steadily through the night instead of kicking off and on at intervals. I've thrown extra blankets on the bed. And finally located the longjohns in a bottom drawer of a spare dresser, underneath old Halloween costumes.
I have 10 pair of silly, dressy, matched to my outfits kinda gloves. They're not working out so well as actual hand-warming performers. Ditto the socks--the only warm ones I have are the fuzzy, bright, decorative pairs my Sis puts in my Christmas stocking each year. So I'm wearing them, but they don't match my outfit, and you KNOW how anal I am about that.
This nonsense is slated to go on for a few more days. I may have to locate and purchase a second set of the warm underthings --I wonder if stores here even carry them, or if I'll have to mail order?
- Mood:
cold