Sick Days

I have always been happy to have sick days. Although I do prefer to take them on days when I'm not actually sick. But that's just between you and me.

Yesterday, I took a kind of hybrid of those.

I've been having a really crap week at work. An author who is probably clinically insane has had his books printed, and now has found that there is an error on his printed copies. Which were printed using the files which were also used to create the physical proof which he personally approved. And, of course, he's decided that it's our fault. After all, if he approved it and we sent the files based on his approval, and printed it to his specifications, it must be our fault, right?

(The appropriate response is... "Gee, no. It seems that it would be his fault at that point.")

But, for whatever reason, he has decided that the fault should be ours. Or, more precisely, mine.

Yes, that's right. He's decided that everything that went wrong - from having the wrong size template sent to him by our designers, to having the proof sent to the wrong address (an address which he gave us) by the author coordinator, and all the way back to a year or so ago when his galley copies came out with "Advanced Reader Copy" on them instead of "Advance Reader Copy" - is all my fault.

And, yesterday, when I was already not feeling well and was a bit rumbly in my tummy, I found an email in my inbox which started with: "Dear Robert, You've f*cked up. You need to admit it. ..."

Somewhere about an hour after that, probably half an hour after I had done my due diligence and replied and said that I apologized but I really hadn't made all of those errors he felt were mine. He sent another equally... vitriolic... email.

It was after that email that I decided it was time to exercise my right to half a sick day.

I only took about 2 actual hours off, but it was worth it.

Today was much better.

Or at least better.

Which is to say that the insane author didn't write again today. But I'll take that.

Travel Taunt Tuesday

Why is it that every time I'm feeling trapped in my job my inbox is suddenly chock-a-block full of travel offers?

Today I deleted flight offers for trips to Baltimore and Montreal. I deleted an email all about free charter flights if you book a cruise. There was an email about flights to Europe and one about discounts to Walt Disney World.

And I was finding all of these in my email while I was at work. On a day where I spent the first half-hour of the day compiling email back-up information on why a threatened lawsuit is bunk, and then spent time trying to explain the day-to-day process of my job to my boss, I had all of this travel taunting me.

Luckily, I have plenty of imagination to keep me going.

At least I like to think I'm lucky. Perhaps some of my co-workers would disagree.

You see...

Late in the day, one of my co-workers jokingly said that she was having such a slow day that she felt she should be on suicide watch. When I checked on her, later, she said that she was glad I checked in because she had the gun ready to go. And I asked her why she was going to be so boring. She wasn't sure what I meant, so I explained that I thought she would have more imagination about her office-related suicide.

I explained that I imagined that her plans would have involved a trampoline, a rope, and a ham sandwich. Or maybe a goat. Or a trampoline, a rope, a teeter-totter, a goat, AND a ham sandwich.*

Perhaps I should have booked a trip online, instead.

*The goat and the person stand on opposite ends of a balanced teeter-totter, with the person holding the sandwich. The teeter-totter is on the trampoline, and the rope is tied in a noose around the person's neck (looped over the ductwork near the ceiling). The goat eats the ham sandwich out of the person's hand, causing the teeter-totter to tilt, and the goat to fall off, safely, onto the trampoline, while the person falls and... well.. tightens the noose. I believe Rube Goldberg would be proud of my imagination some days.

Non-Movie Monday

You all know how, when I go to movies, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, right? Well, with the advent of the new TV season, I've been trying to find some new comedies to watch. Christopher and I already have a whole bunch of hour-long things that we both enjoy, so I thought it would be nice to find something quick and easy that we could enjoy while having dinner and hanging out.

So I recorded a few things in the past week. And we watched the first few episodes last night. And we really couldn't stomach any of them.

It was sad, really. Two out of three of them had stars I usually like, but they were in just inane and annoying situations. The third one simply went for the lowest of the low-brow jokes, and we almost didn't make it to the end of the show.

Luckily, we've found a few fun half-hour shows to watch, even without those, though. We loved the summer series "Hot in Cleveland" (it has Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick, and Jane Leeves). We're enjoying "Melissa and Joey" (with a grown-up Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence). And we've started recording all of Nigella Lawson's shows, because she's someone we both think it would be fun to cook with.

So I guess we'll be okay for a while. And, of course, there's always Netflix if we get really hard up...

One Of Those Great Days

Christopher and I had one of those wonderful afternoons today that happen way too rarely.

We started out with brunch at a place called "Hot Plate" (where the walls are covered with paint-by-number art) (no, really), to celebrate with a friend of ours who starts a new job later this week.

After that, we went to run a few shopping errands. We hit Barnes&Noble, and Crate&Barrel, and even stopped in Williams-Sonoma (which has a hyphen, not an ampersand).

We drove around and enjoyed the gorgeous cool, crisp, fall day. We stopped in another kitchen store after looking for a new collar for our new dog. We also got sent home with a few sample treats for her (which we, apparently, could eat ourselves - if we felt like it).

And, on the way back to the car, Christopher put his hand on my back and commented that it had been a really nice day. I couldn't agree more.

Things You Never Expect To Say

"While scraping out the interior of the acorn squash, I think I may have burned my hand."

Yeah. I seriously never thought I'd hear myself saying that. But I did, tonight. I was emptying out four acorn squash to mash up with a little butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper (and just a dash of salt), and I may have just minorly burned both of my hands while doing it.

Luckily, the mashed squash turned out really well, even so.

Yeah. That's another thing I never really expected to say.

Fall, I Guess

A new season started last night, at the same time as a full moon, right at the same time as an Equinox.

But it's been cloudy and raining, here, for a while, so I haven't really noticed.

Today, in fact, it's been kind of warm and humid and rainy - a really unpleasant day, all 'round.

I don't over much enjoy fall most years. Don't get me wrong - I love the temperatures, and I think the leaves changing colors are spectacular. I just don't like that it means that winter will be starting up, soon. So I end up not really enjoying the actual fall.

I know, I know. I should live more in the moment and enjoy all of the actual gorgeous "fallness" of it, and not worry about what will be coming in a month or so. But that's hard to do.

It's even harder on a wet nasty day like today, when the leaves which have started to change color (yes, already), are getting plastered to the sidewalk by the rain.

Here's hoping for some sun in the immediate future. Or else, perhaps, I'll simply have to start disliking this fall on its own merits.

Travel Tuesday: The Block

For the past two weeks, the main travelling I've been doing is around our neighborhood.

It's amazing how, when you've got a dog, suddenly you spend a lot of time just walking around the block. We go for a walk every morning at about 8am before work, and about every other day we do the walk again at about 5:45pm (on other days Christopher beats me home and takes her out). And, depending on the amount of time we've got, it could be just one side of the block, all the way around the block, or the very exciting walk around a different block.

We've said hello to a bunch of neighbors. We've almost met some of the little kids on the block. And we've gotten barked at by a lot of neighborhood dogs. It's kind of amazing how many dogs are in the neighborhood, actually. There's a bunch of them we never see out walking, but we hear while we're passing their houses.

And while I'm not exactly looking forward to dealing with the walks this winter, I have to say that we've been having a very nice time this September. I guess, some times, travelling close to home is all you really need.