Monthly Archives: March 2004

Out In The Toolies

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We’re visiting in Utah and I won’t have much computer time, but so far we’ve packed a lot of visiting and hanging out time in less than one 24-hour period. Last night we even sampled a little of Salt Lake’s nightlife and went to the Bayou for a casual bachelorette’s party (except that all of the guy friends of my nephew-in-law were there too). It was a fun time, and we particularly enjoyed showing my sister Tudy the benefits of turning her cell phone on to “vibrate” mode and stuffing it down her pants. The look on her face? Priceless.

I had a couple of very tasty Teton Bitchcreek ESB’s, David had a St Pauli Girl nonalcoholic. The whole place was nonsmoking until 10pm, so we stayed til a little after then. Gives a new meaning to the phrase “lighting up time.”

2 of my nieces were there and seemed likely to settle in for a long night’s debauch, but we had time for some drinking, some talking, and got out of there before things got truly stupid.

We all get together for the party tonight – based on the folks we met last night, it’s going to be a wild bash. Can’t wait, actually.

Probably won’t be able to blog again until Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, we’re enjoying green! grass! and! blooming! daffodills! because spring arrived early in Utah this year, and it’s beautiful. The B&B is comfortable, and the food this morning was very good.

Go, Benton County! Come On, Lane!

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Another creative action by civil(ly disobedient) servants Oregon county bans all marriage:

“It may seem odd,” Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell told Reuters in a telephone interview, but “we need to treat everyone in our county equally.”

State Attorney General Hardy Myers said in a statement that he was “very pleased” with Benton County’s decision. “It is my sincere hope that the legal process will provide clarity for each of Oregon’s counties.”

I just love it when government types use stuffy pol-speak to endorse tricky issues.

Now come ON, Lane County, OSU is stealing a march. The home of the Ducks needs to get waddlin’ on this issue.

And no, I’m not going to go for the obvious mascot joke.

I Need Me Some Policy Sockpuppets

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I had a conversation with one of the agents earlier that got me thinking: I need some sockpuppets in order to make routine customer service calls more pleasant to handle.

She was telling me an old, old story – client on the phone is not happy about some aspect of his travel, but what he’s really not happy about is actually some aspect of his company’s corporate travel policy, because he can’t get the SUV/upgrade/much more expensive hotel/ticket on a non-preferred airline that he wants. He was rude-ish to the agent and she was calling me to vent. There was no real problem, she just needed somebody to listen while she told the tale of how rude and mean he was when she reminded him of policy.

That’s when I realized that it might be fun for everyone to have sockpuppets at their desk, for use when parroting bits of policy ad infinitum, or when listening patiently to rude callers criticise something another agent did. This latter use would be especially nice to have for those times when the caller is saying something like “that girl (EditorWoman: Grrrr!) booked me on the wrong flight” and the listening agent is reading documentation that reads “PAX RFSD RECAP HUNG UP (passenger refused recap of the itinerary and hung up before the agent was finished with the record).

Imagine. You’re listening along, and you raise your sockpuppet high for the other team members to see: “Blah blah blah blah blah blah.” You come up with a satisfactory verbal response, such as “It’s still possible to void and reissue this ticket, let’s start over and get you rebooked” while still signalling “Blah blah blah blah blah ticket, blah blah over blah you rebooked.” Typing with sockpuppets leads to typos (a well-known Usenet factoid), so you remove the sockpuppet to finish fixing the reservation. Then it’s time to recap, so remind the caller that they’re not allowed to get an SUV even if there IS 3 feet of snow in drifts on the highway, grab your puppet and “blah blah blah nonrefundable blah blah use it or lose it blah blah before flight departs or blah blah useless ticket.”

See how much more fun you’re having already, agents? That’s why we need sockpuppets in the corporate travel office.

I’d like one with googly eyes, floppy yarn pom-poms, and a flappy pink felt tongue.

The Rest Of The Day

The ticketer stayed home to take care of a sick kid (with a TMI excuse: stuff comin’ out both ends, which we really didn’t want to know) so I’m ticketing the exchanges and other “human-powered” tickets today. And oh, joy, the team leader is off this afternoon too.

I think I’m going to be soooo ready for a week off.

The Coming Week

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Things to do tonight:

  • Laundry
  • Sort out travel bag
  • Pack
  • Remember to throw in contact lenses, sunglasses, hat, hiking shoes
  • Smooch hubby

Things to do tomorrow:

  • Leave house by 6AM to make 810AM flight to S**t Lake
  • Settle in at B&B, goof around at Mom’s
  • Need to pick up prezzie for Daniece and Danephewinlaw
  • Dinner with David’s friend Jim and girlfriend (note, several good restaurants in neighborhood
  • Smooch hubby
  • Collapse

Things to do Saturday:

  • Leisurely breakfast
  • See what Mom’s up to (prolly do odd jobs)
  • Check out Pop’s old tools for possible liberation (miter box)
  • Sort out prezzie (wrap, yadda)
  • See if any help needed transporting stuff for party
  • Get all dolled up for party, probably driving Mom
  • Party, party, party & etc.
  • Smooch hubby
  • Collapse

Things to do Sunday:

  • Breakfast (yummy!)
  • Try to work in church fix (note, Tudy lives by nearest Episcopal parish)
  • Maybe visit Holly, see new house, take Mom for drive
  • Goof around, slack, whatnot.

Things to do Monday:

  • Breakfast (the most important meal of the day!
  • Whoa, free day at last. Hike? Park City?

Things to do Tuesday:

  • Morning flight home to Chicago
  • Slack, leisure, napping

Things to do the rest of the week:

  • I’m off until Monday, David’s not
  • Yard cleanup
  • Visit local garden center
  • Maybe start some plants from seed
  • Think about major landscaping changes
  • Clean off workbench in garage
  • See if can finish floor project at last using tools at hand
  • Slack, leisure, napping, etc.

10,000 Steps

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One of these days, I really have to get started again on the England trip journal entries. The good part is yet to come – walking in Yorkshire and climbing over dozens of stylish stiles.

Walking used to be a much bigger part of my life before I bought a car and became a suburbonaut – when I lived in Seattle, I didn’t own a car, and often walked home from work when I lived in Fremont and worked at the top of Queen Anne Hill. It was about a 45 minute walk, mostly downhill, through some of the prettiest and most interesting neighborhoods in Seattle. It was not strenuous walking and I never felt like I was really “working out” that much.

A few months after moving here and becoming much more sedentary, I gained about 40-50 pounds.
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What About Bob????

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The most comforting voice in morning radio,Bob Edwards is getting bounced as :NPR Host.

I’m really sad to hear this news, because Bob’s voice in the morning has been a familiar part of my morning routine for so long. I’ve been a regular listener of Morning Edition since at least the early 80’s. I have to date that kind of memory by where I was living at the time and whether or not I had a pet. Such are the vagaries of memory. But through it all, Bob Edwards’ voice on the clock radio was one of the few constants in my life then.

“Edwards said he was disappointed by the move, particularly that he won’t be host when the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in November.

“You have to figure it’s going to happen someday and you get out before they do it,” he said. “But I failed.”

I wouldn’t call it Bob’s failure, I do think they could have really waited to make this move until after the anniversary.

However, I’m relieved and disturbed about this next part:

“He said he was given no specific reasons for his ouster. “It’s the old `move the program in a new direction.’ There was no Janet Jackson incident,” he said.”

Ye cats! Please don’t paint that word picture for us, Bob! However, this now means you can show up on “Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me” more often.

Countdown to Freedom

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Did I whine about it’s being International Desk Tuesday yet? No? Well, whiiiiiiiiine.

Also, it’s apparently Small Hotel Group Tuesday – I’ve booked 3 small groups already (hotel groups are somewhat labor-intensive on the front end, then maintenance until they happen). Feh.

And I think I have my eval today. I think I need to have this put off.

David is home today, wish I were too.

Allergic to Utah

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In today’s Salt Lake Trib:Sniffles, sneeze? Blame those trees.

Oh, joy. David and I both suffer from allergies. And in fact, I always get a sinus infection when I go to Utah in the winter, and often get sinus headaches when I go other times of the year – a combination of the dry, polluted air and local pollens, probably.

My mom is really allergic to cottonwood pollen, she’s probably suffering now. I’ve just warned Da Hub that we’d better pack all the allergy junk we’ve got (fortunately, we’ve both got prescription nasal antihistamines in addition to regular presription pills – we use them when the allergy symptoms “spike” seasonally.

We’ll be in Salt Lake from Friday morning until Tuesday, partly for my niece’s wedding reception, partly to dink around visiting Mom and playing tourist, meeting Internet friends, and so on.

I think at least one day we’ll drive up into the mountains, maybe go to Park City or so on.

My Favorite Skippyisms

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A few of my favorite things from the previously mentioned
213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do in the U.S. Army

113. There is absolutely no need to emulate the people from ‘Full Monty’ every time I hear the song “Hot Stuff”.

129. The Microsoft ® ‘Dancing Paperclip’ is not authorized to countermand any orders.

131. No dancing in the turret. This especially applies in conjunction with rule #113.

142. ‘Calvin-Ball’ is not authorized PT.