Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Auto Salvage
US auto makers are in Washington begging for a handout. I hate to say this, but they need to be allowed to fail. If we bail out the auto industry, is Coca Cola next? Who is too big to fail? What about American Airlines? What about IBM? What about General Electric?
The problem with the auto industry, similar to airlines, is an enormous legacy cost of pensions and healthcare. What upsets me is that nobody is talking about this. The industry needs to do three things:
1) Force future workers to move to 401K programs instead of entitlement-based pensions.
2) Require all workers and retirees to pay for part of their healthcare, just like the rest of the country.
3) Wrestle control of their own companies back from the unions.
I was doing a little research this morning, and the three big auto makers pay more than $70 per employee hour while companies like Toyota and Honda are paying less than $50 per employee hour. This doesn’t seem sustainable to me. Why are they asking to spend my tax money on companies destined to fail?
I know that a lot of jobs are on the line, and allowing a company the size of GM to fail will be pure carnage. I just hope that the people making the decisions are smarter than me.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Quiet Weekend
I totally planned on having a low-key weekend. Really, that was the plan.
I got up Saturday morning and threw a chicken in the oven. That was for the chicken and biscuits I’d be making for dinner. Chicken stock simmered on the stove ALL DAY Saturday. It was glorious. My friend Seth came up for dinner Saturday night. The chicken and biscuits were awesome. Ina’s biscuit recipe is one to put in the arsenal. The brownies were great, but I didn’t cook them long enough. The flavor was fantastic, though.
I tried upgrading Sam’s blog over the weekend and blew up the templates. I have no idea what I did and need to get Paul to fix it, I think. It looks like it should be easy enough to fix. I hope.
Saturday night, I think I was in bed by 9:30.
Yesterday, I did some minor cooking, including some carrot broccoli soup that came out amazing. And I had brunch with the boys who live upstairs. And at some point over the course of the weekend, I got an amazing massage from my upstairs neighbor who is in massage therapy school.
Scott was away all weekend, and we were bouncing messages last night while he was on the train back from New Hampshire. He came up to watch Desperate Housewives. He got to sample some more of my cooking, and Reggie got some cuddle time.
This was my first weekend on call at work. We’re just starting to do this. It wasn’t bad until my phone rang shortly before 6:00 this morning. I’d not been on call in close to seven years when I was at Weirton. This morning, I had a password reset. I’ll take that over the mail system being down any day of the week.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Oops
Electronic communication through our little devices is a glorious thing. It allows us to have contact with people in a very rapid fashion. It also doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for mistakes. One can point out my story about sending pictures of my neighbor’s underwear to my old boss.
Last night, I was sending messages back and forth with Scott, and I mentioned something he’d done that made me giggle. About 30 minutes later, I got a call from my sister telling me that the message had gone to her. Oops. So now my sister knows what Scott did to make me giggle.
My luck with this kind of stuff really isn’t that good. I should be more careful.
Incidentally, my niece called me this morning to brag about last night’s dinner. My mom had made meatloaf. I told her that I was making chicken and biscuits for dinner tonight. Uncle Mike won that battle. And by the way, it WAS good. I made Ina’s chive biscuits and the root beer brownies. It was an impressive dinner. My friend Seth came up for the afternoon, so I was in good company, too.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Another Family Visit
It’s hard to believe, but I’m getting my third family visit in less than a year.
My sister Darcie, Dave, her fiance, and Sarah are coming up for the BGMC concert on December 14. I’m very excited about this. This time, they won’t be staying at my house. Dave claims to like Reggie, but the fact is that Reggie makes Dave sick. He’s got some heavy duty allergies.
I’m not sure Sarah knows she’s coming yet. This is going to be exciting, though. My sister is buying her a new dress for the event (hopefully red) and I want to make sure we get some really good pictures of Sarah and I.
Numbness
Healthwise, the past week has been rough. After my appointment with the neurologist, she put me on the steroid therapy. That hasn’t been fun. But I thought I was managing.
It’s funny what stress can do to you when you have MS, especially when you’re in a relapse. I’ve had stress impact me, but not like this.
I mentioned that some of my former coworkers from Shawmut have lost their job. It hit me hard. It was like a member of my family being hurt. When I found out that someone who had been a mentor to me lost her job, the right side of my face went numb. Being a very passionate/emotional person, I deal with my emotions, but calming them isn’t easy for me. Instead, I have to work through them. I spent a bit of time on my chiropractor’s table this week, and that certainly helped a lot. But it was really rough.
Finally today, I was starting to feel better. I got up this morning with a bit of a sore throat. After the past week, having a physical ailment that wasn’t MS-related was very welcome. Knowing that I wasn’t at a hundred percent, I thought I’d put in a half day and get some stuff done. Somehow, I managed to get through the whole day and then leave about 3:30 to head into the city to attend the gathering for the former coworkers who had been let go.
I allowed myself to step off the wagon tonight to have a beer. Singular. One. It wasn’t difficult. With all of the meds I’m on right now, a lot of alcohol would be a very bad thing.
Realizing that I’m still dealing with an MS relapse, coming down with a cold, and the other stresses of my life, one would think that I’d know better than to push myself too far. Still, I was just socializing and catching up with old friends. When I left the bar, my legs felt like jello. That should have been my sign to go home and go to bed, right? Nope. I went to the grocery store and picked up the stuff I need for tomorrow’s cooking. Let me be the first to say it. That was dumb.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that when my legs feel like jello, it’s really time to stop. After the jaunt to the grocery store, I came home and very quickly put stuff away. Reggie and I walked to the post office to get some NetFlix movies in the mail, and now I’m done. I’m going to let my body rest as long as it wants tomorrow. If that means sleeping until noon, Reggie permitting, that’s what we’re going to do. I’m wiped.
The past week has been rough and I need to get through this.
Broccoli Advice
I got a message from a blog reader asking for some advice on how I do my roasted broccoli. I thought my response might be worth sharing.
Cut the florets into manageable pieces. Since you’re making large quantities, I’d keep the pieces a little larger. It’ll take slightly longer to cook, but it’ll also prevent them from getting mushy. You’re going for a a crunchy texture. The idea is to have them cooked without being overcooked. I use the stalks, too. Just keep them slightly smaller than the florets because they take longer to cook.
Here are a few tidbits…
* Toss it in a very large bowl. It’s easier than doing it on the sheet pan.
* Use olive oil, not extra virgin olive oil. This is not the time to use expensive oil.
* Don’t even think about using iodized salt. Forget the blue box. Go for the red box of kosher salt or even sea salt.
* Grind your pepper fresh, but I wouldn’t stand over a large bowl with a pepper mill. Put whole peppercorns in a spice mill, coffee grinder, or Magic Bullet. Yes, I use my magic bullet for this. It works great.
* Just when you think you’ve added too much salt, throw on a little more. Remember that the two worst things you can do to any piece of food is underseason or overcook it.I wouldn’t use the broiler. I roast my broccoli at 400 or 425 for 10 to fifteen minutes on a sheet pan. You want it to just show signs of charring without burning. I tend to put foil down on the sheet pan to make cleanup easier. Regardless, spray the sheet pan with some canola oil to minimize sticking. In the summer, you can totally do this on the grill, too.
Best Practices
I was poking through an old e-mail archive today and came across something I wrote in my last self-evaluation at Shawmut.
I’m passionate about what I do. With an arsenal of good experience, I have some very strong opinions about the way things should be done. Having worked in a few really good IT departments, I’m a strong proponent of segregation of duties and a good software development lifecycle. I believe in best practices, and I get frustrated when we ignore best practices.
You know what? I stand by those words.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
My Shawmut Experience
The last couple of days have been rough emotionally. I have to confess that I’m on some meds that are certainly messing with my emotions right now. Yesterday, my former employer started cutting staff. Over the last two days, countless friends have lost their jobs. I’m feeling incredibly thankful that I do have a good job right now. Had I not taken my new job, I could have been one of those casualties.
It’s hard to articulate why this is so upsetting unless you’ve worked there. Shawmut is the first place I ever worked where the culture actually meant something. In fact, at my interview, the recruiter, Johanna, said something I’ll never forget. She said “Our culture is everything. Without our culture, we’re nothing.” And that’s really how the company operates. It’s an exhausting place to work, and the people will drive you crazy. And they’ll give you the last dollar in their wallet if you need it. In my almost four years there, I never heard anybody say “That’s not my job.” That would just be treasonous. Working there is hard. Expectations are ridiculously high. And people exceed them. Everything is about pleasing the client, and every person in the company has a vested interest in the success of the company. That’s hard work. And Shawmut takes care of its people. I went to a lot training. They don’t even blink at training because they see the value in investing in people. They have built a community in their people, which is not an easy thing to do.
When I first moved to Providence and then Boston, I didn’t know many people. Shawmut became my family in a lot of ways. These are more than just former coworkers.
That was my Shawmut experience. And that’s why I grieve today for my friends.
Christmas Letter
Sometimes traditions can be fun. Every year, my Aunt Doris includes a letter with her Christmas cards. It’s her way of sharing the past year’s events with family an friends. I love doing this. It’s a labor of love, but it’s a great way to look back at the previous year.
This is the letter that went out with my cards this year. Yes, a big bunch of my Christmas cards are already in the mail. Since I moved this year, I want to make sure my family has the current address. Unfortunately, I do have to send two different versions of the letter. The italicized paragraph was left out from some family letters. People in the PugVillage card exchange didn’t get the letter. They can read it online.
Greetings from Salem, Massachusetts.
Over the past year, we’ve heard President-Elect Obama use the word Change an awful lot. Change has also been my companion the past year.
As we were winding down the 2007-2008 New England winter, I decided it was time to move out of my East Boston apartment that had been my home for close to two years. It was a diverse neighborhood that was close to a lot, but I lived in an ancient building that seemed to invite furry little critters to make a home there. In mid-March, Reggie and I packed up and moved to Salem, about 15 miles north of Boston. We’re in a fantastic two bedroom condo. The woman who owns it needs someone to take care of it because it’s not the right time for her to sell. It’s a ten minute walk to the commuter train, which puts me in Boston in about 30 minutes.
Two weeks after I moved in, I had surgery to remove my gal bladder. With everything still in boxes, my mom and dad arrived to take care of us for a few days. For the first time in my life, my parents were able to visit me and stay at my house. That was such a great feeling. While I recovered, my dad took care of Reggie, and my mom started unpacking my kitchen. She didn’t have to do that, and I completely appreciate that she did.
Reggie and I live in the downstairs unit of a three-story house, with two great guys living in the upstairs unit, each with a dog. I couldn’t ask for better neighbors. Between the three of us we have a Pug, a yellow Lab, and a German Shepherd. I love where I’m living. It’s got a cook’s kitchen, and nothing makes me happier than having my friends over and being able to feed them a good meal. I get that from Grandma Hillwig, for sure.
In late June, I found myself interviewing for a new job. It wasn’t something I had been planning, but the job market was pretty attractive for me. I said goodbye to some amazing people that had been more than coworkers for close to four years. They had become my friends. Leaving was hard, but I knew I was doing the right thing. I’m now working for a company called Acme Packet, who makes equipment used by telecom companies. It’s a good company with good leadership. More importantly, it’s given me the opportunity to fill some gaps in my skillset.
Two weeks after I started at Acme, my mom and dad brought Sarah up to visit for her birthday. It was a fantastic weekend, and we took her on a whale watching cruise. She’s still talking about it, and frankly, so am I. We had a great day out on the Atlantic. Sarah also got to see Boston, visit the New England Aquarium, and of course, she got to play with Reggie. We had a birthday cake for her and everything.
In September, I did something crazy. I auditioned for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. Not having sung in public since my sister got married ten years ago, the old pipes were a little rusty. But I must have something good because I’m singing with them. This has been such a positive experience for me. Not only am I part of a well-known and well-respected group that produces amazing music, I’ve made a lot of really good friends. My first concert with the chorus will be in Provincetown on December 6. Our big Boston concerts are coming up a week after that. Darcie, Dave, and Sarah are coming up for that, and I’m ecstatic that they’re coming. This is why I’m wearing a tuxedo in the picture. Since I needed to buy a tuxedo for chorus performances, I bought one for Reggie. It makes a cute card, I think.
And then there is Halloween in Salem. Halloween is a month-long event here, and we hunkered down to get through the tourist insanity. Halloween was on a Friday this year, and I did walk through the crowd to visit my friends’ annual gathering. I just don’t have the words to describe how crazy it is. Most of the month is much more family-friendly, and there is a lot to do for kids. It’s just that one night that gets insane. Halloween has passed us, and now we can have our sleepy little town back for another eleven months.
Everybody always asks about my health. Generally speaking, it’s good. I did have one serious relapse with my MS recently that was rough. My neurologist, who I absolutely adore, put me on a steroid regimen for a few days that required outpatient IV infusion. It wasn’t fun, but it was necessary. If MS has taught me anything, it’s that I have to listen to my body and learn when to take it easy. I turn into a pumpkin earlier than I used to. I nap when I need to. It sure beats the alternative.
We’re doing well and hope you are, too. From Salem, Reggie and I wish you the warmest of Christmases.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
What Matters
I talked to my sister last night. She, Dave (future brother-in-law), and Sarah are coming up for the BGMC concert in December. I was really hoping she could talk the parents into coming, too, but that’s not going to happen this year. My mom is a florist, and this is a peak season for her. I’m not sure how much of it is the business and how much is their discomfort with my singing with a gay group. At this point, I’m not sure I care. My family will be here, and that’s what matters. Having Sarah at my concert is incredibly important to me, and just typing this brings me to tears. My sister says she’s going to buy Sarah a pretty new dress to wear to the concert. We’ll make sure we get photos of her with Uncle Mike in his tux.
My sister did ask if the music would be appropriate for a nine year old. It’s all Christmas/holiday music. There is one piece, called What Matters, which is from the Matthew Shephard story. Everything else is holiday-related, and the whole theme is Stars. One of our pieces has an entire movement based on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and it’s stunning. At this point, my favorite piece has got to be Come and See the King, which goes all gospel choir. We have another piece that’s a capella and entirely in Latin. It’s incredibly difficult and sounds amazing.
So the age appropriateness of the concert isn’t a big deal. My sister will have some other explaining to do, but Sarah’s a pretty smart kid. And I don’t think it’ll phase her too much.