25 November 2009

Prep'in the LZ

One day left.
Turkey's thawing, wine's chilling, the beer is iced, the ingredients are ready, the table set. One more day until we gorge ourselves until our eyes bug out.

I have bird duty. On t-days of old, I used to run in the local charity 10 k run on Thanksgiving morning (sort of justifying the massive intake). I would get up at the crack of early, stuff the bird and toss it in the oven before I headed out for the run. Nowadays, I run a bit less, but still do the needful and then go take the dog for an extra long walk/run. Festivities start around 1300. Of course, we always tend to have way too much food and this year looks to be no different. One interesting twist this year is that this is Grayson's first turkey day with us. Shadow pretty much knew the score. He knew who to kiss up to for handouts (mom) and who to cuddle up to for constant petting (dad). I won't even get into the whipped cream incident of a few years back. By the end of the day, the dog would be totally stuffed and worn out. To the new kid, it will be like a kid in a candy store. We'll see how his manners are. Junior is expected to be home this afternoon. Mom hugs to follow.

Half day at the office today. It is always fun (NOT) to hang around work during the holidays. People start to disappear/leave like a zombie movie. Of course, there is always some crisis or fire drill or urgent report that needs to be done and, apparantly, I am the only one with two working brain cells (not at the same time) who is available that can fix the problem or give them their report. Look, people. I am here to take care of my own trivial problems/crisis. You need to find a solution or wait until next week when the "expert" is back from vacation. Hard to stay in a festive mode when you keep getting these requests. The one bright spot is our typical "let's leave early" rumor. Typically, it starts sometime on Wednesday morning. Casual coffee conversation (Do you know when we can leave? Have they released everyone yet? How long are we going to stay today?). When I know, you'll know. But yesterday, the powers that be (the company lawyer is in charge this week) decided to make the call and let everyone know the schedule early (OMG - they actually thought this out!). We got the notice early yesterday:

In appreciation of your efforts and results, we will have an early release day tomorrow for some employees who comply with a healthy lifestyle. Any employee who agrees to exercise at least once during the extended weekend (Wednesday-Sunday) can leave at 3 pm tomorrow. If you agree to exercise at least twice between Wednesday and Sunday, you can leave at 1:30 pm. If you're willing to exercise three times, you can leave at noon tomorrow. We will use the honor system and you can decide the type and duration of your exercise. Our Compliance Officer asked if the operation of a remote control or performing 12 ounce curls (drinking a beer or a big glass of Cakebread wine) count as exercise events and we said "no".

I used to have shipping and that normally made me the last one out, but since I plan to knock down another 10k and will be out hunting this weekend, I will take the 1200 exit strategy.

Take care and travel safely. Enjoy the holidays.
And if you venture out on Black Friday, shop safe, shop smart.


Happy Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

terri said...

That's a very creative and generous "out-early" policy. We used to get released early on the day preceding most holidays. Then people grew to expect it and got too vocal about the expectation. I think the higher ups decided that if it was going to be expected, it would no longer be offered.

Enjoy your time with family!

agg79 said...

Thanks. Wilco.