06/October/2016 - A Return to Semi-Normal

You would think that after going to bed very early last night, (8:00 pm), and quickly falling asleep, that Old Grump would be well rested today.  And you would be wrong, because for some sick reason he woke up at 2:00 am, and was then unable to sleep soundly for the rest of the night.

Phooey!

But after the craziness of the last few days, he is happy that his job has returned to its normal insanely boring tedium.

Rather that dwell on the inane stupidity of life as an office worker, let's look at a few pics the old guy took when he got back to Venerable Watson's apartment in Columbus.

An angry pink whale?

Yes, it is the Hammer of the Dork!

A view of the apartment stairs and hallway, taken in the "Kuya style" of photography:

Last of the rose bush blossoms?

The steps to nowhere:

The excitement of the day occurred back home in Macon, in the afternoon, when Sweetie and Kuya hopped in her car to go to Kuya's karate class.  The car wouldn't start!  Sweetie called Grump in a panic, and after a few calls Grump had contacted a towing service, who soon came to the house.

The problem was quickly diagnosed: Sweetie's car needed a new battery.  So after getting jump started, Sweetie and the rest of the crew, (Lola, Kuya, and Dodong), drove off to the nearest auto supply store, where they had a new battery installed in her car.  Problem solved!


Peace, y'all!

05/October/2016 - A Crisis Averted

If you read yesterday's post, you can probably tell that Grump was frustrated and concerned about his job, particularly with respect to two non-technical folks he has the misfortune to work with.  (Non-technical people should NEVER be tasked to work with IT folks on a day-to-day basis!)   Basically these two dopes, (Big M. and Dopey D.), are unable to fathom the fact that a technical project has to have a scope, and that we can't go off chasing every potential problem we think we have uncovered.

As it turned out, Grump got lucky.  This morning our tester announced, in no uncertain terms, that she was NOT pursuing any tests on this alleged bug that the two "old ladies" claimed to have found, but rather was sticking to the original scope of the project.  She even added that this will probably make Grump happy!

By the end of the day Grump was a happy dude.  Exhausted from all this psycho-drama, he was in bed by 8:00 pm.

So Grump dodged a bullet, for the time being.  However, he is now preparing himself for the possibility of a job loss, (selling off some stocks, attempting to cut back spending and reduce debt, and all that nice stuff we should be doing anyway!), because he knows that sooner or later Big M. and Dopey D. will seize on some other crazy notion and attempt to beat Grump on the head with it.

The worst part of working in any large organization is always the inner office jostling for power and influence.

Back home, (in a part of the world that is more normal at the moment!), Sweetie was VERY pleased with Kuya today, as he finished ALL his reading.  He is now mostly caught up with his school lessons, and as best we can tell doing very well.

How was your day?  Do you have co-workers who attempt to undercut you?  If so, how do you deal with it?

Peace!

04/October/2016 - Weird Tuesday

Wow, this was a weird day.

Basically Grump got into a dispute with two "old ladies" on his project team.  Big M. got the stupid idea that an existing "bug", (which she doesn't even know if it really is a bug or not), on some screen we would use to test our changes, was suddenly our responsibility to report and fix, and Dopey D. praised her for this.  So we brought it up to our client, and totally confused her.

Since Grump thought this was a dumb idea all along, Big M. and Dopey D. are ready to take his head off, and according to Grump's other co-workers are ready to go bitch about him to his manager.

So now Grump is concerned that he may be lectured to, (or worse!), by his boss tomorrow.  All because Big M. and Dopey D. are too stupid to understand the SCOPE of a project.

Grrr!!!


There was some good news!  Back home, Lola dug up some more wonderful camotes:

More yummy camotes from Lola's garden

I hope these camotes are as tasty as the others Lola grew!


Peace.

03/October/2016 - CT Scan Number 2

This Monday Grump stayed home, because he had another CT scan scheduled.  He and Sweetie drove downtown first thing in the morning, and before lunch had arrived the scan, (and the diagnosis), was complete.

Sweetie waiting for Grump at the Doc's office

Grump has chronic infections in his sinuses, and to "fix" this the doctor would like to "scrape out" his sinuses.  Ugh!!  Grump is leaning towards NOT doing this procedure, although Sweetie would like him to have it done.

Lunch was fun: Sweetie and Grump got some sushi at Fresh Market, then ate it in Grump's car.  Unfortunately, somehow Sweetie managed to spill the soy sauce all over her shirt and Grump's car.  But what the heck; it made for a good laugh!

Dodong and Kuya had fun just hanging out.

Dodong and Kuya

Kuya and Dodong

The best part of the day occurred in the evening, just before bedtime.  All five of us, Sweetie, Lola, Dodong, Kuya, and Grump, drove over to Macon Swirls and got some very yummy ice cream.  If you ever find yourself in Macon, Ga, head on over there and get a sweet treat.  You'll thank me later!

Peace y'all!

02/October/2016 - Brunch!

It was a lovely Sunday.  We woke early, went to church, went to a wonderful brunch after that, then Kuya's friend Mr. B and his family and friends came for a visit.

All the boys were wearing blue shirts, so Sweetie wanted to take a pic of the three of them.  The following pics show just how hard this can sometimes be.  (LOTS of pics today!)

The boys do tend to pose better when Sweetie is in the pic.

Sweetie, Lola, and the boys at church:

Kuya was part of a presentation at church:

After church, we got brunch at the wonderful Dovetail.  (NO, we can't really afford it, but what the heck .....)

Dodong at Dovetail

Kuya at Dovetail

Lola at Dovetail

Waiting for our food at Dovetail

Sweetie and the Old Grump at Dovetail

Kuya's selfie

Back home, we relaxed for just a little bit, then Mr. B. and his family, (and friends), arrived for a visit.

Sweetie hasn't cooked the monster camote yet.  I wonder if it will be as tasty as the others?

Mega-Camote

The day ended as it typically does, with Dodong and Kuya laying in bed, playing with an iPhone or iPad.

Boys and their gadgets

Peace, y'all!

01/October/2016 - Sleepy Saturday

Sweetie and Grump suffered a one-two punch from two unsleepy kids.  Fist Dodong stayed awake, crying, Friday night until the wee hours of Saturday morning, and then Kuya was awake bright-and-early, (5:30 am!), Saturday morning, and ensuring that everyone else was awake too!

Ugh .....

So Sweetie and Grump were very, very sleepy today.

But life goes on.  First thing in the morning Sweetie reviewed some schoolwork with Kuya, before we called in to his school so he could conduct his oral reading test over the phone.

Sweetie review school work with Kuya.

As you can imagine, the highlight of the day for BOTH Grump and Sweetie was an afternoon nap.  Other things did happen, some of which I vaguely remember.

Kuya shouting from upstairs

Our chicken dinner prior to being cooked

Although the weather is beginning to cool off considerably at night, Lola's garden are still going strong.

Some of Lola's pretty flowers

Our last event of the day was to go grocery shopping, this time at Publix.

Grocery bags full of food on the kitchen floor

We've had better, more exciting Saturdays, but then again a bad weekend day is still better than a good work day, right?

Peace!

30/September/2016 - Friday! Hooray!!

Friday finally rolled around, thank GOD!!  Although Grump's grumpy boss made him hang around until 5:00 pm, (by which time most of the floor was cleared out, except for some other unfortunates who work for the same boss), traffic coming home wasn't too awful, and he got home at a decent time.  (Even after stopping to buy gas in Byron, since lately gas prices in Macon have been such a ludicrous ripoff.)

Some of the camotes Lola grew are really, really HUGE, as you can see:

Sweetie hold two HUGE camotes

Dinner was a yummy combination of mac-and-cheese, and freshly dug and cooked camotes.  Despite being big, the camotes aren't fibrous, and have a very nice, sweet taste.  Hooray for Lola and her garden!

Dinner of Mac-and-Cheese and Fresh Camotes

Sweetie also made some delicious chunks of camote coated with a glaze of caramelized sugar.

Yummy Camote Treats

Unfortunately for Old Grump, he only ate a couple of these before, (unbeknownst to him), Sweetie took ALL of them with her to Bible study!

So Grump stayed home with the boys, while Sweetie and Lola, (and ALL the yummy camote treats), went next door to Bible study.  Miraculously all the boys survived until Sweetie and Lola came back home, to watch over them once more.


Peace y'all!