It says "For Adults Only"

But it's being sold at a toy store. Well, not a toy store, but in the toy isle of the store (a store which seems to be similar to Target or Wal-Mart) and in the toy section of their website. A pole, for pole dancing. That's the equivalent of seeing this type of thing in the toy section of the Target website or in the stores. Who was the brilliant person who thought that this was a good idea?

Trying to keep the piles from tumbling on me

The piles around me keep growing, both at home and at work. I'm not overwhelmed yet, but it's getting there. This is the busy time of year around work - companies try to get their submissions in before the end of the year and all, so we end up with a flood. In addition to my regular work, I volunteered to be in charge for this week and next. Not a big deal as a whole, and a good learning experience. I guess the one thing I didn't count on was how many meetings I would have to attend. And all the documentation for the meetings just add to the already growing piles.

It's been a stressful few weeks, ever since coming back from PR. JS has not been well, and it's taking a toll on both of us, particularly him. The most stressful part is that we don't really know what's wrong, and, because he had needed to take some heavy pain medication, it pretty much means he checks out every night. Neither of us are fond of this situation. And this is pretty much the reasons why the piles are growing at home - we did something like 8 loads of laundry last weekend.

So, moving forward, trying to keep things from getting out of hand. Trying to keep the piles from falling on me.

It's so freakin' cold I have to blog about it

Yeah, it's cold. Two-and-a-half weeks ago, MS, TC and I were sunning ourselves in PR. When I got back, it was a little cold and then it got warm again. Yesterday was a relatively warm day. Today it's cold. And not just a little cold. The HOLY SHIT IT'S FREAKIN' COLD! kind of cold. Dropped nearly 40 degrees overnight cold. That's right 40 degrees. It reached 70 degrees yesterday and the low when we woke up this morning was in the 30's.

And I am sitting in my office, where I've been freezing my butt off all day because they seem to have forgotten to turn up the heat.

Are you done yet? Are you done yet? How about now?

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, we had 2 new hires in our division, both in my branch. I have the pleasure of being assigned to mentor our new microbiologist (MB) - you know, get her acclimated, make sure she knows how things are generally done and where to get good ice cream sundaes. You know, the important things. Our new engineer (EN) is being mentored by the idiot Patsy someone else.

As I work at home on Wednesday, I got a flurry of emails from MB asking me to check over her review, which she is frantically trying to get finished because EN keeps asking her if she's done. I was having a hard time understanding this since MB told me that she had until the end of the month to finish it - at least that's what the request sheet said. Apparently, EN's mentor told him, more or less, that it would be good if the document was finished and a letter sent out by Friday (day after tomorrow) since the document has been in house for *GASP* 15 days already.

First of all, for the type of document it is, 15 days is way early. Second, I have no idea why EN's mentor is rushing since he has shown himself incapable of keeping track of his own timelines. But most importantly, how is anyone supposed to work when there is someone in your doorway every 5 minuntes asking, "Are you done yet? How much longer? When do you think it will be done? How about now? Now? What about now?"

MB emailed and called me and asked whether this was the way things usually are. Whether this breathing down the neck was normal. She's new, obviously she doesn't know. I reassured her that it's not always like that, and the fact that her due date was moved from the end of the month to the end of this week was unacceptable. More unacceptable was the annoyance.

It became very clear that this was a sore point for me, particularly because it appeared that EN's mentor was the source of the problem. I have a major problem when there is a lack of respect of a person's workload and timelines. If the person in charge of the document screwed up a due date, it's his own damn fault. Ask to see if something can be done to expedite, then leave to allow work to get done. Really.