Very few vowels, and a bunch of uncommonly used consonants. If you're playing Hangman in the Spring, you'll definitely win the round. Not so much in November.
We're going to be driving 6 hours up to my mom's house tomorrow. Then Saturday, we're driving down to NYC. Then Sunday, we'll be driving back here. I may or may not be on-line for most of that. Please leave your whines here. Whining will be open through at least Saturday, given the high whine content of most T'giving get-togethers.
Edited to add, I'm sorry that this is a United States-centric post. All non-T'giving and International whines also accepted.
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56 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving to all the usual suspects and visitors to the Pixie Ball. Travel safely and have a great weekend!
Whine: Overwhelming calendar anxiety this morning. Something definitely has to give - no human being could get all of this week's stuff done. It would help if I had a few volunteers... but nooooooooo....just me and my wonderful office admin who is also pulling her hair out. Wish us luck pixies, and if we don't appear within a few weeks, send a search party.
Posting anonymously for this. I am way behind in something due for work. As in, it was due Friday last and I haven't even started it. I don't know how to start it. I am a total mess.
I hate my job. I hate the person I am at my job. I hate what I am doing.
AW: I think my son will be the only one joining us this year. He insists on an entire turkey! Won't need to do the holiday cleaning frenzy this week, as he won't notice a few cobwebs, dust, dust bunnies the size of Texas, etc.
Giganto Work Whine: Someone is insisting on an unreasonably early finish date for a chunk o' something that I'm writing. I'm 30 pages in and just getting to the incredibly thorny part, and she wants it tomorrow. My head is 'splodin'.
Things are already tense. This project is important, we're trying to fix a mess, and other chunks are not where they need to be. Suggestions of some major revisions (not just from me) were summarily rejected. There have been hot and cold running emails: highly critical zingers alternating with "are you OK? are you mad at me?" Gah.
I really like this person, and we have worked together for years on this project. But every so often she turns into a recalcitrant mule.
Oh, anonymouse. That is a major and worthy whine.
The starting too late part? Oh, yeah, that plays a part in my whine, too -- I'm guilty. My friend the mule thought I'd have cranked it out a couple months ago. Don't I wish I had, but it's not like there weren't a bunch of other things that needed doing.
A third person in my project drama is the most reasonable and thoughtful man on earth. We had a great conversation last week, the gist of which was: All we can do is move forward, and do the best we can. Best to you with the work angst.
So sorry for all the work whines this week!!! Anonymous: I hope things improve for you soon. It's so terrible to be working somewhere where you are unhappy.
kathy a. - sorry to hear about the 'splodin head. That seems to be going around this morning. Mine is now splattered on every wall of my office.
Whine: Stoopid church people. Oh yes, there are a few.
Anonymous, so sorry about the work angst. I've been in the "so behind I don't know where to start" place and it stinks. Wishing you a good 15 minutes, followed by another good 15 minutes, until you reach a stable place.
Wow, the work whining competition is fierce already.
My whine, I guess, is that for the first time in my 35 years, I will not be at my grandmother's house for T'giving. I have absolutely no desire to be in the car that long, and a strong desire to be here, in my own house, near my own doctor and my own hospital. So I'm really not all that whiny about it.
And my T'giving antiwhine is that we've been invited to the Local Bigwig's "Camp House" (I have no idea what that means) for T'giving dinner. And we have been instructed (a) not to dress up; (b) not to bring anything. Works for me.
My T-day whine/antiwhine is similar to esperanza's. I'm missing Thanksgiving with my family for (I think) only the second time in 40 years. But after SG missed 8 days of school with the flu, it seemed like poor judgement to pull her out for a week for a family trip. And I'm still tired and coughing a lot, so I am very happy not to be slogging through airports.
Also, the anti-whine for next year is that our close friends' daughter's bat mitzvah got moved by a week, so we will be able to go to Thanksgiving next year after all. When we first canceled the trip, we were looking at two years in a row of not seeing the cousins we usually see only once a year as it is. So that was welcome news.
All told, this means that I have the day off on Thursday and Friday while my loved ones are at work and school. Napping and knitting are on my agenda.
love madeleine's "15 mintutes at a time" advice! nominate her for the words of wisdom award.
this will be the first thanksgiving that we haven't spent with both of our children. one of daughter's teachers in japan is american, and he cleverly arranged a class trip, so that group of students will be eating out together. i sent the special uncle ben's wild rice mix, too, which is a required t-day dish in my family.
the "camp house" thanksgiving sounds great, esperanza!
End of day whine.
Headache at 8/10. Left work at 4:00, took headache meds, slept til around 6:00. The right side of my face feels all frozen like after a visit to the dentist. Right eye REALLY light sensitive (and closed at the moment).
Off to take more gravol so as to avoid La Barfapalooza.
This is so ick. I remember this kind of ick - it's hard to believe it was every day. So I guess my Anti-whine is that it isn't every day anymore. Only gets this bad now and then.
Sue, you and I must have had the exact same end of the day. I, too, had the 8 out of 10 by the time I arrived home. I took some meds on the way home, and slept from 5 to 7. I really think that my headaches are tied to changes in weather because lately, any time I have a headache, there's a shift in the barometric pressure and I end up in pain.
I didn't have the visit to the dentist, but I got new glasses on Saturday, and both eyes are slowly adjusting, as well as my ears and the bridge of my nose.
Sorry about the suckitude. If I could figure out a quick fix for migraines, you and I would be stocked up for life.
Hubby thought the same thing about this headache - weather related. It's been rainy/foggy/gloomy for two days now.
Hope you're feeling way better soon KLee.
Anti-whine: SG finally has her appetite back, two weeks after her first fever and four days after her last fever.
Whine: My word, she's whiny when she's hungry.
where have all the whiners gone?
sue and klee, crossing fingers that things are better today. xoxo
nominate madeleine for "My word, she's whiny when she's hungry." isn't that the truth?
i really really really want to chuck this hideous project into the trash bin, set it on fire, start cooking, and spend the next several days messing around. have reached a compromise with myself: i've staked out a manageable piece for today; will send on the half that is at least readable, along with a schedule for the rest [there goes the weekend]; and make a grocery run and start the foodfest.
It is 1:24pm. I have to stay at work for 3 more hours and they are bound to be long and frustrating. But (aw) - then 5 days off! But (w) - my company is taking Friday as an unpaid holiday. Since that's my normal day off, I end up with Monday as an unpaid holiday. Good or bad I suppose - depends on how you look at it.
too... much... to... do... gah!
Sorry to hear about all of the work angst, Anonymous, KathyA, Sue and JenR. Hope things improve - I love the 15 minute view, Madeleine.
And I wish you the nicest non-traveling T'giving Esperanza and Madeleine. And I hope mini-baboo stays inside so Esperanza enjoys her camp turkey.
Oh no on the headaches, Sue and Klee.
I have only a whine of anticipation - Thanksgiving is pretty quiet around here and my brother is visiting. My parents are half-excited and half-cautious and I wish I could make us all enjoy the holidays without the trepidation.
Anti-whine: things are quietly, normally, boringly good. My husband works too much but likes his job. My daughter is still anxious, but we're used to it? It doesn't interfere with school? I'm grasping at gratefulness here.
Happy Thanksgiving to the Pixies.
kathy a., :-( so sorry to hear the work project is messing with your holiday foodfest.
JenR, that doesn't seem fair to me. But I hope you enjoy your extra day off.
Amy, good luck. Or perhaps you won't see this until everything... is... done!
Sarah, that is an awesome counting of your blessings. I hope your holiday stays boringly normal.
Whine: Too much to do, can't get/keep it together, blah blah blah.
AW: Matt made french toast with leftover challah. Yum.
W: huge exam of doom (US boards, 7 hours, kill me NOW) are Monday. Gah.
W: Since boards are Monday, we can't do Thanksgiving this year. :(
AW: Matt said he's going to roast a duck breast crown and make stuffing, so we can at least approximate a nice dinner.
W: No cranberries yet in the stores here. Stupid Brits, no sense of what's important (to me).
AW: I feel better already! I love WW!
Excuse me while I rant a geek supervisor rant for a minute... Dude, when your team lead tells you that the 40 unnecessary line of code you wrote are not a good idea and you should instead comment out 2 lines of preexisting code (because it will do the same thing with the bonus of NOT hitting the database 100 times for every page load), perhaps you should listen and not argue with me for a half hour. I promise, I will never see the advantage of doing things your way in this case. End Rant. But really -- AHHH!!!
NOT that I'm not willing to listed to other ways of doing things. But more work for the same results is only a good idea when trying to keep your kids busy. It's never a good idea on a web server.
listen, not listed ... eek
sarah -- awesome thanksgiving antiwhining!
sending amy a magic wand.
cluesticks to jenr's geek supervisor! or better yet -- maybe everyone can gift him with their unpaid days off. [what, you can't give furlough days to deserving people?]
jeni -- happy thanksgiving abroad! and good luck on the boards! decide when you will stop cramming, and then just stop and relax the night before. you'll do great!
AW: i sent the part done so far and a schedule, and loaded in some truth about working every fireplacing day on the project, putting aside my own projects, and i'm cooking for thanksgiving so even though my weekend is shot, i'm not working on your thing tomorrow.
W: i forgot to get squash on the supermarket run. have the sweet potatoes that my husband needs, but my orange side-dish of choice is roasted squash.
No headaches today, thank God. I do have two anti-whines though:
1) I got a really nice, uplifting email from my professor. He said lots of nice teacher-y things, and was very supportive.
2) I made cheesecake! From scratch! For the very first time! (An aside -- is cheesecake *supposed* to be that wobbly in the center when you take it out of the oven? I baked it for the appropriate amount of time, but the wiggle, she is alarming. Oh, well -- we'll eat it even if it tastes like monkey butt because it's cheesecake.)
KLee--in my experience, cheesecake is one of those things that always needs longer than it says to get done. But then, I tend to err on the cautious side on these things.... I think that some wobble is ok, as it continues to set as it cools....
OOoops...that anonymous was me....
--Neighbor Lady
And also: Happy Thanksgiving to all the pixies celebrating!
--Neighbor Lady
:)
KLee, "monkey butt" has given me a much needed laugh today. I'm sure it won't taste that bad. Not that I've ever tasted monkey butt, you understand.
My whine for today? The Sweet Baboo was not so sweet. Minor, habitual meltdown at breakfast (as someone up above said--Madeleine?--hungry=whiny). Shove a few bites of food in and meltdown is gone. MAJOR, worst meltdown she's ever had, over her snack. Yogurt, which she really likes. I have no idea what it was about. She is *hoarse* from so much screaming. All three of us were in tears. Another minor meltdown at supper, remedied by eating from Mama's lap instead of her chair. Same food, different location. Huh? My only theory is that she's cutting a bunch of teeth at once, and the yogurt was cold enough to make them hurt worse. I have no idea.
But remember how we're invited to someone's house for T-giving tomorrow? And note the juxtaposition of meals and meltdowns from today? Yikes.
yay, cheesecake!
esperanza: pack snacks. they don't usually do the major meltdowns in front of other people, and if she does -- hey, it's camp! someone can take her for a walk!
Yay for cheesecake. Sorry about the meltdowns esperanza. I remember them well.
Whine: Headache still in action.
Anti-whine: Down to 7/10 today.
Whine: No way to avoid work tonight. Special event at the church and no way for me to avoid it. Ugh.
Anti-whine: I'm home and going to bed. Someone pass the Advil/Tylenol cocktail plse.
Happy Thanksgiving, American Pixies! Happy Thursday, Other Pixies!
This year I am thankful to be spending the holiday with my TallDark&Confusing boyfriend, and not with Imelda.
I am thankful for my innernet pals, two of whom I've gotten to see so far on this trip, and another who I will have coffee with tomorrow in NYC.
I am thankful that I have a job, that I live close enough to my family to see them regularly, that my dog is well, and that the Library of Congress exists.
I've got whines aplenty too, but I'll save them for next week, and close by wishing you all good dessert, headache-free days, and easy company.
Happy Thanksgiving Pixies!
Headache Update: Day Three. 8:46 am - 7/10 after sleeping through the night with a little help from my friend from the USA - Advil PM. (We can't buy it here). Without it, I would have been up all night. With it, I got to sleep around 1:30.
Must. Go. To. The. Office. Yuk. I'll be home by noon though, then I'll take it easy for the rest of the day. Why? I need to make up some time from last week, which went only slightly over, but still over, my 40 hour week. Also....wait for it....tomorrow morning I have a breakfast meeting.
Collective Pixie Gasp: "But Sue, didn't you just have a breakfast meeting LAST week????"
Why yes. I did. And yes. I have another this week. Life is not fair pixies. No question. Not. Fair.
Happy Football day!
Hi Redzils, good to see you.
Sue, life is definitely not fair. Day 3 of headaches should not occur. Breakfast meetings should not occur. And they should definitely not occur in the same week.
Me? Whines continued from the Sweet Baboo's direction at midnight. Fortified with some Motrin, she went back to sleep about 1:00. I was up till 2:00. Then awake again at 5:45 convinced that the house was on fire. You know that smell the heater makes when it runs the first time for the season? Only it wasn't the first time, and it was really stinky. I turned off the heater and went back to sleep at 6:45. The Baboo and I got up at 7:15. In case your math isn't so good, that is not enough sleep for a pregnant person. Ugh.
esperanza, oh noes! Not a good night.
If I were you, I'd go with the teething hypothesis and administer Motrin at regular intervals. Also, like kathy a. says, pack snacks. The thing about other people's day-long parties is that you never know if they are the "table of nibbles out all day" types or the "nothing to eat till we all sit down" type. And both the Sweet Baboo and the Mini Baboo may need feeding at regular intervals.
I hope you have a great time at Camp! I keep thinking of Camp David, though that may not be a good comparison :-)
Happy Day, everyone.
happy thanksgiving, everyone!
hi, redzils!
poor baboo...
turkey's in the oven. i'm so grateful for my family and friends!
AW and W: my son is headed over for dinner. he has to move out of his place this weekend, and i'm not sure where he is going, but he is bringing a bunch of his stuff over to store. it can go with the other stuff we are storing. i'm kinda relieved he is not moving back in, but obviously kinda worried about what's next. today, though -- the feast.
AW: Very nice T'giving at Local Bigwig's "Camp House." I think Camp David might not be far off, only Texas style. Good food (of the out-on-the-table all day variety) and that most precious of commodities: a 9 year old girl who loves to play with babies. The Sweet Baboo was in heaven. No nap, but a happy kid who was in bed by 6:30 and immediately asleep. Woo hoo.
And I must amend my whine from earlier: this is the *second* time in my 35 years that I have not been at my grandmother's house. The first was the year the Sweet Baboo was born and was still in the NICU. We hosted Thanksgiving that year, but my brain apparently has blocked out those months.
Awwwwwww. That's for the nine year old playing with the Sweet Baboo. (We went to a wedding recently where my sweet nine year old girl took care of a two year old.)
Glad you had fun! And plenty of food!
But, I have to say, you HOSTED thanksgiving while the Sweet Baboo was in the NICU. Wow. That is some family holiday dedication.
Kathy a., I hope you had a lovely day and that the weekend woes take care of themselves.
yay for bigwig camp, food all day, and 9 year old girls who love babies!
sue, i'm really hoping that headache has settled the fireplace down, already.
the feast was a success! son has copious leftovers to take home. he and his friends have an annual potluck-style event the day after, featuring leftovers from everyone's parents. (it's almost like feeding the masses when he was in high school, except without so many hands pawing through my personal refrigerator, or the trail of empty beverage containers.)
thanks for the good wishes, madeleine! son has new roommates lined up, a lead on a good apartment, and also the possibility of a better job without the long commute. so, he might spend a little while on someone's couch, but is feeling pretty darned upbeat.
i'll be back to the project from hell tomorrow, but it was really nice to ignore it today.
Yay for leftovers.
Madeleine, by "hosted" I mean that we ate the actual meal at our house. Grandma cooked everything, and cleaned up while Mr E and I went to the NICU to hang with the Baboo. It was a pretty low-key Thanksgiving.
I hope everyone is full of turkey and good yummy treats!
Headache status: a bit better 6/10-ish.
Whine: Baaaaaaaad Breakfast meeting. The worst yet. Crabby people all around the table, me included. Not the makings for good amalgamation talks. And my eggs were cold.
Whine: After the Baaaaaaaad meeting, our four congregation people stayed behind to debrief.
Same dude who told me my blog had to be more "positive" and "upbeat" and thought that my request for 3/4 time employment would make our church look "weak and desperate" told me this morning that he's concerned about so many people in our church "having to worry about their minister" - ie. He's trying to tell me that everyone in the pews is staying up nights wondering if I'm going to go on med leave again.
Dude has serious issues. First - he's pissed off that I went on med leave - that's pretty obvious. Second - the "people" he's talking about are, well, him.
I tried to explain that I can't switch off depression, anxiety and chronic headache any more than my husband can ask his pancreas to suddenly start working.
My chronic illnesses are invisible but real and they're not going anywhere. In the meantime I'm working 40 hours a week as per the Manual and as per my contract, so what's the problem?
~sigh~
I was so ticked off when I got home that I looked up the Ontario Labour Laws and the employer's Duty to Accommodate employees with chronic illness.
I emailed all three that were at the stooopid meeting, referenced the Labour Law, and said I would be changing NOTHING about my present work schedule until the M&P Committee (which he's not on) told me otherwise.
I also mentioned that I can't do anything about what other "people" happen to be feeling about my future ministry.
Anti-whine: I think I handled that really well.
sue, what is this dude's prescription for fixing everything? it seems to involve you not having any medical or family concerns, plus covering everything 24/7 -- being all things to all people, fixing budget problems and whatever the heck else has led the congregation to consider combining with another, etc.
perhaps he would like try to fill the role he expects of you? feel free to laugh wildly -- of course, he'd rather "supervise."
it might actually be constructive to find out what he means about people worrying about their minister -- not his generalizations, but what worries exactly, so you can address them thoughtfully. if i was in a similar situation [and i have been], i might say that i want to know about particular issues so i can respond; probably there are things i could do better on certain points. but it is impossible to respond to someone's summary conclusion that you should pretend to be superhuman.
i am so whinety fireplacing whiney about work woes that i can hardly stand myself, much less the material i'm trying to work with, various opponents, and my friend the mule. what really sucks is that we have a winner here, and it is in the process of being drowned by one of the most voracious wildwater rivers of unadulterated bullshit ever encountered.
AW: my cats remain cute. also my kids and beloved.
Hugs for Sue and Kathy a. I wish you both easier days soon.
My whine is that after feeling like I was getting healthier on Weds and Thurs, today I slept for hours and still feel crappy. I alternate between wondering if I'm a lazy bum and worrying that I'm not going to get better.
So much for the pseudo Thanksgiving feast I planned to cook tonight. Didn't happen.
Mullet award for kathy a. for "voracious wildwater rivers of unadulterated bullshit" ! Wow! I am impressed.
Hugs to everyone feeling crappy and anyone who needs one.
--Neighbor Lady
Thanksgiving for us was nice. The cheesecake, not so much. It was still WAY too runny in the middle, and the filling wasn't blended enough as the hand mixer began to laugh and point when I tried to use it and promptly gave up the ghost. Like I said, we ate it anyway. People were very polite about it, but I took the rest home to prevent anyone any indigestion. The outside half is still pretty edible.
My brother and my sister-in-law to be came down, and it was nice to see them. My mother got miffed at me because I got a case of the giggles when she butchered the blessing. (This is also a family tradition, my mother's quirky rendition of a blessing, BTW.) She called me "a sinful child" and asked God to help me. So, I've been rubbing that one in, big time.
I shall take my sinful ways, and my underdone cheesecake and retire to the bedroom. We have a Girl Scout volunteer thing in the morning.
oh, the errant (possibly sinful) kitchen tools award for klee, for her hand mixer that "began to laugh and point when I tried to use it and promptly gave up the ghost." heh!
also, i heart neighbor lady for picking my spirits out of the gutter.
Oh, kathy a., I heart you too. You made me smile with that last comment! Hope the project falls in line quickly.
Pie Antiwhine: With our kids, we have started a new tradition on thanksgiving weekend of pie for breakfast (an early breakfast, before the real brunch-y one that comes later in the morning.)
Pie Antiwhine #2: I figured out how to make lactose free pumpkin pie using whole milk and melted lactose-free ice cream to sub for whipping cream in the pie itself. It was delicious!
Pie whine: It is gone now.
I think I will make a pecan pie today (an antiwhine.)
Can you tell I have pie on the brain??
Mmmmm.......pie.........!
:)
--Neighbor Lady
Sue and Kathy A., y'all need a Scottish vacation: we have lovely independent coffee shops and are conveniently located an ocean away from work. "Oh what's that? I'm sorry, this international connection is breaking up. I think you must have said 'Go have a pint and some shortbread.' Okay."
Neighbor Lady, you can come too, if you bring some pie! Oh, and Klee, because I will eat any and every cheesecake ever made!
Jenevieve, I think you may be on to something brilliant there....especially the part about a pint and some shortbread!
Definite Mullet for kathy a. - *applause applause* - just the same sorry about the wildwater rivers of poo.
let's just say that things are not any better today with the project from hell. her: are you done yet? me: no, still working on it, making progress; my BP is higher than it has ever been. her: <*<*<*< blast >*>*>*>
and right after that, i found out about an emergency something that needs immediate dealing with in one of my own projects, and it is non-delegable.
and so i want to express heartfelt thankfulness for a couple of longtime colleagues who have been supportive and helpful on these separate issues, on their saturdays.
Sorry I'm so very late....
I almost got frostbite trying to get the turkey ready for the oven. I didn't put it in the fridge to defrost quite early enough, so when I put it in the pan, the cavity was still pretty solid and freezing cold. I kept fishing around trying to find the giblets. The label said "may or may not contain giblets" (huh--you put the giblets in on a whim? Who gets to decide?) We never found them--but my fingers were frosty from feeling around the inside of the semi-frozen turkey (I was elbow deep into the turkey, my teenager did not appreciate my comparing it to the mechanics of a vaginal birth:-)).
My sympathies to all migraine sufferers. My migraine medicine co-pay is about increase significantly because generic Imitrex is available and Imitrex just doesn't work for me.
frostbitten turkey is surely prize-worthy! been there and done that, thankfully not this year.
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I cried because I was sooo tired and Tater just would not go to sleep. Wednesday, I had to listen to students complain about having class the day before Thanksgiving. Thursday, we had two family dinners to tote kids to.
Then we came home and I got my period.
Friday, I cleaned house like crazy while my husband watched the kids. At one point, he asked if I was going to go shopping at some point and take the kids, so that he could get some cleaning done.
Did I not just tell you I'm on my period? AM I NOT CLEANING?
He says he wanted to do some. Well, buddy, step right up.
Today, with my mom's help, I cooked a big family dinner, and it was awesome and we laughed and drank piles of wine, and Tater fell asleep in his high chair right as we were eating, so I got to enjoy my meal.
And for that, I am thankful.
Big hugs to people with headaches and aches of other kinds this week, because I'm in furious pain from being on my poor, pitiful, painful feet for two days straight.
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