This is how much the EBI has grown and staff have moved on in recent years. I’ve been selling tickets to the Xmas party and I hardly know any of the people who are buying tickets…
Tag: work
The cake is a lie
Took this pic in the office loos today. Still trying to figure it out.
A visit to the zoo
It was a bank holiday last weekend and we took Bean to Linton Zoo to change things around a bit. Bean is becoming a walking ball of overzealous destruction when left to his own devices, so we though taking him to see home animals would be a good diversion. The zoo is cute, and they have some really nice big cats, but it’s expensive for the size it is, sadly.
Still, it was a nice walk and Bean seemed to enjoy it. We’ll probably keep it as a treat for future outings.
Lots of pictures here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/various_aug_2011/
We’re finding Bean a lot of hard work these days. He doesn’t listen, is very stubborn and has Katy’s temper (and elbows!). We’re having moderate success with time-outs, except that now he’s taken to putting his toys on time-out (no hit mummy and daddy!). It’s good that he gets the message, even though he’s not always acting on it.
We were in Leicester the weekend before that. I really needed a vacation from work stress so I’d taken some days off and we went to see the in-laws. The plan was to drop Bean off and spend some quiet time having cocktails, watch movies and some nice meals out. That went out the window when Katy’s dad was ill and her mom fell and dislocated her shoulder. We ended up babysitting the babysitters. Understandable, but poopey nonetheless. We managed to salvage some good times by making extravagant ice cream sundaes.
On a brighter note, Christmas is coming and we’ve started making plans!
Sometimes, I really hate people
People, en masse, are whiny and selfish. You give them free wine, and they complain about the lack of choice or where it comes from. You give them free movie tickets, they complain about the fairness of how you’re handing them out. However, if you ask them to participate in the organisation of events, the silence is deafening.
Need a change of scenery
I’ve been working at my current job for the last 6 years. It’s been mostly good, with some very high times and a few low ones as well. I’ve come to the realisation though that I need to start looking for something different, because I’m no longer happy doing what I’m doing. If money weren’t an object, I’d start my BBQ restaurant, or combine that with the B&B idea that Katy and I have been kicking around as a pipe dream for years. Alas, money is always an object, so I need to keep slogging at it until somebody makes me an offer I can’t refuse. Or I go postal at work. Whichever comes first, I guess.
A heating system built by the lowest buidder…
The heating/cooling system at work has always been temperamental, to say the least. It seems that every few months, we have the engineers in our office to monitor some aspect of it. Like now, for instance, when they realised that the reason why our office was boiling was because they had disabled the cooling fans last winter so they wouldn’t be blowing freezing cold air in the room in the middle of December. Except that, now when it’s 24+ degrees, we don’t really want warm air to be wafting out of the grills, and some Arctic chill would be appreciated.
Oy.
One of my more random impulse purchases
I love the for-sale list on campus. The amount of weird and wonderful shit that people routinely buy and sell is simply fantabulous. Just today, this came up for sale:
Beautiful Hand Made 4 Tier Celebration Cake for Sale
The cake is here on campus.
Freshly baked, chocolate and baileys flavour.
Basically, it was for sale because the chef is going to make a wedding cake for a family member and this is the practice run.
So I bought a cake that would normally be sold for £180 for a fraction of the price :D
EDIT: Oh, and as a side-note, I’m told that the topmost tier would give 8 large portions. We might have cake for a while…
EDIT:
[14:33:24] Joe Foster: heheawesome [14:33:40] Joe Foster: looks like its about to topple over, or is that the design? [14:33:49] Richard Cote: by design, doofus [14:34:23] Joe Foster: i have no idea about wonky cake design [14:34:44] Joe Foster: i am a victoria sponge man, anything more is voodoo to me. [14:36:18] Richard Cote: I should have Katy give you a course in the proper nuances of cake :) [14:37:37] Joe Foster: nuance schmuance, its victoria sponge or gtfo. [14:41:19] Richard Cote: what about lemon? chocolate? chocolate and orange? [14:41:42] Richard Cote: there's a whole world of cake out there to be explored [14:41:43] Richard Cote: philistine!
EDIT: Crap, it has marzipan in it. I was specifically told that it didn’t contain any nuts :(
EDIT: Well, ok. After some cake surgery, I was able to remove the marzipan and shave off the outside layers of the cake. It was a hell of a job and took all of our tupperware to store the results. Jaysus, that’s about 30 pounds of cake!!!
Most random email of the day
From Peggy, the EBI receptionist:
I have three packages with no name on, they contain:
An umbrella
Some toothpaste
A navy blue capIf you are expecting these
Please come and collect them
:)
Get a life people!!!
Jeebus. I just checked my email and we’re getting support request emails at work at 11:07pm on new year’s eve.
Seriously. Even at my worst in the lab I was never that bad.
Go home, get drunk, get laid.
You should not be in the lab doing data analysis right now.
Call me back, you have my number
What do you do when you get handed a message that says ‘X called and wants you to call him back – he said you have his number’ and you have no idea who X is?