Conor's Dog was put to sleep on Friday - she had an accident and wasn't able to recover properly
We'll miss you!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Lent
Well Lent has begun! I went to the 8 am Ash Wednesday Mass and then puttered around the city until work - it was kinda neat because I had heard that there was this street with alot of factory outlet stores, but had never really taken the time to find them - so I got on the tram and found them! Of course it was only 845ish at this point, so none of them were open - but now I know where they are. I saw an Adidas outlet and a Nike one, as well as some smaller ones that sell Tommy Hilfiger, Helly Hanson, etc. I know that has nothing to do with Lent but so be it!
Anyone giving anything up for Lent (or doing something special)?
I'm going to give up pop again (oh, and whenever I say "pop" in Australia, people look at me really funny! or repeat me like five time "pop, pop, pop!") - so I tell them I'm giving up "soft drinks" or "coca-cola". I'm also going to give up take-out food - although I haven't eaten McDonalds since Liz was here, and before that it had been even longer, but I do eat at Sumo Salad alot, so for the sake of the wallet I will give that up.
Otherwise I think I'm just going to try to focus on more things like working on prayer, maybe mass once a week, reading more (stimulating, educating books - not just John Grisham!) - those kind of things. I think that giving things up for Lent is supposed to make you focus on God more, but sometimes it's more about giving up your time for God, like the time you spend watching tv or on the internet - anyways, that's my focus for this Lent (last Lent was a write off pretty much, so I plan to really make the Lent special!)
Anyone giving anything up for Lent (or doing something special)?
I'm going to give up pop again (oh, and whenever I say "pop" in Australia, people look at me really funny! or repeat me like five time "pop, pop, pop!") - so I tell them I'm giving up "soft drinks" or "coca-cola". I'm also going to give up take-out food - although I haven't eaten McDonalds since Liz was here, and before that it had been even longer, but I do eat at Sumo Salad alot, so for the sake of the wallet I will give that up.
Otherwise I think I'm just going to try to focus on more things like working on prayer, maybe mass once a week, reading more (stimulating, educating books - not just John Grisham!) - those kind of things. I think that giving things up for Lent is supposed to make you focus on God more, but sometimes it's more about giving up your time for God, like the time you spend watching tv or on the internet - anyways, that's my focus for this Lent (last Lent was a write off pretty much, so I plan to really make the Lent special!)
Work work and more work
After having a horrbile day at work on Monday it was almost as bad on Tuesday! Elise was still away and during lunch I realized that although our front deli (which holds the wraps and express salads/pastas) said that it was on 4 degrees it felt more like 10 - after the lunch rush we took everything out only to realize that underneath it was all frozen so no air was being circulated...at this point I had decided that it wasn't my responsibility to call maintenece or anything and I couldn't get ahold of Elise, so we finished selling the wraps and put away all of the express salads/pastas and just turned the whole front deli off. Elise called later on and said she would call back with a number of a maintence person - but she never called back, so I just left it of to defrost. We were also short staffed and the girl scheduled to close had only worked one shift before so that was kinda frustrating - but I think since we had the front deli closed it obviously wasn't as busy, so we got everything done. I decided after that weekend I REALLY needed to talk to Elise about getting a raise or something.
I was going to talk to her about it on Wednesday but I didn't get up the nerve! I hate confrontation, and she can be an intimidating person so I knew I wasn't going to be able to just sit and talk to her about it without forgetting half of what I wanted to say. She was in all day wednesday and the closer didn't show up so she stayed to help me close - I did get up the nerve to ask her about what I should get paid for saterday (I had to go in to count cash and lock up on Saterday due to scheduling problems and the other closer apparently having another job that she had to go to at 4!) - I only worked 15 minutes but it took me 2 hours by the time I got there, closed and got home - anyways, she told me to put down 2 hours which is the minumum call in time...I also had the chance to talk to her about another staff member who has also taken on more resonsibility lately but does not treat people very nicely. After having her yell at me twice on wednesday for things that were not my responsibility or had nothing to do with me I asked Elise to have a talk with her about her attitude, so that it good.
By the time I got home wednesday ( I didn't get a break because there was no one to cover for me - I was sooo tired when I got home) I had decided to write Elise and email of all my concerns. So I did that and she texted me in the morning to ask if I could come in early to talk with her - and it all went well! I said that I'm happy to be a supervisor and do the things I have recently been doing, as long as I get compensated and as long as the other staff are aware of my being a supervisor so that they don't start thinking that I'm just bossing them around for nothing. So she said that Sumo Salad does have a pay rate for supervisor and those responsibilies include what I had been doing (cashing out, locking up, training staff, doing banking) but it also includes the stock taking, and ordering of product which another girl has been doing, and which is probably too much for one person to do all of that (plus I'd rather not have to do ordering or stock take) - so the plan is to split that extra bit that a normal supervisor would make between myself and the other girl. Also if the store meets the monthly targets we will get a bonus each month - either a set amount for reaching the target, or more if we exceed the target by certain amounts.
Also shes going to go over with the two of us what our specific responsibilies are so that we don't assume that the other is responsible for something and get mad at them when it doesn't get done - plus she will let other staff know what our roles are and then they'll know what they need to contact us regarding and what they need to contact Elise regarding. Next week is going to be tough because alot of students are going back to university - but Elise is doing alot of interviews this week, so hopefully we'll get back to normal staffing, and then she might had the scheduling of shifts over to me :)
All in all I am feeling much better now - like I said, I'm happy to do these things, and I think it will look good on my resume and I like the change from just the regular customer service, but I just wanted to have it official and get paid for it.
We were fully staffed yesterday and today we should be as well - so I'll be in a better mood this weekend than I was last!
I was going to talk to her about it on Wednesday but I didn't get up the nerve! I hate confrontation, and she can be an intimidating person so I knew I wasn't going to be able to just sit and talk to her about it without forgetting half of what I wanted to say. She was in all day wednesday and the closer didn't show up so she stayed to help me close - I did get up the nerve to ask her about what I should get paid for saterday (I had to go in to count cash and lock up on Saterday due to scheduling problems and the other closer apparently having another job that she had to go to at 4!) - I only worked 15 minutes but it took me 2 hours by the time I got there, closed and got home - anyways, she told me to put down 2 hours which is the minumum call in time...I also had the chance to talk to her about another staff member who has also taken on more resonsibility lately but does not treat people very nicely. After having her yell at me twice on wednesday for things that were not my responsibility or had nothing to do with me I asked Elise to have a talk with her about her attitude, so that it good.
By the time I got home wednesday ( I didn't get a break because there was no one to cover for me - I was sooo tired when I got home) I had decided to write Elise and email of all my concerns. So I did that and she texted me in the morning to ask if I could come in early to talk with her - and it all went well! I said that I'm happy to be a supervisor and do the things I have recently been doing, as long as I get compensated and as long as the other staff are aware of my being a supervisor so that they don't start thinking that I'm just bossing them around for nothing. So she said that Sumo Salad does have a pay rate for supervisor and those responsibilies include what I had been doing (cashing out, locking up, training staff, doing banking) but it also includes the stock taking, and ordering of product which another girl has been doing, and which is probably too much for one person to do all of that (plus I'd rather not have to do ordering or stock take) - so the plan is to split that extra bit that a normal supervisor would make between myself and the other girl. Also if the store meets the monthly targets we will get a bonus each month - either a set amount for reaching the target, or more if we exceed the target by certain amounts.
Also shes going to go over with the two of us what our specific responsibilies are so that we don't assume that the other is responsible for something and get mad at them when it doesn't get done - plus she will let other staff know what our roles are and then they'll know what they need to contact us regarding and what they need to contact Elise regarding. Next week is going to be tough because alot of students are going back to university - but Elise is doing alot of interviews this week, so hopefully we'll get back to normal staffing, and then she might had the scheduling of shifts over to me :)
All in all I am feeling much better now - like I said, I'm happy to do these things, and I think it will look good on my resume and I like the change from just the regular customer service, but I just wanted to have it official and get paid for it.
We were fully staffed yesterday and today we should be as well - so I'll be in a better mood this weekend than I was last!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Hot weather
Wow! We had a really hot weekend - I think they said it was 4 days in a row where the temperature got over 35 degrees! On Sunday I was so looking forward to coming home and having a nice cold shower - well that lasted all of 30 seconds before there was no longer any cold water! Anyways, it's cooled down a bit now - but it's still fairly humid. Conor is looking forward to winter! Haha, oh, and he shaved his head again! (well using the longest clipper - it was driving him crazy and I didn't really feel like cutting it again so soon!)
I forgot to put these pics up the other day of his birthday so here are a few:
PS - Those were little poker chips on the cake. Ally printed them off the internet and cut them out and put them on the cake :)
Well Sumo Salad is going crazy these days...crazy I tell you! I was hoping that last week would be the only crazy week and that this week would settle down, but I was completely wrong.
Yesterday many things happened: 1) a staff memeber was an hour late (due to her car being broken into) - this disrupted breaks among other things, 2) another staff member thought they were 9am-2pm but should have been 330-730 pm (so I had no one to close with, and only one person could stay late which was only until 6pm), 3) the fridge and freezer in our stock room weren't working!!
About the fridge/freezer, it turned out that another person who had a stock room on the same electrical circuit as us had three extra fridges up there that property management didn't know about, which in turn kept overloading the circuit of about 4 stock rooms - anyways, they put us on another lead for the time being - but from the situtation I have decided that I need to have a sit down with the boss.
When the fridge thing happened I had no one that I could call. Liz - the owner who used to run things is overseas for three weeks, Elise and Mark - Mark is the other owner and Elise is his wife who's recently taken over the general running of the store, they are apparently ALSO on holidays Monday and Tuesday! So I have no idea what to do, I'm already having to deal with closing by myself, and having to figure out scheduling problems for the week, I don't have half of the staffs phone numbers in case I want to contact them to fill shifts, I don't have property management or maintenence phone numbers in case anything goes wrong - the only person that I have left to call "in case of an emergency" is the third owner who lives in Sydney - what's he going to do for me?!?!
Anyways, so I'm going to have a talk with Elise and tell her that if she wants me to actually handle any of these things then she needs to make it official - instead of just assuming that I will handle staff problems (ie people calling in sick, or needing to change shifts) she actually tells me to do it, and that I also get more pay for it - because it's starting to get a little rediculous!
So yesterday was a tad stressful, and I pray nothing goes wrong today (although I have a feeling that the person she has scheduled to close with me tonight isn't aware that they are closing, and BIG SHOCK, I don't have their phone number to contact them) because Elise is away today as well, so I'll again have no one to contact for help.
I really hope things settle down there soon! But I'm not regretting quitting at the office or anything - I just hope that I get paid compensation if I keep having to deal with these things that other people there don't have to deal with.
I forgot to put these pics up the other day of his birthday so here are a few:
PS - Those were little poker chips on the cake. Ally printed them off the internet and cut them out and put them on the cake :)
Well Sumo Salad is going crazy these days...crazy I tell you! I was hoping that last week would be the only crazy week and that this week would settle down, but I was completely wrong.
Yesterday many things happened: 1) a staff memeber was an hour late (due to her car being broken into) - this disrupted breaks among other things, 2) another staff member thought they were 9am-2pm but should have been 330-730 pm (so I had no one to close with, and only one person could stay late which was only until 6pm), 3) the fridge and freezer in our stock room weren't working!!
About the fridge/freezer, it turned out that another person who had a stock room on the same electrical circuit as us had three extra fridges up there that property management didn't know about, which in turn kept overloading the circuit of about 4 stock rooms - anyways, they put us on another lead for the time being - but from the situtation I have decided that I need to have a sit down with the boss.
When the fridge thing happened I had no one that I could call. Liz - the owner who used to run things is overseas for three weeks, Elise and Mark - Mark is the other owner and Elise is his wife who's recently taken over the general running of the store, they are apparently ALSO on holidays Monday and Tuesday! So I have no idea what to do, I'm already having to deal with closing by myself, and having to figure out scheduling problems for the week, I don't have half of the staffs phone numbers in case I want to contact them to fill shifts, I don't have property management or maintenence phone numbers in case anything goes wrong - the only person that I have left to call "in case of an emergency" is the third owner who lives in Sydney - what's he going to do for me?!?!
Anyways, so I'm going to have a talk with Elise and tell her that if she wants me to actually handle any of these things then she needs to make it official - instead of just assuming that I will handle staff problems (ie people calling in sick, or needing to change shifts) she actually tells me to do it, and that I also get more pay for it - because it's starting to get a little rediculous!
So yesterday was a tad stressful, and I pray nothing goes wrong today (although I have a feeling that the person she has scheduled to close with me tonight isn't aware that they are closing, and BIG SHOCK, I don't have their phone number to contact them) because Elise is away today as well, so I'll again have no one to contact for help.
I really hope things settle down there soon! But I'm not regretting quitting at the office or anything - I just hope that I get paid compensation if I keep having to deal with these things that other people there don't have to deal with.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Pictures finally!
Okay, I've finally been able to update pictures.
We found out that the state library (right next to Sumo Salad) has wireless internet so here we are. AND...since it's nearly 37 degrees outside I'm very happy the say that the State Library also has air conditioning!!
So I've added to the Lorne section on my msn space, as well as added a couple of other albums.
Work is going okay - it's fairly hecktick as the lady who's running everything is changing things up, and sometimes only having 4 staff to cover lunch when we need at least 6 - but hopefully this week will all come to order.
We found out that the state library (right next to Sumo Salad) has wireless internet so here we are. AND...since it's nearly 37 degrees outside I'm very happy the say that the State Library also has air conditioning!!
So I've added to the Lorne section on my msn space, as well as added a couple of other albums.
Work is going okay - it's fairly hecktick as the lady who's running everything is changing things up, and sometimes only having 4 staff to cover lunch when we need at least 6 - but hopefully this week will all come to order.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Small world
So this is a strange tale, that seems to get stranger as time goes by:
So prior to Conor and I coming to Australia this guy about my age came into the bank and was asking questions about how to get Australian money, how to use his account overseas, etc. Anyways, as he came in more often before we left we talked and such and I got his email so we could keep in touch.
So then I just had this feeling that he gradded from Mouat, and presumably the same year as I gradded because we are the same age, so I asked a friend of mine who gradded from Mouat (she is older, but her brother gradded 2000), and she said that yes he went there and he was friends with her brother.
Now Liz was just in Tasmania and sent an email saying how she was going, and said that one night she met a guy from Abbotsford, but he was leaving the next day so she didn't get a chance to talk to him - and I immediately thought of this guy and how weird would that be!
I emailed her to ask his name but she wasn't sure, so I emailed him to see if he was recently in Tassy and he responded that he was there and did meet Liz. How weird is that?!?!
BUT WAIT, it doesn't stop there - I was then telling my brother Dan about this, because I just found it interesting and I thought he would as well. When I told him that the guy when to Mouat he said "oh, what's his name? maybe I know him." [dan gradded from Mouat 1995] Anyways, I tell Dan the guys name and he responds "Oh, I never met him, but I went to prom with his sister"
!?!?!?!??!
What a small world - these weird little trailing coincidences seem to happen way too often for me. Mind you most of them involve people in Abbotsford, so maybe it's just Abbotsford and not me.
There were numerous occasions like this at our wedding alone:
1. My brothers wife Erin was obviously at the wedding, as well as her mother - well it turns out that Conor's Grandma Finlay used to teach Erin piano (I think in Prince George, but I'm probably wrong - not abbotsford at least) and when Erins mom was going through a really hard time, she really was helped by Grandma Finlay
2. We had so difficulties deciding where to seat some people at the wedding (mainly CIBC and TD staff that were friends with myself and my mom) - anyways, we finally had to just randomly put some of them at tables with Conor's family (Sweeney side) and turns out some of them knew each other, so it worked out really well!
Well there were more, but I can't remember them at the moment.
Anyways, my brother Mike asked if we got to see the Super Bowl and the answer is yes. On Monday morning at 10 went to the casino and watched from there, but I had to work so I left a little after 11.
Okay enough about that - BYE!
(PS It's my last day at the office and the computers are down [I'm in the library right now] so I can't do any work...very fitting)
So prior to Conor and I coming to Australia this guy about my age came into the bank and was asking questions about how to get Australian money, how to use his account overseas, etc. Anyways, as he came in more often before we left we talked and such and I got his email so we could keep in touch.
So then I just had this feeling that he gradded from Mouat, and presumably the same year as I gradded because we are the same age, so I asked a friend of mine who gradded from Mouat (she is older, but her brother gradded 2000), and she said that yes he went there and he was friends with her brother.
Now Liz was just in Tasmania and sent an email saying how she was going, and said that one night she met a guy from Abbotsford, but he was leaving the next day so she didn't get a chance to talk to him - and I immediately thought of this guy and how weird would that be!
I emailed her to ask his name but she wasn't sure, so I emailed him to see if he was recently in Tassy and he responded that he was there and did meet Liz. How weird is that?!?!
BUT WAIT, it doesn't stop there - I was then telling my brother Dan about this, because I just found it interesting and I thought he would as well. When I told him that the guy when to Mouat he said "oh, what's his name? maybe I know him." [dan gradded from Mouat 1995] Anyways, I tell Dan the guys name and he responds "Oh, I never met him, but I went to prom with his sister"
!?!?!?!??!
What a small world - these weird little trailing coincidences seem to happen way too often for me. Mind you most of them involve people in Abbotsford, so maybe it's just Abbotsford and not me.
There were numerous occasions like this at our wedding alone:
1. My brothers wife Erin was obviously at the wedding, as well as her mother - well it turns out that Conor's Grandma Finlay used to teach Erin piano (I think in Prince George, but I'm probably wrong - not abbotsford at least) and when Erins mom was going through a really hard time, she really was helped by Grandma Finlay
2. We had so difficulties deciding where to seat some people at the wedding (mainly CIBC and TD staff that were friends with myself and my mom) - anyways, we finally had to just randomly put some of them at tables with Conor's family (Sweeney side) and turns out some of them knew each other, so it worked out really well!
Well there were more, but I can't remember them at the moment.
Anyways, my brother Mike asked if we got to see the Super Bowl and the answer is yes. On Monday morning at 10 went to the casino and watched from there, but I had to work so I left a little after 11.
Okay enough about that - BYE!
(PS It's my last day at the office and the computers are down [I'm in the library right now] so I can't do any work...very fitting)
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Happy Birthday Conor!!
Hey Everyone, yesterday (the 7th - so I guess today back home) was/is Conor's 26th Birthday! Haha, well since we all know he doesn't particularily love birthdays all that much, we didn't do anything very extravagent.
I bought him a bottle of Noble One, which is a dessert wine that he had tried at a wine tasting thing and really really liked. Normally once a week we go over to Ally's house to play poker, but I needed a way to get it changed from Tuesday night to Wednesday night so that it could be on Conor's birthday. While registering for classes he had tentitively decided to take a tuesday night class - so I immediately jumped on the opportunity to see if she could change it to Wednesday without him suspecting anything. Anyways, he's not taking the Tuesday night class anymore, but at that point we had already arranged with Ally to go over on Wednesday night so it all worked out. Since I go to the gym with Ally in the mornings we planned that we would just watch a movie as it was going to end up being just the three of us, and that she would pick up a cake cuz otherwise I had no way of getting one without Conor knowing.
She loves decorating and stuff, so she picked up a mud cake from the local grocery store, put some marble balls on it, cut it in half to put berries and frosting inside and then printed these little poker chips off the internet and cut them out and put them around the cake! It was really cute! Anyways, so the three of us drank noble one, ate cake, and watched "Waking Ned Divine" (which is a really funny movie - I recommend it!)
So I think Conor enjoyed his birthday, not too much hooplah - which is what he likes best.
I forgot to bring my camera that night, but Ally took a couple pics with Conor and the cake, so I'll get those off of her.
Also, I apologize again for not being able to put up many pics lately: we can't do it from home because we have a very small upload/download account, and I can't do it from school, so I'll have to just get to an internet cafe next week sometime and put them all up.
NEWS: So I have news again on my job situtation! I had decided that I wanted to work at Sumo Salad five days a week and one day a week at the office - but that ended up not suiting my boss at the Respect Life office as she feels she needs someone there 4 days a week, so I told her I would think about it. As I was deciding that I would just let her know that she could find someone else for the position and I would get another part time job just to cover expenses I was offered a set Mon-Fri position at Sumo Salad - plus everyone got raises so now I only need the one job!! I've let Marcia at the office know, she wasn't too excited to hear that I wouldn't be working there anymore, as she has to find someone else now, but she understood, so that was good.
Unfortunately Sumo Salad has extended it's hours for summer so that we're there til 730 instead of 6, so until the end of March my shift will be Mon-Fri 12-730. I was telling the boss that's okay with me, and then when summer's over I'll get another part time job since I would be loosing the 1.5 hours a day, and she said that there was no need because she could just schedule me earlier to make up for us (ex 1030-6 in the winter). So I'm really happy, this new boss seems to like me and I'm really excited at not having to work saterday, have 2 days off, and having those days off in a row!
I bought him a bottle of Noble One, which is a dessert wine that he had tried at a wine tasting thing and really really liked. Normally once a week we go over to Ally's house to play poker, but I needed a way to get it changed from Tuesday night to Wednesday night so that it could be on Conor's birthday. While registering for classes he had tentitively decided to take a tuesday night class - so I immediately jumped on the opportunity to see if she could change it to Wednesday without him suspecting anything. Anyways, he's not taking the Tuesday night class anymore, but at that point we had already arranged with Ally to go over on Wednesday night so it all worked out. Since I go to the gym with Ally in the mornings we planned that we would just watch a movie as it was going to end up being just the three of us, and that she would pick up a cake cuz otherwise I had no way of getting one without Conor knowing.
She loves decorating and stuff, so she picked up a mud cake from the local grocery store, put some marble balls on it, cut it in half to put berries and frosting inside and then printed these little poker chips off the internet and cut them out and put them around the cake! It was really cute! Anyways, so the three of us drank noble one, ate cake, and watched "Waking Ned Divine" (which is a really funny movie - I recommend it!)
So I think Conor enjoyed his birthday, not too much hooplah - which is what he likes best.
I forgot to bring my camera that night, but Ally took a couple pics with Conor and the cake, so I'll get those off of her.
Also, I apologize again for not being able to put up many pics lately: we can't do it from home because we have a very small upload/download account, and I can't do it from school, so I'll have to just get to an internet cafe next week sometime and put them all up.
NEWS: So I have news again on my job situtation! I had decided that I wanted to work at Sumo Salad five days a week and one day a week at the office - but that ended up not suiting my boss at the Respect Life office as she feels she needs someone there 4 days a week, so I told her I would think about it. As I was deciding that I would just let her know that she could find someone else for the position and I would get another part time job just to cover expenses I was offered a set Mon-Fri position at Sumo Salad - plus everyone got raises so now I only need the one job!! I've let Marcia at the office know, she wasn't too excited to hear that I wouldn't be working there anymore, as she has to find someone else now, but she understood, so that was good.
Unfortunately Sumo Salad has extended it's hours for summer so that we're there til 730 instead of 6, so until the end of March my shift will be Mon-Fri 12-730. I was telling the boss that's okay with me, and then when summer's over I'll get another part time job since I would be loosing the 1.5 hours a day, and she said that there was no need because she could just schedule me earlier to make up for us (ex 1030-6 in the winter). So I'm really happy, this new boss seems to like me and I'm really excited at not having to work saterday, have 2 days off, and having those days off in a row!
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