A missed week.

Alright, so I missed my last week post, because I got back from TX and had a surprise waiting for me at work.  I requested to have off from Monday to Monday, 6 days of work, 8 total days of vacation, and 48 hours of work.  Meaning I had Monday off, which was good because it was my friend Sal's birthday and I made her an amazing marinara sauce over rotini.  It was fab!

Anyway, so I get to work on Tuesday and discover that my request had been altered to not include Monday, which left me with a no call no show on for that Monday.  After the initial shock wore off, I was more or less angry at the fact that there was no recourse left to me to deal with it.  Obliviously I don't do that (my record of 2 years with nary a one of those should speak for itself) and my request for 48 hours of PTO, which I spoke to 2 supervisors about before I left (why would I double check to make sure I had 48 hours of PTO if I only took 40 hours of vacation?) should have been appropriate to at least instigate an investigation for a possible computer error.  But no, I'm just a peon and I don't warrant that kind of effort, so I had to take the disciplinary action.  Which I was fine with in the end, but I was more angry about the lack of effort to look into my claims that I had actually done everything correctly, and the lack of employee ability to force such an investigation. 

Anyway, Austin was fun.  Got to see a neat city, and visit a pretty cool gay bar.  Met some interesting people, most notable was a couple of people who were obviously transients, who travelled via train hopping.  I didn't realize that people did that anymore, but you learn something new every day.  They also had a really cute big dog named Duke.  I hope their lifestyle and the dog mesh.  If not I wish the best for the pooch.

Tried brisket for the first time in an authentic TX BBQ joint.  Along with seasoned smoked turkey and some amazing sausage.  I will say that despite my depredations about the south, they do have a certain flair for doing barbeque.  So maybe it's not all bad.  Kinda.

And now I'm back in the frigid north, and hoping to make the most of my return to the land of cheese.  Happy Sunday!