Bogieblog

Party Time

We went and visited the bikes yesterday. You may, or may not, recall that we store our bikes at the dealers so that they are in climate controlled location where they can do the maintenance and keep the batteries charged. Where we store them (Heritage Harley Davidson - just to give them a plug) has a winter storage party for those who, you guessed it, store their bikes there. Each person who stores a bike gets an invitation to the party, and can bring another person with them. Previously, I have gone with WS, as his guest. This year, we each got to take a guest; I took SIL and WS took Kenny.

The Winter Storage Party is always fun. One of the activities they have is an indoor poker run. The premis is to visit 5 areas of the store, draw a card and whoever has the best poker hand at the end of the day wins a prize. I was doing well, with 4 clubs (2, 3, 5 and Jack - where the heck did the jack come from?). Then my luck ran out as I drew the 4 of spades. WS got a pair and SIL got two pair. The winner at the end of the day got 4 kings with an Ace high. Lucky guy.

They have a chili cookoff too. Employees bring in crockpots of their best chili, the WSP goers sample them and vote on their favorite. In addition to chili, there are cheese and meat platters as well as vegetable platters. Salsa anc tortilla chips are availabel too. Along with good food, each invitee and guest gets two tickets for drinks (beer or wine). There is also water and soada available.

Every year they run some sort of presentation or demo. This year they held two seminars on Screaming Eagle performance parts. We attended the second seminar which consisted of a slide show narrated by the Service Manager and his best dynotune tech, along with special presenter; Screaming Eagle President (or Vice President, I am unsure which). They also had displays set up with techs ready to answer questions. for those that done't know, Screaming Eagle performance parts are what are developed and used on the HD race team bikes (NHRA, AHRA etc). Some of the parts are street legal, others aren't. By attending this presentation, not only did you get to learn some cool stuff while gathering knowledge that may help on deciding on upgrades for bikes, but also each participant was given a ticket for a special raffle drawing at the end of the day. They were giving away three items: Stage 1 high flow air cleaner, Super Tuner, and big bore heads.

At the end of the day are the raffle drawings (each attendee and guest got a ticket for the general raffle when signing in), prize giveaway to the poker run winner, and announcement of the chili cook off winner. Kenny won a t-shirt from the general raffled. During the Screaming Eagle seminar drawing, WS won the air cleaner, which is worth about 1/2 the cost of storing his bike, so he made out pretty well.

I meant to take pictures of the bikes (as I did last year), but forgot. Suffice it to say, it looked like they were in good company and were getting treated well.

It was good to get out and relax, meet new people, talk to techs, eat food and win prizes. This morning WS had to get up and go out to one of his jobs to try to correct some issues. He won't be having any fun, it was 2 degrees when he left an hour ago, the wind is not quiet and the temps are supposed to only get up into the teens (yes, he will be working outdoors). He is bundled up, but still, it won't be fun. I'm glad he got a chance to de-stress yesterday before having to go out today!

Take a Hint

To those of you that have vehicles that aren't capable, have tires that aren't capable, or plain old aren't capable yourselves of driving in 2" of snow: stay the heck off the roads until the plows and sanders have been out and done their thing.

It is not acceptable to drive 10-15 MPH (for many, many, many miles) in just slightly less than optimal conditions.

When Exactly is Talk Like a Pirate Day?

☠

Because I felt like SHE was daring anyone else to do it.

Lightness

I'll start the day with some light and funny stuff from LOLCats:

 

Criminal Mischief

Tuesday was a bit on the exciting side at work. Our second building was broken into. Someone(s) took a sledgehammer to the back door, broke the handle/lock and proceded to the front offices. There they took any lap top that was out on the desks (some people take theirs home, some lock them up, others leave them out).

They ripped the flat screen off the wall in the conference room. And they did something odd, which points to it possibly being an inside job; they broke into the IT guys desk, which had been locked. The IT guy had just moved over to that building the previous Friday. The IT guy had no sign pointing to which was his desk (and no, he doesn't have an office), so it is rather odd that someon would pick his desk at random to break into. They didn't try to break into any of the other locked desks.

Other odd things if it wasn't an inside job; none of the other businesses were bothered. The new building hasn't been wired for security yet, but is slated to be wired up soon.

It's not even like they can sell the computers, unless somehow they know passwords or have specific software; the log in screen doesn't give an option for being a guest or logging in without a password. The flat screen is about the only thing they could use or sell.

I'm glad I occupy a seat at the main building, I have been in the habit of leaving my laptop out on my desk (so has everyone else). However, that building has a security system, so it is unlikely anyone could get away with rifling thru that building.

Hope they figure out who was behind it and somehow recover the company's property.

Tasty Pork Chops

The Weekend Pundit notes that he uses his George Foreman grill mostly during the summer, when he can't use the outdoor grill.

Even though it is winter, I'm really liking the George Foreman grill. Last night I cooked up pork chops that came out fabulously tasty - thought I would share the recipe (as usual, I started with a supplied recipe, and made it a little differently):

Whisk together, then marinade pork chops in:

• 1/4 C lite Soy Sauce (or low sodium - why can't they make low sodium lite?)
• 2 tsp Ginger
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Chopped garlic cloves (or I use the canned chopped garlic - about 1 tsp)

Cooked on the GF grill for 8 minutes and voila, it was done.

The pork chops came out with lots of taste, nice and tender, and very juicy. Tonight it will probably be burgers on the GF grill. The middle of the week will probably be chili in the crockpot - it is supposed to be down in the single digits at night, so we will definitely need some rib sticking warmth!

First Cuteness of the New Year

For all you kitty lovers out there:

These cuties brought to you via AMCGLTD.

 

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!

We tried out the George Forman grill that WS gave me for Christmas (I have been using one at work for making hot sandwiches, aka, paninies, and really like it). It did an excellent job of cooking the Omaha Steaks that Wichi Dude and Dudette  gave us for Christmas. It was very easy; heat up, flop the steaks on, close the cover, cook for 9 minutes, remove the steaks and enjoy. I'll have to figure out a shorter time for my steaks, as 9 minutes produces a medium to done steak. I prefer medium rare, although really, I'm not overly picky and the steaks came out great.

Karen came over for dinner and we watched a movie that I picked up at least a year ago, From Paris with Love. The movie was good, pretty much because John Travolta's character made it funny (the movie itself is supposed to be an action thriller). Some of the neighbor's lit off fireworks between 9 and 10, so I'm guessing they didn't ring in the New Year. We didn't either, WS fell asleep in the chair (after the movie was over and Karen had left) and I read until about 11 before going to bed. That, my friends, is called getting old!

Hope you rang in the New Year responsibly and may the coming year be good to you!

Yep, the Economy Still Sucks

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I got the word that of my previous employers (Hollis) had conducted a lay-off. I was surprised at the names of those that were let go; the names indicate the company has hit some really hard times. By looking at the list, it seems clear that if I had not left of my own accord, I most likely would have been one of those people that would have had a less than joyous holiday season.

Not that getting laid off ever really bothered me all that much; probably because I never have thought of myself as indespensible (especially since I moved out of the production jobs), nor have I ever been surprised by getting laid off. If I know a lay-off is in the works, I assume I will be one of those to go. I have probably been more surprised those times when I wasn't laid off (when it was more than just getting rid of the dead wood). I suppose that is because I have seen how people in the Documentation and/or Quality sectorare more likely to go than just about anyone in the company besides the Shipper/Receiver (funny how those things seem to trend).

Anyway, since then I have been busy writting recommendations on LinkedIn, and I recommended one of those people apply at my current place of employment. Unfortunately, I can't recommend more people to apply because the product of the two businesses are totally different and skill sets would not translate well.

I'm hoping those folks find jobs rapidly as they are all talented people.