#icedbatik babbles about life

[icedbatik]

The Pens' YouTube channel seems to have disappeared.

It vanished from my subscribers list and a search resulted in a "this account has been terminated" message.

Crazy.

(There's one that claims to be "official" and has the usual Pens logo, but its content is ... not the standard Pens content.)

[batik96]

I used to go to bed, fall asleep and sleep until right before my alarm went off. (A really ideal sleep pattern.)

Now? I seem to be alternating between waking up two hours early, which is 3 a.m. and not at all ideal, or sleeping 9 hours straight (when I don't have my alarm set). Also not truly ideal.

[icedbatik]

Dear popular mail-order pet supply business, I love your products and your nice, sturdy boxes, which is why I was a regular customer for a few years there.

But I wish you would have taken the hint when I requested removal from your email mailing list after you sent that one featuring the graphic with the adorable cat and the "We miss you."

The actual snail-mail mailer with the even more adorable kitten and the "Long time no treat" to start the new year was no more popular in my house. We still miss him. But I don't think buying him more treats is going to bring him back.

Sincerely,

[icedbatik]

Repeating ... (because I forgot I intended to start a new post each Sunday, just to keep them reasonably short and not too unwieldy).

Chapter 15 is up ... sometimes it takes a (gingerbread) village.

[icedbatik]

It's not Christmas, so they're not Christmas cookies.

And it's not exactly an Advent calendar.

But ... here there be Epiphany baked goods (and words about happenings in the life of a fictional bakery owner and his hockey-playing boyfriend).

[icedbatik]

If you're looking for a big plate of getting-together S/G with a side of cookies ...

Chapter 22 is up ...

[icedbatik]

I was in bed -- actually asleep -- at 9:30 last night and still dozed off for another seven minutes after my alarm went off this morning. Apparently even 7.5 hours of sleep wasn't enough to keep me from wanting more.

[icedbatik]

I think the return of the Christmas video is what is turning around the Pens' season.

I mean, the day we got all of this delightful Christmas video content -- and I mean DELIGHTFUL! -- they came back from a not-great game against the Devils just two days earlier to have a delightful game against the Flyers! (The only way it could have been more delightful would have been for Sid to wear the Santa onesie on the ice instead and his jersey.)

[icedbatik]

I forgot the game is in my time zone and thought puck drop was at 6 my time, so I was running around trying to get everything done. Dinner, folding laundry, catching up on Tumblr, etc.

It took me until 6:10 -- at a point when everything was done except folding one T-shirt -- to realize puck drop is at 7.

[icedbatik]

I've had two days off work, an end-of-the-year burning-of-the-vacation-days effort.

Monday was so, so productive. I did everything on my to-do list and then some. It felt great!

Tuesday, so far, has been a void.

I don't feel bad. I'm not sick. Just ... tired. So IDK whether to blame Monday's surplus of activity or Monday's vaccination update for the fact that I'm so drained. But my brain keeps alternating between "sit/rest; it's all fine" and "you have a day off; you need to do All the Things while you have a chance."

Sitting seems to be winning, though I wouldn't call it resting when I keep telling myself to get up and do something already.

[icedbatik]

The travails of trying to write when people in your house are changing your schedule for you ... *sigh*.

[icedbatik]

Sorry for the spam. Had an entire 9-goal game on which to catch up.

[batik96]

What is the appropriate response when you realize your employer is advertising a slightly lower-level job opening at a minimum salary 33% higher than (and a max just shy of double) your current salary?

I have considered looking for a different job for a while now. But I live in a small town with limited options, and I am not free to move. I have looked into remote work, too, but everything I've seen lately seems kind of sketchy.

[batik96]

My husband said Saturday, after I had announced plans -- in which he could have been included -- to do something with our kids, that he had planned for us to take a road trip 90 minutes down the road to his favorite “local” bakery. (As compared to those in his hometown much farther away.)

By the time he mentioned it, there was no way I was going to be able to make what would be at least a 3.5-hour trip (90 minutes each way plus time to peruse and purchase baked goods) and still make it to the event with my kids on time. So, we didn’t go. I suggested that we could instead go to the bakery today or Monday, since we have a long weekend.

No. He didn’t want to go today or Monday.

To be sure, I checked to confirm the baker is open today -- until 6 -- and asked him again this morning if he’d like to go. No.

OK, I could make the drive on my own and get you a cake. No.

So, yeah. Apparently this year’s Father’s Day theme is “pouty toddler.”

[icedbatik]

Could be an interesting game-viewing experience. I have internet, but it's moving slow even before I start my stream. I foresee a lot of dot-dot-dots on black screens in my near future.

[batik96]

I spent a portion of my workday yesterday asking for an improvement to the tech system in which my co-workers and I do our work. It was a one-time add that would have taken a matter of minutes for the person who responded to my ask. He declined to make the change, instead telling me that I can do the more time-consuming work-around -- a handful of times, each and every week, from here on out.

I later tried to point out a glitch in the new system. His response? User error. Uh, no. I certainly am not above making tech-related mistakes, but this was not one of them.

So, my takeaway is that his time is so valuable that he doesn't have 5 minutes to spare to fix my issue, but my time is so invaluable that I'm supposed to deal with it over and over and over, every week for as long as I continue to hold my job.

At my boss's suggestion, I sent a message to a woman in the same role, except slightly higher up. She was off the clock and at dinner at the time but still messaged me with a promise to help me fix both issues today. I'm not entirely sure today won't end in frustration, too, but I already trust her response more than his.

I sometimes feel bad using "old white guy" as a label for a category of lesser being. After all, I am married to someone who technically fits the descriptor. But, really, if I had taken all gender notations out of this post, how many of you would have figured it out anyway?!