Saturday, December 30, 2006

Life Update - 123006

I had a great time spending Christmas with the family. Sadly it was shorter than it should have been. We bid with our seniority for holiday time off. This year we weren't told if we had it off until the week before. I took the prior week off due to it being slow at work and used the time to work on projects. I called into work to see if I got the time off and they said I was scheduled to come in Christmas week on my regular shift. That was a little depressing. I called a few days later to ensure they weren't wrong. This meant really coordinating my day well so I could spend a few hours with the family before going to work. Sadly, Mom and my brother Michael were running late and I got less than an hour to spend with them. When I got to work, I decided to check my file to find out why I was denied the day off. I looked at the paperwork that I filled out earlier and saw that it was approved. When I took that to the supervisor doing the schedule and asked where the "denial memo" was, he suddenly became skittish and apologized profusely when he noticed that he gave another Hennessy (there are two of us in the department) the week off. He said that I could leave right then but by the time I would get back to Boulder City, everyone would be leaving. Such is my luck but I did wind up getting some time with my family as others probably didn't.

One of the gifts that I received this year was painting from Kerry. I've been very reluctant to put any color on the walls of the house because that's just the way I am. Anyhow, she spent most of the last week in the living room and last night got into the hallways and dining room. She's a hard little worker. I try to help here and there with the really high parts (she's pretty short) and touch-up spots. I can actually say that the house hasn't looked better. It has brought up another issue that needs to be fixed soon: speaker wiring. I need to run it through the ceiling and... cut through some of the walls to run the rear speakers to the surround sound. When that is done, the rest of the paint can be finished.

Less than 2 hours from now, I start my talk show/podcast. I've decided that I'm going to use the next few hours to outline a bunch of things to say if there aren't any callers so I can kill and fill time with something other than inane babble. Should prove to be a good test.

Later tonight, we head over to Lloyd and Teri's to watch the UFC. Maybe the one good thing about working this week was the fact that I got to help and meet both Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. Should be a very good fight. Logically, I think Liddell has the better chance but I'd like to see Ortiz win. He was very nice when I met him and my impression of him changed when I saw him as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter.

After the living room gets put back together, I'll have to play a little catch-up on my DVR. Yes, it's hard not to say Tivo but in my living room, I took the only option left to me for the HD content coming from DirecTV. Anyhow, right now I have a full season of Battlestar Galactica and a majority of episodes for Smallville, Jericho and Doctor Who waiting for me. Things just need to slow down or I need to set aside a little time each morning to watch an episode.

There are babies on the way. Matthew and Beth announced at Thanksgiving that I'll have a new niece or nephew to spoil next year. My friend Tracy also is expecting as well as my friend and co-worker Patrick. Should prove to be a very interesting year.

5 comments:

Fred said...

Happy 2007, Martin. I can hardly wait to hear your podcast.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year!

We need to get together for longer next time.

Hugs!

Ken said...

Happy New Year Chief! That kinda sucks you got hosed out of time off.

LoraLoo said...

Sorry you missed the time off you put in for... but I'm glad you got to spend a little time with the family anyway.

Happy New Year, Martin!

Lucy Stern said...

Martin, IF there are two of you with the same last name, you need to be more presistent in asking about things like vacations and days off......Happy New Year