Hours Given, Hours Taken Away

All of us exec assistants got some great news today. In past years we've been able to depart or log off early on Fridays (so glad I work from home now on Fridays, when I was full time in the office commuting home that afternoon pretty much used up that extra two hours), but this year they changed things when all exempt employees were gifted unlimited paid time off. That PTO gift did not apply to us non-exempt folks, for I guess tax reasons or something. So then they announced that employees should now use PTO for early Friday departure, which sent many non-exempt/limited-PTO folks into a bit of a tizzy. Long story short we're now back to where we used to be, they've created a special code for us non-exempt folks to use, and we get to go into this Memorial Day weekend by only working 38 regular hours. Naturally I had to put in 90 minutes overtime today and didn't get home until around 7:45 PM, but I guess by Friday all this will have evened out. Too tired to do much more now than digest my late dinner and collapse.

The People in My Neighborhood

What a gorgeous day! Both the new farmers' market and the annual Riverdale Block Party were today, so Robin and I had a nice stroll where I bought veggies and bread and donated to the local food pantry and I generally had a lovely time. Naturally we were beyond exhausted upon getting home, thanks to the allergens, but we're relaxing for the rest of the day and waiting for the Yankees-Mets game to come on. The only negative is the family gathering going on outside our bedroom and home office windows, as the "porch house" residents with the hot tub are playing music and having a barbecue and such. I mean, you can't really blame them, it's their own backyard, it's just that I'm getting kind of tired of the half dozen plus backyards that face us doing their backyard stuff with screeching children or basketball-playing teens or lawn mowers when I want to nap. Guess I'll have to get used to earplugs or just wear my earbuds during lovely weekends so I can enjoy myself indoors. First world problems...

Talkin' Baseball

Wow, that was some FA Cup, wasn't it? Oops sorry, baseball. I'm a New York baseball fan, which means I follow both the Yankees and the Mets. If pressed I'd probably say the Mets are my favorite team, as I remember getting into them around 1967 or so. But I've been to Yankee Stadium far more often than either Shea or Citifield, and now that I live in da Bronx I feel kind of obligated to root for the Bombers. Thing is, they don't make it easy. Oh, I love the players, and I have no problem with Paul O'Neill doing color commentary. However... The Bleacher Creatures are horrid - not on an individual basis, mind you, I once rode the elevator from the ground floor to the bleacher level with one of them and she was quite nice. But collectively they tend to exhibit a mob mentality almost as bad as the Liverpool Kop. The powers that be honestly think George Steinbrenner (the Donald Trump of baseball, whom I didn't mourn when he died) and scions can do no wrong, and the BC's go along with it to the point of booing Juan Soto because he decided to abandon the Yankees for their crosstown rivals without so much as considering that management should take the credit (in Steve Cohen's case) or the blame (yon Steinbrenners). I hate how they celebrate Star Wars by acting like they're the evil empire (that's the sound you hear every time a Yankees pitcher gets two strikes on a batter). I really despise how you're made to stand at the seventh inning stretch for the Two Minutes Hate; the whole God Bless America schtick was corny and outdated jingoism even when they added it in the wake of 9/11, but if you're in the stadium you have to go along with it (can you tell when I usually take my bathroom break?). And the noise! To be honest I'm sure the decibel levels are just as high at Citifield. But anyway, when the two New York teams go head to head I usually find myself rooting for the Mets. The Yankees won yesterday and the Mets prevailed today so this 3-gane set will be decided tomorrow. Oh, and by the way the spam emails have slowed to a trickle, thank goodness.

Fraud to Follow

Alas, the malicious perp tried to take out another credit card on my account, so I woke up today to a fraud alert and the account is now frozen (with the perp kicked out) until such time as I get my new card. The spam emails have slowed down a bit but I still woke up to a few hundred. This too shall pass.  And I have a lovely weekend to look forward to!

Spam, Spam, Spam, Baked Beans, and Spam

I woke up to hundreds of spam emails in both my personal inboxes, and it took forever to delete them and try unsubscribing to all the mailing lists that the malicious perp put me on. They may have also affected my credit card, so I changed my online password and am hoping for the best. Fortunately I was kept busy enough in the office that I didn't have to think about things too much, particularly as I was able to have a lovely lunch as part of a special event I attended. But now that I'm home and still getting rid of spam so I can keep track of actual emails, it's exhausting me again, and it didn't help that there was no NY baseball tonight (although that allowed us to catch up on DVR'ed shows). Hoping for better tomorrow.

Filthy Wetness

So, so happy I didn't have to go into the office today! My toe (and feet/knees in general) could recover a bit from yesterday, I could take things at my own pace instead of being at others' beck and call, and I didn't have to deal with this awful on-and-off rain, which is most definitely on as I speak. I hope it tapers a bit before tomorrow (another Manhattan day), and then I have a few short days to rest (two of them are supposed to be wet as well) before doing another four consecutive office days next week. After that we hit Memorial Day and I start to think about summer vacation days (at this point I'm figuring on eating up my PTO time by taking off every Wednesday like I did last year, leaving my laptop locked in my office desk on Tuesday night and picking it up again Thursday morning) but we'll see how it goes. It's awfully nice to have no certain plans!

If You Knew Sushi

Today I got taken out to a lovely sushi lunch by two of the partners I support. Lots of fun, even though the place was a bit hoity-toity for this plebe. No reservations accepted so you need to get there early, fairly crowded so I definitely felt the claustrophobia, and of course a bit out of my price range, but the food was very good and, as I'm not the all-you-can-eat-sushi person I used to be, I didn't leave hungry. I needed the energy too, as I was running around a lot all through the office floor helping folks out. So much so that I really paid for it with a lot of leg and foot neuropathy, including the side of my big toe that will need to be taken care of by orthopedic sneakers sooner rather than later. Hoping a shower (the indoor kind, not the pissing-down-outside-now kind) and a good night's sleep will take care of some of that; if not, ibuprofen is your friend!

Silly Site o' the Day

A nice productive workday from home, so nothing to report. Are you bored? Try the Bored Button (via BoingBoing)!

To Market, To Market

Even in the bucolic NYC suburbs there's drama, and the one in our neighborhood is farmers' market "wars," where the vendors in a market that they felt had not done right by them schism'ed and decided to set up shop every Sunday about three blocks from where we live. So that was convenient for us, as I'd never actually found a parking spot at the other place, and this afforded us a bit of exercise after breakfast. I love farmers' markets! I spent more money than I'd intended on some cheese and onions and a couple pairs of earrings, but left happy and excited about next week. After that we did our regular grocery shopping, as we hadn't had the chance yesterday, and pretty much chilled and watched sports for the rest of the afternoon (Liverpool drew, the Yanks won in a blowout, and I hear the Mets won as well but since I don't get Roku I couldn't watch that game). For whatever reason, probably all the allergens in the air, I've kind of felt drugged all day, so I'm glad it was a weekend and I got to rest!

Mother's Day Weekend

Normally I don't like to stretch out holidays that are only supposed to be one day, but it was so much easier to visit Mom today than it would have been tomorrow, so off to NJ we went, her card and gift in hand. Fortunately she loved both, particularly the gift of a blanket that looked like a piece of matzoh. Very Mom! The weather cooperated as well, a bit windy here and there but near cloudless skies. The only hitch, as I dreaded, was the approach to the GW Bridge. I'd hoped traveling on Saturday would mitigate the horrid logjam, but such was not to be, it seemed to take around 45 minutes just to navigate that bit. Plus, the Yankees and Mets both lost, so meh. But the Mom bit was lovely. I don't know how many more Mother's Days I'll have to celebrate with her, so every one is precious now.