November 28, 2007
Dear Everyone:
The File Plan team was off work last week, but now we’re busily working on “tying it up in a bow”. The week before last we worked on “mining for nuggets”. (Personally, I suspect this “mining” was done primarily so the contractor company’s employees could continue to bill their time to the project.)
As the Governance Team (GT) finishes a Functional Area, the “controllers” (two contractor employees) make the changes to the spreadsheet. Once they’re finished a couple of Company employees, myself included, review the Retention Categories that were assigned for accuracy. Only then is the Functional Area considered absolutely completed. Unless they think of some other busy work for us to do.
In other news…
I had hoped to see a movie or two while I was off last week, but ‘twas not to be. However, I did get one very important thing done at that was: Excavate the mountain of “junk” mail on my dining table.
First I rough sorted, mostly pulling out the “you’re already approved…” for a credit card I don’t want. For these the process is very simple: The application goes into the shredder and the empty envelope goes back in the mail. This is because those companies that send out these “addressee paid, business mail” envelopes don’t actually pay any postage unless the envelope is delivered to them.
Another rough sort was all the “begging for money” envelopes. All those worthy charities that send you return address labels, notepads and calendars, hoping to guilt you into sending them some money. I set them out into piles on a folding table in the living room. Once I had determined the twenty that I would actually contribute to, the rest went through the shredder on their way to the recycle bin.
Of the ones I kept, I again winnowed them down to just one envelope per charity. Sometimes I would have more than a dozen requests for one year. Do they think I’m made of money? Now the only thing left to do is write out the actual checks and put them in the mail, probably this weekend.
As to Thanksgiving itself, our niece, “Liza”, came out Wednesday evening after work to stay at “Jeannie’s” place. I had suggested we have non-traditional dinner at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, but it turned out they would be closed that day. So then I thought I’d go to the grocery store and get one of their “bake it yourself” cheese pizzas. That way “Jeannie” and I could load one side with meat and leave the other side for the vegetarian “Liza”.
However, the store didn’t have any cheese pizzas. Then I realized there were so few pizzas because the refrigerated space where they usually were was filled with “traditional holiday dinner in a box”. Serves 2 to 4 people. So I got that, plus lots of extra vegetables and salad and an apple pie.
I made the assumption that “Jeannie’s” oven and microwave worked, but not that she would have any pots, pans or microwaveable dishes, carving knife, bread knife, etc. I brought everything to her place, including a cutting board. I now know what to get “Jeannie” for her birthday: Lots of things for the kitchen.
Said kitchen is almost completely finished, by the way. Having begun last February, the only detail still missing, as far as I know, is the extra electrical outlets and light switches and plates to cover them. Also, “Jeannie” discovered that using the coffeemaker on the kitchen counter threatened the finish of the new cabinets above, so she’s looking for a cart to hold the microwave and coffeemaker. Christmas is coming (hint, hint.)
So we had the more-or-less traditional Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers the next day. I produced a list of movies in the area, all of which were vetoed by “Jeannie” and “Liza”. Oh, well. Maybe if I get all those checks written in time this weekend, I’ll make enough time for one movie before all the Christmas madness begins.
Love, as always,
Pete
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