taz_39 | Food and Plants, Food and Plants

The week was normal except for Tuesday, which was one of those days where Murphy's Law targets you and no amount of evasion gets you out of the crosshairs.

First thing in the morning my computer seemed to be suffering with a virus after I downloaded a FLAC to mp3 decoder. It froze up to the point where I had to yank the battery out and then head to work. It wasn't a great start to the day, and then I couldn't help thinking about having to deal with it when I returned home.

About halfway to work I realized I'd forgotten my primary credit card, left it in a pair of pants. No big deal as I have a backup and some cash, but still inconvenient.

While at work I got a message asking me to fill out a W9 for a gig because apparently mine went missing somewhere (I had called them asking about my W2) so added that to my list of when-I-get-home chores and yet another thing to delay my taxes.

This month the new supervisors (self included) have seen our teams doubled from 6-7 to 15-16. This is fine because we're supposed to have groups about that size, but it feels very overwhelming right now. I can barely keep track of everyone's schedule, not to mention half my team members decide to leave early or not show up at all. Makes it kind of hard to, you know, complete their tasks with them.

Anyway, there's one new team member who has a really soft voice. So soft that Dragon can barely pick it up. This results in a lot of captioning errors. I gave her a timing right away because it was obvious she wasn't going to do well (sorry to be judgy but she did fail her last timing with her last supervisor). She failed the timing I gave her, and then failed the second one too. At that point I was STREEEEESSED. If she failed a third, I would have to give her two Policy Violations (too many of these can get you fired) and assign a coach to her for two hours, and give her five monitor evaluations myself. In other words the next two days would be completely taken up with this one employee.

We gave it a day, then on Tuesday I planned to just do a little side-by-side coaching with her. Instead, she came striding up to my desk and insisted she was ready to take the timing again! I kind of flinched, but if she felt ready I can't say no, can I! So I administered the timing and watched remotely from my desk.

It did NOT look good. I was sitting there sweating, head in my hands, already researching what coaches might be available and whether or not the PVs might put her in suspension of pay. The sups around me were sympathetic but encouraged me to grade the timing first before jumping to conclusions.

You need a 129.5 to pass a timing.
She got a 129.7.

I'm naming my next grey hair after this chick.

Anyway, I'm thrilled, she's thrilled. She still has to take the final timing in order to be completely finished with this process for March. I ask if she wants to do it now and she says yes. I administer the timing, and holy sh*t she does amazing. It's like a dream come true. I could cry, her speeds are perfect.

I am so excited that as soon as she's done I go into her file and get the timing transcripts to try and grade them before our shifts are over. The transcripts create some useless doc files that you have to delete, so I hurriedly highlight them and delete, then open the timings...

Wait...where's her second timing?
Oh my God. I deleted it.
And this was a shared folder so it didn't go to a recycle bin. IT'S GONE.
HER TIMING IS GONE. I DELETED IT.

I could have screamed and curled up on the floor right there. I called IT desperately hoping they'd be able to retrieve it, they only laughed. So then I had to tell my supervisor, show him the files and describe the mistake that ruined my captionist's hard work. And I had to tell her.

She took it really well. It helped that I didn't actually delete the entire thing, just one of the two scripts. So when she works next we will have one script to do. It wasn't a TOTAL disaster, but I felt (and feel) terrible about it. If I download a program that gives MY computer a virus that's MY problem. But to screw up someone else's work is a really awful thing to do. I just hope it never happens again :(

I ended my lousy Tuesday with a trip to Whole Foods for a pork tenderloin, and of course they didn't have one because Murphy's Law, so I fought rush hour traffic to Trader Joe's (if you know where the Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are in Orlando you know why this is the absolute worst place to be during rush hour.) Back at home things seemed to finally calm down. Turns out my computer did NOT have a virus, just a corrupted program that needed to be removed. I completed the W9 and almost immediately got a 1099 back, so my taxes will not be delayed at all. I had time to vacuum and dust and eat dinner before Jameson came home from trivia night with some friends.

On Wednesday I enjoyed waking up late and having a look at my plants. Everything is doing well. I removed the lettuce because it's bolting/no longer edible, and moved the purple basil over to where I hope it will get more sun and be happier. The herbs in general have done really well in this planter.

The tomato plant is pretty insane! I planted it back in the beginning of January, six inches tall.
It's now the beginning of March and it's 3ft tall with 20+ tomatoes on it!! Plants are amazing.

https://instagram.com/p/B9Ub3eKAZwd

Before going to the gym with Jameson I decided to make us some of Alton Brown's Seedy Nut Bars.
I'm really glad I got us a food processor, it makes it very easy to make things like this that we can have around the house instead of store-bought bars. At some point I want to try making them with egg white powder for more protein. But as they are they're really delicious! Dates, apricots, orange zest, ginger, coconut, chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pepitas, a little salt. Throw it in the processor, poof. Healthy snack.

On Thursday we both worked on our individual projects. I (finally) mailed my sister's birthday present, got started on my taxes, weeded the pool deck, and practiced steno. He did his coursework for the classes he teaches, went to the gym, and learned some songs for an upcoming project.

In the evening I made dinner, a recipe from Dude Diet for Chinese 5-Spice Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Broccoli and Awesome Almond Sauce.
Turned out pretty tasty!

This week will just be another week at work as far as I know. On the 18th I'll be flying to North Carolina to visit my Aunt and sisters, so if you don't hear from me that's why.