December Layoff 2023 Part 4
Dec. 17th, 2023 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Jameson was up at 8 for his doctors appointment, so I got up too (that's a normal wake-up time for me.)
The night prior I had offered to make dinner for us now that the cookies are over, and Jameson requested a nice warming bowl of chili. That sounded good to me, with a lovely fluffy cornbread, so I started making an ingredient list. The trouble was, while researching cornbread mixes (because I am NOT spending all day baking AGAIN) I came across a Bon Appetit article that had run a taste test and claimed that Whole Paycheck's 365 cornbread mix was the best of them all.
There was even a fun video! (CLICK HERE to watch)
So, thought I, Whole Paycheck is a 40 minute drive away from our house. Not to mention the time spent shopping, and the 40 minute drive back. The whole trip usually takes me 1.5 or 2 hours. And I needed to put in a full day of work. I wasn't driving all the way out there just for cornbread mix.
But hey! Whole Paycheck is owned by Amazon.
And I have GIFT CREDITS on Amazon!
So I placed an order for delivery, and it only cost me $5!
An interesting thing that happened while selecting my items: after I had added onion, pepper, jalapeno, and two cans of beans, Amazon's powerful algorithm (basically Alexa) caught on that I was building a chili...and started suggesting everything else that I actually needed. Starting with canned tomatoes, which were next on my list, then sour cream, cheese, the cornbread mix, ground beef (I used chicken instead), etc etc. Say what you will about predictive analytics, it was impressive and it saved me having to search for products; the algorithm was already doing the searching for me.
I had breakfast, started data entry after Jameson left, and waited for the delivery which was supposed to appear between 9am-11am. It arrived at 10:30, and did you know? There's a feature on Amazon during the holidays called "Thank A Driver", and all you do is search those words and Amazon gives $5 to the last person to deliver your items. I made sure to do that!
Everything that I needed was there, so I went back to work.
Jameson came home soon after and described his nerve-shock treatment...it was painful and I felt very bad for him :( especially since this is not really helpful for diagnosis; we already know that he injured his hand somehow, but to talk to a specialist he needs to complete this test even though all it will show is that his nerves have been irritated/damaged. It's frustrating. But at least he's moving forward in the god-awful American "health care" system.
After lunch I assembled the chili. This is a healthy recipe that uses ground chicken instead of beef, lower fat and cholesterol. I browned the onions, peppers, garlic, chicken, and spices, and threw them in the crock pot with the beans, corn, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Although it wasn't in the recipe, I added a small amount of brown sugar and about a tablespoon of cocoa powder. It simmered for the next four hours.
When it was almost ready I mixed up the 365 Cornbread Mix and popped it into the oven.
Kudos to Bon Appetit for that review of cornbread mixes, because this was one of the best cornbreads I've had! It turned out incredibly soft, fluffy, and sweet-and-savory.
Jameson loved his chili :) I'm glad, because he had a long difficult day and I just wanted to give him something comforting and good at the end of it. We topped our chili with green onion and jalapeno bits (his with sour cream and cheese too) and the cornbread with a whipped honey jalapeno butter that I'd thrown together last minute. It was just what we needed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday we both had a very boring day of work-from-home, him working with his students and attending virtual meetings and me just doing my usual data entry. The weather has been weird this week, I guess there's a "tropical storm" off the coast but it's formation is unusual so there have been gusty winds, and now on Sunday we are supposed to expect a threat of tornadoes.
At the end of our boring day we had dinner at Cowfish and Jameson's company holiday party at Universal to look forward to!
This is Cowfish's bento box, which I don't usually get because it's less creative than their "burgushi" rolls or burger options. But the bento is a good option if you don't want to get overfull, it's like a little sampler snack box. Everything was tasty, and left me with room for red wine later ;)
It's always fun going to a private event at theme parks because you get to see them WAY less crowded than usual. Great for photo ops, if you're so inclined.
The first thing we did was check out one of the new Minions rides, Villain-Con, which is a shooting game where you stand on a conveyor belt and twist and turn to shoot at screens. It was fun, but the tracking on the guns was definitely wonky and it was also unclear what we were supposed to shoot at (lots of things "reacted" when you shot them but nothing told us how points were gained.) We suspect that there is normally a tutorial while you're waiting in queue, but because there WAS no queue tonight we missed out on that. Still, it was fun to goof off and watch Minions bounce around the screen, and of course Jameson scored like 100,000 points higher than me. He IS a gamer, after all :P
Entry to the ride:
A holding area with Villain-Con booths set up, this one is Unlawful Outfitters with many adorable Minion-sized weapons.
After that we got our first drinks of the evening and did a lap of Simpson's world, swung by the Bourne Identity Stunt Show hoping it would be running (it was not), and explored several of the fun shops that were open. We had to ride the E.T. ride also because it's so trippy and weird. This time I got a good photo of the part where you visit E.T.'s home planet.
The park was notably less crowded than in previous years...you may remember that Jameson's for-profit school recently did a massive layoff with ZERO warning, basically people woke up to find that they were either fired or had meetings with HR during which they were fired. Dumping your employees unexpectedly like that, and then continuing to keep silent and not offer explanations while also not appointing people to fill now-vacant roles, does not exactly instill a "spirit of festive cheer" or "goodwill among men." So although we could look around and see people enjoying themselves, there were definitely fewer people there, and there was definitely an undercurrent of...tension? Like as though everyone felt something hanging over their heads. Understandable, I think.
Because of this, Jameson was not really feeling the vibe. We agreed to hit Harry Potter world to visit with some of his coworkers and enjoy a butterbeer, then head home.
Some sights, for those of you who are big HP fans:
Stewed and jellied eels for sale:
The Gringott's dragon, of course:
Diagon Alley:
A house elf employment agency, and other shops:
One of the signs outside the butterbeer shop:
My butterbeer. You can get this bottled and that's good, but when you get it in the park they top it with this fantastic thick foam that tastes just like a melted butterscotch candy.
One of Jameson's friends, who insisted on a picture with both of us even though I don't work for this company ^^;
After that we peaced out, passing on using our second drink tickets because we were both just not feeling it today. It was fun, and we enjoyed the sights and getting an exclusive experience, but when it's provided by an employer that otherwise treats it's employees like disposable rags...it hits different. It doesn't feel like a reward for a job well done; it feels more like, "Enjoy this party we're throwing you, because it may be your last." Ugh.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday we both had work, and a "tropical storm" thing was moving through so it was rainy and drizzly all day. Made me want to sleep. Jameson went out drinking with some friends (someone recently got a promotion) and I plugged away at work, ate snacks, drank tea, vacuumed, and planned for tomorrow's dinner. Two last-minute presents for Jameson showed up so I check that they were intact and then stashed 'em. Some of my relatives received the cookies I'd sent and texted to show their appreciation.
And that's it. Slow day. Jameson came home and was too full for dinner, so I enjoyed leftover chili myself and we snacked on cookies and did virtually nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, it was very blustery in the morning with 20mph wind gusts, but the rain was finished anyway.
When Jameson got up I got dressed and went to Walmart for dinner ingredients + looking for stocking stuffers for him. We avoid Walmart like the plague because that's where ALL the tourists go and it's perpetually packed, every aisle feels like waiting in line to get to products, it's really horrible and I don't know why people go there. But once a year or so there's something that I need, that can only be found at Walmart.
Today it's their Root Blend: chopped beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, which I would prefer to buy fresh only Publix and Target both sell parsnips (and turnips) in 1lb bags and we do NOT need a pound of parsnips. On the way to the freezer section this was the "prepared meats" aisle. Completely empty! I can't think of any reason for this other than maybe the fridge broke.
On the way out the door was this QR code for getting a drone to deliver your stuff.
I really, really, really want to buy some cheap crap and have it delivered by drone to see what happens. 2024 goals.
The rest of the day was boring and normal. I made dinner and it was "ok": a pork tenderloin done in the air fryer, flavor was excellent but it was a bit overcooked because I forgot to check it partway through. The root veg blend also didn't work out, just got kinda chewy instead of crispy, because frozen veg are no good for roasting.
My brother Jonah got his Christmas cookies today...but something else got to them before he did!
He says that all of the cookies were intact except the peanut butter blossoms, which had been absolutely ripped out of the tin and destroyed. He lives in Philadelphia (not a burb) so we are thinking it was someone's dog, but it could also have been a bear. Or a crazy homeless person, but in that case why not just take the box and run. He's going to check with his neighborhood Ring group and see if anyone's cameras caught anything.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jameson just brought out my wrapped presents and there are quite a lot, he's got twice as many for me as I've got for him :/
Trying to console myself that my gift card gifts will be just as good?
Tomorrow it's back to work for both of us, and I'll take a trip for more stocking stuffers for him.
And we just realized that Christmas Eve is a SUNDAY, so at some point before Saturday I'll have to brave the absolute chaos of the grocery stores down here to get our ingredients for Christmas Day dinner. Ugh.
The night prior I had offered to make dinner for us now that the cookies are over, and Jameson requested a nice warming bowl of chili. That sounded good to me, with a lovely fluffy cornbread, so I started making an ingredient list. The trouble was, while researching cornbread mixes (because I am NOT spending all day baking AGAIN) I came across a Bon Appetit article that had run a taste test and claimed that Whole Paycheck's 365 cornbread mix was the best of them all.
There was even a fun video! (CLICK HERE to watch)
So, thought I, Whole Paycheck is a 40 minute drive away from our house. Not to mention the time spent shopping, and the 40 minute drive back. The whole trip usually takes me 1.5 or 2 hours. And I needed to put in a full day of work. I wasn't driving all the way out there just for cornbread mix.
But hey! Whole Paycheck is owned by Amazon.
And I have GIFT CREDITS on Amazon!
So I placed an order for delivery, and it only cost me $5!
An interesting thing that happened while selecting my items: after I had added onion, pepper, jalapeno, and two cans of beans, Amazon's powerful algorithm (basically Alexa) caught on that I was building a chili...and started suggesting everything else that I actually needed. Starting with canned tomatoes, which were next on my list, then sour cream, cheese, the cornbread mix, ground beef (I used chicken instead), etc etc. Say what you will about predictive analytics, it was impressive and it saved me having to search for products; the algorithm was already doing the searching for me.
I had breakfast, started data entry after Jameson left, and waited for the delivery which was supposed to appear between 9am-11am. It arrived at 10:30, and did you know? There's a feature on Amazon during the holidays called "Thank A Driver", and all you do is search those words and Amazon gives $5 to the last person to deliver your items. I made sure to do that!
Everything that I needed was there, so I went back to work.
Jameson came home soon after and described his nerve-shock treatment...it was painful and I felt very bad for him :( especially since this is not really helpful for diagnosis; we already know that he injured his hand somehow, but to talk to a specialist he needs to complete this test even though all it will show is that his nerves have been irritated/damaged. It's frustrating. But at least he's moving forward in the god-awful American "health care" system.
After lunch I assembled the chili. This is a healthy recipe that uses ground chicken instead of beef, lower fat and cholesterol. I browned the onions, peppers, garlic, chicken, and spices, and threw them in the crock pot with the beans, corn, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Although it wasn't in the recipe, I added a small amount of brown sugar and about a tablespoon of cocoa powder. It simmered for the next four hours.
When it was almost ready I mixed up the 365 Cornbread Mix and popped it into the oven.
Kudos to Bon Appetit for that review of cornbread mixes, because this was one of the best cornbreads I've had! It turned out incredibly soft, fluffy, and sweet-and-savory.
Jameson loved his chili :) I'm glad, because he had a long difficult day and I just wanted to give him something comforting and good at the end of it. We topped our chili with green onion and jalapeno bits (his with sour cream and cheese too) and the cornbread with a whipped honey jalapeno butter that I'd thrown together last minute. It was just what we needed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday we both had a very boring day of work-from-home, him working with his students and attending virtual meetings and me just doing my usual data entry. The weather has been weird this week, I guess there's a "tropical storm" off the coast but it's formation is unusual so there have been gusty winds, and now on Sunday we are supposed to expect a threat of tornadoes.
At the end of our boring day we had dinner at Cowfish and Jameson's company holiday party at Universal to look forward to!
This is Cowfish's bento box, which I don't usually get because it's less creative than their "burgushi" rolls or burger options. But the bento is a good option if you don't want to get overfull, it's like a little sampler snack box. Everything was tasty, and left me with room for red wine later ;)
It's always fun going to a private event at theme parks because you get to see them WAY less crowded than usual. Great for photo ops, if you're so inclined.
The first thing we did was check out one of the new Minions rides, Villain-Con, which is a shooting game where you stand on a conveyor belt and twist and turn to shoot at screens. It was fun, but the tracking on the guns was definitely wonky and it was also unclear what we were supposed to shoot at (lots of things "reacted" when you shot them but nothing told us how points were gained.) We suspect that there is normally a tutorial while you're waiting in queue, but because there WAS no queue tonight we missed out on that. Still, it was fun to goof off and watch Minions bounce around the screen, and of course Jameson scored like 100,000 points higher than me. He IS a gamer, after all :P
Entry to the ride:
A holding area with Villain-Con booths set up, this one is Unlawful Outfitters with many adorable Minion-sized weapons.
After that we got our first drinks of the evening and did a lap of Simpson's world, swung by the Bourne Identity Stunt Show hoping it would be running (it was not), and explored several of the fun shops that were open. We had to ride the E.T. ride also because it's so trippy and weird. This time I got a good photo of the part where you visit E.T.'s home planet.
The park was notably less crowded than in previous years...you may remember that Jameson's for-profit school recently did a massive layoff with ZERO warning, basically people woke up to find that they were either fired or had meetings with HR during which they were fired. Dumping your employees unexpectedly like that, and then continuing to keep silent and not offer explanations while also not appointing people to fill now-vacant roles, does not exactly instill a "spirit of festive cheer" or "goodwill among men." So although we could look around and see people enjoying themselves, there were definitely fewer people there, and there was definitely an undercurrent of...tension? Like as though everyone felt something hanging over their heads. Understandable, I think.
Because of this, Jameson was not really feeling the vibe. We agreed to hit Harry Potter world to visit with some of his coworkers and enjoy a butterbeer, then head home.
Some sights, for those of you who are big HP fans:
Stewed and jellied eels for sale:
The Gringott's dragon, of course:
Diagon Alley:
A house elf employment agency, and other shops:
One of the signs outside the butterbeer shop:
My butterbeer. You can get this bottled and that's good, but when you get it in the park they top it with this fantastic thick foam that tastes just like a melted butterscotch candy.
One of Jameson's friends, who insisted on a picture with both of us even though I don't work for this company ^^;
After that we peaced out, passing on using our second drink tickets because we were both just not feeling it today. It was fun, and we enjoyed the sights and getting an exclusive experience, but when it's provided by an employer that otherwise treats it's employees like disposable rags...it hits different. It doesn't feel like a reward for a job well done; it feels more like, "Enjoy this party we're throwing you, because it may be your last." Ugh.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday we both had work, and a "tropical storm" thing was moving through so it was rainy and drizzly all day. Made me want to sleep. Jameson went out drinking with some friends (someone recently got a promotion) and I plugged away at work, ate snacks, drank tea, vacuumed, and planned for tomorrow's dinner. Two last-minute presents for Jameson showed up so I check that they were intact and then stashed 'em. Some of my relatives received the cookies I'd sent and texted to show their appreciation.
And that's it. Slow day. Jameson came home and was too full for dinner, so I enjoyed leftover chili myself and we snacked on cookies and did virtually nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, it was very blustery in the morning with 20mph wind gusts, but the rain was finished anyway.
When Jameson got up I got dressed and went to Walmart for dinner ingredients + looking for stocking stuffers for him. We avoid Walmart like the plague because that's where ALL the tourists go and it's perpetually packed, every aisle feels like waiting in line to get to products, it's really horrible and I don't know why people go there. But once a year or so there's something that I need, that can only be found at Walmart.
Today it's their Root Blend: chopped beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, which I would prefer to buy fresh only Publix and Target both sell parsnips (and turnips) in 1lb bags and we do NOT need a pound of parsnips. On the way to the freezer section this was the "prepared meats" aisle. Completely empty! I can't think of any reason for this other than maybe the fridge broke.
On the way out the door was this QR code for getting a drone to deliver your stuff.
I really, really, really want to buy some cheap crap and have it delivered by drone to see what happens. 2024 goals.
The rest of the day was boring and normal. I made dinner and it was "ok": a pork tenderloin done in the air fryer, flavor was excellent but it was a bit overcooked because I forgot to check it partway through. The root veg blend also didn't work out, just got kinda chewy instead of crispy, because frozen veg are no good for roasting.
My brother Jonah got his Christmas cookies today...but something else got to them before he did!
He says that all of the cookies were intact except the peanut butter blossoms, which had been absolutely ripped out of the tin and destroyed. He lives in Philadelphia (not a burb) so we are thinking it was someone's dog, but it could also have been a bear. Or a crazy homeless person, but in that case why not just take the box and run. He's going to check with his neighborhood Ring group and see if anyone's cameras caught anything.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jameson just brought out my wrapped presents and there are quite a lot, he's got twice as many for me as I've got for him :/
Trying to console myself that my gift card gifts will be just as good?
Tomorrow it's back to work for both of us, and I'll take a trip for more stocking stuffers for him.
And we just realized that Christmas Eve is a SUNDAY, so at some point before Saturday I'll have to brave the absolute chaos of the grocery stores down here to get our ingredients for Christmas Day dinner. Ugh.
