Remember how I mentioned the fire safety meeting and how it was run by Abbot from Abbot and Costello? well, I have now discovered that their ability to be dimwits in meetings is not due to inexperience. These guys actually have lesser important meetings where they can practice their skills at being inefficient time wasters. It seems that ever month they have a big general safety meeting where every department has a representative and one day they do a tour of the entire camp (the whole lot of about 10 people) and write down all the safety hazards that they see in their, or other peoples, areas. They will then have a short meeting about what they have witnessed of problems. This allows the representatives to become aware of those problems and try to make corrections. The next day they will gather for another meeting in a conference room to discuss the minutes of the last months meeting as well as go over the things that they have seen and how it is going to be corrected. In theory, when you hear it, this sounds perfectly acceptable and is even a smart thing to do. But, like the saying goes "make a trap idiot proof and someone is just going to build a better idiot".
First off there was a motion brought up and discussed for about 10 minutes on how they should have the tour and then wait for about a week before the meeting to discuss what has been done to fix the things that they saw on the tour. Seems 24 hours to fix major problems like spills, lack of signing and possibly lose or dangers wires is just too short a time. Now, if this was the first or second meeting ever in this fashion I can say "ok, no problem. They are working out the kinks". However, these meetings have been going on since November of last year. Guess it took them 10 meetings to realize "hey, this whole tour and then meeting in a 24 hour period is kinda hard..maybe we should slow it down". As well, needing 10 minutes to discuss it? mention we should have a week, evidence that it is hard to get things done, motion seconded and passed and move on; 4 minutes tops.
I had my one and only laugh in the meeting when they discussed an incident about a guy in a pick up truck that nearly drove off the road because he was 'distracted by mosquitoes'. Yeah, ok, lesson learned. Don't swat mosquitoes in your truck when you are driving. Loved how that made it to the incident reports for the month. Figure if I was in that truck and did that, I wouldn't tell anyone.
Once they started talking about how there was a problem with the main entrance steps, seems they were lowered by an inch and now causing pain to workers that are not used to the drop when they step out and fall that extra inch, I fell asleep. We aren't talking bobbing for apples kind of dozing that you do in a car or on a plane, but we are talking full bore 'head on chest, hands in lap, snoring and possibly drooling' sleep. The safety guy (replacement to the one that held the fire safety meeting) caught me and said that there was no sleeping in a safety meeting. At that moment I wished I had the presense of mind to wake up with a jerk and go "say something of importance or interest and I will stay awake". Instead all I got out was the witty "am up...am up" with a wide eyed look like a 2nd grader that has just been caught napping in English class. So far I have been treated as a type of celebrity. Apparently falling asleep in one of these waste of time meetings has been the dream of all people that have attended but they have never actually done it.
I mean, how can you honestly stay awake and take the meeting seriously when the main safety person calls helicopter pilots 'glorified taxi drivers'? There was a safety incident reported last month where a small window in the helicopter was cracked. Something about a basket was removed to store cargo and the passenger put something where it shouldn't have been and when a door closed it went through the small window. Upon mentioning this the main safety guy basically said "in my opinion, these helicopter pilots are glorified taxi drivers. The pilot may be in charge of the craft but the passenger is in charge of his possessions. Whereever the passenger wants to put his equipment, he puts it. The pilot has no say in the matter." No one said anything about it. So either they were like me and so stunned at this stupid statement or they were all to worried about saying something and possibly losing their job or offending someone that could make their life miserable with paperwork. The passenger might be in charge of their belongings but if the pilot tells you to put something somewhere you listen or else don't get in the stupid helicopter. When you can fly the thing yourself and take responsibility for the expensive piece of equipment then you can call them taxi drivers.
Either which way, now I have a better idea as to what these people do all day. Mindless meetings which are good in theory but are a waste of time once mismanaged and not taken seriously.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
back in camp
well, the fun and relaxing days are over and it is back to the usual grind. Nothing really new to say.
So far the funniest thing that happened in the last couple days was yesterday one of the geo-techs was at the pastry counter and was going to pack some cookies out to his work area. No worries there but he was trying to get a paper bag to do this. Here is where it gets interesting. Picture a cabinet with 4 holes to hold stuff in a 2x2 design. The lower 2 are directly at eye level (probably around 5'5" high) and the other 2 are higher up around the 6 foot mark or slightly higher. On the lower shelves in one section I have sandwich bags (with 3 opened up) and paper bags all loose and free to grab easily. In the other section are tin take out containers and lids (similiar to the tin containers you would get from a chinese take out place). On the higher, more difficult levels, are paper bags still in their tightly wrapped shipping wrappings and more boxes of sandwich bags but none of them opened. Yesterday I watched a geo-tech walk in and reach up and try to get a paper bag out of the wrapping. Now, these wrappings are not loose and you literally have to rip off the wrapping to get the bag out. He stood there, struggling trying to get it out for a good 30 to 45 seconds before I called out to him about the loose bags. The thing that got me laughing is that you know when you are reaching for something or doing something too high, instead of looking up at it you sort of let your head go to eye level and you go sort of by feel. Well he did that and directly not even 2 inches from his nose was two stacks of loose, easily grabable, paper bags. It would be like a lumber jack going to cut down trees but not being able to because he was looking at the forest. I let him struggle for the 30 seconds before saying "you know there are loose ones to your left". He managed to find them and get his treats for the day.
Getting darker up here, sunlight wise. The weather has been raining and snowing on and off for the last couple days causing people to be a little more miserable than normal. Not everyone seems to enjoy the solitude and all of camp life, though I sometimes don't really mind it. If there was any one thing I can honestly say I enjoy about the north in the wintertime is the lack of sunlight in the evenings. During the summer it is always so difficult going to sleep with the sunlight streaming in the windows. Our curtains are not bad at keeping out the light but not perfect. Now I go to bed in darkness around 11pm or so and I wake up to darkness around 6am or so. Soon the night shift will be happy as well cause we will soon have 24 hours darkness and they will be able to sleep.
So far the funniest thing that happened in the last couple days was yesterday one of the geo-techs was at the pastry counter and was going to pack some cookies out to his work area. No worries there but he was trying to get a paper bag to do this. Here is where it gets interesting. Picture a cabinet with 4 holes to hold stuff in a 2x2 design. The lower 2 are directly at eye level (probably around 5'5" high) and the other 2 are higher up around the 6 foot mark or slightly higher. On the lower shelves in one section I have sandwich bags (with 3 opened up) and paper bags all loose and free to grab easily. In the other section are tin take out containers and lids (similiar to the tin containers you would get from a chinese take out place). On the higher, more difficult levels, are paper bags still in their tightly wrapped shipping wrappings and more boxes of sandwich bags but none of them opened. Yesterday I watched a geo-tech walk in and reach up and try to get a paper bag out of the wrapping. Now, these wrappings are not loose and you literally have to rip off the wrapping to get the bag out. He stood there, struggling trying to get it out for a good 30 to 45 seconds before I called out to him about the loose bags. The thing that got me laughing is that you know when you are reaching for something or doing something too high, instead of looking up at it you sort of let your head go to eye level and you go sort of by feel. Well he did that and directly not even 2 inches from his nose was two stacks of loose, easily grabable, paper bags. It would be like a lumber jack going to cut down trees but not being able to because he was looking at the forest. I let him struggle for the 30 seconds before saying "you know there are loose ones to your left". He managed to find them and get his treats for the day.
Getting darker up here, sunlight wise. The weather has been raining and snowing on and off for the last couple days causing people to be a little more miserable than normal. Not everyone seems to enjoy the solitude and all of camp life, though I sometimes don't really mind it. If there was any one thing I can honestly say I enjoy about the north in the wintertime is the lack of sunlight in the evenings. During the summer it is always so difficult going to sleep with the sunlight streaming in the windows. Our curtains are not bad at keeping out the light but not perfect. Now I go to bed in darkness around 11pm or so and I wake up to darkness around 6am or so. Soon the night shift will be happy as well cause we will soon have 24 hours darkness and they will be able to sleep.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Spunky 1997 - 2009 waiting at the Rainbow Bridge
On September 22nd, 2009, dearly loved Spunky passed away. A loving member of the Boettger family, she was diagnosed with sarcoma, a type of soft tissue cancer, of her hind quarters. Left with an undetermined time, she proved up to her name fighting with spunk and determination against her illness right up to the very end. She will be missed by those that knew her and is survived by her twin sister (Kitara) and human parents.
Spunky came to my life with her sister, Kitara, back in the late summer of 1997. Having just graduated from RDC and going to work at the Red Deer courthouse I decided that having a cat in the house would be a good idea. After all, a house is just a house will you have a cat, then it is a home.
Spunky was originally named 'Frankie' due to her baby blue eyes. However, that name had to be changed when she had her first encounter with an older cat that I was catsitting at the apartment where I was living. She was barely over the fluff ball stage of kitten development and this 3 year old cat had just been brought to the house for a 6 day stay while his owner was out of town on a trip of sorts. The first thing he did was walk around the apartment to claim everything as his own and he did. He first saw Kitara and gave her a hiss and a glare to let her know that he was in town and the new big guy on the street. Kitara responded by short of shuffling away but with a curious look on her face as to what this thing was and what it was doing. He then went up to 'Frankie' and, with his face only an inch from hers, tried the same thing. However, instead of shying away as her twin sister did, 'Frankie' looked at the older cat and in a flash took a swipe at his face and connected. I still to this day don't know who was more shocked at the hit, myself or the 3 year old bully who was expecting to see a little furball run in fear but got a right hook across his face. As soon as the 3 year old cat walked away, trying to regain some dignity, Spunky was born and remained that way through the rest of her life. For the next 6 days I swear everytime the older cat came in to a room where Spunky was he almost looked like he turned to Spunky to ask permission to stay.
It was this spunky attitude that definitly made her a personality character around the house. Many a time during her childhood I would be doing the dishes and suddenly feel a sharp pain in my knee to upper thigh region. I would look down to see what was going on and see a small furball attached to my upper thigh by razor sharp claws with two bright eyes looking at me trying to say either 'so, whatcha doing up there?' or 'any idea when we eat again?' She was always the first one to go looking for a noise that went off in the house and always the first one at your heels when the door was opened cause there was always a new world out there to explore and conquer.
Whenever in the car outside of their kitty carrier, Spunky was always one to look out and see what was happening. One time I was driving from Red Deer to Edmonton and didn't want to have them cooped up in their carrier and crying for 2 hours so I let them run free in the car. Kitara did what I was hoping they would do, curl up on the back floor and go to sleep. Spunky, however, found a better way to travel. She jumped up almost immediately onto the back head rest of the drivers seat, angled herself so she could see out both back and drivers window as well as the front windshield, and spent the whole two hours with her eyes and head darting back and forth at cars and scenary as it flew by. She meowed off an on for the whole two hours but instead of a cry of sorrow and fear they were more meows of "What's that? oh, over there, what's that? and there, what's that?"
Her curiousity was another trait that made her both a joy and pain to have around the house. No cup was safe when she was around. You could be drinking any type of drink and set your cup down on the table and she would have to know what was in it. She would either jump up on the table and walk up to the cup and stick her nose directly in to the cup and have a sniff or drink of it (which I am sure she got a burnt tongue and nose once or twice while staying at my parents place since they drink coffee and hot drinks whereas I stuck to ice tea mainly) OR she would remain on the floor and reach up with her paw to the lip of the glass and dump the contents on herself. Many a time I had to refill my glass after Spunky had given herself an ice tea shower.
Another quirky thing about Spunky was her strange connection with water. I always thought that cats hated water so figured a good way to train them not to do something was to spray them with water. Spunky would do something and then sit there waiting to get hit with the water. I could empty the entire contents of a spray bottle on her and she would sit there to get soaked and then, when it was all empty, look up at me like she was saying "that all you got?" and calmly lick the water off her. I even thought of souring up the water by adding lemon juice (this got her looking at me and saying "lemonade? thanks, but could you add sugar next time?") or tabasco sauce (though think she thought it was mexican night at the apartment then). While she loved to sit on the lip of the bathtub and catch the drops as they fell from the shower head or swat them off the faucet, she hated to be in the sink to have a bath. She definitly had her own unique personality.
So the decision was made and the act was carried out. Both mom and I were a little annoyed that the nice vet in Yellowknife was not around to help us through this difficult time but instead we got the doctor that neither of us like very much. He had a history with Spunky and the family and I am sure that she didn't like him about as much as the family. Both mom and I were happy when during the visit and procedure Spunky managed to find enough strength and 'spunk' to put up one last fight and bite him on the finger. Granted it wasn't a deep one that drew blood but it definitly was the last great act of defiance from dearly loved Spunky.
http://rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
Friday, September 18, 2009
The monkeys followed me from camp...and are working at CIBC!!!!
At times I sit back and think that camp life is the only place that attracts the strange people that I seem to work with. A fire safety guy that can turn a fire safety meeting in to an Abbot and Costello routine; cooks and managers that seem to think that the more times that you swear has a direct relation to how fast the work gets done; a company that seems to think that having routine 'town hall' meetings to inform the workers that no decisions have been made on the decision of the camp but will continue to keep us informed of the indecisions that they have as they progress. All these people I seem to think are only available in camp for my amusement. Today, however, I had my eyes opened to the wonders of the world of banking.
The Mrs has a supplementary card on my main account at the CIBC. She has had this card for about the last 5-6 years. It made it easier financially on the whole travelling aspect when they put in that rule that if you buy a ticket on a credit card you need the card in your possession to get on the plane, as well as when we had to pay online for gov't expenses to get the visa going on. Since she was in Singapore and there was no CIBC there, it was pointless to have it set up for a PIN so that she could pay it at the ATM since there is no ATM there to pay at. Now that she is in Canada we decided that she should have a PIN so that she could pay the visa if I was in camp and it was coming due.
We went up to the teller and showed her the card and asked if we could pay the balance of the credit card and get a new PIN for it. Well, she was all to happy to take our money and put it on the visa with a smile and a stamp of her rubber date stamp but when it came to the PIN she asked if the Mrs had any ID. So she gave the teller her Alberta Health Care card as well as her Singapore ID card (basically, everything the passport has with the added addition of her thumb print on the back). The teller looked and handed back the Singapore ID card and asked for a Canadian photo ID. We were both taken a bit aback and said that she didn't have a Canadian piece of picture ID because we are in the middle of the spousal visa process and the gov't won't issue any picture ID until the visa has been approved. Very similar to the cycle "they won't hire me without experience - I can't get experience to get a job - to get a job I need experience - they wont hire me without experience". She smiled at us like we were to smile back and go "ok" and walk away.
Now this has me wondering about the whole idea of what it is to be Canadian. Is it that Canadians are just so accustomed to being non-confrontational that we just smile when we are told that something can not be done and ask 'what do we need?' and when we are told "you need to find the tears of the unicorn, distill it under the light of the first blue full moon of the century and hold it in a cup made of moon beams" we go "no problem, thank you for your help. We will return when it is done" and walk away knowing that it is possible to get it done and it is our responsibility to do this? Is this the way that all Canadians are or is it just me?
Well we were told this and both the Mrs and myself kind of got our hackles up and started to give her stereo 'but we have this...we cant have that...we should do this..." and the teller took a step back and said she would talk to her supervisor. At this point I had to tell the Mrs that one of us should do the talking and the other remain silent since having stereo attacks on the teller might be more harmful than helpful. We voted and agreed that I would do the talking and she would answer the questions when asked. The teller then returned and said that we needed to have a Canadian passport or photo ID to make it happen and that it was impossible with only an international ID card.
At this point I tried to wrap my head around the logic and it just wasn't warping that way. So I took a deep breath and tried to explain the situation. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak I felt a summoning of power deep inside my brain that boiled to the surface like a demon coming forth from the deepest darkest levels of my psyche. I heard myself say in a calm yet slightly elevated annoyed tone "let me get this straight. She has had this card for years, we have used this card and made payments on it; you have no problem with her actually using the card and being charged interest but when it comes to giving us a PIN so that we can use the card at the ATM to pay for the things we buy without coming up to talk to a human you are going to tell me that it is impossible until we can come to you with a piece of Canadian ID, that we can not obtain. I was told that the CIBC will not accept any passports as a form of ID except for Canadian and British and yet the Bank of Montreal was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account with just her Singapore ID and her health care card?" She took a step back and said that her supervisor said that it couldn't be done but her manager was available to talk. I said that I would love to speak to her manager and could we do so at the soonest convenience.
As the teller walked away I took a breath and looked around for my dad. The speech that I gave, coupled with the tone of voice and pointing at an imaginary day timer on the counter, would have been word for word for what my dad would have said in the same situation. I would have sworn that if I had a mirror I could probably see a vein throbbing in my temple at the time of me speaking.
The manager came with the teller, we explained the whole situation, complete with how the BMO was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account after we were denied setting up any banking accounts at the CIBC because they don't seem to want to accept anything except a Canadian processed ID. At this point she looked up a CIF (Customer Information Form) and asked the Mrs to confirm her phone number and address, which she did with flying colours, and then printed out a form, initialled it and said that we passed and they would change the PIN.
I mean, how absolutely stupid is that? I could understand and appreciate the security if we were there to report the card missing and wanted a replacement card, or ask them to increase the amount cause we have our eye on a new corvette and needed $150,000 on it so that we could buy it free and clear; but to change a PIN????? Even if we were changing the PIN to do cash withdrawals what would be the point? We have the card, we have obviously used it and have $1200 in debt already. What kind of identity thief would we be stealing credit cards and maliciously paying off a $1200 debt? If that is how credit card fraud works, I have a couple of other cards I would gladly give to a thief for them to maliciously pay off.
Yeah, this experience had to be the one and only time that I walked away from a Canadian business with the Mrs and did not even try to rationalize or come up with a logical excuse as to why they would do that. I joined in the Mrs rant in how stupid the banking system was and was left wondering why exactly I have my visa with them to have the privilege of giving them large amounts of interest on money borrowed.
Oh, quick movie reviews:
Whiteout - total waste of time and really stupid. Left me with so many questions of how it all worked (as in how they can walk in a storm that is so strong that full metal boxes are being thrown around like tin cans and a hot cup of coffee can drop from a table and freeze 1 second after hitting the ground but they can walk out without anything covering their lower face and not have frost bite in seconds). Definite miss.
9 - really interesting cartoon, definitely not for kids. Not a lot is explained in the movie about the characters and machine war and all but all in all not a bad film. Animation is amazingly good.
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - really really funny and good. 3D special effects are amazing and the humour in the movie is good. I think the Mrs said it best when she described it as 'quirky fun'. Definite see, and not just for kids. Lots of funny good stuff for adults.
Inglorious Basterds - definite Tarantino film, his flare is throughout the whole movie. Really funny, slightly gross, lots of blood. Not as much wit or comedic conversation between the characters as I had hoped but since it is more a gruesome comedy than a witty comedy I can't hold much against it. If you are a Tarantino fan, a must see; if you are not a fan, could be a miss.
All About Steve - horrible. Not as funny as we had hoped, not funny at all. I think there was once or twice I might have smiled at it but laughing did not happen. For a chick flick, this one even fell flat as the Mrs was not impressed at all either. Definitely miss it.
The Mrs has a supplementary card on my main account at the CIBC. She has had this card for about the last 5-6 years. It made it easier financially on the whole travelling aspect when they put in that rule that if you buy a ticket on a credit card you need the card in your possession to get on the plane, as well as when we had to pay online for gov't expenses to get the visa going on. Since she was in Singapore and there was no CIBC there, it was pointless to have it set up for a PIN so that she could pay it at the ATM since there is no ATM there to pay at. Now that she is in Canada we decided that she should have a PIN so that she could pay the visa if I was in camp and it was coming due.
We went up to the teller and showed her the card and asked if we could pay the balance of the credit card and get a new PIN for it. Well, she was all to happy to take our money and put it on the visa with a smile and a stamp of her rubber date stamp but when it came to the PIN she asked if the Mrs had any ID. So she gave the teller her Alberta Health Care card as well as her Singapore ID card (basically, everything the passport has with the added addition of her thumb print on the back). The teller looked and handed back the Singapore ID card and asked for a Canadian photo ID. We were both taken a bit aback and said that she didn't have a Canadian piece of picture ID because we are in the middle of the spousal visa process and the gov't won't issue any picture ID until the visa has been approved. Very similar to the cycle "they won't hire me without experience - I can't get experience to get a job - to get a job I need experience - they wont hire me without experience". She smiled at us like we were to smile back and go "ok" and walk away.
Now this has me wondering about the whole idea of what it is to be Canadian. Is it that Canadians are just so accustomed to being non-confrontational that we just smile when we are told that something can not be done and ask 'what do we need?' and when we are told "you need to find the tears of the unicorn, distill it under the light of the first blue full moon of the century and hold it in a cup made of moon beams" we go "no problem, thank you for your help. We will return when it is done" and walk away knowing that it is possible to get it done and it is our responsibility to do this? Is this the way that all Canadians are or is it just me?
Well we were told this and both the Mrs and myself kind of got our hackles up and started to give her stereo 'but we have this...we cant have that...we should do this..." and the teller took a step back and said she would talk to her supervisor. At this point I had to tell the Mrs that one of us should do the talking and the other remain silent since having stereo attacks on the teller might be more harmful than helpful. We voted and agreed that I would do the talking and she would answer the questions when asked. The teller then returned and said that we needed to have a Canadian passport or photo ID to make it happen and that it was impossible with only an international ID card.
At this point I tried to wrap my head around the logic and it just wasn't warping that way. So I took a deep breath and tried to explain the situation. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak I felt a summoning of power deep inside my brain that boiled to the surface like a demon coming forth from the deepest darkest levels of my psyche. I heard myself say in a calm yet slightly elevated annoyed tone "let me get this straight. She has had this card for years, we have used this card and made payments on it; you have no problem with her actually using the card and being charged interest but when it comes to giving us a PIN so that we can use the card at the ATM to pay for the things we buy without coming up to talk to a human you are going to tell me that it is impossible until we can come to you with a piece of Canadian ID, that we can not obtain. I was told that the CIBC will not accept any passports as a form of ID except for Canadian and British and yet the Bank of Montreal was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account with just her Singapore ID and her health care card?" She took a step back and said that her supervisor said that it couldn't be done but her manager was available to talk. I said that I would love to speak to her manager and could we do so at the soonest convenience.
As the teller walked away I took a breath and looked around for my dad. The speech that I gave, coupled with the tone of voice and pointing at an imaginary day timer on the counter, would have been word for word for what my dad would have said in the same situation. I would have sworn that if I had a mirror I could probably see a vein throbbing in my temple at the time of me speaking.
The manager came with the teller, we explained the whole situation, complete with how the BMO was more than happy to set up a banking and chequeing account after we were denied setting up any banking accounts at the CIBC because they don't seem to want to accept anything except a Canadian processed ID. At this point she looked up a CIF (Customer Information Form) and asked the Mrs to confirm her phone number and address, which she did with flying colours, and then printed out a form, initialled it and said that we passed and they would change the PIN.
I mean, how absolutely stupid is that? I could understand and appreciate the security if we were there to report the card missing and wanted a replacement card, or ask them to increase the amount cause we have our eye on a new corvette and needed $150,000 on it so that we could buy it free and clear; but to change a PIN????? Even if we were changing the PIN to do cash withdrawals what would be the point? We have the card, we have obviously used it and have $1200 in debt already. What kind of identity thief would we be stealing credit cards and maliciously paying off a $1200 debt? If that is how credit card fraud works, I have a couple of other cards I would gladly give to a thief for them to maliciously pay off.
Yeah, this experience had to be the one and only time that I walked away from a Canadian business with the Mrs and did not even try to rationalize or come up with a logical excuse as to why they would do that. I joined in the Mrs rant in how stupid the banking system was and was left wondering why exactly I have my visa with them to have the privilege of giving them large amounts of interest on money borrowed.
Oh, quick movie reviews:
Whiteout - total waste of time and really stupid. Left me with so many questions of how it all worked (as in how they can walk in a storm that is so strong that full metal boxes are being thrown around like tin cans and a hot cup of coffee can drop from a table and freeze 1 second after hitting the ground but they can walk out without anything covering their lower face and not have frost bite in seconds). Definite miss.
9 - really interesting cartoon, definitely not for kids. Not a lot is explained in the movie about the characters and machine war and all but all in all not a bad film. Animation is amazingly good.
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - really really funny and good. 3D special effects are amazing and the humour in the movie is good. I think the Mrs said it best when she described it as 'quirky fun'. Definite see, and not just for kids. Lots of funny good stuff for adults.
Inglorious Basterds - definite Tarantino film, his flare is throughout the whole movie. Really funny, slightly gross, lots of blood. Not as much wit or comedic conversation between the characters as I had hoped but since it is more a gruesome comedy than a witty comedy I can't hold much against it. If you are a Tarantino fan, a must see; if you are not a fan, could be a miss.
All About Steve - horrible. Not as funny as we had hoped, not funny at all. I think there was once or twice I might have smiled at it but laughing did not happen. For a chick flick, this one even fell flat as the Mrs was not impressed at all either. Definitely miss it.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
the sweet smell of freedom
I have smelt freedom and it is Gain Lavendar scented clothes. When I got in to camp the first thing I did was wash my civilian clothes with nice smelling detergent and then put them away in the bottom drawer to be warn again when I left camp. Yes, I don't wear actual civy clothes when in camp but only wear either my uniform (during the day) and then change in to my PJs in the evening and don't leave my room except for bathroom runs. So this morning when I was packing up all my stuff I put on my jeans and t-shirt and got hit with the sweet smell of lavendar. So much better than the Tide stuff that they provide for us here. Mainly because the Tide stuff isn't really laundry detergent (at least I think so since it doesnt say 'laundry detergent' but says 'industrial cleaner').
The weather is looking halfway decent. It rained all day yesterday with high winds and we were told that we were on the edge of a bad weather front which meant that if the wind blow one direction is could bring in rain, high winds and bad weather which would stand us in camp. If the wind blew the other direction it would take that weather away and we would be calm and slightly chilly but still able to fly. Last week the planes were cancelled from Monday morning till Thursday. It was one packed plane having all Monday and Wednesday people on it. This week Monday flew out alright so we are hoping that today we will take off as well.
So far the Mrs and I have kept the planning of things down to a minimum. Since last time out we were basically packed with social engagements since my parents were stopping over to a friends wedding for a total of about a week (one day here, 4-5 days coming back) and then after that it was friends, engagements, weddings and all. The time out before that it was working at The Works festival (Noon till 9pm every day for 13 days straight). So this time out is totally dedicated to spending time with my wife....well, minus one 'guys night out' cause guys will be guys and an estrogen free outing is required to maintain optimal testosterone sanity. :-)
Nothing really new happening out here. The last week has just flown by quickly. So, this might be my last entry for 2 weeks since I will be out in civilization. So hope all who read this have a great two weeks ahead and will be back. Later all.....
The weather is looking halfway decent. It rained all day yesterday with high winds and we were told that we were on the edge of a bad weather front which meant that if the wind blow one direction is could bring in rain, high winds and bad weather which would stand us in camp. If the wind blew the other direction it would take that weather away and we would be calm and slightly chilly but still able to fly. Last week the planes were cancelled from Monday morning till Thursday. It was one packed plane having all Monday and Wednesday people on it. This week Monday flew out alright so we are hoping that today we will take off as well.
So far the Mrs and I have kept the planning of things down to a minimum. Since last time out we were basically packed with social engagements since my parents were stopping over to a friends wedding for a total of about a week (one day here, 4-5 days coming back) and then after that it was friends, engagements, weddings and all. The time out before that it was working at The Works festival (Noon till 9pm every day for 13 days straight). So this time out is totally dedicated to spending time with my wife....well, minus one 'guys night out' cause guys will be guys and an estrogen free outing is required to maintain optimal testosterone sanity. :-)
Nothing really new happening out here. The last week has just flown by quickly. So, this might be my last entry for 2 weeks since I will be out in civilization. So hope all who read this have a great two weeks ahead and will be back. Later all.....
Monday, September 7, 2009
fire meeting run by a monkey
Now for the stupid man of the week. I present Scuba Steve, or as he shall now be known Erkel. Erkel is a sort of safety person for one of the big companies here on site. All I can tell you about him is that he has got to be one of the most clueless guys around. He has this habit of setting off the fire alarms at the weirdest time. Kirk was ready to kill him a few months ago because in one weeks time, the fire alarm had gone off 5 times between the hours of 1-3pm. Kirk was on night shift at the time, so it was like being woken up 5 times at 1am for a normal shift worker. It always seems that when he is on site, the fire alarm always goes.
So tonight we had a meeting about fire evacuation procedures because we had a fire alarm yesterday at 6 am (which none of us were happy about) and only a few people showed up. Guess we all knew Erkel was on site so it was going to be a false alarm and no sense getting out of bed. There were some issues that needed to be addressed that he was really not equipped to answer or deal with.
For instance, we don’t have one set muster station to go to in the event of a fire. We had one when the camp first opened months ago but that idea went flat quite quickly. Mainly because it was Erkel’s plan that everyone go out to a work shop area (where we have to put on Personal Protection Equipment, which not everyone has) and wait in the cold until a bus arrives that will drive us to an old camp about 10 minutes away. Then, when the all clear is done, we get back on the bus and drive back to the main camp where we can go about our business. This was Erkel’s idea, just so you know he wasn’t always a rocket scientist that just turned stupid, that went flat. So now we have a different meeting point for every single place in the whole camp. If you are in your room you meet at the end of the hallway; if you are in the dining room/kitchen you meet on the back loading dock; if you are in the offices you meet in the dry change room, and so forth. There are attendance sheets at certain locations around the camp and in the event of the fire alarm the sheets are to be taken to these areas and roll call is to be done to make sure that all the people are accounted for. However, with there being so many different stations, roll call is sort of useless since we don’t know if the person is in their room, the kitchen, the office, the rec room or any of the other 14 locations around camp. It was brought up that this was to be solved by the senior person of the wing to get the master list and communicate with the other senior persons to do a radio like check list to make sure all people are accounted for. The problem that one person at the meeting found out is that not everyone has radios at the stations. The conversation to sort of come to a conclusion of this problem went something like this:
Person (P): how do we know where people are going to be in the event of a fire alarm? They could be in the gym, in the rec room, in the dining room if they are not in their room.
Erkel (E): in that case the senior person will communicate with the other senior persons in the muster points to confirm the person is there.
(P): but not everyone has a radio, so how do we talk to them?
(E): the senior person will establish communication
(P): but, we don’t have a radio...how do we establish this communication?
(E): the senior person will establish the communication and then do a roll call to see where the people are.
(P): but we don’t have radios.
(E): That is easily solved because the senior person will establish the communication.
(P *in frustration gives up this line of attack and decides on another flow*): Ok, so if there are no senior people at the point, what do we do?
(E): There is always a senior person.
(P): ok, who are these senior people?
(E): The person who is senior will be the senior person.
(P): so there are no set senior people?
(E): It will be decided in each point who will be the senior person and they will establish communication with the other senior people to do a roll call on who is at which point.
P, at this point, realizes that they are slowing being a part of an Abbot and Costello “who’s on first?” routine and nods at Erkel and stops this line of questioning. In the end, we still have no clue as to who is going to call who at what station to find out if the alarm was false or about roll call.
There was a question asked about when do we leave the muster points and return to our life. It was decided that we could leave when the senior person got a call saying it was a false alarm and we could return to our lives. Luckily, the above conversation was not replayed but it was assumed that Erkel was an idiot. We mentioned that no senior person came to the muster point in B wing and we were all left standing there at 6am not knowing what to do. Erkel assured us that a senior person was there and we must have been mistaken. No matter what was said to him, he would not believe that a muster point existed on site that a senior person did not go to and inform everyone that it was a false alarm and we could all go back to sleep.
In the end it was decided that we have no idea who the senior people are that will be at each muster point, there is no clue as to who is going to have a radio to radio for news on the fire alarm and it will be hit or miss on whether or not a senior person will come by the muster points to confirm that it was a false alarm or in the case of a real fire what we are to do. All we know is that our fire safety guy really has no clue as to what the heck is going on around him.
Also, his way of ending the meeting is to walk out of the door without saying another word. All I remember was him going through another “who’s on first” type of routine with another person about something I really didn’t care to listen to and I looked over to talk to a co-worker for 2 seconds and when I looked back he was gone and people were all looking around like we were an audience at a magic show and we just saw the magician vanish in thin air and we are not sure if we are to applaud and leave or wait for him to rematerialize. In the end, it was a total and complete waste of time on our part.
So he has my vote for being the most brain dead and useless person in the position that they have been hired for.
So tonight we had a meeting about fire evacuation procedures because we had a fire alarm yesterday at 6 am (which none of us were happy about) and only a few people showed up. Guess we all knew Erkel was on site so it was going to be a false alarm and no sense getting out of bed. There were some issues that needed to be addressed that he was really not equipped to answer or deal with.
For instance, we don’t have one set muster station to go to in the event of a fire. We had one when the camp first opened months ago but that idea went flat quite quickly. Mainly because it was Erkel’s plan that everyone go out to a work shop area (where we have to put on Personal Protection Equipment, which not everyone has) and wait in the cold until a bus arrives that will drive us to an old camp about 10 minutes away. Then, when the all clear is done, we get back on the bus and drive back to the main camp where we can go about our business. This was Erkel’s idea, just so you know he wasn’t always a rocket scientist that just turned stupid, that went flat. So now we have a different meeting point for every single place in the whole camp. If you are in your room you meet at the end of the hallway; if you are in the dining room/kitchen you meet on the back loading dock; if you are in the offices you meet in the dry change room, and so forth. There are attendance sheets at certain locations around the camp and in the event of the fire alarm the sheets are to be taken to these areas and roll call is to be done to make sure that all the people are accounted for. However, with there being so many different stations, roll call is sort of useless since we don’t know if the person is in their room, the kitchen, the office, the rec room or any of the other 14 locations around camp. It was brought up that this was to be solved by the senior person of the wing to get the master list and communicate with the other senior persons to do a radio like check list to make sure all people are accounted for. The problem that one person at the meeting found out is that not everyone has radios at the stations. The conversation to sort of come to a conclusion of this problem went something like this:
Person (P): how do we know where people are going to be in the event of a fire alarm? They could be in the gym, in the rec room, in the dining room if they are not in their room.
Erkel (E): in that case the senior person will communicate with the other senior persons in the muster points to confirm the person is there.
(P): but not everyone has a radio, so how do we talk to them?
(E): the senior person will establish communication
(P): but, we don’t have a radio...how do we establish this communication?
(E): the senior person will establish the communication and then do a roll call to see where the people are.
(P): but we don’t have radios.
(E): That is easily solved because the senior person will establish the communication.
(P *in frustration gives up this line of attack and decides on another flow*): Ok, so if there are no senior people at the point, what do we do?
(E): There is always a senior person.
(P): ok, who are these senior people?
(E): The person who is senior will be the senior person.
(P): so there are no set senior people?
(E): It will be decided in each point who will be the senior person and they will establish communication with the other senior people to do a roll call on who is at which point.
P, at this point, realizes that they are slowing being a part of an Abbot and Costello “who’s on first?” routine and nods at Erkel and stops this line of questioning. In the end, we still have no clue as to who is going to call who at what station to find out if the alarm was false or about roll call.
There was a question asked about when do we leave the muster points and return to our life. It was decided that we could leave when the senior person got a call saying it was a false alarm and we could return to our lives. Luckily, the above conversation was not replayed but it was assumed that Erkel was an idiot. We mentioned that no senior person came to the muster point in B wing and we were all left standing there at 6am not knowing what to do. Erkel assured us that a senior person was there and we must have been mistaken. No matter what was said to him, he would not believe that a muster point existed on site that a senior person did not go to and inform everyone that it was a false alarm and we could all go back to sleep.
In the end it was decided that we have no idea who the senior people are that will be at each muster point, there is no clue as to who is going to have a radio to radio for news on the fire alarm and it will be hit or miss on whether or not a senior person will come by the muster points to confirm that it was a false alarm or in the case of a real fire what we are to do. All we know is that our fire safety guy really has no clue as to what the heck is going on around him.
Also, his way of ending the meeting is to walk out of the door without saying another word. All I remember was him going through another “who’s on first” type of routine with another person about something I really didn’t care to listen to and I looked over to talk to a co-worker for 2 seconds and when I looked back he was gone and people were all looking around like we were an audience at a magic show and we just saw the magician vanish in thin air and we are not sure if we are to applaud and leave or wait for him to rematerialize. In the end, it was a total and complete waste of time on our part.
So he has my vote for being the most brain dead and useless person in the position that they have been hired for.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Culinary Curtis Cooks in Camp
First off, the praise to a truely great worker to work with. This is Curtis, everyone say HELLO to Curtis:
Why do I praise him? well, he has got to be one of the best cooks that I have had the pleasure of working with in camp. He is extremely outgoing and talks with pretty much everyone in camp. He does the sort of joking and ribbing that Ron used to do to people but everyone would smile and laugh with Ron when he did his jokings but would go to Tony and complain that Ron was insulting them and all. Curtis has a natural friendly charm where he can joke and kid with everyone and not make it seem like he is berating or making fun of them but just having a good time.
Also, he is a great cook. He isn't like some of the cooks in the past that always had to put some freaky stuff on food to add 'flair' or sauces that make you go "what the heck???" All of the sauces that he adds are really just basic down to earth sauces that no on really does a double take on. Basic cheese and butter sauces are his main items that he puts on his food and they all are really good. I guess my judgement is also sort of biased because he lets me do things like this:
It started as a joke a couple months ago when he was cooking and we were having ham that I asked if he was going to add some pineapple and cherries to it. We laughed about it for a bit and then not much more was said until the ham came out of the oven. As he was basting and checking it he kept making a comment of 'boy, all this ham needs now is pineapple' or 'wow, cherries would definitly be a good addition to this ham' and I said that the next ham he did I would add some pineapple. So this morning when I was making my salads he said "so you going to light up the ham before I put it in?" I accepted the challenge and was going to cut some fresh pineapple but since we had only enough to last till grocery day, I had to settle for canned pineapple. So just before he put the ham in I speared it with 20 pineapple slices and cherries and he basted it with his glaze and baked the sucker all day long. When it came out the pineapple was delicious and the cherries were glazed hard on the outside with brown sugar and sweet and juicy on the inside. So, I like working with Curtis because he lets me do funky stuff that really is only cosmetic but is enjoyable and fun to do.
Funny story also about the pineapple and cherries. Duanne came through while I was pulling the pineapple and cherries off the ham (we slice the ham and put it on the line in serving trays so no one really got to see the ham in its pineappley glory) and I mentioned that he would help me eat the pineapple. So he had a ring and a couple cherries and walked away happy. About 15 minutes later, Stephanie came in to the kitchen while I was pouring hot water out of the steam kettle and said "Duanne said there was sweet stuff...where is the sweet stuff?" Of course, still on my amusement high from the pineapple and all I instantly turned towards her with my arms spread open wide and said in my best Leisure Suit Larry Lounge Lizard pick up voice "here it is baby, have all that you like". Of course, her reaction was to roll her eyes and mutter "I should have known better than to ask". We both had a laugh and I told her the pineapple was on my shelf and she went away looking for the 'sweet stuff'. About 20 minutes after Stephanie left, Duanne came back to the kitchen laughing about how this story was told to him by Stephanie and he thought it was hilarious.
Another reason I like working with Curtis is how helpful he is in giving advice or teaching me things. For instance, when I ask Tony 2 for some advice about cooking I usually get a shrug of the shoulders or a grunt going "not really sure, trust your taste" and he walks away. The only time he gives me hints or warnings is after I am done and somehow managed to screw it up and then he goes "yeah, you might not want to do it this way or that way". However, with Curtis, he gives me about 4 different plans or suggestions on what can be done and once I pick a course of action he helps out with the execution of the plan. Today I was making quesadillas for lunch and Tony 1 came by and asked "do you know how to make them?" and I replied with "sort of, just winging it" and he walked away. I suddenly got nervous so I went up to Curtis to double check about how I was going about doing it. He confirmed my plan and then suggested I do it on the grill instead of the oven. He gave me tips and pointers, explained how to do it and then even offered to give me a hand on cooking them to get them out on time. All the while we are making lunch he is offering suggestions on how I could make this a one man production, do certain steps ahead of time and some steps to miss out completely to make the operation move much smoother.
The only down side I see for Curtis is that we probably won't have him in camp for much longer. Camp life seems to have a certain luck with cooks as friendly and as good as he is. They come in, work for a bit and then go on to bigger and better things whereas only the really crappy and horrible ones seem to hold on here. Which makes me realize that Tony 2 and I will be here forever. Oh and speaking of crappy cooks hanging around till the day they die, I have a sneaky suspicion that Big D will be returning to this camp in 5-6 weeks once the DEW line is finished.
So yeah, everyone say hello again to Curtis and let's all hope that he sticks around for a long long time.
Why do I praise him? well, he has got to be one of the best cooks that I have had the pleasure of working with in camp. He is extremely outgoing and talks with pretty much everyone in camp. He does the sort of joking and ribbing that Ron used to do to people but everyone would smile and laugh with Ron when he did his jokings but would go to Tony and complain that Ron was insulting them and all. Curtis has a natural friendly charm where he can joke and kid with everyone and not make it seem like he is berating or making fun of them but just having a good time. Also, he is a great cook. He isn't like some of the cooks in the past that always had to put some freaky stuff on food to add 'flair' or sauces that make you go "what the heck???" All of the sauces that he adds are really just basic down to earth sauces that no on really does a double take on. Basic cheese and butter sauces are his main items that he puts on his food and they all are really good. I guess my judgement is also sort of biased because he lets me do things like this:
It started as a joke a couple months ago when he was cooking and we were having ham that I asked if he was going to add some pineapple and cherries to it. We laughed about it for a bit and then not much more was said until the ham came out of the oven. As he was basting and checking it he kept making a comment of 'boy, all this ham needs now is pineapple' or 'wow, cherries would definitly be a good addition to this ham' and I said that the next ham he did I would add some pineapple. So this morning when I was making my salads he said "so you going to light up the ham before I put it in?" I accepted the challenge and was going to cut some fresh pineapple but since we had only enough to last till grocery day, I had to settle for canned pineapple. So just before he put the ham in I speared it with 20 pineapple slices and cherries and he basted it with his glaze and baked the sucker all day long. When it came out the pineapple was delicious and the cherries were glazed hard on the outside with brown sugar and sweet and juicy on the inside. So, I like working with Curtis because he lets me do funky stuff that really is only cosmetic but is enjoyable and fun to do.Funny story also about the pineapple and cherries. Duanne came through while I was pulling the pineapple and cherries off the ham (we slice the ham and put it on the line in serving trays so no one really got to see the ham in its pineappley glory) and I mentioned that he would help me eat the pineapple. So he had a ring and a couple cherries and walked away happy. About 15 minutes later, Stephanie came in to the kitchen while I was pouring hot water out of the steam kettle and said "Duanne said there was sweet stuff...where is the sweet stuff?" Of course, still on my amusement high from the pineapple and all I instantly turned towards her with my arms spread open wide and said in my best Leisure Suit Larry Lounge Lizard pick up voice "here it is baby, have all that you like". Of course, her reaction was to roll her eyes and mutter "I should have known better than to ask". We both had a laugh and I told her the pineapple was on my shelf and she went away looking for the 'sweet stuff'. About 20 minutes after Stephanie left, Duanne came back to the kitchen laughing about how this story was told to him by Stephanie and he thought it was hilarious.
Another reason I like working with Curtis is how helpful he is in giving advice or teaching me things. For instance, when I ask Tony 2 for some advice about cooking I usually get a shrug of the shoulders or a grunt going "not really sure, trust your taste" and he walks away. The only time he gives me hints or warnings is after I am done and somehow managed to screw it up and then he goes "yeah, you might not want to do it this way or that way". However, with Curtis, he gives me about 4 different plans or suggestions on what can be done and once I pick a course of action he helps out with the execution of the plan. Today I was making quesadillas for lunch and Tony 1 came by and asked "do you know how to make them?" and I replied with "sort of, just winging it" and he walked away. I suddenly got nervous so I went up to Curtis to double check about how I was going about doing it. He confirmed my plan and then suggested I do it on the grill instead of the oven. He gave me tips and pointers, explained how to do it and then even offered to give me a hand on cooking them to get them out on time. All the while we are making lunch he is offering suggestions on how I could make this a one man production, do certain steps ahead of time and some steps to miss out completely to make the operation move much smoother.
The only down side I see for Curtis is that we probably won't have him in camp for much longer. Camp life seems to have a certain luck with cooks as friendly and as good as he is. They come in, work for a bit and then go on to bigger and better things whereas only the really crappy and horrible ones seem to hold on here. Which makes me realize that Tony 2 and I will be here forever. Oh and speaking of crappy cooks hanging around till the day they die, I have a sneaky suspicion that Big D will be returning to this camp in 5-6 weeks once the DEW line is finished.
So yeah, everyone say hello again to Curtis and let's all hope that he sticks around for a long long time.
Friday, September 4, 2009
messing with people and butterscotch bars
I remember hearing a comedian long ago making a comment about how when people in offices, or to acquaintances, ask "how are you?" the response is rarely what you are feeling. Also, how many times do people really wait for the answer or care? Everyone usually answers with 'fine' or 'good' or something non-committal and short. Of course, people that ask that sort of question rarely really want to know the answer but want to hear the short answer. How many times have you asked someone 'how are you?' and gotten the response "oh not so good. My hemorrhoids are acting up again, my wife is thinking of leaving me so I am a little depressed about that and the boss has just chewed me out for the 4th time this week for sleeping on the job so I am having a hell of a day of dispare and hatred"? What do you say to that? 'ummm...cheer up'?
So I thought perhaps I would try something. This afternoon Duanne came by and asked me, like he does every single day "how's your day?" Instead of the usual answer of 'not bad' I decided to give him a 'if the day could be considered a ballroom and all of us dancers waltzing to the tunes of the celestial orchestra, then I would be pirouetting across the dance floor in ecstasy and bliss'. He stopped, blinked at me and his mouth opened and shut like a fish out of water. Decided to take this opportunity to ask "so how is your day?" to which he just said "s%$t" and walked away. Perhaps next time he, or anyone else asks, might bring up a long list of medical illnesses and diseases, either fact or fiction, and see how long I can get them to actually nod and listen before walking away in a rush.
Oh, I found this situation extremely funny but not sure if anyone else will. There is a guy in camp that is not a regular person. So this means that he hasn't been here on a regular 2/2 rotation or what not but is someone that might be here for the summer doing some sort of study or something and will be gone by October. Every lunch and dinner he comes by before we have a chance to get the menu up and asks if there is any fish on the menu and then asks what is on the menu. I am stuck on this whole 'customer service' kick so I patiently tell him what is on the menu (I have given up saying 'brown stuff...green stuff...some white stuff...think we have some red stuff as well') and he goes 'sounds good' and walks away. During meal times he always takes the fish, whether fresh or deep fried, along with a little bit of whatever we have like veggies and potatoes. During this week when we had the huge storms happening that stopped the planes from flying in and some people couldn't go out working because of the rough weather, he asked about the menu, like normal, and then said that he had to go and check to see if the boat was still afloat. When questioned about the boat I found out what he is doing. He is one of the fish counters that monitors the fish habitats and water quality to make sure that our presence is not disturbing the fish life or water.
When I heard that I only had to smile at him and wait till he was out of the room before I burst out laughing. How funny is it that a fish counter who is studying the water and fish to make sure that they are not being harmed or inconvenienced in any way loves to eat fish for dinner? Wouldn't that be like a Green Peace volunteer enjoying muktuk (whale blubber)? I found it incredibly amusing and still smile when I see him go through the line looking for the fish.
Oh oh oh..gotta tell you, I have found a fantastic recipe for a square. The baker that we have now (Sheldon) found this recipe and made them. They were so good that when I was 'marrying' (putting all the 1/4 trays on one tray) the trays I found myself going up to these squares and saying "nope, this one wont fit..nope this one wont either..hmm, these 5 won\t have enough room either" and eating about 5-7 of them in an hour. I would go so far as to say that they are orgasmic to a degree that if I was banned from sex for the rest of my life (by either a horrible accident or some strange illness) then I could make these squares as a substituted. Granted, I would be eating a pan of them a day and be in total bliss but weigh about 600 lbs. They are called Chipits Tiger Bars and he found the recipe on the back of a butterscotch chip package. If you buy a bag you might get the recipe but knowing out grocery supplier and their fondness for sending us really old stuff that no one has bought in 5-6 years chances of finding this recipe might be slim. So for your possible baking pleasure, here is the recipe.
1) bring 1/4 cup EACH butter or margarine, firmly packed brown sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat
2) remove and stir in 1/2 cup chipits butterscotch chips, stir until melted. Stir in 2 cups crisp rice cereal (he used Rice Krispies here).
3) press into greased 8 inch square pan (of course, he quadrupled this recipe to make enough for camp but you can still to the 8 inch, or go for the full 4 foot long baking sheet that he used :-) )
4) melt 1 cup chipits semi sweet chocolate chips. Spread evenly surface of bars.
5) melt 1/4 cup chipits butterscotch chips with 1 tsp oil over hot water. drizzle in lines over surface of bars. Chill. Cut into bars. makes 24.
If you like butterscotch and chocolate, be warned...they are extremely addictive. At least, I thought so.
So I thought perhaps I would try something. This afternoon Duanne came by and asked me, like he does every single day "how's your day?" Instead of the usual answer of 'not bad' I decided to give him a 'if the day could be considered a ballroom and all of us dancers waltzing to the tunes of the celestial orchestra, then I would be pirouetting across the dance floor in ecstasy and bliss'. He stopped, blinked at me and his mouth opened and shut like a fish out of water. Decided to take this opportunity to ask "so how is your day?" to which he just said "s%$t" and walked away. Perhaps next time he, or anyone else asks, might bring up a long list of medical illnesses and diseases, either fact or fiction, and see how long I can get them to actually nod and listen before walking away in a rush.
Oh, I found this situation extremely funny but not sure if anyone else will. There is a guy in camp that is not a regular person. So this means that he hasn't been here on a regular 2/2 rotation or what not but is someone that might be here for the summer doing some sort of study or something and will be gone by October. Every lunch and dinner he comes by before we have a chance to get the menu up and asks if there is any fish on the menu and then asks what is on the menu. I am stuck on this whole 'customer service' kick so I patiently tell him what is on the menu (I have given up saying 'brown stuff...green stuff...some white stuff...think we have some red stuff as well') and he goes 'sounds good' and walks away. During meal times he always takes the fish, whether fresh or deep fried, along with a little bit of whatever we have like veggies and potatoes. During this week when we had the huge storms happening that stopped the planes from flying in and some people couldn't go out working because of the rough weather, he asked about the menu, like normal, and then said that he had to go and check to see if the boat was still afloat. When questioned about the boat I found out what he is doing. He is one of the fish counters that monitors the fish habitats and water quality to make sure that our presence is not disturbing the fish life or water.
When I heard that I only had to smile at him and wait till he was out of the room before I burst out laughing. How funny is it that a fish counter who is studying the water and fish to make sure that they are not being harmed or inconvenienced in any way loves to eat fish for dinner? Wouldn't that be like a Green Peace volunteer enjoying muktuk (whale blubber)? I found it incredibly amusing and still smile when I see him go through the line looking for the fish.
Oh oh oh..gotta tell you, I have found a fantastic recipe for a square. The baker that we have now (Sheldon) found this recipe and made them. They were so good that when I was 'marrying' (putting all the 1/4 trays on one tray) the trays I found myself going up to these squares and saying "nope, this one wont fit..nope this one wont either..hmm, these 5 won\t have enough room either" and eating about 5-7 of them in an hour. I would go so far as to say that they are orgasmic to a degree that if I was banned from sex for the rest of my life (by either a horrible accident or some strange illness) then I could make these squares as a substituted. Granted, I would be eating a pan of them a day and be in total bliss but weigh about 600 lbs. They are called Chipits Tiger Bars and he found the recipe on the back of a butterscotch chip package. If you buy a bag you might get the recipe but knowing out grocery supplier and their fondness for sending us really old stuff that no one has bought in 5-6 years chances of finding this recipe might be slim. So for your possible baking pleasure, here is the recipe.
1) bring 1/4 cup EACH butter or margarine, firmly packed brown sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat
2) remove and stir in 1/2 cup chipits butterscotch chips, stir until melted. Stir in 2 cups crisp rice cereal (he used Rice Krispies here).
3) press into greased 8 inch square pan (of course, he quadrupled this recipe to make enough for camp but you can still to the 8 inch, or go for the full 4 foot long baking sheet that he used :-) )
4) melt 1 cup chipits semi sweet chocolate chips. Spread evenly surface of bars.
5) melt 1/4 cup chipits butterscotch chips with 1 tsp oil over hot water. drizzle in lines over surface of bars. Chill. Cut into bars. makes 24.
If you like butterscotch and chocolate, be warned...they are extremely addictive. At least, I thought so.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Common Sense
Quote for the day that I put on the main board yesterday was "ever notice how common sense is not that common?" Yeah, I did it on the fly but somehow a few things happened that made it quite appropriate for the day.
Looks like the weather up here is finally clearing up. Which is a good thing since 13 people were supposed to go out on Monday and it is now Thursday and they have faint hopes of getting out of camp. These 13 are easy to identify, however. They are the 13 people that were sitting at security with their luggage at 5:15am this morning (security doesn't open till 5:30am) with their luggage and the constant question "is the plane coming?"
'is the plane coming?' That has been the question asked by everyone for the last couple days. It has been asked so much that Radio has taken to walking in to a room and before anyone even asks he says "no, the ^%*$(*# plane is not ^%*$(*# coming" Of course, since he was supposed to go out yesterday (Wednesday), people have to prod him to get his goat. So after he says that, sits down, or does whatever he has to do, some wise guy has to ask "so, yeah, the plane, any idea if it is coming?" What can I say, people in camp are merciless, especially when it comes to riding someone about not being able to fly that day.
So 13 were due out on Monday and 22 were due out yesterday, which means we have a full plane of 35 people flying out today. The weather had better be good to fly people out or else if we are stuck here much longer we are going to need at least 2 planes to get everyone out. Another thing that I have noticed is that the more days people are stuck here, the less they work meaning the more we have for lunch. Of course, it seems our 1st cook doesn't take that in to consideration. Yesterday he seemed to think that 24 prime rib beef bones, an insert of mushroom rice and 20 lbs of taco meat (That is the normal amount we put out when we have 2 pastas and three pans of something else) would feed them all. Yeah, the bones were gone in the first 10 minutes of service and I got the joy of either answering 'no, sorry, we have no more ribs left' or watching the poor souls walk up and down the steam line with an empty plate looking around in the vain hopes that perhaps either they had missed the ribs (8 steam wells, one with taco meat, one with rice and one holding gravy and soup, all uncovered, with the other 5 with open empty pans...not like you have missed it there*G*) or standing there looking at me with their empty plate as if in their minds I can hear Oliver Twist muttering "please sir, can I have some more?" Common sense, really isn't that common with the cook.
We have a bunch of geotech health eaters in camp. These people seem not to eat meat (unless it is wings or something and then they make an exception). I had a little conversation with one of them at lunch. Basically this is how it went:
Health Nut (HN): Do you have any beans?
ME: beans? (rapidly going through my mind, kidney beans, lima beans, green beans, yellow beans??? wanna narrow it down a little for me since there are a lot of beans out there, toots?)
HN: *snotty annoyed attitude that a health nut that won't eat meat and looking at beef bones and taco meat can get* yeah, refried beans...black beans..something like that
ME: no, sorry, we don't order refried beans and we were shorted the black beans last week and are waiting for groceries to come in.
HN: can you order refried beans because you know it is really easy to make tacos with beans for us people that don't eat meat.
ME (in my mind): lady, you are in a camp full of guys that don't even look at the 2nd portion of the steam line cause that is where we keep the rice and vegetables. These guys probably don't know we have a salad bar and probably could not identify a vegetable if I threw it at them and you want us to waste a good portion of our meat budget to keep 1% of the camps population happy cause they don't like to eat meat? Suck it up, eat your greens and rice and leave me alone.
ME (Out loud and being diplomatic): I am sorry, you will have to talk to Ken about any special orders.
HN: Hmphhh..fine *walks away*
I mean, if there were complete and total vegans in the bunch and they were hard core eaters, then yeah I am sure the cook would make it a priority to have total vegetarian food for them. But when we see these 'vegetarians' eat chicken fingers and wings and the occassional beef dish, we are not going to be that forgiving.
oh well, just another happy camper out here in the frozen arctic.
Looks like the weather up here is finally clearing up. Which is a good thing since 13 people were supposed to go out on Monday and it is now Thursday and they have faint hopes of getting out of camp. These 13 are easy to identify, however. They are the 13 people that were sitting at security with their luggage at 5:15am this morning (security doesn't open till 5:30am) with their luggage and the constant question "is the plane coming?"
'is the plane coming?' That has been the question asked by everyone for the last couple days. It has been asked so much that Radio has taken to walking in to a room and before anyone even asks he says "no, the ^%*$(*# plane is not ^%*$(*# coming" Of course, since he was supposed to go out yesterday (Wednesday), people have to prod him to get his goat. So after he says that, sits down, or does whatever he has to do, some wise guy has to ask "so, yeah, the plane, any idea if it is coming?" What can I say, people in camp are merciless, especially when it comes to riding someone about not being able to fly that day.
So 13 were due out on Monday and 22 were due out yesterday, which means we have a full plane of 35 people flying out today. The weather had better be good to fly people out or else if we are stuck here much longer we are going to need at least 2 planes to get everyone out. Another thing that I have noticed is that the more days people are stuck here, the less they work meaning the more we have for lunch. Of course, it seems our 1st cook doesn't take that in to consideration. Yesterday he seemed to think that 24 prime rib beef bones, an insert of mushroom rice and 20 lbs of taco meat (That is the normal amount we put out when we have 2 pastas and three pans of something else) would feed them all. Yeah, the bones were gone in the first 10 minutes of service and I got the joy of either answering 'no, sorry, we have no more ribs left' or watching the poor souls walk up and down the steam line with an empty plate looking around in the vain hopes that perhaps either they had missed the ribs (8 steam wells, one with taco meat, one with rice and one holding gravy and soup, all uncovered, with the other 5 with open empty pans...not like you have missed it there*G*) or standing there looking at me with their empty plate as if in their minds I can hear Oliver Twist muttering "please sir, can I have some more?" Common sense, really isn't that common with the cook.
We have a bunch of geotech health eaters in camp. These people seem not to eat meat (unless it is wings or something and then they make an exception). I had a little conversation with one of them at lunch. Basically this is how it went:
Health Nut (HN): Do you have any beans?
ME: beans? (rapidly going through my mind, kidney beans, lima beans, green beans, yellow beans??? wanna narrow it down a little for me since there are a lot of beans out there, toots?)
HN: *snotty annoyed attitude that a health nut that won't eat meat and looking at beef bones and taco meat can get* yeah, refried beans...black beans..something like that
ME: no, sorry, we don't order refried beans and we were shorted the black beans last week and are waiting for groceries to come in.
HN: can you order refried beans because you know it is really easy to make tacos with beans for us people that don't eat meat.
ME (in my mind): lady, you are in a camp full of guys that don't even look at the 2nd portion of the steam line cause that is where we keep the rice and vegetables. These guys probably don't know we have a salad bar and probably could not identify a vegetable if I threw it at them and you want us to waste a good portion of our meat budget to keep 1% of the camps population happy cause they don't like to eat meat? Suck it up, eat your greens and rice and leave me alone.
ME (Out loud and being diplomatic): I am sorry, you will have to talk to Ken about any special orders.
HN: Hmphhh..fine *walks away*
I mean, if there were complete and total vegans in the bunch and they were hard core eaters, then yeah I am sure the cook would make it a priority to have total vegetarian food for them. But when we see these 'vegetarians' eat chicken fingers and wings and the occassional beef dish, we are not going to be that forgiving.
oh well, just another happy camper out here in the frozen arctic.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
cooking disasters
Well, I have to say this...working in the kitchen is definitly a learning process. For instance, I have learned that when cooking with Tony 2, do not ask for advice and any advice he gives you, listen to it but then think about it before you actually do it. On the last 5 times he as actually offered advice, 4 of them turned out to be horribly wrong and screwed up what I was doing. Granted, it could have been because I was doomed to fail in the beginning but I am not sure. Like when he told me to 'add no liquids' to the potatoes when making the duchess potatoes, but then after they turned out to be towers of cement (which he got a good laugh mocking me with the manager for a day or two later) I checked out with the manager and other 1st cook (that took over a couple days later) that apparently the potatoes are the same as mashed but adding a few eggs yolks for the mass amounts I was doing stops them from sagging.
I have found out that speciality vegetables here are not considered good fair. I was recently told by the management that we should have no frozen vegetables on the line but all fresh. So, I took this to heart and have started to put out only fresh vegetables instead of one fresh and one frozen. Apparently this was a rule that was considered and put in to effect about 2 months ago but the office never seemed to get around to telling me about it. Guess it was one of those moments when the managers decide something in their office, sit back and tell their office walls "this is the way it should be done" and the cooks magically hear what they say and abide by the rules. Problem is we have 7 days in a week and 2 spots of vegetables to fill, which means in one week I have to have 14 vegetables out. Now when we only have 9 (carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, zuchinni, turnip, cabbage, red and green peppers) to put on the line and we really can't use some items on their own. Also, for some reason, even though we have been told to use all these vegetables for suppers, we haven't seem to be ordering any more vegetables to compensate for the supposed increase in using them.
So, I tried something new and instead of giving them steamed cabbage (because I have pretty much steamed all the vegetables) I braised the cabbage instead, which was a nice process and good product, in my mind. Sautee onions and apples in bacon fat, throw in cabbage with a sachet of one cinnamon stick, clove, bay leave, juniper berries, sugar and 8 parts water to 1 part red wine (I had to use the non-alcoholic cooking wine which is way too salty) and 1 part red wine vinegar.
***Of course, here I had to vary the recipe since I didnt have a satchet nor have whole cloves or a cinnamon stick or have anything close to resembling a juniper berry. I added ground cinnamon and cloves. This definitly changed the appearance of it from probably the bright green it was supposed to be to a more dullish brown/green colour.***
Cover all that and put it in the oven at 350' for 20 minutes or so covered. It stews the cabbage quite nicely and gives it a nice spicey bite to it which I found rather interesting. However, everyone else in camp seemed to look at it and ruffle their noses at it. Out of the entire batch I think only 4 people had some (me being one, and the one that took the most).
One thing I found funny about the whole time I was doing it was that Tony 2 saw me measuring out the ingredients and reading from my recipe notes and he laughed and said "you are following a recipe??!?!" and walked away laughing. This I found funny coming from the guy who has a black binder of recipes in his station that he brings in every time he cooks. He makes the same things from the binder every time (meatballs, marinara sauce, steak sauce) and every single time he reads from the recipe religiously. I would have thought that after the 10th time he made the item he would have had it memorized by now.
People in camp are also getting a little testy and frustrated. It seems we have been weathered in since last Monday. No planes have been able to go in or out, and even the phone lines and internet connection has been a little wonky the past couple days. There have been guys here stranded for 2 days now, working on their time off, and their cross shift has been stranded in YK staying at hotel rooms waiting for the chance to fly in. Of course, since I am not flying till Sept 9th I am not bothered or phased by it but now I am starting to get anxious since if no planes fly in then that means no groceries and with no groceries means no produce for salads. Ever try making a salad without veggies? Wonder how long I can get away with giving them weiner salads before the vegetarians and health nuts start to complain.
I have found out that speciality vegetables here are not considered good fair. I was recently told by the management that we should have no frozen vegetables on the line but all fresh. So, I took this to heart and have started to put out only fresh vegetables instead of one fresh and one frozen. Apparently this was a rule that was considered and put in to effect about 2 months ago but the office never seemed to get around to telling me about it. Guess it was one of those moments when the managers decide something in their office, sit back and tell their office walls "this is the way it should be done" and the cooks magically hear what they say and abide by the rules. Problem is we have 7 days in a week and 2 spots of vegetables to fill, which means in one week I have to have 14 vegetables out. Now when we only have 9 (carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, zuchinni, turnip, cabbage, red and green peppers) to put on the line and we really can't use some items on their own. Also, for some reason, even though we have been told to use all these vegetables for suppers, we haven't seem to be ordering any more vegetables to compensate for the supposed increase in using them.
So, I tried something new and instead of giving them steamed cabbage (because I have pretty much steamed all the vegetables) I braised the cabbage instead, which was a nice process and good product, in my mind. Sautee onions and apples in bacon fat, throw in cabbage with a sachet of one cinnamon stick, clove, bay leave, juniper berries, sugar and 8 parts water to 1 part red wine (I had to use the non-alcoholic cooking wine which is way too salty) and 1 part red wine vinegar.
***Of course, here I had to vary the recipe since I didnt have a satchet nor have whole cloves or a cinnamon stick or have anything close to resembling a juniper berry. I added ground cinnamon and cloves. This definitly changed the appearance of it from probably the bright green it was supposed to be to a more dullish brown/green colour.***
Cover all that and put it in the oven at 350' for 20 minutes or so covered. It stews the cabbage quite nicely and gives it a nice spicey bite to it which I found rather interesting. However, everyone else in camp seemed to look at it and ruffle their noses at it. Out of the entire batch I think only 4 people had some (me being one, and the one that took the most).
One thing I found funny about the whole time I was doing it was that Tony 2 saw me measuring out the ingredients and reading from my recipe notes and he laughed and said "you are following a recipe??!?!" and walked away laughing. This I found funny coming from the guy who has a black binder of recipes in his station that he brings in every time he cooks. He makes the same things from the binder every time (meatballs, marinara sauce, steak sauce) and every single time he reads from the recipe religiously. I would have thought that after the 10th time he made the item he would have had it memorized by now.
People in camp are also getting a little testy and frustrated. It seems we have been weathered in since last Monday. No planes have been able to go in or out, and even the phone lines and internet connection has been a little wonky the past couple days. There have been guys here stranded for 2 days now, working on their time off, and their cross shift has been stranded in YK staying at hotel rooms waiting for the chance to fly in. Of course, since I am not flying till Sept 9th I am not bothered or phased by it but now I am starting to get anxious since if no planes fly in then that means no groceries and with no groceries means no produce for salads. Ever try making a salad without veggies? Wonder how long I can get away with giving them weiner salads before the vegetarians and health nuts start to complain.
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