The first week back at work after a vacation is always a joy. Had over 200 new e-mails waiting for me, plus with all the ones that came in during the week I've still got about 50 unread ones.
Had a particularly frustrating time getting some termite certificates. See, on certain types of loans we are required to provide a certificate to the lender showing that the house was treated for termites. Generally the treatment is done to the soil prior to building & we get certificates at that time as part of the sub's regular contract. Now, we've got some model homes that are just about ready to close escrow, and of course with the treatment having been done so long ago I knew that the certificates would not be accepted. I knew for certain that one of the homes would need a cert, and that chances were good the others would, too. Before I went on vacation (8/13 to be exact), hoping to avoid a last-minute scramble, I sent an e-mail to--well, I'm not going to name names so I'll just say Person A--pointing out that the certs for these homes were too old, and although I wasn't sure if all three models would need treatment could we please get a post-construction treatment for all three just in case? Person A forwarded it to Person B with a "please help out!" message.
I return from vacation and after going through the e-mails I realized there wasn't any response. Naturally I re-sent the first e-mail to both Persons A & B, cc'ing Mr. Boss Man, asking for the status. No response. The next day Mr. Boss Man replies to all requesting that this be taken care of quickly. No response. On Thursday I get a frantic call from the termite subcontractor saying that Person B had requested certs, and the certs would be too old, and we'd need to re-treat, and she sent an e-mail to Person B and hadn't heard back, etc. etc. Long story short (too late!) I went to Person B's office and told her that the sub was having kittens because she couldn't reach her (turns out she had left ONE e-mail and ONE voice mail approximately 30 seconds before calling me). Person B got a little huffy & pointed out that she had been away from her desk and that she had requested the certificates. I said, "The certificates are too old; the homes need to be re-treated. That's what I said in my e-mail. I request certificates all the time, but I can't order re-treatments" (or words to that effect). She deflated a bit and said, "Oh. I guess I didn't read that. . . " She then tried to convince me that I could have ordered the treatments myself. Um, NO, I couldn't--I'm not part of either purchasing or procurement and I do NOT have the authority to issue purchase orders and/or authorize payment of invoices, both of which a re-treatment requires since it's not part of the regular contract with the sub. Anyway, we finally got the certs yesterday, a full 15 days after my initial request for re-treatment. So much for preventing a last-minute scramble.
In knitting news, the spider is finished! I really like how it came out. Don't have pictures yet but will post one when I do have them. Started on another octopus yesterday. That pattern is very addicting.
In more news, Lizard got some new yarn from an independent dyer in France. One of the skeins is a red & black sock yarn that she got FREE because the dyer wasn't happy with it (the color bleeds; the dyer sells the yarns she likes and gives away the ones that she feels aren't 100% perfect on a first-come, first-serve basis). Lizard had mentioned to her that if she (Lizard) couldn't get it to stop bleeding she was going to give it to her sister (me) to see if I would have better luck. So get this--the dyer sent TWO skeins, one for Lizard and one for me!! Whaddya think of that? I think it's fabu!!
Lizard is coming over tomorrow, not sure what time. I told her anytime she wanted was fine; we're usually up by 5:00 or 5:30. What I had forgotten is that we are going to a party tonight so will probably sleep in 'til at least 6:30 or 7:00. I doubt she'll be there that early, though :-) Part of the reason she is coming over is that the yarn store near my house is having a show-and-tell event in the afternoon. People bring in their projects to show off, eat some nibblies, and of course yarn purchases are likely to be made. I really enjoyed the last one they had, even if the restaurant next door caught fire in the middle of it.
Been doing well so far with the exercise bike. I went for 10 minutes on Sunday & Monday, 15 on Tuesday & Thursday, and a little over 20 minutes last night. Right now I'm focusing on getting into the habit of using it rather than how many minutes or how many miles. But I still did just over 20 minutes yesterday :-)
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