What I've been up to lately
Well, I feel like I crammed five days of work into the three days I've had this week.
The big deal is that an iron foundry we buy a lot of castings from caught on fire over the last weekend and suffered $5-10 million in damages. The damages all directly affect the parts we buy from them. This is the biggest supplier I manage. We spend about $7 million a year with these guys. We're their #2 customer. So we've been scrambling - to figure out what we'll be short on, when, and how much; to find other sources for the products; to put together meaningful information so Sales and Production Control know how this will impact us. It's going to do bad things to our sales.
But ... I feel like I've done a very good job, really rose to the challenge, showed I was fully engaged, and whipped ass with what resources I had available. I think I'm really earning that 'senior' that's part of my job title. I am really thankful I work at this place. I'm also thankful I won't be working there again until next Monday.
I haven't managed much writing, but I have managed some. I've also gotten out requests to all the comms asking for advertising permission for the Advent Calendar. We've got some kick-ass awesome banners and I'm really excited about those!
Tomorrow I'll be getting up at 6 or 7 to make bread and then try my hand at rolls. I've never tried this recipe for the rolls before, so here's hoping that goes well. I'll be spending Thanksgiving with my parents, my cousin and his girlfriend, my kids, my grandfather, maybe my grandmother, and my aunt and uncle. Good crowd and lots of fun to be had, though I think I'll be tuckered out pretty fast.
The hen who is sitting on eggs has been having a hard time working out which nest is hers, what with her tiny, pea-sized brain being easily foiled by the presence of golf balls in the nearby nests. I'll try to give her a hand tomorrow by clearing those out. They're in there for the exact reason why she's having a problem. They make the chickens think 'oh, there's eggs here; this must be a good place to lay my eggs'. Or in the broody hen's case, she decides she needs to sit on them. I've seen cases where two hens will sit on the same batch of eggs, side by side at the same time and occasionally pecking each other in irritation.