food rules… January 28, 2010

“Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food”. – Michael Pollan

I just read the book “Eating Animals” and am now watching the author of another great book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” on Oprah.  He just wrote a new book called “Food Rules” (on my hold list at the library!)and I can’t wait to read it.  There is also a new documentary called “Food Inc.” that I can’t wait to see.

The point is not vegetarianism, we all know how I feel about that.  I’m not into prairie skirts, turquoise jewelry, or having my skin glow a permanent state of orange.  I like my meat.  But I’m proud that I am careful about the meat I do buy.  I am careful about buying antibiotic free and hormone free meat, and don’t buy chicken that has water (or “juices”) added.  I support local farmers as much as possible and I say a silent prayer that this animal that gave his life for my family’s sustenance had a decent life and actually saw the sun now and then and his feet actually touched the earth.  Most don’t.

Oprah says that most Americans eat fast food 4 times a week, we’re no where near that at maybe once every 2-3 weeks.  We never eat McDonald’s and even when we do eat out, we make pretty good choices.  Ever since I lost 60+ pounds a few years ago and started paying attention to my diabetes I have totally changed how I eat and made my family follow right along.

We of course don’t eat meat, fruit, vegetables and whole grains for every meal and snack but we eat those kinds of things more than most people and yes (gasp) we *make* Emma eat it too.  She doesn’t have to eat all her dinner but she does have to give all the green stuff a pretty good attempt.  She makes good food choices when left to her own devices, and will frequently choose an apple over something with empty calories.  She never drinks soda and will frequently walk around with a cup of plain old water.

I guess I don’t really have a point except to say that reading and watching this stuff lately makes me feel pretty good about what I choose to feed my family, even if it’s not the cheapest thing.  And it makes me feel like I’m doing something right for a change.

(By the way.. (courtesy of daughter Amanda) – spray cheese is one molecule away from being actual “plastic. You’re welcome.)

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Work is going along swimmingly and I really enjoy the job.  Yes people are angry.  Yes people want everything for nothing.  And yes, I get yelled at. A lot.  But the nice thing is that I make most of those people happy by the time the call is over.  That’s a very “bouying” experience.  And while this company is all up in your grill when you mess up, they are nearly equally as generous with their praise.

Because some new bill changes and business policies are coming in a week or so, we are all going to be on a mandatory 6 day workweeks for a while, and to be perfectly honest I don’t mind a bit.  I never go to work begrudgingly and that’s a very nice feeling to have.

Well it’s about bedtime.  Except..Mark is having to do Emma’s chores this week because she got a such a good report card and I see some stuff he missed.  ::shaking my head::

silly silly people… January 7, 2010

My silly british husband has our programmable thermostat set to celsius instead of farenheit and it says its 20 degrees in here.  I don’t know what that means except that I’m cold so I turned it up to 22. I hope that helps.

Work is good, I had a bad QA which means the mucky mucks listened to one of my calls and something or other happened and I “failed” the call.  Actually all I did wrong was not verify the account security (address) on a pay-per-view call.  A few of those bad QA’s can get you terminated so I really have to be careful.  The good news is my customer satisfaction reports are all excellent.  So the customers love me but the people listening to the calls don’t.  We get “listened to” about twice a week so I guess one bad one shouldn’t bring me down too much.  Because of my weird days and hours of training I have to work 9 days straight, and today was only day three.  I feel like I  have no time to do anything and have even made a grocery list for Mark and Emma and they are going to go to the store tomorrow. Yay!

I got a new stove from my dad and it’s big news around here.  It’s already in and up and running and we are loving it.  It’s seriously like a brand spankin new stove and it feels so fancy.  One thing I really love about it is that meals made for and by my dad were made on it.  I love that.  Something else we are having fun with is our new water kettle.  It’s a plug in type thingie and it heats up water in no time flat.  We go through about 4-5 cups of tea each night between the two of us so we’re having fun with that too.  I only wish I’d have thought of it as a Christmas gift for Mark.

It’s super cold and snowy and I am so ready for spring I could just scream.  It’s -3 right now and the high for Thursday is supposed to be around 15. I always hope my kids are warm when it’s this cold out.  Always a mom, I guess.

Speaking of moms, my mom has generously offered to help me get some prism lens glasses which may be able to let me see without an eyepatch.  I can’t even imagine how wonderful that would be.  I called to make an appt today but the office is closed on Wed, I hope they can get me in soon cause I am tired of the pirate life.

I guess that’s about it.  I wonder if it’s 22 degrees in here yet.  I’m still cold.

ding dong, Doorbell. January 3, 2010

Very Interesting Things, indeed.

Work has been really weird.  I have been in some training all last week and then will be practicing that training on live calls all this next week.  It adds to my ’splits’, which means more kinds of calls I can take.  The training I’m in now is for account retention.  Trying to talk those who have decided to cancel service into staying.  It’s actually quite fun and I am pretty good at it.  My save rate is at about 93% so that’s pretty good.  One guy called to cancel and I actually talked him not only into staying, but into upgrading his programming package.  People always call me really made but when we hang up,  most of the time they are happy.  This training gives me a bit more far-reaching abilities to make customers simmer down and go away nicely.

My dad and stepmom got a new stove and gave us their old one which actually looks brand spankin’ new.  Todd and Mark managed to get it into the kitchen but it’s not in place yet.  I really can’t wait to use it, it is the nicest stove I’ve ever had.  (thanks y’all!)

I actually sent Christmas thank you cards this year.  I’m the worst thank you card person but I wrote them all in class this week.  I never have a spare moment at work to do anything like read, or write thank you notes at my desk because the calls are one right after another.  Sometimes you *might* have up to 2-3 minutes between calls but it’s rare.  You’re off the phones for two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch and that is it.  Sounds a bit harsh I guess but I actually really like it there.  I love my team and the customers are a hoot.

It’s bedtime people.  Here’s to a new year full of hope and opportunity.

another one come and gone… December 27, 2009

I don’t put up Christmas decorations anymore. I hate dragging them all out for just a couple of weeks and it makes me feel like my house is messier than it already is.  Plus keeping the kitten out of everything just sounds like a huge chore.

I shopped right up until the 23rd and didn’t feel “ready” even when I was ready.  Every year I say I’m gonna shop in the summer, wrap everything by Labor Day and then every year I’m still scrambling 2 days before Christmas.  This year was especially hard because I’m trying not to drive too much (eye patch) and trying to find things in the store while holding one eye closed is impossible.  Big thanks to my sister who carted me all over town to finish up my shopping.

This year was also especially lean money-wise and that’s no fun at all.

The actual celebration was a total whoop dee do fun time tho, as it always is at Amanda’s.  Even if we have to sit in a certain place

…….

.

…….and eat unintentionally flat things..

We get to go over to my dad and stepmoms tomorrow and do it all over again.  Whee!

December 21, 2009

I have to work on Christmas Day.  I’ve never had to work on Christmas Day in my entire life.

We do our Christmas with the family on Christmas Eve and Christ mas with my dad and stepmom a couple days after Christmas, so I am very glad I have those days off but still.

Work has been good lately.  All my stats are good which makes my boss very happy.  We are always worried about our stats and the first thing we do when we get there every day is look at the previous days numbers.  How many calls we took, call handle time, hold time, break adherence, after call work, production minutes, it all matters.  I have the best handle time on my team, probably because I hate to talk on the phone anyway so I wrap it up quickly.  We are allowed something like 6 min 45 sec for a call, and 11 min 15 sec for a tech call.  My handle time average for all calls is about 5 min.  Get in and get out.

I’m scared of the Polish people tho.  We have polish programming and a lot of polish customers.  You don’t really know how many polish customers until the polish programming goes down.  When you pick up the call they insist you speak polish.

“Thank  you for calling Fred’s Satellite Company”
“SPEAk POLISH!”
“I’m very sorry, I don’t speak Polish.  I can have someone call you back in Polish in 48 hours”
“NOO!!  SPEAK POLISH NOW!”
“Ma’am, I cannot speak polish, I’m sorry”
“telewizja nie pracuje i potrzebuję mae gorący pies!  You speak Polish NOW!”

Eventually they hang up, but daaamn.  I guess they think if they yell loud enough I will suddenly acquiesce and speak polish.  I wish I could.  My ears hurt after those calls.