Hawaii on the Cheap(er)

One of the traditions I started for myself is taking a trip to celebrate milestone birthdays. The initial trip that began this trend occurred 10 years ago. To say I had major life trauma not long before this birthday would be a massive understatement. I needed to get and be away. A nice friend and former co-worker had previously asked me to come see her in Phoenix. I took her up on the offer. I had a great time visiting with her and her family, and one of the things I did on my actual birthday was hike on Camelback Mountain. My sister told me many years later "you ran away on your X birthday". Yes, I guess I did. No regrets.

5 years ago I celebrated my next milestone birthday by kayaking with manatees, my favorite animals. I didn't go on my exact birthday, but the trip was in recognition of the occasion. Last year I was having dinner with my mom and said "I don't know where I'm going to go for my (insert milestone birthday)." She immediately replied "You should go to Hawaii and take me with you." Thus, my mom gets credit as this inspiration for this year's amazing trip.

Those of you who know me well know I love a good deal. Our goal for this trip was to have a great time for as reasonable a cost as possible. We completely succeeded. Here are some things we did that really helped:

- Delta was running a special for their credit card: Spend $1000 in 3 months and get 50,000 frequent flier miles, and no annual fee for the first year. Before we got the card, we doubled checked and found that would definitely get us to Hawaii. We each got the card, met the spend requirements, and used the miles to pay for our long haul flight to and from Hawaii. We paid $11.20 each for our tickets (mandatory fees). The fare for these tickets was $986.49. Bonus: Having the Delta card gave us priority boarding and our first checked bag was free.

- Hyatt ran a similar deal for their credit card: Spend $1000 in 3 months and get 2 free nights, and the annual free was also waived for the first year. We each got the card, spent the $1000, and used the free nights on our trip. Mine was 2 nights @ the Hyatt Regency (~$200/night plus tax). My mom's was an even better deal- 2 nights @ the Grand Hyatt Kauai. The rooms there are $500/night, and we got upgraded to an ocean view room (another $150/night).

- For most of the rest of our stay we used AirBnB. It was much cheaper than a hotel,  you get much more space, and you often have use of handy facilities like laundry and a kitchen.

We spent 6 nights on Kauai, 4 nights on Maui, and 2 on the Big Island. My total spending for this lavish trip was almost exactly double what I spent on a week long trip to Florida in October of 2016. What's even more impressive:
-We drove to Florida. We bought 3 plane tickets for Hawaii- our roundtrip there and back plus 2 interisland flights.
- I spent $20 on activities while in Florida. I spent way, way more in Hawaii
- We normally ate out only 1 time/day in Florida. In Hawaii we usually ate out at least twice a day

I will be the first to tell you that you can spend oodles of cash on a trip to Hawaii. If you pay full price to stay at a resort, eat all your meals there, and don't look for deals, it would be easy to spend 2 or 3 times what we did. But I'm here to tell you, you can have an amazing trip to Hawaii and not break the bank.

Patience Pays Off

I will be the first to admit that patience is not my greatest gift. I'd like to share a story that illustrates why it is indeed a virtue, and something we should strive to exhibit.

My family took a trip to the lake in August. It was a 3 generation trip- my mom, my siblings & their spouses/significant others, and my nieces and nephew. We booked our cabin and boat in December (remember this, it becomes really important soon). We arrived Friday night and had a dinner and a bonfire at our awesome cabin. Saturday morning we headed to the marina to pick up our boat for a fun filled day on the lake. I went to the rental desk and gave my information. I very quickly could tell something was wrong. The person was looking around a lot, and then consulted with others. I was eventually told the problem- our boat had accidentally been rented for 2 days the previous day. This particular weekend was a very busy one at the lake as there was a large gathering occurring. Our group was 11 people, and only this particular style of boat would fit our family. Thus, no boat. They told me they were checking with their sister marina to see if we could get a boat from them. When I inquired how long that would take, they said at least an hour. I was not happy already since, as you may recall, we'd reserved this boat long ago. Of course, the other marina had no boat. I wanted to lose my cool so badly, but I didn't. I said "I made this reservation in December. I have 11 people here, including 3 little kids who've been told they're going to boat." I then stopped talking. Thankfully, by this point, the manager was involved. His first question was "How far do you live from here?". My answer was "2.5 hours". He then said "How long are you staying?". I informed him we were leaving the next morning.

The manager was good. He said "This is our fault, and we're going to make this right". This guy was speaking my language. He offered us three smaller pontoons at no charge. We said 2 would be fine. We had also planned to rent a tube. They threw that in for free. I asked if these boats would pull a tube. He said they wouldn't. He then offered us a jet ski to use for free. I asked if we could tube with this. He said the person who rented it didn't recommend it, and left it at that. I asked about gas charges for all our watercraft, and they told us that was on them. Yes, you read that right. We got 2 pontoons, a tube, a jetski, and the gas for free. 

We had an awesome day on the lake. We boated to a nice cove, ate lunch, swam like fish, and took turns both riding on and tubing behind the jetski. My entire family from my mom to my 2 year old niece was on the jetski at one point or another.

All of this cost us nothing. The jetski rented for around $400/day, and the boats were at least $100/each. Had I lost my cool, I do not think for a minute they would have given us this deal. Patience does indeed pay off. My mom said "the look" I gave during the situation also didn't hurt.

And out came this calf

Have you ever had anyone tell you what you knew was an obvious lie? My favorite example of this takes place in Exodus. To set the stage, the Israelites are in the desert after being delivered from bondage in Egypt. As part of that process they've seen the 10 plagues (Chapters 7-11) , experienced the Passover (Chapter 12), crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and immediately after that watched Pharoah's army drown in that same body of water (both in Chapter 14). They've eaten quail and manna by miraculous provision (Chapter 16), and their thirst has been quenched by water from a rock (Chapter 17). Some of the leaders even got to see God (Chapter 24). It's been a amazing journey.

At this point in our story, Moses has been on a mountain for 40 day and nights. He's been spending time with God, receiving the 10 commandments, instructions for the tabernacle, and laws to guide society. So all is good with Moses. However, down in the camp, it's rapidly running off the rails as seen in Chapter 32:1-8 (NIV):

1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b]Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

Poor Moses. He's communing directly with God, and while he's doing so to lead his people, they have already broken faith. Moses is a true leader though. God says He's going to destroy the people but make Moses into a great nation (verses 9-10). Rather than take up this amazing offer for himself, he begs God for the lives of his people, and God grants his request (verses 11-14).  He goes down from the mountain and takes care of business with the people (verses 19-20). Then he talks to Aaron (who is his brother, by the way, and served as his spokesman to Pharaoh while they were in Egypt).

 21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

His response-"I messed up. Please forgive me." Right? Not exactly.

22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

First he blames the people, then he lies about how the calf came to be. Moses knew Aaron's story was a lie. As you may recall, God told Moses that they "made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf" (verse 8). Nowhere in this story does Aaron ever own up to his own part in this disgraceful scenario.

I tell people when you've messed up, you need to own it. If not, you're doing another wrong by lying. As the saying goes, "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

Company car trauma

My mom called to make a reservation to use a company car for a business trip. The response was something along the lines of "you can if one's available then". She thought it was an odd answer as she was booking it quite far in advance, so it was unlikely anyone else had already reserved it. Later she talked to someone else, and the information she received explained everything.

The company had hired a new person to be the courier for the organization. The person had been texting and driving (illegal in our state and downright dangerous of course), caused an accident, and totaled the car. Did she get fired? Of course not. They instead let her use the other company car to perform her duties. Any guesses what happened next? If you said "she was texting and driving and wrecked that car too", you are correct. They did finally fire her after that.

A lawsuit waiting to happen

Friday my coworker was part of the interview team for an IT Manager position. One of the interview questions was a very good one-"Have you ever made a hiring mistake, and if so, what did you learn from it?". Here's what the candidate said:

"I hired an older guy (flag #1) who was (insert protected racial class here aka flag #2). He wasn't getting the job done, but management wouldn't do anything because they were scared he'd play the race card. I learned you need to hire younger people."

Wow. My coworker called it "the interview of the century". After the interview was over and the candidate had left the room, the hiring manager said "This guy will land us" and my coworker ended with "in court". A word on the interview team- all 3 people are over 40 (the threshold for age discrimination law) and my coworker is the same ethic group mentioned in the candidate's response. In addition to this gem of an interview response, the candidate used profanity throughout the interview. As you can imagine, we'll not be hiring him.

Bonus interview story from Friday: I was doing interviews for another position, and a candidate tried to hug me!

Floating is great for the pool but not as a life strategy

In July we were conducting interviews for an entry level professional position at one of our facilities. When I saw the candidate I'm about to describe, I was done. She was wearing shorts and sandals that were only 1 step up from flip-flops. This was definitely a predictor of things to come.

After the interview, one of the interview team said "That's a situation where you think should I rush through the interview or use it as a chance to practice your interview skills." Talking with her we learned that she was 27 (One of the interview questions for this position was "Tell us where you see yourself in 10 years." As part of her answer she said "Wow, I'll be 37.") In 27 years she had managed to:

- Get her associates degree 

- Work 3 years at entry level jobs

That's it. Oh yes, and she's not working now. She lives with her boyfriend and her dog (again, she volunteered this information), so I suppose he's supporting her. The hiring manager said "At 27 I had my engineering degree (bachelor's), was married with 2 kids, and was working 2 jobs." I myself at 27 had a bachelor's degree, had been working a professional job for 4 years and living fully self-funded on my own for 3 years.

I did feel sorry for her in one regard. The day the interview took place was one of the hottest days of the year. When I initially greeted her, I asked her how she was doing. She said not well since the a/c in her car had just died. The poor thing's face was red as a beet. When I was telling my brother the mechanic this story he said "It helps to have a job to pay to fix your a/c." He's not wrong.

When I got home from work I called my mom and left her a voicemail that said "I want to thank you and Dad for not letting us float through life." Of course, she had to call me to hear what prompted this appreciation on my behalf. She, of course, cracked up, and added "Maybe the dog will get a job".

Morale of the story: Floating is great for the pool. It is not, however, a great life strategy.

Weird things that break when your car is old

My daily driver is over 20 years old. Obviously as a car gets older and higher in miles you have to replace things like tires, breaks, belts, etc. However, this year I've had three things break that I've never seen before.

First it was the flasher relay. If, like me before this happened, you have no idea what this, don't feel badly. I'll tell you the primary symptom you'll most likely notice: no turn signal indicators- no lights on your dashboard or the clicking sound when you activate them. My brother the mechanic walked me through the troubleshooting steps: Do your flashers work? No. Do your break lights work? Yes. Thus, he narrowed the likely problem down by phone. Since this is quite the safety issue, I had this repaired quickly.

Not long after I got that fixed, my driver side window would no longer roll more than halfway down. This is really more of an inconvenience than an urgent issue, so I drove it like this for a while. Thankfully this vehicle has manual windows, so it was a pretty simple and inexpensive repair. Fun fact- the car is so old the only place my brother could find the window regulator was at a junkyard.

The most recent item happened this week. I got a new battery for this vehicle on Sunday after it conked out last Friday. Tuesday morning I got in it to go to work and nothing happening. No lights when I turned the key, no low battery clicking sound, just nothing. I was really steamed about this. I just bought a brand new battery, and I'm dead in the water again. I got in my other car and headed to work, fuming as I drove. When I got home I got ready to jump the dead vehicle so I could take it to the auto parts store and have both the battery and alternator tested. As I looked at the battery I noticed the positive cable clamp seemed really high, so I pushed it down before I got the jumper cables. As soon as it was back in its normal position I heard a clicking noise. I got into the car and found out that sure enough, that was the problem. When I looked closely at the clamp, this is what I saw:

It's cracked, thus it doesn't hold the cable on tight. This same thing happened to me a couple of other times this week. Frustrating, but easily remedied in the short term. I did some temporary securing of the cable yesterday, and I'll have the clamp replaced eventually.

Driving old cars can save you a lot of money with no payments, cheaper insurance, and inexpensive registration. It also gives you the opportunity to learn about weird things that go can awry.

What a difference a detour makes

Once of the main roads I use to get to and from work is down to 1 lane for about a half mile due to construction. A half mile isn't much, but the backups it causes are horrendous. There is a back way I can use, but of course that is closed entirely for another construction project. Happy happy joy joy. After taking around 20 minutes to move a mile on the way to work week before last, I decided something had to give before my sanity did. There is an alternate route for the back way that is currently closed. I had tried it before and somehow got turned around. I was now desperate enough to try again.

The next morning I set out a few minutes early with my trusty GPS. Lo and behold, I didn't even need it. The detour was very well marked, and the route was great. It goes through a developing industrial park, and there is no traffic. On the way home that day I found an even better route that is now my daily way to work and back. It is so nice to just get in my car and drive. No traffic, just cruising along. An additional bonus is this route has 1 stop sign between me and the interstate. My normal route from that point has 5 stop lights. The new route is slightly longer but much more pleasant. What a difference a detour makes.

Cranberry Muffins

On the weekends I like to have homemade baked goods for breakfast. Since I live by myself, that means I need to make them. Week before last I was thinking about what to make for my upcoming weekend breakfasts. I saw some frozen cranberries in the freezer and thought "cranberry muffins". A bit of Googling led me to this recipe from Ocean Spray. Here is the finished product:

I made the following changes to the recipe:

1. I used an entire bag of cranberries, so more than 2 cups

2. I substituted white whole wheat baking flour instead of all purpose

3. I added Splenda in place of sugar

They are delicious- they have a nice tartness and aren't overly sweet. They also freeze well. I definitely recommend whipping up a batch for your weekend breakfast.

Instant perspective

Yesterday I was talking with a friend who works at one of my former employers. She mentioned that they recently granted long tenured staffers an additional week of vacation. As one of those employees, she now gets 5 weeks of vacation per year. I told her I was jealous. She immediately put things into perspective for me by asking: "Would you rather have 5 weeks vacation or be somewhere else?" I immediately said "Someone else". I'd love to have 5 weeks of vacation, but no way would it be worth working there to get it.

Thinking before speaking: it's a good thing

Today I called our IT helpdesk to report an issue with our network scanning. As soon as I described the issue, the person started bellowing questions to her coworker about the situation. Of course, I wasn't asked to hold or anything. After a very long time, she came back and explained what they thought was causing the problem and that it was impacting everyone at my company. And then the conversation got very blog-worthy, very fast.

IT person (IP): "As soon as we can find someone who really cares, we'll look in it." Pause. "You probably don't like the answer do you?"

Me (M): "That's fine. I'm just going to tell everyone that's exactly what IT said."

If you know me at all, you know I wasn't being sarcastic or making a threat. I was simply stating a fact, like the grass is green and the sky is blue.

IP: (obviously thinking about what she'd said and to whom she said it) "We'll take a look at that. What's your extension?"

M: "XXXX. I bet you'll get a lot of calls about this."

IP: "That's probably what Person Y was trying to call me about. The longer I stay on the line with you, the fewer calls I'll get."

Me: "Goodbye IP" (hangs up)

Yes, ladies and gents, this is my IT department. And yes, I've told many people exactly what she said. Just goes to show you- it's a good idea to think about your words before you let them loose from your mouth.

Right temperature, wrong species

While I was on the phone with our occupational medicine provider today, we got on the subject of the ways people try to pass drug tests. In case you didn't know, using a "clean" person's urine is one way. One of the procedures to guard against that is the temperature of the specimen is checked. If it's less than body temp, there's an issue. The provider told me this epic story, and I had to share. She said "I had one that was the right temperature but the wrong species." The sample was collected, and the temperature was within the acceptable range. However, when the lab analyzed it, they determined the sample wasn't from a human!

Bonus related story: I was telling my HR coworker about this. She said she had a candidate whose drug test was negative, and it also revealed the person was pregnant. The issue- the candidate was male. I had read about things like that happening before, but this was the first time I'd heard a verifiable story.

Reading is fundamental

Dear hiring manager,

Instead of complaining about how much you are paying a 3rd party recruiter to assist you in filling a position, you should have read the contract before you engaged their services. As you should recall, your department was involved in getting their contract approved.

Signed,
HR person who believes reading is fundamental

How not to plan a project

My coworker and I are in the latter part of implementing a huge software implementation project (A) for our department. Note: We are an HR department, not IT. We received very little management guidance with this project, and the only reason it got done is because we figured everything out and got it set up.

Yesterday our department director asked how soon we could have software project B implemented. We had to explain the following realities to her:

1. We have no idea what goes into the project. What we didn't add was that we have no idea what's it's really supposed to do in the end. We have been given nothing on this.
2. We have no idea how long the vendor estimates it will takes.
3. We may not even have software B after June 30th due to our procurement rules.

One of the things that really irritates me about my current organization is that we have no real acquaintance with process and planning. This is just one of many examples. The proper way to plan for a project is to first all understand the scope- what is the end goal, and what does it take to get there. Only once you have that information can you effectively create a realistic schedule. I can't tell you how long it will take to implement something when I know nothing about it.

Little things that remind us how blessed we are

Sometimes it is the little things that truly grab our attention. Yesterday I looked by my front door and realized I had not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5 pairs of shoes near the entry of my house. I was struck by how blessed I am to have some many options of shoes, and these are far from the only shoes I own. It was rather humbling.

When a simile is both amazing accurate and completely frightening- Final Update

A couple weeks ago we got the last update on the status of some of our employees transitioning to another organization. It was so full of bureaucrat-ese that I had check with some coworkers to make sure I understood the gist of it correctly. I did. These transition is off, period. The two organizations are going to continue to work together in other ways, blah, blah, blah, but no employees will change employers. It's a good thing we didn't track what this cost in terms of staff hours spent on a project that went nowhere. Our rate-paying public would have rightly been up in arms.