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.