M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

I'm trying to decide which is a better comparion to my work: mickey mouse or keystone kops... it certainly feels like a mickey mouse outfit.

some of the latest hijinx:

my worst shop monkey failed to show up until 9am. he's supposed to start at 6. he was also supposed to fix his fuckup first thing, in which he forgot to include several parts in about 85 repair kits he built up and we had shipped out. it was already handled by the time he showed up. no explanation was offered to me (his supervisor), but he told a coworker he had to drop his girlfriend off at work. he then left at 3:30. I asked MY boss if I could have those hours. he told me I needed to speak with the dumbass in question. however, I have no authority to actually discipline him, and I've already talked to him about his behaviour, his attendance, his work ethic, countless times. it does no good. several people have speculated he's actually trying to get fired so he can collect unemployment. always a positive thing when you figure he's building propane vaporizers that are essentially large bombs filled with volative gases.

that wasn't even the high point of my day tho. we had finally finished up a large ($30k) job and were ready to ship it out, a week late. in the final inspection, it was noted the wrong fabrication was used to build it. it required a special fab that had only arrived the day before. problem is, this fab didn't have a special part number or anything, it was just a note written on the bottom of the order. it took over a week to build the damn thing. so I got to watch the president of the company, the director of engineering, and the tech support guy all work with the shop guy trying to tear apart the wrong unit and reassemble it on the right one. amazingly enough, they actually got about 80% done. the unit didn't ship tho, the customer is pissed, and we look like idiots. which is fair. we are idiots.

I went in wednesday to speak with my old employer, but a different branch. the manager there asked me to come on, and just needed to run it up the flagpole. I should have an answer early next week. I imagine I can switch back to the old job shortly after labour day. it will be a different position, one with hopefully less frustrations (quotes, not purchasing) and a different branch, which is only fifteen minutes away. it's sad how appealling that place looks right now. the grass certainly wasn't greener. in fact, I think it was only spray painted green on this side...

and in other news, I broke down and posted a personal ad on craigslist. I'd responded to several. one led to my kickball league which will hopefully start next weekend. another led to ann, who we've been bowling with almost every weekend. she's good people. one was a dead end (two emails then silence), and several were non-starters. I posted my ad a few hours ago, and I've already received a few replies. it's encouraging, it means we may actually develop a social life in seattle! yay!