I enjoy the sounds guinea pigs make.

I'm close to 25 years at my current job; I don't think there are any milestone awards. I was complimented on stepping in to keep the office open, doing "housekeeping" (watering plants and reporting problems) as well as collecting the mail and getting checks deposited. I was told I'd get a small-ish bonus, which hasn't turned up ... unless it's being paid in $14/month increments.

My father's company (liquor, alas) was very paternalistic - every year at Christmas we'd get a box of gourmet goodies (hence my liking for anchovies, caviar, smoked oysters, and so on) plus a 20-pound turkey. And they did have milestone gifts - he got an Atmos clock with a plaque with his name and years served ... which the movers stole.

And office news - we STILL can't move into our new offices (official move date was Dec. 1, 2021). The tech guys came in Friday and were supposed to move the servers. Had to go 30 minutes away to get a part they needed. So now anyone who wants to work out of the new office has to log in as a remote worker. Our security access is using a card that has our photos on them, along with our names. Since the old photo has my dyed hair, which I stopped doing two or three years ago, I'm hoping security at the new place never goes by that.

Another day, another round of being disappointed by someone who should know better posting support for fucking Joe Rogan.

We used to get a gift certificate for a ham or turkey every year from Orthodontic Centers of America when DH worked for them. Actually, did they keep doing that or was it only for a year or two? I don't remember. My dad worked for Shell for 30 years and I think he got thing like clocks with plaques on them for length of service, but where we really cleaned up on the corporate gifts was in Safety Awards. The refinery was very focused on safety, and rightly so, and when they were able to hit so many hours or days or something without an incident everyone got Stuff. All kinds of stuff, from a deck of playing cards, to a to TV/radio to a set of gold-colored silverware which I actually still have. Fergie says Safety First! Mother Shell (as my dad calls the parent company) has certainly done some shady and downright terrible stuff but our local refinery was very well run.

Boo Joe Rogan.

Also boo my company telling one group of people one thing (“these type of issues should be documented and immediately closed and followed up elsewhere”) but not explaining that to the other group of people (who are like “wait why are you not following up right here??”) ugh.

I still have not decided if I want knives (does getting those as a gift from my company mean I’ll sever my relationship with them soon??) pots and pans, or the pressure washer. I need new pots and pans, the knives would be useful and not take up much space, and the pressure washer would be fun but only for a day or two??

does getting those as a gift from my company mean I’ll sever my relationship with them soon??

Ha! I only ever was superstitious about knives as wedding gifts, and I got over that after people I liked gave me some very nice ones as wedding gifts. I vote take the knives. I could make my employee discount available to you for some pots and pans once the process for that is fixed...

Ooh, I would take you up on that, t! My pots and pans are definitely getting grungy and old and I should also buy a better caliber of them too. Since I probably won’t be having a wedding and asking for them.

Looks like a pressure washer is like $40 to rent for a day? So I may convince some friends we should do that and do both our places!

My sister gave me steak knives in my flatware pattern for Christmas, and she's still speaking to me, so you'd probably be fine, meara.

I feel like renting is the way to go with power washers in general

I can get you a good deal, meara, but not right now because it's not moved to the cloud since the cyberattack. I'll try to remember to let you know when it's available again!

Sounds good—it’s a “I should do that at some point in the coming months” rather than “oh shit need them now”

I do want a set of steak knives. Other than that, my chef's knife, paring knife, and serated Ginsu (yes, from TV - a friend and I bought a buy one get one pair!) have been serving me really well.

I have one of these burst blood vessels in the eye, which are generally harmless but look horrendous. I keep forgetting and then shrinking back when I look in a mirror.