BABY PIG CAFE!!!!

Having lived next door to a pet pig, the mini-pig cafe appeals a lot less to me than otters or owls. I prefer my pigs in the form of bacon or bbq.

It's taken a long time, but the bird feeder I put up on my office window is finally doing its job (entertaining my cats), as the local population of squirrels has discovered it and become frequent diners. And they don't seem particularly bothered by cat faces suddenly looming over them behind the glass.

Plans for today include trying to track down a local source of arepas, raking leaves, and catching up on some of my extensive streaming backlog.

One thing I forgot to mention that I’m super chuffed about. Friday night we have tickets to Cymbeline at the theater at the globe. Shakespeare at the Globe! By candlelight! And dinner at the fancy restaurant at the club beforehand too. It’s me and my boss and a guy I’ve worked with and had a low-key crush on for 10 years.

That’s a little bit tongue in cheek, but not entirely. Genuinely one of my favorite people, and one of those guys who could be a Most Interesting Man in the World (TM Dos Equis) candidate. So it will be great company and great conversation too. My boss is a Texas democrat with young children and desperate for some for some frank conversation in a different environment. We *really* don’t broach political subjects at work at all, but I accidentally wore a Harris T-shirt on a call once so now we can be a little more open.

Fortunately, getting a little more recreational time on this trip because the flight cost of traveling a little early and staying a little later, rather than keeping it all within the work week, was substantial. So I get tomorrow and Monday, plus next Saturday, on the work dime, but without specific work obligations. So while time is short, I am hoping to make the most of it.

I do not anticipate baby pigs or otters. TBD on owls

Candlelight Shakespeare (with good company) is pretty dang sweet! I wish you owls, of course. London always has ravens on offer, I understand, so there’s that.

That sounds fantastic, Brenda! Enjoy the eff out of it.

What are everyone else’s plans for the weekend?

Taxes. Want to get them in at least somewhat early since I think the IRS will be understaffed and in chaos.

That sounds pretty cool even without otters or pigs, Brenda!

Brenda, enjoy the heck out of the Globe theater. It is absolutely magical seeing a play there.

I’m at my volunteer library bookstore job. It’s lousy out. So, I have no customers. I’m pretty much just reading and shopping for books. And ordering groceries.

Wow Brenda, that sounds awesome.

As does David's visit with pigs and otters. Around here we only have cat cafes, and I'm allergic.

It's raining here and chilly, but the dog is on my feet. I'm trying not to stress about work, but. {{hugs}} to all the other fed-types. It's so hard not to know what's going to happen.

My management is trying to get the telework folks settled before our internal deadline of Feb 12, then try to solve the issue of the full remote workers. It's particularly hard on folks who do a longass telework thing (live outside the locality but work 2 days/pay period at the office to retain locality pay). We have a couple people like that, and they are worried about being forced to return to the office or (if they can go remote somehow) taking a big pay cut.

I have 4 full remote employees, 1 of whom is NOWHERE near any agency facilities. The other 3 we may be able to find homes for, so they can keep doing their (useful! important!) jobs.

I'm grateful my boss is being a complete mensch, but he is hobbled by the need to comply with the directives we are getting. And frustrated that we aren't getting ANY GUIDANCE on how to comply. The silence from HQ has been fucking deafening.