Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Time to say thanks and reflect a year in passing

A 4 days weekend was a very nice break from the paper world. Too bad that I can't match my schedule to volunteer at St. Francis or other places on T-day. Besides the regular turkey day festivities, I went to Newport for the day with A. It was fabulous time. We even cooked dinner together; well, we attempted. Food was saturated with black pepper. It was HOT. I would say we are going well and it has been wonderful for a change. Time to say thanks and see what will come of it. I definitely have my worries as this relationship grow, meanwhile, let's just go with the flow.

I was a home body on weekends, chilling with Dave, Wing & Emily. No golfing though and I am still in search of my dummies book... where did that go? Kung Fu Hustle is so-so, Stephen Chow is still pretty good with his HK style humor, but it could be tiring sometimes.

Monday started on a sour note (work week 48, 4 more to go). As the 4th quarter at work has been rough; the economical time just couldn’t allow us to end the year with a cheer(depressed market conditions and the surge in transportation and energy costs). (They might shut down my DAFs for energy saving?!) We had been plagued with power generation, liquor and recaust and pulp problems. We have been slowing down in pulp production and machine speed and made grade pattern adjustment to adapt the shortcomings in operation. In the midst of this, PM dept continued to focus on building a stronger team. I am part of the change as I will be starting my temporary foreman training in December of 05, straightly on days, with the intent that I will alternate my roles between process engineering tasks and foreman duties in the first 6 months of 2006. This is absolutely a big deal to my career development. Some folks started to congratulate me as it definitely perceived by others as I am climbing upward in the world of papermaker. Don't worry, I am still the grunt of Horace. We are still partners and we will have each other's back! I don't know how I will work/sleep/eat/fun *wink*, but I will manage with my superb multi-task talent.

I got a present from a vendor today, WOW. I am worthy now!

Today, more dampening news has announced from SMT, they have decided to sell MDF operations in Albany and Eugene, OR and indefinitely idle-ling NO 1 containerboard machine in Plymouth, NC (I was trying for a position, back in April) . I have been very optimistic in the past to encourage folks from Albany not to think of us as the next news clip. I still believed that we will be around making paper for many more years to come. We worked hard to show that Albany is a world class mill and we are among the best workforce in W. “In response to fundamental market challenges, W has recently announced the indefinite closure of a pulp and paper facility in Saskatchewan, a box finishing operation in California, a sawmill and pulp mill in Washington, and a plywood mill in Oklahoma.”

PM2 shut today went long...lots of appointments (will get a new set of ear plugs)....December... here we are. Time to start on my x'mas letter, what an eventful year, don't you thinK? I want to go snowboarding.... Pink Martini... white top/PM3 HB/foreman training... hmmm! HELP!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

The better I know you, the happier I get



Last friday night was quite a surprise. My gathering plan with the coworkers did not fall through; instead I was chilling with A. A dinner and a movie afterwards, the chemistry was here. Folks, I am happier!

Weekend:
A big day to get all errands done in P-town before the homecoming of my mom. Things went well as it was hectic as usual, stopped by all my regular places. The break at downtown was refreshing, we went to saturday market and Powell's Bookstore. Sunday was a good day to catching up on sleep & chores. Doggy Park with Dave and Emily was a big plus. Emily & Dave got plenty of exercise; I too, was doing some running & walking. The service on Sunday night was fine.

Work Week 48:
Monday was miserable for my stomach. I suffered through the combination of anxiety and abdominal pain. At least the work week will be short, just 2 days for me! That evening, I watched 'mail order bride', it was pretty funny as it was a fake documentary.

Tuesday, we went to MU for a performance of belly dancing. At work, I was told that I will start my temp. foreman training in December. I will be doing 12+ hours of shift work! Lucky me! No seriously, I am looking forward to that assignment. A great learning opportunity for my paper maker world!!! The work day ended with a hello wish from Scott. It was nice.

Wednesday, I was so focused on my engineering tasks, that I didn't even notice I was wearing my shirt backward until a vendor asked innocently if I had any particular reason for my fashion statement. I was a little bit embarassed, and as soon as I had some privacy, I made sure to turn my shirt back to the standard orientation. I started my foreman work a little bit early as PM2 was taking downtime to change press felts, prior to the next scheduled shut. It was a very good day for learning and running up and down from wet end to dry end. Jones refiner is back from the shop and we had to cut Horace's lock! I am a bad girl/partner as I have his dirty evidence in jpeg. He will get a ear full from Ted.
Cheesecake!

Happy Thanksgiving to y'all! Mine should be interesting!

Quantity vs Quality?

A question from another blogger:

Would you like to be with someone everyday, see their face everyday, but never do anything special together, or would you like to meet someone only once in a while but when you meet, everything else is dropped and you have the time of your life?

Boringfish wants both in moderation and in balance. Just being with someone you adore is priceless.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Is it Friday yet? oh IT IS

Work is full of surprises as always. Drainage study was waiting for me yesterday as I walked into the mill. It turned out the application engr was the same guy I worked with 3 years ago at NBend. It was a busy day anyway. Jack and Dan are a handfull but they are great guys to work with. A few follow up items for me to tackle today and possibly next Monday.

Horace and I will be visiting with a press expert today; Mr. Woo, a native from Korea is a research scientist at corp. He is interested in mill daily issues.

I watched Napoleon Dynamite last night; it was funny and very quirky, but cool.

Friday is here, well let's see if some co workers of mine will wanna go have dinner and drinks tonight?

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Shout out to Die hard fish ball gal!


Folks,

Just wanna give a shout out to FionA.
Congratulations on her transition to a new job! May the opportunity grant her a fresh breath of air for professional and personal growth.

You too Richard!

Gotta get back to work.

Boringfish

PS Hey girl, what happened to that phone call?

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Oh... It's November already

Hey Folks,

Long time no chat. Work week 47 is here! I am still the DAF/Kajaani/spill control gal. PM3 shut today, Fiberline shut yesterday. HB project will be pushed to December. White top will be there too. 5.5 weeks till the end of the year! So little time with lots to do! I have been working on my 5 steps program in SPILL & SWIMS control. So groovy. There was a minor spill again on the 8th, so folks are taking my tests and responding well to the steps. Holidays are around the corners! I will try to do my best to update folks on what happened to me for the past couple months.

Emily has been staying with me for the last month or so. It's been wonderful to have another femme company around, a feisty and very naughty one too! Coffee is being stubborn and continuously refusing to show his face. I am worrying sick about him and wish every second of that he will turn up and give me plenty of loving. Fish are doing fine. Ultimately, survival to the fittest is happening to my household as the residents in the fish tank have gradually shrunk from 8 to 2 now. We have had them since September 17th. New addition to the aquarium is in planning.

What’s cooking? My newly adopted phrase. Well let's see, I am on my uphill ride in my social roller coaster, don’t have much to share at this point. I will keep you posted, I am sure of that.

Veteran’s Day weekend wasn’t too bad, I was on call for work and it was a pretty low-key time. I was watching a lot of TV, Beavers lost to Stanford and Ducks won! Go Beavers in the civil war!

Fiona and Richard are in transition to their new employment. Hur-ray! & sucker, welcome to the cruel real world.

I have on call duty on Oct 1-6, 14-20, 28 to Nov 3, Nov 11 till present. After the 17thof the week, I will have a long deserved break from weekends stuff. I won’t be on till February. Richard, are you ready for some on call actions?

Monday, November 07, 2005

OUCH, a broken wrist!



Last weekend, Horace and I were both on call. A serious mishap resulted in a mill employee concluding his work day and his probationary period with a broken wrist. The event triggered several minors and near misses. I am assigned to develop machines spill control plan as the outcome of this unfortunate event. We were 3 days short of celebrating the mill’s 1 year with no lost time injury record. It reflected badly upon Horace and me as we were the chemical duo at the mill. Go wet end!

Sylvia’s birthday, no bowling for us in this celebration. We went out for dinner! Instead of the usual hour long wait at the Red Lobster, we had a designated waitee, who provided us a choice table, and saved us an hour of waiting in the cold. And then he didn't even stay for dinner! What a sacrifice. Thanks from the three of us! The day went by fast as Wing and I spent time at outlet and Fry’s.

Halloween was uneventful. I had 5 young adolescent trick-or-treaters. WOW.

I went to mass for all Saint’s day on Wednesday. I missed my grandpa and coffee a lot and I hope they are happy.

On Thurday I went to my first APM career counseling section, the experience was positive, encouraging and frankly, I am more confused then ever. It raised a lot of questions and my prospects got cloudier. We will see what’s cooking, later that evening, I went to Bio-diesel seminar in Salem; it was hosted by the AICHE Pacific section. It was a fascinating topic and I have so much more to learn.

Friday night was little nervous, Too much going on to explain. Just take my word for it. On Saturday, Scott, Jenny, Emily and I went to the coast. What a lucky guy when he was accompanied by 3 pretty girls. I had fun even though it was pouring rain in Florence. I would like to hang out with him and Jenny more before they decide on their move to Central Oregon. On Sunday, I went to Portland for the day, a lot of errands.

Maple trees are shredding skin, lots of leaves to rake for the handy man. I continued to have headaches caused by trees in Portland, gutters /fence/water spot/plumbing, the joy of being a house slave.

Flu shot was given out at work...hm....Ouch, needle!

Friday, November 04, 2005