Congrats to Bryan and Brent, and to Al as well for having what looks like a very enviable vacation. Enjoy!

Brent - right back at ya, congrats man.

Mike - Sounds good to me! I'm excited to work in some Sunday trips to Munster .

John - oh dear.

Thanks again everyone.

Congrats on the raise Brent! I get to find out what my raise is today. I was supposed to find out on Tuesday but forgot and my boss was swamped yesterday.

Today I also get to tell the people who work for me what their raises are which is less fun...

To counteract that nut punch I just submitted an abstract for a conference in Sweden but I've struck out 2x before at this conference so wish me luck.

Edited June 30, 201114 yr by Dreadhead

My old employer used to say "Your raise becomes effective when you do!" My current employer just gave me a 15% raise. I must finally be effective. Go figure!

The trip is looking amazing Al .

I guess some things are just meant to be. Spent the last week and a half feeling as nervous and tense as I maybe ever have in my life. Accenture called today and offered me a job, and more importantly, offered me a job in Chicago. My recruiter thought that there was no chance for Chicago, but a small number of openings popped in the past day or so and she was able to accommodate my location preference. So... apparently I will now be a systems integration analyst.

Going out to celebrate tonight.

How did I miss this?

Congrats Bryan! Glad you get to stick around ChiTown.

Congrats to Brent as well. Al, your trip looks amazing!

Congrats on the raise Brent, that is a nice number.

Hubby and I "bought" (ok... we used ff miles) business/first class plane tickets and made hotel reservations for our trip to Maui this summer!

I did not learn what my raise was because my boss was way to busy to take the 10 minutes to tell me I guess

^ Are you going to propagate this down the chain of command for informing your employees?

I did not learn what my raise was because my boss was way to busy to take the 10 minutes to tell me I guess

Same. I also never received a performance evaluation.

The entire staff had a 2.5 hour meeting about them, when we were implementing them, told how big a deal they were, etc.

As for the salary, I've been doing so much overtime lately that the figure is meaningless anyway.

It will be off by tens of thousands

Edited June 30, 201114 yr by aardvark baguette

I get performance evaluations now. In the past, I'd not get any for years, then one day they'd call me down and say, 'hey can you sign these pages? They're your performance evaluations for the last five years. JACHO is coming next week. You're fine, don't worry about it.'

@Bryan. Don't worry, bro'. Just kiddin'. We all know you'll still be poor for at least a couple of years.

Speaking of which, what happened with Allison's car?

Overtime? What's that. My first year at this job I worked about 400-600 extra hours for free (2000 is what I'm paid for). I try to keep it below 200 these days but sometimes it happens anyway.

Obviously you are in "healthcare", my wife is paid for 30 hours and works 45-60+ hours all the time. Too bad she is such a dedicated employee and we have such an emotional attachment to her hospital, that's the way life is nowadays, so we deal with it.

Woo hoo Shelly! Nice score, where you staying? There is a nice Japanese hotel next to the Grand Wailea that serves awesome flights of saki and sushi and there is a really cool sushi restaurant called Tokyo cafe that is worth a stop as well as Sensai too. Unfortunately they are short on good Malbecs though.

Al, your German is getting better by the day. Prost!

Edited July 1, 201114 yr by Augsburger

Nope. Engineer

My old employer "had" to give a performance evaluation annually. In my case he normally skipped it and I would see a bump in my pay check. Current employer has performance evaluations for every employee every six months. The fall evaluation is soft and they tell you how well you're doing. The spring evaluation is hard and they concentrate on areas for improvement. Almost prefer the old employer's method

Had lunch with Dan -- that was nice.

Forgot to mention to Dan, so I'll say it publicy -- finally tried the alt beer you gave me -- it was awesome! I actually think I liked it better than the Gordon Biersch one. And yes, it was still fizzy. As a matter of fact, I only got one glass out of it -- all the sediment had settled on the bottom, but as soon as I opened it, it started fizzing again. Kind of wish I had a second glass, I think I could have gotten more, but the fizzing stirred up the murk, so it ended up being undrinkable. Alas. The one glass was outstanding, though. Remind me to bring you your bottle back next time, I had it with me, forgot to give it to you. Please do feel free to get back into home brewing, I would endorse.

Woo hoo Shelly! Nice score, where you staying? There is a nice Japanese hotel next to the Grand Wailea that serves awesome flights of saki and sushi and there is a really cool sushi restaurant called Tokyo cafe that is worth a stop as well as Sensai too. Unfortunately they are short on good Malbecs though.

We are staying at the Honua Kai Resort and Spa (in a studio ocean view room) in Kaanapali. It seemed to get good reviews on tripadvisor, the rooms looked very modern, and they have kitchens. Unfortunately, I don't eat any seafood so I probably won't rush right over to the sushi place. We haven't really figured out what we are going to do while we are there but I am sure some hikes and snorkeling will be in the agenda. Should I smuggle some wine/scotch in my suitcase?

Mai Tais are the drink of choice there, and rum is the indigenous liquor, so you should be fine.

Oh, you mean, should you smuggle some out...no, you should drink it all there.

Rum is indigenous to only one place: Barbados. We invented it

Nice score, Shelly. If you haven't been to Maui before, I'd definitely suggest renting a jeep and doing the road to Hana. Make a day out of it, so you can stop and hike, see the waterfalls, etc. The bike ride down the hill from the top of Haleakala is pretty cool. too. Also cool is just chilling, so have fun.

Nice score, Shelly. If you haven't been to Maui before, I'd definitely suggest renting a jeep and doing the road to Hana. Make a day out of it, so you can stop and hike, see the waterfalls, etc. The bike ride down the hill from the top of Haleakala is pretty cool. too. Also cool is just chilling, so have fun.

Definitely do at least part of the Hans trip and get to the top of Haleakala, sunrise up there is breathtaking.

Rum is indigenous to only one place: Barbados. We invented it

That depends on whether or not you define rum as a molasses product. If not, and you are interested in the origins of the word, I'd suggest it was invented by the Malay people, who called it brum and would predate Barbados. It was made from sugarcane juice.

Wouldn't non-molasses rum be cachaca?

there isn't molasses in most rum these days...

After having a funding application rejected back when I had 3 months to organize the trip, the university turned around yesterday and said I could go.

From nothing to fully booked and paid for inside of 12 hours is a new record for me... especially as the conference is on the 17th of July

Vancouver, Washington then New York yay!

That depends on whether or not you define rum as a molasses product. If not, and you are interested in the origins of the word, I'd suggest it was invented by the Malay people, who called it brum and would predate Barbados. It was made from sugarcane juice.

Brum was a fermented wine not a distilled liquor based on sugar cane(I.e. rum)