No more microwave!

And about darn time, too. I've never been fond of the things. I grew up without one in the house, and have never really seen the need for one. Cooking should be done on a stove of some kind, not with microwaves. It just doesn't sit right with me. Besides, I like cooking and doing dishes so it's kind of fun for me. HE isn't happy about it because he absolutely LOVES the thing. I don't much like how much counter space it takes up. I refuse to replace the thing now. HE is likely going back away for a long time in four weeks anyhow due to all his messing up while on probation. Mostly it involves him not keeping a job, leaving me the sole provider for us both, and I'm not happy about that, nor is his P.O. She's really mad because the last job he had, SHE found for him and he quit it after just four days.

So the microwave ... He went to use it to heat himself some canned chili. A few seconds into the cook time, it made a loud pop, like a .22 going off. I heard it all the way back here. The microwave still lights up and all, but it's unplugged and staying that way until it gets moved out of the house. It will free up some counter space which I desperately need anyhow.

The only thing I really used it for was melting wax for candles. I can gin up a double boiler to do that from now on. Might be a bit slower, but at least I won't have to worry about things going BOOM and blowing up the kitchen. A quick and dirty double boiler can be worked up with a large saucepan and a metal mixing bowl that sits on top of it. You don't need an official double boiler. It will hold me until I get the melter doodad I want for making my full small batch stuff instead of really small (one freaking candle at a time) batches. It's $70, but worth it! If I ever get into soapmaking as well, I could get a second one for melt and pour soap base.

Work goes apace. They've made a few changes of late to things, so that helps some. A small raise on the hourly by a whole 50 cents an hour, and they've finally realized that the point system is useless as it is, because we've lost too many people to quitting and pointing out. It only took them two years to reset points to where they were at 14 instead of the current 6 and you're done. They left the roll off to 90 days to work one off or a year to wait and it falls off on it's own, instead of giving us back our 28 day rolloff, but at least now people won't point out so much and maybe we can keep some experienced workers around. They're also rolling everybody's points they have now back to zero as of Monday the 18th, so that will help a bit, too. It means I don't have to wait until January to bid on jobs off the line, but can put in for them NOW.

So I did. Tyson uses Workday to do a lot of things for the employees now, including internal applications for jobs you don't just go to HR and sign for. Ones where you HAD to put in a paper application before, now you just log in and go to careers, and search for your plant, then fill in the required questions, click apply and you're done. If you're smart like me, you save your answers to the required questions as a WordPad file, so no braining about it. Just copy and paste.

The furkids are doing great right now, despite the colder weather. The cats, of course, absolutely love the bed ...

And Bandit just wants to play tug rope ...

Me? I'm busy collecting graphics and digital papers to make pet lovers gifts and pet products for the shop. The Pattern side, the .com, will be getting a lot of pet lovers products. Everything from tees for adults, to ornaments, drinkware, and more ... and then doggie tees and bandanas and pet placemats and beds. Everything will be print on demand, which makes it super easy for me to deal with production and processing orders. I don't have to do anything other than design, list, promote, and push orders to the various POD suppliers. All while basically collecting free money.

Okay, I could easily sell a lot of graphics as well, and make easy money $1 at a time that way, but it just isn't me. I'm not really thrilled with that idea. Maybe down the road, but I love my critters, and want to make gifts for other animal lovers, from dogs and cats, to horses, rabbits, ferrets, reptiles, birds, farm animals, and so forth. So I will be busy with that as much as possible. The digital papers alone will make for really nice doggie tees and bandanas and pet beds and placemats. Once I have a good chunk of product in the shop for those, replacing what's already there, I'll post a link!

For now, I need to get some rest. It's after 6AM here, and while being on second shift means I don't usually go to bed until everyone else is up and running, I'm kinda pooped. I'll write more next weekend.