Great to see WineDavid, WineFarm, and Steve at D&D and the after party. Sorry I didn't get to spend more time with the wine.woot folks, but my liver ain't what it used to be....

PoSt away, folks!

PetiteSirah wrote:Great to see WineDavid, WineFarm, and Steve at D&D and the after party. Sorry I didn't get to spend more time with the wine.woot folks, but my liver ain't what it used to be....

PoSt away, folks!

Ahem!

Snazzy title this week.

MarkDaSpark wrote:Ahem!

I believe that's what them lawyers call a negative pregnant ;)

Happy to be off of work today. I'm glad my wife gets presidents day off because it gives me an excuse to take it off as well.

I too think the title is perfect.

Were staying at my parents beach house for the weekend and my dad told me to not take wine with me because he had a bunch of bottles. So I looked through what he had last night to see what would go with last nights dinner. I found an 09 ravenswoods old vine zin. It was so fruit forward and candied almost that I couldn't do it. There are few bottles of wine that go straight into the sink but this one hit the sink after a glass.

I like fruit forward wines but this had no structure to back it up.

Anybody have plans for their day off?

cortot20 wrote:

Anybody have plans for their day off?

Heading over to Catalina Island for the day...

26 miles across the sea...

cortot20 wrote:Anybody have plans for their day off?

Day off? What's that?

Upcoming Woot Wine Gatherings…All The News for the week of February 20th.


April
4/27-28: Ohio Wine Dinner with Scott and Jana Harvey
TBD: NoVA/DC #26: Theme TBD
TBD: NYC #19: Cool stuff mikegberg is going to miss on the tour
TBD: NorCal #12: Volcanic Terroir

May
5/19: CyberPub Cellars 2011 Rogue Rhone Bottling- NEWEST Thread!

July
7/23-25: RPM's History Tour, Part 1
7/25-29: RPM's History Tour, Part 2 (Dates set, Deposits due 3/5)

Pending
TBD: Arizona Verde Valley Winery Weekend
TBD: Dallas #11

Looking for some helping hands:

• South Florida Interest Thread
  
• NorthEast Florida Interest Thread
  
• Missouri Interest Thread
  
• Central NC Interest Thread
  
• Albuquerque Interest Thread
  
• Lake County/Chicago Interest Thread

cortot20 wrote:

Anybody have plans for their day off?

Just got home from Quebec City with the kids from school last night. We had an awesome time! There actually was snow! they had about two - three feet on the ground and the conditions were perfect for dogsledding; snowshoeing & tubing. It felt soooo good to be in an area with snow! We had a light snowfall overnight one night while we were there. It was sooo pretty. We came home to nothing.

ddeuddeg let me sleep in this AM. I've still got the CyberPub crud. Just can't shake it. Ugh! I have to take a quick shower: we have a double dance lesson scheduled for 1 PM today--did I mention quick? Then, I have to do laundry and re-pack. Leaving tomorrow AM, before dawn, for Milwaukee. We're planning on meeting up with Nurse Laura and her hubby on Wed.

Thank you, Sweet Sparky, my honeybunny, for updating the GTG thread! I caught some sort of airplane-borne sickness last week, and it has me beat-down. I sincerely hope this isn't the CyberPub crud! I've been out sick enough this winter without adding *that* on top of it all!

coynedj wrote:Day off? What's that?

My thoughts exactly.


Though I could have taken the day off if I felt like it. We now have what they call a "Floating Holiday". We used to get to choose between either MLK Day or Presidents Day. Now we we get to take that "holiday" day any time of the year that we want.
So I could make my birthday a holiday, if I felt like it.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:My thoughts exactly.

...We now have what they call a "Floating Holiday"...

It get's worse - the new rage is to do Paid Time Off" aka PTO. It's an amalgam of floating holidays, vacation, and sick leave.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:
So I could make my birthday a holiday, if I felt like it.

I find birthday days off work more enjoyable than random federal holidays.

mother wrote:It get's worse - the new rage is to do Paid Time Off" aka PTO. It's an amalgam of floating holidays, vacation, and sick leave.

Oh, we've already had PTO for a number of years. We have PTO & Holiday. No "sick" or "vacation". For now the "floating holiday" is still part of the number of actual holiday days they give us each year, and was instituted last year. And then the number of PTO days you get is based on how long you've been with the company. You start with 18, then at 5 yrs you get 23, then at 10 yrs you go up to 28. Sadly, it is my understanding that 28 is the cap. So when I hit 15 yrs in Aug 2013, I won't get any additional days.

Itwdswafo wrote:Heading over to Catalina Island for the day...

26 miles across the sea...

Hmmm, what and where do you fly out of?

KSEE here, BL17

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Oh, we've already had PTO for a number of years. We have PTO & Holiday. No "sick" or "vacation". For now the "floating holiday" is still part of the number of actual holiday days they give us each year, and was instituted last year. And then the number of PTO days you get is based on how long you've been with the company. You start with 18, then at 5 yrs you get 23, then at 10 yrs you go up to 28. Sadly, it is my understanding that 28 is the cap. So when I hit 15 yrs in Aug 2013, I won't get any additional days.

My company does it differently too.

Rather than sprinkling in a bunch of short weeks for random holidays we get only Memorial day, 4th of July, Labor day, and thanksgiving. They then package up all the rest into 6-8 days off surrounding Christmas and new years

Additionally there are 3 weeks of Vacation pay which rise to 4 from 15 to 20 years service. Sick time does not come from a set budget but if you use too much you'll be counseled.

HitAnyKey42 wrote: You start with 18, then at 5 yrs you get 23, then at 10 yrs you go up to 28. Sadly, it is my understanding that 28 is the cap. So when I hit 15 yrs in Aug 2013, I won't get any additional days.

I'm not sure how many days we get, I so rarely manage to take it all that I finally hit the accrual cap about 18 months ago.

Luckily now that I'm here 5yrs+ I get to bank another 80hrs I'll never get to take!

mother wrote:I'm not sure how many days we get, I so rarely manage to take it all that I finally hit the accrual cap about 18 months ago.

Luckily now that I'm here 5yrs+ I get to bank another 80hrs I'll never get to take!

I wish I could bank mine. For us, if you don't use your PTO days, you lose them. We get no carry-over whatsoever of anything.

I took a 1/2 day off. If I don't work, I don't get paid. Seems pretty simple to me.

Itwdswafo wrote:Heading over to Catalina Island for the day...

26 miles across the sea...

I am very envious. sigh. I pretend the ocean is just over those mountains near me, instead of 285 miles away.

rjquillin wrote:Hmmm, what and where do you fly out of?

KSEE here, BL17

Maybe he was sailing! (;
Olson 30 here

otolith wrote:I took a 1/2 day off. If I don't work, I don't get paid. Seems pretty simple to me.

FYI, you haz a PM.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:I wish I could bank mine. For us, if you don't use your PTO days, you lose them. We get no carry-over whatsoever of anything.

Mine max out at 320 hours and getting 160 hours a year it can get up there pretty quick especially when your wife only gets 80 hours a year.

But she gets more holidays than I do so it gives me good reason to take those days as well.

My company gives us a ton of PTI as well but you need to be near death in order to use it. Example, I've only used 2 days of PTI in seven years and the reason was a severe knee infection that rendered me nearly immobile for a few days. I have a problem with taking PTO for simple colds and flus, if I'm going to not feel well I don't want to use my hard earned PTO to sit at home sick so I always go in.

On the flipside my wife gets sick days that she can take no questions asked so it seems like all of these policies seem to add up to similar benefits.

My daughter got accepted to grad school. In Portsmouth, England.

We do PTO. After 25 years, we get 34 days, or 272 hours. We can carry over up to five days, which I do. So I have 39 days this year. Managed to only lose one day for non-use last year.

polarbear22 wrote:My daughter got accepted to grad school. In Portsmouth, England.

WOW! Congrats to her, and to you and mrs PB as well. What will she be studying?

Pork chop for me, steaks for the rest. homemade fries and brussel sprouts in the oven. Was a productive day off. Not relaxing, but productive.

Went to the butcher shop and they had a special on "Day Old" Steak boxes. Basically, random box of 15lbs of meat for 80 bucks. I ended up with six filets a chunk of tenderloin, a tbone, four strips, four sirloins and I think that's it. It was well worth the 80 bucks.

polarbear22 wrote:My daughter got accepted to grad school. In Portsmouth, England.

EXCELLENT! except for being across the pond. Which is still excellent, unless you're mom and dad, which is still excellent, unless you don't get the PTO everyone is talking about

polarbear22 wrote:My daughter got accepted to grad school. In Portsmouth, England.

WOW!!!! super congrats!!!!! you and mrs. PB must be soo proud!!

Very proud. A little uncomfortable with the foriegn country. But we think we can all understand the language.

Her PhD will be in Psychology, working in animal behavior.

Apparently the interview was at noon, over the Internet. And got an e-mail accepting her about 1:00. Nice quick decision.

Methinks my wine budget will take a hit. She's planning on loans, but at a minimum, we will need UK travel funds.

polarbear22 wrote:Very proud. A little uncomfortable with the foriegn country. But we think we can all understand the language.

Her PhD will be in Psychology, working in animal behavior.

Apparently the interview was at noon, over the Internet. And got an e-mail accepting her about 1:00. Nice quick decision.

Methinks my wine budget will take a hit. She's planning on loans, but at a minimum, we will need UK travel funds.

That is even more impressive!! Fast interview.... she must have blown their socks off!!! congrats again!

sanity wrote:Maybe he was sailing! (;
Olson 30 here

But could you make a 'day' of it, out and back, in a boat? That's what made me think air...

What are the chances of a full blown multi-site woot-off starting tonight?

polarbear22 wrote:Very proud. A little uncomfortable with the foriegn country. But we think we can all understand the language.

Her PhD will be in Psychology, working in animal behavior.

Apparently the interview was at noon, over the Internet. And got an e-mail accepting her about 1:00. Nice quick decision.

Methinks my wine budget will take a hit. She's planning on loans, but at a minimum, we will need UK travel funds.

Indeed, congrats!

Still, perhaps you'll have to learn the King/Queens English, they do still talk funny, and have to consume some of those horrible English attempts at breakfast I recall.

mommadeb1 wrote:That is even more impressive!! Fast interview.... she must have blown their socks off!!! congrats again!

Well, just think how she would have felt if they would have waited 3-4 days to tell her.

polarbear22 wrote:Very proud. A little uncomfortable with the foriegn country. But we think we can all understand the language.

Her PhD will be in Psychology, working in animal behavior.

Apparently the interview was at noon, over the Internet. And got an e-mail accepting her about 1:00. Nice quick decision.

Methinks my wine budget will take a hit. She's planning on loans, but at a minimum, we will need UK travel funds.

That's awesome!

Good thing you have plenty of bottles in the cellar that your wine budget can handle the hit!

rjquillin wrote:But could you make a 'day' of it, out and back, in a boat? That's what made me think air...

It would be a long day, if one actually sailed on a sailboat; the speedboats would get there in an hour or two, depending upon from where they departed the mainland and arrived at the island.

If the wind cooperated, it would take us about 4-5 hours, with usual socal light air, to sail out to the isthmus, maybe 2.5 hours back using the spinnaker if we could. We would usually rent a mooring at Two Harbors and spend a night or two.

We used to do a race series in February called the Whitney Series. Back then, it was 7 races, of varying distances, around Catalina Island, nonstop, another race around Santa Barbara Island nonstop, etc. Fun and challenging. And crazy.

sanity wrote:It would be a long day, if one actually sailed on a sailboat; the speedboats would get there in an hour or two, depending upon from where they departed the mainland and arrived at the island.

About what I was thinking. For other than fishing, I put power boats in the same category as helicopters; about the only reason I can see they can get/stay airborne is they are so ugly the earth flat out repels them. Wind is the way, or fixed wing. And fitting with Woodenhead, the Bellanca is a wooden wing. Used to do some Cal 27 racing here in SD, great fun, and a passable wine/cheese craft as well.

PetiteSirah wrote:Great to see WineDavid, WineFarm, and Steve at D&D and the after party. Sorry I didn't get to spend more time with the wine.woot folks, but my liver ain't what it used to be....

PoSt away, folks!

It was good to see so many old guard and new face wooters after being out of the loop for many years. I hear that there is a RPM tour planned for this summer. It must be much more pricy than the first, for I see that there is financing offered. Financing, you say? well, while doing the sonoma walk of shame this weekend, I stumbled across this.

cortot20 wrote:What are the chances of a full blown multi-site woot-off starting tonight?

What do I winz?

cjsiege wrote:Thank you, Sweet Sparky, my honeybunny, for updating the GTG thread! I caught some sort of airplane-borne sickness last week, and it has me beat-down. I sincerely hope this isn't the CyberPub crud! I've been out sick enough this winter without adding *that* on top of it all!

Shucks ... t'weren't nothing.