Weekend!
At my work, we are all given lanyards by our company. We are encouraged (but not instructed) to wear our company’s lanyard on the off chance that we ever find ourselves in a room with a customer or someone equally likely to be someone that our boss’s boss’s boss would want us to be wearing the company lanyard in front of.
Except during football season, where everybody swaps their company lanyard out for the various football-related lanyards.
People who were work-spouses 7 months out of the year suddenly realize “I forgot that you’re a Chargers fan” and old acrimony surfaces temporarily.
The worst part is the culture of people who, instead of putting on lanyards for pro football teams, put on college football team lanyards. They explain the nuances of college ball and how the Southern Conference is the only conference worth two darns and, suddenly, I have to have an opinion on the nuances between the Southern Conference and the Southwestern Conference and it was hard enough for me to figure out that I needed to have an opinion on the Denver Broncos to help me have conversations with co-workers.
This college thing is absolutely impenetrable.
In any case, this weekend will be spent going shopping and being pleased that about a third of the crowds that I’m expecting aren’t around me at the various stores, because they’re home having opinions on the Jackson State Tigers.
We’re also going to be beginning the process of building a deck for friends whose deck has slowly been falling apart for the last four years and their deck has finally turned the corner and nobody is allowed on it anymore. So we’ve said “heck with that, the deck was where everybody sat when we came over here!” and we’re going to be tearing down and otherwise figuring out exactly what we’re going to want to do to replace the old deathtrap of a deck on an engineering, rather than merely a planning, level.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is Tristan and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion by Gautier Map from the Messire Lancelot du Lac. He did most of his stuff in the 12th and 13th century so I figure it’s in the public domain.)
Wedding anniversary, forgive me if I’m not aroundReport
Back when we were engaged, I lobbied for a February 29 wedding date, but she didn’t fall for it.Report
I always thought fall would be a better time to get married than summer but I guess people are attracted to the warm summer weather and outdoor weddings. I much prefer the changing leaves.
Happy Anniversary.Report
Thanks. The benefit of a fall wedding is that it’s cheaper while still being warm & sunny, and your guests should all be back from their summer vacations.Report
Go Hawks!
And it will always be PAC10 to me.
(My two oldest friends are coming over as i am batching it.)Report
And I’m the guy who wears his Arsenal jersey to work when we have “wear your team’s football jersey” days (like today). Then I get to have the conversation where someone points at my Arsenal jersey and says, “That’s not a football jersey!” and I get to say, “No, this IS a football jersey. What you’re wearing is a jersey for some kind of American hand-egg thing that nobody else on the planet (except Canadians) understands or plays.”
Good times. #COYGReport
Hey, did you see that the Broncos won last night?Report
Heck, I wasn’t even aware that the season was starting until earlier this week!Report
@fish
You know, I wouldn’t know what to wear if I worked for a place that had one of these as events. Yay for being the guy who thinks of it largely as sportsball!Report
A major reason why I adopted the team I did is a uniform shirt they wore for a few years in the late 90s – an era not looked back on fondly by lifetime supporters.
Red and white … checkerboard. With the red so saturated that it almost looks orange in certain lighting. So loud that a total stranger once commented on it in public – on a golf course!
I figured that any team that had the huevos to go out dressed like that in the thud and blunder of the lowest English professional division – they might be worrth following. And might end up needing it.Report
That’s the secret to why I’m an Arsenal fan: I was a young Airman who wanted a jersey and I liked Arsenal’s the best.Report
That’s fair – although I do know too many dudebros who “found” soccer when Man U were at their peak, and rode the wave. So I still have a latent suspicion of anyone born in the USA who supports a title contender in Europe – but I drop it freely when “I was born in Barcelona” or “I liked the shirt” or “I’ve been there since ’02 when they were fighting relegation”. The people who Roy Keane was talking about in his “prawn sandwiches” rant is who I’m thinking of.Report
And on that note, my team would totally be a (London) rival to your team if we weren’t crap.Report
Ooooh, so…Crystal Palace? Fulham? Queen’s Park Rangers? I’m trying to think of London teams other than Chelsea (ptooie!) or Sp*rs without resorting to the goog.Report
Ugh lanyards, I have to wear one for work, and it’s a constant irritant.
At least people don’t switch them over to sports-themed ones at any point, because otherwise that would be another vector for rugby to try and impose itself on my life.Report
In my previous career in semiconductor fabs, we basically had to wear lanyards, and not just ordinary ones – we had badges which were required to get in and out of areas, the areas themselves had various clean room protocols, which in many cases (gowned, masked, and gloved) precluded pockets, and a lot of the machines had the possibility of grabbing anything dangling into the machinery, so a breakaway arrangement was necessary.
On the plus side, with everyone gowned to the nines, often the best way of recognizing someone you didn’t know well was by reading their badge, on the requisite lanyard.Report
Where I work displaying the badge is extremely non-optional. Like if the CEO is walking around without his, the encouraged behavior would be to challenge him to produce it. The standard is to clip it to your belt, but I find wearing it on a lanyard more convenient.Report
weeking for the workend. (I have to write my annual productivity report and have it in by Thursday, and I’ve had too much to do otherwise to get it done yet)Report
Ugh, my sympathies, fillyjonk.Report
I understand and I’m right there with you, @fillyjonk . Hopefully I can get through a push in my own workload and return to a regular schedule.Report
I don’t suppose a simple “I’m doing too many important things to write this damned report!!” would suffice.Report
Some combination of demo, cheerleading squad, and resting-while-looking-after-the-toddler-and-the-dog, in support of the Deck Project.
And some downtime and reading I hope.
Earlier this afternoon I went out to lunch with my mother-in-law. I’m so lucky the two of us get along so well :).Report
Ooo, what sort of Deck Project? Will there be pictures, a la Hanley’s house repairs?
Find myself starting a deck project of my own. The wife asked, “Mike, why is this part of the deck uneven? Why does it seem bouncy in places?” Took up half the planks and found stringers with the ends rotting badly, and hangers pulling out. Fortunately, there’s two distinct halves to the deck, so I’ll rebuild the worst half this fall and work on the other half next year. Tomorrow it’s off to the deck supply company to look at synthetic stuff for the visible parts. Pressure-treated (instead of low-grade redwood) for the hidden structural parts. Heavier hardware all around.Report