The Itchy Edition

Well, it looks like the folks at Hewlett-Packard are beginning to get the picture. A month back I posted about HP CEO Mark Hurd's reported $42.5 million compensation in 2008, all while HP laid off 25,000 employees. Last week, HP announced salary cuts.

Unfortunately, the pay cuts are across the board. The CEO will take a 20% cut, other execs will see a 15% cut, and managers a 10% cut. All other employees will receive a 2.5 - 5% cut. Given that Hurd's salary is only (ha) $1.5 million of that $42.5 million figure, I'd rather see a total compensation cut at the CEO and exec levels. But even Hurd's cut will mean about 5 more people 20 more people like Scoob will get to keep their jobs.

Speaking of Scoob, he's seriously stressed out about all this. We're in the middle of trying to refinance the house and a pay cut doesn't help matters. Add to that the fact that property taxes are due, and it's just regular tax time as well, and the poor guy is about to implode.

Actually, I think the stress has caused him to break out in hives. On Friday he started getting strange bumps on his forearms. Given his allergies, at first we thought it was a feather pillow, but he's been using that pillow for years. I haven't changed laundry detergent, or fabric softener. We did recently switch bar soaps, but he hasn't used a new one yet.

The only real recent change in the house has been the litter box and the litter we use in it. All I can think of is that the cats have trace amounts of something from this litter on their coats and it makes contact with Scoob's arms when he pets or holds them. We made the switch about 2 weeks ago, so this seems like a very delayed reaction.

Anyhow, he's been using calamine lotion to help with the itching and an anti-bacterial ointment to prevent infection. I convinced him to take a benadryl tab last night just in case it is an allergic reaction. But he got up this morning and took another--so he's going to be pretty much comatose for the day.

He mumbled something about being hungry around 10:30 so I made him something to eat. But I couldn't get him to wake up enough to eat it, and that was 3 hours ago. I've made him agree to make a doctor's appointment if the bumps haven't cleared up by tomorrow.

The Rash

Whoa. I went 11-days without blogging. Eleven whole days! That was not the plan. But if there's one thing I've learned about the holidays it's that they rarely go according to plan.

So anyways, Merry Merry to you and yours, and I hope any traveling you needed to do went off without a hitch. Our drive north on the 101 in California was pretty uneventful and traffic eased up after we got through Santa Rosa. We had a little snow over Christmas Eve, but it pretty much stayed up on the hills so it was pretty scenery and easy driving.

This year somehow felt less hectic with the family. It was nice. I don't know if it was the "no shopping" thing, or that we didn't get there until 5:30 pm Christmas Eve, or that Christmas Day was spent at my sis's place with just us, her and her partner, mom and dad, and an uncle. It was probably a combination of all of the above and I'm pretty sure it's a safe wager to say it'll never happen again. But was nice to just relax and enjoy the family time all the same.

We played a domino game last year and had so much fun we played it again this year. I'm betting it'll become a tradition. Anyhow, it's called Mexican Train. Isn't that like the worst name ever? I don't know who made it up, and I don't know why it's called that, but it's fun and I'm good at it.

It's something I need to work on, but dudes, I'm incredibly competitive. Betcha didn't know that. Well, a few of you did. Anyhow, I've known my competitiveness can be a problem and I've pretty much dealt with it. But what I haven't dealt with is that, even though I'm okay with not winning, I'm still incredibly focused on the game.

Anyhow, I get so focused on the game that I really don't pay much attention to anything around me (anyone wanting to search my purse, that'd be a good time). Which means, as Scoob (Sweetie has decided to be Scoob) so gently pointed out, I didn't do a whole lot of visiting because I was so intent on beating everyone else and taking no prisoners. Hmmm, maybe that's why the trip seemed so mellow, I didn't really talk to anyone? Anyhow, now I'm wishing I'd visited more. And played more. Well, it was fun.

We came home on Friday and spent the weekend being bums. Yesterday was my first day back to work, but I worked from home. Funny story about that. So my sis gave me one of those scented oil reed diffusers for Christmas. I love those things and we've had one in the house that just ran out. So perfect, right?

I opened it up on Saturday and got it set up. I liked the smell. It smelled good. Later on Saturday I started getting the migraine aura and immediately popped my pills. But the headache kept getting worse and I ended up in a drug-induced sleep on the sofa. (Scoob was so sweet, covered me up and slept on the floor near the sofa in case I needed him in the night. You can gack if you want to, but when you're feeling like that, it's sweet.)

So Sunday dawns and I still have a headache; Normal considering the migraine the day before. But it kept getting worse. I finally connected the dots and realized the diffuser was triggering the headache. Even though it smelled good, it was kinda strong. So I tried to put away, and in the process, I spilled it. You can put a stopper in the bottle, but once it's out of the bottle, yeah. Apparently I also spilled it on my hands, and even though I washed them (it's scented oil, yo), I spread it onto my neck and face. So it basically looked like I'd broken out in this massive rash. And it itched. And I scratched. Oh, Lord. So anyway, I worked from home on Monday because I still had the rash.

Today (Tuesday) was my first day back to the office and the regular day-to-day routine. Get up. Brew coffee. Eat oatmeal. Curl hair. Apply make up. Snuggle kitties. Get dressed. Hug and kiss Scoob. Out the door. (I snuggle the kitties before I get dressed so I don't get cat hair all over my clothes--not that it helps, and I hug and kiss Scoob after I get dressed so that I can get out the door. Otherwise I might be later than I normally am, :) ) Yeah, TMI. So what?

So part of getting back into the routine was my plan to stop at the grocery store tonight on my way home from work. Now, I didn't communicate this to Scoob. It didn't seem important. But I emailed him from work to let him know that the earring I'd lost last week had turned up. And he emailed back to say that he'd gone for a bike ride and picked up some frozen corn at the grocery store. Corn? That's great. What about the chicken, and onions, and potatoes, and tomatoes, and lettuce, and milk, and Brussels sprouts...? He was being thoughtful. He was being helpful. But I still had to go to the store.

Closing In

So we're closing in on the end of year holidays and not only have a been a bad, bad blogger, I'm also so not ready for Christmas.

Remember I said that my family was not exchanging gifts this year? Well, Dad called a few days ago asking what Sweetie and I wanted for Christmas??!! So now I'm freaking out because I followed instructions and didn't do any shopping! And that's a big deal. I always try to put a lot of thought into what I get people. It's not like I can just hop over to Sears, or wherever, and load up on gifts for everyone and feel good about what I'm giving. So we'll be running around this weekend (I'll be dragging Sweetie along). Ack!

And then there's wrapping and baking. And do you think I sent out a single holiday card? Heck no! I'm a bad, bad Christmas elf.

But, I have been working on raising money and food for the Alameda County Food Bank, so I'm not a complete hopeless case. We've been having a food drive at the office. We've got the collection barrels out, and we had a bake sale to raise some money, and in January my department will go to the warehouse to help sort food. It seemed like a better idea to hold off until January because most groups donate their time around the holidays and then organizations are strapped for help the rest of the year.

It's pretty awesome really. Work has agreed to give us a half day off with pay to volunteer and give back to the community. I've suggested they give us the half day once a quarter, but that's doubtful considering they've recently sent out a memo saying that all salaries are frozen, they're freezing all hiring, and they will no longer make employer contributions to our 401(k)s. I'm cool with the first two, but my 401(k)? Dude, it's not enough to mess with my life here and now, but do you have to mess with my life 30 years from now too?

Oh, and remember I speculated that Sweetie's employer might cut my health care benefits as a domestic partner? Yeah, well, we got that official notice in the mail yesterday. So I spent the better part of my morning trying to get a mid-term enrollment (our policies run October – October) in my company's health insurance policy (I haven't heard back from them yet) and looking into Domestic Partner laws in California.

Come to find out that in California we meet all the required definitions of a domestic partnership, save one. For opposite sex couples, in order to qualify for domestic partner status, one member, or both, of the couple must be over the age of 62. Sweetie is quite a bit older than me, but he's not that much older. Oh, and bonus information, this age requirement doesn't apply to same-sex couples.

Anyhow, I'm sure everything will be fine once it's all sorted out and all the appropriate paperwork is filled out in quadruplicate: "The pink copies go to Accounting, the fuchsia ones go to Purchasing, and the goldenrod ones go to Roz. Leave the puce." Anyhow, it just chafes.