11-29-13 Friday (Survey Says…)

We’ve been paying my coworker’s daughter $20 a week to let Dasher out.  She doesn’t have to sit with him, pet him, walk him or feed him.  Just go over, let him outside to pee, and that’s it.  Back in April, we bought an electronic lock.  From time to time we wouldn’t get any alerts that she had come.  I thought there was something wrong with the system.  On a day the system didn’t log anything, Dasher peed in the house.  I texted her “Did you come today” and she replied she had.  Other times, no system alert, I’d ask her and she said she came.  I became increasingly suspicious so I put a pingpong ball in front of the door. 

When the door opened, the ball would move several inches away from the door without her noticing.  The first time I saw the ball hadn’t moved and there wasn’t an alert, I texted her “Did you come?”  She replied “Yes”.  The following week, the same scenario, the same response.  I told my coworker about it.  I asked for how to handle this with her 17-18 year daughter.  She asked me to call her, confront her and see if she would lie.  I did so.  I told the daughter about the alert system and asked why she told me otherwise.  She said “I don’t know.”  I dismissed her.  Sad.

I’m not going to look for a replacement just yet since Jim goes into work a little later now so Dasher gets a later last time pee. 

Jim and I decorated two Christmas trees.  It’s not uncommon for us to have 2-3 trees.  The dining room is done in gold and purple.  The living room has the black tree (recently used as a Halloween tree) decorated with clear, while and silver.  They both came out pretty awesome.  We did that the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.  Yeah, I know, one holiday at a time but we were going to be out of town Thanksgiving weekend and who knows after that.  Jim still wants to put up a 3rd Christmas tree in the office loft area with our travel ornaments.  I’m sure he still wants to put up lights outside too.  Too much!

Above: Living room

Above: Living room

Above: Dining room

My employer teamed up with HoneyBaked and offered us discounts for several of their products.  I ordered 2 HoneyBaked turkey breasts and a medium size ham.  We again hosted Thanksgiving at our house.  We had 9 total for Thanksgiving lunch, 11 for cocktails.  We had such a great time.  Jim and I supplied the meats and my late Uncle Mike’s delicious and awesome sausage stuffing while guests brought sweet potato casserole, desserts, mashed potatoes, etc.  The food was delish, the company was great!  I didn’t get a photo of anyone.  I was so busy in the kitchen, it slipped my mind.

After everyone left, we cleanup, and head to Augusta for a long weekend.  Several months ago, Jim and I had took Black Friday off just for this reason.  We arrived in Augusta at our typical time, 9ish.  We had a lot to unpack this time.  We’ve been sorting through our Christmas stuff.  2 piles, Goodwill and consignment.  The pile we brought with us was for consignment. 

The next day we went out for some Black Friday shopping.  It wasn’t bad at all because we went post-door-buster-crazy-time.  We only hit a few stores.  The lines were very short.  At the consignment shop, they took most of our stuff.  We grabbed lunch at Red Robin.  Our server was awesome.  She didn’t write a thing down and got everything 100% right.  I complimented her to her manager and we also filled out an on-line survey with top scores.  See, I don’t always complain…  We’ll maybe:

Business surveys have gotten so rough.  For Red Robin, she mentioned only the top scores, completely satisfied, count.  That’s the same way my big bank views it.  Anything under a 5 is a big ole zero.  Just keep that in mind when filling out a survey.  Please don’t be one of those people who think, no one is perfect or “I never give 100% scores”.  It hurts the employee.  So many businesses give employees incentives.  Also, while I’m in bitch mode, don’t fill out a survey and put something like “this is not for my server, it’s about the cook” or crap like that.  Surveys CANNOT be rerouted.  For me, it was a situation of “the underwriter was great, but the branch had no idea what they were doing so this survey is for them.”  No, the survey reflected against me.  This is the same way it works in most business lines, including car dealerships.  Another thing people don’t know is that surveys are typically handled by a 3rd party like JD Powers.

After shopping, we went on a boat tour of the Augusta Canal.  It was just a one hour ride but enjoyable.  The canal was created in 1845 as a hydro power source for various mills.  There was a museum to visit before/after the boat ride.  Our tour guide/narrator provided some great information.  The Enterprise Mill, where the museum and boat ride resides is now mixed use of business and residential lofts.  What a cool building.  It still produces hydro power which is sold to its residents at reduced rates and the remainder sold to Georgia Power.