No title, just a rant about work

I work for 2 of the stupidest people I've met in my entire life. Considering how many people that actually is, that's saying a lot. Every day I'm amazed by yet another completely baffling experience at this place.

Today, flowers were delivered in the morning. There were about 10 boxes. I had finished all the orders and went over and started processing the new flowers. Processing basically consists of taking the flower bunches out of boxes, cutting them and putting them into water with flower food in it.

The owner came into the back, saw me processing and said she wanted me to make some arrangements for the cooler. Okay, the display cooler is full already. It has 25 arrangements in it. She wants some $35-40 vases in the back cooler to re-stock or add to when an order comes in or something is sold from the front. I don't have a problem making them, but one of my biggest problems with this shop is the complete and utter disregard for proper care and handling of flowers.

You don't have to be a florist to know that flowers last longer when they are in water. The longer they are out of water, the shorter the life span. That's common sense, right? Not in this shop.

The bottom line is they only want the delivery drivers to process the flowers because they pay them less. I, as the highest paid employee (and that's really not saying much), should be sent home rather than process flowers. And that's exactly what happened today. I was sent home at noon because, after making some back up arrangements, I started processing the flowers again. I was essentially punished for trying to make the flowers last longer. The sad thing is that this shop has so many opportunities completely unrelated to labor to become efficient. It's sad, really, that they've been in business so long and learned so little in the process. They seem to do things the exact same way they did them the first time 30 years ago regardless of technological innovations and shared experiences with other florists.

They also don't keep the old flowers separate from the new flowers. They "condense the buckets" which basically means putting the new flowers into the same buckets as the old ones. The problem with this is that not only can the inventory not be rotated (FIFO - first in first out - anyone?), the old flowers are in an advanced state of degradation. They have bacteria which pollutes the water which is then absorbed by the new flowers. The best example of the FIFO method (which is universally utilized with perishable products everywhere except this shop) is the produce section of any grocery store. While it is a health concern with produce, it is plain fraud in a flower shop.

Along with having a psychological disorder (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder -they are pack rats; they have a room full of barrels filled with decaying rose petals - floor to ceiling, about 500sq ft of floor space), the store is disgustingly dirty. Actually, I mean filthy. A rat died in the ceiling and it took them 2 days to notice the smell. The intact cat sprays inside the store. Now that's a welcoming scent in a flower shop. Come on in, your flowers will smell great! Pay no attention to that disgusting smell.

I got into an argument with the owner about 2 weeks before Valentine's Day because I wanted to organize the room the baskets are in. The baskets were all tossed into a room along with empty flower boxes (in case they need one for deliveries). There were close to 1,000 baskets in this room.

It happened because I had an order for an arrangement in a basket and when I pulled it out of the pile the whole thing came crashing down. I brought the owner into the doorway and told her it was unacceptable to ask anyone to work in those conditions. People coming in to help during the busiest week of the year should not have to dig through a stack of anything to do the job they're being paid to do. She argued with me that it wasn't a problem. I looked at her like she was crazy and asked if she really meant that. It was an absolute hazard as well as a workplace safety violation without a doubt. Finally she agreed to let me organize it. It took 3 1/2 hours and I wish I had taken a before shot, but just imagine all of these baskets randomly piled in the middle of the floor. I grouped them like anyone who's ever watched Sesame Street would be able to do and arranged them from smallest to largest. Very simply, common sense = efficiency. Why they don't seem to have any I can't answer. This is just 1 corner after I finished.

These people have the store listed for sale for $600,000, which they have absolutely no chance of getting. They are so completely co-dependent on each other that when one dies (and neither is in good health) the other will be unable to function. That will be the reason the store closes. It will never be sold in the condition it is currently in. Rather than sending people home, they really should be trying to order correctly (ie. look at the current inventory and order what you don't have, not what you have a lot of - yes, really, I'm not kidding), improve on efficiency, and work to phase themselves out to rely on the store for passive income. It is not realistic to view the possible sale of this store as a vehicle for retirement income. It is never going to happen.

They do have a lot of house accounts and I have a theory about why people still order from them when the flowers are poor quality (due to improper care and handling) and the arrangements the owner makes look like they were made by a child (I'll snap a picture as soon as I can - was going to today, but left too early). Edit 3-4-2009: Got it! That's it on the left. Please tell me you see the difference. Notice especially the Alstromeria (the cluster of red flowers in the center), Spider Mum, (barely visible on the right), and the yellow Daisy (back left) which are all backwards and the poor use of color. The person who made this thinks I'm not a good designer.

My theory is based on my belief that their biggest strength is networking and they have done a good job of it over the years, especially with UT. They have accounts with lots of individual departments at UT. Anyone who meets them in person will no doubt feel pity for them. The husband has grossly rotten teeth with black oozing gums and the wife has to tilt her head slightly to see through the deep scratches in the lenses of her glasses. Who would want to deny them money when they are obviously in such dire need?

They put on a really good show for company, too. I don't have any questions about why none of their children want to be a part of the family business. If you met them you would walk away thinking how nice they are, but that opinion is not shared by anyone who works for them. They call other employees stupid to me, so I can only presume they call me stupid to them. They never learned that their business could never have grown to this stage or lasted as long as it has without employees. The truth is every single current employee hates working there and would leave tomorrow if another job offer was extended. Please make me an offer! Sphere: Related Content

My first hydroponic gardening attempt

I've been having a big problem with excessive algae in my fish pond for the last few years (global warming?). I've read numerous article, talked to people at garden shops, added plants (most died, the fish ate the others, 3 remain), added algae eaters (they froze and didn't eat enough of it), added salt, changed the water every 3 days for a month, and probably some other things I can't think of anymore. Everything except chemicals. Nothing I've done has made a bit of difference, so this time I want to try to reduce the oxygen in the water with plants and herbs I can actually eat.

Theoretically this should work. The fish are producing enough nitrogen that I shouldn't have to add any supplements, and the additional plants should draw the oxygen from the water thereby reducing the amount available for the algae to propagate.

I started with a variety of Basil, mixed Japanese greens, Catnip, and Lettuce. I have no idea how any of these will adapt to growing in water, but I think I should be able to find a good variety for a long term garden. I was planning to mark the progress by taking a picture each day, but sadly, not much happened overnight.

Today, however, on day 2 a couple of the Rapid Rooters already have sprouts in the Japanese mixed greens row.

How exciting! Sphere: Related Content

2-28-2009 Austin TX Petland protest

Lots of new people showed up at the protest today. We had 10-12 students from the UT SETA chapter. Also, four representatives from the PETA2 campus tour were in town, heard about our protest and came out on their day off! They'll be in Ft Worth next week, so if you're doing a protest, let them know on peta2.com. Maybe they'll join you, too. Go Veg!

There was a little excitement when 3 of the students decided to go onto the median between the access road and IH-35. A police SUV pulled up with lights flashing to tell them it was too dangerous to be there. One crossed easily, but two of them were very tentative and missed what I thought were at least 10 opportunities to cross back. The policeman finally had mercy on them and ran interference while they came back. Sphere: Related Content

Some of the many reasons I hate my job

I work at a very old-fashioned flower shop. They have computers, but only use them with the proprietary FTD and Teleflora software. No internet. This is a big problem because a lot of orders come from their website.

Here's how it works: A customer goes to the website and looks through the photos of arrangements provided to every FTD or Teleflora member shop and orders an arrangement. The order comes to me as TFWEB-523 for Teleflora or B3-4169 for FTD. (I just made those numbers up, but there is an actual arrangement on the Teleflora website with that number.) Instead of pulling up the photo on one of the 5 computers in the shop, I search through a stack of workbooks to find out what the arrangement looks like. Sometimes I pull it up on my phone, but I always have to look it up. That's how it works.

The photo above is an arrangement I made today, not a copy of an FTD or Teleflora arrangement. It has lavender Stock (smells good), purple Tulips, lavender Daisy Poms, purple Monte Cassino, pink Waxflower (also smells good), and Springerii (the greenery). The order was for a lush European style arrangement.

Another way the shop is old-fashioned is that they do not carry a wide variety of flowers. It's strictly the basics, which is not very inspiring. The owners have a preference for Carnations, Daisies, Gerbera Daisies, Gladiola, Statice, Babies Breath (GAG!), Roses, and Lilies. They throw in a few bunches of Tulips, Alstromeria, Stock, Snapdragons, Waxflower, Misty Limonium, Bells of Ireland, Delphinium, Sunflowers, and Hydrangea and that's about it. It may sound like a lot of different flowers to someone who is not a florist, but trust me when I say it's not.

The selection of greenery is also limited. I'll spare the break down, but we have about 6 different varieties for a few days, then it's back to Leather Leaf fern and Wide Leaf Emerald (which they call "funeral greens"). For funeral sprays, their preference is an oval shape with mostly Carnations, a big bow in the center (really big) and a bow on each of the legs of the easel.

I made a beautiful spray when I first started (not the one in the picture), I think I had been there less than a week and the order was about $150. It was for a man, so I used all primary colors (red, blue, and yellow). It had a cluster of red Gladioli at the top, slightly to the left. The middle had sunflowers in a diagonal line across the center from the right, down to the left. The lower section had Belladonna Delphinium echoing the line of the Gladioli. I used Springerii to create a cascading effect just below the Sunflowers and also wove it through them to give the illusion of depth and texture. Just between the Gladioli and the Sunflowers I cut the Wide Leaf to make little loops and stacked them along the line above the Sunflowers. It sort of made me think of a river running through a landscape and balanced the Springerii cascade on the other side. (These loops are sometimes used to make faux Roses - if you can imagine a greenery sculpture that looks like a flower, that's what it is). Again, this technique created depth and texture. I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't know the owner would freak out the way she did.

As I said, I had just started working there. I am a Master Florist and not only studied art in college, but have also taken advanced floral design classes from some of the best designers in the country. Working with leaves, plaiting, weaving, and sculpting are techniques I learned from Phil Ruilloda, not from his book or video, from him. In person. The techniques I used in this spray are the type of design you would see in a magazine.

I finished the spray, put the ticket in the delivery box and started on the next order. A few minutes later the driver had it loaded and was ready to leave. The owner of the shop came over and asked if I had put a bow on the spray. I said, "No, it doesn't need one".

She got visibly upset, grabbed a pre-made bow, rushed outside, pulled the spray out of the van, and tried to find a place to put the bow. I almost started crying. I had just created a sympathy tribute that I would be proud to exhibit at an event filled with professional floral designers and she wanted to put a smashed up, dusty bow on it. I was devastated. I tried to calm down and continued making the arrangements on my stack of tickets.

About 2 hours later the driver returned. I pulled her aside and said, "Please tell me you took that bow off before you took delivered it".

She laughed and said, "She didn't put it on. She couldn't find a place for it". I was relieved, but also saddened that high quality design and creativity were not going to be appreciated at this shop.

That was almost 3 months ago and I usually do the type of boring generic arrangements that take skill, but absolutely no talent to make. I am no longer the boss in my own shop, just an employee paid to make what these people want made. I get so frustrated, though, that every few days I make something I like. I call it "going rogue". The same driver referenced above calls it "getting fancy" because this is her first job in a flower shop and before I started, the boring stuff was all she had ever seen.

My hope is that the economy will start to turn around so I can find investors to help me open my next flower/chocolate shop so I can create the type of designs that are impressive, not just because you received flowers, but that are truly well put together. I'm sure there will be many posts on why I hate this job, but I also hope there is some humor in the absurdity of it all. I actually laugh now when I think of her running outside with the bow. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday is baking day

Some people may believe that people who don't eat meat or animal products are more interested in a healthy meal than something that tastes good. Let me dispel that notion right now. If you've grabbed a vegetarian meal from the frozen food aisle in your local grocery store, you may have gotten that idea. I'm thinking of one brand in particular. I won't name them, because some people may actually like bland, boring food with a weird texture. I don't happen to be one of them.

I usually bake something on Sunday. Sometimes it's only one thing, sometimes more than one. It's usually some kind of energy/snack bar that I can nibble on while I'm working before and after lunch. Today I made a tray of strawberry, apple, blueberry bars with chocolate on top. Have I mentioned I love chocolate?

The image on the right is the whole tray before it went into the oven. The image below is ready to eat.

vegan strawberry apple blueberry bars:
1 lb strawberries
6 oz blueberries
2 Granny Smith apples
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flax seed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup water
1/8 cup olive oil
2 tbs baking soda
2 tbs baking powder
2 tbs vinegar
2 tbs vanilla
2 tbs cinnamon

chocolate topping:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/8 cup water
2 tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Mix sucanat, vanilla, cinnamon, olive oil, vinegar, and water together in a large bowl. Cut strawberries and apples to the size you like. (I make them pretty small so I can get a little of everything in each bite.) Add the chopped fruit and whole blueberries to the liquid mixture and mix well. Add the dry ingredients (flour, oatmeal, flax seed, wheat germ, baking powder and soda) until you have a consistency a little thicker than pancake batter. If you need to add more water, do it now. Spread it out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes. The baking time will vary based on the liquidity of the batter. Remove from oven when the top is springy to the touch.

After the bars are ready, add cocoa powder, sucanat, olive oil, and water into a mixing bowl and mix into a frosting paste. Spread over top of bars after they have cooled for about 10 minutes. Move to freezer to set the frosting for about 30 minutes. You can cut them now, or move them to the refrigerator and slice off the size you are hungry for.

A word of caution: these are not low in calories and may lead to a preference for vegan baked goods. Sphere: Related Content

Farfalle with sun dried tomatoes and Basil

I was told the picture of my cat food is gross, so I took a picture of my dinner last night. It was so good I'm thinking of having it again today.

1 cup garden farfalle or your favorite pasta
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
Basil (as much as you like - I like a lot)
ground peppercorn (again as much as you like)
ground chili pepper (as much as you like)

Cook pasta as per directions on package. While it's cooking mash the garlic with a fork or garlic press, then add pepper, chili pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Cut sun dried tomatoes into strips (or however you like them) and add to the marinade. Toss in pasta and stir until each is coated. The whole meal takes only as long to make as the pasta takes to boil. Quick, easy and really tasty.

After posting, I realized I should add a caveat: all of my measurements are approximate.

Being vegan I cook about 95% of the food I eat, but only measure about 10% of the time. This usually works for me and the only time I do try to be exact are with recipes for bread. I bake a lot, and bread is tricky. I have made several loaves that could easily be used as bricks, so I've learned that whatever molecular magic takes place in the oven should be treated as the chemistry it is. With everything else, I just use the amount I think will work. If you decide to make any of my recipes just keep in mind that it's your meal, you should make it taste the way you like it. If I like Basil and you like Oregano, use Oregano. Sphere: Related Content

2-21-2009 Austin Petland protest

We had a good turn out at the Petland protest yesterday. The regulars (me, Jeanne, Pat, and Jennifer) were joined by 3 of the UT SETA members, and Julia and Natalia showed up at the end. Very good, considering Jennifer was a little late (she got side-tracked by a pet supply sale) and Jeanne, Pat and I thought it would just be the three of us. Sphere: Related Content

Cat food making night

It always sneaks up on me and I hate to do it, but I set up the grinder and made some food for the cats tonight. It's really gross and every time I do it I wonder how anyone could possibly think this is something they should eat.

My cat food recipe:
8 lbs chicken thighs
2 lbs chicken hearts
2 lbs chicken livers

Put it all through a grinder, separate into 3 containers, and put them into the freezer. Actually I do put all 3 into the freezer, but since I usually wait until they are completely out of food, one only stays in about 3 hours. Cats shouldn't eat frozen food because it can upset their stomach. Believe me when I say this is the type of food you don't want to have to clean up if they throw it up.

Mm-mm, yummy, right? Sphere: Related Content

My neighbor Patricia

I came home from work early today, stopped at the grocery store, and arrived to find my next door neighbor's door wide open with a van loading her belongings. She committed suicide Sunday night. She was one of only two neighbors with whom I talked with any regularity beyond the perfunctory greeting. She was in her eighties, though I don't remember her exact age.

I was shocked, although when I left for work yesterday her newspapers were outside her door along with an envelope with her daughter's name on it. I grabbed the papers, tossed them into my apartment, briefly wondered why she didn't ask me to get them like she usually does when she is away, and went to work as usual. Today's paper was outside when I left this morning, but I still didn't put the pieces together even though the note with her daughter's name was gone. I thought maybe she had gone to the hospital and left a key or something in the envelope.

She and I both fed the feral apartment cats and she mentioned several times in the year and a half I knew her how she wasn't sure how long she would be around and didn't want them to be dependent on her. She said she was glad I and another neighbor also fed them.

I hadn't seen her in several weeks, which isn't unusual, but the last time I did I had just put some food out for the ferals and she was on her way somewhere. She stopped and we chatted while they ate. I noticed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary and she said nothing about wanting to die. Her daughter said she had talked of suicide for the last twenty years and even bought a book telling how to do it. She bought a helium tank that came with balloons, put a plastic bag over her head, a tube in her mouth, and turned it on.

I'm really going to miss her. Sphere: Related Content

Changing my focus

I haven't blogged in a very long time, 2006 actually. I'm ready to start again, this time, however, it won't be primarily about politics. I am still a political junkie, but other aspects of my life are far more interesting (hopefully) than my political observations. So, the focus of this blog has changed, effective today, to commentary on my everyday life.

I'll start by re-introducing myself as an animal welfare activist, a vegetarian of 22 years, a vegan of 7 months (though I ate a little cheese yesterday and got sick - won't be doing that again!), a survivor of thyroid cancer, the oldest child in my family and first grandchild, an adult child of alcoholic parents, and an entrepreneur. I volunteer with a group called the Spay Austin Coalition advocating spay/neuter as the most effective long term solution to the animal overpopulation problem. Every year more than 13,000 dogs and cats are killed at the Town Lake Animal Center here in Austin, TX simply because they have no human to take them home. The killing of animals is basically a full time job paid for by the taxpayers. One of my goals is to make this job obsolete.

I became vegetarian shortly after I had my thyroid removed in 1986. I don't know if it had anything to do with the radiation treatments or if it was just a personal decision. I was always really picky about meat and would leave pieces of it on my plate called "thingies" that I refused to eat. It made my mother furious, but maybe it was an early sign that as an adult I would refuse to eat it altogether.

I've been living without a thyroid gland since the day before my 19th birthday, which will be the topic of lots of posts, I'm sure, because it is creating some health problems for me now, 22 years later. The most annoying is that I have a form of arthritis called gout which is usually found in people who eat a high fat, high protein meat based diet and those who are obese. I fall into neither of those groups, but I have it nonetheless. It used to be mainly in my fingers and toes, now it is severely affecting my right shoulder.

My goal with this blog is to share my experiences, get feedback from others, and maybe even help someone going through the same or similar trials and tribulations in their life. I'm hoping to use this outlet as a way to come to terms with some of the things that have affected me (over which I had no control as well as those if my own making), and find peace with the person I have become.

I'll leave it at this for today, but I will commit to posting at least 3 times a week, with the goal of a daily post. Who knows? Maybe I'll get really into it and make several short dailies. Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll re-visit soon. Sphere: Related Content