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   a pizza arrives at Two Ravens
Friday, November 22 2019
Soon after arriving at work, I figured out what was wrong in the key converter that had caused Alex to freak out after I left work yesterday. To generate my CSV, I'd taken the converter method out of the class for which it had been designed while failing to also copy some properties containing some essential (if unchanging) data. So I reran the conversion and got what I thought was a good CSV. It turned out that this wasn't quite true, at least not yet, due to a bug I'd introduced into the converter back in July. But I got everything squared away by the late morning, and diaster (as indicated by an angry client) was completely avoided. Still, before it was all over with Alex made the observation that this incident was making "Hunter [the remote colleague who is usually the one responsible for most of our team's flakiness] look like the responsible one."
To celebrate the imminent departure of two colleagues (Andrew and Victoria) and the arrival of a new one (a guy named Dave who is replacing Morning Dave). today the head honcho ordered lunch for everyone in the office, which was logistically easier than having us all drive to Savona's, like we usually do when celebrating departures (celebrating arrivals is entirely new). The food came from a Chinese restaurant called Lucky Dragon. I ordered the Mapo Tofu, which was their only "specialty" labeled as vegan (happily, it was indicated to be spicy as well). More than an hour passed between the placing of the order and the arrival of the food, a time during which I became incredibly hungry. Unfortunately, the Mapo Tofu wasn't especially good even though it had everything I normally like (including mushrooms). It needed salt and perhaps other flavors, as well as hot sauce. When eating it, I used my plastic plate and the tofu from my bamboo "silverware" kit. Normally the food I eat isn't particularly greasy and I can just rinse off the plate when I'm done, but, lacking soap, I had to use isopropyl alcohol to degrease my dish and utensil. As we ate, the head honcho gave a brief on the things that are happening in the company, including the recent departure of the widely-disliked VP of Product Development. There wasn't much new news. Most of the people who are leaving will be hired on a contract basis for their irreplaceable knowledge. They'll also be keeping their work laptops, a perk that might not be as great as the departed are thinking.
At the end of the day, Alex took "Eeyore Jon" and me out to the front of the building for a quick meeting. He said he was trying to get a replacement for himself so he won't have to spend so much time on the phone. He said he'd also be trying to get substantial raises (that is, 10% or so) for people on his side of the office. That will do much to placate Gretchen, who has been trying to get me to ask for a raise for months. (I'm happy with what I make, but Gretchen, as she often does, thinks I am selling myself short.) Evidently Alex was no longer mad at me about my fuckup last night.

This evening, Gretchen and I drove to the Two Ravens Bar in Uptown Kingston to attend a little birthday gathering for our friend Chrissy. Chrissy is a big fan of birds, particularly corvids, so this might've been why she chose Two Ravens. Unfortunately, their kitchen is permanently closed, so the only things anyone could consume there were beverages. Also, the bartender was being a bit of a bitch, forbidding Chongo the dog from the premises, even though another bar staffer had told her over the phone that dogs were totally kosher.
I spent most of tonight's gathering talking to Rebecca, the woman with the chicken rescue who runs Hudson Valley Veg. She eventually ordered a large vegan pizza from Pie for the People, which was great, except that by the time it arrived, there were about a dozen of us, all of whom were hungry. Most of the people eating it didn't even know it was vegan (and probably didn't care; one of those in attendance was wearing a real mink coat, perhaps unironically)
[REDACTED]
In terms of gifts, Gretchen had brought brownies and I'd brought a small painting of a blue jay (a corvid!) wrapped, as always, in tin foil.


A snapshot at our table in Two Ravens as Gretchen and I were preparing to leave. The coat nearest the camera is made of mink. The gentleman behind the pizza box is Jeff of Jeff & Alana. That is Gretchen on the right.


Gretchen with a creepy denizen of the uncanny valley on Wall Street in Kingston tonight.


For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?191122

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