February 2013 – The Daily EO

The Daily EO: February 22nd, 2013

My husband and I both love Thai food, and I’ll admit, I generally go back to Pad Thai regularly. I love it. In all its noodlely goodness, half the time I get a stomach ache from too much carbs, but its worth it.

But better than Pad Thai is a Green Mango Salad. It is my favorite salad. It is my favorite mango application. It is my favorite appetizer. And I dare say it is in my top five favorite foods of all time.

But the trouble with a Green Mango Salad is that I don’t find it often in Thai restaurants or – annoyingly – the green mango is out of season in the winter. So, I am left hoping each different restaurant I go that I will find what I am looking for.

February 22nd, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Pretty good Pad Thai tonight, but alas, no Green Mango Salad on the menu. Hoping for next time.

The Daily EO: February 21st, 2013

Do you remember when gas $.59/litre? Do you spell litre as “liter”? If no to both, then you’re probably not Canadian or you’re too young to be up this late reading a blog.

I have never commuted far distances in my life, so in the last six months, I have visited the gas station much more frequently then I have been accustomed to. And I drive a Honda Fit, so really my stops there about once a week, but that is about 3 times more than I normally used to go.

I remember when gas was $.59 and $.49 and $.39 even. For the $.39 I wasn’t legally able to drive, but I remember seeing the numbers. I also remember when gas hit $.99/litre. Unfortunately, I was in automotive industry at the time – making vehicle accessories for credit happy Americans driving gas sucking behemoths. When gas costs $.99/litre, people tend to stop driving Hummers, huge trucks and other type vehicles.

But they adjusted and the truck market somewhat recovered. And like you all – I’d abruptly stop and make a u-turn if I saw a station advertising $.99/litre.

February 21st, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: How many things that seemed outrageous just a couple years before become desired and mainstream? I ponder these things while I sit at the pump paying a $1.29/litre celebrating my good deal on gas.

The Daily EO: February 20th, 2013

When we moved to Vancouver, my husband got an official job before I did, but it was a 7 month contract. That was 6 months ago. This week, they decided to extend his contract. Until September. Which means he now gets benefits for the duration. And they are talking about full time too.

February 20th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: There was really little doubt – everyone likes Emile and he is great at what he does – but we’ve been here before. Nice to have it official.

The Daily EO: February 19th, 2013

My insurance claim has finally come through, so I finally can purchase replacement items for my things that were stolen. This is good. Because the bag that I have been dragging my things around is somewhat embarrassing. The first thing I went shopping for is sunglasses. I went to The Bay because I didn’t want to spend a fortune but I didn’t want to get drugstore sunglasses either.

But people disorganize things, so when I finally found the ones – and a lovely plaid pattern on the arms – they were not in the correct section. But that is okay – I found them anyways. But when I turned over the tag – it said $230.

Now for some of you reading this, you may feel that $230 is quite reasonable to pay for sunglasses, but it is about $100 more than I want to spend, and $150 more than the insurance company is willing to reimburse.

But now nothing else compares.

February 19th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Plaid arms mean Burberry, Susan – you know that.

The Daily EO: February 18th, 2013

There are unanswerable questions.

I generally use the washroom close to my office, but today I used the washroom on the production floor. It is a large room bathroom with lockers and closets, etc.

When I closed the stall door I faced this well-meaning instruction:

I pondered this for a while.

What is too much paper towel? Is that more than one sheet? Or is just the right amount to get my hands dry? Should I take just a little and then go back for more? Is there an international standard? Is it based upon hand size? Or how far up my arms I wash? Is somebody going to be judging me on my paper towel use? Should I drip and shake dry?

February 18th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: I think directives should be much more clear. I am never using this bathroom again.

The Daily EO: February 17th, 2013

Today we visited my grandpa in his retirement residence. We invited ourselves to lunch. On Sundays it is usually a brunch type offering and today was no different.

I like pancakes just fine – I’ve told you about Pancakes for Dinner. But I really like pancakes’ cousins: Waffles and Crepes. (and French toast, but I think that is more of a distant relation). I mean really, they are pretty much the same thing but for a slight ingredient change: more oil for waffles, more water for crepes.

So when grandpa asked we wanted to go out for lunch or eat at home, we queried the menu. Cream of Asparagus Soup and Belgium Waffles with Whip Cream and Strawberries and a side order of Bacon (low sodium of course). Go out?! And miss waffles? Do you not know me at all, grandpa?

February 17th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Crispy Strawberry Belgium Waffles (though I wonder if a true Belgian made breakfast?)

The Daily EO: February 16th, 2013

I can tell you this – it is much easier to get in exercise and healthy eating when you are not working. With everything happening in our lives and my demanding job, I let my exercising and healthy diet slip. Fortunately, I never returned to my high of 176 pounds from a few years ago and can say with certainty that those 15 pounds have successfully been banished.

But also, I have never returned to my low of 152 pounds either because well, I don’t have all day to just focus on me. So, I try to make sure I run 2 times a week and work out at least once beyond that.

3 weeks ago, I ran/walked a loop from my house up Pender, Main, the Sea Wall, underneath Canada Place and back home on Cordova.

Pathetically, it took me 42 minutes.

Today I did the same loop again and it took me 37.

Okay, okay, it’s not 25 minutes like some can do, but exercise isn’t about anyone else, it is about you.

Trying. Doing. Failing. Succeeding. All on your own terms.

February 16th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Goodbye 5 minutes. You’re not coming back.

The Daily EO: February 15th, 2013

If you’ve ever walked the perimeter of Stanley Park, you will have seen the cannon there. It’s called the 9 o’clock cannon in our house because, well, it goes off at 9 pm. But I think that is what is it called, anyways. It’s been firing off for more than 100 years.

My husband has an alarm on his iPhone (a revving car if you must know) that is set for 8:59 so he can watch the cannon go off. There really isn’t much to see, but there is a pattern: first the light turns on (from our angle it is just about the third sail on Canada Place), then it goes out, then you see the muzzle flash and then – 10 seconds later- you heard the rumble.

It’s become a “thing” in our house to watch the cannon go off. And although I tease my husband for being a dork, I am glad that we take the 1 minute to watch the cannon together. But when we have guests, they too seem to enjoy pausing and watching the cannon go off. Inevitably, they comment on how amazing it is that it is so long before we actually hear the cannon compared to seeing it.

The other interesting thing is the fluctuation in sound. We speculate that it is based upon the weather and pressure, but I can’t say that I am a sound engineer. Some nights it seems to ring through the rafters, other nights it is just part of sounds of downtown.

February 15th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Constancy in cannon firings.

The Daily EO: February 14th, 2013

After spending all day Wednesday wearing contact lens and having my hair down (as usual), something needed to change. I wear my contact lenses 24/7 for two weeks, then I rest my eyes for 12 hours and put in a new pair. This tends to work well except when I spend 6 hours typing handwritten data into spreadsheets. Between my hair hanging in my face while I typed and read and my eyes going buggy, I was rather annoyed with myself.

I did use a green paperclip to hold my hair back, but that looked awfully bizarre especially when I left my office to walk around. So today, I pulled out my old terribly scratched up glasses with a 15 year old prescription and used a bobby pin to more artfully pin back my hair.

Trying to rock the sexy librarian look did not work out. My glasses made my face greasy, my lenses were foggy, the bridge of my nose hurt, the sides of my head ached and not just one person said “Hey, I didn’t know you wore glasses”. That combined with me frothing at the mouth and losing sleep about the inventory I was working on, I was about ready to go home.

When I finally did get home (at 9:30 pm), Emile said “Hey, wearing your glasses today!”

February 14th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Sigh. At least glasses hide the bags under your eyes.

The Daily EO: February 13th, 2013

If any of you reading this works in manufacturing, operations, or supply chain management, you’ll cringe when I tell you what I have been doing this week.

Inventory.

Financial institutions and accounting departments see them as necessary, but I see them as a source of stress, pain, sleepless nights, anxiety, and error. Because you shut down production and count everything you own, it gets boring very fast. And when you are counting a 40,000 square foot warehouse, it takes a very very long time.

The worst part is that inventories cause as many issues as they resolve. The inherent issue of team members spending all day painfully counting and recording everything in a warehouse is fraught with errors. Its manual, and its boring and it is endless.

And when they finally are done? Then the recounts start.

Many organizations see inventory as a thing that can be controlled, that can be managed, but it truly is not. Inventory is a symptom of how well you are running your business. Forget “goal keeping” (delaying receiving transaction until after month/year end), forget manual manipulation. You will be partially successful, but you will never achieve high inventory turns through force alone.

Worry about accurate transactions, strong contracts with your customers (detailing inventory management), align your supply base with the needs of your customer, improve reporting, reduce lead times, eliminate purchasing outside of your ERP system.

But I digress.

February 13th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Physical Inventories. The bane of any Materials Manager’s life.