New Toy!

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My new circle punch system arrived today from EasyCut Craft. I actually ordered it from one of my favorite new vendors, Scrappily Ever After. They provide excellent customer service and charge actual shipping charges. They are in Texas but I swear I usually get my order in just a couple of days, even the small stuff shipped via USPS.

I bought two cartridges - aren't they cool? Each punched circle provides two pieces, the positive and the negative, if you will. These were invented for my embroidered mandalas, I swear! Can't you just see some sweet little embroidery in each of those?

I'd already decided to take Friday afternoon off to work on Pine Tree Designs inventory. Now I have even more to work on - cool!

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The other reason I thought taking half a day on Friday is a good idea is because I figured this week would be a little rough. Our new temp started Monday and I'm very (cautiously) optimistic that she'll be great. But still, there's all that training that needs to be done. This time my AR counterpart can help with that though. Last time she was already out for surgery so I trained the temp alone. In all fairness, both of these temps have been very motivated self-starters, so the training isn't intense or difficult, just time consuming when we're already over-worked.

Did I mention we're also undergoing one of our twice yearly 4-day audits this week?

And I'm dealing with a rude, difficult bastard of a person (outside our company) that I wish I could elaborate on but I can't. I thought I could keep my shit together in dealing with him but he made me so mad today that I lost it. My boss already knew how I felt about the situation but today it became crystal clear because I teared up in his office. Yep, the mortal sin of all females in the workplace. Self-imposed mortal sin. Can I get an amen - don't we HATE when that happens?

Naturally, I instantly felt weak and female and furious at myself. But I remembered what Steve taught me years ago. He's been a people manager for many years and said women shouldn't expect male behavior from themselves - they aren't wired that way. There's no problem with showing an "appropriate" amount of emotion in the workplace. He also said it's not like I do it all the time, so when I do, people know I mean it - this is a serious situation.

So my boss stepped up and said he'd deal with this asshat. I'll do all the work in the background but I won't have to deal with him. I want to do the work. I'll work my butt off to help out our sales rep in this situation. Him I like. And it's the right thing to do. This situation will probably go away in 6 months or so. It's not permanent, so I've been told.

Let's all keep a good thought that Mr. Asshat never Googles my name and finds this entry. I never want him to know he drove me to tears. He gets no power over me.

So anyway. I'll have more stuff to show you later in the week after I've worked with my new punch system some more.

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