Casa De Morrill

While watching the Super Bowl commercials (we don’t really watch the game, we fast forward through the game and just watch the commercials), I got through the backlog of photos that have been sitting on my computer since Labor Day weekend. Yes, I’m a slacker. Yes, I’ve been busy and just haven’t had the motivation until recently to start going through my photos again. So, without further ado, here are some links to the photos that I’ve finally posted.

Atlanta Aquarium - While we were in Atlanta before driving to Amy & Jack’s wedding, we decided to visit the new Atlanta Aquarium. We were really glad we did because it was beautiful.

Amy & Jack’s Wedding - Since I was a bridesmaid in the wedding and Sean was a groomsman, we didn’t get any shots of the actual wedding, but I did get a few of Amy and Stephanie getting their hair done up.

Tortilla Flats - Miata vs Corvette Drive-Out - Every once in a while Sean and I convince our friend Nathaniel to bring his Corvette Z06 out. On this particular day, there were no clouds in the sky (a pre-requisite for the car being taken out of the garage) and the weather cooperated with us for a beautiful drive out to Tortilla Flats.

Chiricahua Mountains - Sean and I needed a weekend to unplug so we drove out to the middle of nowhere (I’m not kidding, look on a map) and went camping for a weekend. All electronics were off. Just a fire, a tent and ourselves to keep each other company. It was wonderful.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum - While my parents were out here at Thanksgiving, we took a day trip out to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. There was supposed to be fall color out there. We didn’t see very much fall color, but the grounds were still very beautiful and we all had a pleasant hike around the property.

Grand Canyon - New Year’s 2008 - Lisa asked if we could all go to the Grand Canyon this past Christmas when they came out. We wound up driving to Flagstaff and taking a day trip to the Grand Canyon. The drive was gorgeous and there was just enough snow around to make all of us happy.

Flagstaff - New Year’s 2008 - On our way back from the Grand Canyon with Sean’s parents, we drove down through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. Several pretty winter pictures resulted.

Huntsville Visit With Friends - Sean and I flew back to Huntsville recently to visit friends and family for a weekend. Misty & Stephen held a gathering for us while we were back so we could see everyone and the latest generation of geeks that have been born lately.

Liza’s Quilt - If you’ve asked me what project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half or so, my answer would have been this quilt. I could only work on it every once and a while and hand quilting is not fast, but it was worth every second of work once I finished it.

Sean’s sick. A coworker came into work this week with laryngitis. By Friday, 5 people had called in sick in Sean’s group (there’s ~40 people in Sean’s group). Sean started feeling sick on Friday, but he still went into work. Since Friday, we’ve been on a downward trend. I made him sit out on our patio for a little while yesterday just to get some fresh air. Other than that, he didn’t leave the house.
Meals have consisted of warm foods that are soothing on the throat. Lunch was Asian chicken noodle soup. Dinner was the salsa verde braised pork. Breakfast this morning was bear mush (cracked red wheat berry hot cereal). Lunch will most likely be either mac ‘n’ cheese or more noodle soup. Hot tea, water and juice is all he’s drunken in the past 2 days.
Currently, Sean is taking Zicam to hopefully shorten the period he’s showing symptoms, generic Sudafed for the sinus pressure and congestion, and Delsym for the nasty cough that he’s got.

So, here’s the thing that gets me. Sean works in a call center. Call centers are most likely the worst place to work if you’re prone to illness because call center sick policies suck. If Sean has to call in sick tomorrow (which if I have anything to say about it, he will), he’s going to get a verbal warning. It doesn’t matter that if he went to a doctor, the doctor would recommend he stay home and rest. After this verbal warning, he can get away with calling in sick on Tuesday as well without retribution. If he calls in sick again within 60 days, he gets a written warning. If he calls in sick once more within another 60 days, he’s given a final written warning and after that, he’s gone. This rule is absolute. Even if a doctor writes a note indicating that this person has pneumonia and shouldn’t be leaving his hospital bed, Sean’s company will write that employee up. So, what does this lead to? Employees going into work sick and spreading their illness around to everyone else in the call center and then all of those newly sick people have to make the call to either a) come in and continue spreading the illness or b) stay home and get written up. There are better ways to write sick policies without leaving them open to be abused.

Excuse me as I go get a cough drop, my throat’s starting to feel scratchy.