A normal, boring woman as usual……

And I am sooooooooo tired (would love to have coffee, but would the baby like it, especially french vanilla-flavoured?)

Before the weekend started, DH came home from his last shift very happy and relieved.  He got one of the workers fired (sounds cruel, but read on!) and the his co-workers CHEERED for him.  Management?  “I guess we realized it was costing us money to keep him here.”

Here’s the story:

When DH started working at the factory, there was this man, 42 years of age, single, no kids, and lives with his mother.  He had worked in the paintline for a couple weeks before DH started, and for the past two and a half months, this guy did nothing but cause grief for everyone in the paintline as well as for the management.  Everyone complained about him constantly, from him standing around, doing nothing while the workers struggled to hang the heavy machinery parts on the hook to get it painted, to harassing female workers that the factory is a MAN’s world.  No matter how many times this guy get written up in bad reports, get lectured at by management and the union representative (even the CEO/owner who drove all the way from Saskatoon main office who made it clear to him to grow up and WORK!), he just laughed at them and simply said,”you can’t fire me. Remember the secret deal?”  To DH, who made up a deal that prevents him from being fired?  Well, Thursday afternoon came around, and DH, along with three of his co-workers, had the LAST straw.  This guy came to work, and once the production started, he pulled up his chair and acted like he is the boss while one worker, with a history of back problems, hoisted up the heavy hydraulic in PAIN, that DH had to drop what he was doing and help him get the heavy thing up to the hook.  Then the guy said something offensive to DH about our family life (he has no clue who we are!) and DH LASHED back at him, calling him a “Momma’s boy!”  The management heard what happened, and they called the guy in the office.   Well, guess what? After 15 minutes in the office, the guy opened the door and STORMED out of the factory building, 20 minutes before the shift work was done for the day.  The shop manager came to the paintline, smiling, telling DH and his co-workers that the guy was fired.  And what was the “deal” that was broken recently?  This guy was trying to stay with the company to avoid probation violation for DUI as a semi-truck driver in the past and had to live with his mother to pay the back fines for that (whatever the “whole story” that the company should NOT have gotten involved in the first place.  Would have cost more for them to keep a guy slacking off and having to deal more with the union and WCB for unsafe work environment thanks to him.)

Today should be the best day for DH and his co-workers to work without interruption and harassment from the guy again.

As for the weekend, it was nice but stressful.  There were times of getting up too early because DS refused to sleep past 6:00 am and we find ourselves tired we can’t think what we are doing (like, remembering to wash the winter jackets before we could wear them to go visiting a friend and his family, and forgetting that we had water boiling in the pot to cook pasta for supper, etc.).    We try to have naps when DS was napping, but I am the one who can’t SLEEP at all.  Not good.

So yesterday morning, I was craving for something yummy to whip up at breakfast time, and what was it?  Chocolate chip-cinnamon pancakes from scratch with bacon ( I know, watch for BP).  And we were very SATISFIED and FULL.  Even there was no sign of leftover on DS’s little toddler plate at all.

Punkyboy’s Pancakes from Scratch that Tastes better than pancake mix in a box! (Serves six)

1 cup plus 2 TSP flour

2 1/2 TSP Baking powder

1/2 TSP salt

2 eggs

Milk (about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups) for consistency

Oil or butter to melt on hot griddle or skillet

(for chocolate chip-cinnamon pancakes, I just added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and when after I pour the batter on the hot griddle, I just sprinkle chocolate chips on it)

Mix the first five ingredients in a mixing bowl with a good whip  until well mixed and fluffy.  Melt the oil or butter on hot skillet or griddle and pour batter on it and cook both side until nicely browned.  Awesome with any syrup you have on hand.

(Note: you can make bite-sized pancakes for appetizers, too! Top with fruit and whipped cream, or even tomato salsa, guacamoule, sour cream and chives.)

I know the weekend went by very short, but hey, the week will go by fast as usual, just enough to look forward to weekends as usual (if overtime shifts doesn’t interfere our family time for DH).  We may not look forward to Christmas due to severely tight budget, but we will make the best of it for the sakes of DS as he is excited about this Friday when my mom comes up to baby sit him while we attend the Staff Xmas party and she is bringing up our Xmas decorations (AND THE TREE!) so we can decorate them and hopefully make it through the holiday.

Hopefully, 2009 will bring something better for us.