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First Friday...
Jan. 6th, 2006 08:51 pmI'd missed a number of ham breakfasts late last year, due mostly to laziness, so I was looking forward to this morning's get-together, except that a couple of days ago, one of the group sent an email to the effect that the restaurant at the Pagosa Lodge is apparently closing until further notice.
Aside from the fact that the kitchen staff at the Lodge truly went out of their way to accommodate our little mob (coming in a half-hour early to make coffee and take our orders), the only other reason anyone would have to eat at the Lodge - namely, the view - has been cut off by the construction of new condos, so perhaps the closing is not all that unexpected. But it still left our group out in the cold, so to speak.
Someone suggested we eat at a Mexican place not far from the store, so this morning, four of us managed to get together and have breakfast, which is not a very good turnout. Then again, the restaurant's service was not all that great, either (though to his credit, the manager comped us on our coffee seeing as how we did wait a long time to get our orders in and get served). My scrambled eggs with chorizo was nothing in particular to write home about, but it was filling.
After a couple of hours at the store, I went home and started translating an item due first thing tomorrow morning. I got stuck in the middle with the abbreviation КПП, which I had for the longest time assumed, when translating commercial documents, stood for классификатор промышленных предприятий, or Industrial Enterprise Classification (think of it as a Russian version of the U.S. SIC code). It turns out this abbreviation, especially when stuck behind ИНН (идентификационный номер налогоплательщика, or taxpayer id number) actually stands for код причины постановки, something completely strange to me.
Eventually, after devoting way too much time to researching this term, I established that - under Russian tax law - organizations not only have a taxpayer id number (similar to the EIN in the U.S.), but also have this КПП number that is assigned by a tax agency to specify the reason, or basis, for - and here I get stuck for the appropriate American English term - 'enrolling,' or 'registering,' or 'entering' the taxpayer in its records. I ended up calling it a 'registration basis code.'
The research delay cost me the ability to submit the translation today, as I had to go back in around 4 pm to relieve Drew. For the second day in a row, I biked to the store from home, which strikes me as cheating in the exercise department, as there is relatively little work to do between here and highway 160 (I have to apply brakes for pretty much all of the all-downhill section from our garage to Meadows Drive, and pedal only intermittently until I get to 160). The highlight of the trip was having a young coyote stop in the middle of the road not far from the house and appraise my approach before moving on at a trot.
After work, Galina and I ate dinner and as she started watching Dancing with the Stars, I went off to finish the translation, leaving only a once-over review for tomorrow morning. After delivering that document, I have another document to work on, due Tuesday, so there's not a lot of pressure there. Our recalcitrant tenant in Houston managed to cough up a rent payment, but now remains two-plus payments behind, so it may make sense for Galina to go down and talk with the fellow anyway, I don't know.
On the life-in-the-packing-and-mailing-industry front, sometimes it doesn't pay to be too thorough, y'know?
Yesterday, a client came in to ship some boxes of frozen elk meat overnight to the owner of the meat. Obviously, the packages are highly perishable, which made overnight delivery a must. Shipping cost the recipient a small bloody fortune, around $500. Upon coming in this morning, Drew decides to verify that the packages made it okay, only to see - on the UPS web site - that all the packages had been rescheduled for delivery on January 9!
Aaarrgghhh! Drew was so not a happy camper as he called UPS to find out what was going on. If the packages didn't make it today, we'd be on the end of a royal butt-chewing by the client, in addition to whatever other unpleasant side effects might be in the offing.
Drew's mood darkened as the sale con at the other end of the line explained that, actually, our UPS account had been cancelled!!! Both our jaws were hanging down around our navels and Drew looked as if he was about to burst a major blood vessel at this news when suddenly, cette espèce de couillon tells us that his computer display had just changed, and that the packages had been delivered and signed for!
Relief triumphed, so much so that Drew hung up the phone without giving the guy a piece of his mind.
I swear, you can't make stuff like this up.
Cheers...
Aside from the fact that the kitchen staff at the Lodge truly went out of their way to accommodate our little mob (coming in a half-hour early to make coffee and take our orders), the only other reason anyone would have to eat at the Lodge - namely, the view - has been cut off by the construction of new condos, so perhaps the closing is not all that unexpected. But it still left our group out in the cold, so to speak.
Someone suggested we eat at a Mexican place not far from the store, so this morning, four of us managed to get together and have breakfast, which is not a very good turnout. Then again, the restaurant's service was not all that great, either (though to his credit, the manager comped us on our coffee seeing as how we did wait a long time to get our orders in and get served). My scrambled eggs with chorizo was nothing in particular to write home about, but it was filling.
After a couple of hours at the store, I went home and started translating an item due first thing tomorrow morning. I got stuck in the middle with the abbreviation КПП, which I had for the longest time assumed, when translating commercial documents, stood for классификатор промышленных предприятий, or Industrial Enterprise Classification (think of it as a Russian version of the U.S. SIC code). It turns out this abbreviation, especially when stuck behind ИНН (идентификационный номер налогоплательщика, or taxpayer id number) actually stands for код причины постановки, something completely strange to me.
Eventually, after devoting way too much time to researching this term, I established that - under Russian tax law - organizations not only have a taxpayer id number (similar to the EIN in the U.S.), but also have this КПП number that is assigned by a tax agency to specify the reason, or basis, for - and here I get stuck for the appropriate American English term - 'enrolling,' or 'registering,' or 'entering' the taxpayer in its records. I ended up calling it a 'registration basis code.'
The research delay cost me the ability to submit the translation today, as I had to go back in around 4 pm to relieve Drew. For the second day in a row, I biked to the store from home, which strikes me as cheating in the exercise department, as there is relatively little work to do between here and highway 160 (I have to apply brakes for pretty much all of the all-downhill section from our garage to Meadows Drive, and pedal only intermittently until I get to 160). The highlight of the trip was having a young coyote stop in the middle of the road not far from the house and appraise my approach before moving on at a trot.
After work, Galina and I ate dinner and as she started watching Dancing with the Stars, I went off to finish the translation, leaving only a once-over review for tomorrow morning. After delivering that document, I have another document to work on, due Tuesday, so there's not a lot of pressure there. Our recalcitrant tenant in Houston managed to cough up a rent payment, but now remains two-plus payments behind, so it may make sense for Galina to go down and talk with the fellow anyway, I don't know.
On the life-in-the-packing-and-mailing-industry front, sometimes it doesn't pay to be too thorough, y'know?
Yesterday, a client came in to ship some boxes of frozen elk meat overnight to the owner of the meat. Obviously, the packages are highly perishable, which made overnight delivery a must. Shipping cost the recipient a small bloody fortune, around $500. Upon coming in this morning, Drew decides to verify that the packages made it okay, only to see - on the UPS web site - that all the packages had been rescheduled for delivery on January 9!
Aaarrgghhh! Drew was so not a happy camper as he called UPS to find out what was going on. If the packages didn't make it today, we'd be on the end of a royal butt-chewing by the client, in addition to whatever other unpleasant side effects might be in the offing.
Drew's mood darkened as the sale con at the other end of the line explained that, actually, our UPS account had been cancelled!!! Both our jaws were hanging down around our navels and Drew looked as if he was about to burst a major blood vessel at this news when suddenly, cette espèce de couillon tells us that his computer display had just changed, and that the packages had been delivered and signed for!
Relief triumphed, so much so that Drew hung up the phone without giving the guy a piece of his mind.
I swear, you can't make stuff like this up.
Cheers...
