At least it wasn't underwear

Today was Troy's birthday. Yesterday was Scotts. Birthdays are ok, but we really don't want to talk about which one it is. Not so much as to how old the boys are as to how old it means their mother is! This year the gift of choice was shoes. Both boys needed some. At least it wasn't underwear.....

At work the company came out with the last quarters results today: slightly better revenue and profit than expected by Wall Street. Unfortunately, the forecast for next quarter is down a bit more that expected also. The company announced they will be shutting down the week of 28 March, the week of spring break, as a cost saving measure. We can use vacation time or take it as unpaid. It's been all most 18 months since the last shut down week. All part of the swings the chip industry goes through. As for my portion of the company, we are making some progress on product improvements. We need to continue to make more. The sooner the better. We are the leanest we have ever been. As we have no official drafters anymore and the only other people in the company proficient with the drafting software are tied up working on product improvements, I tried my hand at some simple updates to a couple of drawings: note changes. It took me several hours to do what an experienced drafter could have done in 15 minutes. Next time, it will take me much less time! This week is my boss's last week here. He took another job with the company in Austin Texas. We're going to miss him. He was a good buffer between us and management. We're going to have to adjust to his boss until they get the ok to replace him. In the current climate they will delay as long as possible. In the mean time, we and our acting boss will be teaching each other exactly what is important to get done and what isn't. Hopefully it will continue to be a two way street....

Currently on my night stand:
Durant's History of Civilization, Volume III: Ceasar and Christ
Volume 1 of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The American Scholar Magazine, Winter 2005

Sounds kind of heavy. I guess I'm still in my history phase.