Work Family Christmas Party

This last weekend was the work children's Christmas party. Since I only have an 8 month old son, this was my first year going to the children's party, but I was really impressed with the whole thing. The party was at the science center in town, and was a great hit with the kids. There were a ton of things to see and do, and Santa had some great presents for all 150 kids that were there. My son, Jaxon, got a great learning toy to play with... one of the ones that you press the buttons and things pop up, and then you push them back down... you know a typical 8 month old toy. But there were other toys for the older kids that I was kind of jealous of. There were some kids with Spiderman Monopoly games, Clue DVD games, iCats / iDogs, keyboards, and other toys like that. D was there too. He and his family came over to my house for breakfast before the party. D's older kids got some great presents too, and they are only 3-5 years old. His boy got a 22 piece Home Depot toy tool set, and his 5 year old daughter got a play veterinarian kit with a dog carrier, and nursing toys, and a stuffed animal. I think next year I'll register myself as a 15 year old boy and see what kind of great toy I get. The science center is always a fun place to visit. They had some great displays and learning things to see. They also had some movies playing in their giant dome theater, so we saw the Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia movie. It was a pretty good show.

All in all the party was a great time.

Vehicle Update

So it appears that D is on his way to the States right now to get his vehicle. That is all the information I know. I'm sure the story will be told on Monday to everyone in the bullpen, as well as to the rest of the office. Luckily, I will not be in the office on Monday or Tuesday, as I will be studying for a CGA exam. I will try to get someone to summarize the story on Monday so I can post it here.

Back Story

Alright, here is a little bit of the back story as to why I decided to put up this blog. I work for the advisory services division of an accounting firm in Calgary. I am an associate (the low end of the totem pole.) As such, I am confined to a section of cubicles with other lower end employees. There is a section of the office, where a collection of 9 cubicles are gathered that is commonly referred to as "The Bullpen." In this bullpen area, any conversation, phone call or communication had by one member of the bullpen can be overheard by every other member of the bullpen.

Recently, a trend has developed where other members of the office (the higher-up-the-totem-pole people) have come to the bullpen to get updates on the lives of the bullpen workers. (I won't lie, most of the conversations revolve around D, who prefers to remain anonymous, although anyone reading this blog probably has a good idea of who he is.) So I was getting tired of people coming around 10 times a day to talk to us bullpenners (and mostly D) to get the latest updates. I was also tired of having to hear D tell the same stories 100 times to a hundred different people. I figured it would be more productive for us, and for everyone else in the firm, if we just posted the updates to the internet and let them discover the details themselves. Of course there is probably some flawed logic in my thinking that I haven't realized yet, and this blog could possibly create more foot traffic to the bullpen... but we will cross that bridge when it gets here.

So the main story, that everyone seems to be wanting updates on is D's purchase of a vehicle in the states. I will give a brief synopsis of the story so far, and hopefully be able to resolve the story within the next week. So D purchased a vehicle in the states over the internet and over the phone. He flew down a few weeks ago with his wife to test drive the car and fill out the paperwork. Since he is bringing and American made car into Canada, there are quite a few procedures involving US and Canada customs that need to be in order before he can bring the vehicle across. So anyway, the bank draft in American funds, drawn from a Canadian bank turned out to be not as good as cash (as the bank, and car salesman insisted it was) so D would have had to have waited 5 days for the draft to clear. As he couldn't wait those 5 days in the States, he flew back home empty handed.

So now everyone is wondering what D will do to get his vehicle in Canada. He has contemplated having it shipped, flying down himself again and driving home, paying college kids to fly down and drive it back, or just abandoning the vehicle and trying to get his money back. So the latest interruptions in the cubicle life have been from people bothering D to see what his plans are. As of last night, D was thinking of flying down himself to get the vehicle. If he doesn't show up this morning, then that will mean he is on his way, and he will have a ton of stories come Monday.

I'll keep you posted as to his whereabouts.

Quote of the Day

"Better to be safe than to be unemployed"

- D. (who prefers to remain anonymous), upon deciding that we should remove the company name from The Chronicles to ensure that no one confuses company affiliation with random cubicle fun.

First Post

Welcome to the first post of the Chronicles of the Cubicles blog. This is where you will find all the details on the happenings of the residents of the cubicle corner commonly referred to as "the bullpen." Mostly this is where the "Cubicle story of the Day" will be posted. Be sure to support the bullpen residents by clicking on some of the advertisements on this page.