Five Question Friday!! 1/27/12

Whistle while you work...tweedle eet deet deet deet deet. Yup...off to welcome babies this morning, then HELLO WEEKEND! Gotta get a special little someone some presents for her birthday that's coming up.

Oh, and I suppose I should get Baby some, too. ;) Dang girl, stealing my birthday...I say that deserves an iPad, no?

Okay, so last night I was up until after 1 am uploading a mass quantity of photos from whale watching (did you read that epic novel? It's kind of fun...) and I'm BEAT today, so I'm gonna get right down to business and get this 5QF show on the road!

Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post or if you've suddenly discovered your muses have decided they are on strike for the weekend.

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!

Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN!

Questions for Friday, January 27th: (Special thanks to

Pam (@trooppetrie) from Troop Petrie, Gasfamily (@gasfamily) from The Gas Family, Lindsay (@ninjalindsay) from Mac or Cheesy, Keely (@keely1978) from MannLand5 and Jolene (@joleneslavik) from the Just the 4 of Us for their question suggestions! I would love to link you in a future 5QF, so come on over to my community or watch for my Thursday afternoon shout out for questions on Twitter and offer up your best question suggestions! Remember to @5crookedhalos me and use hashtag #5QF if you go the Twitter route!)

1. Do you swim in the winter?

2. Do you love or hate winter?

3. Do you put makeup/actual clothes on when you know you're going to be home all day with just family?

4. How old were you when you had your first alcoholic beverage?

5. How many ill calls in a 12 month period do you think are acceptable?

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1. Do you swim in the winter?

Well, I try not to. It takes a lot of effort to swim in the winter around here...first you have to shovel the snow off the lake. Then you need to cut a gigantic whole in the ice.

Then you need to strip to your skivvies and psyche yourself up for the arctic plunge.

Okay, I jest. We don't swim in the lakes right now. (Like, totally...DUH!) Well, sorta. There is an annual fundraiser that takes place down near the Big City that's called the Polar Bear Plunge (after searching for that link, I've discovered it's not just a local fundraiser...huh, the things Google teaches you.) and as much as I'd love to support the Special Olympics...I just can't plunge myself into the depths of a frozen lake.

I'm certain I'd never warm up.

Ever.

2. Do you love or hate winter?

Mostly hate...but this winter? LOVE! So, normally our temps are pretty consistently in the "miserable" to "intolerable" range right about now. Translated to degrees Fahrenheit, that comes out to somewhere around a million to a bajillion degrees below zero.

Yes, consistently.

This year, however? We've had very sporadic, short lived "cold" days (around the 0*F or just below to 10*F above) with more mild 20's and then short lived (but fairly frequent) mid 30's. It's nothing short of a miracle.

Or, the end of the world.

You take your pick. But, I'll take a walk on the positive "non-rapture" side and go with miracle. I've always welcomed Global Warming with open arms...I'm finally getting my wish!

Now...if only we would've gotten that White Christmas, this winter would rank as close to "Perfect" as you can get!

3. Do you put makeup/actual clothes on when you know you're going to be home all day with just family?

Um.

No.

Okay, let me rephrase that. NO WAY!

If I'm grubbin' at home, with nowhere to be, no one coming over...you'll find me decked out in my yoga pants (Express brand, please and thank you), an oversized T-shirt and a gigantic (likely nearly shredded) sweatshirt and warm, fuzzy socks.

Without a lick of make-up on.

And, probably un-brushed teeth.

But I do change my undies every morning, so rest assured.

4. How old were you when you had your first alcoholic beverage?

Like, "my own" my own? I'm sure I inadvertently sipped a few alcoholic beverages well before I was actually meaning to.

I remember going to a party in probably 9th grade...you know, the kind where you walk in, buy a red solo cup, and help yourself to beer? Yeah, that kind.

Only, I hated beer. (Still do, for the most part...although, hand me a cold one in sunny Mexico and I'll enjoy most of it. Kinda.) So, I ended up drinking it REALLY fast, 'cuz, you know my only goal was to get drunk.

However, when one who is not used to drinking chugs beer in rapid succession, she goes from "not drunk" to "barfing" rather quickly.

So, yeah...I'd say I was probably in 9th grade. Which, now that I write that is OH EM GEE too young. Yikes.

5. How many ill calls in a 12 month period do you think are acceptable?

Have to laugh at this one...Jolene and I were discussing this on Twitter after she had an interview recently and was asked this question.

At my place of employment, we are "allowed" a certain % of ill calls. A basic rule of thumb is that we are allowed as many sick calls in a 12 month period as we are hired to work in a pay period.

So, for example...I work part time...my FTE, full time equivalent, is .5, which is 50% or 5, 8 hour shifts in a pay period, which is two weeks. That means I am allowed, roughly, 5 ill calls a year.

Which I think is pretty fair. To compare, if I worked full-time, I would be a .9 FTE (that's full-time where I work) which would mean I'd be allowed roughly 9 ill calls.

In the nearly 13 years that I've worked at the hospital, I've only come close to that max % once...and that was during a bad winter where illness never seemed to leave!

So that's my long, ramble-y answer...as many days as you are hired to work in a pay-period.

Amen.

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Have a wonderful weekend!