Vacation Issues but dogs make work better!

Our trip to New England has been good overall, but it has not been 100% satisfactory. The weather has been much more like what I would expect from April (cold and wet) and our RV has had a few small issues.

Issues: I am going to treat this like a laundry list of complaints.
1) the weather just plain sucks, we haven't been able to spend more than a few minutes outside of the camper because its cold and rainy.
2) The microwave/convection oven broke lose from it's mount on the drive up here and I had to fix it so we could use it. Luckily nothing actually broke it was just that the utterly brilliant mouth breather who put the screws in securing the top to the cabinetry thought that screws going between the cabinet (yes between not INTO) and a piece of wood stapled (not screwed, stapled. I pushed these back in wish finger pressure) to the back side of the cabinet top, would hold. It didn't.
3) Did i mention the rain? Coming from Austin now rain is a welcome sight, even if its to much in a short period of time we always need more water in our lakes(rivers with dams, there are no natural lakes in central TX but that is another topic for another day) and streams. This is a bit much though.
4) The heatpump/Air conditioner unit is having issues working correctly. We do have a propane furnace for when it gets below the heat pumps operating temperature but its may, that should be in some of the time, not most every day. So we have heat but when we get home the RV needs warranty work already. Disappointing but not unexpected when you buy something "Made In America" I am unsure why as a nation we put up with half ass workmanship for top dollar. There are a lot of people out of work right now and it seems to me like it would be a good time to clean house and make sure that everyone who DOES have a job takes some pride in the final product they are producing, I know that if I started slacking off and producing crap at work I'd be replaced in a heartbeat by 3 recent college graduated from Brazil or India. I hate offshoring work but it certainly does make me conscious about the quality and quantity of my work output. Maybe it's time we legalize some of the Mexican labor in the country and train them to do automotive work and let the lazy ass bottom feeders (this include the plant managers who are more concerned with their bonus than the quality of their workers output btw) pick lettuce for a couple dollars an hour for awhile. The end product might not be anymore reliable but it would certainly be cheaper to produce and thus more accessible to the folks who do work hard to buy luxury items. Okay that was a rant I didn't mean to go on but there it is...
5) have I mentioned that it's been raining?

Now off to the positive side of things. Another list because I am apparently into lists today.
1) lobster rolls are awesome, expensive these days but awesome.
2) Having a dog snuggle your feet while you work makes every work day better.
3) Even if it is rainy the rolling hills and little mountains of New England are beautiful and the air is cleaner.
4) Dunkin' Donuts beats the snot out of Krispy Kreme (if you don't agree, you are wrong and you know it even if you aren't willing to admit it to yourself)
5) Why can't someone in Texas learn how to make good Pork fried rice and chicken fingers with duck sauce? It's obtainable here even in my small valley in the middle of NH.
6) Rain is a wonderful thing (in moderation)


Okay, thats all I have for the moment, some ranting and a few things I have been enjoying. The vacation has been good and the ability to work remotely is just awesome. I love that my job allows me these kinds of freedom. IBM has grown as a company in many ways over the years and adapted, i can't say that I always agree with some of the changes but I am certainly a very happy IBMer right now.

Tchau!