Industrial Engineering 101

I conducted time studies today in the Dermatology clinic. Back to the old-fashioned Industrial Engineering roots. I haven't had to do time studies since following around lawn mowers at the Disney golf courses at 4 am. It would be convenient if I lived in Atlanta; I bet I could have convinced some GT professor to lend me some freshmen to do this for a class.

This time it just involved standing in a hallway for 5 hours. And what did I learn? If you go to the Derm clinic in the morning you'll spend half your time waiting to see the doctor and your appointment will take about an hour. If you come in the afternoon, you'll be out of there in 30 minutes. Oh, and some of the time when you're waiting your doctor is actually doing something for another patient, but sometimes they are checking the latest World Cup scores on the internet while you just sit and wait. I guess they deserve a break every now and then. I also learned they are going to have a tough time with their implementation since the attending has to see every patient with the resident. (Read Eileen's blog - maybe the wait isn't that bad, you could have a new resident who basically knows nothing.)

There was a highschool student observing in the Derm clinic as well as some med students seeing patients. They all reminded me of Eileen. The poor highschool student didn't know who she was supposed to shadow in the afternoon, and she kept getting left out in the hallway. I pointed her in the direction of the pediatric doc who did a much better job of including her.

Nacho Libre

I went to see Nacho Libre with my Aunt Ellen. It wasn't my first choice but she was in the mood to see something silly. And it definitely was silly. Jack Black is a spanish monk who wants to be a wrestler? Yeah. "Baby's Day Out" is still the #1 worst movie I've sat through in a theatre (long story short, there are only 2 screens in Brevard, NC and I was there all summer without TV).

Joan met up with us for dinner. Stupid movies are sometimes good to see just so you can make fun of how bad they are. At dinner, Ellen grabbed a handful of our appetizer nacho chips and crushed them in front of me with one hand...and that was funny. But you'd have to sit through the movie to understand.

Living Room

Please send me your opinion on this one...
I visited Kasey furniture today and picked out a couch, chair, tables and rug. I'm trying to decide if my choice is a good combo and worth the money. Here is the layout I believe I would use. And yes, I am that big of a dork that I made it in Excel, and it is to scale. The sofa is 96x42 (very big but comfy). I would have an oval coffee table and round table by the leather chair and ottoman. I chose a rug with a basic maroon/tan. The one in the picture below is from pottery barn; it was the closest pic I could find. The sofa would be covered in the dune diamond pattern. Two of the pillows will have a special fabric that's maroon/dune and the other two would match the couch. I'm afraid it might be too formal. I want nice things but still keeping in mind that this is an apartment. If anything I believe I will definitely get the chair/ottoman, tables and rug. Then get the fabric sample from the couch and shop around for a slightly smaller one that matches the color I chose.

Senior Ric's

We had a happy hour at Senior Ric's for Mike who's leaving our work team. They have self-serve chips and salsa. I didn't try any of the food, but the 2 for 1 drink special was good.

Hhhmmm

My professor reminded us today to check our spelling before we turned in our first homework assignment on Thursday. He also reminded us just running a spell check doesn't cut it. In the past he had students use the word "strait" instead of "straight". Seriously?

Judy's Party

On Friday at work we had a consultant from the vendor of the software I implement come do a training class. I sort of recognized her but thought this person was most likely from the vendor's headquarters in Chicago. It turns out the consultant was actually Judy. Ben brought me to a party at her house late last summer. Since then I had seen her on a couple of occasions. She's a very outgoing person, and I didn't quite recognize her in the business setting. Ironically, she was having one of her parties the next day. She always does a theme and this one Amaretto was marrying Jack Daniels. She goes all out and decorates her backyard complete with dance floor, etc. It was a good time; although I didn't go in costume because thankfully I don't have any ugly bridesmaid dresses hanging around.

Data Analysis for Managers

I had my second CU class tonight, and so far I'm not impressed. The class meets twice a week for 2.5 hrs each time. We're using the same software I used in undergrad - Minitab. I'm not going to judge the MBA program based on this class. I'm hoping future classes are more interactive. In this case it may seem slow because I've already taken classes in statistics, TQM, and process analysis. I suppose if I had been an English major this would all be new information to me. We'll see.

Avenue Grill

I had dinner with Megan tonight at Avenue Grill. I had filet mignon. We split a jack daniels chocolate bread pudding for dessert. It was excellent.