Oh my, has it really been six weeks since I last wrote a blog post? How is that possible? I was thinking that it had been about a month but nope, my last post was April 8th. In my defense, I was sick for most of April, and life has been crazy busy...
But when is life not busy? Seems like all the careful efforts I've made recently to make life less hectic has just meant I have more time for one of the 1,000 other things that are clamoring for my time. (Sound familiar, friends?)
At this very moment, I am sitting in a hotel conference room, very far away from home. I'm here for a week-long work conference. My mom came with me to see the sights and so that I could bring my daughter. (There's no way I could have left Darling at home for the week; I would have been miserable.) They are at the public library this morning, which is just one block down the road. Yesterday they did a bit of sight-seeing. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain so I think they will get trapped inside. Thankfully we have a whole bunch of toys and books with us because we needed a lot of things to keep Darling busy on the long airplane ride, so I think they will have plenty of things to do tomorrow.
Now let's see if I can remember all of the things I've been doing and working on during the last six weeks...
We had family in town, which is definitely the highlight among recent event. Nate's brother, who currently lives in southern California with his family, had some work-related meetings in a city near us. His wife (my SIL Amy) and their daughter Maddie came with him so they could visit us and Amy's family. We got to spend several days together.
It was great to spend time with them, talk, play, and cook. Darling and Maddie had a great time together. They played and read books, and even took a bath together. Darling spent the whole long weekend saying Cousin. We tried to get her to say Cousin Maddie but she didn't seem to get that Maddie is Maddie's name -- I think she thinks that Maddie's name is Cousin. Lol. She still asks for her cousin every couple of days. It's adorable. We loved their visit but did not get enough time with them. Hopefully we'll be able to go to southern California sometime soon and visit them.
That excitement happened during the first weekend in May.
The week before their visit, I took a little day trip to visit friends Kimmy, Nathan, and Little. That's the second-best thing to happen in the past six weeks. I got to see their newly fenced garden and recently built garden boxes. We attempted to make macarons, and had many other delicious things to eat. The babes played with each other. I temporarily lost my keys. I started to panic about the lost keys while I was there, but right now I can't think why I was so worried. I'd love an excuse to move in with my friends and never go home. :o)
Since I'm ordering recent events from most-to-least favorite, I guess the next thing on the list is Mother's Day. Nate was kind enough to make it a bit of a Mother's Weekend for me. I didn't get a complete break from the madness of life, but I did get extra time to rest and read, and I had to change fewer diapers. The Saturday right before mother's day, I actually spent most of the day running some errands while Nate was Super Dad. Some of the errands were fun, others were not. But it was nice to be out of the house and able to do things at my own pace, not at the will and speed of the Toddler.
My mom's day gift this year was an ice cream maker. I specifically requested it, and even went with Nate to get it from Costco. I also picked out the gift wrap that Nate used. (He was "allowed" to pick out the card on his own, ha ha.) Nate was a little bit upset that I picked and helped buy my own gift -- he prefers for gifts to be a total surprise. I'd rather have something I know I'll like. I told him the fun part was the beautiful wrapping he was required to do, and the unknown card.
Unbeknownst to me, Nate had decided to spice up the experience. He spent a couple of weeks writing a series of rhyming riddles, which together made a scavenger hunt. I had to hunt down my present! It was great. The riddles were so well done that I thought he'd found something on the internet that he copied. But no, it was completely original! I loved it, maybe even more than the ice cream maker. So thoughtful.
I think that's it for all of the big events. So in other news, we've been working on the garden. We had some uncharacteristically warm weather in April -- it was hot! The cool-weather plants were unhappy, but then I also couldn't seem to get the warm-weather plants to sprout because it was still cool at night. I finished all of my planting last week before I left on this trip; hopefully when I get home everything will have started growing.
I sold one of our Burleys. I can't remember if I ever blogged about the fact that I have three Burley bike trailers. If I haven't explained this, then don't worry about why I have three. Chalk it up to me being crazy. The good news is that we're down to two because someone came and bought one (the little Bee). I'm working on selling the Cub. I had a couple of people show interest -- one offered me a pathetically low price, the other one wants to come see it. Let's all cross our fingers!
I've also been doing a fair amount of writing. I started a new writing project a few months ago. It's a novel about angels and demons. I feel weird saying that because "supernatural" stories are not in my normal realm of writing, and not even the kind of thing I typically read. But an idea came to me one day, and I've been going for it. Between the outline and the sections I've written, I have more than 12,000 words down. (Generally novels are 50,000+ words.)
One of my goals with this project is to create a complete, detailed outline before I dive heavily into the writing. As of right now, I have a skeleton outline for the whole novel and have written detailed scene outlines for the first half of the story. I want to finish writing the actual story by the end of this year (2013), have it edited at the start of next year, and self-publish it in spring 2014. I think I'm going to re-join a writing challenge called ROW-80 in July, when the next (3Q) round begins. Right now my unofficial goal is to write 1,200 words a week.
My biggest cheerleader for this goal has been author-friend J.R. Pearse Nelson. It's good to know someone who has already jumped through the self-publishing hoops; she's an invaluable resource. She also has another novella coming out soon. I just got to Beta Read the story -- it's the third book in her Children of the Sidhe series, called Flight. It was great. It will be out sometime in July. She plans to publish another novella (book 4 of CotS) and a novel by the end of the year! Amazing. She's such an inspiration.
With that, I think I covered the major news. I hope everyone is doing well!
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Good news at work
I got good news at work this week. It came to me in such a way that I thought it was going to be bad news, or that maybe I was in trouble, but turns out the uber boss was just really excited to tell me the good news: My position and I are doing a little shuffle, moving to a different manager and changing my duties a little bit.
I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning, about five minutes before my official start time (as per usual). I bicycle to work, so I need to change my clothes as part of my morning routine. But I don't usually "get dressed" until after I've been in the office for about 15 minutes -- partly because the janitorial staff just happens to clean the bathrooms on my floor at exactly the same time I arrive for the day, and partly because it just takes that long to get the computer started, check emails, put my things away, etc.
So I arrived five minutes early and was in the process of doing my usual unpacking/starting computer/saying good mornings, when one of the managers came over....
"I know you don't know this, but you have a meeting with the uber boss right now."
I looked down at my cycling clothes. I had taken off the bulky outer rain-proof layer, which leaves me in skin-tight thermals from chin to wrist to ankles. It's not exactly the kind of thing one wears to a meeting with the uber boss. Nevermind the tousled (not attractively) hair and lack of face paint, or the twinge of sweat smell...
"Uhm, can I go change first?"
"Well... it's just going to be a really quick meeting?"
He said this very apologetically. I could tell he wanted to just say yes, I could go change. But instead he said, "We'll be in his office. See you in a minute."
I sighed, collected a notepad, fished out my glasses, and walked across our floor to his corner office. The uber boss made some joke about me being in trouble, then teased me that I don't keep a close enough eye on my meeting schedule, and basically put me on edge. As if I wasn't already outrageously uncomfortable.
But then he dropped the good news. The Big Change. I couldn't believe my ears, it was like I had won the lottery. Almost. I even get to move cubicles.
So now you're probably wondering, gosh, does Brooke hate her current boss that much? Are her cube neighbors that bad? The answers are no and no. You might know that my current boss and I got off to a bit of a rocky start two years ago, when I was promoted into my current position. But we smoothed that all out pretty quickly and it's been a great working relationship since then.
Really, the reason I'm so excited is that I'm going somewhere that makes me feel like I belong. I feel like I'm going home. In my current place (under my current boss), I am the odd man... er, woman... out. My immediate boss manages seven other people, all of whom are men, their average age is probably about 45, and they all work on various aspects of building and maintaining our website. They are great people, but me and what I do at work -- totally different from them. I do research and analyze data. I think at one point, back when my position was originally created, the person in my job actually did some computer programming and published data to the website. But me? I just make a list of changes and give it to one of the programmers.
Two years ago, before I was promoted into my current position, I did a wide variety of research and analysis. I worked with a team of people. It was a very collaborative, give-and-take environment. I really liked my boss, my (physical) location in the office, and what I was doing. And now I am RETURNING to that group. I get to be back with my old team, working under my old boss, and doing a slightly broader set of things compared with what I work on right now. In fact, one of the duties I don't like to do right now, I get to do less of it! The uber boss asked me to scale back on the thing that I don't even like doing so that I could make time to do some new things. How great is that?
But wait, it gets even better (is that possible?). You'll probably recall that I interviewed for a promotion a couple of months ago, and I was one of the top candidates. In my final interview, when the panel (including the uber boss) asked me why I was interested in the promotion, I said several things: I want to work with a team again, because currently I do a lot of stuff on my own; I want to do a greater variety/diversity of things; I want to do some new things; I want to travel a little more; I want to build up my skills and have more chances to learn new things.
A couple of days after I got This Good News, it hit me. Wham. Even though I didn't get that promotion a couple of months ago, the uber boss heard what I was saying in my interview. He heard it, and took it to heart, and he's doing something about it. How cool is that? This change might not come with a higher salary, but it does give me so many of those other benefits that I was seeking. Bonus for my business, the changes will make us more efficient and more productive, too. What a blessing all around.
So really, the best thing to come of this change is being reminded of how much the uber boss cares. He cares about us worker bees, as people, and when we have an idea or a complaint, he is really, truly listening. I'm not saying he's perfect or that we always get what we want, but he's not deaf and he's not blind, and he DOES want us to be happy. How cool is that? It seems so rare that people have a great boss, but I do. It really makes me feel blessed!
(Thanks Graham.)
I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning, about five minutes before my official start time (as per usual). I bicycle to work, so I need to change my clothes as part of my morning routine. But I don't usually "get dressed" until after I've been in the office for about 15 minutes -- partly because the janitorial staff just happens to clean the bathrooms on my floor at exactly the same time I arrive for the day, and partly because it just takes that long to get the computer started, check emails, put my things away, etc.
So I arrived five minutes early and was in the process of doing my usual unpacking/starting computer/saying good mornings, when one of the managers came over....
"I know you don't know this, but you have a meeting with the uber boss right now."
I looked down at my cycling clothes. I had taken off the bulky outer rain-proof layer, which leaves me in skin-tight thermals from chin to wrist to ankles. It's not exactly the kind of thing one wears to a meeting with the uber boss. Nevermind the tousled (not attractively) hair and lack of face paint, or the twinge of sweat smell...
"Uhm, can I go change first?"
"Well... it's just going to be a really quick meeting?"
He said this very apologetically. I could tell he wanted to just say yes, I could go change. But instead he said, "We'll be in his office. See you in a minute."
I sighed, collected a notepad, fished out my glasses, and walked across our floor to his corner office. The uber boss made some joke about me being in trouble, then teased me that I don't keep a close enough eye on my meeting schedule, and basically put me on edge. As if I wasn't already outrageously uncomfortable.
But then he dropped the good news. The Big Change. I couldn't believe my ears, it was like I had won the lottery. Almost. I even get to move cubicles.
So now you're probably wondering, gosh, does Brooke hate her current boss that much? Are her cube neighbors that bad? The answers are no and no. You might know that my current boss and I got off to a bit of a rocky start two years ago, when I was promoted into my current position. But we smoothed that all out pretty quickly and it's been a great working relationship since then.
Really, the reason I'm so excited is that I'm going somewhere that makes me feel like I belong. I feel like I'm going home. In my current place (under my current boss), I am the odd man... er, woman... out. My immediate boss manages seven other people, all of whom are men, their average age is probably about 45, and they all work on various aspects of building and maintaining our website. They are great people, but me and what I do at work -- totally different from them. I do research and analyze data. I think at one point, back when my position was originally created, the person in my job actually did some computer programming and published data to the website. But me? I just make a list of changes and give it to one of the programmers.
Two years ago, before I was promoted into my current position, I did a wide variety of research and analysis. I worked with a team of people. It was a very collaborative, give-and-take environment. I really liked my boss, my (physical) location in the office, and what I was doing. And now I am RETURNING to that group. I get to be back with my old team, working under my old boss, and doing a slightly broader set of things compared with what I work on right now. In fact, one of the duties I don't like to do right now, I get to do less of it! The uber boss asked me to scale back on the thing that I don't even like doing so that I could make time to do some new things. How great is that?
But wait, it gets even better (is that possible?). You'll probably recall that I interviewed for a promotion a couple of months ago, and I was one of the top candidates. In my final interview, when the panel (including the uber boss) asked me why I was interested in the promotion, I said several things: I want to work with a team again, because currently I do a lot of stuff on my own; I want to do a greater variety/diversity of things; I want to do some new things; I want to travel a little more; I want to build up my skills and have more chances to learn new things.
A couple of days after I got This Good News, it hit me. Wham. Even though I didn't get that promotion a couple of months ago, the uber boss heard what I was saying in my interview. He heard it, and took it to heart, and he's doing something about it. How cool is that? This change might not come with a higher salary, but it does give me so many of those other benefits that I was seeking. Bonus for my business, the changes will make us more efficient and more productive, too. What a blessing all around.
So really, the best thing to come of this change is being reminded of how much the uber boss cares. He cares about us worker bees, as people, and when we have an idea or a complaint, he is really, truly listening. I'm not saying he's perfect or that we always get what we want, but he's not deaf and he's not blind, and he DOES want us to be happy. How cool is that? It seems so rare that people have a great boss, but I do. It really makes me feel blessed!
(Thanks Graham.)
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Let's fix the house, buy some vodka and get to writing!
In the haste that was all of last week, I forgot to mention that we finally got our roof fixed. We knew when we bought our house (four years ago) that there was a gap in the roof around the chimney, but it hadn't been an issue until last fall/winter. Rather suddenly, we discovered that rainwater was leaking through this gap. It went down, down, down the chimney, supporting a growth of mold in the attic, damaging the wood framing the fireplace in the living room, ruining some magazines and books, and finally puddling in the basement next to the furnace. Sound like fun, right?
Don't ask me why it took so long to get it fixed -- I delegated the assignment last year when we discovered the leak! Actually, in all fairness, my handsome partner did try to plug the leak earlier this fall, before the rainy season started. And for a couple of weeks we thought it was successful, until one afternoon when my mother heard a drip-drip and saw puddle of water in the living room. (That happened to be the same day the storm drain backed up in the driveway and we ended up with a half-flooded basement. I cursed the heavens that night, loathing their heavy clouds and buckets of rain.)
So finally, finally we got a couple of roofers to come bid on repairing the gappy flashing around chimney. One of them gave us an amazing price and a guarantee on his work, so we scheduled the repair. It's been raining for a week now but... not inside my house! Not anymore! (If you live in the same town as us and need a recommendation for a roofer, please ask.)
I'm very excited to share our other big home improvement project from this week: We put new carpet in the craft room! I wish I had a "before" picture to show you. Just try to imagine, if you can, white and yellow shag carpet. It was in decent condition but man-oh-man was it ugly! There was also something off about the texture. I don't know exactly how to describe it, except to say that it was very coarse. It just didn't feel right when you walked on it.
I've been keeping an eye on a local carpet store to see if they had any remnants in an appropriate size and type for the craft room. There was one remnant, one both perfectly sized and colored for the craft room, hanging around the store but it had a SOLD tag on it. The sale date was last June. A couple of weeks ago, I finally asked one of the salesman about the remnant. "Do people ever forget to come back for these remnants? Do you think the buyer might have changed his mind?" The salesman said he could probably cut me a new piece from the roll for nearly the same price as the remnant. I skeptically allowed him to run the numbers for a piece of carpet and installation; I couldn't believe the price. "That's it? That's all it would cost? And it would be installed?!"
"Yeah, that carpet is on sale. We've had a hard time selling it."
Of course no one else wanted the carpet. It is a flat, ugly brown color designed for a commercial space. But our craft room has rustic orange cabinets and it would match perfectly. The "ugly brown" actually compliments the room beautifully. So I went home to check with Nate, got two thumbs up, and scheduled the installation. Three days later, viola! New carpet! And it was ridiculously inexpensive. I know it's not exactly pretty but doesn't this look, well, kinda nice?...
Apparently the break I took last week from doing electrical work was enough time off because I got back at it this week with vigor. I am very pleased to report that all of the light and switch boxes are in place, and there is new wire running to them! Now I need to add a wire from the power source to these fixtures and get everything installed. Maybe I'll be done this coming week? I originally though I would try to connect all four sets of lights (utility, closet, hallway, bathroom) by going from light to light to light, but after a couple of hours of investigation and testing yesterday, I have determined that each switch just needs to have a line straight from the main power source. If you don't speak electrical-ese and that didn't make sense, just know that I have to buy and run a little bit more wire to finish it up.
My daughter got her first little haircut this week. It wasn't really a full cut, just a little trim. Her hair is long in the back (specifically on the crown of her head) and relatively short everywhere else, so it had grown mullet-ish. Not a big deal since she's a toddler, and you maybe wouldn't notice since her hair has a little bit of curl. But after it gets washed, ugh! It's like a little rat-tail going down her back. So on Thursday night at the end of bathtime, after a particularly difficult day and an evening of nothing but fussing toddler, when Nate was gone to youth group, I got out the scissors and whacked off the rat tail.
Is it cute now? Not really. Still kinda funny looking. But at least it's not hideous anymore. :o)
While we're on the subject of firsts, I had a very strange first this week: I bought vodka for the first time. I've been in a handful of liquor stores and even purchased hard liquor a time or two, but this was my first time buying something for myself. (The other purchases were of apple brandy for my MIL to make her amazing apple jam.) I got the vodka thanks to Jennifer Reese's very annoying book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. She suggests you buy vanilla beans in bulk from Amazon, a cheap bottle of vodka, and try making your own vanilla extract. Gee, doesn't that sound like fun? Apparently I'm game because I ordered one ingredient and went to the liquor store for the other.
Actually, what really swayed me is that you can make several different kinds (maybe every kind?) of extracts with vodka and the right ingredients. I purchased hazelnut extract last month and found it to be... well.. wanting is the kindest descriptor I can use. (Disgusting and disappointing are more accurate adjectives.) So I figured if I get the vodka to make vanilla extract, I could try my hand at hazelnut, too. And maybe some orange extract. Doesn't that sound yummy? Too bad it takes a couple of months to distill! You'll have to check back later for a report on my home-made extracts. I have high, high hopes.
I got some good (?) news at work this week: The management team asked me to take over the responsibility for a big, important data analysis project that we do once a year. The person who currently does this project is retiring in March and we are not going to fill his position (due to budget cuts). So they are distributing his workload. This is actually really good news to me. One of the reasons I wanted a promotion (the one I was vying for at the end of 2012) is that I am a little bit tired of my current workload. It has become routine and generally fails to challenge me anymore. I'm sure this big project will seem easy and routine in a couple of years, but for right now, I am really excited to do something new and big and important.
Last but not at all least: You might recall that one of my 2013 goals (#12) is to do some creative writing. I've had a few opportunities in the last couple of weeks to sit down and write; many thanks to my husband for running errands with the kiddo and providing the necessary free time. I drafted an outline for a brand new novel and even started writing the opening scene. I have about 6,400 words under my belt. I am amazed and pleased at how well the project is going! I hope Nate will continue to support me as I work toward my goal. Maybe this time next year I really could be ready to publish? Wouldn't that be a dream come true.
Don't ask me why it took so long to get it fixed -- I delegated the assignment last year when we discovered the leak! Actually, in all fairness, my handsome partner did try to plug the leak earlier this fall, before the rainy season started. And for a couple of weeks we thought it was successful, until one afternoon when my mother heard a drip-drip and saw puddle of water in the living room. (That happened to be the same day the storm drain backed up in the driveway and we ended up with a half-flooded basement. I cursed the heavens that night, loathing their heavy clouds and buckets of rain.)
So finally, finally we got a couple of roofers to come bid on repairing the gappy flashing around chimney. One of them gave us an amazing price and a guarantee on his work, so we scheduled the repair. It's been raining for a week now but... not inside my house! Not anymore! (If you live in the same town as us and need a recommendation for a roofer, please ask.)
I'm very excited to share our other big home improvement project from this week: We put new carpet in the craft room! I wish I had a "before" picture to show you. Just try to imagine, if you can, white and yellow shag carpet. It was in decent condition but man-oh-man was it ugly! There was also something off about the texture. I don't know exactly how to describe it, except to say that it was very coarse. It just didn't feel right when you walked on it.
I've been keeping an eye on a local carpet store to see if they had any remnants in an appropriate size and type for the craft room. There was one remnant, one both perfectly sized and colored for the craft room, hanging around the store but it had a SOLD tag on it. The sale date was last June. A couple of weeks ago, I finally asked one of the salesman about the remnant. "Do people ever forget to come back for these remnants? Do you think the buyer might have changed his mind?" The salesman said he could probably cut me a new piece from the roll for nearly the same price as the remnant. I skeptically allowed him to run the numbers for a piece of carpet and installation; I couldn't believe the price. "That's it? That's all it would cost? And it would be installed?!"
"Yeah, that carpet is on sale. We've had a hard time selling it."
Of course no one else wanted the carpet. It is a flat, ugly brown color designed for a commercial space. But our craft room has rustic orange cabinets and it would match perfectly. The "ugly brown" actually compliments the room beautifully. So I went home to check with Nate, got two thumbs up, and scheduled the installation. Three days later, viola! New carpet! And it was ridiculously inexpensive. I know it's not exactly pretty but doesn't this look, well, kinda nice?...
Apparently the break I took last week from doing electrical work was enough time off because I got back at it this week with vigor. I am very pleased to report that all of the light and switch boxes are in place, and there is new wire running to them! Now I need to add a wire from the power source to these fixtures and get everything installed. Maybe I'll be done this coming week? I originally though I would try to connect all four sets of lights (utility, closet, hallway, bathroom) by going from light to light to light, but after a couple of hours of investigation and testing yesterday, I have determined that each switch just needs to have a line straight from the main power source. If you don't speak electrical-ese and that didn't make sense, just know that I have to buy and run a little bit more wire to finish it up.
My daughter got her first little haircut this week. It wasn't really a full cut, just a little trim. Her hair is long in the back (specifically on the crown of her head) and relatively short everywhere else, so it had grown mullet-ish. Not a big deal since she's a toddler, and you maybe wouldn't notice since her hair has a little bit of curl. But after it gets washed, ugh! It's like a little rat-tail going down her back. So on Thursday night at the end of bathtime, after a particularly difficult day and an evening of nothing but fussing toddler, when Nate was gone to youth group, I got out the scissors and whacked off the rat tail.
Is it cute now? Not really. Still kinda funny looking. But at least it's not hideous anymore. :o)
While we're on the subject of firsts, I had a very strange first this week: I bought vodka for the first time. I've been in a handful of liquor stores and even purchased hard liquor a time or two, but this was my first time buying something for myself. (The other purchases were of apple brandy for my MIL to make her amazing apple jam.) I got the vodka thanks to Jennifer Reese's very annoying book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. She suggests you buy vanilla beans in bulk from Amazon, a cheap bottle of vodka, and try making your own vanilla extract. Gee, doesn't that sound like fun? Apparently I'm game because I ordered one ingredient and went to the liquor store for the other.
Actually, what really swayed me is that you can make several different kinds (maybe every kind?) of extracts with vodka and the right ingredients. I purchased hazelnut extract last month and found it to be... well.. wanting is the kindest descriptor I can use. (Disgusting and disappointing are more accurate adjectives.) So I figured if I get the vodka to make vanilla extract, I could try my hand at hazelnut, too. And maybe some orange extract. Doesn't that sound yummy? Too bad it takes a couple of months to distill! You'll have to check back later for a report on my home-made extracts. I have high, high hopes.
I got some good (?) news at work this week: The management team asked me to take over the responsibility for a big, important data analysis project that we do once a year. The person who currently does this project is retiring in March and we are not going to fill his position (due to budget cuts). So they are distributing his workload. This is actually really good news to me. One of the reasons I wanted a promotion (the one I was vying for at the end of 2012) is that I am a little bit tired of my current workload. It has become routine and generally fails to challenge me anymore. I'm sure this big project will seem easy and routine in a couple of years, but for right now, I am really excited to do something new and big and important.
Last but not at all least: You might recall that one of my 2013 goals (#12) is to do some creative writing. I've had a few opportunities in the last couple of weeks to sit down and write; many thanks to my husband for running errands with the kiddo and providing the necessary free time. I drafted an outline for a brand new novel and even started writing the opening scene. I have about 6,400 words under my belt. I am amazed and pleased at how well the project is going! I hope Nate will continue to support me as I work toward my goal. Maybe this time next year I really could be ready to publish? Wouldn't that be a dream come true.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Survived a Busy Week
Whew.
I'm the chair of a 10-person work group that meets once a quarter. The meeting lasts about three hours. I'm responsible for running these meetings and creating the agenda. And I don't just mean that I whip out a handy Word template and fill in the agenda items, I mean that I literally decide how we're going to fill those three hours, then spend at least 100 hours over the course of three months gathering the information for the agenda items. It's a lotta lotta work. It's about a third of what I do for my job.
This work group met on Tuesday (1/15). So if you've talked to me any time in the last couple of weeks and I've been distracted or weird or maybe even rude... I am very, very sorry! I get pretty focused on this meeting, and pretty busy getting things together, and a little bit stressed out about it. It can make me a flimsy nutcase.
As if that wasn't enough for my brain, I'm also helping out with a special project for the next couple of months at work, and it has a very dramatic ebb-and-flow to the work. This last week happened to be a big kickoff week for the project; I missed one of the team meetings and only had time for about 10% of the work I was assigned. (No really, the project leader had to re-assign 90% of my work because I didn't have time, not this week.)
Thankfully the new project is going to be very calm for a couple of weeks, and the next quarterly meeting isn't until April. So my brain can quietly grow back into one whole unit, and my sanity levels can decrease to normal. Yay.
Turning now to house projects, I totally deserve a pat on the back: I finished wiring the lights in the utility room!!!
I know it doesn't look like much. Electrical work always seems and sounds so easy. What you don't know is that I had to drill a hole through every. single. one. of those ceiling joists so that I could run the wire from switch to light to light to light to switch. It was something like ten holes. That's 10 holes, each circle an inch in diameter, cut through a two-inch beam of old, hardened wood. I can only do a couple at a time before my arm and/or shoulder is tired from holding the drill and boring through the wood.
Then I had to run the wires and cut them to size; that's pretty easy. I had to figure out how to hang the lights; these ones are made to attach to the drywall in the ceiling. (Someday the ceiling will be finished with drywall, but not for awhile yet.) So I had to rig up a temporary frame for each light. Again, not hard, but takes some time. The real mental challenge of this project was figuring out how to run the wires. I can follow a wiring diagram, if it's available. It's not hard to connect this black wire to that red wire, bundle all of the white wires together, etc. Just follow the picture and all will be fine. Problem is, I couldn't find any lighting diagrams that showed three lights and two switches. Eventually I just took one of the two-light-and-two-switch diagrams, studied it for a good 30 minutes, and then drew my own diagram for my 3-2 combo.
I really don't have a clue how it all works or what it's doing down there, but all of the lights work, the switches work, and nothing pops or cracks or sizzles or sparks. I know I used the right type of wiring. So even though I can't explain the how of it all, I'm going to count this as a win.
After that, I decided to give myself the week off. It was Monday night and I didn't want to do any more electrical work for the rest of the week. I told myself I could spend some doing a craft project, maybe even some of the sewing projects that have piled up. Or I could just relax and watch some movies, go to bed early. Bake a cake. Whatever I wanted, you know? That was my brilliant plan. Here's how my week actually went:
The next night, Tuesday night (note that this is the day I had my big quarterly meeting), I spent an hour cleaning up the utility room (put the tools away; threw away all the wood chips, wiring scraps, old bits of electrical whatnot; and swept thoroughly), then I spent a half hour staring at the two Burleys in the garage, trying to make a decision. (I still haven't made a decision.) I went to bed at my usual time, exhausted.
Wednesday night, I put away groceries from Costco then wrote a letter to my daughter for her 19-month birthday. She was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I went in and rocked her for awhile.
Thursday night the fun continued! I pulled all of the carpet and padding out my craft room; Nate followed after and took out the staples. I planned the dinner menu for the week ahead and made a grocery list.
Friday was a day off for me. My daughter was so excited to spend the day with me that she woke up at 3am and stayed up until she got to cuddle in mom and dad's bed. She got up for the day at 5:30am. Lucky me, I needed to mix a large batch of bread dough. Then we went grocery shopping; I was so tired and absent-minded that I left two of my reusable grocery bags at the checkout line and forgot my receipt. We got home with just enough time to put away the cold groceries, then it was back in the car and to the doctor's office for Darling Girl's belated 18-month checkup. She got three shots; I got a stack of paperwork from the pediatrician. When naptime came, I went down too. Slept for about two hours; toddler stayed down for three. Meanwhile Nate came home and left again, off to an overnight snow campout for the scouts. After bedtime, I cleaned the office, balanced the checkbook, and made a checklist for Saturday.
Gee, how could there be more to do? My daughter made sure I was up at 5:30 this morning (as if waking up every two hours last night, certain that someone had come to kill me in my sleep, wasn't enough). We mopped the kitchen floor and ran through four loads of laundry before heading out to visit Nana and Poppi. They have a new puppy, Hazel. Darling and the puppy were just starting to hit it off when it was time to go home (we had errands to run and I was starving). I wanted to run to the hardware store but Toddler declared that it wasn't going to happen. Home we went, lunch we ate, a nap she took. I put away those four loads of laundry then tried to get some sleep, too. Nate appeared right at the end of naptime and off we finally went to the hardware store. (Guess what I got? More supplies to continue the electrical work in the basement!)
Just now, I finished eating a pair of cookies, re-balancing the checkbook, downloading the week's pictures from my camera, and writing this blog post.
Whew.
I'm the chair of a 10-person work group that meets once a quarter. The meeting lasts about three hours. I'm responsible for running these meetings and creating the agenda. And I don't just mean that I whip out a handy Word template and fill in the agenda items, I mean that I literally decide how we're going to fill those three hours, then spend at least 100 hours over the course of three months gathering the information for the agenda items. It's a lotta lotta work. It's about a third of what I do for my job.
This work group met on Tuesday (1/15). So if you've talked to me any time in the last couple of weeks and I've been distracted or weird or maybe even rude... I am very, very sorry! I get pretty focused on this meeting, and pretty busy getting things together, and a little bit stressed out about it. It can make me a flimsy nutcase.
As if that wasn't enough for my brain, I'm also helping out with a special project for the next couple of months at work, and it has a very dramatic ebb-and-flow to the work. This last week happened to be a big kickoff week for the project; I missed one of the team meetings and only had time for about 10% of the work I was assigned. (No really, the project leader had to re-assign 90% of my work because I didn't have time, not this week.)
Thankfully the new project is going to be very calm for a couple of weeks, and the next quarterly meeting isn't until April. So my brain can quietly grow back into one whole unit, and my sanity levels can decrease to normal. Yay.
Turning now to house projects, I totally deserve a pat on the back: I finished wiring the lights in the utility room!!!
I know it doesn't look like much. Electrical work always seems and sounds so easy. What you don't know is that I had to drill a hole through every. single. one. of those ceiling joists so that I could run the wire from switch to light to light to light to switch. It was something like ten holes. That's 10 holes, each circle an inch in diameter, cut through a two-inch beam of old, hardened wood. I can only do a couple at a time before my arm and/or shoulder is tired from holding the drill and boring through the wood.
Then I had to run the wires and cut them to size; that's pretty easy. I had to figure out how to hang the lights; these ones are made to attach to the drywall in the ceiling. (Someday the ceiling will be finished with drywall, but not for awhile yet.) So I had to rig up a temporary frame for each light. Again, not hard, but takes some time. The real mental challenge of this project was figuring out how to run the wires. I can follow a wiring diagram, if it's available. It's not hard to connect this black wire to that red wire, bundle all of the white wires together, etc. Just follow the picture and all will be fine. Problem is, I couldn't find any lighting diagrams that showed three lights and two switches. Eventually I just took one of the two-light-and-two-switch diagrams, studied it for a good 30 minutes, and then drew my own diagram for my 3-2 combo.
I really don't have a clue how it all works or what it's doing down there, but all of the lights work, the switches work, and nothing pops or cracks or sizzles or sparks. I know I used the right type of wiring. So even though I can't explain the how of it all, I'm going to count this as a win.
After that, I decided to give myself the week off. It was Monday night and I didn't want to do any more electrical work for the rest of the week. I told myself I could spend some doing a craft project, maybe even some of the sewing projects that have piled up. Or I could just relax and watch some movies, go to bed early. Bake a cake. Whatever I wanted, you know? That was my brilliant plan. Here's how my week actually went:
The next night, Tuesday night (note that this is the day I had my big quarterly meeting), I spent an hour cleaning up the utility room (put the tools away; threw away all the wood chips, wiring scraps, old bits of electrical whatnot; and swept thoroughly), then I spent a half hour staring at the two Burleys in the garage, trying to make a decision. (I still haven't made a decision.) I went to bed at my usual time, exhausted.
Wednesday night, I put away groceries from Costco then wrote a letter to my daughter for her 19-month birthday. She was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I went in and rocked her for awhile.
Thursday night the fun continued! I pulled all of the carpet and padding out my craft room; Nate followed after and took out the staples. I planned the dinner menu for the week ahead and made a grocery list.
Friday was a day off for me. My daughter was so excited to spend the day with me that she woke up at 3am and stayed up until she got to cuddle in mom and dad's bed. She got up for the day at 5:30am. Lucky me, I needed to mix a large batch of bread dough. Then we went grocery shopping; I was so tired and absent-minded that I left two of my reusable grocery bags at the checkout line and forgot my receipt. We got home with just enough time to put away the cold groceries, then it was back in the car and to the doctor's office for Darling Girl's belated 18-month checkup. She got three shots; I got a stack of paperwork from the pediatrician. When naptime came, I went down too. Slept for about two hours; toddler stayed down for three. Meanwhile Nate came home and left again, off to an overnight snow campout for the scouts. After bedtime, I cleaned the office, balanced the checkbook, and made a checklist for Saturday.
Gee, how could there be more to do? My daughter made sure I was up at 5:30 this morning (as if waking up every two hours last night, certain that someone had come to kill me in my sleep, wasn't enough). We mopped the kitchen floor and ran through four loads of laundry before heading out to visit Nana and Poppi. They have a new puppy, Hazel. Darling and the puppy were just starting to hit it off when it was time to go home (we had errands to run and I was starving). I wanted to run to the hardware store but Toddler declared that it wasn't going to happen. Home we went, lunch we ate, a nap she took. I put away those four loads of laundry then tried to get some sleep, too. Nate appeared right at the end of naptime and off we finally went to the hardware store. (Guess what I got? More supplies to continue the electrical work in the basement!)
Just now, I finished eating a pair of cookies, re-balancing the checkbook, downloading the week's pictures from my camera, and writing this blog post.
Whew.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Parenting is such messy business (and other goodies)
Prior to having a child, I never knew, never even imagined, some of the things I would have to do as a parent. It's an unexpected and surprisingly disgusting journey. Today I got to experience five of those wonderful (sarcastic) new things; I share them with you for your amusement:
1. Sniff someone else's bottom (to check for poop)
2. Forcibly brush someone else's teeth
3. Read someone a story while I'm going to the bathroom
4. Catch vomit with my bare hand(s)
5. Use random noises and gestures because my brain is so tired that I can't form real words
I think I'm supposed to be able to make another list of the truly wonderful (not sarcastic) things that I never expected about parenting. Things like the thrill of being called mama or the smile-erupting joy of watching my daughter toddle around. There are, after all, a lot of upsides to being a mom. But since it was a diarrhetic, triple poop, vomit catching, five-hours-of sleep kind of day, I'm really not in a happy-sunshine, I-love-being-a-mom mood. Although I am feeling a tad more sympathetic to and grateful for my own mother these days. (Thanks mom.)
That said, I've got about ten minutes until I need to shut down my computer and call it a night. So I think I'll try to bullet point out the highlights from this week:
- Remember my friend who watches my daughter a couple of times a week? She moved last week. The difference is only about a mile, but it's a mile of steep downhills (from here to there) and makes for a totally different trip to work. Instead of going to her house, back to my house, and then on to the office, I have to go straight from her house to the office. On a very different, less safe route. I'm not thrilled. I don't at all mind the little bit of extra time or distance (I like that I'm getting a bit more and more challenging exercise), but there are a couple sections of road with no shoulder and crazy drivers. I love to bike. I don't like worrying about my safety when I'm doing it. Thankfully I traverse only a very small section of bad road with my daughter. Then there's the long uphill ride at the end of the day to get us home.... brutal. I did it twice this week; both times I had to stop and walk for a section of the hill because I don't have the cardiovascular strength for it. We'll get there.
(^^^So much for a brief bullet point. Sheesh.)
- Remember how I applied for a promotion recently? This coming week, I have an interview for the position. It's the first round of interviews; there will be two rounds. I feel confident that I can make it through the first round. It's the second round that's going to be the most challenging. But one thing a time! This week's goal is to knock one out of the park for Round 1.
- A lot of banks these days have an e-deposit program for checks. If you have a smart phone, you can take a picture of your check, send it to the bank, and it will be deposited. Amazing! My bank has this program. Unfortunately, we don't have smart phones, so I still have to go to the bank branch when I get a check. (Actually, let's be honest, my mom has been depositing most of my checks for me. Have I mentioned lately that she's awesome?) So speaking of my awesome mom, she pointed out to me this week that I can actually use the document scanner on my home printer/copier/scanner to do the same thing! I can scan the check, log into my bank account on my computer, and e-deposit. I tried it out on Tuesday and it was incredibly easy. Yay!
- Nate took down the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. We got out our lights this morning and put them up. (But I just remembered, we forgot to turn them on! Ha!) I'm not going to rush into the Christmas decorations, but I am happy we're getting started a little earlier this year. I think maybe it will help me get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can get my shopping done really early, too, and then I can just kick back for the rest of the month. Amazon is definitely going to receive the bulk of my transactions. I do not like holiday traffic on the roads and crowds of people in the stores. Makes me claustrophobic.
- Cooking. There's a lot I want to say about cooking but I have only one minute left before I need to wrap things up. Oh well, I'm just gong to go over time...
Remember my friend Kimmy who is oh-so amazing? She made some pea pesto this summer and gave me a batch. It was delicious. I finally got a chance this week to try the recipe myself and it turned out yummy! It's really easy, too. I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a triple batch of the pesto so that it would have protein and thus be a "one stop" dish. I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth, which I think helped preserve the good flavor. I also made Moroccan Tofu this week, which is a variation of Nate's "famous" Moroccan chicken recipe. It turned out well. Surprisingly tasty. And my rice-and-quinoa stuffed bell peppers were so good that even after several bites, Nate hadn't noticed they were meatless. ("Wait, there's not any meat in this? Really?") Maybe just maybe my vegetarian ambitions will come true.
This coming week I'm going to make some tofu pad Thai. Nate scowled at me several times already ("I want chicken pad Thai!") but if it goes as well as the Moroccan tofu, he'll hardly notice. Let's all cross our fingers.
Finally, if you're mouth isn't watering yet: cranberry orange muffins. I want these, have been thinking about them all day. I'll have to print the recipe and get the ingredients next weekend... unless someone wants to show up at my door with a bag of groceries? I'll make the muffins and give you some in exchange? Anybody?
1. Sniff someone else's bottom (to check for poop)
2. Forcibly brush someone else's teeth
3. Read someone a story while I'm going to the bathroom
4. Catch vomit with my bare hand(s)
5. Use random noises and gestures because my brain is so tired that I can't form real words
I think I'm supposed to be able to make another list of the truly wonderful (not sarcastic) things that I never expected about parenting. Things like the thrill of being called mama or the smile-erupting joy of watching my daughter toddle around. There are, after all, a lot of upsides to being a mom. But since it was a diarrhetic, triple poop, vomit catching, five-hours-of sleep kind of day, I'm really not in a happy-sunshine, I-love-being-a-mom mood. Although I am feeling a tad more sympathetic to and grateful for my own mother these days. (Thanks mom.)
That said, I've got about ten minutes until I need to shut down my computer and call it a night. So I think I'll try to bullet point out the highlights from this week:
- Remember my friend who watches my daughter a couple of times a week? She moved last week. The difference is only about a mile, but it's a mile of steep downhills (from here to there) and makes for a totally different trip to work. Instead of going to her house, back to my house, and then on to the office, I have to go straight from her house to the office. On a very different, less safe route. I'm not thrilled. I don't at all mind the little bit of extra time or distance (I like that I'm getting a bit more and more challenging exercise), but there are a couple sections of road with no shoulder and crazy drivers. I love to bike. I don't like worrying about my safety when I'm doing it. Thankfully I traverse only a very small section of bad road with my daughter. Then there's the long uphill ride at the end of the day to get us home.... brutal. I did it twice this week; both times I had to stop and walk for a section of the hill because I don't have the cardiovascular strength for it. We'll get there.
(^^^So much for a brief bullet point. Sheesh.)
- Remember how I applied for a promotion recently? This coming week, I have an interview for the position. It's the first round of interviews; there will be two rounds. I feel confident that I can make it through the first round. It's the second round that's going to be the most challenging. But one thing a time! This week's goal is to knock one out of the park for Round 1.
- A lot of banks these days have an e-deposit program for checks. If you have a smart phone, you can take a picture of your check, send it to the bank, and it will be deposited. Amazing! My bank has this program. Unfortunately, we don't have smart phones, so I still have to go to the bank branch when I get a check. (Actually, let's be honest, my mom has been depositing most of my checks for me. Have I mentioned lately that she's awesome?) So speaking of my awesome mom, she pointed out to me this week that I can actually use the document scanner on my home printer/copier/scanner to do the same thing! I can scan the check, log into my bank account on my computer, and e-deposit. I tried it out on Tuesday and it was incredibly easy. Yay!
- Nate took down the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. We got out our lights this morning and put them up. (But I just remembered, we forgot to turn them on! Ha!) I'm not going to rush into the Christmas decorations, but I am happy we're getting started a little earlier this year. I think maybe it will help me get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can get my shopping done really early, too, and then I can just kick back for the rest of the month. Amazon is definitely going to receive the bulk of my transactions. I do not like holiday traffic on the roads and crowds of people in the stores. Makes me claustrophobic.
- Cooking. There's a lot I want to say about cooking but I have only one minute left before I need to wrap things up. Oh well, I'm just gong to go over time...
Remember my friend Kimmy who is oh-so amazing? She made some pea pesto this summer and gave me a batch. It was delicious. I finally got a chance this week to try the recipe myself and it turned out yummy! It's really easy, too. I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a triple batch of the pesto so that it would have protein and thus be a "one stop" dish. I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth, which I think helped preserve the good flavor. I also made Moroccan Tofu this week, which is a variation of Nate's "famous" Moroccan chicken recipe. It turned out well. Surprisingly tasty. And my rice-and-quinoa stuffed bell peppers were so good that even after several bites, Nate hadn't noticed they were meatless. ("Wait, there's not any meat in this? Really?") Maybe just maybe my vegetarian ambitions will come true.
This coming week I'm going to make some tofu pad Thai. Nate scowled at me several times already ("I want chicken pad Thai!") but if it goes as well as the Moroccan tofu, he'll hardly notice. Let's all cross our fingers.
Finally, if you're mouth isn't watering yet: cranberry orange muffins. I want these, have been thinking about them all day. I'll have to print the recipe and get the ingredients next weekend... unless someone wants to show up at my door with a bag of groceries? I'll make the muffins and give you some in exchange? Anybody?
Saturday, November 17, 2012
And then she walked! (Plus other updates and a bunch of pictures)
Years from now when my daughter asks me, "When did I start walking?"
I will tell her, "November 10, 2012."
We went to visit my parents last week at their new house (it was Nate's first time up there). As soon as we stepped in the door and I set Baby Girl down so that I could take off my shoes... and she toddled away from me, across the room.
Up to that point in time, my daughter's walking was pretty limited. She'd use furniture and other objects to help herself stand and walk, and she would sometimes take two or three steps on her own. One time I even saw her take about six unassisted steps. But mostly, she wasn't interested.
Not until the magic of Grandma's House intervened. A magic spell was cast when we walked in the door, and now my daughter is walking. She still crawls a bit, especially if she falls down while walking, but for the most part she is just toddling around as though it were the most normal thing ever.
I LOVE IT.
A lot of people tried to tell me that walking wasn't going to be much fun. They said she would get into everything and run away all the time, and that she would be too fast. I think these people must not have waited for seventeen months to see their children walk. To date, of all the things my daughter has learned to do, this is my very most favorite. It is amazing and adorable! I don't miss crawling. She's too big and too old to crawl, and created plenty of its own worries and nuisances. Bring on the walking! Heck, bring on the running!!! I love new adventures and challenges.
The next day, on Sunday, our very good friends who live an hour south (in our college town) came to visit. You might remember them from previous blog posts -- Nathan and Kimmy, whose son "Little" is nearly the same age as our daughter. We made them dinner and Kimmy took some pictures of me making my beloved new treat, pumpkin cremes! Kimmy has a food blog and wanted me to write a guest post. I was/am totally flattered! But since I'm not a great photographer, I convinced her to come and take the pictures. You can check out the post, pictures, and recipe on the Bake Shop's blog, www.kimmysbakeshop.com (here's the direct link).
Monday was a day off work (Vet's Day, belated) so we were all home and having fun. We went to see Nate's dad and then worked a bit on the chicken coop. (More on the coop in a minute.) I finally finished my edits to Queen Witch, J.R. Pearse Nelson's latest work. I sent them along and final revisions are underway. I am grateful and pleased to have participated in the writing process for such an inspiring, self-published author! The new book should be out by the end of the month. Do you want a copy? I'm going to order some extra prints to give away; just let me know.
There's a job opening at work that has me very excited. It's for the Senior Analyst position, which is one step up in pay and about five steps up in awesome from my current job. The position came open two years ago and I very much wanted to apply, but after many long deliberations, I decided the timing wasn't right. For one thing, I was four months pregnant with daughter so I knew I would be out of the office (parental leave) during a critical workload period. In the end I applied for a promotion to my current position, and I am very happy about the route I took. I've gained great experience in my job, and developed leadership skills that will be invaluable if I'm promoted again. It also gave me time to better understand and appreciate the workload of the Senior Analyst.
Now, I don't know whether I will be the top candidate. I'm a strong contender, but several smart, capable people are applying. I do know now that I am very seriously interested in the job, and I feel ready to tackle it, should things go well. The whole process will take a couple of months, so for now... stay tuned!
Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We ran a few errands and got a few things done around the house. I finally got most of the wiring set up for the chicken coop, so that we can have a light out there to keep them warm this winter. There's a covered patio out back with several lights and outlets -- too many, in fact. So I axed the last two routes on the line, hijacking them instead for the coop. I installed a light switch, and then ran wires through conduit out to the coop. (In the rain. And mud. And cold. The conditions were ugly and shoving the wire through long plastic tubing required more muscle than you would think, but when I was done and got to head inside to take a nap with the baby... total satisfaction.)
The thing is, I'm going to have to redo a bunch of work. The switch box is too small to comfortably hold all the wires, and the box doesn't mount securely. So I got a different box after nap time, and I will have to spend another hour out there sometime soon so I can swap out the switch and boxes. It's okay, it will be worthwhile in the end.
As if that wasn't enough stuff, I also tried a new bread recipe today. The goal was a bread with lots of seeds. It has five kinds... but... it's hard to explain. The bread didn't have a big rise, so it's dense (not bad, just not great); the flavor is a bit... bitter? Some of the seeds have a great flavor, but others are kinda sour/bitter. So maybe more sugar/honey/agave next time? We'll see. I'm not going to make bread for a couple of weeks; too much is going on.
This week is Thanksgiving! Nate's parents are coming over for "dinner" at noon on the big day. We are making most of the goodies. I'm actually excited. I didn't think I would be -- who wants to go through all of that effort? -- but then we went grocery shopping today, and I got yams and potatoes and green beans and pumpkin puree and a turkey... and now, I'm feeling festive! I love Thanksgiving. If only it didn't have to be followed by the madness and annoyance of the Christmas season. (Bah humbug, I despise the holiday commercialism, masses of people everywhere, and stress. Can't I please just skip Christmas this year?)
Since I don't want to end on that Scrooge-like note, here are a ton of cute pictures from the last three months:
Set A) Climbing, crawling, exploring: She'll get into everything. It use to be "Where did we put the baby?" but now it's, "Where did the baby put herself?"
And now here are a bunch of cute pictures of various things, many of them with food...
I will tell her, "November 10, 2012."
We went to visit my parents last week at their new house (it was Nate's first time up there). As soon as we stepped in the door and I set Baby Girl down so that I could take off my shoes... and she toddled away from me, across the room.
Up to that point in time, my daughter's walking was pretty limited. She'd use furniture and other objects to help herself stand and walk, and she would sometimes take two or three steps on her own. One time I even saw her take about six unassisted steps. But mostly, she wasn't interested.
Not until the magic of Grandma's House intervened. A magic spell was cast when we walked in the door, and now my daughter is walking. She still crawls a bit, especially if she falls down while walking, but for the most part she is just toddling around as though it were the most normal thing ever.
I LOVE IT.
A lot of people tried to tell me that walking wasn't going to be much fun. They said she would get into everything and run away all the time, and that she would be too fast. I think these people must not have waited for seventeen months to see their children walk. To date, of all the things my daughter has learned to do, this is my very most favorite. It is amazing and adorable! I don't miss crawling. She's too big and too old to crawl, and created plenty of its own worries and nuisances. Bring on the walking! Heck, bring on the running!!! I love new adventures and challenges.
The next day, on Sunday, our very good friends who live an hour south (in our college town) came to visit. You might remember them from previous blog posts -- Nathan and Kimmy, whose son "Little" is nearly the same age as our daughter. We made them dinner and Kimmy took some pictures of me making my beloved new treat, pumpkin cremes! Kimmy has a food blog and wanted me to write a guest post. I was/am totally flattered! But since I'm not a great photographer, I convinced her to come and take the pictures. You can check out the post, pictures, and recipe on the Bake Shop's blog, www.kimmysbakeshop.com (here's the direct link).
Monday was a day off work (Vet's Day, belated) so we were all home and having fun. We went to see Nate's dad and then worked a bit on the chicken coop. (More on the coop in a minute.) I finally finished my edits to Queen Witch, J.R. Pearse Nelson's latest work. I sent them along and final revisions are underway. I am grateful and pleased to have participated in the writing process for such an inspiring, self-published author! The new book should be out by the end of the month. Do you want a copy? I'm going to order some extra prints to give away; just let me know.
There's a job opening at work that has me very excited. It's for the Senior Analyst position, which is one step up in pay and about five steps up in awesome from my current job. The position came open two years ago and I very much wanted to apply, but after many long deliberations, I decided the timing wasn't right. For one thing, I was four months pregnant with daughter so I knew I would be out of the office (parental leave) during a critical workload period. In the end I applied for a promotion to my current position, and I am very happy about the route I took. I've gained great experience in my job, and developed leadership skills that will be invaluable if I'm promoted again. It also gave me time to better understand and appreciate the workload of the Senior Analyst.
Now, I don't know whether I will be the top candidate. I'm a strong contender, but several smart, capable people are applying. I do know now that I am very seriously interested in the job, and I feel ready to tackle it, should things go well. The whole process will take a couple of months, so for now... stay tuned!
Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We ran a few errands and got a few things done around the house. I finally got most of the wiring set up for the chicken coop, so that we can have a light out there to keep them warm this winter. There's a covered patio out back with several lights and outlets -- too many, in fact. So I axed the last two routes on the line, hijacking them instead for the coop. I installed a light switch, and then ran wires through conduit out to the coop. (In the rain. And mud. And cold. The conditions were ugly and shoving the wire through long plastic tubing required more muscle than you would think, but when I was done and got to head inside to take a nap with the baby... total satisfaction.)
The thing is, I'm going to have to redo a bunch of work. The switch box is too small to comfortably hold all the wires, and the box doesn't mount securely. So I got a different box after nap time, and I will have to spend another hour out there sometime soon so I can swap out the switch and boxes. It's okay, it will be worthwhile in the end.
As if that wasn't enough stuff, I also tried a new bread recipe today. The goal was a bread with lots of seeds. It has five kinds... but... it's hard to explain. The bread didn't have a big rise, so it's dense (not bad, just not great); the flavor is a bit... bitter? Some of the seeds have a great flavor, but others are kinda sour/bitter. So maybe more sugar/honey/agave next time? We'll see. I'm not going to make bread for a couple of weeks; too much is going on.
This week is Thanksgiving! Nate's parents are coming over for "dinner" at noon on the big day. We are making most of the goodies. I'm actually excited. I didn't think I would be -- who wants to go through all of that effort? -- but then we went grocery shopping today, and I got yams and potatoes and green beans and pumpkin puree and a turkey... and now, I'm feeling festive! I love Thanksgiving. If only it didn't have to be followed by the madness and annoyance of the Christmas season. (Bah humbug, I despise the holiday commercialism, masses of people everywhere, and stress. Can't I please just skip Christmas this year?)
Since I don't want to end on that Scrooge-like note, here are a ton of cute pictures from the last three months:
Set A) Climbing, crawling, exploring: She'll get into everything. It use to be "Where did we put the baby?" but now it's, "Where did the baby put herself?"
Sitting in a crock pot -- I swear she did all of this on her own:
Climbing on the step ladder -- she loves this:
In her room, she climbs onto her chair, then onto her desk, and perches up there:
And now here are a bunch of cute pictures of various things, many of them with food...
Pretty much one of the worst things I've ever seen:
Halloween Costume: Monkey
(Her) Feelings about Costume: Hatred
Time spent wearing it: Minimal
Playing with Buckle Bear! She doesn't hate him after all:
Diaper Hat -- She can thank her dad for this idea:
The back of her hair is getting long. Sadly, the font is not. Insert nickname: Mullet Girl
(Sleeping. This is what she's doing right now. I love it when she sleeps -- so peaceful.)
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Another four-word week, with 75% repetition
I am just going to write a brief post. It's already getting late, and I'd like to go bed early and try to catch a little bit of extra sleep. It's been a long week with several poor-sleep nights, and I'm tried and a tad grumpy. Plus Baby Girl's is 13-months today, which means I need to write her a letter. So... now that I think about it, I'll be lucky if I manage to get to bed on time, even.
Four topics: Report, Garden, Girl's Day, Books
My report was published! You can check it out at: www.qualityinfo.org/pubs/skills/fabmetals.pdf. I spoke with at least half a dozen reporters this week. The report was picked up in one of the evening news segments, and in a couple of newspapers. Neat. Meanwhile the uber boss is sharing the report with people all over the nation and I may have to give a few presentations. It's cool that my work is getting some traction, but I don't like to be personally in the spotlight.
The garden had a good week. The weather was hot (in the 80s all week) and many of the plants thrived. My zucchini is especially happy, and by happy I mean huge. I will definitely pick the first "fruits" in just a couple of days. Here's a picture from Monday, in which he seems only big, not huge, given how much he's grown this week:
And here are some other garden pictures:
Today I attended my family's annual "Girl's Day at the Farm" and took Baby Girl, too. Every summer my great Aunt Marge hosts the little get-together for the women on my maternal grandfather's side of the family. (My grandpa was Marge's brother.) Some of the family members come from 5 hours away, and they actually spend a night or two; it's more like "Girl's Weekend at the Farm" for them. Those of us who live closer just come down for the day. I only made it for about three hours, since I had to wait until Darling was up from her morning nap, and then she got pretty cranky and clearly needed an afternoon nap. BUT since my kid doesn't like to sleep in the car, the ride home actually consisted of her complaining for 15 minutes, screaming for 10 minutes, and then sleeping for 10 minutes. Blarg.
In any event, we had a very nice three hours on the farm, sitting under the apple trees and eating sandwiches, poking fun at each other, telling stories. It was great. Several second and third cousins who are my age were in attendance, and everyone was in good spirits. I just wish I had more time!!! Next year, hopefully, we'll make a WHOLE day of it.
I finished reading The Loom last week. I didn't like it. The story starts out well enough and at first you like the main character, but then she makes some poor choices and she gets annoying. The storyline disintegrates at that point; I lost interest and started doing skip-a-page reading. The ending, which I don't really remember specifically, was disappointing. (I remember how I felt about it, even if I can't exactly remember what happened.)
I then read a book called Heiress by Susan May Warren. Overall I definitely liked it, though it had a couple of moments when it got bogged down in explaining minutia. (It's cool that you did research on how a hand-operated printing press worked in 1900, but I don't need to know all the nuances, it doesn't help the story line!) There was a sub-theme about God (how He works, what it means to have His blessing, etc.) that appeared in the middle of the book, suddenly and for several pages, then disappeared for awhile, only to repeat itself two or three more times before the end of the novel. The author's note after the end of the story clarifies the purpose of the sub-theme, but in context, it actually detracts from the story. It's abrupt, not persuasive, and doesn't tie in well with the overarching themes. But again, I definitely liked the book. I'm planning to check out some more of SM Warren's titles -- she has one called Duchess that I suspect I will like. Ha.
I wanted something easy and familiar after the density of Heiress, so I read the second and third Hunger Games books (just finished book 3 an hour ago). The second one was better than I remembered. The third one was also slightly better, but that only means it was elevated from being really bad to just plain bad. I don't blame Suzanne Collins for the deficiencies of Book 3; I think it was the pressure of popularity that forced her to squeeze it out and perhaps meant her editors didn't do a sufficiently careful job. In any event, it's still disappointing. I did get a better perspective on the Gale-Katniss-Peeta love triangle of annoyance. The first time through, I was always rooting for Gale, and I disliked the constant uncertainty of the story line, and I hated that Katniss-Peeta is the resolution. On my second pass, I understand the relationships better and the conclusion makes more sense.
Finally, Nate is getting into a good reading habit, too. This week he read the first Harry Potter book. (Finished it about 10 minutes ago, proudly declaring he was Done! when he snapped it shut.) He wants to read through the whole series. Good for him! I'm thinking about following his head and re-reading them too, but I better let him get at least 4 books ahead of me first. So maybe in a month I will start reading them. :)
For now, I'm going to try and tackle a couple of he classics.
Four topics: Report, Garden, Girl's Day, Books
My report was published! You can check it out at: www.qualityinfo.org/pubs/skills/fabmetals.pdf. I spoke with at least half a dozen reporters this week. The report was picked up in one of the evening news segments, and in a couple of newspapers. Neat. Meanwhile the uber boss is sharing the report with people all over the nation and I may have to give a few presentations. It's cool that my work is getting some traction, but I don't like to be personally in the spotlight.
The garden had a good week. The weather was hot (in the 80s all week) and many of the plants thrived. My zucchini is especially happy, and by happy I mean huge. I will definitely pick the first "fruits" in just a couple of days. Here's a picture from Monday, in which he seems only big, not huge, given how much he's grown this week:
And here are some other garden pictures:
Today I attended my family's annual "Girl's Day at the Farm" and took Baby Girl, too. Every summer my great Aunt Marge hosts the little get-together for the women on my maternal grandfather's side of the family. (My grandpa was Marge's brother.) Some of the family members come from 5 hours away, and they actually spend a night or two; it's more like "Girl's Weekend at the Farm" for them. Those of us who live closer just come down for the day. I only made it for about three hours, since I had to wait until Darling was up from her morning nap, and then she got pretty cranky and clearly needed an afternoon nap. BUT since my kid doesn't like to sleep in the car, the ride home actually consisted of her complaining for 15 minutes, screaming for 10 minutes, and then sleeping for 10 minutes. Blarg.
In any event, we had a very nice three hours on the farm, sitting under the apple trees and eating sandwiches, poking fun at each other, telling stories. It was great. Several second and third cousins who are my age were in attendance, and everyone was in good spirits. I just wish I had more time!!! Next year, hopefully, we'll make a WHOLE day of it.
I finished reading The Loom last week. I didn't like it. The story starts out well enough and at first you like the main character, but then she makes some poor choices and she gets annoying. The storyline disintegrates at that point; I lost interest and started doing skip-a-page reading. The ending, which I don't really remember specifically, was disappointing. (I remember how I felt about it, even if I can't exactly remember what happened.)
I then read a book called Heiress by Susan May Warren. Overall I definitely liked it, though it had a couple of moments when it got bogged down in explaining minutia. (It's cool that you did research on how a hand-operated printing press worked in 1900, but I don't need to know all the nuances, it doesn't help the story line!) There was a sub-theme about God (how He works, what it means to have His blessing, etc.) that appeared in the middle of the book, suddenly and for several pages, then disappeared for awhile, only to repeat itself two or three more times before the end of the novel. The author's note after the end of the story clarifies the purpose of the sub-theme, but in context, it actually detracts from the story. It's abrupt, not persuasive, and doesn't tie in well with the overarching themes. But again, I definitely liked the book. I'm planning to check out some more of SM Warren's titles -- she has one called Duchess that I suspect I will like. Ha.
I wanted something easy and familiar after the density of Heiress, so I read the second and third Hunger Games books (just finished book 3 an hour ago). The second one was better than I remembered. The third one was also slightly better, but that only means it was elevated from being really bad to just plain bad. I don't blame Suzanne Collins for the deficiencies of Book 3; I think it was the pressure of popularity that forced her to squeeze it out and perhaps meant her editors didn't do a sufficiently careful job. In any event, it's still disappointing. I did get a better perspective on the Gale-Katniss-Peeta love triangle of annoyance. The first time through, I was always rooting for Gale, and I disliked the constant uncertainty of the story line, and I hated that Katniss-Peeta is the resolution. On my second pass, I understand the relationships better and the conclusion makes more sense.
Finally, Nate is getting into a good reading habit, too. This week he read the first Harry Potter book. (Finished it about 10 minutes ago, proudly declaring he was Done! when he snapped it shut.) He wants to read through the whole series. Good for him! I'm thinking about following his head and re-reading them too, but I better let him get at least 4 books ahead of me first. So maybe in a month I will start reading them. :)
For now, I'm going to try and tackle a couple of he classics.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
My week in four totally unrelated words: Teething, report, garden, books
Sometimes when I'm having a full week and I want to blog about several things, I write a little reminder note to myself. I could've sworn I did that at least once this week, but I'm not finding any little notes to myself hiding anywhere. So I guess all the notes I made were in my head...? If that's the case, I'm definitely going to forget to mention a thing or two. My brain is a bit mashed potato-y after the last couple of sleepless nights.
Yup, it's another round of pain and suffering in our house. Baby Girl is going through a monstrously tough round of teething -- fevers, inconsolablity, trouble sleeping and eating, and a bit of diarrhea. The last couple of nights we were up and down with her about half the night, so today we took turns watching the baby so we could each nap. I'm happy that it's only just 8pm as I sit down to write this; it means I can blog for half an hour and still go to bed at 9pm. Yippee.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything else new to report about Baby Girl. She has her one-year checkup on Monday (I know it's happening late, but the doctor's office didn't have any openings in June!). She was a trooper with the last couple rounds of shots so I am hoping it goes smoothly once again.
There's exciting news coming out of my office this week: My report is finally done and will be released to the public! After a long six-month project which involved designing a survey, distributing it and collecting responses, analyzing data, writing my report, and re-re-re-writing my report, it's DONE and it's about to be public! I feel very accomplished and proud of myself. This is the first major project that was basically entirely my responsibility (though I had a lot of help executing the various tasks), and I think it went really, really well.
Now I don't know if I should mention this, but the report is actually already out there on the web, so if you go to QualityInfo.org and hunt around, you can find it :o) But since it's not "officially" available (i.e. we haven't sent out a press release on the report), I will wait until Monday to give you, my dear blog readers, the specific URL of the report.
WHEW. Relieved. Excited. Pleased.
And moving on...
The garden is doing great! The corn we planted last Saturday has already popped up. The zucchini plants are huge and starting to flower, so I should be able to pluck some "fruit" in just a couple of weeks. Awesome. (We've been munching on lettuce for ages, so the zucchini won't be the first yield of the year, it's just my favorite.) When we were grocery shopping this morning we had to buy a couple of zucchini and I said to Nate, "Pretty soon we won't be buying any, just going out back and picking it!" I love having a garden. I feel very grateful and blessed that I can grow my own food, and that it is coming up happily. (I know, I still need to get some pictures. One of these days... in my free time... it will happen.)
Reading: I really love books. I don't make enough time to read. And I have a hard time finding books that I like. I keep telling myself that I'm going to read more classic literature, but every time start a classic, I get distracted (i.e. Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, Anna Karenia, etc.) and I don't finish. I hardly get started.
But I digress. What I really wanted to say is that this week I read a couple of books. I re-read the original Hunger Games book. I ready the trilogy about a year ago, and if you read them altogether, the obnoxious conclusion that is the entire third book can really sour you on the whole thing. The first book, though, it was good. Pretty good, anyway. The first half or so is excellent, then it drags on, and it is left totally, irritatingly unfinished. But the world that Suzanne Collins created is fascinating, and I think that's the real draw of the books. Panem. The Capitol. The system of governance and the culture. That's the good stuff.
I'm about to finish a book called The Loom. Meh. The main character annoys me. It starts off well enough, but then she makes some bad choices, and the writing is a bit slow. The storyline gets convoluted at times. And the plot is a total mystery. What's the point? What are we driving toward? What is the writer trying to say? And since I don't like the main character all that much, I'm not really rooting for her to succeed... and what's the point in that? Anyway, if anyone wants to recommend a good book, I'm all ears. I have pretty broad tastes. :o)
As for now, I'm off to make some chocolate peanut butter shortbread cookies (trying a new recipe, http://theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.com/2012/03/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-shortbread.html) and then go to bed! Happy July to you all.
Yup, it's another round of pain and suffering in our house. Baby Girl is going through a monstrously tough round of teething -- fevers, inconsolablity, trouble sleeping and eating, and a bit of diarrhea. The last couple of nights we were up and down with her about half the night, so today we took turns watching the baby so we could each nap. I'm happy that it's only just 8pm as I sit down to write this; it means I can blog for half an hour and still go to bed at 9pm. Yippee.
Other than that, I don't think there's anything else new to report about Baby Girl. She has her one-year checkup on Monday (I know it's happening late, but the doctor's office didn't have any openings in June!). She was a trooper with the last couple rounds of shots so I am hoping it goes smoothly once again.
There's exciting news coming out of my office this week: My report is finally done and will be released to the public! After a long six-month project which involved designing a survey, distributing it and collecting responses, analyzing data, writing my report, and re-re-re-writing my report, it's DONE and it's about to be public! I feel very accomplished and proud of myself. This is the first major project that was basically entirely my responsibility (though I had a lot of help executing the various tasks), and I think it went really, really well.
Now I don't know if I should mention this, but the report is actually already out there on the web, so if you go to QualityInfo.org and hunt around, you can find it :o) But since it's not "officially" available (i.e. we haven't sent out a press release on the report), I will wait until Monday to give you, my dear blog readers, the specific URL of the report.
WHEW. Relieved. Excited. Pleased.
And moving on...
The garden is doing great! The corn we planted last Saturday has already popped up. The zucchini plants are huge and starting to flower, so I should be able to pluck some "fruit" in just a couple of weeks. Awesome. (We've been munching on lettuce for ages, so the zucchini won't be the first yield of the year, it's just my favorite.) When we were grocery shopping this morning we had to buy a couple of zucchini and I said to Nate, "Pretty soon we won't be buying any, just going out back and picking it!" I love having a garden. I feel very grateful and blessed that I can grow my own food, and that it is coming up happily. (I know, I still need to get some pictures. One of these days... in my free time... it will happen.)
Reading: I really love books. I don't make enough time to read. And I have a hard time finding books that I like. I keep telling myself that I'm going to read more classic literature, but every time start a classic, I get distracted (i.e. Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, Anna Karenia, etc.) and I don't finish. I hardly get started.
But I digress. What I really wanted to say is that this week I read a couple of books. I re-read the original Hunger Games book. I ready the trilogy about a year ago, and if you read them altogether, the obnoxious conclusion that is the entire third book can really sour you on the whole thing. The first book, though, it was good. Pretty good, anyway. The first half or so is excellent, then it drags on, and it is left totally, irritatingly unfinished. But the world that Suzanne Collins created is fascinating, and I think that's the real draw of the books. Panem. The Capitol. The system of governance and the culture. That's the good stuff.
I'm about to finish a book called The Loom. Meh. The main character annoys me. It starts off well enough, but then she makes some bad choices, and the writing is a bit slow. The storyline gets convoluted at times. And the plot is a total mystery. What's the point? What are we driving toward? What is the writer trying to say? And since I don't like the main character all that much, I'm not really rooting for her to succeed... and what's the point in that? Anyway, if anyone wants to recommend a good book, I'm all ears. I have pretty broad tastes. :o)
As for now, I'm off to make some chocolate peanut butter shortbread cookies (trying a new recipe, http://theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.com/2012/03/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-shortbread.html) and then go to bed! Happy July to you all.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Multitasking at Work
I am currently at work, in a web meeting with a co-worker in the Bend office. I'm training her on how to do employment estimates... except that I'm obviously not! I'm blogging, and watching her screen in the background as she shuffles through the various estimation tools. It's fun to see her click away, knowing that I will soon be free from this monthly task. Honestly I'm a little sad to see the end of estimates. It was a nice way to kill a few hours every month, it gave my job a little more structure, and sometimes I got paid extra, too. But the department has finally hired a real person to do the task, and I am back to my normal job description.
Besides blogging and overseeing the newest edition to our team, I'm also on a conference call. And I'm eating Goldfish crackers -- the salty, irresistable little treats that I have fallen in love with only after reaching this, the semi-grown-up phase of my life.
I wouldn't mind doing some real work while I'm suppose to be doing real work, but all of my files are back at my desk, on my normal work computer (and not here in this quiet, comfortable conference room). True, I could leave my web meeting and phone conference to go get said files without anyone noticing my absence, but then I would have to feel guilty about being so far away from my real work. At least with the blog open on top of the real work, I don't have to feel bad about leaving my work alone!
Anyway, I've been goofing off about 15 minutes now, which is all the time we get for an afternoon break... So I better get back to watching and listening to real work.
Besides blogging and overseeing the newest edition to our team, I'm also on a conference call. And I'm eating Goldfish crackers -- the salty, irresistable little treats that I have fallen in love with only after reaching this, the semi-grown-up phase of my life.
I wouldn't mind doing some real work while I'm suppose to be doing real work, but all of my files are back at my desk, on my normal work computer (and not here in this quiet, comfortable conference room). True, I could leave my web meeting and phone conference to go get said files without anyone noticing my absence, but then I would have to feel guilty about being so far away from my real work. At least with the blog open on top of the real work, I don't have to feel bad about leaving my work alone!
Anyway, I've been goofing off about 15 minutes now, which is all the time we get for an afternoon break... So I better get back to watching and listening to real work.
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