The Rest of the Story

So when last we spoke I was in Portland. I have been meaning to finish up the Portland Chronicles and somehow two weeks have gone by.  Some day I'll figure out how to slow time down, but for now I'll just back up again and fill in the missing Portland blanks.  I know you've been dying to know.

Saturday morning we were up and moving.  We met up with a college friend whom we haven't seen in way too long.  Teacher Lori is who we'll call her. Teacher Lori and I were pretty good friends in college. There are many a drinking stories that I could share with you, and some day I may.  Seeing Teacher Lori and a couple other college friends forced me to take a left down memory lane.  I pulled up a bunch of college photos that had me laughing and thinking I need to write a blog about those memories.

Someday.

Anyhow, Teacher Lori met us at the famous Voodoo Donuts. We knew we'd have a wait since just about everyone I've known who's gone to Voodoo said to plan on standing in line for about 30 minutes.  True to the warnings we stood in line.

Voodoo is famous for being a doughnut place full of crazy doughnut options. Some of their crazy flavors are "The Loop" (Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting and Fruit Loops), Memphis Mafia ( Fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon covered in a glaze with chocolate frosting, peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate chips on top!) ... and my favorite Cock-N-Balls ( Cock-n-balls shaped raised yeast doughnut triple filled with Bavarian cream and topped with chocolate frosting!) I kid you not.

None of those did we try.  We stayed relatively vanilla by sticking to their famous maple bar with bacon, Just like it sounds...a maple bar with bacon on top. So yummy. Though we did pull the bacon off and just eat the maple bar eventually. Teacher Lori finished off the bacon for us.

Teacher Lori and Blueberry had the Portland Cream (Raised yeast doughnut filled with Bavarian cream. Topped with chocolate and two eyeballs, representing the vision of our great city). Teacher Lori said she wanted something chocolate and cream filled and this is what she got.  I'm not a fan of doughnuts filled with cream or jelly. 

I tried the Triple chocolate penetration (Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and coco-puffs). Yes, you read that right. CocoPuffs!!! It was so darn good. And rich, and surely low fat.

After we ate our weight in doughnuts we ventured to the Portland Saturday Market.  It was aisle after aisle of really fun stuff.  We found there just about everything you'd expect to find at a Saturday market.  I ended up buying the Pookster a "catnip body pillow". Turns out he loves it.

Finishing up there we wandered through the streets of Portland and ultimately ended up at Mother's Bistro for lunch.  Mother's was recommended to me by a couple of Portland types who love the city and had been at this place.  We waited about 20 minutes for a table (BTW the theme of the day was waiting for long periods of time for our food). Once seated we ordered and managed to get caught up in what's been going on in all our lives.  It was great to see Teacher Lori and feel like we picked up right where we left off all those years ago.

 

Leaving Mother's we decided we needed to go see Multnoma Falls.  I had been out to the falls almost a decade before and really wanted to see them again. It was raining hard and once there the rain didn't let up. We spent a couple minutes shooting photos of the falls, got ourselves in the gift shop and got us some coffee for the road back.

 

Later that night I had arranged to meet up with two other college friends I hadn't seen for some time. We were meeting them at the Deschutes Brewery for some good beer and what was supposed to be good food.  We got there a bit early and put our names on the list. The wait was about 45 minutes. While we waited Teacher Lori and Blueberry had a glass of wine and we ordered THE BEST homemade pretzel I've ever had.  It had some alfredo type cheese dipping sauce with it...OMG I could have eaten a dozen of these large pretzels.

Our other friends got there, we'll call them Mr. & Mrs. R for the sake to protect the not so innocent.  Neither of them had changed one bit since college.  We jumped right back into the same old jokes, same old slams, and remembering some of the best times we all had in college. They got us updated on a couple other college friends they kept in contact with. They passed around photos of their kids and we ooo'd and aaah'd appropriately. At one point, admittedly though, I was ready to pull out my phone and pass photos of my furry kid.  But I refrained.

I had a beer flight and Mr. R helped me finish some of the beers in this flight. They were mostly good, but there were a couple I wasn't fond of. Turns out I'm not a fan of IPA. Mr. R. however was.  He also "helped" me taste some of the other "flavors. 

By the end of the night we had laughed ourselves senseless.  I sure wish I could see these folks more often. I might have to find a way.  Their lives are certainly busier than mine - what with the kids and all.

 

 

The hotel Blueberry and I stayed in was fantastic. It felt very European. The Hotel deLuxe was downtown without being downtown. It was quaint and our room was quite small. We had a king bed in the room and about a foot around it to walk. The hotel staff was outstanding in their service and that in and of itself is a reason to stay there.

Sunday we got up whenever we wanted. We had plans to meet my sister at another Triple D place, Byways Cafe.  Their claim to fame for me were the biscuits and gravy.  As we stood inside waiting for the sister to show up there was this little tiny waif of a woman eating a platter of these biscuits and gravy. This little thing was maybe 120 lbs fully clothed and soaking wet.  She ate the entire plate.

By the time the sister got there and we were seated, there wasn't any doubt what I'd order.  The biscuits were about 3" tall, so when cut in half the halves were about an inch and half. Tall biscuits.  There were two biscuits cut in half and they were smothered in a rich delicious sausage gravy. 

I only ate about one half and a couple bites of another before I was done.  Blueberry was giving me crap saying that other little waif of a girl ate the entire plate.  I had to point out it was probably the only thing she ate all week.

 

We left the Byways Cafe and headed home.  It was a great weekend and I'm definitely wanting to go back to Portland soon. There were still some things I wanted to do and didn't get a chance to. Blueberry said she had a fantastic birthday weekend and was thrilled to spend it in Portland.  

False Start

I could fill a small book on Blueberry stories.  She's a funny girl and considering how long we've been BFFs I think she could probably tell just as many stories about me.

In preparation for coming to Portland I sent Blueberry an email to set up when we're leaving.  Now, let me set the stage. 

I live in Redmond.

She lives about 20 miles north of me.

We're heading south to Portland. 

Got that!

So I sent Blueberry an email and said, "Let's leave from my house at 9am."

What does that say to you?  That SHE should meet at my house.

So by 9:20am I called her to find out where she was. She's late at times, but never that late.  She answered her phone and I  said, "Is everything ok?"

Her response, "Yah, why?"

"Are you on your way," I said.

Her response, "No I thought you were going to pick me up."

I was a bit speechless. I mean how does that make sense? Head north to head south? She admitted she totally misread my email.

After getting a good laugh over that, we finally got on the road at 10ish.

Our first stop was to Pine State Biscuits for lunch.

Can I just say? OH....MY....God!!!

Yah take a look at that. Go ahead. Drool. I'll wait. 

I know right? Its a piece of deep fried chicken in a biscuit with homemade ranch dressing. MMM. I'm so going back.  If I lived anywhere near this restaurant I'd weigh 5 thousand pounds.

We're staying in Hotel Deluxe in downtown. It's a nice, historic building. Very European feeling.  Our room is tiny and the bathroom is tiny. Its super  nice though and downtown. 

After taking a quick rest, we headed out to Powell's book store. In case you don't know, it's a bookstore that takes up a city block.  We walked in and were hit by the smell of old books.  We spent an hour or so in there and Blueberry left with a bag full of books. She's reading as I type in fact.

Then we found ourselves in need of coffee. And by "we" I mean "me".

Stumptown Coffee I guess is famous here in Portland. We found one and ordered ourselves some warm goodness.  And goodness it was.

Portlandia

Hidee Hoe Neighbor! Its me checking in after probably the fastest week in all of history. I woke up on Monday morning with a bunch of plans and now Thursday evening and I'm scrambling to get stuff done it seems.  I'm talking about work of course. My real life doesn't appear to be nearly as organized.

Tomorrow Blueberry and I take off to Portland for the weekend. You may recall that last year I took Blueberry to Vancouver BC for her birthday.  This year we (read I) decided we should head south. It started with another GroupOn deal and is ending up with me getting a refund for my GroupOn deal and having to book another hotel.  (Side Note: GroupOn customer service really is quite good. When I contacted them about not being able to book the hotel they tried to book the rooms for me. Then they couldn't so refunded me my $$.)

I've been planning this trip for about 2 months now.  I've been to Portland a number of times but never as an actual tourist.  The Sister lives in that area as do many friends from college.  It seems whenever I go there it's to visit one of them.  This time though, Blueberry and I are tourists.  Maybe I'll make us use a fake accent or something.

I've got a LIST of restaurants I want to try.  I'm now addicted to trying the restaurants from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  With the app Flavortown on my iPhone I can find a decent restaurant anywhere.  My plan?  These are the places I need to try.

Pine State Biscuits
Voodoo Donuts (not a Triple D place but very popular in Portland)
Byways Cafe
Food Carts
Deschutes Brewery

and now I guess I have to try Mother's Bistro.  And it seems I'm going to have to eat 5 meals a day to get in all these restaurants. Challenge Accepted!

Our plan, like anytime I travel, was to take the Hop-on and Hop-off bus tour. But being the Pacific Northwest this type of tour doesn't start until the weather is more decent...apparently. Their bus tours don't start until May.  So we'll be checking out Portland on our own two feet. Should be interesting.

Crockett's Public House

While in San Diego this last November I became a junky for finding Diners, Drive-In's and Dives restaurants.  I love the idea that someone I pseudo respect (I mean let's fact it Guy Fieri can get a bit annoying at times - but I totally, usually, agree with his assessments of good food.) has already done the research for me with respect to local food.

In San Diego, we tried three, er four...
Blue Water Seafood (my favorite)
Hob Nob Hill
Pizzeria Luigi
Ramona Café
Crazee Burger (by accident)

Okay so more than 4. I highly recommend all of them. My least favorite was probably Hob Nob but it was still good.

In my own backyard, aka the Seattle area, there are a handful. None of them have I tried. So the Pantry Goat and I set out on Sunday to try one down south in Puyallup (Pew-wow-lup).

Crockett's Public House was just on Triple D - it may have been a rerun I don't recall. They highlighted these amazing looking meatballs - I knew I had to go.  Turns out, they have a TON of other options and the meatballs was not what I choose.

Puyallup is about an hour drive from my place, so we stopped at Starbucks and we headed out in the torrential down pour of Sunday's weather.

Daisy came along for the ride as well. She's still practicing her art of Menu Modeling, but I think she's getting the hang of it.

The place was a nice open space that smelled delicious the moment we walked in. It was noon on a Sunday so I half expected us to wait for an hour or more. We waited for about 5 minutes...maybe.

Once we sat down and they handed us the menu, I was a bit overwhelmed. Everything sounded so good. The other thing that made me want to come down here was their Fire-grilled artichokes.  See I'm no fan of the artichoke.  I like it in things, especially a bubbly cheesy dip, but won't sit and just eat one. They're weird to me. BUT, they grill them here and serve them with their homemade aioli.  Watching how they prepared this on the show made me want to try them.

Once here, though, I knew I couldn't even consider ordering it and wasting precious stomach space on an artichoke.  Next time. I mean their menu...go take a look. I'll wait.

See! Don't you want to eat one of everything?

The Pantry Goat ordered Mom's Sloppy Joe (The recipe is here.)and I ordered the Memphis BBQ Burger (sans jalapenos).  Can I just take a moment...deep breath in...deep breath out...the burger was so darn good.  And the BBQ sauce, my word. It was tangy and sweet all at the same time. Sooo good. 

Next time I'll try the meatballs for sure. The people sitting next to us both had an order and neither one of them finished their plates. They did lean over and ask the Pantry Goat what se ordered though. I love that about these types of places.

We devoured our meals. The Pantry Goat left a little for herself to take home for left overs, and she took what was left of my fries.

Burp!

I swore I was never going to eat again.

Bottom line, this place was well worth the drive in the pouring rain.  I'd go again in a heart beat.  Who's up for it?

All the recipes that were on Triple D can be found here.

The heart is a bloom…shoots up through a stormy ground

If we’re lucky we get to have people in our daily lives that make a significant impact on us.  If we’re lucky, we also get a chance to have a significant impact on the world. If you make it your goal, your plan, your life, you can impact people in ways you probably can’t even fathom. And you may not ever know or understand how you’ve impacted them.

 

Bridget Spence is on such person.  Her short life impacted so many men and women that I’m certain she couldn’t have understood just how much. She’s gone now. Taken by a demon that has spent too long taking good, beautiful people.  

 

I “met” Bridget through the 3Day family. Her story was one that was shared to help inspire people and to help all of us understand that breast cancer doesn’t just take the old, it sneaks in and takes too many young ones too.  She was diagnosed just after college and has fought a brave, strong, courageous fight for 8 years.  I could not even image what living through a cancer diagnosis would be like, I’ve “lived” it from the outside looking in and that is no picnic. But to hear those words that you’ve got cancer must make your entire being want to shut down.  

 

Some do. Some just tuck themselves into their bed and don’t want to come out. 

 

Some just don’t know what to do. 

 

And then there are those that grab life by the horns and with all their strengths and dignity fight it to the bitter end. Bridget was that person. She chronicled her life in an amazing blog that I got turned onto a couple years ago.  I read it from start to finish then and have kept up with her religiously as she’s battled her way through.  She was determined to beat this. She had everything stacked against her and yet she fought on.  Go. Read her story.  Start from the beginning.  You’ll grow to love her as we all have. 

 

 

While I may never have met Bridget, I feel I know her.  So many of my 3Day family did know her and their hearts are broken today.  The world has lost a beautiful young lady. One who will not soon be forgotten and who’s journey will be spoken of for years to come. She may have moved on to that 3Day in the sky…be she will be with all of use, I guarantee, as we walk the 3Day this year. She certainly will be my co-pilot while I Walker Stalk. 

 

And if you’re sitting there wondering what you can do, donate to Susan G. Komen.  The clinical trials Bridget took part in were directly connected to grants given by Susan G. Komen.  She was allowed to spend more time on this earth because of donations.  

You can donate to my teammates if you feel so inclined.

SeattleSister In Law

Blueberry 

Getting Stuff Done

I'm a list person.

I'm sure I've mentioned a thousand times that I'm a list person.  I make a list. I work on tasks and I check off things on said list.

Sometimes lists A turns into List B and C.  List upon list.  There may be something on List A that requires a couple of other things to be done before it can be completed. Thus starting List B.  Really, in PM terms, lists are work breakdown structures for our lives.

Somehow in my life I figured out that one of the best ways to make myself feel like I've accomplished something is to put it on a list. I have been known - I admit - to put something on a list just to turn around and cross it off.

It's cathartic.

It's my therapy at times.

It's what drives me to get stuff done. 

I'm constantly baffled at how people who seem intelligent and active participants in this community can't get shit done.  It seems so simple to me. Make a list. Do the work.  Period. Yet, there seems to be a gene out there that blocks people's understanding about getting stuff done. Even the most mundane of tasks they can't seem to accomplish. It's baffling.

It makes me wonder how they get through life. What makes them feel accomplished? What makes them able to sit back and feel like they've done something worthwhile during their day?

I've had a recent situation arise in which it's taken almost a year for what I consider a simple task to get completed.  It still hasn't been completed, and I can guarantee that if I put this task on my list it would be done by months end. Easily. 

I, like many of you, have a full time job. I have friends I enjoy seeing. I have some type of life that keeps me busy and occupied. And yet, I manage my time so that I have a clean house (granted it's usually cleaned by my cleaners - but still I do have to clean in between visits). I manage to pay my bills on time. I manage to review my list and get stuff done on a regular basis.  It's not always in the time frame I had hoped (for example I still have a box of garage sale stuff sitting in the spare room instead of down in the garage where it belongs. The box has been there for 3 months and on the list that same amount of time.)

And yet, people who seem to have less than the average life stuff going on cannot manage to complete a task within a year.  It baffles me. And it makes me curious. Very curious.

What do other people do to get things done?  Maybe my list - ahem - fetish isn't normal? Maybe that I'm just an over achiever with really nothing else to do in my life but put stuff on a list and cross it off once completed? Maybe this person doesn't want to put stuff on a list because when it doesn't get completed it's depressing? Maybe this person doesn't have cool paper or a cool notebook to put said stuff on a list?

Maybe, just maybe, this person needs some guidance and direction about how to make lists and actually do stuff on them and understand the feeling of accomplishment?

Or maybe some people are just destined to wander through life never really getting anything done but feeling like they're always busy?  Either way, I still think a cool notebook to put stuff in is essential in life.

Hat 'n' Boots

During my Pike Place Photo Stroll with Meg-A-Rooni a couple of weeks ago (apparently I didn't blog about that trip...) I discovered this book in her car that had me intrigued.  I thumbed through it and was instantly hooked on the coolness, and oddness of the book.  The book is called Washington Curiosities. The sub title says, and I love, "Quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff".

We all do it. We travel the world in search of cool and fun stuff in other states, cities, or countries. Often we miss the fun stuff in our own backyard. I've been collecting things to do in my own backyard for a couple of years now.  This book, along with my love for photography and scrapbooking, has opened a whole new light for me. I spent an entire two nights reading through this book and collecting places I want to go see. Most not that far from where I live.

As you can tell by the pink stickies I have a few places I need to visit. Yesterday during our photo stroll through the Georgetown neighborhood (more on that later this week) we stopped to see the hat 'n' boots.

Photo from miscmedia.com

 The story of the hat n' boots is a simple one.  Back in the 1950's the hat 'n' boots served as a Texaco gas station.  The cowboy themed station was dreamt up and built.  The hat measures 44 feet across and the pair of cowboy boots are 24 feet tall and were elaborately painted - they served as the restrooms. Clever huh? And odd. At it's peek it was the highest grossing gas station in the state of Washington.  I surely would have driven to see it back in the 50's if I were alive and driving then. Legend has it that Elvis filled up his Cadillac while in town shooting "It Happened at the World's Fair".

Photo from Seattle Collections.

As the years passed, as you can imagine, the hat 'n' boots lost it's gleam. The landmark was headed to being demolished in until locals came together and saved it. Ahhh a Cinderella story. 

So at the end of our photo stroll, truthfully we almost forgot, we swung by the park the hat 'n' boots now live in. They have sure come a long way and look pretty good. 

I imagined giving directions to your house if you lived in that house in the back ground. "Oh I live right behind the 24 foot boots. You can't miss it."

 On to the next curiosity.

Monday again?

Oh look at that. An entire week has gone by without me gracing you with my witty, and brilliant pros. Hah.

It appears not a lot has been going on in my life. And, in fact, I've been feeling a bit abandoned by friends.  This abandonment has caused me to do some serious thinking about the quality of people in my life and decide how much effort I really want to put in to a mediocre relationship.

I am definitely a home-body these days and while I like it to some extent, I do like hanging with friends.  For the past 3 or 4 weeks "friends" I usually hang with seem to have other, more important, things going on and I have fallen to the bottom the priority list. That's fine. I get it. Life ebbs and flows. I sure hope it ebbs back up in my direction.

And before you ask, yes, I've reached out to these friends. And I've been pushed aside each time. So now I'm at the point where my stubbornness has kicked in and I'm tired of being the one to reach out. Thus my comment about mediocre relationships.  I'm tired of being the one to make the effort.

I spent the weekend doing a lot of thinking about my current situation and I've decided, I need more friends. That's the easy part. The hard part is finding more friends.  There's something odd that happens as you age, the going out and meeting new people is more difficult and seems to take a LOT more time and energy. I'm willing to put that time and energy in, but then I ask myself, "Where?" So my next step is to find the "where".

So besides my feeling sorry for myself and lonely, I did get some serious scrapbooking done this weekend. The irony wasn't lost on me that I was sitting in my scrapbook room, alone, scrapping about happier times with people I barely see these days.  In fact, at one point this weekend, I got boxes from the garage and was going to pack the entire scrapbook room up and sale it. I figured I could go on one helluva vacation, by myself, with all the stupid supplies that I no longer felt I needed. Then I took a breath and just existed for a moment. Next thing I knew, my 2012 3Day scrapbook was done. Woot!

I also managed to miss my 5K run this weekend. I set my alarm to get up super early, get there early to get good parking, and then sit in a Starbucks until it was time for the run.  When I set my alarm I set it for 6:15PM instead of AM.  I woke up about 8:15 and just stared at the clock. How could that have happened? I never sleep through an alarm.  Then I looked and found out I didn't sleep through it because it hadn't gone off yet.  Anyhow, my race started at 9:30 and the prospect of getting to Mercer Island with 12,000 or more and trying to find parking and then get to the start line was just not going to happen. So I laced up the shoes and did a little wog myself. Didn't go very far - but I got out.

This week we're upping the running by adding a day.  I really need to get to it if I'm going to jog all the 5K of the Race for the Cure. 

Monday MashUp

Thankfully, for you, I won't be singing a bunch of different songs together as one song. Though don't tempt me.

Since I last wrote last Wednesday, not a whole lot has happened, but since I know you're all dying to know just what I do with my days - I'm going to make a list.  Since none of these things really go together - well thus the MashUp

1. Pookie is doing WAY better. He's back to old spoiled self. In fact, he's a bit more spoiled than before. Go ahead, roll your eyes.  He's getting his morning food and dinner food served to him upstairs in my room. For some reason that's now the only place he wants to eat. On top of that, he WON'T drink the water from the tap - this is new.  Since I have to get a bunch of water down him in a day this wasn't going to do. So now, the poor little spoiled kitty gets filtered water - upstairs and downstairs.  Ugh. I did this to myself.

2. The Inbox is still at zero with a task bar that's growing like no body's business. I have found I'm more productive  though since I can see exactly what needs to be completed and by when.  Of course, with almost the entire team traveling last week fewer emails were sent thus allowing for the Inbox to be at zero.

3. I almost poisoned myself last night. I made this and somehow the chicken didn't get cooked all the way through. The chicken breast I used was a bit thicker, but still I had it in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes. Halfway through the meal I realized the chicken wasn't cooked on the underside by the filling.  I thought the texture had been off, but I just tried to plow through. I tend to overcook my chicken for this very reason.  So far, no real signs of food poisoning, but I was a bit concerned.

4. I had lunch this weekend with a good friend who's going through a divorce.  It was sooooo good to get caught up with her and to see she's finding peace with her situation.  I really need to work on spending more time with friends - time goes by so fast now and I really want to make sure I'm working on the relationships that mean something to me.

5. Speaking on working on relationships, I got to spend a good hour chatting away with HikerGirl. Since she's moved to Montana a couple of years ago it's been hard to keep in touch. Yet we still find time via email and chatting every now and then to get caught up. 

6. The cruising bug has hit me again. The MomUnit called with a deal she was being offered by RCI. Her and the DadUnit were crazy cruisers so they seem to get all these great deals. Plus I think Carnival isn't helping the already floundering cruise industry either - so other cruise lines are trying to make up the difference by giving fantastic deals.  For a GOOD price we got a 7-10 day cruise on ANY of the 6 major cruise lines. We have 18 months to book it and 12 months from when we book it to take it. We also go a week's timeshare, and a 5 day FREE Cruise for purchasing this deal.  LOVE that. Younger Sister and Stupid-Brother-In-Law also bought in.  So where we're going, they'll be going. Yay.  The MomUnit and I are discussing Mediterranean mostly. And we're dreaming a lot. It's fun to really think about where you want to go.  BigBro and SSIL are heading to on a cruise in April 2014 to Spain and the surrounding islands.  They sent me their ports and I am all in. I'm hoping the MomUnit and Sister will find those good ports and we can get this booked.

7. Scrapbooking is moving right along.  I finished my NY / Canada trip.  The staging the pages before hand is really helpful with just sitting and getting pages done when you have time.  I started staging all the 3Day photos for Seattle and then San Diego this weekend.  Its fun to look back and smile at what a fun time being a WalkerStalker really is.

8. I realized this weekend that I've read 11 books so far this year.  4 are the book club books (I'm a month ahead on those books) and the rest are a mishmash of 250page books. I'm on target to hit my goal for this year.  It's helpful to get ahead though because the summer comes around and reading almost grinds to a halt.

That's all I've got. Now back to our regularly scheduled program (or programme if you're British).

An Empty Inbox is a Sign of Insanity

In this world we all struggle, I assume, with the obnoxious amount of information that is thrown at us every day.  In my personal life, I can manage this influx without any issue. I make the call. I do things on my time. At work, it’s a bit different. 

Like many of us working slobs, we get bombarded with emails.  I have struggled for YEARS with figuring out a way to keep my Inbox empty. I’m that person who can’t stand to have stuff in her inbox.  An inbox to me is not a holding facility for emails. It’s not a place to leave things that need to be completed. It’s an Inbox. In, review, and then out. In theory anyhow. 

I’ve read many a books on how to manage the elusive inbox.  Many of the techniques would stick with me for a bit, and then WHAM I’d go right back to using my inbox as a storage facility. 

Recently I’ve had a lot of emails come in that have required action to them and I was getting a bit behind the 8 ball in getting things done in a timely manner.  It was one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations. I needed to find something that would work for me. 

MS Outlook has an ability to set up Categories – they basically allow you to “tag” an email with a specific category.  I set up categories for all my major tasks – they’re color coded and we all know how I love me my colors. After I’d read an email I’d set the category. Then I could sort by category and work through all the tasks for that one project. 

This worked well for a while. What inevitably ended up happening is  I’d still have a bunch of emails in my inbox “waiting” for to be touched.

One book I read several years ago was called, “Take Back Your Life” by Sally McGhee and John Wittry. It’s full of great tips on how to best manage your inbox.  Their theory is you should only touch an email once.  When it comes in you should decide what needs to be done with it. Do it? Delegate it? Or Delete it? It’s a hard habit to form especially considering the amount of email that comes in. And for me, I tend to forget what the status is, or what was done with it. 

So I took they’re process and tweaked it to fit my needs. Organization is something that can be learned, and is something very personal. What’s organized to me may be a complete mess to someone else.  

Anyhow, now I use the Task option in Outlook. I love me my lists, and this allows me to keep a constant list.  It allows me to still categories my tasks, and set follow up reminders for when something needs to be completed.

My new process is easy, and I’ve been following it for a week now. 

 

A new email comes in. I read it and decide what action I need to take.

 

Is it an information only email? Yes, then it goes into my folder to read later.

 

Is it an email that requires and action? If yes, then I ask can it be done now? If not, it goes into the task list. 

 

I spend 30 minutes in the morning sorting through my email (generally – depending on how much comes this time varies).  Once the email has been sorted, I spend 30 minutes reviewing my task list and thinking about how to prioritize my day. Then I get to work.  I keep Outlook on the task page so I don’t get distracted by incoming emails.  I only go back to my inbox around noon and then again towards the end of the day.

 

Granted, I do have to go to the inbox to send emails out that are directly related to tasks I’m doing, but it’s only to send – no reading or working the inbox then. 

 

What I’ve found is:

1.     I’m not as distracted by the incoming emails. I tend to be a bit ADD about that. I’m sure that the new emails is of vital importance and I need to read it now. Not usually the case, and those emails usually are flagged with a bright red exclamation point. Which rarely shows up in my inbox.

2.     I’m way more focused on the work to be done. I have more time to actually get to my work. And I’m more thoughtful about how I approach it which makes me more efficient.

3.     I have lists. And I get to cross things off my list. THAT I love. It’s hard for me to move away from the paper list, but I’m finding this way my list comes with me wherever I go. In a meeting if a new action item is assigned to me, I can quickly add it to my task list. I can’t even tell you how many action items got lost in the pages of my notebook. Not anymore!

4.     Having a clean inbox has somehow lifted a burden off me. I feel more free and more in control of my time during the day.

I’m happy to elaborate to anyone who’s interested in more about my process (do I haven’t documented yet – but I may – don’t tempt me). It’s really very simple, but it does require discipline. That’s the hardest part I think. 

The Pookster

This last week was one I would prefer to not ever repeat. In my heart I know it will be repeated some day, but I'm going to go into denial and assume it never will.

If you've ever had a pet you'd understand. They become such an integral part of your life that you can't, and don't want to, imagine living without them.

Pookie has been part of my tribe for 17 long years. Almost 18.  He's a stinker, but a loveable cat who's made me laugh a thousand and one times, or more.  He's my bubba. 

Anyhow, he got himself in quite a pickle last Monday. He was showing signs of - well - he was stopped up.  He was lethargic and hadn't eaten. He kept trying to hork up a fur ball. And after about 8 attempts of him horking up something - mostly clear fluids -  I got concerned and took the poor little guy to the emergency vet Monday night. (Why do these things always happen after hours?)

The ride to the vet was eerily silent so I knew something was up with Pookie. 

Once there, the young, very young - I almost asked to see his credentials, vet examined Pookie.  The Pookster just sat there so quiet and controlled. Such a good kitty.  The Vet determined Pookie was dehydrated and constipated.  Apparently when in that situation cats will also try to vomit. He recommended cleaning Pookie out, fluids for the dehydration, and a shot to help with the vomiting.

The shuffled Pookie into a back room (I sat in the lobby. I had no desire to be a part of that). And about 15 minutes later they handed a very stinky, very unhappy cat back to me.

We went home and the poor little dude could barely move. The next couple of days were traumatic to me. He couldn't pick up his back end by himself, he wouldn't eat, and he just appeared to be out of it.

Just about every night I would contemplate the "what if" it was Pookie's time. It broke my heart just thinking about it.  I quickly realized that was not a scenario I wanted to consider. And yet, I know I must some day. 

I got a hold of the at home vet I use and she scheduled to come out on Friday.  Dr. Hanna is a whiz with cats.  And I was confident that if it was time to sent Pookie to the great cat climber in the sky that she'd tell me. She's kinda a no bull type of doctor and I appreciate that.

She and her assistant showed up on Friday and Pookie sauntered out to see them.  Silly cat didn't even realize who Dr. Hanna was or what was about to happen.

After some examining, blood draw and shaving of the back end. Dr. Hanna and her tech gave Pookie a little bath to clean up the back end.  The howling, and words that came out of that cat's mouth. I swear he would have made a sailor blush.  She reluctantly sat in the kitchen sink and glared at me. His eyes saying, "Oh you're gonna get it."

Once done with the bathing of the back end, we wrapped him in a towel (and by "we" I mean Dr. Hanna and her assistant) and then proceeded to give him some fluids.  Dr. Hanna's assessment is that he'll live for now. His kidneys - no surprise - are declining and of course there are options, but she wanted to wait and see how he did after this visit. 

She released him and he took about three steps from her and turned to give her what I could only assume was meant to be the death stare.  It didn't faze Dr. Hanna one bit.

Dr. Hanna also gave me some VERY EXPENSIVE, high calorie cat food to feed him over the weekend to get him to eat.  She also gave him a shot to stimulate his eating. A shot I don't want or need thankyouverymuch.

He's eating - some. Not quite as much as he was eating. His back side is shaved and looks ridiculous - I find it amusing. And somehow one side of his whiskers on his lip got cut - which is even more amusing to me. All in all, he's doing better. I'm not convinced he's out of the woods just yet, but I feel more confident about it now than last week.

I was a mess last week. I couldn't stop thinking about having to make that decision for him. Holding his life in my hands. Not a place I want to be ever. I secretly hope that I just come home one day and he won't wake up from his nap.  Until then I'm going to continue to spoil him rotten.  He sure smelled rotten last week...bleck.

Will Run for Chocolate

There are a lot of things, it turns out, that I am willing to jog for.  Chocolate is one of them. Wine would be another, and I'm hoping some day there's a Wine Race.

Anyhow, this past Sunday was my second 5K of the year. I managed to miss a 5K in February so I am hopefully doing 2 in March. The Hot Chocolate Run was the first (The Mercer Island one will be the second.)

Race day hadn't quite dawned yet when TOJ (The Other Jenn) and I were in the car heading to Seattle. Race start time was 6:45am. TOJ is not a morning person. And while I'm ok with mornings, I'd prefer them to start not in the middle of the night - which leaving my house at 5:45am is...the middle of the night.

Still we were ready. We found parking pretty quickly and found our way to the correct corral.  I had registered us for a 15 minute mile - which is slow to some folks.  In October we had done a 19 minute mile during that 5 K - but that 5K had small sidewalks and a ton of people. 

The sun began to rise as corral K got closer to the starting line.  The air horn blew and we were on our way.

Our plan was to do the first part using the Couch to 5K app and then just time our jogging after - I wanted to find out how many minutes I had actually ran. 

Right out of the gate, we were jogging, downhill. Perfect. This would help with our 15 minute mile.  We turned a corner and WHAM...a hill. This would not help our 15 minute mile.  Besides being cold, and not really a fan of hills, this hill stopped me dead from jogging. I walked up the hill.  Eventually, it went down again, and down some more, and all I could think was "what goes down in Seattle, must go back up." Great.

We jogged on and off, and I felt like I did ok.  That first hill really took the energy out of me, but I eventually found it again. 

It was during one of our "walking" sections when we turned the corner, up a little on ramp and WHAM the Battery Street Tunnel.

Side note: Have I ever mentioned I have a wee phobia about tunnels? Yah. Hate them.

The Batter Street Tunnel was built before the dawn of man - ok maybe not, but it sure looks like it.  As we approached it I informed TOJ of my phobia and she just laughed saying she'd distract me. 

Its a long tunnel too, I might add.

Approaching the Battery Street Tunnel

See I was so scared the camera shook.

Once in the tunnel we were approaching the 2 mile mark and it was about then that I was successfully doing mind over matter. I was forgetting how grungy, and unsafe this tunnel was.  It was also then that TOJ said, "Man this tunnel is old and falling apart."  Not helping! 

We made it through to the other side and we were in the home stretch.  We walked up an incline and jogged down the other side. Once down the other side we probably had .4 miles left. We could see the Seattle Center. The finish line was reachable.

I walked part of the route to the Space Needle (up hill again) then I said to TOJ, once we hit the Space Needle we jog.  So we jogged...and we made it. WOOT!!!!

Now to the fun part...the chocolate.

They put the yummy stuff another half a mile away I swear.  Maybe not, but it sure felt like it. 

We got these little bowls that had a cup of hot chocolate, a banana, some pretzels, a wafer cookie, a rice crispy treat and a small bowl of liquid chocolate. Fondue!!! OMG...I couldn't wait to dig into that.

I think I'd consider doing this race again.  Though they really need to start it later, AND they need to not do the tunnel. Blech.

How'd I do with running? Well, I think I ran more than I did last time.  We managed to maintain a 15 minute mile (according to RunKeeper we were maintaining a 15.2 minute mile).  I ran the 16 minutes of the Couch to 5K app AND we ran an additional 19 minutes.  Woot.  That's WAY better than last time.

Next race will be just that much better.