The List

I've made a relatively good dent on my list of things to do while I'm off this summer.  I keep holding off on some of them because, well I don't want to run out of things to do.  Though knowing me, I'll hold off too long and then I'll be back at work and won't have completed the list.

You can't be surprised that I made a fancy-ish list.  I mean I have 100 days off for heaven's sake. I have time to make a fancy-ish list. I even left room to add items if need be.

As you can see I've completed a couple "easy" items.  I've wiped down all the window sills, fixed my blog photos (I deleted the folder that held all the blogger photos. I had no idea Picasa and Blogger were pals and my blog photos lived on Picasa.), Updated my PDUs for my PMP certificate (realizing I have 29 credits to fill in 13 months - ugh), and organized my brads and grommets. I know, right? Tough life. 

And on top of all of that I've managed to search for a job as required. 

Today I'm reading.  I am half way through with one of my marketing books, which surprisingly doesn't have sleeping powder in it.  And I've just finished another "easy" reading book.  So I'm on track with both of those goals. 

What I have discovered since not working every day and interacting with people, lists, jobs, etc, is that my brain is turning to mush.  When you're at work you have things that need to be done and your brain is on top of those things.  When you're not at work, your brain too, surprisingly, goes on vacation.  I have lists for my lists now. I can't even remember what day it is half the time when I wake up in the morning.  I know, such a life.  But I've gotta tell you, I'd much rather be working.

And soon enough I will be.  I miss all my work peeps and can't wait to get back into the game.  Until then, I'm working on my 100 Day list. 

I had a good title, but then forgot

Honestly! Not working has turned my brain to mush. Its amazing how when you have more things to remember/do that your brain raises to the challenge of remembering all that stuff. When you have less, the brain takes a vacation.

Friday I headed into Seattle to help SSIL get things ready for the first of our three garage sales this year. SSIL puts so much effort into these darn things.   I often wonder if they're worth all the effort.  Saturday we had a lot of traffic and most people didn't haggle with the prices.  Turns out we made just over $700 - so I guess they are worth it.

Puck got left at home on Saturday - my fault. So instead his Uncle Yuck was there to help mascot the day for us. (Yellow Duck = Uncle Yuck - get it? See first paragraph on the mind turning to mush...this will all make sense then.)

On Sunday, ChickenLady was going to be selling her sweet little glass flowers at a local plant and art sale. Turns out Sunday was SUNNY.  Sparky was itching to go for a ride.

Off we went. 

I found the littler nursery pretty easily.  Wandered through and got the lay of the land with ChickenLady then went back through and shot about 100 photos of flowers, art, and misc stuff.  These are my two favorite photos of the day. So colorful and bright.

After the nursery, I decided to drive into Issaquah (the entire other side of the lake from where I was) to go to a scrapbook store looking for black and white checkered paper for ChickenLady.  As I was driving the speed limit and enjoying the sun it dawned on me I had forgotten my sunscreen. 

On the lake road there's a new stop light. Well, most likely not new to the people who drive the lake road daily, but new to me.  I stopped at the light and glanced to my left and say this:

This little doe was just standing there on the corner watching the cars go by.  I was hoping she didn't decide to just bolt off the property into traffic. 

Once in Issaquah I realized Sparky was getting ready to click over 1,000 miles. Hard to believe I've put on 600 miles in 4 weeks, but I have. Weird how you want to drive the long, scenic route when the sun's out.  So Sparky and I headed up over Cougar mountain into Renton.  It's a nice two lane road that's mostly wooded and scenic.  I got behind an RV and was happy to just putt along.  Once into Renton I had to drive around the block a couple of times to have it click to 1,000 so I could take a picture. What? You're surprised I had to take a picture?

Today Sparky's back at the dealership getting the leak fixed.  It's supposed to rain most this week so I won't miss the convertible part of Sparky.  I'm really hoping this is the last time she has to go into the service department for a while.  I'm starting to think I got a lemon! 

This week will be full of a whole lot of nothing.  I have my unemployment worksource meeting tomorrow and then the girls are coming over to scrap on Wednesday. Otherwise, I plan on getting into the list of things to do and get a few of them done. 

Wittle Baby Ducky

I announced to my BigBro and SSIL last week that whenever I hear the word duck the following song runs through my head:

Wasn't it a bit of luck

That I was born a baby duck

With yellow socks and yellow shoes

And I may go wherever I choose.

Quack!

Quack!Quack!
Quack! Quack! Quack!
Yay Ducks

I have no idea where I learned this song, but suspect it had to do with Brownies or Girl Scouts.

Anyhow, there's a Mama Mallard out in the pond who has 9 little duckies with here.  Yesterday she lost one.

About 6pm last night I noticed a lot of "peeping" going on outside. A continue cry for help from some widdle ducky.  I know my pond out back has a out-flow to it that has been covered with chicken wire to stop any babies from being sucked in.  There's a nice guy in the neighborhood who, every year, goes and puts the chicken wire on it.  He's not allowed to since this land is government property and "sacred" wet lands, but he does anyhow. Every year. I've not seen him this year come and put chicken wire on the outflow. 

Finally the peeping got to me and I went out to investigate.  One of the baby duckies had gotten sucked in. The out-flow is a bit into the marsh of the pond and was unreachable by me. Soon I had a couple neighborhood guys/gals "helping" try to save this duck. We tried for 2 hours and couldn't reach the little ducky. We couldn't reach the out-flow directly and so were trying to rig some sort of grabber device to grab the little ducky.  Mama Mallard was "helping" by pecking at the one guys ankles every time he tried to get close.  At the end of it all we just couldn't reach it. Animal control wouldn't come out either. 

Then sometime around 9pm I didn't hear the peeping anymore.  I told Mama Mallard, and myself, that her little ducky left to go be in the circus. 

It saddens me to know that the poor little ducky was so scared.  I know, realistically, that it's the circle of life and that animals don't feel fear the way we humans do.  But to watch Mama Mallard swim away with her other 8 duckys was just heart breaking.

In other non-feather related news, I cancelled eHarmony last night.  My second three months ends tomorrow and I've gotta tell ya, what a wash.  Over $200 spent and not a very good turn out. I had sent my "questions" (which is the first step in NotSoEHarmony to 127 candidates.  One guy, Daniel, got back to me but then was never heard from again.  I'm going to take the summer off and focus on my list of things to get done in 100 days. I have my profile on a few other free sites, and should probably up date them, but don't really feel like it now.

A List by any other name is a list

In honor of Father's day and because it's been over a week since I've actually written anything, I'm going to take a page out of my friend Patron Saint's blog and do a list. Not just any list mind you. No this will be the top ten list of things I did last week. I know you're so excited to read it you can hardly stand it.  So without any further ado ... here goes.

1. Sunday dinner was a week ago.  It's hard to believe that that was the 10th Sunday dinner.  Seems like just yesterday I started this little tradition and yet here we are finishing up our 10th Sunday dinner. It's evolved over the 10 months to be sure. I started by having a book for everyone to sign to express how much they enjoyed the friends, food, and fun. That's just too much work. So instead I've opted for taking a group photo every time. Naturally the photos can't be normal. That'd be way too much fun.

Our not so normal set of friends/family were here. From Left to right: Your's Truly, PhotoGirl, The Yank, Blueberry, SSIL, BigBro and The Pantry Goat

I decided since we were a small group that kebabs would be a great idea. Notice the bright orange bell peppers.  This is how much I love my friends. I, personally, think bell peppers are the food of the devil. But for some inexplicable reason all my friends (save a few) love them. So to make the kebabs pretty and to satisfy my friends, I purchased bell peppers.  At $2 each, they'd better have appreciated my sacrifice.

Very small, and surprisingly healthy, meal this time. 

2. This week the ParentalUnits are here freezing their behinds off. Being from Tucson they're blood runs warmer than normal. So our not so summer like weather up here is causing their friends Author and Itis to join in the fun.  It's good to have them here entertaining me. 

3.  On Wednesday of last week the ParentalUnits and I hopped in the car and drove to Northbend to meet The Niece and her GF for lunch.  The Niece looks great and appears to be quite happy these days. She plans on working the summer and plans on going back to school in the fall.  I'm going to be hounding her for 2 months to make sure she goes back to school.

4.  Earlier in the week I had to take Sparky in for a new fuel pump and for the dealership to install an iPod adapter since they sold the old Stang with my stereo that I wanted out of it.  I guess it's my fault for believing they'd actually do what they said and remove the stereo before selling the car. That won't happen again. 

Anyhow, I have also proven - thanks in part to our liquid sunshine yesterday - that Sparky now has a leak too. Great. Just great. So at the end of next week I'll be taking it BACK into the dealership for them to fix that too. I'm starting to wonder if Sparky isn't code for "a lemon".

5.  The MomUnit wanted to get a massage this week. So we packed a lunch and drove out to the middle of no where to ChickenLady's house for a massage. While mom was up turning into rubber I was outside playing with all the dogs. The Oodles of Poodles wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get photos of them. The other three golden -ish dogs would however. They're so darn cute.

Gypsy is the sweetest dog ever. If I had a place in my life right now for a dog, she would have come home with me. 

Ruben is ChickenLady's love. He's a sweet dog too but follows ChickenLady everywhere so there's no way I could steal Ruben.

Molly is, let's see how to express this, um, not playing with a full deck. She's a sweety too, but seems to be off in Molly-Land most the time.

 And of course I had to take photos of the chickens. I mean it is the house of ChickenLady.

This particular chicken cracked me up. Its so cold here in Seattle it has feathers on its legs and feet.

6.  When the ParentalUnits are in town it's always an opportunity to see old friends that I've not seen, in some cases, since last time the folks were here. We met some friends at a local restaurant called Purple.  OMG so good. They're Chicken Marsala is some of the best I've ever had. I opted for their 3 course meal menu item which meant I got an appetizer, a main entre and a dessert. The appetizer was deep friend mozzarella...how can you go wrong with deep frying cheese? I mean really. Then dessert were homemade salted caramels. I'll be going back to get some of those to go. Yum.

7. Friday BigBro strapped on his panhandling sign and stood on a freeway off ramp near my house. He was out there begging for donations for 2 hours and made just over $200.  Not bad for a days work. The MomUnit and I drove through twice so we could try to get a red light so we could get photos of BigBro working it.  But it was a sunny day and Sparky's top was down so why  not?

8.  On Thursday there was a big bang in the neighborhood followed my electricity going out followed by loud fire sirens.  I looked out my front door and say a big plume of black smoke. A substation down the street blew up.  I was without power for a whole 3 hours.  Its amazing the things you think about doing and then stop yourself because there's no power. Argh.

9.  I finally finished The Help. That book took me so long to get through and I'm not sure why. I really liked the book and highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.  It'll make you mad at times, and sad at others. But it's written well and well worth the read.

10. Happy Father's Day. I'm so glad that my dad (while frustrating at times these days) is here to celebrate Father's Day with us.  With his slipping down the Alzheimer's path faster these days I'm trying to appreciate the fact that he still knows who we are (mostly) and that we have this opportunity to celebrate him. 

And before you ask, yes it was the 80's and yes I wore that short outfit out in public!

One of my earliest memories of dad. Coming to take mom out on a date.

Don't Jump Dad! I'll stop being a teenage girl!

Ahh the early years.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!

What Would You Do?

Ever see those bumper stickers that say, "WWJD?"  Its supposed to stand for "What Would Jesus Do?"  A while ago, at a former job, PMDude and I grabbed those initials and kept changing the "J" to be the letter of our current boss or back to "J" to indicate ourselves (both our names start with a "J").

Anyhow, I have caught a couple of episodes of this show called "What would you do?"  Its very Hidden Camera-esk in that it sets up challenging or societal challenged scenarios to see how many people will step in or just walk away.  Its astounding how many people just walk away. Too afraid to get involved. Many not even stopping to notice the situation.

In one episode, they had a woman dressed in business attire pass out on the street. Almost immediately people came to her aid.  They repeated the scenario with an actor dressed like a homeless man. People, literally walked around him or stepped over him.  I've done it. I've ignored the homeless man/woman on the street who seemed to just be asleep.  I was able to "excuse" it away by telling myself he/she is just passed out from all the booze. It never crosses my mind that they may, in fact, need help.

Seeing this episode I felt a bit ashamed at how little I do get involved. It's not to say I see difficult situation every day, but I've seen my share. I have made the 9-1-1 phone call before, but haven't actually ever put myself in potential harms way to assist someone in need.  I would be among the one's who helped the business woman but  not the homeless man/woman.

Sad. Very sad.  Though I don't think I'm alone.

Blueberry and the Pantry Goat and I talked about it last night (stuffed on Cajun Chicken Stroganoff that you really MUST try). We discussed if my neighbors, for example, had someone moving a huge crate that may or may not be a safe from their house, would I do anything about it. I don't know my neighbors enough to feel I could. Again, I excused it away with two comments: 1) if they are criminals I don't want to risk getting hurt to question them and 2) I'd automatically assume they were doing what the neighbors asked.

Now granted, there's this little thing we all have called "gut instincts" and mine is usually right on. I've learned to listen to that little, nagging, gut reaction.

The show was quite eye opening to me.  I would hope that if it were really important and really a live or die situation for someone that I would step in. I'm just not 100% sure. 

The show had a psychologist on it who said that often people feel like "someone else" will step in. That we're all bystanders waiting for that one "savior" to step in and save us from having to.  I think I'm going to change my behavior and by that "savior" or at least now be aware that I just don't want to be that bystander waiting. Because what if by me waiting someone dies? Not on my watch!

Today was a pretty good day

I got my notification about unemployment and how much I'll be getting a week.  That's comforting to know I'll still get unemployment and the government hasn't stopped that from happening yet. 

I met the bosses for lunch today. Actually made myself a nice salad and "brought" my lunch.  It was fun to sit and get caught up on a week's worth of conversation.  Boss #1 had been on vacation for my last few work weeks and so it was good to get caught up on her vacation and be mildly jealous.  Realizing, of course, that I'm sorta on a Staycation.

Boss #2, as always, was entertaining. She and I have chatted, texted, emailed, etc a couple times this week. She's have separation anxiety I think. I joke, mostly because I think it's my that has the separation anxiety.  I'll get to see her next week since we have a puppy playdate when the Oodles of Poodles are visiting next week.

That's right the Parental Units will be here next week. It'll be good to see them.  I won't have any escape though seeing that I won't have a job to go to. That's not to say I won't find an escape.  I'm kidding. I'd never want to escape my parents. (HI mom).  They're in Portland now and through the weekend. One of my nieces is graduating from high school.  Even as I type that I find that very hard to believe.  That means all my nephews and nieces will be out of high school.  Ugh! It'll feel worse, I'm sure, when the great nieces start to graduate.  I am not even going to go there.

The second half of my day was at a photo shoot. A friend's daughter asked me to do her Senior photos. No pressure mind you.  So I met her a Bothell's Landing, which is a beautiful park. It was overcast and humid today. The overcast is perfect for photos of people.  No harsh shadows cast by the sun.  I quickly ran through the photos and think I got some good ones. I'm having a heck of a time with focusing though.  My autofocus seems off. And my manual focus seems off.  Me thinks I should start wearing my glasses when taking pictures.

Bothell's Landing - this is why I love Seattle. So lush and so green!

I practiced a few techniques I've picked up in some reading and some youtube videos on photography.  For the most part they helped my confidence and I think helped the model feel more at east.  Some how, though, Sparky ended up being a prop in the photoshoot...which was fine by me.

Color my world

Today I started to check something off the big list of things to do for my 100 days off. See I'm in this weird phase.  On the one hand, I'm motivated to hit that list hard and get through it. On the other hand I want to be sure to stretch it out so I have plenty to do. 

I'm afraid on two fronts.  One I won't have enough to do come August. The other that I'll procrastinate so well that nothing will get done.

And so today I got started.

I've been wanting to organize a few of my scrapbook items. I fall victim all too often of buying things because I don't think I have them and turns out I not only have them, but I have them multiple times.

My first goal was to organize my colored brads and grommets.  I've collected these over the years and a few years ago went berserk at a scrapbooking convention and ended up with more than I'll every use.  They were all nice and organized once, then I dropped the two containers and all was lost.

I've "suffered" for a couple of years now and today sat down to the task of separating them by type and then by color.

This was what they looked like before.

A mess!  Whenever I was looking for a type or a color I'd have to dig through these boxes and try to locate what I was looking for.

After 4 pain-staking hours I finally got them all organized. My fingers certainly don't work on small things like they used to. Sheesh. Some of these little buggers were tough to get a hold of...not to mention them flying all over the place if you drop one.

Don't say I need an intervention. I've long since thought that.  And sadly this is only ONE part of all the stuff I have for scrapbooking. I still have fibers and paper to organize.  I may need more than 100 days.

As the day goes by...

Day 4 of Jenn's Excellent Summer Vacation.

I noticed this morning when I rolled over and realized it was the latest I've slept in for a very long time (8am) that my alarm clock won't have to be set for several months.  Granted there may be days when because of early morning volunteering or something I might need a little assistance, by and large the alarm will be set to off for three months.

I can't remember the last time I left my alarm off for some many consecutive days. Even when I was unemployed last year I set my alarm because I didn't want to get out of the habit of getting up and having a routine.  I don't feel the need for that this time around.

SSIL, Blueberry and Princess Lori all came over tonight for some scrapbooking.  Chattering is what we really got done.  If you can imagine, I'm the quieter of the bunch.  SSIL and Princess Lori both went to the same high school a couple of years apart. They reunite and tell stories every time they get together. Its a hoot to listen to them.  I managed to get a couple pages done while we all chattered away like hens in a hen house. 

Made a kick a** casserole tonight though. I'll post it on the cooking blog tomorrow. Chicken Tortilla Casserole. Super easy and really tasty. I even kept some out for *gasp* leftovers tomorrow.

97 days and counting

I know I probably shouldn't do the countdown because the 100 days will be gone before I know it. Come September I'll be marveling at how fast the time went. Mark my words.

The first official day of work that I didn't have to go to was today.  It felt oddly normal.  I'm sure it won't actually kick in for a couple of days. Today just felt like a three day weekend that only I got off.

I was up shortly after the birds.  It goes something like this.

The sun peaks over the hills.
The birds wake up.
The cat wakes up.
I wake up.

If only I could stop the birds perhaps I can stop the cat and therefore sleep in. But who am I kidding? "Sleeping in" to me is until 7:30. 

As I was mentioning, I was up at the butt crack of dawn and busy almost immediately.  I had two loads of laundry done by the time 10am rolled around.

The rest of the day was full of lunch with a girlfriend, followed by grocery shopping for the week and ending with a massage from ChickenLady.

Not too shabby of a first day off.

Tomorrow will be way more boring. I plan on getting started on one of the many projects on my list.  Then SSIL and Blueberry are coming over for scrapbooking and dinner.  Chicken Tortilla Casserole tomorrow night. YUM! I can hardly wait.

I had an odd flash back memory tonight. After I fed the cat and headed up stairs to the scrapbook room to write this blog, as I topped the stairs a strange smell/feeling came over me.  The upstairs in the summer gets warm. And as the evening cools off there's there odd smell/feel of the day slowly being chilled down.  I can't really explain it, but it shot me directly back to so many summer breaks where I'd be off doing something and come home to mom and dads house. As I'd climb the stairs to our split level house, I'd get that warmth, comfortable, feeling from summer nights.  God I love that.

Sunny Sunday

Before you ask, yes the top was down.  It was 66 when I left this morning and I've gotta tell ya....it felt like 52 in Sparky.  The breeze sometimes is a wee bit chilly. Nothing a good turn of the heater knob couldn't fix though.

Great lunch with a bunch of girlfriends today. It's always so nice to sit and listen to stories of other folks and realize we really are all in this together. As bad, or as good, it is, there's always someone there that may need a little helping hand from time to time. And some girlfriends are right there with their arms extended. Girls rule!

Blueberry wasted 2 hours and 21 minutes today painfully sitting through the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Thank heavens Johnny Depp is as talented as he is because frankly he was the only reason to see this block BUSTER. Sub plots that don't make sense, characters that just aren't developed and all my favorite characters not part of the movie.  In the end it was great to spend time with Blueberry and some damn fine popcorn and diet coke...but am very thankful these tickets were two for the price of one.

Tomorrow will be the first official day of work in which I won't be going to work. It feels weird even now sitting her not fretting about what to wear to work tomorrow. Tomorrow's wardrobe will most likely be jeans and a t-shirt.

Saturday...in the park...

Wow! Seattle at its finest today. The bright yellow orb was in the sky and the temperatures hit 80. At least Sparky's thermometer said 81 - and Sparky wouldn't lie (Sparky's the new Stang in case you missed that.)

Today was the first day of the 100 day break.  Didn't seem any different from any other Saturday.  Same chores, same time devoted to reading, same amount of time in the car running errands. I'm sure this "break" thing won't actually set in until Wednesday of next week...give me a couple of days not working for it to really seem like I'm on break.

I bought a new vacuum today. My old beast wasn't really cutting it anymore. I'd have to go over the floor multiple times and even then it wasn't really sucking up dirt.  It sucked alright, but not in the way a vacuum should suck.

So I saw an infomercial on the Shark Navigator LiftAway and knew I had to have it.  Bed, Bath and Beyond had it and I had me a 20% off coupon courtesy of Blueberry.  Bright and early this morning, I as at BBB and bought myself the vacuum.  Came home, put the beautiful lavender machine together and got to work.  I vacuumed up the entire house AND did the edges of the rooms. The ending result was some beautiful looking clean carpet and a canister full of stuff I just don't want to think about.

After the vacuuming adventure, I meandered to Costco to been Boss1 (we'll need a nickname for her soon).  I managed to get in and out of Costco for under $100.  I was on a reconnaissance mission to find out what certain things cost and to determine if buying at Costco and storing them was cheaper than buying them when I needed them.  Jury's still out on that.

Later this evening I couldn't resist the call of the open road.  I had to get in the convertible and take a drive. I drove around Lake Sammamish and marveled at how awesome it is to have a convertible. 

The Hardest Part about Ending is Starting Again...

Wow, that 9 months went by quickly.  I started this job in Sept 2010.  During the interview process I knew instantly I wanted to work with this smart and funny women.

Thankfully they wanted to work with me too and they hired me.

I thrived in this environment. Everyone was so pleasant and so appreciative of the work you were doing.  I felt valued and felt that my work meant something. At last!

They valued me so much they've asked me to come back after my 100 day break.  I'm thrilled. And can't wait to come back and jump back into work.

It's a weird thing to really like your job and like coming to work every day.  It had been a long time since I felt that way. When I first started at CM in 2007 I loved my job. Then things shifted and I didn't so much like it at all.  I tolerated it because 1) it was a pay check and 2) I liked most the people. 

And now I sit poised to spend an entire summer at my leisure. I have my ever growing list of things to do and am only slightly apprehensive about being without daily social interaction.

So for now I'll say farewell to my job...and let it know I'll miss it. But come Sept 12th I'll be back.