Giving

Thanksgiving is upon is. Just over a week away now.  It is my second favorite holiday (following Halloween).  Facebook is busy with all sorts of friends doing the 30 days of Thanks. Basically every day telling the world what you're thankful for. It's an opportunity to really think about what you've got and be thankful for it.

I think there's a second have to the holiday the giving part. The holidays are a great time to think about what you're doing to give to those less fortunate. 

60Minutes did a special on The Giving Pledge.  This is the program Warren Buffett and The Gates came up with to ask the wealthiest of people to give away half their wealth.  These are billionaires who have pledged to give away half... HALF of their wealth.

I was looking at the list of those who have signed this pledge and am impressed with the  names on it. Further I'm impressed with what half of all their wealth means. That's an extraordinary amount of money to give to a cause. And their causes are worthy.

This time of year I re-evaluate my own giving campaign. I have an allotted amount of money a year I'm happy to give to a cause. A good portion of that goes to the Breast Cancer 3 Day.  The other amounts go to some local animal shelters.  Yet every year I take a look at where else I could give my donations

I am, by no means, talking about the amount of money the billionaires club is, and I know I could probably give even more. I like to think, though, that my little donation makes a difference.  And that's what it's all about. Every little bit helps.  My small donation could be the one that puts an organization over the top in finding a cure to cancer. Or it could be the donation that means an animal shelter stays open another year.  Either way, I'm happy to give.

I wish I would have been more giving in my younger years.  I was barely able to keep myself from going into significant debt (and I was living beyond my means).  Still I gave a little every now and then, but nothing planned or organized.  Now, I'm thankful to be in a place to give on a regular basis.  When I'm retired and living on the street, I'll still be glad I gave to organizations in need.

My other giving that I do this year is to food banks.  I truly think food banks need our help year round and I really should be giving to them year round, but truthfully I forget.  Every time I go grocery shopping I buy those already put together bags of groceries for $10.  I figured through the two months I probably end up donating about $100 of groceries. But again, that $100 can make a huge difference to some families.

So while you're giving thanks for what you have this Thanksgiving season, take some time to do a little giving too. You never know who you'll save.

Living Room Make over

It's done. It's been 5 years in the making and its done.

I've never been happy with the way the living/dining room has been put together. It's never felt cohesive or put together.

The room is difficult to arrange. Part of it is a "formal" dining room and the other part the living room.   I decided when I moved in that the "formal" dining room would become the living room squared. It just made no sense to use it as a dining room, I already had one in the kitchen.

The room is longer than it is wider and one wall is ALL windows. It gets great lighting regardless of the weather - which is good for Seattle people.  The other side is split in half by the hallway to the kitchen. So arranging the furniture is challenging.

I hired a young interior designer to come in and help me figure it out. Her suggestions were simple and easy to execute:

1. Rearrange - giving me specifics
2. Paint the fireplace wall with an accent color
3. Put up curtains

She later came over with paint samples and curtain samples. I followed her lead with the rearranging and paint yet deviated slightly with the curtains.  Her suggestions for the curtains were awesome, but I went the less expensive route.

 

Sadly I didn't take any "before" pictures like an idiot. I had planned to and thought I had, but I sure can't find them.  I have photos of the painting process but that's not very interesting.

All in all I'm extremely happy. I love having curtains - as do the kittens. They both helped tremendously - not. Linus in particular loves the curtains. He likes to hide behind them and then attack sister.  One of the curtain panels sits above the heat register, when the heat goes on it moves the curtain and that's game on for Linus.

My next step is new furniture. I really want a chocolate brown couch and pattern matching chairs.  I don't need new furniture, but really want it.  I figured in a year I'll have new furniture.  It'll take me that long to figure out what exactly I want. 

So I'm done for now. It was quite the learning lesson when it comes to hanging curtains, but it was a relatively inexpensive make over and one that really made it feel more homey in here.

Can't wait for the next Sunday dinner to show it off.

The Elderly

Well I completely missed yesterday and almost missed today. This writing every day is hard. But at least I'm trying, right?

This is my grandpa Spaid.  I barely know him. I mean I knew him, but I don't know him at all. I couldn't tell you what he did for a living. I couldn't tell you what his favorite color was or what his favorite food was.  I know he like to tinker in the garage, and I know he drove me around on a banana seat bike in Albuquerque some hundred years ago.

What I wouldn't give to be able to have a conversation with him or any of my grandparents now. The elderly really are lost on children.  The questions I would ask any of my grandparents as an adult are plentiful.

What was your first memory?
What was your first love like?
What was your first car?
Did you go to college? What did you study?
What did you do for fun in high school?
Where did you travel? Where did you want to travel?

And the list goes on and on.  When I was young and I spent time with the grandparents I didn't want to know those boring old stories. And today, I'd give anything to sit and chat with any of them.

I think about, too often, what they would think of the world today.  If we plucked them out of the time in history when they were, say in their 30's, and put them in today's world. What would they think? Would they be sad for us? Or would they marvel at the technology? Would they get headaches from all the information thrown at you? Or would they take it all in?

Its dawned on me recently that while we may "know" our family members, do we really "know" them? Do you know what you're brother's favorite color is? Or your mom's first car? So many questions. So many stories. I need to start asking those questions.

An Early Start

I've been waiting to blog until I'm ready for bed (and hopefully something exciting will happen by then) and I usually get to tired to blog.

Today I'm breaking that pattern and writing early. You're so lucky.

Since I started this new job back in August I've been trying to get my PM muscle to work again.  Not doing traditional PM work for three years made me a bit rusty. So I started rereading a few books I had to get me back into PM mode.

Then I stumbled onto this book on Amazon called the Project Management Memory Jogger. It's a little pocket guide and it gives you the briefest of reminders and tips and tricks.  I got it yesterday and sat down and read the entire book.  It's a 200 page book that's about the size of a 3 by 5 card.  Easy read and it sure helped flex that muscle again. 

My current manager is strong minded when it comes to PM work.  She's so involved in the details and she is so knowledgeable that she sees things I don't see.  I feel a bit inadequate when she shows mentions a risk that I missed.  Feeling that way is what prompted me to find a quick reference guide.

Rereading all the information about the phases really unlocked the PM vault in my noggin.

That coupled with answering PM questions for the classes of the Pantry Goat.  I've been answering their PM questions for about a week now and I love every minute of it. They are asking some very good questions and I am doing my best to be as honest with them as I can. They're young, potential PMs and are like deer in headlights.  I've been trying to explain to them that real life is not at all like the classroom environment. Thankfully.

In other non-related PM news, my living room is almost complete. I should get the last of the curtains in the mail today and get them hung. Once that's done, and I swap out the other curtain rod, I'll take photos. Cuz I know you're dying to see it.

Oy

Minimum blog requirement tonight. Sorry folks, I'm beat today and can't think of anything witty and intelligent to type tonight.

You're Gonna Hear me Roar...

Yes, Katy Perry is stuck in the noggin tonight/day/week.  I heard this song tonight on the way back from dinner and I said, out loud, "I sure haven't felt like I wanna roar in some time."

That's an interesting statement to me. I couldn't figure out where that had come from. I didn't think I felt that way. But alas, I think my inner self had something it wanted me to think about and so spewed forth.

It's true I haven't felt so fantastic in the job front lately. I keep missing things that I shouldn't miss. And I hate that the boss brings them up and looks at me wondering how I could have missed it. I need to really focus again. I half wonder if it's because of working at home. Not having the stimulus of hallway conversations, or the actual "going to work" process to keep you on a regular schedule.  I need to noodle on this a bit more before I put a fork in it and call it just a rambling of some old fart.

Speaking of old farts, tonight was our monthly dinner club with the landlords. Mr. Landlord had a birthday yesterday and I wasted no time reminding him just how much older he is from me.  With a smile of course. He said he feels no older than he did on Sunday.

We went to a Puerto Rican place here in Redmond called La Isla. I've been there a couple of times

Logo courtesy of La Isla

and have had fantastic food. The first time having a Cuban...oh that was a religious experience. The second time I had Ropa Vieja - another experience to be sure. Tonight, not so much. I had their bistec something or other and the steak had the texture of a piece of meat that had marinated in an acid too long.  You know what I mean right? The meat just had this not quite right texture. Flavor wasn't there either.  I had it with a side of garlic and butter shrimpees.  I should have taken a photo because the amount of garlic on these four poor shrimpees was insane.  The taste and flavor was there, but the shrimpees were over cooked.  Chewy and rubbery. Needless to say I wasn't impressed this time.  If/when I go back, I'll stick to the Cuban or the Ropa Vieja.

Project Management by any other name is herding cats

Its true. Managing projects can be directly correlated to herding cats. I thought I had all my cats together in a nice pin only to find out one escaped.

I consider myself a good PM. I am best at planning and not so great at the execution phase. I tend to lose interest in this phase because the PM doesn't do much but watch the schedule...at least its been my experience. So sometimes during the execution phase I get lazy. And lazy almost always means a cat escapes.

A cat escaped today. And I had to scramble to get the cat back with the rest of the herd.  It was not a fun day in that regards.

In other non PM related work, I put the living room mostly back together. I still need to hang three curtain rods: two will be easy by myself, the third one will take me and a small army.  I'll get that done this weekend - hopefully. Then my new  living room will be ready for all. I can 100 % guarantee there will be photos posted here.

One of my goals this year was an outlandish goal to read 53 books. That's one a week. Last year I read somewhere in the mid-40's so I figured I could do this. I'm a couple books behind and I really don't think I'm going to make it. But dang it I'm gonna give it the old college try (where on earth did that phrase come from?)

In my attempt to read 53 books I included that at least 5 of them had to be what I call "worthy" books as in not a romance novel, vampire novel, or any other teeny bopper book series I find myself reading.  Two of those needed to be PM books so I can add them to my PMP on going education profile. I'm 6 weeks out from the end of the year and have YET to read the two PM books.  I just ordered two from the library so I can get myself started. My luck they'll both be 1000 pages long.

Speaking of long books, this month's book club selection is from Blueberry (side note: Blueberry broke her toe this weekend while helping me paint. Its a long story and only Blueberry could break a toe while painting.). She picked The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I've read this book. I read it a couple of years ago. And it's a long book.  I got the book from the library and started reading...and it's as if I never read it. I swear it feels like a new story to me.  I wonder if I should be worried about my memory. But then I figured maybe the book didn't warrant me remembering. yah, that's it.

Ok. I've done my daily blogging and now I've got to go read. TTFN.

November Sunday Dinner

So this month's Sunday dinner was different than normal. No one could really make it except Blueberry. So we decided to make a day of it.

She came over early, we had breakfast and we came home and painted my living room wall.  I've been wanting to make some changes and painting was an easy update.  So she edged and I rolled.

You can't really tell the color so well in this photo, I'll get more later this week when I have the place put back together. Painting is sure a process.

While we were painting I had ribs in the oven.  I was making my favorite Smokey Indoor Ribs. Our plan was to take dinner to BigBro and Seattle SIL.  He's still battling the chemo/cancer/oxygen thing so we figured if we brought him dinner he wouldn't have to move.

So Blueberry and I finished painting, finished putting the ribs together, loaded them, the mac salad, ice cream and potato salad into the car and off we went.

It was good. I mean finger licking good.  It was nice to get caught up with BigBro and SSIL - a true Sunday dinner.

Nearly Speechless Saturday

I know, it's actually Sunday, but this blog is going to count for yesterday. I did it, just didn't hit the publish button.

My plan was to just post a photo - taking a page from BeagleBabes "Wordless Wednesday". Because I forgot to hit publish I now have to explain it's for Saturday and well, this isn't very speechless.

Who? Me?

Oh George

Look at me .. 8 days of continuous blogging. Weird.

So today I had a very odd experience that has had me thinking all afternoon.  First I walked over to the gym, which is, by itself, amazing. But on my way home I was thinking about stopping for a coffee. My mind was else where, but I noticed an older gentleman across the street just sitting in his wheel chair. I glanced over and didn't register right away that something might be wrong. But you know when you see something and it takes your mind like a second longer to register?  Yah, that's what happened.

I noticed this gentleman with his head down and slumped over in his chair. He looked like he was sleeping. Beyond that though he didn't have a jacket on. And that's what got me looking a second time. Something wasn't right. So I went across the street to check it out.

The man did appear to be sleeping. I shook him to see if I could wake him up. Nothing. So I dialed 911.  All I could think of was I hope he's not dead.

911 dispatched the EMTs. They pulled over, hopped out of their rig and one of them said, "Oh George." Clearly they knew this guy.

Apparently George escapes from a care facility up the street on a regular basis.  He's not really working mentally at full capacity and often just leaves and gets lost. Scary! The EMTs said he doesn't usually go too far and they do generally track him down.  Again, scary. 

The got George talking, mumbling really, and loaded him into the back of the ambulance. The EMT thanked me for calling and said most people wouldn't have.

And you know, I think he's right. We're often so caught up in our every day lives that we may not even bother.  I just think what would I want to have done if it were my dad, or anyone I know and love.  I'd want someone to stop.

I recently read or heard that there's a phenomenon that often happens during accidents, crimes etc.  No one does anything because they think someone else will. That has got to stop. We have got to start looking out for each other. Trusting each other. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a good truster when it comes to someone I don't know offering to help me, but I think I need to learn to let that go and just trust people are good.

I'm sure George is a good person and would appreciate a person helping out.

The Curtains are in

I totally feel like a grown up now. I have curtains. And they look good.  I'm surprised at how different it makes the room feel. But they're up and now I just have to decide on a paint color. Mrs. Landlord was over tonight and veto'd the color I wanted, so now I have to settle for something else.  Which is fine. I don't own this place, so I guess it seems fair.

In other news, can someone tell me what cats INSIST on putting their toys in their water dish?  Its been going on since the kittens moved in.  For some reason this week it's happening more and more.  Almost hourly I can walk into the kitchen and there will be two or more dead toys floating hopelessly in the water dish.

I, of course, searched the interwebs for answers.

One site suggests that cats do this as a claim of territory.  By placing a toy in their water, the cat is claiming it as their possession because it is within their territory.

Another suggests its security. "Some cats have the urge to secure their toys in an area they consider safe, which relates to the desire of wild cats to secure their prey from other predators. Because they see their water dish as their territory, they consider it a safe location for storing important items, such as their toys."  Huh. Who knew?

Yet another site suggested they were seeking attention. Um, I'm pretty sure my two cats are not seeking attention. They get more than enough and if they say otherwise, they're lying.

None of the sites offered any suggestions to stop this behavior. It really doesn't bother me they do it. Its just that the toys are so gross after spending hours drowning...oh hey maybe they're drowning their prey. 

Right. I'm off to bed, and likely off to rescue another toy mouse from the waterbowl.

A List by any other name is still a list

I think I've mentioned before, but I'm a list maker. Sometimes I have lists for my lists. 

Along with being a list maker, I'm also a prolific note taker - especially at work.  I carry a notebook around with me that I jot things down in and may or may not go back to it. But it's there should I need to "remember" someday.  Especially as I get older I've noticed I tend to write more down then before. Writing stuff down helps me remember - its a win win.

BeagleBabe recently sent me this link for the Bullet Journal.  Given my type A personality, my prolific not taking, and my love for lists, I fell in love with this idea. Go ahead. Go take a look. I'll wait.

You may not have been as awestruck as I was, but let me fill you in on what I've now done with this bullet journal idea.

The idea in general, I love.  Unfortunately, I'm not as busy of a person as one might need to be for this process to be useful - at least in my personal life. AND I'm a big fan of Microsoft OneNote for work and didn't want to carry around a notebook with notes, but use OneNote instead.

So I modified OneNote and it's tagging to be kinda like the bullet journal idea.  OneNote already has predefined tags for things like a check list (check box), a question (question mark) and something important (red exclamation mark).  A little poking around in OneNote and I found that you can modify these tags, and add tags they already have. So I went to work.

I took the Bullet Journal's basic ideas of bullets for events, information, tasks. That was the easy part. The part that was more difficult was the "moving a task forward" tag. But alas, OneNote has a ton of tags and I found an arrow pointing right that would suffice. Here's what I ultimately ended up with as my top 9 tags.

I also changed my monthly project list / sync with the boss layout.  Previously I had a table in OneNote that listed all my projects down the left side. Then in a column to the right of each project I would write notes based on my sync with the boss.  I've discovered that having dates associated with notes were needed. My boss would frequently ask when we chatted about something and without any date indicators I had no idea. I have a list for each month, so I could tell her a month, but not a specific date.

So I modified my table slightly. I now have the dates of our syncs down the left side. Across the top I have a column for each project/task/discussion point.  During each sync I make sure I write out what our conversation was, my actions based on that and any other details I may need.  Let's say, for example when discussing the budget today she says, "I'd like you to review the budget with me on X date." I can now go to the cell that is the budget and the date and put myself a note that says to prep to speak to the boss about the budget.

Here's a small example.

I've used this for a month now and it has gone a long ways with keeping me focused, on task, and efficient.

I know that organization is extremely personal.  What works for me won't work for everyone, but I thought I'd share my new process in case it can/does help someone.

Now, I can scratch writing today's blog off my list.

Happy Birthday Mom

 

That's mom and me.  Aren't we cute? 

Today's Mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, but suffice it to say she's still quite young.

 

This is Mom and her mom when her mom brought my mom home.  That was a few years ago. She's grown a bit since then. Grown into a great mom. A caring mom. A loving mom. The best mom.

 

If only we were that skinny now!  And wow...do we look alike?

 

I've discovered through the years that my friendship with my mother is something I should be very thankful for. I have so many friends that don't have relationships with their moms. And never really talk to their moms.  I couldn't imaging not talking to my mom every day or every other day. We're best friends.  She's who I turn to when I need advice and I'm who she turns to when she needs the same.  The older I get the more our advice has sounded the same.

 

So here's to you mom. Happy Birthday! Here's to another 66 years. (oops)

Daily Blogging...oy vei

So this blogging every day for the month of November is difficult and it's only the 4th day!  I have (quickly doing the math) 26 more days to write. I'd better get cracking on ideas.

Blogging, originally, started because I lost a bet. I had anticipated I would write this blog thing for a couple of months and be done with it. It's been just over 8 years. EIGHT years. How on earth have I found anything remotely interesting to write about for 8 years?

I'm a reader of blogs too. I read many, many blogs.  And of all types of topics. Most of the blogs I read are focused on a topic. Some, like mine, are just general writing about what's what in the life of a blogger. (nd I use the term "blogger" loosely.  I have an interest in the blogs that are a specific focus and I marvel that these bloggers can write daily about one topic.  I tend to have too much ADD and can't focus on one topic...oh look a butterfly.

I have documents upon documents started with blogging ideas. Most are my rantings and ravings aren't really worth a blog, but writing them out does make me feel well. There are some that I'd like someday to bring forth into this blog, but today's not that day.

I like that blogging also helps me remember when I do what.  On more than one occasions I've had to search the blog for a date for something I've done.  Thankfully the important stuff is usually written about.

The other thing I used this blog for is to reminisce. I sometimes like to go back and read what I was doing several years ago at a specific time. For example, what was I doing in 2006 on Nov 4th? Curious aren't you?

Well look at that, I've written another blog about blogging about nothing. I'm so good at this. I should keep it up.

Picking Paint is hard

I am not an Interior Designer. Far from it. I can match scrapbook paper and embellishments with the best of them, but beyond that - its the reason I wear black pants every day. Easy to match.

The Interior Designer gave me two options for paint. One a cool and one a warm neutral brown. Both look so different in the different lights the living room gets. During full sunshine I like the cool brown better. During the over cast I like the warm.

Blueberry was over yesterday and thought that neither would look good on the full wall nor would it make the fire place pop like it should. So she looked at the color swatches and talked me into going to get a sample of the next darker shade of the warm colors. Its called Portebello. Which is good cuz I like me some portebellos.

We put it on the wall and both determined we thought it was the best shade.  I think I'm sold.

Photo taken from the Internet

This isn't my room, but it's basically the color. I really like it and can't wait to paint.  I plan on painting next Saturday - then Sunday is Sunday dinner. The great unveiling of the new rearranged living room and the newly painted wall.  Maybe, if I'm lucky, the curtains will be here too. 

In other news, I've started searching for hotels in Rome for our cruise next April. OMG...there are so many.  I think it's still a better idea for me to go through a travel agent to find a hotel and airfare for me - hopefully they'll know more than me.

A Curtain Tale

I'm not sure if I mentioned, but I've hired an Interior Designer. She's a young gal just starting out and is inexpensive.  Anyhow, she and I have chatted a couple of times and she's provided me with some color ideas for painting the living room.

When she first came to my place she was amused immediately by the kittens.  It took us an hour to just get to my wants.  My big problem is my living room is designed to be a living room and formal dining room.  The thing is, I have too much living room furniture to have two separate rooms...AND I don't need a formal dining room. So, I've opted to make it one big, long living room. 

To add difficulty to the long room, one wall sorta juts out a bit.  So its not a straight line, which makes rearranging difficult.  I've rearranged it a couple of different ways but never really felt comfortable.

The ID made some great suggestions and I took her up on it.  Last Monday Mrs. Landlord helped me rearrange and I love it.  It feels a bit more homey and connected. 

So 1 for the ID.

The second thing she suggested is to paint the wall my fireplace is on a darker color. I've chosen neutrals because I'm not quite that bold when it comes to color.  She gave me two options and I loved them both.  Then Blueberry came over and when looking at the color card she liked a shade darker than the one I already have a sample of on my wall. So off we went to Home Depot today for a sample...and I love it.  The ID may not approve, but I like it.

The third thing she suggested was curtains.  I'm not a fan of curtains generally speaking, but I'm also not a fan of blinds - which is what I have now. You can't clean them no matter how hard you try. So curtains it is. 

I didn't want the old ugly curtains that have a pull string to them. I like the newer looking ones that have huge grommets that slide through a pole.  So Mrs Landlord, Blueberry and I went to Jacque Pennies today (JC Penny's in case you missed that) and we found some great curtains. AND they were on sale.  They're on their way now.

Now all I've got to do is paint and then hang curtains and finally, I hope anyhow, this place will feel a bit more cozy. Photos of before and after, of course, to follow. Though I forgot to take photos of how this place was arranged before I rearranged it. Too bad...

Don't forget to fall back tonight. One extra hour of sleep. Woo Hoo.

Day 1 of blogging every day in November

Stop laughing. I'm going to give it a try and see if I can (as the Patron Saint said) "stretch my blogging muscle" and see if I can get back into the swing of it. 

It can't possibly be a lack of interesting things happening in my life.  THAT is for sure.

I can tell you what I have no new updates about:
1. Relationship status
2. Cats
3. cooking stuff

What I do have to tell you, ain't all that happy.

The MomUnit called last night to let me know my brother-in-law is in the hospital after having a seizure at the doctor's office.  After a CAT scan they found a mass in his brain. As of the conversation last night, that was all we knew.

Today we know its an arteriovenous malformation. Yah I had to look it up too. Its basically something he was born with - and one never knows until something happens (again I say, I think I need to go get a full body scan). Anyhow, it's basically a tangle of arteries and veins. It affects how much blood and oxygen the brain gets.  It sounds serious, but not life threatening to me. They'll do surgery to remove it and THAT is serious. To me anytime you start messing with the brain and a sharp knife ... it's serious.

BigBro seems to be getting by. He's now finished 4 chemo treatments and it seems to be getting worse before it gets better. Seattle SIL said that apparently that's how it goes when cancer is in the lungs.  Great. Last time I saw him his spirits were just ok.  He's not his normal self (who would be) but I'm hoping he fights this with every fiber of his being.

In exciting news, I selected my excursions (and paid for them) for our cruise in April. I can't WAIT for this cruise. It's definitely a once in a life time type of cruise and I'm planning on taking full advantage of it.

Don't be jealous...

I need to start doing some research on our stops and really decide if these are what I want to do.  According to Norwegian I can change these on the boat if I feel I want to. I doubt I will, but one never knows.

Okay...I'm outty for now. Gonna head home and finish out the work day with the kittens and a big cup of coffee.

Happy Dia de los Muertos everyone!!

Happy Halloween!

I think the scariest thing I could do today is actually blog.  I start blogs on a regular basis then I get distracted (ooo a butterfly) and I never go back. Today though, I'm committed. I'm going to finish this blog. 

Presently I'm sitting in a lounge in bldg 121 at Hotel Californiasoft waiting for a meeting to start.  This lounge has some interesting things going on with it. For starters the room is lined with chairs and couches. A couple of round tables are placed here and there. But the best part is in the middle of the floor (the middle of the lounge) is where the plug in is. So right now it kinda looks like a big spider with about 6 plugs coming out of it. Appropriate I think.

Since we last spoke, I've done a few things...at least I think I have. Last Saturday, for example, Sparky and I headed north to Bellingham for my friend P's Harvest Dinner. He has them every year and every year I seem to be doing something else. Finally I put it on the calendar and the fates got me there. Boy am I glad I did too.

Meet Mr. Prime Rib.

P drives all the way to Twisp (at least a 5 hour trip for him one way) to get the meat for this meal. And let me tell you, probably the best prime rib I've every had. Sooo good.

I met a ton of his "friends" and found them all amusing and entertaining. I'm going to have to make this an annual pilgrimage to this dinner.

Let's see what else...oh yah, the Pumpkin Carving Sunday Dinner.

Oddly enough most of us did the traditional pumpkin face this year. In years past we've had a little bit of everything. This year I think we were all too tired.

The Landlords brought their two little puppies and so the kitties wanted to play and/or eat them - I'm still not sure. Linus was all shades of interested in them and what they were. In fact, if you look close you can read his mind. He's asking, "can we keep them mom?".

So that's about it for me. I'll do my very best to be more updated on this blog. It's just that I don't seem to have the motivation I used to. I need to find it again. I miss you guys.

Working from Home

When I first started working I used to think traveling for work would be awesome.  Then I realized when you travel for work you don't really get to see the places you travel to.  It's usually fly in and fly out.

As I got older, and technology got to be what it is, working from home became all the rage.  Back in the day when I was at CM I used to wish I could work from home.  The days I did get to work from home, I found I got quite a bit done.  I would work longer duration of hours, but still get in my 8 hours - and get laundry done and what not.

Now I have a dream job and I get to work from home.  I'm discovering it isn't nearly as glamorous as I once thought. Oh yes, it's definitely fun and cool to roll out of bed and basically start working with minimal effort - simply brushing my teeth, brushing my hair and washing my face.  Not the entire effort to "get ready" for work and then commute.

Here's what I've discovered about working from home that never crossed my mind before.

1. My heating bill is higher.  I used to set my thermostat at 65 and let it stay there all day. The heat would turn up by the time I was home. Now I turn the heat up upon getting up in the morning. The heating bill with therefore be higher.

2. No laundry. I never really have to wear my work clothing - a couple time a week and that's it.  I change my clothes every morning into work out clothing - assuming I'm going to go work out - some days I do, most days I don't. So while I still have to do laundry, it's not nearly as much.

3. No socializing.  Turns out the cats won't actually talk back to me.  I miss having drive by conversations with work peeps. I find I'm eating more lunches out in order to have some type of adult conversations that don't include the phrase, "Don't eat the rug."

4. Sleeping in.  Back to the not having to get ready or commute thought, I also get to sleep in for those very reasons.  If I want to start work at 7:30, I merely have to get up at 7:15, not the 6:30 time I previously was waking. More sleep means I'm not as cranky.

5. Procrastination. Oh man, when you are working from home and things get slow, it seems it's easier to procrastinate during the day. I figure, sometimes, I can work later in the evening if I need to run an errand during the day. Putting off temporarily the work I need to get done. The work still gets done there's no doubt about that.  It just may not get done during the normal working hours.

6. Gas. Working from home means I don't commute much, as I've said. Which means I'm saving $$ by not filling Sparky up as often. Though one could argue that going to lunch more isn't saving $$ or gas. 

7. Not feeling well. The other great advantage of working from home is when you don't feel well. I've been fighting a cold this week and it's been nice to not have to go into work and potentially share my germs.

So at the end of the day, I am enjoying working from home.  It definitely has it's advantages and disadvantages, but at the end of the day, I'm loving my job and the circumstances around it.

Finally Friday

Wow. hi. Remember me? Again, I come to the blog begging for forgiveness for not writing as much as I'd like.  Its funny really because I have a list of blog topics that I'd love to write about, yet every time I sit to write about them my mind goes blank.  I do a lot of thinking/writing as I'm falling asleep at night and by morning I forget.  Me thinks I should get a recorder to have by my bed so I can chat into it my thoughts.  I already have a journal, but that's proved useless.

Anywhoo....

Let's see, what has happened since the 3day...not much but enough to chat about.  Stealing a page from The Patron Saint's blog...you get a list.

1. One of the most exciting things I've done is "hired" an interior designer.  She's a young gal eager to use her skills and is quite inexpensive.  I've always had this inner dream of having someone come in and decorate my place. I can scrapbook and match colors with the best of them, but doing it in my home I just can't do.

She and I met, we discussed what I'd like to accomplish and off she went. We'll be meeting again on Monday to chat about her suggestions for my living room. I can't wait.

2.  Working from home has it's ups and downs. The up is, well working from home. The down is I miss all the social interaction with working in an office. The way to fix that is to go to lunch with friends.  I seem to now be going to lunch several times a week.  I find it somewhat amusing that by working from home -where fixing lunch would be easy - I am instead going out to lunch. Whereas when I was in the office, I ate at my desk more often with food from home. 

3. I spent a day wondering around Ballard and the Seattle Public Library with my friend Meg-A-Roonie.  She and I met for lunch at this BBQ joint in Ballard called Bitterroot BBQ.  Decent food but one helluva spicy bloody Mary.  I think my lips are still burning.

It was raining that day, and was one of the last days for the Ballard Farmer's Market. So we strolled the market and finally decided it was too wet.  Off we went to the Seattle Public Library. For like the first time ever I won't post photos of the event, but please do go check them out. 

4. This months dinner club selection was mine to make.  I'm a big fan of the restaurant Purple here and found the owners opened a new restaurant near by called The Commons.  Figured it would have the same quality food as Purple.  I would not be disappointed.  While the service was questionable the food was delicious.  I highly recommend checking it out.

5. Crab hats are going to be on the prowl this weekend. We're heading to the Mt. Rainer Scenic Railroad for our next adventure. I'll keep you posted.

So there you have it. A list.  I'll try to get to blogging more, but I can't be responsible for myself apparently.

Happy Friday.

PS - actually posting this on Monday since the interweb was giving me fits on Friday.