Saturday, February 28, 2009

Back to the Office

Back to the office I headed this morning, although in a much different fashion than yesterday. For one the pupster was going to be joining me (hey, if I'm working on weekends, I'm taking the dog) and secondly I decided I might as well wear my slippers (again, if I'm working on weekends, I may as well be comfortable). So here we sit, I in my slippers and the pupster with her bone...

Friday, February 27, 2009

The Difference A Day Makes

We have a rather large event coming up in early March. A rather large event that has had enough difficulties to make up for at least 10 other events. Yesterday I was to the point where I wanted to throw my computer across the room rather than read another e-mail about another person that wanted to change something they had changed 10 times, or hadn't changed when we asked them for any edits, a question from someone who only had that question because they hadn't read the 18 e-mails we sent them all which explained the answer to that question, a renig on an agreement to do some aspect of some part of the planning, or course this renig coming usually 1 day after anything could be done by someone else and thus falling squarely on Anna and my shoulders... the list goes on. Suffice to say if it could go wrong it was going wrong. And yet, we had to persevere.

So today, I got up and put on my comfy 'get ready for an awful day at the office' clothes assuming this morning I would find more of the same. However, either we have moved beyond the point where anything can bother us anymore, or we finally are really on an upswing because today was brilliantly uncomplicated. Everything we got on e-mail seemed funny rather than frustrating (like a speaker giving us to the last detail how he wanted something printed...apparently he didn't get the memo that state government doesn't have state of the art equipment) or the e-mail about the site our one demonstration might take place being right outside a jail and whether there were issues with contraband being snuck inside the jail through the walls in that area. I mean really, does everyone deal with this in a normal day? So, whether it was the Cadbury egg that I ate last night to start off my evening and get rid of the day, or the fact that I truly have reached the point where I might as well laugh because otherwise I will cry - today all the complications just don't seem all that big of a deal.

Anna and I made a list of all the things that need to be done between now and the 9th...it's 2 sheets long and each involves a number of steps, but hey, we've got a week and two weekends, and THANK GOD I have her to help me - otherwise I really would be curled up in a ball under my desk!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Global Warming Protest

This picture made me laugh so hard I cried this morning. A recent global warming protest...

Please click on the picture so it opens up big and look at the snowmen faces. You'll get a good ab workout with the laughing :)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Cute pup

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Makes you want to stay home from work and hang out with the pupster.

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

The Oscars are about to start - I'm pulling for Slumdog Millionaire. We just watched it on Saturday night, and it was AWESOME! Best movie I've seen in a long time in fact, which in my estimation means it should win lots of Oscars :)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

A New Day

Thanks to a cheesesteak for dinner, 14 hours of sleep last night, and a piece of quiche and banana nut latte for breakfast, I am feeling much like a new woman. Now onto writing objectives for my program at the national level, finishing up the flowchart of the state and federal wetlands permitting process, and then if I have time organizing information for the tech fair portion of the 2 day event we are coordinating for March.

I realized upon coming in this morning that by the end of today I will have worked 3 full days worth of extra hours this week. This interestingly enough coincides with 3 full days of sick leave I had to take last week. The moral of the story: I may have the sick hours to take, but I don't have the days of work to lose. So much for keeping down the unpaid overtime hours this month. I'm calling it a wash and starting over on my efforts on March 12th once all these events are over! I have at least managed to not plan anything post March 12th in the past 3 months, so I am doing much better at overcommitment this year. I wish I wasn't so horrible at it at the end of last year!

Friday, February 20, 2009

It's Amazing...


You may have guessed that I was a tad bit busy this week, judging from my total lack of attention given to the blog. It's been a crazy week of working on holidays and weekends, needing to stay late for evening workshops, and on top of it all I don't really think my body is totally over this cold since I still feel completely exhausted come 4:00 (not at all convenient when you have to facilitate a meeting of crabbers until 8:30).

But, it is in fact Friday, and while I think I'm going to have to work tomorrow in order to be ready for my meeting next Tuesday, I am starting to finally see the sun through the clouds. About 10 problems that were stacked between me and the Tuesday meeting have slowly been cleared (some by sheer determination and persistence, others by nothing short than the grace of God), and I get to go home tonight directly after work (first time all week!), and lay on my bed and read a book...although more than likely it will unfold more like - go home, lay on my bed, fall asleep. But either way, this week is nearly behind me and with the exception of a few other issues that are out of my sphere of influence, as they say, I can't complain. And, since it's out of my sphere of influence I'm doing nobody any good by complaining, so no need!

So, happy Friday everyone. I hope you have as wonderful a night sleep as I will be having!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Nothing is Certain Except Death and Taxes

I finished my yearly duty of filing my taxes tonight. I have two bones to pick with the world, and contrary to the bones people normally pick this time of year it has nothing to do with how much I paid. In fact it's quite the opposite.

Bone 1: It's really not that hard. I don't fully understand why people act like it's brain surgery. You make a certain amount which gives you how much you paid in taxes up to this point. You are allowed to claim a certain amount of deductions as defined by the numerous tax papers, or as easily determined by the 20 questions you play with TurboTax (or the like). And you subtract those two numbers. Why that is considered confusing is beyond me. Now if you are trying to get out of paying the taxes that are due perhaps it can become confusing - lying tends to work that way. But if you are just reporting what you paid, what you'd like to not pay on and subtracting the difference it's really not that tough. And you can pay someone a nominal fee or do it yourself with a little help for a nominal fee just to make sure you do it right. So, in conclusion, my first bone to pick with the world is stop complaining about how difficult taxes are - just tell the truth and pay the difference.

Bone 2: It's really not that much. Now, this is obviously a subjective statement, but let's take me for example. Sandor and I payed a bit over to $5000 in taxes this year (yeah we don't make a lot as you can see). After deductions we got about $2500 back, which means jointly we paid about $2500 to the government in the course of a year. Now, honestly, you cannot tell me that in one year we did not use our fair share of roads built using that money, or live in a land protected by an army paid by that money, or live in a country with strong environmental laws all supported by that money...I could go on. Is $2500 really all that much to give my government every year? Now I realize that if I make more I'd be giving the government more, but it will be the same percentage, give or take a bit. Even a the highest tax bracket it is really not that high of a percentage if you look at other countries. And if you are in that high tax bracket you are probably one of those people that pays someone to find ways for you to not pay the government (which in my opinion is just a legal way to lie, but I'll hold off on going into that for now). I personally feel that if you look at what you get for the amount of taxes you pay, most people will see that at the very least you got something - which is more than what you can say about a lot of things in the world we pay for...like insurance for instance.

I'm certain that I'm going to get a whole lot of complaints about my oversimplified view of taxes but in reality we can learn a lot about how worthless our complaints are if we simplify things every once and a while, rather than trying to discuss every single exemption and possible outlyer. Just pay your taxes and then get involved in the political process by which our country decides how to use the money it takes in. And as a side note if you didn't pay them last year or aren't paying them this year I feel you have very little standing on which to complain about how the country's money has been/will be spent.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Quote of the Day

Anna: What is that sound? Is it your computer?
Me: No it's the air conditioning coming out of our vents.

Quick Point

I get the whole - 'we need a stimulus package' thing. Ok. I don't necessarily think the government should be bailing out companies who have been making decisions with their own interest in mind for how many years, but I'll get over it and say that I see we are making decisions based on the big picture. But, PLEASE, do not treat me like I'm an idiot. Did you hear the 'post agreement' interviews yesterday. I don't remember who it was but she said 'We are excited that it is only $789 billion'. Really? You are excited by that? Please don't try to tell me that $789 billion is not a lot of money. I am not an idiot. Last time I checked that is a whole LOT of money!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Chocolate Test

There have been a few, albeit, far between notes that I'm about out of the woods on this sickness thing. First, I could actually lay on the couch without falling asleep for the entire day - I know amazing! When it reached 3:00 and I was still feeling good (aside from the random hacking up a lung attacks), I decided that the pupster deserved a well earned reward for being such a good companion and cuddling with a feverish, infected mom for hours on end. So I took her to the dog park, where I determined I could infect few humans being that it was outside and there were all sorts of germs where mine could get lost in the crowd. At the end of Kaylinn playing in the dog park I realized she desperately needed a bath. So, off to the dog bath store I go (I realize some of you may think it's absurd to pay $10 to bath your own dog, but you clearly have not tried to bathe your dog in a tub very often. Lifted tubs, spray handle showers, and they give you the shampoo, conditioner, towel and a dog treat to boot). Anyway, I dropped the clean pup off at home with Sandor who had just gotten home from work and was very happy to see me somewhere other than the couch or the bed, and headed to the grocery store.

Second sign - I vaugely noticed smells. I'm pretty sure that I could smell mangos, and I also think I definitely smelled cheese. While grabbing the items my mom instructed me to start my stomach off on having been food free for 3 days (bananas, rice, and applesauce in case you were wondering), I also determined that Sandor needed a reward for dealing with my sad state of affairs and purchased him some garlic roasted bread. I also meant to get him Guiness, but then got caught up finding the applesauce and forgot until I got home (he did go out and get some afterwards because he was so excited that he could buy it on the household card - we run a strict ship here in credit card pay-off land).

Third sign - when I reached in the fridge to put away the groceries I actually felt what I vaugely remembered as being hungry. And then, the chocolate chip cookie dough that has been sitting there since this weekend and looking totally unappetizing actually looked good. This is what I call the chocolate test. For me, there is little in the world more wonderful than chocolate - chocolate pie, chocolate cake, chocolate candy bars, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate pudding, chocoate fudge, chocoate ice cream...you get the point. If it's chocolate I love it. So, when anything that includes chocolate does not make me want to eat it I wonder what is wrong with me. When something that includes chocolate actually turns my stomach, I know I'm very sick. And when it looks good again, I know I'm back to normal.

So, I do believe that between Sandor's taking care of me, my pupsters willingness to lay around all day, Ela's superb sinus massage yesterday, and my mom's advise on what to and not to eat, I am in fact back in the land of the living. Next test - making it through an entire day of work!

Note to Work...

My note to work pretty much sums up how I'm feeling...

Well, I am definitely feeling much more like a human being this morning, and was thinking about coming into work, but am a bit concerned that with the cough I've now developed I'd be walking along the possible thin line of giving this thing to everyone else. In good news - the runny nose is gone from the weekend, the fever is gone from Monday, the headache and achiness from yesterday is WAY better, so now if I could breath without coughing we'd be quite set. I'm also going to attempt to branch out and actually have something other than saltines, noodle soup, and hot tea today. It would be quite cool to actually smell again - I never realized how unappetizing everything is when you can't smell it. I don't even want to eat chocolate (yes, I know, that is a MAJOR sign that I'm REALLY sick). Apparently my body wards off sickness extremely well, but when it does get it, it goes all the way.

I really hope this ends soon!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Sad state of affairs

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..when this is the most delicious thing i have ever tasted. Sickness does crazy things to you.

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Chuck E. Cheese - Take 2

Brandy and I are busy scrapbooking this weekend. As always we are in our own little world of eating horrible food for us, talking about all kinds of random things and taking breaks to take the dogs out or find something else to eat. I am presently working on a page of Brandy's birthday last year when we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I was trying to figure out what to name the page and was thinking of naming it 'Flashback'. Brandy said 'I bet mom has pictures of us at Chuck E. Cheese when we were little'. All of the sudden I realized that I thought I had a picture in my stack of random pictures from when I was little. I ran back and low and behold - there is it! AND back then they used to put the date on the back of the picture - which is March 1984! Which means, the picture was from Brandy's 3 year old birthday party! THIS is why I love pictures - and thus scrapbooking!

Circa 1984

2008

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Pathetic Face

Ms. Kaylinn has to go to the vet today. She is making this weird sound when she sniffs or breathes really hard. The interesting thing is she isn't acting like it bothers her at all. I mean I realize there is a whole evolutionary process that leads to animals not acting like they are sick even when they are so that in the way past they didn't get picked off by attacking predators, but she is pretty good at the pathetic face when it's just Sandor, me and her. Take for instance Saturday after the dog park when we took her to get a bath - you would have thought we were spraying her with acid water...

She does look awfully pathetic when she is not so fluffy too, so that may add to it :) By the way, I have no idea why she likes to stand up while I'm spraying her. She does this often. I think the thinks she is somehow going to be able to climb up the wall. One thing I've never understood is why to dogs act like a bath is so horrible. You are in essence getting a whole body massage in warm water. Especially a specific pup who loves the water so much that no matter what the temperature is when you go to the dog park she is off to play in the pond within 20 minutes. Anyway, a few more minutes of work and then off to the vet for me!

Dressing for the Weather

It's 28 degrees with a wind chill of 13 degrees. Not crazy cold for a better portion of the east coast, but pretty darn cold for Charleston. I rewind you to my brain as I was getting dressed this morning...wool sweater - check, wool socks - check, long underwear - check.

You may ask - why are going going out in the field on a cold day like today? And I would answer - oh, I'm not going out in the field, I'm just going to sit in my office, which generally feels like sitting outside. For some reason they haven't figured out how to work the heating and cooling system. Personally, I don't really see how it could be all that difficult, but I guess apparently it is because on a regular basis my neighbor office is like a sauna and in my office you can almost see your breath. Today when I walked into the office I was pleasantly surprised to find heat coming out of my vents - which you might think would not be surprising. But for some reason it's quite normal for air conditioning to be blowing in the winter, and then just to mix it up the heat is on in the summer. You know, got to keep us guessing on how in the world we are supposed to dress!

My favorite part is that they did an 'energy audit' and one of the recommendations was for staff to 'dress for the weather'. Interesting - last time I checked long underwear were not a common item of need in sunny South Carolina, more of something, say...you'd buy if you were CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN! Oh wait, that is why I own them. Right, so it makes sense that I'm supposed to dress in wool sweaters and long underwear while my office neighbor should dress in short sleeves and shorts...in February. Makes TOTAL sense. Here is a few recommendations - find someone who knows how to run a heating and cooling system, don't run air conditioning in the winter, and don't run heat in the summer.

Ok - well I need to get back to reading e-mails so that I can put my hands in my pockets and warm them up. Happy Wednesday! (LOST is on tonight, which significantly improves my mood).

Monday, February 2, 2009

And That...

While I was taking a little internet break after dinner Sandor did the dishes for me...and that ladies and gentlemen makes me feel loved. Amazing how someone doing the dishes makes you feel more love than them handing you a dozen roses...funny how humans work :)

Venus and Mars

This weekend my pastor was preaching about the differences between men and women and the fact that we each feel loved in different ways. He pointed out a number of biological difference between men and women, the one which I found most entertaining to be the difference in our need to talk. Apparently on average women feel the need to speak about 50,000 words per day, while men only speak about 10,000. And when Harvard did a study of how much husbands and wives felt they needed to spend talking to their spouse to keep a healthy relationship women averaged out at 45-60 minutes per day and men averaged at 15-20 minutes per week! Talk about a difference!

So, tonight I'm standing in the kitchen getting dinner ready and Sandor and I are chatting about the day. He gets an adjustment and massage on Mondays and I've noticed over the last few weeks that he will come home after work, hang out for a while, then go back across town to the chiropractor, which is located about 5 minutes from his work. I found this strange but I kept thinking there was a reason for this behavior so I never asked. I haven't' yet been able to find a reason, so for some reason I asked him today if he ever thought of moving his chiropractor appointment up so that it was right after he finished work. He looked at me for a minute and said 'no, I guess I really didn't'. I absolutely thought he was joking since I don't really see how that idea NEVER crossed his mind. But he assured me it did not. Really? This is something that just boggles my mind. When I have a few errands to do it doesn't cross my mind to NOT plan out the most efficient way to get them done. Perhaps it comes with the territory of running 95% of the errands in addition to working every day, but really, it's just amazing to me.

Now I'm certainly not saying that every male in the universe neither talks a lot nor runs errands in any kind of ordered or thought out fashion, but it is interesting how different people can be and that just cracked me up as an absurdly obvious one. It also made me laugh after having just had that conversation and then looking down at the garnish that was going on our chicken tonight. I had to make it in two different bowls because I hate olives and Sandor is not a huge fan of avocados. Apparently they like avocados in my section of Venus and olives in Sandor's section of Mars.
By the way, it was another one of those 'Convenient Meals' from Real Simple and it was delicious...and took me 20 minutes!