And the winner is...

...Aldo Leopold! Yes, that means nothing at this moment, but let me explain...

I love to read. I had actually forgotten how much I loved to read when I was in grad school because I had to read so many papers for my thesis that I never had a chance to read anything not related to dolphin strandings and/or physical oceanography. About a year after I moved to Charleston I picked up a book and suddenly realized I had totally forgotten how great it is to get lost in a good book. I've been back on my reading kick since then, with a few months here and there when I get too busy and don't have time to read the book by my bed before falling asleep. I was on a roll with some really incredible books all in a row a few months ago - Eiger Dreams, The Kite Runner, Miracle in the Andes, Into His Likeness, The Chronicles of Narnia and Gardenias for Breakfast. I then entered one of those overwhelmed, 'it's all I can do to keep my eyes open while I'm walking to the bed let alone once I hit the pillow' months.

I came out of it a bit unsure where I wanted to start. I have this pile of books that people have given me to read or that I've found somewhere and thought they looked interesting, so this weekend I picked one off the pile and started reading. By page 10 I was totally bored and not in the mood to push my way through to the point I got interested. So, I picked up the next one - same thing, only this time I gave up after page 5. I'm generally not one that gives up on books, because I usually find you can get into them eventually and it's worth the read. But, this was not one of those times I was in the mood to force myself to get to the part that drew me in. So I moved onto book 3 - again, totally uninterested, I tried a few different times throughout the day and finally gave up.

At this point the weekend was over but Monday morning I had a dentist appointment which generally necessitates having some reading material for the waiting room so I grabbed book number 4 and headed out to see if perhaps I had a winner. And low and behold I did! Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. This has been one of those books I felt like I should have read a long time ago (like Origin of Species, which I have also tried to start about 10 times and never made it past page 20), but never got around to it. It happened to be next on the pile, and I am SO GLAD IT WAS! It is incredible. When I read the first two sentences of the forward I thought I may have been in luck..."There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot." Looking good, I read on and suddenly see everything that I see in my job but don't know how to explain written out in his forward - I haven't even made it to the book yet! ..."like winds and sunsets, wild things are taken for granted until progress began to do away with them...our bigger-and-better society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its own economic health as to have lost the capacity to remain healthy."

Ironically enough, I got called into get my teeth cleaned before I ever got to the first chapter, so I was very excited last night to start reading again (which is my meter of a good book - how fast I rush through dinner so I can start reading). I am completely in love with Aldo Leopold. I now see why he is so famous and why this book is a major staple in the environmental movement reading. The first part is a description of each month and what is happening in the woods when he goes for a walk. I'm sure it sounds horrid for people who 'can live without wild things' as he puts it, but it is wonderful for people who love walking through a forest and hearing the sounds of the leaves under their feet. His descriptions of animals is great - it has a bit of the personification thing you aren't supposed to do in the pure scientific world so as to make it not feel like a stuffy text book, but enough of the details to make you not feel like you are just reading someone's diary. "Further on I find a bloody spot, encircled by a wide-sweeping arc of owl's wings. To this rabbit the thaw brought freedom from want, but also a reckless abandonment of fear. The owl has reminded him that thoughts of spring are no substitute for caution."

So, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Mr. Leopold for the next half hour until I really need to turn off the light and go to bed. Happy reading!

I love my city

You never expect the top of a parking garage to impress you until you live in Charleston. Now if we could just get rid of the humidity...

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Realities Collide

I'm walking down the hallway at the conference last Monday chatting with Kim about something when I hear 'Walker!' Now, I haven't been called Walker in quite some time, but old habits die hard, so without even thinking I turn around. And there is Petrone. We used to refer to these moments in college as 'realities colliding' - you know when you are in one world and someone from a totally separate world is there. The world that Petrone represents for me is the wonderful summer in Lewes where I also met Andrea and Stacy (of other blog entry fame). Andrea and I are together so often now that I don't get thrown back into Lewes reality when I see her, but with the exception of a dinner last year when Petrone happened to be in Charleston for a meeting I haven't seen him in probably about 7 or 8 years. So needless to say my response was 'No way!' after which we both cracked up laughing. It was awesome! Funny enough, he's been keeping up with my blog so a bunch of the catch up on my end was much simplified (yeah blogs). But, it's much more fun to catch up in person, and as opposed to our few hours of dinner last year, we had 3 days at the conference to catch up. Granted there was a conference going on and we both had 'our people' that may or may not be hanging out in the same spot but we worked it out.

So, some background. In the summer of 99 (yep, way back then), Petrone, Andrea, Stacy, and I - along with another 6 or 7 people - had a summer research internship at the University of Delaware. This involved moving to Lewes, DE for the summer, working during the day and hanging out in the evenings. Different internships handle housing differently, but the way DE handled it was by having us all room in the dorms at 'the wonderful house of Henelopen' - otherwise known as the dorm building that sat just outside the gates of Henelopen State Park. In addition to our internship there were a few other people staying in the dorm, so in all I think there were about 15 people living in the same house with no air conditioning for 3 months. Andrea and I happened to be roomates, and became fast friends with Petrone because he happened to work in the same lab as Andrea. It wasn't long, however, before everyone was good friends because come'on you are living in the same house and there is not much to do other than get to know each other - and it didn't hurt that we had the greatest group of people EVER! No really, Petrone went to graduate school at Delaware and he said the interns always sucked after us - I mean granted, maybe we are a little biased, but whatever.

I really don't have time to write out all the stories to explain how great the summer was, but let's sum it up by saying it still ranks as one of the greatest summers of my life - and I don't see if ever dropping off that list. I may live to be 100 and I will still list the summer of 99 as one of the best. And then what was nearly as entertaining as talking to Petrone all week was looking through my pictures when I got back to pick out some to scan in to post. This is why I scrapbook - I can sit for hours and look through pictures because they all have a story that I may have forgotten until I look at the picture and suddenly remember every detail.

Petrone and Tracy with the leftovers of a pinata parrot - this picture ALWAYS cracked Andrea and I up so it was what I was actually looking for when I pulled out the book

Andrea and I back before the 'real world' began :)

Jude, Andrea, Petrone, Kara and Stacy in the kitchen of the wonderful house of Henelopen

this picture for some reason also always cracked me up - I have no idea what the 3 of us were doing but I definitely lost if we were trying to see who would laugh first

a good portion of us on an evening trip to Ocean City - I rode the whole way there on the top of the three people in the back of the car I was in

this is one of those pictures I was talking about that reminds you of a memory you don't even remember having - we ran a 5K that summer and I somehow totally forgot until I saw this pic

this picture also had me laughing becuase for some reason Tracy and I were dancing in goggles - who knows at one point the heat and humidity made us go crazy I think :)

Ah, what an awesome trip down memory lane! I'm sure that there are few people who would enjoy those pictures as much as me, but perhaps they at least entertained :)

Lost in the Woods

As I mentioned I'm in Savannah for a conference this week. Kim and I were very good and got up Tuesday morning to take a run before talks started. We ran through the historic area which was great, but today weren't really feeling doing the same run. So, instead we decided to head out to a state park on Skidaway Island since we had a huge 3 hour break in the middle of the day (I'm not used to conferences that give you more than 5 seconds to breathe). So, we jumped in the state car and headed 20 minutes south to Skidaway. We decided to grab some snacks and gatorade at the Target we saw along the way because we realized we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and we hadn't drank any water the whole day. By the way, I REALLY hate when bottles of water cost $2 and the tap water tastes like chlorine (not kinda tastes like it, it' tastes like you are drinking from a pool).

When we get to the park we find out much to our delight that Wednesdays just so happen to be free entrance day (go us!). The map informed us that there was one trail that was 3 miles, and a second trail that was 1 mile. Feeling motivated we choose the 3 mile trail and head on out for a little run. The trail was nice, we saw a deer, some skinks, a cool red headed woodpecker (which happens to be about the only bird I can identify thanks to it's very obvious red head), went up in the observation tower, saw some historic spots that they had marked out and made our way very easily back to where we started. We then noticed a sign that took you over to the other trail, so we figured, what's one more mile, let's go for it. So we decided to stop the running, and instead just take a nice leisurely stroll over to the next trail and around that loop. We walked over to the next trail, which was pretty cool because the path between the two trails took you through very different areas of the maritime forest (yes, I'm a scientist, shut-up, I don't even know what to call it if I don't call it a maritime forest), so we saw different types of plant communities which is cool in a short walk, and came eventually too the marker for the other trail.

And this is where the trouble began. We start down this trail. The other trail was very well marked so we figure this will be the same. We come to a sign, I notice the trail to the right, I notice what may be a trail to the left, but it's not very obvious, so I figure the one to the right is the real trail and the one to the left is probably a little side trail thing. We continue to the right. Not too long after we start discussing how we feel like we are walking in a circle. Figuring I'm just getting thrown off by everything looking more or less the same we keep going...only to find out we were in fact walking in a circle and have come back to the trail marker we started at on this trail. So, I realize the not as obvious trail to the left must have been the one we wanted and figure we'll be fine from there - no reason to walk back the mile to the other trail when we can just walk a half mile back to the parking area on this trail. So we go back on the trail we were just on and make a left where we made a right before.

We're walking, and we come to a sign that shows the exit is to the right...so we go to the right. We're walking, walking, walking. We come to another sign. Now at this point I'm a bit concerned. There was that sign that said exit, but now this sign has no such promise. Plus, from where we are I can't really tell if the right or the left would take us to our intended destination. We figure we should go left because of the way we think we are walking around the loop, so we turn left. We're walking, walking, walking, and start discussing the fact that we are possibly never going to get out of this park, and come to another sign. Now we are totally confused. We don't understand why a loop has so many splits and so many signs and so many not exit signs. So we pick a way and go with it. Shortly thereafter, we of course arrive back at a previously visited location, turn around and choose the other way, and continue moving. We then arrive at another previously visited location. So, we turn around take the second to last opposite direction turn and get ourselves into a new portion of the "loop".

Now you are probably thinking. You two are idiots, why can't you find your way around the 1/2 mile loop. Well, the next time you are in Skidaway you go for it - it's not as easy as you may think! Kim and I are quite good at walking in woods, and have quite good sense of direction. In fact I've determined trying to follow signs was our downfall.

So, we're discussing the fact that while we like the woods it would be great to see some impervious surfaces seeing as how we've got a conference to get back to. We eventually come to a little bridge that is looking promising, continue walking, and low and behold, have FINALLY returned to the parking lot. A quick hop, skip and a jump down the road and we gladly return to our car 2 HOURS after we left it. Yes people, 2 hours. Thank God for the Gatorade, and the fact that we parked in the shade so the Gatorade wasn't disgustingly hot.

Well at this point we still haven't had lunch, we're 20 minutes south of Savannah, all gross and sweaty, and the talk start in 30 minutes. We called Maia to tell her our story, she finds us a pizza place called Spanky's (yeah, we were thinking it would be a good weird...it's was more of a weird weird), we eat ourselves some pizza, take a quick shower, and catch the last talk of the day.

Quite an adventure...and all in the span of lunch!

Shotgun

I'm in Savannah at the moment at a conference, so not much to say, BUT, before I left Jason had me cracking up with a story about last weekend when he went to buy bio-deisel and took Ellie with him. He went into pay and the guy looked at Ellie and said "She has pretty eyes. You're going to need a shotgun." That's it. No laugh, no joke, dead serious. Cracked it up!

Now Really...

I think that perhaps someone is playing a joke on me this week to see how far I can be pushed before I lose it. This is the conversation I had moments ago with a representative of an anonymous lunch place (that just so happened to me mentioned in my last post):

Me: Hi, I'm calling to get a receipt for an order I picked up on Monday. There was no receipt in the bags with the lunches.
Woman: What is your name?
I answer
Woman: What is your organization?
I answer
Woman: What would you like to order?
Me: No, I'm not calling to make an order, I'm calling to get a receipt for an order.
Woman: What is your organization?
I answer
Woman: Can you hold on a minute?
Me: Yes
Woman (after me holding for a bit): Yes?
Me: Excuse me?
Woman: What is your order?
Me: I'm calling for a receipt.
Woman: Oh, I can't find it.
Me: Well, I'm going to need it in order to have the state pay you.
Woman: Well I'll look for it and call you if I find it.
Me: What if you don't find it?
Woman: silence
Me: Is there someone I can talk to if you don't find it?
Woman: Yes, (and gives the person's name)
Me: When is he in the office?
Woman: Oh, he is right here.
Me: Well then could I speak to him.
Woman: No, he's in a meeting.
Me: Well, then when could I call back to speak to him?
Woman: In 5 minutes.
Me: Thank you

Now REALLY! That is just not a normal conversation - or at least normal people should not have to sit through that conversation. So, I shall now call back and try to get a receipt so that I can pay for lunches that weren't made when they were supposed to be, so that I can put one more thing on my desk away today.

Embracing Possible Disaster

Yesterday I learned that I have in fact entered the 'seasoned' event planner land. If there is one thing I've learned while planning events it's that something will ALWAYS go wrong. It's probably why wedding planners go crazy because they know something is going to go wrong and they know someone is going to be mad at them thinking it's their fault. The problem is, anyone who has planned events will know that most of the time the problems encountered are not at all the fault of the person planning - you can plan things to perfection and SOMETHING will still find a way to go wrong. I've learned this fact and I've dealt with this fact - yesterday I embraced this fact.

Let me start with a quick run down of what I do - most people I know still don't really understand what I do so don't worry if you are one of them. On the outside I'm a glorified event planner, but much much more goes into planning environmental outreach because they are not your standard - you stand there, she stands there, kiss the bride, and we're done. Instead, I have to first find out what a community is dealing with regarding environmental issues (this in itself is a process), then I need to find a few topics that can be informed through some kind of workshop (not all issues lend themselves to being fixed through more information - that is one fact that is painfully clear after working here for 3 years), then I need to better refine what it is about that topic we will have a meeting on, who will speak and what they will each cover in their talks, if there will be any sort of field trip, demonstration or activity to help people learn the concepts, whether we will be providing lunch and if so where it will come from, what sort of expertise groups will be invited, where the meeting can be held, how the room should be set up, what resources should be there to help them, who is actually attending, who said they were attending and are now not attending, who didn't say they were attending, but are in fact attending (registration is a royal pain in the butt by the way), finalize the agenda, make an evaluation, make enough copies of everything that you have enough but not too many (since you never know who is going to back out at the last minute, or randomly decide to come), pack up computers, projectors, cameras, coffee stuff (way more important than you may think), food stuff, drink stuff, activity stuff, extra pens and tape and anything else you may randomly need that day, and finally get all of that to the place you are having the meeting, provide appropriate introductions for the speakers, provide appropriate segways between the speakers, provide appropriate information for anyone who randomly asks, while at the same time dealing with all the last minute random stuff like not having enough trash bags, or having a weird sound in the room, or someone needing to make a call somewhere. Is that a good enough description? And mind you each of those things has it's own list within that - which makes for a pretty sweet to do list on my desk when I have 5 of them in the next 6 months.

So, back to me embracing possible disaster yesterday. As I mentioned there is always something weird that happens. For instance at the first meeting I ever hosted I made coffee with saltwater because I didn't realize that the location had saltwater intrusion and no one bothered to tell me - thus poor Al had to stand at the water fountain (which had the only fresh water in the place) filling cups to pour into a 20 cup coffee maker while I started the meeting and assured people that freshwater coffee would be ready soon. Another time a tropical storm happened to hit 2 days before the event and washed out the road that went to the event site so we had to send out an e-mail to have people park at one spot and we took them in cars with 4 wheel drive to the location. Another time we were doing a dune grass planting demonstration and the people that were selling us the dune grass changed the prices and I was supposed to be paying 2000 dollars for vegetation - yeah that would not have gone over well with purchasing. You get the picture - random, and you never know what it may be.

Fast forward to yesterday. Nicole (she does the same program in the northern part of the state and we are both doing this seminar this week, so we are helping each other out on the day of) woke up at 4:45 so we could shower and head down to where the actual meeting was in time to set up and have people arrive between 8 and 8:30. On the way down we needed to stop at Jason's Deli and pick up the 65 boxed lunches - getting these lunches was their own fiasco because of purchasing requirements and what can and cannot be bought with certain processes, and who can and cannot make lunches since the meeting was kinda in the middle of nowhere. Jason's Deli had made my day the week before when they agreed to both accept a purchase order, and allow me to pick up the boxes at 5:30am. So, Nicole and I head on over and as we are pulling in the parking lot I say 'hmmm, it doesn't look like anyone is there, maybe they are in the back'. Nope, they were not in the back, they were not in the kitchen, they were no one. NO ONE was there. So, it's 5:30am, and in 3 hours 65 people are going to be at a meeting an hour and a half drive away expecting that at lunch time they are going to be fed. And this is when I realized that I had handled a few disasters in my short time of meeting planning - I said to Nicole 'Well, let's go, we've got to set up. I'll figure out who can bring us lunches once people wake up and get to work. You want to get coffee from Dunkin Donuts?' No panic, no 'I'm going to puke', nothing, just a very calm 'keep it moving' attitude trusting in the fact that somehow, someway it was going to work out.

After 5 calls to various people once it was a reasonable hour to call people and 5 voicemail messages, I finally talked to wonderful wonderful Kim who agreed to pick up the lunches and drive them down to me which would get them there right around 11:30. Unfortunately around the time I finally talked to Kim and knew the lunch situation had been dealt with, I had to start the meeting and not all my speakers had yet arrived. Again, it's one of those moments where you just go with it and assume it's going to work out in the end. I did the introductory 15 minute talk and handed it off to our first speaker who had a half hour. The next speaker was not there yet. Neither was the one that was supposed to go after him - which means that I couldn't just slide her up to his slot and keep things moving. No the way it looked we were going to come to a screeching halt 45 minutes into the workshop. So, I sit and wait. It's 9:15 and no speaker, 9:20 and no speaker, 9:25 and Billy is taking questions and no speaker. And just about the time I'm thinking - well, I guess we are going to take a coffee break and see if Berry can talk early my speaker pulls in. They apparently stopped for breakfast on the way - wasn't that nice of them. So, I get the next set of speakers up and at 10:15 reach the morning break. There is something about the morning break where if most of the issues have been solved you know that it will go ok from here - I'm not sure what all the problems happen between the times of 5:30am and 9:30 am, but I'm telling you from experience that they do. The break ends, I introduce the next speaker, and the next, set up the panel that will discuss regulation stuff. The lunches arrive - Nicole helps Kim set them up, Kim runs out and gets me more cups, the panel goes great. We break for lunch, come back and the final speaker starts, Nicole and I break down lunch boxes and organize the front for the end, we do the planning activity and people are really into it, we finish up and they fill out evaluations, we get congratulations on a job well done as they go out, clean up, pack up, and drive back to Charleston.

And at 5:00pm we sit on my couch and each apple pie while discussing the fact we have to do this all over again on Thursday...hopefully without the missing lunch and speaker issues...but I'm sure it will be something!

A little patience goes a long way

As they say, patience is a virtue. We really wanted to buy a digital SLR camera with our tax refund, but we decided instead to pay down some credit cards. Then we really wanted to buy it with our stimulus check but instead we paid off some medical bills. Both times, however, we put a bit in savings so that eventually we would build up our savings to be able to buy said SLR. I figured it was at least 6 months off, most likely up to either Christmas or the next tax refund. HOWEVER, last week I saw that Costco had a deal on the Nikon D40. I originally thought we'd get a Canon because I have a Canon film SLR and so I thought we could just buy the camera body and use the old lens. This deal, however, was the Nikon body, the normal lens, a zoom lens AND a 2 gig memory card - all for cheaper than the Canon body alone. Needless to say we were really happy we had waited and watched the deals - and we are even happier that we are now the proud owners of an awesome camera! We broke out the tripod my dad got me when my parents bought me the film SLR and Sandor is at present wandering around taking pictures of everything with different shutter speeds and different apertures and different lenses. It's great fun!

O' Beautiful, For Spacious Skies

As promised pictures from the Red, White and Blue party...

some tomato prep work

a bit of fun in the pool

the table of deliciousness

Sandor blowing out his citizenship candles on Holly's awesome cake

the cute Ellie saying goodbye

the Kaylinn child slowly getting tired of licking faces and stealing/begging food

sweet little Emily looking cute

The Week Is About to Begin

Once I make it through tomorrow I'll have a whole lot less on my mind. I'm ready for the Wetlands meeting I hosting to be over. After a few weeks of work today I'm feeling much more prepared, which is good. Yesterday's Red, White and Blue party was great fun. My camera's battery was dead (yeah I'm brilliant) so I'm waiting for a friend to send me some pictures and then I can show you the fun that was had by all - swimming, eating, watching kids be entertaining, and Sandor wearing a tall felt US flag 'Abe Lincoln' hat. Then we finished the evening off watching Coming to America compliments of Andrea and Jack's present to Sandor. We also watched some Schoolhouse Rock that Jason and Holly just bought. They have a whole section of 'America Rock' that was quite entertaining. For some reason I totally missed Schoolhouse Rock when it was on TV, however, most people at the party remembered watching it when they were kids. Quite entertaining!

Energy Level

I sure am glad this week is over...oh wait I didn't actually get everything done at work that I needed to get done before the seminar I'm holding on Monday so my week isn't actually over. Well that isn't cool. But before I get to that I need to clean up the house and cook food for Sandor's Red White and Blue party that we will be holding here tomorrow. Ah, the energy level is just not looking good!

SYTYCD

I have a confession to make - I am a total and complete sucker for reality shows. Yes, I know it's ridiculous and I am glad that I only have the channels you can get with an antenna so that it curbs my reality show options, but it's true. For some reason they are absurdly addicting for me. Survivor, Amazing Race, Big Brother, Hell's Kitchen - they have all had their run of me watching. Thankfully I'm not addicted enough that I have to watch every season, but if I start watching a season at any given time I generally end up watching it the rest of the time. My new reality show obsession...So You Think You Can Dance - known on the website chat rooms as SYTYCD. It's one of those talent shows where people try out for a position in the top 20 and then America votes for who they want to stay each week. The cool thing is everyone has their own type of dancing, but they are required to partner with an assigned person and dance all different genres of dance - which in my opinion is why it's pretty cool.

But onto the point of the post: The reason I know what it is called on the chat rooms is I went on their site yesterday to figure out what a t-shirt 3 different people were wearing meant. I learned two things on this chat room. The first is that in the grand scheme of the world I am not obsessed with SYTYCD or any other reality show - these are the people who are obsessed with it. Wow. I have been known to go onto the LOST chat rooms from time to time to read different theories, but that show is based off the idea that there IS a plot, and that you can figure the plot out if you are smart enough. SYTYCD is not. It's a glorified talent show people. It is great entertainment, but it is certainly not worth hours of my time chatting about who I think is going to be voted off and whether I think the judges are being mean, and who is my favorite and why. It was a nice reality check to make me realize I am far more normal than I was coming to believe after watching three hours of reality TV this week. The second thing I learned is that there are some very (how do I put this nicely) not bright people out there. The t-shirt I went on to investigate said 'IV Real'. That's it. So I saw a chat thread that was titled IV Real and I clicked on it to investigate. There were a number of people asking what it meant and then someone answered 'well IV is the number 4 in roman numerals so I think it means For Real'. Ok, idiot, I got that much. What I'm wondering is what it is - a company, a website, a new celebrity 'I give money to poor people so I'm great' thing. But, when I thought that person was not bright in that they felt the need to explain it there was further down a person who said 'oh, I didn't get that'. As they say 'not the sharpest tool in the tool box'.

I guess I can only expect so much from religious watchers of a reality dance show :) If you'd like to see what are in my opinion the coolest dances so far on YouTube: Bollywood Dance - an Indian dance - very cool. Bleeding Love - I think this was a contemporary dance. HipHop Routine - obviously it was Hip Hop based on my title :)

Some "Stay-cation" Highlights

Seeing as how I'm just now downloading all the pictures from the past month, I figured I would throw some cute ones from my 'stay-cation' as Jason termed it. Well, the stay-cation did turn into a vacation when we drove up to Pennsylvania, but for the most part is was a nice relaxing down-time at home.

did a little tomato sauce canning - we had some last night, and it actually turned out tasty!

hung out with Ms. Emily at the pool - actually Andrea and I hung out in the pool, Emily found things to eat, like trash and the pool chairs

headed to Pennsylvania with 3 people and 2 dogs - yep Brandy got the sweet spot in the back

actually this wasn't from my vacation week - this was from this week, but I thought it was cool - we went down to Botany Bay to do shell counts before they are all gone (the DNR board decided not to make it a no-shelling beach) and the sunflowers were in full bloom

Sandor, the citizen

For those of you who have not heard as of yet, Sandor became an official citizen on Tuesday. Yep, just in time to the celebrate the 4th...and vote this November! He actually took his test a few weeks ago, but went in to say the oath on the 1st, so that is the day it's official...

The Joys of Paperwork

I keep thinking that the next day, next week, next month is going to be less crazy than this one...and guess what, it's not really working out that way. At work I actually had on my list of things to do 'catch up in June' - well June has come and gone and I'm none the more caught up. In fact I'm further behind. I went through a stack of papers on my desk yesterday in an attempt to start the process and there are things from March that I haven't done yet! Ahhh - that's what I get for making a stand and not allowing myself to work 60 hours every week. Well, we might be doing a few long weeks here until I get caught up because I can't work in such craziness! Today, I have decided to catch up on all the non-work related things such a blogging, nursery scheduling, dishes, exercise...well we may put that one off :) Then tomorrow I'm heading back in to see what that pile has in store for me. I'm very very afraid.

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day everyone. And Happy 10th Anniversary Maia and Add - you are in my list of the coolest people I know on the entire earth! Enjoy the flags and fireworks!