Julian

When I went to Julian this past weekend I took a few pictures that you should have already seen. I also took pictures of some of the flowers and countryside that we saw while we were there.

Thistle was everywhere.



This area was very green and stood out



These flowers looked fake to me until I was close up.





A few more…

Subsriptions

Today was a rest day, so I didn't have to get up early to go to the gym.  That was nice.  And since I slept in for a bit, it was a little odd to get ready for work in a rush since I was actually running late due to sleeping.  Sean has been in Boston for the last few days, so I didn't have the noise of his alarm going off five or six times to bother me and wake me up early.

 

Work was busy.  The reports that I run and slides that I have to update on Saturdays were not done like I thought they would be.  Since I was away at Julian on Saturday, I had assumed that Chip would do them.  However, we didn't get our feeder reports from Tampa in on time on Saturday so Chip couldn't make the reports.  So my day was busy jumping through hoops trying to make the reports correct by three o'clock.  And as it turns out, the meetings where the reports are presented were cancelled.  SO much the better.

 

It's pretty hot here today - somewhere in the mid-80s.  And really windy.  The wind is kicking up a lot of dust and we might have the making for a really good windstorm.  Looking at the weather shows a chance of rain on Wednesday.  No luck for the rain.  Just wind at 23 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.

 

Mike has been waiting for about a month now to find out where he's going next.  Tokyo is his home office, but he is waiting for his notice move notification to arrive by e-mail.  I know what it's like to wait and wait.  We're all pretty anxious to find out where the company is going to send him next.

 

Ashley left today for her vacation/break.  Contrary to what I wrote yesterday, it's not 128 degrees there.  It's only 105.  I'll have to agree with mom and sitting in my room reading a book and taking a nap is more my speed.  I'm not about getting away that bad.  Tomorrow is the start of my half days.  I'll come in at the regular time and take off in the early afternoon and do whatever.  Seriously, I'm thinking about naps.  Maybe take some walks.  It doesn't matter.  Just to have the option of whether to go into work or not - and choosing NOT - will be worth it.  I think.

 

And my successor should be here in about three weeks.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I think that over the next few weeks I'll start making the continuity book that I never got from my predecessor.  As long as I don't have to come back in a year or two and get my own book back...

 

Right now I should be in my professional managers education course.  But I think that tonight makes for five or six weeks that I haven't been going.  There is plenty of work that I should be doing, but I have some magazine subscriptions that I need to change my address for and I figured I should write this while I have the computer open.  Changing my subscriptions...  That means that I'll be out of here soon!  But who's counting?

Pulled

I think I pulled a muscle where one of my ribs meets my sternum.  And I think I did it when I was coughing.  It really hurts.  I think I'll go make an appointment tomorrow to get some allergy medicine or something.  The dust around here is awful.  We always seem to thave the threat of rain, but it never rains for more than one minute.

Today was a nice laid back day.  I had my vacation paperwork sitting on my desk when I got back.  It was denied for some b.s. reason.  Chip and Spence were pretty upset with HR.  We (Chip, Spence, and I) have a gentlemen's agreement that instead of me taking my vacation days, I'll just take a series of half days over the next few weeks.  That kind of suits me better because I really didn't want to fly to San Antonio where the temperature is a hundred and twenty eight degrees during the day.  They might have more amenities, but I'm happy with what little we have here.

We burned our trash this afternoon.  I think we're about to change the time of the trash burn back to evening – kind of like we did a few weeks ago.  It's getting too hot in the afternoon to stand by a burn barrel. 

I can't remember anything at all that really stands out about work today.  Heather, one of the women that I used to work with in Boston sent cookies and pistachios.  They came in the mail today.  I'm sure I did work, I just don't remember any of it.  I went to church and I liked the service.   I need to reboot my brain.

Saturday

Tonight's post will be e-mailed.  If you read this and haven't gotten it, shoot me an e-mail.

Feelin' Better

Like I was saying earlier, I was feeling pretty bad all day yesterday and I guess I sweated it all out last night.  I woke up at my regular time and besides feeling really thirsty, I felt pretty good.  I didn't want to go work out, but I headed over to the gym anyway.  Spence had gotten there right before I did and Keith was leaving.  Mike didn't show up, so Spence I and I did a little work on arms and then we both decided to quit and I went and did some cardio.

 

When I went to work there didn't seem to be a whole lot going on.  I'm not exactly sure why, but it was pretty dead today.  There was sporadic work going on, but it almost seems like (and I hate to say it out loud) we're almost caught up on our back log.  Our boss's boss's boss has put a moratorium or future projects for a 60 day time period.  After that I'm sure we'll get slammed... but I don't plan on being here. 

 

We'll still have a few project trickle in, but we won't process them all the way like we would until the hold is lifted.

 

I'm going to be gone for two days starting tomorrow.  I'm going to be leaving for Julien (Julian?) for some training with 39 other folks from here.  We're going on a 47-bus, and the training looks pretty interesting.  I'm going with some of my buddies from here, and I think that Mike and Keith are a little jealous that they aren't going.  But I'm pretty sure they'll have a chance to go next month or the month after.

 

So anyway, I won't be able to write tomorrow.  Good night.

Sick on Wednesday

There's some sort of crud going around here.  Two days ago Keith was sick and so was Mike's roommate.  And so yesterday I was at work and felt like holy-poop.  I drank four cups of coffee and I was still falling asleep at my keyboard.  So I went back to my apartment and fell asleep.  And I must have had the same crud becasue I woke up during the night feeling cold and sweaty.  But I felt better when I woke up and have been just fine today.  Thank goodness.

Tuesday

Today was just like yesterday.  It was pretty busy.  I didn't get a chance to work on my performance e-val.  I got an e-mail today that told me that I have to find a receipt from January when I was in Memphis or I'll have to pay a couple hundred bucks for some stuff that I didn't turn in.  Yeah, right.  So tonight I have to dig though my stuff to look for my receipt.  Grrrr!

Performance

In addition to work, I have to start writing my own performance evaluation.  It's not very fun, but I have been trying to keep track of all the stuff I've done since I've been here.  And it's a lot better than last time when I had to help with one hundred and sixty evaluations for all the guys that worked for me.  At least this time I only have to worry about mine.

And today was a rest day.  It was nice to sleep in for an extra hour.  I didn't go to the gym, but I was planning on going this afternoon.  But work got in the way.

We have a new contest going on at work.  Someone sent a bunch of computer games that are embedded in excel spreadsheets and now we spend part of the morning trying to beat each other's high scores while whacking penguins or shooting bows and arrows.  Mike and Chip are uber-competitive and the verbal sparring that goes along with it is pretty funny. 

Mike will get a high score and print it out.  He'll tape it to the wall and say something like, "Well THAT makes the office look better."  Chip will come back with, "Hey, Mike, why don't you take a walk and find a land mine."   Or, "Just sit in the corner and punch yourself."  Maybe you had to be there.

And I just noticed that last night's post didn't stick either.  What's up with this site?