Brain dump
Have I mentioned that I LURVE long weekends?
It's actually a good thing I had Monday off because we're having the carpets cleaned today and I have a whole houseful of furniture to move. It was ok -- nobody else was around so I could do things my way and clean along the way. It actually helps me to see what painting touch-ups need to be done and such. The bad part was that I had to do a kamikaze clean on Monica's room. I've been asking her for a LONG time to clean her room, and she cheerfully agrees...and then doesn't do it. I finally asked Rick to help me me out with her, and he did...with the same result. Sigh. I'm not going to get into a big conflict about messy rooms with teenagers. Been there, done that, and I just don't want to deal with it anymore. But, ugh when it means that I have to get in there and at least get things off the floor...well, let's just say that I don't enjoy cleaning up used Kleenexes, food bits, and every frickin glass we have in the house (at least one of which had something...unidentifiable in it). I just got rid of the trash and took the dishes downstairs (quite a few bowls and plates, too) and tossed everything else on the bed so I could vacuum. I didn't even look at what she might have in her dresser drawers. *Shudder*.
I did get a chance to be newly impressed with the painting scheme I did in Monica's room, though. She picked two colors (shades of pink and blue, but not pastels) and I painted opposing walls those colors and reversed the scheme on the molding. It looks really cute!
Coming back to work today was a chore. I got up early to finish picking up a few things, and to run some dishes and laundry, but the main reason was to get to work early for my 8 a.m. meeting. I'm technically the recording secretary for the group, but I do also participate and had a couple of reporting/training issues on the agenda. The problem is that we didn't get around to planning the agenda until Friday afternoon, so I didn't really have a chance to pull my shit together before the holiday weekend. And THEN, I sent the agenda around to the council members without checking the attachment. It was the agenda for the October 2006 meeting. Brilliant! My boss was pretty nice about it, but I stewed all afternoon (whilst moving furniture) about it. Oh well.
I stayed up last night to watch the Bills game. Which was AWESOME...until the very last play. Oops, oh well. I'm not that invested in football or the Bills, but it is kind of fun to watch good football (some would say that I shouldn't be watching the Bills if I were interested in good football - har-de-har!). I was trying to remember if I'd ever been to a Monday night game in Buffalo. My folks used to have season tix, and I remember going on time when it was dark out, but it could have been a Sunday night game. Don't know. Anyhow, it was fun to see the defense and special teams really strut their stuff and give Dallas a run for their money, but ultimately, the offense hasn't stepped up. Between the game ending at midnight-ish and getting up early for my meeting, I feel like going home and taking a nap.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here, though the warmer temps seem to be on the wane now. I was walking with Lola & Barney out to the pond last night wearing shorts and a tank top. It's OCTOBER in WESTERN NEW YORK, people! Last year was the infamous October storm in Buffalo.
God, this entry is boring!
Wanna hear what I've been reading lately? I recently finished Julia Child's My Life in France. It was pretty cool, but I found myself getting a little annoyed with the tone. She grew up in a CA 'burb pretty sheltered and was raised by a conservative dad, which caused some conflicts when talking about world affairs (and the McCarthy era is one of those periods), but Child admits that she wasn't well-read regarding world affairs before she lived in France. She just seemed to have kind of a superior tone at times. Hard to explain, but it got a bit annoying. I read Rough House, by Thaddeus Rutkowski, in one or two sittings. It was well written, funny, sharp. Not life changing, but I would definitely recommend it, especially if you like dysfunctional family stories. Finally, I just started The House of Blue Mangoes, by David Davidar. It's set in India and, so far has been dealing with questions of tradition and religion in relation to caste. I'm not even 100 pages in yet...
Just for documentation (I need to get these dates all in one place), Lola had a mild grand mal seizure Friday afternoon. No paddling or loss of bladder, but there was a little jaw snapping. Rick witnessed it; I wasn't home yet. He said it lasted a very short time and she was up almost immediately afterwards and went outside with him willingly. I hope that the increase in her medication will stop the seizures. I joined a canine epilepsy listserv over the weekend and some of the stories posted were heartbreaking and scary.
OK, need to get something done here for my own peace of mind! One week and two days until HATTERAS!!!!
It's actually a good thing I had Monday off because we're having the carpets cleaned today and I have a whole houseful of furniture to move. It was ok -- nobody else was around so I could do things my way and clean along the way. It actually helps me to see what painting touch-ups need to be done and such. The bad part was that I had to do a kamikaze clean on Monica's room. I've been asking her for a LONG time to clean her room, and she cheerfully agrees...and then doesn't do it. I finally asked Rick to help me me out with her, and he did...with the same result. Sigh. I'm not going to get into a big conflict about messy rooms with teenagers. Been there, done that, and I just don't want to deal with it anymore. But, ugh when it means that I have to get in there and at least get things off the floor...well, let's just say that I don't enjoy cleaning up used Kleenexes, food bits, and every frickin glass we have in the house (at least one of which had something...unidentifiable in it). I just got rid of the trash and took the dishes downstairs (quite a few bowls and plates, too) and tossed everything else on the bed so I could vacuum. I didn't even look at what she might have in her dresser drawers. *Shudder*.
I did get a chance to be newly impressed with the painting scheme I did in Monica's room, though. She picked two colors (shades of pink and blue, but not pastels) and I painted opposing walls those colors and reversed the scheme on the molding. It looks really cute!
Coming back to work today was a chore. I got up early to finish picking up a few things, and to run some dishes and laundry, but the main reason was to get to work early for my 8 a.m. meeting. I'm technically the recording secretary for the group, but I do also participate and had a couple of reporting/training issues on the agenda. The problem is that we didn't get around to planning the agenda until Friday afternoon, so I didn't really have a chance to pull my shit together before the holiday weekend. And THEN, I sent the agenda around to the council members without checking the attachment. It was the agenda for the October 2006 meeting. Brilliant! My boss was pretty nice about it, but I stewed all afternoon (whilst moving furniture) about it. Oh well.
I stayed up last night to watch the Bills game. Which was AWESOME...until the very last play. Oops, oh well. I'm not that invested in football or the Bills, but it is kind of fun to watch good football (some would say that I shouldn't be watching the Bills if I were interested in good football - har-de-har!). I was trying to remember if I'd ever been to a Monday night game in Buffalo. My folks used to have season tix, and I remember going on time when it was dark out, but it could have been a Sunday night game. Don't know. Anyhow, it was fun to see the defense and special teams really strut their stuff and give Dallas a run for their money, but ultimately, the offense hasn't stepped up. Between the game ending at midnight-ish and getting up early for my meeting, I feel like going home and taking a nap.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here, though the warmer temps seem to be on the wane now. I was walking with Lola & Barney out to the pond last night wearing shorts and a tank top. It's OCTOBER in WESTERN NEW YORK, people! Last year was the infamous October storm in Buffalo.
God, this entry is boring!
Wanna hear what I've been reading lately? I recently finished Julia Child's My Life in France. It was pretty cool, but I found myself getting a little annoyed with the tone. She grew up in a CA 'burb pretty sheltered and was raised by a conservative dad, which caused some conflicts when talking about world affairs (and the McCarthy era is one of those periods), but Child admits that she wasn't well-read regarding world affairs before she lived in France. She just seemed to have kind of a superior tone at times. Hard to explain, but it got a bit annoying. I read Rough House, by Thaddeus Rutkowski, in one or two sittings. It was well written, funny, sharp. Not life changing, but I would definitely recommend it, especially if you like dysfunctional family stories. Finally, I just started The House of Blue Mangoes, by David Davidar. It's set in India and, so far has been dealing with questions of tradition and religion in relation to caste. I'm not even 100 pages in yet...
Just for documentation (I need to get these dates all in one place), Lola had a mild grand mal seizure Friday afternoon. No paddling or loss of bladder, but there was a little jaw snapping. Rick witnessed it; I wasn't home yet. He said it lasted a very short time and she was up almost immediately afterwards and went outside with him willingly. I hope that the increase in her medication will stop the seizures. I joined a canine epilepsy listserv over the weekend and some of the stories posted were heartbreaking and scary.
OK, need to get something done here for my own peace of mind! One week and two days until HATTERAS!!!!